bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On nine species of the spider genus Eriovixia (Araneae, Araneidae) from Xishuangbanna, China
Authors: Mi Xiaoqi , Li Shuqiang
Published: April 2021

Species of the genus Eriovixia Archer, 1951 from Menglun Town, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China are reviewed, including seven new species: E. ganaesp. nov. (♂♀), E. liuhongisp. nov. (♂♀), E. tangisp. nov. (♂♀), E. wangchengisp. nov. (♂♀), E. yaoisp. nov. (♂♀), E. yinaesp. nov. (♂♀) and E. zhengisp. nov. (♂♀). The male of E. yunnanensis (Yin, Wang, Xie & Peng, 1990) is described for the first time. The previous description of E. yunnanensis from Tengchong, Yunnan by Mi et al. (2010) refers to E. pengisp. nov. (♂♀). Diagnostic photos of the habitus and copulatory organs of the new species and E. yunnanensis from Xishuangbanna are provided.
Sustainable and Circular Mango Farming Through Redesigning Sales Contracts
Authors: Kumar Santosh
Published: April 2021

Mango orchards in Bihar are managed through four different types of sales contracts, namely fully self-managed, short-tenure sales contract, long-term sales contract, and last quarter sales contract. This study has attempted to appraise the impact of different types of sales contracts on mango yield and farmers' income. Results indicate that last quarter sales contract is most sustainable followed by fully self-managed contracts. The remaining two contracts are neither sustainable nor financially viable. The higher sustainability of the last quarter's sales contract is attributed to clean landholding of the owners, optimal use of flowering inducers (PBZ), and segregated rights of merchants and owners.
An Investigation of the Relationship Between Employee Perception of Corporate Citizenship Behaviour and Organisational Sustainability
Authors: Yadav Anshu
Published: April 2021

Corporate greening practices such as measures to reduce pollution emission, management of waste, use of green technologies, sustainable reporting, consuming removable energy sources, implementation of ISO environment management certification, auditing, etc. are required for sustainability. A lot of studies of stakeholder perceptions of corporate responses towards societal concerns are mostly from the point of view of marketing, existing or prospective customers, and industry at a large, but the employee's aspects is most neglected. This chapter investigates the employee's perception of corporate citizenship (CC) and organisational sustainability and also the interrelationship of these variables.
E-Waste Management in India
Authors: Vig Shinu , Agarwal Richa Narayan
Published: April 2021

E-waste is a rising problem given the volumes of e-waste being generated and the content of both toxic and valuable materials in them. This new kind of waste has raised serious concerns regarding their disposition and recycling all over the world. Having hazardous components in television and computer monitors (lead, mercury, and cadmium) and in circuit boards (nickel, beryllium, and zinc), the recycling and discarding of e-waste becomes a key concern. Disposal of e-waste poses serious environmental and health hazards. However, these problems can be tackled with the help of a circular approach. In this backdrop, the chapter discusses the problem of e-waste management in India, the related environmental and health issues in e-waste handling and disposal. It also discusses e-waste recycling practices in India and the current policy level interventions by the government. The chapter also highlights the possible business opportunities offered by the circular approach to e-waste management.
Social Working the Borderlands
Authors: Boulet Jacques
Published: April 2021

This chapter describes why and how the author decided to leave his social work teaching position at an Australian university and start a cooperative that could more appropriately respond to the changing social and ecological context and could be more commensurate with the true values of the social work profession. The chapter moves from the author's experiences and philosophical motivations guiding his decision to move from the university context to the establishment of a social and ecological change cooperative and the invitation to colleagues and students to join the re-contextualizing experiment to the reasons why the cooperative format was chosen. The programs, projects, and partnerships, which have been realized in the course of the 23 years since the start of the Borderlands Cooperative, are documented and reflected upon, leading to final recommendations for a social work practice that remains true to its historical mission whilst responding to the contemporary contextual challenges.
Social Work Practice in the Compensation Context
Authors: Gountras Olga
Published: April 2021

There are multiple synergies between social work and the law, and the two professions have common goals. The law underpins social work practice via legislation and legal processes. Despite this, social work services in a plaintiff law firm remains a unique practice setting. This chapter provides a description of the establishment of such a service in Australia. It explains the reason for it, how it was established, the practice model, spheres of influence, and reasons for its success. The service is a role model for successful multidisciplinary practice for better client outcomes.
Ecological Social Work in South Africa and the Way Forward
Authors: Arkert Linda , Jacobs Issie
Published: April 2021

