Search results for: World Trade Center Attack

Authors: Karima Tayaa, Amina Bouaziz

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The rapid expansion in the scientific fields and the growth of communication technology increased the use of English as international language in the world. Hence, over the past few decades, many researchers have been emphasizing on how the teaching and learning of English as a foreign or as an additional language can best help students to perform successfully. English for specific purpose is today quite literally regarded as the most global language discipline which existed practically in every country in the world. ESP (English for Specific Purposes) involves teaching and learning the specific skills and language needed by particular learners for a particular purpose. The P in ESP is always a professional purpose which is a set of skills that learners currently need in their work or will need in their professional careers. It has had an early origin since 1960’s and has grown to become one of the most prominent of English language teaching today. Moreover, ESP learners are usually adults who have some quittances with English and learn the language so as to communicate and perform particular profession. Related activities are based on specific purposes and needs. They are integrated into subject matter area important to the learners. Unlike general English which focuses on teaching general language courses and all four language skills are equally stressed, ESP and practically needs analysis determine which language skills are the most needed by the learners and syllabus designed accordingly. This paper looked into the origin, characteristics, development of ESP, the difference between ESP and general English. Finally, the paper critically reviews the role of needs analysis in the ESP.

Keywords: English language teaching, English for general purposes, English for specific purposes, needs analysis

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Authors: Y. Ates, A. R. Boynuegri, M. Uzunoglu, A. Karakas

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The recent interest in alternative and renewable energy systems results in increased installed capacity ratio of such systems in total energy production of the world. Specifically, wind energy conversion systems (WECS) draw significant attention among possible alternative energy options, recently. On the contrary of the positive points of penetrating WECS in all over the world in terms of environment protection, energy independence of the countries, etc., there are significant problems to be solved for the grid connection of large scale WECS. The reactive power regulation, voltage variation suppression, etc. can be presented as major issues to be considered in this regard. Thus, this paper evaluates the application of a Static VAr Compensator (SVC) unit for the reactive power regulation and operation continuity of WECS during a fault condition. The system is modeled employing the IEEE 13 node test system. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the system performance with an overall grid simulation model close to real grid systems. The overall simulation model is developed in MATLAB/Simulink/SimPowerSystems® environments and the obtained results effectively match the target of the provided study.

Keywords: IEEE 13 bus distribution system, reactive power regulation, static VAr compensator, wind energy conversion system

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Authors: Tessalyn Morrison, Alexis Dinno, Taurica Salmon

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Sex and gender conflation continue to perpetuate the invisibility of gender minorities and obscure information about the ways that biological sex and gender affect health. The misuse of sex and gender terms, and their respective binaries, can yield inaccurate results. But more importantly, it contributes to the erasure of sex and gender minority health experiences. This paper discusses ways in which public health researchers can use sex and gender terms correctly and center the health experiences of intersex, transgender, non binary, and a-gender individuals. It includes promoting sensitivity in approaching minority communities, improving survey questions, and collaborating with sex and gender minority communities to improve research quality and participant experiences. Improving our standards for the quality of sex and gender term usage and centering sex and gender minorities in public health research are imperative to address the health inequalities faced by sex and gender minorities.

Keywords: epidemiology, gender, intersex, research methods, sex, transgender

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Authors: Sasitorn Chetanont

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The objectives of this study are to find out the approaches to promote healthy recreation activities for elderly tourists and develop Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market to be a health tourism attraction. The research methodology was to analyze internal and external situations according to MP-MF and the MC-STEPS principles. As for the results of this study the researcher found that the healthy recreational activities for elderly tourists could be divided in 7 groups; travelling Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market activity, homestay relaxation, arts center platform activity, healthy massage activity, paying homage to a Buddha image activity, herbal joss-stick home activity, making local desserts and food activity.

Keywords: elderly tourists, recreation activities, Bang Nam Phueng Floating Market, health tourism

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Authors: Samantha Ramachandra, Avanthi Rupasinghe

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Demographic transition from lower to higher percentage of elderly population eventually coupled with epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases (NCD). Higher percentage of NCD overload the health system as NCD survivors claims continuous health care. The demands are challenging to a resource constrained setting but reorganizing the system may find solutions. The study focused on the facilities available and their utilization at outpatient department (OPD) setting of the public hospitals of Sri Lanka for continuous medical care. This will help in identifying steps of reorganizing the system to provide better care with the maximum utilization of available facilities. The study was conducted as a situation analysis with secondary data at hospital planning units. Variable were identified according to the world health organization (WHO) recommendation on continuous health care for elders in “age-friendly primary health care toolkit”. Data were collected from secondary and tertiary care hospitals of Sri Lanka where most of the continuous care services are available. Out of 58 secondary and tertiary care hospitals, 16 were included in the study to represent each hospital categories. Average number of patient attending for episodic treatment at OPD and Clinical follow-up of chronic conditions shows vast disparity according to the category of the hospital ranging from 3750 – 800 per day at OPD and 1250 – 200 per clinic session. Average time spent per person at OPD session is low, range from 1.54 - 2.28 minutes, the time was increasing as the hospital category goes down. 93.7% hospitals had special arrangements for providing acute care on chronic conditions such as catheter, feeding tube and wound care. 25% hospitals had special clinics for elders, 81.2% hospitals had healthy lifestyle clinics (HLC), 75% hospitals had physical rehabilitation facilities and 68.8% hospitals had facilities for counselling. Elderly clinics and HLC were mostly available at lower grade hospitals where as rehabilitation and counselling facilities were mostly available at bigger hospitals. HLC are providing health education for both patients and their family members, refer patients for screening of complication but not provide medical examinations, investigations or treatments even though they operate in the hospital setting. Physical rehabilitation is basically offered for patients with rheumatological conditions but utilization of centers for injury rehabilitation and rehabilitation of survivors following major illness such as myocardial infarctions, stroke, cancer is not satisfactory (12.5%). Human Resource distribution within hospital shows vast disparity and there are 103 physiotherapists in the biggest hospital where only 36 physiotherapists available at the next level hospital. Counselling facilities also provided mainly for the patient with psychological conditions (100%) but they were not providing counselling for newly diagnosed patients with major illnesses (0%). According to results, most of the public-sector hospitals in Sri Lanka have basic facilities required in providing continuous care but the utilization of services need more focus. Hospital administration or the government need to have initial steps in proper utilization of them in improving continuous health care incorporating team approach of rehabilitation. The author wishes to acknowledge that this paper was made possible by the support and guidance given by the “Australia Awards Fellowships Program for Sri Lanka – 2017,” which was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia, and co-hosted by Monash University, Australia and the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration.

