Search results for: home quarantine

Authors: Mariangela Viviani, Daniele Germano, Simone Colace, Agostino Forestiero, Giuseppe Papuzzo, Sara Laurita

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Nowadays, people spend most of their time in closed environments, in offices, or at home. Therefore, secure and highly livable environmental conditions are needed to reduce the probability of aerial viruses spreading. Also, to lower the human impact on the planet, it is important to reduce energy consumption. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for the major part of energy consumption in buildings [1]. Devising systems to control and regulate the airflow is, therefore, essential for energy efficiency. Moreover, an optimal setting for thermal comfort and air quality is essential for people’s well-being, at home or in offices, and increases productivity. Thanks to the features of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and techniques, it is possible to design innovative systems with: (i) Improved monitoring and prediction accuracy; (ii) Enhanced decision-making and mitigation strategies; (iii) Real-time air quality information; (iv) Increased efficiency in data analysis and processing; (v) Advanced early warning systems for air pollution events; (vi) Automated and cost-effective m onitoring network; and (vii) A better understanding of air quality patterns and trends. We propose AIR SAFE, an IoT-based infrastructure designed to optimize air quality and thermal comfort in indoor environments leveraging AI tools. AIR SAFE employs a network of smart sensors collecting indoor and outdoor data to be analyzed in order to take any corrective measures to ensure the occupants’ wellness. The data are analyzed through AI algorithms able to predict the future levels of temperature, relative humidity, and CO₂ concentration [2]. Based on these predictions, AIR SAFE takes actions, such as opening/closing the window or the air conditioner, to guarantee a high level of thermal comfort and air quality in the environment. In this contribution, we present the results from the AI algorithm we have implemented on the first s et o f d ata c ollected i n a real environment. The results were compared with other models from the literature to validate our approach.

Keywords: air quality, internet of things, artificial intelligence, smart home

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Authors: Branimir Skoric

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Over the past two decades, number of international travels rose significantly in the United Kingdom and Worldwide in the shape of business travels and holiday travels as well. The fact that elderly people travel a lot, more than ever before increased the needs for medical evacuations (repatriations) back home if they fell ill abroad or had any kind of accident. This paper concerns medical evacuations of patients on the way back home to the United Kingdom (United Kingdom Residents) and their specific medical needs during short-haul or long-haul commercial scheduled flight and ground transportation to the final destination regardless whether it was hospital or usual place of residence. Particular medical need during medical evacuations is oxygen supply and it can be supplied via portable oxygen concentrator, pulse flow oxygenator or continuous free flow oxygenator depending on the main diagnosis and patient’s comorbidities. In this retrospective study, patients were divided into two groups. One group was consisted of patients suffering from cardio-respiratory diagnoses as primary illness. Another Group consisted of patients suffering from noncardiac illnesses who have other problems including any kind of physical injury. Needs for oxygen and type of supply were carefully considered in regards of duration of the flight, standard airline cabin pressure and results described in this retrospective study.

Keywords: commercial flight, elderly travellers, medical evacuations, oxygen

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Authors: Lisa Naudine Parrock, Geoffrey Lautenbach

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The changes brought to society by the technological development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution are also reaching the sphere of education and the education system needs to respond. Students need skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking in order to be successful in the 21st Century, which could be developed through the meaningful use of technology. This study is theorized by the 21st Century Framework for Learning and examines the student perceptions of grade 10 and 11 English Home language learners on how the technology used in their English classroom contributes to the development of 21st Century skills. The researcher adopted a constructivist paradigm and presented findings based on a general qualitative method. The study found that students perceived the use of technology in the classroom positively contributed to their development of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Students also perceived technology as contributing to their access to information, a positive classroom atmosphere, heightened engagement in learning and developing skills necessary for their future. In addition, this study highlighted certain pedagogical strategies and digital tools that support the development of 21st Century skills. The findings suggest that the meaningful integration of technology fosters the development of 21st Century skills in grade 10 and 11 learners.

Keywords: educational technology, 21st century skills, fourth industrial revolution, affordances of technology

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Authors: Noor Hayati Binti Ismail, Mastor Bin Surat, Raja Nafida Binti Raja Shahminan, Shahrul Kamil Bin Yunus

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This study is to look the changes, development and evolution taking place in the Minangkabau house. Minangkabau traditional house is a part of the assets of Indonesia's culture and history. In addition to custom house, traditional Minangkabau building also serves as a place to live within the context of human habitats but has slowly through the changes. Luhak Nan Tigo of Luhak Tanah Datar, Agam And Luhak 50 Kota are holding the Minangkabau. ‘Induk’ house is the sole home, Main house or an older home for a gathering place doing activities together. The 'Genius Loci' refers to the unique aspects of the history, the value of a place, culturally and socially. Main house has the aspect of Minangkabau is a house occupied by custom rules that practice matrilineal kinship system and tendency to move out from the community. The study involves several villages and traditional houses at Padang, Bukit Tinggi, Kampar Kiri in Indonesia and Rembau, kuala Pilah, tampin in Negeri Sembilan has been selected to serve as a research field. These factors were the occurrence of evolution Minangkabau house from the ‘induk’, kampar and Negeri Sembilan. In this regard, the identity and uniqueness of the house increasingly difficult to sustain as well as lack of clarity can be understood by the people of the present generation.

