Search results for: fake compliance

Authors: Lauren G. Coggins

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Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) are among the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAI), contributing to prolonged lengths of stay, greater costs of patient care, and increased patient mortality. Evidence-based preventative care bundles exist to establish consistent, safe patient-care practices throughout an entire organization, helping to ensure the collective application of care strategies that aim to improve patient outcomes and minimize complications. The cardiac intensive care unit at a nationally ranked teaching and research hospital in the United States exceeded its annual CAUTI and CLABSI targets in the fiscal year 2019, prompting examination into the unit’s infection prevention efforts that included preventative care bundles for both HAIs. Adherence to the CAUTI and CLABSI preventative care bundles was evaluated through frequent audits conducted over three months, using standards and resources from The Joint Commission, a globally recognized leader in quality improvement in healthcare and patient care safety. The bundle elements with the lowest scores were identified as the most commonly missed elements. Three elements from both bundles, six elements in total, served as key content areas for the educational interventions targeted to bedside nurses. The CAUTI elements included appropriate urinary catheter order, appropriate continuation criteria, and urinary catheter care. The CLABSI elements included primary tubing compliance, needleless connector compliance, and dressing change compliance. An integrated, multi-platform education campaign featured content on each CAUTI and CLABSI preventative care bundle in its entirety, with additional reinforcement focused on the lowest scoring elements. One-on-one educational materials included an informational pamphlet, badge buddy, a presentation to reinforce nursing care standards, and real-time application through case studies and electronic health record demonstrations. A digital hub was developed on the hospital’s Intranet for quick access to unit resources, and a bulletin board helped track the number of days since the last CAUTI and CLABSI incident. Audits continued to be conducted throughout the education campaign, and staff were given real-time feedback to address any gaps in adherence. Nearly every nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit received all educational materials, and adherence to all six key bundle elements increased after the implementation of educational interventions. Recommendations from this implementation include providing consistent, comprehensive education across multiple teaching tools and regular audits to track adherence. The multi-platform education campaign brought focus to the evidence-based CAUTI and CLABSI bundles, which in turn will help to reduce CAUTI and CLABSI rates in clinical practice.

Keywords: education, healthcare-associated infections, infection, nursing, prevention

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Authors: Aishat Abdul-Qadir Zubair

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Background: The absence of Shari’ah screening methodology for companies in Nigeria has further engineered the uncertainty surrounding the acceptability of investing in certain companies by people professing the religion of Islam due to the nature of the activities carried out by these companies. There are some existing shariah screening indices in other jurisdictions whose criteria can be used to check if a company or business is shariah-compliant or not. Examples such as FTSE, DJIM, Standard and Poor to mention just a few. What these indices have tried to do is to ensure that there are benchmarks to check with before investing in companies that carry out mixed activities in their business, wherein some are halal and others may be haram. Purpose: There have been numerous studies on the need to adopt certain screening methodologies as well as call for new methods in screening companies for shariah compliance in order to suit the investments needs of Muslims in other jurisdictions. It is, however, unclear how suitable these methodologies will be to Nigeria. This paper, therefore, seeks to address this gap to consider an appropriate screening methodology to be employed in Nigeria, drawing from the experience of other jurisdictions. Methods: This study employs a triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the need for Shari’ah screening of companies in Nigeria. The qualitative method is used by way of ijtihad, and this study tries to apply some Islamic Principles of Maqasid al-shari’ah as well as Qawaid al-Fiqiyyah to analyze activities of companies in order to ensure that they are indeed Shari’ah compliant. In addition, using the quantitative data gathered from the interview survey, the perspective of the investors with regards to the need for Shari’ah screening of companies in Nigeria is further analyzed. Results: The result of the study shows that there is a lack of awareness from the teeming Muslim population in Nigeria on the need for Shari’ah screening of companies in Nigeria. The result further shows that there is the need to take into cognizance the peculiar nature of company activities in Nigeria before any particular Shari’ah screening methodology is adopted and setting the necessary benchmarks. Conclusion and Implications: The study concludes that there is the need to ensure that the conscious Muslims in Nigeria screen companies for Shari’ah compliance so that they can easily identify the companies to invest in. The paper, therefore, recommends that the Nigerian government need to come up with a screening methodology that will suit the peculiar nature of companies in Nigeria. The study thus has a direct implication on the Investment regulatory bodies in Nigeria such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as the investor Muslims.

Keywords: Shari'ah screening, Muslims, investors, companies

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Authors: Alexandra O. Savinkina

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We proposed to assess the cohesion of a football team by its subject-goal and subject-value unity according to the A.V. Petrovsky theory. Goal unity was measured by the degree of compliance of the priority targets for various players in the team. Values were estimated by the coincidence of the ideas about a perfect football player. On the basis of the provisional diagnosis of the six teams, we had made the lists of goals and values. The tests were piloted on 35 football teams. The results allowed not only to compare quantitatively the cohesion of the different teams, but also to identify subgroups within the team.

