Search results for: association of social data

Authors: Vuyayo Tsheleza, Simbarashe Ndhleve, Christopher Mpundu Musampa

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Mismanagement of waste is continuously emerging as a rising malpractice in most developing countries, especially in fast growing cities. Household solid waste in Mthatha has been reported to be one of the problems facing the city and is overwhelming local authorities, as it is beyond the environment and management capacity of the existing waste management system. This study estimates per capita waste generation, quantity of different waste types generated by inhabitants of formal and informal settlements in Mthatha as well as waste management practices in the aforementioned socio-economic stratums. A total of 206 households were systematically selected for the study using stratified random sampling categorized into formal and informal settlements. Data on household waste generation rate, composition, awareness, and household waste management behaviour and practices was gathered through mixed methods. Sampled households from both formal and informal settlements with a total of 684 people generated 1949kg per week. This translates to 2.84kg per capita per week. On average, the rate of solid waste generation per capita was 0.40 kg per day for a person living in informal settlement and 0.56 kg per day person living in formal settlement. When recorded in descending order, the proportion food waste accounted for the most generated waste at approximately 23.7%, followed by disposable nappies at 15%, papers and cardboards 13.34%, glass 13.03%, metals at 11.99%, plastics at 11.58%, residue at 5.17, textiles 3.93%, with leather and rubber at 2.28% as the least generated waste type. Different waste management practices were reported in both formal and informal settlements with formal settlements proving to be more concerned about environmental management as compared to their counterparts, informal settlement. Understanding attitudes and perceptions on waste management, waste types and per capita solid waste generation rate can help evolve appropriate waste management strategies based on the principle of reduce, re-use, recycle, environmental sound disposal and also assist in projecting future waste generation rate. These results can be utilized as input when designing growing cities’ waste management plans.

Keywords: awareness, characterisation, per capita, quantification

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Authors: Yahia A. M. AlKhoudary

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This Study presents the outcome of an investigation to evaluate the importance of autonomous learning as a means of motivation. However, very little research done in this field. Thus, the aims of this study are to ascertain the needs of the learners and to investigate their attitudes and motivation towards the mode of learning. Various suggestions made on how to improve learners’ participation in the learning process. A survey conducted on a sample group of 60 Omani College students. Self-report questionnaires and retrospective interviews conducted to find out their material-type preferences in a self-access learning context. Achieving autonomous learning system, which learners is one of the Ministry of Education goals in the Sultanate of Oman. As a result, this study presents the outcome of an investigation to evaluate the students’ performance in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It focuses on the effect of autonomous learning that encourages students to learn English, a research conducted at Buraimi city, the Sultanate of Oman. The procedure of this investigation based on four dimensions: (1) sixty students are selected and divided into two groups, (2) pre and posttest projects are given to them, and (3) questionnaires are administered to both students who are involved in the experiment and 50 teachers (25 males and 25 females) to collect accurate data, (4) an interview with students and teachers to find out their attitude towards autonomous learning. Analysis of participants’ responses indicated that autonomous learning motivates students to learn English independently and increase the intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation to improve their English language as a long-life active learning. The findings of this study show that autonomous learning approach is the best remedy to empower the students’ skills and overcome all relevant difficulties. They also show that secondary school teachers can fully rely on this learning approach that encourages language learners to monitor their progress, increase both learners and teachers’ motivation and ameliorate students’ behavior in the classroom. This approach is also an ongoing process, which takes time, patience and support to be lifelong learning.

Keywords: Omani, autonomous learning system, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), learning approach

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Authors: Jakub Vávra, Milan Valenta, Petr Kosek

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This article presents a perspective on the conduct of the dramatherapy process with persons with addictive behaviours with regard to the directiveness of the process. Although drama therapy as one of the creative arts approaches is rather non-directive in nature, depending on the clientele, there may be a need to structure the process more and, depending on the needs of the clients, to guide the process more directive. The specificity for people with addictive behaviours is discussed through the prism of the dramatherapeutic perspective, where we can find both a psychotherapeutic component as well as a component touching on expression and art, which is rather non-directive in nature. Within the context of practice with clients, this theme has repeatedly emerged and dramatherapists themselves have sought to find ways of coping with clients' demands and needs for structure and guidance within the dramatherapy process. Some of the outcomes from the supervision work also guided the research. Based on this insight, the research questions were approached. The first research question asks: in what ways is directive in dramatherapy manifested and manifested in the process? The second research question then complements the first and asks: to which phenomena are directivity in dramatherapy linked? In relation to the research questions, data were collected using focus groups and field notes. The qualitative approach of Content analysis and Relational analysis was chosen as the methodology. For analyzing qualitative research, we chose an Inductive coding scheme: Open coding, Axial coding, Pattern matching, Member checking, and Creating a coding scheme. In the presented partial research results, we find recurrent schemes related to directive coding in drama therapy. As an important element, directive leadership emerges in connection with safety for the client group, then in connection with the clients' order and also the department of the facility, and last but not least, to the personality of the drama therapist. By careful analysis and looking for patterns in the research results, we can see connections that are impossible to interpret at this stage but already provide clues to our understanding of the topic and open up further avenues for research in this area.

Keywords: dramatherapy, directivity, personal approach, aims of dramatherapy process, safetyness

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Authors: Zainab Idrees Ahmad, Mahjabeen Qureshi, Zainab Hussain

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Standard precautions are a set of infection control practices used to prevent the transmission of diseases that can be acquired by contact with body fluids, non-intact skin, and mucous membranes. Lack of practice of SPs can result in a considerable increase in morbidity and mortality rates. Medical students (the future physicians) should have the highest knowledge of standard precautions to prevent the spread of nosocomial infections and ensure their safety as well. This study was designed. To assess the knowledge of medical students regarding standard precautions. And explore the attitude of medical students of MBBS in the third, fourth and final year towards standard precautions.: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the setting of Rawalpindi Medical University, Pakistan including the students of MBBS in their 3rd, 4th and final years. The study duration was from October 2022 to February 2023. The sample size calculated was 282 with a confidence interval of 95%. A questionnaire was structured utilizing the WHO guidelines on SPs assessing knowledge and attitude regarding hand hygiene, needle stick injury, use of gloves and mask, and sharp disposal. A total of 300 responses were received utilizing the technique of non-random convenience sampling. Data was analyzed using the latest version of SPSS.:Knowledge score regarding components of SPs, hand hygiene, and moments of hand hygiene was satisfactory. However, score regarding the use of PPE, needle stick injury, and sharp disposal was low. Almost all the students were compliant with the proper washing of hands but the observation of recommended time length was lacking. Compliance with the use of correct PPE and informing the supervisor upon getting a needle stick injury was low. This study signifies that medical students lack knowledge regarding standard precautions. This is alarming as this can be the vehicle for the spread of nosocomial infections. Proper training should be given to medical students to prevent the spread of hospital-acquired infections.

