Search results for: vision perception

Authors: Remi Szauer

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Introductory, Background, and Importance of the Study: For many years, religiosity in Poland remained at a stable level of religious practice. When the symptoms of secularization and privatization processes appeared in Poland, it was not clearly felt but rather related to the decline in compulsory practices carried out in public, the growing distance of respondents to catholic ethic, and the lack of acceptance regarding the intervention of the Church in legislation and policy. The basic indicators observed over the years kept the picture: more religious women - less religious men. By carrying out own research in the field of religious and moral attitudes in 2019-2021, it was noticed that a reversal of the trend preserved over the years could be observed. The data showed that women under 40 are radically different in their responses than women older than them - especially those over 50: in terms of practices or ties with the Church and many more specific aspects. This became the basis for a careful examination of the responses in the under 40 age cohorts among women. This study is significant because it shows completely new perspectives of women's perception of religiosity and allows us to notice clearly the aspects of social changes mapped in the minds of the surveyed women. Research Methodology: The original survey was carried out using the quantitative method among 2,346 respondents in northern Poland, 1,349 of whom were women. The findings from these observations led to deepening the topic of beliefs of women under 40 compared to other age cohorts of women. Hence, studies were carried out on the general population of women in Poland, which constituted a comparative sample. These were panel studies. The selection of the sample among women was random, respecting the age amounts so that the two statistical groups could be compared. The designated research parameters included: declarations of religious faith, declarations of religious practice, bond with the Church, acceptance of Mariological dogmas, attitude towards the image of women in the Church, and acceptance of selected issues in Catholic ethics. Main Research Findings: Among women under 40, the decline in declarations not only concerning compulsory public practices but also private practices and declarations of religious faith is more pronounced. Not only is the range of indifferent religious attitudes increasing, but also attitudes directly declaring religious disbelief, for which there are important justifications. Women under 40 years of age strongly distance themselves from the institutions of the Church and from accepting Mariological dogmas. Moreover, they note that the image of a woman is marked by stereotyping, favoring the intensification of violence against women, as well as disregarding her potential and agency. Concluding Statement: By analyzing the answers of the female respondents and the data obtained in the research, it can be observed a reevaluation of women's beliefs, which opens the perspective of analyzing the role of religion and the Church in Poland as well as religious socialization.

Keywords: religiosity, morality, gender, feminism, social change

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Authors: U. E. Mochalova, A. V. Demeneva, Shilkin A. G., J. Yu. Artiushina

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Objective. In medical ophthalmology OCT has been actively used in the last decade. It is a modern non-invasive method of high-precision hardware examination, which gives a detailed cross-sectional image of eye tissues structure with a high level of resolution, which provides in vivo morphological information at the microscopic level about corneal tissue, structures of the anterior segment, retina and optic nerve. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of using the OCT technology in complex ophthalmological examination in dogs and cats, to characterize the revealed pathological structural changes in corneal tissue in cats and dogs with some of the most common corneal diseases. Procedures. Optical coherence tomography of the cornea was performed in 112 animals: 68 dogs and 44 cats. In total, 224 eyes were examined. Pathologies of the organ of vision included: dystrophy and degeneration of the cornea, endothelial corneal dystrophy, dry eye syndrome, chronic superficial vascular keratitis, pigmented keratitis, corneal erosion, ulcerative stromal keratitis, corneal sequestration, chronic glaucoma and also postoperative period after performed keratoplasty. When performing OCT, we used certified medical devices: "Huvitz HOCT-1/1F», «Optovue iVue 80» and "SOCT Copernicus Revo (60)". Results. The results of a clinical study on the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT)of the cornea in cats and dogs, performed by the authors of the article in the complex diagnosis of keratopathies of variousorigins: endothelial corneal dystrophy, pigmented keratitis, chronic keratoconjunctivitis, chronic herpetic keratitis, ulcerative keratitis, traumatic corneal damage, sequestration of the cornea of cats, chronic keratitis, complicating the course of glaucoma. The characteristics of the OCT scans are givencorneas of cats and dogs that do not have corneal pathologies. OCT scans of various corneal pathologies in dogs and cats with a description of the revealed pathological changes are presented. Of great clinical interest are the data obtained during OCT of the cornea of animals undergoing keratoplasty operations using various forms of grafts. Conclusions. OCT makes it possible to assess the thickness and pathological structural changes of the corneal surface epithelium, corneal stroma and descemet membrane. We can measure them, determine the exact localization, and record pathological changes. Clinical observation of the dynamics of the pathological process in the cornea using OCT makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of drug treatment. In case of negative dynamics of corneal disease, it is necessary to determine the indications for surgical treatment (to assess the thickness of the cornea, the localization of its thinning zones, to characterize the depth and area of pathological changes). According to the OCT of the cornea, it is possible to choose the optimal surgical treatment for the patient, the technique and depth of optically constructive surgery (penetrating or anterior lamellar keratoplasty).; determine the depth and diameter of the planned microsurgical trepanation of corneal tissue, which will ensure good adaptation of the edges of the donor material.

Keywords: optical coherence tomography, corneal sequestration, optical coherence tomography of the cornea, corneal transplantation, cat, dog

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Authors: M. Mortas, H. Asar, P. Dursun Cebi

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The visionary works of architectural representation in the 21st century's present situation, are practiced through the methodologies which try to expose the intellectual and theoretical essences of futurologist positions that are revealed with this era's interactions. Expansions of conceptual and contextual inputs related to one architectural design representation, depend on its deepness of critical attitudes, its interactions with the concepts such as experience, meaning, affection, psychology, perception and aura, as well as its communication with spatial, cultural and environmental factors. The purpose of this research study is to be able to offer methodological application areas for the design dimensions of experiential practices into architectural design studios, by focusing on the architectural representative narrations of 'transformation,' 'metamorphosis,' 'morphogenesis,' 'in-betweenness', 'superposition' and 'intertwine’ in which they affect and are affected by the today’s spatiotemporal hybridizations of architecture. The narrative representations and the visual theory paradigms of the designers are chosen under the main title of 'transformation' for the investigation of these visionary and critical representations' dismantlings and decodings. Case studies of this research area are chosen from Neil Spiller, Bryan Cantley, Perry Kulper and Dan Slavinsky’s transformative, morphogenetic representations. The theoretical dismantlings and decodings which are obtained from these artists’ contemporary architectural representations are tried to utilize and practice in the structural design studios as alternative methodologies when to approach architectural design processes, for enriching, differentiating, diversifying and 'transforming' the applications of so far used design process precedents. The research aims to indicate architectural students about how they can reproduce, rethink and reimagine their own representative lexicons and so languages of their architectural imaginations, regarding the newly perceived tectonics of prosthetic, biotechnology, synchronicity, nanotechnology or machinery into various experiential design workshops. The methodology of this work can be thought as revealing the technical and theoretical tools, lexicons and meanings of contemporary-visionary architectural representations of our decade, with the essential contents and components of hermeneutics, etymology, existentialism, post-humanism, phenomenology and avant-gardism disciplines to re-give meanings the architectural visual theorists’ transformative representations of our decade. The value of this study may be to emerge the superposed and overlapped atmospheres of futurologist architectural representations for the students who need to rethink on the transcultural, deterritorialized and post-humanist critical theories to create and use the representative visual lexicons of themselves for their architectural soft machines and beings by criticizing the now, to be imaginative for the future of architecture.

Keywords: architectural design studio, visionary lexicon, narrative architecture, transformative representation

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Authors: Joe Dorbor Wuokolo

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Thousands of smallholder farmers in Todee District, Montserrado county, are currently vulnerable to the negative impact of climate change. The district, which is the agricultural hot spot for the county, is faced with unfavorable changes in the daily temperature due to climate change. Farmers in the district have observed a dramatic change in the ratio of rainfall to sunshine, which has caused a chilling effect on their crop yields. However, there is a lack of documentation regarding how farmers perceive and respond to these changes and challenges. A study was conducted in the region to examine the perceptions of smallholder farmers regarding the negative impact of climate change, the adaptation strategies practice, and the barriers that hinder the process of advancing adaptation strategy. On purpose, a sample of 41 respondents from five towns was selected, including five town chiefs, five youth leaders, five women leaders, and sixteen community members. Women and youth leaders were specifically chosen to provide gender balance and enhance the quality of the investigation. Additionally, to validate the barriers farmers face during adaptation to climate change, this study interviewed eight experts from local and international organizations and government ministries and agencies involved in climate change and agricultural programs on what they perceived as the major barrier in both local and national level that impede farmers adaptation to climate change impact. SPSS was used to code the data, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The weighted average index (WAI) was used to rank adaptation strategies and the perceived importance of adaptation practices among farmers. On a scale from 0 to 3, 0 indicates the least important technique, and 3 indicates the most effective technique. In addition, the Problem Confrontation Index (PCI) was used to rank the barriers that prevented farmers from implementing adaptation measures. According to the findings, approximately 60% of all respondents considered the use of irrigation systems to be the most effective adaptation strategy, with drought-resistant varieties making up 30% of the total. Additionally, 80% of respondents placed a high value on drought-resistant varieties, while 63% percent placed it on irrigation practices. In addition, 78% of farmers ranked and indicated that unpredictability of the weather is the most significant barrier to their adaptation strategies, followed by the high cost of farm inputs and lack of access to financing facilities. 80% of respondents believe that the long-term changes in precipitation (rainfall) and temperature (hotness) are accelerating. This suggests that decision-makers should adopt policies and increase the capacity of smallholder farmers to adapt to the negative impact of climate change in order to ensure sustainable food production.

