Search results for: australian and polish family law

Authors: Sascha Kraus, Wolfgang Hora, Philipp Stieg, Thomas Niemand, Ferdinand Thies, Matthias Filser

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In most countries, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are the backbone of the economy due to their impact on job creation, innovation and wealth creation. Moreover, the ongoing globalization makes it inevitable – even for SME that traditionally focused on their domestic markets – to internationalize their business activities to realize further growth and survive in international markets. Thus, internationalization has become one of the most common growth strategies for SME and has received increasing scholarly attention over the last two decades. One the downside internationalization can be also regarded as the most complex strategy that a firm can undertake. Particularly for family firms, that are often characterized by limited financial capital, a risk-averse nature and limited growth aspirations, it could be argued that family firms are more likely to face greater challenges when taking the pathway to internationalization. Especially the triangulation of family, ownership, and management (so-called ‘familiness’) manifests in a unique behavior and decision-making process which is often characterized by the importance given to noneconomic goals and distinguishes a family firm from other businesses. Taking this into account, the concept of socio-emotional wealth (SEW) has been evolved to describe the behavior of family firms. In order to investigate how different internal and external firm characteristics shape internationalization success of family firms, we drew on a sample consisting of 297 small and medium-sized family firms from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Thus, we include SEW as essential family firm characteristic and added the two major intra-organizational characteristics, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), absorptive capacity (AC) as well as collaboration intensity (CI) and relational knowledge (RK) as two major external network characteristics. Based on previous research we assume that these characteristics are important to explain internationalization success of family firm SME. Regarding the data analysis, we applied a Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), an approach that allows identifying configurations of firm characteristics, specifically used to study complex causal relationships where traditional regression techniques reach their limits. Results indicate that several combinations of these family firm characteristics can lead to international success, with no permanently required key characteristic. Instead, there are many roads to walk down for family firms to achieve internationalization success. Consequently, our data states that family owned SME are heterogeneous and internationalization is a complex and dynamic process. Results further show that network related characteristics occur in all sets, thus represent an essential element in the internationalization process of family owned SME. The contribution of our study is twofold, as we investigate different forms of international expansion for family firms and how to improve them. First, we are able to broaden the understanding of the intersection between family firm and SME internationalization with respect to major intra-organizational and network-related variables. Second, from a practical perspective, we offer family firm owners a basis for setting up internal capabilities to achieve international success.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation, family firm, fsQCA, internationalization, socio-emotional wealth

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Authors: Michel T. Leger, Shawn Martin

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Leading an ecologically responsible lifestyle represents a difficult challenge. Though research in environmental education does point to an increase in the intention to act more responsibly towards the environment, this intent does not seem to translate to concrete ecological action. This mixed methods collective case study explores the adoption of ecological actions in the family, a context of socio-ecological transformation rarely examined in the scientific literature. More specifically, it takes into account the popular use of social media today to explore the potential role social media, namely Facebook, in promoting environmental action. In other words, for families who are intent on adopting an ecologically friendly lifestyle, could the use of Facebook positively affect the way family members relate to the environment and bring about real change in their daily household actions? To answer this question, twenty-one families living in an urban setting were recruited and then divided them into two distinct groups. The first group of families attempted to lower their household electrical bill as part of a private Facebook group, while the other aimed to do the same, but without the directed use of social media. For both groups, we recorded the amount of kilowatt-hours used during the project as well as the amount used for the same months the previous year, adjusting for temperature variations. Exit interviews were also conducted with each family in order to try to understand the processes of eco-citizenship development in the context of family. Results seem to suggest that both virtual social networks and one-on-one support can help to increase environmental awareness in participating family. Interestingly, families from the Facebook group seemed to demonstrate a higher degree of environmental engagement, and younger family members in this group were more active in the processes of collective behavioral change.

Keywords: environmental education, family-based eco-citizenship, social media, case study

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Authors: Lemi Tolu

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Background: Postpartum family planning (PPFP) focuses on the prevention of unintended and closely spaced pregnancies through the first 12 months following childbirth. Objective: This study assesses the barriers to uptake of long-term and permanent family planning methods among immediate post-partum mothers at Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methodology: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 1 to June 30, 2017. The six months of study were used as strata, and systematic sampling used to select participants in each month. Post-partum mothers were interviewed using pretested structured questionnaires. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 17. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regressions were fitted to identify determinants of post-partum family planning uptake. An OR with 95% CIs was calculated, and p values set at 005 were used to determine the statistical significance of associations. Results: Four hundred and twenty-two post-partum women were interviewed. Two hundred sixty-eight (63%) women received counselling on family planning, and 241 (66.8 %) got information about contraception. One hundred and fifty-two (45%) of the women accepted long-term and permanent contraception on their immediate postpartum period before discharge. Contraceptive counselling (OR = 2.13, 95% CI 1.004-3.331), getting information from the health facility (OR = 15.15, 95% CI 1.848-19.242), and partner support (OR = 1.367, 95% CI 1.175-2.771) were significantly associated with long-term and permanent contraception uptake. Conclusion: Postpartum counselling on family planning and provision of contraception information improve immediate postpartum FP acceptance, and, hence postpartum programs need to strengthen such services.

