Search results for: automatic recognition of speech

Authors: Tatsuya Kasuga, Hidehisa Shimada, Kimio Oguchi

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Recent rapid progress in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has advanced the penetration of sensor networks (SNs) and their attractive applications. Agriculture is one of the fields well able to benefit from ICT. Plant factories control several parameters related to plant growth in closed areas such as air temperature, humidity, water, culture medium concentration, and artificial lighting by using computers and AI (Artificial Intelligence) is being researched in order to obtain stable and safe production of vegetables and medicinal plants all year anywhere, and attain self-sufficiency in food. By providing isolation from the natural environment, a plant factory can achieve higher productivity and safe products. However, the biggest issue with plant factories is the return on investment. Profits are tenuous because of the large initial investments and running costs, i.e. electric power, incurred. At present, LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights are being adopted because they are more energy-efficient and encourage photosynthesis better than the fluorescent lamps used in the past. However, further cost reduction is essential. This paper introduces experiments that reveal which color of LED lighting best enhances the growth of cultured radish sprouts. Radish sprouts were cultivated in the experimental environment formed by a hydroponics kit with three cultivation shelves (28 samples per shelf) each with an artificial lighting rack. Seven LED arrays of different color (white, blue, yellow green, green, yellow, orange, and red) were compared with a fluorescent lamp as the control. Lighting duration was set to 12 hours a day. Normal water with no fertilizer was circulated. Seven days after germination, the length, weight and area of leaf of each sample were measured. Electrical power consumption for all lighting arrangements was also measured. Results and discussions: As to average sample length, no clear difference was observed in terms of color. As regards weight, orange LED was less effective and the difference was significant (p < 0.05). As to leaf area, blue, yellow and orange LEDs were significantly less effective. However, all LEDs offered higher productivity per W consumed than the fluorescent lamp. Of the LEDs, the blue LED array attained the best results in terms of length, weight and area of leaf per W consumed. Conclusion and future works: An experiment on radish sprout cultivation under 7 different color LED arrays showed no clear difference in terms of sample size. However, if electrical power consumption is considered, LEDs offered about twice the growth rate of the fluorescent lamp. Among them, blue LEDs showed the best performance. Further cost reduction e.g. low power lighting remains a big issue for actual system deployment. An automatic plant monitoring system with sensors is another study target.

Keywords: electric power consumption, LED color, LED lighting, plant factory

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Sawyer Spurry

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Problem: Palliative care providers at an academic medical center in Maryland stated medical intensive care unit (MICU) patients are often referred late in their hospital stay. The MICU has performed well below the hospital quality performance metric of 80% of patients who expire with expected outcomes should have received a palliative care consult within 48 hours of admission. Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project is to increase palliative care utilization in the MICU through the implementation of a Nurse-Driven PalliativeTriggerTool to prompt the need for specialty palliative care consult. Methods: MICU nursing staff and providers received education concerning the implications of underused palliative care services and the literature data supporting the use of nurse-driven palliative care tools as a means of increasing utilization of palliative care. A MICU population specific criteria of palliative triggers (Palliative Care Trigger Tool) was formulated by the QI implementation team, palliative care team, and patient care services department. Nursing staff were asked to assess patients daily for the presence of palliative triggers using the Palliative Care Trigger Tool and present findings during bedside rounds. MICU providers were asked to consult palliative medicinegiven the presence of palliative triggers; following interdisciplinary rounds. Rates of palliative consult, given the presence of triggers, were collected via electronic medical record e-data pull, de-identified, and recorded in the data collection tool. Preliminary Results: Over 140 MICU registered nurses were educated on the palliative trigger initiative along with 8 nurse practitioners, 4 intensivists, 2 pulmonary critical care fellows, and 2 palliative medicine physicians. Over 200 patients were admitted to the MICU and screened for palliative triggers during the 15-week implementation period. Primary outcomes showed an increase in palliative care consult rates to those patients presenting with triggers, a decreased mean time from admission to palliative consult, and increased recognition of unmet palliative care needs by MICU nurses and providers. Conclusions: Anticipatory findings of this QI project would suggest a positive correlation between utilizing palliative care trigger criteria and decreased time to palliative care consult. The direct outcomes of effective palliative care results in decreased length of stay, healthcare costs, and moral distress, as well as improved symptom management and quality of life (QOL).

Keywords: palliative care, nursing, quality improvement, trigger tool

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Authors: Sungeun Hyun, Sooin Lee, Gyewan Moon

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Work-Family Conflict has been an active research area for the past decades. Work-Family Conflict harms individuals and organizations, it is ultimately expected to bring the cost of losses to the company in the long run. WFC has mainly focused on effects of organizational effectiveness and job attitude such as Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention variables. This study is different from consequence variable with previous research. For this purpose, we selected the positive job attitude 'Work Engagement' as a consequence of WFC. This research has its primary research purpose in identifying the negative effects of the Work-Family Conflict, and started out from the recognition of the problem that the research on the direct relationship on the influence of the WFC on Work Engagement is lacking. Based on the COR(Conservation of resource theory) and JD-R(Job Demand- Resource model), the empirical study model to examine the negative effects of WFC with Emotional Exhaustion as the link between WFC and Work Engagement was suggested and validated. Also, it was analyzed how much Positive Psychological Capital may buffer the negative effects arising from WFC within this relationship, and the Mediated Moderation model controlling the indirect effect influencing the Work Engagement by the Positive Psychological Capital mediated by the WFC and Emotional Exhaustion was verified. Data was collected by using questionnaires distributed to 500 employees engaged manufacturing, services, finance, IT industry, education services, and other sectors, of which 389 were used in the statistical analysis. The data are analyzed by statistical package, SPSS 21.0, SPSS macro and AMOS 21.0. The hierarchical regression analysis, SPSS PROCESS macro and Bootstrapping method for hypothesis testing were conducted. Results showed that all hypotheses are supported. First, WFC showed a negative effect on Work Engagement. Specifically, WIF appeared to be on more negative effects than FIW. Second, Emotional exhaustion found to mediate the relationship between WFC and Work Engagement. Third, Positive Psychological Capital showed to moderate the relationship between WFC and Emotional Exhaustion. Fourth, the effect of mediated moderation through the integration verification, Positive Psychological Capital demonstrated to buffer the relationship among WFC, Emotional Exhastion, and Work Engagement. Also, WIF showed a more negative effects than FIW through verification of all hypotheses. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications on research and management of the WFC, and proposed limitations and future research directions of research.

Keywords: emotional exhaustion, positive psychological capital, work engagement, work-family conflict

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Authors: Bahman Ghorashi

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The immense awareness of the global climate change has compelled traditional fossil fuel companies to develop strategies to reduce their carbon footprint and simultaneously consider the production of various sources of clean energy in order to mitigate the environmental impact of their operations. Similarly, supply chain issues, the scarcity of certain raw materials, energy costs as well as market needs, and changing consumer expectations have forced the traditional chemical industry to reexamine their time-honored modes of operation. This study examines how such transformative change might occur through the applications of agile principles as well as industry 4.0 technologies. Clearly, such a transformation is complex, costly, and requires a total commitment on the part of the top leadership and the entire management structure. Factors that need to be considered include organizational speed of change, a restructuring that would lend itself toward collaboration and the selling of solutions to customers’ problems, rather than just products, integrating ‘along’ as well as ‘across’ value chains, mastering change and uncertainty as well as a recognition of the importance of concept-to-cash time, i.e., the velocity of introducing new products to market, and the leveraging of people and information. At the same time, parallel to implementing such major shifts in the ethos, and the fabric of the organization, the change leaders should remain mindful of the companies’ DNA while incorporating the necessary DNA defying shifts. Furthermore, such strategic maneuvers should inevitably incorporate the managing of the upstream and downstream operations, harnessing future opportunities, preparing and training the workforce, implementing faster decision making and quick adaptation to change, managing accelerated response times, as well as forming autonomous and cross-functional teams. Moreover, the leaders should establish the balance between high-value solutions versus high-margin products, fully implement digitization of operations and, when appropriate, incorporate the latest relevant technologies, such as: AI, IIoT, ML, and immersive technologies. This study presents a summary of the agile principles and the relevant technologies and draws lessons from some of the best practices that are already implemented within the chemical industry in order to establish a roadmap to agility. Finally, the critical role of educational institutions in preparing the future workforce for Industry 4.0 is addressed.