Keywords: attitude, knowledge, medical students, standard precautions

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Authors: L. Guevara, Glória L. S., Corea E. E, A. Ramírez-Zamora M., Salinas-Martinez J. A., Angeles-Hernandez J. C.

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Mathematical models are useful for identifying the characteristics of sheep lactation curves to develop and implement improved strategies. However, the accuracy of these models is influenced by factors such as the recording regime, mainly the intervals between test day records (TDR). The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of different TDR intervals on the goodness of fit of the Wood model (WM) applied to dairy sheep lactations. A total of 4,494 weekly TDRs from 156 lactations of dairy crossbred sheep were analyzed. Three new databases were generated from the original weekly TDR data (7D), comprising intervals of 14(14D), 21(21D), and 28(28D) days. The parameters of WM were estimated using the “minpack.lm” package in the R software. The shape of the lactation curve (typical and atypical) was defined based on the WM parameters. The goodness of fit was evaluated using the mean square of prediction error (MSPE), Root of MSPE (RMSPE), Akaike´s Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian´s Information Criterion (BIC), and the coefficient of correlation (r) between the actual and estimated total milk yield (TMY). WM showed an adequate estimate of TMY regardless of the TDR interval (P=0.21) and shape of the lactation curve (P=0.42). However, we found higher values of r for typical curves compared to atypical curves (0.9vs.0.74), with the highest values for the 28D interval (r=0.95). In the same way, we observed an overestimated peak yield (0.92vs.6.6 l) and underestimated time of peak yield (21.5vs.1.46) in atypical curves. The best values of RMSPE were observed for the 28D interval in both lactation curve shapes. The significant lowest values of AIC (P=0.001) and BIC (P=0.001) were shown by the 7D interval for typical and atypical curves. These results represent the first approach to define the adequate interval to record the regime of dairy sheep in Latin America and showed a better fitting for the Wood model using a 7D interval. However, it is possible to obtain good estimates of TMY using a 28D interval, which reduces the sampling frequency and would save additional costs to dairy sheep producers.

Keywords: gamma incomplete, ewes, shape curves, modeling

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Authors: Tarana Siddika, Ilka U. Heinemann, Patrick O’Donoghue

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Protein kinase B (AKT1) is a serine/threonine kinase and central transducer of cell survival pathways. Typical approaches to study AKT1 biology in cells rely on growth factor or insulin stimulation that activates AKT1 via phosphorylation at two key regulatory sites (Threonine308, Serine473), yet cell stimulation also activates many other kinases and fails to differentiate the effect of the two main activating sites of AKT1 on downstream substrate phosphorylation and cell growth. While both AKT1 activating sites are associated with disease and used as clinical markers, in some cancers, high levels of Threonine308 phosphorylation are associated with poor prognosis while in others poor survival correlates with high Serine473 levels. To produce cells with specific AKT1 activity, a system was developed to deliver active AKT1 to human cells. AKT1 phospho-variants were produced from Escherichia coli with programmed phosphorylation by genetic code expansion. Tagging of AKT1 with an N-terminal cell penetrating peptide tag derived from the human immunodeficiency virus trans-activator of transcription (TAT) helped to enter AKT1 proteins in mammalian cells. The TAT-tag did not alter AKT1 kinase activity and was necessary and sufficient to rapidly deliver AKT1 protein variants that persisted in human cells for 24 h without the need to use transfection reagents. TAT-pAKT1T308, TAT-pAKT1S473 and TAT-pAKT1T308S473 proteins induced selective phosphorylation of the known AKT1 substrate GSK-3αβ, and downstream stimulation of the AKT1 pathway as evidenced by phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 at Serine240/244 in transfected cells. Increase in cell growth and proliferation was observed due to the transfection of different phosphorylated AKT1 protein variants compared to cells with TAT-AKT1 protein. The data demonstrate efficient delivery of AKT1 with programmed phosphorylation to human cells, thus establishing a cell-based model system to investigate signaling that is dependent on specific AKT1 activity and phosphorylation.

Keywords: cell penetrating peptide, cell signaling, protein kinase b (AKT1), phosphorylation

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Authors: Anne Tan, Kok-Sing Tang, Audrey Cooke

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Play has always been a prominent pedagogy in early childhood. However, there is growing evidence of success in students’ learning using explicit instruction, especially in literacy in the early years. There is also limited research using explicit instruction in early childhood mathematics, and play is usually prominently mentioned. This proposed research aims to investigate the possibilities and benefits of integrating guided play with explicit instruction in early childhood mathematics education. While play has traditionally been a prominent pedagogy in early childhood, there is growing evidence of success in student learning through explicit instruction, particularly in literacy. However, limited research exists on the integration of explicit instruction in early childhood mathematics, where play remains prominently mentioned. This study utilises a multiple case study methodology to gather data and provide immediate opportunities for curriculum improvement. The research will commence with semi-structured interviews to gain insights into educators' background knowledge. Highly structured observations will be conducted to record the frequency and manner in which guided play is integrated with specific elements of explicit instruction during mathematics teaching in early childhood. To enhance the observations, video recordings will be made using cameras with video settings and Microsoft Teams meeting recordings. In addition to interviews and observations, educators will maintain journals and use the Microsoft Teams platform for self-reflection on the integration of guided play and explicit instruction in their classroom practices and experiences. The study participants will include educators with early childhood degrees and students in years one and two. The primary goal of this research is to inform the benefits of integrating two high-impact pedagogies, guided play, and explicit instruction, for enhancing student learning outcomes in mathematics education. By exploring the integration of these pedagogical approaches, this study aims to contribute to the development of effective instructional strategies in early childhood mathematics education.

Keywords: early childhood, early childhood mathematics, early childhood numbers, guided play, play-based learning, explicit instruction

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Authors: Eleni C. Mazarakioti, Anastasios Zotos, Anna-Akrivi Thomatou, Efthimios Kokkotos, Achilleas Kontogeorgos, Athanasios Ladavos, Angelos Patakas

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“Gigantes Elefantes” is a particularly dynamic crop of giant beans cultivated in western Macedonia (Greece). This variety of large beans growing in this area and specifically in the regions of Prespes and Kastoria is a protected designation of origin (PDO) species with high nutritional quality. Mislabeling of geographical origin and blending with unidentified samples are common fraudulent practices in Greek food market with financial and possible health consequences. In the last decades, multi-elemental composition analysis has been used in identifying the geographical origin of foods and agricultural products. In an attempt to discriminate the authenticity of Greek beans, multi-elemental analysis (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Re, Se, Sr, Ta, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Zn, Zr) was performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) on 320 samples of beans, originated from Greece (Prespes and Kastoria), China and Poland. All samples were collected during the autumn of 2021. The obtained data were analysed by principal component analysis (PCA), an unsupervised statistical method, which allows for to reduce of the dimensionality of the enormous datasets. Statistical analysis revealed a clear separation of beans that had been cultivated in Greece compared with those from China and Poland. An adequate discrimination of geographical origin between bean samples originating from the two Greece regions, Prespes and Kastoria, was also evident. Our results suggest that multi-elemental analysis combined with the appropriate multivariate statistical method could be a useful tool for bean’s geographical authentication. Acknowledgment: This research has been financed by the Public Investment Programme/General Secretariat for Research and Innovation, under the call “YPOERGO 3, code 2018SE01300000: project title: ‘Elaboration and implementation of methodology for authenticity and geographical origin assessment of agricultural products.

