Search results for: online trust

Authors: Charlotte Jeavons, Charitini Stavropoulous, Nicolas Drey

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Background: Over one-third of five-year-olds and almost half of all eight-year-olds in the UK have obvious caries experience that can be detected by visual screening techniques. School-based caries preventions programs to apply fluoride varnish to young children’s teeth operate in many areas in the UK. Their aim is to reduce dental caries in children. The Department of Health guidance (2009) on consent states information must be provided to parents to enable informed autonomous decision-making prior to any treatment involving their young children. Fluoride varnish schemes delivered in primary schools use letters for this purpose. Parents are expected to return these indicating their consent or refusal. A large proportion of parents do not respond. In the absence of positive consent, these children are excluded from the program. Non-response is more common in deprived areas creating inequality. The reason for this is unknown. The consent process used is underpinned by the ethical theory of deontology that is prevalent in clinical dentistry and widely accepted in bio-ethics. Objective: To investigate parents’ views, understanding and experience of the fluoride varnish program taking place in their child’s school, including their views about the practical consent arrangements. Method: Schools participating in the fluoride varnish scheme operating in Enfield, North London, were asked to take part. Parents with children in nursery, reception, or year one were invited to participate via semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Thematic analysis was conducted. Findings: 40 parents were recruited from eight schools. The global theme of ‘trust’ was identified as the strongest influence on parental responses. Six themes were identified; protecting children from harm is viewed by parents as their role, parents have the capability to decide but lack confidence, sharing responsibility for their child’s oral health with the State is welcomed by a parent, existing relationships within parents’ social networks strongly influences consent decisions, official dental information is not communicated effectively, sending a letter to parents’ and excluding them from meeting dental practitioners is ineffective. The information delivered via a letter was not strongly identified by parents as influencing their response. Conclusions: Personal contact with the person(s) providing information and requesting consent has a greater impact on parental consent responses than written information provided alone. This demonstrates that traditional bio-ethical ideas about rational decision-making where emotions are transcended and interference is not justified unless preventing harm to an unaware person are outdated. Parental decision-making is relational and the consent process should be adapted to reflect this. The current system that has a deontology view of decision making at its core impoverishes parental autonomy and may, ultimately, increase dental inequalities as a result.

Keywords: consent, decision, ethics, fluoride, parents

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Authors: Andra Vidyarini

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Adolescence is a transition period in which various changes occur, both biologically, intellectually and psychosocially. Changes in adolescents, one of which is a change in food consumption patterns that make adolescents vulnerable to nutritional problems that can affect their growth and health in the future. Nutritional problems in adolescents have increased from year to year and one of the causes is the low diversity and quality of consumption. The diversity and quality of consumption can be seen through the Individual Dietary Diversity Score and the Healthy Eating Index. Currently, in Indonesia, data on the diversity and quality of food consumption, especially among adolescents, are still scarce. In general, the purpose of this study is to describe the diversity and quality of adolescent food consumption and the relationship between the diversity and quality of food consumption with nutritional status. This study is a cross-sectional study by looking at the diversity and quality of consumption of adolescents aged 15-17 years. The total number of subjects in this study amounted to 70 teenagers. This research was conducted online via a google form. Data analysis in this study was univariate and bivariate. The results showed that the diversity of the subject's food consumption was in the diverse and very diverse category with an average of 6. However, the quality was still not good, whereas it was still in the bad and moderate categories with an average of 12.93. The nutritional status of the majority of the subjects was in the normal category and overweight to obese. The implementation of blended learning where there are still limited face-to-face meetings at school can be the reason why teenagers' food consumption is more diverse than when they are face-to-face schools. In addition, changes in people's diet during the pandemic also influenced the results of the study. The change in pattern is a change in eating habits to three times a day with menu choices ranging from rice, meat, fish, bean and vegetables. Analysis of the relationship between the diversity and quality of food consumption shows that the diversity of consumption has a significant relationship with the quality of food consumption with a p-value of 0.002 (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the diversity and quality of food consumption have no significant relationship with nutritional status, with p values 0.777 and 0.251 (>0.05), respectively. This shows that the diversity of food consumption is directly proportional to the quality of consumption, where if you have a variety of food consumption, the quality or in terms of portions and weight are also sufficient in accordance with the recommendations of PGRS.

Keywords: healthy eating index (HEI), food diversity, quality of consumption, adolescent

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Authors: Birgit Schmid, Brigitte Liebig, Susanne Burren, Maritza Le Breton, Martin Boehnel, Celestina Porta

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Internationalization of students is part of the agenda of many universities worldwide. Yet, how well do universities achieve to guarantee educational success for male and female students of migrant background? This contribution aims on analyzing the effects of the Swiss university environment on perceived educational outcome of migrant students from a gender sensitive perspective. Social selectivity and gender inequalities strongly influence students’ access and success at universities. However, the complex interaction between universities and their disciplinary environments, and educational success of migrant students of both sex remains rarely examined so far. Starting from an intersectional perspective and neo-institutional approaches on higher education organizations, this contribution addresses formal/informal factors in the university environment in its impact on male/female students’ perception of well-being, success and dropout motivation. The paper starts from a most recent Swiss online-survey of Bachelor-students in two Universities of Applied Science and a University of Education in Switzerland. It compares students’ perspectives in four large BA degree courses with different male/female ratio, i.e. educational science, technical/computer science, economy, and social work (N=9`608). Results highlight the complex interplay of gender, migrant background and further dimensions of social differentiation on students’ perception in these different fields of education. Further, they illustrate correlations between students’ perception of discriminatory contexts, poor ratings of social integration and study success, as well a higher rate of dropout ideas. The paper lines out, that formal aspects of internationalization are less important for successfully integrating male/female migrant students than informal university conditions, such as a culture of diversity, which has to become integral part of internationalization strategies.

Keywords: gender and migration, higher education, internationalization, success

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Authors: Asif Ali, Daud Salim Faruquie

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With the advancement of knowledge about the utility and impact of sustainability, its feasibility has been explored into different walks of life. Scientists, however; have established their knowledge in four areas viz environmental, economic, social and cultural, popularly termed as four pillars of sustainability. Aspects of environmental and economic sustainability have been rigorously researched and practiced and huge volume of strong evidence of effectiveness has been founded for these two sub-areas. For the social and cultural aspects of sustainability, dependable evidence of effectiveness is still to be instituted as the researchers and practitioners are developing and experimenting methods across the globe. Therefore, the present research aimed to identify globally used practices of social and cultural sustainability and through evidence synthesis assess their outcomes to determine the effectiveness of those practices. A PICO format steered the methodology which included all populations, popular sustainability practices including walkability/cycle tracks, social/recreational spaces, privacy, health & human services and barrier free built environment, comparators included ‘Before’ and ‘After’, ‘With’ and ‘Without’, ‘More’ and ‘Less’ and outcomes included Social well-being, cultural co-existence, quality of life, ethics and morality, social capital, sense of place, education, health, recreation and leisure, and holistic development. Search of literature included major electronic databases, search websites, organizational resources, directory of open access journals and subscribed journals. Grey literature, however, was not included. Inclusion criteria filtered studies on the basis of research designs such as total randomization, quasi-randomization, cluster randomization, observational or single studies and certain types of analysis. Studies with combined outcomes were considered but studies focusing only on environmental and/or economic outcomes were rejected. Data extraction, critical appraisal and evidence synthesis was carried out using customized tabulation, reference manager and CASP tool. Partial meta-analysis was carried out and calculation of pooled effects and forest plotting were done. As many as 13 studies finally included for final synthesis explained the impact of targeted practices on health, behavioural and social dimensions. Objectivity in the measurement of health outcomes facilitated quantitative synthesis of studies which highlighted the impact of sustainability methods on physical activity, Body Mass Index, perinatal outcomes and child health. Studies synthesized qualitatively (and also quantitatively) showed outcomes such as routines, family relations, citizenship, trust in relationships, social inclusion, neighbourhood social capital, wellbeing, habitability and family’s social processes. The synthesized evidence indicates slight effectiveness and efficacy of social and cultural sustainability on the targeted outcomes. Further synthesis revealed that such results of this study are due weak research designs and disintegrated implementations. If architects and other practitioners deliver their interventions in collaboration with research bodies and policy makers, a stronger evidence-base in this area could be generated.

