Search results for: internet protocol

Authors: Bello Abdullahi, Yahaya M. Ibrahim, Ahmed D. Ibrahim, Kabir Bala

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Public sector tendering has traditionally been conducted using manual paper-based processes which are known to be inefficient, less transparent and more prone to manipulations and errors. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web has led to the development of numerous e-Tendering systems that addressed some of the problems associated with the manual paper-based tendering system. However, most of these systems rarely support the evaluation of tenders and where they do it is mostly based on the single decision maker which is not suitable in public sector tendering, where for the sake of objectivity, transparency, and fairness, it is required that the evaluation is conducted through a tender evaluation committee. Currently, in Nigeria, the public tendering process in general and the evaluation of tenders, in particular, are largely conducted using manual paper-based processes. Automating these manual-based processes to digital-based processes can help in enhancing the proficiency of public sector tendering in Nigeria. This paper is part of a larger study to develop an electronic tendering system that supports the whole tendering lifecycle based on Nigerian procurement law. Specifically, this paper presents the design and implementation of part of the system that supports group evaluation of tenders based on a technique called fuzzy multi-attributes group decision making. The system was developed using Object-Oriented methodologies and Unified Modelling Language and hypothetically applied in the evaluation of technical and financial proposals submitted by bidders. The system was validated by professionals with extensive experiences in public sector procurement. The results of the validation showed that the system called NPS-eTender has an average rating of 74% with respect to correct and accurate modelling of the existing manual tendering domain and an average rating of 67.6% with respect to its potential to enhance the proficiency of public sector tendering in Nigeria. Thus, based on the results of the validation, the automation of the evaluation process to support tender evaluation committee is achievable and can lead to a more proficient public sector tendering system.

Keywords: e-Tendering, e-Procurement, group decision making, tender evaluation, tender evaluation committee, UML, object-oriented methodologies, system development

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Authors: Sumitra Sharma, Christina Parker, Kathleen Finlayson, Clint Douglas, Niall Higgins

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Background: Telehealth services have potential to increase accessibility, utilization, and effectiveness of healthcare services. As the telehealth services are yet to integrate within regular hospital services in Nepal, the use of the telehealth services among adults with diabetes is scarce. Prior to implementation of telehealth services for adults with diabetes, it is necessary to examine influencing factors of telehealth services. Objective: This study aimed to investigate factors influencing telehealth services for diabetes care in Nepal. Methods: This study used a mixed-method study design which included a cross-sectional survey among adults with diabetes and semi-structured interviews among key healthcare professionals of Nepal. The study was conducted in a medical out-patient department of a tertiary hospital of Nepal. The survey adapted a previously validated questionnaire, while semi-structured questions for interviews were developed from literature review and experts consultation. All interviews were audio-recorded, and inductive content analysis was used to code transcripts and develop themes. For a survey, a descriptive analysis, chi-square test, and Mann Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. Results: One hundred adults with diabetes were participated in a survey, and seven healthcare professionals were recruited for interviews. In a survey, just over half of the participants (53%) were male, and others were female. Almost all participants (98%) owned a mobile phone, and 67% of them had a computer with internet access at home. Majority of participants had experience in using Facebook messenger (95%), followed by Viber (60%) and Zoom (26%). Almost all of the participants (96%) were willing to use telehealth services. There were significant associations between female sex and participants living 10 km away from the hospital with their willingness to use telehealth services. There was a significant association between participants' self-perception of good health status with their willingness to use video-conference calls and phone calls to use telehealth services. Seven themes were developed from interview data which are related to predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors influencing telehealth services for diabetes care in Nepal. Conclusion: In summary, several factors were found to influence the use of telehealth services for diabetes care in Nepal. For effective implementation of a sustainable telehealth services for adults with diabetes in Nepal, these factors need to be considered.

Keywords: contributing factors, diabetes mellitus, developing countries, telemedicine, telecare

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Authors: Benoit Atge, Alice Dhersin, Oscar Da Silva Cacao, Beatrice Martinez, Dominique Ducint, Catherine Verdun-Esquer, Isabelle Baldi, Mathieu Molimard, Antoine Villa, Mireille Canal-Raffin

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Introduction: Healthcare workers' exposure to antineoplastic drugs (AD) is a burning issue for occupational medicine practitioners. Biological monitoring of occupational exposure (BMOE) is an essential tool for assessing AD contamination of healthcare workers. In addition to BMOE, surface sampling is a useful tool in order to understand how workers get contaminated, to identify sources of environmental contamination, to verify the effectiveness of surface decontamination way and to ensure monitoring of these surfaces. The objective of this work was to develop a complete tool including a kit for surface sampling and a quantification analytical method for AD traces detection. The development was realized with the three following criteria: the kit capacity to sample in every professional environment (healthcare services, veterinaries, etc.), the detection of very low AD traces with a validated analytical method and the easiness of the sampling kit use regardless of the person in charge of sampling. Material and method: AD mostly used in term of quantity and frequency have been identified by an analysis of the literature and consumptions of different hospitals, veterinary services, and home care settings. The kind of adsorbent device, surface moistening solution and mix of solvents for the extraction of AD from the adsorbent device have been tested for a maximal yield. The AD quantification was achieved by an ultra high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Results: With their high frequencies of use and their good reflect of the diverse activities through healthcare, 15 AD (cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, epirubicin, 5-FU, dacarbazin, etoposide, pemetrexed, vincristine, cytarabine, methothrexate, paclitaxel, gemcitabine, mitomycin C) were selected. The analytical method was optimized and adapted to obtain high sensitivity with very low limits of quantification (25 to 5000ng/mL), equivalent or lowest that those previously published (for 13/15 AD). The sampling kit is easy to use, provided with a didactic support (online video and protocol paper). It showed its effectiveness without inter-individual variation (n=5/person; n= 5 persons; p=0,85; ANOVA) regardless of the person in charge of sampling. Conclusion: This validated tool (sampling kit + analytical method) is very sensitive, easy to use and very didactic in order to control the chemical risk brought by AD. Moreover, BMOE permits a focal prevention. Used in routine, this tool is available for every intervention of occupational health.

Keywords: surface contamination, sampling kit, analytical method, sensitivity

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Authors: James Gallagher, Phillip Benachour

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As location aware mobile technologies become ever more omnipresent, the prospect of exploiting their context awareness to enforce learning approaches thrives. Utilizing the growing acceptance of ubiquitous computing, and the steady progress both in accuracy and battery usage of pervasive devices, we present a case study of remote location viewing, how the application can be utilized to support mobile learning in situ using an existing scenario. Through the case study we introduce a new innovative application: Mobipeek based around a request/response protocol for the viewing of a remote location and explore how this can apply both as part of a teacher lead activity and informal learning situations. The system developed allows a user to select a point on a map, and send a request. Users can attach messages alongside time and distance constraints. Users within the bounds of the request can respond with an image, and accompanying message, providing context to the response. This application can be used alongside a structured learning activity such as the use of mobile phone cameras outdoors as part of an interactive lesson. An example of a learning activity would be to collect photos in the wild about plants, vegetation, and foliage as part of a geography or environmental science lesson. Another example could be to take photos of architectural buildings and monuments as part of an architecture course. These images can be uploaded then displayed back in the classroom for students to share their experiences and compare their findings with their peers. This can help to fosters students’ active participation while helping students to understand lessons in a more interesting and effective way. Mobipeek could augment the student learning experience by providing further interaction with other peers in a remote location. The activity can be part of a wider study between schools in different areas of the country enabling the sharing and interaction between more participants. Remote location viewing can be used to access images in a specific location. The choice of location will depend on the activity and lesson. For example architectural buildings of a specific period can be shared between two or more cities. The augmentation of the learning experience can be manifested in the different contextual and cultural influences as well as the sharing of images from different locations. In addition to the implementation of Mobipeek, we strive to analyse this application, and a subset of other possible and further solutions targeted towards making learning more engaging. Consideration is given to the benefits of such a system, privacy concerns, and feasibility of widespread usage. We also propose elements of “gamification”, in an attempt to further the engagement derived from such a tool and encourage usage. We conclude by identifying limitations, both from a technical, and a mobile learning perspective.