Keywords: evolution, Genius loci, ‘Induk’ house, matrilineal kinship

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Authors: Fernanda Laureti T. Ferreira, Kazuo Nishimoto

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This paper presents a summary of the experience on videoconferencing tools that have been used to teach regular classes during this pandemic period in educational institutions in São Paulo, which tools and applications are most used and the challenges related to this mode of delivery. At this moment, the massive online education is not a choice of students or a structured development of education system, but a solution that emerged to attend urgent needs and it presents the opportunity to teach and learning available for the most students in this single time of social isolation that forced among others, this significant change for education, students, teachers, institutions and families. Distance education enables synchronous and asynchronous mode classes, and even though the current circumstances generate discomfort and uncertainty, on the other hand, there is a chance to promote a 'learning to learn'. The videoconference is a preferred choice of schools because synchronous mode to give more interaction between a group of students and teachers, but this mode requires specifics teacher competencies and skills, in addition to equipment and provision of adequate internet signal for all participants of the process. The approach is making use of known technical information about video conference tools and the results of search answered by a group of students, teachers, schools, and parents. The results presented refer to the perspectives of students and parents as respondents.

Keywords: distance education, interaction on education, online classes, synchronous e-learning, videoconference

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Authors: Tuğçe Arslan

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In the dark and gloomy times of the Middle Ages, high, majestic, and frightening structures were revealed in the architectural field. Thus, gothic architecture began to find a place for itself in different areas and spread its influence. Gothic has found its place in almost every literary genre and manages to show itself as the dominant genre in the works it enters. It has exploited many concepts, such as a chest full of bad feelings, and creates a gloomy, scary, frightening, and pessimistic mood in the story with these concepts. One of the essential concepts it uses while creating these feelings is the concept of “Doppelganger.” With this concept, the authors make sense of the uncanny; at this point, they allow the spaces to act like characters, just like the uncanny feeling Edgar Allan Poe creates in his story “The Fall of the House of the Usher.” In this story by Edgar Allan Poe, attention should be paid to the symbolic link between the two, as “House of Usher” refers to the family and the building. And indeed, it is possible to see this minor rift as representative of a breakdown in family unity, specifically between Madeline and Roderick. Because although the home is not alive, it has some supernatural features that make it look like a living, breathing being. Therefore, the remainder of this paper will argue that apart from the apparent twins, the house should also qualify as a Doppelganger in the story. This study will first explore the physical and mental disorders of the twins and their journey to complement each other; next, in an attempt to demonstrate how the house as a non-living needs to be considered as a Doppelganger of the twins, a close reading on the house depictions will be scrutinized.

Keywords: Edgar Allan Poe, doppelganger, uncanny, gothic, space, home

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Authors: Gheorghe Giurgiu, Manole Cojocaru, Mihnea Andrei Nicodin

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Background: Inflammation has the main role in the progression of endometriosis. The mechanisms by which endometriosis induces a chronic pain state remain poorly understood. Unfortunately, there is no known cure for endometriosis. But you can manage it with medication and at-home treatments. Some findings have highlighted the main role of inflammation in endometriosis by acting on proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis. The introduction of new agents can be effective in improving the condition of patients; for example, plants are promising sources of bioactive natural components. Objectives: These natural compounds could be interesting strategies in therapy. While there is no absolute cure for this condition, some home remedies can relieve the pain and discomfort it brings. The purpose of this study is to summarize the potential action of Deniplant nutraceuticals in endometriosis by acting on inflammation. Materials and Methods: The primary symptoms of endometriosis are pelvic pain and infertility. The use of Deniplant nutraceuticals could be interesting in disease management for women. Results: Treating pain-related aspects of endometriosis would contribute to the improvement of mental health and daytime function. Because the microbiome can influence inflammation, new therapies can develop through its natural modulation. There are other options, including natural remedies, herbs like cinnamon twigs or licorice root, or supplements such as thiamine, magnesium, or omega-3 fatty acids. Conclusion: Deniplant nutraceuticals can downregulate inflammation in endometriosis. Nevertheless, the limited number of studies focusing on the different interactions of Deniplant nutraceuticals in endometriosis restricts its clear and immediate use in a therapeutic strategy.

Keywords: endometriosis, diet, Deniplant nutraceuticals, pain

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Authors: Juan Facetti, Rocky McBride, Karina Loup

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The Chaco Region of Paraguay is a key biodiverse area for the conservation of jaguars (Panthera onca), the largest feline of the Americas. It comprises five eco-regions, which holds important but decreasing populations of this species. The last decades, the expansion of soybean over the Atlantic Forest, forced the translocation of cattle-ranches towards the Chaco. Few studies of Jaguar's population densities in the American hemisphere were done until now. In the region, the specie is listed as vulnerable or threatened and more information is needed to implement any conservation policy. Among the factors that threaten the populations are land-use change, habitat fragmentation, prey depletion and illegal hunting. Two largest eco-regions were studied: the Wet Chaco and the Dry Chaco. From 2002 more than 20 jaguars were captured and fitted with GPS-collar. Data collected from 11 GPS-collars were processed, transformed numerically and finally converted into maps for analyzing. 8.092 locations were determined for four adult females (AF) and one adult male (AM) in the Wet Chaco, and one AF, one juvenile male (JM) and four AM in the Dry Chaco, during 1,867 days. GIS and kernel methodology were used to calculate daily distance of movement, home range-HR (95% isopleth), and core area (considered as 50% isopleth). In the Wet Chaco HR were 56 Km2 and 238 km2 for females and males respectively; while in the Dry Chaco HR were 685 Km2 and 844.5 km2 for females and males respectively, and 172 Km2 for a juvenile. Core areas of individual activity for each jaguar, were on average 11.5 Km2 and 33.55 km2 for AF and AM respectively in the Wet Chaco, while in the Dry Chaco were larger: 115 km2 for five AM and 225 Km2 for an AF and 32.4 Km2 for a JM. In both ecoregions, only one relevant overlap of HR of adults was reported. During the reproduction season, the HR (95% K) of one AM overlapped 49.83% with that of one AF. At the Wet Chaco, the maximum daily distance moved by an AF was 14.5 Km and 11.6 Km for the AM, while the Maximum Mean Daily Moved (MMDM) distance was 5.6 km for an AF and 3.1 km for an AM. At the Dry Chaco, the maximum daily distance for an AF was 61.7Km., 50.9Km for the AM and 6.6 Km for the JM, while the MMDM distance was 13.2 km for an AM and 8.4 km for an AF. This study confirmed that, as the invasion to jaguar habitat increased, it resulted in fragmented landscapes that influence spacing patterns of jaguars. Males used largest HR that of the smaller females and males covers largest distances that of the females. There appeared to be important spatial segregation between not only females but also males. It is likely that the larger areas used by males are partly caused by the sexual dimorphism in body size that entails differences in prey requirements. These could explain the larger distances travelled daily by males.