Keywords: agile principles, immersive technologies, industry 4.0, workforce preparation

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Authors: Xianwei Zheng, Yuan Yan Tang

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Classical window Fourier transform has been widely used in signal processing, image processing, machine learning and pattern recognition. The related Gabor transform is powerful enough to capture the texture information of any given dataset. Recently, in the emerging field of graph signal processing, researchers devoting themselves to develop a graph signal processing theory to handle the so-called graph signals. Among the new developing theory, windowed graph Fourier transform has been constructed to establish a time-frequency analysis framework of graph signals. The windowed graph Fourier transform is defined by using the translation and modulation operators of graph signals, following the similar calculations in classical windowed Fourier transform. Specifically, the translation and modulation operators of graph signals are defined by using the Laplacian eigenvectors as follows. For a given graph signal, its translation is defined by a similar manner as its definition in classical signal processing. Specifically, the translation operator can be defined by using the Fourier atoms; the graph signal translation is defined similarly by using the Laplacian eigenvectors. The modulation of the graph can also be established by using the Laplacian eigenvectors. The windowed graph Fourier transform based on these two operators has been applied to obtain time-frequency representations of graph signals. Fundamentally, the modulation operator is defined similarly to the classical modulation by multiplying a graph signal with the entries in each Fourier atom. However, a single Laplacian eigenvector entry cannot play a similar role as the Fourier atom. This definition ignored the relationship between the translation and modulation operators. In this paper, a new definition of the modulation operator is proposed and thus another time-frequency framework for graph signal is constructed. Specifically, the relationship between the translation and modulation operations can be established by the Fourier transform. Specifically, for any signal, the Fourier transform of its translation is the modulation of its Fourier transform. Thus, the modulation of any signal can be defined as the inverse Fourier transform of the translation of its Fourier transform. Therefore, similarly, the graph modulation of any graph signal can be defined as the inverse graph Fourier transform of the translation of its graph Fourier. The novel definition of the graph modulation operator established a relationship of the translation and modulation operations. The new modulation operation and the original translation operation are applied to construct a new framework of graph signal time-frequency analysis. Furthermore, a windowed graph Fourier frame theory is developed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for constructing windowed graph Fourier frames, tight frames and dual frames are presented in this paper. The novel graph signal time-frequency analysis framework is applied to signals defined on well-known graphs, e.g. Minnesota road graph and random graphs. Experimental results show that the novel framework captures new features of graph signals.

Keywords: graph signals, windowed graph Fourier transform, windowed graph Fourier frames, vertex frequency analysis

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Authors: Aroge Stephen Talabi

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Work is a term that appears to be very common in usage and occurrence the world over. The meanings attached to it and what it implies equally appears to be that common and somewhat similar in description by individuals and groups as derivatives of their contexts. Work is generally seen as the exertion of efforts and the application of knowledge and skills to achieve different purposes comprising of earning a living, making money, prestige, achievement, recognition, companionship and other satisfactions. The paper examined the general meanings of work from the perspectives of various religions. It situated these meanings by drawing on the sociological significance of work among the Yoruba. It established work as social control for a reorientation in peoples approach to work. The Yoruba people of the Western Nigeria share, to a great extent, in common conceptualization and application of work as they believe and understand that their individual and community existence and living are contingent on work participation. The contextual meaning and sociological significance of work as investigated in this paper show that the Yorubas concept of work is daily applied variously in both their material and non-material cultural undertakings to influence individual and group for effective participation in productive ventures for overall social well-being. The Yoruba use all forms of training method which could be adopted by adult educators as pathways to increase individual’s work participation and to improve productivity in work organizations.The paper found out that in the Yoruba socio cultural milieu, the meanings, conceptions and the importance attached to work are used as method of inculcating in members of society the spirit of commitment and hard-work and the advantages thereof. Yoruba contexts of work are geared towards enhancement of commitment, diligence and improved productivity on-the-job behaviour. The paper, therefore, submits that using the Yoruba’s conceptions of work could enhance commitment on the parts of all those engaged in production of goods and services. The paper also suggests that the Yoruba principle and perception and application of work could be used as one of the training techniques in industrial education, which is a major aspect of adult education programmes for inculcating ethics in the workplace. Thus, effort should be made to embrace the Yoruba conception and tenet of work by all stakeholders such as the workers, group (Union), managers and the society at large. Such principles and tenet of work should be included in industrial education curriculum.

Keywords: work, contextual meaning, sociological significance, Yoruba-people, social milieu, productivity

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Authors: Ting Lu, Ya-Ru Diao, Fei Fan, Ye Xue, Lei Shi, Xian-e Tang, Meng-jun Zhan, Zhen-hua Deng

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Accurate adult age estimation (AAE) is a significant and challenging task in forensic and archeology fields. Attempts have been made to explore optimal adult age metrics, and the rib is considered a potential age marker. The traditional way is to extract age-related features designed by experts from macroscopic or radiological images followed by classification or regression analysis. Those results still have not met the high-level requirements for practice, and the limitation of using feature design and manual extraction methods is loss of information since the features are likely not designed explicitly for extracting information relevant to age. Deep learning (DL) has recently garnered much interest in imaging learning and computer vision. It enables learning features that are important without a prior bias or hypothesis and could be supportive of AAE. This study aimed to develop DL models for AAE based on CT images and compare their performance to the manual visual scoring method. Chest CT data were reconstructed using volume rendering (VR). Retrospective data of 2500 patients aged 20.00-69.99 years were obtained between December 2019 and September 2021. Five-fold cross-validation was performed, and datasets were randomly split into training and validation sets in a 4:1 ratio for each fold. Before feeding the inputs into networks, all images were augmented with random rotation and vertical flip, normalized, and resized to 224×224 pixels. ResNeXt was chosen as the DL baseline due to its advantages of higher efficiency and accuracy in image classification. Mean absolute error (MAE) was the primary parameter. Independent data from 100 patients acquired between March and April 2022 were used as a test set. The manual method completely followed the prior study, which reported the lowest MAEs (5.31 in males and 6.72 in females) among similar studies. CT data and VR images were used. The radiation density of the first costal cartilage was recorded using CT data on the workstation. The osseous and calcified projections of the 1 to 7 costal cartilages were scored based on VR images using an eight-stage staging technique. According to the results of the prior study, the optimal models were the decision tree regression model in males and the stepwise multiple linear regression equation in females. Predicted ages of the test set were calculated separately using different models by sex. A total of 2600 patients (training and validation sets, mean age=45.19 years±14.20 [SD]; test set, mean age=46.57±9.66) were evaluated in this study. Of ResNeXt model training, MAEs were obtained with 3.95 in males and 3.65 in females. Based on the test set, DL achieved MAEs of 4.05 in males and 4.54 in females, which were far better than the MAEs of 8.90 and 6.42 respectively, for the manual method. Those results showed that the DL of the ResNeXt model outperformed the manual method in AAE based on CT reconstruction of the costal cartilage and the developed system may be a supportive tool for AAE.

Keywords: forensic anthropology, age determination by the skeleton, costal cartilage, CT, deep learning

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Authors: Arif Ahmed Mohammed Al-Ahdal

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Poetry, tales, and fables have always been a part of the L1 repertoire and one that takes the learners to another amazing and fascinating world of imagination. The storytelling class and the genre of poems are activities greatly enjoyed by all age groups. The very significant idea behind their inclusion in the language curriculum is to sensitize young minds to a wide range of human emotions that are believed to greatly contribute to building their social resilience, emotional stability, empathy towards fellow creatures, and literacy. Quite certainly, the learning objective at this stage is not language acquisition (though it happens as an automatic process) but getting the young learners to be acquainted with an entire spectrum of what may be called the ‘noble’ abilities of the human race. They enrich their very existence, inspiring them to unearth ‘selves’ that help them as adults and enable them to co-exist fruitfully and symbiotically with their fellow human beings. By extension, ‘higher’ training in these literature genres shows the universality of human emotions, sufferings, aspirations, and hopes. The current study is anchored on the Reader-Response-Theory in literature learning, which suggests that the reader reconstructs work and re-enacts the author's creative role. Reiteratingly, literary works provide clues or verbal symbols in a linguistic system, widely accepted by everyone who shares the language, but everyone reads their own life experiences and situations into them. The significance of words depends on the reader, even if they have a typical relationship. In every reading, there is an interaction between the reader and the text. The process of reading is an experience in which the reader tries to comprehend the literary work, which surpasses its full potential since it provides emotional and intellectual reactions that are not anticipated from the document but cannot be affirmed just by the reader as a part of the text. The idea is that the text forms the basis of a unifying experience. A reinterpretation of the literary text may transform it into a guiding principle to respond to actual experiences and personal memories. The impulses delivered to the reader vary according to poetry or texts; nevertheless, the readers differ considerably even with the same material. Previous studies confirm that poetry is a useful tool for learning a language. This present paper works on these hypotheses and proposes to study the impetus given to L2 learning as a factor of exposure to poetry and meaningful stories in L1. The driving force behind the choice of this topic is the first-hand experience that the researcher had while teaching a literary text to a group of BA students who, as a reaction to the text, initially burst into tears and ultimately turned the class into an interactive session. The study also intends to compare the performance of male and female students post intervention using pre and post-tests, apart from undertaking a detailed inquiry via interviews with college learners of English to understand how L1 literature plays a great role in the acquisition of L2.

