Search results for: soil improvement.

Authors: Solomon Yokamo, Dianjun Lu, Xiaoqin Chen, Huoyan Wang

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The current ‘high input-high output’ nutrient management model based on homogenous spreading over the entire soil surface remains a key challenge in China’s farming systems, leading to low fertilizer use efficiency and environmental pollution. Localized placement of fertilizer (LPF) to crop root zones has been proposed as a viable approach to boost crop production while protecting environmental pollution. To assess the potential benefits of LPF on three major crops—wheat, rice, and maize—a comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted, encompassing 85 field studies published from 2002-2023. We further validated the practicability and feasibility of one-time root zone N management based on LPF for the three field crops. The meta-analysis revealed that LPF significantly increased the yields of the selected crops (13.62%) and nitrogen recovery efficiency (REN) (33.09%) while reducing cumulative nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission (17.37%) and ammonia (NH₃) volatilization (60.14%) compared to the conventional surface application (CSA). Higher grain yield and REN were achieved with an optimal fertilization depth (FD) of 5-15 cm, moderate N rates, combined NPK application, one-time deep fertilization, and coarse-textured and slightly acidic soils. Field validation experiments showed that localized one-time root zone N management without topdressing increased maize (6.2%), rice (34.6%), and wheat (2.9%) yields while saving N fertilizer (3%) and also increased the net economic benefits (23.71%) compared to CSA. A soil incubation study further proved the potential of LPF to enhance the retention and availability of mineral N in the root zone over an extended period. Thus, LPF could be an important fertilizer management strategy and should be extended to other less-developed and developing regions to win the triple benefit of food security, environmental quality, and economic gains.

Keywords: grain yield, LPF, NH₃ volatilization, N₂O emission, N recovery efficiency

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Authors: Ana Munguia, Gerardo Ortiz, Guadalupe Gonzalez, Fiacro Jimenez

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes motor and cognitive symptoms. The first-choice treatment for these patients is pharmacological, but this generates several side effects. Because of that new treatments were introduced such as Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in order to improve the life quality of the patients. Several studies suggest significant changes in motor symptoms. However, there is a great diversity in the number of pulses, amplitude, frequency and stimulation targets, which results in inconsistent data. In addition, these studies do not have an analysis of the neuropsychological effects of the treatment. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of rTMS on the cognitive performance of 6 patients with H&Y III and IV (45-65 years, 3 men and 3 women). An initial neuropsychological and neurological evaluation was performed. Patients were randomized into two groups; in the first phase one received rTMS in the supplementary motor area, the other group in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contralateral to the most affected hemibody. In the second phase, each group received the stimulation in the area that he had not been stimulated previously. Reassessments were carried out at the beginning, at the end of each phase and a follow-up was carried out 6 months after the conclusion of the stimulation. In these preliminary results, it is reported that there's no statistically significant difference before and after receiving rTMS in the neuropsychological test scores of the patients, which suggests that the cognitive performance of patients is not detrimental. There are even tendencies towards an improvement in executive functioning after the treatment. What added to motor improvement, showed positive effects in the activities of the patients' daily life. In a later and more detailed analysis, will be evaluated the effects in each of the patients separately in relation to the functionality of the patients in their daily lives.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, rTMS, cognitive, treatment

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Authors: Mishadi Herath, Amin Talei, Andreas Hermawan, Clarina Chua

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Green walls are vegetated structures on building’s wall that are considered as part of sustainable urban design. They are proved to have many micro-climate benefits such as reduction in indoor temperature, noise attenuation, and improvement in air quality. On the other hand, several studies have also been conducted on potential reuse of greywater in urban water management. Greywater is relatively clean when compared to blackwater; therefore, this study was aimed to assess the potential reuse of it for irrigating a green wall system. In this study, the campus of Monash University Malaysia located in Selangor state was considered as the study site where total 48 samples of greywater were collected from 7 toilets hand-wash and 5 pantries during 3 months period. The samples were tested to characterize the quality of greywater in the study site and compare it with local standard for irrigation water. PH and concentration of heavy metals, nutrients, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), total Coliform and E.coli were measured. Results showed that greywater could be directly used for irrigation with minimal treatment. Since the effluent of the system was supposed to be drained to stormwater drainage system, the effluent needed to meet certain quality requirement. Therefore, a biofiltration system was proposed to host the green wall plants and also treat the greywater (which is used as irrigation water) to the required level. To assess the performance of the proposed system, an experimental setup consisting of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) soil columns with sand-based filter media were prepared. Two different local creeper plants were chosen considering several factors including fast growth, low maintenance requirement, and aesthetic aspects. Three replicates of each plants were used to ensure the validity of the findings. The growth of creeping plants and their survivability was monitored for 6 months while monthly sampling and testing of effluent was conducted to evaluate effluent quality. An analysis was also conducted to estimate the potential cost and benefit of such system considering water and energy saving in the system. Results showed that the proposed system can work efficiently throughout a long period of time with minimal maintenance requirement. Moreover, the biofiltration-green wall system was found to be successful in reusing greywater as irrigating water while the effluent was meeting all the requirements for being drained to stormwater drainage system.

Keywords: biofiltration, green wall, greywater, sustainability

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Authors: Afrah Saad Mohsen Al-Mahfadi

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In rural areas of developing countries, participation of all stakeholders in water supply projects is an important step towards further development. As most of the beneficiaries are women, it is important that they should be involved to achieve successful and sustainable water supply projects. Women are responsible for the management of water both inside and outside home, and often spend more than six-hours a day fetching drinking water from distant water sources. The problem is that rural women play a role of little importance in the water supply projects’ phases in rural Yemen. Therefore, this research aimed at analyzing the different reasons of their lack of participation in projects and in what way a full participation -if achieved- could contribute to sustainable water supply projects in the rural mountainous areas in Yemen. Four water supply projects were selected as a case study in Al-Della'a Alaala sub-district in the Al-Mahweet governorate, two of them were implemented by the Social Fund and Development (SFD), while others were implemented by the General Authority for Rural Water Supply Projects (GARWSSP). Furthermore, the successful Al-Galba project, which is located in Badan district in Ibb governorate, was selected for comparison. The rural women's active participation in water projects have potential consequences including continuity and maintenance improvement, equipment security, and improvement in the overall health and education status of these areas. The majority of respondents taking part in GARWSSP projects estimated that there is no reason to involve women in the project activities. In the comparison project - in which a woman worked as a supervisor and implemented the project – all respondents indicated that the participation of women is vital for sustainability. Therefore, the results of this research are intended to stimulate rural women's participation in the mountainous areas of Yemen.

