Beyond Hijrah (هِجْرَة ): perspectives on resettlement, health and quality of life for Afghan and Kurdish refugees in Christchurch and Perth

Worldwide, conflict situations and the resultant number of refugees continue to increase, with over 43 million recorded at the end of 2009. Nearly half of those currently under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) originally came from Iraq or Afghanistan. Although less than 1% will eventually be resettled in new host nations, their long term health and settlement prospects are a matter of continuing relevance. Since 2000, Australia alone has accepted over 58,000 Afghan refugees, with more than 5000 resettled in New Zealand. Although refugees accepted under humanitarian programs receive state support frequently denied to asylum seekers, they are still vulnerable to acculturative stress. Public attitudes and government policies to immigration in receiving countries inevitably play an important role in resettlement outcomes.The overall aim of this research project was to examine the resettlement experiences of refugees settled in Australia and New Zealand, taking into consideration the different policy and social setting in each location. A mixed methods approach was adopted for this exploratory study, utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the social and political environment surrounding refugee issues in the public sphere, as well as assessing the health and wellbeing of former refugee participants.A comparative study of newspaper reporting of refugee issues was conducted to monitor trends in reporting over time, to assess public attitudes in each location, and provide background context to the main study findings. This media study provided insights into the politics of the refugee debate and policy environment in New Zealand and Australia, revealing significant differences in the way refugee issues are portrayed by the media in each location. Compared to New Zealand, newspaper articles in Australia were more politicised, and less likely to portray refugees in a positive manner. Since 2001, political attitudes to asylum seekers hardened, as revealed in Australian coverage, reflecting increasing negativity towards refugees overall. In particular, reporting suggests public attitudes towards refugees and those who are visibly different may be shifting over time.This was followed up by a survey of former refugees from Afghanistan and the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Iran, who were living in Perth, Western Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand at the time of data collection in 2008. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of resettlement programs in addressing the psychosocial and health care needs of these groups. For the purposes of the study, it was necessary to define what was meant by ‘successful resettlement’. Based on the availability of suitable quantitative instruments this was primarily conceptualised by measuring subjective well being and psychological distress. An additional instrument was also included to assess general self efficacy, as this can influence motivation and attitudes to change. Translated and culturally validated Instruments were provided in Farsi (Persian), Arabic and English for self completion during interview.Participants were recruited by a snowball sampling technique, using multiple initial contacts with short chains of contacts within each of the refugee groups to improve representativeness and reduce selection bias. Comparison with census data and community profile maps provided reassurance that this had been achieved. Ascending methods help to overcome some of the sampling challenges encountered with difficult to access and vulnerable populations such as these, accepting that achieving an indicative sample provides valuable information even if not truly representative.Quantitative data collected using individual, questionnaire-based interviews was obtained from 193 participants settled up to 20 years. This assessed key outcome variables using the Kessler-10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the Personal Well Being Index (for subjective well being) and the General Perceived Self Efficacy scale. In combination with demographic data, this allowed comparisons across domains based on ethnic group, gender, temporal variables and country of settlement. Qualitative material from open ended questions, presenting the personal perspectives of 124 participants, offered valuable insights into their overall resettlement experiences, quality of life, sources of stress and coping responses.Psychological distress was revealed to be a chronic problem, with 60% of those settled more than 8 years still above the K10 threshold. Despite this, many people were reluctant to seek professional help despite considerable morbidity. Introspection and depression were the main sources of concern for participants at all stages of resettlement, closely followed by separation from family and friends, feeling overwhelmed by the challenges facing them and relationship issues. Unemployment was significantly associated with poor mental health, especially as it often resulted in people sitting at home ‘thinking too much’. In addition, the impact of political events and the situation of significant others in their home countries, as reinforced by media reporting of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, was also influential. Women in particular, struggled due to a lack of family support, changing roles and expectations, and social isolation. The perception that public attitudes towards Muslims changed as a result of political events elsewhere, resulted in some people believing that they would never really fit in. This may be linked with the cultural and religious concerns expressed by some participants and reflect wider societal attitudes to refugees in general, or Muslims in particular, especially in Australia. Reality often fell short of expectation as refugees experienced difficulties forming relationships within the host society and were concerned around discrimination and employment challenges.The study findings contribute to the current literature on refugee resettlement in a number of ways. Firstly, both the media and refugee components of the study provide unique comparative data between Australia and New Zealand in this area, and the ability to disaggregate the refugee survey findings by ethnic origin is also distinctive. The inclusion of participants settled up to twenty years, which highlighted continuing concerns around unemployment and possible discrimination, has also contributed to the discussion on long-term settlement outcomes. Taken together, the findings of the study suggest possible links between public attitudes to refugees as portrayed by media reports, and wider societal attitudes towards certain groups which impact on the mental health and well being of former refugees. Although the research confirmed the prevalence of chronic psychological distress for some participants, identified risk factors related to ongoing settlement concerns and revealed a number of chronic long term stressors, a number of positive aspects of their lives were also described.The research has highlighted the need to understand differences between refugee groups, especially those with a wide cultural distance from the host community, recommending tailored programs to most effectively target areas of greatest need for each group and ensuring that access to support is still available long term if needed. One key finding has been to highlight the importance of suitable employment or other form of daily activity for former refugees, to provide them with a sense of meaningful achievement and respectable social position. As obtaining suitable employment is a primary means of accomplishing this, it is recommended that more support be given to encourage employers to take on former refugee workers, to acknowledge their experience and transferable skills and to build on the resilience and initiative many people have developed during their time as refugees. Doing this will assist with refugees more rapidly and successfully integrating into their new societies and moving towards a post-resettlement sense of identity and belonging