Keywords: SLA, literary text, poetry, tales, affective factors

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Authors: Merve Denizci Nazligul

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Dancers seem to have much higher risk levels for the development of eating disorders, compared to non-dancing counterparts. In a remarkably competitive nature of dance environment, perfectionism and emotion regulation difficulties become inevitable risk factors. Moreover, early maladaptive schemas are associated with various eating disorders. In the current study, it was aimed to investigate the mediating role of difficulties with emotion regulation on the relationship between perfectionism and disordered eating behaviors, as well as on the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and disordered eating behaviors. A total of 70 volunteer dancers (n = 47 women, n = 23 men) were recruited in the study (M age = 25.91, SD = 8.9, range 19–63) from the university teams or private clubs in Turkey. The sample included various types of dancers (n = 26 ballets or ballerinas, n =32 Latin, n = 10 tango, n = 2 hiphop). The mean dancing hour per week was 11.09 (SD = 7.09) within a range of 1-30 hours. The participants filled a questionnaire set including demographic information form, Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, three subscales (Emotional Inhibition, Unrelenting Standards-Hypercriticalness, Approval Seeking-Recognition Seeking) from Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form-3 and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The mediation hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. The findings revealed that emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between three distinct subtypes of perfectionism and emotional eating. The results of the Sobel test suggested that there were significant indirect effects of self-oriented perfectionism (b = .06, 95% CI = .0084, .1739), other-oriented perfectionism (b = .15, 95% CI = .0136, .4185), and socially prescribed perfectionism (b = .09, 95% CI = .0104, .2344) on emotional eating through difficulties with emotion regulation. Moreover, emotion regulation difficulties significantly mediated the relationship between emotional inhibition and emotional eating (F(1,68) = 4.67, R2 = .06, p < .05). These results seem to provide some evidence that perfectionism might become a risk factor for disordered eating behaviors when dancers are not able to regulate their emotions. Further, gaining an understanding of how inhibition of emotions leads to inverse effects on eating behavior may be important to develop intervention strategies to manage their disordered eating patterns in risk groups. The present study may also support the importance of using unified protocols for transdiagnostic approaches which focus on identifying, accepting, prompting to express maladaptive emotions and appraisals.

Keywords: dancers, disordered eating, emotion regulation difficulties, perfectionism

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Authors: Hanan Badr, Fahad Manee, Rao Shashidhar, Omar Bayoumy

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Introduction: Hypertension is the major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and stroke and a universe leading cause of disability-adjusted life years and mortality. Adopting an unhealthy lifestyle is thought to be associated with developing hypertension regardless of predisposing genetic factors. This study aimed to examine the association between recreational physical activity (RPA), and sedentary behaviors with a risk of hypertension among ministry employees, where there is no role for occupational physical activity (PA), and to scrutinize participants’ time spent in RPA and sedentary behaviors on the working and weekend days. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 2562 employees working at ten randomly selected ministries in Kuwait. To have a representative sample, the proportional allocation technique was used to define the number of participants in each ministry. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data about participants' socio-demographic characteristics, health status, and their 24 hours’ time use during a regular working day and a weekend day. The time use covered a list of 20 different activities practiced by a person daily. The New Zealand Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (NZPAQ-SF) was used to assess the level of RPA. The scale generates three categories according to the number of hours spent in RPA/week: relatively inactive, relatively active, and highly active. Gender-matched trained nurses performed anthropometric measurements (weight and height) and measuring blood pressure (two readings) using an automatic blood pressure monitor (95% accuracy level compared to a calibrated mercury sphygmomanometer). Results: Participants’ mean age was 35.3±8.4 years, with almost equal gender distribution. About 13% of the participants were smokers, and 75% were overweight. Almost 10% reported doctor-diagnosed hypertension. Among those who did not, the mean systolic blood pressure was 119.9±14.2 and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 80.9±7.3. Moreover, 73.9% of participants were relatively physically inactive and 18% were highly active. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed a significant inverse association with the level of RPA (means of blood pressure measures were: 123.3/82.8 among relatively inactive, 119.7/80.4 among relatively active, and 116.6/79.6 among highly active). Furthermore, RPA occupied 1.6% and 1.8% of working and weekend days, respectively, while sedentary behaviors (watching TV, using electronics for social media or entertaining, etc.) occupied 11.2% and 13.1%, respectively. Sedentary behaviors were significantly associated with high levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Binary logistic regression revealed that physical inactivity (OR=3.13, 95% CI: 2.25-4.35) and sedentary behaviors (OR=2.25, CI: 1.45-3.17) were independent risk factors for high systolic and diastolic blood pressure after adjustment for other covariates. Conclusions: Physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle were associated with a high risk of hypertension. Further research to examine the independent role of RPA in improving blood pressure levels and cultural and occupational barriers for practicing RPA are recommended. Policies should be enacted in promoting PA in the workplace that might help in decreasing the risk of hypertension among sedentary occupation workers.

Keywords: physical activity, sedentary behaviors, hypertension, workplace

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Mengestie Mulugeta Belay, Serebe Abay Gebrie, Biruk Lambbiso Wamisho, Amare Worku

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) related to nursing profession, is a very common public health problem throughout the world. Various risk factors have been implicated in the etiology and LBP is assumed to be of multi-factorial origin as individual, work-related and psychosocial factors can contribute to its development. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and to identify risk factors of LBP among nurses working in Addis Ababa City Public Hospitals, Ethiopia, in the year 2015. Settings: Addis Ababa University, Black-Lion (‘Tikur Anbessa’) Hospital-BLH, is the country’s highest tertiary level referral and teaching Hospital. The three departments in connection with this study: Radiology, Pathology and Orthopedics, run undergraduate and residency programs and receive referred patients from all over the country. Methods: A cross-sectional study with internal comparison was conducted throughout the period October-December, 2015. Sample was chosen by simple random sampling technique by taken the lists of nurses from human resource departments as a sampling frame. A well-structured, pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantifiable information. The questionnaire included socio-demographic, back pain features, consequences of back pain, work-related and psychosocial factors. The collected data was entered into EpiInfo version 3.5.4 and was analyzed by SPSS. A probability level of 0.05 or less and 95% confidence level was used to indicate statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from all respected administrative bodies, Hospitals and study participants. Results: The study included 395 nurses and gave a response rate of 91.9%. The mean age was 30.6 (±8.4) years. Majority of the respondents were female (285, 72.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=181, 45.8% (95% CI (40.8%- 50.6%))) were complained low back pain. There was statistical significant association between low back pain and working shift, physical activities at work; sleep disturbance and felt little pleasure by doing things. Conclusion: A high prevalence of low back pain was found among nurses working in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Recognition and preventive measures like providing resting periods should be taken to reduce the risk of low back pain in nurses working in Public hospitals.