Keywords: continuous care, outpatient department, non communicable diseases, rehabilitation

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Authors: Monika Lipska

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Drinking water is water with a very high quality, and as such represents only 2.5% of the total quantity of all water in the world. For many years we have observed continuous increase in its consumption as a result of many factors such as: Growing world population (7 billion in 2011r.), increase of human lives comfort and – above all – the economic growth. Due to the rocketing consumption and growing costs of production of water with such high-quality parameters, we experience accelerating interest in alternative sources of obtaining potable water. One of the ways of saving this valuable material is using rainwater in the Urban Building. With an exponentially growing demand, the acquisition of additional sources of water is necessary to maintain the proper balance of all ecosystems. The first part of the paper describes what rainwater is and what are its potential sources and means of use, while the main part of the article focuses on the description of the methods of obtaining water from rain on the example of new urban building in Poland. It describes the method and installations of rainwater in the new urban building (“MBJ2030”). The paper addresses also the issue of monitoring of the whole recycling systems as well as the particular quality indicators important because of identification of the potential risks to human health. The third part describes the legal arrangements concerning the recycling of rainwater existing in different European Union countries with particular reference to Poland on example the new urban building in Warsaw.

Keywords: rainwater, potable water, non-potable water, Poland

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Authors: Hector Jose Velazquez-Gonzalez, Norma Maldonado-Santiago, Laura Pietri-Gomez

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Cancer is one of the first cause of death in the world, most of them are women. In Puerto Rico, there is a permanent controversy on the conceptuation of what really involves a disability, also in when a chronic illness, like cancer, should be considered a disability. The aim of the research was to identify functional limitation in 50 women survivors of cancer. In turn, to know the meanings that 6 women attributed to cancer with a focus on functionality. We conducted a mix method research based on surveys and narratives. We administered the World Health Organization Disability Assessment, version 2.0, which obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of .949 on the general scale, and from .773 to .956 on the six domains. The domain that obtained the highest average was social participation (M= 33.89, SD= 20.434), but it was not significant in the disability percentage. Also, there was no significance in the disability percentage in the other five domains. In a matter of meanings, we conduct a semistructured interview to 6 participants. All of them do not refer to cancer as a disability, either they do not know that in Puerto Rico cancer is considered as a disability by the law. However, participants agree that cancer at the time of treatment and subsequent to it, has significant effects on functional limitations (fatigue, pain, cognitive limitations, and weakness, among others. Psychooncologic practice should encourage the constant assessment of the functionality to identify the needs that emerge from oncological diagnosis. So that psychosocial intervention could be considered as critical in cancer treatment to promote a better quality of life and well-being in a person with cancer.

Keywords: cancer, Puerto Rico, disability, psychosocial approach

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Authors: Suantak Demkhosei Vaiphei

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Mental illness is still considered as an illness not to be treated, resulting India becoming the most depressed country in the world. At present, 150 million Indians are suffering from mental illness and desperately in need of immediate care assessment for their mental health condition. However, only 0.06 per cent of India’s health budget is devoted to mental health treatment, in which the available data suggests that the state of spending the sanctioned budget in this regard is abysmal. Lack of awareness, ignorance, social stigma, and discriminations becomes the underlying factors for worsening the individual mental health conditions. Unfortunately, India becomes the most depressed country in the world, which is hugely affected by anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder followed by China and USA as per the latest World Health Organization report. The National Care of Medical Health stated that at least 6.5 per cent of the Indian populations are under serious mental disorder both in the rural and the urban areas’Mental health is the integral part of health and can be affected by a range of psychosocial-economic factors that need comprehensive strategically approach for promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery. In a low- and middle-income country like India, the advance progress in mental health service is visible consistently slow and minimal. Some of the major barriers can be seen in the existing public health priorities and its influence on funding; challenges to delivery of basic mental health care in the primary care settings; the minimal numbers of well-trained professionals in the area of mental health care; and lack of mental health perspective in public-health leadership. The existing barriers according to WHO (2007) are; lack of funding for mental health services is the core barrier in implementing quality mental health services, including inadequate coordinated and consensus based national mental health advocacy and plans, the absence of mental health in major donor priorities, marketing of expensive pharmaceuticals by industry, cost-effectiveness information on mental health services that is unknown to senior decision-makers and social stigma among others. Moreover, lack of strong mental health advocacy in countries to increase resources for mental health services and the role of social stigma and the view that mental health is a private responsibility are also the two barriers to mental health.