Keywords: context aware, location aware, mobile learning, remote viewing

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Authors: Norazlan Mohmad Misnan, Maizatul Hasyima Omar, Mohd Isa Wasiman

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Papaya (Carica papaya L., Caricaceae) is a tree which mainly cultivated for its fruits in many tropical regions including Australia, Brazil, China, Hawaii, and Malaysia. Beside of fruits, its leaves, seeds, and latex have also been traditionally used for treating diseases, which also reported to possess anti-cancer and anti- malaria properties. Its leaves have been reported to consist of various chemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolics. Clitorin and manghaslin are among major flavonoids presence. Thus, the aim of this study is to quantify the purity of these isolated compounds (clitorin and manghsalin) by using quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (qNMR) analysis. Only fresh C. papaya leaves were used for juice extraction procedure and subsequently was freeze-dried to obtain a dark green powdered form of the extract prior to Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC) separation. The CPC experiments were performed using a two-phase solvent system comprising ethyl acetate/butanol/water (1:4:5, v/v/v/v) solvent. The upper organic phase was used as the stationary phase, and the lower aqueous phase was employed as the mobile phase. Ten fractions were obtained after an hour runtime analysis. Fraction 6 and fraction 8 has been identified as clitorin (m/z 739.21 [M-H]-) and manghaslin (m/z 755.21 [M-H]-), respectively, based on LCMS data and full analysis of NMR (1H NMR, 13C NMR, HMBC, and HSQC). The 1H-qNMR measurements were carried out using a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer (JEOL ECS 400MHz, Japan) and deuterated methanol was used as a solvent. Quantification was performed using the AQARI method (Accurate Quantitative NMR) with deuterated 1,4-Bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene (BTMSB) as an internal reference substances. This AQARI protocol includes not only NMR measurement but also sample preparation that provide highest precision and accuracy than other qNMR methods. The 90° pulse length and the T1 relaxation times for compounds and BTMSB were determined prior to the quantification to give the best signal-to-noise ratio. Regions containing the two downfield signals from aromatic part (6.00–6.89 ppm), and the singlet signal, (18H) arising from BTMSB (0.63-1.05ppm) were selected for integration. The purity of clitorin and manghaslin were calculated to be 52.22% and 43.36%, respectively. Further purification is needed in order to increase its purity. This finding has demonstrated the use of qNMR for quality control and standardization of various plant extracts and which can be applied for NMR fingerprinting of other plant-based products with good reproducibility and in the case where commercial standards is not readily available.

Keywords: Carica papaya, clitorin, manghaslin, quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

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Authors: K. W. Lee, C. M. Choi, H. C. Tsang, W. K. Fong, Y. K. Cheng, L. Y. Chan, C. K. Yuen, P. W. Lau, Y. L. To, K. C. Chow

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QR (Quick Response) Code is a matrix barcode. It enables users to open websites, photos and other information with mobile devices by just snapping the code. In usual Long Term Oxygen Therapy arrangement, piles of LTOT related information like leaflets from different oxygen service providers are given to patients to choose an appropriate plan according to their needs. If these printed materials are transformed into electronic format (QR Code), it would be more environmentally-friendly. More importantly, electronic materials including LTOT equipment operation and dyspnoea relieving techniques also empower patients in long-term disease management. The objective to this study is to investigate the effect of QR code in patient education on new LTOT users. This study was carried out in medical wards of North District Hospital. Adult patients and relatives who followed commands, were able to use smartphones with internet services and required LTOT arrangement on hospital discharge were recruited. In LTOT arrangement, apart from the usual LTOT education booklets which included patients’ personal information (e.g. oxygen titration and six-minute walk test results etc.), extra leaflets consisted of 1. QR codes of LTOT plans from different oxygen service providers, 2. Education materials of dyspnoea management and 3. Instructions on LTOT equipment operation were given. Upon completion of LTOT arrangement, a questionnaire about the use of QR code on patient education was filled in by patients or relatives. A total of 10 new LTOT users were recruited from November 2017 to January 2018. Initially, 70% of them did not know anything about the QR code, but all of them understood its operation after a simple demonstration. 70% of them agreed that it was convenient to use (20% strongly agree, 40% agree, 10% somewhat agree). 80% of them agreed that QR code could facilitate the retrieval of more LTOT related information (10% strongly agree, 70% agree) while 90% agreed that we should continue delivering QR code leaflets to new LTOT users in the future (30% strongly agree, 40% agree, 20% somewhat agree). It is proven that QR code is a convenient and environmentally-friendly tool to deliver information. It is also relatively easy to be introduced to new users. It has received welcoming feedbacks from current users.

Keywords: long-term oxygen therapy, physiotherapy, patient education, QR code

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Authors: Richard Vuijk, Arnoud Arntz

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Rationale: To our knowledge treatment of personality disorder comorbidity in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is understudied and is still in its infancy: We do not know if treatment of personality disorders may be applicable to adults with ASD. In particular, it is unknown whether patients with ASD benefit from experiential techniques that are part of schema therapy developed for the treatment of personality disorders. Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate the efficacy of a schema mode focused treatment with adult clients with ASD and comorbid personality pathology (i.e. at least one personality disorder). Specifically, we investigate if they can benefit from both cognitive-behavioral, and experiential interventions. Study design: A multiple baseline case series study. Study population: Adult individuals (age > 21 years) with ASD and at least one personality disorder. Participants will be recruited from Sarr expertise center for autism in Rotterdam. The study requires 12 participants. Intervention: The treatment protocol consists of 35 weekly offered sessions, followed by 10 monthly booster sessions. A multiple baseline design will be used with baseline varying from 5 to 10 weeks, with weekly supportive sessions. After baseline, a 5-week exploration phase follows with weekly sessions during which current and past functioning, psychological symptoms, schema modes are explored, and information about the treatment will be given. Then 15 weekly sessions with cognitive-behavioral interventions and 15 weekly sessions with experiential interventions will be given. Finally, there will be a 10-month follow-up phase with monthly booster sessions. Participants are randomly assigned to baseline length, and respond weekly during treatment and monthly at follow-up on Belief Strength of negative core beliefs (by VAS), and fill out SMI, SCL-90 and SRS-A 7 times during screening procedure (i.e. before baseline), after baseline, after exploration, after cognitive and behavioral interventions, after experiential interventions, and after 5- and 10- month follow-up. The SCID-II will be administered during screening procedure (i.e. before baseline), at 5- and at 10-month follow-up. Main study parameters: The primary study parameter is negative core beliefs. Secondary study parameters include schema modes, personality disorder manifestations, psychological symptoms, and social interaction and communication. Discussion: To the best of author’s knowledge so far no study has been published on the application of schema mode focused interventions in adult patients with ASD and comorbid PD(s). This study offers the first systematic test of application of schema therapy for adults with ASD. The results of this study will provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of schema therapy in treating adults with both ASD and PD(s). The study intends to provide valuable information for future development and implementation of therapeutic interventions for adults with both ASD and PD(s).

