Search results for: Online Shopping Attitude

Authors: Anupam Sibal

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Whatever is measured tends to improve. With a view to objectively measuring and improving clinical quality across the Apollo Group Hospitals, the initiative of ACE @ 25 (Apollo Clinical Excellence@25) was launched on Jan 09. ACE @ 25 is a clinically balanced scorecard incorporating 25 clinical quality parameters involving complication rates, mortality rates, one-year survival rates and average length of stay after major procedures like liver and renal transplant, CABG, TKR, THR, TURP, PTCA, endoscopy, large bowel resection and MRM covering all major specialties. Also included are hospital acquired infection rates, pain satisfaction and medication errors. Benchmarks have been chosen from the world’s best hospitals. There are weighted scores for outcomes color coded green, orange and red. The cumulative score is 100. Data is reported monthly by 43 Group Hospitals online on the Lighthouse platform. Action taken reports for parameters falling in red are submitted quarterly and reviewed by the board. An audit team audits the data at all locations every six months. Scores are linked to appraisal of the medical head and there is an “ACE @ 25” Champion Award for the highest scorer. Scores for different parameters were variable from green to red at the start of the initiative. Most hospitals showed an improvement in scores over the last four years for parameters where they had showed scores in red or orange at the start of the initiative. The overall scores for the group have shown an increase from 72 in 2010 to 81 in 2015.

Keywords: benchmarks, clinical quality, lighthouse, platform, scores

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Authors: Neimenuo Kengurusie

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Human trafficking is considered a form of slavery in modern day era and a gross violation of human rights and one of the most organized crimes of the day transcending cultures, geography and time. Human trafficking is a highly complex phenomenon involving many actors like victims, survivors, their families, communities and third parties that recruit, transport and exploit the trafficked victims. It takes different forms such as child trafficking, trafficking for labour, trafficking for sexual exploitation, trafficking for organ transplantation etc. and affects virtually every corner of the world. This research draws on a variety of sources, including books, articles, journals, newspaper reports, human rights reports, online materials and interviews. In India, particularly the North East region, the issue of human trafficking has become a concern regionally, nationally and internationally. The focus of this paper is on the North Eastern part of India as it is a socially and economically backward region of the country which makes women and children susceptible to trafficking. Women and children from these regions are trafficked within and outside the state. Therefore, the paper seeks to explore the issue of human trafficking, especially trafficking of women and children in North East India, which receives insufficient attention in literature. The paper seeks to analyze and understand the trend and patterns of trafficking and the mechanisms that reinforces the process and perpetuates the phenomenon of trafficking considering the nature and scope of the problem. The paper also analyzes the anti-trafficking laws initiated by India and the North East states in particular for combating human trafficking in North East India.

Keywords: children, human trafficking, North East India, women

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Authors: Simon Arunga, Teddy Kwaga, Rita Kageni, Michael Gichangi, Nyawira Mwangi, Fred Kagwa, Rogers Mwavu, Amos Baryashaba, Luis F. Nakayama, Katharine Morley, Michael Morley, Leo A. Celi, Jessica Haberer, Celestino Obua

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Purpose: The main aim for creating the Multimodal Database of Retinal Images for Africa (MoDRIA) was to provide a publicly available repository of retinal images for responsible researchers to conduct algorithm development in a bid to curb the challenges of ophthalmic artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa. Methods: Data and retina images were ethically sourced from sites in Uganda and Kenya. Data on medical history, visual acuity, ocular examination, blood pressure, and blood sugar were collected. Retina images were captured using fundus cameras (Foru3-nethra and Canon CR-Mark-1). Images were stored on a secure online database. Results: The database consists of 7,859 retinal images in portable network graphics format from 1,988 participants. Images from patients with human immunodeficiency virus were 18.9%, 18.2% of images were from hypertensive patients, 12.8% from diabetic patients, and the rest from normal’ participants. Conclusion: Publicly available data repositories are a valuable asset in the development of AI technology. Therefore, is a need for the expansion of MoDRIA so as to provide larger datasets that are more representative of Sub-Saharan data.

Keywords: retina images, MoDRIA, image repository, African database

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Authors: Ya-Ching Wang, Yi-Maun Subeq

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Background: There is a lack of evidence to understand differences in risk for developing breast cancer between sexual minority women and heterosexual women in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to compare differences in risk for developing breast cancer between the two groups of Taiwanese women. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was used to collect data. A total of 238 Taiwanese women (mean age 30.69 years old, SD=8.231, range 20-60) were recruited between December 2016 and February 2017, including 115 heterosexual women and 123 sexual minority women. Results: There were no significant differences between heterosexual women and sexual minority women in body mass index, history of non-malignant breast disease, age at menarche and menopause, use of hormone replacement therapy, use of hormone replacement therapy, nor the prevalence of breast cancer. The sexual minority women had higher rates of current drinking, smoking and using breast-bindings and also reported exercise more a week; the heterosexual women had higher rates of pregnancy, children, breastfeed, miscarriages, abortion and use of birth control pills. Discussion/Conclusion: There were significant differences between heterosexual women and sexual minority women in reproductive factors and behavioral risk factors for the development of breast cancer. In particular, the finding that the sexual minority women had higher rate of using breast-bindings (56.6%) than the heterosexual women (4.7%) should be further explore, in order to understand whether long-term breast compression is associated with the development of breast cancer.