Peningkatan Keamanan Pesan Berbasis Android Menggunakan Algoritma Kriptografi RSA

Keamanan dan kerahasiaan sebuah data atau informasi merupakan hal yang sangat penting, baik dalam suatu organisasi seperti Perusahaan, perguruan tinggi, maupun individual. Itu dikarenakan seringkali data atau informasi yang penting kadang tidak sampai ke tangan si penerima atau juga bisa sampai ke tangan si penerima tapi data yang diterima tersebut disadap terlebih dahulu tanpa sepengetahuan pengirim maupun penerima itu sendiri. Untuk mengatasi masalah yang ada, peneliti akan membuat suatu aplikasi peningkatan keamanan pesan berbasis android menggunakan algoritma kriptografi RSA yang akan di implementasikan untuk aplikasi pesan pada smartphone android. Aplikasi ini digunakan untuk mengirim dan menerima pesan pada smartphone berbasis android dengan mengamankan atau menyembunyikan pesan asli. Metode yang digunakan Adalah algoritma kriptografi RSA yang menggunakan dua kunci berbeda dalam melakukan enkripsi dan dekripsi yaitu kunci publik untuk enkripsi dan kunci privat untuk dekripsi. Algoritma kriptografi RSA ditambahkan dalam aplikasi ini guna meningkatkan keamanan pesan berbasis android dengan menerapkan algoritma RSA dalam proses mengenkripsikan pesan dengan menggunakan key yang berupa angka-angka yang telah ditentukan pengirim, dan mendekripsikan pesan yang dikirim menjadi pesan asli, sehingga pesan tersebut cukup aman dan tidak akan terbaca oleh pihak yang tidak mempunyai hak atas pesan tersebut

Priming Benih Padi (Oryza Sativa L.) dengan Zn untuk Meningkatkan Vigor Bibit pada Cekaman Terendam

Seed priming has been widely used to improve seedling vigor of several crops such as corn, wheat, and rice. Seed priming with zinc to increase seedling tolerance on submergence stress had never been evaluated. The objective of this research was to identify agronomical and physiological characteristics of several rice genotypes during seedling stage at submergence stress following zinc priming treatment. This research used factorial randomized block design with three replications. The first factor was rice genotypes and second factor was zinc solution of ZnSO4.7H2O. Seeds were soaked with Zn solution at different concentrations namely 0, 2.5, dan 5.0 mM respectively for 24 hours. After that the seeds were germinated on soil media in side the plastic box. Fourteen days-old seedling were submerged in water for 5 days and then return to normal condition for recovery. Parameters being observed included seedling dry weight, shoot carbohydrate, and leaves chlorophyl which were measured after 10 days of recovery. Seedling height was measured once a week from 2nd to 4th week. Results showed that intolerant genotypes to submergence stress grew faster but seedling dry weight, shoot carbohydrate and leaves chlorophyll content were lower compared to those tolerant genotypes. Local and national varieties which were not tolerant to submergence stress could be improved by priming treatment with 5.0mM zinc

Experimental study on flame propagation in a straight pipe

Flame propagation in a closed pipe with diameter 0.1 m and 5.1 m long, as well as length to diameter ratio (L/D) of 51, was studied experimentally. Hydrogen/air, acetylene/air and methane/air with stoichiometric concentration were used to observe the trend of flame propagation throughout the pipe. Experimental work was carried out at operating condition: pressure 1 atm and temperature 273 K. Results showed that all fuels are having a consistent trend of flame propagation in one-half of the total pipe length in which the acceleration is due to the piston-like effect. Beyond the point, fuel reactivity and tulip phenomenon were considered to lead the flame being quenched and decrease the overpressures drastically. The maximum overpressure for all fuels are approximately 1.5, 7, 8.5 barg for methane, hydrogen, and acetylene indicating that acetylene explosion is more severe

Enhanced Version of Multi-algorithm Genetically Adaptive for Multiobjective optimization

Abstract: Multi-objective EAs (MOEAs) are well established population-based techniques for solving various search and optimization problems. MOEAs employ different evolutionary operators to evolve populations of solutions for approximating the set of optimal solutions of the problem at hand in a single simulation run. Different evolutionary operators suite different problems. The use of multiple operators with a self-adaptive capability can further improve the performance of existing MOEAs. This paper suggests an enhanced version of a genetically adaptive multi-algorithm for multi-objective (AMAL-GAM) optimisation which includes differential evolution (DE), particle swarm optimization (PSO), simulated binary crossover (SBX), Pareto archive evolution strategy (PAES) and simplex crossover (SPX) for population evolution during the course of optimization. We examine the performance of this enhanced version of AMALGAM experimentally over two different test suites, the ZDT test problems and the test instances designed recently for the special session on MOEA?s competition at the Congress of Evolutionary Computing of 2009 (CEC?09). The suggested algorithm has found better approximate solutions on most test problems in terms of inverted generational distance (IGD) as the metric indicator. - See more at: http://thesai.org/Publications/ViewPaper?Volume=6&Issue=12&Code=ijacsa&SerialNo=37#sthash.lxkuyzEf.dpu