Keywords: adaptation strategies, climate change, farmers’ perception, smallholder farmers

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Authors: Emily Cherono Sawe, Elisha Ondieki Makori

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Knowledge and digital economies have brought challenges and potential opportunities for universities to innovate and improve the quality of learning. Disruption technologies and information dynamics continue to transform and change the landscape in teaching, scholarship, and research activities across universities. Digital literacy is a fundamental and imperative element in higher education and training, as witnessed during the new norm. COVID-19 caused unprecedented disruption in universities, where teaching and learning depended on digital innovations and applications. Academic services and activities were provided online, including library information services. Information professionals were forced to adopt various digital platforms in order to provide information services to patrons. University libraries’ roles in fulfilling educational responsibilities continue to evolve in response to changes in pedagogy, technology, economy, society, policies, and strategies of parent institutions. Libraries are currently undergoing considerable transformational change as a result of the inclusion of a digital environment. Academic libraries have been at the forefront of providing online learning resources and online information services, as well as supporting students and staff to develop digital literacy skills via online courses, tutorials, and workshops. Digital literacy transformation and information staff are crucial elements reminiscent of the prioritization of skills and knowledge for lifelong learning. The purpose of this baseline research is to assess the implications of digital literacy transformation in institutions of higher learning in Kenya and share appropriate strategies to leverage and sustain teaching and research. Objectives include examining the leverage and preparedness of the digital literacy environment in streamlining learning in the universities, exploring and benchmarking imperative digital competence for information professionals, establishing the perception of information professionals towards digital literacy skills, and determining lessons, best practices, and strategies to accelerate digital literacy transformation for effective research and learning in the universities. The study will adopt a descriptive research design using questionnaires and document analysis as the instruments for data collection. The targeted population is librarians and information professionals, as well as academics in public and private universities teaching information literacy programmes. Data and information are to be collected through an online structured questionnaire and digital face-to-face interviews. Findings and results will provide promising lessons together with best practices and strategies to transform and change digital literacies in university libraries in Kenya.

Keywords: digital literacy, digital innovations, information professionals, librarians, higher education, university libraries, digital information literacy

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Authors: George Zhou, Yunchan Chen, Candace Chien

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Kidney replacement therapy is the current standard of care for end-stage renal diseases. In-center or home hemodialysis remains an integral component of the therapeutic regimen. Arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) make up the vascular circuit through which blood is filtered and returned. Naturally, AVF patency determines whether adequate clearance and filtration can be achieved and directly influences clinical outcomes. Our aim was to build a deep learning model for automated AVF stenosis screening based on the sound of blood flow through the AVF. A total of 311 patients with AVF were enrolled in this study. Blood flow sounds were collected using a digital stethoscope. For each patient, blood flow sounds were collected at 6 different locations along the patient’s AVF. The 6 locations are artery, anastomosis, distal vein, middle vein, proximal vein, and venous arch. A total of 1866 sounds were collected. The blood flow sounds are labeled as “patent” (normal) or “stenotic” (abnormal). The labels are validated from concurrent ultrasound. Our dataset included 1527 “patent” and 339 “stenotic” sounds. We show that blood flow sounds vary significantly along the AVF. For example, the blood flow sound is loudest at the anastomosis site and softest at the cephalic arch. Contextualizing the sound with location metadata significantly improves classification performance. How to encode and incorporate categorical metadata is an active area of research1. Herein, we study ordinal (i.e., integer) encoding schemes. The numerical representation is concatenated to the flattened feature vector. We train a vision transformer (ViT) on spectrogram image representations of the sound and demonstrate that using scalar multiples of our integer encodings improves classification performance. Models are evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. The baseline performance of our ViT without any location metadata achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.68 ± 0.05 and 0.28 ± 0.09, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 1; Proximal: 2; Middle: 3; Distal 4: Anastomosis: 5, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.69 ± 0.06 and 0.30 ± 0.10, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 10; Proximal: 20; Middle: 30; Distal 40: Anastomosis: 50, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.74 ± 0.06 and 0.38 ± 0.10, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 100; Proximal: 200; Middle: 300; Distal 400: Anastomosis: 500, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.78 ± 0.06 and 0.43 ± 0.11. respectively. Interestingly, we see that using increasing scalar multiples of our integer encoding scheme (i.e., encoding “venous arch” as 1,10,100) results in progressively improved performance. In theory, the integer values do not matter since we are optimizing the same loss function; the model can learn to increase or decrease the weights associated with location encodings and converge on the same solution. However, in the setting of limited data and computation resources, increasing the importance at initialization either leads to faster convergence or helps the model escape a local minimum.

Keywords: arteriovenous fistula, blood flow sounds, metadata encoding, deep learning

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Authors: Gerhard D. Muller, Nadine C. Sonnenberg, Suné Donoghue

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This study delves into the intricacies of male and female consumers’ perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the South African clothing retail sector, a sector experiencing increasing consumption, yet facing significant environmental and social challenges. The aim is to discern between male and female consumers’ perceptions of clothing retailers’ CSR initiatives based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework, which evaluates organizational sustainability across social, environmental, and economic domains. Methodologically, the study is embedded in a quantitative research paradigm adopting a cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit male and female respondents from a diverse South African demographic background. A structured questionnaire was developed and included established consumer CSR perception scales that were adapted for the purposes of this study. The questionnaire was distributed via online platforms. The data collected from the online survey, were split by gender to allow for comparison between male and female consumers’ perceptions of clothing retailers’ CSR initiatives. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on each of the datasets. The EFA for females revealed a five-factor solution, whereas the male EFA presented a six-factor solution, with the notable addition of an Economic Performance dimension. Results indicate subtle differences in the gender groups’ CSR perceptions. While both genders seem to value clothing retailers’ focus on quality services, females seem to have more pronounced perceptions surrounding clothing retailers’ contributions to social and environmental causes. Males, on the other hand, seem to be more discerning in their perceptions surrounding clothing retailers’ support of social and environmental causes. Ethical stakeholder relationships emerged as a shared concern across genders. Still, males presented a distinct factor, Economic Performance, highlighting a gendered divergence in the weighting of economic success and financial performance in CSR evaluation. The implications of these results are multifaceted. Theoretically, the study enriches the discourse on CSR by integrating gender insights into the TBL framework, offering a greater understanding of consumers’ CSR perceptions in the South African clothing retail context. Practically, it provides actionable insights for clothing retailers, suggesting that CSR initiatives should be gender-sensitive and communicate the TBL's elements effectively to resonate with the pertinent concerns of each segment. Additionally, the findings advocate for a contextualized approach to CSR in emerging markets that aligns with local cultural and social differences.

Keywords: consumer perceptions, corporate Social responsibility, gender differentiation, triple bottom line

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Authors: İsmail Seçer, Taştan Seçer

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In this study, the effect of the group counseling on the victimhood perceptions of the primary school 7th and 8th grade students who are determined to be the subject of peer victimization and their dealing way with it was analyzed. The research model is Solomon Four Group Experimental Model. In this model, there are four groups that were determined with random sampling. Two of the groups have been used as experimental group and the other two have been used as control group. Solomon model is defined as real experimental model. In real experimental models, there are multiple groups consisting of subject which have similar characteristics, and selection of the subjects is done with random sampling. For this purpose, 230 students from Kültür Kurumu Primary School in Erzurum were asked to fill Adolescent Peer Victim Form. 100 students whose victim scores were higher and who were determined to be the subject of bullying were talked face to face and informed about the current study, and they were asked if they were willing to participate or not. As a result of these interviews, 60 students were determined to participate in the experimental study and four group consisting of 15 people were created with simple random sampling method. After the groups had been formed, experimental and control group were determined with casting lots. After determining experimental and control groups, an 11-session group counseling activity which was prepared by the researcher according to the literature was applied. The purpose of applying group counseling is to change the ineffective dealing ways with bullying and their victimhood perceptions. Each session was planned to be 75 minutes and applied as planned. In the control groups, counseling activities in the primary school counseling curricula was applied for 11 weeks. As a result of the study, physical, emotional and verbal victimhood perceptions of the participants in the experimental groups were decreased significantly compared to pre-experimental situations and to those in control group. Besides, it was determined that this change observed in the victimhood perceptions of the experimental group occurred independently from the effect of variables such as gender, age and academic success. The first evidence of the study related to the dealing ways is that the scores of the participants in the experimental group related to the ineffective dealing ways such as despair and avoidance is decreased significantly compared to the pre-experimental situation and to those in control group. The second evidence related to the dealing ways is that the scores of the participants in the experimental group related to effective dealing ways such as seeking for help, consulting social support, resistance and optimism is increased significantly compared to the pre-experimental situation and to those in control group. According to the evidence obtained through the study, it can be said that group counseling is an effective approach to change the victimhood perceptions of the individuals who are the subject of bullying and their dealing strategies with it.