Keywords: mental health, depression, stigma, barriers

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Authors: Yasser M. Saad, Heba El-Sebaie Abd El-Sadek

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Some Metapenaeus monoceros cox1 gene fragments were isolated, purified, sequenced, and comparatively analyzed with some other Crustacean Cox1 gene sequences (obtained from National Center for Biotechnology Information). This work was designed for testing the efficiency of this system in reconstruction of phylogenetic relations among some Crustacean species belonging to four genera (Metapenaeus, Artemia, Daphnia and Calanus). The single nucleotide polymorphism and haplotype diversity were calculated for all estimated mt-DNA fragments. The genetic distance values were 0.292, 0.015, 0.151, and 0.09 within Metapenaeus species, Calanus species, Artemia species, and Daphnia species, respectively. The reconstructed phylogenetic tree is clustered into some unique clades. Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) was a powerful system in reconstruction of phylogenetic relations among evaluated crustacean species.

Keywords: crustaceans, genetics, Cox1, phylogeny

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Authors: AmirHossein Mohajerzadeh, Mohammad Alishahi, Saeed Aslishahi, Mohsen Zabihi

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In this paper, we consider sensor nodes with the capability of measuring the bearings (relative angle to the target). We use geometric methods to select a set of observer nodes which are responsible for collecting data from the target. Considering the characteristics of target tracking applications, it is clear that significant numbers of sensor nodes are usually inactive. Therefore, in order to minimize the total network energy consumption, a set of sensor nodes, called sentinel, is periodically selected for monitoring, controlling the environment and transmitting data through the network. The other nodes are inactive. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm provides a joint scheduling and routing algorithm to transmit data between network nodes and the fusion center (FC) in which not only provides an efficient way to estimate the target position but also provides an efficient target tracking. Performance evaluation confirms the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: coverage, routing, scheduling, target tracking, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Brid Dinnee, Jessica Taylor, Joseph Hartland, Michael Natarajan

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Background:The third stage of labour (TSL) can be complicated by Post-Partum Haemorrhage (PPH), which can have a significant impact on maternal mortality and morbidity. In Africa, 33.9% of maternal deaths are attributable to PPH1. In order to minimise this figure, current recommendations for the developing world are that all women have active management of the third stage of labour (AMTSL). The aim of this project was to examine TSL practice in a rural Ugandan Hospital, highlight any deviation from best practice and identify barriers to change in resource limited settings as part of a 4th year medical student External Student Selected Component field trip. Method: Five key elements from the current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on AMTSL were used to develop an audit tool. All daytime vaginal deliveries over a two week period in July 2016 were audited. In addition to this, a retrospective comparison of PPH rates, between 2006 (when ubiquitous use of intramuscular oxytocin for management of TSL was introduced) and 2015 was performed. Results: Eight vaginal deliveries were observed; at all of which intramuscular oxytocin was administered and controlled cord traction used. Against WHO recommendation, all umbilical cords were clamped within one minute, and no infants received early skin-to-skin contact. In only one case was uterine massage performed after placental delivery. A retrospective comparison of data rates identified a 40% reduction in total number of PPHs from November 2006 to November 2015. Maternal deaths per delivery reduced from 2% to 0.5%. Discussion: Maternal mortality and PPH are still major issues in developing countries. Maternal mortality due to PPH can be reduced by good practices regarding TSL, but not all of these are used in low-resource settings. There is a notable difference in outcomes between the developed and developing world. At Kitovu Hospital, there has been a reduction in maternal mortality and number of PPHs following introduction of IM Oxytocin administration. In order to further improve these rates, staff education and further government funding is key.

Keywords: post-partum haemorrhage, PPH, third stage labour, Uganda

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Authors: Bandana Bhattacharya

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‘Buddhism’, as such signifies the ‘ism’ that is based on Buddha’s life and teachings or that is concerned with the gospel of Buddha as recorded in the literature available in Pali, Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Prakrit and even in the other non-Indian languages wherein it has been described a very abstruse, complex and lofty philosophy of life or ‘the way of life’ preached by Him (Buddha). It has another side too, i.e., the applicability of the tenets of Buddha according to the needs of the present society, where human life and outlook has been totally changed. Applied Buddhism signifies the applicability of the Buddha’s noble tenets. Along with the theological exposition and textual criticism of the Buddha’s discourses, it has now become almost obligatory for the Buddhist scholars to re-interpret Buddhism from modern perspectives. Basically Applied Buddhism defined a ‘way of life’ which may transform the higher quality of life or essence of life due to changed circumstances, places and time. Nowadays, if we observe the present situation of the world, we will find the current problems such as health, economic, politic, global warming, population explosion, pollution of all types including cultural scarcity essential commodities and indiscriminate use of human, natural and water resources are becoming more and more pronounced day by day, under such a backdrop of world situation. Applied Buddhism rather Buddhism may be the only instrument left now for mankind to address all such human achievements, lapses, and problems. Buddha’s doctrine is itself called ‘akālika, timeless’. On the eve of the Mahāparinibbāṇa at Kusinara, the Blessed One allows His disciples to change, modify and alter His minor teachings according to the needs of the future, although He has made some utterances, which would eternally remain fresh. Hence Buddhism has been able to occupy a prominent place in modern life, because of its timeless applicability, emanating from a set of eternal values. The logical and scientific outlook of Buddha may be traced in His very first sermon named the Dhammacakkapavattana-Sutta where He suggested to avoid the two extremes, namely, constantly attachment to sensual pleasures (Kāmasukhallikānuyoga) and devotion to self-mortification that is painful as well as unprofitable and asked to adopt Majjhimapaṭipadā, ‘Middle path’, which is very much applicable even today in every spheres of human life; and the absence of which is the root cause of all problems event at present. This paper will be a humble attempt to highlight the relevance of Buddhism in the present society.