Keywords: adults, autism spectrum disorder, personality disorder, schema therapy

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Authors: S. Ananthakrishnan, U. H. Acharya

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Whether shopping in a retail location or via the internet, consumers expect to receive their products intact. When products arrive damaged or over-packaged, the result can be customer dissatisfaction and increased cost for retailers and manufacturers. The packaging performance depends on both the transport situation and the packaging design. During transportation, the packaged products are subjected to the variation in vibration levels from transport vehicles that vary in frequency and acceleration while moving to their destinations. Spirits manufactured by this Company were being transported to various parts of the country by road. There were instances of package breaking and customer complaints. The vibration experienced on a straight road at some speed may not be same as the vibration experienced by the same vehicle on a curve at the same speed. This vibration may negatively affect the product or packing. Hence, it was necessary to conduct a physical road test to understand the effect of vibration in the packaged products. The field transit trial has to be done before the transportations, which results in high investment. The company management was interested in developing an in-house test environment which would adequately represent the transit conditions. With the objective to develop an in-house test condition that can accurately simulate the mechanical loading scenario prevailing during the storage, handling and transportation of the products a brainstorming was done with the concerned people to identify the critical factors affecting vibration rate. Position of corrugated box, the position of bottle and speed of vehicle were identified as factors affecting the vibration rate. Several packing scenarios were identified by Design of Experiment methodology and simulated in the in-house test facility. Each condition was observed for 30 minutes, which was equivalent to 1000 km. The achieved vibration level was considered as the response. The average achieved in the simulated experiments was near to the third quartile (Q3) of the actual data. Thus, we were able to address around three-fourth of the actual phenomenon. Most of the cases in transit could be reproduced. The recommended test condition could generate a vibration level ranging from 9g to 15g as against a maximum of only 7g that was being generated earlier. Thus, the Company was able to test the packaged cartons satisfactorily in the house itself before transporting to the destinations, assuring itself that the breakages of the bottles will not happen.

Keywords: ANOVA, Corrugated box, DOE, Quartile

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Vasupradaa Manivannan, Santosh Maruthy

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Background/Aims: Preliminary evidence suggests that code-switching and code-mixing may act as one of the voluntary coping behavior to avoid the stuttering characteristics in children and adults; however, less is known about the types and patterns of code-mixing (CM) and code-switching (CS). Further, it is not known how it is different between children to adults who stutter. This study aimed to identify and compare the CM and CS patterns between Kannada-English bilingual children and adults who stutter. Method: A standard group comparison was made between five children who stutter (CWS) in the age range of 9-13 years and five adults who stutter (AWS) in the age range of 20-25 years. The participants who are proficient in Kannada (first language- L1) and English (second language- L2) were considered for the study. There were two tasks given to both the groups, a) General conversation (GC) with 10 random questions, b) Narration task (NAR) (Story / General Topic, for example., A Memorable Life Event) in three different conditions {Mono Kannada (MK), Mono English (ME), and Bilingual (BIL) Condition}. The children and adults were assessed online (via Zoom session) with a high-quality internet connection. The audio and video samples of the full assessment session were auto-recorded and manually transcribed. The recorded samples were analyzed for the percentage of dysfluencies using SSI-4 and CM, and CS exhibited in each participant using Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model parameters. The obtained data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software package (Version 20.0). Results: The mean, median, and standard deviation values were obtained for the percentage of dysfluencies (%SS) and frequency of CM and CS in Kannada-English bilingual children and adults who stutter for various parameters obtained through the MLF model. The inferential results indicated that %SS significantly varied between population (AWS vs CWS), languages (L1 vs L2), and tasks (GC vs NAR) but not across free (BIL) and bound (MK, ME) conditions. It was also found that the frequency of CM and CS patterns varies between CWS and AWS. The AWS had a lesser %SS but greater use of CS patterns than CWS, which is due to their excessive coping skills. The language mixing patterns were more observed in L1 than L2, and it was significant in most of the MLF parameters. However, there was a significantly higher (P<0.05) %SS in L2 than L1. The CS and CS patterns were more in conditions 1 and 3 than 2, which may be due to the higher proficiency of L2 than L1. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of assessing the CM and CS behaviors, their patterns, and the frequency of CM and CS between CWS and AWS on MLF parameters in two different tasks across three conditions. The results help us to understand CM and CS strategies in bilingual persons who stutter.

Keywords: bilinguals, code mixing, code switching, stuttering

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Authors: Aijing Luo, Zirui Xin, Yifeng Yuan

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Background: With the rapid development of the online health community, more and more patients or families are seeking health information on the Internet. Objective: This study aimed to discuss how to fully reveal the health information needs expressed by hypertensive patients in their questions in the online environment. Methods: This study randomly selected 1,000 text records from the question data of hypertensive patients from 2008 to 2018 collected from the website www.haodf.com and constructed a classification system through literature research and content analysis. This paper identified the background characteristics and questioning the intention of each hypertensive patient based on the patient’s question and used co-occurrence network analysis to explore the features of the health information needs of hypertensive patients. Results: The classification system for health information needs of patients with hypertension is composed of 9 parts: 355 kinds of drugs, 395 kinds of symptoms and signs, 545 kinds of tests and examinations , 526 kinds of demographic data, 80 kinds of diseases, 37 kinds of risk factors, 43 kinds of emotions, 6 kinds of lifestyles, 49 kinds of questions. The characteristics of the explored online health information needs of the hypertensive patients include: i)more than 49% of patients describe the features such as drugs, symptoms and signs, tests and examinations, demographic data, diseases, etc. ii) these groups are most concerned about treatment (77.8%), followed by diagnosis (32.3%); iii) 65.8% of hypertensive patients will ask doctors online several questions at the same time. 28.3% of the patients are very concerned about how to adjust the medication, and they will ask other treatment-related questions at the same time, including drug side effects, whether to take drugs, how to treat a disease, etc.; secondly, 17.6% of the patients will consult the doctors online about the causes of the clinical findings, including the relationship between the clinical findings and a disease, the treatment of a disease, medication, and examinations. Conclusion: In the online environment, the health information needs expressed by Chinese hypertensive patients to doctors are personalized; that is, patients with different background features express their questioning intentions to doctors. The classification system constructed in this study can guide health information service providers in the construction of online health resources, to help solve the problem of information asymmetry in communication between doctors and patients.

Keywords: online health community, health information needs, hypertensive patients, doctor-patient communication

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Authors: Meital Amzalag, Sharon Hardof-Jaffe

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In the last few decades, children and youth have been immersed in digital technologies. Indeed, recent studies explored the implication of technology use in their leisure and learning activities. Educators face an essential need to utilize technology and implement them into the curriculum. To do that, educators need to understand how young people use digital technology. This study aims to explore K12 students' digital lives from their point of view, to reveal their digital activities, age and gender differences with respect to digital activities, and to present the students' attitudes towards technologies in learning. The study approach is quantitative and includes354 students ages 6-16 from three schools in Israel. The online questionnaire was based on self-reports and consists of four parts: Digital activities: leisure time activities (such as social networks, gaming types), search activities (information types and platforms), and digital application use (e.g., calendar, notes); Digital skills (requisite digital platform skills such as evaluation and creativity); Social and emotional aspects of digital use (conducting digital activities alone and with friends, feelings, and emotions during digital use such as happiness, bullying); Digital attitudes towards digital integration in learning. An academic ethics board approved the study. The main findings reveal the most popular K12digital activities: Navigating social network sites, watching TV, playing mobile games, seeking information on the internet, and playing computer games. In addition, the findings reveal age differences in digital activities, such as significant differences in the use of social network sites. Moreover, the finding raises gender differences as girls use more social network sites and boys use more digital games, which are characterized by high complexity and challenges. Additionally, we found positive attitudes towards technology integration in school. Students perceive technology as enhancing creativity, promoting active learning, encouraging self-learning, and helping students with learning difficulties. The presentation will provide an up-to-date, accurate picture of the use of various digital technologies by k12 students. In addition, it will discuss the learning potentials of such use and how to implement digital technologies in the curriculum. Acknowledgments: This study is a part of a broader study about K-12 digital life in Israel and is supported by Mofet-the Israel Institute for Teachers'Development.