Keywords: low back pain, risk factors, nurses, public hospitals

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Authors: Amelia Faotusia

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The blue economy concept was coined by Pacific nations in recognition of the importance of sustainably managing their extensive marine territories. This is especially important for major ocean-based economic sectors of Pacific economies, such as coastal tourism. There is an absence of research, however, on the key ways in which the blue economy concept has emerged in discourse and public policy in Pacific countries, as well as how it articulates with coastal tourism. This research helps to fill such a gap with a specific focus on Tonga through the application of a post-positivist research approach to conduct a desktop study of relevant national documents and qualitative interviews with relevant government staff, civil society organizations, and tourism operators. The findings of the research reflect the importance of institutional integration and partnerships for a successful blue economy transition and are presented in the form of two case studies corresponding to two sub-sectors of Tonga’s coastal tourism sector: (i) the whale-watching and swimming industry, and (ii) beach resorts and restaurants. A thematic analysis applied to the interview data of both cases then enabled the identification of key areas and issues for socio-economic policy intervention and recommendations in support of blue economy transitions in Tonga’s coastal tourism sector. Examples of the relevant areas and issues that emerged included the importance of foreign direct investment, local market access, community-based special management areas, as well as the need to address the anthropogenic impacts of tropical cyclones, whale tourism, plastic litter on coastal assets, and ecosystems. Policy and practical interventions in support of addressing such issues include a proposed restructuring of the whale-watching and swimming licensing system; integration of climate resilience, adaptation, and capacity building as priorities of local blue economy interventions; as well as strengthening of the economic sustainability dimension of blue economy policies. Finally, this research also revealed the need for further specificity and research on the influence and value of local Tongan culture and traditional knowledge, particularly within existing customary marine tenure systems, on Tonga’s national and sectoral blue economy policies and transitions.

Keywords: blue economy, coastal tourism, integrated ocean management, ecosystem resilience

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Authors: Bhakti Chitale

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Mumbai city, which is the business capital of India and one of the most crowded cities in the world, holds the biggest slum in Asia. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) occupies an area of 4035 sq.km. with a population of 22.8 million people. This population is mostly urban with 91% of this population living in areas of Municipal Corporations and Councils. Another 3% live in Census Towns. The region has 9 Municipal Corporations, 8 Municipal councils, and around 1000 villages. On the one hand MMR reflects the highest contribution to the Nations overall economy and on the other hand it shows the horrible and intolerable picture of about 2 million people, who are living in slums/without even slum with totally unhygienic conditions and with total loss of hope. The generations are about to get affected adversely if the solution is not worked out. This study is an attempt towards working out the solution. Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is state government's authority, specially formed to govern the development of MMR. MMRDA is engaged in long term planning, promotion of new growth centres, implementation of strategic projects and financing infrastructure development. While preparing the master plan for MMR for next 20 years MMRDA conducted a detail study regarding Housing scenario in MMR and possible options for improvement. The author was the in charge officer for the said assignment. This paper puts light on the interesting outcomes of the research study, which ranges from the adverse effects of government policies, automatic responses of housing market, effects on planning processes, and overall changing needs of housing patterns in the world due to changes in the social mechanism. It alarms the urban planners who usually focus on smart infrastructure development, about allied future dangers. This housing study will explain the complexities, realities and needs of innovations in the housing policies all over the world. The paper will explain further few success stories and failure stories of government initiatives with reasons. It gives the clear idea about the differences in needs of housing for people from different economic groups and direct and indirect market pressures on low cost housing. Magical phenomenon came in front like a large percentage of vacant houses is present in spite of the huge need. Housing market gets affected by the developments or any other physical and financial changes taking place in the nearby areas or cities, also by changes in cities which are located far from the region and also by the international investments or policy changes. Instead of just depending on governments actions in case of generation of affordable housing, it becomes equally important to make the housing markets automatically generate such stock and still make them sustainable is the aim of all the movement. In summary, we may say that the paper will sequentially elaborate the complete dynamics of housing in one of the most crowded urban area in the world that is Mumbai Metropolitan Region, with a lot of data, analysis, case studies, and recommendations.

Keywords: Mumbai India, slum housing, region planning, market recommendations

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Authors: Mehves Isiklar Ekici, Ceyda Tuna Kirsaclioglu, Zarife Kuloglu, Aydan Kansu

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Malnutrition is an important cause of morbidity and mortality as it accounts for 45% of child deaths under the age of 5 worldwide. Therefore, early recognition and effective treatment of failure to thrive and malnutrition are important. In this study, it was aimed to retrospectively evaluate the nutritional support treatment approaches (nutrition education and diet enrichment / use of enteral nutrition products) applied in children followed up with growth failure without underlying organic causes, and to compare the efficacy of nutritional support treatments. In this study, children aged 1 month to 18 years diagnosed with growth failure who were followed up for at least 12 months between January 2011 and February 2020, were included. Anthropometric measurements at baseline and during follow-up, type of nutritional support therapy and treatment compliance were evaluated based on the retrospective records. 119 children (median age:3.2, 69 girls) were included in the study. Nutrition education and dietary enrichment were provided to 28% of the patients (Group 1). In addition to dietary education and recommendations, enteral nutrition supplements was given in 78% of them (Group 2). Compliance to the treatment rates of the patients in Group 1 and Group 2 were not significantly different at both 6th and 12th month controls. At the end of the follow up children who comply with the treatment in Group 1 had significant increase in weight for age z scores (-1.74 vs 0.05, respectively, p=0.019) and body mass index z scores (-1.47 vs -0.53, respectively, p=0.034) compared with baseline measurements. Similar to Group 1, in Group 2 children with treatment compliance, had a significant increase in weight for age z scores (-2.24 vs. -0.54, respectively, p=0.00) and body mass index z scores (-2.27 vs. -1.06, respectively, p=0.00) compared with baseline measurements. The rate of patients with severe malnutrition decreased from 15% to 12%, for moderate malnutrition decreased from 54% to 33%. Moreover, it was observed that this decrease in the rate of patients with both severe and moderate malnutrition was more prominent in patients under 3 years of age. Although there was a significant increase in anthropometric measurements with treatment in both groups, there was no significant difference in between two groups terms of change in anthropometric measurements (p>0.05), therefore effectiveness. Failure to thrive and malnutrition in infancy and childhood cause health problems that can affect adult life. To conclude, nutritional education - dietary enrichment. recommendations and use of enteral nutrition supplements were both proven beneficial in this study. Researchers are willing to underline that the most important part of the treatment is to include the family to the process to ensure the treatment compliance.

Keywords: enteral nutrition supplements, failure to thrive, malnutrition, nutritional education

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Authors: Hadi Chahal, Irini Djeran-Maigre

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This paper focuses on the hydro-mechanical behavior of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) polluted sediments when stored in landfills and the interaction between PCBs and geosynthetic clay liners (GCL) with respect to hydraulic performance of the liner and the overall performance and stability of landfills. A European decree, adopted in the French regulation forbids the reintroducing of contaminated dredged sediments containing more than 0,64mg/kg Σ 7 PCBs to rivers. At these concentrations, sediments are considered hazardous and a remediation process must be adopted to prevent the release of PCBs into the environment. Dredging and landfilling polluted sediments is considered an eco-environmental remediation solution. French regulations authorize the storage of PCBs contaminated components with less than 50mg/kg in municipal solid waste facilities. Contaminant migration via leachate may be possible. The interactions between PCBs contaminated sediments and the GCL barrier present in the bottom of a landfill for security confinement are not known. Moreover, the hydro-mechanical behavior of stored sediments may affect the performance and the stability of the landfill. In this article, hydro-mechanical characterization of the polluted sediment is presented. This characterization led to predict the behavior of the sediment at the storage site. Chemical testing showed that the concentration of PCBs in sediment samples is between 1.7 and 2,0 mg/kg. Physical characterization showed that the sediment is organic silty sand soil (%Silt=65, %Sand=27, %OM=8) characterized by a high plasticity index (Ip=37%). Permeability tests using permeameter and filter press showed that sediment permeability is in the order of 10-9 m/s. Compressibility tests showed that the sediment is a very compressible soil with Cc=0,53 and Cα =0,0086. In addition, effects of PCB on the swelling behavior of bentonite were studied and the hydraulic performance of the GCL in interaction with PCBs was examined. Swelling tests showed that PCBs don’t affect the swelling behavior of bentonite. Permeability tests were conducted on a 1.0 m pilot scale experiment, simulating a storage facility. PCBs contaminated sediments were directly placed over a passive barrier containing GCL to study the influence of the direct contact of polluted sediment leachate with the GCL. An automatic water system has been designed to simulate precipitation. Effluent quantity and quality have been examined. The sediment settlements and the water level in the sediment have been monitored. The results showed that desiccation affected the behavior of the sediment in the pilot test and that laboratory tests alone are not sufficient to predict the behavior of the sediment in landfill facility. Furthermore, the concentration of PCB in the sediment leachate was very low ( < 0,013 µg/l) and that the permeability of the GCL was affected by other components present in the sediment leachate. Desiccation and cracks were the main parameters that affected the hydro-mechanical behavior of the sediment in the pilot test. In order to reduce these infects, the polluted sediment should be stored at a water content inferior to its shrinkage limit (w=39%). We also propose to conduct other pilot tests with the maximum concentration of PCBs allowed in municipal solid waste facility of 50 mg/kg.