Keywords: built environment, cultural sustainability, social sustainability, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Jennifer Isabelle Rios Rendón, Ursula Sanchez, Dana Lee Baker

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Disability Policy in México has witnessed numerous changed throughout the years. Physical disabilities are more often recognized in Mexican culture. However, with an emerging focus on neurological disabilities or differences in individuals’ new policies are needed to serve better and understand the needs of these populations. The need to understand and communicate with local leaders is imperative, as the lens used to analyze autism has historically been from a Western school of thought. We are looking to comprehend the disability policy subsystem in México - specifically how autism is perceived, the language used to describe it, and how it ties to the cultural stigma of disabilities that exist in México. Therefore, to understand this, we seek to interview multiple policy leaders on their experience in autism and disability policy. The goal is to conduct qualitative research through interviews with local autism and disability leaders in México. This methodology aims to answer the questions of what language commonly and culturally is utilized in disability policy, the context of how autism is perceived in México, and in general, the lived experience of the disability policy leaders that take part in this effort in México. Local activists and policy leaders were initially found through an online search then collected using snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted through a series of pre-formulated questions that the policy leader answered via email or a phone conversation with the researchers. Acknowledging the importance of language and accessibility, the need for the content to be in both English and Spanish as well as auditory and visual is essential to take steps in the inclusion of a Neurodiverse group of leaders. This work is a demonstration of the framework of the investigation which hopes to create a more complete understanding of the policy and political culture around autism in México. Results of the project include new insight into the developing relationship between the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, disability activists, and neurodiverse communities. The project contributes to denormalizing the legacy of white supremacy in autism related, historically rooted in the assumption that autism occurs predominantly in white communities.

Keywords: autism, disability leaders, disability policy, México, Neurodiversity

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Authors: Andrea N. Ofori-Boadu

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The purpose is to develop a conceptual model of subcontractor development practices and processes that strengthen the integration of subcontractors into construction supply chain systems for improved subcontractor performance on Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building projects. The construction management of a LEED project has an important objective of meeting sustainability certification requirements. This is in addition to the typical project management objectives of cost, time, quality, and safety for traditional projects; and, therefore increases the complexity of LEED projects. Considering that construction management organizations rely heavily on subcontractors, poor performance on complex projects such as LEED projects has been largely attributed to the unsatisfactory preparation of subcontractors. Furthermore, the extensive use of unique and non-repetitive short term contracts limits the full integration of subcontractors into construction supply chains and hinders long-term cooperation and benefits that could enhance performance on construction projects. Improved subcontractor development practices are needed to better prepare and manage subcontractors, so that complex objectives can be met or exceeded. While supplier development and supply chain theories and practices for the manufacturing sector have been extensively investigated to address similar challenges, investigations in the construction sector are not that obvious. Consequently, the objective of this research is to investigate effective subcontractor development practices and processes to guide construction management organizations in their development of a strong network of high performing subcontractors. Drawing from foundational supply chain and supplier development theories in the manufacturing sector, a mixed interpretivist and empirical methodology is utilized to assess the body of knowledge within literature for conceptual model development. A self-reporting survey with five-point Likert scale items and open-ended questions is administered to 30 construction professionals to estimate their perceptions of the effectiveness of 37 practices, classified into five subcontractor development categories. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, weighted means, and t-tests that guide the effectiveness ranking of practices and categories. The results inform the proposed three-phased LEED subcontractor development program model which focuses on preparation, development and implementation, and monitoring. Highly ranked LEED subcontractor pre-qualification, commitment, incentives, evaluation, and feedback practices are perceived as more effective, when compared to practices requiring more direct involvement and linkages between subcontractors and construction management organizations. This is attributed to unfamiliarity, conflicting interests, lack of trust, and resource sharing challenges. With strategic modifications, the recommended practices can be extended to other non-LEED complex projects. Additional research is needed to guide the development of subcontractor development programs that strengthen direct involvement between construction management organizations and their network of high performing subcontractors. Insights from this present research strengthen theoretical foundations to support future research towards more integrated construction supply chains. In the long-term, this would lead to increased performance, profits and client satisfaction.

Keywords: construction management, general contractor, supply chain, sustainable construction

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Authors: J. Bartnicka, J. A. Piedrabuena, R. Portilla, L. Moyano - Cuevas, J. B. Pagador, P. Augat, J. Tokarczyk, F. M. Sánchez Margallo

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Orthopaedic surgeries are characterized by a high degree of complexity. This is reflected by four main groups of resources: 1) surgical team which is consisted of people with different competencies, educational backgrounds and positions; 2) information and knowledge about medical and technical aspects of surgery; 3) medical equipment including surgical tools and materials; 4) space infrastructure which is important from an operating room layout point of view. These all components must be integrated and build a homogeneous organism for achieving an efficient and ergonomically correct surgical workflow. Taking this as a background, there was formulated a concept of international project, called “Online Vocational Training course on ergonomics for orthopaedic Minimally Invasive” (Train4OrthoMIS), which aim is to develop an e-learning tool available in 4 languages (English, Spanish, Polish and German). In the article, there is presented the first project research outcomes focused on three aspects: 1) ergonomic needs of surgeons who work in hospitals around different European countries, 2) the concept of structure of e-learning course, 3) the definition of tools and methods for knowledge assessment adjusted to users’ expectation. The methodology was based on the expert panels and two types of surveys: 1) on training needs, 2) on evaluation and self-assessment preferences. The major findings of the study allowed describing the subjects of four training modules and learning sessions. According to peoples’ opinion there were defined most expected test methods which are single choice test and right after quizzes: “True or False” and “Link elements”. The first project outcomes confirmed the necessity of creating a universal training tool for orthopaedic surgeons regardless of the country in which they work. Because of limited time that surgeons have, the e-learning course should be strictly adjusted to their expectation in order to be useful.

Keywords: international e-learning, ergonomics, orthopaedic surgery, Train4OrthoMIS

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Authors: Chamtouri I., Kechida M.