Keywords: geographical origin, authenticity, multi-elemental analysis, beans, ICP-MS, PCA

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Authors: Sharvari Parikh

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Climate change has always been looked upon as a threat. Increased use of fossil fuels, depletion of bio diversity, certain human activities, rising levels of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are the factors that have caused climate change. Climate change is creating new risks and aggravating the existing ones. The paper focuses on breaking the stereotypical perception of climate change and draws attention towards the constructive side of it. Researches around the world have concluded that climate change has provided us with many untapped opportunities. The next 15 years will be crucial, as it is in our hands whether we are able to grab these opportunities or just let the situation get worse. The world stands at a stage where we cannot think of making a choice between averting climate change and promoting growth and development. In fact, the solution to climate change itself has got economic opportunities. The data evidences from the paper show how we can create the opportunity to improve the lives of the world’s population at large through structural change which will promote environment friendly investments. Rising Investment in green energy and increased demand of climate friendly products has got ample of employment opportunities. Old technologies and machinery which are employed today lack efficiency and demand huge maintenance because of which we face high production cost. This can be drastically brought down by adaptation of Green technologies which are more accessible and affordable. Overall GDP of the world has been heavily affected in aggravating the problems arising out of increasing weather problems. Shifting to green economy can not only eliminate these costs but also build a sound economy. Accelerating the economy in direction of low-carbon future can lessen the burdens such as subsidies for fossil fuels, several public debts, unemployment, poverty, reduce healthcare expenses etc. It is clear that the world will be dragged into the ‘Darker phase’ if the current trends of fossil fuels and carbon are being consumed. Switching to Green economy is the only way in which we can lift the world from darker phase. Climate change has opened the gates for ‘Green and Clean economy’. It will also bring countries of the world together in achieving the common goal of Green Economy.

Keywords: climate change, economic opportunities, green economy, green technology

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Authors: Mohammad Ehsani, Elham Karimi, Hashem Koozechian

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Aim: The purpose of current semi-experimental study was a survey on effect of 16 week walking on psychosocial function related quality of life among 60 to 75 years old men. Methodology: For this reason, short from of health – related quality of life questionnaire (SF – 36) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) had been distributed to the subjects at 2 times of pre – test and posttest. Statistical sample of current study was 60 to 75 years old men who placed at Kahrizak house and assessed by considering physically and medical background. Also factors of entrance to the intervention like age range, have satisfaction and have intent to participating in walking program, lack of having diabetic, cardiovascular, Parkinsonism diseases and postural, neurological, musculoskeletal disorders, lack of having clinical background like visual disorders or disordering on equilibrium system, lack of motor limitation, foot print disorders, having surgery and mental health had been determined and assessed. Finally after primary studies, 80 persons selected and categorized accidentally to the 3 experimental group (1, 2, 3 sessions per week, 30 min walking with moderate intension at every sessions) and one control group (without physical activity in period of 16 weeks). Data analysed by employing ANOVA, Pearson coefficient and Scheffe Post – Hoc tests at the significance level of p < 0.05. Results: Results showed that psychosocial function of men with 60 to 75 years old increase by influence of 16 week walking and increase of exercise sessions lead to more effectiveness of walking. Also there was no significant difference between psychosocial function of subjects within 1 session and 3 sessions experimental groups (p > 0.05). Conclusion: On the basis of results, we can say that doing regular walking with efficient and standard dosage for elderly people, can increase their quality of life. Furthermore, designing and action operation regular walking program for elderly men on the basis of special, logical and systematic pattern under the supervision of aware coaches have been recommended on the basis of results.

Keywords: walking, quality of life, psychosocial function, elders

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Authors: Ajay Ivan

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This paper focuses on the cultural politics of health-promotional and disease-preventive pedagogic practices in the context of the national tobacco control programme in India. Tobacco consumption is typically problematised as a paradox: tobacco poses objective health risks such as cancer and heart disease, but its production, sale and export contribute significantly to state revenue. A blanket ban on tobacco products, therefore, is infeasible though desirable. Instead, initiatives against tobacco use have prioritised awareness creation and behaviour change to reduce its demand. This paper argues that public health communication is not, as commonly assumed, an apolitical and neutral transmission of disease-preventive information. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, it examines such campaigns as techniques of disciplining people rather than coercing them to give up tobacco use, which would be both impractical and counter-productive. At the level of the population, these programmes constitute a security mechanism that reduces risks without eliminating them, so as to ensure an optimal level of public health without hampering the economy. Anti-tobacco pedagogy thus aligns with a contemporary paradigm of health that emphasises risk-assessment and lifestyle management as tools of governance, using pedagogic techniques to teach people how to be healthy. The paper analyses the pictorial health warnings on tobacco packets and anti-tobacco advertisements in movie theatres mandated by the state, along with awareness-creation messages circulated by anti-tobacco advocacy groups in India, to show how they discursively construct tobacco and its consumption as a health risk. Smoking is resignified from a pleasurable and sociable practice to a deadly addiction that jeopardises the health of those who smoke and those who passively inhale the smoke. While disseminating information about the health risks of tobacco, these initiatives employ emotional and affective techniques of persuasion to discipline tobacco users. They incite fear of death and of social ostracism to motivate behaviour change, complementing their appeals to reason. Tobacco is portrayed as a grave moral danger to the family and a detriment to the vitality of the nation, such that using it contradicts one’s duties as a parent or citizen. Awareness programmes reproduce prevailing societal assumptions about health and disease, normalcy and deviance, and proper and improper conduct. Pedagogy thus functions as an apparatus of public health governance, recruiting subjects as volunteers in their own regulation and aligning their personal goals and aspirations to the objectives of tobacco control. The paper links this calculated management of subjectivity and the self-responsibilisation of the pedagogic subject to a distinct mode of neoliberal civic governance in contemporary India. Health features prominently in this mode of governance that serves the biopolitical obligation of the state as laid down in Article 39 of the Constitution, which includes a duty to ensure the health of its citizens. Insofar as the health of individuals is concerned, the problem is how to balance this duty of the state with the fundamental right of the citizen to choose how to live. Public health pedagogy, by directing the citizen’s ‘free’ choice without unduly infringing upon it, offers a tactical solution.