Keywords: contraception, immediate postpartum, long-term family planning, post-partum family planning

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Authors: Yu-Yu Wang, Shih-Hua Hsieh, Ru-Shian Hsieh

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Wishes and choices being respected, and the right to be supported rather than coerced, have been internationally recognized as the human rights of persons with mental illness. In Taiwan, ‘coerced hospitalization’ has become difficult since the revision of the mental health legislation in 2007. Despite trend towards human rights, the real problem families face when their family members are in mental health crisis is the lack of alternative services. This study aims to explore: 1) When is hospitalization seen as the only solution by family members? 2) What are the barriers for arranging hospitalization, and how are they managed? 3) What have family carers learned, in their experiences of caring for their family members with mental illness? To answer these questions, qualitative approach was adopted, and focus group interviews were taken to collect data. This study includes 24 family carers. The main findings of this research include: First, hospital is the last resort for carers in helplessness. Family carers tend to do everything they could to provide care at home for their family members with mental illness. Carers seek hospitalization only when a patient’s behavior is too violent, weird, and/or abnormal, and beyond their ability to manage. Hospitalization, nevertheless, is never an easy choice. Obstacles emanate from the attitudes of the medical doctors, the restricted areas of ambulance service, and insufficient information from the carers’ part. On the other hand, with some professionals’ proactive assistance, access to medical care while in crisis becomes possible. Some family carers obtained help from the medical doctor, nurse, therapist and social workers. Some experienced good help from policemen, taxi drivers, and security guards at the hospital. The difficulty in accessing medical care prompts carers to work harder on assisting their family members with mental illness to stay in stable states. Carers found different ways of helping the ‘person’ to get along with the ‘illness’ and have better quality of life. Taking back ‘the right to control’ in utilizing medication, from passiveness to negotiating with medical doctors and seeking alternative therapies, are seen in many carers’ efforts. Besides, trying to maintain regular activities in daily life and play normal family roles are also experienced as important. Furthermore, talking with the patient as a person is also important. The authors conclude that in order to protect the human rights of persons with mental illness, it is crucial to make the medical care system more flexible and to make the services more humane: sufficient information should be provided and communicated, and efforts should be made to maintain the person’s social roles and to support the family.

Keywords: family carers, independent living, mental health crisis, persons with mental illness

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Authors: K. Masingboon, S. Duangpaeng, N. Chaiwong

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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most common cause of death among Thai with coronary heart disease (CHD). Thai AMI survivors are most likely to have impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL) due to their lifestyle, functional, and psychological problems. Guided by the Individual and Family Self-Management Theory, this study aimed to explore HRQoL and identify its predictors among Thai AMI survivors. 155 Thai AMI survivors were recruited by stratified random sampling from three hospitals located in eastern region of Thailand. HRQol was measured using the Short Form -12 Health Survey (SF-12). The Center for Epidemiologic studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was utilized to assess the presence of depression, and the Family Support questionnaire was administered to examine family support. Results revealed that 92 percent of Thai AMI survivors reported a generally high level of HRQoL and 80 percent of them reported higher level of HRQoL in physical health and mental health dimension. Depression and family support were significantly predicted HRQoL among Thai AMI survivors and accounted for 28.5 percent of variance (p < .001). Interestingly, depression was the most significant predictors of HRQoL (β = -.65, p < .001) In conclusion, depression is a significant predictor of HRQoL in Thai AMI survivors. Increasing awareness of depression among these survivors is important. Depressive symptoms in should be routinely assessed. In addition, intervention to improve HRQoL among Thai AMI survivors should be addressed through depressive symptom management and family collaboration.

Keywords: health-related quality of life, AMI survivors, predictors, collaboration

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Authors: Esabella Yuan

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This study explored the recollections of young carers who lived with and cared for their mentally ill parent and how they managed life difficulties in Taiwan. 19 former young carers took part in the study, conducted from July to October 2021. The findings provided the unique view that all the participants acknowledged being taught by the mainstream culture to honour family value and prioritize the needs of parents over their own ones, they stepped in to care for the ill parent out of love and out of necessity through there having no-one to turn to, they were willing to assume long-term caring responsibilities, strikingly, a much more common experience was that the participants hided parental illness and young carer identity in the community through the fear of social discrimination attached to mental illness. As a result, these former young carers stayed in hidden circumstances and coped alone with caring challenges. The findings suggest that there needs multi-disciplinary services working together to recognize the needs of young carers and provide appropriate intervention to young carers based on a family-focus approach and ensure to serve the best interests of young carers and their families. It is to be hope that young carers can grow up safely and healthily within the community.

Keywords: young carers, family well-being, mental health, parental mental illness

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Authors: Eisa Al-Balhan

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This study explores the effects of parents’ personality and family variables on aggressive behavior in children from the State of Kuwait. The sample of 117children aged between 6 and 10 years (M=7.79 years, SD =1.4 years),117 fathers, and 117mothers from Kuwait. The following tools were used: a) the Aggressive Behavior Scale for Children (ABSC), b) the Personality Scales Inventory (PSI), and c) the Family Climate Scale (FCS). The results show that there were significant differences between children with highly aggressive behavior and those with low aggressive behavior for most of the personality traits of the father and mother, as well as most of the family climate and its different dimensions according to the father’s knowledge and the mother’s knowledge. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between males and females in the total score of aggressive behavior, verbal aggression, physical aggression, self-aggression, and aggression toward others, with higher scores occurring among males. Most of the correlations of the children’s aggressive behavior were with the personality traits of the father. The personality traits of the mother, family climate, and most of its different dimensions according to the father's and mother's knowledge had significant negative correlations with the child's aggression. There was no effect of the mother's and father's education levels on their child’s aggressive behavior. There was a significant difference between normal families and separated families in the total score of aggressive behavior, verbal aggression, and self-aggression, with a higher score occurring among separated families, and there was no significant difference between the two groups in physical aggression and aggression towards others.