Keywords: cohesion, football, psychodiagnostic, soccer, sports team, value-orientation unity

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Authors: Dilip Singh Sisodia, Shrish Verma

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Spamming is the most common issue seen nowadays in the Internet especially in Online Social Networking Sites (like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ etc.). Spam messages keep wasting Internet bandwidth and the storage space of servers. On social network sites; spammers often disguise themselves by creating fake accounts and hijacking user’s accounts for personal gains. They behave like normal user and they continue to change their spamming strategy. To prevent this, most modern spam-filtering solutions are deployed on the receiver side; they are good at filtering spam for end users. In this paper we are presenting some spamming techniques their behaviour and possible solutions. We have analyzed how Spammers enters into online social networking sites (OSNSs) and how they target it and the techniques they use for it. The five discussed techniques of spamming techniques which are clickjacking, social engineered attacks, cross site scripting, URL shortening, and drive by download. We have used elgg framework for demonstration of some of spamming threats and respective implementation of solutions.

Keywords: online social networking sites, spam, attacks, internet, clickjacking / likejacking, drive-by-download, URL shortening, networking, socially engineered attacks, elgg framework

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Authors: Shideh Mohseni Movahed, Mansoureh Safari

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Intelligent drug delivery systems (IDDS) are innovative technological innovations and clinical way to advance current treatments. These systems differ in technique of therapeutic administration, intricacy, materials and patient compliance to address numerous clinical conditions that require different pharmacological therapies. IDDS capable of releasing an active molecule at the proper site and at a amount that adjusts in response to the progression of the disease or to certain functions/biorhythms of the organism is particularly appealing. In this paper, we describe the most recent advances in the development of intelligent drug delivery systems.

Keywords: drug delivery systems, IDDS, medicine, health

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Authors: Leigha C. Crout

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This paper will investigate the categorical disregard of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in establishing and maintaining a baseline standard of civil guarantees for economic migrant women and their dependents. In light of the relative forward strides in terms of policy facilitating the ascension of female workers in China, this oft-invisible subgroup of women remains neglected from the modern-day “iron rice bowl” of the self-identified communist state. This study is being undertaken to rectify the absence of data on this subject and provide a baseline for future studies on the matter, as the human rights of migrants has become an established facet of transnational dialogue and debate. The basic methodology of this research will consist of the evaluation of China’s compliance with its own national guidelines, and the eight international human rights law treaties it has ratified. Data will be extracted and cross-checked from a number of relevant sources to monitor the extent of compliance, including but by no means limited to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) reports and responses, submissions and responses of international human rights treaty bodies, local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their annual reports, and articles and commentaries authored by specialists on the modern state and implementation of Chinese law. Together, these data will illuminate the vast network of compliance that has forced many migrant women to work within situations of extreme economic precarity. The structure will proceed as follows: first, an outline of the current status of migrant workers and the enforcement of stipulated protections will be provided; next, the analysis of the oft-debated regulations directing and the outline of mandatory services guaranteed to external and internal migrants; and finally, a conclusion incorporating various recommendations to improve transparency and gradually decrease the amount of migrant work turned forced labor that typifies the economic migrant experience, especially in the case of women. The internal and international migrant workers in China are bound by different and uncomplimentary systems. The first, which governs Chinese citizens moving to different regions or provinces to find more sustainable employment (internal migrants), is called the hukou (or huji) residency system. This law enforces strict regulation of the movement of peoples, while ensuring that residents of urban areas receive preferential benefits to those received by their so-called “agricultural” resident counterparts. Given the overwhelming presence of the Communist Party of China throughout the vast state, the management of internal migrants and the disregard for foreign domestic workers is, at minimum, a surprising oversight. This paper endeavors to provide a much-needed foundation for future commentary and discussion on the treatment of female migrant workers and their families in the People’s Republic of China.

Keywords: female migrant worker’s rights, the People’s Republic of China, forced labor, Hukou residency system

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Authors: Pratham Baheti, Rohan Sanghi, Aditya Gupta

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In the largely populated city of New Delhi, India, there are a lot of people that travel by two-wheelers. Majority of the people wear helmets while traveling and know how important it is to wear helmets for their safety. Still, the number of deaths because of road accidents involving two-wheelers is significant. We had conducted a survey by traveling within and in the outskirts of Delhi so as to see the variation in data and in the opinion of people towards helmet being a safety device rather than to escape the traffic police. We conducted a survey at traffic junctions and crossings of all the stakeholders and collected feedback on the Helmet scenario in India. According to the survey, the possible reason for these deaths is that the people, being unaware of helmet safety standards (ISI standards for helmets), buy helmets with fake ISI mark from unauthorized helmet sellers for a cheap price. Also, for the people who do not wear a helmet at all or wear a helmet just because it is a law, the reasons that they do not want to wear a helmet is heavyweight, lack of ventilation, inconvenience due to a strap, and hair problems. To address all these problems, we are designing a helmet with reduced weight and also working on the Helmet’s retention system and ventilation. We plan to provide this product at a cheap cost whilst maintaining the ISI standards so that a larger section of the population would be able to afford the helmet.

Keywords: safety, survey, ISI marks, stakeholders, helmet

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Authors: Kamyar Fakhr, Roozbeh Salmani

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Alphonse Bertillon developed the first biometric security system in the 1800s. Today, many governments and giant companies are considering or have procured biometrically enabled security schemes. Iris is a kaleidoscope of patterns and colors. Each individual holds a set of irises more unique than their thumbprint. Every single day, giant companies like Google and Apple are experimenting with reliable biometric systems. Now, after almost 200 years of improvements, face ID does not work with masks, it gives access to fake 3D images, and there is no global usage of biometric recognition systems as national identity (ID) card. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the advantages of iris recognition overall biometric recognition systems. It make two extensions: first, we illustrate how a very large amount of internet fraud and cyber abuse is happening due to bugs in face recognition systems and in a very large dataset of 3.4M people; second, we discuss how establishing a secure global network of iris recognition devices connected to authoritative convolutional neural networks could be the safest solution to this dilemma. Another aim of this study is to provide a system that will prevent system infiltration caused by cyber-attacks and will block all wireframes to the data until the main user ceases the procedure.

