Search results for: knowledge management

Authors: B. Bernabela, P. Bles, A. Bloecker, D. DeRock, M. van Es, M. Gerritse, T. de Jongh, W. Lansing, M. Martinot, J. van de Wetering

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A heated debate has been taking place concerning research and teaching at Dutch universities for the last few years. The ministry of science and education has published reports on its strategy to improve university curricula and position the Netherlands as a globally competitive knowledge economy. These reports have provoked an uproar of responses from think tanks, concerned academics, and the media. At the center of the debate is disagreement over who should determine the Dutch university curricula and how these curricula should look. Many stakeholders in the higher education system have voiced their opinion, and some have not been heard. The result is that the diversity of visions is ignored or taken for granted in the official reports. Recognizing this gap in stakeholder analysis, the aim of this paper is to bring attention to the wide range of perspectives on who should be responsible for designing higher education curricula. Based on a previous analysis by the Rathenau Institute, we distinguish five different groups of stakeholders: government, business sector, university faculty and administration, students, and the societal sector. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with representatives from each stakeholder group, and distributed quantitative questionnaires to people in the societal sector (i.e. people not directly affiliated with universities or graduates). Preliminary data suggests that the stakeholders have different target points concerning the university curricula. Representatives from the governmental sector tend to place special emphasis on the link between research and education, while representatives from the business sector rather focus on greater opportunities for students to obtain practical experience in the job market. Responses from students reflect a belief that they should be able to influence the curriculum in order to compete with other students on the international job market. On the other hand, university faculty expresses concern that focusing on the labor market puts undue pressure on students and compromises the quality of education. Interestingly, the opinions of members of ‘society’ seem to be relatively unchanged by political and economic shifts. Following a comprehensive analysis of the data, we believe that our results will make a significant contribution to the debate on university education in the Netherlands. These results should be regarded as a foundation for further research concerning the direction of Dutch higher education, for only if we take into account the different opinions and views of the various stakeholders can we decide which steps to take. Moreover, the Dutch experience offers lessons to other countries as well. As the internationalization of higher education is occurring faster than ever before, universities throughout Europe and globally are experiencing many of the same pressures.

Keywords: Dutch University curriculum, higher education, participants’ opinions, stakeholder perspectives

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Authors: Sri Harimurti, Diah Reni Asih

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This study was designated to investigate the effect of intermittent and continuous blue lighting on the feeding behaviour, growth and corticosterone hormone concentration of broiler. Two thousands and seven hundreds unsexed day-old broiler were divided into three groups of lighting treatment. Each treatment consisted of three replicates of 300 birds. The treatments were ordinary lighting (C), intermittent blue lighting (IBL) and continuous blue lighting (CBL). The data were collected in the study were feeding behaviour such as feeding duration and frequency of feeding, growth rate of birds and corticosterone hormone concentration. Results showed that the CBL have significant effect (P<0,05) on duration and frequency of feeding and growth rate of birds. The CBL have the highest feeding duration, the lowest frequency of feeding that those 290.33±1.52 minutes/day, 35.58±0.50 times/day at 15 to 28 days of age.The concentration of corticosterone hormone of IBL and CBL were a significant (P<0.05) decrease. The conclusion of this study indicated that continuous blue lighting may be a good tool for improving welfare management of broiler.

Keywords: blue light, broiler chickens, corticosterone hormone, feeding behaviour, growth rate

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Authors: Geeta Sharma, Suma Chandra

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Sugarcane is one of the major commercial crop playing roles in agriculture and industrial economy of India. Globally sugarcane is affected by approximately 240 diseases caused by various plant pathogenic organisms. Among them, red rot disease caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum, is one of the most important diseases. In the present investigation, one fungal bioagent of Trichoderma harzianum, Pant Bioagent 1 and one bacterial bioagent Pseudomonas fluorescence, Pant Bioagent 2 (PBAT 1 and PBAT 2, respectively) were tested by dual culture method against the pathogen under laboratory conditions. The effectiveness of biocontrol agents was observed against four isolates of C. falcatum. In the case of PBAT1 maximum percent inhibition of pathogen was recorded in isolated Cf 0238 (61.05%), followed by Cf 09 (60.62%) whereas, minimum percent inhibition was recorded in Cf 3220 (48.55%) and in case of PBAT2 maximum mycelial growth inhibition percent was recorded in Cf 767 (50.50%) followed by Cf 088230(48.83%), whereas minimum percent inhibition was recorded in Cf 08 (40.16%) followed by Cf 0238 (41.83%). The present study showed that these biocontrol agents have the potential of controlling the pathogen and can further be used for the management of red rot disease in field.

Keywords: biocontrol agents, Colletotrichum falcatum, isolates, sugarcane

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Authors: E. Benga, T. Tengen, A. Alugongo

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Periodic and continuous inventory models are the two classical management tools used to handle inventories. These models have advantages and disadvantages. The implementation of both continuous (r,Q) inventory and periodic (R, S) inventory models in most manufacturing plants comes with higher cost. Such high inventory costs are due to the fact that most manufacturing plants are not flexible enough. Since demand and lead-time are two important variables of every inventory models, their effect on the flexibility of the manufacturing plant matter most. Unfortunately, these effects are not clearly understood by managers. The reason is that the decision parameters of the continuous (r, Q) inventory and periodic (R, S) inventory models are not designed to effectively deal with the issues of uncertainties such as poor manufacturing performances, delivery performance supplies performances. There is, therefore, a need to come up with a predictive and hybrid inventory model that can combine in some sense the feature of the aforementioned inventory models. A linear combination technique is used to hybridize both continuous (r, Q) inventory and periodic (R, S) inventory models. The behavior of such hybrid inventory model is described by a differential equation and then optimized. From the results obtained after simulation, the continuous (r, Q) inventory model is more effective than the periodic (R, S) inventory models in the short run, but this difference changes as time goes by. Because the hybrid inventory model is more cost effective than the continuous (r,Q) inventory and periodic (R, S) inventory models in long run, it should be implemented for strategic decisions.