Keywords: technology and learning, K-12, digital life, gender differences

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Authors: Hamid Abbasi, Neda Jourabchi, Ranasadat Abedi, Kiarash Tajernarenj, Mehdi Farhoudi, Sarvin Sanaie

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Background: Alpha lipoic acid (ALA), fat- and water-soluble, coenzyme with sulfuret content, has received considerable attention for its potential therapeutic role in diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and central nervous disease. This investigation aims to evaluate the probable protective effects of ALA in stroke patients. Methods: Based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, This meta-analysis was performed. The PICO criteria for this meta-analysis were as follows: Population/Patients (P: stroke patients); Intervention (I: ALA); Comparison (C: control); Outcome (O: blood glucose, lipid profile, oxidative stress, inflammatory factors).In addition, Studies that were excluded from the analysis consisted of in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo studies, case reports, quasi-experimental studies. Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE databases were searched until August 2023. Results: Of 496 records that were screened in the title/abstract stage, 9 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The sample sizes in the included studies vary between 28 and 90. The result of risk of bias was performed via risk of bias (RoB) in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) based on the second version of the Cochrane RoB assessment tool. 8 studies had a definitely high risk of bias. Discussion: To the best of our knowledge, The present meta-analysis is the first study addressing the effectiveness of ALA supplementation in enhancing post-stroke metabolic markers, including lipid profile, oxidative stress, and inflammatory indices. It is imperative to acknowledge certain potential limitations inherent in this study. First of all, type of treatment (oral or intravenous infusion) could alter the bioavailability of ALA. Our study had restricted evidence regarding the impact of ALA supplementation on included outcomes. Therefore, further research is warranted to develop into the effects of ALA specifically on inflammation and oxidative stress. Funding: The research protocol was approved and supported by the Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (grant number: 72825). Registration: This study was registered in the International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO ID: CR42023461612).

Keywords: alpha-lipoic acid, lipid profile, blood glucose, inflammatory factors, oxidative stress, meta-analysis, post-stroke

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Authors: Clara Tramuta, Floris Irene, Daniela Manila Bianchi, Monica Pitti, Giulia Federica Cazzaniga, Lucia Decastelli

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This work presents the results obtained by the Regional Reference Centre for Salmonella Typing (CeRTiS) in a retrospective study aimed to investigate, through Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis, the genetic relatedness of emerging Salmonella serotypes of human origin circulating in North-West of Italy. Furthermore, the goal of this work was to create a Regional database to facilitate foodborne outbreak investigation and to monitor them at an earlier stage. A total of 112 strains, isolated from 2016 to 2018 in hospital laboratories, were included in this study. The isolates were previously identified as Salmonella according to standard microbiological techniques and serotyping was performed according to ISO 6579-3 and the Kaufmann-White scheme using O and H antisera (Statens Serum Institut®). All strains were characterized by PFGE: analysis was conducted according to a standardized PulseNet protocol. The restriction enzyme XbaI was used to generate several distinguishable genomic fragments on the agarose gel. PFGE was performed on a CHEF Mapper system, separating large fragments and generating comparable genetic patterns. The agarose gel was then stained with GelRed® and photographed under ultraviolet transillumination. The PFGE patterns obtained from the 112 strains were compared using Bionumerics version 7.6 software with the Dice coefficient with 2% band tolerance and 2% optimization. For each serotype, the data obtained with the PFGE were compared according to the geographical origin and the year in which they were isolated. Salmonella strains were identified as follow: S. Derby n. 34; S. Infantis n. 38; S. Napoli n. 40. All the isolates had appreciable restricted digestion patterns ranging from approximately 40 to 1100 kb. In general, a fairly heterogeneous distribution of pulsotypes has emerged in the different provinces. Cluster analysis indicated high genetic similarity (≥ 83%) among strains of S. Derby (n. 30; 88%), S. Infantis (n. 36; 95%) and S. Napoli (n. 38; 95%) circulating in north-western Italy. The study underlines the genomic similarities shared by the emerging Salmonella strains in Northwest Italy and allowed to create a database to detect outbreaks in an early stage. Therefore, the results confirmed that PFGE is a powerful and discriminatory tool to investigate the genetic relationships among strains in order to monitoring and control Salmonellosis outbreak spread. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) still represents one of the most suitable approaches to characterize strains, in particular for the laboratories for which NGS techniques are not available.

Keywords: emerging Salmonella serotypes, genetic characterization, human strains, PFGE

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Authors: Yun-Chung Yu, Yan-Wen Wang, Min-Sheng Liao, Joe-Air Jiang, Yuen-Chung Lee

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This paper proposes to use a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) for a smart pest monitoring system which aims at the oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) to improve the communication efficiency of the system. The oriental fruit fly is one of the main pests in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim. Different smart pest monitoring systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) architecture have been developed to solve problems of employing manual measurement. These systems often use Octopus II, a communication module following the 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee specification, as sensor nodes. The Octopus II is commonly used in low-power and short-distance communication. However, the energy consumption increase as the logical topology becomes more complicate to have enough coverage in the large area. By comparison, LoRaWAN follows the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification, which targets the key requirements of the IoT technology, such as secure bi-directional communication, mobility, and localization services. The LoRaWAN network has advantages of long range communication, high stability, and low energy consumption. The 433MHz LoRaWAN model has two superiorities over the 2.4GHz ZigBee model: greater diffraction and less interference. In this paper, The Octopus II module is replaced by a LoRa model to increase the coverage of the monitoring system, improve the communication performance, and prolong the network lifetime. The performance of the LoRa-based system is compared with a ZigBee-based system using three indexes: the packet receiving rate, delay time, and energy consumption, and the experiments are done in different settings (e.g. distances and environmental conditions). In the distance experiment, a pest monitoring system using the two communication specifications is deployed in an area with various obstacles, such as buildings and living creatures, and the performance of employing the two communication specifications is examined. The experiment results show that the packet receiving the rate of the LoRa-based system is 96% , which is much higher than that of the ZigBee system when the distance between any two modules is about 500m. These results indicate the capability of a LoRaWAN-based monitoring system in long range transmission and ensure the stability of the system.

Keywords: LoRaWan, oriental fruit fly, IoT, Octopus II

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Authors: G. Wimmers

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The University of Northern British Columbia needed a new laboratory building for the Master of Engineering in Integrated Wood Design Program and its new Civil Engineering Program. Since the University is committed to reducing its environmental footprint and because the Master of Engineering Program is actively involved in research of energy efficient buildings, the decision was made to request the energy efficiency of the Passive House Standard in the Request for Proposals. The building is located in Prince George in Northern British Columbia, a city located at the northern edge of climate zone 6 with an average low between -8 and -10.5 in the winter months. The footprint of the building is 30m x 30m with a height of about 10m. The building consists of a large open space for the shop and laboratory with a small portion of the floorplan being two floors, allowing for a mezzanine level with a few offices as well as mechanical and storage rooms. The total net floor area is 1042m² and the building’s gross volume 9686m³. One key requirement of the Passive House Standard is the airtight envelope with an airtightness of < 0.6 ach@50Pa. In the past, we have seen that this requirement can be challenging to reach for industrial buildings. When testing for air tightness, it is important to test in both directions, pressurization, and depressurization, since the airflow through all leakages of the building will, in reality, happen simultaneously in both directions. A specific detail or situation such as overlapping but not sealed membranes might be airtight in one direction, due to the valve effect, but are opening up when tested in the opposite direction. In this specific project, the advantage was the overall very compact envelope and the good volume to envelope area ratio. The building had to be very airtight and the details for the windows and doors installation as well as all transitions from walls to roof and floor, the connections of the prefabricated wall panels and all penetrations had to be carefully developed to allow for maximum airtightness. The biggest challenges were the specific components of this industrial building, the large bay door for semi-trucks and the dust extraction system for the wood processing machinery. The testing was carried out in accordance with EN 132829 (method A) as specified in the International Passive House Standard and the volume calculation was also following the Passive House guideline resulting in a net volume of 7383m3, excluding all walls, floors and suspended ceiling volumes. This paper will explore the details and strategies used to achieve an airtightness of 0.07 ach@50Pa, to the best of our knowledge the lowest value achieved in North America so far following the test protocol of the International Passive House Standard and discuss the crucial steps throughout the project phases and the most challenging details.