Keywords: biometric system, convolutional neural network, cyber-attack, secure

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Authors: Tamara Zappaterra

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The Learning Difficulties have an evolutionary nature. The international research has focused its analysis on the characteristics of Learning Difficulties in childhood, but we are still far from a thorough understanding of the nature of such disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Such issues become even more urgent in the university context. Spelling, meaning, and appropriate use of the specific vocabulary of the various disciplines represent an additional challenge for the dyslexic student. This paper explores the characteristics of Learning Difficulties in adulthood and the impact with the university teaching. It presents the results of an interdisciplinary project (educational, medical and engineering area) at University of Florence. The purpose of project is to design of a protocol for usability of teaching and individual study at university level. The project, after a first reconnaissance of user needs that have been reached with the participation of the very same protagonists, is at the stage of guidelines drafting for inclusion and education, to be used by teachers, students and administrative staff. The methodologies used are a questionnaire built on purpose and a series of focus groups with users. For collecting data during the focus groups it was decided to use a method typical of the Quality Function Deployment, a tool originally used for quality management, whose versatility makes it easy to use in a number of different context. The paper presents furthermore the findings of the project, the most significant elements of the guidelines for teaching, i.e. the section for teachers, whose aim is to implement a Learning Difficulties-friendly teaching, even at the university level, in compliance with italian Law 170/2010. The Guidelines for the didactic and inclusion of Learning Difficulties students of the University of Florence are articulated around a global and systemic plan of action, meant to accompany and protect the students during their study career, even before enrolling at the University, with different declination: the logistical, relational, educational, and didactic levels have been considered. These guidelines in Italy received the endorsement of the CNUDD. It is a systemic intervention plan for Learning Difficulties students, which roused and keeps rousing the interest of all the university system, with a radical consideration on academic teaching. Since while we try to provide the best Learning Difficulties-friendly didactic in compliance with the rules, no one can be exempted from a wider consideration on the nature and the quality of university teaching offered to all students.

Keywords: didactic tools, learning difficulties, special and inclusive education, university teaching

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Authors: Anupam Sibal

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Apollo Quality Program(AQP) was launched across the Apollo Group of Hospitals to address the four patient safety areas; Safety during Clinical Handovers, Medication Safety, Surgical Safety and the six International Patient Safety Goals(IPSGs) of JCI. A measurable, online, quality dashboard covering 20 process and outcome parameters was devised for monthly monitoring. The expected outcomes were also defined and categorized into green, yellow and red ranges. An audit methodology was also devised to check the processes for the measurable dashboard. Documented clinical handovers were introduced for the first time at many locations for in-house patient transfer, nursing-handover, and physician-handover. Prototype forms using the SBAR format were made. Patient-identifiers, read-back for verbal orders, safety of high-alert medications, site marking and time-outs and falls risk-assessment were introduced for all hospitals irrespective of accreditation status. Measurement of Surgical-Site-Infection (SSI) for 30 days postoperatively, was done. All hospitals now tracked the time of administration of antimicrobial prophylaxis before surgery. Situations with high risk of retention of foreign body were delineated and precautionary measures instituted. Audit of medications prescribed in the discharge summaries was made uniform. Formularies, prescription-audits and other means for reduction of medication errors were implemented. There is a marked increase in the compliance to processes and patient safety outcomes. Compliance to read-back for verbal orders rose from 86.83% in April’11 to 96.95% in June’15, to policy for high alert medications from 87.83% to 98.82%, to use of measures to prevent wrong-site, wrong-patient, wrong procedure surgery from 85.75% to 97.66%, to hand-washing from 69.18% to 92.54%, to antimicrobial prophylaxis within one hour before incision from 79.43% to 93.46%. Percentage of patients excluded from SSI calculation due to lack of follow-up for the requisite time frame decreased from 21.25% to 10.25%. The average AQP scores for all Apollo Hospitals improved from 62 in April’11 to 87.7 in Jun’15.

Keywords: clinical handovers, international patient safety goals, medication safety, surgical safety

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Authors: Bruno Mazorra Roig

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In the realm of cost-sharing mechanisms, the vulnerability to Sybil strategies, where agents can create fake identities to manipulate outcomes, has not yet been studied. In this paper, we delve into the intricacies of different cost-sharing mechanisms proposed in the literature, highlighting its non-Sybil-resistance nature. Furthermore, we prove that under mild conditions, a Sybil-proof cost-sharing mechanism for public excludable goods is at least (n/2 + 1)−approximate. This finding reveals an exponential increase in the worst-case social cost in environments where agents are restricted from using Sybil strategies. We introduce the concept of Sybil Welfare Invariant mechanisms, where a mechanism maintains its worst-case welfare under Sybil strategies for every set of prior beliefs with full support even when the mechanism is not Sybil-proof. Finally, we prove that the Shapley value mechanism for public excludable goods holds this property and so deduce that the worst-case social cost of this mechanism is the nth harmonic number Hn under the equilibrium of the game with Sybil strategies, matching the worst-case social cost bound for cost-sharing mechanisms. This finding carries important implications for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), indicating that they are capable of funding public excludable goods efficiently, even when the total number of agents is unknown.