Internationally, social work has been delayed in engaging with ecological social work. The delay is reflected in South Africa, which is predicted to be a hot spot where the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are already being experienced. The effects of climate change and environmental degradation are social and environmental justice issues as the marginalized and poor in this country and the world have already been experiencing dire consequences. Social work practitioners and academics, in their roles as advocates for the marginalized and the poor, are therefore duty-bound to act for a sustainable environment for both people and the planet. In this chapter, the authors examine ecological social work in South Africa, its importance, and how it could become part of the global call for an ecological social work approach.
Negotiating Intersectionality
Authors: White Angela , DeCuir-Gunby Jessica T. , Petty Cailisha
Published: April 2021

This concurrent mixed methods study sought to unveil how historically Black colleges and universities assist African American women with negotiating intersectional experiences within science disciplines. The authors sought to determine the relationship(s) between racial identity, science identity, and science self-efficacy beliefs of African American science students enrolled at HBCUs. The quantitative data revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between science self-efficacy and science identity for women and men. While the quantitative data indicated that racial identity (assimilation) is positively correlated to science identity for the women, the same relationship was not significant for the men. The findings indicated that science identity significantly predicted college science achievement for men but not women.
Expanding Notions of Student Activism and Advocacy in the Community College
Authors: Miller Ryan A. , Forester Rachael , Kendra-Dill Zachary N. , Smith Steven C. , Wheeler Emily , D'Amico Mark M.
Published: April 2021

The purpose of this chapter is to explore student activism within community colleges, including opportunities for and barriers to activism. The authors argue that community colleges can and should leverage curricular and co-curricular venues to teach about and promote activism, thus encouraging socio-academic integrative moments that combine both academic and social integration. While four-year institutions might engage students in learning about and practicing activism via opportunities primarily outside of the classroom such as student affairs offices and student leadership opportunities, community colleges can encourage greater student activism primarily in curricular contexts. Indeed, given the demographic diversity present in community colleges—where students often work part- or full-time off campus, spend little time on campus outside of coursework, and have significant personal and family responsibilities—the classroom may be the optimal venue to engage students.
Diversity Management and Organizational Socialization
Authors: Akbaba Melda
Published: April 2021

In the current study, it is aimed to determine the effect of diversity management on organizational socialization in tourism enterprises. For this purpose, a questionnaire was conducted with 215 employees who work in hotel enterprises with tourism operation certificate. Regression and correlation analysis were performed using the data obtained from the survey. Analysis results reveal that the diversity management practices in hotel enterprises positively affect the dimensions of organizational socialization, and organizational socialization dimensions are significantly explained by the diversity management dimensions. In addition, according to the correlation analysis results, there is a high positive correlation between diversity management and organizational socialization. In this context, the positive management of employee differences within the organization and non-discriminative approach positively affects the relationships of the employees with other and can increase their level of organizational socialization through job adaptation.
Counselling Pupils for Social Justice
Authors: Mafu Noxolo
Published: April 2021

Along the dynamic freedoms of democracies of the 21st century, counselling pupils for social justice is a radical democratic process of learning. This is within awareness of metacognitive application of critical thinking that transforms prior obtained frame of reference. It also ignites, without imposing, critical self-reflection as a deliberate cognitive activity on experiences that bring about perspective transformation. Ironically, that school counselling continues to be less regarded as a management role in schools is a misconstrued perspective that not only disadvantages the pupil but also alienates counsellors while also deflating effectiveness of teaching efforts. The teaching and learning process is a collaborative effort that can only succeed when existing school's networks are utilised in the most effective manner especially for a transformative and democratic education. This chapter explores avenues of school counselling along post-constructivist perspectives determining a democratic pupil as sought to be a change catalyst for good citizenship in the society.
Using Critical Self-Study to Build Racial Literacy Pedagogy
Authors: Flynn Jill Ewing , Rolón-Dow Rosalie , Worden Lynn Jensen
Published: April 2021

This chapter describes a critical self-study conducted by teacher educators as they taught and learned with their students about race and its impact on education. Responding to calls for more research on social justice-focused pedagogy, the chapter seeks to help teacher educators consider how to build racial literacy in their teacher candidates. Despite the enduring significance of race and the disparities that exist between the experiences of white students and those of racially minoritized students, teacher candidates are often under-prepared for understanding the impact of race and racism or for knowing how to address it in their future classrooms. The responsibility for building skills and understanding related to race and education falls squarely on the shoulders of teacher educators, and this self-study shows one model for centering that work.
Raising Conscious Kids
Authors: Bullock Ronda Taylor
Published: April 2021

Early experiences in life exposed the author to the harsh realities of racism. These experiences fueled her desire to create a non-profit organization, we are, to challenge and disrupt not only interpersonal racism, but also systemic. Together with a group of parents, educators, doctoral students, and community activists, the author co-created a curriculum for an anti-racism summer camp for children. This camp embodies what Nel Noddings characterizes as caring for the whole child. In this chapter, the author reveals how her experiences with race led to the creation of we are summer camps. She makes connections to Noddings and beliefs about care, provides an overview of the camps, and makes recommendations for parents and educators who are charged with raising conscious kids.
Don't Touch My Hair
Authors: Oling-Sisay Mary
Published: April 2021