Keywords: assessment, rural woman, sustainability, water management

Procedia PDF Downloads 693

Authors: Esam Roshdy, Saleh AlRashdi, Turki Alharbi, Rawan Eskandarani, Zurina Cabilo

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Introduction/ background: Consultation in the Emergency Department constitute a major part of the work flow every day. Any delay in the consultation process have a major impact on the length of stay and patient disposition and thus affect the total waiting time of patients in the ED. King Fahad medical City in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia is considered a major Tertiary hospital where there is high flow of patients of different categories visiting the ED. The importance of decreasing consultation time and decision for final disposition of patients was recognized and interpreted in this project to find ways to improve the patient flow in the department and thus the total patient disposition and outcome. Aim / Objectives: 1. To monitor the time of consultation for patients in the Emergency department and its impact on the length of stay of patients in the ED. 2. To detect and assess the problems that lead to long consultation times in the ED, and reach a targeted time of 2 hours for final disposition of patients, according to recognized international and our institutional consultation policy, to reach the final goal of decreasing total length of stay and thus improve the patient flow in the ED. Methods: Data was collected retrospectively for a 92 charts of consultations done in the ED over 2 month’s period. The data was analyzed to get the median of Total Consultation Time. A survey was conducted among all ED staff to determine the level of knowledge about the total consultation time and the compliance to the institutional policy target of 2 hours. A second Data sample of 168 chart was collected after awareness campaign and education of all ED staff about the importance of reaching the target consultation time and compliance to the institutional policy. Results: We have found that there is room for improvement in our overall consultation time. This was found to be more frequent with certain specialties. Our surveys have showed that many ED staff are not familiar or not compliant with our consultation policy which was not clear for everyone. Post-intervention data have showed that awareness of the importance to decrease the total consultation time and compliance alone to the targeted goal have had a huge impact on overall improvement and decreasing the time of final decision and disposition of the patient and the overall patient length of stay in the ED. Conclusion: Working on improving Consultation time in the Emergency Department is a major factor in improving overall length of stay and patient flow. This improvement helps in the overall patient disposition and satisfaction. Plan: As a continuation of our project we are planning to focus on the conflict of admission cases where more than one specialty is involved in the care of patients. We are planning to collect data on the time it takes to resolve and reach final disposition of those patients, and its impact on the length of stay and our department flow and the overall patient outcome and satisfaction.

Keywords: consultation time, impact, length of stay, in the ED

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Authors: Rangika Perera, Shyamani Hettiarachchi, Fran Hagstrom

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Dyslexia is the most common reading reading-related difficulty among the school school-aged population and currently, 5-10% are showing the features of dyslexia in Sri Lanka. As there is an insufficient number of speech and language pathologists in the country and few speech and language pathologists working in government mainstream school settings, these children who are at risk of dyslexia are not receiving enough quality early intervention services to develop their reading skills. As teachers are the key professionals who are directly working with these children, using them as the primary facilitators to improve their reading skills will be the most effective approach. This study aimed to identify the efficacy of a two and half a day of intensive training provided to fifteen mainstream government school teachers of grade two classes. The goal of the training was to enhance their knowledge of dyslexia and provide full classroom skills training that could be used to support the development of the students’ reading competencies. A closed closed-ended multiple choice questionnaire was given to these teachers pre and -post-training to measure teachers’ knowledge of dyslexia, the areas in which these children needed additional support, and the best strategies to facilitate reading competencies. The data revealed that the teachers’ knowledge in all areas was significantly poorer prior to the training and that there was a clear improvement in all areas after the training. The gain in target areas of teaching skills selected to improve the reading skills of children was evaluated through peer feedback. Teachers were assigned to three groups and expected to model how they were going to introduce the skills in recommended areas using researcher developed, validated and reliability reliability-tested materials and the strategies which were introduced during the training within the given tasks. Peers and the primary investigator rated teachers’ performances and gave feedback on organizational skills, presentation skills of materials, clarity of instruction, and appropriateness of vocabulary. After modifying their skills according to the feedback the teachers received, they were expected to modify and represent the same tasks to the group the following day. Their skills were re-evaluated by the peers and primary investigator using the same rubrics to measure the improvement. The findings revealed a significant improvement in their teaching skills development. The data analysis of both knowledge and skills gains of the teachers was carried out using quantitative descriptive data analysis. The overall findings of the study yielded promising results that support intensive training as a method for improving teachers’ knowledge and teaching skill development for use with children in a whole class intervention setting who are at risk of dyslexia.

Keywords: Dyslexia, knowledge, teaching skills, training program

Procedia PDF Downloads 73

Authors: K. C. M. Wong, C. P. Y. Cheng, K. Y. Chan, G. S. C. Fung, T. F. O. Lau, K. F. C. Leung, J. P. C. Fok

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Hospital Authority (HA) is the statutory body to manage all public hospitals in Hong Kong. Occupational Care Medicine Service (OMCS) is an in-house multi-disciplinary team responsible for injury management in HA. Hospital administrative services (AS) provides essential support in hospital daily operation to facilitate the provision of quality healthcare services. An occupational health enhancement program in Tai Po Hospital (TPH) domestic service supporting unit (DSSU) was piloted in 2013 with satisfactory outcome, the keys to success were staff engagement and management support. Riding on the success, the program was rolled out to another 5 AS departments of Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital (AHNH) and TPH in 2015. This paper highlights the indispensable components of disability management and occupational health enhancement program in hospital settings. Objectives: 1) Facilitate workplace to support staff with health affecting work problem, 2) Enhance staff’s occupational health. Methodology: Hospital Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) team and AS departments (catering, linen services, and DSSU) of AHNH and TPH worked closely with OMCS. Focus group meetings and worksite visits were conducted with frontline staff engagement. OSH hazards were identified with corresponding OSH improvement measures introduced, e.g., invention of high dusting device to minimize working at height; tailor-made linen cart to minimize back bending at work, etc. Specific MHO trainings were offered to each AS department. A disability management workshop was provided to supervisors in order to enhance their knowledge and skills in return-to-work (RTW) facilitation. Based on injured staff's health condition, OMCS would provide work recommendation, and RTW plan was formulated with engagement of staff and their supervisors. Genuine communication among stakeholders with expectation management paved the way for realistic goals setting and success in our program. Outcome: After implementation of the program, a significant drop of 26% in musculoskeletal disorders related sickness absence day was noted in 2016 as compared to the average of 2013-2015. The improvement was postulated by innovative OSH improvement measures, teamwork, staff engagement and management support. Staff and supervisors’ feedback were very encouraging that 90% respondents rated very satisfactory in program evaluation. This program exemplified good work sharing among departments to support staff in need.