Keywords: aggressive behavior, personality traits of parents, family variables, parents

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Authors: Farzad Jalilian, Mehdi Mirzaei Alavijeh, Fazel Zinat Motlagh

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Social support is an important benchmark of health for people in avoidance conditions. The main goal of this study was to determine the three kinds of social support (family, friend and other significant) to drug cessation among male addicts, in Kermanshah, the west of Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 132 addicts, randomly selected to participate voluntarily in the study. Data were collected from conduct interviews based on standard questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS-18 at 95% significance level. The majority of addicts were young (Mean: 30.4 years), and with little education. Opium (36.4%), Crack (21.2%), and Methamphetamine (12.9%) were the predominant drugs. Inabilities to reject the offer and having addict friends are the most often reasons for drug usage. Almost, 18.9% reported history of drug injection. 43.2% of the participants already did drug cessation at least once. Logistic regression showed the family support (OR = 1.110), age (OR = 1.106) and drug use initiation age (OR = 0.918) was predicting drug cessation. Our result showed; family support is a more important effect among types of social support in drug cessation. It seems that providing educational program to addict’s families for more support of patients at drug cessation can be beneficial.

Keywords: drug cessation, family support, drug use, initiation age

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Authors: Shuenn-Yih Chang, Chiu-LI Huang, Ngoc-Cuong Tran

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A new family of structure-dependent integration methods, whose coefficients of the difference equation for displacement increment are functions of the initial structural properties and the step size for time integration, is proposed in this work. This family method can simultaneously integrate the controllable numerical dissipation, explicit formulation and unconditional stability together. In general, its numerical dissipation can be continuously controlled by a parameter and it is possible to achieve zero damping. In addition, it can have high-frequency damping to suppress or even remove the spurious oscillations high frequency modes. Whereas, the low frequency modes can be very accurately integrated due to the almost zero damping for these low frequency modes. It is shown herein that the proposed family method can have exactly the same numerical properties as those of HHT-α method for linear elastic systems. In addition, it still preserves the most important property of a structure-dependent integration method, which is an explicit formulation for each time step. Consequently, it can save a huge computational efforts in solving inertial problems when compared to the HHT-α method. In fact, it is revealed by numerical experiments that the CPU time consumed by the proposed family method is only about 1.6% of that consumed by the HHT-α method for the 125-DOF system while it reduces to be 0.16% for the 1000-DOF system. Apparently, the saving of computational efforts is very significant.

Keywords: structure-dependent integration method, nonlinear dynamic analysis, unconditional stability, numerical dissipation, accuracy

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Authors: Amanuel Bekuma, Rebecca Swift, Sarah Jackson, Ben Biddulph

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Economic loss to frost damage is increasing over the past years in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Agronomic, genetic, and climatic works have still found a weak correlation between temperature and frost damage. One possibility that has not been explored within the Australian cropping system is whether ice nucleation active bacteria (INB) either present in situ on crop residue or introduced by rainfall could be responsible for the increased sensitivity of cereal plants to frost at different stages of development. This study investigated upper and lower leaf canopy, stubble, and soil as a potential site of ice nucleation activity (INA) and tracked the changes in INA during the plant development. We found that older leaves of wheat are the primary sites of ice nucleation (-4.7 to -6.3°C) followed by stubble (-5.7 to -6.7°C) which increases the risk of frost damage during heading and flowering (the most susceptible stages). However, healthy and green upper canopy leaves (flag and flag-2) and the soil have lower INA (< -11°C) during the frost-sensitive stage of wheat. We anticipate the higher INA on the stubble and older leaves to be due to the presence of biologically active ice-nucleating bacteria (INB), known to cause frost injury to sensitive plants at -5°C. Stubble retained or applied during the growing season further exacerbates additional frost risk by potentially increasing the INB load. The implications of the result for stubble and frost risk management in a frost-prone landscape will be discussed.

Keywords: frost, ice-nucleation-activity, stubble, wheat

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Authors: Akram Farhadi, Mahshid Froughan, Farahnaz Mohammadi, Maryam Rassouli, Maryam Noroozian, Leila Sadeghmoghaddam

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Background: The caregivers’ assessment of their own caregiving is considered the most important concept in exploring their experiences and has a major role in care outcomes. The rising number of people with dementia and their need for care makes family caregiving really important matter to consider and evaluate. Objectives: This study was conducted with the aim to naturalize and validate the Persian version of the Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) in family caregivers of older adults with dementia. Patients and Method: In this cross-sectional methodological study, the Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) was translated using International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) protocol, and then a panel of experts examined its face and content validities. To ensure construct validity, the translated Revised Caregiving Appraisal Scale (RCAS) was completed by 236 family caregivers, and factor construct of the scale was assessed with 5 initial factors using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency was found using Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest using intraclass correlation coefficient. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed in LISREL-8.8 software in Windows®. Results: Participating caregivers' mean age was 53.5±13.13 years. Content and face validities of the scale were confirmed according to the views expressed by family caregivers and panel of experts. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results showed appropriate values for all fitness indices (RMSEA=0.046, df/X2=2.428, CFI=0.98, AGFI=0.84, GFI=0.9), and the 5-factor model was confirmed with 27 items. Overall Cronbach's alpha was reported 0.894, and test retest showed overall ICC=0.94. Conclusion: The Persian version of RCAS is a valid and reliable tool for family caregivers' assessment of their caregiving of older adults with dementia, and can be useful in assessing family caregiving interventions.

