Education for sustainability for remote populations

Education for sustainability for remote population

The response of the competitive balance model to the external field

The competitive balance model was proposed as an extension of the balance theory to address heterogeneities in real-world networks. In this model, different paradigms lead to form different friendship and enmity. As an example, friendship or enmity between countries can have a political or religious basis. The suggested Hamiltonian is symmetrical between paradigms. In this paper, we investigate the influence of the external field on the evolution of the network. We drive the mean-field solutions of the model and verify the accuracy of our analytical solutions by performing Monte-Carlo simulations. We observe that the external field breaks the symmetry of the system. The response of the system to the external field, depending on the temperature, is paramagnetic or ferromagnetic. Similar to the magnetic systems, susceptibility follows Curie's law. We also observed a hysteresis behavior. Once communities are formed based on a certain paradigm, then they resist change.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Microbial resistance in patients with urinary tract infections in Al-Mukalla, Yemen

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is an aggravating and common problem in human at sometimes during their life and may give more complications.Objective: To project antimicrobial resistance in patients with UTI as a wide problem among cases referred to the National Center of Public Health Laboratories in Ibn-Sina Teaching Hospital in Al- Mukalla, Hadhramout Governorate in Yemen.Materials and methods: From 290 cases referred from Ibn-Sina Teaching Hospital outpatients, urine samples were tested and reported in the National Center for Public Health Laboratories at the period from 2003 to 2006. Data were obtained from the records of the center (for urine examination, culture and sensitivity test) and analyzed.Results: Among 290 cases, 147(50.7%) were suffering from urinary tract infection. E. coli, which is the normal intestinal flora, was the most common isolate 52 (35.4%). E. coli showed high resistance against quinolones (84.6%) and penicillin (78.8%) and there was no resistance against macrolides. Conclusion: Microbial resistance strains were high, which may be due to the abuse of antibiotics.Keywords: Hadhramout, E. coli, macrolides, quinolones

Coupled criticality analysis of inflation and unemployment

In this paper, we are interested to focus on the critical periods in the economy which are characterized by large fluctuations in macroeconomic indicators. To capture unusual and large fluctuations of inflation and unemployment, we concentrate on the non-Gaussianity of their distributions. To this aim, by using the coupled multifractal approach, we analyze US data for a period of 70 years from 1948 until 2018 and measure the non-Gausianity of the distributions. Then, we investigate how the non-Gaussianity of the variables affects the coupling structure of them. By applying the multifractal method, one can see that the non-Gaussianity depends on the scales. While the non-Gaussianity of unemployment is noticeable only for periods smaller than 1 year and for longer periods tends to Gaussian behavior, the non-Gaussianities of inflation persist for all time scales. Also, it is observed that the coupling structure of these variables tends to a Gaussian behavior after $2$ years.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Supersymmetric Extension of GCA in 2d

We derive the infinite dimensional Supersymmetric Galilean Conformal Algebra (SGCA) in the case of two spacetime dimensions by performing group contraction on 2d superconformal algebra. We also obtain the representations of the generators in terms of superspace coordinates. Here we find realisations of the SGCA by considering scaling limits of certain 2d SCFTs which are non-unitary and have their left and right central charges become large in magnitude and opposite in sign. We focus on the Neveu-Schwarz sector of the parent SCFTs and develop, in parallel to the GCA studies recently in (arXiv:0912.1090), the representation theory based on SGCA primaries, Ward identities for their correlation functions and their descendants which are null states.Comment: La TeX file, 32 pages; v2: typos corrected, journal versio

Planning road network in mountain forests using GIS and Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP)

Forest road construction is the most costly operation in forestry. Road designing and construction in unsuitable areas may increase construction and maintenance costs and also cause many environmental impacts. Therefore, it is required to pay more attention to forest road design. In this research, we tried to introduce an appropriate method for locating forest roads using GIS and AHP simultaneously. The most important layers in locating forest road include slope, soils type, geology, hydrographic networks, aspects, trees volume m3 per hectare ,tree type and elevation maps which were determined and then by using expert thought and AHP method the study area was classified in five classes including very good, good, medium, bad and worse for forest road construction. Then two new variants were designed on the prepared AHP map: the first variant was designated using traditional method and Pegger extension was applied to design the second. Pegger Planning variant (PP_variant) had the highest efficiency in path from good and bad points of view based on AHP map. The results of this study illustrated that using AHP and GIS simultaneously can introduce an appropriate and suitable method in the forest road network planning

Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Haptic Robot-Assisted System for Femur Fracture Surgery

In the face of challenges encountered during femur fracture surgery, such as the high rates of malalignment and X-ray exposure to operating personnel, robot-assisted surgery has emerged as an alternative to conventional state-of-the-art surgical methods. This paper introduces the development of Robossis, a haptic system for robot-assisted femur fracture surgery. Robossis comprises a 7-DOF haptic controller and a 6-DOF surgical robot. A unilateral control architecture is developed to address the kinematic mismatch and the motion transfer between the haptic controller and the Robossis surgical robot. A real-time motion control pipeline is designed to address the motion transfer and evaluated through experimental testing. The analysis illustrates that the Robossis surgical robot can adhere to the desired trajectory from the haptic controller with an average translational error of 0.32 mm and a rotational error of 0.07 deg. Additionally, a haptic rendering pipeline is developed to resolve the kinematic mismatch by constraining the haptic controller (user hand) movement within the permissible joint limits of the Robossis surgical robot. Lastly, in a cadaveric lab test, the Robossis system assisted surgeons during a mock femur fracture surgery. The result shows that Robossis can provide an intuitive solution for surgeons to perform femur fracture surgery.Comment: This paper is to be submitted to an IEEE journa