Ekstraksi Model Gummel Poon Dengan Metode Pencocokan Kurva

Simulator rangkaian elektronika berbasis SPICE menerapkan model Gummel Poon banyak digunakan pelajar. Perancang harus memiliki parameter model dari devais elektronika sebelum melakukan analisis dengan bantuan komputer. Jika komponen yang digunakan diperoleh dari pasar, ada kemungkinan karakteristiknya tidak sesuai dengan lembar data dan / atau model dalam pustaka SPICE. Oleh karena itu perlu dikembangkan metode ekstrasi parameter model. Metode ekstaksi model Gummel Poon menerapkan analisis regresi telah diuji dan disimulasi. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa faktor kualitas kurva yang dicocokkan, R2, sangat dekat dengan 1. Hasil ini cukup memuaskan dalam simulasi.Kata Kunci— Ekstraksi, Gummel Poon, karakteristik statik, kuadrat terkecil, pencocokan kurva

The Pulsating Nature of Bed Load Transport With and Without Cluster Microform

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

In vitro antibacterial, antioxidant, total phenolic contents and anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activities of extracts of seven Phyllanthus sp

AbstractPhyllanthus species has long been used in folk medicine in many countries as antimicrobials and/or antioxidants. Eighty percent methanol extracts obtained from seven Phyllanthus sp. were evaluated for antibacterial activity using the broth micro-dilution assay, anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) activity using the HIV-RT assay, antiradical scavenging effects and phenolic contents using the DPPH assay and Folin–Ciocalteau colorimetric method, respectively. Best antibacterial activity as indicated by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values was obtained by Phyllanthus amarus against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) with a MIC value of 17.7μg/ml. Phyllanthus myrtifolius and Phyllanthus urinaria inhibited growth of Pseudomonas stutzeri (Gram-negative) with MIC values of 78μg/ml and 117μg/ml, respectively. A strong inhibition of HIV-RT was obtained by Phyllanthus pulcher (IC50 5.9μg/ml) followed by P. urinaria and P. myrtifolius (IC50 of 10.4 and 12.7μg/ml, respectively). A remarkable DPPH scavenging effect was observed with P. myrtifolius, Phyllanthus reticulatus and P. urinaria (IC50 of 10.2, 10.8 and 17.4μg/ml, respectively). Highest total phenolic contents were recorded for P. myrtifolius and P. urinaria (207 and 205mg/GAE/g respectively). With the exception of P. amarus, Phyllantus debilis and P. pulcher, total phenolic contents correlated with DPPH radical scavenging activity. Our findings support the uses of the Phyllanthus species in traditional medicine. The interesting biological activities obtained by P. myrtifolius, P. urinaria and P. pulcher need to be further investigated to isolate active agents and to study their mechanism of action

Interpretation of Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Spectra in Doped La2_2CuO4_4

The nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectrum of strontium doped La$_2$CuO$_4$ surprisingly resembles the NQR spectrum of La$_2$CuO$_4$ doped with excess oxygen, both spectra being dominated by a main peak and one principal satellite peak at similar frequencies. Using first-principles cluster calculations this is investigated here by calculating the electric field gradient (EFG) at the central copper site of the cluster after replacing a lanthanum atom in the cluster with a strontium atom or adding an interstitial oxygen to the cluster. In each case the EFG was increased by approximately 10 % leading unexpectedly to the explanation that the NQR spectra are only accidentally similar and the origins are quite different. Additionally the widths of the peaks in the NQR spectra are explained by the different EFG of copper centres remote from the impurity. A model, based on holes moving rapidly across the planar oxygen atoms, is proposed to explain the observed increase in frequency of both the main and satellite peaks in the NQR spectrum as the doping concentration is increased

Class-based storage assignments for miniload AS/RS with open-rack structure

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RSs) are warehousing systems that are used for the storage and retrieval of products in both distribution and production environments. This paper presents an open-rack structure with unidirectional-upward mobile loads within the rack, for miniload AS/RS, in which the stacker crane is only used for the retrieval operations, and the storage operations are carried out by separate devices namely, storage platforms. Heuristics algorithms and models are developed for load shuffling and travel time of the storage platform, respectively. The well-known ABC approach is used to classify inventory items for determination of class-based storage assignments. Then the expected travel time of the proposed AS/RS is derived. The travel time model and the performance of proposed AS/RS are validated using Monte Carlo simulation and are compared with a conventional one. The results show that the open-rack AS/RS represents a higher performance and the proposed models are reliable for the design and analysis of this kind of AS/RS