Keywords: game theory, mechanism design, cost sharing, false-name proofness

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Authors: Intan Waheedah Othman, Maslinawati Mohamad, Azizah Abdullah

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Few discussions were made on cooperative governance reforms despite the fact that cooperative movements operate and compete in an identical business environment as the private as well as the public corporations. Due to the scarcity of research examining the issue of governance among cooperatives, this paper is motivated to examine the extent of governance compliance and disclosure among cooperatives, hence the relationship between cooperative governance and its firm performance. Results from the study provide empirical evidence that disclosure on ownership structure and exercise of control rights was found to have significant negative relationship with cooperative firm performance.

Keywords: cooperative, governance, firm performance, Malaysia

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Authors: S. Adhirai Subramaniyam, Paramjit Singh

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This paper presents major issues in cloud computing. The paper describes different cloud computing deployment models and cloud service models available in the field of cloud computing. The paper then concentrates on various issues in the field. The issues such as cloud compatibility, compliance of the cloud, standardizing cloud technology, monitoring while on the cloud and cloud security are described. The paper suggests solutions for these issues and concludes that hybrid cloud infrastructure is a real boon for organizations.

Keywords: cloud, cloud computing, mobile cloud computing, private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, cloud security

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Authors: Farideh Doostan, Sahar Mohseni Taklloo, Mohammad Nosrati

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Chronic diseases are non-communicable and largely preventable by lifestyle changes including healthy diet consumption. They are the most common cause of death in the world and projected to increase by 15% globally between 2010 and 2020.The hazardous effects of behavioral and dietary risk factors on chronic disease have been established in prospective cohort studies and randomized trials. Because of some changes occur in college students’ lifestyle, assessment of dietary risk factors is important in these populations. Objective: This research was the first study that conducted to evaluate dietary intakes of Kermanian college students with WHO/FAO nutritional objectives. Material and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 229 healthy college students of health faculty in Kerman University of Medical Sciences that do not intake any medical drugs were recruited using multistage sampling in 2013.Usual dietary intake was collected using a valid Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and diet quality was calculated based on WHO nutrient goals. To analysis of data between two groups, independent sample t. test and man whitney were applied. Results: Two hundred and twenty-nine college students; 151 females (65.9%) and 78 males (34.1%), the mean age of 21.9 years were studied. The mean of the Body Mass Index (Kg/m2) and Waist Circumference (cm) in males were 22.34 ±3.52 and 80.76±11.16 and in females were 21.19±2.62 and 73.67±7.65 respectively. Mean of daily cholesterol intake in males was significantly more than females (305±101 VS 268±98; P=0.008) and more than WHO/FAO recommendation (less than 300 mg/day). The mean of daily sodium intake in men and women were 10.4±1 and 10.9±5.3 respectively. These amounts were more than WHO/FAO recommendation (less than 2g/day). In addition, women were consumed fruit and vegetables more than men (839±336 VS 638±281; p ‹ 0.001) and these amounts were more than WHO/FAO recommendation (more than 400g/day) in both groups. Other intake indices were in the range of WHO/FAO recommendations, So that Percent of calories intake from total fat, saturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and added sugar were in compliance with WHO/FAO recommendations. Conclusion: Cholesterol intake in men and sodium intake in all participants were more than WHO/FAO recommendation. These dietary components are the most important causes of cardiovascular disease (one of the main causes of death in our population). These results indicated that proper nutritional education and interventions are needed in this population.

Keywords: college students, food intake, WHO /FAO nutrient intake goals, Kerman

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Authors: Libor Zachoval, Daire O Broin, Oisin Cawley

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E-learning platforms, such as Blackboard have two major shortcomings: limited data capture as a result of the limitations of SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model), and lack of incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms which could lead to better course adaptations. With the recent development of Experience Application Programming Interface (xAPI), a large amount of additional types of data can be captured and that opens a window of possibilities from which online education can benefit. In a corporate setting, where companies invest billions on the learning and development of their employees, some learner behaviours can be troublesome for they can hinder the knowledge development of a learner. Behaviours that hinder the knowledge development also raise ambiguity about learner’s knowledge mastery, specifically those related to gaming the system. Furthermore, a company receives little benefit from their investment if employees are passing courses without possessing the required knowledge and potential compliance risks may arise. Using xAPI and rules derived from a state-of-the-art review, we identified three learner behaviours, primarily related to guessing, in a corporate compliance course. The identified behaviours are: trying each option for a question, specifically for multiple-choice questions; selecting a single option for all the questions on the test; and continuously repeating tests upon failing as opposed to going over the learning material. These behaviours were detected on learners who repeated the test at least 4 times before passing the course. These findings suggest that gauging the mastery of a learner from multiple-choice questions test scores alone is a naive approach. Thus, next steps will consider the incorporation of additional data points, knowledge estimation models to model knowledge mastery of a learner more accurately, and analysis of the data for correlations between knowledge development and identified learner behaviours. Additional work could explore how learner behaviours could be utilised to make changes to a course. For example, course content may require modifications (certain sections of learning material may be shown to not be helpful to many learners to master the learning outcomes aimed at) or course design (such as the type and duration of feedback).