Keywords: applied Buddhism, ecology, self-awareness, value

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Authors: Muntadher Sallal, Gareth Owenson, Mo Adda, Safa Shubbar

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Bitcoin is a digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network to propagate and verify transactions. Bitcoin is gaining wider adoption than any previous crypto-currency. However, the mechanism of peers randomly choosing logical neighbors without any knowledge about underlying physical topology can cause a delay overhead in information propagation, which makes the system vulnerable to double-spend attacks. Aiming at alleviating the propagation delay problem, this paper introduces proximity-aware extensions to the current Bitcoin protocol, named Master Node Based Clustering (MNBC). The ultimate purpose of the proposed protocol, that are based on how clusters are formulated and how nodes can define their membership, is to improve the information propagation delay in the Bitcoin network. In MNBC protocol, physical internet connectivity increases, as well as the number of hops between nodes, decreases through assigning nodes to be responsible for maintaining clusters based on physical internet proximity. We show, through simulations, that the proposed protocol defines better clustering structures that optimize the performance of the transaction propagation over the Bitcoin protocol. The evaluation of partition attacks in the MNBC protocol, as well as the Bitcoin network, was done in this paper. Evaluation results prove that even though the Bitcoin network is more resistant against the partitioning attack than the MNBC protocol, more resources are needed to be spent to split the network in the MNBC protocol, especially with a higher number of nodes.

Keywords: Bitcoin network, propagation delay, clustering, scalability

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Authors: Nadine Maier, Martin Mensinger, Enea Tallushi

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In general, today, two types of launching bearings are used in the construction of large steel and steel concrete composite bridges. These are sliding rockers and systems with hydraulic bearings. The advantages and disadvantages of the respective systems are under discussion. During incremental launching, the center of the webs of the superstructure is not perfectly in line with the center of the launching bearings due to unavoidable tolerances, which may have an influence on the buckling behavior of the web plates. These imperfections are not considered in the current design against plate buckling, according to DIN EN 1993-1-5. It is therefore investigated whether the design rules have to take into account any eccentricities which occur during incremental launching and also if this depends on the respective launching bearing. Therefore, at the Technical University Munich, large-scale buckling tests were carried out on longitudinally stiffened plates under biaxial stresses with the two different types of launching bearings and eccentric load introduction. Based on the experimental results, a numerical model was validated. Currently, we are evaluating different parameters for both types of launching bearings, such as load introduction length, load eccentricity, the distance between longitudinal stiffeners, the position of the rotation point of the spherical bearing, which are used within the hydraulic bearings, web, and flange thickness and imperfections. The imperfection depends on the geometry of the buckling field and whether local or global buckling occurs. This and also the size of the meshing is taken into account in the numerical calculations of the parametric study. As a geometric imperfection, the scaled first buckling mode is applied. A bilinear material curve is used so that a GMNIA analysis is performed to determine the load capacity. Stresses and displacements are evaluated in different directions, and specific stress ratios are determined at the critical points of the plate at the time of the converging load step. To evaluate the load introduction of the transverse load, the transverse stress concentration is plotted on a defined longitudinal section on the web. In the same way, the rotation of the flange is evaluated in order to show the influence of the different degrees of freedom of the launching bearings under eccentric load introduction and to be able to make an assessment for the case, which is relevant in practice. The input and the output are automatized and depend on the given parameters. Thus we are able to adapt our model to different geometric dimensions and load conditions. The programming is done with the help of APDL and a Python code. This allows us to evaluate and compare more parameters faster. Input and output errors are also avoided. It is, therefore, possible to evaluate a large spectrum of parameters in a short time, which allows a practical evaluation of different parameters for buckling behavior. This paper presents the results of the tests as well as the validation and parameterization of the numerical model and shows the first influences on the buckling behavior under eccentric and multi-axial load introduction.

Keywords: buckling behavior, eccentric load introduction, incremental launching, large scale buckling tests, multi axial stress states, parametric numerical modelling

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Authors: Fateme Mazbanpoor, Sayed Mohammad Amiri

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In this article, we will examine the Persian words in Quran and study the reasons of their presence in this holy book. Writers of this paper extracted about 70 Persian words of Quran by referring to resources. (Alalfaz ol Moarab ol Farsieh Edishir, Almoarabol Javalighi, Almahzab va Etghan Seuti; Vocabulary involved in Quran Arthur Jeffry;, and etc…), some of these words are: ‘Abarigh, ‘Estabragh’,’Barzakh’, ‘Din’,’Zamharir, ‘Sondos’ ‘Sejil’,’ Namaregh’, ‘Fil’ etc. These Persian words have entered Arabic and finally entered Quran in two ways: 1) directly from Persian language, 2) via other languages. The first way: because of the Iranian dominance on Hira, Yemen, whole Oman and Bahrein land in Sasanian period, there were political, religious, linguistic, literary, and trade ties between these Arab territories causing the impact of Persian on Arabic; giving way to many Persian-loan words into Arabic in this period of time. The second way: Since the geographical and business conditions of the areas were dominated by Iran, Hejaz had lots of deals and trades with Mesopotamia and Yemen. On the other hand, Arabic language which was relatively a young language at that time, used to be impressed by Semitic languages in order to expand its vocabulary (Syrian and Aramaic were influenced by the languages of Iran). Consequently, due to the long relationship between Iranian and Arabs, some of the Persian words have taken longer ways through Aramaic and Syrian to find their way into Quran.

