Perceptions of Nepalese physicians and nurses on the shortage of health care professionals in Nepal

Non-conventional therapies have been termed and captured by the phrase Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), since the establishment of The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), by the Federal Government in 1992. With the use of CAM on the rise in the baby boom population and the expectation that the number of nursing home residents is expected to double by 2020, it is imperative that healthcare providers gain more knowledge in effective means for treating the geriatric population holistically. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the implementation of a CAM intervention program in a sample of geriatric long-term care (LTC) residents would improve their perceived well-being over time. A quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test, designed-study was chosen. Data from a control group and an experimental group were compared following the implementation of the independent variable with the experimental group. The independent variable was the CAM intervention program, which included music therapy, aromatherapy, and deep breathing exercises. Two LTC facilities participated and qualified participants for the experimental group were selected from one facility, while the qualified control group participants were selected from the alternate facility. Thirty minute CAM intervention sessions were implemented with the experimental group three times per week, over a period of four weeks, while the control group continued in their regular daily activities group. One week prior to the CAM intervention program and one week following the last CAM therapy session, participants in the control and experimental groups were instructed on completing the WHO-five Well-being Index, a five-item, valid, and reliable instrument used to measure health-related quality of life and positive psychological well-being, developed by Bech (1998). The experimental group showed a statistical difference in pre-test (M = 11.7) and post-test results (M = 13.6); whereas the pre-test and post-test of the control group showed no significant change and the means remained the same (M = 8.12). The residents\u27 overall response to CAM therapies was positive and this study provides support for the relationship between complementary therapies and well-being in geriatric LTC residents

Parallel Static Object Detection

The need for parallelism is growing with the broadening of computing in the real world where computing is an integral part of any field. In the early days of computing, adding transistors to the CPU could solve computation complexity. This is not the case now, where we can no longer advance the hardware capabilities at the pace of the advancement of computing problems. One of the fields which is intensive in computation is image processing. If it were just for one frame of an image, we could cope with the computation overhead. When the need is to compute video frames, in some cases real-time video analysis, sequential execution of each frame could delay the result. In this thesis, we propose a parallel implementation of computing video frames. In particular, we focus on detecting new static objects that arrive in the already defined static background. This has practical implications as well. In a traffic crossing which is prone to accidents, this can be used to detect a vehicle or person in distress. The sequential implementation of this is fairly simple. However, as this is a computation-intensive problem, it would be more efficient to design a parallel solution

DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID TEST TO DETERMINE MOISTURE SENSTIVITY OF HMA (SUPERPAVE) MIXTURES

Exiting test methods to determine moisture sensitivity in hot mix asphalt are time consuming and inconsistent. This research focused on wheel tracking devices to develop a rapid test method to evaluate moisture sensitivity. The Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) and the Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device (HWTD) were used for this research. Compacted cylindrical samples were fabricated using the Superpave Gyratory Compactor. Results show that although most mixes without any additive show stripping behavior, APA results do not indicate any stripping inflection points. The HWTD results show stripping inflection points. The APA results show wet tests are severe at lower temperatures whereas dry tests show high rut depth at higher temperatures. The HWTD results show improvement in the performance by the use of anti-stripping agents at later stage. Further studies should be carried out using HWTD to relate number of passes for stripping inflection point with severity of striping. Lab results should be correlated with field performance

REFLECTION ON TEACHING A POSTGRADUATE, PROJECT-BASED LEARNING COURSE WITH DIVERSE DISCIPLINES

This paper is a teaching reflection on the delivery of the postgraduate, project-based learning (PBL) engineering course (subject) that is common to five Masters of Engineering program at School of Engineering, RMIT. The data was sourced from end-of-semester surveys of the perceptions of students who completed the course between 2017, when we taught the course for the first time, and 2019. The analysis showed substantial improvements in overall satisfaction, percentage of agreement on the project-based learning helping students to work well with peers, and percentage of agreement that students became more able to apply the theories to practice. The mastery in teaching such a course, especially when the students from various disciplines are involved, demands an adaptive teaching approach wherein the instructors or teachers experiment to continuously improve on the shortcomings in subsequent offerings to enhance the students’ learning experience. A PBL course that is well-designed, well-supported, well-implemented, and well-taught can engage students by improving their comprehension, helping them to work well with peers, improving their communication, and assisting them to apply theories to real application or practice

The Role of Corporate Governance in Mitigating Real Earnings Management: Literature Review

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the existing studies in the literature regarding real earnings management and corporate governance. The paper also addresses the gap in the real earnings management literature in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) as a major market in the Middle East and proposes future research topics. Keywords: earnings management, real earnings management, corporate governance, board of director

Accounting and Auditing with Blockchain Technology and Artificial Intelligence: A Literature Review

This paper surveys the published work on how blockchain technology will impact accounting in general, but AI-enabled auditing specifically. The purpose is to investigate how blockchain technology can improve transparency and trust in accounting practice and how professionals can use blockchain data to improve decision-making, based on the qualities of immutability, append-only, shared, verified, and agreed-upon (i.e., consensus-driven) blockchain data. The multi-party validation of blockchain protocols adds real-time trusted data for the AI systems used by auditors to improve assurance and efficiency. This review summarizes four themes emerging from the literature focusing on how blockchain technology has changed record-keeping in accounting: event approach to accounting; real-time accounting; triple entry-accounting and continuous auditing. The research interprets the findings using agency theory and stakeholder theory to advance how using blockchain to mitigate information asymmetry and improve stakeholder collaborations is understood. The investigation also summarizes the challenges and clarifies organizations’ reasons to be cautious about adopting blockchain. Lastly, the study suggests that future researchers use this study in two ways that enrich blockchain literature: first, to apply the themes and answer the questions identified within this review to improve the business methods of practitioners and policymakers; and second, to encourage stakeholders such as practitioners, system designers/developers, and policymakers to collaborate in designing blockchain ecosystems that suit accounting and auditing as they transform digitally

Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of electric and conventional vehicles in Australia

Abstract Demand for vehicles with low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has led automakers to develop various types of electric vehicles, which have low or no tailpipe emissions. The use of these cars in countries like Australia, where electricity generation is GHG intensive, results in relatively high emissions at power plants. To explore this trade-off, the present study compares the life-cycle GHG emissions of two functionally-similar cars, an electric vehicle (EV) and a conventional vehicle (CV), that are produced in Japan and used in Australia. The study methods are based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) technique, which estimates the environmental impact of a product-system throughout the life cycle. The results suggest that EVs and CVs have similar life-cycle GHG emissions. Compared with CVs, EVs generate more emissions during production, mainly due to the battery, and slightly fewer emissions during use. The life-cycle emissions of both vehicles are dominated by the use stage, suggesting that future work could focus on exploring the expected variation in the relevant parameters. Use-stage emissions depend mostly on uncertain parameters that are influenced by new automotive and energy technology, and on driving intensities and useful lives

Piloting ecological sanitation toilets in peri-urban community of Nepal

Concept of Ecological Sanitation; referred as ECOSAN, integrates sanitation and agriculture by using human waste as fertilizer and soil conditioner. The ECOSAN concept has been applied in Siddhipur village of Lalitpur District, which is nearby urban settlement of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The project, initiated on a small scale as a pilot project, is first of its kind in the country. The ECOSAN toilets in this village have been implemented after the demand from the community for proper management of their wastes. Main thrust of constructing ECOSAN toilets is due to their potential of preventing groundwater pollution, reuse in agriculture and management of sanitary waste. The acceptance, active participation, sharing of cost for building ECOSAN units and use of urine in agriculture are few of the indicators of sustainability of the project. The significant impact on the whole community has given impetus for replication to other areas as well

Long-term Impacts of Nitrogen Fertilizer, Tillage and Crop Residue on Soil and Plant Nutrients in Winter Wheat Cropping Systems Under Dryland Conditions

Agricultural practices influence the nutrient dynamics of soil and plants, which may take more than a decade to be expressed in the drylands. The nutrient supplying capacity of soil is a crucial component of sustainable agriculture, and hence, this study can play an important role in policy making for the future of dryland agriculture. The objectives of this thesis were to evaluate the long-term impact of different methods of crop residue management, varying inorganic N application rates, different tillage systems, and tillage timing on soil pH and on plant essential macro and micronutrient in soil and tissue (wheat grain and straw) under winter wheat dryland cropping system of the inland Pacific Northwest (PNW). The studies were carried out on the three existing long-term experiments of Oregon State University, and were represented as (i) Crop residue study (CR), (ii) Tillage-Fertility study (TF), and (iii) Wheat-Pea study (WP). Responses included total N, C, S, and Mehlich III extractable P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, and B in soil (four depths: 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, and 30-60 cm) and the total concentration of the same elements in plant tissue. The CR study examined the 84 years effect of residue burning, variable rates of inorganic N application, and organic amendments (farmyard manure and pea vines) on soil pH and the nutrient concentration in the wheat residue managed plots under winter wheat- fallow (WW-F) cropping system. No differences were observed between burned and unburned residue plots (excluding plots with the organic amendments) for nutrients in soil and wheat after 84 years of WW-F cropping. Residue incorporation with farmyard manure (FYM) reduced the rate of nutrient decline over time in soil, whereas inorganic N application decreased grain P, K, and Ca with the higher N rate application rates compared with the zero N application or FYM. In the TF study, the 75 years effect of moldboard plow (MP), sub-surface sweep (SP), and disk plow (DP) and variable rates of inorganic N on soil pH, and on soil and plant nutrients were investigated under WW-F. The soil under MP lost greater amount of total N, C, and extractable K, and Mg in the top 10 cm than the soil under SP and DP. The severity of C, N, Mehlich III extractable P, Ca, Mg, Cu, Mn, and Zn decline were lower in soil under DP than in soil under MP, and comparable with soil under SP for most nutrients. Long-term application of higher rates of N fertilizer improved soil C: N ratio and P accumulation in wheat grain. Decreased soil pH was also observed with higher N rates application in the TF study. The WP study consisted of 52 years effect of timing and tillage intensity on the same parameters as of CR and TF study under winter wheat- dry pea rotation. The treatments were spring tillage (ST), fall tillage (FT), disk/chisel tillage (DT/CT), and no tillage (NT). No differences were observed between ST and FT for nutrients in soil and wheat over time, however, NT had started to show its effect in 2015; greater soil total C, S, and extractable P, K, and Mn were evident under NT compared with FT, ST and DT/CT in the upper 10 cm soil depth. The NT plots were under minimum tillage until 1995, and under NT after that, so its long-term effect is yet to be seen. The results suggest that NT can be effective agricultural practice for improving resiliency of soil under dryland wheat production