A multi-criteria multi-stakeholder industrial projects prioritization in Gaza Strip

This research presents a decision support methodology for selection decisions in which Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model is used to prioritize main industries in Gaza Strip not only from the view point of a single stakeholder and a single criteria, but also from that of multiple stakeholders and multiple criteria. Literature review, in addition to experts’ interviews were used to identify the main selection criteria and sub-criteria. These main criteria are economic criteria, financial criteria, marketing, technical, political and social, and environmental criteria. In addition, the alternatives were identified via Palestinian Federation of Industries (PFI). These alternatives are food industries, garment industries, chemical industries, plastic industries, wood industries, metal industries, and construction industries. Results show that different stakeholders choose different alternatives. The aggregate ranking of the industries

Leishmaniasis in Refugee and Local Pakistani Populations

The epidemiology of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis was investigated in northwest Pakistan. Results suggested similar patterns of endemicity in both Afghan refugee and Pakistani populations and highlighted risk factors and household clustering of disease

Discourse and religion in educational practice

Despite the existence of long-held binaries between secular and sacred, private and public spaces, school and religious literacies in many contemporary societies, the significance of religion and its relationship to education and society more broadly has become increasingly topical. Yet, it is only recently that the investigation of the nexus of discourse and religion in educational practice has started to receive some scholarly attention. In this chapter, religion is understood as a cultural practice, historically situated and embedded in specific local and global contexts. This view of religion stresses the social alongside the subjective or experiential dimensions. It explores how through active participation and apprenticeship in culturally appropriate practices and behaviors often mediated intergenerationally and the mobilisation of linguistic and other semiotic resources but also affective, social and material resources, membership in religious communities is constructed and affirmed. The chapter reviews research strands that have explored different aspects of discourse and religion in educational practice as a growing interdisciplinary field. Research strands have examined the place and purpose of religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular in English Language Teaching (ELT) programmes and the interplay of religion and teaching and learning in a wide range of religious and increasingly secular educational contexts. They provide useful insights for scholars of discourse studies to issues of identity, socialisation, pedagogy and language policy

Sociolinguistics of Style and Social Class in Contemporary Athens

This ethnographic study deals with the ways people in Athens, Greece, use style to construct their social class identities. Including a rich dataset comprising ethnographic interviews with actual people who live in the stereotypically seen as leafy and posh northern suburbs and in the stereotypically treated as working class western suburbs of Athens coupled with data from popular literary novels, TV series and Greek hip hop music, it argues that the relationship between style and social class identity is mediated by complex social meanings encompassing features from and discourses relevant to both areas, which are structured across different orders of indexicality depending on the genre of speech in which they are created. As such, it will be of interest to scholars in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, anthropology, sociology, Modern Greek studies, and to everyone who is interested in how social class is constructed via language.Greek State Scholarships Foundation, Onassis Public Benefit Fund, Foundation for Education and European Cultur

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Inter-operator variability of a finite element model of femurs with and without simulated metastatic defects

ESB2021, 26th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics, Milan, ITALIE, 11-/07/2021 - 14/07/2021Femur metastases are associated with severe skeletal complications, including bone fracture [1]. Clinical scores, such as Mirel&apos;s, poorly estimate the risk of fracture. A recent study showed that subject-specific finite element (FE) models, based on QCT imaging, outweigh the performance of clinical experts when applied to patients [2]. However, several parameters of the FE models are operator-dependent and may affect the calculated failure load. The uncertainty on these parameters and their effects on the failure load have not been quantified. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to assess the inter-operator variability in a finite element model of femurs with and without created defects representing osteolytic metastases