Search results for: open waveguide

Authors: Saleh Gorji, Sahil Gulati, Ana Pakzad

Abstract:

Continuous electron diffraction tomography, also known as microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) or three-dimensional electron diffraction (3DED), is a powerful technique, which in combination with cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-ED), can provide atomic-scale 3D information about the crystal structure and composition of different classes of crystalline materials such as proteins, peptides, and small molecules. Unlike the well-established X-ray crystallography method, 3DED does not require large single crystals and can collect accurate electron diffraction data from crystals as small as 50 – 100 nm. This is a critical advantage as growing larger crystals, as required by X-ray crystallography methods, is often very difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. In most cases, specimens studied via 3DED method are electron beam sensitive, which means there is a limitation on the maximum amount of electron dose one can use to collect the required data for a high-resolution structure determination. Therefore, collecting data using a conventional scintillator-based fiber coupled camera brings additional challenges. This is because of the inherent noise introduced during the electron-to-photon conversion in the scintillator and transfer of light via the fibers to the sensor, which results in a poor signal-to-noise ratio and requires a relatively higher and commonly specimen-damaging electron dose rates, especially for protein crystals. As in other cryo-EM techniques, damage to the specimen can be mitigated if a direct detection camera is used which provides a high signal-to-noise ratio at low electron doses. In this work, we have used two classes of such detectors from Gatan, namely the K3® camera (a monolithic active pixel sensor) and Stela™ (that utilizes DECTRIS hybrid-pixel technology), to address this problem. The K3 is an electron counting detector optimized for low-dose applications (like structural biology cryo-EM), and Stela is also a counting electron detector but optimized for diffraction applications with high speed and high dynamic range. Lastly, data collection workflows, including crystal screening, microscope optics setup (for imaging and diffraction), stage height adjustment at each crystal position, and tomogram acquisition, can be one of the other challenges of the 3DED technique. Traditionally this has been all done manually or in a partly automated fashion using open-source software and scripting, requiring long hours on the microscope (extra cost) and extensive user interaction with the system. We have recently introduced Latitude® D in DigitalMicrograph® software, which is compatible with all pre- and post-energy-filter Gatan cameras and enables 3DED data acquisition in an automated and optimized fashion. Higher quality 3DED data enables structure determination with higher confidence, while automated workflows allow these to be completed considerably faster than before. Using multiple examples, this work will demonstrate how to direct detection electron counting cameras enhance 3DED results (3 to better than 1 Angstrom) for protein and small molecule structure determination. We will also show how Latitude D software facilitates collecting such data in an integrated and fully automated user interface.

Keywords: continuous electron diffraction tomography, direct detection, diffraction, Latitude D, Digitalmicrograph, proteins, small molecules

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Alejandra Martin-Dominguez, Javier Canto-Rios, Velitchko Tzatchkov

Abstract:

Electrocoagulation is a water treatment technology that consists of generating coagulant species in situ by electrolytic oxidation of sacrificial anode materials triggered by electric current. It removes suspended solids, heavy metals, emulsified oils, bacteria, colloidal solids and particles, soluble inorganic pollutants and other contaminants from water, offering an alternative to the use of metal salts or polymers and polyelectrolyte addition for breaking stable emulsions and suspensions. The method essentially consists of passing the water being treated through pairs of consumable conductive metal plates in parallel, which act as monopolar electrodes, commonly known as ‘sacrificial electrodes’. Physicochemical, electrochemical and hydraulic processes are involved in the efficiency of this type of treatment. While the physicochemical and electrochemical aspects of the technology have been extensively studied, little is known about the influence of the hydraulics. However, the hydraulic process is fundamental for the reactions that take place at the electrode boundary layers and for the coagulant mixing. Electrocoagulation reactors can be open (with free water surface) and closed (pressurized). Independently of the type of rector, hydraulic head loss is an important factor for its design. The present work focuses on the study of the total hydraulic head loss and flow velocity and pressure distribution in electrocoagulation reactors with single or multiple concentric annular cross sections. An analysis of the head loss produced by hydraulic wall shear friction and accessories (minor head losses) is presented, and compared to the head loss measured on a semi-pilot scale laboratory model for different flow rates through the reactor. The tests included laminar, transitional and turbulent flow. The observed head loss was compared also to the head loss predicted by several known conceptual theoretical and empirical equations, specific for flow in concentric annular pipes. Four single concentric annular cross section and one multiple concentric annular cross section reactor configuration were studied. The theoretical head loss resulted higher than the observed in the laboratory model in some of the tests, and lower in others of them, depending also on the assumed value for the wall roughness. Most of the theoretical models assume that the fluid elements in all annular sections have the same velocity, and that flow is steady, uniform and one-dimensional, with the same pressure and velocity profiles in all reactor sections. To check the validity of such assumptions, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the concentric annular pipe reactor was implemented using the ANSYS Fluent software, demonstrating that pressure and flow velocity distribution inside the reactor actually is not uniform. Based on the analysis, the equations that predict better the head loss in single and multiple annular sections were obtained. Other factors that may impact the head loss, such as the generation of coagulants and gases during the electrochemical reaction, the accumulation of hydroxides inside the reactor, and the change of the electrode material with time, are also discussed. The results can be used as tools for design and scale-up of electrocoagulation reactors, to be integrated into new or existing water treatment plants.