Keywords: geosynthetic clay liners, landfill, polychlorinated biphenyl, polluted dredged materials

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Authors: Dina Magnaye

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In the Philippines, the performance of the agricultural sector is gauged through crop productivity and returns from farm production rather than the biodiversity in the agricultural ecosystem. Agricultural development hinges on the overall goal of increasing productivity through intensive agriculture, monoculture system, utilization of high yielding varieties in plants, and genetic upgrading in animals. This merits an analysis of the role of agro-biodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. These enterprises conserve biodiversity while equitably sharing production income in the utilization of biological resources. The study aims to determine how community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises become instrumental in local climate change adaptation and agro-biodiversity conservation as input to local green economic development planning. It also involves an assessment of the role of agrobiodiversity in terms of increasing productivity, food security and economic returns from community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises. The perceptions of the local community members both in urban and upland rural areas on community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises were evaluated. These served as a basis in developing a planning modality that can be mainstreamed in the management of local green economic enterprises to benefit the environment, provide local income opportunities, conserve species diversity, and sustain environment-friendly farming systems and practices. The interviews conducted with organic farmer-owners, entrepreneur-organic farmers, and organic farm workers revealed that pro-biodiversity enterprise such as organic farming involved the cyclic use of natural resources within the carrying capacity of a farm; recognition of the value of tradition and culture especially in the upland rural area; enhancement of socio-economic capacity; conservation of ecosystems in harmony with nature; and climate change mitigation. The suggested planning modality for community-based pro-biodiversity enterprises for a green economy encompasses four (4) phases to include community resource or capital asset profiling; stakeholder vision development; strategy formulation for sustained enterprises; and monitoring and evaluation.

Keywords: agro-biodiversity, agro-biodiversity conservation, local green economy, organic farming, pro-biodiversity enterprise

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Georgios Samaras

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New media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter introduced the world to a new era of instant communication. An era where online interactions could replace a lot of offline actions. Technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate (one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many) both synchronously and asynchronously and participate in reciprocal message exchanges. Currently, social networks are attracting similar academic attention to that of the internet after its mainstream implementation into public life. Websites and platforms are seen as the forefront of a new political change. There is a significant backdrop of previous methodologies employed to research the effects of social networks. New approaches are being developed to be able to adapt to the growth of social networks and the invention of new platforms. Golden Dawn was the first openly neo-Nazi party post World War II to win seats in the parliament of a European country. Its racist rhetoric and violent tactics on social networks were rewarded by their supporters, who in the face of Golden Dawn’s leaders saw a ‘new dawn’ in Greek politics. Mainstream media banned its leaders and members of the party indefinitely after Ilias Kasidiaris attacked Liana Kanelli, a member of the Greek Communist Party, on live television. This media ban was seen as a treasonous move by a significant percentage of voters, who believed that the system was desperately trying to censor Golden Dawn to favor mainstream parties. The shocking attack on live television received international coverage and while European countries were condemning this newly emerged neo-Nazi rhetoric, almost 7 percent of the Greek population rewarded Golden Dawn with 18 seats in the Greek parliament. Many seem to think that Golden Dawn mobilised its voters online and this approach played a significant role in spreading their message and appealing to wider audiences. No strict online censorship existed back in 2012 and although Golden Dawn was openly used neo-Nazi symbolism, it was allowed to use social networks without serious restrictions until 2017. This paper used qualitative methods to investigate Golden Dawn’s rise in social networks from 2012 to 2019. The focus of the content analysis was set on three social networking platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, while the existence of Golden Dawn’s website, which was used as a news sharing hub, was also taken into account. The content analysis included text and visual analyses that sampled content from their social networking pages to translate their political messaging through an ideological lens focused on extreme-right populism. The absence of hate speech regulations on social network platforms in 2012 allowed the free expression of those heavily ultranationalist and populist views, as they were employed by Golden Dawn in the Greek political scene. On YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the influence of their rhetoric was particularly strong. Official channels and MPs profiles were investigated to explore the messaging in-depth and understand its ideological elements.

Keywords: populism, far-right, social media, Greece, golden dawn

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Bylhah Mugotitsa, Jim Todd, Agnes Kiragga, Jay Greenfield, Evans Omondi, Lukoye Atwoli, Reinpeter Momanyi

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The INSPIRE network aims to build an open, ethical, sustainable, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data science platform, particularly for longitudinal mental health (MH) data. While studies have been done at the clinical and population level, there still exists limitations in data and research in LMICs, which pose a risk of underrepresentation of mental disorders. It is vital to examine the existing longitudinal MH data, focusing on how FAIR datasets are. This landscape analysis aimed to provide both overall level of evidence of availability of longitudinal datasets and degree of consistency in longitudinal studies conducted. Utilizing prompters proved instrumental in streamlining the analysis process, facilitating access, crafting code snippets, categorization, and analysis of extensive data repositories related to depression, anxiety, and psychosis in Africa. While leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we filtered through over 18,000 scientific papers spanning from 1970 to 2023. This AI-driven approach enabled the identification of 228 longitudinal research papers meeting inclusion criteria. Quality assurance revealed 10% incorrectly identified articles and 2 duplicates, underscoring the prevalence of longitudinal MH research in South Africa, focusing on depression. From the analysis, evaluating data and metadata adherence to FAIR principles remains crucial for enhancing accessibility and quality of MH research in Africa. While AI has the potential to enhance research processes, challenges such as privacy concerns and data security risks must be addressed. Ethical and equity considerations in data sharing and reuse are also vital. There’s need for collaborative efforts across disciplinary and national boundaries to improve the Findability and Accessibility of data. Current efforts should also focus on creating integrated data resources and tools to improve Interoperability and Reusability of MH data. Practical steps for researchers include careful study planning, data preservation, machine-actionable metadata, and promoting data reuse to advance science and improve equity. Metrics and recognition should be established to incentivize adherence to FAIR principles in MH research

Keywords: longitudinal mental health research, data sharing, fair data principles, Africa, landscape analysis

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Authors: Kimberly M. Cacciato, Steven J. Singer, Allison R. Shapiro, Julianna F. Kamenakis

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This study examines the dynamics of communication among researchers and participants who have various levels of hearing, use multiple languages, have various disabilities, and who come from different social strata. This qualitative methodological study focuses on the strategies employed in an ethnographic research study examining the communication choices of six sets of parents who have Deaf-Disabled children. The participating families varied in their communication strategies and preferences including the use of American Sign Language (ASL), visual-gestural communication, multiple spoken languages, and pidgin forms of each of these. The research team consisted of two undergraduate students proficient in ASL and a Deaf principal investigator (PI) who uses ASL and speech as his main modes of communication. A third Hard-of-Hearing undergraduate student fluent in ASL served as an objective facilitator of the data analysis. The team created reflexive journals by audio recording, free writing, and responding to team-generated prompts. They discussed interactions between the members of the research team, their evolving relationships, and various social and linguistic power differentials. The researchers reflected on communication during data collection, their experiences with one another, and their experiences with the participating families. Reflexive journals totaled over 150 pages. The outside research assistant reviewed the journals and developed follow up open-ended questions and prods to further enrich the data. The PI and outside research assistant used NVivo qualitative research software to conduct open inductive coding of the data. They chunked the data individually into broad categories through multiple readings and recognized recurring concepts. They compared their categories, discussed them, and decided which they would develop. The researchers continued to read, reduce, and define the categories until they were able to develop themes from the data. The research team found that the various communication backgrounds and skills present greatly influenced the dynamics between the members of the research team and with the participants of the study. Specifically, the following themes emerged: (1) students as communication facilitators and interpreters as barriers to natural interaction, (2) varied language use simultaneously complicated and enriched data collection, and (3) ASL proficiency and professional position resulted in a social hierarchy among researchers and participants. In the discussion, the researchers reflected on their backgrounds and internal biases of analyzing the data found and how social norms or expectations affected the perceptions of the researchers in writing their journals. Through this study, the research team found that communication and language skills require significant consideration when working with multiple and complex communication modes. The researchers had to continually assess and adjust their data collection methods to meet the communication needs of the team members and participants. In doing so, the researchers aimed to create an accessible research setting that yielded rich data but learned that this often required compromises from one or more of the research constituents.