Keywords: psychometric, family caregivers, reliability and validity, elderly, dementia, self-appraisal

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Authors: Sylwia K. Naliwajko, Renata Markiewicz-Zukowska, Justyna Moskwa, Krystyna Gromkowska-Kepka, Konrad Mielcarek, Patryk Nowakowski, Katarzyna Socha, Anna Puscion-Jakubik, Maria H. Borawska

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Glioblastoma (grade IV WHO) is a rapidly progressive brain tumor with very high morbidity and mortality. The vast malignant gliomas are not curable despite the therapy (surgical, radiotherapy, chemotherapy) and patients seek alternative or complementary treatments. Patients often use cannabidiol (CBD) oil as an alternative therapy of glioblastoma. CBD is one of the cannabinoids, an active component of Cannabis sativa. THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol) can be addictive, and in many countries CBD oil without THC ( < 0,2%) is available. Propolis produced by bees from the resin collected from trees has antiglioma properties in vitro and can be used as a supplement in complementary therapy of gliomas. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of extract from CBD oil in combination with propolis extract on two glioblastoma cell lines. The MTT (Thiazolyl Blue Tetrazolium Bromide) test was used to determine the influence of CBD oil extract and polish propolis extract (PPE) on the viability of glioblastoma cell lines – U87MG and LN18. The cells were incubated (24, 48 and 72 h) with CBD oil extract and PPE. CBD extract was used in concentration 1, 1.5 and 3 µM and PPE in 30 µg/mL. The data were presented compared to the control. The statistical analysis was performed using Statistica v. 13.0 software. CBD oil extract in concentrations 1, 1.5 and 3 µM did not inhibit the viability of U87MG and LN18 cells (viability more than 90% cells compared to the control). There was no dose-response viability, and IC50 value was not recognized. PPE in the concentration of 30 µg/mL time-dependently inhibited the viability of U87MG and LN18 cell line (after 48 h the viability as a percent of the control was 59,7±6% and 57,8±7%, respectively). In a combination of CBD with PPE, the viability of the treated cells was similar to PPE used alone (58,2±7% and 56,5±9%, respectively). CBD oil extract did not show anti-glioma activity and in combination with PPE did not change the activity of PPE.

Keywords: anticancer, cannabidiol, cell line, glioblastoma

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Authors: Wendy Lee

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From the mid-twentieth century onward, the notion of ‘attachment’ has been used to define the optimum relationship between young children and their carers; first applied to parents and young children and more recently with early childhood educators and children in their care. However, it is seldom, if ever, asked whether the notion of ‘attachment’ and more especially so-called Attachment Theory, as propounded by John Bowlby and others, provides a sound basis for conceptualising child-adult relationships in early years. Even if appropriate in the context of family, the use of the term raises a number of questions when used in early childhood education. Research has shown that our youngest children (infants) in early childhood centre based care settings, are given the utmost priority to build 'attachments' with their educators. But exactly when, how and why does this priority diminish - and should it (for preschoolers)? This presentation will elaborate on such issues and will argue that there is a need to reconceptualise and redefine how 'quality relationships' should be measured and implemented in the daily practices and pedagogical methods adopted by early childhood educators. Moreover, this presentation will include data collected from the empirical study conducted, that observed various early childhood educators and children in Australian early childhood centres. Lastly, the thoughts, feelings and desires of parents of children in early childhood centre-based care, regarding the term 'attachment' and 'quality relationships' will be shared in the hope that we can take one step closer in bridging the needs of families, children, early childhood centres, educators, and the wider community.

Keywords: attachment, early childhood education, pedagogy, relationships

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Authors: Mercy Marimirofa, Farai Machinga, Alfred Zvoushe, Tsitsidzaishe Musvosvi

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The Government of Zimbabwe embarked on integrating family planning with Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) services in May 2020 with support from the World Health Organization (WHO). There was high HIV prevalence, incidence rates and STI infections among women attending FP clinics. Spilhaus is a specialized center of excellence clinic which offers a range of sexual reproductive health services. HIV services were limited to testing only, and clients were referred to other facilities for further management. Integration of services requires that all the services be available at one point so that clients will access them during their visit to the facility. Objectives: The study was conducted to assess the impact the one-stop-shop model has made in accessing integrated Family Planning services and sexual reproductive health services compared to the supermarket approach. It also assessed the relationship family planning services have with other sexual reproductive health services. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted at Spilhaus clinic in Harare using family planning registers and HIV services registers comparing years 2019 and 2021. A 2 sample t-test was used to determine the difference in clients accessing the services under the two models. A Spearman’s rank correlation was used to determine if accessing family planning services has a relationship with other sexual reproductive health services. Results: In 2019, 7,548 clients visited the Spilhaus clinic compared to 8,265 during the period January to December 2021. The median age for all clients accessing services was 32 years. An increase of 69% in the number of services accessed was recorded from 2019 to 2021. More services were accessed in 2021. There was no difference in the number of clients accessing family planning services cervical cancer, and HIV services. A difference was found in the number of clients who were offered STI screening services. There was also a relationship between accessing family planning services and STI screening services (ρ = 0.729, p-value=0.006). Conclusion: Programming towards SRH services was a great achievement, the use of an integrated approach proved to be cost-effective as it minimised the required resources for separate programs. Clients accessed important health needs at once. The integration of these services provided an opportunity to offer comprehensive information which addressed an individual’s sexual reproductive health needs.