Keywords: disability management, occupational health, return to work, occupational medicine

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Authors: Manu Manu, Pardha J. Saradhi, Ramana M. V. Murthy

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Wind Energy is accepted as one of the most developed, cost effective and proven renewable energy technologies to meet increasing electricity demands in a sustainable manner. Preliminary assessment studies along Indian Coastline by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have indicated prospects for development of offshore wind power along Tamil Nadu Coast, India. The commercial viability of a wind project mainly depends on wind characteristics on site. Hence, it is internationally recommended to perform site-specific wind resource assessment based on two years’ wind profile as a part of the feasibility study. Conventionally, guy wire met mast are used onshore for the collection of wind profile. Installation of similar structure in offshore requires complex marine spread and are very expensive. In the present study, an attempt is made to develop 120 m long lattice tower supported on the jacket, piled to the seabed at Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, India. Offshore met-masts are subjected to combined wind and hydrodynamic loads, and these lateral loads should be safely transferred to soil. The wind loads are estimated based on gust factor method, and the hydrodynamic loads are estimated by Morison’s equation along with suitable wave theory. The soil is modeled as three nonlinear orthogonal springs based on API standards. The structure configuration and optimum member sizes are obtained for extreme cyclone events. The dynamic behavior of mast under coupled wind and wave loads is also studied. The static responses of a mast with jacket type offshore platform have been studied using a frame model in SESAM. It is found from the study that the maximum displacement at the top of the mast for the random wave is 0.003 m and that of the tower for wind is 0.08 m during the steady state. The dynamic analysis results indicate that the structure is safe against coupled wind and wave loading.

Keywords: offshore wind, mast, static, aerodynamic load, hydrodynamic load

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Authors: Anjana Rajput, Sandeep Chouksey, Bhaskar Bhandari, Shimpi Chourasia

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Ecologically, grassland is any plant community dominated by grasses, whether they exist naturally or because of management practices. Most forest grasslands are anthropogenic and established plant communities planted for forage production, though some are established for soil and water conservation and wildlife habitat. In Satpura Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India, most of the grasslands have been established on evacuated village sites. Total of 42 villages evacuated, and study was carried out in 23 sites to evaluate habitat improvement. Grasslands were classified into three categories, i.e., evacuated sites, established sites, and controlled sites. During the present study impact of various management interventions on grassland health was assessed. Grasslands assessment was done for its composition, status of palatable and non-palatable grasses, the status of herbs and legumes, status of weeds species, and carrying capacity of particular grassland. Presence of wild herbivore species in the grasslands with their abundance, availability of water resources was also assessed. Grassland productivity is dependent mainly on the biotic and abiotic components of the area, but management interventions may also play an important role in grassland composition and productivity. Variation in the status of palatable and non-palatable grasses, legumes, and weeds was recorded and found effected by management intervention practices. Overall in all the studied grasslands, the most dominant grasses recorded are Themeda quadrivalvis, Dichanthium annulatum, Ischaemum indicum, Oplismenus burmanii, Setaria pumilla, Cynodon dactylon, Heteropogon contortus, and Eragrostis tenella. Presence of wild herbivores, i.e., Chital, Sambar, Bison, Bluebull, Chinkara, Barking deer in the grassland area has been recorded through the installation of camera traps and estimated their abundance. Assessment of developed grasslands was done in terms of habitat suitability for Chital (Axis axis) and Sambar (Rusa unicolor). The parameters considered for suitability modeling are biotic and abiotic life requisite components existing in the area, i.e., density of grasses, density of legumes, availability of water, site elevation, site distance from human habitation. Findings of the present study would be useful for further grassland management and animal translocation programmes.

Keywords: carrying capacity, dominant grasses, grassland, habitat suitability, management intervention, wild herbivore

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Lyndsee Baumann-Birkbeck, Sohil A. Khan, Shailendra Anoopkumar-Dukie, Gary D. Grant

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Technology-enhanced education tools are being rapidly integrated into health programs globally. These tools provide an interactive platform for students and can be used to deliver topics in various modes including games and simulations. Simulations are of particular interest to healthcare education, where they are employed to enhance clinical knowledge and help to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Simulations will often assess competencies for practical tasks, yet limited research examines the effects of simulation on student perceptions of their learning. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of an interactive virtual patient simulation for pharmacology education and clinical practice on student knowledge, skills and confidence. Ethics approval for the study was obtained from Griffith University Research Ethics Committee (PHM/11/14/HREC). The simulation was intended to replicate the pharmacy environment and patient interaction. The content was designed to enhance knowledge of proton-pump inhibitor pharmacology, role in therapeutics and safe supply to patients. The tool was deployed into a third-year clinical pharmacology and therapeutics course. A number of core practice areas were examined including the competency domains of questioning, counselling, referral and product provision. Baseline measures of student self-reported knowledge, skills and confidence were taken prior to the simulation using a specifically designed questionnaire. A more extensive questionnaire was deployed following the virtual patient simulation, which also included measures of student engagement with the activity. A quiz assessing student factual and conceptual knowledge of proton-pump inhibitor pharmacology and related counselling information was also included in both questionnaires. Sixty-one students (response rate >95%) from two cohorts (2014 and 2015) participated in the study. Chi-square analyses were performed and data analysed using Fishers exact test. Results demonstrate that student knowledge, skills and confidence within the competency domains of questioning, counselling, referral and product provision, show improvement following the implementation of the virtual patient simulation. Statistically significant (p<0.05) improvement occurred in ten of the possible twelve self-reported measurement areas. Greatest magnitude of improvement occurred in the area of counselling (student confidence p<0.0001). Student confidence in all domains (questioning, counselling, referral and product provision) showed a marked increase. Student performance in the quiz also improved, demonstrating a 10% improvement overall for pharmacology knowledge and clinical practice following the simulation. Overall, 85% of students reported the simulation to be engaging and 93% of students felt the virtual patient simulation enhanced learning. The data suggests that the interactive virtual patient simulation developed for clinical pharmacology and therapeutics education enhanced students knowledge, skill and confidence, with respect to the competency domains of questioning, counselling, referral and product provision. These self-reported measures appear to translate to learning outcomes, as demonstrated by the improved student performance in the quiz assessment item. Future research of education using virtual simulation should seek to incorporate modern quantitative measures of student learning and engagement, such as eye tracking.

Keywords: clinical simulation, education, pharmacology, simulation, virtual learning

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Authors: Nisar Ahmad, Xuyi, Ali Akbar

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As healthcare systems worldwide strive for improvement, the integration of advanced health information systems (HIS) has emerged as a pivotal strategy. This study aims to investigate the critical role of leadership in the implementation and enhancement of HIS in Chinese hospitals and how such leadership can drive improvements in patient outcomes and overall healthcare satisfaction. We propose a comprehensive study to be conducted across various hospitals in China, targeting healthcare professionals as the primary population. The research will leverage established theories of transformational leadership and technology acceptance to underpin the analysis. In our approach, data will be meticulously gathered through surveys and interviews, focusing on the experiences and perceptions of healthcare professionals regarding HIS implementation and its impact on patient care. The study will utilize SPSS and SmartPLS software for robust data analysis, ensuring precise and comprehensive insights into the correlation between leadership effectiveness and HIS success. We hypothesize that strong, visionary leadership is essential for the successful adoption and optimization of HIS, leading to enhanced patient outcomes and increased satisfaction with healthcare services. By applying advanced statistical methods, we aim to identify key leadership traits and practices that significantly contribute to these improvements. Our research will provide actionable insights for policymakers and healthcare administrators in China, offering evidence-based recommendations to foster leadership that champions HIS and drives continuous improvement in healthcare delivery. This study will contribute to the global discourse on health information systems, emphasizing the future role of leadership in transforming healthcare environments and outcomes.