Myriad studies on service-learning agree on the benefits of service-learning for students. Because projects are designed with the needs of students and institutions in mind, the experiences of the Black communities served are seldom highlighted nor are the intricacies of the multiple relationships addressed. Voices of marginalized groups especially the Black communities—the community that is the focus of this chapter—needs to be incorporated in authentic and intentional ways to advance transformational service-learning for all involved. This chapter begins to examine issues and opportunities for best case scenarios for service-learning projects in Black communities.
Using Social Media to Organize a Marginalized Community
Authors: Burton Todd R.
Published: April 2021

Potential leaders within marginalized communities find it difficult to connect, learn, strategize, and support one another and build a cohesive community capable of effecting social change. This research contributes to filling a gap in empirical research on effective approaches to employing social media tools to organize and engage in social movements. The research builds on earlier studies of marginalized communities and social media to organize and engages in social movements by applying a case study design to assess how the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) military community employed social media to organize and advocate for inclusion and end discrimination within the U.S. armed forces. Seventeen findings were identified that describe key ways the LGBT military community employed these tools to organize, identify leaders and their roles, and how online behavior affected offline advocacy.
Human Resource Management for Managing Cultural Diversity
Authors: Baporikar Neeta
Published: April 2021

Manager awareness of culture and cultural diversity is subjective and as such, managers use their own cultural knowledge to make judgments on issues that relate to cultural diversity. Human resource practitioners are not championing the practices that empower managers to manage cultural diversity due to overbearing administrative procedures. This results in favoritism, leading to high turnover and poor morale. Managers are also unable to associate organizational strategies and policies to cultural diversity, indicating cultural diversity knowledge and skill gaps. Hence, adopting a qualitative approach and descriptive design, the aim of this research is investigating the role of human resource management in managing cultural diversity at the correctional service organization. The sample size consists of 24 managers selected through non-probability purposive sampling from 42 managers' population of head and regional office.
Queering the Marianist Charism
Authors: Bradshaw R. Darden
Published: April 2021

Experiencing disparities between the philosophical stance of the Marianist charism and its practical implications as they inform equity, inclusion, and diversity on the University of Dayton campus, the researcher engaged in a qualitative study gathering information to foster changes that benefit the greater University of Dayton community. By using the mixed methods, participant narratives contextualize diverse personal and professional experiences on campus. Results indicate that the Marianist charism, while complex in its interpretations, simultaneously draws people to the university and becomes a barrier to full equity; it further marginalizes women, persons of color, and LGBTQ+ identified people. This chapter concludes with a call to queer the Marianist charism and include the unheard voices of those marginalized to further these efforts.
The Nexus Between Human-Rights-Based Approach and Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers for Sustainable Development
Authors: Negussie Solomon
Published: April 2021

The ultimate objective of intergovernmental transfer is to enable each level of government to respect, protect, and fulfill social, economic, cultural, and political rights. As a result, human rights should be embodied as a central element in government budget reflecting revenue allocation and expenditure priorities. However, the economic rationales may not be fulfilled due to tax collection inefficiency, a sense of “free-ridership,” or fiscal profligacy leading to regional development imbalances. Moreover, important principles embodied in human rights such as participation, accountability, and empowerment of marginalized groups could be sidelined. This chapter analyzes the conceptual and practical underpinnings of transfer programs in Ethiopia and the need to address human rights to achieve development in an integrated manner. The study further argues that the nexus between human-rights-based approach (HRBA) and fiscal transfers is compatible with a federal system in an effort to address regional development asymmetries.
Creating a Stereotype of a Race as Dangerous, Unintelligent, and Lazy
Authors: Cooke Benson G.
Published: April 2021

The cultural conditioning and the indoctrination of negative stereotypes about racial groups has a long-damaged history in America. Unfortunately, this history continues to keep racial groups divided and missed opportunities to trust one another and grow closer socio-economically, educationally and politically. Individual, institutional and structural racism has kept people in this nation torn and divided socially and psychologically. Understanding the root of this problem requires an honest and open historical and philosophical discussion about the similarities of our human origins before the destructive lies told continue to sustain deep divisions among one group against another. While America was created to support an idea that “all men are created equal”, this has not been a social experience practiced by all men and all women. This chapter examines some of the issues that continue to support the stereotypes of racial differences juxtaposed to our cultural similarities.
Racialized Perceptions of School Violence Suspensions of African-American Students
Authors: Herron Jeffrey , Young-Alfaro Morghan Vélez
Published: April 2021