Keywords: electrocoagulation reactors, hydraulic head loss, concentric annular pipes, computational fluid dynamics model

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Carolyn Hatch, Laurent Simon

Abstract:

Urban mobility and the transportation industry are undergoing a transformation, shifting from an auto production-consumption model that has dominated since the early 20th century towards new forms of personal and shared multi-modality [1]. This is shaped by key forces such as climate change, which has induced a shift in production and consumption patterns and efforts to decarbonize and improve transport services through, for instance, the integration of vehicle automation, electrification and mobility sharing [2]. Advanced innovation practices and platforms for experimentation and validation of new mobility products and services that are increasingly complex and multi-stakeholder-oriented are shaping this new world of mobility. Transportation hubs – such as airports - are emblematic of these disruptive forces playing out in the mobility industry. Airports are emerging as the core of innovation ecosystems on and around contemporary mobility issues, and increasingly recognized as complex public/private nodes operating in many societal dimensions [3,4]. These include urban development, sustainability transitions, digital experimentation, customer experience, infrastructure development and data exploitation (for instance, airports generate massive and often untapped data flows, with significant potential for use, commercialization and social benefit). Yet airport innovation practices have not been well documented in the innovation literature. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a model of airport innovation that aims to equip airport stakeholders to respond to these new and complex innovation needs in practice. The methodology involves: 1 – a literature review bringing together key research and theory on airport innovation management, open innovation and innovation ecosystems in order to evaluate airport practices through an innovation lens; 2 – an international benchmarking of leading airports and their innovation practices, including such examples as Aéroports de Paris, Schipol in Amsterdam, Changi in Singapore, and others; and 3 – semi-structured interviews with airport managers on key aspects of organizational practice, facilitated through a close partnership with the Airport Council International (ACI), a major stakeholder in this research project. Preliminary results find that the most successful airports are those that have shifted to a multi-stakeholder, platform ecosystem model of innovation. The recent entrance of new actors in airports (Google, Amazon, Accor, Vinci, Airbnb and others) have forced the opening of organizational boundaries to share and exchange knowledge with a broader set of ecosystem players. This has also led to new forms of governance and intermediation by airport actors to connect complex, highly distributed knowledge, along with new kinds of inter-organizational collaboration, co-creation and collective ideation processes. Leading airports in the case study have demonstrated a unique capacity to force traditionally siloed activities to “think together”, “explore together” and “act together”, to share data, contribute expertise and pioneer new governance approaches and collaborative practices. In so doing, they have successfully integrated these many disruptive change pathways and forced their implementation and coordination towards innovative mobility outcomes, with positive societal, environmental and economic impacts. This research has implications for: 1 - innovation theory, 2 - urban and transport policy, and 3 - organizational practice - within the mobility industry and across the economy.

Keywords: airport management, ecosystem, innovation, mobility, platform, transport hubs

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: Ngoc-Nguyen Nguyen, Hsiu-Ling Chen, Thanh-Truc Lai Huynh

Abstract:

In foreign language learning, vocabulary acquisition has consistently posed challenges to learners, especially for those at lower levels. Conventional approaches often fail to promote vocabulary learning and ensure engaging experiences alike. The emergence of mobile learning, particularly the integration of chatbot systems, has offered alternative ways to facilitate this practice. Chatbots have proven effective in educational contexts by offering interactive learning experiences in a constructivist manner. These tools have caught attention in the field of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in recent years. This research is conducted in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course at the A2 level of the CEFR, designed for non-English majors. Participants are first-year Vietnamese students aged 18 to 20 at a university. This quasi-experimental study follows a pretest-posttest control group design over five weeks, with two classes randomly assigned as the experimental and control groups. The experimental group engages in chatbot-assisted spaced practice with SRL components, while the control group uses the same spaced practice without SRL. The two classes are taught by the same lecturer. Data are collected through pre- and post-tests, cognitive load surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The combination of self-regulated learning (SRL) and distributed practice, grounded in the spacing effect, forms the basis of the present study. SRL elements, which concern goal setting and strategy planning, are integrated into the system. The spaced practice method, similar to those used in widely recognized learning platforms like Duolingo and Anki flashcards, spreads out learning over multiple sessions. This study’s design features quizzes progressively increasing in difficulty. These quizzes are aimed at targeting both the Recognition-Recall and Comprehension-Use dimensions for a comprehensive acquisition of vocabulary. The mobile-based chatbot system is built using Golang, an open-source programming language developed by Google. It follows a structured flow that guides learners through a series of 4 quizzes in each week of teacher-led learning. The quizzes start with less cognitively demanding tasks, such as multiple-choice questions, before moving on to more complex exercises. The integration of SRL elements allows students to self-evaluate the difficulty level of vocabulary items, predict scores achieved, and choose appropriate strategy. This research is part one of a two-part project. The initial findings will determine the development of an upgraded chatbot system in part two, where adaptive features in response to the integration of SRL components will be introduced. The research objectives are to assess the effectiveness of the chatbot-assisted approach, based on the combination of spaced practice and SRL, in improving vocabulary acquisition and managing cognitive load, as well as to understand students' perceptions of this learning tool. The insights from this study will contribute to the growing body of research on mobile-assisted language learning and offer practical implications for integrating chatbot systems with spaced practice into educational settings to enhance vocabulary learning.

Keywords: mobile learning, mobile-assisted language learning, MALL, chatbots, vocabulary learning, spaced practice, spacing effect, self-regulated learning, SRL, self-regulation, EFL, cognitive load

Procedia PDF Downloads 19

Authors: Glykeria A. Visvini, George Ν. Mathioudakis, Amaia Soto Beobide, George A. Voyiatzis

Abstract:

Polymer nanocomposites are materials in which a polymer matrix is reinforced with nanoscale inclusions, such as nanoparticles, nanoplates, or nanofibers. These nanoscale inclusions can significantly enhance the mechanical, thermal, electrical, and other properties of the polymer matrix, making them attractive for a wide range of industrial applications. These properties can be tailored by adjusting the type and the concentration of the nanoinclusions, which provides a high degree of flexibility in their design and development. An important property that polymeric membranes can exhibit is water vapor permeability (WVP). This can be accomplished by various methods, including the incorporation of micro/nano-fillers into the polymer matrix. In this way, a micro/nano-pore network can be formed, allowing water vapor to permeate through the membrane. At the same time, the membrane can be stretched uni- or bi-axially, creating aligned or cross-linked micropores in the composite, respectively, which can also increase the WVP. Nowadays, in industry, stretched films reinforced with CaCO3 develop micro-porosity sufficient to give them breathability characteristics. Carbon-based nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide (GO), are tentatively expected to be able to effectively improve the WVP of corresponding composite polymer films. The presence in the GO structure of various functional oxidizing groups enhances its ability to attract and channel water molecules, exploiting the unique large surface area of graphene that allows the rapid transport of water molecules. Polypropylene (PP) is widely used in various industrial applications due to its desirable properties, including good chemical resistance, excellent thermal stability, low cost, and easy processability. The specific properties of PP are highly influenced by its crystalline behavior, which is determined by its processing conditions. The development of the β-crystalline phase in PP, in combination with stretching, is anticipating improving the microporosity of the polymer matrix, thereby enhancing its WVP. The aim of present study is to create breathable PP composite membranes using carbon-based nanomaterials, such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). Unlike traditional methods that rely on the drawing process to enhance the WVP of PP, this study intents to develop a low-cost approach using melt mixing with β-nucleating agents and carbon fillers to create highly breathable PP composite membranes. The study aims to investigate how the concentration of these additives affects the water vapor transport properties of the resulting PP films/membranes. The presence of β-nucleating agents and carbon fillers is expected to enhance β-phase growth in PP, while an alternation between β- and α-phase is expected to lead to improved microporosity and WVP. Our ambition is to develop highly breathable PP composite films with superior performance and at a lower cost compared to the benchmark. Acknowledgment: This research has been co‐financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call «Special Actions "AQUACULTURE"-"INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS"-"OPEN INNOVATION IN CULTURE"» (project code: Τ6YBP-00337)