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Background: Evaluation has a prominent role in medical education and graduation. This evaluation has usually done in face-to-face, by written or oral questions. Simulation is increasingly taking a part as a method of evaluation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted face-to-face evaluation, simulation using serious games (SG) is emerging in the field of training and assessment of medical students. The aim of our study is to compare the results of the evaluation of medical students by virtual simulation by online serious games versus clinical case-multiple choice questions (MCQ) and to assess the degree of satisfaction from these two evaluation methods. Methods: Medical students from the same study level were voluntarily participated in this study. Groupe 1 had an evaluation by SG dealing with “diagnosis and management of ST-segment elevationmyocardialinfarction (STEMI)alreadyprepared on the website www.Mediactiv.com. Groupe 2 were evaluated by clinical case-MCQ having thes same topic as SG. Results of the two groups were compared. Satisfaction questionnaire was filled by the two groups. Satisfaction degree was compared between the two groups. Results. In this study, 64 medical students (G1:31 and G2: 33) were enrolled. Obtaining complete notes in the "questioning" and "clinical examination" parts is significantly more important in-group 1 compared to group 2. No significant difference detected between the two groups in terms of “ECG interpretation” and “diagnosis of STEMI” parts. A greater number of students of group 1 obtained the full note compared to group 2 in “the initial treatment part” (54.8% vs. 39.4%; p = 0.04). Thirty learners (96.8%) in-group 1 obtained a total score ≥ 50% versus 69.7% in-group 2 (p = 0.004). The full score of 100% was obtained in three learners in-group1, while no student scored 100% in-group2 (p = 0.027). Medical evaluation using SG was reported as more innovative, fun, and realistic compared to evaluation by clinical case-MCQ. No significant difference detected between the two methods in terms of stress. Conclusion: Simulation by SG can be considered as an innovative and effective method in evaluating medical students with a higher degree of satisfaction.

Keywords: evaluation, serious games, medical students, satisfaction

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Authors: Maja Ruzic-Baf, Vedrana Keteles, Andrea Debeljuh

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Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.

Keywords: education, smartphone, social networks, teenagers

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Authors: Patience Oluchi Silas, Yemi Adeshina

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Financial transactions involving the use of the internet has become an important practice among commercial banks in Nigeria with the introduction of internet banking and this has improved banking efficiency in rending services to customers. However, customers in Lagos State are enslaved in the fear of insecurity, technical failure, inadequate operational facilities, including improper telecommunications and poor power supply. It is in line with this that this paper explores the obstacles faced by Lagosians, tourists, small scale business owners, companies, customers and the government's attitude in addressing the challenges associated with online banking system in Nigeria through relevant legislations. Internet banking has the potential to transform economic activity and achieve developmental goals. If the associated Challenges are addressed quickly, then it will have the desired impact on the Nigerian economy. In this study, Respondents, mostly bank employees and customers were issued well designed and structured questionnaires to effectively examine the new developments brought about by the introduction of Internet banking and the challenges inhibiting its adoption. Hypotheses were formulated to test assumptions and claims generated from the study. The results were statistically analyzed to address the issues of errors and chances, and at the end, the result of the statistical analysis shows that all especially insecurity, inadequate operational facilities and poor power supply are the significant factors affecting the adoption of internet banking services in Nigeria. The study recommends that for internet banking to assume a developmental dimension in Nigeria and for the country to be fully integrated and respected in global financial environment, the prevalent level of frauds in Lagos State and among Nigerians must first be addressed and the relevant local laws should be put in place and in consonance with international laws and conventions; get the citizens well educated on the intricacies of Internet usage and frauds.

Keywords: internet-banking, adoption, challenges, insecurity, legislation, fraud, Lagos state, statistics

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Authors: J. Izan, E.I. Tengku Azmina, F. Pey Thing

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Sustainability has been introduced globally since the emerging of the advancement of technology and product development in various aspects. This concept is regarded highly, listed among the seventeenth elements in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially by developed countries in any of their development plans and being considered in the development of the developing countries. It is such as the concept of sustainability can undeniably provide a medium where the cost used by energy consumption and pollution problems can be greatly reduced. In Malaysia, many rules and policies had been advocated to achieve sustainability; however, the practice and implementation as well the enforcement to ensure its implementation are still not great. University, as an educational institution, shall practice and implement sustainability concepts in as much aspect as possible as a positive example for a wider community. University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) has already published a blueprint guide in 2015, aims to introduce and implement sustainable practice in the university, and solid waste is one of the key elements highlighted. This study was conducted to determine the status of solid waste management practice among the university community associated with several factors that facilitate the room for sustainable management, as drawn in the established blueprint document. The quantitative analysis was carried out via survey conducted online, acquired the questions on green campus concept and implementation in general and solid waste in particular. The results showed that community UMT showed a high level of awareness and knowledge on sustainable solid waste; however, low percentage in managing solid waste in a sustainable manner. Respondents suggested that stringent guidelines and the establishment of policy greatly help in the realization and enforcement of sustainable solid waste handling and management. Facilities such as waste collection centre with separation and segregation containers will motivate the community to practice 3Rs on a daily basis. This will eventually reduce the generation of waste need to be sent to landfill hence reduce the disposal cost. Prolong, and continuous campaign on sustainable solid waste management need to be carried out more frequently.

Keywords: management, solid waste, sustainability, university

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Authors: Claude Nsobya, Alice Moncaster, Karen Potter, Jed Ramsay

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The shift in Flood Risk Governance (FRG) has moved away from traditional approaches that solely relied on centralized decision-making and structural flood defenses. Instead, there is now the adoption of integrated flood risk management measures that involve various actors and stakeholders. This new approach emphasizes people-centered approaches, including adaptation and learning. This shift to a diversity of FRG approaches has been identified as a significant factor in enhancing resilience. Resilience here refers to a community's ability to withstand, absorb, recover, adapt, and potentially transform in the face of flood events. It is argued that if the FRG merely focused on the conventional 'fighting the water' - flood defense - communities would not be resilient. The move to these people-centered approaches also implies that communities will be more involved in FRG. It is suggested that effective flood risk governance influences resilience through meaningful community involvement, and effective community engagement is vital in shaping community resilience to floods. Successful community participation not only uses context-specific indigenous knowledge but also develops a sense of ownership and responsibility. Through capacity development initiatives, it can also raise awareness and all these help in building resilience. Recent Flood Risk Management (FRM) projects have thus had increasing community involvement, with varied conceptualizations of such community engagement in the academic literature on FRM. In the context of overland floods, there has been a substantial body of literature on Flood Risk Governance and Management. Yet, groundwater flooding has gotten little attention despite its unique qualities, such as its persistence for weeks or months, slow onset, and near-invisibility. There has been a little study in this area on how successful community involvement in Flood Risk Governance may improve community resilience to groundwater flooding in particular. This paper focuses on a case study of a flood risk management project in the United Kingdom. Buckinghamshire Council is leading Project Groundwater, which is one of 25 significant initiatives sponsored by England's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme. DEFRA awarded Buckinghamshire Council and other councils 150 million to collaborate with communities and implement innovative methods to increase resilience to groundwater flooding. Based on a literature review, this paper proposes a new paradigm for effective community engagement in Flood Risk Governance (FRG). This study contends that effective community participation can have an impact on various resilience capacities identified in the literature, including social capital, institutional capital, physical capital, natural capital, human capital, and economic capital. In the case of social capital, for example, successful community engagement can influence social capital through the process of social learning as well as through developing social networks and trust values, which are vital in influencing communities' capacity to resist, absorb, recover, and adapt. The study examines community engagement in Project Groundwater using surveys with local communities and documentary analysis to test this notion. The outcomes of the study will inform community involvement activities in Project Groundwater and may shape DEFRA policies and guidelines for community engagement in FRM.