The history and current practices of out-of-school suspensions significantly impact African-American students; research shows the practices to be overly used and target African-American students. This chapter explores the ways that school violence is responded to disproportionally and is entangled with racial mythology. That is, racial discrimination shows up in structural and interpersonal ways such as suspending and expelling students of Color for the same infractions for which White peers get to return to class such as kicking a trashcan, defiance, and truancies. The chapter closes with recommendations for educators and policymakers, focusing on ways to mitigate the impact of out-of-school suspension practices and racial discrimination in order to improve the future of learning, school discipline, and outcomes of African-American students.
Intelligent Prediction Techniques for Chronic Kidney Disease Data Analysis
Authors: Shanmugarajeshwari V.  , Ilayaraja M.
Published: April 2021

Information is stored in various domains like finance, banking, hospital, education, etc. Nowadays, data stored in medical databases are growing rapidly. The proposed approach entails three parts comparable to preprocessing, attribute selection, and classification C5.0 algorithms. This work aims to design a machine-based diagnostic approach using various techniques. These algorithms improve the efficiency of mining risk factors of chronic kidney diseases, but there are also have some shortcomings. To overcome these issues and improve an effectual clinical decision support system exhausting classification methods over a large volume of the dataset for making better decisions and predictions, this paper presents grouping classification assembly through consuming the C5.0 algorithm, pointing towards assembling time to acquire great accuracy to identify an early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease patients with risk level by analyzing the chronic kidney disease dataset.
Forecasting Price of Amazon Spot Instances Using Machine Learning
Authors: Malik Manas , Bagmar Nirbhay
Published: April 2021

An auction-based cloud model is followed in the spot pricing mechanism, where the spot instances charge changes with time. The user is bound to pay for the time that is initially initiated. If the user terminates before the sessional hourly completion, then the customer will be billed on the entire hourly session. In case Amazon terminates the instance then the customer would not be billed for the partial hour. When the current spot price reduces to bid price without any notification the cloud provider terminates the spot instance, it is a big disadvantage to the time of the availability factor, which is highly important. Therefore, it is crucial for the bidder to forecast before engaging the bids for spot prices. This paper represents a technique to analyze and predict the spot prices for instances using machine learning. It also discusses implementation, explored factors in detail, and outcomes on numerous instances of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). This technique reduces efforts and errors for forecasting prices.
R Scuti
Authors: Laurentiz Silvia , Bergantini Loren Paneto , Venancio Sergio , Mayer Bruna , Carvalho Miguel Alonso , Vargas Dario , Perissinotto Paula Monseff , Policarpo Clayton
Published: April 2021

R Scuti is an audio-visual installation that proposes the transposition of astronomical data into an exhibition environment, using star observation records from AAVSO database. The collected information, which corresponds to more than a century of observations, were digitally converted to sound patterns that materialize through cymatics on a water surface. This surface receives a light focus, which reflects the moving waves and creates luminous patterns on the room's ceiling. The present text acquaints the concept, creation details, and contextualization of R Scuti in the scenario of poetic data visualization, which took shape in this project from the interdisciplinary dialogue between art, science, and technology.
Semrank
Authors: Singh Jagrati , Singh Anil Kumar
Published: April 2021

Popular real-world events often create huge traffic on Twitter including real-time updates of important moments, personal comments, and so on while the event is happening. Most of the users are interested to read the important tweets that possibly include important moments of that event. However, extracting the relevant tweets of any event is a challenging task due to the endless stream of noisy tweets and vocabulary variation problem of social media content. To handle these challenges, the authors introduce a new approach for computing the relative tweet importance based on the concept of the Pagerank algorithm where adjacency matrix of the graph representation of tweets contains semantic similarity matrix based on the word mover's distance measure utilizing Word2Vec word embedding model. The results show that top-ranked tweets generated by the proposed approach are more concise and news-worthy than baseline approaches.
Robust and Secure Watermarking for Propagation of Digital Multimedia by Paillier Homomorphic Cryptosystem With Arnold Transformation
Authors: Agarwal Namita , Singh Pradeep Kumar
Published: April 2021

Sharing of digital media over internet is becoming easier due to content authentication and security provided by digital watermarking. It also locates application in other fields like copyright protection, tele-medicine, military, tamper detection, and many more. This paper represents the robust watermarking approach using Paillier homomorphic cryptosystem with Arnold transformation. In this, the watermarking system is primarily prepared at an encrypted DWT-DCT domain. Cryptosystem is exploited at this time to encrypt the original media. For more security of multimedia content, the watermark image is scrambled through Arnold scrambling technique. The embedding process is done here to produce the encrypted watermark image followed by the encryption process. At recovery phase, decryption of encrypted watermark image to get the original and watermark image is done. The experimental result has shown that watermarking method is more robust and offers the security of digital media.
GAN-Based Medical Images Synthesis
Authors: Yang Huan , Qian Pengjiang
Published: April 2021