Keywords: Chaco ecoregions, Jaguar, home range, Panthera onca, Paraguay

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Authors: Adekunle O. Afolabi, Pekka Toivanen

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The world is expected to experience growth in the number of ageing population, and this will bring about high cost of providing care for these valuable citizens. In addition, many of these live with chronic diseases that come with old age. Providing adequate care in the face of rising costs and dwindling personnel can be challenging. However, advances in technologies and emergence of the Internet of Things are providing a way to address these challenges while improving care giving. This study proposes the integration of recommendation systems into homecare to provide real-time recommendations for effective management of people receiving care at home and those living with chronic diseases. Using the simplified Training Logic Concept, stakeholders and requirements were identified. Specific requirements were gathered from people living with cancer. The solution designed has two components namely home and community, to enhance recommendations sharing for effective care giving. The community component of the design was implemented with the development of a mobile app called Recommendations Sharing Community for Aged and Chronically Ill People (ReSCAP). This component has illustrated the possibility of real-time recommendations, improved recommendations sharing among care receivers and between a physician and care receivers. Full implementation will increase access to health data for better care decision making.

Keywords: recommendation systems, Internet of Things, healthcare, homecare, real-time

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Authors: Ridwan Dewayanto Rusli

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We show how prisoner's dilemma-type competition problems can be mitigated through rapid platform diversification and ecosystem expansion. We analyze a ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia, Gojek, whose network grew to more than 170 million users comprising consumers, partner drivers, merchants, and complementors within a few years and has already achieved higher contribution margins than ride-hailing peers Uber and Lyft. Its ecosystem integrates ride-hailing, food delivery and logistics, merchant solutions, e-commerce, marketplace and advertising, payments, and fintech offerings. The company continues growing its network of complementors and App developers, expanding content and gaining critical mass in consumer data analytics and advertising. We compare the company's growth and diversification trajectory with those of its main international rivals and peers. The company's rapid growth and future potential are analyzed using Cusumano's (2012) Staying Power and Six Principles, Hax and Wilde's (2003) and Hax's (2010) The Delta Model as well as Santos' (2016) home-market advantages frameworks. The recently announced multi-billion-dollar merger with one of Southeast Asia's largest e-commerce majors lends additional support to the above arguments.

Keywords: ride-hailing, prisoner's dilemma, platform and ecosystem strategy, digital applications, diversification, home market advantages, e-commerce

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Authors: Miriam Colleran, Barbara Sheehy-Skeffington

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Background: Patients with intellectual disabilities have specific palliative care needs, which can affect how resources and services are planned for this type of patient population. Aim: The purpose of this practice review is to assess the indications for, numbers of and outcomes of care for adults with intellectual disabilities referred to a specialist palliative care service over a two-year period. Service utilization aspects considered included the frequency of home visits by a specialist palliative care doctor or clinical nurse specialist and the number of hospice admissions that occurred for the patients. Method: A retrospective review was carried out of persons 18 years and older with intellectual disabilities referred to a specialist palliative care service. A manual review was carried out of the register using the place of residence and diagnosis in addition to the patients known to the clinicians who had intellectual disabilities. Results: 16 persons with intellectual disabilities were identified as being referred during that time. However, this may be an underestimate. 8 women and 8 men were referred with an age range of 50 to 81 years old. 4 patients referred did not have home visits from the specialist palliative care team. A range of 2 to 12 phone calls per person occurred by the specialist palliative care team regarding this cohort of patients. For some patients, the care is ongoing. Sadly, other patients died. Conclusion: Providing specialist palliative care for adults with intellectual disabilities is an important element of palliative care. Further research is necessary, and education to inform, support and empower specialist palliative care professionals in optimizing palliative and end-of-life care for persons with intellectual disabilities and to inform service development and provision.

Keywords: palliative care, intellectual disabilities, service planning, practice review

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Authors: Niraimathi Kesavan, Sangeeta Sharma, Deepa Jagan, Sridhar Sukumar, Mohan Ramachandran, Vidhubala Elangovan

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Background: Childhood is a dynamic period for growth and development. Optimum nutrition during this period forms a strong foundation for growth, development, resistance to infections, long-term good health, cognition, educational achievements, and work productivity in a later phase of life. Underprivileged children living in a resource constraint settings like shelter homes are at high risk of malnutrition due to poor quality diet and nutritional inadequacy. In low-income countries, underprivileged children are vulnerable to being deprived of nutritious food, which stands as a major challenge in the health sector. The present aims to assess the dietary intake, nutritional status, and nutritional inadequacy and their association with malnutrition among children residing in shelter homes in rural Tamil Nadu. Methods: The study was a descriptive survey conducted among all the children aged between 8-18 years residing in two selected shelter homes (Anbu illam, a home for female children, and Amaidhi illam, a home for male children), rural Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 57 children were recruited, including 18 boys and 39 girls, for the study. Dietary intake was measured using seven days 24 hours recall. The average nutrient intake was considered for further analysis. Results: Of the 57 children, about 60% (n=35) were undernutrition. The mean daily energy intake was 1298 (SD 180) kcal for boys and 952 (SD155) kcal for girls. The total calorie intake was 55-60% below the estimated average requirement (EAR) for adolescent boys and girls in the age group 13-15 years and 16-18 years. Carbohydrates were the major source of energy (boys 53% and girls 51%), followed by fat (boys 31.5% and girls 34.5%) and protein (boys 14% and girls 12.9%). Dairy intake (<200ml/day) was less than the recommendation (500ml/day). Micro-nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, and green leafy vegetables in the diet were <200g/day, which was far less than the recommended dietary guidelines of 400g- 600g/day for the age group of 7-18 years. Nearly 26% of girls reported experiencing menstrual problems. The majority (76.9%) of the children exhibited nutrient deficiency-related signs and symptoms. Conclusion: The total energy, minerals, and micro-nutrient intake were inadequate and below the Recommended Dietary Allowance for children and adolescents. The diet predominantly consists of refined cereals, rice, semolina, and vermicelli. Consumption of whole grains, milk, fruits, vegetables, and leafy vegetables was far below the recommended dietary guidelines. Dietary inadequacies among these children pose a serious concern for their overall health status and its consequences in the later phase of life.