Keywords: Quran, Persian word, Arabic language, Persian

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Authors: Juliana Chiarini Balbino Fernandes

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This article aims to investigate the Spanish didactic book, entitled ‘El Calculo y La Medida en El Primer Grado de La Escuela Decroly’, written by Dr. O. Decroly and A. Hamaide, published in Madrid, in the year 1934. In addition to analyzing how mathematical knowledge is present in the proposed Centers of Interest. The textbooks, in addition to pedagogical tools, reflect a certain moment in society and allow the analysis of the theoretical-methodological proposal that can be implemented by the teacher. The study proposed here will be carried out by the lens of Cultural History, supported by Roger Chartier (1991) and by the concepts on textbooks, based on Alain Choppin (2004). The textbook selected for this study exposes a program of ideas associated with the method of Centers of Interest and arithmetic is linked to these interests. In the first courses (six to eight years), most centers can be considered to correspond to occasional calls, as they take advantage of events that arise spontaneously to work with observation, measurement, association and expression exercises. The program of ideas associated with Centers of Interest addresses the biological and social aspects of children, as long as they can express their needs for activities and games, satisfying the natural curiosity. Still, the program of associated ideas offers occasions for problems whose data are taken in observation exercises and concrete expressions (manuals, drawings). In the method applied at the school of L'Ermitage, school created by Decroly in Belgium in 1907, observation, is the basis of each center of interest. It offers the chance to compare and measure. To observe is more than to perceive; it is also to establish relations between the graded aspects of the same object, to seek relations between different intensities; is to verify successions, special and temporary relationships; is to make comparisons, to notice differences and similarities in block or datable (analysis), is to establish a bridge between the world and the thought. To make the observation more precise, it is important to compare, measure, and resort to considered objects as natural units of measure. Measurement and calculation are, therefore, quite naturally subject to observation. Thus, it is possible to make the child enter into the interest in the calculation, linking it to the observation. It was observed that the Centers of Interest, according to Decroly, should respond to the concerns and attend to the motivations of the students and the teaching of arithmetical must obey a logical seriation, considering the interest and the experience of the children. The teaching of arithmetical should not be limited to the schedule, it should cover every quantitative aspect that arises in the other disciplines. The feeling of unity is established in observation, association and expression, which coordinate a whole program of cultural activities, concentrating it around a central idea.

Keywords: didactic book, centers of interest, mathematical knowledge, primary education

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Authors: Ricardo Mestre

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The soundscape stands out as an agglomeration of sounds available in the world, associated with different contexts and origins, being a theme studied by various areas of knowledge, seeking to guide their benefits and their consequences, contributing to the welfare of society and other ecosystems. Murray Schafer, the author who originally developed this concept, highlights the need for a greater recognition of sound reality, through the selection and differentiation of sounds, contributing to a tuning of the world and to the balance and well-being of humanity. According to some authors sound environment, produced and created in various ways, provides various sources of information, contributing to the orientation of the human being, alerting and manipulating him during his daily journey, like small notifications received on a cell phone or other device with these features. In this way, it becomes possible to give sound its due importance in relation to the processes of individual representation, in manners of social, professional and emotional life. Ensuring an individual representation means providing the human being with new tools for the long process of reflection by recognizing his environment, the sounds that represent him, and his perspective on his respective function in it. In order to provide more information about the importance of the sound environment inherent to the individual reality, one introduces the term sound instance, in order to refer to the whole sound field existing in the individual's life, which is divided into four distinct subfields, but essential to the process of individual representation, called sound matrix, sound cycles, sound traces and sound interference.

Keywords: sound instance, soundscape, sound art, perception, composition

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Authors: Habib Noorbhai

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History of Cricket: Cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century till present, with international matches having been played since 1844. The game of cricket arrived in Australia as soon as colonization began in 1788. Cricketers started playing on turf wickets in the late 1800’s and dimensions for both the boundary and pitch later became assimilated. As the years evolved, cricket bats and balls, protective equipment, playing surfaces and the three formats of the game adapted to the playing conditions and laws of cricket. Business of Cricket: During the late 1900's, the shorter version of the game (T20) was introduced in order to attract the crowds to stadiums and television viewers for broadcasting rights. One could argue if this was merely a business venture or a platform for enhancing the performance of cricketers. Between the 16th and 20th century, cricket was a common sport played for passion and pure enjoyment. Industries saw a potential in diversified business ventures in the game (as well as other sports played globally) and cricket subsequently became a career for players, administrators and coaches, the media, health professionals, managers and the corporate world. Pros and Cons of Cricket Developments: At present, the game has significantly gained from the use of technology, sports sciences and varied mechanisms to optimize the performances and forecast frameworks for injury prevention in cricket players. Unfortunately, these had not been utilized in the earlier times of cricket and it would prove interesting to observe how the greats of the game would have benefited with such developments. Cricketers in the 21st century are faced with many overwhelming commitments. One of these is playing cricket for 11 months in a year, making it more than 250 days away from home and their families. As the demand of player contracts increase, the supply of commitment and performances from players increase. Way Forward and Future Implications: The questions are: Are such disadvantages contributing to the overload and injury risks of players? How far have we really come in the cricketing world or has everything since the game’s inception become institutionalized with a business model? These are the fundamental questions which need to be addressed and legislation, policies and ethical considerations need to be drafted and implemented. These will ensure that there is equilibrium of effective transitions and management of not only the players, but also the credibility of the wonderful game.

Keywords: enterprising business of cricket, technology, legislation, credibility

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Authors: Awe Ayodeji Samson, Adeuja Yetunde Omowunmi

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Corruption is a ‘monster’ that can consume a whole nation, continent and even the world if it is not destroyed while it is still immature; It grows in the mind of the people, takes over their thinking and guides their decision-making process. Corruption snowballs into socio-economic catastrophe that might be difficult to deal with. Corruption which is a disease of the mind can be alleviated in Africa and the world at large by transforming a Corruption-Prone Mind to a Corruption-Immune Mind and to achieve this, we have to change our value system because the use of anti-graft agencies alone is not enough. Therefore, we have to fight corruption from the inside and the outside. Value System is the principle of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group; the reviewing and reordering of our value system is the solution to the problem of corruption as proposed by this research because the African society has become a ‘Money and Power Driven Society’ where the ‘I am worth concept’ which is a problematic concept has created an ‘Aggressive Society’ with grasping and money-grabbing individuals. We place more priority on money and the display of opulence. Hence, this has led to a ‘Triangular Society’ where minority is lavishing in plenty and majority is gasping for little. The get rich quick syndrome, the ethnicity syndrome, weakened educational system are signs of the prevalence of corruption in Africa This research has analyzed role and impact of the change in our value system in the fight against corruption in Africa and has therefore proposed the change in our value system as the way forward in the fight against corruption in Africa.