Keywords: artificial intelligence, corporate e-learning environment, knowledge maintenance, xAPI

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Authors: Suman Podder

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As Australian ‘Open Banking’ allows customers to share their financial data with accredited Third-Party Providers (‘TPPs’), it is necessary to evaluate whether the regulators have achieved the balance between protecting customer data privacy and promoting data-related innovation. Recognising the need to increase customers’ influence on their own data, and the benefits of data-related innovation, the Australian Government introduced ‘Consumer Data Right’ (‘CDR’) to the banking sector through Open Banking regulation. Under Open Banking, TPPs can access customers’ banking data that allows the TPPs to tailor their products and services to meet customer needs at a more competitive price. This facilitated access and use of customer data will promote innovation by providing opportunities for new products and business models to emerge and grow. However, the success of Open Banking depends on the willingness of the customers to share their data, so the regulators have augmented the protection of data by introducing new privacy safeguards to instill confidence and trust in the system. The dilemma in policymaking is that, on the one hand, lenient data privacy laws will help the flow of information, but at the risk of individuals’ loss of privacy, on the other hand, stringent laws that adequately protect privacy may dissuade innovation. Using theoretical and doctrinal methods, this paper examines whether the privacy safeguards under Open Banking will add to the compliance burden of the participating financial institutions, resulting in the undesirable effect of stifling other policy objectives such as innovation. The contribution of this research is three-fold. In the emerging field of customer data sharing, this research is one of the few academic studies on the objectives and impact of Open Banking in the Australian context. Additionally, Open Banking is still in the early stages of implementation, so this research traces the evolution of Open Banking through policy debates regarding the desirability of customer data-sharing. Finally, the research focuses not only on the customers’ data privacy and juxtaposes it with another important objective of promoting innovation, but it also highlights the critical issues facing the data-sharing regime. This paper argues that while it is challenging to develop a regulatory framework for protecting data privacy without impeding innovation and jeopardising yet unknown opportunities, data privacy and innovation promote different aspects of customer welfare. This paper concludes that if a regulation is appropriately designed and implemented, the benefits of data-sharing will outweigh the cost of compliance with the CDR.

Keywords: consumer data right, innovation, open banking, privacy safeguards

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Authors: Marco Sewald

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Comparing present to past the numbers of Americans expatriating U. S. citizenship have risen. Even though these numbers are small compared to the immigrants, U. S. citizens expatriations have historically been much lower, making the uptick worrisome. In addition, the published lists and numbers from the U.S. government seems incomplete, with many not counted. Different branches of the U. S. government report different numbers and no one seems to know exactly how big the real number is, even though the IRS and the FBI both track and/or publish numbers of Americans who renounce. Since there is no single explanation, anecdotal evidence suggests this uptick is caused by global tax law and increased compliance burdens imposed by the U.S. lawmakers on U.S. citizens abroad. Within a research project the question arose about the reasons why a constant growing number of U.S. citizens are expatriating – the answers are believed helping to explain the underlying governmental policy rational, leading to such activities. While it is impossible to locate former U.S. citizens to conduct a survey on the reasons and the U.S. government is not commenting on the reasons given within the process of expatriation, the chosen methodology is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), in the first step by re-using current surveys conducted by different researchers within the population of U. S. citizens residing abroad during the last years. Surveys questioning the personal situation in the context of tax, compliance, citizenship and likelihood to repatriate to the U. S. In general SEM allows: (1) Representing, estimating and validating a theoretical model with linear (unidirectional or not) relationships. (2) Modeling causal relationships between multiple predictors (exogenous) and multiple dependent variables (endogenous). (3) Including unobservable latent variables. (4) Modeling measurement error: the degree to which observable variables describe latent variables. Moreover SEM seems very appealing since the results can be represented either by matrix equations or graphically. Results: the observed variables (items) of the construct are caused by various latent variables. The given surveys delivered a high correlation and it is therefore impossible to identify the distinct effect of each indicator on the latent variable – which was one desired result. Since every SEM comprises two parts: (1) measurement model (outer model) and (2) structural model (inner model), it seems necessary to extend the given data by conducting additional research and surveys to validate the outer model to gain the desired results.

Keywords: expatriation of U. S. citizens, SEM, structural equation modeling, validating

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Authors: Ly Thi Hai Yen

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The Internet in Vietnam has developed significantly over the last 20 years and made impressive advances, permeating into every part of daily life, changing people's habits as well as the way people's communication. Under this situation, social media have become useful tools for the citizen to get and share information. About 10 years ago, most Vietnamese people got the information through state media, but thanks to the development of the Internet, nowadays, social media have been giving them rich sources of information at any area of society. By using case study research methods, documentary research method and in-depth interviews conducted with social media users, NGO activists, and Vietnamese scholars in 2017, the paper found that social media has been bringing a cyber public sphere to whom wish to discuss social and political issues. And, more importantly, it gives them a chance to connect with the government and policy makers quickly and effectively. Moreover, people use social media to supervise activities in society to prevent social evils and corruption in Vietnam. However, besides these positive points, people also have to cope with the rising situation of fake news which causing consequences for the society, such as pulling off crimes or cheating money and others. The paper concluded that social media plays important roles in the change of Vietnamese society, giving citizens a cyber public sphere unrestrictedly to discuss social and political issues but also bringing many bad risks to citizens.