Keywords: periodic inventory, continuous inventory, hybrid inventory, optimization, manufacturing plant

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Authors: Rabih Nehme, Abdullah Al Mutawa

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The general goal behind this research is to gain a better understanding of factors leading to dysfunctional behavior of auditors. Recent accounting scandals -Enron, Waste Management Inc., WorldCom, Xerox Corporation, etc. -provided an ample proof of how the role of auditors has become the basis of controversial debates in many circles and instances in our modern time. The majority of lawsuits and accounting scandals seem to have a central topic in focus, namely the question ''Where were the auditors? The survey we offer up for research is made up of 34 questions that are designed to analyse the perception of auditors and the cause of dysfunctional behavior. The object of this research is comprised of auditors positioned and employed at the Big Four audit firms in Kuwait. Dysfunctional behavior (DB) is measured against two signal proxies of dysfunctional behavior; premature sign-off and under reporting of chargeable time. DB is analysed against time budget pressure and time deadline pressure. The research results' suggest that the general belief among auditors is that the profession of accountancy predetermines their tendency to commit certain patterns of dysfunctional behavior. Having our investigation conducted at the Big Four audit firms, we have come to the conclusion that there is a general difference in behavior patterns among perceptions of dysfunctional behavior and normal skeptic professional behavior.

Keywords: big four, dysfunctional behavior, time budget, time deadline

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Authors: Dixit Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances, and cost performances in the supply chain.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, green supply chain management, performance measures, sustainability

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Authors: Ana L. Gonzalez-Celis, Edgardo Ruiz-Carrillo, Karina Reyes-Jarquin, Margarita Chavez-Becerra

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Since recent decades, the aging has been viewed from a more positive perspective, where is not only about losses and damage, but also about being on a stage where you can enjoy life and live with well-being and quality of life. The challenge to feel better is to find those resources that seniors have. For that reason, psychological well-being has shown interest in the study of the affect and life satisfaction (hedonic well-being), while from a more recent tradition, focus on the development of capabilities and the personal growth, considering both as the main indicators of the quality of life. A resource that can be used in the later age is generativity, which refers to the ability of older people to develop and grow through activities that contribute with the improvement of the context in which they live and participate. In this way the generative interest is understood as a favourable attitude that contribute to the common benefit while strengthening and enriching the social institutions, to ensure continuity between generations and social development. On the other hand, generative behavior, differentiating from generative interest, is the expression of that attitude reflected in activities that make a social contribution and a benefit for generations to come. Hence the purpose of the research was to test if there is an association between the generative behaviour type and the psychological well-being with their dimensions. For this reason 188 Mexican adults from 60 to 94 years old (M = 69.78), 67% women, 33% men, completed two instruments: The Ryff’s Well-Being Scales to measure psychological well-being with 39 items with two dimensions (Hedonic and Eudaimonic well-being), and the Loyola’s Generative Behaviors Scale, grouped in five categories: Knowledge transmitted to the next generation, things to be remember, creativity, be productive, contribution to the community, and responsibility of other people. In addition, the socio-demographic data sheet was tested, and self-reported health status. The results indicated that the psychological well-being and its dimensions were significantly associated with the presence of generative behavior, where the level of well-being was higher when the frequency of some generative behaviour excelled; finding that the behavior with greater psychological well-being (M = 81.04, SD = 8.18) was "things to be remembered"; while with greater hedonic well-being (M = 73.39, SD = 12.19) was the behavior "responsibility of other people"; and with greater Eudaimonic well-being (M = 84.61, SD = 6.63), was the behavior "things to be remembered”. The most important findings highlight the importance of generative behaviors in adulthood, finding empirical evidence that the generativity in the last stage of life is associated with well-being. However, by finding differences in the types of generative behaviors at the level of well-being, is proposed the idea that generativity is not situated as an isolated construct, but needs other contextualized and related constructs that can simultaneously operate at different levels, taking into account the relationship between the environment and the individual, encompassing both the social and psychological dimension.