Keywords: flood risk governance, community, resilience, groundwater flooding

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Authors: Preet Gill, Danus Ravindran

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These The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in widespread implications for medical specialist training programs worldwide, including radiology. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Australian and New Zealand radiology trainee experience and well-being, as well as to compare the Australasian experience with that reported by other countries. An anonymised electronic online questionnaire was disseminated to all training members of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists who were radiology trainees during the 2020 – 2022 clinical years. Trainees were questioned about their experience from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australasia (March 2020) to the time of survey completion. Participation was voluntary. Questions assessed the impact of the pandemic across multiple domains, including workload (inpatient/outpatient & individual modality volume), teaching, supervision, external learning opportunities, redeployment and trainee wellbeing. Survey responses were collated and compared with other peer reviewed publications. Answer options were primarily in categorical format (nominal and ordinal subtypes, as appropriate). An opportunity to provide free text answers to a minority of questions was provided. While our results mirror that of other countries, which demonstrated reduced case exposure and increased remote teaching and supervision, responses showed variation in the methods utilised by training sites during the height of the pandemic. A significant number of trainees were affected by examination cancellations/postponements and had subspecialty training rotations postponed. The majority of trainees felt that the pandemic had a negative effect on their training. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on radiology trainees across Australia and New Zealand. The present study has highlighted the extent of these effects, with most aspects of training impacted. Opportunities exist to utilise this information to create robust workplace strategies to mitigate these negative effects should the need arise in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, radiology, training, pandemic

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Authors: Samuel O. Akande

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The human-induced climate change is likely to have severe consequences on forest ecosystems in Nigeria. Recent discussions and emphasis on issues concerning the environment justify the need for this research which examined deforestation monitoring in Oban Forest, Nigeria using Remote Sensing techniques. The Landsat images from TM (1986), ETM+ (2001) and OLI (2015) sensors were obtained from Landsat online archive and processed using Erdas Imagine 2014 and ArcGIS 10.3 to obtain the land use/land cover and Normalized Differential Vegetative Index (NDVI) values. Ground control points of deforested areas were collected for validation. It was observed that the forest cover decreased in area by about 689.14 km² between 1986 and 2015. The NDVI was used to determine the vegetation health of the forest and its implications on agricultural sustainability. The result showed that the total percentage of the healthy forest cover has reduced to about 45.9% from 1986 to 2015. The results obtained from analysed questionnaires shown that there was a positive correlation between the causes and effects of deforestation in the study area. The coefficient of determination value was calculated as R² ≥ 0.7, to ascertain the level of anthropogenic activities, such as fuelwood harvesting, intensive farming, and logging, urbanization, and engineering construction activities, responsible for deforestation in the study area. Similarly, temperature and rainfall data were obtained from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) for the period of 1986 to 2015 in the study area. It was observed that there was a significant increase in temperature while rainfall decreased over the study area. Responses from the administered questionnaires also showed that futile destruction of forest ecosystem in Oban forest could be reduced to its barest minimum if fuelwood harvesting is disallowed. Thus, the projected impacts of climate change on Nigeria’s forest ecosystems and environmental stability is better imagined than experienced.

Keywords: deforestation, ecosystems, normalized differential vegetative index, sustainability

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Authors: K. Power, M. White, B. Dunleavey, E. Comerford, C. Doherty, N. Delanty, R. Corbridge, M. Fitzsimons

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Introduction: Providing people with access to their own healthcare information and engaging them as co-authors of their health record can promote better transparency, trust, and inclusivity in the healthcare system. With the advent of electronic health records, there is a move towards involving patients as partners in their healthcare by providing them with access to their own health data via electronic patient portals (ePortal). For example, a recently developed ePortal to the Irish National Epilepsy Electronic Patient Record (EPR) provides access to summary medical records, tools for Patient Reported Outcomes (PROM), health goal-setting and preparation for clinical appointments. Aim: To determine what people with epilepsy (their families/carers) value about the Irish epilepsy ePortal. Methods: A socio-technical process was employed recruiting 30 families of people with epilepsy who also have an intellectual disability (ID). Family members who are a care partner of the person with epilepsy (PWE) were invited to co-design, develop and implement the ePortal. Family members engaged in usability and utility testing which involved a face to face meeting to learn about the ePortal, register for a user account and evaluate its structure and content. Family members were instructed to login to the portal on at least two separate occasions following the meeting and to complete a self-report evaluation tool during this time. The evaluation tool, based on a Usability Questionnaire (Lewis, 1993), consists of a short assessment of comfort using technology, instructions for using the ePortal and some tasks to complete. Tasks included validating summary record details, assessing ePortal ease of use, evaluation of information presented. Participants were asked for suggestions on how to improve the portal and make it more applicable to PWE who also have an ID. Results: Family members responded positively to the ePortal and valued the ability to share information between clinicians and care partners; use the ePortal as a passport between different healthcare settings (e.g., primary care to hospital). In the context of elderly parents of PWE, the ePortal is valued as a tool for supporting shared care between family members. Participants welcomed the facility to log lists of questions and goals to discuss with the clinician at the next clinical appointment as a means of improving quality of care. Participants also suggested further enhancements to the ePortal such as access to clinic letters which can provide an aide memoir in terms of the careplan agreed with the clinical team. For example, through the ePortal, people could see what investigations or therapies are scheduled. Conclusion: The Epilepsy Patient Portal is accessible via a range of devices such as smartphones and tablets. ePortals have the potential to help personalise care, improve patient involvement in clinical decision making, engage them as quality and safety partners, and help clinicians be more responsive to patient needs. Acknowledgement: The epilepsy ePortal project is part of PISCES, a Lighthouse Project funded by eHealth Ireland and HSE to help build an understanding of the benefits of eHealth technologies in the Irish Healthcare System.

Keywords: electronic patient portal, electronic patient record, epilepsy, intellectual disability, usability testing

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Authors: Dina Tawfic, Robert Hassan

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The current chapter addresses Al-Azhar's strategy to counter extremism in tandem with reflecting on the ideology of the Islamic establishment itself. The topic is motivated by the fact that some of the Western governments have been relying on Al-Azhar to counter the ideology of Islamist radicalism and violent extremism, in particular during the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (known as ISIS/ ISIL/ Daesh) in 2014/2015. In his visit to Egypt in June 2016, Brett McGurk, the then U.S. envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, commended Al-Azhar’s “intellectual and reforming role” in refuting the ideology of extremism. On the other hand, Egyptian liberal intellectuals, such as Farag Fouda (1945- 1992) and Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid (1943-2010), had always questioned the ideological capability of Al-Azhar to counter extremism, citing the rigidity and resistance of the Islamic establishment to carry out genuine reformation. This chapter aims to discuss the following research questions: what is the strategy of Al-Azhar to counter extremism? Does Al-Azhar have a solid strategy to combat online propaganda produced by violent extremist groups? Is it applicable to identify Al-Azhar ideological identity? and is it capable of countering extremism? To answer these questions, I conducted intensive interviews with seven senior scholars and officials at Al-Azhar and the Endowments ministry from September to December 2020. Using a qualitative approach as a backdrop, this project uses semi-structured interviews to collect data. Participants were briefed on the purpose of the study and consented to be interviewed and to record their interviews. Some of the participants chose to conceal their names. All the interviews were conducted in Arabic via Zoom. The researcher then transcribed and translated the interviews into English. A purposive sample is used to select the seven interviewees, based on their prominence and experience in the field of counter-extremism and Al-Azhar affairs. The researcher uses a snowball sample to select the sample, in which a personal contact recommends other officials within the establishment.