Keywords: breast cancer, risk, sexual orientation, Taiwan

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Authors: Pinyada Santisarun, Yaowaret Tharawoot, Songyut Akkakoson

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This paper reports on a literature review sub-study of a larger research project which has been designed to identify the rhetorical organization of a travel writing genre, together with the use of lexical choices, syntactical structures, and graphological features, based on a randomly-selected corpus of Thailand travel listicles. Conducted as a library-based overview, this study aims to specify theoretical and practical elements for the said larger study. The materials for the review have been retrieved from various Internet sources, covering both public search engines and library databases. Generally, the article focuses on answering questions about the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of such background elements widely discussed in the literature as the meaning of listicles, how the travel listicles’ patterns and regularities can be categorized to form a new genre, the effect of computer-mediated communication on the travel world, the travel language, and the current situation concerning the importance of travel listicles. The theoretical and practical data derived from this study provide valuable insights into the way in which the genre analysis and lexico-syntactical examination of Thailand travel listicles in the present authors’ larger research project can be properly conducted. The data gained can be added to the expanding body of knowledge in the field of the ESP genre.

Keywords: computer-mediated communication, digital writing, genre-based analysis, online travel writing, tourism language

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Authors: Patrick J. Kerpan, Ryan C. Koop, Margaret M. Walker, Chris P. Swan

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The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multicast is a vital part of data center networking that is being left out of major cloud computing providers' network infrastructure. Enterprise users rely on multicast, and particularly UDP multicast to create and connect vital business operations. For example, UPD makes a variety of business functions possible from simultaneous content media updates, High-Performance Computing (HPC) grids, and video call routing for massive open online courses (MOOCs). Essentially, UDP multicast's technological slight is causing a huge effect on whether companies choose to use (or not to use) public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Allowing the ‘chatty’ UDP multicast protocol inside a cloud network could have a serious impact on the performance of the cloud as a whole. Cloud IaaS providers solve the issue by disallowing all UDP multicast. But what about enterprise use cases for multicast applications in organizations that want to move to the cloud? To re-allow multicast traffic, enterprises can build a layer 3 - 7 network over the top of a data center, private cloud, or public cloud. An overlay network simply creates a private, sealed network on top of the existing network. Overlays give complete control of the network back to enterprise cloud users the freedom to manage their network beyond the control of the cloud provider’s firewall conditions. The same logic applies if for users who wish to use IPsec or BGP network protocols inside or connected into an overlay network in cloud IaaS.

Keywords: cloud computing, protocols, UDP multicast, virtualization

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Authors: Mohammad Talei, Neda Ranjbar Nosheri, Reza Kazemi Gorzadini

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Today municipalities are searching for the new tools for increasing the public participation in different levels of urban planning. This approach of urban planning involves the community in planning process using participatory approaches instead of the long traditional top-down planning methods. These tools can be used to obtain the particular problems of urban furniture form the residents’ point of view. One of the tools that is designed with this goal is public participation GIS (PPGIS) that enables citizen to record and following up their feeling and spatial knowledge regarding main problems of the city, specifically urban furniture, in the form of maps. However, despite the good intentions of PPGIS, its practical implementation in developing countries faces many problems including the lack of basic supporting infrastructure and services and unavailability of sophisticated public participatory models. In this research we develop a PPGIS using of Web 2 to collect voluntary geodataand to perform spatial analysis based on Spatial OnLine Analytical Processing (SOLAP) and Spatial Data Mining (SDM). These tools provide urban planners with proper informationregarding the type, spatial distribution and the clusters of reported problems. This system is implemented in a case study area in Tehran, Iran and the challenges to make it applicable and its potential for real urban planning have been evaluated. It helps decision makers to better understand, plan and allocate scarce resources for providing most requested urban furniture.

Keywords: PPGIS, spatial information, urbanizing futures, urban planning

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Authors: Pingping Zhang, Yanpeng Cai, Jianlong Wang

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Stormwater storage tank (SST) is a popular low impact development technology for reducing stormwater runoff in the construction of sponge city. At present, it is difficult to perform the automatic control of SST for reducing peak flow. In this paper, fuzzy control was introduced into the peak control of SST to improve the efficiency of reducing stormwater runoff. Firstly, the design of SST was investigated. A catchment area and a return period were assumed, a SST model was manufactured, and then the storage capacity of the SST was verified. Secondly, the control parameters of the SST based on reducing stormwater runoff were analyzed, and a schematic diagram of real-time control (RTC) system based on peak control SST was established. Finally, fuzzy control system of a double input (flow and water level) and double output (inlet and outlet valve) was designed. The results showed that 1) under the different return periods (one year, three years, five years), the SST had the effect of delayed peak control and storage by increasing the detention time, 2) rainfall, pipeline flow, the influent time and the water level in the SST could be used as RTC parameters, and 3) the response curves of flow velocity and water level fluctuated very little and reached equilibrium in a short time. The combination of online monitoring and fuzzy control was feasible to control the SST automatically. This paper provides a theoretical reference for reducing stormwater runoff and improving the operation efficiency of SST.

Keywords: stormwater runoff, stormwater storage tank, real-time control, fuzzy control

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Authors: Waganesh Zeleke, Abebaw Minaye