Keywords: public health communication, pedagogic power, tobacco control, neoliberal governance

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Authors: Mehdi Behbahani, Sebastian Rible, Charles Moulinec, Yvan Fournier, Mike Nicolai, Paolo Crosetto

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Computational Fluid Dynamics blood-flow simulations are increasingly used to develop and validate blood-contacting medical devices. This study shows that numerical simulations can provide additional and accurate estimates of relevant hemodynamic indicators (e.g., recirculation zones or wall shear stresses), which may be difficult and expensive to obtain from in-vivo or in-vitro experiments. The most recent FDA (Food and Drug Administration) benchmark consisted of a simplified centrifugal blood pump model that contains fluid flow features as they are commonly found in these devices with a clear focus on highly turbulent phenomena. The FDA centrifugal blood pump study is composed of six test cases with different volumetric flow rates ranging from 2.5 to 7.0 liters per minute, pump speeds, and Reynolds numbers ranging from 210,000 to 293,000. Within the frame of this study different turbulence models were tested including RANS models, e.g. k-omega, k-epsilon and a Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and, LES. The partitioners Hilbert, METIS, ParMETIS and SCOTCH were used to create an unstructured mesh of 76 million elements and compared in their efficiency. Computations were performed on the JUQUEEN BG/Q architecture applying the highly parallel flow solver Code SATURNE and typically using 32768 or more processors in parallel. Visualisations were performed by means of PARAVIEW. Different turbulence models including all six flow situations could be successfully analysed and validated against analytical considerations and from comparison to other data-bases. It showed that an RSM represents an appropriate choice with respect to modeling high-Reynolds number flow cases. Especially, the Rij-SSG (Speziale, Sarkar, Gatzki) variant turned out to be a good approach. Visualisation of complex flow features could be obtained and the flow situation inside the pump could be characterized.

Keywords: blood flow, centrifugal blood pump, high performance computing, scalability, turbulence

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Authors: Kisik Song, Sungjoo Lee

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With the growing importance of intangible assets recently, the impact of patent infringement on the business of a company has become more evident. Accordingly, it is essential for firms to estimate the risk of patent infringement risk before developing a technology and create new technology ideas to avoid the risk. Recognizing the needs, several attempts have been made to help develop new technology opportunities and most of them have focused on identifying emerging vacant technologies from patent analysis. In these studies, the IPC (International Patent Classification) system or keywords from text-mining application to patent documents was generally used to define vacant technologies. Unlike those studies, this study adopted F-term, which classifies patent documents according to the technical features of the inventions described in them. Since the technical features are analyzed by various perspectives by F-term, F-term provides more detailed information about technologies compared to IPC while more systematic information compared to keywords. Therefore, if well utilized, it can be a useful guideline to create a new technology idea. Recognizing the potential of F-term, this paper aims to suggest a novel approach to developing new technology ideas to avoid patent infringement based on F-term. For this purpose, we firstly collected data about F-term and then applied text-mining to the descriptions about classification criteria and attributes. From the text-mining results, we could identify other technologies with similar technical features of the existing one, the patented technology. Finally, we compare the technologies and extract the technical features that are commonly used in other technologies but have not been used in the existing one. These features are presented in terms of “purpose”, “function”, “structure”, “material”, “method”, “processing and operation procedure” and “control means” and so are useful for creating new technology ideas that help avoid infringing patent rights of other companies. Theoretically, this is one of the earliest attempts to adopt F-term to patent analysis; the proposed methodology can show how to best take advantage of F-term with the wealth of technical information. In practice, the proposed methodology can be valuable in the ideation process for successful product and service innovation without infringing the patents of other companies.

Keywords: patent infringement, new technology ideas, patent analysis, F-term

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Authors: Suleiman Garba, Haruna Ishaku

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Information and communication technology (ICT) includes any communication device encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them. The significance of ICT cannot be over-emphasized in education. The teaching and learning processes have integrated with the application of ICTs for effectiveness and enhancement of academic performance among the students. Today, as the educational sector is faced with series of changes and reforms, it was noted that the problem of information technology illiteracy was a serious one among the schools’ teachers in the country as it cuts across primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions. This study investigated the impact of ICT on the academic performance of senior secondary schools students in Gwagwalada Area Council of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. A sample of 120 SSS III students was involved in the study. They were selected by using simple random sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed and validated through expert judgement and reliability co-efficient of 0.81 was obtained. It was used to gather relevant data from the respondents. Findings revealed that there was positive impact of ICT on academic performance of senior secondary schools students. The findings indicated the causes of poor academic performance among the students as lack of qualified teachers to teach in schools, peer group influence, and bullying. Significantly, the findings revealed that ICT had a positive impact on students’ academic performance. The null hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. It was discovered that there was significant difference between male and female secondary schools’ students' impact of ICT on academic performance in Gwagawalada Area Council of FCT-Abuja. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made which include: adequate funds should be provided towards procurement of ICT resources, relevant textbooks to enhance students’ active participation in learning processes and students should be provided with internet accessibility at inexpensive rate so as to create a platform for accessing useful information in the pursuit of academic excellence.

Keywords: academic performance, impact, information communication technology, schools, students

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Authors: Sheikh Z. Ul Abidin, Raees Khan, Rainer W. Bussmann, Mushtaq Ahmad, Shayan Jamshed, Humera Jabeen, Ajmal Khan

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Gastropathic disorders are increasing rapidly and millions patients are reported every years across the world. Herbal medicines and traditional phytotherapies are very effective for many diseases including gastropathic ailments. Many communities and study region have their own unique remedies for such diseases. The current study was aimed to investigate and document high valued medicinal plants and folk remedies for different gastropathic disorders among the three ethnic groups of three regions in South West Pakistan. A total of 104 semi-structured interviews involving experts of traditional knowledge in 21 localities of the three regions (D.I. Khan, Zhob and Mianwali) were conducted. The interviews were especially focused on the documentation of folk herbal remedies. The collected data was analyzed using different quantitative methods. The highly effective plants from all localities were identified with the help of local interviewers and collected for proper taxonomic identification. A total of 56 medicinal plants and 33 effective recipes for 12 gastropathic diseases were documented from all the three ethnic groups in 21 localities. Fabaceae and Asteraceae were most prominently used for different gastropathic diseases. Diarrhea, vomiting and dysentery were the most commonly diseases treated with herbal remedies. It was observed that the three communities shared knowledge about the use of medicinal plants, 35 species were commonly reported from all three areas. However, each community had also their own unique uses of medicinal plants, e.g. 23 plants species were only used in Zhob, 20 plant species were only reported in D.I. Khan and 16 species in Mianwali. The present study reveals that different communities and ethnic groups share some traditional knowledge and also have their own unique knowledge of plants utilization. Gastropathic disorder is increasing very rapidly and the traditional cross-cultural knowledge of medicinal plants use can be very effective for its cure.

