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A new empirical approach for modelling fate and transport of Chromium bioaccumulation in irrigated crops: a water-food-pollution nexus
Get PDFDischarge of chromium (Cr) into receiving water bodies is a serious problem in water resources worldwide that inevitably gets taken up by agricultural crops and hence threatens both the environment and human health. This study investigates the fate and transport modelling of Cr discharged into the Kashaf River by leather industries in Mashhad city, Iran and the bio magnification effects on agricultural crops irrigated by the river. The accumulative concentration of Cr in tomato in the present case study from the time of planting until harvest day shows an increasing trend of up to 126 μg/L. The sensitivity analysis illustrates that the accumulated chromium ions in tomato are affected by time in growth cycle, chromium dosage in water, and total hardness of water more than any other factors. This study adopts an empirical approach by developing statistical modelling for bio-accumulated Cr in tomato during the growth period and evaluates different 3D mathematical distribution such as Polynomial, Interpolant, and Lowest models. The results demonstrate Polynomial with x and y more than four-degree model has the best efficiency for the measurement of accumulated chromium ion in tomato as per qualitative factors. The outputs in this study can be viewed in the context of water-food-pollution nexus and how the pollution discharged from the industry into the water resources can have a major impact on the safety of food that is dependent on irrigation from freshwater resources
Global Strategic Management in the service Industry
Get PDFThis chapter sets out to analyse the impact of the Covid-19 virus on the holidays provided by UK group tour operators and the implications for over tourism. With tourism arrivals expected to fall by up to 30% in 2020 and a slow return to pre-Covid-19 levels for 2021 and beyond, the industry is possibly suffering the loss of up to 100 million travel-related jobs (World Travel and Tourism, Council 2020). Group tour operators will need to assess and possibly change the way they do business to initially survive and subsequently build up tourism numbers in the coming years.
This chapter identifies how group tour operators could alter their holiday proposition to reassure travellers including; the challenges of operating international tours when airlines have reduced capacity, the need to consider alternative age demographics who are more likely to travel and assessing existing itineraries to visit rural or small town locations rather than cities where numerous itineraries travel to now.
Finally, the chapter discusses and describes the significance of the findings with insights about possible opportunities based upon the approaches taken by various countries to target potential holidaymakers and the need to create a ‘crisis management plan’ for current and future countries. This may result in operational adjustments to meet these new requirements including; the changing outlook of potential customers and the possibility of offering domestic tours to meet the current demand
Electronic Monitoring Systems for Hand Hygiene in Hospitals: Relationship to Practice and Exploration of Clinical Perceptions
Get PDFAppropriate hand hygiene at the five evidence-based moments proposed by the World
Health Organization (WHO) during the delivery of patient care by healthcare workers
(HCWs) is crucial in the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections. Audits of
hand hygiene are required by health and social care regulators and organisations to provide
assurance of practice. Compliance with hand hygiene is frequently low and electronic
monitoring systems (EMSs) offer a potential way of generating data to inform improvement
to practice which avoids some of the drawbacks of auditing via direct observation. It is
important that these electronic systems generate data which is reflective of the reality of
frontline practice in terms of the occurrence of opportunities for hand hygiene.