Keywords: eudaimonic well-being, generativity, hedonic well-being, Mexican elders, psychological well-being

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Authors: Udaykumar R., M. S. Ganachari

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In order to engage community pharmacies in Tuberculosis care, a survey has been conducted in Belgaum city, Karnataka state, India. After the survey divided into two groups one is control group and another one is intervention group. One is dispensing of anti-tuberculosis drugs, and another one is non-availability of anti-tuberculosis drugs. Those community pharmacists who are voluntarily interesting for becoming DOTS (Directly observed treatment short course) provider and RNTCP (Revised national tuberculosis control programme) objectives. Structured training is conducted for community pharmacist who are dispensing anti-tuberculosis drugs. The training module includes record maintaining, reporting to the RNTCP, Medication adherence etc. In case of non-availability of anti-tuberculosis drugs, the district RNTCP has been given training for community pharmacist by providing free of drugs to the community pharmacies. So, community pharmacies can dispense anti-tuberculosis drugs to the patients. The target of this study is Private community pharmacies. A simple random sampling method is used and 550 private community pharmacy shops has been involved in Belgaum city of Karnataka state, India. Significance of the Study: This study mainly focused on training of DOTS (Directly observed treatment short course) to the private community pharmacist. Indian Govt. Considers Private Providers as Assets for TB Control and Care to Achieve National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination 2017-2025. The Govt. has not fully tapped the Potential of Private Pharmacies to Fight TB. Providing DOTS as per patient’s convenience through community DOT Providers with periodic monitoring may reduce the treatment Default. We explore RNTCP objectives interventions that can have directly managed by private community pharmacy shop. Objectives: Survey of anti-tuberculosis drugs in Community pharmacy shop in Belgaum city. Interested community pharmacist who are willing to become DOTS (Directly observed treatment short course) Provider. Major Findings:Most of the community pharmacist are dispensing anti-tuberculosis drugs without having knowledge of DOTS therapy and RNTCP objectives. No community pharmacist is aware of RNTCP and Tuberculosis burden in India. Most of the Pharmacist agreed to come for RNTCP Training module for the community pharmacist. Some of the community pharmacist not dispensing anti-tuberculosis drugs and they agreed to become official DOTS provider. Concluding Statement: Awareness of role of community pharmacist on tuberculosis control and care has been neglected. More than 50% of tuberculosis patients seeking treatments from privatesector. In this study finds the major gap between government and private sector on tuberculosis treatment.

Keywords: community pharmacist, directly observed treatment short course(DOTS), revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP), private pharmacies, anti-tuberculosis drugs

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Authors: Manjie Li, Xiangju Cheng, Yongcan Chen

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With rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, water environmental deterioration is widespread in majority of urban rivers, which seriously affects city image and life satisfaction of residents. As an emergency measure to improve water quality, clean water diversion is introduced for water environmental management. Lubao River and Southwest River, two urban rivers in typical plain tidal river network, are identified as technically and economically feasible for the application of clean water diversion. One-dimensional hydrodynamic-water quality model is developed to simulate temporal and spatial variations of water level and water quality, with satisfactory accuracy. The mathematical model after calibration is applied to investigate hydrodynamic and water quality variations in rivers as well as determine the optimum operation scheme of water diversion. Assessment system is developed for evaluation of positive and negative effects of water diversion, demonstrating the effectiveness of clean water diversion and the necessity of pollution reduction.

Keywords: assessment system, clean water diversion, hydrodynamic-water quality model, tidal river network, urban rivers, water environment improvement

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Authors: Dominik Krimpmann

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Cloud computing has provided the impetus for change in the demand, sourcing, and consumption of IT-enabled services. The technology developed from an emerging trend towards a ‘must-have’. Many organizations harnessed on the quick-wins of cloud computing within the last five years but nowadays reach a plateau when it comes to sustainable savings and performance. This study aims to investigate what is needed from an organizational perspective to make cloud computing a sustainable success. The study was carried out in Germany among senior IT professionals, both in management and delivery positions. Our research shows that IT executives must be prepared to realign their IT workforce to sustain the advantage of cloud computing for today and the near future. While new roles will undoubtedly emerge, roles alone cannot ensure the success of cloud deployments. What is needed is a change in the IT workforce’s business behaviour, or put more simply, the ways in which the IT personnel works. It gives clear guidance on which dimensions of an employees’ working behaviour need to be adapted. The practical implications are drawn from a series of semi-structured interviews, resulting in a high-level workforce enablement plan. Lastly, it elaborates on tools and gives clear guidance on which pitfalls might arise along the proposed workforce enablement process.

Keywords: cloud computing, organization design, organizational change, workforce enablement

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Authors: Pablo Chico De Guzman, Cesar Sanchez

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Microservice architectures are increasingly in distributed cloud applications due to the advantages on the software composition, development speed, release cycle frequency and the business logic time to market. On the other hand, these architectures also introduce some challenges on the testing and release phases of applications. Container technology solves some of these issues by providing reproducible environments, easy of software distribution and isolation of processes. However, there are other issues that remain unsolved in current container technology when dealing with multiple machines, such as networking for multi-host communication, service discovery, load balancing or data persistency (even though some of these challenges are already solved by traditional cloud vendors in a very mature and widespread manner). Container cluster management tools, such as Kubernetes, Mesos or Docker Swarm, attempt to solve these problems by introducing a new control layer where the unit of deployment is the container (or the pod — a set of strongly related containers that must be deployed on the same machine). These tools are complex to configure and manage and they do not follow a pure immutable infrastructure approach since servers are reused between deployments. Indeed, these tools introduce dependencies at execution time for solving networking or service discovery problems. If an error on the control layer occurs, which would affect running applications, specific expertise is required to perform ad-hoc troubleshooting. As a consequence, it is not surprising that container cluster support is becoming a source of revenue for consulting services. This paper presents i2kit, a deployment tool based on the immutable infrastructure pattern, where the virtual machine is the unit of deployment. The input for i2kit is a declarative definition of a set of microservices, where each microservice is defined as a pod of containers. Microservices are built into machine images using linuxkit —- a tool for creating minimal linux distributions specialized in running containers. These machine images are then deployed to one or more virtual machines, which are exposed through a cloud vendor load balancer. Finally, the load balancer endpoint is set into other microservices using an environment variable, providing service discovery. The toolkit i2kit reuses the best ideas from container technology to solve problems like reproducible environments, process isolation, and software distribution, and at the same time relies on mature, proven cloud vendor technology for networking, load balancing and persistency. The result is a more robust system with no learning curve for troubleshooting running applications. We have implemented an open source prototype that transforms i2kit definitions into AWS cloud formation templates, where each microservice AMI (Amazon Machine Image) is created on the fly using linuxkit. Even though container cluster management tools have more flexibility for resource allocation optimization, we defend that adding a new control layer implies more important disadvantages. Resource allocation is greatly improved by using linuxkit, which introduces a very small footprint (around 35MB). Also, the system is more secure since linuxkit installs the minimum set of dependencies to run containers. The toolkit i2kit is currently under development at the IMDEA Software Institute.

