Marine Robotics for Deep-Sea Specimen Collection: A Systematic Review of Underwater Grippers

The collection of delicate deep-sea specimens of biological interest with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) industrial grippers and tools is a long and expensive procedure. Industrial grippers were originally designed for heavy manipulation tasks, while sampling specimens requires dexterity and precision. We describe the grippers and tools commonly used in underwater sampling for scientific purposes, systematically review the state of the art of research in underwater gripping technologies, and identify design trends. We discuss the possibility of executing typical manipulations of sampling procedures with commonly used grippers and research prototypes. Our results indicate that commonly used grippers ensure that the basic actions either of gripping or caging are possible, and their functionality is extended by holding proper tools. Moreover, the approach of the research status seems to have changed its focus in recent years: from the demonstration of the validity of a specific technology (actuation, transmission, sensing) for marine applications, to the solution of specific needs of underwater manipulation. Finally, we summarize the environmental and operational requirements that should be considered in the design of an underwater gripper.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Nature of Academic Work in Colleges of Education in Ghana

This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the nature of academic work in Colleges of Education in Ghana. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. A sample of 346 students was selected for the study. The participants chosen from the Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education, Peki College of Education and the St. Theresah College of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana through purposive, convenience and snowball sampling procedures. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire. Data were received from 270 students resulting in a 78% return rate. The data were analysed using frequencies and percentages as well as means and standard deviations. The results showed that tutors in Colleges of Education mostly taught during the COVID-19 period by sending audio recordings, texts or slide presentations to students. This was however not done in real time. Also, the tutors gave assignments and quizzes and gave feedback on the performance of the students. Finally, it was found that most students’ services were not provided satisfactorily when school came to an abrupt end because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Specifically, student counselling services, student affairs services, organisation of tutorials/seminars and practical classes as well as technical support or IT services and supervisions and mentorships were not satisfactorily provided. It was therefore recommended that authorities in Colleges of Education should liaise with officers in charge of specific services like counselling, student affairs and technical or IT support so that they can effectively and satisfactorily assist students even when they are not on campus.

Development and Operationalization of a Data Framework to Assess Quality of Integrated Diabetes Care in the Fragmented Data Landscape of Belgium

Background. To assess the quality of integrated diabetes care, we should be able to follow the patient throughout the care path, monitor his/her care process and link them to his/her health outcomes, while simultaneously link this information to the primary care system and its performance on the structure and organization related quality indicators. However the development process of such a data framework is challenging, even in period of increasing and improving health data storage and management. This study aims to develop an integrated multi-level data framework for quality of diabetes care and to operationalize this framework in the fragmented Belgium health care and data landscape.Methods. Based on document reviews and iterative expert consultations, theoretical approaches and quality indicators were identified and assessed. After mapping and assessing the validity of existing health information systems and available data sources through expert consultations, the theoretical framework was translated in a data framework with measurable quality indicators. The construction of the data base included sampling procedures, data-collection, and several technical and privacy-related aspects of linking and accessing Belgian datasets.Results. To address three dimensions of quality of care, we integrated the chronic care model and cascade of care approach, addressing respectively the structure related quality indicators and the process and outcome related indicators. The corresponding data framework is based on self-collected data at the primary care practice level (using the Assessment of quality of integrated care tool), and linked health insurance data with lab data at the patient level. Conclusion. In this study, we have described the transition of a theoretical quality of care framework to a unique multilevel database, which allows assessing the quality of diabetes care, by considering the complete care continuum (process and outcomes) as well as organizational characteristics of primary care practices.

The Functionality of Health Facility Governing Committees and Their Associated Factors in Selected Primary Health Facilities Implementing Direct Health Facility Financing in Tanzania

Background: Decentralization has dominated the agenda for the reforms of the organization of service delivery in Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Decentralization faces a formidable challenge of fiscal decentralization in primary healthcare facilities. Of now, LMICs are implementing fiscal decentralization reforms to empower health facilities and their Health Facility Governing Committees (HFGCs). Given the paucity of the impact of fiscal decentralization, this study was conducted to assess the functionality of HFGCs and their associative factors in primary health care facilities implementing fiscal decentralization through Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF) in Tanzania.Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. The study was conducted in 32 selected primary health facilities implementing DHFF in Tanzania. Probability and nonprobability sampling procedures were employed, in which a multistage sampling procedure was used to select 280 respondents. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Descriptive analysis was employed to determine the functionality of HFGCs and binary logistic regression was employed to determine associated factors for the functionality of HFGC. Qualitative analysis was done through thematic analysis.Result: HFGC functionality under DHFF has been found to be good by 78.57%. Specifically, HFGCs have been found to have good functionality in mobilizing communities to join Community Health Funds 87.14%, participating in the procurement process 85%, discussing community health challenges 81.43% and planning and budgeting 80%. The functionality of HFGCs has been found to be associated with the planning and budgeting aspects p-value of 0.0011, procurement aspects p-value 0.0331, availability of information reports p-value 0.0007 and Contesting for HFGC position p-value 0.0187.Conclusion: The study has revealed that fiscal decentralization through DHFF significantly improves the functionality of HFGCs. Therefore, the study recommends more effort be put into facilitating the availability of finances to the health facilities.