Therefore, this mixed methods research aimed to fill a key gap in this field by developing a
denominator for hand hygiene based on the average number of opportunities on inpatient
wards in England. This was achieved via observations of the provision of care by frontline
HCWs on two wards. In addition, compliance data captured during observations of care was
compared with data from an EMS running concurrently on the wards. Following this, the
second phase of the research explored the findings from the observation phase through
interviews with frontline HCWs. Interview topics included the practical application of the five
moments for hand hygiene, the role of audit in driving practice, the potential role of EMSs,
and the impact on hand hygiene behaviour of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This data can not only be used to inform a denominator for EMSs but also provides
additional knowledge of the burden of hand hygiene for HCWs. Further to this, interviews
revealed some of the key challenges and common issues which arise when applying hand
hygiene in the dynamic hospital environment. It was found that during the COVID-19
pandemic the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and motivation of self-protection
created barriers to effective hand hygiene practice. This thesis provides insight into the
perceived value and trustworthiness of data gathered during direct audit of practice, bringing
its usefulness into debate. With triggers to audit, and greater staff engagement, often seen
as a reactive response to an outbreak of infection rather than an ongoing process of
embedded preventative practices. Of particular interest was how EMSs may be accepted as
an adjunct to, not a replacement of, existing audit practice
Trafficking in human beings
No full textTrafficking in Human Beings is a form of modern slavery, which involves moving victims from one place to another to supply slave labour or for purposes of sexual or other exploitation. Due to the nature of their operation, many travel and tourism organisations and tourism destinations become particularly vulnerable to being associated with both human trafficking and modern slavery. They enable national and transnational travel, provide transport and accommodation and very often employment to agency (outsourced) staff, thus offering the opportunity for traffickers to deploy their slave labour force. Finally, they often host events for thousands of people who can be lucrative targets for criminal gangs and use their trafficked victims to sell them sex services, steal their valuables or obtain personal information that can be used for credit card fraud, identity theft or even blackmail
Comparing the demographic characteristics, and reported abuse type, contexts and outcomes of help-seeking heterosexual male and female victims of domestic violence: part I – Who presents to specialist services?
Get PDFDespite longstanding investigation into the experiences and needs of female victims of domestic violence and abuse (DVA), and a burgeoning literature on abused men, information on service engagement by both of these groups is limited, particularly in direct comparison. This is in part due to a lack of large-scale quantitative data on victim needs upon presentation to services. The current study presents the first of a two-part examination of data collected from specialist DVA services in the UK supporting predominantly high-risk clients between 2007 and 2017. Case data from a total of 34,815 clients (858 men and 33,957 women) was assessed across five key areas: demographic characteristics, routes of referral into service, context of abuse, reported abuse type, and outcomes and risk factors of abuse. Clients tended to be white, with men being older on average. Men and women had similar referral routes, but men were more likely to have a disability of some kind and women were more likely to have children living/visiting the home. Men were more likely to report physical abuse than women, whilst women were more likely to report sexual abuse and harassment/stalking. There were no significant differences in the frequency of reporting jealous/controlling behaviours. Results also showed that women were more likely to have attempted to leave, and to call the police, with men more likely to suffer from alcohol/drug problems and reporting poorer physical health. However, it should be noted that almost all such differences had small effect sizes, suggesting greater similarity between male and female clients than difference. Results are discussed in the context of the importance of recognising both the shared and unique risk factors of client groups upon presentation to services
Is it worth it? Carers’ views and expectations of residential respite for people living with dementia during and beyond the COVID‐19 pandemic
Get PDFObjectives
– The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on many people living with dementia and carers. Caring for a person living with dementia at home with limited avenues for support and a break challenged many carers. Care homes in England closed to visitors, with very few offering opportunities for a short-stay. We investigated impact of Covid-19 on views and expectations of carers of people living with dementia about residential respite.
Methods/Design – Qualitative interviews with 35 carers were conducted March–December 2020: 30 women and 5 men, with ages ranging 30 to 83 years. Interviews explored experiences, views of residential respite, and expectations post-Covid. Data were thematically analysed and salient concepts were drawn out and discussed within the research team and study advisers.
Results
– Three themes were identified in transcripts, relating to impact of Covid-19 on views and expectations of respite: (1) Carers described regularly negotiating risks and stresses of Covid, weighing up how to prevent infection and changing family arrangements to facilitate caring; (2) Carers were balancing different needs, prioritising needs of their relatives while bearing the impact of cumulative caregiving responsibilities. (3) Uncertainty about future residential respite continued, in terms of availability, ongoing restrictions and trustworthy information sources.