Keywords: health information systems, leadership, patient outcomes, healthcare satisfaction

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Authors: Dhyaalddin Bahaalddin Noori Zangana

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This study involves the behavior of reinforced sand under a square footing. A series of bearing capacity tests were performed on a small-scale laboratory model, which filled with a poorly-graded homogenous bed of sand, which was placed in a medium dense state using sand raining technique. The sand was reinforced with 40 mm wide household aluminum foil strips. The main studied parameters was to consider the effect of reinforcing strip length, with various linear density of reinforcement, number of reinforcement layers and depth of top layer of reinforcement below the footing, on load-settlement behavior, bearing capacity ratio and settlement reduction factor. The relation of load-settlement generally showed similar trend in all the tests. Failure was defined as settlement equal to 10% of the footing width. The recommended optimum reinforcing strip length, linear density of reinforcement, number of reinforcement layers and depth of top layer of reinforcing strips that give the maximum bearing capacity improvement and minimum settlement reduction factor were presented and discussed. Different bearing capacity ration versus length of the reinforcing strips and settlement reduction factor versus length of the reinforcing strips relations at failure were showed improvement of bearing capacity ratio by a factor of 3.82 and reduction of settlement reduction factor by a factor of 0.813. The optimum length of reinforcement was found to be 7.5 times the footing width.

Keywords: square footing, relative density, linear density of reinforcement, bearing capacity ratio, load-settlement behaviour

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Authors: Ricardo Chaves, Carlos Vasconcelos

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Candidates to join the Naval Academy have to take a set of physical tests, which is crucial for a high level of physical fitness. Thus, the planning of physical exercises for candidates to the Naval School must take into account the improvement of their physical fitness. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a 6-month exercise program to improve the physical fitness of an individual who will apply for the Naval Academy. This was a non-experimental pre-post-evaluation study. The patient was male, had 18 years old, and a body mass index of 21.1 kg.m². The patient participated in a 6-month aerobic and strength exercise program (3 sessions per week, 75 minutes duration each session). Physical fitness tests were performed according to the physical fitness requirements for entry into the Naval academy (muscle strength [maximum number of lifts and maximum number of sit-ups for 1 minute]; aerobic fitness [2.4 km run and 200 m swimming test]) before (baseline) and after the exercise intervention (6 months). Regarding muscle strength, in the abdominal test, the improvements between the pre-test (39 abdominals.) and post-test (61 abdominals) were 56.4%. For elevations, there was an increase in its number by 150% between the pre-test (4 elevations) and post-test (10 elevations). With regard to aerobic fitness, in the 2.4 km race, there was an evolution of 32.0% between the pre-test (16.46 min.) and the post-test (12.42 min.). For the 200-meter swimming test, there was a negative variation of 2% between the pre-test (2.25 min.) and post-test (2.28 min). A 6-month aerobic and strength exercise program leads to a positive evolution in the muscular strength of the patient. Regarding aerobic fitness, opposite results were found, with a positive evolution in the 2.4 km running test and a negative evolution in the swimming test. In future exercise programs for the improvement of the physical fitness of candidates for the Naval Academy, more emphasis has to be done on specific swimming training.

Keywords: case study, exercise program, Naval Academy, physical fitness

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Jingjue Bao, Ye Li, Yujie Qi

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The explosive growth of ride-hailing has reshaped residents' travel behavior and plays a crucial role in urban mobility within the built environment. Contributing to the research of the spatial variation of ride-hailing demand and its relationship to the built environment and socioeconomic factors, this study utilizes multi-source data from Haikou, China, to construct a Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression model (MGWR), considering spatial scale heterogeneity. The regression results showed that MGWR model was demonstrated superior interpretability and reliability with an improvement of 3.4% on R2 and from 4853 to 4787 on AIC, compared with Geographically Weighted Regression model (GWR). Furthermore, to precisely identify the surrounding environment of sampling point, DeepLabv3+ model is employed to segment street-level images. Features extracted from these images are incorporated as variables in the regression model, further enhancing its rationality and accuracy by 7.78% improvement on R2 compared with the MGWR model only considered region-level variables. By integrating multi-scale geospatial data and utilizing advanced computer vision techniques, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the spatial dynamics between ride-hailing demand and the urban built environment. The insights gained from this research are expected to contribute significantly to urban transportation planning and policy making, as well as ride-hailing platforms, facilitating the development of more efficient and effective mobility solutions in modern cities.

Keywords: travel behavior, ride-hailing, spatial relationship, built environment, street-level image

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Omar Alsetoohy, Mohamed Ezzat, Mahmoud Abou Kamar

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The success of a restaurant or hotel depends very much on the quality and quantity of its human resources. Thus, establishing a competitive edge through human assets requires careful attention to the practices that best leverage these assets. Usually, hotel or restaurant employees recognize customer defection as an unfavorable or unpleasant occurrence associated with failure. These failures could be in handling, communication, learning, or encouragement. Besides, employees could be afraid of blame from their colleagues and managers, which prevents them from freely discussing these mistakes with them. Such behaviors, in turn, would push employees to withdraw from the workplace. However, we have a good knowledge of the leadership outcomes, but less is known about how and why these effects occur. Accordingly, mindful leaders usually analyze the causes and underlying mechanisms of failures for work improvement. However, despite the excessive literature in the field of leadership and employee behaviors, to date, no research studies had investigated the impact of a failure-tolerant restaurant culture on the employees’ withdrawal behaviors considering the moderating role of psychological empowerment and mindful leadership. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the impact of a failure-tolerant culture on the employees’ withdrawal behaviors in fast-food restaurants in Egypt considering the moderating effects of employee empowerment and mindful leaders. This study may contribute to the existing literature by filling the gap between failure-tolerant cultures and employee withdrawal behaviors in the hospitality literature. The study may also identify the best practices for restaurant operators and managers to deal with employees' failures as an improvement tool for their performance.