Keywords: adolescents, children, dietary intake, malnutrition, nutritional inadequacy, shelter home

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Authors: Stelios A. Mitilineos, Nicolas-Alexander Tatlas, Georgia Korompili, Lampros Kokkalas, Stelios M. Potirakis

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome (OSAHS) is a widespread chronic disease that mostly remains undetected, mainly due to the fact that it is diagnosed via polysomnography which is a time and resource-intensive procedure. Screening the disease’s symptoms at home could be used as an alternative approach in order to alert individuals that potentially suffer from OSAHS without compromising their everyday routine. Since snoring is usually linked to OSAHS, developing a snore detector is appealing as an enabling technology for screening OSAHS at home using ubiquitous equipment like commodity microphones (included in, e.g., smartphones). In this context, this study developed a snore detection tool and herein present the approach and selection of specific sound features that discriminate snoring vs. environmental sounds, as well as the performance of the proposed tool. Furthermore, a Real-Time Snore Detector (RTSD) is built upon the snore detection tool and employed in whole-night sleep sound recordings resulting to a large dataset of snoring sound excerpts that are made freely available to the public. The RTSD may be used either as a stand-alone tool that offers insight to an individual’s sleep quality or as an independent component of OSAHS screening applications in future developments.

Keywords: obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome, apnea screening, snoring detection, machine learning, neural networks

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Authors: Velly Kapadia, Reenu Singh

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This report identifies the long-term driving forces behind urbanization and the impact of compact living on both society and the home and proposes a concept to create smarter and more sustainable homes. Compact living has been trending across India as a sustainable housing solution, and the reality is that India is currently facing a housing shortage in urban areas of around 10 million units. With the rising demand for housing, urban land prices have been rising and the cost of homes. The paper explores how and why the interior design of the homes can be improved to relieve the housing demand in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine living patterns, area requirements, ecological footprints, energy consumption, purchasing patterns, and various pro-environmental behaviors of people who downsize to compact homes. Quantitative research explores sustainable material choices, durability, functionality, cost, and reusability of furniture. Besides addressing the need for smart and sustainable designed compact homes, a conceptual model is proposed, including options of ideal schematic layouts for homes in urban areas. In the conclusions, suggestions to improve space planning and suitable interior entities have been made to support the fact that compact homes are an eminently practical and sensible solution for the urban citizen.

Keywords: compact living, housing shortage, lifestyle, sustainable interior design

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Authors: Yaron Katz

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The investigation of immigrants' electoral choices has remained relatively uncharted territory despite the fact that numerous nations extend political rights to their expatriates. This paper centers its attention on the matter of public trust in democracy, with a focus on the intricacies of Israeli politics as a divided system. It delves into the potential implications of political and social transformations stemming from the involvement of expatriate voters in elections taking place in their country of origin. In doing so, the article endeavors to explore a pathway for resolving a persistent challenge facing the stability of the Israeli political landscape over the past decade: the difficulty in forming a resilient government that genuinely represents the majority of voters. An examination is conducted into the role played by a demographic with the capacity to exert significant influence on election outcomes, namely, individuals residing outside of Israel. The objective of this research is to delve into this subject, dissecting social developments and political prospects that may shape the country's trajectory in the coming decades. This inquiry is especially pertinent given the extensive engagement of migrants in Israeli politics and the link between Israelis living abroad and their home country. Nevertheless, the study's findings reveal that while former citizens exhibit extensive involvement in Israeli politics and are cognizant of the potential consequences of permitting them to participate in elections, they maintain steadfastly unfavorable views regarding the inclusion of Israelis living overseas in their home country's electoral processes.

Keywords: trust, globalization, policy, democracy

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Authors: Stephen Bahooshy

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Our understanding of gender inequality has advanced in recent years. Differences in pay and societal gendered behaviour expectations have been emphasized. It is acknowledged globally that gender shapes everyone’s experiences of health and social care, including access to care, use of services and products, and the interaction with care providers. NHS Digital in England collects data from local authorities on the number of carers and people with support needs and the services they access. This data does not provide a gender breakdown. Caring can have many positive and negative impacts on carers’ health and wellbeing. For example, caring can improve physical health, provide a sense of pride and purpose, and reduced stress levels for those who undertake a caring role by choice. Negatives of caring include financial concerns, social isolation, a reduction in earnings, and not being recognized as a carer or involved and consulted by health and social care professionals. Treating male and female carers differently is by definition unequitable and precludes one gender from receiving the benefits of caring whilst potentially overburdening the other with the negatives of caring. In order to explore the issue on a preliminary basis, five local authorities who provide statutory adult social care services in England were sent Freedom of Information requests in 2019. The authorities were selected to include county councils and London boroughs. The authorities were asked to provide data on the amount of money spent on care at home packages to people over 65 years, broken down by gender and carer gender for each financial year between 2013 and 2019. Results indicated that in each financial year, female carers supporting someone over 65 years received less financial support for care at home support packages than male carers. Over the six-year period, this difference equated to a £9.5k deficit in financial support received on average per female carer when compared to male carers. An example of a London borough with the highest disparity presented an average weekly spend on care at home for people over 65 with a carer of £261.35 for male carers and £165.46 for female carers. Consequently, female carers in this borough received on average £95.89 less per week in care at home support than male carers. This highlights a real and potentially detrimental disparity in the care support received to female carers in order to support them to continue to care in parts of England. More research should be undertaken in this area to better explore this issue and to understand if these findings are unique to these social care providers or part of a wider phenomenon. NHS Digital should request local authorities collect data on gender in the same way that large employers in the United Kingdom are required by law to provide data on staff salaries by gender. People who allocate social care packages of support should consider the impact of gender when allocating support packages to people with support needs and who have carers to reduce any potential impact of gender bias on their decision-making.