Keywords: bullying, perception of victimization, coping strategies, ancova analysis

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Authors: Fadwa Al Bawardi

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In March 2021, the Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers issued a decision to form a committee called the "Higher Committee for Research, Development and Innovation," a committee linked to the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, chaired by the Chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, and concerned with the development of the research, development and innovation sector in the Kingdom. In order to talk about the dimensions of this wonderful step, let us first try to answer the following questions. Is there a difference between creativity and innovation..? What are the factors of creativity in the individual. Are they mental genetic factors or are they factors that an individual acquires through learning..? The methodology included surveys that have been conducted on more than 500 individuals, males and females, between the ages of 18 till 60. And the answer is. "Creativity" is the creation of a new idea, while "Innovation" is the development of an already existing idea in a new, successful way. They are two sides of the same coin, as the "creative idea" needs to be developed and transformed into an "innovation" in order to achieve either strategic achievements at the level of countries and institutions to enhance organizational intelligence, or achievements at the level of individuals. For example, the beginning of smart phones was just a creative idea from IBM in 1994, but the actual successful innovation for the manufacture, development and marketing of these phones was through Apple later. Nor does creativity have to be hereditary. There are three basic factors for creativity: The first factor is "the presence of a challenge or an obstacle" that the individual faces and seeks thinking to find solutions to overcome, even if thinking requires a long time. The second factor is the "environment surrounding" of the individual, which includes science, training, experience gained, the ability to use techniques, as well as the ability to assess whether the idea is feasible or otherwise. To achieve this factor, the individual must be aware of own skills, strengths, hobbies, and aspects in which one can be creative, and the individual must also be self-confident and courageous enough to suggest those new ideas. The third factor is "Experience and the Ability to Accept Risk and Lack of Initial Success," and then learn from mistakes and try again tirelessly. There are some tools and techniques that help the individual to reach creative and innovative ideas, such as: Mind Maps tool, through which the available information is drawn by writing a short word for each piece of information and arranging all other relevant information through clear lines, which helps in logical thinking and correct vision. There is also a tool called "Flow Charts", which are graphics that show the sequence of data and expected results according to an ordered scenario of events and workflow steps, giving clarity to the ideas, their sequence, and what is expected of them. There are also other great tools such as the Six Hats tool, a useful tool to be applied by a group of people for effective planning and detailed logical thinking, and the Snowball tool. And all of them are tools that greatly help in organizing and arranging mental thoughts, and making the right decisions. It is also easy to learn, apply and use all those tools and techniques to reach creative and innovative solutions. The detailed figures and results of the conducted surveys are available upon request, with charts showing the %s based on gender, age groups, and job categories.

Keywords: innovation, creativity, factors, tools

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Authors: Yi Wang, Greg Hearn, Terry Flew

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In order to understand how cultural innovation occurs, this paper explores the interaction in Shenzhen of China between universities, creative industries, and government in creative economic using the Triple Helix framework. During the past two decades, Triple Helix has been recognized as a new theory of innovation to inform and guide policy-making in national and regional development. Universities and governments around the world, especially in developing countries, have taken actions to strengthen connections with creative industries to develop regional economies. To date research based on the Triple Helix model has focused primarily on Science and Technology collaborations, largely ignoring other fields. Hence, there is an opportunity for work to be done in seeking to better understand how the Triple Helix framework might apply in the field of creative industries and what knowledge might be gleaned from such an undertaking. Since the late 1990s, the concept of ‘creative industries’ has been introduced as policy and academic discourse. The development of creative industries policy by city agencies has improved city wealth creation and economic capital. It claims to generate a ‘new economy’ of enterprise dynamics and activities for urban renewal through the arts and digital media, via knowledge transfer in knowledge-based economies. Creative industries also involve commercial inputs to the creative economy, to dynamically reshape the city into an innovative culture. In particular, this paper will concentrate on creative spaces (incubators, digital tech parks, maker spaces, art hubs) where academic, industry and government interact. China has sought to enhance the brand of their manufacturing industry in cultural policy. It aims to transfer the image of ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’ as well as to give Chinese brands more international competitiveness in a global economy. Shenzhen is a notable example in China as an international knowledge-based city following this path. In 2009, the Shenzhen Municipal Government proposed the city slogan ‘Build a Leading Cultural City”’ to show the ambition of government’s strong will to develop Shenzhen’s cultural capacity and creativity. The vision of Shenzhen is to become a cultural innovation center, a regional cultural center and an international cultural city. However, there has been a lack of attention to the triple helix interactions in the creative industries in China. In particular, there is limited knowledge about how interactions in creative spaces co-location within triple helix networks significantly influence city based innovation. That is, the roles of participating institutions need to be better understood. Thus, this paper discusses the interplay between university, creative industries and government in Shenzhen. Secondary analysis and documentary analysis will be used as methods in an effort to practically ground and illustrate this theoretical framework. Furthermore, this paper explores how are creative spaces being used to implement Triple Helix in creative industries. In particular, the new combination of resources generated from the synthesized consolidation and interactions through the institutions. This study will thus provide an innovative lens to understand the components, relationships and functions that exist within creative spaces by applying Triple Helix framework to the creative industries.

Keywords: cultural policy, creative industries, creative city, triple Helix

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Authors: Mohamed Adel Ahmed, Warda Youssef Morsy , Hanaa Ali El Feky

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Background: Literature review cited that sleep is absolutely essential for surviving and reclamation of the quality of life. Critically ill patients often have poor sleep quality with prolonged sleep latency, sleep fragmentation, decreased sleep efficiency and frequent arousals. Nurses have a unique role for the early diagnosis of sleep disorders, decreasing stressors levels and providing the necessary environmental regulations to create a therapeutic ambiance. The aim of the study: to assess perceived sleep quality and identify factors affecting sleep quality among adult critically ill patients At El Manial University Hospital. Research Design: A descriptive exploratory design was utilized. Research questions: a) how do adult critically ill patients perceive sleep quality in the Critical Care Department of El Manial University Hospital? b) What are the factors affecting sleep quality among adult critically ill patients at El Manial University Hospital? Setting: selected critical and cardiac care units at El Manial University Hospital. Sample: A samples of convenience consisting of 100 adult male and female patients were included in the study. Tools of data collection: tool 1: Socio-demographic and Medical Data Sheet, tool 2: Modified St Mary's Hospital Sleep Questionnaire tool 3: Factors Affecting Sleep Quality Questionnaire among ICU Patients Results: The current study revealed that 76.0% of the studied sample had lack of sleep disturbance before hospitalization. However, 84 % had sleep disturbances during ICU stay, of these more than two-thirds (67 %) had moderate sleep disturbance. Presence of strange and bad odors, noise, having pain, fear of death and a loud voice produced by the ICU personnel had the most significant negative impact on patients’ sleep in percentage of 52.4, 50, 61.9, 45.2, 52.4, respectively. Conclusion: Sleep disturbances in the ICU are multifactorial, and ICU patients’ perceived degrees of sleep disturbance as a moderate. Recommendations: Based on findings of the present study, the following are recommended to be done by ICU nurses; create a healing ICU environment that should incorporate noise, light and temperature controls; decrease stimuli during night time hours to promote regulation of the circadian rhythm, allow usage of sleeping aids such as relaxing music, eye patches and earplugs into their daily nursing practice; cluster nursing activities and eliminate non-essential treatments during night time hours to allow uninterrupted sleep periods of at least 90 minutes to complete one sleep cycle , and minimize staff conversation, alarm noise and light during the quiet night time hours.