Keywords: air changes, airtightness, envelope design, industrial building, passive house

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Ciprian Briciu-Burghina, Brendan Heery, Dermot Brabazon, Fiona Regan

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Good quality bathing water is a highly desirable natural resource which can provide major economic, social, and environmental benefits. Both in Ireland and Europe, such water bodies are managed under the European Directive for the management of bathing water quality (BWD). The BWD aims mainly: (i) to improve health protection for bathers by introducing stricter standards for faecal pollution assessment (E. coli, enterococci), (ii) to establish a more pro-active approach to the assessment of possible pollution risks and the management of bathing waters, and (iii) to increase public involvement and dissemination of information to the general public. Standard methods for E. coli and enterococci quantification rely on cultivation of the target organism which requires long incubation periods (from 18h to a few days). This is not ideal when immediate action is required for risk mitigation. Municipalities that oversee the bathing water quality and deploy appropriate signage have to wait for laboratory results. During this time, bathers can be exposed to pollution events and health risks. Although forecasting tools exist, they are site specific and as consequence extensive historical data is required to be effective. Another approach for early detection of faecal pollution is the use of marker enzymes. β-glucuronidase (GUS) is a widely accepted biomarker for E. coli detection in microbiological water quality control. GUS assay is particularly attractive as they are rapid, less than 4 h, easy to perform and they do not require specialised training. A method for on-site detection of GUS from environmental samples in less than 75 min was previously demonstrated. In this study, the capability of ColiSense as an early warning system for faecal pollution in freshwater is assessed. The system successfully detected GUS activity in all of the 45 freshwater samples tested. GUS activity was found to correlate linearly with E. coli (r2=0.53, N=45, p < 0.001) and enterococci (r2=0.66, N=45, p < 0.001) Although GUS is a marker for E. coli, a better correlation was obtained for enterococci. For this study water samples were collected from 5 rivers in the Dublin area over 1 month. This suggests a high diversity of pollution sources (agricultural, industrial, etc) as well as point and diffuse pollution sources were captured in the sample size. Such variety in the source of E. coli can account for different GUS activities/culturable cell and different ratios of viable but not culturable to viable culturable bacteria. A previously developed protocol for the recovery and detection of E. coli was coupled with a miniaturised fluorometer (ColiSense) and the system was assessed for the rapid detection FIB in freshwater samples. Further work will be carried out to evaluate the system’s performance on seawater samples.

Keywords: faecal pollution, β-glucuronidase (GUS), bathing water, E. coli

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Marziye Hadian, Alireza Jabbari

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Background: The World Health Organization has identified COVID-19 as a public health emergency and is urging governments to stop the virus transmission by adopting appropriate policies. In this regard, authorities have taken different approaches to cut the chain or controlling the spread of the disease. Now, the questions we are facing include what these approaches are? What tools should be used to implement each preventive protocol? In addition, what is the impact of each approach? Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the approaches to biological epidemics and related prevention tools with an emphasis on COVID-19 disease. Data sources: Databases including ISI web of science, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Ovid, and ProQuest were employed for data extraction. Furthermore, authentic sources such as the WHO website, the published reports of relevant countries, as well as the Worldometer website were evaluated for gray studies. The time-frame of the study was from 1 December 2019 to 30 May 2020. Methods: The present study was a systematic study of publications related to the prevention strategies for the COVID-19 disease. The study was carried out based on the PRISMA guidelines and CASP for articles and AACODS for grey literature. Results: The study findings showed that in order to confront the COVID-19 epidemic, in general, there are three approaches of "mitigation", "active control" and "suppression" and four strategies of "quarantine", "isolation", "social distance" and "lockdown" in both individual and social dimensions to deal with epidemics. Selection and implementation of each approach requires specific strategies and has different effects when it comes to controlling and inhibiting the disease. Key finding: One possible approach to control the disease is to change individual behavior and lifestyle. In addition to prevention strategies, use of masks, observance of personal hygiene principles such as regular hand washing and non-contact of contaminated hands with the face, as well as an observance of public health principles such as sneezing and coughing etiquettes, safe extermination of personal protective equipment, must be strictly observed. Have not been included in the category of prevention tools. However, it has a great impact on controlling the epidemic, especially the new coronavirus epidemic. Conclusion: Although the use of different approaches to control and inhibit biological epidemics depends on numerous variables, however, despite these requirements, global experience suggests that some of these approaches are ineffective. The use of previous experiences in the world, along with the current experiences of countries, can be very helpful in choosing the accurate approach for each country in accordance with the characteristics of that country and lead to the reduction of possible costs at the national and international levels.

Keywords: novel corona virus, COVID-19, approaches, prevention tools, prevention strategies

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Sadaf Rafiq, Muhammad Waqas, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Nisar Ahmad

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Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) is considered as the mastery of life. It plays an important role in daily problem solving activities. Female students living in university hostels need variety of information to fulfil their everyday information needs. To find accurate and timely information is really challenging for females students who move from rural areas for educational purposes. These challenges involve culture differences, stress, financial issues, homesickness, diet needs and change in sleeping and eating habits. These complications create numerous problems for female students to adjust themselves in new and unfamiliar environment. Although the Internet has increased the ease of seeking everyday life information to survive successfully but there is still uncertainty to fully rely on the quality of information available on the web. Pakistan is an underdeveloped country where limited budget is allocated for educational institutions to enable them in developing well established hostels for their students. Female students who pursue for higher education has to stay at hostels for years to obtain education goals. It really becomes very difficult for them to spend life in hostels if they are not properly facilitated with relevant information sources to acquire everyday life information. The proposed study attempts to investigate the everyday life information seeking behavior of female students who are living in university and private hostels of Lahore. It investigates the various sources of information used by female students. It also identifies the problems faced by the female students in accessing everyday life information. The results of this study will be helpful for university management to understand their information need and provide required information sources which are essential for them to spend a comfortable, successful and peaceful life in hostels and achieve their educational goals. To achieve the objectives of the study, we will use quantitative research approach by using questionnaire as a data collection tool. The population of this study will be the university students living in public and private hostels of Lahore, Pakistan. This study will increase the understanding of everyday life information seeking behavior of female students living in hostels. Results of the study will be helpful for hostel administrations to better understand the students’ everyday life information needs and provide high quality of information services and living environment.

Keywords: everyday, information seeking, hostel, female

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Sreejith Jayachandran, Mojtaba Ghods, Morteza Mohammadzaheri

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The modern busy world is running behind new embedded technologies based on computers and software; meanwhile, some people forget to do their health condition and regular medical check-ups. Some of them postpone medical check-ups due to a lack of time and convenience, while others skip these regular evaluations and medical examinations due to huge medical bills and hospital expenses. Engineers and medical experts have come together to give birth to a new device in the telemonitoring system capable of monitoring, checking, and evaluating the health status of the human body remotely through the internet for the needs of all kinds of people. The remote health monitoring device is a microcontroller-based embedded unit. Various types of sensors in this device are connected to the human body, and with the help of an Arduino UNO board, the required analogue data is collected from the sensors. The microcontroller on the Arduino board processes the analogue data collected in this way into digital data and transfers that information to the cloud, and stores it there, and the processed digital data is instantly displayed through the LCD attached to the machine. By accessing the cloud storage with a username and password, the concerned person’s health care teams/doctors and other health staff can collect this data for the assessment and follow-up of that patient. Besides that, the family members/guardians can use and evaluate this data for awareness of the patient's current health status. Moreover, the system is connected to a Global Positioning System (GPS) module. In emergencies, the concerned team can position the patient or the person with this device. The setup continuously evaluates and transfers the data to the cloud, and also the user can prefix a normal value range for the evaluation. For example, the blood pressure normal value is universally prefixed between 80/120 mmHg. Similarly, the RHMS is also allowed to fix the range of values referred to as normal coefficients. This IoT-based miniature system (11×10×10) cm³ with a low weight of 500 gr only consumes 10 mW. This smart monitoring system is manufactured with 100 GBP, which can be used not only for health systems, it can be used for numerous other uses including aerospace and transportation sections.