Keywords: failure-tolerant culture, employees’ withdrawal behaviors psychological empowerment, mindful leadership, restaurants

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Authors: Lidya Hailu, Ramesh Duraisamy, Masood Akhtar Khan, Belete Yilma

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Disposable food packaging is a single-use plastics that can include any disposable plastic item which could be designed and use only once. In this context, this study aimed to prepare and evaluate bioplastic food packaging material from avocado seed starch and sugarcane bagasse cellulose and to characterise avocado seed starch. Performed the physicomechanical, structural, thermal properties, and biodegradability of raw materials and readily prepared bioplastic using the universal tensile testing machine, FTIR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, TGA, XRD, and SEM. Results have shown that an increasing amount of glycerol (3-5 mL) resulted in increases in water absorption, density, water vapor permeability, and elongation at the break of prepared bioplastic. However, it causes decreases in % transmittance, thermal degradation, and the tensile strength of prepared bioplastic. Likewise, the addition of cellulose fiber (0-15 %) increases % transmittance ranged (91.34±0.12-63.03±0.05 %), density (0.93±0.04-1.27±0.02 g/cm3), thermal degradation (310.01-321.61°C), tensile strength (2.91±6.18-4.21±6.713 MPa) of prepared bioplastic. On the other hand, it causes decreases in water absorption (14.4±0.25-9.40±0.007 %), water vapor permeability (9.306x10-12±0.3-3.57x10-12±0.15 g•s−1•m−1•Pa−1) and elongation at break (34.46±3.37-27.63±5.67 %) of prepared bioplastic. All the readily prepared bioplastic films rapidly degraded in the soil in the first 6 days and decompose within 12 days with a diminutive leftover and completely degraded within 15 days under an open soil atmosphere. Studied results showed starch derived bioplastic reinforced with 15 % cellulose fiber that plasticized with 3 mL of glycerol had improved results than other combinations of glycerol and bagasse cellulose with avocado seed starch. Thus, biodegradable disposable food packaging cup has been successfully produced in the lab-scale level using the studied approach. Biodegradable disposable food packaging materials have been successfully produced by employing avocado seed starch and sugarcane bagasse cellulose. The future study should be done on nano scale production since this study was done at the micro level.

Keywords: avocado seed, food packaging, glycerol, sugarcane bagasse

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Authors: Azizul Haque, Kamrun Nahar

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Field experiments were conducted to reduce the chemical fertilizers with the integrated use of straight and phospho- vermicompost with chemical fertilizers in T. aman-Boro rice cropping pattern at the BINA farm, Mymensingh during 2019-20. Six treatments were used in the experiment for both the crops. The treatments used for T. aman rice (Binadhan 17) with straight vermicompost were as follows: T1: Native soil fertility, T2: 100% N from Chemical Fertilizer (CF), T3:70%N from CF, T4: 30% N from vermicompost-3 + 70% N from CF and T5:30% N from vermicompost-4 + 70% N from CF and T6: 100% PKS only. The treatments of Boro rice (var. Binadhan -10) with phospho-vermicompost were: T1: Native soil fertility, T2: 100% NPKS from chemical fertilizer (CF), T3:75% NKS from CF (Non IPNS) with 1 t ha-1 Phospho-vermicompost (P-Vermicom), T4: 100% NKS (IPNS) with 2 t ha-1 P-Vermicom, T5: 100% NKS from CF (Non IPNS) with 2 t ha-1 P-Vermicom and T6: 100% NKS. The experiments were conducted in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The treatment T5 (5.5 t ha-1) gave maximum grain yield of T.aman rice followed by the treatment T4 (5.4 t ha-1). But the treatmentsT5, T4, and T2 gave identical grain yields of T. aman rice. Similar results were observed in case of straw yields of T. Aman rice. The result indicated that 70% N from CF with 30% N from either straight vermicompost-3 or straight vermicompost-4 gave comparable yield to the sole application of 100% N from CF alone. Therefore, 30% chemical fertilizers (N, P, K and S) could be saved with the integrated (IPNS) use of vermicompost-3 or vermicompost-4 in the cultivation of T. aman rice. Application of Phospho-vermicompost significantly influenced the yield and yield contributing characters of Boro rice (Binadhan-10). The treatment T4 (7.23.0 t ha-1) gave maximum grain yield of Boro rice followed by the treatments T2 and T5. But the treatments T2 and T5 produced statistically similar grain yields. The results from the treatment T4 (100% NKS (IPNS) with 2.0 t ha-1P-Vermicom) indicated that full demand of P could be met up from 2 t ha-1 Phospho-vermicompost with IPNS chemical fertilizers (NKS) which was sufficient for attaining the highest grain yield of Boro rice than that of the treatment T2 (100% NPKS from CF) and the treatmentT5 (100% NKS from CF (Non IPNS) + 2 t ha-1 Phospho-vermicompost). The results revealed that 100% P and substantial amount of N (21%), K (44.6%) and S (53.7%) fertilizers could be saved with the integrated use of Phospho-vermicompost in the cultivation of Boro rice. In case of Boro rice partial cost benefit analysis showed that the application of Phospho-vermicompost (@2 tha--1) with IPNS chemical fertilizes (NKS) gave higher return of Tk. 18,213 / - than that of only 100% chemical fertilizer. Therefore, use of Phospho-vermicompost was beneficial for the cultivation of Boro rice in combination with suitable dose of chemical fertilizers.

Keywords: phosphovermicompost, cropping pattern, rice yield, chemical fertilizer

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Authors: F. Hiouani, M. Henouda, A. Masmoudi, M. Rechachi

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of irrigation water of some underground water resources in the region of Lioua (Biskra, Algéria). Analysis of cations (Ca++, Mg++, Na+, K+), anions (Cl-, SO4--, CO3--, HCO3-, NO3-), pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of ten water samples taken during March 2015. The resulted showed that water samples are designated salty and very salty. On the other hand, average SAR values show that there is no alkalinity risk of soil. According to Riverside diagram water samples are grouped into five classes (C3-S1, C4-S1, C4-S3, C5-S2 and C5-S3).