Keywords: sleep quality, critically ill, patients, perception

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Authors: Luisa Villani

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The proposal aims to express concerns about the connection between mind, body, society, and environment in the Flyers’ dance, a very well-known rotatory dance in Mexico, to create meanings and to make the apprehension of the world possible. The interaction among the brain, mind, body, and environment, and the intersubjective relation among them, means the world creates and recreates a social interaction. The purpose of this methodology, based on the embodied cognition theory, which was named “A Performance-Embodied Theory” is to find the principles and patterns that organize the culture and the rules of the apprehension of the environment by Totonac people while the dance is being performed. The analysis started by questioning how anthropologists can interpret how Totonacs transform their unconscious knowledge into conscious knowledge and how the scheme formation of imagination and their collective imagery is understood in the context of public-facing rituals, such as Flyers’ dance. The problem is that most of the time, researchers interpret elements in a separate way and not as a complex ritual dancing whole, which is the original contribution of this study. This theory, which accepts the fact that people are body-mind agents, wants to interpret the dance as a whole, where the different elements are joined to an integral interpretation. To understand incorporation, data was recollected in prolonged periods of fieldwork, with participant observation and linguistic and extralinguistic data analysis. Laban’s notation for the description and analysis of gestures and movements in the space was first used, but it was later transformed and gone beyond this method, which is still a linear and compositional one. Performance in a ritual is the actualization of a potential complex of meanings or cognitive domains among many others in a culture: one potential dimension becomes probable and then real because of the activation of specific meanings in a context. It can only be thought what language permits thinking, and the lexicon that is used depends on the individual culture. Only some parts of this knowledge can be activated at once, and these parts of knowledge are connected. Only in this way, the world can be understood. It can be recognized that as languages geometrize the physical world thanks to the body, also ritual does. In conclusion, the ritual behaves as an embodied grammar or a text in movement, which, depending on the ritual phases and the words and sentences pronounced in the ritual, activates bits of encyclopedic knowledge that people have about the world. Gestures are not given by the performer but emerge from the intentional perception in which gestures are “understood” by the audio-spectator in an inter-corporeal way. The impact of this study regards the possibility not only to disseminate knowledge effectively but also to generate a balance between different parts of the world where knowledge is shared, rather than being received by academic institutions alone. This knowledge can be exchanged, so indigenous communities and academies could be together as part of the activation and the sharing of this knowledge with the world.

Keywords: dance, flyers, performance, embodied, cognition

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Authors: Meryam Labyad, Karima Fakiri, Widad Lahmini, Ghizlane Draiss, Mohamed Bouskraoui, Nadia Ouzennou

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Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, affecting nearly 235 million people worldwide (OMS). In Morocco, asthma is much more common in children than in adults; the prevalence rate in children between 13 and 14 years of age is 20%.1 This pathology is marked by high morbidity, a significant impact on the quality of life and development of children 2 This requires a rigorous management strategy in order to achieve clinical control and reduce any risk to the patient 3 A search for aggravating factors is mandatory if a child has difficulty maintaining good asthma control. The objective of the present study is to describe asthma control during this confinement period in children aged 4 to 11 years followed by a pneumo-paediatric consultation. For children whose asthma is not controlled, a search for associations with promoting factors and adherence to treatment is also among the objectives of the study. Knowing the level of asthma control and influencing factors is a therapeutic priority in order to reduce hospitalizations and emergency care use. Objective: To assess asthma control and determine the factors influencing asthma levels in children with asthma during confinement following the COVID 19 pandemic. Method: Prospective cross-sectional study by questionnaire and structured interview among 66 asthmatic children followed in pediatric pneumology consultation at the CHU MED VI of Marrakech from 13/06/2020 to 13/07/2020, asthma control was assessed by the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT). Results: 66 children and their parents were included (mean age is 7.5 years), asthma was associated with allergic rhinitis (13.5% of cases), conjunctivitis (9% of cases), eczema (12% of cases), occurrence of infection (10.5% of cases). The period of confinement was marked by a decrease in the number of asthma attacks translated by a decrease in the number of emergency room visits (7.5%) of these asthmatic children, control was well controlled in 71% of the children, this control was significantly associated with good adherence to treatment (p<0.001), no infection (p<0.001) and no conjunctivitis (p=002) or rhinitis (p<0.001). This improvement in asthma control during confinement can be explained by the measures taken in the Kingdom to prevent the spread of COVID 19 (school closures, reduction in industrial activity, fewer means of transport, etc.), leading to a decrease in children's exposure to triggers, which justifies the decrease in the number of children having had an infection, allergic rhinitis or conjunctivitis during this period. In addition, the close monitoring of parents resulted in better therapeutic adherence (42.4% were fully observant). Confinement was positively perceived by 68% of the parents; this perception is significantly associated with the level of asthma control (p<0.001). Conclusion: Maintaining good control can be achieved through improved therapeutic adherence and avoidance of triggers, both of which were achieved during the containment period following the VIDOC pandemic 19.

Keywords: Asthma, control , COVID-19 , children

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Authors: Minji Seo

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Fashion stakeholders are becoming increasingly aware of technological innovation in manufacturing. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused transformations in working patterns, such as working remotely rather thancommuting. To enable smooth remote working, 3D fashion design software is being adoptedas the latest trend in design and production. The majority of fashion designers, however, are still resistantto this change. Previous studies on 3D fashion design software solely highlighted the beneficial and detrimental factors of adopting design innovations. They lacked research on the relationship between resistance factors and the adoption of innovation. These studies also fell short of exploringthe perspectives of users of these innovations. This paper aims to investigate the key drivers and barriers of employing 3D fashion design software as wellas to explore the challenges faced by designers.It also toucheson the governmental support for digital manufacturing in Seoul, South Korea, and London, the United Kingdom. By conceptualising local support, this study aims to provide a new path for industrial clusters to optimise digital apparel manufacturing. The study uses a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Initially, it reflects a survey of 350 samples, fashion designers, on innovation resistance factors of 3D fashion design software and the effectiveness of local support. In-depth interviews with 30 participants provide a better understanding of designers’ aspects of the benefits and obstacles of employing 3D fashion design software. The key findings of this research are the main barriers to employing 3D fashion design software in fashion production. The cultural characteristics and interviews resultsare used to interpret the survey results. The findings of quantitative data examine the main resistance factors to adopting design innovations. The dominant obstacles are: the cost of software and its complexity; lack of customers’ interest in innovation; lack of qualified personnel, and lack of knowledge. The main difference between Seoul and London is the attitudes towards government support. Compared to the UK’s fashion designers, South Korean designers emphasise that government support is highly relevant to employing 3D fashion design software. The top-down and bottom-up policy implementation approach distinguishes the perception of government support. Compared to top-down policy approaches in South Korea, British fashion designers based on employing bottom-up approaches are reluctant to receive government support. The findings of this research will contribute to generating solutions for local government and the optimisation of use of 3D fashion design software in fashion industrial clusters.

Keywords: digital apparel production, industrial clusters, innovation resistance, 3D fashion design software, manufacturing, innovation, technology, digital manufacturing, innovative fashion design process

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Authors: Francis Deinmodei W. Poazi, Jasmine O. Tamunosiki-Amadi, Maurice Fems

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In recent times the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management has recorded a sizeable attention yet there has not been a considerable scholarly and managerial discourse, debate and attention. As a result, this paper gives special bit of critical reasoning as well as top-notch analyses and relationship between RBV and organizational innovation. The study examines those salient aspects of RBV that basically have the will power in ensuring the organization's capacity to go for innovative capability. In achieving such fit and standpoint, the paper joins other relevant academic discourse and empirical evidence. To this end, a reasonable amount of contributions in setting the ground running for future empirical researches would have been provided. More so, the study is guided and built on the following strength and significance: Firstly, RBV sees resources as heterogeneity which forms a strong point of strength and allows organisations to gain competitive advantage. In order words, competitive advantage can be achieved or delivered to the organization when resources are distinctively utilized in a valuable manner more than the envisaged competitors of the organization. Secondly, RBV is significantly influential in determining the real resources that are available in the organization with a view to locate capabilities within in order to attract more profitability into the organization when applied. Thus, there will be more sustainable growth and success in the ever competitive and emerging market. Thus, to have succinct description of the basic methodologies, the study adopts both qualitative as well as quantitative approach with a view to have a broad samples of opinion in establishing and identifying key and strategic organizational resources to enable managers of resources to gain a competitive advantage as well as generating a sustainable increase and growth in profit. Furthermore, a comparative approach and analysis was used to examine the performance of RBV within the organization. Thus, the following are some of the findings of the study: it is clear that there is a nexus between RBV and growth of competitively viable organizations. More so, in most parts, organizations have heterogeneous resources domiciled in their organizations but not all organizations as it was specifically and intelligently adopting the tenets of RBV to strengthen heterogeneity of resources which allows organisations to gain competitive advantage. Other findings of this study reveal that of managerial perception of RBV with respect to application and transformation of resources to achieve a profitable end. It is against this backdrop, the importance of RBV cannot be overemphasized; the study is strongly convinced and think that RBV view is one focal and distinct approach that is focused on internal to outside strategy which engenders sourcing or generating resources internally as well as having the quest to apply such internally sourced resources diligently to increase or gain competitive advantage.