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This study examined the act, means, and purpose of human trafficking in the case of Ethiopian migrant returnees from the Middle East and South Africa. Using a questionnaire survey data was gathered from 1078 returnees. Twelve focus group discussions were used to solicit detailed experience of returnee about the process of their 'unsafe' immigration. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis results revealed that against the mainstream thinking of human trafficking means such as forcing, coercing, abducting or threatening, traffickers used 'victims’ free will' means by providing false promises to and capitalizing on the vulnerability of migrants. The migrants’ living condition including unemployment, ambitious view to change their life, and low level of risk perception were found to be risk factors which made them vulnerable and target of the brokers and smugglers who served as a catalyst in the process of their 'unsafe' migration. Equal to the traffickers/brokers/agency, the migrants’ family, friends and Ethiopian embassies contributed to the deplorable situation of migrant workers. 64.4% of the returnees reported that their migration is self-initiated, and 20% reported peer pressure and 13.8 percent reported family pressure, and it is only 1.8% who reported having been pushed by brokers. The findings revealed that 69.5% of the returnees do not know about the lifestyle and culture of the host community before their leave. In a similar vein, 50.9% of the returnees reported that they do not know about the nature of the work they are to do and their responsibilities. Further, 81% of the returnees indicated that the pre-migration training they received was not enough in equipping them with the required skill. Despite the returnees experiences of various forms of abuse and exploitation in the journey and at the destination they still have a positive attitude for migration (t=9.7 mean of 18.85 with a test value of 15). The returnees evaluated the support provided by sending agencies and Ethiopian embassies in the destination to be poor. 51.8% of the migrants do not know the details of the contract they signed during migration. Close to 70% of the returnees expressed that they had not got any legal support from stakeholders when they faced problems. What is more is that despite all these 27.9% of the returnees indicated re-immigrating as their plan. Based on these findings on the context and experience of Ethiopian migrant returnees, implications for training, policy, research, and intervention are discussed.

Keywords: trafficking, migrant, returnee, Ethiopia, experience, reconceptualizing

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Authors: Fatemeh Modirzare

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Smart interior design represents a transformative approach to creating living spaces that integrate technology seamlessly into our daily lives, enhancing comfort, convenience, and sustainability. This paper explores the concept of smart interior design, its principles, benefits, challenges, and future prospects. It also highlights various examples and applications of smart interior design to illustrate its potential in shaping the way we live and interact with our surroundings. In an increasingly digitized world, the boundaries between technology and interior design are blurring. Smart interior design, also known as intelligent or connected interior design, involves the incorporation of advanced technologies and automation systems into residential and commercial spaces. This innovative approach aims to make living environments more efficient, comfortable, and adaptable while promoting sustainability and user well-being. Smart interior design seamlessly integrates technology into the aesthetics and functionality of a space, ensuring that devices and systems do not disrupt the overall design. Sustainable materials, energy-efficient systems, and eco-friendly practices are central to smart interior design, reducing environmental impact. Spaces are designed to be adaptable, allowing for reconfiguration to suit changing needs and preferences. Smart homes and spaces offer greater comfort through features like automated climate control, adjustable lighting, and customizable ambiance. Smart interior design can significantly reduce energy consumption through optimized heating, cooling, and lighting systems. Smart interior design integrates security systems, fire detection, and emergency response mechanisms for enhanced safety. Sustainable materials, energy-efficient appliances, and waste reduction practices contribute to a greener living environment. Implementing smart interior design can be expensive, particularly when retrofitting existing spaces with smart technologies. The increased connectivity raises concerns about data privacy and cybersecurity, requiring robust measures to protect user information. Rapid advancements in technology may lead to obsolescence, necessitating updates and replacements. Users must be familiar with smart systems to fully benefit from them, requiring education and ongoing support. Residential spaces incorporate features like voice-activated assistants, automated lighting, and energy management systems. Intelligent office design enhances productivity and employee well-being through smart lighting, climate control, and meeting room booking systems. Hospitals and healthcare facilities use smart interior design for patient monitoring, wayfinding, and energy conservation. Smart retail design includes interactive displays, personalized shopping experiences, and inventory management systems. The future of smart interior design holds exciting possibilities, including AI-powered design tools that create personalized spaces based on user preferences. Smart interior design will increasingly prioritize factors that improve physical and mental health, such as air quality monitoring and mood-enhancing lighting. Smart interior design is revolutionizing the way we interact with our living and working spaces. By embracing technology, sustainability, and user-centric design principles, smart interior design offers numerous benefits, from increased comfort and convenience to energy efficiency and sustainability. Despite challenges, the future holds tremendous potential for further innovation in this field, promising a more connected, efficient, and harmonious way of living and working.

Keywords: smart interior design, home automation, sustainable living spaces, technological integration, user-centric design

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Authors: Jamaluddin Abd Rashid, Aris Abdul Rahman

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Mobile phones have become the most popular way to communicate with other individuals and it has created an unspoken social dependency. Making phone calls, instant messaging, playing online games and accessing the Internet are among the features added to a mobile phone, attracting teenagers to spend more hours fixated on their gadgets. As such, this study attempted to examine the frequency of time spent on mobile phones and how this influenced academic performance. A quantitative methodology was applied in this study, where face to face survey through the distribution of questionnaires was facilitated onto a group of 200 secondary school students from the Shah Alam community in Selangor,Malaysia. Both genders, male and females were assessed equally to find out if there exists a correlation between genders when measuring higher or lower frequency of attachment to mobile phones. It can also be seen that 100% correspondents have a mobile phone in their possession. The adolescents uses mobile phones daily, which shows students being somewhat addicted, as they tend to feel that it is necessary to use a mobile phone. The main findings of this research found out that, students that are mobile phone addictive received a lower grade in schools. Mobile phone addiction does affect academic performance negatively. As this study discusses the modern-day phenomenon, it is hoped that the findings and discussion could add to present literary works and help future researchers understand the relationship between mobile phone addiction and academic performance.