Keywords: caregivers, carers, gender equality, social care

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Authors: Aritra Das, Tanmay Mahapatra, Prabir Maharana, Sridhar Srikantiah

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In the absence of adequate well-equipped neonatal-care facilities serving rural Bihar, India, the practice of essential home-based newborn-care remains critically important for reduction of neonatal and infant mortality, especially among pre-term and small-for-gestational-age (Low-birth-weight) newborns. To improve the child health parameters in Bihar, ‘Very-Low-Birth-Weight (vLBW) Tracking’ intervention is being conducted by CARE India, since 2015, targeting public facility-delivered newborns weighing ≤2000g at birth, to improve their identification and provision of immediate post-natal care. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, 200 public health facilities were randomly selected from all functional public-sector delivery points in Bihar and various outcomes were tracked among the neonates born there. Thus far, one pre-intervention (Feb-Apr’2015-born neonates) and three post-intervention (for Sep-Oct’2015, Sep-Oct’2016 and Sep-Oct’2017-born children) follow-up studies were conducted. In each round, interviews were conducted with the mothers/caregivers of successfully-tracked children to understand outcome, service-coverage and care-seeking during the neonatal period. Data from 171 matched facilities common across all rounds were analyzed using SAS-9.4. Identification of neonates with birth-weight ≤ 2000g improved from 2% at baseline to 3.3%-4% during post-intervention. All indicators pertaining to post-natal home-visits by frontline-workers (FLWs) improved. Significant improvements between baseline and post-intervention rounds were also noted regarding mothers being informed about ‘weak’ child – at the facility (R1 = 25 to R4 = 50%) and at home by FLW (R1 = 19%, to R4 = 30%). Practice of ‘Kangaroo-Mother-Care (KMC)’– an important component of essential newborn care – showed significant improvement in postintervention period compared to baseline in both facility (R1 = 15% to R4 = 31%) and home (R1 = 10% to R4=29%). Increasing trend was noted regarding detection and birth weight-recording of the extremely low-birth-weight newborns (< 1500 g) showed an increasing trend. Moreover, there was a downward trend in mortality across rounds, in each birth-weight strata (< 1500g, 1500-1799g and >= 1800g). After adjustment for the differential distribution of birth-weights, mortality was found to decline significantly from R1 (22.11%) to R4 (11.87%). Significantly declining trend was also observed for both early and late neonatal mortality and morbidities. Multiple regression analysis identified - birth during immediate post-intervention phase as well as that during the maintenance phase, birth weight > 1500g, children of low-parity mothers, receiving visit from FLW in the first week and/or receiving advice on extra care from FLW as predictors of survival during neonatal period among vLBW newborns. vLBW tracking was found to be a successful and sustainable intervention and has already been handed over to the Government.

Keywords: weak newborn tracking, very low birth weight babies, newborn care, community response

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Authors: Priyanka V. Janbandhu, Santosh B. Phad, Dhananjay W. Bansod

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The current changing scenario of the family is a compelling aged group not only to be alone in a nuclear family but also to join the old age institutions. The consequences of it are feeling of neglected or left alone by the children, adding a touch of helpless in the absence of lack of expected care and support. The accretion of all these feelings and unpleasant events ignite a question in their mind that – who is there for me? The efforts have taken to highlight the issues of the elderly after joining the old age home and their perception about the current life as an institutional inmate. This attempt to cover up the condition, adjustment, changed lifestyle and perspective in the association with several issues of the elderly, which have an essential effect on their well-being. The present research piece has collected the information about institutionalized elderly with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. This study interviewed 500 respondents from 22 old age homes of Pune city of Maharashtra State, India. This data collection methodology consists of Multi-stage random sampling. In which the stratified random sampling adopted for the selection of old age homes and sample size determination, sample selection probability proportional to the size and simple random sampling techniques implemented. The study provides that around five percent of the elderly shifted to old age home along with their spouse, whereas ten percent of the elderly are staying away from their spouse. More than 71 percent of the elderly have children, and they are an involuntary inmate of the old age institution, even less than one-third of the elderly consulted to the institution before the joining it. More than sixty percent of the elderly have children, but they joined institution due to the unpleasant response of their children only. Around half of the elderly responded that there are issues while adjusting to this environment, many of them are still persistent. At least one elderly out of ten is there who is suffering from the feeling of loneliness and left out by children and other family members. In contrast, around 97 percent of the elderly are very happy or satisfied with the institutional facilities. It illustrates that the issues are associated with their children and other family members, even though they left their home before a year or more. When enquired about this loneliness feeling few of them are suffering from it before leaving their homes, it was due to lack of interaction with children, as they are too busy to have time for the aged parents. Additionally, the conflicts or fights within the family due to the presence of old persons in the family contributed to establishing another feeling of insignificance among the elderly parents. According to these elderly, have more than 70 percent of the share, the children are ready to spend money indirectly for us through these institutions, but not prepared to provide some time and very few amounts of all this expenditure directly for us.