Keywords: intergration, one stop shop, family planning, reproductive health

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Authors: Tomasz Komornicki

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The possibilities of cross-border traffic depend on the degree of permeability of a given border as well as the state of the existing transport infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to identify the impact of economic transformation, EU accession, and infrastructure development on modal shifts in border traffic through the Polish eastern boundary. In the 1980s railway was still the main mode of cross-border transport in Poland. At the beginning of the 1990s, the role of the road and rail transborder passenger traffic was similar, but since 1993, the role of rail was decreasing. The general decline in rail infrastructure in Poland continued uninterruptedly until accession to the European Union. The slow opposite trend can be observed later as a result of the inflow of European funds. In the countries neighbouring Poland from the east, these processes took place with some delay, and the loss of railway position was not so drastic. Therefore, cross-border railway connections have been maintained for quite a long time since the break-up of the USSR. However, finally, cross-border rail transport proved to be completely inflexible in relation to both economic, geopolitical, and transport transformations. It has been shown that the current modal split of the passenger border traffic was shaped by the following factors: a) closure of many transborder railway lines, especially local ones; b) the signing of an agreement on minor border traffic with Ukraine; c) rapidly growing number of citizens of Ukraine working in Poland (unofficial transportation of workers by car directly to their workplaces in Poland); d) the emergence of low-cost air connections between Ukraine and Poland and the growing role of air transport in the Russia-Poland relationship. The summary points to the possibility of a renewed increase in the importance of rail transport on the eastern border of the European Union.

Keywords: modal change, border, rail transport, Poland

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Authors: Abbas Al-Refaie, Nour Bata

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A distributor of Apple products' experiences numerous difficulties in developing marketing strategies for new and existing mobile product entries that maximize customer satisfaction and the firm's profitability. This research, therefore, integrates market segmentation in platform-based product family design and conjoint analysis to identify iSystem combinations that increase customer satisfaction and business profits. First, the enhanced market segmentation grid is created. Then, the estimated demand model is formulated. Finally, the profit models are constructed then used to determine the ideal product family design that maximizes profit. Conjoint analysis is used to explore customer preferences with their satisfaction levels. A total of 200 surveys are collected about customer preferences. Then, simulation is used to determine the importance values for each attribute. Finally, sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the product family design that maximizes both objectives. In conclusion, the results of this research shall provide great support to Apple distributors in determining the best marketing strategies that enhance their market share.

Keywords: market segmentation, conjoint analysis, market strategies, optimization

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Authors: Chico A. E. Hindarto

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Knowledge management practices are more contextual when they combine with the corporate culture. Each entity has a specific cultural climate that enables knowledge sharing in both functional and individual levels. The interactions between people within organization can be influenced by the culture and how the knowledge is transmitted. On the other hand, these interactions have impacts in culture modification as well. Storytelling is one of the methods in delivering the knowledge throughout the organization. This paper aims to explore the possibility in using a quasi-folklore in the family-based business. Folklore is defined as informal tradition culture that spreading through a word-of-mouth, without knowing the source of the story. In this paper, the quasi-folklore term is used to differentiate it with the original term of folklore. The story is created by somebody in the organization, not like the folklore with unknown source. However, the source is not disclosed, in order to avoid the predicted interest from the story origin. The setting of family-based business is deliberately chosen, since the kinship is considerably strong in this type of entity. Through a thorough literature review that relates to knowledge management, storytelling, and folklore, this paper determines how folklore can be an option for knowledge sharing within the organization.

Keywords: folklore, family business, organizational culture, knowledge management, storytelling

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Authors: Ayelet Gur

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Background: Parents with intellectual disability are of great interest to social service professionals. Article 23 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities aims to ensure that persons with disabilities can create a family by providing adequate supports. The aim of the current investigation was to portray families with parents with intellectual disabilities within Muslim- Arab society in Israel. Method: Qualitative method using semi-structured interviews with nine-teen Muslim Israeli social workers was employed. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes. Results: Families with parents with intellectual disability are not a rare phenomenon in the Arab society. The common type is of marriage between a man with intellectual disability and a woman without disability. Findings indicated two main motives for the arranged marriage of a man with intellectual disability: the extended family's concerns about his future and their desire for the family continuity. The non-disabled wives' motives for marrying men with intellectual disabilities revolved around their lack of other opportunities to create a family and their desire to leave their parents' household and live independently. Those women were described as partly or fully aware of their husbands' disability prior to the marriage. The family life of those families were described in relation to the fathers' involvement in family life and relation to the wives' high burden and in many cases, acceptance of their life situation. Conclusions: Findings are discussed with respect to religious values on disability, arranged marriage and the status of Muslim women. Services and supports for parents with intellectual disabilities should be developed with respect to the cultural values and norms.