Keywords: resource-based view, innovation, organisation, recognition significant relationship and theoretical perspective

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Authors: Kathrin F. Schneider, Luis Xavier Unda Galarza

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In our modern world, few are the areas that are not permeated by digitalization: we use digital tools for work, study, entertainment, and daily life. Since technology changes rapidly, skills must adapt to the new reality, which gives a dynamic dimension to the set of skills necessary for people's academic, professional, and personal success. The concept of 21st-century digital skills, which includes skills such as collaboration, communication, digital literacy, citizenship, problem-solving, critical thinking, interpersonal skills, creativity, and productivity, have been widely discussed in the literature. Digital transformation has opened many economic opportunities for entrepreneurs for the development of their products, financing possibilities, and product distribution. One of the biggest advantages is the reduction in cost for the entrepreneur, which has opened doors not only for the entrepreneur or the entrepreneurial team but also for corporations through intrapreneurship. The development of students' general literacy level and their digital competencies is crucial for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning process, as well as for students' adaptation to the constantly changing labor market. The digital economy allows a free substantial increase in the supply share of conditional and also innovative products; this is mainly achieved through 5 ways to reduce costs according to the conventional digital economy: search costs, replication, transport, tracking, and verification. Digital entrepreneurship worldwide benefits from such achievements. There is an expansion and democratization of entrepreneurship thanks to the use of digital technologies. The digital transformation that has been taking place in recent years is more challenging for developing countries, as they have fewer resources available to carry out this transformation while offering all the necessary support in terms of cybersecurity and educating their people. The degree of digitization (use of digital technology) in a country and the levels of digital literacy of its people often depend on the economic level and situation of the country. Telefónica's Digital Life Index (TIDL) scores are strongly correlated with country wealth, reflecting the greater resources that richer countries can contribute to promoting "Digital Life". According to the Digitization Index, Ecuador is in the group of "emerging countries", while Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay are in the group of "countries in transition". According to Herrera Espinoza et al. (2022), there are startups or digital ventures in Ecuador, especially in certain niches, but many of the ventures do not exceed six months of creation because they arise out of necessity and not out of the opportunity. However, there is a lack of relevant research, especially empirical research, to have a clearer vision. Through a self-report questionnaire, the digital skills of students will be measured in an Ecuadorian private university, according to the skills identified as the six 21st-century skills. The results will be put to the test against the variable of the intention to start a digital venture measured using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The main hypothesis is that high digital competence is positively correlated with the intention to start digital entrepreneurship.

Keywords: new literacies, digital transformation, 21st century skills, theory of planned behavior, digital entrepreneurship

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Authors: G. Kiran Kumar, K. Padmaja

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The rise of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is an important urban phenomenon that needs to be well understood before we pronounce a verdict whether it is beneficial or not. The challenge of supply of safe and nutritious food is faced by urban inhabitants. The definition of urban and peri-urban varies from city to city depending on the local policies framed with a view to bring regulated urban habitations as part of governance. Expansion of cities and the blurring of boundaries between urban and rural areas make it difficult to define peri-urban agriculture. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that definition adopted in one region may not fit in the other. On the other hand the proportion of urban population is on the rise vis-à-vis rural. The rise of UPA does not promise that the food requirements of cities can be entirely met from this practice, since availability of enormous amounts of spaces on rooftops and vacant plots is impossible for raising crops. However, UPA reduces impact of price volatility, particularly for vegetables, which relatively have a longer shelf life. UPA improves access to fresh, nutritious and safe food for the urban poor. UPA provides employment to food handlers and traders in the supply chain. UPA can pose environmental and health risks from inappropriate agricultural practices; increased competition for land, water and energy; alter the ecological landscape and make it vulnerable to increased pollution. The present work is based on case studies in peri-urban agriculture in Hyderabad, India and relies on secondary data. This paper tries to analyze the need for more intensive production technologies without affecting the environment. An optimal solution in terms of urban-rural linkages has to be devised. There is a need to develop a spatial vision and integrate UPA in urban planning in a harmonious manner. Zoning of peri-urban areas for agriculture, milk and poultry production is an essential step to preserve the traditional nurturing character of these areas. Urban local bodies in conjunction with Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture can provide uplift to existing UPA models, without which the UPA can develop into a haphazard phenomenon and add to the increasing list of urban challenges. Land to be diverted for peri-urban agriculture may render the concept of urban and peri-urban forestry ineffective. This paper suggests that UPA may be practiced for high value vegetables which can be cultivated under protected conditions and are better resilient to climate change. UPA can provide models for climate resilient agriculture in urban areas which can be replicated in rural areas. Production of organic farm produce is another option for promote UPA owing to the proximity to informed consumers and access to markets within close range. Waste lands in peri-urban areas can be allotted to unemployed rural youth with the support of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and used for UPA. This can serve the purposes of putting wastelands to food production, enhancing employment opportunities and enhancing access to fresh produce for urban consumers.

Keywords: environment, food security, urban and peri-urban agriculture, zoning

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Authors: Yuliana Wahyu, Ambros Leonangung Edu

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The learning praxis that is proposed by 2013 Curriculum (K-13) is no longer school-oriented as a supply-driven, but now a demand-driven provider. This vision is connected with Jokowi-Kalla Nawacita program to create a competitive nation in the global era. Competition is a social fact that must be faced. Therefore the curriculum will design a process to be the innovators and entrepreneurs.To get this goal, K-13 implements the character education. This aims at creating the innovators and entrepreneurs from an early age (primary school). One part of strengthening it is literacy formations (reading, numeracy, science, ICT, finance, and culture). Thus, science literacy is an integral part of character education. The above outputs are only formed through the innovative process through intra-curricular (blended learning), co-curriculer (hands-on learning) and extra-curricular (personalized learning). Unlike the curriculums before that child cram with the theories dominating the intellectual process, new breakthroughs make natural, social, and cultural phenomena as learning sources. For example, Science in primary schoolsplaceBiology as the platform. And Science places natural, social, and cultural phenomena as a learning field so that students can learn, discover, solve concrete problems, and the prospects of development and application in their everyday lives. Science education not only learns about facts collection or natural phenomena but also methods and scientific attitudes. In turn, Science will form the science literacy. Science literacy have critical, creative, logical, and initiative competences in responding to the issues of culture, science and technology. This is linked with science nature which includes hands-on and minds-on. To sustain the effectiveness of science learning, K-13 opens a new way of viewing a contextual learning model in which facts or natural phenomena are drawn closer to the child's learning environment to be studied and analyzed scientifically. Thus, the topic of elementary science discussion is the practical and contextual things that students encounter. This research is about to contextualize Science in primary schools at Manggarai, NTT, by placing local wisdom as a learning source and media to form the science literacy. Explicitly, this study discovers the concept of science and mathematics in Mbaru Niang. Mbaru Niang is a forgotten potentials of the centralistic-theoretical mainstream curriculum so far. In fact, the traditional Manggarai community stores and inherits much of the science-mathematical indigenous sciences. In the traditional house structures are full of science and mathematics knowledge. Every details have style, sound and mathematical symbols. Learning this, students are able to collaborate and synergize the content and learning resources in student learning activities. This is constructivist contextual learning that will be applied in meaningful learning. Meaningful learning allows students to learn by doing. Students then connect topics to the context, and science literacy is constructed from their factual experiences. The research location will be conducted in Manggarai through observation, interview, and literature study.

Keywords: indigenous science, Mbaru Niang, science literacy, science

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: V. Esteves

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As products of participatory culture, internet memes represent a global form of interaction with online culture. These digital objects draw upon a rich historical engagement with remix practices that dates back decades: from the copy and paste practices of Dadaism and punk to the re-appropriation techniques of the Situationist International; memes echo a long established form of cultural creativity that pivots on the art of the remix. Online culture has eagerly embraced the changes that the Web 2.0 afforded in terms of making use of remixing as an accessible form of societal expression, bridging these remix practices of the past into a more widely available and accessible platform. Memes embody the idea of 'intercreativity', allowing global creative collaboration to take place through networked digital media; they reflect the core values of participation and interaction that are present throughout much internet discourse whilst also existing in a historical remix continuum. Memes hold the power of cultural symbolism manipulated by global audiences through which societies make meaning, as these remixed digital objects have an elasticity and low literacy level that allows for a democratic form of cultural engagement and meaning-making by and for users around the world. However, because memes are so elastic, their ability to be re-appropriated by other powers for reasons beyond their original intention has become evident. Recently, corporations have made use of internet memes for advertising purposes, engaging in the circulation and re-appropriation of internet memes in commercial spaces – which has, in turn, complicated this relation between online users and memes' democratic possibilities further. By engaging in a widespread online ethnography supplemented by in-depth interviews with meme makers, this research was able to not only track different online meme use through commercial contexts, but it also allowed the possibility to engage in qualitative discussions with meme makers and users regarding their perception and experience of these varying commercial uses of memes. These can be broadly put within two categories: internet memes that are turned into physical merchandise and the use of memes in advertising to sell other (non-meme related) products. Whilst there has been considerable acceptance of the former type of commercial meme use, the use of memes in adverts in order to sell unrelated products has been met with resistance. The changes in reception regarding commercial meme use is dependent on ideas of cultural ownership and perceptions of authorship, ultimately uncovering underlying socio-cultural ideologies that come to the fore within these overlapping contexts. Additionally, this adoption of memes by corporate powers echoes the recuperation process that the Situationist International endured, creating a further link with older remix cultures and their lifecycles.