Keywords: carbon based nanomaterials, nanocomposites, nucleating agent, polypropylene, water vapor permeability

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Sebastian Kehne, Alexander Epple, Werner Herfs

Abstract:

A new method for optimal selection of components for multi-axes forward-feed drive systems is proposed in which the choice of motors, gear boxes and ball screw drives is optimized. Essential is here the synchronization of electrical and mechanical frequency behavior of all axes because even advanced controls (like H∞-controls) can only control a small part of the mechanical modes – namely only those of observable and controllable states whose value can be derived from the positions of extern linear length measurement systems and/or rotary encoders on the motor or gear box shafts. Further problems are the unknown processing forces like cutting forces in machine tools during normal operation which make the estimation and control via an observer even more difficult. To start with, the open source Modelica Feed Drive Library which was developed at the Laboratory for Machine Tools, and Production Engineering (WZL) is extended from one axis design to the multi axes design. It is capable to simulate the mechanical, electrical and thermal behavior of permanent magnet synchronous machines with inverters, different gear boxes and ball screw drives in a mechanical system. To keep the calculation time down analytical equations are used for field and torque producing equivalent circuit, heat dissipation and mechanical torque at the shaft. As a first step, a small machine tool with a working area of 635 x 315 x 420 mm is taken apart, and the mechanical transfer behavior is measured with an impulse hammer and acceleration sensors. With the frequency transfer functions, a mechanical finite element model is built up which is reduced with substructure coupling to a mass-damper system which models the most important modes of the axes. The model is modelled with Modelica Feed Drive Library and validated by further relative measurements between machine table and spindle holder with a piezo actor and acceleration sensors. In a next step, the choice of possible components in motor catalogues is limited by derived analytical formulas which are based on well-known metrics to gain effective power and torque of the components. The simulation in Modelica is run with different permanent magnet synchronous motors, gear boxes and ball screw drives from different suppliers. To speed up the optimization different black-box optimization methods (Surrogate-based, gradient-based and evolutionary) are tested on the case. The objective that was chosen is to minimize the integral of the deviations if a step is given on the position controls of the different axes. Small values are good measures for a high dynamic axes. In each iteration (evaluation of one set of components) the control variables are adjusted automatically to have an overshoot less than 1%. It is obtained that the order of the components in optimization problem has a deep impact on the speed of the black-box optimization. An approach to do efficient black-box optimization for multi-axes design is presented in the last part. The authors would like to thank the German Research Foundation DFG for financial support of the project “Optimierung des mechatronischen Entwurfs von mehrachsigen Antriebssystemen (HE 5386/14-1 | 6954/4-1)” (English: Optimization of the Mechatronic Design of Multi-Axes Drive Systems).

Keywords: ball screw drive design, discrete optimization, forward feed drives, gear box design, linear drives, machine tools, motor design, multi-axes design

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Tristance Kee

Abstract:

With the unprecedented increase in elderly population globally, it is critical to search for new sustainable housing and urban development alternatives to traditional housing options. This research examines concepts of elderly migration pattern in the context of a high density city in Hong Kong to Mainland China. The research objectives are to: 1) explore the relationships between soon-to-be-old elderly and their intentions to move to Mainland upon retirement and their demographic characteristics; and 2) What are the desired amenities, locational factors and activities that are expected in the soon-to-be-old generation’s retirement housing environment? Primary data was collected through questionnaire survey conducted using random sampling method with respondents aged between 45-64 years old. The face-to-face survey was completed by 500 respondents. The survey was divided into four sections. The first section focused on respondent’s demographic information such as gender, age, education attainment, monthly income, housing tenure type and their visits to Mainland China. The second section focused on their retirement plans in terms of intended retirement age, prospective retirement funding and retirement housing options. The third section focused on the respondent’s attitudes toward retiring in Mainland for housing. It asked about their intentions to migrate retire into Mainland and incentives to retire in Hong Kong. The fourth section focused on respondent’s ideal housing environment including preferred housing amenities, desired living environment and retirement activities. The dependent variable in this study was ‘respondent’s consideration to move to Mainland China upon retirement’. Eight primary independent variables were integrated into the study to identify the correlations between them and retirement migration plan. The independent variables include: gender, age, marital status, monthly income, present housing tenure type, property ownership in Hong Kong, relationship with Mainland and the frequency of visiting Mainland China. In addition to the above independent variables, respondents were asked to indicate their retirement plans (retirement age, funding sources and retirement housing options), incentives to migrate to retire (choices included: property ownership, family relations, cost of living, living environment, medical facilities, government welfare benefits, etc.), perceived ideal retirement life qualities including desired amenities (sports, medical and leisure facilities etc.), desired locational qualities (green open space, convenient transport options and accessibility to urban settings etc.) and desired retirement activities (home-based leisure, elderly friendly sports, cultural activities, child care, social activities, etc.). The finding shows correlations between the used independent variables and consideration to migrate for housing options. The two independent variables indicated a possible correlation were gender and the frequency of visiting Mainland at present. When considering the increasing property prices across the border and strong social relationships, potential retirement migration is a very subjective decision that could vary from person to person. This research adds knowledge to housing research and migration study. Although the research is based in Mainland, most of the characteristics identified including better medical services, government welfare and sound urban amenities are shared qualities for all sustainable urban development and housing strategies.