Keywords: cross cultural, ethnic groups, gastropathy, phytotherapies, South West Pakistan

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Authors: Wesley Too, Christine Chesiror

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Hypertension is a public health challenge that globally, with the World Health Organization estimating that by 2025, more than 1.5 billion people would have been diagnosed with it. Kenya’s prevalence of hypertension is estimated at 24.6 percent; however, 55% of the affected have uncontrolled blood pressure, which is worst in some parts of the country with different lifestyle: nomads and migratory communities. Kenyan pastoralists comprise 20% of the nation's population and are constantly on the move for search of water, pasture for their herd, and desertification have driven nomadic populations to the brink, given their unique and dynamic challenges. Nomads face myriad of challenges and barriers towards the management of their health care problems. Nomadic area is predominantly rural, with a low population density and a nomadic population. Health care access and quality are further hampered by poor telecommunications, infrastructure, and security. In Kenya, nomadic communities experience the worst health outcomes, disproportionate health disparities, and inequalities due to unresponsive, culturally sensitive health care system to nomad’s lifestyle and their health care needs. Marsabit covering a surface area of 66,923.1 km2, is the second largest county in Kenya, constituting about 2.3 million people of North-Eastern region, with only 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent of Kenya's total number of doctors and nurses in the country. In Kenya, there are scanty research on hypertension managementin this region and, at best, non-existent study on hypertension among nomads-migratory communities of Northern Kenya. Therefore, the purpose seeks to determine the prevalence of hypertension among nomads and document nomads' practices regarding early detections, management, and levels of control of hypertension in one of the Counties in Kenya with high- hypertensive case load per year. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from multiple sites and health facilities. A total of 260 participants were enrolled into the study. The study is currently ongoing. It is anticipated that by September, we will have initial findings & recommendations to share for conference

Keywords: pastoralists, hypertension, health, kenya

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Authors: Hassan Almoslim

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Background: The machine resistance training is an exercise that uses the equipment as loads to strengthen and condition the musculoskeletal system and improving muscle tone. The machine resistance training is easy to use, allow the individual to train with heavier weights without assistance, useful for beginners and elderly populations and specific muscle groups. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of nine weeks of machine resistance training on maximum strength among lean and normal weight male college students. Method: Thirty-six male college students aged between 19 and 21 years from King Fahd University of petroleum & minerals participated in the study. The subjects were divided into two an equal groups called Lean Group (LG, n = 18) and Normal Weight Group (NWG, n = 18). The subjects whose body mass index (BMI) is less than 18.5 kg / m2 is considered lean and who is between 18.5 to 24.9 kg / m2 is normal weight. Both groups performed machine resistance training nine weeks, twice per week for 40 min per training session. The strength measurements, chest press, leg press and abdomen exercises were performed before and after the training period. 1RM test was used to determine the maximum strength of all subjects. The training program consisted of several resistance machines such as leg press, abdomen, chest press, pulldown, seated row, calf raises, leg extension, leg curls and back extension. The data were analyzed using independent t-test (to compare mean differences) and paired t-test. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: No change was (P ˃ 0.05) observed in all body composition variables between groups after training. In chest press, the NWG recorded a significantly greater mean different value than the LG (19.33 ± 7.78 vs. 13.88 ± 5.77 kg, respectively, P ˂ 0.023). In leg press and abdomen exercises, both groups revealed similar mean different values (P ˃ 0.05). When the post-test was compared with the pre-test, the NWG showed significant increases in the chest press by 47% (from 41.16 ± 12.41 to 60.49 ± 11.58 kg, P ˂ 001), abdomen by 34% (from 45.46 ± 6.97 to 61.06 ± 6.45 kg, P ˂ 0.001) and leg press by 23.6% (from 85.27 ± 15.94 to 105.48 ± 21.59 kg, P ˂ 0.001). The LG also illustrated significant increases by 42.6% in the chest press (from 32.58 ± 7.36 to 46.47 ± 8.93 kg, P ˂ 0.001), the abdomen by 28.5% (from 38.50 ± 7.84 to 49.50 ± 7.88 kg, P ˂ 0.001) and the leg press by 30.8% (from 70.2 ± 20.57 to 92.01 ± 22.83 kg, P ˂ 0.001). Conclusion: It was concluded that the lean and the normal weight male college students can benefit from the machine resistance-training program remarkably.

Keywords: body composition, lean, machine resistance training, normal weight

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Authors: Muhammad Khaleequzzaman, Muhammad Mansoori, Abdul Rashid

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The legitimacy of Islamic banking refers to the compliance with the precepts of Shariah (Islamic law) of the pronouncements and their implementation, requisites of various contracts, as well as, observance of the welfare objectives. Therefore, the Islamic banks are supposed to follow the Islamic values focused to bring benefit to the society alongside the commercial motive. These distinguishing features establish identity of the Islamic banks separate from their conventional counterparts and require pursuing normative values of Islamic injunctions instead of profit maximization merely through commercial motive. Given this, the efficiency of the Islamic banks should be evaluated against the value judgements prescribed by the Islamic economic philosophy and their role in establishing the just economy. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence on such value-oriented role of Islamic banking is limited that is filled by this research. The primary focus of the research is two folds; developing a theoretical framework that affords a holistic approach of Shariah legitimacy of Islamic banking practices, including welfare pursuits in addition to the usual compliance mechanism, to help evaluating legitimacy of Islamic banking practices in Pakistan. Therefore, the research has been commissioned by developing the constructs of Shariah legitimacy through extensive review of the relevant literature. At the same time, the empirical analysis based on the opinion of 836 customers of Islamic and conventional banks in all the four provinces and the capital city of Pakistan has produced important conclusions regarding their perception about legitimacy of the Islamic banking practices. The results have helped to know as to how the legitimacy through Shariah perspective is viewed by them. The data analysis using various statistical techniques has yielded results consistent with the objectives of the study. The key findings of the theoretical framework conclude that the value judgements have been grossly ignored by the Islamic banks. The empirical research achieves that about half of the customers perceived Islamic banking as Shariah legitimate. On overall basis, the other half viewed contrary to this or preferred to remain indifferent. There is a need that Islamic banks should look into the desired goals of Shariah legitimacy in both contexts; the value judgement and the perception of the customers.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Shariah legitimacy, Maqasid al Shariah (higher purposes of the lawgiver), value judgment, distributive justice

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Authors: Mohammad Nazri Abdul Bahari, Nurshafika Mohd Sakeh, Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah

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Basal stem rot (BSR) is the most devastating disease in oil palm. Among the oil palm pathogenic fungi, the most prevalent and virulent species associated with BSR is Ganoderma boninense. Early detection of G. boninense attack in oil palm wherein physical symptoms has not yet appeared can offer opportunities to prevent the spread of the necrotrophic fungus. However, poor understanding of molecular defense responses and roles of antifungal metabolites in oil palm against G. boninense has complicated the resolving measures. Hence, characterization of defense-related molecular responses and production of antifungal compounds during early interaction with G. boninense is of utmost important. Four month-old oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seedlings were artificially infected with G. boninense-inoculated rubber wood block via sitting technique. RNA of samples were extracted from roots and leaves tissues at 0, 3, 7 and 11 days post inoculation (d.p.i) followed with sequencing using RNA-Seq method. Differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) of oil palm-G. boninense interaction were identified, while changes in metabolite profile will be scrutinized related to the DEGs. The RNA-Seq data generated a total of 113,829,376 and 313,293,229 paired-end clean reads from untreated (0 d.p.i) and treated (3, 7, 11 d.p.i) samples respectively, each with two biological replicates. The paired-end reads were mapped to Elaeis guineensis reference genome to screen out non-oil palm genes and subsequently generated 74,794 coding sequences. DEG analysis of phytohormone biosynthetic genes in oil palm roots revealed that at p-value ≤ 0.01, ethylene and jasmonic acid may act in antagonistic manner with salicylic acid to coordinate defense response at early interaction with G. boninense. Findings on metabolite profiling of G. boninense-infected oil palm roots and leaves are hoped to explain the defense-related compounds elicited by Elaeis guineensis in response to G. boninense colonization. The study aims to shed light on molecular defense response of oil palm at early interaction with G. boninense and promote prevention measures against Ganoderma infection.

Keywords: Ganoderma boninense, metabolites, phytohormones, RNA-Seq

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Authors: Mahtab Makaremi Masouleh, Günter Wozniak

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This work is part of a major research project concerning the design of a light temporary installable textile flood control structure. The motivation for this work is the great need of applying light structures for the protection of coastal areas from detrimental effects of rapid water runoff. The prime objective of the study is the numerical analysis of the interaction among free surface water flow and slender shaped pliable structures, playing a key role in safety performance of the intended system. First, the behavior of down scale membrane is examined under hydrostatic pressure by the Abaqus explicit solver, which is part of the finite element based commercially available SIMULIA software. Then the procedure to achieve a stable and convergent solution for strongly coupled media including fluids and structures is explained. A partitioned strategy is imposed to make both structures and fluids be discretized and solved with appropriate formulations and solvers. In this regard, finite element method is again selected to analyze the structural domain. Moreover, computational fluid dynamics algorithms are introduced for solutions in flow domains by means of a commercial package of Star CCM+. Likewise, SIMULIA co-simulation engine and an implicit coupling algorithm, which are available communication tools in commercial package of the Star CCM+, enable powerful transmission of data between two applied codes. This approach is discussed for two different cases and compared with available experimental records. In one case, the down scale membrane interacts with open channel flow, where the flow velocity increases with time. The second case illustrates, how the full scale flexible flood barrier behaves when a massive flotsam is accelerated towards it.

Keywords: finite element formulation, finite volume algorithm, fluid-structure interaction, light pliable structure, VOF multiphase model

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Authors: Jigg Pelayo, Ricardo Villar

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The Philippines is long considered as a valuable producer of high value crops globally. The country’s employment and economy have been dependent on agriculture, thus increasing its demand for the efficient agricultural mechanism. Remote sensing and geographic information technology have proven to effectively provide applications for precision agriculture through image-processing technique considering the development of the aerial scanning technology in the country. Accurate information concerning the spatial correlation within the field is very important for precision farming of high value crops, especially. The availability of height information and high spatial resolution images obtained from aerial scanning together with the development of new image analysis methods are offering relevant influence to precision agriculture techniques and applications. In this study, an algorithm was developed and implemented to detect and count high value crops simultaneously through adaptive scaling of support vector machine (SVM) algorithm subjected to object-oriented approach combining watershed transformation and local maxima filter in enhancing tree counting and detection. The methodology is compared to cutting-edge template matching algorithm procedures to demonstrate its effectiveness on a demanding tree is counting recognition and delineation problem. Since common data and image processing techniques are utilized, thus can be easily implemented in production processes to cover large agricultural areas. The algorithm is tested on high value crops like Palm, Mango and Coconut located in Misamis Oriental, Philippines - showing a good performance in particular for young adult and adult trees, significantly 90% above. The s inventories or database updating, allowing for the reduction of field work and manual interpretation tasks.

Keywords: high value crop, LiDAR, OBIA, precision agriculture

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Authors: Hakam Junus, Natassha Chrysanti

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The international relations theory currently is dominated by the western theoretical perspectives. Although the western theories are often used by many scholars as the universal perspective to explain the phenomena that occur in the world, sometimes the existing theories are failed to explain various issues that occur in the non-western world, for example, in the studies concerning on terrorism issues. Using inappropriate theories to explain the international issues such as terrorism will cause a failure in the decision-making process. The lack of understanding regarding Islamic perspective could be one of the factors that make international society unable to eradicate violent terrorism in the name of religion. Thus, this paper is argued that considering Islamic perspective as one of the major studies in international relations is significant to build a bridge between the Islamic world and the western world. It is believed that enhancing the study of Islamic perspective will create better understanding of the Islamic world and will enrich the study of international relations. This paper is conducted through a qualitative approach, in which data is obtained from the literature analysis. Considering Islamic perspective is important because Islam is listed as one of the major religions in the world. It is also due to the geopolitical spread of the Muslim in the world and the likelihood of the Islamic perspective to shape and influence Muslim’s behavior in the international level. The study of Islamic perspective in the international level is neither to contempt nor to oppose the existing western theories; rather it is needed in order to broaden the perspective in the international relations studies. The Islamic perspective is different compared to the non-western school of thought such as realism, and liberalism in some respects. The Islamic perspective cannot be explained through the lens of rationalist approaches. Compares to the post-positivism international relations perspectives, Islamic perspective is probably closer to the constructivist school of thought. However, the Islamic perspective offers some uniqueness that is not limited to the socially constructed ideas as in the constructivist arguments. This paper will be developed according to the discussion of three aspects that make Islamic perspective different with the existing international relations theories. The first aspect is the main actors in the international level. The second aspect is regarding on what appears to be the most important point for the actors in the international relations. The third aspect is regarding the pattern of relationship between the actors in the international level. In addition, this paper will briefly discuss the perspective of Islam in economics compare to the existing theories in the realm of international political economy.