Conclusions
– Residential respite is a positive, acceptable option for some carers to get a break from caring. Covid-19 may have heighted some of caregiving stressors and there may be an increased need for a break. Views of care homes developed during the pandemic suggest that individual confidence to use respite may need to be rebuilt
Low-cost scanning of tree trunks for analysis and visualization in augmented reality using smartphone LiDAR and digital twins
Get PDFDetecting decay in tree trunks is essential in considering tree health and safety. Continual monitoring of tree trunks is possible using a digital model, which can contain incremental assessment data on tree health. Researchers have previously employed non-destructive techniques, for instance, laser scanning, acoustics, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to study both the external and internal physical dimensions of objects and structures [1], including tree trunks [2]. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology is also continually employed in infrastructure and asset management to generate models and to detect surface displacements with millimeter accuracy [3]. Nevertheless, the scanning of structures using these existing state-of-the-art technologies can be time consuming, technical, and expensive.
This work investigates the design and implementation of a smartphone app for scanning tree trunks to generate a 3D digital model for later visualization and assessment. The app uses LiDAR technology, which has recently become available in smart devices, for instance, the Apple iPhone 12+ and the iPad Pro. With the prevalence of internet-of-things (IoT) sensors, digital twins are being increasingly used in a variety of industries, for example, architecture and manufacturing. A digital twin is a digital representation of an existing physical object or structure. With our app, a digital twin of a tree can be developed and maintained by continually updating data on its dimensions and internal state of decay. Further, we can situate and visualize tree trunks as digital objects in the real world using augmented reality, which is also possible in modern smart devices. We previously investigated tree trunks using GPR [2] to generate tomographic maps, to denote level of decay. We aim to adopt a data integration and fusion approach, using such existing (and incremental GPR data) and an external LiDAR scan to gain a full 3D ‘picture’ of tree trunks.
We intend to validate our app against state-of-the-art techniques, i.e., laser scanning and photogrammetry. With the ability to scan tree trunks within reasonable parameters of accuracy, the app can provide a relatively low-cost environmental modeling and assessment solution for researchers and experts
Monitoring of bridges by satellite remote sensing using multi-source and multi-resolution data integration techniques: a case study of the Rochester bridge
Get PDFMonitoring of bridges and viaducts has become a priority for asset owners due to progressive infrastructure ageing and its impact on safety and management costs. Advancement in data processing and interpretation methods and the accessibility of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) datasets from different satellite missions have contributed to raise interest for use of near-real time bridge assessment methods. In this context, the Multi-temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) space-borne monitoring technique has proven to be effective for detection of cumulative surface displacements with a millimetre accuracy [1-3].
This research aims to investigate the viability of using satellite remote sensing for structural assessment of the Rochester Bridge in Rochester, Kent, UK. To this purpose, high-resolution SAR datasets are used as the reference information and complemented by additional data from
different sensing technologies (e.g., medium-resolution SAR datasets and ground-based (GB) nondestructive testing (NDT)). In detail, high-resolution SAR products of the COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) mission (2017-2019) provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the framework of the Project
“Motib - ID 742”, approved by ASI, are processed using a MT-InSAR approach.
The method allowed to identify several Persistent Scatterers (PSs) – which have been associated to different structural elements (e.g., the bridges piers) over the four main bridge decks – and monitor bridge displacements during the observation time. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that information from the use of high-resolution InSAR data can be successfully integrated to datasets of different resolution, scale and source technology. Compared to standalone technologies, a main advantage of the proposed approach is in the provision of a fully comprehensive
(i.e., surface and subsurface) and dense array of information with a larger spatial coverage and a higher time acquisition frequency. This results in a more effective identification and monitoring of decays at reduced costs, paving the way for implementation into next generation Bridge Management Systems (BMSs)
Degree apprenticeship end-point assessment dilemma: the balancing act between business contribution and academic exploration
Get PDFA growing number of learners join HE institutions through degree apprenticeships with a strong emphasis on both on-the-job and off-the-job training, with apprentices sharing time between lecture theatres and the workplace. In addition to meeting the degree requirements, the completion of degree apprenticeships requires passing a work-based end-point assessment (EPA). EPAs often include a capstone project that is equivalent to a project or dissertation and plays a crucial role in degree apprenticeships, but their execution is not without its problems. This paper identifies common challenges for EPA projects, including academia-business goal misalignment, external factors, confidentiality and commercial sensitivity, and gaps between expectations and experience. Consequently, a set of recommendations is proposed to mitigate the identified challenges