Keywords: Al-Azhar, Egypt, Counter-Extremism, Political Islam, Ideology

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Authors: Vishal Pareek, Shubham Gupta, Sushil Chandra Jain

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With increasing high-speed computation demand the power consumption, heat dissipation and chip size issues are posing challenges for logic design with conventional technologies. Recovery of bit loss and bit errors is other issues that require reversibility and fault tolerance in the computation. The reversible computing is emerging as an alternative to conventional technologies to overcome the above problems and helpful in a diverse area such as low-power design, nanotechnology, quantum computing. Bit loss issue can be solved through unique input-output mapping which require reversibility and bit error issue require the capability of fault tolerance in design. In order to incorporate reversibility a number of combinational reversible logic based circuits have been developed. However, very few sequential reversible circuits have been reported in the literature. To make the circuit fault tolerant, a number of fault model and test approaches have been proposed for reversible logic. In this paper, we have attempted to incorporate fault tolerance in sequential reversible building blocks such as D flip-flop, T flip-flop, JK flip-flop, R-S flip-flop, Master-Slave D flip-flop, and double edge triggered D flip-flop by making them parity preserving. The importance of this proposed work lies in the fact that it provides the design of reversible sequential circuits completely testable for any stuck-at fault and single bit fault. In our opinion our design of reversible building blocks is superior to existing designs in term of quantum cost, hardware complexity, constant input, garbage output, number of gates and design of online testable D flip-flop have been proposed for the first time. We hope our work can be extended for building complex reversible sequential circuits.

Keywords: parity preserving gate, quantum computing, fault tolerance, flip-flop, sequential reversible logic

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Authors: Binh T. T. Nguyen, Zhenyu Li, Eric Yap, Yi Zhang, Ai-Qun Liu

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Silicon-photonic-sensor system is an emerging class of analytical technologies that use evanescent field wave to sensitively measure the slight difference in the surrounding environment. The wavelength shift induced by local refractive index change is used as an indicator in the system. These devices can be served as sensors for a wide variety of chemical or biomolecular detection in clinical and environmental fields. In our study, a system including a silicon-based micro-ring resonator, microfluidic channel, and optical processing is designed, fabricated for biomolecule detection. The system is demonstrated to detect Clostridium botulinum type A neurotoxin (BoNT) in different water sources. BoNT is one of the most toxic substances known and relatively easily obtained from a cultured bacteria source. The toxin is extremely lethal with LD50 of about 0.1µg/70kg intravenously, 1µg/ 70 kg by inhalation, and 70µg/kg orally. These factors make botulinum neurotoxins primary candidates as bioterrorism or biothreat agents. It is required to have a sensing system which can detect BoNT in a short time, high sensitive and automatic. For BoNT detection, silicon-based micro-ring resonator is modified with a linker for the immobilization of the anti-botulinum capture antibody. The enzymatic reaction is employed to increase the signal hence gains sensitivity. As a result, a detection limit to 30 pg/mL is achieved by our silicon-photonic sensor within a short period of 80 min. The sensor also shows high specificity versus the other type of botulinum. In the future, by designing the multifunctional waveguide array with fully automatic control system, it is simple to simultaneously detect multi-biomaterials at a low concentration within a short period. The system has a great potential to apply for online, real-time and high sensitivity for the label-free bimolecular rapid detection.

Keywords: biotoxin, photonic, ring resonator, sensor

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Authors: Francisco Julio Batle Lorente

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The present paper aims at presenting a new category of role for academia: proactive creator/promoter of communities of practice in emerging areas of innovation. It is based in research among practitioners in three different areas: social entrepreneurship, alumni engaged in entrepreneurship and innovation, and digital nomads. The concept of CoP is related to an intentionally created space to share experiences and collectively reflect on the cases arising from practice. Such an endeavour is not contemplated in the literature on academic roles in an explicit way. The goal of the paper is providing a framework for this function and throw some light on the perception and priorities of members of emerging communities (78 alumni, 154 social entrepreneurs, and 231 digital nomads) regarding community, learning, engagement, and networking, areas in which the university can help and, by doing so, contributing to signal the emerging area and creating new opportunities for the academia. The research methodology was based in Survey research. It is a specific type of field study that involves the collection of data from a sample of elements drawn from a well-defined population through the use of a questionnaire. It was considered that survey research might be valuable to the present project and help outline the utility of various study designs and future projects with the emerging communities that are the object of the investigation. Open questions were used for different topics, as well as critical incident technique. It was used a standard technique for survey sampling and questionnaire design. Finally, it was defined a procedure for pretesting questionnaires and for data collection. The questionnaire was channelled by means of google forms. The results indicate that the members of emerging, innovative CoPs and learning such the ones that were selected for this investigation lack cohesion, inspiration, networking, opportunities for creation of social capital, opportunities for collaboration beyond their existing and close network. The opportunity that arises for the academia from proactively helping articulate CoP (and Communities of learning) are related to key elements of any CoP/ CoL: community construction approaches, technological infrastructure, benefits, participation issues and urgent challenges, trust, networking, technical ability/training/development and collaboration. Beyond training, other three areas (networking, collaboration and urgent challenges) were the ones in which the contribution of universities to the communities were considered more interesting and workable to practitioners. The analysis of the responses for the open questions related to perception of the universities offer options for terra incognita to be explored for universities (signalling new areas, establishing broader collaborations with research, government, media and corporations, attracting investment). Based on the findings from this research, there is some evidence that CoPs can offer a formal and informal method of professional and interprofessional development for member of any emerging and innovative community and can decrease social and professional isolation. The opportunity that it offers to academia can increase the entrepreneurial and engaged university identity. It also moves to academia into a realm of civic confrontation of present and future challenges in a more proactive way.