Keywords: commodification, internet culture, memes, recuperation, remix

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Paulette Henry

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If Caribbean Universities wish to remain sustainable in the global education market they must meet the new demands of the 21st Centuries learners. This means preparing the teaching and learning environment with the human and material and resources so that the University can blossom out into the entrepreneurial University. The entrepreneurial University prepares the learner to become a global citizen, one who is innovative and a critical thinker and has the competencies to create jobs. Entrepreneurship education provides more equitable access to university education building capacity for the local and global economy. The entrepreneurial thinking, the mindset, must therefore be among academic and support staff as well as students. In developing countries where resources are scarce, Universities are grappling with a myriad of financial and non-financial issues. These include increasing costs, Union demands for increased remuneration for staff and reduced subvention from governments which has become the norm. In addition, there is the political pressure against increasing tuition fees and the perceptions on the moral responsibilities of universities in national development. The question is how do small universities carve out their niche, meet both political and consumer demands for a high quality, low lost education, fulfil their development mandate and still remain not only viable but competitive. Themes which are central to this discourse on the transitions necessary for the entrepreneurial university are leadership, governance and staff well-being. This paper therefore presents a case study of a Caribbean University to show how transformational leadership and the change management framework propels change towards an entrepreneurial institution seeking to have a competitive advantage despite its low resourced context. Important to this discourse are the transformational approaches used by the University to prepare staff to move from their traditional psyche to embracing an entrepreneurial mindset whilst equipping students within the same mode to become work ready and creative global citizens. Using the mixed methods approach, opinions were garnered from both members of the University community as well as external stakeholder groups on their perception of the role of the University in the business arena and as a primary stakeholder in national development. One of the critical concepts emanating from the discourse was the need to change the mindset of the those in university governance as well as how national stakeholders engage the university. This paper shows how multiple non-financial factors can contribute to change. A combination of transformational and servant leadership, strengthened institutional structures and developing new ones, rebuilding institutional trust and pride have been among the strategies employed within the change management framework. The university is no longer limited by borders but through international linkages has transcended into a transnational stakeholder.

Keywords: competitiveness, context, entrepreneurial, leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: B. Lefranc, C. Aufauvre-Poupon, C. Martin-Krumm, M. Trousselard

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Isolated and confined environments (ICE) present several challenges which may adversely affect human’s psychology and physiology. Submariners in Sub-Surface Ballistic Nuclear (SSBN) mission exposed to these environmental constraints must be able to perform complex tasks as part of their normal duties, as well as during crisis periods when emergency actions are required or imminent. The operational and environmental constraints they face contribute to challenge human adaptability. The impact of such a constrained environment has yet to be explored. Establishing a knowledge framework is a determining factor, particularly in view of the next long space travels. Ensuring that the crews are maintained in optimal operational conditions is a real challenge because the success of the mission depends on them. This study focused on the evaluation of the impact of stress on mental health and sensory degradation of submariners during a mission on SSBN using cardiac biosignal (heart rate variability, HRV) clustering. This is a pragmatic exploratory study of a prospective cohort included 19 submariner volunteers. HRV was recorded at baseline to classify by clustering the submariners according to their stress level based on parasympathetic (Pa) activity. Impacts of high Pa (HPa) versus low Pa (LPa) level at baseline were assessed on emotional state and sensory perception (interoception and exteroception) as a cardiac biosignal during the patrol and at a recovery time one month after. Whatever the time, no significant difference was found in mental health between groups. There are significant differences in the interoceptive, exteroceptive and physiological functioning during the patrol and at recovery time. To sum up, compared to the LPa group, the HPa maintains a higher level in psychosensory functioning during the patrol and at recovery but exhibits a decrease in Pa level. The HPa group has less adaptable HRV characteristics, less unpredictability and flexibility of cardiac biosignals while the LPa group increases them during the patrol and at recovery time. This dissociation between psychosensory and physiological adaptation suggests two treatment modalities for ICE environments. To our best knowledge, our results are the first to highlight the impact of physiological differences in the HRV profile on the adaptability of submariners. Further studies are needed to evaluate the negative emotional and cognitive effects of ICEs based on the cardiac profile. Artificial intelligence offers a promising future for maintaining high level of operational conditions. These future perspectives will not only allow submariners to be better prepared, but also to design feasible countermeasures that will help support analog environments that bring us closer to a trip to Mars.

Keywords: adaptation, exteroception, HRV, ICE, interoception, SSBN

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Violet Petit-Steeghs, Jochem J. R. Van Roon, Jacqueline E. W. Broerse

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Last decennia the retirement age in Europe is gradually increasing. As a result, people have to continue working for a longer period of time. Health problems due to increased sedentary behavior and mental conditions like burn-out, pose a threat in fulfilling employees’ working life. In order to stimulate the ability and willingness to work in the present and future, it is important to stay vital. Vitality is regarded in literature as a sense of energy, motivation and resilience. It is assumed that by increasing their vitality, employees will stay healthier and be more satisfied with their job, leading to a more sustainable employment and less absenteeism in the future. The aim of this project is to obtain insights into the experiences and barriers of employees, and specifically office workers, with regard to their vitality. These insights are essential in order to develop appropriate measures in the future. To get more insights in the experiences of office workers on their vitality, 8 focus group discussions were organized with 6-10 office workers from 4 different employers (an university, a national construction company and a large juridical and care service organization) in the Netherlands. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed via open coding. This project is part of a larger consortium project Provita2, and conducted in collaboration with University of Technology Eindhoven. Results showed that a range of interdependent factors form a complex network that influences office workers’ vitality. These factors can be divided in three overarching groups: (1) personal (2) organizational and (3) environmental factors. Personal intrinsic factors, relating to the office worker, comprise someone’s physical health, coping style, life style, needs, and private life. Organizational factors, relating to the employer, are the workload, management style and the structure, vision and culture of the organization. Lastly, environmental factors consist of the air, light, temperature at the workplace and whether the workplace is inspiring and workable. Office workers experienced barriers to improve their own vitality due to a lack of autonomy. On the one hand, because most factors were not only intrinsic but extrinsic, like work atmosphere or the temperature in the room. On the other hand, office workers were restricted in adapting both intrinsic as well as extrinsic factors. Restrictions to for instance the flexibility of working times and the workload, can set limitations for improving vitality through personal factors like physical activity and mental relaxation. In conclusion, a large range of interdependent factors influence the vitality of office workers. Office workers are often regarded to have a responsibility to improve their vitality, but are limitedly autonomous in adapting these factors. Measures to improve vitality should therefore not only focus on increasing awareness among office workers, but also on empowering them to fulfill this responsibility. A holistic approach that takes the complex mutual dependencies between the different factors and actors (like managers, employees and HR personnel) into account is highly recommended.