Keywords: elderly, old age homes, life style changes and adjustment, India

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Authors: Al-Tammar M. Shahah

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Background and Objective: A novel pneumonia caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is spreading domestically and internationally, has been identified by the Chinese city of Wuhan since the end of December 2019. Limited studies examined the psychological experience such as anxiety, depression, and stress during Corona pandemic. Moreover, to the best of author's knowledge, there is no study to date has examined the psychological resilience and mental health during Corona pandemic in Kuwait. Therefore, the present research investigates the role of psychological resilience in predicting psychological distress among Kuwaiti adults during Corona pandemic. Method: Kuwaiti citizens (N = 735) completed an online survey, which includes four scales the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale HADS (anxiety and depression), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Results: A high level of stress was observed, with 59% reported moderate to severe stress. In contrast, low levels of anxiety and depression were observed; with 70% reporting no anxiety symptoms and 74% report no depression symptoms. Psychological resilience was negatively correlated with anxiety, depression, and stress, consistent with previous studies. As expected, resilience was found to account for significant variance in anxiety and stress after controlling for quarantine variables and demographic variables. Conclusion: The findings suggest that increasing psychological resilience might help reduce psychological distress after confronting with stressful live events in Kuwaiti citizen.

Keywords: anxiety, corona, depression, psychological resilience, stress

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Authors: Laila Al-Balushi, Suad Al-Kharosui

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Due to the increasing number of breast cancer cases in Oman and the impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 on bed situation in the hospital, a policy of early discharge (ED) with drain after breast cancer surgery was initiated at one of the tertiary hospitals in Oman. The uniqueness of this policy is no home visit follow-up, conducted after discharge and the main mode of communication was Instagram media. This policy then was evaluated by conducting a quasi-experimental study using a questionnaire with ten open and closed-ended questions, five questions to explore patient experience using a five-point Likert scale. A total of 41 female patients responded to the questionnaire. Almost 96% of the participants stated being well informed about drain care pre- and post-surgery at home. 9% of the participants developed early sign of infection and was managed at out-patient clinics. Participants with bilateral drains expressed more pain than those with single drain. 90% stated satisfied being discharged with breast drain whereas 10% preferred to stay in the hospital until the drains were removed. This study found that the policy of ED with a drain after BC surgery is practical and well-accepted by most patients. The role of breast nurse and presence of family and institutional support enhanced the success of the policy implementation. To optimize patient care, conducting a training program by breast nurse for nurses at local health centres about care management of patients with drain could improve care and enhance patient satisfaction.

Keywords: breast cancer, surgery, early discharge, surgical drain

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Authors: Julia Terlet, Thomas H. Beach, Yacine Rezgui

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Urbanization, population growth, climate change and the current increase in water demand have made the adoption of innovative demand management strategies crucial to the water industry. Water conservation in urban areas has to be improved by encouraging consumers to adopt more sustainable habits and behaviours. This includes informing and educating them about their households’ water consumption and advising them about ways to achieve significant savings on a daily basis. This paper presents a study conducted in the context of the European FP7 WISDOM Project. By integrating innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks, this project aims at achieving a change in water savings. More specifically, behavioural change will be attempted by implementing smart meters and in-home displays in a trial group of selected households within Cardiff (UK). Using this device, consumers will be able to receive feedback and information about their consumption but will also have the opportunity to compare their consumption to the consumption of other consumers and similar households. Following an initial survey, it appeared necessary to implement these in-home displays in a way that matches consumer's motivations to save water. The results demonstrated the importance of various factors influencing people’s daily water consumption. Both the relevant literature on the subject and the results of our survey therefore led us to include within the in-home device a variety of elements. It first appeared crucial to make consumers aware of the economic aspect of water conservation and especially of the significant financial savings that can be achieved by reducing their household’s water consumption on the long term. Likewise, reminding participants of the impact of their consumption on the environment by making them more aware of water scarcity issues around the world will help increasing their motivation to save water. Additionally, peer pressure and social comparisons with neighbours and other consumers, accentuated by the use of online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, will likely encourage consumers to reduce their consumption. Participants will also be able to compare their current consumption to their past consumption and to observe the consequences of their efforts to save water through diverse graphs and charts. Finally, including a virtual water game within the display will help the whole household, children and adults, to achieve significant reductions by providing them with simple tips and advice to save water on a daily basis. Moreover, by setting daily and weekly goals for them to reach, the game will expectantly generate cooperation between family members. Members of each household will indeed be encouraged to work together to reduce their water consumption within different rooms of the house, such as the bathroom, the kitchen, or the toilets. Overall, this study will allow us to understand the elements that attract consumers the most and the features that are most commonly used by the participants. In this way, we intend to determine the main factors influencing water consumption in order to identify the measures that will most encourage water conservation in both the long and short term.

Keywords: behavioural change, ICT technologies, water consumption, water conservation

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Authors: Humara Bano, Nyla Anjum

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Disability in any form has great impact not only for the person facing it but also for its family members too. This effect may be so severe that may lead to mal adjustment of any member of the family in society as well. This impact has also been multiplied due to negative attitudes of the society, unawareness about the needs of special needs and no legislation for the parents of children with special needs. As a result not only the separations among the parents have been reported but also the normal siblings in the home are also badly affected in their daily lives. The situation is more challenging when more than one child with disability is present in the family. The main objectives of this paper are to unfold the relationship of variety of disabilities (hearing, visual or physical impairment, mental retardation, speech impairment) in i) developing depression in home setting, ii) social exclusion, iii) anxiety and aggression and iv) development of insecure feelings among family members of the persons with disabilities, as well as, v) to identify coping strategies to manage the special needs by family members too. To reach on conclusion about fifty families (having any sort of disability in their homes) have been interviewed on basis of convenient sampling. Correlation, ANOVA and different analysis have been used to identify the relationship of disability in developing depression among family members in line of above mentioned problems. Results revealed that depression due to disability among families is a common phenomenon and adversely have affected their lives in daily routines as well as in following their life achievements. Coping with the situation and recommending various remedies by parents is the positive reflection of this study too that can help to families in managing their mental health.