Medical images have always occupied a very important position in modern medical diagnosis. They are standard tools for doctors to carry out clinical diagnosis. However, nowadays, most clinical diagnosis relies on the doctors' professional knowledge and personal experience, which can be easily affected by many factors. In order to reduce the diagnosis errors caused by human subjective differences and improve the accuracy and reliability of the diagnosis results, a practical and reliable method is to use artificial intelligence technology to assist computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). With the help of powerful computer storage capabilities and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, CAD can make up for the shortcomings of traditional manual diagnosis and realize efficient, intelligent diagnosis. This paper reviews GAN-based medical image synthesis methods, introduces the basic architecture and important improvements of GAN, lists some representative application examples, and finally makes a summary and discussion.
Extending TAM to Understand Library User Acceptance of E-Books in Tanzania
Authors: Koloseni Daniel Ntabagi , Mandari Herman , Msonge Vincent T.
Published: April 2021

This study was conducted to examine antecedents that influence acceptance of e-books in Tanzania. The study extended TAM model with accessibility, perceived cost, and technological support to develop a conceptual model that was used to examine acceptance of e-books in Tanzania. Quantitative study was conducted using self-administered questionnaire in which snowball technique was used to identify potential respondents. The questionnaires were distributed using online Google form, and 314 usable responses were collected. A multivariate data analysis technique known as structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to establish relationships between the hypothesized relationships. The findings show that perceived ease-of-use, accessibility, and technical support have significant effect on acceptance of e-books in Tanzania. Several implications that will lead to acceptance of e-books in Tanzania are provided.
Identification of mosquito species and determination of population density in the Taif governorate, Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alghamdi T.S. , Al Zahrani M. , Gharsan F.N. , Al Ghamdi K.M. , Mahyoub J.A.
Published: April 2021

The surveillance of mosquitoes is the primary method for protecting humans from the spread of dangerous diseases such as malaria and dengue fever transmitted by certain mosquito species. The present study aimed to survey and identify mosquito species in the Taif governorate to determine their medical importance and monitor their distribution across seasons. A black hole light trap was used to collect adult mosquitoes, with four readings per month over an entire year recorded. A total of 3796 adult mosquitoes were collected, and 12 species were identified. All species belonged to the following genera: Culex, Aedes, Anopheles, Culiseta, and Lutzia; however, mosquito genera of medical importance (i.e., Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles) were examined in the present study. Adult mosquito species occurred throughout the entire year, with peaks of density and activity during summer and autumn (24-30°C), confirming that environmental temperature plays a key role in mosquito existence and distribution. This study might provide evidence regarding the spread of mosquitoes and creates a database of the mosquito species in the Taif governorate, which would assist in pest control programs.
Evaluation of a first-event sampling model for monitoring cabbage pests
Authors: Kim K.G. , Toepfer S.
Published: April 2021

First-event sampling models for monitoring diamondback moth Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and small white butterfly, Pieris rapae (Pieridae) are used in integrated production systems of cabbage. Decision-making accuracy and reduced labour needs of those models were unknown compared to fixed-sample monitoring. This we addressed through computer simulations of the currently most used first-event sampling plan for cabbage in DPR Korea. Indeed, this sampling plan in five subplots of a cabbage field at a sampling limit of a maximum 10 plants each, appeared less labour intense than many fixed-sample monitoring plans. However, only a medium accuracy of infestation estimates and correct decision-making for or against pest control was achieved, particularly at high pest densities. If accepting such medium accuracy, the current sampling plan could be reduced from five to three subplots at a sampling limit of 10 plants each, or to a maximum of five assessed plants per each of five subplots, this is, without further loosing accuracy whilst saving labour. Such sampling requires little investment in time and might be therefore applied and validated across more cabbage productions systems of East Asia. Ultimately, first-event sampling, as other sampling plans will remain a compromise between accuracy and practicability.
Taking Proactive Action: Introduction to the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 with Traditional Chinese Medicine
Authors: Qiu Jian-Nan , Deng Hong-Yong
Published: April 2021

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has fully displayed its strength and specialty and has played an important role in the prevention and treatment of the pandemic. Faced with the unexpected development of the pandemic, the Chinese government has responded quickly and attached great importance to the effect of TCM. Comprehensive therapy integrating Chinese and Western medicine has achieved remarkable success. To summarize and introduce the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 with TCM, this article covers the perspectives of policy guideline issue, clinical diagnosis participation, and scientific research progress.
Talking about Hot Flashes (潮热)
Authors: Holmblad Anna Bogachko
Published: April 2021