Keywords: social innovation, new roles of academia, community of learning, community of practice

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Authors: Siti Zabedah Saidin, Aidi Ahmi, Azharudin Ali, Wan Norhayati Wan Ahmad

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In today's increasingly complex and interconnected world, the concept of sustainability has transcended mere corporate social responsibility, evolving into a fundamental driver of organizational behaviour and disclosure. This content analysis study delves into the Malaysian federal-level statutory bodies’ annual report for the year 2021, aiming to elucidate the extent of sustainability disclosures within the non-financial sections of these reports. The escalating global emphasis on sustainability has prompted organizations to embrace transparency as a means to demonstrate their commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. Voluntary sustainability disclosure has emerged as a crucial channel through which organizations communicate their efforts, initiatives, and impacts in these areas, thereby fostering trust and accountability with stakeholders. The study aims to identify and examine the types of sustainability information disclosed voluntarily by the federal-level statutory bodies, concentrating on the non-financial sections of the annual reports. To achieve this, the study adopts a simplified disclosure index, a pragmatic tool that quantifies the extent of sustainability reporting in a standardized manner. Using convenience sampling, the study selects a sample of annual reports from the federal-level statutory bodies in Malaysia, as provided on their respective websites. The content analysis is centred on the non-financial sections of these reports, allowing for an in-depth exploration of sustainability disclosures. The findings of the study present the extent to which Malaysian federal-level statutory bodies embrace sustainability reporting. Through thorough content analysis, the study uncovered diverse dimensions of sustainability information, encompassing environmental impact assessments, social engagement endeavours, and governance frameworks. This reveals a deliberate effort by these bodies to encapsulate their holistic organizational contributions and challenges, transcending traditional financial metrics. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the evolving landscape of sustainability disclosure practices among Malaysian federal-level statutory bodies. The findings underline the proactive nature of these bodies in voluntarily sharing sustainability-related information, reflecting their recognition of the interconnectedness between organizational success and societal well-being. Furthermore, the study underscores the potential influence of regulatory guidelines and societal expectations in shaping the extent and nature of voluntary sustainability disclosures. Organizations are not merely responding to regulatory mandates but are actively aligning with global sustainability goals and stakeholder expectations. As organizations continue to navigate the intricate web of stakeholder expectations and sustainability imperatives, this study enriches the discourse surrounding transparency and sustainability reporting. The analysis emphasizes the important role of non-financial disclosures in portraying a holistic organizational narrative. In an era where stakeholders demand accountability, and the interconnectedness of global challenges necessitates collaborative action, the voluntary disclosure of sustainability information stands as a testament to the commitment of Malaysian federal-level statutory bodies in shaping a more sustainable future.

Keywords: voluntary disclosure, sustainability information, annual report, federal-level statutory body

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Authors: Anna Rhodora A. Solar, Jan Emil N. Langomez

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Social Media plays a crucial role in influencing Philippine public opinion with regard to a variety of socio-political issues. This became evident in the massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF 44) tasked by the Philippine government to capture one of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted terrorists. The incident was said to be perpetrated by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Part of the online discourse within Philippine cyberspace sparked intense debates on Filipino Muslim identity, with several Facebook viral posts linking Islam as a factor to the tragic event. Facebook is considered to be the most popular social media platform in the Philippines. As such, this begs the question of the extent to which social media, specifically Facebook, shape the perceptions of Filipinos on Filipino Muslims. This study utilizes Habermas’ theory of communicative action as it offers an explanation on how public sphere such as social media could be a network for communicating information and points of view through free and open dialogue among equal citizens to come to an understanding or common perception. However, the paper argues that communicative action which is aimed at reaching understanding free from force, and strategic action which is aimed at convincing someone through argumentation may not necessarily be mutually exclusive since reaching an understanding can also be considered as a result of convincing someone through argumentation. Moreover, actors may clash one another in their ideas before reaching common understanding, hence the presence of force. Utilizing content analysis on the Facebook posts with Islamic component that went viral after the massacre of the SAF 44, this paper argues that framing the image of Filipino Muslims through Facebook reflects both communicative and strategic actions. Moreover, comment threads on viral posts manifest force albeit implicit.

Keywords: communication, Muslim, Philippines, social media

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Authors: Celeste Lawson

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Learning to embrace and value teamwork assessment at a university level is critical for students, as graduates enter a real-world working environment where teamwork is likely to occur virtually. Student disdain for teamwork exercises is an area often overlooked or disregarded by academics. This research explored the implementation of an online teamwork assessment approach at a regional Australian university with a significant cohort of Distance Education students. Students had disliked teamwork for three reasons: it was not relevant to their study, the grading was unfair amongst team members, and managing the task was challenging in a virtual environment. Teamwork assessment was modified so that the task was an authentic task that could occur in real-world practice; team selection was based on the task topic rather than randomly; grading was based on the individual’s contribution to the task, and students were provided virtual team management skills as part of a the assessment. In this way, management of the team became an output of the task itself. Data was gathered over three years from student satisfaction surveys, failure rates, attrition figures, and unsolicited student comments. In one unit where this approach was adopted (Advanced Public Relations), student satisfaction increased from 3.6 (out of 5) in 2012 to 4.6 in 2016, with positive comments made about the teamwork approach. The attrition rate for another unit (Public Relations and the Media) reduced from 20.7% in 2012 to 2.2% in 2015. In 2012, criticism of teamwork assessment made up 50% of negative student feedback in Public Relations and the Media. By 2015, following the successful implementation of the teamwork assessment approach, only 12.5% of negative comments on the student satisfaction survey were critical of teamwork, while 33% of positive comments related to a positive teamwork experience. In 2016, students explicitly nominated teamwork as the best part of this unit. The approach is transferable to other disciplines and was adopted by other academics within the institution with similar results.

Keywords: assessment, distance education, teamwork, virtual

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Authors: Panagiota Katsikouli, William Hamilton Byrne, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Tijs Slaats

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An individual who demonstrates a well-founded fear of persecution or faces real risk of being subjected to torture is eligible for asylum. In Danish law, the exact legal thresholds reflect those established by international conventions, notably the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1950 European Convention for Human Rights. These international treaties, however, remain largely silent when it comes to how states should assess asylum claims. As a result, national authorities are typically left to determine an individual’s legal eligibility on a narrow basis consisting of an oral testimony, which may itself be hampered by several factors, including imprecise language interpretation, insecurity or lacking trust towards the authorities among applicants. The leaky ground, on which authorities must assess their subjective perceptions of asylum applicants' credibility, questions whether, in all cases, adjudicators make the correct decision. Moreover, the subjective element in these assessments raises questions on whether individual asylum cases could be afflicted by implicit biases or stereotyping amongst adjudicators. In fact, recent studies have uncovered significant correlations between decision outcomes and the experience and gender of the assigned judge, as well as correlations between asylum outcomes and entirely external events such as weather and political elections. In this study, we analyze a publicly available dataset containing approximately 8,000 summaries of asylum cases, initially rejected, and re-tried by the Refugee Appeals Board (RAB) in Denmark. First, we look for variations in the recognition rates, with regards to a number of applicants’ features: their country of origin/nationality, their identified gender, their identified religion, their ethnicity, whether torture was mentioned in their case and if so, whether it was supported or not, and the year the applicant entered Denmark. In order to extract those features from the text summaries, as well as the final decision of the RAB, we applied natural language processing and regular expressions, adjusting for the Danish language. We observed interesting variations in recognition rates related to the applicants’ country of origin, ethnicity, year of entry and the support or not of torture claims, whenever those were made in the case. The appearance (or not) of significant variations in the recognition rates, does not necessarily imply (or not) bias in the decision-making progress. None of the considered features, with the exception maybe of the torture claims, should be decisive factors for an asylum seeker’s fate. We therefore investigate whether the decision can be predicted on the basis of these features, and consequently, whether biases are likely to exist in the decisionmaking progress. We employed a number of machine learning classifiers, and found that when using the applicant’s country of origin, religion, ethnicity and year of entry with a random forest classifier, or a decision tree, the prediction accuracy is as high as 82% and 85% respectively. tentially predictive properties with regards to the outcome of an asylum case. Our analysis and findings call for further investigation on the predictability of the outcome, on a larger dataset of 17,000 cases, which is undergoing.

