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The irrational use of antibiotics is increasing in Jordanian refugee camps and consequently so too is bacterial resistance. About one-third of health expenditures at UNRWA health centers in Jordan are attributed to antibiotics. Objective We studied knowledge, attitude and behaviour of Palestine refugees attending UNRWA health centers in Jordan regarding antibiotic use in order to plan public health interventions accordingly. Methods A cross-sectional, interviewer-administered survey among 250 adult Palestine refugees at four different health centers was conducted. Results Irrational antibiotic use was widespread: 63% of patients share antibiotics at home, 38% use left-over antibiotics and 60% purchase antibiotics directly from the pharmacy without prescription (OTC) . 1 At the same time, knowledge about antibiotics side effects, resistance, and target agent was low. 90% of patients trust their doctor, however long waiting hours prevent them from seeking medical advice, which significantly increased self-medication. Conclusions Our findings suggest a strong need for public education about antibiotics. In addition, health institutional level improvements such as shorter waiting hours and strict regulations prohibiting dispensing without prescription are necessary to combat growing bacterial resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using air conditioners to cool down the indoor thermal environment is necessary to avoid the elderly exposing themselves to hot conditions in extreme weather. Considering the frequency occurrence of heatwave events, this study investigated air-conditioner operation behaviours and indoor thermal condition features during extremely hot summer periods to understand the elderly's thermal demand and their behaviour patterns of using air conditioners. Fifteen elderly residents from a caring home in Chongqing were recruited, and their air-conditioners' historical operation data and indoor and outdoor temperatures were continuously measured and retrieved from the air-conditioner manufacturing data warehouse. The results indicate that the elderly subjects were active in adjusting their air-conditioner settings with multiple daily actions of turning-on and setpoint-changing behaviours in the extremely hot summer period. The air-conditioner temperature setpoint preferred by the elderly subjects was between 27 °C and 30 °C, resulting in the indoor temperature mainly remaining in the range between 28 °C and 32 °C, which presented a negative relationship with the outdoor temperature. The elderly's daily air-conditioner operation in the extremely hot summer period can be clustered into four groups, including inactive-usage, afternoon-usage, night-usage and all-day-usage groups. The inactive usage group with short-term and discrete air-conditioner operation would prefer a fast-cooling setting, whereas the all-day usage group showed a higher setpoint-change frequency, indicating the dynamic cooling demand may exist in the elderly's long-term air-conditioner daily usage. • Long-term monitoring on the elderly's AC usage in the extremely hot summer. • The elderly were active in using ACs and adjusting AC temperature settings. • Four groups were clustered with different daily AC operation patterns. • 30 °C was the most common AC setpoint for the elderly in each daily period. • Discrete-with-fast-cooling and continuous-with-frequent-adjustment were usual modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are many research discussions on the benefits of a virtual community, little research has addressed ways or methodologies by which to sustain these virtual communities. This sustainability depends on the behaviour of the community members, in this case, their trusting behaviour as determined by the particular set of activities in the virtual community. In order for communities to be successful and sustainable, there must be mechanisms to promote trustworthy behaviour amongst members. In this research, we propose a simplistic methodology that can be used to proactively monitor members interactions within any virtual community in term of their trusting behaviours. The purpose of this methodology is to protect the community from anyone within it who demonstrates non-compliant behaviour. The signs of non-compliant behaviour can be identified by examining the performance of agents in a certain number of interactions. The proposed methodology provides a mechanism for monitoring community members' behaviour when carrying out an interaction with other agents (i.e., by keeping track of members' performance in term of trusting behaviour). By continuously monitoring their performance, the performance monitoring report can show the agent's behaviour pattern and determine whether an agent is trustworthy or untrustworthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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