Keywords: international relations, Islam, non-western theories, societies

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Authors: Marden Silva, Danielle Guerra

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Some studies have indicated that pronunciation teaching hasn’t been paid enough attention by teachers regarding EFL contexts. In particular, segmental and suprasegmental features through genre-based approach may be an opportunity on how to integrate pronunciation into a more meaningful learning practice. Therefore, the aim of this project was to carry out a survey on some aspects related to English pronunciation that Brazilian students consider more difficult to learn, thus enabling the discussion of strategies that can facilitate the development of oral skills in English classes by integrating the teaching of phonetic-phonological aspects into the genre-based approach. Notions of intelligibility, fluency and accuracy were proposed by some authors as an ideal didactic sequence. According to their proposals, basic learners should be exposed to activities focused on the notion of intelligibility as well as intermediate students to the notion of fluency, and finally more advanced ones to accuracy practices. In order to test this hypothesis, data collection was conducted during three high school English classes at Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG), in Brazil, through questionnaires and didactic activities, which were recorded and transcribed for further analysis. The genre debate was chosen to facilitate the oral expression of the participants in a freer way, making them answering questions and giving their opinion about a previously selected topic. The findings indicated that basic students demonstrated more difficulty with aspects of English pronunciation than the others. Many of the intelligibility aspects analyzed had to be listened more than once for a better understanding. For intermediate students, the speeches recorded were considerably easier to understand, but nevertheless they found it more difficult to pronounce the words fluently, often interrupting their speech to think about what they were going to say and how they would talk. Lastly, more advanced learners seemed to express their ideas more fluently, but still subtle errors related to accuracy were perceptible in speech, thereby confirming the proposed hypothesis. It was also seen that using genre-based approach to promote oral communication in English classes might be a relevant method, considering the socio-communicative function inherent in the suggested approach.

Keywords: EFL, genre-based approach, oral skills, pronunciation

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Authors: Wen Zhen

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Compared to content words, function words have been relatively overlooked by English learners especially articles. The article system, to a certain extent, becomes a resistance to know English better, driven by different elements. Three principal factors can be summarized in term of the nature of the articles when referring to the difficulty of the English article system. However, making the article system more complex are difficulties in the second acquisition process, for [-ART] learners have to create another category, causing even most non-native speakers at proficiency level to make errors. According to the sequences of acquisition of the English article, it is showed that the zero article is first acquired and in high inaccuracy. The zero article is often overused in the early stages of L2 acquisition. Although learners at the intermediate level move to underuse the zero article for they realize that the zero article does not cover any case, overproduction of the zero article even occurs among advanced L2 learners. The aim of the study is to investigate noun-phrase factors which give rise to incorrect usage or overuse of the zero article, thus providing suggestions for L2 English acquisition. Moreover, it enables teachers to carry out effective instruction that activate conscious learning of students. The research question will be answered through a corpus-based, data- driven approach to analyze the noun-phrase elements from the semantic context and countability of noun-phrases. Based on the analysis of the International Thurber Thesis corpus, the results show that: (1) Although context of [-definite,-specific] favored the zero article, both[-definite,+specific] and [+definite,-specific] showed less influence. When we reflect on the frequency order of the zero article , prototypicality plays a vital role in it .(2)EFL learners in this study have trouble classifying abstract nouns as countable. We can find that it will bring about overuse of the zero article when learners can not make clear judgements on countability altered from (+definite ) to (-definite).Once a noun is perceived as uncountable by learners, the choice would fall back on the zero article. These findings suggest that learners should be engaged in recognition of the countability of new vocabulary by explaining nouns in lexical phrases and explore more complex aspects such as analysis dependent on discourse.

Keywords: noun phrase, zero article, corpus, second language acquisition

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Authors: Yunbin Deng

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Most existing applications of automatic speech recognition relies on cooperative subjects at a short distance to a microphone. Standoff speech recognition using microphone arrays can extend the subject to sensor distance somewhat, but it is still limited to only a few feet. As such, most deployed applications of standoff speech recognitions are limited to indoor use at short range. Moreover, these applications require air passway between the subject and the sensor to achieve reasonable signal to noise ratio. This study reports long range (50 feet) automatic speech recognition experiments using a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) sensor. This study shows that the LDV sensor modality can extend the speech acquisition standoff distance far beyond microphone arrays to hundreds of feet. In addition, LDV enables 'listening' through the windows for uncooperative subjects. This enables new capabilities in automatic audio and speech intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) for law enforcement, homeland security and counter terrorism applications. The Polytec LDV model OFV-505 is used in this study. To investigate the impact of different vibrating materials, five parallel LDV speech corpora, each consisting of 630 speakers, are collected from the vibrations of a glass window, a metal plate, a plastic box, a wood slate, and a concrete wall. These are the common materials the application could encounter in a daily life. These data were compared with the microphone counterpart to manifest the impact of various materials on the spectrum of the LDV speech signal. State of the art deep neural network modeling approaches is used to conduct continuous speaker independent speech recognition on these LDV speech datasets. Preliminary phoneme recognition results using time-delay neural network, bi-directional long short term memory, and model fusion shows great promise of using LDV for long range speech recognition. To author’s best knowledge, this is the first time an LDV is reported for long distance speech recognition application.

Keywords: covert speech acquisition, distant speech recognition, DSR, laser Doppler vibrometer, LDV, speech intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, ISR

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Authors: J. Bouguebrine, L. Bouabsa

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The ground of study is localized in central Hoggar and contains the most important layers and Stanno-Wolframifére indices of the metallogenic province have tin and wolfram of Hoggar. These layers are always associate with post-orogenetic Panafrican magmatism (GMR) which was set up in the form of circumscribed granitic solid masses of relatively reduced size or in dykes of microgranites. The area studied are in Tounine, Aléméda, Hanana-hananére, Tim Amzi, El Karoussa. The geochemical data processing watch peralumineux character rich person out of Li-F and rare metals (MR). Pegmatites of the type stocksheider, formations of greisens and mineralization Sn-W accompany these granites. Mineralisation Sn-W, expressed particularly well in the seams of quartz and greinsen is spacialement and génitiquement dependent on the maguatism specific to white feldspar-topaz (GMR) (grained and microgrenu). the mineral paragenesis is primarily made up of wolframite and cassetérite. The minerals of gangue are represented by quartz, topaz, the micas containing lithia and the fluorite. A microthermometric study of fluid inclusions related to the granites end on white feldspar-topaz of Hanana, topaz of Hananére, the microgranite of Aléméda, and the seams of quartz D In Tounine (Tiftazouine) and of Tim Amzi; allows to characterize the fluids associated with these layers. It comes out from this study the abundance of aqueous inclusions and three types of fluids were given: -Hot and salted fluids rich in volatile elements particularly CO2; -follow-ups by aquo-carbonic fluids less hot and moderately salted with temperatures of homogenisations (HT) average respectively of 300°C and 180°C; -finally of the aqueous fluids very little salted (≤1%pds.éq.NaCl) and definitely colder. An estimate depths éteé made starting from the diagram of (Haas, 1971) in the system H2O-NaCl, the results are the following: • Inclusion aqueous (L and Lw): correspond to depths of about 50 à500m. • Inclusions aquo-carbonic (Lcw and Lwc): correspond to depths of L order of 600 with 1200m • Carbonic inclusion (Vcw): correspond to depths about 1400à1800m

Keywords: fluid inclusions microthermométrie, cassiterite wolframite, granites with rare metals, Central Hoggar

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Authors: Bingxi Huang, Yiqing Li, Marek Morzynski, Bernd R. Noack