Keywords: asylum adjudications, automated decision-making, machine learning, text mining

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Authors: Stavroula Stavropoulou-Tatla, Danyal Awal, Mohammad Ayaz Hossain

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The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic saw several countries issue guidance postponing all non-urgent diagnostic evaluations and operations, leading to an estimated backlog of 28 million cases worldwide and over 4 million in the UK alone. In an attempt to regulate the resumption of elective surgical activity, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) introduced the ‘COVID-19 rapid guideline [NG179]’. This project aimed to increase healthcare staff knowledge of the aforementioned guideline to a targeted score of 100% in the disseminated questionnaire within 3 months at the Royal Free Hospital. A standardized online questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge of surgical and medical staff at baseline and following each 4-week-long Plan-Study-Do-Act (PDSA) cycle. During PDSA1, the A4 visual summary accompanying the guideline was visibly placed in all relevant clinical areas and the full guideline was distributed to the staff in charge together with a short briefing on the salient points. PDSA2 involved brief small-group teaching sessions. A total of 218 responses was collected. Mean percentage scores increased significantly from 51±19% at baseline to 81±16% after PDSA1 (t=10.32, p<0.0001) and further to 93±8% after PDSA2 (t=4.9, p<0.0001), with 54% of participants achieving a perfect score. In conclusion, the targeted distribution of guideline printouts and visual aids, combined with small-group teaching sessions, were simple and effective ways of educating healthcare staff about the new standards of elective surgical care at the time of COVID-19. This could facilitate the safe restoration of surgical activity, which is critical in order to mitigate the far-reaching consequences of surgical delays on an unprecedented scale during a time of great crisis and uncertainty.

Keywords: COVID-19, elective surgery, NICE guidelines, quality improvement

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Authors: Miria Gambardella

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The influence of solidarity demonstrations towards the Zapatista National Liberation Army has been constantly present over the years, both locally and internationally, guaranteeing visibility to the cause, shaping the movement’s choices, and influencing its hopes of impact worldwide. Most of the coffee produced by the autonomous cooperatives from Chiapas is exported, therefore making coffee trade the main income from international solidarity networks. The question arises about the implications of the relations established between the communities in resistance in Southeastern Mexico and international solidarity movements, specifically on the strategies adopted to conciliate army's demands for autonomy and economic asymmetries between Zapatista cooperatives producing coffee and European collectives who hold purchasing power. In order to deepen the inquiry on those topics, a year-long multi-site investigation was carried out. The first six months of fieldwork were based in Barcelona, where Zapatista coffee was first traded in Spain and where one of the historical and most important European solidarity groups can be found. The last six months of fieldwork were carried out directly in Chiapas, in contact with coffee producers, Zapatista political authorities, international activists as well as vendors, and the rest of the network implicated in coffee production, roasting, and sale. The investigation was based on qualitative research methods, including participatory observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis did not only focus on retracing the steps of the market chain as if it could be considered a linear and unilateral process, but it rather aimed at exploring actors’ reciprocal perceptions, roles, and dynamics of power. Demonstrations of solidarity and the money circulation they imply aim at changing the system in place and building alternatives, among other things, on the economic level. This work analyzes the formulation of discourse and the organization of solidarity activities that aim at building opportunities for action within a highly politicized economic sphere to which access must be regularly legitimized. The meaning conveyed by coffee is constructed on a symbolic level by the attribution of moral criteria to transactions. The latter participate in the construction of imaginaries that circulate through solidarity movements with the Zapatista rebellion. Commercial exchanges linked to solidarity networks turned out to represent much more than monetary transactions. The social, cultural, and political spheres are invested by ethics, which penetrates all aspects of militant action. It is at this level that the boundaries of different collective actors connect, contaminating each other: merely following the money flow would have been limiting in order to account for a reality within which imaginary is one of the main currencies. The notions of “trust”, “dignity” and “reciprocity” are repeatedly mobilized to negotiate discontinuous and multidirectional flows in the attempt to balance and justify commercial relations in a politicized context that characterizes its own identity through demonizing “market economy” and its dehumanizing powers.

Keywords: coffee trade, economic anthropology, international cooperation, Zapatista National Liberation Army

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Authors: Caroline Atef Shoukry Tadros

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Massive Urbanization growth threatens the sustainability of cities and the quality of city life. This raised the need for an alternate model of sustainability, so we need to plan the future cities in a smarter way with smarter mobility. Smart Mobility planning applications are solutions that use digital technologies and infrastructure advances to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and inclusiveness of urban transportation systems. They can contribute to meeting the needs of Urbanization growth by addressing the challenges of traffic congestion, pollution, accessibility, and safety in cities. Some example of a Smart Mobility planning application are Mobility-as-a-service: This is a service that integrates different transport modes, such as public transport, shared mobility, and active mobility, into a single platform that allows users to plan, book, and pay for their trips. This can reduce the reliance on private cars, optimize the use of existing infrastructure, and provide more choices and convenience for travelers. MaaS Global is a company that offers mobility-as-a-service solutions in several cities around the world. Traffic flow optimization: This is a solution that uses data analytics, artificial intelligence, and sensors to monitor and manage traffic conditions in real-time. This can reduce congestion, emissions, and travel time, as well as improve road safety and user satisfaction. Waycare is a platform that leverages data from various sources, such as connected vehicles, mobile applications, and road cameras, to provide traffic management agencies with insights and recommendations to optimize traffic flow. Logistics optimization: This is a solution that uses smart algorithms, blockchain, and IoT to improve the efficiency and transparency of the delivery of goods and services in urban areas. This can reduce the costs, emissions, and delays associated with logistics, as well as enhance the customer experience and trust. ShipChain is a blockchain-based platform that connects shippers, carriers, and customers and provides end-to-end visibility and traceability of the shipments. Autonomous vehicles: This is a solution that uses advanced sensors, software, and communication systems to enable vehicles to operate without human intervention. This can improve the safety, accessibility, and productivity of transportation, as well as reduce the need for parking space and infrastructure maintenance. Waymo is a company that develops and operates autonomous vehicles for various purposes, such as ride-hailing, delivery, and trucking. These are some of the ways that Smart Mobility planning applications can contribute to meeting the needs of the Urbanization growth. However, there are also various opportunities and challenges related to the implementation and adoption of these solutions, such as the regulatory, ethical, social, and technical aspects. Therefore, it is important to consider the specific context and needs of each city and its stakeholders when designing and deploying Smart Mobility planning applications.