Performance Evaluation of Pre-processing Techniques on Diabetes Prediction

Medical industry contains a large amount of sensitive data that must be evaluated in order to get insight into records. The nonlinearity, non-normality, correlation structures and complicated diabetic medical records, on the other hand, makes accurate predictions difficult. The Pima Indian Diabetes dataset is one of them, owing to the dataset's imbalance, large number of missing values and difficulty in identifying highly risk factors. Some of these challenges have been solved using computational approaches such as machine learning methods, but they have not performed ideally, with pre-processing techniques being recognized as critical to achieving correct findings. The goal of this work is to apply multiple pre-processing approaches to increase the accuracy of some simple models. These multiple pre-processing techniques are median imputation in which null values are substituted by finding the median of the input variables dependent on whether or not the patient is diabetic and then follow by applying oversampling and under-sampling procedures on both majority and minority votes. These votes are applied in order to address the problem of class imbalance as pointed out from the literature. Finally, the dimension reduction Pearson correlation is used to detect high-risk features since it is effective at quantifying information between attributes and their labels. In this study, these techniques are applied in the same order to Linear Regression, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, K Nearest Neighbor, Random Forest and Gaussian Boosting classifiers. The utility of the techniques on the mentioned classifiers is validated using performance measures such as Accuracy, Precision and Recall. The Random Forest Classifier is found to be the best-improved model, with 95 percent accuracy, 94.25 percent precision and 95.35 percent recall. Medical practitioners may find the provided strategies beneficial in improving the efficiency of diabetes analysis. Keywords— Classifiers, diabetes, Pima Indian Diabetes dataset, pre-processing techniques

Motivational Strategies of Retail Company during Work from Home

According to the management scholars Richard Kreitchner and Carlene Cassidy, “the term motivation, refers to a physiological process that gives behavior purpose and direction”. It is thought that if an employee is motivated, they will be usually content with his employment, and since they will be happy, they will be able to provide their best effort and contribution to the task at hand. However, there are numerous sorts of motivation for everyone, and it is unlikely that every individual in the firm or in that particular area will be motivated in the same way. Employee Motivation Is defined as the Power That Propels Employees toward Achieving the Organization's Unique Goals and objectives. As the covid-19 epidemic affects our country, the goal of this study is to examine motivating elements that might influence employee performance while working from home. The respondents were chosen using standard random sampling procedures. The data was collected from 46 administrative personnel. The researcher studied several motivating elements and investigated how employee demographics such as age, gender, position, department, marital status, and housing situation may affect their degree of job satisfaction in this research study.

Gender and Location as Factors Determinants of Secondary School Students Civic Engagement in Oyo State, Nigeria

The research adopted a descriptive research design of the survey type. The population consisted of 411,912 public secondary school students in Oyo State, Nigeria’s urban and rural areas. The study sample consisted of 600 public secondary school students’ selected using multistage sampling procedures, including simple random sampling techniques and stratified random sampling techniques. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire titled ‘Students’ Civic Engagement Questionnaire’ (SCEQ). The instrument’s validity was established through the face and content validity while the instrument’s reliability was determined using the Cronbach alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was obtained. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics of the t-test to test the hypotheses formulated. All hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed no significant difference between male and female students’ attitudes towards civic engagement, but there is a significant difference between the civic engagement of secondary school students living in rural and urban areas. It was recommended that students be enlightened and encouraged to participate in civic obligations especially in urban areas such as community service to develop positive attitudes towards civic engagement.