Keywords: academic performance, mobile phone addiction, social media, student

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Authors: S. K. Ashiquer Rahman

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The innovative knowledge threshold significantly shifted education from traditional to an online version which was an emergent state of arts for academic programs of any higher education institutions; the substantive situation thus raises the importance of deliberative integration of education, Knowledge, technology and sustainability as well as knowledge platforms, e.g., ePLANETe. In fact, the concept of 'ePLANETe' an innovative knowledge platform and its functionalities as an experimental digitized platform for contributing sustainable assessment of academic programs of higher education institution(HEI). Besides, this paper assessed and define the common sustainable development challenges of higher education(HE) and identified effective approach and tools of 'ePLANETe’ that is enable to practices sustainability assessment of academic programs through the deliberation methodologies. To investigate the effectiveness of knowledge tools and approach of 'ePLANETe’, I have studied sustainable challenges digitized pedagogical content as well as evaluation of academic programs of two public universities in France through the 'ePLANETe’ evaluation space. The investigation indicated that the effectiveness of 'ePLANETe’s tools and approach perfectly fit for the quality assessment of academic programs, implementation of sustainable challenges, and dynamic balance of ecosystem within the university communities and academic programs through 'ePLANETe’ evaluation process and space. The study suggests to the relevant higher educational institution’s authorities and policymakers could use this approach and tools for assessing sustainability and enhancing the sustainability competencies of academic programs for quality education

Keywords: ePLANETe, deliberation, evaluation, competencies

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Authors: Mary Edokpa Fadal, Frances Agweda

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Considering the volatile and evolving nature of the political environment in the developing countries, it is important that the subject of effective leadership practices that focus on transformational and systematic political development and values be reviewed. If the attitude towards partisan politics and the played politics by political parties is relatively deviated from expected adherence to acceptance, safe, efficient and practical standard, the political parties will continue to struggle endlessly in an effort to maintain a system that works. The analysis is situated in the context of political parties and partisan political behavior in contemporary societies and developing nations. Recent research of empirical evidence shows that most of the political parties are more or less, not too active in playing their instrumental role in the political system, such as unifying, simplifying and stabilizing the political process. This is however traced to the problem of ethnic politics that have been dominated by tribalism. The rising clamor for political development needs re-structuring and correcting the abnormalities in the center of the polity to address the flaws in our political system. The paper argues that political parties and political actors are some of the vital instrument of attaining societal goals of democratic principles for peace and durability. Issues of ethnic and partisan politics are also discussed, as it relates to question pertaining to political ideologies. It is in the findings that this paper examines some of the issues that have been seen revolving the true practice of political parties and its activities towards the democratic trend of a society, that help to resolve questions surrounding the issues of politics and governance in developing countries. These issues are seen as an aberration that have characterized politics and political behavior especially in the aspect of transparency and fulfilling its purpose of existence. The paper argues that the transition of the developing nature of states largely depends on the political structures and party politics and the nature of constitutionalism following the democratic awakening. The paper concludes that politics and political behavior are all human factors that play a vital role in the development of contemporary societies. They drive the wheel of nations towards its goal attainment. This paper relies on documentary, primary sources of data collection and empirical analysis.

Keywords: development, ethnicity, partisan politics, political behavior, political parties

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Authors: Mai Kaneda, Sarah Feeney

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This study examined the association between adult attachment security and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) among college students in the United States. Previous studies show that attachment security is associated with levels of CDMSE among college students. Given that a majority of studies examining career development variables have used parental attachment measures, this study adds to understanding of this phenomenon by utilizing a broader measure of attachment. The participants included 269 college students (76% female) between the ages of 19-29. An anonymous survey was distributed online via social media as well as in hard copy format in classrooms. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between anxious and avoidant attachment and CDMSE. Results revealed anxious attachment was a significant predictor of CDMSE (B = -.13, p = .01), such that greater anxiety in attachment was associated with lower levels of CDMSE. When accounting for anxious attachment, avoidant attachment was no longer significant as a predictor of CDMSE (B = -.12, p = .10). The variance in college CDMSE explained by the model was 7%, F(2,267) = 9.51, p < .001. Results for anxious attachment are consistent with existing literature that finds insecure attachment to be related to lower levels of CDMSE, however the non-significant results for avoidant attachment as a predictor of CDMSE suggest not all types of attachment insecurity are equally related to CDMSE. Future research is needed to explore the nature of the relationship between different dimensions of attachment insecurity and CDMSE.

Keywords: attachment, career decision-making, college students, self-efficacy

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Authors: Chau Nguyen Pham Minh

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The aim of this study is to answer the following research question: What do we know about virtual customer integration in innovation development based on existing empirical research? The paper is based on a systematic review of 136 articles which were published in the past 16 years. The analysis focuses on three areas: what forms of virtual customer integration (e.g. netnography, online co-creation, virtual experience) have been applied in innovation development; how have virtual customer integration methods effectively been utilized by firms; and what are the influences of virtual customer integration on innovation development activities? Through the detailed analysis, the study provides researchers with broad understanding about virtual customer integration in innovation development. The study shows that practitioners and researchers increasingly pay attention on using virtual customer integration methods in developing innovation since those methods have dominant advantages in interact with customers in order to generate the best ideas for innovation development. Additionally, the findings indicate that netnography has been the most common method in integrating with customers for idea generation; while virtual product experience has been mainly used in product testing. Moreover, the analysis also reveals the positive and negative influences of virtual customer integration in innovation development from both process and strategic perspectives. Most of the review studies examined the phenomenon from company’s perspectives to understand the process of applying virtual customer integration methods and their impacts; however, the customers’ perspective on participating in the virtual interaction has been inadequately studied; therefore, it creates many potential interesting research paths for future studies.

Keywords: innovation, virtual customer integration, co-creation, netnography, new product development

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Authors: K. R. Padma, K. R. Don

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Background and aims: A balanced nutritional diet is essential in maintaining immunity and for deterrence as well as desisting of viral infections. Nevertheless, currently, very less information is available online regarding nutrition consumption during the period of coronavirus infection, i.e. (COVID-19). In our systematic review article, we portrayed and aimed to evaluate evidence from various previous clinical trials, which was based on nutritional interventions for viral diseases and given a concise overview. Methods: A systematic search was carried out employing 3 key medical databases: PubMed®, Web of Science®, and SciVerse Scopus®. Studies were performed and evaluated suitable if clinical trials in humans, appropriate immunological parameters on viral and respiratory infections, need to perform. Basic Clinical trials on nutritional vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals as well as probiotics were included. Results: We have explored 10 review articles and extracted data for our study. A total of > 2000 participants were included and excluded several other trace elements as well as various vitamins, but in inclusion criteria mainly concentrated on those who have shown propitious immune-modulatory effects against viral respiratory infections. Conclusions: We have encapsulated the potential health benefits of some minerals, vitamins, as well as certain designer foods, nutraceuticals, and probiotics in viral infections. Based on this nutritional interventional strategy available from our present data, it could be promising to abstain and reduce the COVID-19 infection replication and boost our immunity to fight against the virus.