Keywords: elderly migration, housing alternative, soon-to-be-old, sustainable environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Vanita Singh

Abstract:

In developing countries, there are conflicting political agendas; policy makers have to prioritize issues from a list of issues competing for the limited resources. Thus, it is imperative to understand how some issues gain attention, and others lose in the policy circles. Multiple-Streams Theory of Kingdon (1984) is among the influential theories that help to understand the public policy process and is utilitarian for health policy makers to understand how certain health issues emerge on the policy agendas. The issue of maternal mortality was long standing in India and was linked with high birth rate thus the focus of maternal health policy was on family planning since India’s independence. However, a paradigm shift was noted in the maternal health policy in the year 1992 with the launch of Safe Motherhood Programme and then in the year 2005, when the agenda of maternal health policy became universalizing institutional deliveries and phasing-out of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) from the health system. There were many solutions proposed by policy communities other than universalizing of institutional deliveries, including training of TBAs and improving socio-economic conditions of pregnant women. However, Government of India favored medical community, which was advocating for the policy of universalizing institutional delivery, and neglected the solutions proposed by other policy communities. It took almost 15 years for the advocates of institutional delivery to transform their proposed solution into a program - the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a safe-motherhood program promoting institutional delivery through cash incentives to pregnant women. Thus, the case of safe motherhood policy in India is worth studying to understand how certain issues/problems gain political attention and how advocacy work in policy circles. This paper attempts to understand the factors that favored the agenda of safe-motherhood in the policy circle in India, using John Kingdon’s Multiple-Stream model of agenda-setting. Through document analysis and literature review, the paper traces the evolution of safe motherhood program and maternal health policy. The study has used open source documents available on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, media reports (Times of India Archive) and related research papers. The documents analyzed include National health policy-1983, National Health Policy-2002, written reports of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Department, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) document, documents related to Janani Suraksha Yojana and research articles related to maternal health programme in India. The study finds that focusing events and credible indicators coupled with media attention has the potential to recognize a problem. The political elites favor clearly defined and well-accepted solutions. The trans-national organizations affect the agenda-setting process in a country through conditional resource provision. The closely-knit policy communities and political entrepreneurship are required for advocating solutions high on agendas. The study has implications for health policy makers in identifying factors that have the potential to affect the agenda-setting process for a desired policy agenda and identify the challenges in generating political priorities.

Keywords: agenda-setting, focusing events, Kingdon’s model, safe motherhood program India

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Humaira Saeed Malik, Salma Saad

Abstract:

Introduction: Fowler's syndrome, first described by Clare Fowler in 1985, is a rare urological condition characterized by difficulty in urination due to the abnormal function of the urethral sphincter. It predominantly affects young women and leads to chronic urinary retention. The main concern in managing this condition is ensuring regular bladder emptying. Clam cystoplasty is a bladder augmentation surgery in which the bladder is clam-shelled open, and a segment of the intestine is used to increase the bladder's capacity and reduce bladder pressure. The Mitrofanoff procedure, a surgical creation of a continent urinary diversion, is often performed in patients with Fowler's syndrome who require long-term catheterization. This procedure involves creating a conduit (from the appendix or a segment of the small intestine) between the bladder and the skin, allowing for intermittent self-catheterization to manage urinary retention. Study: This case study examines a 39-year-old gravida 3, para 0+2 woman with a BMI of 40, Fowler's syndrome, type I diabetes, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), presenting at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary at 8 weeks of gestation. Diagnosed with Fowler's syndrome at 23, . A sacral nerve stimulator (SNS) device was initially placed but was subsequently removed after one year due to malfunction caused by trauma, subsequently she had undergone clam cystoplasty and the Mitrofanoff procedure for bladder management. Her pregnancy was complicated by vaginal bleeding at 10 weeks, treated with progesterone pessaries, and a urinary tract infection at 14 weeks, managed with antibiotics. Despite these challenges, she continued self-catheterization through the Mitrofanoff stoma and was placed on prophylactic antibiotics. Her diabetes was well-controlled on insulin, and a 20-week fetal anomaly scan was normal. The multidisciplinary team, including an obstetrician and a urologist, planned for serial growth scans and the initiation of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) from 28 weeks due to the intermediate risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and to continue six weeks after delivery. A planned cesarean delivery at 37 weeks was arranged, with an MRI scan scheduled later in the pregnancy to assist in surgical planning, ensuring the preservation of the Mitrofanoff stoma's function. The surgery will occur in an elective setting and include a consultant urologist. Conclusion: Pregnancy in women with Fowler's syndrome who have undergone Clam cystoplasty and the Mitrofanoff procedure is rare, and management requires careful planning and a multidisciplinary approach. This case highlights the importance of individualized care plans and close monitoring of both mother and fetus. The patient's risk of recurrent UTIs, coupled with her diabetes and high BMI, necessitated coordinated care across specialties to ensure the best possible outcomes. The Mitrofanoff procedure proved effective in managing her urinary retention, allowing her to maintain self-catheterization during pregnancy. The multidisciplinary team approach was crucial in addressing her complex medical needs, involving obstetrics, urology, and endocrinology. This case adds valuable information to the limited literature on pregnancy management in patients with Fowler's syndrome who have undergone the Mitrofanoff procedure, highlighting the need for comprehensive, individualized care and the involvement of a multidisciplinary team to achieve the best results.

Keywords: fowler's syndrome, clam cystoplasty, mitrofanoff procedure, pregnancy

Procedia PDF Downloads 32

Authors: Nadja Ylvestedt

Abstract:

Uppsala University Library is a geographically dispersed research library consisting of nine subject libraries located in different campus areas throughout the city of Uppsala. Despite the geographical dispersion, it is the library's ambition to be perceived as a cohesive library with consistently high service and quality. A key factor to being one cohesive library is the library's online services, especially the virtual reference service. E-mail, chat and phone are answered by a team of specially trained staff under the supervision of a team leader. When covid-19 hit, well-established routines and processes to provide an infrastructure for students and researchers at the university changed radically. The strong connection between services provided at the library locations as well as at the VRS has been one of the key components of the library’s success in providing patrons with the help they need. With radically minimized availability at the physical locations, the infrastructure was at risk of collapsing. Objectives:- The objective of this project has been to evaluate the consequences of the sudden change in the organization of the library. The focus of this evaluation is the library’s VRS as an important space for learning, interaction and communication between the library and the community when other traditional spaces were not available. The goal of this evaluation is to capture the lessons learned from providing infrastructure for learning and research in times of crisis both on a practical, user-centered level but also to stress the importance of leadership in ever-changing environments that supports and creates agile, flexible services and teams instead of rigid processes adhering to obsolete goals. Results:- Reduced availability at the physical library locations was one of the strategies to prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus. The library staff was encouraged to work from home, so student workers staffed the library’s physical locations during that time, leaving the VRS to be the only place where patrons could get expert help. The VRS had an increase of 65% of questions asked between spring term 2019 and spring term 2020. The VRS team had to navigate often complicated and fast-changing new routines depending on national guidelines. The VRS team has a strong emphasis on agility in their approach to the challenges and opportunities, with methods to evaluate decisions regularly with user experience in mind. Fast decision-making, collecting feedback, an open-minded approach to reviewing rules and processes with both a short-term and a long-term focus and providing a healthy work environment have been key factors in managing this crisis and learn from it. This was resting on a strong sense of ownership regarding the VRS, well-working communication tools and agile and active communication between team members, as well as between the team and the rest of the organization who served as a second-line support system to aid the VRS team. Moving forward, the VRS has become an important space for communication, interaction and provider of infrastructure, implementing new routines and more extensive availability due to the lessons learned during crisis. The evaluation shows that the virtual environment has become an important addition to the physical spaces, existing in its own right but always in connection with and in relationship with the library structure as a whole. Thereby showing that the basis of human interaction stays the same while its form morphs and adapts to changes, thus leaving the virtual environment as a space of communication and infrastructure with unique opportunities for outreach and the potential to become a staple in patron’s education and learning.