Keywords: corruption-prone mind, corruption-immune mind, triangular society, aggressive society, money and power-driven society

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Authors: Jiajun Duan, Yang Li, Jianan Gao, Runzi Cao, Enxiang Shang, Wen Zhang

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation is considered as an important photoaging mechanism of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs). To elucidate the ROS-induced MP/NP aging processes in water under UV365 irradiation, we examined the effects of surface coatings, polymer types, and grain sizes on ROS generation and photoaging intermediates. Bare polystyrene (PS) NPs generated hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and singlet oxygen (¹O₂), while coated PS NPs (carboxyl-modified PS (PS-COOH), amino-modified PS (PS-NH₂)) and PS MPs generated fewer ROS due to coating scavenging or size effects. Polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, and polycarbonate MPs only generated •OH. For aromatic polymers, •OH addition preferentially occurred at benzene rings to form monohydroxy polymers. Excess •OH resulted in H abstraction, C-C scission, and phenyl ring opening to generate aliphatic ketones, esters, aldehydes, and aromatic ketones. For coated PS NPs, •OH preferentially attacked the surface coatings to result in decarboxylation and deamination reactions. For aliphatic polymers, •OH attack resulted in the formation of carbonyl groups from peracid, aldehyde, or ketone via H abstraction and C-C scission. Moreover, ¹O₂ might participate in phenyl ring opening for PS NPs and coating degradation for coated PS NPs. This study facilitates understanding the ROS-induced weathering process of NPs/MPs in water under UV irradiation.

Keywords: microplastics, nanoplastics, photoaging, reactive oxygen species, surface coating

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Authors: Shahzamani Kiana, Esmaeil Lashgarian Hamed, Merat Shahin

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HCV and GBV-C belong to the Flaviviridae family of viruses and GBV-C is the closest virus to HCV genetically. Accumulative research is in progress all over the world to clarify clinical aspects of GBV-C. Possibility of interaction between HCV and GBV-C and also its consequence with other liver diseases are the most important clinical aspects which encourage researchers to develop a technique for simultaneous detection of these viruses. In this study a SYBR Green multiplex real time RT-PCR technique as a new economical and sensitive method was optimized for simultaneous detection of HCV/GBV-C in HCV positive plasma samples. After designing and selection of two pairs of specific primers for HCV and GBV-C, SYBR Green Real time RT-PCR technique optimization was performed separately for each virus. Establishment of multiplex PCR was the next step. Finally our technique was performed on positive and negative plasma samples. 89 cirrhotic HCV positive plasma samples (29 of genotype 3 a and 27 of genotype 1a) were collected from patients before receiving treatment. 14% of genotype 3a and 17.1% of genotype 1a showed HCV/GBV-C co-infection. As a result, 13.48% of 89 samples had HCV/GBV-C co-infection that was compatible with other results from all over the world. Data showed no apparent influence of HGV co-infection on the either clinical or virological aspect of HCV infection. Furthermore, with application of multiplex Real time RT-PCR technique, more time and cost could be saved in clinical-research settings.

Keywords: HCV, GBV-C, cirrhotic patients, multiplex real time RT- PCR

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Authors: Syed Muhammad Awais Tahir, Syed Hossein Raza Hamdani

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In the last two years, there has been a substantial increase in the rate of satellite launches. To keep up with the technology, it is imperative that the launch cost must be made affordable, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. Launch cost is directly affected by the launch vehicle’s aerodynamic performance. Pegasus-XL SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) has been serving as a commercial SLV for the last 26 years, commencing its commercial flight operation from the six operational sites all around the US and Europe, and the Marshal Islands. Aerodynamic heating and drag contribute largely to Pegasus’s flight performance. The objective of this study is to reduce the aerodynamic heating and drag on Pegasus’s body significantly for supersonic and hypersonic flight regimes. Aerodynamic data for Pegasus’s first flight has been validated through CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), and then drag and aerodynamic heating is reduced by using a combination of a forward-facing cylindrical spike and a conical aero-disk at the actual operational flight conditions. CFD analysis using ANSYS fluent will be carried out for Mach no. ranges from 0.83 to 7.8, and AoA (Angle of Attack) ranges from -4 to +24 degrees for both simple and spiked-configuration, and then the comparison will be drawn using a variety of graphs and contours. Expected drag reduction for supersonic flight is to be around 15% to 25%, and for hypersonic flight is to be around 30% to 50%, especially for AoA < 15⁰. A 5% to 10% reduction in aerodynamic heating is expected to be achieved for hypersonic regions. In conclusion, the aerodynamic performance of air-launched Pegasus-XL SLV can be further enhanced, leading to its optimal fuel usage to achieve a more economical orbital flight.

Keywords: aerodynamics, pegasus-XL, drag reduction, aerodynamic heating, satellite launch vehicle, SLV, spike, aero-disk

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Authors: Radhwane Boudjelthia

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Based upon elaborate analysis on torsional design methods of asymmetric and irregular structure under horizontal earthquake action, it points out that the main design principles of an asymmetric building subjected to horizontal earthquake are: the torsion of vertical members induced by the torsion angle of the floor (rigid diaphragm) cannot exceed the allowable value, the inter-story displacement at outermost frame or shear wall should be less than that required by design code, stresses in plane of the slab should be controlled within acceptable extent under different intensity earthquakes. That current seismic design code only utilizes the torsion displacement ratio to control the floor torsion, which seems not reasonable enough since its connotation is the multiple of the floor torsion angle and the distance of floor mass center to the edge frame or shear wall.