Keywords: embedded technology, telemonitoring system, microcontroller, Arduino UNO, cloud storage, global positioning system, remote health monitoring system, alert system

Procedia PDF Downloads 73

Authors: Vikas Kumar

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Portable batteries are reliable source of mobile energy to power smart wearable electronics, medical devices, communications, and others internet of thing (IoT) devices. There is a continuous increase in demand for thinner, more flexible battery with high energy density and reliability to meet the requirement. For a flexible battery, factors that affect these properties are the stability of current collectors, electrode materials and their interfaces with the corrosive electrolytes. State-of-the-art conventional and flexible batteries utilise carbon as an electrode and current collectors which cause high internal resistance (~100 ohms) and limit the peak current to ~1mA. This makes them unsuitable for a wide range of applications. Replacing the carbon parts with metallic components would reduce the internal resistance (and hence reduce parasitic loss), but significantly increases the risk of corrosion due to galvanic interactions within the battery. To overcome these challenges, low cost electroplated nickel (Ni) on copper (Cu) was studied as a potential anode current collector for a zinc-manganese oxide primary battery with different concentration of NH4Cl/ZnCl2 electrolyte. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), we monitored the open circuit potential (OCP) of electroplated nickel (different thicknesses) in different concentration of electrolytes to optimise the thickness of Ni coating. Our results show that electroless Ni coating suffer excessive corrosion in these electrolytes. Corrosion rates of Ni coatings for different concentrations of electrolytes have been calculated with Tafel analysis. These results suggest that for electroplated Ni, channelling and/or open porosity is a major issue, which was confirmed by morphological analysis. These channels are an easy pathway for electrolyte to penetrate thorough Ni to corrode the Ni/Cu interface completely. We further investigated the incorporation of a special printed graphene layer on Ni to provide corrosion protection in this corrosive electrolyte medium. We find that the incorporation of printed graphene layer provides the corrosion protection to the Ni and enhances the chemical bonding between the active materials and current collector and also decreases the overall internal resistance of the battery system.

Keywords: corrosion, electrical impedance spectroscopy, flexible battery, graphene, metal current collector

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Daphne Sobolev, Niklas Voege

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During the last three decades, consumer ethics perceptions have attracted the attention of a large number of researchers. Nevertheless, little is known about the effect of the cognitive and situational contexts of the decision on ethics judgments. In this paper, the interrelationship between consumers’ ethics perceptions, legality evaluations and mind-sets are explored. Legality evaluations represent the cognitive context of the ethical judgments, whereas mind-sets represent their situational context. Drawing on moral development theories and priming theories, it is hypothesized that both factors are significantly related to consumer ethics perceptions. To test this hypothesis, 289 participants were allocated to three mind-set experimental conditions and a control group. Participants in the mind-set conditions were primed for aggressiveness, politeness or awareness to the negative legal consequences of breaking the law. Mind-sets were induced using a sentence-unscrambling task, in which target words were included. Ethics and legality judgments were assessed using consumer ethics and internet ethics questionnaires. All participants were asked to rate the ethicality and legality of consumer actions described in the questionnaires. The results showed that consumer ethics and legality perceptions were significantly correlated. Moreover, including legality evaluations as a variable in ethics judgment models increased the predictive power of the models. In addition, inducing aggressiveness in participants reduced their sensitivity to ethical issues; priming awareness to negative legal consequences increased their sensitivity to ethics when uncertainty about the legality of the judged scenario was high. Furthermore, the correlation between ethics and legality judgments was significant overall mind-set conditions. However, the results revealed conflicts between ethics and legality perceptions: consumers considered 10%-14% of the presented behaviors unethical and legal, or ethical and illegal. In 10-23% of the questions, participants indicated that they did not know whether the described action was legal or not. In addition, an asymmetry between the effects of aggressiveness and politeness priming was found. The results show that the legality judgments and mind-sets interact with consumer ethics perceptions. Thus, they portray consumer ethical judgments as dynamical processes which are inseparable from other cognitive processes and situational variables. They highlight that legal and ethical education, as well as adequate situational cues at the service place, could have a positive effect on consumer ethics perceptions. Theoretical contribution is discussed.

Keywords: consumer ethics, legality judgments, mind-set, priming, aggressiveness

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Birendra Kumar Bista, Rhitik Bista, Prafulla Koirala, Lokendra Mandal, Nikrsh Raj Shrestha, Vivek Kattel

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Introduction: Poorly controlled diabetes is associated with cause and poor outcome of stroke. High blood sugar reduces cerebral blood flow, increases intracranial pressure, cerebral edema and neuronal death, especially among patients with poorly controlled diabetes.1 SGLT2 inhibitors are associated with 50% reduction in hemorrhagic stroke compared with placebo. SGLT2 inhibitors decrease cardiovascular events via reducing glucose, blood pressure, weight, arteriosclerosis, albuminuria and reduction of atrial fibrillation.2,3 No study has been documented in low income countries to see the role of post stroke SGLT2 inhibitors on diabetic patients at and after ICU admission. Aims: The aim of the study was to measure the 12 months outcome of diabetic patients with acute stroke admitted in ICU set up with naïve SGLT2 inhibitors add on therapy. Method: It was prospective cohort study carried out in a 250 bedded tertiary neurology care hospital at the province capital Biratnagar Nepal. Diabetic patient with acute stroke admitted in ICU from 1st January 2022 to 31st December 2022 who were not under SGLT2 inhibitors were included in the study. These patients were managed as per hospital protocol. Empagliflozin was added to the alternate enrolled patients. Empagliflozin was continued at the time of discharged and during follow up unless contraindicated. These patients were followed up for 12 months. Outcome measured were mortality, morbidity requiring readmission or hospital visit other than regular follow up, SGLT2 inhibitors related adverse events, neuropsychiatry comorbidity, functional status and biochemical parameters. Ethical permission was taken from hospital administration and ethical board. Results: Among 147 diabetic cases 68 were not treated with empagliflozin whereas 67 cases were started the SGLT2 inhibitors. HbA1c level and one year mortality was significantly low among patients on empaglifozin arm. Over a period of 12 months 427 acute stroke patients were admitted in the ICU. Out of them 44% were female, 61% hypertensive, 34% diabetic, 57% dyslipidemia, 26% smoker and with median age of 45 years. Among 427 cases 4% required neurosurgical interventions and 76% had hemorrhagic CVA. The most common reason for ICU admission was GCS<8 (51%). The median ICU stay was 5 days. ICU mortality was 21% whereas 1 year mortality was 41% with most common reason being pneumonia. Empaglifozin related adverse effect was seen in 11% most commonly lower urinary tract infection in 6%. Conclusion: Empagliflozin can safely be started among acute stroke with better Hba1C control and low mortality outcome compared to treatment without SGLT2 inhibitor.

Keywords: diabetes, ICU, mortality, SGLT2 inhibitors, stroke

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Fayomi Oluyemi, Ajayi Lady

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This article raises the question of political leadership in the context of womens' roles and responsibilities in Nigeria. The leadership question in Nigeria is disquieting to both academics and policy actors. In a democratic society like Nigeria, the parameters for a well-deserved leadership position is characterised by variables of equity, competence, transparency, accountability, selflessness, and commitment to the tenets of democracy, but the failure of leadership is pervasive in all spheres of socio-political sectors in Nigeria. The paper appraises the activities of Nigerian women in the socio-political arena in Nigeria. It traces their leadership roles from pre-colonial through post-colonial eras with emphasis on 1914 till date. It is argued in the paper that gender imbalance in leadership is a bane to peaceful co-existence and development in Nigeria. It is a truism that gender-blind and gender biased political agendas can distort leadership activities. The extent of their contributions of the few outstanding women’s relative tranquility is highlighted in the theoretical discourse. The methodology adopted for this study is an exploratory study employing the extended case method (ECM). The study was carried out among some selected Nigerian women politicians and academics. Because of ECM's robustness as a qualitative research design, it has helped this study in identifying the challenges of these women thematically and also in constructing valid and reliable measures of the constructs. The study made use of ethnography and triangulation, the latter of which is used by qualitative researchers to check and establish validity in their studies by analyzing a research question from multiple perspectives, specifically Investigator triangulation which involves using several different investigators in the analysis process. Typically, this manifests as the evaluation team consisting of colleagues within a field of study wherein each investigator examines the question of political leadership with the same qualitative method (interview, observation, case study, or focus groups). In addition, data was collated through documentary sources like journals, books, magazines, newspapers, and internet materials. The arguments of this paper center on gender equity of both sexes in socio-political representation and effective participation. The paper concludes with the need to effectively maintain gender balance in leadership in order to enhance lasting peace and unity in Nigeria.