Keywords: COVID-19, immunity, vitamins, nutritional intervention strategy

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Authors: Atefeh Heydari, Mohammadali Tavakoli, Naomie Salim

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In recent years, we have witnessed that online reviews are the most important source of customers’ opinion. They are progressively more used by individuals and organisations to make purchase and business decisions. Unfortunately, for the reason of profit or fame, frauds produce deceptive reviews to hoodwink potential customers. Their activities mislead not only potential customers to make appropriate purchasing decisions and organisations to reshape their business, but also opinion mining techniques by preventing them from reaching accurate results. Spam reviews could be divided into two main groups, i.e. multiple and singleton spam reviews. Detecting a singleton spam review that is the only review written by a user ID is extremely challenging due to lack of clue for detection purposes. Singleton spam reviews are very harmful and various features and proofs used in multiple spam reviews detection are not applicable in this case. Current research aims to propose a novel supervised technique to detect singleton spam reviews. To achieve this, various features are proposed in this study and are to be combined with the most appropriate features extracted from literature and employed in a classifier. In order to compare the performance of different classifiers, SVM and naive Bayes classification algorithms were used for model building. The results revealed that SVM was more accurate than naive Bayes and our proposed technique is capable to detect singleton spam reviews effectively.

Keywords: classification algorithms, Naïve Bayes, opinion review spam detection, singleton review spam detection, support vector machine

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Authors: Stephanie Ann Houghton

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SDG-driven intercultural citizenship education through performing arts and history research, combined with dance-fitness development inspired by performing arts, can provide a third space in which performing arts, local history, and contemporary society drive educational and social development, supporting the performing arts in student-generated ways, reflecting their sense, priorities, and goals. Within a string of rugged volcanic peninsulas along the north-western coastline of the Ariake Sea, Kyushu, southern Japan, are found a range of traditional performing arts endangered in Japan’s ageing society, including Menburyu mask dance. From 2017, Menburyu culture and history were explored with Menburyu veterans and students within Houghton’s FURYU Educational Program (FEP) at Saga University. Through collaboration with professional fitness instructor Kazuki Miyata, basic Menburyu movements and concepts were blended into aerobics routines to generate Menburyu-Inspired Dance-Fitness (MIDF). Drawing on history, legends, and myths, three important storylines for understanding Menburyu, captured in students’ bilingual (English/Japanese) exhibition panels, emerged: harvest, demons and gods, and the Battle of Tadenawate 1530. Houghton and Miyata performed the first MIDF routine at the 22nd Traditional Performing Arts Festival at Yutoku Inari Shrine, Kashima, in September 2019. FEP exhibitions, dance-fitness events, and MIDF performance have been reported in the media locally and nationally. In an action research case study, a classroom research project was conducted with four female Japanese students over fifteen three-hour online lessons (April-July 2020). Part 1 of each lesson focused on Menburyu history. This included a guest lecture by Kensuke Ryuzoji. The three Menburyu storylines served as keys for exploring Menburyu history from international standpoints.Part 2 focused on the development of MIDF basic steps and an online MIDF event with outside guests. Through post-lesson reflective diaries and reports/videos documenting their experience, students engaged in heritage management, intercultural dialogue, health/fitness, technology and art generation activities within the FEP, centring on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including health and wellness (SDG3), and quality education (SDG4), taking a glocal approach. In this presentation, qualitative analysis of student-generated reflective diary and reports will be presented to reveal educational processes, learning outcomes,and apparent areas of (potential) social impact of this classroom research project. Data will be presented in two main parts: (1) The mutually beneficial relationship between local traditional performing arts research and local history researchwill be addressed. One has the power both inform and illuminate the other given their deep connections. This can drive the development of students’ intercultural history competence related to and through the performing arts. (2) The development of dance-fitness inspired by traditional performing arts provides a third space in which performing arts, local history and contemporary society can be connected through SDG-driven education inside the classroom in ways that can also drive social innovation outside the classroom, potentially supporting the performing arts itself in student-generated ways, reflecting their own sense, priorities and social goals. Links will be drawn with intercultural citizenship, strengths and weaknesses of this teaching approach will be highlighted, and avenues for future research in this exciting new area will be suggested.

Keywords: cultural traditions, dance-fitness performance and participation, intercultural communication approach, mask dance origins

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Authors: Suha Alawadhi, Malak Alrasheed