The mediating roles of workplace support and ethical work environment in associations between leadership and moral distress:a longitudinal study of Canadian health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in heightened moral distress among health care workers (HCWs) worldwide. Past research has shown that effective leadership may mitigate potential for the development of moral distress. However, no research to date has considered the mechanisms by which leadership might have an influence on moral distress. We sought to evaluate longitudinally whether Canadian HCWs’ perceptions of workplace support and ethical work environment would mediate associations between leadership and moral distress.Methods: A total of 239 French- and English-speaking Canadian HCWs employed during the COVID-19 pandemic were recruited to participate in a longitudinal online survey. Participants completed measures of organizational and supervisory leadership at baseline and follow-up assessments of workplace support, perceptions of an ethical work environment, and moral distress.Results: Associations between both organizational and supervisory leadership and moral distress were fully mediated by workplace supports and perceptions of an ethical work environment.Discussion: To ensure HCW well-being and quality of care, it is important to ensure that HCWs are provided with adequate workplace supports, including manageable work hours, social support, and recognition for efforts, as well as an ethical workplace environment

Exposure to moral stressors and associated outcomes in healthcare workers:Prevalence, correlates, and impact on job attrition

Introduction: Healthcare workers (HCWs) often experience morally challenging situations in their workplaces that may contribute to job turnover and compromised well-being. This study aimed to characterize the nature and frequency of moral stressors experienced by HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, examine their influence on psychosocial-spiritual factors, and capture the impact of such factors and related moral stressors on HCWs’ self-reported job attrition intentions.Methods: A sample of 1204 Canadian HCWs were included in the analysis through a web-based survey platform whereby work-related factors (e.g. years spent working as HCW, providing care to COVID-19 patients), moral distress (captured by MMD-HP), moral injury (captured by MIOS), mental health symptomatology, and job turnover due to moral distress were assessed.Results: Moral stressors with the highest reported frequency and distress ratings included patient care requirements that exceeded the capacity HCWs felt safe/comfortable managing, reported lack of resource availability, and belief that administration was not addressing issues that compromised patient care. Participants who considered leaving their jobs (44%; N = 517) demonstrated greater moral distress and injury scores. Logistic regression highlighted burnout (AOR = 1.59; p &lt; .001), moral distress (AOR = 1.83; p &lt; .001), and moral injury due to trust violation (AOR = 1.30; p = .022) as significant predictors of the intention to leave one’s job.Conclusion: While it is impossible to fully eliminate moral stressors from healthcare, especially during exceptional and critical scenarios like a global pandemic, it is crucial to recognize the detrimental impacts on HCWs. This underscores the urgent need for additional research to identify protective factors that can mitigate the impact of these stressors.Introducción: Los trabajadores de la salud (TS) a menudo experimentan situaciones moralmente desafiantes en sus lugares de trabajo que pueden contribuir a la rotación laboral y comprometer su bienestar. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo caracterizar la naturaleza y frecuencia de los estresores morales experimentados por los TS durante la pandemia por COVID-19, examinar su influencia en los factores psicosociales-espirituales y capturar el impacto de dichos factores y los estresores morales relacionados a las intenciones de abandono laboral de los TS.Métodos: Se incluyó en el análisis una muestra de 1.204 TS canadienses a través de una encuesta en plataforma web en la que se analizaron factores relacionados con el trabajo (p. ej., años trabajados como TS, brindando atención a pacientes con COVID-19), angustia moral (evaluado con MMD-HP), daño moral (evaluado con MIOS), sintomatología de salud mental y rotación laboral debido a angustia moral.Resultados: Los estresores morales con mayor frecuencia reportados y tasas de angustia incluyeron requerimientos de atención al paciente que excedieron la capacidad en la que los TS se sentían seguros/cómodos de manejarlos, falta de disponibilidad de recursos y la creencia de que la administración no estaba abordando los problemas que comprometían la atención al paciente. Los participantes que consideraron dejar sus trabajos (44%; N = 517) demostraron mayores puntuaciones de angustia y daño moral. La regresión logística destacó el burnout (AOR = 1,59; p &lt; 0,001), la angustia moral (AOR = 1,83; p &lt; 0,001) y el daño moral debido a la violación de la confianza (AOR = 1,30; p = 0,022) como predictores significativos asociados a la intención de dejar el trabajo.Conclusión: Si bien, es imposible eliminar por completo los estresores morales de la atención sanitaria, especialmente durante escenarios críticos y excepcionales como una pandemia global, es crucial reconocer los impactos perjudiciales para los TS. Esto subraya la necesidad urgente de realizar investigaciones adicionales para identificar factores protectores que puedan mitigar el impacto de estos factores estresantes.</div