Keywords: groundwater, irrigation, quality, lioua biskra

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Authors: R. N. Pateriya, T. K. Bhattacharya

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In India, rice-wheat cropping system occupies the major area and contributes about 40% of the country’s total food grain production. It is necessary that production of rice and wheat must keep pace with growing population. However, various factors such as degradation in natural resources, shift in cropping pattern, energy constraints etc. are causing reduction in the productivity of these crops. Seedbed for rice after wheat is difficult to prepare due to presence of straw and stubbles, and require excessive tillage operations to bring optimum tilth. In addition, delayed sowing and transplanting of rice is mainly due to poor crop residue management, multiplicity of tillage operations and non-availability of the power source. With increasing concern for fuel conservation and energy management, farmers might wish to estimate the best cultivation system for more productivity. The widest spread method of tilling land is ploughing with mould board plough. However, with the mould board plough upper layer of soil is neither always loosened at the desired extent nor proper mixing of different layers are achieved. Therefore, additional operations carried out to improve tilth. The farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the need for minimum tillage by minimizing the use of machines. Soil management can be achieved by using the combined active-passive tillage machines. A study was therefore, undertaken in wheat-harvested field to study the impact of conventional and modified tillage practices on paddy crop cultivation. Tillage treatments with tractor as a power source were selected during the experiment. The selected level of tillage treatments of tractor machinery management were (T1:- Direct Sowing of Rice), (T2:- 2 to 3 harrowing and no Puddling with manual transplanting), (T3:- 2 to 3 harrowing and Puddling with paddy harrow with manual transplanting), (T4:- 2 to 3 harrowing and Puddling with Rotavator with manual transplanting). The maximum output was obtained with treatment T1 (7.85 t/ha)) followed by T4 (6.4 t/ha), T3 (6.25 t/ha) and T2 (6.0 t/ha)) respectively.

Keywords: crop residues, cropping system, minimum tillage, yield

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Authors: Ilham Aji Dermawan, M. Sapari Dwi Hadian, R. Irvan Sophian, Iyan Haryanto

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The study of the geological structure in the surrounding area of Cidaun, Cianjur Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia was conducted around the southern coast of Java Island. This study aims to determine the potentially structural trap deposits of freshwater resources in the study area, according to that the study area is an area directly adjacent to the beach, where the water around it did not seem fresh and brackish due to the exposure of sea water intrusion. This study uses the method of geomorphological analysis and geological mapping by taking the data directly in the field within 10x10 km of the research area. Geomorphological analysis was done by calculating the watershed drainage density value and roundness of watershed value ratio. The goal is to determine the permeability of the sub-soil conditions, rock constituent, and the flow of surface water. While the field geological mapping aims to take the geological structure data and then will do the reconstruction to determine the geological conditions of research area. The result, from geomorphology aspects, that the considered area of potential groundwater consisted of permeable surface material, permeable sub-soil, and low of water run-off flow. It is very good for groundwater recharge area. While the results of geological reconstruction after conducted of geological mapping is joints that present were initiated for the Cipandak Fault that cuts Cipandak River. That fault across until the Cibako Syncline fold through the Cibako River. This syncline is expected to place of influent groundwater aquifer. The tip of Cibako River then united with Cipandak River, where the Cipandak River extends through Cipandak Syncline fold axis in the southern regions close to its estuary. This syncline is expected to place of influent groundwater aquifer too.

Keywords: geological structure, groundwater, hydrogeology, influent aquifer, structural trap

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Authors: Cecile Laval, Harriet Lowe

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Processing Instruction is a psycholinguistic pedagogical approach drawing insights from the Input Processing Model which establishes the initial innate strategies used by second language learners to connect form and meaning of linguistic features. With the ever-growing use of technology in Second Language Acquisition research, the present study uses eye-tracking to measure the effectiveness of Processing Instruction in the acquisition of French and its effects on learner’s cognitive strategies. The experiment was designed using a TOBII Pro-TX300 eye-tracker to measure participants’ default strategies when processing French linguistic input and any cognitive changes after receiving Processing Instruction treatment. Participants were drawn from lower intermediate adult learners of French at the University of Greenwich and randomly assigned to two groups. The study used a pre-test/post-test methodology. The pre-tests (one per linguistic item) were administered via the eye-tracker to both groups one week prior to instructional treatment. One group received full Processing Instruction treatment (explicit information on the grammatical item and on the processing strategies, and structured input activities) on the primary target linguistic feature (French past tense imperfective aspect). The second group received Processing Instruction treatment except the explicit information on the processing strategies. Three immediate post-tests on the three grammatical structures under investigation (French past tense imperfective aspect, French Subjunctive used for the expression of doubt, and the French causative construction with Faire) were administered with the eye-tracker. The eye-tracking data showed the positive change in learners’ processing of the French target features after instruction with improvement in the interpretation of the three linguistic features under investigation. 100% of participants in both groups made a statistically significant improvement (p=0.001) in the interpretation of the primary target feature (French past tense imperfective aspect) after treatment. 62.5% of participants made an improvement in the secondary target item (French Subjunctive used for the expression of doubt) and 37.5% of participants made an improvement in the cumulative target feature (French causative construction with Faire). Statistically there was no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores in the cumulative target feature; however, the variance approximately tripled between the pre-test and the post-test (3.9 pre-test and 9.6 post-test). This suggests that the treatment does not affect participants homogenously and implies a role for individual differences in the transfer-of-training effect of Processing Instruction. The use of eye-tracking provides an opportunity for the study of unconscious processing decisions made during moment-by-moment comprehension. The visual data from the eye-tracking demonstrates changes in participants’ processing strategies. Gaze plots from pre- and post-tests display participants fixation points changing from focusing on content words to focusing on the verb ending. This change in processing strategies can be clearly seen in the interpretation of sentences in both primary and secondary target features. This paper will present the research methodology, design and results of the experimental study using eye-tracking to investigate the primary effects and transfer-of-training effects of Processing Instruction. It will then provide evidence of the cognitive benefits of Processing Instruction in Second Language Acquisition and offer suggestion in second language teaching of grammar.

Keywords: eye-tracking, language teaching, processing instruction, second language acquisition

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Authors: E. M. H. Maggie, M. N. A. Nazmey, M. A. Abdel-Sattar, S. A. Saied

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A successful trial of transplanting cotton is reported. Seeds grown in trays for 4-5 weeks in an easily prepared supporting medium such as peat moss or similar plant waste are tried. Careful transplanting of seedlings, with root system as intact as possible, is being made in the permanent field. The practice reduced damping-off incidence rate and allowed full winter crop revenues. Further work is needed to evaluate certain parameters such as growth curve, flowering curve, and yield at economic bases.