Keywords: container, deployment, immutable infrastructure, microservice

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Authors: Susanne Ferschl, Peter Holzmüller, Elisabeth Wacker

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Ageing populations, advances in medical sciences and digitalization, diversity and social disparities, as well as the increasing need for skilled healthcare professionals, are challenging healthcare systems around the globe. To address these challenges, future healthcare systems need to center on human needs taking into account the living environments that shape individuals’ knowledge of and opportunities to access healthcare. Moreover, health should be considered as a common good and an integral part of securing livelihoods for all people. Therefore, the adoption of a systems approach, as well as inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral cooperation among healthcare providers, are essential. Additionally, the active engagement of target groups in the planning and design of healthcare structures is indispensable to understand and respect individuals’ health and livelihood needs. We will present the research project b4 – identifying needs | building bridges | developing health care in the social space, which is situated within this reasoning and accompanies the cross-sectoral cooperation project Brückenschlag (building bridges) in a Bavarian district. Brückenschlag seeks to explore effective ways of health care linking university medicine (Maximalversorgung | maximum care) with regional inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitative, and preventive care structures (Regionalversorgung | regional care). To create advantages for both (potential) patients and the involved cooperation partners, project b4 qualitatively assesses needs and motivations among professionals, population groups, and political stakeholders at individual and collective levels. Besides providing an overview of the project structure as well as of regional population and healthcare characteristics, the first results of qualitative interviews conducted with different health experts will be presented. Interviewed experts include managers of participating hospitals, nurses, medical specialists working in the hospital and registered doctors operating in practices in rural areas. At the end of the project life and based on the identified factors relevant to the success -and also for failure- of participatory cooperation in health care, the project aims at informing other districts embarking on similar systems-oriented and human-centered healthcare projects. Individuals’ health care needs in dependence on the social space in which they live will guide the development of recommendations.

Keywords: cross-sectoral collaboration in health care, human-centered health care, regional health care, individual and structural health conditions

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Authors: Ali Bayati, Jamileh Azarnoush

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Nowadays according to increasing the population all around the world, consuming of fossil fuels increased dramatically. Many believe that most of the atmospheric pollution comes by using fossil fuels. The process of natural sources entering cities shows one of the large challenges in consumption sources management. Nowadays, everyone considered about the consumption of fossil fuels and also Reduction of consumption civil energy in megacities that play a key role in solving serious problems such as air pollution, producing greenhouse gasses, global warming and damage ozone layer. In the construction industry, we should use the materials with the lowest need to energy for making and carrying them, and also the materials which need the lowest energy and expenses to recycling. In this way, the kind of usage material, the way of processing, regional materials and the adaptation with the environment is critical. Otherwise, the isolation should be use and mention in the long term. Accordingly, in this article we investigates the new ways in order to reduce environmental pollution and save more energy by using materials that are not harmful to the environment, fully insulated materials in buildings, sustainable and diversified buildings, suitable urban design and using solar energy more efficiently in order to reduce energy consumption.

Keywords: building design, construction masonry, insulation, sustainable construction

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Authors: Dewi Hardiningtyas Sugiono

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Concerning towards the quality of air comfort and safety to pedestrians in the University area should be increased as Indonesia economics booming. Hence, the University management needs guidelines of thermal comfort to innovate a new layout building. The objectives of this study is to investigate and then to evaluate the distribution of thermal comfort which is indicated by predicted mean vote (PMV) index at the University of Brawijaya (UB), Malang. The PMV figures are used to evaluate and to redesign the UB layout. The research is started with study literature and early survey to collect all information of building layout and building shape at the University of Brawijaya. The information is used to create a 3D model in CAD software. The model is simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to measure the PMV factors of air temperature, relative humidity and air speed in some locations. Validation is done by comparing between PMV value from observation and PMV value from simulation. The resuls of the research shows the most sensitive of microclimatic factors is air temperature surrounding the UB building. Finally, the research is successfully figure out the UB layout and provides further actions to increase the thermal comfort.