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In the recent past, public participation in governments has been declined to a great extent, as citizens have been isolated from community life and their ability to articulate demands for good government has been noticeably decreased. However, the Internet has introduced new forms of interaction that could enhance different types of relationships, including government-public relationship. In fact, technology-enabled government has become a catalyst for enabling social inclusion. This exploratory study seeks to investigate public perceptions in Kuwait regarding the use of social media networks in government where social capital is built to achieve social inclusion. Social capital has been defined as social networks and connections amongst individuals, that are based on shared trust, ideas and norms, enable participants of a network to act effectively to pursue a shared objective. The quantitative method was used to generate empirical evidence. A questionnaire was designed to address the research objective and reflect the identified constructs: social capital dimensions (bridging, bonding and maintaining social capital), social inclusion, and social equality. In this pilot study, data was collected from a random sample of 61 subjects. The results indicate that all participants have a positive attitude towards the dimensions of social capital (bridging, bonding and maintaining), social inclusion and social equality constructs. Tests of identified constructs against demographic characteristics indicate that there are significant differences between male and female as they perceived bonding and maintaining social capital, social inclusion and social equality whereas no difference was identified in their perceptions of bridging social capital. Also, those who are aged 26-30 perceived bonding and maintaining social capital, social inclusion and social equality negatively compared to those aged 20-25, 31-35, and 40-above whose perceptions were positive. With regard to education, the results also show that those holding high school, university degree and diploma perceived maintaining social capital positively higher than with those who hold graduate degrees. Moreover, a regression model is proposed to study the effect of bridging, bonding, and maintaining social capital on social inclusion via social equality as a mediator. This exploratory study is necessary for testing the validity and reliability of the questionnaire which will be used in the main study that aims to investigate the perceptions of individuals towards building social capital to achieve social inclusion.

Keywords: government, social capital, social inclusion, social networks

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Authors: Uzma Ahmad

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hyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) is the most turbulent province of Pakistan, sharing a longborder with Afghanistan. For about four decades, KPK is facing a series of international events. The peak was reached after 9/11when region was labelled as posing a major theatre of militancy and terrorism which was intensified when Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) began attempts to seize the authority of state. One of the main focus of TTP was to damage and uprooting of female education system and infrastructure in KPK which later became the site of a massacre of school children of Army Public School Peshawar on 16 December 2014.It resulted to the launching of Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP insurgency,casualty and crime rates in the KPKas a whole dropped by 40.0% as compared to 2011–13. All this has badly hampered the female education both in terms of quantity and quality. Malala Yousafzai who is now an advocate of female education has been a victim of Talibans brutality in that area. And thelanguage in which she managed to express herself to the International community is English.Keeping in view the situation, the present project was designed with a sole aim to focus on female students of the area which are few in numbers and to investigate some specific area, where they have been confronting problems in the use of grammar, vocabulary,tenses and organization of ideas in writings. The reasons might be the careless attitude, insufficient reading habits, lack of interest and poor knowledge of English language. The methodology was a descriptive one as it shows the effects of the internal efficiency(independent variables) on an intermediate college’s progress(dependent variables). It was a case study since data was collected from a focused group of 60 female students of arts and humanities at Swabi college at Intermediate level. The ultimate focus was to explore the possibilities of creating a Gender friendly environment for female students. This research has proved how the correct use of English language has given them confidence to move ahead side by side with men and to acknowledge their right of self-determination.

Keywords: capacity building, female education, gender friendly, internal efficiency

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Authors: Naouel Zoghlami

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Spoken-word recognition involves the simultaneous activation of potential word candidates which compete with each other for final correct recognition. In continuous speech, the activation-competition process gets more complicated due to speech reductions existing at word boundaries. Lexical processing is more difficult in L2 than in L1 because L2 listeners often lack phonetic, lexico-semantic, syntactic, and prosodic knowledge in the target language. In this study, we investigate the on-line lexical segmentation hypotheses that French listeners of L2 English form and then revise as subsequent perceptual evidence is revealed. Our purpose is to shed further light on the processes of L2 spoken-word recognition in context and better understand L2 listening difficulties through a comparison of skilled and unskilled reactions at the point where their working hypothesis is rejected. We use a variant of the gating experiment in which subjects transcribe an English sentence presented in increments of progressively greater duration. The spoken sentence was “And this amazing athlete has just broken another world record”, chosen mainly because it included common reductions and phonetic features in English, such as elision and assimilation. Our preliminary results show that there is an important difference in the manner in which proficient and less-proficient L2 listeners handle connected speech. Less-proficient listeners delay recognition of words as they wait for lexical and syntactic evidence to appear in the gates. Further statistical results are currently being undertaken.

Keywords: gating paradigm, spoken word recognition, online lexical segmentation, L2 listening

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Authors: Sarath Chandran Nair S, Srinivas Kodati, Vasudevan R, Asraff A. K

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Spacecrafts generally employ liquid propulsion for their attitude and orbital maneuvers or raising it from geo-transfer orbit to geosynchronous orbit. Liquid propulsion systems use either mono-propellant or bi-propellants for generating thrust. These propellants are generally stored in either spherical tanks or cylindrical tanks with spherical end domes. The propellant tanks are provided with a propellant acquisition system/propellant management device along with vanes and their conical mounting structure to ensure propellant availability in the outlet for thrust generation even under a low/zero-gravity environment. Slosh is the free surface oscillations in partially filled containers under external disturbances. In a spacecraft, these can be due to control forces and due to varying acceleration. Knowledge of slosh and its effect due to internals is essential for understanding its stability through control stability studies. It is mathematically represented by a pendulum-mass model. It requires parameters such as slosh frequency, damping, sloshes mass and its location, etc. This paper enumerates various numerical and experimental methods used for evaluating the slosh parameters required for representing slosh. Numerical methods like finite element methods based on linear velocity potential theory and computational fluid dynamics based on Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations are used for the detailed evaluation of slosh behavior in one of the spacecraft propellant tanks used in an Indian space mission. Experimental studies carried out on a scaled-down model are also discussed. Slosh parameters evaluated by different methods matched very well and finalized their dispersion bands based on experimental studies. It is observed that the presence of internals such as propellant management devices, including conical support structure, alters slosh parameters. These internals also offers one order higher damping compared to viscous/ smooth wall damping. It is an advantage factor for the stability of slosh. These slosh parameters are given for establishing slosh margins through control stability studies and finalize the spacecraft control system design.