Keywords: Arab society in Israel, intellectual and developmental disability, parents with intellectual disability, social work

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Authors: Huey-Fang Sun, Wei-Kai Weng, Mei-Kuang Chao, Hui-Shan Hsu, Tsai-Yin Shih

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Psycho-social stress is important for mental illness and the presence of emotional and behavioral symptoms to an identifiable event is the central feature of adjustment disorders. However, whether patients with adjustment disorders have been raised in family with poor family functions and social supports and have higher stress perception than their peer group when they both experienced a similar stressful environment remains unknown. The specific aims of the study are to investigate the correlation among the family function, social supports and the level of stress perception and to test the hypothesis that military patients with adjustment disorders would have lower family function, lower social supports and higher stress perception than their healthy colleagues recruited in the same cohort for military services given their common exposure to similar stressful environments. Methods: The study was conducted in four hospitals of northern part of Taiwan from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017 and a matched case-control study design was used. The inclusion criteria for potential patient participants were psychiatric inpatients that serviced in military during the study period and met the diagnosis of adjustment disorders. Patients who had been admitted to psychiatric ward before or had illiteracy problem were excluded. A healthy military control sample matched by the same military service unit, gender, and recruited cohort was invited to participate the study as well. Totally 74 participants (37 patients and 37 controls) completed the consent forms and filled out the research questionnaires. Questionnaires used in the study included Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) as a measure of stress perception; Family APGAR as a measure of family function, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) as a measure of social supports. Pearson correlation analysis and t-test were applied for statistical analysis. Results: The analysis results showed that PSS level significantly negatively correlated with three social support subscales (family subscale, r= -.37, P < .05; friend subscale, r= -.38, P < .05; significant other subscale, r= -.39, P < .05). A negative correlation between PSS level and Family APGAR only reached a borderline significant level (P= .06). The t-test results for PSS scores, Family APGAR levels, and three subscale scores of MSPSS between patient and control participants were all significantly different (P < .001, P < .05, P < .05, P < .05, P < .05, respectively) and the patient participants had higher stress perception scores, lower social supports and lower family function scores than the healthy control participants. Conclusions: Our study suggested that family function and social supports were negatively correlated with patients’ subjective stress perception. Military patients with adjustment disorders tended to have higher stress perception and lower family function and social supports than those military peers who remained healthy and still provided services in their military units.

Keywords: adjustment disorders, family function, social support, stress perception

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Authors: Katie E. Jennings

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The interactions between family dynamics and environmental factors with mental health vulnerability in individuals are well known and are a theme for on-going research and debate. The impact upon mental health issues and forensic issues on family dynamics, experience, and emotional wellbeing cannot be over-Emphasised. For forensic patients with diagnosed mental disorders, these relationships and environments may have also been functionally linked to the development and maintenance of those disorders; with significant adverse childhood experiences being a common feature of many Patient’s histories. Mental health hospitals remove the patient from their home environments and provide treatment outside of these relationships and often outside of the home area. There is, therefore, a major focus on Services ensuring that patients are able to build and maintain relationships with family and friends, requiring services to involve families in Patients' care and treatment wherever possible. There are standards set by Government and clinical bodies that require absolute demonstration of the inclusion of family and friends in all aspects of the care and treatment of forensic patients. For some patients and family members, this push to take on a “role” in care can be unhelpful, extremely stressful, and has constant implications for the potential delicate reparation of relationships. Based on work undertaken for over 20 years in forensic mental health settings, this paper explores the positive psychology approach to a dimensional model to family inclusion in mental health care that learns from family court work and allows for the maintenance of relationships to be at both proximal and Distil levels; to prevent the replication of abuse, decrease the need for falsehoods and assist the recovery of all. The model is based on allowing families to choose to not be involved or be involved in different ways if this is seen to be more helpful. It also allows patients to choose the level of potential involvement that they would find helpful, and for this to be reviewed at a timeframe agreed by all parties, rather than when the next survey is due or the patient has a significant care meeting. This paper is significant as there is a lack of research to support services to use a positive psychology approach to work in this area, the assumption that being asked to be involved must be positive for all seems naïve at best for this patient group. Work relating to the psychology of family can significantly contribute to the development of knowledge in this area. The development of a dimensional model will support choice within families and assist in the development of more honest and open relationships.

Keywords: family dynamics, forensic, mental disorder, positive psychology

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Authors: Agnieszka Szczudlińska-Kanoś

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Nowadays the participation of citizens in public life increasingly effect on management at all levels of public authority. Today, however, democratic systems in many countries, also in Poland, based on the first - on the institutions of representative democracy, which is mainly on elections, party activity, on the other hand - on the basic instruments of direct democracy, which, in particular, we can include a referendum or initiative of citizenship - although these are often rather complementary. Other forms of participatory democracy, such as deliberative democracy, participatory budgeting, public consultation in practice in many countries are still rare. Appropriate use of the potential invested in participatory democracy can bring enormous and multilateral benefits. On the one hand, local and regional communities taking an active part in public life express their needs, point out problems and thus affect the decisions of public authorities. Authorities using knowledge acquired from the citizens also implement the policy tailored to their needs, thus obtaining support in the next election. The purpose of this study is to show how the Polish citizens affect to resolve issues of social policy pursued at different levels of government. This problem is very important because today the observed changes seen in virtually all fields of life create new social problems, which nowadays are no longer only the problems of the region, the country but they are international, global issues. From such this perspective we should talk about them, discuss, try to solve at all levels. Article will be useful not only theorists involved in the management of the public, local government, or social but also practitioners - local government acting as their functions at different levels of government. Conclusions drawn from the publication will also be useful to politicians and those directly affecting for: functioning social security systems, the scope and quality of public services and the overall shape of the contemporary social policy in different countries.