Keywords: depression, anxiety and aggression, social exclusion, parents of children with special needs

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Authors: Hyang Lim, Sungwon Choi

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Many previous studies in area of adolescents' depression have used a longitudinal design. The previous studies have found that the developmental trajectory of them is only one. But it needs to be examined whether the trajectory is applied to all adolescents. Some factors in their home and/or school have an effect on adolescents' depression and more likely to be specific groups. The present study was a longitudinal study aimed to identify the trajectories and to explore the predictors of adolescents' depression. The study used Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS) data. In this study, 2,351 second and third-year of middle school and first of high school students' data was analyzed by using semi-parametric group modeling (SGM). There were 5 trajectory groups for adolescents; low depressed stables, low depressed risers, moderately depressed decreases, moderately depressed stables, severe depressed decreases. The predictors of adolescents' depression were parental abuse, parental neglect, annual family income, parental academic background, friendship at school, and teacher-student relationship at school. All predictors had the significant difference across trajectory group profile for adolescents. The findings of the present study recommend to promote the socioeconomic status and to train social skill for the interpersonal relationship at the home and school. And the results suggest that the proper prevention programs for each group in the middle adolescents that target selected factors may be helpful in reducing the level of depression.

Keywords: adolescent, depression, KCYPS, school life, semi-parametric group-based modeling

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Authors: Aydin Sipahioglu, Gokhan Celik

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Helicopter routing problem (HRP) is finding good tours for helicopter so as to pick up and deliver personnel or material among specified nodes, mutually. It can be encountered in case of being lots of supply and demand points for different commodities and requiring delivering commodities with helicopter. For instance, to deliver personnel or material from shore to oil rig is a good example. In fact, HRP is a branch of vehicle routing problem with pickup and delivery (VRPPD). However, it has additional constraints such that fuel capacity, performance of helicopter in different altitude and temperature, and the number of maximum takeoff and landing allowed. This kind of pickup and delivery problems can be classified into 3 groups, basically. 1-1 (one to one), M-M (many to many) and 1-M-1 (one to many to one). 1-1 means each commodity has only one supply and one demand point. M-M means there can be more than one supply and demand points for each kind of commodity. 1-M-1 means commodities at depot are delivered to demand points and commodities at customers are delivered to depot. In this case helicopter takes off from its own base, complete its tour and return to its own base. In this study, we define 1-M-M-1 type HRP. That means helicopter takes off from its home base, deliver commodities among the nodes as well as between depot and customers and return to its home base. These problems have NP-hard nature. Therefore, obtaining a good solution in a reasonable time is not easy. In this study, a model is offered for 1-M-M-1 type HRP. It is shown on small scale test instances that the model can find the optimal solution.

Keywords: helicopter routing problem, vehicle routing with pickup and delivery, integer programming

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Authors: Akankunda Veronicah Karuhanga

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Dementia is an age mental disorder that makes victims lose normal functionality that needs delicate attention. It has been technically defined as a clinical syndrome that presents a number of difficulties in speech and other cognitive functions that change someone’s behaviors and can also cause impairments in activities of daily living, not forgetting a range of neurological disorders that bring memory loss and cognitive impairment. Family members are the primary healthcare givers and therefore, the way how they handle the situation in its early stages determines future deterioration syndromes like total memory loss. Unfortunately, most family members are ignorant about this condition and in most cases, the patients are brought to our facilities when their condition was already mismanaged by family members and we thus cannot do much. For example, incontinence can be managed at early stages through potty training or toilet scheduling before resorting to 24/7 diapers which are also not good. Professional Elderly care should be understood and practiced as an extension of homes, not a dumping place for people considered “abnormal” on account of ignorance. Immediate relatives should therefore be sensitized concerning the normalcy of dementia in the context of old age so that they can be understanding and supportive of dementia patients rather than discriminating against them as present-day lepers. There is a need to skill home-based caregivers on how to handle dementia in its early stages. Unless this is done, many of our elderly homes shall be filled with patients who should have been treated and supported from their homes. This skilling of home-based caregivers is a vital intervention because until elderly care is appreciated as a human moral obligation, many transactional rehabilitation centers will crop up and this shall be one of the worst moral decadences of our times.

Keywords: dementia, family, Alzheimers, relevancy

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Authors: Ganatsios Vassilios, Terpou Antonia, Maria Kanellaki, Bekatorou Argyro, Athanasios Koutinas

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In this study, a new fermentation technology is proposed with potential application in home wine-making. Delignified cellulosic material was used to preserve Tubular Cellulose (TC), an effective fermentation support material in high osmotic pressure, low temperature, and alcohol concentration. The psychrotolerant yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae AXAZ-1 was immobilized on TC to preserve a novel home wine making biocatalyst (HWB) and the entrapment was examined by SEM. Various concentrations of HWB was added in high-density grape must and the mixture was dried immediately. The dried mixture was stored for various time intervals and its fermentation examined after addition of potable water. The percentage of added water was also examined to succeed high alcohol and residual sugar concentration. The effect of low temperature (1-10 oC) on fermentation kinetics was studied revealing the ability of HBW on low-temperature sweet wine making. Sweet wines SPME GC-MS analysis revealed the promotion effect of TC on volatile by-products formation in comparison with free cells. Kinetics results and aromatic profile of final product encouraged the efforts of high-quality sweet wine making in domestic refrigerator and potential marketable opportunities are also assessed and discussed.