Keywords: control stability, propellant tanks, slosh, spacecraft, slosh spacecraft

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Authors: Mahsa Khani Oushani, Mohammad Kazem Hasanvand

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Text and image have always been two important components in Iranian layout. The interactive connection between text and image has shaped the art of book design with multiple patterns. In this research, first the structure and visual elements in the research data were analyzed and then the position of the text element and the image element in relation to each other based on Roland Barthes theory on the three theories of text and image, were studied and analyzed and the results were compared, and interpreted. The purpose of this study is to investigate the pattern of text and image in the works of Kamaluddin Behzad based on three Roland Barthes communication theories, 1. Descriptive communication, 2. Reference communication, 3. Matched communication. The questions of this research are what is the relationship between text and image in Behzad's works? And how is it defined according to Roland Barthes theory? The method of this research has been done with a structuralist approach with a descriptive-analytical method in a library collection method. The information has been collected in the form of documents (library) and is a tool for collecting online databases. Findings show that the dominant element in Behzad's drawings is with the image and has created a reference relationship in the layout of the drawings, but in some cases it achieves a different relationship that despite the preference of the image on the page, the text is dispersed proportionally on the page and plays a more active role, played within the image. The text and the image support each other equally on the page; Roland Barthes equates this connection.

Keywords: text, image, Kamaluddin Behzad, Roland Barthes, communication theory

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Authors: Wajiha Javed, Arsalan Jabbar, Nelofer Mehboob, Muhammad Tafseer, Zahid Memon

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Introduction: Researchers globally have strived to explore diverse factors that augment the continuation and uptake of family planning methods. Clients’ satisfaction is one of the core determinants facilitating continuation of family planning methods. There is a major debate yet scanty evidence to contrast public and private sectors with respect to client satisfaction. The objective of this study is to compare quality-of-care provided by public and private sectors of Pakistan through a client satisfaction lens. Methods: We used Pakistan Demographic Heath Survey 2012-13 dataset (Sindh province) on a total of 3133 Married Women of Reproductive Age (MWRA) aged 15-49 years. Source of family planning (public/private sector) was the main exposure variable. Outcome variable was client satisfaction judged by ten different dimensions of client satisfaction. Means and standard deviations were calculated for continuous variable while for categorical variable frequencies and percentages were computed. For univariate analysis, Chi-square/Fisher Exact test was used to find an association between clients’ satisfaction in public and private sectors. Ten different multivariate models were made. Variables were checked for multi-collinearity, confounding, and interaction, and then advanced logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between client satisfaction and dependent outcome after adjusting for all known confounding factors and results are presented as OR and AOR (95% CI). Results: Multivariate analyses showed that clients were less satisfied in contraceptive provision from private sector as compared to public sector (AOR 0.92,95% CI 0.63-1.68) even though the result was not statistically significant. Clients were more satisfied from private sector as compared to the public sector with respect to other determinants of quality-of-care (follow-up care (AOR 3.29, 95% CI 1.95-5.55), infection prevention (AOR 2.41, 95% CI 1.60-3.62), counseling services (AOR 2.01, 95% CI 1.27-3.18, timely treatment (AOR 3.37, 95% CI 2.20-5.15), attitude of staff (AOR 2.23, 95% CI 1.50-3.33), punctuality of staff (AOR 2.28, 95% CI 1.92-4.13), timely referring (AOR 2.34, 95% CI 1.63-3.35), staff cooperation (AOR 1.75, 95% CI 1.22-2.51) and complications handling (AOR 2.27, 95% CI 1.56-3.29).

Keywords: client satisfaction, family planning, public private partnership, quality of care

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Authors: Seyedeh-Fariba Jahanbin, Hasan Yusefzadeh, Bahram Nabilou, Cyrus Alinia, Cyrus Alinia

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Background: Due to the lack of a constant Willingness to Pay per one additional Quality Adjusted Life Years gained based on the preferences of Iran’s general public, the cost-efectiveness of health system interventions is unclear and making it challenging to apply economic evaluation to health resources priority setting. Methods: We have measured this cost-efectiveness threshold with the participation of 2854 individuals from fve provinces, each representing an income quintile, using a modifed Time Trade-Of-based Chained-Approach. In this online-based empirical survey, to extract the health utility value, participants were randomly assigned to one of two green (21121) and yellow (22222) health scenarios designed based on the earlier validated EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Results: Across the two health state versions, mean values for one QALY gain (rounded) ranged from $6740-$7400 and $6480-$7120, respectively, for aggregate and trimmed models, which are equivalent to 1.35-1.18 times of the GDP per capita. Log-linear Multivariate OLS regression analysis confrmed that respondents were more likely to pay if their income, disutility, and education level were higher than their counterparts. Conclusions: In the health system of Iran, any intervention that is with the incremental cost-efectiveness ratio, equal to and less than 7402.12 USD, will be considered cost-efective.

Keywords: willingness to Pay, QALY, chained-approach, cost-efectiveness threshold, Iran

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Authors: Wong Yat Cheung Maggie

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Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (OS&HO) (Chap 509) was enacted in 1997, OHS in HK should be growing and maturing, with a holistic approach to occupational health and safety in the workplace including physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. The question is “How effective are OHSPs in meeting the current needs of HK health workers?” This study was designed to explore the issue for the first time, to empirically analyse the views of those who work in the system. The study employed a mixed method approach to collect various data from Occupational Health Service Providers (OHSPs), Occupational Health Service Consumers (OHSC): Registered nurses working in the hospital setting. This study was designed in two phases and two stages. Phase I Stage I was a paper survey to collect the data on OHSP. Then Phase I Stage II was a follow-up interview. Phase II Stage I was a paper survey to collect the data on OHSC. Then Phase II Stage II was a follow-up focus group study on OHSC for further clarification of the Phase II and Stage I result. The Phase I result reflects HK OHSPs point of view and their experience in the existing OHS practice in the local hospitals. It reflects various styles of reporting systems, staff profiles background and resource in providing OHS in HK hospitals. However, the basic OHS concern is similar between hospitals. In general, the OHS policies and procedures are available on site even though they may have different foci. The Phase II result is reflecting the HKs OHSCs echoes the OHSP feedback at providing of OHS, OHS concern and related policies and procedure are available on site. However, the most significant feedback from the OHSC at Phase II Stage II shows, nurses experienced various OHS concern most commonly work stress, workplace harassment and back strain without formal or official report to the related parties. The lack of reporting was due to the management handling attitude, stakeholders’ compliance and term of definition still have room to be improved even the related policies and procedures are available on site.