Keywords: thermal comfort, heat index (HI), CFD, layout

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Authors: Abdessalem Abbassi, Ahlem Dakhlaoui, Lota D. Tamini

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This article analyses management of hydropower dams within two different industrial structures: monopolistic and oligopolistic; when hydroelectricity producers are risk averse and face demand uncertainty. In each type of market structure we determine the water release path in closed-loop equilibrium. We show how a monopoly can manage its hydropower dams by additional pumping or storage depending on the relative abundance of water between different regions to smooth the effect of uncertainty on electricity prices. In the oligopolistic case with symmetric rates of risk aversion, we determine the conditions under which the relative scarcity (abundance) of water in the dam of a hydroelectric operator can favor additional strategic pumping (storage) in its competitor’s dams. When there is asymmetry of the risk aversion coefficient, the firm’s hydroelectricity production increases as its competitor’s risk aversion increases, if and only if the average recharge speed of the competitor’s dam exceeds a certain threshold, which is an increasing function of its average water inflows.

Keywords: asymmetric risk aversion, closed-loop Cournot competition, electricity wholesale market, hydropower dams

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Authors: Xinyi Xu

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This study conducts a detailed examination of Asian stock markets over the period from 2008 to 2023, with a focus on the dynamics of cointegration and their relevance for long-term investment strategies. Specifically, we assess the co-movement and potential for pairs trading—a strategy where investors take opposing positions on two stocks, indices, or financial instruments that historically move together. For example, we explore the relationship between the Nikkei 225 (N225), Japan’s benchmark stock index, and the Straits Times Index (STI) of Singapore, as well as the relationship between the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KS11) and the STI. The methodology includes tests for normality, stationarity, cointegration, and the application of Vector Error Correction Modeling (VECM). Our findings reveal significant long-term relationships between these pairs, indicating opportunities for pairs trading strategies. Furthermore, the research underscores the challenges posed by model instability and the influence of major global incidents, which are identified as structural breaks. These findings pave the way for further exploration into the intricacies of financial market dynamics.

Keywords: normality tests, stationarity, cointegration, VECM, pairs trading

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Authors: Raeda F. Abualrub, Amani Abdulnabi

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Aim: The aims of this study were to (a) examine the levels of nurses' political efficacy and involvement in health policy; and (b) explore the relationships between political efficacy, involvement in health policy, and participants’ background variables. Background: Nurses as citizens and health care providers have the right to express their opinions and beliefs in regard to issues that are concerned with the health care system or the public health domain. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional design using was utilized. A self-administered questionnaire (Political Efficacy Scale & Involvement in Health Policy Scale) was completed by a convenience sample of 302 nurses. Results: The results of this study showed low levels of involvement in health policy and political efficacy and a positive weak correlation between political efficacy and involvement in health policy. The perceived level of political efficacy was associated positively with nurses’ age and experience. Conclusions: Nurse administrators and managers may empower, support, and encourage nurses to enhance their involvement in health policy. Implications for Nursing Management: The findings have implications for nursing leaders and administrators to design appropriate strategies to enhance nurses’ involvement in health policy development.

Keywords: health policy, Jordan, nurses, political efficacy

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Authors: Emmanuel Maiyanga

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Access to sufficiently good quality freshwater has been a global challenge, but more notably in low-income countries, particularly in the Sub-Saharan countries, which Nigeria is one. Urban population is soaring, especially in many low-income countries, the existing centralised water supply infrastructures are ageing and inadequate, moreover in households peoples’ lifestyles have become more water-demanding. So, people mostly device coping strategies where municipal supply is perceived to have failed. This development threatens the futures of groundwater and calls for a review of management strategy and research approach. The various issues associated with water demand management in low-income countries and Nigeria, in particular, are well documented in the literature. However, the way people use water daily in households and the reasons they do so, and how the situation is constructing demand among the middle-class population in Abuja Nigeria is poorly understood. This is what this research aims to unpack. This is achieved by using the social practices research approach (which is based on the Theory of Practices) to understand how this situation impacts on the shared groundwater resource. A qualitative method was used for data gathering. This involved audio-recorded interviews of householders and water professionals in the private and public sectors. It also involved observation, note-taking, and document study. The data were analysed thematically using NVIVO software. The research reveals the major household practices that draw on the water on a domestic scale, and they include water sourcing, body hygiene and sanitation, laundry, kitchen, and outdoor practices (car washing, domestic livestock farming, and gardening). Among all the practices, water sourcing, body hygiene, kitchen, and laundry practices, are identified to impact most on groundwater, with impact scale varying with household peculiarities. Water sourcing practices involve people sourcing mostly from personal boreholes because the municipal water supply is perceived inadequate and unreliable in terms of service delivery and water quality, and people prefer easier and unlimited access and control using boreholes. Body hygiene practices reveal that every respondent prefers bucket bathing at least once daily, and the majority bathe twice or more every day. Frequency is determined by the feeling of hotness and dirt on the skin. Thus, people bathe to cool down, stay clean, and satisfy perceived social, religious, and hygiene demand. Kitchen practice consumes water significantly as people run the tap for vegetable washing in daily food preparation and dishwashing after each meal. Laundry practice reveals that most people wash clothes most frequently (twice in a week) during hot and dusty weather, and washing with hands in basins and buckets is the most prevalent and water wasting due to soap overdose. The research also reveals poor water governance as a major cause of current inadequate municipal water delivery. The implication poor governance and widespread use of boreholes is an uncontrolled abstraction of groundwater to satisfy desired household practices, thereby putting the future of the shared aquifer at great risk of total depletion with attendant multiplying effects on the people and the environment and population continues to soar.