Keywords: occupational health, perspectives office workers, sustainable employment, vitality at work, work & wellbeing

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Authors: David Edgar

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To understand how the brain’s subconscious and conscious functions, we must conquer the physics of Unity, which leads to duality’s algorithm. Where the subconscious (bottom-up) and conscious (top-down) processes function together to produce and consume intelligence, we use terms like ‘time is relative,’ but we really do understand the meaning. In the brain, there are different processes and, therefore, different observers. These different processes experience time at different rates. A sensory system such as the eyes cycles measurement around 33 milliseconds, the conscious process of the frontal lobe cycles at 300 milliseconds, and the subconscious process of the thalamus cycle at 5 milliseconds. Three different observers experience time differently. To bridge observers, the thalamus, which is the fastest of the processes, maintains a synchronous state and entangles the different components of the brain’s physical process. The entanglements form a synchronous cohesion between the brain components allowing them to share the same state and execute in the same measurement cycle. The thalamus uses the shared state to control the firing sequence of the brain’s linear subconscious process. Sharing state also allows the brain to cheat on the amount of sensory data that must be exchanged between components. Only unpredictable motion is transferred through the synchronous state because predictable motion already exists in the shared framework. The brain’s synchronous subconscious process is entirely based on energy conservation, where prediction regulates energy usage. So, the eyes every 33 milliseconds dump their sensory data into the thalamus every day. The thalamus is going to perform a motion measurement to identify the unpredictable motion in the sensory data. Here is the trick. The thalamus conducts its measurement based on the original observation time of the sensory system (33 ms), not its own process time (5 ms). This creates a data payload of synchronous motion that preserves the original sensory observation. Basically, a frozen moment in time (Flat 4D). The single moment in time can then be processed through the single state maintained by the synchronous process. Other processes, such as consciousness (300 ms), can interface with the synchronous state to generate awareness of that moment. Now, synchronous data traveling through a separate faster synchronous process creates a theoretical time tunnel where observation time is tunneled through the synchronous process and is reproduced on the other side in the original time-relativity. The synchronous process eliminates time dilation by simply removing itself from the equation so that its own process time does not alter the experience. To the original observer, the measurement appears to be instantaneous, but in the thalamus, a linear subconscious process generating sensory perception and thought production is being executed. It is all just occurring in the time available because other observation times are slower than thalamic measurement time. For life to exist in the physical universe requires a linear measurement process, it just hides by operating at a faster time relativity. What’s interesting is time dilation is not the problem; it’s the solution. Einstein said there was no universal time.

Keywords: neural synchronization, natural intelligence, 99.95% IoT data transmission savings, artificial subconscious intelligence (ASI)

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Authors: Samuel I. Becher, Tal Z. Zarsky

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The digital world becomes part of our DNA now. The way e-commerce, human behavior, and law interact and affect one another is rapidly and significantly changing. Among others things, the internet equips consumers with a variety of platforms to share information in a volume we could not imagine before. As part of this development, online information flows allow consumers to learn about businesses and their contracts in an efficient and quick manner. Consumers can become informed by the impressions that other, experienced consumers share and spread. In other words, consumers may familiarize themselves with the contents of contracts through the experiences that other consumers had. Online and offline, the relationship between consumers and businesses are most frequently governed by consumer standard form contracts. For decades, such contracts are assumed to be one-sided and biased against consumers. Consumer Law seeks to alleviate this bias and empower consumers. Legislatures, consumer organizations, scholars, and judges are constantly looking for clever ways to protect consumers from unscrupulous firms and unfair behaviors. While consumers-businesses relationships are theoretically administered by standardized contracts, firms do not always follow these contracts in practice. At times, there is a significant disparity between what the written contract stipulates and what consumers experience de facto. That is, there is a crucial gap (“the Gap”) between how firms draft their contracts on the one hand, and how firms actually treat consumers on the other. Interestingly, the Gap is frequently manifested by deviation from the written contract in favor of consumers. In other words, firms often exercise lenient approach in spite of the stringent written contracts they draft. This essay examines whether, counter-intuitively, policy makers should add firms’ leniency to the growing list of firms suspicious behaviors. At first glance, firms should be allowed, if not encouraged, to exercise leniency. Many legal regimes are looking for ways to cope with unfair contract terms in consumer contracts. Naturally, therefore, consumer law should enable, if not encourage, firms’ lenient practices. Firms’ willingness to deviate from their strict contracts in order to benefit consumers seems like a sensible approach. Apparently, such behavior should not be second guessed. However, at times online tools, firm’s behaviors and human psychology result in a toxic mix. Beneficial and helpful online information should be treated with due respect as it may occasionally have surprising and harmful qualities. In this essay, we illustrate that technological changes turn the Gap into a key component in consumers' understanding, or misunderstanding, of consumer contracts. In short, a Gap may distort consumers’ perception and undermine rational decision-making. Consequently, this essay explores whether, counter-intuitively, consumer law should sanction firms that create a Gap and use it. It examines when firms’ leniency should be considered as manipulative or exercised in bad faith. It then investigates whether firms should be allowed to enforce the written contract even if the firms deliberately and consistently deviated from it.

Keywords: consumer contracts, consumer protection, information flow, law and economics, law and technology, paper deal v firms' behavior

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Authors: Ivana Loncarevic, Biljana Pajin, Jovana Petrovic, Danica Zaric, Vesna Tumbas Saponjac, Aleksandar Fistes

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Chocolate is a food that activates pleasure centers in the human brain. In comparison to black and milk chocolate, white chocolate does not contain fat-free cocoa solids and thus lacks bioactive components. The aim of this study was to examine the sensory characteristics of enriched white chocolate with the addition of 10% of raspberry juice encapsulated in maltodextrins (denoted as encapsulate). Chocolate is primarily intended for enjoyment, and therefore, the sensory expectation is a critical factor for consumers when selecting a new type of chocolate. Consumer acceptance of chocolate depends primarily on the appearance and taste, but also very much on the mouthfeel, which mainly depends on the particle size of chocolate. Chocolate samples were evaluated by a panel of 8 trained panelists, food technologists, trained according to ISO 8586 (2012). Panelists developed the list of attributes to be used in this study: intensity of red color (light to dark); glow on the surface (mat to shiny); texture on snap (appearance of cavities or holes on the snap surface that are seen - even to gritty); hardness (hardness felt during the first bite of chocolate sample in half by incisors - soft to hard); melting (the time needed to convert solid chocolate into a liquid state – slowly to quickly); smoothness (perception of evenness of chocolate during melting - very even to very granular); fruitiness (impression of fruity taste - light fruity notes to distinct fruity notes); sweetness (organoleptic characteristic of pure substance or mixture giving sweet taste - lightly sweet to very sweet). The chocolate evaluation was carried out 24 h after sample preparation in the sensory laboratory, in partitioned booths, which were illuminated with fluorescent lights (ISO 8589, 2007). Samples were served in white plastic plates labeled with three-digit codes from a random number table. Panelist scored the perceived intensity of each attribute using a 7-point scale (1 = the least intensity and 7 = the most intensity) (ISO 4121, 2002). The addition of 10% of encapsulate had a big influence on chocolate color, where enriched chocolate got a nice reddish color. At the same time, the enriched chocolate sample had less intensity of gloss on the surface. The panelists noticed that addition of encapsulate reduced the time needed to convert solid chocolate into a liquid state, increasing its hardness. The addition of encapsulate had a significant impact on chocolate flavor. It reduced the sweetness of white chocolate and contributed to the fruity raspberry flavor.

Keywords: white chocolate, encapsulated raspberry juice, color, sensory characteristics

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Authors: Abeer Al Kalbani

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Oman is a sub-tropical country with limited water resources, harsh weather and limited soil fertility, constraining food production. Therefore, it largely depends on international markets to assure supply of food. In the light of these circumstances, food security in Oman is defined as the ability of the country to grant the staple food needs of people (e.g. rice, wheat, lentil, sugar, dates, dairy products, fish and plant or vegetable oils). It also involves exporting local goods with high production rates to exchange them with required food products. This concept of food security includes the availability of food through production and/or importing, stability of the market prices during all circumstances, and the ability of people to meet their needs within their income capabilities. As a result, most of the food security work is focused on availability and access dimensions of the issue. Not much research is focused on the utilization aspect of food security in Oman. Although women play a vital role in food security, there is limited research on women’s role in food security neither in Oman nor in neighboring Gulf countries. Women play an important role not only by carrying the responsibility of feeding their families but also by setting the consumption model for the household. Therefore, the research aims to contribute to the work done on food security in Oman and similar regions of the world by studying the role women play at the utilization level. Methods used in this research include Qualitative unstructured interviews, focus groups, survey questionnaire and an experimental study. Based on the FAO definition of food security, it consists of availability, access, utilization and sustainability. Results from a pilot study conducted for this research on two groups of women in Oman; urban and rural women, showed that women in Oman are responsible for achieving these four pillars at the household level. Moreover, awareness of women increased as their educational level increased. Urban women showed more awareness and openness to adopt healthier and proper food related choices than rural women. Urban women seem also more open than rural women to new ideas and concepts and ways to healthier food. However, both urban and rural women claim that no training and educational programs are available for them and awareness of food security in general remains relatively low in both groups. In the light of these findings, this research attempts to further investigate the social beliefs, practices and attitudes women adopt in relation to food purchase, storage, preparation and consumption as considered as important parts of the food system. It also seeks to examine the effect of educational training programs and media on the level of women awareness on the issue.