Keywords: tubular cellulose, sweet wine, Saccharomyces cerevisiae AXAZ-1, residual sugar concentration

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Authors: Alireza Fard Kashani

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This study reports on the experiences and attitudes of six Iranian migrant families, from two groups of asylum seekers and skilled workers, with regard to their language, identity, and acculturation in Australia. The participants included first generation parents and 1.5-generation adolescents, who had lived in Australia for a minimum of three years. For this investigation, Mendoza’s (1984, 2016) acculturation model, as well as poststructuralist views of identity, were employed. The semi-structured interview results have highlighted that Iranian parents and adolescents face low degrees of intergenerational conflicts in most domains of their acculturation. However, the structural and lawful patterns in Australia have caused some internal conflicts for the parents, especially fathers (e.g., their power status within the family or their children’s freedom). Furthermore, while most participants reported ‘cultural eclecticism’ as their preferred acculturation orientation, female participants seemed to be more eclectic than their male counterparts who showed inclination towards keeping more aspects of their home culture. This finding, however, highlights a meaningful effort on the part of husbands that in order to make their married lives continue well in Australia they need to re-consider the traditional male-dominated customs they used to have in Iran. As for identity, not only the parents but also the adolescents proudly identified themselves as Persians. In addition, with respect to linguistic behaviour, almost all adolescents showed enthusiasm to retain the Persian language at home to be able to maintain contacts with their relatives and friends in Iran and to enjoy many other benefits the language may offer them in the future.

Keywords: acculturation, asylum seekers, identity, intergenerational conflicts, language, skilled workers, 1.5 generation

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Authors: Lisa Graham, Kathleen Grant

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South Africa is a multicultural country with eleven official languages, yet most of the formal education at institutions of higher education in the country is in English. It is well known that many students, irrespective of their home language, struggle to grasp difficult scientific concepts and the same is true for students enrolled in the Extended Curriculum Programme at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), studying biomedical sciences. Today we are fortunate in that there is a plethora of resources available to students to research and better understand subject matter online. For example, the students often use YouTube videos to supplement the formal education provided in our course. Unfortunately, most of this material is presented in English. The rationale behind this project lies in that it is well documented that students think and grasp concepts easier in their home language and addresses the fact that the lingua franca of instruction in the field of biomedical science is English. A project aimed at addressing the lack of available resources in most of the South African languages is planned, where students studying Bachelor of Health Science in Medical Laboratory Science will collaborate with those studying Film and Video Technology to create educational videos, explaining scientific concepts in their home languages. These videos will then be published on our own YouTube channel, thereby making them accessible to fellow students, future students and anybody with interest in the subject. Research will be conducted to determine the benefit of the project as well as the published videos to the student community. It is suspected that the students engaged in making the videos will benefit in such a way as to gain further understanding of their course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, an enhanced sense of civic responsibility, as well as greater respect for the different languages and cultures in our classes. Indeed, an increase in student engagement has been shown to play a central role in student success, and it is well noted that deeper learning and more innovative solutions take place in collaborative groups. We aim to make a meaningful contribution towards the production and repository of knowledge in multilingual teaching and learning for the benefit of the diverse student population and staff. This would strengthen language development, multilingualism, and multiculturalism at CPUT and empower and promote African languages as languages of science and education at CPUT, in other institutions of higher learning, and in South Africa as a whole.

Keywords: educational videos, multiculturalism, multilingualism, student engagement

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Authors: Yong-Sung Kim, Je-Seok Shin, Ho-Jun Jo, Jin-O Kim

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Home Energy Management System (HEMS) which makes the residential consumers contribute to the demand response is attracting attention in recent years. An aim of HEMS is to minimize their electricity cost by controlling the use of their appliances according to electricity price. The use of appliances in HEMS may be affected by some conditions such as external temperature and electricity price. Therefore, the user’s usage pattern of appliances should be modeled according to the external conditions, and the resultant usage pattern is related to the user’s comfortability on use of each appliances. This paper proposes a methodology to model the usage pattern based on the historical data with the copula function. Through copula function, the usage range of each appliance can be obtained and is able to satisfy the appropriate user’s comfort according to the external conditions for next day. Within the usage range, an optimal scheduling for appliances would be conducted so as to minimize an electricity cost with considering user’s comfort. Among the home appliance, electric heater (EH) is a representative appliance which is affected by the external temperature. In this paper, an optimal scheduling algorithm for an electric heater (EH) is addressed based on the method of branch and bound. As a result, scenarios for the EH usage are obtained according to user’s comfort levels and then the residential consumer would select the best scenario. The case study shows the effects of the proposed algorithm compared with the traditional operation of the EH, and it also represents impacts of the comfort level on the scheduling result.

Keywords: load scheduling, usage pattern, user’s comfort, copula function, branch and bound, electric heater

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Authors: Lissette Alejandra Lara, Mario Gomez, Jose Carlos Rodriguez

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ransnational corporations (TNCs) as units in which it is possible technology and knowledge transfer across borders and the potential for generating innovation and contributing in economic development both in home and host countries have been widely acknowledged in the foreign direct investment (FDI) literature. Particularly, the accelerated expansion of emerging countries TNCs in the last decades has guided an uprising research stream that measure the presence of reverse technology transfer, defined as the extent to which emerging countries’ TNCs use outward FDI in a host country through certain mechanisms to absorb and transfer knowledge thus improving its technological capabilities in the home country. The objective of this paper is to test empirically the presence of reverse technology transfer and its impact on the innovation capabilities in Mexican transnational corporations (MXTNCs) as a part of the emerging countries TNCs that have successfully entered to industrialized markets. Using a panel dataset of 22 MXTNCs over the period 1994-2015, the results of the econometric model demonstrate that the amount of Mexican outward FDI and the research and development (R&D) expenditure in host developed countries had a positive impact on the innovation capabilities at the firm and industry level. There is also evidence that management of acquired brands and the organizational structure of Mexican subsidiaries improved these capabilities. Implications for internationalization strategies of emerging countries corporations and future research guidelines are discussed.

Keywords: emerging countries, foreign direct investment, innovation capabilities, Mexican transnational corporations, reverse technology transfer

Procedia PDF Downloads 204