Keywords: occupational health service, registered nurse, Hong Kong hospital, mixed method

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Authors: William Mahony, L. Jacqueline Hirth, Richard Rupp, Sandra Gonzalez, Roger Zoorob

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Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physicians has been considered by many researchers, but less is known about non-physician healthcare workers. The aim of this study is to examine the association of COVID-19 safety training and communication with stress. Methods: A 91-item online survey was distributed, starting January 2, 2021, to non-physician healthcare workers, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and medical assistants (MAs) in the United States through email and social media. A $1 donation was made to the Red Cross for each completed survey. The survey consisted of demographics, occupational questions, and perceived stress (perceived stress scale, PSS). Items on the PSS were combined for an overall score and categorized according to the severity of perceived stress. Chi-square tests were performed for bivariate analyses of categorical variables. Results: Of the 284 participants consenting to complete the survey, 197 participants completed the full survey. MAs made up most of the sample at 79%. Among all respondents, 47% had moderate PSS scores (scored between 14 and 26), and 51% had severe PSS scores (scored between 27 and 40). Unvaccinated participants reported statistically significantly lower levels of perceived stress (p = 0.002). Performing tasks outside of typical job responsibilities was not associated with PSS scores (p = .667). Discussion: Non-physician healthcare workers demonstrated a high level of perceived stress overall. The association between vaccination status and perceived stress should be examined in order to evaluate whether vaccination levels could be improved with further education about the virus and associated risks.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-Cov-2, nursing, public health

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Authors: Ali Alavi, Hong-Oanh Nguyen, ‎Jiangang Fei, Jafar Sayareh

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The recent competitive market in the port sector highly depend on logistics practices, functions ‎and activities and seaports play a key role in port logistics chains. Despite the well-articulated importance of ports and terminals in integrated logistics, the role of success factors in port logistics integration has been rarely mentioned‎. The objective of this paper is to ‎fill this gap in the literature and provide an insight into how seaports and terminals may improve their logistics integration. First, a literature review of studies on logistics integration in seaports and terminals is conducted. Second, a new conceptual framework for port logistics integration is proposed to incorporate the role of the new variables emerging from the recent developments in the global business environment. Third, the model tested in Iranian port and maritime sector using self-administered and online survey among logistics chain actors in Iranian seaports such shipping line operators, logistics service providers, port authorities, logistics companies and other related actors. The results have found the logistics process and operations, information integration, ‎value-added services, and logistics practices being influential to logistics integration. A proposed conceptual framework is developed to extend the existing ‎framework and incorporates the variables namely organizational activities, resource ‎sharing, and institutional support.‎ Further examination of the proposed model across multiple contexts is necessary for the validity of the findings. The framework could be more detailed on each factor and consider actors perspective.

Keywords: maritime logistics‎, port integration‎, logistics integration‎, supply chain integration

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Authors: Marielle Mansour

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Background: Integrating university students into an academic environment can be intense, with significant intellectual and emotional challenges. Stress, particularly during exam periods, plays a crucial role in students' eating habits, often influencing their food choices through mechanisms such as emotional eating. Objective: This study aims to understand the impact of exam stress on emotional eating among university students in Lebanon, Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 700 students aged 18 to 25 years in Lebanon, using online questionnaires to assess perceived stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and emotional eating behaviors with the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). Data was analyzed to identify correlations between stress and emotional eating. Results: A significant positive correlation was observed between levels of perceived stress and increased emotional eating, with marked differences depending on participants' gender and field of study. This trend highlights the concerning impact of academic stress on students' food choices, including an increased prevalence of emotional eating among women and those studying in demanding disciplines like health sciences and engineering. Conclusion: This research contributes to the understanding of the complex links between academic stress and emotional eating behaviors among university students in Lebanon. To improve the mental and physical health of students, it is essential to implement tailored educational and support initiatives aimed at reducing stress and promoting balanced dietary choices in learning environments.

Keywords: exam stress, emotional eating, university students, stress management, Lebanon

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Authors: Samuel Alaba Akinwotu

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Over the years, Nigeria’s educational system has greatly suffered from the menace of industrial conflict. The smooth running of the nation’s public educational institutions has been hampered by incessant strikes embarked upon by workers of these institutions. Even though industrial conflicts in Nigeria have enjoyed wide reportage in the media, there has been a dearth of critical examination of the language use that index the conflict’s discourse in the media. This study which is driven by a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Conceptual Metaphor (CM) examines the discursive and ideological features of language indexing the industrial conflict between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in 2013. It aims to identify and assess the conceptual and cognitive motivations of the stances expressed by the parties and the public and the role of the media in the management and resolution of the conflict. For data, media reports and readers’ comments were purposively sampled from six print and online news sources (The Punch, This Day, Vanguard, The Nation, Osun Defender and AITonline) published between July and December 2013. The study provides further insight into industrial conflict and proves to be useful for the management and resolution of industrial conflicts especially in our public educational institutions.

Keywords: industrial conflict, critical discourse analysis, conceptual metaphor, federal government of Nigeria, academic staff union of universities

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