Keywords: Vietnamese, social media, politics-society

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Authors: Denys Sebov, Viktoriia Korotaieva, Kateryna Markina

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The clinical advantage of the multipill combination drugs administration (polypill-strategy) over single-component drugs (monopill-strategy) has been established in patients with comorbid arterial hypertension, heart failure, chronic coronary syndrome, diabetes. It was found that polypill-strategy provides better treatment adherence in 33.4% of the patients. It was proven a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as a decrease in dispersion index due to the stability of the blood pressure profile in patients with the polypill-strategy treatment.

Keywords: polypill, artetial hypertension, cardiovascular disease, compliance

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Authors: Samuel Owoade, Zainab Idowu, Idris Ajibade, Abel Uzoka

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Cloud computing adoption continues to soar, with 83% of enterprise workloads estimated to be in the cloud by 2022. However, this rapid migration raises security concerns, needing strong security management solutions to safeguard sensitive data and essential applications. This paper investigates the critical role of technical project managers in orchestrating security management initiatives for cloud environments, evaluating their responsibilities, challenges, and best practices for assuring the resilience and integrity of cloud infrastructures. Drawing from a comprehensive review of industry reports and interviews with cloud security experts, this research highlights the multifaceted landscape of security management in cloud environments. Despite the rapid adoption of cloud services, only 25% of organizations have matured their cloud security practices, indicating a pressing need for effective management strategies. This paper proposes a strategy framework adapted to the demands of technical project managers, outlining the important components of effective cloud security management. Notably, 76% of firms identify misconfiguration as a major source of cloud security incidents, underlining the significance of proactive risk assessment and constant monitoring. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of technical project managers in facilitating cross-functional collaboration, bridging the gap between cybersecurity professionals, cloud architects, compliance officers, and IT operations teams. With 68% of firms seeing difficulties integrating security policies into their cloud systems, effective communication and collaboration are critical to success. Case studies from industry leaders illustrate the practical use of security management projects in cloud settings. These examples demonstrate the importance of technical project managers in using their expertise to address obstacles and generate meaningful outcomes, with 92% of firms reporting improved security practices after implementing proactive security management tactics. In conclusion, this research underscores the critical role of technical project managers in safeguarding cloud environments against evolving threats. By embracing their role as guardians of the cloud realm, project managers can mitigate risks, optimize resource utilization, and uphold the trust and integrity of cloud infrastructures in an era of digital transformation.

Keywords: cloud security, security management, technical project management, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, risk management, compliance

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Authors: Oluwaseun Amusa

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The online space has continued to be a platform for not only private and mundane discussions but also a tribune for voicing critical political and national opinions. Nigerians and the international community have employed the online media, as well as other media platforms to articulate their thoughts on the claims which favour possibilities of the demise of the incumbent president of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, after a prolonged illness in year 2007 and the ploy of a Jubril of Sudan clone in his place. This study thus examines the pragmatic strategies employed in the online articles on the national dilemma caused by the Buhari/Jubril claims and refutals, in response to the lacuna in the literature on such analytical investigations on the subject. Two online articles titled, 'Buhari: The real, the fake and the dead' and 'Taking the Buhari/Jubril story seriously', authored by two Nigerian writers, Tunde Odesola and Abimbola Adelakun, respectively and retrieved online from 360nobs.com and Nairaland blogs, on December 3, 2018, and December 7, 2018, respectively, served as data for the study. The data were analysed using the Stance Theory and the Pragmatic Act Theory. Findings showed that the writers employed stance acts, rhetorical questions, metaphors, histo-political allusions, name-calling, and derogatives, in achieving the pragmeme of disabusing. This results in a pragmatic reconstruction of readers' views on the issue.

Keywords: Buhari/Jubril claims, online articles, pragmatic strategies, stance theory

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Authors: Ayyoub Jamali

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At the first glance, it seems that the African Court on Human and People’s Rights has achieved a tremendous development in the protection of human rights in Africa. Since its first judgement in 2009, the court has taken a robust approach/ assertive stance, showing its strength by finding states to be in violation of the Africana Charter and other human rights treaties. This paper seeks to discuss various challenges and resistance that the Court has faced since the adoption of the Founding Protocol to the Establishment of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights. The outcome of the paper casts shadow on the legitimacy and effectiveness of the African Court as the guarantor of human rights within the African continent.

Keywords: African Court on Human and People’s Rights, African Union, African regional human rights system, compliance

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Meduranda Marco

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This paper aimed to discuss the Integrative Assessment (IA) initiative of the Schools Division Office - Navotas City. The introduction provided a brief landscape analysis of the current state of education, the context of SDO Navotas, and the rationale for the administration of Integrative Assessment (IA) in schools. The IA methodology, procedure, and implementation activities were also shared. Feedback and reports on IA showed positive results as all schools in the Division were able to operationalize IA and consequently foster academic ease for learners and parents. Challenges met after compliance were also documented and strategies to continuously improve the Integrative Assessment process were proposed.