Keywords: earthquake, building, seismic forces, displacement, resonance, response

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Authors: Esra Cebeci

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As a result of acceleration of globalization in the 21st century economic boundaries are removed. With liberalization of capital and foreign trade, not only developed countries but also developing countries get into rapid growth efforts. In developing countries, one of the most important problem is insufficient capital accumulation. For reduce this deficit, one of the general approaches that is offered increasing amount of foreign direct investments. Also, in developing countries saving rates are low. So, foreign direct investments make possible an increase for domestic savings. In this regard, the multinational corporations are capable of these investments have importance. By providing micro-macro effects for countries, demand for these firms are many. These effects in general positive, some negative effects may able to come into being especially for developing countries. Foreign direct investments are performed buying an existing corporation, merging or greenfield investments. In recent, foreign direct investments are performed as a green field investments for developing countries. The study aims to analysis foreign direct investment trends for 2000-2013 years. In the first part of this study, the importance of foreign direct investments and their determinants are explained. In the second part, the article also shows that comparative analysis of the inward and outward investments for developing and developed countries. In conclusion, while developed countries can stand competition against other countries with these investments, developing countries can provide a sustainable growth with capital inflows.

Keywords: foreign direct investments, multinational corporations, determinants of FDI, FDI trend

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Authors: Victoria Tobi Dada, Emmanuel Dada

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Culture trees are notable agricultural system in the tropical region of the world because of its great contribution to the economy of this region. Plantation agriculture such as oil palm, cocoa, cashew and rubber are the dominant agricultural trees in the tropical countries with the at least mean annual rainfall of 1500mm and 280c temperature. The study examines the review developmental trend in the common tropical culture trees. The study shows that global area of land occupied by rubber plantation increased from 9464276 hectares to 11739333 hectares between year 2010 and 2017, while oil palm cultivated land area increased from 1851278 in 2010 hectares to 2042718 hectares in 2013 across 35 countries. Global cashew plantation cultivation are dominated by West Africa with 44.8%, South-Eastern Asia with 32.9% and Sothern Asia with 13.8%, while the remaining 8.5% of the cultivated land area were distributed among six other tropical countries of the world. Cocoa cultivation and production globally are dominated by five West African countries, Indonesia and Brazil. The study revealed that notable tropical culture trees have not study together to determine their spatial distribution.

Keywords: culture trees, tropical region, cultivated area, spatial distribution

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Authors: Wesam Rababa, Jamal Al-Qawasmi

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The global climate is negatively impacted by CO2 emissions, which are mostly produced by buildings. Several green building rating systems (GBRS) have been proposed to impose low-carbon criteria in order to address this problem. The Green Globes certification is one such system that evaluates a building's sustainability level by assessing different categories of environmental impact and emerging concepts aimed at reducing environmental harm. Therefore, assessment tools at the national level are crucial in the developing world, where specific local conditions require a more precise evaluation. This study analyzed eight sustainable building assessment systems from different regions of the world, comparing a comprehensive list of CO2-related indicators with a various assessment system for conducting coverage analysis. The results show that GBRS includes both direct and indirect indicators in this regard. It reveals deep variation between examined practices, and a lack of consensus not only on the type and the optimal number of indicators used in a system, but also on the depth and breadth of coverage of various sustainable building SB attributes. Generally, the results show that most of the examined systems reflect a low comprehensive coverage, the highest of which is found in materials category. On the other hand, the most of the examined systems reveal a very low representative coverage.

Keywords: Assessment tools, CO2-related indicators, Comparative study, Green Building Rating Systems

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Authors: Abdulkabir Abdullahi

Abstract:

Nigeria has not yet welcomed phonics into its primary schools. In government-owned primary schools teachers are functionally ignorant of the stories of the reading wars amongst international scholars. There are few or no Nigerian-authored phonics textbooks, and there has been no government-owned phonics curriculum either. There are few or no academic journal articles on phonics in the country and there is, in fact, a certain danger of confusion between phonics and phonetics among Nigerian publishers, authors, writers and academics as if Nigerian teachers of English and the educational policy makers of the country were unaware of reading failures/problems amongst Nigerian children, or had never heard of phonics or read of the stories of the reading wars or the annual phonics test in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and other parts of the world. It is on this note that this article reviews and examines, in the style of a qualitative inquiry, the body of arguments on phonics, and explores the effectiveness of phonics teaching, particularly, in a second-language learning contexts. While the merit of the paper is, perhaps, situated in its supreme effort to draw global attention to reading failures/problems in Nigeria and the ways the situation may affect English language learning, international academic relations and the educational future of the country, it leaves any quantitative verification of its claims to interested quantitative researchers in the world.