Keywords: cotton, transplanting cotton, damping-off diseases, environment sciences

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: Vanessa De Carvalho, Chad MacPherson, Julien Tremblay, Julie Champagne, Stephanie-Anne Girard

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Background: The interactions between bacteria and fungi in the human vaginal microbiome are fundamental to the concept of health and disease. The means by which the microbiota and mycobiota interact is still poorly understood and further studies are necessary to properly characterize this complex ecosystem. The aim of this study was to select a DNA extraction method capable of recovering high qualities of fungal and bacterial DNA from a single vaginal swab. Methods: 11 female volunteers ( ≥ 20 to < 55 years old) self-collected vaginal swabs in triplicates. Three commercial extraction kits: Masterpure Yeast Purification kit (Epicenter), PureLink™ Microbiome DNA Purification kit (Invitrogen), and Quick-DNA™ Fecal/Soil Microbe Miniprep kit (Zymo) were evaluated on the ability to recover fungal and bacterial DNA simultaneously. The extraction kits were compared on the basis of recovery, yield, purity, and the community richness of bacterial (16S rRNA - V3-V4 region) and fungal (ITS1) microbiota composition by Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing. Results: Recovery of bacterial DNA was achieved with all three kits while fungal DNA was only consistently recovered with Masterpure Yeast Purification kit (yield and purity). Overall, all kits displayed similar microbiota profiles for the top 20 OTUs; however, Quick-DNA™ Fecal/Soil Microbe Miniprep kit (Zymo) showed more species richness than the other two kits. Conclusion: In the present study, Masterpure Yeast purification kit proved to be a good candidate for purification of high quality fungal and bacterial DNA simultaneously. These findings have potential benefits that could be applied in future vaginal microbiome research. Whilst the use of a single extraction method would lessen the burden of multiple swab sampling, decrease laboratory workload and off-set costs associated with multiple DNA extractions, thoughtful consideration must be taken when selecting an extraction kit depending on the desired downstream application.

Keywords: bacterial vaginosis, DNA extraction, microbiota, mycobiota, vagina, vulvovaginal candidiasis, women’s health

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Authors: Pricillia Priska Sianita

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An aesthetic facial profile is one of the goals in Orthodontics treatment. However, this is not easily achieved, especially in patients with Class II Division 1 malocclusion who have the clinical characteristics of convex profile and significant skeletal discrepancy due to mandibular growth deficiency. Malocclusion with skeletal problems require proper treatment timing for growth stimulation, and it must be done in early age and in need of good cooperation from the patient. If this is not done and the patient has passed the growth period, the ideal treatment is orthognathic surgery which is more complicated and more painful. The growth stimulation of skeletal malocclusion requires a careful cephalometric evaluation ranging from diagnosis to determine the parts that require stimulation to post-treatment evaluation to see the success achieved through changes in the measurement of the skeletal parameters shown in the cephalometric analysis. This case report aims to describe skeletal changes cephalometrically that were achieved through orthodontic treatment in growing period. Material and method: Lateral Cephalograms, pre-treatment, and post-treatment of cases of Class II Division 1 malocclusion is selected from a collection of cephalometric radiographic in a private clinic. The Cephalogram is then traced and measured for the skeletal parameters. The result is noted as skeletal condition data of pre-treatment and post-treatment. Furthermore, superimposition is done to see the changes achieved. The results show that growth stimulation through orthodontic treatment can solve the skeletal problem of Class II Division 1 malocclusion and the skeletal changes that occur can be verified through cephalometric analysis. The skeletal changes have an impact on the improvement of patient's facial profile. To sum up, the treatment timing on a skeletal malocclusion is very important to obtain satisfactory results for the improvement of the aesthetic facial profile, and skeletal changes can be verified through cephalometric evaluation of pre- and post-treatment.

Keywords: cephalometric evaluation, class II division 1 malocclusion, growth stimulation, skeletal changes, skeletal problems

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Stelvin Sebastian, Andriya Annie Tom, Joyalanna Babu, Merin Joshy

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Introduction: The worldwide increase in the use of antibiotics in poultry and livestock industry to treat and prevent bacterial diseases and as growth promoters in feeds has led to the problem of development of antibiotic resistance both in animals and human population. Aim: To study the pattern of antibiotic use and prevalence of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli in poultry chickens in selected farms in Muvattupuzha and to compare the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria from poultry environment to UTI patients. Methodology: Two farms from each of 6 localities in Muvattupuzha were selected. A questionnaire on the pattern of antibiotic use and various farming practices were surveyed from farms. From each farm, 60samples of fresh fecal matter, litter from inside, litter from the outside shed, agricultural soil and control soil were collected, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of E. coli was done. Antibiogram of UTI patients was collected from the secondary care hospital included in the study, and those were compared with resistance patterns of poultry samples. Results: From survey response antibiotics such as ofloxacin, enrofloxacin, levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, colistin, ceftriaxone, neomycin, cephalexin, and oxytetracycline were used for treatment and prevention of infections in poultry. 31of 48 samples (51.66%) showed E. coli growth. 7 of 15 antibiotics (46.6%) showed resistance. Ampicillin, amoxicillin, meropenem, tetracycline showed 100% resistance to all samples. Statistical analysis confirmed similar resistance pattern in the poultry environment and UTI patients for antibiotics such as ampicillin, amoxicillin, amikacin, and ofloxacin. Conclusion: E. coli were resistant not only to extended-spectrum beta-lactams but also to carbapenems, which may be disseminated to the environment where litter was used as manure. This may due to irrational use of antibiotics in chicken or from their use in poultry feed as growth promoters. The study concludes the presence of multidrug-resistant E.coli in poultry and its spread to environment and humans, which may cause potentially serious implications for human health.

Keywords: multidrug resistance, escherichia coli, urinary tract infection, poultry

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Authors: Sonu Rana, Jyoti Verma, A. K. Gautam

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In most developing countries like India, the majority of the population heavily relies on agriculture for their livelihood. The yield of agriculture is heavily dependent on uncertain weather conditions like a monsoon, soil fertility, availability of irrigation facilities and fertilizers as well as support from the government. The agricultural yield is quite less compared to the effort put in due to inefficient agricultural facilities and obsolete farming practices on the one hand and lack of knowledge on the other hand, and ultimately agricultural community does not prosper. It is therefore essential for the farmers to improve their harvest yield by the acquisition of related data such as soil condition, temperature, humidity, availability of irrigation facilities, availability of, manure, etc., and adopt smart farming techniques using modern agricultural equipment. Nowadays, using IOT technology in agriculture is the best solution to improve the yield with fewer efforts and economic costs. The primary focus of this work-related is IoT technology in the agriculture field. By using IoT all the parameters would be monitored by mounting sensors in an agriculture field held at different places, will collect real-time data, and could be transmitted by a transmitting device like an antenna. To improve the system, IoT will interact with other useful systems like Wireless Sensor Networks. IoT is exploring every aspect, so the radio frequency spectrum is getting crowded due to the increasing demand for wireless applications. Therefore, Federal Communications Commission is reallocating the spectrum for various wireless applications. An antenna is also an integral part of the newly designed IoT devices. The main aim is to propose a new antenna structure used for IoT agricultural applications and compatible with this new unlicensed frequency band. The main focus of this paper is to present work related to these technologies in the agriculture field. This also presented their challenges & benefits. It can help in understanding the job of data by using IoT and correspondence advancements in the horticulture division. This will help to motivate and educate the unskilled farmers to comprehend the best bits of knowledge given by the huge information investigation utilizing smart technology.