Keywords: distance learning assessment, integrative assessment, academic ease, learning outcomes evaluation

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Authors: T. Mcgraw, F. N. Morin, N. Desai

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Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a critical issue in global health care and a significant contributor to increased patient morbidity and mortality. Suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) is a key area of inappropriate antibiotic prescription in pediatrics. Management patterns of infectious diseases have been shown to vary by provider type within a single setting. The aim of this study was to assess compliance with national UTI management guidelines by nurse practitioners in a pediatric emergency department (ED). Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of a retrospective cohort study to review and evaluate visits to a tertiary care freestanding pediatric emergency department. Patients were included if they were 60 days to 36 months old and discharged with a diagnosis of UTI or ‘rule-out UTI’ between July 2015 and July 2020. Primary outcome measure was proportion of visits seen by Nurse Practitioners (NP) which were associated with national guideline compliance in the diagnosis and treatment of suspected UTI. We performed descriptive statistics and comparative analyses to determine differences in practice patterns between NPs, and physicians. Results: A total of 636 charts were reviewed, of which 402 patients met inclusion criteria. 17 patients were treated by NPs, 385 were treated by either Pediatric Emergency Medicine physicians (PEM) or non-PEM physicians. Overall, the proportion of infants receiving guideline-compliant care was 25.9% (21.8-30.4%). Of those who were prescribed antibiotics, 79.6% (74.7-83.8%) received first line guideline recommended therapy and 58.9% (53.8-63.8%) received fully compliant therapy with respect to age, dose, duration, and frequency. In patients treated by NPs, 16/17 (94%(95% CI:73.0-99.0)) required antibiotics, 15/16 (93%(95% CI: 71.7-98.9)) were treated with first line agent (cephalexin), 8/16 (50%(95% CI:28-72)) were guideline compliant of dose and duration. 5/8 (63%(95% CI:30.6-86.3)) were noncompliant for dose being too high. There was no difference in receiving guideline compliant empiric antibiotic therapy between physicians and nurse practitioners (OR: 0.837 CI: 0.302-2.69). Conclusion: In this post-hoc analysis, guideline noncompliance by nurse practitioners is common in children tested and treated for UTIs in a pediatric emergency department. Care by a Nurse Practitioner was not associated with greater rate of noncompliance than care by a Pediatric Emergency Medicine physician. Future appropriately powered studies may focus on confirming these results.

Keywords: antibiotic stewardship, infectious disease, nurse practitioner, urinary tract infection

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Authors: Alina Murtishcheva

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The development of an effective system of administrative supervision is a prerequisite for the functioning of local self-government on the basis of the rule of law. Administrative supervision of local self-government is of particular importance in the EU countries due to the influence of integration processes. The central authorities act on the international level; however, subnational authorities also have to implement European legislation in order to strengthen integration. Therefore, the central authority, being the connecting link between supranational and subnational authorities, should bear responsibility, including financial responsibility, for possible mistakes of subnational authorities. Consequently, the state should have sufficient mechanisms of control over local and regional authorities in order to correct their mistakes. At the same time, the control mechanisms do not deny the autonomy of local self-government. The paper analyses models of administrative supervision of local self-government in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, and France. The research methods used in this paper are theoretical methods of analysis of scientific literature, constitutions, legal acts, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe reports, and constitutional court decisions, as well as comparative and logical analysis. The legislative basis of administrative supervision was scrutinized, and the models of administrative supervision were classified, including a priori control and ex-post control or their combination. The advantages and disadvantages of these models of administrative supervision are analysed. Compliance with Article 8 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government is of great importance for countries achieving common goals and sharing common values. However, countries under study have problems and, in some cases, demonstrate non-compliance with provisions of Article 8. Such non-conformity as the endorsement of a mayor by the Flemish Government in Belgium, supervision with a view to expediency in Great Britain, and the tendency to overuse supervisory power in Poland are analysed. On the basis of research, the tendencies of administrative supervision of local authorities’ activities in selected European countries are described. Several recommendations for Ukraine as a country that had been granted the EU candidate status are formulated. Having emphasised its willingness to become a member of the European community, Ukraine should not only follow the best European practices but also avoid the mistakes of countries that have long-term experience in developing the local self-government institution. This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement № P-PD-22-194

Keywords: administrative supervision, decentralisation, legality, local authorities, local self-government

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Authors: Mario Zgela

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Application of Benford’s Law is very rarely covered in the field of stock market analysis, especially in percentage change of stock market indices. Deutscher Aktien IndeX (DAX) is very important stock market index of Frankfurt Deutsche Börse which serves as underlying basis for large number of financial instruments. It is calculated for selected 30 German blue chips stocks. In this paper, Benford's Law first digit test is applied on 10 year DAX daily percentage changes in order to check compliance. Deviations of 10 year DAX percentage changes set as well as distortions of certain subsets from Benford's Law distribution are detected. It is possible that deviations are the outcome of speculations; and psychological influence should not be eliminated.

Keywords: Benford's Law, DAX, index percentage changes, stock market

Procedia PDF Downloads 268

Authors: Pilar Giffenig, Avanna Kotlarz, Taylor Dehring

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Anxiety and depression are common mental illnesses in the U.S today. While there are various treatments for these mental health disorders, many of the medications come with a large variety of side effects that decrease medication compliance. Recent studies have looked at the impact of probiotics on anxiety and depression. Our goal was to determine whether probiotics could help relieve symptoms of anxiety and or depression. We conducted a literature search of three databases focusing on systematic reviews and RTC and found 25 articles, 8 of which were used for our analysis. Seven out of the eight articles showed that probiotics have the potential to significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, larger study sample sizes, type of probiotic, and correct dosage are required in future research to determine the role of probiotics in the treatment of anxiety and depression.