Keywords: social policy, local government, social participation, social services

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Authors: Thirakorn Maneerat, Darunee Jongudomkarn, Jiraporn Khiewyoo

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Family quality of life of families who have persons with disabilities is a core concern in government services and community health promotion to deal with the multidimensionality of today’s health and societal issues. The number of families who have persons with disabilities in Thailand is gradually increasing. However, facilitation and evaluation of such family quality of life are limited by the lack of feasible tools. As a consequence, service provided for the families is not optimally facilitated and evaluated. This paper is part of a larger project which is aimed to develop a scale for measuring of family quality of life of families who have persons with developmental disabilities in Thailand, presenting the results of a three-round Delphi method involving 11 experts. The study was obtained during December 2013 to May 2014. The first round consisted of open-ended questionnaire and content analysis of the answers. The second round comprised a 5-point Likert scale structured questionnaire based on the first round analysis, with required the experts to identify the most relevant studied tool aspects. Their feedbacks levels of agreements were statistic analysis using the median, interquartile range and quartile deviation. The included criteria for items acceptance were greater than 3.50 of the median, lesser than 1.50 of interquartile range, and 0.65 or less of a quartile deviation. Finally, the proposed questionnaire was structured and validated by the experts in the third round. The results found that across all three rounds, the experts achieved 100% agreement on the five factors regarding to quality of life of a family who have person with disability were considered. These five factors with 38 items were included: 1) 10 items of family interactions; 2) 9 items of child rearing; 3) 7 items of physical and material resources; 4) 5 items of social-emotional status; and 7 items of disability-related services and welfare. Next step of the study was examined the construct validity by using factor analysis methods.

Keywords: tool development, family quality of life scale, person with disability, Delphi study

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Authors: Ramandeep Behl, S. S. Motsa

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The main focus of this manuscript is to provide a highly efficient two-point sixth-order family of super-Halley type methods that do not require any second-order derivative evaluation for obtaining simple roots of nonlinear equations, numerically. Each member of the proposed family requires two evaluations of the given function and two evaluations of the first-order derivative per iteration. By using Mathematica-9 with its high precision compatibility, a variety of concrete numerical experiments and relevant results are extensively treated to confirm t he t heoretical d evelopment. From their basins of attraction, it has been observed that the proposed methods have better stability and robustness as compared to the other sixth-order methods available in the literature.

Keywords: basins of attraction, nonlinear equations, simple roots, super-Halley

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Authors: Jae Woong Sull

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Lipid levels are related to the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) gene is one of the candidate genes of cardiovascular diseases. A total of 2,304 persons were chosen from a Hospital (N=4,294) in South Korea. Female subjects with the CG/GG genotype had a 2.03 -fold (p=0.0001) higher risk of having abnormal HDL cholesterol levels (<40 mg/dL) than subjects with the CC genotype. Male subjects with the CG/GG genotype had a 1.34 -fold (p=0.0019) higher risk than subjects with the CC genotype. When analyzed by body mass index, the association with CETP was much stronger in male subjects with BMI>=25.69 (OR=1.55, 95% CI: 1.15-2.07, P=0.0037) than in male lean subjects. When analyzed by family history of diabetes, the association with CETP was much stronger in male subjects with positive family history of low physical activity (OR=4.82, 95% CI: 1.86-12.5, P=0.0012) than in male subjects with negative family history of diabetes. This study clearly demonstrates that genetic variants in CETP influence HDL cholesterol levels in Korean adults.

Keywords: CETP, diabetes, obesity, polymorphisms

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Authors: Damaris Estrella Castillo, Zacil ha Vilchis Zapata, Leydi Peraza Gómez

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Hearing loss is an etiologically heterogeneous condition, where almost 60% is genetic in origin, 20% is due to environmental factors, and 20% have unknown causes. However, it is now known that the gene, GJB2, which encodes the connexin 26 protein, accounts for a large percentage of non-syndromic genetic hearing loss, and variants in this gene have been identified to be a common cause of hereditary hearing loss in many populations. The literature reports that the etiology in deafness helps improve family functioning but low-income countries this is difficult. Therefore, it is difficult to contribute the right of families to know about the genetic risk in future pregnancies as well as determining the certainty of being a carrier or affected. In order to assess the impact of genetic counseling and the functionality, 100 families with at least one child with profound hearing loss, were evaluated by specialists in audiology, clinical genetics and psychology. Targeted mutation analysis for one of the two known large deletions of upstream of GJB2/GJB6 gene (35delG; and including GJB2 regulatory sequences and GJB6) were performed in patients with diagnosis of non-syndromic hearing loss. Genetic counseling was given to all parents and primary caregivers, and APGAR family test was applied before and after the counseling. We analyzed a total of 300 members (children, parents) to determine the presence of the GJB2 gene mutation. Twelve patients (carriers and affected) were positive for the mutation, from 5 different families. The subsequent family APGAR testing and genetic counseling, showed that 14% perceived their families as functional, 62 % and 24 % moderately functional dysfunctional. This shows the importance of genetic counseling in the perception of family function that can directly impact the quality of life of these families.

