Why Not STEM? A Study Case on the Influence of Gender Factors on Students’ Higher Education Choice

The gender gap in STEM-related job positions is a fact, and it is closely related to the low percentage of women studying STEM degrees. This poses a problem because Europe, as well as the United States and the rest of the developed countries, keep demanding the best engineers and scientists to continue developing innovative products. This problem can thus be approached by answering, firstly, the following question: Why are women not studying STEM degrees? In this paper, we summarize the factors, found in literature, that influence students—both boys and girls—to not study STEM, particularly engineering, computer sciences and technology. We study these influence factors in a sample of N = 338 students from a secondary school placed in the south of Spain; we carry out a survey in order to find out if those students fill out the same answers other researchers have found and published in the related literature. Our main conclusions are as follows: The results confirm that the number of women in technical courses decreases when the level of the course increases; the lack of role models is not an impediment for girls to feel comfortable; unlike boys, girls will not choose engineering, even if their scoring in STEM is good; and we found that girls and women see themselves as not capable of studying an engineering degree more than boys and men do. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the situation regarding the gender gap in STEM fields in ages in which both girls and boys must choose their future studies.

Characteristics of the ageing skin, xerosis cutis and its complications

People in the developed countries are living longer. Geriatric dermatology is playing an increasingly important role as chances of developing skin-related problems increase with their ageing. Skin ageing is induced by two main processes: intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic ageing is caused by environmental factors such as sun exposure, smoking, alcohol consumption, air pollution, and poor nutrition. Intrinsic ageing reflects the genetic background and depends on time. The aged skin is characterised by the appearance of dryness, atrophy, wrinkles, pigmented lesions, patchy hypopigmentation, and elastosis. This article provides an overview of skin ageing processes and common conditions found in the elderly persons such as xerosis, pruritus, and eczema.

Projections of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions and the resulting global warming based on recent trends in observed abundances and current policies

The emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) have increased significantly in the past two decades, primarily as a result of the phaseout of ozone depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol and the use of HFCs as their replacements. Projections from 2015 showed large increases in HFC use and emissions in this century in the absence of regulations, contributing up to 0.5 °C to global surface warming by 2100. In 2019, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol came into force with the goal of limiting the use of HFCs globally, and currently, regulations to limit the use of HFCs are in effect in several countries. Here, we analyze trends in HFC emissions inferred from observations of atmospheric abundances and compare them with previous projections. Total CO2-eq inferred HFC emissions continue to increase through 2019 (to about 0.8 GtCO2-eq yr−1) but are about 20 % lower than previously projected for 2017–2019, mainly because of lower global emissions of HFC-143a. This indicates that HFCs are used much less in industrial and commercial refrigeration (ICR) applications than previously projected. This is supported by data reported by the developed countries and lower reported consumption of HFC-143a in China. Because this time-period preceded the beginning of the Kigali controls, this reduction cannot be linked directly to the provisions of the Kigali Amendment. However, it could indicate that companies transitioned away from the HFC-143a with its high global warming potential (GWP) for ICR applications, in anticipation of national or global mandates. A new HFC scenario is developed based on current trends in HFC use and current policies in several countries. These current policies reduce projected emissions in 2050 from the previously calculated 4.0–5.3 GtCO2-eq yr−1 to 1.9–3.6 GtCO2-eq yr−1. The provisions of the Kigali Amendment are projected to reduce the emissions further to 0.9–1.0 GtCO2-eq yr−1 in 2050. Without current policies, HFCs would be projected to contribute 0.28–0.44 °C to the global surface warming in 2100, compared to 0.14–0.31 °C with current policies, but without the Kigali Amendment. In contrast, the Kigali Amendment controls are expected to limit surface warming from HFCs to about 0.04 °C in 2100.

The Evaluation of PSA levels in Libyan Prostate Cancer Patients

Background: Prostate cancer is the second most frequent cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in men with higher prevalence in the developed countries. The use of biomarkers for prostate cancer can improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer and clinical management of the patients. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used to screen for prostate cancer and there is evidence that PSA testing reduces prostate cancer mortality. Objective: In this report we have studied the relationship between the Gleason score, age and PSA levels of prostate adenocarcinoma tissues from Libyan patients to evaluate the levels of PSA in prostate cancer patients. Materials and methods: The data was collected from medical files of 40 patients who underwent curative surgical prostatectomy or prostate true cut biopsy at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Misurata, Libya during 2016 to 2018. The clinical and histopathological information included age, PSA levels, and Gleason score grade. Results: Our data showed that PSA level was statistically significant correlation with Gleason score grade (p- value = 0.007, <0.05). The increased serum PSA level was associated with the progression of prostate cancer. However, we found no statistically significant correlation between PSA and the age of patients (p- value = 0.435). Conclusion: Our data confirmed the association of high levels of PSA and the progress of prostate cancer.

Innovative Technology and Human Resource Management

Technology plays a crucial role in inclusive growth of modern human management systems. Recruitment, hiring, training, retaining, workplace administration, and optimizing workforce environment are the major functions of human resources management. Adopting innovative technology within the organisation enables the managers to accumulate and deliver the information as well as communicate with employees more effectively. India, as one of the developed countries, is successfully integrating technology in human resource management systems to ensure market-driven product and service development. Technology makes jobs easy; at the same time, it threatens the job market by reducing the human resource requirement to perform particular tasks. An effective human resource management should have the ability to integrate technology and the human resource for the better development of an organisation. This theoretical study focuses on various technologies adopted by the human resource management to make the workplace effective and highly productive.