Keywords: American Sign Language, complex communication, deaf-disabled, methodology

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Authors: Tomola Obamuyi

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The banking system in Nigeria adopted innovative banking, with the aim of enhancing financial inclusion, and making financial services readily and cheaply available to majority of the people, and to contribute to the efficiency of the financial system. Some of the innovative services include: Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Point of Sale (PoS), internet (Web) banking, Mobile Money payment (MMO), Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), agent banking, among others. The introduction of these payment systems is expected to increase bank efficiency and customers' satisfaction, culminating in better performance for the commercial banks. However, opinions differ on the possible effects of the various innovative payment systems on the performance of commercial banks in the country. Thus, this study empirically determines how commercial banks use innovation to gain competitive advantage in the specific context of Nigeria's finance and business. The study also analyses the effects of financial innovation on the performance of commercial banks, when different periods of analysis are considered. The study employed secondary data from 2009 to 2018, the period that witnessed aggressive innovation in the financial sector of the country. The Vector Autoregression (VAR) estimation technique forecasts the relative variance of each random innovation to the variables in the VAR, examine the effect of standard deviation shock to one of the innovations on current and future values of the impulse response and determine the causal relationship between the variables (VAR granger causality test). The study also employed the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to rank the innovations and the performance criteria of Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The entropy method of MCDM was used to determine which of the performance criteria better reflect the contributions of the various innovations in the banking sector. On the other hand, the Range of Values (ROV) method was used to rank the contributions of the seven innovations to performance. The analysis was done based on medium term (five years) and long run (ten years) of innovations in the sector. The impulse response function derived from the VAR system indicated that the response of ROA to the values of cheques transaction, values of NEFT transactions, values of POS transactions was positive and significant in the periods of analysis. The paper also confirmed with entropy and range of value that, in the long run, both the CHEQUE and MMO performed best while NEFT was next in performance. The paper concluded that commercial banks would enhance their performance by continuously improving on the services provided through Cheques, National Electronic Fund Transfer and Point of Sale since these instruments have long run effects on their performance. This will increase the confidence of the populace and encourage more usage/patronage of these services. The banking sector will in turn experience better performance which will improve the economy of the country. Keywords: Bank performance, financial innovation, multi-criteria decision making, vector autoregression,

Keywords: Bank performance, financial innovation, multi-criteria decision making, vector autoregression

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Authors: Agustin Maciel-Padilla

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This paper explores the most significant change to Japan’s security strategy since the end of World War II, in particular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government publication, in late 2022, of 3 policy documents (the National Security Strategy [NSS], the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program) that basically propose to expand the country’s military capabilities and to increase military spending over a 5-year period. These policies represent a remarkable transformation of Japan’s defense-oriented policy followed since 1946. These proposals have been under analysis and debate since they were announced, as it was also Japan’s historic ambition to strengthening its deterrence capabilities in the context of a more complex regional security environment. Even though this new defense posture has attracted significant international attention, it is far from representing a done deal because of the fact that there is still a long way to go to implement this vision because of a wide variety of political and economic issues. Japan is currently experiencing the most dangerous security environment since the end of World War II, and this situation led Japan to intensify its dialogue with the United States to reflect a re-evaluation of deterrence in the face of a rapidly worsening security environment, a changing balance of power in East Asia, and the arrival of a new era of “great power competition”. Japan’s new documents, for instance, identify China and North Korea’s as posing, respectively, a strategic challenge and an imminent threat. Japan has also noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has contributed to erode the foundation of the international order. It is considered that Russia’s aggression was possible because Ukraine’s defense capability was not enough for effective deterrence. Moreover, Japan’s call for “counterstrike capabilities” results from a recognition that China and North Korea’s ballistic and cruise missiles could overwhelm Japan’s air and missile defense systems, and therefore there is an urgent need to strengthen deterrence and resilience. In this context, this paper will focus on the impact of these changes on the US-Japan alliance. Adapting this alliance to Tokyo’s new ambitions and capabilities could be critical in terms of updating their traditional protection/access to bases arrangement, interoperability and joint command and control issues, as well as regarding the security–economy nexus. While China is Japan’s largest trading partner, and trade between the two has been growing, US-Japan economic relationship has been slower, notwithstanding the fact that US-Japan security cooperation has strengthened significantly in recent years.

Keywords: us-japan alliance, japan security, great power competition, interoperability

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Authors: Catherine Begin, Jeanne Berthod, Manon Truchon

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In Quebec, there are more than 8,000 community organizations throughout the province, representing more than 72,000 jobs. Working in a community setting involves several particularities (e.g., contact with the suffering of users, feelings of powerlessness, institutional pressure, unstable funding, etc.), which can put workers at risk of fatigue, burnout, and psychological distress. A 2007 study shows that 52% of community workers surveyed have a high psychological distress index. The Ricochet project, founded in 2019, is an initiative aimed at providing various care and services to community workers in the Quebec City region, with a global health approach. Within this program, mindful self-compassion training (MSC) is offered at a low cost. MSC is one of the effective strategies proposed in the literature to help prevent and reduce burnout. Self-compassion is the recognition that suffering, failure, and inadequacies are inherent in the human experience and that everyone, including oneself, deserves compassion. MSC training targets several behavioral, cognitive, and emotional learnings (e.g., motivating oneself with caring, better managing difficult emotions, promoting resilience, etc.). A mixed-method evaluation was conducted with the participants in order to explore the effects of the training on community workers in the Quebec City region. The participants were community workers (management or caregiver). 15 participants completed satisfaction and perceived impact surveys, and 30 participated in structured interviews. Quantitative results showed that participants were generally completely satisfied or satisfied with the training (94%) and perceived that the training allowed them to develop new strategies for dealing with stress (87%). Participants perceived effects on their mood (93%), their contact with others (80%), and their stress level (67%). Some of the barriers raised were scheduling constraints, length of training, and guilt about taking time for oneself. The qualitative results show that individuals experienced long-term benefits, as they were able to apply the tools they received during the training in their daily lives. Some barriers were noted, such as difficulty in getting away from work or problems with the employer, which prevented enrollment. Overall, the results of this evaluation support the use of MSC (mindful self-compassion) training among community workers. Future research could support this evaluation by using a rigorous design and developing innovative ways to overcome the barriers raised.

Keywords: mindful self-compassion, community workers, work stres, burnout, wellbeing at work

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Authors: Nawras Kurzom, Avi Mendelsohn

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The effects of background music on learning and memory are inconsistent, partly due to the intrinsic complexity and variety of music and partly to individual differences in music perception and preference. A prominent musical feature that is known to elicit strong emotional responses is musical tension. Musical tension can be brought about by building anticipation of rhythm, harmony, melody, and dynamics. Delaying the resolution of dominant-to-tonic chord progressions, as well as using dissonant harmonics, can elicit feelings of tension, which can, in turn, affect memory formation of concomitant information. The aim of the presented studies was to explore how forming declarative memory is influenced by musical tension, brought about within continuous music as well as in the form of isolated chords with varying degrees of dissonance/consonance. The effects of musical tension on long-term memory of declarative information were studied in two ways: 1) by evoking tension within continuous music pieces by delaying the release of harmonic progressions from dominant to tonic chords, and 2) by using isolated single complex chords with various degrees of dissonance/roughness. Musical tension was validated through subjective reports of tension, as well as physiological measurements of skin conductance response (SCR) and pupil dilation responses to the chords. In addition, music information retrieval (MIR) was used to quantify musical properties associated with tension and its release. Each experiment included an encoding phase, wherein individuals studied stimuli (words or images) with different musical conditions. Memory for the studied stimuli was tested 24 hours later via recognition tasks. In three separate experiments, we found positive relationships between tension perception and physiological measurements of SCR and pupil dilation. As for memory performance, we found that background music, in general, led to superior memory performance as compared to silence. We detected a trade-off effect between tension perception and memory, such that individuals who perceived musical tension as such displayed reduced memory performance for images encoded during musical tension, whereas tense music benefited memory for those who were less sensitive to the perception of musical tension. Musical tension exerts complex interactions with perception, emotional responses, and cognitive performance on individuals with and without musical training. Delineating the conditions and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between musical tension and memory can benefit our understanding of musical perception at large and the diverse effects that music has on ongoing processing of declarative information.