Keywords: food security, household food security, utilization, role of women

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: William Creighton, Jan Smitheram

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Queer discourse has been tied to a middle-class, urban-centric, white approach to the discussion of queerness. In doing so, the multilayeredness of queer existence has been washed away in favour of palatable queer occupation. This paper uses design to explore a queer anti-urbanist approach to facilitate a more egalitarian architectural occupancy. Scott Herring’s work on queer anti-urbanism is key to this approach. Herring redeploys anti-urbanism from its historical understanding of open hostility, rejection and desire to destroy the city towards a mode of queer critique that counters normative ideals of homonormative metronormative gay lifestyles. He questions how queer identity has been closed down into a more diminutive frame where those who do not fit within this frame are subjected to persecution or silenced through their absence. We extend these ideas through design to ask how a queer anti-urbanist approach facilitates a more egalitarian architectural occupancy. Following a “design as research” methodology, the design outputs allow a vehicle to ask how we might live, otherwise, in architectural space. A design as research methodologically is a process of questioning, designing and reflecting – in a non-linear, iterative approach – establishes itself through three projects, each increasing in scale and complexity. Each of the three scales tackled a different body relationship. The project began exploring the relations between body to body, body to known others, and body to unknown others. Moving through increasing scales was not to privilege the objective, the public and the large scale; instead, ‘intra-scaling’ acts as a tool to re-think how scale reproduces normative ideas of the identity of space. There was a queering of scale. Through this approach, the results were an installation that brings two people together to co-author space where the installation distorts the sensory experience and forces a more intimate and interconnected experience challenging our socialized proxemics: knees might touch. To queer the home, the installation was used as a drawing device, a tool to study and challenge spatial perception, drawing convention, and as a way to process practical information about the site and existing house – the device became a tool to embrace the spontaneous. The final design proposal operates as a multi-scalar boundary-crossing through “private” and “public” to support kinship through communal labour, queer relationality and mooring. The resulting design works to set adrift bodies in a sea of sensations through a mix of pleasure programmes. To conclude, through three design proposals, this design research creates a relationship between queer anti-urbanism and design. It asserts that queering the design process and outcome allows a more inclusive way to consider place, space and belonging. The projects lend to a queer relationality and interdependence by making spaces that support the unsettled, out-of-place, but is it queer enough?

Keywords: queer, queer anti-urbanism, design as research, design

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Authors: Rahul Rajak, Archana Kumari Roy

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Purpose: Development brings about structural change in the society. It is essential for socio-economic progress of the society, but it also causes pain to the people who are forced to displace from their motherland. Most of the people who are displaced due to development are poor and tribes. Development and displacement are interlinked with each other in the sense development sometimes leads to displacement of people. These studies mainly focus on socio-economic profile of villages and villagers likely to be affected by the Airport Project and they examine the issues of compensation and people’s level of satisfaction. Methodology: The study is based on Descriptive design; it is basically observational and correlation study. Primary data is used in this study. Considering the time and resource constrains, 100 people were interviewed covering socio-economic and demographic diversities from 6 out of 10 affected villages. Due to Navi Mumbai International Airport Project ten villages have to be displaced. Out of ten villages, this study is based on only six villages. These are Ulwe, Ganeshpuri, Targhar Komberbuje, Chincpada and Kopar. All six villages situated in Raigarh district under the Taluka Panvel in Maharashtra. Findings: It is revealed from the survey that there are three main castes of affected villages that are Agri, Koli, and Kradi. Entire village population of migrated person is very negligible. All three caste have main occupation are agricultural and fishing activities. People’s perception revealed that due to the establishment of the airport project, they may have more opportunities and scope of development rather than the adverse effect, but vigorously leave a motherland is psychological effect of the villagers. Research Limitation: This study is based on only six villages, the scenario of the entire ten affected villages is not explained by this research. Practical implication: The scenario of displacement and resettlement signifies more than a mere physical relocation. Compensation is not only hope for villagers, is it only give short time relief. There is a need to evolve institutions to protect and strengthen the right of Individuals. The development induced displacement exposed them to a new reality, the reality of their legality and illegality of stay on the land which belongs to the state. Originality: Mumbai has large population and high industrialized city have put land at the center of any policy implication. This paper demonstrates through the actual picture gathered from the field that how seriously the affected people suffered and are still suffering because of the land acquisition for the Navi Mumbai International Airport Project. The whole picture arise the question which is how long the government can deny the rights to farmers and agricultural laborers and remain unwilling to establish the balance between democracy and development.

Keywords: compensation, displacement, land acquisition, project affected person (PAPs), rehabilitation

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Authors: Soledad Natalia M. Dalisay, Mylene De Guzman

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In archipelagic countries like the Philippines, many communities thrive along coastal areas. The sea is the community members’ main source of livelihood and the site of many cultural activities. For these communities, the sea is their life and livelihood. Nevertheless, the sea also poses a hazard during the rainy season when typhoons frequent their communities. Coastal communities often encounter threats from storm surges and flooding that are common when there are typhoons. During such periods, disaster evacuation programs are implemented. However, in many instances, evacuation has been the bane of local government officials implementing such programs in their communities as resistance from community members is often encountered. Such resistance is often viewed by program implementers as due to the fact that people were hard headed and ignorant of the potential impacts of living in hazard prone areas. This paper argues that it is not for these reasons that people refused to evacuate. Drawing from data collected from fieldwork done in three sites in Central Philippines affected by super typhoon Haiyan, this study aimed to provide a contextualized understanding of peoples’ refusal to heed disaster evacuation warnings. This study utilized the multi-sited ethnography approach with in-depth episodic interviews, focus group discussions, participatory risk mapping and key informant interviews in gathering data on peoples’ experiences and insights specifically on evacuation during typhoon Haiyan. This study showed that people have priorities and considerations vital in their social lives that they are protecting in their refusal to leave their homes for pre-emptive evacuation. It is not that they are not aware of the risks when the face the hazard. It is more that they had faith in the local knowledge and strategies that they have developed since the time of their ancestors as a result of living and engaging with hazards in their areas for as long as they could remember. The study also revealed that risk in encounters with hazards was gendered. Furthermore, previous engagement with local government officials and the manner in which the pre-emptive evacuation programs were implemented had cast doubt on the value of such programs in saving their lives. Life in the designated evacuation areas can be as dangerous if not more compared with living in their coastal homes. There seems to be the impression that in the evacuation program of the government, people were being moved from hazard zones to death zones. Thus, this paper ends with several recommendations that may contribute to building more responsive evacuation programs that aim to build people’s resilience while taking into consideration the local moral world in communities in identified hazard zones.

Keywords: coastal communities, disaster evacuation, disaster risk perception, social and cultural responses to hazards

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Authors: Henok Biruk Alemayehu, Kalkidan Berhane Tsegaye, Fozia Seid Ali, Nebiyat Feleke Adimassu, Getasew Alemu Mersha

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Background: Strabismus is a visual disorder where the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. Untreated strabismus can lead to amblyopia, loss of binocular vision, and social stigma due to its appearance. Since it is assumed that knowledge is pertinent for early screening and prevention of strabismus, the main objective of this study was to assess knowledge and attitudes toward strabismus in Woreta town, Northwest Ethiopia. Providing data in this area is important for planning health policies. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was done in Woreta town from April–May 2020. The sample size was determined using a single population proportion formula by taking a 50% proportion of good knowledge, 95% confidence level, 5% margin of errors, and 10% non- response rate. Accordingly, the final computed sample size was 424. All four kebeles were included in the study. There were 42,595 people in total, with 39,684 adults and 9229 house holds. A sample fraction ’’k’’ was obtained by dividing the number of the household by the calculated sample size of 424. Systematic random sampling with proportional allocation was used to select the participating households with a sampling fraction (K) of 21 i.e. each household was approached in every 21 households included in the study. One individual was selected ran- domly from each household with more than one adult, using the lottery method to obtain a final sample size. The data was collected through a face-to-face interview with a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire which was translated from English to Amharic and back to English to maintain its consistency. Data were entered using epi-data version 3.1, then processed and analyzed via SPSS version- 20. Descriptive and analytical statistics were employed to summarize the data. A p-value of less than 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. Result: A total of 401 individuals aged over 18 years participated, with a response rate of 94.5%. Of those who responded, 56.6% were males. Of all the participants, 36.9% were illiterate. The proportion of people with poor knowledge of strabismus was 45.1%. It was shown that 53.9% of the respondents had a favorable attitude. Older age, higher educational level, having a history of eye examination, and a having a family history of strabismus were significantly associated with good knowledge of strabismus. A higher educational level, older age, and hearing about strabismus were significantly associated with a favorable attitude toward strabismus. Conclusion and recommendation: The proportion of good knowledge and favorable attitude towards strabismus were lower than previously reported in Gondar City, Northwest Ethiopia. There is a need to provide health education and promotion campaigns on strabismus to the community: what strabismus is, its’ possible treatments and the need to bring children to the eye care center for early diagnosis and treatment. it advocate for prospective research endeavors to employ qualitative study design.Additionally, it suggest the exploration of studies that investigate causal-effect relationship.

Keywords: strabismus, knowledge, attitude, Woreta

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