Women worldwide are dealing with hot flashes (潮热), a perimenopausal feature that is often tiring, embarrassing, and energetically draining. Conventionally, Chinese medicine defines hot flashes as Kidney-yin deficiency and its clinical manifestations include red face, sweating, hot sensations in the palms and soles, mouth and nose dryness, constipation, insomnia, lumbar soreness, knee weakness, red tongue, etc. To obtain a broader perspective and understand the dynamics of hot flashes, we examined the mechanisms behind hot flashes based on both the knowledge from ancient Chinese medicinal texts, as well as novel research findings of Chinese and Western medicine. This perspective was the foundation for the acupuncture study of our traditional Chinese medicine conducted in 2018–2019 in Shanghai. This study, designed as a pragmatic randomized control trial with two parallel groups, focused on regulating and unblocking conception and governor vessels. The results confirmed that our acupuncture method could effectively reduce both the frequency and severity of hot flashes and improve life quality of middle-aged women.
Premodern Intercultural Communication by Reanalyzing the Phrase “Da Yi Jing Cheng (大医精诚)”
Authors: Su Jing
Published: April 2021

Culture is fluid, not static. When one culture meets and blends with another, Western academic circles tend to use cultural hybridity to express a mixed state of culture. By reanalyzing the classic texts in relation to “Da Yi Jing Cheng (大医精诚)”, tracing the evolution of traditional medical ethics in history, and combining the knowledge of cultural hybridity, this paper suggests that cultural hybridity is not applicable to the discussion on the phenomenon of intercultural communication in the era before the rise of national states and modernity. A new discourse is needed to express intercultural integration, one that breaks through Western values and embodies the characteristics of Asian civilization. Civilization exchange and mutual learning can become the ideal model of intercultural communication under the background of the “Belt and Road Initiative”.
Content Features of Medical Journal Zhong Xi Yi Xue Bao (《中西医学报》 The International Medical Journal) during the Republican Period and Its Impact on Medicine
Authors: Cao Hai-Feng , Wang Li-Li
Published: April 2021

As a medical journal during the republican period, Zhong Xi Yi Xue Bao (《中西医学报》 The International Medical Journal) was characterized by rich and popular content, wide range of knowledge, and better popularization. It had played an important role in spreading modern Western medicine and popularizing medical knowledge in China, promoted the development of modern Chinese medicine and its integration with Western medicine, thus provided essential research value and far-reaching influence for medical science.
Optimization ultrasonic–microwave-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from Clinacanthus nutans using response surface methodology
Authors: Chamutpong Siriphatr , Chen Chung-Jen , Chaiprateep Em-on
Published: April 2021

Clinacanthus nutans (C. nutans) is an edible profitable herb with high phenolic content that recognized herb relieves skin disorder, antityrosinase, and anticancer. Along with these health benefits C. nutans, however, there is no study on the factors that influence the phenolic content of C. nutans extraction by water-based ultrasonic-microwave-assisted extraction (UMAE). The aim of this study evaluates UMAE conditions (ultrasonic power, microwave power, and extraction time) on responses using response surface Box–Behnken design and compared with the hydrothermal extraction. The findings found that the caffeic acid and ferulic acid content decrease with increasing the microwave power and long extraction time (P<0.05). The combination factors significant impact on the phenolic compound are microwave power with a time of extract and ultrasonic with microwave power (P<0.05). The optimization UMAE of C. nutans was ultrasonic power 150 W, microwave power 50 W, and time of extraction 3 min (P < 0.05), and final temperature after extraction should be <60°C. UMAE was a four-fold greater target response and a sixty-fold lower extraction time compared to conventional hydrothermal extraction. The synergistic of ultrasonic and microwave power encourages extraction efficiency, which is advantageous to prepare the high-quality C. nutans extracted raw materials to apply in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industry.
Constraints Associated With Pesticide Safety Measures Adoption Among Users In Oil Palm Farms In Edo, Delta And Ondo States, Nigeria
Authors: Osabuohien J.I. , Omoregbee F.E.
Published: April 2021