Keywords: musical tension, declarative memory, learning and memory, musical perception

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Authors: Vikas Kumar, Kailash Chandra, Kaomud Tyagi

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The insect order Thysanoptera includes small insects commonly called thrips. As insect vectors, only thrips are capable of Tospoviruses transmission (genus Tospovirus, family Bunyaviridae) affecting various crops. Currently, fifteen species of subfamily Thripinae (Thripidae) have been reported as vectors for tospoviruses. Frankliniella schultzei, which is reported as act as a vector for at least five tospovirses, have been suspected to be a species complex with more than one species. It is one of the historical unresolved issues where, two species namely, F. schultzei Trybom and F. sulphurea Schmutz were erected from South Africa and Srilanaka respectively. These two species were considered to be valid until 1968 when sulphurea was treated as colour morph (pale form) and synonymised under schultzei (dark form) However, these two have been considered as valid species by some of the thrips workers. Parallel studies have indicated that brown form of schultzei is a vector for tospoviruses while yellow form is a non-vector. However, recent studies have shown that yellow populations have also been documented as vectors. In view of all these facts, it is highly important to have a clear understanding whether these colour forms represent true species or merely different populations with different vector carrying capacities and whether there is some hidden diversity in 'Frankliniella schultzei species complex'. In this study, we aim to study the 'Frankliniella schultzei species complex' with molecular spectacles with DNA data from India and Australia and Africa. A total of fifty-five specimens was collected from diverse locations in India and Australia. We generated molecular data using partial fragments of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene (mtCOI) and 28S rRNA gene. For COI dataset, there were seventy-four sequences, out of which data on fifty-five was generated in the current study and others were retrieved from NCBI. All the four different tree construction methods: neighbor-joining, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis, yielded the same tree topology and produced five cryptic species with high genetic divergence. For, rDNA, there were forty-five sequences, out of which data on thirty-nine was generated in the current study and others were retrieved from NCBI. The four tree building methods yielded four cryptic species with high bootstrap support value/posterior probability. Here we could not retrieve one cryptic species from South Africa as we could not generate data on rDNA from South Africa and sequence for rDNA from African region were not available in the database. The results of multiple species delimitation methods (barcode index numbers, automatic barcode gap discovery, general mixed Yule-coalescent, and Poisson-tree-processes) also supported the phylogenetic data and produced 5 and 4 Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) for mtCOI and 28S dataset respectively. These results of our study indicate the likelihood that F. sulphurea may be a valid species, however, more morphological and molecular data is required on specimens from type localities of these two species and comparison with type specimens.

Keywords: DNA barcoding, species complex, thrips, species delimitation

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Authors: Randall E. Osborne

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In a course on International Psychology, 8 theoretical perspectives (Critical Psychology, Liberation Psychology, Post-Modernism, Social Constructivism, Social Identity Theory, Social Reduction Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory) are used as a framework for getting students to understand the concept of and need for Globalization. One of critical psychology's main criticisms of conventional psychology is that it fails to consider or deliberately ignores the way power differences between social classes and groups can impact the mental and physical well-being of individuals or groups of people. Liberation psychology, also known as liberation social psychology or psicología social de la liberación, is an approach to psychological science that aims to understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities by addressing the oppressive sociopolitical structure in which they exist. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. It stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. Lev Vygotsky argued that all cognitive functions originate in, and must therefore be explained as products of social interactions and that learning was not simply the assimilation and accommodation of new knowledge by learners. Social Identity Theory discusses the implications of social identity for human interactions with and assumptions about other people. Social Identification Theory suggests people: (1) categorize—people find it helpful (humans might be perceived as having a need) to place people and objects into categories, (2) identify—people align themselves with groups and gain identity and self-esteem from it, and (3) compare—people compare self to others. Social reductionism argues that all behavior and experiences can be explained simply by the affect of groups on the individual. Symbolic interaction theory focuses attention on the way that people interact through symbols: words, gestures, rules, and roles. Meaning evolves from human their interactions in their environment and with people. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human learning describes learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture. The major theme of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. This presentation will discuss how these theoretical perspectives are incorporated into a course on International Psychology, a course on the Politics of Hate, and a course on the Psychology of Prejudice, Discrimination and Hate to promote student thinking in a more ‘global’ manner.

Keywords: globalization, international psychology, society and culture, teaching interculturally

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Authors: Marielcio Lacerda, Angelo Paulino, Elcio Shiguemori, Alvaro Damiao, Lamartine Guimaraes, Camila Anjos

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Accurate information about the terrain is extremely important in disaster management activities or conflict. This paper proposes the use of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) at the identification of Airdrop Zones (AZs) and Helicopter Landing Zones (HLZs). In this paper we consider the AZs the zones where troops or supplies are dropped by parachute, and HLZs areas where victims can be rescued. The use of digital image processing enables the automatic generation of an orthorectified mosaic and an actual Digital Surface Model (DSM). This methodology allows obtaining this fundamental information to the terrain’s comprehension post-disaster in a short amount of time and with good accuracy. In order to get the identification and classification of AZs and HLZs images from DJI drone, model Phantom 4 have been used. The images were obtained with the knowledge and authorization of the responsible sectors and were duly registered in the control agencies. The flight was performed on May 24, 2017, and approximately 1,300 images were obtained during approximately 1 hour of flight. Afterward, new attributes were generated by Feature Extraction (FE) from the original images. The use of multispectral images and complementary attributes generated independently from them increases the accuracy of classification. The attributes of this work include the Declivity Map and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For the classification four distinct classes were considered: HLZ 1 – small size (18m x 18m); HLZ 2 – medium size (23m x 23m); HLZ 3 – large size (28m x 28m); AZ (100m x 100m). The Decision Tree method Random Forest (RF) was used in this work. RF is a classification method that uses a large collection of de-correlated decision trees. Different random sets of samples are used as sampled objects. The results of classification from each tree and for each object is called a class vote. The resulting classification is decided by a majority of class votes. In this case, we used 200 trees for the execution of RF in the software WEKA 3.8. The classification result was visualized on QGIS Desktop 2.12.3. Through the methodology used, it was possible to classify in the study area: 6 areas as HLZ 1, 6 areas as HLZ 2, 4 areas as HLZ 3; and 2 areas as AZ. It should be noted that an area classified as AZ covers the classifications of the other classes, and may be used as AZ, HLZ of large size (HLZ3), medium size (HLZ2) and small size helicopters (HLZ1). Likewise, an area classified as HLZ for large rotary wing aircraft (HLZ3) covers the smaller area classifications, and so on. It was concluded that images obtained through small UAV are of great use in calamity situations since they can provide data with high accuracy, with low cost, low risk and ease and agility in obtaining aerial photographs. This allows the generation, in a short time, of information about the features of the terrain in order to serve as an important decision support tool.