Keywords: boreholes, groundwater, household water practices, self-supply

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Authors: Jonas Palmer, Leon Brüning, Lukas Himmelsbach

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The worldwide ambitions to transform the transportation sector are increasingly affecting the safety conditions for all traffic participants and the required infrastructure. To contribute to the transformation and for health aspects, individuals search for carbon-free alternatives that include physical excitation. Especially e-bikes experience a growing demand within the last few years and consequently change the safety requirements. E-cyclists are exposed to amplified risks due to higher velocity in comparison to classic cyclists. Furthermore, cyclists suffer from a lack of infrastructure, rider assistance systems as well as awareness of other road users. For minimizing the risk of accidents, it is crucial to identify, develop and implement safety measures for cyclists. The paper aims to contribute to future research with delivering an overview of the latest publications and to subsequently identify essential research gaps. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the areas of technical adjustments as well as legal aspects and the correlation of both. The review`s insights can intensify the awareness of safety issues related to e-bikes and promote the development and implementation of appropriate measures.

Keywords: e-bike safety measures, future mobility, risk management, road safety

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Authors: Hanmei Peng, Yiqun Wang, Mao Tan, Zhuocen Dai, Yongxin Su

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Efficient energy management in multi-microgrid distribution systems holds significant importance for enhancing the economic benefits of regional power grids. To better balance conflicts among various stakeholders, a two-stage game-based collaborative optimization approach is proposed in this paper, effectively addressing the realistic scenario involving both competition and collaboration among stakeholders. The first stage, aimed at maximizing individual benefits, involves constructing a non-cooperative tariff game model for the distribution network and surplus microgrid. In the second stage, considering power flow and physical line capacity constraints we establish a cooperative P2P game model for the multi-microgrid distribution system, and the optimization involves employing the Lagrange method of multipliers to handle complex constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively improve the system economics while harmonizing individual and collective rationality.

Keywords: cooperative game, collaborative optimization, multi-microgrid distribution system, non-cooperative game

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Authors: Aneta Binkowska, Artur Kamecki

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The ability to provide first aid should be one of the basic skills of each of us. First aid by the Law on National Medical Emergency dated 8 September 2006 as amended, is a set of actions undertaken to save a person at the scene of an accident. In Poland, on the basis of Article 162 of the Criminal Code, we are obliged to provide first aid to the victim. In addition, according to a large part of society, unselfishness towards others in need of help is our moral obligation. The aim of the study was to learn the opinion of the members of Medical Rescue Teams (MRT) of the ‘Meditrans’ Provincial Ambulance and Sanitary Transport Service (PA and STS ‘Meditrans’) in Warsaw on how people react in real situations threatening life or health of the injured person. The study was conducted in the third quarter of 2015 on 335 members of medical rescue teams, including 77 W and 258 M, who provided medical services in the ‘Meditrans’ Provincial Ambulance and Sanitary Transport Service MRT in Warsaw. The research tool was an anonymous questionnaire survey of own design, which consisted of 12 questions: closed, half open and one open question. Respondents were divided into 3 age groups and by individual medical professions (doctor, paramedic, nurse). The straight majority of respondents encountered granting the first aid the event on the spot. However, the frequency of appearing in such proceedings isn’t too high. The first aid has most often been given in the street and in houses. The final audited fairly important element is the reason not to provide first aid by bystanders in the opinion of members of the medical teams. Respondents to this question, which was an open question were asked to name the reason for not taking any action while waiting for an ambulance. Over 50% of respondents could not answer. The most common answers were: fear, lack of knowledge and skills, reluctance, indifference, lack of training, lack of experience and fear that harm. Conclusion: The majority of respondents have encountered instances of first aid provision, but respondents assessed the frequency of such situations as low. Placing the victim in the recovery position is the simplest and most common form of first aid. Therefore, training should be introduced not only on CPR but also in the scope of helping persons in sudden health emergency, who do not have a sudden cardiac arrest. A statement can be formulated, as a main conclusion of the analysis, that only continuous education and in particular practical training will help people to overcome the barrier of their limitations in order to help others. Among the largest group of witnesses providing first aid are the elderly and youth, who are subjected to various forms of education related to first aid provision.

Keywords: BLS, first aid, medical rescue, resuscitation

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Authors: A. S. CohenMiller, Jenifer Lewis, Gwen McEvoy, Kristy Kelly

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This international, interdisciplinary study presents the first stage of a gender mainstreaming project within one university as a microcosm of society in Kazakhstan to make concrete policy recommendations and set up the potential for new research to monitor change over time. Local, regional, and UN representatives have noted the critical need and interest in gender related issues in Kazakhstan. Gender mainstreaming has been noted as a strategy to understand and address gender equality and equity such as within the academy in exploring and examining organizational/management issues, university decision-making and leadership, assessing the overall academic climate, discrimination issues, hiring and promotion, and student recruitment and retention. This presentation provides preliminary findings from the university gender audit, highlighting key elements for moving forward in gender mainstreaming. The full study analyzes findings from the full gender audit including interview with key stakeholders, time-use surveys, participant-observations and interviews with female students, staff and faculty, and reviews of formal organizational policies and practices.