KUALITAS AIR TANAH DI TEMPAT PEMBUANGAN SAMPAH SEMENTARA DI KELURAHAN TEMBILAHAN KOTA TAHUN 2020

Masalah peningkatan volume sampah salah satunya terjadi di Kabupaten Indragiri Hilir. Selain itu, penggunaan teknologi pengolahan sampah yang digunakan sudah tidak sesuai dengan peraturan yang dikeluarkan, sehingga hal sangat berisiko mencemari kualitas air tanah. Tujuan penelitian mengetahui kualitas air tanah di tempat penampungan sampah sementara di Kelurahan Tembilahan Kota, dengan metode penelitian deskriptif. Populasi adalah sumur warga yang tinggal di Kelurahan Tembilahan Kota sebanyak 30 sumur, dan sampel berjumlah 5 sumur milik warga. Prosedur pengambilan sampel sesuai dengan SNI 06-2412-1991 mengenai metode pengambilan air pemeriksaan mikrobiologi. Hasil penelitian diperoleh analisis bahwa diantara parameter fisik air tanah, parameter yang paling banyak tidak memenuhi syarat baku mutu adalah parameter rasa dengan hasil sebanyak 4 (80%) sampel dari 5 sampel, sedangkan suhu sebanyak 3 (60%) tidak memenuhi syarat, warna sebanyak 2 (40%) tidak memenuhi syarat, bau sebanyak 3 (60%) tidak memenuhi syarat, sedangkan hasil pemeriksaan bakteri coli postif dengan hasil positif sebanyak 4 (80%) sampel dari 5 sampel. Total coliform dari hasil laboratorium sebesar (14000) tinggi. Diharapkan dinas kesehatan mengerah petugas kesehatan setempat memperhatikan lingkungan sekitar dan memberi penyuluhan tentang pengolahan air yang baik sebelum diminum, agar tidak terjadi pencemaran terhadap lingkungan dan sumber air minum yang terdapat di lingkungan Kelurahan Tembilahan Kota. One of the problems in increasing the volume of waste is in Indragiri Hilir Regency. 60% of landfill waste is disposed of in open temporary landfills. In addition, the use of waste treatment technology that is used is not in accordance with the regulations issued, so it is very risky to pollute the quality of ground water. Based on the background of the problems above. This study aims to determine the quality of ground water in a temporary garbage shelter in the Tembilahan City Kelurahan, with a descriptive research method. The population and sample in this study were 5 community wells living in Tembilahan Kota Kelurahan. Sampling procedures must be in accordance with SNI 06-2412-1991 regarding the method of taking microbiological examination water. Based on the results of the study obtained the results of the analysis that among the physical parameters of ground water, the parameter that most did not meet the quality standard requirements was the taste parameter, with the results of 4 (80%) samples from 5 samples, while the temperature parameters were 3 (60%). qualified, color parameters as much as 2 (40%) did not meet the requirements, odor parameters as much as 3 (60%) did not qualify, while positive coli bacterial examination results with positive results were 4 (80%) samples from 5 samples. The total coliform from the results of laboratory tests is (14000) high. It is expected that the health department will mobilize local health officials to pay attention and provide counseling about the importance of protecting the surrounding environment and counseling about good water treatment before drinking, so that pollution does not occur to the environment and drinking water sources contained in the Tembilahan City Kelurahan.

A Content Analysis of American Primetime Television: A 20-Year Update of the National Television Violence Studies

This article provides a 20-year, apples-to-apples update of the National Television Violence Studies. Using the same sampling procedures and codebook, we coded 765 primetime television programs and movies airing on 21 broadcast and cable networks. Results suggest the prevalence of violence has increased slightly, but the number of programs saturated with violence has experienced a more significant increase. This appears to be driven by an influx of highly violent movies airing in primetime on cable channels. Although some contextual variables suggest slight improvements in terms of negative consequences for violence, the overwhelming majority of violent television programs and movies do not feature anti-violence themes. Implications for social cognitive, cultivation, schema, transportation, and media vividness theories are discussed.

The impact of climate change on visitor destination selection: A case study of the Central Drakensberg Region in KwaZulu-Natal

Many variables influence visitors’ destination choices, for example, affordability, attractions, health and safety, and expectancies. Amongst the indirect influences in destination choice by tourists, climate change is perhaps the greatest factor because of its negative impact on the ecological landscape of tourist destinations. Using the Central Drakensberg Region (CDR) as a case study, this article seeks to investigate the influence of climate change on visitors’ destination choices. A quantitative descriptive survey was conducted on a sample of n347 participants who were selected using purposive and convenience sampling procedures under the auspices of non-probability. The statistical analyses were performed using the latest edition of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 25.0). Based on the study’s results, climate change was found to be a key influence on tourists’ decision-making, behaviour and spending habits at tourist destination like the Central Drakensberg Area. The most significant climatic parameter for tourists was determined to be pleasant and warm temperatures, as well as the summer season. Furthermore, owing to the current climate change circumstances, visitors were found to be less likely to return or recommend future visits to the region. To that end, tourism officials in the CDR should swiftly implement adaptation measures to counter the effects, and explore alternatives such as soft tourism and non-climate-dependent activities to accommodate visitors year-around. Further research is recommended to establish the extent to which socio-demographic characteristics influence destination choice in the area, as well as to ascertain the current state of climate change impacts.