Safety of farmers is basic to the realization of food security and agricultural transformation in developing countries globally. Most farming activities predispose farmers, non-farmers and farming communities to health hazards because some users of these hazardous substances deliberately refuse to observe necessary precautionary measures. This study assessed constraints associated with pesticide safety measures adoption among users of pesticides in oil palm farms in Edo, Delta and Ondo States. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 268 respondents. Questionnaire was used to collect primary data analyzed for this study using frequency counts, percentages, and means while Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine the relationships between the response and predictor variables of the study. Results showed that about 95% of the respondents adopted the 28 identified pesticide safety measures. Nine constraints to pesticide users’ adoption of pesticide safety measures were identified by respondents. Inconveniences of personal protective clothing on users (=2.28), some pesticide safety measures are dangerous to man ( =2.16), and lack of money to buy protective equipment ( =2.05) were found to be serious constraints to adoption of safety measures. There was a significant difference in constraints to adoption among pesticide users in oil palm farms in the surveyed States (H= 9.524, P<0.05). It is recommended that safety measures should be included in agricultural messages disseminated to farmers especially those that use pesticides. Key Words: Constraints, Pesticide, Safety Measures, Oil Palm, Adoption
Assessment of solid waste management systems in Ibadan North, Oyo State using geo-spatial techniques
Authors: Popoola A.A. , Ayangbile O.A. , Adeleye B.M.
Published: April 2021

Solid waste management has been part of human activities right from time. Effort by the Oyo State Government in managing the collection and disposal of waste generated in Ibadan is seen in the provision of Skip bins at specific locations across the city. However, despite the provisions made by the government, an emerging trend is the dumping of refuse along the median of some major and collector roads in the city. This study aims at emphasizing a planning framework for the location of solid waste disposal infrastructure (Skip bins) through the adoption of planning standard. The aim of this study was achieved by identifying the existing skip bins within Ibadan North. More so, a spatial analysis of skip bins and resident's access to solid waste facilities within Ibadan North was deduced. Geospatial techniques were used for this study; data from primary and secondary source were also used to corroborate the geospatial findings. The study identified a total of 37 skip bins located within Ibadan North Local Government, serving the entire Ibadan North. Spatial analysis of the skip bins revealed a clustered distribution which is consequential to indiscriminate solid waste disposal within Ibadan North.   The study recommends adequate provision and location of skip bins to contribute to a cleaner and safer environment and a design blue print for Ibadan North was proposed.Keywords: GIS, Median, Nearest Neighbour Analysis (NNA), Skip Bins
Assessment of physico-chemical parameters of River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, (CAAS) Kaduna, Nigeria
Authors: Ojutiku R.O. , Habibu S , Kolo R.J. , Oyero J.O.
Published: April 2021

River Kaduna is one of the major sources of water to the inhabitants of the communities around the river and also to fish farmers while College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam (CAAS) is used for fish farming and also for domestic purpose. The study was carried out to assess Physicochemical Parameters of River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, Kaduna. The result of seasonal variation of physicochemical parameters between River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, revealed that the atmospheric temperature (AT) ranged from 32.8 to 33.60C, pH at 7.1, conductivity ranged from 83.7 to 139.7µs/cm, dissolved oxygen ranged from 9.2 to 9.4 mg/l, biological oxygen demand ranged from 5.2 to 5.9 mg/l, water temperature (WT) at 29.20C, total hardness ranged from 37.4 to 58.0 mg/l, alkalinity ranged from 18.8 ton29.7 mg/l, chloride ranged from 14.8 to 15.9 mg/l, nitrate and phosphorus ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 mg/l while transparency ranged from 21.4 to 22.3 cm respectively. The seasonal variation result revealed that both at the Dam and river, AT, pH, DO, WT, Chloride, Nitrate, Phosphorus and Transparency values were not significantly different while conductivity, BOD, TH, Alkalinity and Ammonia were significantly different. However, they were significantly difference from one month to another (wet and dry season months respectively).Keywords: Physico-chemical parameters, River Kaduna, CAAS Dam
Assessment of CO2 emission level in urban transport of Mekelle City, Ethiopia
Authors: Gebre Tewelde
Published: April 2021

Transport plays a crucial role in accelerating development and improving quality of life by allowing ease transfer of people, goods and services. It is also one of the important preconditions for achieving developmental goals. This study therefore intends to assess the level of CO2 emissions in urban transport of Mekelle city. It employs a descriptive research with qualitative and quantitative research approaches and survey research strategy.  Data for the study were collected from primary and secondary data sources. Questionnaire, interview, and observation were used to gather primary data, whereas, archives were used to gather secondary data. These data were analyzed through qualitative (narrative analysis) and quantitative (descriptive and statistical analysis) methods. Tables, charts, graphs and plates are used to present the data. This study finds that Atoz and Yaris car models; and Hyundai and Daihatsu motors emit lesser amount of carbon dioxide, while Land cruiser and WllB car models; and Mercedes Benz and Suzuki motors emit more. The average emission level of private automobiles in Mekelle city is found to be 209.93grams of CO2/km with an average fuel efficiency of 12.115km/liter. This study has also found that, the sampled private automobiles in the city emit an average of 21,768.09kg of carbon dioxide monthly and 264,845.1kg of carbon dioxide annually.Keywords: Climate change, Urban transport, CO2­, Vehicular emissions
Editorial message
Authors: Haileamlak Abraham
Published: April 2021