Keywords: disaster management, unmanned aircraft systems, helicopter landing zones, airdrop zones, random forest

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Authors: Mohammad Khatib, Salam Hadid

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Introduction: Developing nurses' cultural competence begins in their basic training and requires them to participate in an array of activities which raise their awareness and stimulate their interest, desire and curiosity about different cultures, by creating opportunities for intercultural meetings promoting the concept of 'culture' and its components, including recognition of cultural diversity and the legitimacy of the other. Importantly, professionals need to acquire specific cultural knowledge and thorough understanding of the values, norms, customs, beliefs and symbols of different cultures. Similarly, they need to be given opportunities to practice the verbal and non-verbal communication skills of other cultures according to their cultural codes. Such a system is being implemented as part of nursing studies at Zefat Academic College in two study frameworks; firstly, a course integrating nursing theory and practice in multicultural nursing; secondly, a course in learning the languages spoken in Israel focusing on medical and nursing terminology. Methods: Students participating in the 'Transcultural Nursing' course come from a variety of backgrounds: Jews, or Arabs, religious, or secular; Muslim, Christian, new immigrants, Ethiopians or from other cultural affiliations. They are required to present and discuss cultural practices that affect health. In addition, as part of the language course, students learn and teach their friends 5 spoken languages (Arabic, Russian, Amharian, Yidish, and Sign language) focusing on therapeutic interaction and communication using the vocabulary and concepts necessary for the therapeutic encounter. An evaluation of the process and the results was done using a structured questionnaire which includes series of questions relating to the contributions of the courses to their cultural knowledge, awareness and skills. 155 students completed the questionnaire. Results: A preliminary assessment of this educational system points an increase in cultural awareness and knowledge among the students as well as in their willingness to recognize the other's difference. A positive atmosphere of multiculturalism is reflected in students' mutual interest and respect was created. Students showed a deep understanding of cultural issues relating to health and care (consanguinity and genetics, food customs; cultural events, reincarnation, traditional treatments etc.). Most of the students were willing to recommend the courses to others and suggest some changes relating learning methods (more simulations, role playing and activities).

Keywords: cultural competence, nursing education, culture, language

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Authors: Valencia Fernandes, Dharmendra Kumar Khatri, Shashi Bala Singh

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Background and Aim: Epigenetics are the inaudible signatures of several pathological processes in the brain. This study understands the influence of DNA methylation, a major epigenetic modification, in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of the diabetic brain and its notable effect on the cellular chaperones and synaptic proteins. Method: Chronic high fat diet and STZ-induced diabetic mice were studied for cognitive dysfunction, and global DNA methylation, as well as DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activity, were assessed. Further, the cellular chaperones and synaptic proteins were examined using DNMT inhibitor, 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dC)-via intracerebroventricular injection. Moreover, % methylation of these synaptic proteins were also studied so as to correlate its epigenetic involvement. Computationally, its interaction with the DNMT enzyme were also studied using bioinformatic tools. Histological studies for morphological alterations and neuronal degeneration were also studied. Neurogenesis, a characteristic marker for new learning and memory formation, was also assessed via the BrdU staining. Finally, the most important behavioral studies, including the Morris water maze, Y maze, passive avoidance, and Novel object recognition test, were performed to study its cognitive functions. Results: Altered global DNA methylation and increased levels of DNMTs within the nucleus were confirmed in the cortex and hippocampus of the diseased mice, suggesting hypermethylation at a genetic level. Treatment with AzadC, a global DNA demethylating agent, ameliorated the protein and gene expression of the cellular chaperones and synaptic fidelity. Furthermore, the methylation analysis profile showed hypermethylation of the hsf1 protein, a master regulator for chaperones and thus, confirmed the epigenetic involvement in the diseased brain. Morphological improvements and decreased neurodegeneration, along with enhanced neurogenesis in the treatment group, suggest that epigenetic modulations do participate in learning and memory. This is supported by the improved behavioral test battery seen in the treatment group. Conclusion: DNA methylation could possibly accord in dysregulating the memory-associated proteins at chronic stages in type 2 diabetes. This could suggest a substantial contribution to the underlying pathophysiology of several metabolic syndromes like insulin resistance, obesity and also participate in transitioning this damage centrally, such as cognitive dysfunction.

Keywords: epigenetics, cognition, chaperones, DNA methylation

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Authors: Alla Ovsyannikova, Oksana Rymar, Elena Shakhtshneider, Mikhail Voevoda

Abstract:

In Siberia endocrinologists increasingly noted young patients with the course of diabetes mellitus differing from 1 and 2 types. Therefore we did a molecular genetic study for this group of patients to verify the monogenic forms of diabetes mellitus in them and researched the characteristics of this pathology. When confirming the monogenic form of diabetes, we performed a correction therapy for many patients (transfer from insulin to tablets), prevented specific complications, examined relatives and diagnosed their diabetes at the preclinical stage, revealed phenotypic characteristics of the pathology which led to the high significance of this work. Materials and Methods: We observed 5 patients (4 families). We diagnosed MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young) during the molecular genetic testing (direct automatic sequencing). All patients had a full clinical examination, blood samples for biochemical research, determination of C-peptide and TSH, antibodies to b-cells, microalbuminuria, abdominal ultrasound, heart and thyroid ultrasound, examination of ophthalmologist. Results: We diagnosed 3 rare types of MODY: two women had MODY8, one man – MODY6 and man and his mother - MODY12. Patients with types 8 and 12 had clinical features. Age of onset hyperglycemia ranged from 26 to 34 years. In a patient with MODY6 fasting hyperglycemia was detected during a routine examination. Clinical symptoms, complications were not diagnosed. The patient observes a diet. In the first patient MODY8 was detected during first pregnancy, she had itchy skin and mostly postprandial hyperglycemia. Upon examination we determined glycated hemoglobin 7.5%, retinopathy, non-proliferative stage, peripheral neuropathy. She uses a basic bolus insulin therapy. The second patient with MODY8 also had clinical manifestations of hyperglycemia (pruritus, thirst), postprandial hyperglycemia and diabetic nephropathy, a stage of microalbuminuria. The patient was diagnosed autoimmune thyroiditis. She used inhibitors of DPP-4. The patient with MODY12 had an aggressive course. In the detection of hyperglycemia he had complaints of visual impairment, intense headaches, leg cramps. The patient had a history of childhood convulsive seizures of non-epileptic genesis, without organic pathology, which themselves were stopped at the age of 12 years. When we diagnosed diabetes a patient was 28 years, he had hypertriglyceridemia, atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid artery, proliferative retinopathy (lacerocoagulation). Diabetes and early myocardial infarction were observed in three cases in family. We prescribe therapy with sulfonylureas and SGLT-2 inhibitors with a positive effect. At the patient's mother diabetes began at a later age (30 years) and a less aggressive course was observed. She also has hypertriglyceridemia and uses oral hypoglycemic drugs. Conclusions: 1) When young patients with hyperglycemia have extrapancreatic pathologies and diabetic complications with a short duration of diabetes we can assume they have one of type of MODY diabetes. 2) In patients with monogenic forms of diabetes mellitus, the clinical manifestations of hyperglycemia in each succeeding generation are revealed at an earlier age. Research had increased our knowledge of the monogenic forms of diabetes. The reported study was supported by RSCF, research project No. 14-15-00496-P.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus, MODY diabetes, monogenic forms, young patients

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Federico Garrido, Mostafa El Hayani, Ahmed Shams

Abstract:

The exploration of the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in architecture is still embryonic, however, its latent capacity to change design disciplines is significant. 'Synthetic Classism' is a research project that questions the underlying aspects of classically organized architecture not just in aesthetic terms but also from a geometrical and morphological point of view, intending to generate new architectural information using historical examples as source material. The main aim of this paper is to explore the uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in architectural design while creating a coherent narrative to be contained within a design process. The purpose is twofold: on one hand, to develop and train machine learning algorithms to produce architectural information of small pavilions and on the other, to synthesize new information from previous architectural drawings. These algorithms intend to 'interpret' graphical information from each pavilion and then generate new information from it. The procedure, once these algorithms are trained, is the following: parting from a line profile, a synthetic 'front view' of a pavilion is generated, then using it as a source material, an isometric view is created from it, and finally, a top view is produced. Thanks to GAN algorithms, it is also possible to generate Front and Isometric views without any graphical input as well. The final intention of the research is to produce isometric views out of historical information, such as the pavilions from Sebastiano Serlio, James Gibbs, or John Soane. The idea is to create and interpret new information not just in terms of historical reconstruction but also to explore AI as a novel tool in the narrative of a creative design process. This research also challenges the idea of the role of algorithmic design associated with efficiency or fitness while embracing the possibility of a creative collaboration between artificial intelligence and a human designer. Hence the double feature of this research, both analytical and creative, first by synthesizing images based on a given dataset and then by generating new architectural information from historical references. We find that the possibility of creatively understand and manipulate historic (and synthetic) information will be a key feature in future innovative design processes. Finally, the main question that we propose is whether an AI could be used not just to create an original and innovative group of simple buildings but also to explore the possibility of fostering a novel architectural sensibility grounded on the specificities on the architectural dataset, either historic, human-made or synthetic.

Keywords: architecture, central pavilions, classicism, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 128