Keywords: gender, politics, leadership, women

Procedia PDF Downloads 438

Authors: Po-Chun Lee, Li-Lin Liang, Ching-Yuan Huang

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Purpose: Research on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)& online review has been widely used in service industry management research in recent years. The SERVQUAL scale is the most commonly used method to measure service quality. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to combine electronic word of mouth & online review with the SERVQUAL scale. To explore the comparative study of positive and negative electronic word-of-mouth reviews of a certain armed force general hospital in Taiwan. Data sources: This research obtained online word-of-mouth comment data on google maps from a military hospital in Taiwan in the past ten years through Internet data mining technology. Research methods: This study uses the semantic content analysis method to classify word-of-mouth reviews according to the revised PZB SERVQUAL scale. Then carry out statistical analysis. Results of data synthesis: The results of this study disclosed that the negative reviews of this military hospital in Taiwan have been increasing year by year. Under the COVID-19 epidemic, positive word-of-mouth has a downward trend. Among the five determiners of SERVQUAL of PZB, positive word-of-mouth reviews performed best in “Assurance,” with a positive review rate of 58.89%, Followed by 43.33% of “Responsiveness.” In negative word-of-mouth reviews, “Assurance” performed the worst, with a positive rate of 70.99%, followed by responsive 29.01%. Conclusions: The important conclusions of this study disclosed that the total number of electronic word-of-mouth reviews of the military hospital has revealed positive growth in recent years, and the positive word-of-mouth growth has revealed negative growth after the epidemic of COVID-19, while the negative word-of-mouth has grown substantially. Regardless of the positive and negative comments, what patients care most about is “Assurance” of the professional attitude and skills of the medical staff, which needs to be strengthened most urgently. In addition, good “Reliability” will help build positive word-of-mouth. However, poor “Responsiveness” can easily lead to the spread of negative word-of-mouth. This study suggests that the hospital should focus on these few service-oriented quality management and audits.

Keywords: quality of medical service, electronic word-of-mouth, armed forces general hospital

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Obesity is associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors and metabolic syndrome (MetS). In this study, associations between adipokines and adipokine as well as obesity indices were evaluated. Plasma adipokine levels may exhibit variations according to body adipose tissue mass. Besides, upon consideration of obesity as an inflammatory disease, adipokines may play some roles in this process. The ratios of proinflammatory adipokines to adiponectin may act as highly sensitive indicators of body adipokine status. The aim of the study is to present some adipokine indices, which are thought to be helpful for the evaluation of childhood obesity and also to determine the best discriminators in the diagnosis of MetS. 80 prepubertal children (aged between 6-9.5 years) included in the study were divided into three groups; 30 children with normal weight (NW), 25 morbid obese (MO) children and 25 MO children with MetS. Physical examinations were performed. Written informed consent forms were obtained from the parents. The study protocol was approved by Ethics Committee of Namik Kemal University Medical Faculty. Anthropometric measurements, such as weight, height, waist circumference (C), hip C, head C, neck C were recorded. Values for body mass index (BMI), diagnostic obesity notation model assessment Index-II (D2 index) as well as waist-to-hip, head-to-neck ratios were calculated. Adiponectin, resistin, leptin, chemerin, vaspin, progranulin assays were performed by ELISA. Adipokine-to-adiponectin ratios were obtained. SPSS Version 20 was used for the evaluation of data. p values ≤ 0.05 were accepted as statistically significant. Values of BMI and D2 index, waist-to-hip, head-to-neck ratios did not differ between MO and MetS groups (p ≥ 0.05). Except progranulin (p ≤ 0.01), similar patterns were observed for plasma levels of each adipokine. There was not any difference in vaspin as well as resistin levels between NW and MO groups. Significantly increased leptin-to-adiponectin, chemerin-to-adiponectin and vaspin-to-adiponectin values were noted in MO in comparison with those of NW. The most valuable adipokine index was progranulin-to-adiponectin (p ≤ 0.01). This index was strongly correlated with vaspin-to-adiponectin ratio in all groups (p ≤ 0.05). There was no correlation between vaspin-to-adiponectin and chemerin-to--adiponectin in NW group. However, a correlation existed in MO group (r = 0.486; p ≤ 0.05). Much stronger correlation (r = 0.609; p ≤ 0.01) was observed in MetS group between these two adipokine indices. No correlations were detected between vaspin and progranulin as well as vaspin and chemerin levels. Correlation analyses showed a unique profile confined to MetS children. Adiponectin was found to be correlated with waist-to-hip (r = -0.435; p ≤ 0.05) as well as head-to-neck (r = 0.541; p ≤ 0.05) ratios only in MetS children. In this study, it has been investigated if adipokine indices have priority over adipokine levels. In conclusion, vaspin-to-adiponectin, progranulin-to-adiponectin, chemerin-to-adiponectin along with waist-to-hip and head-to-neck ratios were the optimal combinations. Adiponectin, waist-to-hip, head-to-neck, vaspin-to-adiponectin, chemerin-to-adiponectin ratios had appropriate discriminatory capability for MetS children.

Keywords: adipokine indices, metabolic syndrome, obesity indices, pediatric obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Anuj Pathare, Aleksandra Birn-Jeffery

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Background: The Anterior Cruciate Ligament(ACL) helps stabilize the knee joint minimizing tibial anterior translation. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury is common in racquet sports and often occurs due to sudden acceleration, deceleration or changes of direction. This mechanism in badminton most commonly occurs during landing after an overhead stroke. Knee biomechanics during dynamic movements such as walking, running and stair negotiation, do not return to normal for more than a year after an ACL reconstruction. This change in the biomechanics may lead to re-injury whilst performing non-steady movements during sports, where these injuries are most prevalent. Aims: To compare if the knee kinetics and kinematics in ACL injury recovered athletes return to the same level as those from an uninjured cohort during standard movements used for clinical assessment and badminton shots. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine: Knee valgus during the single leg squat, vertical drop jump, net shot and drop shot; Degree of internal or external rotation during the single leg squat, vertical drop jump, net shot and drop shot; Maximum knee flexion during the single leg squat, vertical drop jump and net shot. Methods: This case-control study included 14 participants with three ACL injury recovered athletes and 11 uninjured participants. The participants performed various functional tasks including vertical drop jump, single leg squat; the forehand net shot and the forehand drop shot. The data was analysed using the two-way ANOVA test, and the reliability of the data was evaluated using the Intra Class Coefficient. Results: The data showed a significant decrease in the range of knee rotation in ACL injured participants as compared to the uninjured cohort (F₇,₅₅₆=2.37; p=0.021). There was also a decrease in the maximum knee flexion angles and an increase in knee valgus angles in ACL injured participants although they were not statistically significant. Conclusion: There was a significant decrease in the knee rotation angles in the ACL injured participants which could be a potential cause for re-injury in these athletes in the future. Although the results for decrease in maximum knee flexion angles and increase in knee valgus angles were not significant, this may be due to a limited sample of ACL injured participants; there is potential for it to be identified as a variable of interest in the rehabilitation of ACL injuries. These changes in the knee biomechanics could be vital in the rehabilitation of ACL injured athletes in the future, and an inclusion of sports based tasks, e.g., Net shot along with standard protocol movements for ACL assessment would provide a better measure of the rehabilitation of the athlete.