Editorial message from E-I-C of the journal
Provider-Related Predictors of Utilization of University Health Services in Nigeria
Authors: ABIODUN Olumide , OVAT Faithman , OLU-ABIODUN Oluwatosin
Published: April 2021

BACKGROUND: The utilization of health services is an important policy concern in most developing countries. Many staff and students do not utilize the health services within the university system despite the availability of good quality services. This study investigated the provider-related factors related to utilization of university health service by staff and students in a privately owneduniversity in Nigeria.METHODS: The perception of the quality of a university health service was investigated among a cross-section of 600 university staff and students who were selected by a stratified random sampling scheme. A self-administered questionnaire-based study was conducted. The structure, process and output predictors of utilization of the university health facility were assessed. Data analysis was carried out using Stata I/C 15.0.RESULTS: The average age of the participants was 22.93±7.58 years. About two-thirds of them did not have opinion about the mortality and morbidity rates at the university health center. Significant proportions of the participants reported good perceptions about the structure and process quality of service indicators. Utilization of the university health center was predicted by some structure and process indicators namely; the availability/experience of staff (AOR 2.44; CI 1.67-3.58), the organization of healthcare (AOR 1.64; CI 1.11-2.41), the continuity of treatment (AOR 1.74; CI 1.12-2.70) and the waiting time (AOR0.41; CI 0.28-0.61).CONCLUSION: The utilization of university health services was predicted by availability/experience of staff, the organization of healthcare, the waiting time and the continuity of care. The structure-process-outcome approach discriminates between the students and staff who utilize the university health center and those who donot. It also suggests a complex interplay of factors in the prediction of choice of a health facility.
How Does ISO 15189 Laboratory Accreditation Support the Delivery of Healthcare in Ethiopia? A Systematic Review
Authors: Adane Kasaw , Girma Mekonnen , Deress Teshiwal
Published: April 2021

BACKGROUND: Assessing quality by considering input, process and output level quality variables is important to ensure improved quality services. Designing and execution of an effective quality management system are aimed for the purpose of quality improvement, error reduction and associated risks. Therefore, this review is designed to assess the value of accreditation on the performance of healthcare institutions in ensuring quality improvement interventions. Moreover, this review presents important concepts of accreditation and the aspects of quality.METHODS: Published articles were downloaded using EndNote® application software program from PubMed (NML) database, Web of Sciences (TS) and Google Scholar. From a total of 883 downloaded full-text published materials, only 28 journals and 1 report issued from 2010 to 2017 were used for the development of this review.RESULT: The overall quality of healthcare services in developing countries was error-prone and suffered from limitations. These could be associated with wrong interventions and increased risks. Accreditation schemes have been implemented to provide quality care and ensure safety.CONCLUSION: Evaluation feedback induces interventions aimed at quality improvement and ensures better management systems, good process design, wise resource utilization, meeting patients’ need and increased satisfaction. Hence, stakeholders must be engaged in the provision of improve quality patient care and reduce associated risks. Hence, giving special quality improvement attention helps to improve quality healthcare services.
Spontaneous Orbital Hematoma in a 2-day Old Neonate: A Case Report
Authors: Kifle Dagmawit , Abateneh Aemro
Published: April 2021

BACKGROUND: Intra-orbital hematoma is an eye disease that is usually attributed to trauma, neoplasm, acute sinusitis or vascular malformations. However, spontaneous hematoma is a rare condition and can be an early manifestation of hematologicaldisorders.CASE REPORT: This is a case report on a 2-days old male neonate presented with proptosis of the right eye since the second day of birth. The pregnancy was term and the delivery was at health center by spontaneous vaginal delivery in which no instruments were used. He had no history of trauma and no bleeding from other sites. On physical examination, he had axial proptosis of the right eye of 26mm, injected conjunctiva and corneal ulcer with infiltrates. On complete blood count, white blood cell was 23.53x103, red blood cells= 3.96x106, platelets =279x103/μL, hemoglobin = 13.5g/dl, hematocrit = 38.7%. Coagulation profile test showed; prothrombin time = 5.1 with reference range of (10- 14 seconds); partial thromboplastin time =24.9 reference range of (22-27seconds) and international normalization ratio = 0.4 with reference range (0.8- 1.1). Ultrasound showed hematoma collection, and clotted blood was surgically drained with no other intra-operative finding. After the surgery, he took systemic and topical antibiotics, and progressively, the proptosis, conjunctival injection and corneal ulcer improved.CONCLUSION: In our case, we were not able to know the exact cause for the orbital hematoma. Although it is not common, we have to consider the possibility of spontaneous hematoma as a cause of sudden proptosis in neonates.