The Implementation of Madrasah Aliyah Curriculum: Quality Improvement Management

Curriculum is one element that contributes greatly to realizing the students’ quality and potential development. To face the challenges that will befall the world of education in Indonesia, clarity of the curriculum and its implementation is needed to improve the performance of education which is far behind the developed countries in the world. This study aims to see how to improve the quality of curriculum implementation at Madrasah Aliyah in Bandar Lampung City. The researcher employed the mixed methods with source explanatory design and source triangulation design involving 34 teachers in two madrasahs in Bandar Lampung City. The study revealed that teachers' ability to prepare lesson plans influences their performance in learning. The percentage of effects obtained from MAN 1 Bandar Lampung was 36.6 percent, while the percentage value obtained from MAN 2 Bandar Lampung was 46.4 percent. The results are in line with the theory that the teacher's ability to prepare lesson plans will positively impact the teacher's ability to carry out learning. The results in both schools show that the greater the teacher's ability to prepare lesson plans, the greater the teacher's ability to carry out learning.

A Critical Review of Success Factors for Sustainable Agritourism Development

Sustainable agritourism development is at the apex of contemporary discussions on sustainable tourism development as evidenced by enormous studies being done on this tourism concept. This review paper discussed the contributions of one hundred and five (105) research articles that were published in several tourism journals. The main objective of this paper was to establish the current state of literature on Success Factors (SFs) for sustainable agritourism development, identify research gaps, suggest areas of future study and draw lessons that are of importance to the development of agritourism in Zimbabwe. Statistical analysis was employed in order to establish the distribution of the sampled research articles over time, by continent, distribution by research method, distribution by research approach and distribution by research themes. The results of this study revealed that research on agritourism development is biased towards the developed countries, most of the research used qualitative research with focus more on the supply side and little has been done to establish the requirements and CSFs for the development of this tourism concept. The findings of this study provide a baseline upon which future studies in agritourism, could be build.

ISSUES OF INTEGRATION INTO THE GREEN ECONOMY IN THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN

In recent years, the developed countries of the world are building their policies to ensure more sustainable development. The main goal of sustainable development, which is a model of economic development, is to ensure that available resources are used for human needs while protecting the environment. Thus, when using these resources, not only the current situation, but also the potential needs of future generations must be considered. Given the demand for energy and energy resources in modern times, we can see how important a sustainable energy policy is. Keywords: green economy, sustainable development, green policy.

Integral method for evaluating the activity results of main offices of EMERCOM of Russia for the subjects of the Russian Federation

Предложена математическая модель и рассчитаны значения риска причинения вреда (ущерба) в результате пожаров в субъекте Российской Федерации. Субъекты Российской Федерации распределены по категориям уровня обеспечения пожарной безопасности в зависимости от расчетного значения риска причинения вреда (ущерба) в результате пожаров в субъекте Российской Федерации. Предложены оценки результатов деятельности ГУ МЧС России в зависимости от риска причинения вреда (ущерба) и категории уровня обеспечения пожарной безопасности, к которому отнесены субъекты Российской Федерации. The regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation establish that the criteria for assigning objects of control to the categories of damage risk should be formed based on the results of the damage risk assessment. In the developed countries of the world, as a rule, the distribution of objects of control by risk categories is used to justify the frequency of their inspections and is carried out depending either on the point risk assessment or on the number and seriousness of violations of mandatory fire safety requirements identified during the inspection of the object of control. In the literature sources there are no mathematical models for determining the damage risk as a result of a fire in buildings for evaluating the activity results of fire authorities (Main offices of EMERCOM of Russia). The purpose of this work was to develop and test a mathematical model for evaluating the activity and rating of the Main offices of EMERCOM of Russia for the subjects of the Russian Federation based on the category of fire safety level. As a criterion for assigning the subjects of the Russian Federation to different categories of fire safety level it is proposed to use the damage risk as a result of a fire in buildings located on the territory of the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation. The mathematical model has been developed to determine the damage risk of causing harm (damage) as a result of a fire in a building and there is given its assessment for buildings on the territory of each subject of the Russian Federation. There was carried out the distribution of the subjects of the Russian Federation according to the categories of fire safety based on the calculated value of damage risk. It is shown that such distribution significantly depends on the objectivity of statistical information on fires and the number of buildings on the territory of each subject of the Russian Federation. The assessment of the activity results for each of 86 EMERCOM of Russia Main offices was made and they were rated based on the category of fire safety level of the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation.

Challenges for Indoor Air Quality Management

We live indoors. In the developed countries, people spent80-90% of time in buildings. Therefore, among the environmentalfactors, indoor air quality (IAQ) is a significant,if not the most significant, factor affecting human health.Scientific evidence has indicated that indoor air can bemore seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even thelargest and most industrialized cities. Indoor air pollutioncauses long- and short-term health problems and, dependingon the severity, can even make staying indoorsvery uncomfortable. Management of IAQ is a complicatedtask due to complexity of pollution sources and alimited number of measures applicable such as reducingcontaminants at the source, improving ventilation, and,when relevant, purifying the indoor air