Keywords: family dynamics, deafness, APGAR, counseling

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Authors: D. L. David, J. A. Wahedi, Q. T. Zaku

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A study was conducted at River Mayo Ranewo and River Lau, Taraba State Nigeria. The two rivers empty into the Upper Benue Basin. A survey of visual encounter was conducted within the two wetlands from June to August, 2014. The fish record was based entirely on landings of fishermen, number of canoes that land fish was counted, types of nets and baits used on each sampling day. Fishes were sorted into taxonomic groups, identified to family/ species level, counted and weighed in groups by species. Other aquatic organisms captured by the fishermen were scallops, turtles and frogs. The relative species abundance was determined by dividing the number of species from a site by the total number of species from all tributaries/sites. The fish were preserved in 2% formaldehyde solution and taken to the laboratory, were identified through keys of identification to African fishes and field guides. Shannon-Wieiner index of species diversity indicated that the diversity was highest at River Mayo Ranewo than River Lau. Results showed that at River Mayo Ranewo, the family Mochokidae recorded the highest (23.15%), followed by Mormyridae (22.64%) and the least was the family Lepidosirenidae (0.04%). While at River Lau, the family Mochokidae recorded the highest occurrence of (24.1%), followed by Bagridae (20.20%), and then Mormyridae, which also was the second highest in River Lau, with 18.46% occurrence. There was no occurrence of Malapteruridae and Osteoglossidae (0%) in River Lau, but the least occurrence was the family Gymnarchidae (0.04%). According to the result from the t-test, the fish composition was not significantly different (p≤0.05).

Keywords: Diversity Index, Lau, Mayo Ranewo, Wetlands

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Authors: A. Brach

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The architecture of modern museums in the historical center should refer to a place in a cultural, historical, urban and architectural sense, using adequate and contemporary forms of architecture. The research and architectural analysis of selected museums in Cracow were conducted to illustrate which elements were decisive for the choice of architectural form. The evaluation of selected objects took into the consideration the following aspects: continuation of the historical form, contemporary form referring to the place, the individual-author form omitting the cultural aspect of the place. The presented projects showed the compromise as positive solutions rejecting both the direct imitation or 'historical continuation' as well as an individual form focused on an abstract form. In order to carry out research and confirm the thesis, three designs of Assoc. Prof. Eng. Arch. Krzysztof Ingarden in the historic city of Cracow were selected. Despite being constructed in one city, the neighborhood and cultural contexts of the locations are completely different. The neighborhood of the historical Royal Road and gothic church with unique decorations from the Polish Art Nouveau, artist Stanislaw Wyspianski (Wyspianski Pavilion), the bend of the Vistula hosting the Japanese culture (Museum of Japanese Art and Technology Manggha) and finally the old area of a horse riding school from the Austrian Empire times (Malopolska Garden of Art). All three buildings are dedicated to the culture of Japan, Polish artist Stanislaw Wyspianski, contemporary achievements and the promotion of art at its widest sense. Important fact for this research is that there is one author of all presented projects.

Keywords: adaptation of existing buildings, architecture in cracow, modern architecture, museums located in historic center

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Authors: Sormeh Sharifi, Wasim Saman, Alemu Alemu, David Whaley

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Although various energy rating schemes and compulsory building codes are using around the world, there are increasing reports on overheating in energy efficient dwellings. Given that the cooling demand of buildings is rising globally because of the climate change, it is more likely that the overheating issue will be observed more. This paper studied the summer indoor temperature in eight air-conditioned multi-level houses in Adelaide which have complied with the Australian Nationwide Houses Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) minimum energy performance of 7.5 stars. Through monitored temperature, this study explores that overheating is experienced on 75.5% of top floors during cooling periods while the air-conditioners were running. This paper found that the energy efficiency regulations have significantly improved thermal comfort in low floors, but not on top floors, and the energy-efficient house is not necessarily adapted with the air temperature fluctuations particularly on top floors. Based on the results, this study suggests that the envelope of top floors for multi-level houses in South Australian context need new criteria to make the top floor more heat resistance in order to: preventing the overheating, reducing the summer pick electricity demand and providing thermal comfort. Some methods are used to improve the envelope of the eight case studies. The results demonstrate that improving roofs was the most effective part of the top floors envelope in terms of reducing the overheating.

Keywords: building code, climate change, energy-efficient building, energy rating, overheating, thermal comfort

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Authors: Yuanqing Li, Changyi Lei, Zhaopeng Xue, Zhuo Zheng, Yanbo Long

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In agricultural production and breeding, implementing automatic picking robot in orchard farming to reduce human labour and error is challenging. The core function of it is automatic identification based on machine vision. This paper focuses on apple detection and counting in orchards and implements several deep learning methods. Extensive datasets are used and a semi-automatic annotation method is proposed. The proposed deep learning models are in state-of-the-art YOLO family. In view of the essence of the models with various backbones, a multi-dimensional comparison in details is made in terms of counting accuracy, mAP and model memory, laying the foundation for realising automatic precision agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural object detection, deep learning, machine vision, YOLO family

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Authors: Salima Kouici, Abdelkader Khelladi

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In this work, we begin with the presentation of the Tθ family of usual similarity measures concerning multidimensional binary data. Subsequently, some properties of these measures are proposed. Finally, the impact of the use of different inter-elements measures on the results of the Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering Methods is studied.

Keywords: binary data, similarity measure, Tθ measures, agglomerative hierarchical clustering

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