Keywords: smart mobility planning, smart mobility applications, smart mobility techniques, smart mobility tools, smart transportation, smart cities, urbanization growth, future smart cities, intelligent cities, ICT information and communications technologies, IoT internet of things, sensors, lidar, digital twin, ai artificial intelligence, AR augmented reality, VR virtual reality, robotics, cps cyber physical systems, citizens design science

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Authors: Maria L. Ulloa, Ruth M. Crawford, Stephanie Kelly, Joey Domdom

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In recent decades health and social service delivery have become more collaborative and interdisciplinary. Emerging trends suggest the need for an integrative and interprofessional approach to meet the challenges faced by professionals navigating the complexities of health and social service practice environments. Terms such as multidisciplinary practice, interprofessional collaboration, interprofessional education and transprofessional practice have become the common language used across a range of social services and health providers in western democratic systems. In Aotearoa New Zealand, one example of an interprofessional collaborative approach to curriculum design and delivery in health and social service is the development of an innovative Masters of Professional Practice programme. This qualification is the result of a strategic partnership between two tertiary institutions – Whitireia New Zealand (NZ) and the Wellington Institute of Technology (Weltec) in Wellington. The Master of Professional Practice programme was designed and delivered from the perspective of a collaborative, interprofessional and relational approach. Teachers and students in the programme come from a diverse range of cultural, professional and personal backgrounds and are engaged in courses using a blended learning approach that incorporates the values and pedagogies of interprofessional education. Students are actively engaged in professional practice while undertaking the programme. This presentation describes the themes of exploratory qualitative formative observations of engagement in class and online, student assessments, student research projects, as well as qualitative interviews with the programme teaching staff. These formative findings reveal the development of critical practice skills around the common themes of the programme: research and evidence based practice, education, leadership, working with diversity and advancing critical reflection of professional identities and interprofessional practice. This presentation will provide evidence of enhanced learning experiences in higher education and learning in multi-disciplinary contexts.

Keywords: diversity, exploratory research, interprofessional education, professional identity

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Authors: Aisha Iddrsiu

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Public Relations (PR) has rapidly evolved around the world, just as companies have expanded to reach other parts of the world. With most multinational corporations conducting businesses in more than one country, only a few of these Multinational Corporations (MNC’s) are actual public relations firms, many have public relations departments or divisions that conduct public relations practices internationally. Hence international public relations is seen as a fast-growing specialty in the field of Public Relations. Multinational companies have devised strategies to effectively communicate and execute their roles within and between foreign publics and other cultures in which they operate through various means including the internet which is among the major inventions that have enabled corporations to establish their presents while targeting anonymous and diverse publics from varied cultures. International public relations practitioners rely on strategies coupled with internet use to communicate among and with foreign publics. Corporate websites and various social media handles have served as an important channel for public relations activities targeting both internal and international publics. In an incessant expansion of corporations and interactions with the publics from different cultures, it has become eminent to understand the public relation strategies used by MNCs in their international communication. This study therefore seeks to establish the international public relation strategies or models employed by Multinational Corporations specifically Arcelik Global in the management of its subsidiaries and communicating with international public. This study analyses both Arçelik global’s (one of the largest multinational companies in Turkey) website and social media accounts to understand the management strategy used with it subsidiary as well as strategies used to communicate with its global and local publics. Other underlying objective of this study are, 1. To examine the dominant international public relations models used by Multinational Corporations (Arcelik global). 2. To understand how Multinational Corporations manage (Arcelik global) its subsidiaries. 3. To understand how Multinational Corporations (Arcelik global) communicate with international or global publics. Research Questions 1. The main global PR strategies employed by multinational corporations (Arcelik global) 2. How subsidiaries of multinational corporations like Arcelik Global are managed. 3. How multinational corporations, like Arcelik worldwide, interact with international publics.

Keywords: multinational corporation, ethnocentric model, polycentric model, international public relations

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Authors: Tanveer Ahmed Choudhury

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Background: Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world, with high population density and high rates of poverty and illiteracy. 80% of the country is on low-lying floodplains, leaving the country one of the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change: sea level rise, cyclones and storms, salinity intrusion, rising temperatures and heavy monsoon downpours. Such climatic events already limit Economic Development in the country. Although Bangladesh has had little responsibility in contributing to global climatic change, it is vulnerable to both its direct and indirect impacts. Real threats include reduced agricultural production, worsening food security, increased incidence of flooding and drought, spreading disease and an increased risk of conflict over scarce land and water resources. Currently, 8.3 million Bangladeshis live in cyclone high risk areas. However, by 2050 this is expected to grow to 20.3 million people, if proper adaptive actions are not taken. Under a high emissions scenario, an additional 7.6 million people will be exposed to very high salinity by 2050 compared to current levels. It is also projected that, an average of 7.2 million people will be affected by flooding due to sea level rise every year between 2070-2100 and If global emissions decrease rapidly and adaptation interventions are taken, the population affected by flooding could be limited to only about 14,000 people. To combat the climate change adverse effects, Bangladesh government has initiated many adaptive measures specially in infrastructure and renewable energy sector. Government is investing huge money and initiated many projects which have been proved very success full. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some successful measures initiated by Bangladesh government in its effort to make the country a Climate Resilient. Methodology: Review of operation plan and activities of different relevant Ministries of Bangladesh government. Result: The following initiative projects, programs and activities are considered as best practices for Climate Change adaptation successes for Bangladesh: 1. The Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL); 2. Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit (CCHPU); 3. The Climate Change Trust Fund (CCTF); 4. Community Climate Change Project (CCCP); 5. Health, Population, Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP, 2011-2016)- "Climate Change and Environmental Issues"; 6. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh and WHO Collaboration; - National Adaptation Plan. -"Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through resilient WASH". 7. COP-21 “Climate and health country profile -2015 Bangladesh. Conclusion: Due to a vast coastline, low-lying land and abundance of rivers, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change. Having extensive experience with facing natural disasters, Bangladesh has developed a successful adaptation program, which led to a significant reduction in casualties from extreme weather events. In a low income country setting, Bangladesh had successfully adapted various projects and initiatives to combat future Climate Change challenges.

Keywords: climate, change, success, Bangladesh

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Authors: Alvaro Armenta-Ramade, Arturo Serrano-Santoyo, Veronica Rojas-Mendizabal, Roberto Conte-Galvan

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The availability and affordability of commercial off-the-shell products have brought a major impetus in the development of university projects related to the design, construction and launching of small satellites on a global scale. Universities in emerging economies as well as in least developed countries have been able to develop prototypes of small satellites (cubesats and cansats) with limited budgets. The experience gained in the development of small satellites gives rise to capacity building for designing more complex aerospace systems. This trend has significantly increased the pace and number of aerospace university projects around the world. In the case of Mexico, projects funded by different agencies have been very effective in accelerating the capacity building and technology transfer initiatives in the aerospace ecosystem. However, many of this initiatives have centered their efforts in technology development matters with minimum or no considerations of key regulatory issues related to frequency assignment, management and licensing, as well as launching requirements and measures of mitigation of space debris. These regulatory concerns are fundamental to accomplish successful missions that take into account the complete value chain of an aerospace project. The purpose of this paper is to develop a regulatory framework to support the efforts of educational institutions working on the development of small satellites in Mexico. We base our framework on recommendations from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and other major actors of the Mexican regulatory ecosystem. In order to develop an integrated and cohesive framework, we draw on complexity science to identify the agents, their role and interactions. Our goal is to create a guiding instrument available both in print and online that can also be used in other regions of the world

Keywords: capacity building, complexity science, cubesats, space regulations, small satellites

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