Keywords: ACL, biomechanics, knee injury, racquet sport

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Ke Wang, Zhu Wang

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Coordinating and promoting urban and rural development has been a new round of institutional change in Zhejiang province since 2004. And this plan was fully implemented, which showed that the isolation between the urban and rural areas had gradually diminished. Little by little, an infiltration interface that is dynamic, flexible and interactive is formed, and this morphological structure starts to appear on the landscape form in the surrounding villages. In order to study the specific function and formation of the structure in the context of industrial revolution, Bimen village located on the interface between Anji Township, Huzhou and Yuhang District, Hangzhou is taken as the case. Anji township is in the cross area between Yangtze River delta economic circle and innovation center in Hangzhou. Awarded with ‘Chinese beautiful village’, Bimen has witnessed the growing process of infiltration in ecology, economy, technology and culture on the interface. Within the opportunity, Bimen village presents internal reformation to adapt to the energy exchange with urban areas. In the research, the reformation is to adjust the industrial structure, to upgrade the local special bamboo crafts, to release space for activities, and to establish infrastructures on the interface. The characteristic of an interface is elasticity achieved by introducing an Internet platform using ‘O2O’ agriculture method to connect cities and farmlands. There is a platform of this kind in Bimen named ‘Xiao Mei’. ‘Xiao’ in Chinese means small, ‘Mei’ means beautiful, which indicates the method to refine the landscape form. It turns out that the new agriculture mode will strengthen the interface by orienting the Third Party Platform upon the old dynamic basis and will bring new vitality for economy development in Bimen village. The research concludes opportunities and challenges generated by the evolution of the infiltration interface. It also proposes strategies for how to organically adapt to the urbanization process. Finally it demonstrates what will happen by increasing flexibility in the landscape forms of suburbs in the Bimen village.

Keywords: Bimen village, infiltration interface, flexibility, suburban landscape form

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Beatriz Botella-Gil, Patricio Martínez-Barco, Lea Canales

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The Internet and ICT are an integral element of and omnipresent in our daily lives. Technologies have changed the way we see the world and relate to it. The number of companies in the ICT sector is increasing every year, and there has also been an increase in the work that occurs online, from sending e-mails to the way companies promote themselves. In social life, ICT’s have gained momentum. Social networks are useful for keeping in contact with family or friends that live far away. This change in how we manage our relationships using electronic devices and social media has been experienced differently depending on the age of the person. According to currently available data, people are increasingly connected to social media and other forms of online communication. Therefore, it is no surprise that violent content has also made its way to digital media. One of the important reasons for this is the anonymity provided by social media, which causes a sense of impunity in the victim. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find derogatory comments, attacking a person’s physical appearance, hobbies, or beliefs. This is why it is necessary to develop artificial intelligence tools that allow us to keep track of violent comments that relate to violent events so that this type of violent online behavior can be deterred. The objective of our research is to create a guide for detecting and recording violent messages. Our annotation guide begins with a study on the problem of violent messages. First, we consider the characteristics that a message should contain for it to be categorized as violent. Second, the possibility of establishing different levels of aggressiveness. To download the corpus, we chose the social network Twitter for its ease of obtaining free messages. We chose two recent, highly visible violent cases that occurred in Spain. Both of them experienced a high degree of social media coverage and user comments. Our corpus has a total of 633 messages, manually tagged, according to the characteristics we considered important, such as, for example, the verbs used, the presence of exclamations or insults, and the presence of negations. We consider it necessary to create wordlists that are present in violent messages as indicators of violence, such as lists of negative verbs, insults, negative phrases. As a final step, we will use automatic learning systems to check the data obtained and the effectiveness of our guide.

Keywords: human language technologies, language modelling, offensive language detection, violent online content

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Alessandra Turini Bolsoni Silva, Nilson Rogério Da Silva

Abstract:

The hospitalization process for long periods and the experience of invasive and painful clinical procedures can trigger a set of stressors in children, family members and professionals, leading to stress. Mothers are, in general, the main caregivers and, therefore, have a high degree of sadness and stress with an impact on mental health. However, the father, in the face of the mother's absence, needs to assume other responsibilities such as domestic activities and healthy children in addition to work activities. In addition, he has to deal with changes in family and work relationships during the child's hospitalization, with disagreements and changes in the relationship with the partner, changes in the relationship with the children, and finding it difficult to reconcile the new tasks as a caregiver and work. A consequence of the hospitalization process is the interruption of the routine activities of both the child and the family members responsible for the care, who can go through stressful moments due to the consequences of family breakdown, attention focused only on the child and sleepless nights. In this sense, both the mother and the father can have their health affected by their child's hospitalization. The present study aims to compare the prevalence of stress and overload in mothers and fathers of hospitalized children, as well as possible associations with activities related to care. The participants were 10 fathers and 10 mothers of children hospitalized in a hospital located in a medium-sized city in the interior of São Paulo. Three instruments were used for data collection: 1) Script to characterize the participants; 2) The Lipp Stress Symptom Inventory (ISSL, 2000) 3) Zarit Burden Interview Protocol – ZBT. Contact was made with the management of the hospital in order to present the objectives of the project, then authorization was requested for the participation of the parents; after an agreement, the time and place were convenient for the participant to carry out the interview. Thus, they signed the Free and Informed Consent Term. Data were analyzed according to the instrument application manuals and organized in Figures and Tables. The results revealed that fathers and mothers have their family and professional routine affected by the hospitalization of their children, with the consequent presence of stress and overload indicators. However, the study points to a greater presence of stress and overload in mothers due to their role as the main caregiver, often interrupting their professional life to exercise care. In the case of the father, the routine is changed due to taking on household chores and taking care of the other children, with the professional life being less affected. It is hoped that the data can guide future interventions that promote and develop strategies that favor care and, at the same time, preserve the health of caregivers and that include mothers and fathers, considering that both are affected, albeit in a different way.

Keywords: stress, overload, caregivers, parents

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Fatemah Al-Baroud, Sudharani Shreenivas Kshatriya

Abstract:

Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is one of the companies for gas & oil production in Kuwait. The oil and gas industry is truly global; with operations conducted in every corner of the globe, the global community will rely heavily on oil and gas supplies. KOC has made many commitments to protect all due to KOC’s operations and operational releases. As per KOC’s strategy, the substantial increase in production activities will bring many challenges in managing various environmental hazards and stresses in the company. In order to handle those environmental challenges, the need of implementing effectively the health, safety, and environmental management system (HSEMS) is significant. And by implementing the HSEMS system properly, the environmental aspects of the activities, products, and services were identified, evaluated, and controlled in order to (i) Comply with local regulatory and other obligatory requirements; (ii) Comply with company policy and business requirements; and (iii) Reduce adverse environmental impact, including adverse impact to company reputation. Assessments for the Jurassic Production Facilities are being carried out as a part of the KOC HSEMS procedural requirement and monitoring the implementation of the relevant HSEMS procedures in the facilities. The assessments have been done by conducting series of theme audits using KOC’s audit protocol at JPFs. The objectives of the audits are to evaluate the compliance of the facilities towards the implementation of environmental procedures and the status of the KEPA requirement at all JPFs. The list of the facilities that were covered during the theme audit program are the following: (1) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – Sabriya (2) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – East Raudhatian (3) Jurassic Production Facility (JPF) – West Raudhatian (4)Early Production Facility (EPF 50). The auditing process comprehensively focuses on the application of KOC HSE MS procedures at JPFs and their ability to reduce the resultant negative impacts on the environment from the operations. Number of findings and observations were noted and highlighted in the audit reports and sent to all concerned controlling teams. The results of these audits indicated that the facilities, in general view, were in line with KOC HSE Procedures, and there were commitments in documenting all the HSE issues in the right records and plans. Further, implemented several control measures at JPFs that minimized/reduced the environmental impact, such as SRU were installed for sulphur recovery. Future scope and monitoring audit after a sufficient period of time will be carried out in conjunction with the controlling teams in order to verify the current status of the recommendations and evaluate the contractors' performance towards the required actions in preserving the environment.

Keywords: assessment of the environmental compliance, environmental and social impact assessment, kuwait environment public authority regulations, health, safety and environment management procedures, jurassic production facilities

Procedia PDF Downloads 172