Keywords: academia, equity, Eurasia, gender audit, gender mainstreaming, Kazakhstan, policy, time-use survey

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Authors: Safeer Ahmad, Pratheek Sudhakran, M. Arif Kamal, Tarique Anwar

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In Healthcare facility designing, Efficient MEP services are very crucial because the built environment not only affects patients and family but also Healthcare staff and their outcomes. This paper shall cover the basics of Value engineering and its different phases that can be implemented to the MEP Designing stage for Healthcare facility optimization, also VE can improve the product cost the unnecessary costs associated with healthcare services. This paper explores Healthcare facility services and their Value engineering Job plan for the successful application of the VE technique by conducting a Workshop with end-users, designing team and associate experts shall be carried out using certain concepts, tools, methods and mechanism developed to achieve the purpose of selecting what is actually appropriate and ideal among many value engineering processes and tools that have long proven their ability to enhance the value by following the concept of Total quality management while achieving the most efficient resources allocation to satisfy the key functions and requirements of the project without sacrificing the targeted level of service for all design metrics. Detail study has been discussed with analysis been carried out by this process to achieve a better outcome, Various tools are used for the Analysis of the product at different phases used, at the end the results obtained after implementation of techniques are discussed.

Keywords: value engineering, healthcare facility, design, services

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Authors: Tinu Rose Francis, S. Wilkinson, Y. Chang-Richards, S. Mannakkara

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The objective of this paper is to assess the implementation of Build Back Better (BBB) propositions for disaster risk reduction in the natural environment with regard to greater Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2010–2011 earthquakes in the region. A set of indicators was established to analyse the extent of recovery attained in Christchurch. Disaster recovery in the region is an ongoing process, which gives us the opportunity to rate the progress made so far. Disasters cause significant damage to the built, social and economic environments and also have severe consequences for the natural environment. Findings show that greater Christchurch has made important progress and implemented a comprehensive natural environment recovery plan. The plan addresses the restoration of biodiversity, natural resources, disaster waste management and amenity values in greater Christchurch. This paper also surveys the risk reduction actions being implemented with regard to the natural environment. The findings of this study will help governing bodies to identify and fill the gaps in their natural environment recovery plans.

Keywords: build back better (BBB), natural environment, planning, recovery, reconstruction, resilience, risk reduction

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Authors: Isaac Ali Kwasu, Aje Tokan

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The research was set to design a manually pedal operated water pump to aid water flow technology for irrigation activities for rural farmers. The development was carried out first by a prototype design to guide the fabrication. All items needed for the fabrication were used for the final product. The machine is operated manually by pedaling. This engages all the parts of the machine into active motion. Energy is generated and transfer finally to the pumping unit which is wired with plastic pipes. The pumping unit which is wired with PVC pipes, both linked to the water source and the reservoir respectively. The (rpm) revolution per minute of the machine is approximated at 3130 depending on the pedaling speed of the user. The machine does not have gear arrangement yet can give high (rpm) for effective performance. The pumping performance of the machine is 125 liters in one minute and can sustain small scale irrigation farming activities and to supplement water management system to sustain crop growth.

Keywords: pump, development, manual, flywheel, sprocket, pulley, machine, v belt, chain, hub, pipe, steel, mechanism, irrigation, prototype, fabrication

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Authors: Thanawit Tongmai, Chatchawan Saewor

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Learning management is very important for students’ development. To promote students’ potential, the teacher should design appropriate learning activity that brings their students potential out. Problem based learning has been using worldwide and it has presented numerous of success. This research aims to study third year students’ attitude and their achievement in scientific research course. To find the results, mix method was used to design research conduction. The researcher used PBL and reflection activity in the class. The students had to choose a topic, reviewed information, designed experimental, wrote academic report and presented their research by themselves. The researcher was only a facilitator. Reflection activity was used to progressing and consulting their research. The data was collected along with research conduction by questionnaire and test, including attitude, opinion and their achievement. The result of this study showed that 74.71% from all of students (n = 87) benefited from PBL and reflection activity, while 25.19% were just satisfied. 100% of students had a positive reflection toward PBL activity and they believed that PBL was the best pedagogy method for scientific research course. The achievements of these students were higher than the previous study (P < 0.05). The student’s learning achievement, A, B+ and B, was 48.28, 28.74 and 22.98% respectively. Therefore, it can conclude that PBL activity is appropriate for scientific research course and it can also promote student’s achievement.

Keywords: reflection, attitude, learning, achievement, PBL

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Authors: Shafiq Alam, Yen Ning Lee

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Conventional hydrometallurgical processing of metals involves the use of large quantities of toxic chemicals. Realizing a need to develop sustainable technologies, extensive research studies are being carried out to recover and recycle base, precious and rare earth metals from their pregnant leach solutions (PLS) using green chemicals/biomaterials prepared from biomass wastes derived from agriculture, marine and forest resources. Our innovative research showed that bio-adsorbents prepared from such biomass wastes can effectively adsorb precious metals, especially gold after conversion of their functional groups in a very simple process. The highly effective ‘Adsorption-coupled-Reduction’ phenomenon witnessed appears promising for the potential use of this gold biosorption process in the mining industry. Proper management and effective use of biomass wastes as value added green chemicals will not only reduce the volume of wastes being generated every day in our society, but will also have a high-end value to the mining and mineral processing industries as those biomaterials would be cheap, but very selective for gold recovery/recycling from low grade ore, leach residue or e-wastes.