Keywords: probiotics, anxiety, depression, treatment, psychology, nutrition

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Lisa Bennett, Cynthia Walters, Cynthia Argani, Andy Satin, Geeta Sood, Kerri Huber, Lisa Grubb, Woodrow Noble, Melissa Eichelberger, Darlene Zinalabedini, Eric Ausby, Jeffrey Snyder, Kevin Kirchoff

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Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) within the obstetric population pose a variety of complications, creating clinical and personal challenges for the new mother and her neonate during the postpartum period. Our journey to achieve compliance with the SSI core measure for cesarean sections revealed many opportunities to improve these outcomes. Objective: Achieve and sustain core measure compliance keeping surgical site infection rates below the national benchmark pooled mean of 1.8% in post-operative patients, who delivered via cesarean section at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Methods: A root cause analysis was performed and revealed several environmental, pharmacologic, and clinical practice opportunities for improvement. A multidisciplinary approach led by the OB Safety Nurse, OB Medical Director, and Infectious Disease Department resulted in the implementation of fourteen interventions over a twenty-month period. Interventions included: post-operative dressing changes, standardizing operating room attire, broadening pre-operative antibiotics, initiating vaginal preps, improving operating room terminal cleaning, testing air quality, and re-educating scrub technicians on technique. Results: Prior to the implementation of our interventions, the SSI quarterly rate in Obstetrics peaked at 6.10%. Although no single intervention resulted in dramatic improvement, after implementation of all fourteen interventions, the quarterly SSI rate has subsequently ranged from to 0.0% to 2.70%. Significance: Taking an introspective look at current practices can reveal opportunities for improvement which previously were not considered. Collectively the benefit of these interventions has shown a significant decrease in surgical site infection rates. The impact of this quality improvement project highlights the synergy created when members of the multidisciplinary team work in collaboration to improve patient safety, and achieve a high quality of care.

Keywords: cesarean section, surgical site infection, collaboration and teamwork, patient safety, quality improvement

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Authors: A. Shoiynbek, K. Kozhakhmet, P. Menezes, D. Kuanyshbay, D. Bayazitov

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Speech emotion recognition has received increasing research interest all through current years. There was used emotional speech that was collected under controlled conditions in most research work. Actors imitating and artificially producing emotions in front of a microphone noted those records. There are four issues related to that approach, namely, (1) emotions are not natural, and it means that machines are learning to recognize fake emotions. (2) Emotions are very limited by quantity and poor in their variety of speaking. (3) There is language dependency on SER. (4) Consequently, each time when researchers want to start work with SER, they need to find a good emotional database on their language. In this paper, we propose the approach to create an automatic tool for speech emotion extraction based on facial emotion recognition and describe the sequence of actions of the proposed approach. One of the first objectives of the sequence of actions is a speech detection issue. The paper gives a detailed description of the speech detection model based on a fully connected deep neural network for Kazakh and Russian languages. Despite the high results in speech detection for Kazakh and Russian, the described process is suitable for any language. To illustrate the working capacity of the developed model, we have performed an analysis of speech detection and extraction from real tasks.

Keywords: deep neural networks, speech detection, speech emotion recognition, Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients, collecting speech emotion corpus, collecting speech emotion dataset, Kazakh speech dataset

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: K. Mokatse, O. M. Barei, K. Gabanakgosi, P. Matlhabaphiri

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The mining of pit slopes is often associated with some level of deviation from design recommendations, and this may translate to associated changes in the stability of the excavated pit slopes. Therefore slope angle design reconciliations are essential for assessing and monitoring compliance of excavated pit slopes to accepted slope designs. These associated changes in slope stability may be reflected by changes in the calculated factors of safety and/or probabilities of failure. Reconciliations of as-mined and slope design profiles are conducted periodically to assess the implications of these deviations on pit slope stability. Currently, the slope design reconciliation process being implemented in Jwaneng Mine involves the measurement of as-mined and design slope angles along vertical sections cut along the established geotechnical design section lines on the GEOVIA GEMS™ software. Bench retentions are calculated as a percentage of the available catchment area, less over-mined and under-mined areas, to that of the designed catchment area. This process has proven to be both tedious and requires a lot of manual effort and time to execute. Consequently, a new semi-automated mine-to-design reconciliation approach that utilizes laser scanning and GIS-based tools is being proposed at Jwaneng Mine. This method involves high-resolution scanning of targeted bench walls, subsequent creation of 3D surfaces from point cloud data and the derivation of slope toe lines and crest lines on the Maptek I-Site Studio software. The toe lines and crest lines are then exported to the ArcGIS software where distance offsets between the design and actual bench toe lines and crest lines are calculated. Retained bench catchment capacity is measured as distances between the toe lines and crest lines on the same bench elevations. The assessment of the performance of the inter-ramp and overall slopes entails the measurement of excavated and design slope angles along vertical sections on the ArcGIS software. Excavated and design toe-to-toe or crest-to-crest slope angles are measured for inter-ramp stack slope reconciliations. Crest-to-toe slope angles are also measured for overall slope angle design reconciliations. The proposed approach allows for a more automated, accurate, quick and easier workflow for carrying out slope angle design reconciliations. This process has proved highly effective and timeous in the assessment of slope performance in Jwaneng Mine. This paper presents a newly proposed process for assessing compliance to slope angle designs for Jwaneng Mine.

Keywords: slope angle designs, slope design recommendations, slope performance, slope stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 199