Keywords: graphemes, phonics, reading, reading wars, reading theories, phonemic awareness

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Authors: Eyob Seife

Abstract:

Immunization is a life-saving intervention which prevents needless suffering through sickness, disability, and death. Emphasis on data quality and use will become even stronger with the development of the immunization agenda 2030 (IA2030). Quality of data is a key factor in generating reliable health information that enables monitoring progress, financial planning, vaccine forecasting capacities, and making decisions for continuous improvement of the national immunization program. However, ensuring data of sufficient quality and promoting an information-use culture at the point of the collection remains critical and challenging, especially in hard-to-reach and pastoralist areas where Degehabur district is selected based on a hypothesis of ‘there is no difference in reported and recounted immunization data consistency. Data quality is dependent on different factors where organizational, behavioral, technical, and contextual factors are the mentioned ones. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted on September 2022 in the Degehabur district. The study used the world health organization (WHO) recommended data quality self-assessment (DQS) tools. Immunization tally sheets, registers, and reporting documents were reviewed at 5 health facilities (2 health centers and 3 health posts) of primary health care units for one fiscal year (12 months) to determine the accuracy ratio. The data was collected by trained DQS assessors to explore the quality of monitoring systems at health posts, health centers, and the district health office. A quality index (QI) was assessed, and the accuracy ratio formulated were: the first and third doses of pentavalent vaccines, fully immunized (FI), and the first dose of measles-containing vaccines (MCV). In this study, facility-level results showed both over-reporting and under-reporting were observed at health posts when computing the accuracy ratio of the tally sheet to health post reports found at health centers for almost all antigens verified where pentavalent 1 was 88.3%, 60.4%, and 125.6% for Health posts A, B, and C respectively. For first-dose measles-containing vaccines (MCV), similarly, the accuracy ratio was found to be 126.6%, 42.6%, and 140.9% for Health posts A, B, and C, respectively. The accuracy ratio for fully immunized children also showed 0% for health posts A and B and 100% for health post-C. A relatively better accuracy ratio was seen at health centers where the first pentavalent dose was 97.4% and 103.3% for health centers A and B, while a first dose of measles-containing vaccines (MCV) was 89.2% and 100.9% for health centers A and B, respectively. A quality index (QI) of all facilities also showed results between the maximum of 33.33% and a minimum of 0%. Most of the verified immunization data accuracy ratios were found to be relatively better at the health center level. However, the quality of the monitoring system is poor at all levels, besides poor data accuracy at all health posts. So attention should be given to improving the capacity of staff and quality of monitoring system components, namely recording, reporting, archiving, data analysis, and using information for decision at all levels, especially in pastoralist areas where such kinds of study findings need to be improved beside to improving the data quality at root and health posts level.

Keywords: accuracy ratio, Degehabur District, regular childhood immunization program, quality of monitoring system, Somali Region-Ethiopia

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Authors: A. V. Trukhanov, S. V. Trukhanov, L. V. Panina, V. G. Kostishin, V. A. Turchenko

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It has been shown that BaFe₁₂O₁₉ is a perspective room-temperature multiferroic material. A large spontaneous polarization was observed for the BaFe₁₂O₁₉ ceramics revealing a clear ferroelectric hysteresis loop. The maximum polarization was estimated to be approximately 11.8 μC/cm². The FeO₆ octahedron in its perovskite-like hexagonal unit cell and the shift of Fe³⁺ off the center of octahedron are suggested to be the origin of the polarization in BaFe₁₂O₁₉. The magnetic field induced electric polarization has been also observed in the doped BaFe_12-x-δSc_xM_δO₁₉ (δ=0.05) at 10 K and in the BaSc_xFe_12−xO₁₉ and SrSc_xFe_12−xO₁₉ (x = 1.3–1.7) M-type hexaferrites. The investigated BaFe_12-xD_xO₁₉ (x=0.1, D-Al³⁺, In³⁺) samples have been obtained by two-step “topotactic” reactions. The powder neutron investigations of the samples were performed by neutron time of flight method at High Resolution Fourier Diffractometer.

Keywords: substituted hexaferrites, ferrimagnetics, ferroelectrics, neutron powder diffraction, crystal and magnetic structures

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Authors: Rihab Gamaoun, Cynthia El Hage, Laura Ruiz, Erin Prosk, Antonio Vigano

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Introduction: Santé Cannabis (SC), a Canadian medical cannabis-specialized group of clinics based in Montreal and in the province of Québec, has served more than 5000 patients seeking cannabis-based treatment prescription for medical indications over the past five years. Within a research frame, data on the use of medical cannabis products from all the above patients were prospectively collected, leading to a large real-world database on the use of medical cannabis. The aim of this study was to gather information on the profiles of both patients and prescribed medical cannabis products at SC clinics and to assess the safety of medical cannabis among Canadian patients. Methods: Using a retrospective analysis of the database, records of 2585 patients who were prescribed medical cannabis products for therapeutic purposes between 01-November 2017 and 04-September 2019 were included. Patients’ demographics, primary diagnosis, route of administration, and chemovars recorded at the initial visits were investigated. Results: At baseline: 9% of SC patients were female, with a mean age of 57 (SD= 15.8, range= [18-96]); Cannabis products were prescribed mainly for patients with a diagnosis of chronic pain (65.9% of patients), cancer (9.4%), neurological disorders (6.5%), mood disorders (5.8 %) and inflammatory diseases (4.1%). Route of administration and chemovars of prescribed cannabis products were the following: 96% of patients received cannabis oil (51% CBD rich, 42.5% CBD:THC); 32.1% dried cannabis (21.3% CBD:THC, 7.4% THC rich, 3.4 CBD rich), and 2.1% oral spray cannabis (1.1% CBD:THC, 0.8% CBD rich, 0.2% THC rich). Most patients were prescribed simultaneously, a combination of products with different administration routes and chemovars. Safety analysis is undergoing. Conclusion: Our results provided initial information on the profile of medical cannabis products prescribed in a Canadian population and the experienced adverse events over the past three years. The Santé Cannabis database represents a unique opportunity for comparing clinical practices in prescribing and titrating cannabis-based medications across different centers. Ultimately real-world data, including information about safety and effectiveness, will help to create standardized and validated guidelines for choosing dose, route of administration, and chemovars types for the cannabis-based medication in different diseases and indications.

Keywords: medical cannabis, real-world data, safety, pharmacovigilance

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