Keywords: biosorption, hydrometallurgy, gold, adsorption, reduction, biomass, sustainability

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Authors: Ishan Kumar Garg

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Urban Fringes have been witnessing unforeseeable, haphazard, and ineffective spatial planning systems for many decades. It invades peripheral villages in the zest of the land as an abundant resource. The process, popularly known as "Urban Sprawl", is commonly seen in many fast-growing cities, especially in developing countries like India. The research for this paper reveals significant neglect in rural development policies, which are not recognized as crucial in current town and country planning regulations. This promotes urban-centric development in the fringe areas that are subjected to real-estate speculation. Therefore, being surrounded by arbitrary urban functions, these villages compromise with necessary strategies to retain the rural cultural identities, traditional ways of living, and villages’ interconnections while remaining deprived of urban amenities such as adequate water supply, education, sanitation, etc. Such socio-spatial separation makes us wonder about their right to development. The possibilities of a sustainable and socially inclusive city expansion are also explored through direct consumer–manufacturer media to bring positive socio-financial transformation. The paper aims to identify a rational playground for both the rural and urban population, which creates possibilities for economic and knowledge transactions beyond their local boundaries. This is achieved by empowering the intact community of villages with economic sufficiency and developing skills to pass on to future generations. In the above context, revolving around unregulated urban sprawl, the northeast region of Bareilly city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is also discussed, i.e., currently under the influence of such development pressures. As we see, exclusive developments like residential, hospitality, industries, etc., over the unplanned landscapes are emerging with the development aligned to only urban means, not the rural. The paper ultimately re-envisions urban-rural associations through appropriate design combinations with economic growth. It integrates broken linkages by revising methodologies and encourages local entrepreneurship that taps the possibility of a gradual social transformation. Concurrently, the addition of required urban amenities leads to rural life strengthening and fulfilling aspirations. Since the proposed thesis carries through an inclusive fringe development, the study caters to cities of similar scales and situations that bolster such coexistence.

Keywords: smart growth framework, empowering rural economy, socio spatial separation, urban fringe development, urban sprawl consequences

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Authors: Ellen Patricia, Marilou Hyson

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Coaching has been showing great potential to strengthen the impact of brief group trainings and help early childhood teachers solve specific problems at work with the goal of raising the quality of early childhood services. However, there have been some doubts about the benefits that village teachers can receive from coaching. It is perceived that village teachers may struggle with the thinking skills needed to make coaching beneficial. Furthermore, there are reservations about whether principals and supervisors in villages are open to coaching’s facilitative approach, as opposed to the directive approach they have been using. As such, the use of coaching to develop the professionalism of early childhood teachers in the villages needs to be examined. The Coaching Pilot for early childhood teachers in Indonesia villages provides insights for the above issues. The Coaching Pilot is part of the ECED Frontline Pilot, which is a collaboration project between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank with the support from the Australian Government (DFAT). The Pilot started with coordinated efforts with the local government in two districts to select principals and supervisors who have been equipped with basic knowledge about early childhood education to take part in 2-days coaching training. Afterwards, the participants were asked to collect 25 hours of coaching early childhood teachers who have participated in the Enhanced Basic Training for village teachers. The participants who completed this requirement were then invited to come for an assessment of their coaching skills. Following that, a qualitative evaluation was conducted using in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussion techniques. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the coaching pilot in helping the village teachers to develop in their professionalism, as well as on the sustainability of the intervention. Results from the evaluation indicated that although their low education may limit their thinking skills, village teachers benefited from the coaching that they received. Moreover, the evaluation results also suggested that with enough training and support, principals and supervisors in the villages were able to provide an adequate coaching service for the teachers. On top of that, beyond this small start, interest is growing, both within the pilot districts and even beyond, due to word of mouth of the benefits that the Coaching Pilot has created. The districts where coaching was piloted have planned to continue the coaching program, since a number of early childhood teachers have requested to be coached, and a number of principals and supervisors have also requested to be trained as a coach. Furthermore, the Association for Early Childhood Educators in Indonesia has started to adopt coaching into their program. Although further research is needed, the Coaching Pilot suggests that coaching can positively impact early childhood teachers in villages, and village principals and supervisors can become a promising source of future coaches. As such, coaching has a significant potential to become a sustainable model for a continuous professional development program for early childhood teachers in villages.

Keywords: coaching, coaching pilot, early childhood teachers, principals and supervisors, village teachers

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Authors: Tianchen Dai

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Shantytowns are special historical products in china, possessing strong particularity and typicality, the theoretical value and the practical significance of which are deemed to hold great importance in the modern development of residential areas in China. The renovation planning of shantytowns can be very challenging in terms of cultural inheritance. The traditional lifestyle, one of the key elements building up residents’ perception of affiliation, should be carried forward in the renovation planning of shantytowns. Mobile vending can be considered as a rare business model survived within modern commercial environment, thanks to the unique spatial characteristics of Chinese shantytowns. This article mainly investigates the unique phenomenon of mobile vending in shantytowns, discussing the operating mechanism and rationality behind this commercial phenomenon. For humanistic concern, the innovative conservation of mobile vending, as a means to preserve the vivacious traditional lifestyle of local residents, can be realized through substantial urban design strategies, including spatial design of public space, height control of the facades, and traffic management around and inside shantytowns.

Keywords: cultural inheritance, mobile vending, renovation planning, shantytowns

Procedia PDF Downloads 448