Keywords: smart agriculture, IoT, agriculture technology, data analytics, smart technology

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Authors: Thi Huong Vu, Vijay Jayasena, Zhongxiang Fang, Gary Dykes

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Carob kibble has recently received attention due to the presence of high level of polyphenol antioxidants. The capacity of microorganisms to improve antioxidant activities and total phenolics in carob kibble was investigated in the study. Two types of microorganisms including lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) and yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) were used in single and in their combination as starters. The total phenolic content was determined by the Folin–Ciocalteu method. Antioxidant activities were assessed scavenging capacity using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS). The study found that S. cerevisiae alone considerably improved 55% total phenolics content at 15 h, while L. plantarum caused in a loss of 20% through the process. Antioxidant capacity of the yeast-fermented samples significantly increased by 43 % and 10 % in ABTS and DPPH assays, respectively. However, reduction of 13 % and 32 % inhibition were recorded in the carob treated with L. plantarum. In the combination of S. cerevisiae and L. plantarum (1:1), both total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of carob kibble were a similar trend as these of S. cerevisiae single, but a lower improvement. The antioxidant power of the extracts was linearly correlated to their total phenolic contents (R=0.75). The results suggested that S. cerevisiae alone was the better for enhancement of both total phenolic content and antioxidant activity in carob kibble using submerged fermentation. The efficiency of fermentation reached the highest at 15h. Thus submerged fermentation with S. cerevisiae offers a tool with simple and cost effective to further increase the bioactive potential of carob kibble, which is in use for food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, carob kibble, lactobacillus plantarum, saccharomyces cerevisiae, total phenolics

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: F. Ruiz-Navarro, M. Matzner, G. Kobinia

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Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) encompasses the largest group of childhood movement disorders, the patterns and severity varies widely. Today, the management focuses only on a rehabilitation therapy that tries to secure the functions remained and prevents complications. However the treatments are not aimed to cure the disease. Stem cells (SCs) transplant via intrathecal is a new approach to the disease. Method: Our aim was to performed a pilot study under the condition of unproven treatment on clinical practice to assessed the safety and efficacy of Neuron Point-of-care Stem cell Therapy (N-POCST), an ambulatory procedure of autologous bone marrow derived SCs (BM-SCs) harvested from the posterior superior iliac crest undergo an on-site cell separation for intrathecal infusion via lumbar puncture. Results: 82 patients were treated in a period of 28 months, with a follow-up after 6 months. They had a mean age of 6,2 years old and male predominance (65,9%). Our preliminary results show that: A. No patient had any major side effects, B. Only 20% presented mild headache due to LP, C. 53% of the patients had an improvement in spasticity, D. 61% improved the coordination abilities, 23% improved the motor function, 15% improved the speech, 23% reduced the number of convulsive events with the same doses or less doses of anti-convulsive medication and 94% of the patients report a subjective general improvement. Conclusions: These results support previous worldwide publications that described the safety and effectiveness of autologous BM-SCs transplant for patients wit CP.

Keywords: autologous transplant, cerebral palsy, point of care, childhood movement disorders

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Authors: Esha Thakkar, Ina Liu, Kalynn Hosea, Shana Katz, Katie Marks, Sarah Hall, Cat Liu, Suzanne Harris

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Purpose: Inequities in mental healthcare accessibility are cited as an international public health concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) and National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). These disparities are further exacerbated in racial and ethnic minority groups and are especially concerning in health professional training settings such as Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs and postgraduate residency training where mental illness rates are high. The purpose of the study was to determine baseline access to culturally sensitive mental healthcare and how to improve such access and communication for racially and ethnically minoritized pharmacy students and residents at one school of pharmacy and a partnering academic medical center in the United States. Methods: This IRB-exempt study included 60-minute focus groups conducted in person or online from November 2021 to February 2022. Eligible participants included PharmD students in their first (P1), second (P2), third (P3), or fourth year (P4) or pharmacy residents completing a postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) or PGY2 who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color (BIPOC). There were four core theme questions asked during the focus groups to lead the discussion, specifically on the core themes of personal barriers, identities, areas that are working well, and areas for improvement. Participant responses were transcribed and analyzed using an open coding system with two individual reviews, followed by collaborative and intentional discussion and, as needed, an external audit of the coding by a third research team member to reach a consensus on themes. Results: This study enrolled 26 participants, with eight P1, five P2, seven P3, two P4, and four resident participants. Within the four core themes of barriers, identities, areas working well, and areas for improvement, emerging subthemes included: lack of time, access to resources, and stigma under barriers; lack of representation, cultural and family stigma, and gender identities for identity barriers; supportive faculty, sense of community and culture supporting paid time off for areas going well; and wellness days, reduced workload and diversity of the workforce in areas of improvement. Subthemes sometimes varied within a core theme depending on the participant year. Conclusions: There is a gap in the literature in addressing barriers and disparities in mental health access for pharmacy trainees who identify as BIPOC. We identified key findings in regards to barriers, identities, areas going well and areas for improvement that can inform the School and the Residency Program in two priority initiatives of well-being and diversity equity and inclusion in creating actionable recommendations for trainees, program directors, and employers of our institutions, and also has the potential to provide insight for other organizations about the structures influencing access to culturally sensitive care in BIPOC trainees. These findings can inform organizations on how to continue building on communication with those who identify as BIPOC and improve access to care.

Keywords: mental health, disparities, minorities, wellbeing, identity, communication, barriers

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Authors: Preeti Gacche

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A considerable part of undergraduate level English Examination papers is devoted to grammar. Hence the grammar questions in the question papers are evaluated and the opinions of both students and teachers about them are obtained and analyzed. A grammar test of 100 marks is administered to 43 students to check their performance. The question papers have been evaluated by 10 different teachers and their scores compared. The analysis of 38 University question papers reveals that on an average 20 percent marks are allotted to grammar. Almost all the grammar topics are tested. Abundant use of grammatical terminology is observed in the questions. Decontextualization, repetition, possibility of multiple correct answers and grammatical errors in framing the questions have been observed. Opinions of teachers and students about grammar questions vary in many respects. The students responses are analyzed medium-wise and sex-wise. The Medium at the School level and the sex of the students are found to play no role as far as interest in the study of grammar is concerned. English medium students solve grammar questions intuitively whereas non-English medium students are required to recollect the rules of grammar. Prepositions, Verbs, Articles and Model auxiliaries are found to be easy topics for most students whereas the use of conjunctions is the most difficult topic. Out of context items of grammar are difficult to answer in comparison with contextualized items of grammar. Hence contextualized texts to test grammar items are desirable. No formal training in setting questions is imparted to teachers by the competent authorities like the University. They need to be trained in testing. Statistically there is no significant change of score with the change in the rater in testing of grammar items. There is scope of future improvement. The question papers need to be evaluated and feedback needs to be obtained from students and teachers for future improvement.

Keywords: context, evaluation, grammar, tests

Procedia PDF Downloads 353