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We propose a Kriging-based global optimization method for active flow control with multiple actuation parameters. This method is designed to converge quickly and avoid getting trapped into local minima. We follow the model-free explorative gradient method (EGM) to alternate between explorative and exploitive steps. This facilitates a convergence similar to a gradient-based method and the parallel exploration of potentially better minima. In contrast to EGM, both kinds of steps are performed with Kriging surrogate model from the available data. The explorative step maximizes the expected improvement, i.e., favors regions of large uncertainty. The exploitive step identifies the best location of the cost function from the Kriging surrogate model for a subsequent weight-biased linear-gradient descent search method. To verify the effectiveness and robustness of the improved Kriging-based optimization method, we have examined several comparative test problems of varying dimensions with limited evaluation budgets. The results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms some model-free optimization algorithms like genetic algorithm and differential evolution algorithm with a quicker convergence for a given budget. We have also performed direct numerical simulations of the fluidic pinball (N. Deng et al. 2020 J. Fluid Mech.) on three circular cylinders in equilateral-triangular arrangement immersed in an incoming flow at Re=100. The optimal cylinder rotations lead to 44.0% net drag power saving with 85.8% drag reduction and 41.8% actuation power. The optimal results for active flow control based on this configuration have achieved boat-tailing mechanism by employing Coanda forcing and wake stabilization by delaying separation and minimizing the wake region.

Keywords: direct numerical simulations, flow control, kriging, stochastic optimization, wake stabilization

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Authors: Akram Sadat Jafari Roodbandi, Alireza Choobineh, Nazanin Hosseini, Vafa Feyzi

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Introduction: Physical fitness and optimum functional movement are essential for efficiently performing job tasks without fatigue and injury. Functional Movement Screening (FMS) tests are used in screening of athletes and military forces. Nurses and emergency medical staff are obliged to perform many physical activities such as transporting patients, CPR operations, etc. due to the nature of their jobs. This study aimed to assess relationship between FMS test score and the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in emergency nurses and emergency medical services (EMS) staff. Methods: 134 male and female emergency nurses and EMS technicians participated in this cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study. After video tutorial and practical training of how to do FMS test, the participants carried out the test while they were wearing comfortable clothes. The final score of the FMS test ranges from 0 to 21. The score of 14 is considered weak in the functional movement base on FMS test protocol. In addition to the demographic data questionnaire, the Nordic musculoskeletal questionnaire was also completed for each participant. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis with a significance level of 0.05. Results: Totally, 49.3% (n=66) of the subjects were female. The mean age and work experience of the subjects were 35.3 ± 8.7 and 11.4 ± 7.7, respectively. The highest prevalence of MSDs was observed at the knee and lower back with 32.8% (n=44) and 23.1% (n=31), respectively. 26 (19.4%) health worker had FMS test score of 14 and less. The results of the Spearman correlation test showed that the FMS test score was significantly associated with MSDs (r=-0.419, p < 0.0001). It meant that MSDs increased with the decrease of the FMS test score. Age, sex, and MSDs were the remaining significant factors in linear regression logistic model with dependent variable of FMS test score. Conclusion: FMS test seems to be a usable screening tool in pre-employment and periodic medical tests for occupations that require physical fitness and optimum functional movements.

Keywords: functional movement, musculoskeletal disorders, health care worker, screening test

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Authors: Amina Beldjazia, Djamel Alatou, Khaled Missaoui

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The forest of Mahouna is a part of the mountain range of the Tell Atlas in the northeast of Algeria. It is characterized by a significant biodiversity. The management of this resource requires thorough the understanding of the current state of the vegetation (inventories), degradation factors and ongoing monitoring of the various long-term ecological changes. Digital mapping is a very effective way to in-depth knowledge of natural resources. The realization of a vegetation map based on satellite images, aerial photographs and the use of geographic information system (GIS), shows large values results of the vegetation of the massif in the scientific view point (the development of a database of the different formations that exist on the site, ecological conditions) and economic (GIS facilitate our task of managing the various resources and diversity of the forest). The methodology is divided into three stages: the first involves an analysis of climate data (1988 to 2013); the second is to conduct field surveys (soil and phytoecological) during the months of June and July 2013 (10 readings), the third is based on the development of different themes and synthetic cards by software of GIS (ENVI 4.6 and 10 ARCMAP). The results show: cork oak covers an area of 1147 ha. Depending on the environmental conditions, it rests on sandstone and individualizes between 3 layers of vegetation from thermo-mediterranean (the North East part with 40ha), meso-Mediterranean (1061 ha) and finally the supra-Mediterranean (46ha ). The map shows the current actual state of the cork oak forest massif of Mahouna, it is an older forest (>150 years) where regeneration is absent because of several factors (fires, overgrazing, leaching, erosion, etc.). The cork oak is in the form of dense forest with Laburnum and heather as the dominant species. It may also present in open forest dominated by scrub species: Daphne gniduim, Erica arborea, Calycotome spinosa, Phillyrea angustifolia, Lavandula stoechas, Cistus salvifolius.

Keywords: biodiversity, environmental, Mahouna, Cork oak

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Authors: Mohamed F. Othman

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Manchester, Britain has become the destination of immigrants from different parts of the world. As a result, it is currently home to over 150 different ethnic languages. The present study investigates minority language policy and planning at the micro-level of the city. In order to get an in-depth investigation of such a policy, it was decided to cover it from two angles: the first is the policy making process. This was aimed at getting insights on how decisions regarding the provision of government services in minority languages are taken and what criteria are employed. The second angle is the service provider; i.e. the different departments in Manchester City Council (MCC), the NHS, the courts, and police, etc., to obtain information on the actual provisions of services. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with different personnel representing different departments in MCC, solicitors, interpreters, etc.; through the internet, e.g. the websites of MCC, NHS, courts, and police, etc.; and via personal observation of provisions of community languages in government services. The results show that Manchester’s language policy is formulated around two concepts that work simultaneously: one is concerned with providing services in community languages in order to help minorities manage their life until they acquire English, and the other with helping the integration of minorities through encouraging them to learn English. In this regard, different government services are provided in community languages, though to varying degrees, depending on the numerical strength of each individual language. Thus, it is concluded that there is awareness in MCC and other government agencies working in Manchester of the linguistic diversity of the city and there are serious attempts to meet this diversity in their services. It is worth mentioning here that providing such services in minority languages are not meant to support linguistic diversity, but rather to maintain the legal right to equal opportunities among the residents of Manchester and to avoid any misunderstanding that may result due to the language barrier, especially in such areas as hospitals, courts, and police. There is actually no explicitly-mentioned language policy regarding minorities in Manchester; rather, there is an implied or covert policy resulting from factors that are not explicitly documented. That is, there are guidelines from the central government, which emphasize the principle of equal opportunities; then the implementation of such guidelines requires providing services in the different ethnic languages.

Keywords: community language, covert language policy, micro-language policy and planning, minority language

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