Keywords: virtual reference service, leadership, digital infrastructure, research library

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Damith Tennakoon, Mojgan Jadidi, Seyedreza Razavialavi

Abstract:

With recent advancements of automation in robotics, from self-driving cars to autonomous 4-legged quadrupeds, one industry that has been stagnant is the construction industry. The methodologies used in a modern-day construction site consist of arduous physical labor and the use of heavy machinery, which has not changed over the past few decades. The dangers of a modern-day construction site affect the health and safety of the workers due to performing tasks such as lifting and moving heavy objects and having to maintain unhealthy posture to complete repetitive tasks such as painting, installing drywall, and laying bricks. Further, training for heavy machinery is costly and requires a lot of time due to their complex control inputs. The main focus of this research is using immersive wearable technology and robotic arms to perform the complex and intricate skills of modern-day construction workers while alleviating the physical labor requirements to perform their day-to-day tasks. The methodology consists of mounting a stereo vision camera, the ZED Mini by Stereolabs, onto the end effector of an industrial grade robotic arm, streaming the video feed into the Virtual Reality (VR) Meta Quest 2 (Quest 2) head-mounted display (HMD). Due to the nature of stereo vision, and the similar field-of-views between the stereo camera and the Quest 2, human-vision can be replicated on the HMD. The main advantage this type of camera provides over a traditional monocular camera is it gives the user wearing the HMD a sense of the depth of the camera scene, specifically, a first-person view of the robotic arm’s end effector. Utilizing the built-in cameras of the Quest 2 HMD, open-source hand-tracking libraries from OpenXR can be implemented to track the user’s hands in real-time. A mixed-reality (XR) Unity application can be developed to localize the operator's physical hand motions with the end-effector of the robotic arm. Implementing gesture controls will enable the user to move the robotic arm and control its end-effector by moving the operator’s arm and providing gesture inputs from a distant location. Given that the end effector of the robotic arm is a gripper tool, gripping and opening the operator’s hand will translate to the gripper of the robot arm grabbing or releasing an object. This human-robot interaction approach provides many benefits within the construction industry. First, the operator’s safety will be increased substantially as they can be away from the site-location while still being able perform complex tasks such as moving heavy objects from place to place or performing repetitive tasks such as painting walls and laying bricks. The immersive interface enables precision robotic arm control and requires minimal training and knowledge of robotic arm manipulation, which lowers the cost for operator training. This human-robot interface can be extended to many applications, such as handling nuclear accident/waste cleanup, underwater repairs, deep space missions, and manufacturing and fabrication within factories. Further, the robotic arm can be mounted onto existing mobile robots to provide access to hazardous environments, including power plants, burning buildings, and high-altitude repair sites.

Keywords: construction automation, human-robot interaction, hand-tracking, mixed reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Sarah M. Schoellhammer, Stephen Gibb

Abstract:

Bureaucracy, in particular, its core element, a formal and stable hierarchy of authority, is proving less and less appropriate under the conditions of today’s knowledge economy. Centralization and formalization were consistently found to hinder innovation, undermining cross-functional collaboration, personal responsibility, and flexibility. With its focus on systematical planning, controlling and monitoring the development of new or improved solutions for customers, even innovation management as a discipline is to a significant extent based on a mechanistic understanding of organizations. The most important drivers of innovation, human creativity, and initiative, however, can be more hindered than supported by central elements of classic innovation management, such as predefined innovation strategies, rigid stage gate processes, and decisions made in management gate meetings. Heterarchy, as an alternative network form of organization, is essentially characterized by its dynamic influence structures, whereby the biggest influence is allocated by the collective to the persons perceived the most competent in a certain issue. Theoretical arguments that the non-hierarchical concept better supports innovation than bureaucracy have been supported by empirical research. These prior studies either focus on the structure and general functioning of non-hierarchical organizations or on their innovativeness, that means innovation as an outcome. Complementing classic innovation management approaches, this work aims to shed light on how innovations are initiated and realized in heterarchies in order to identify alternative solutions practiced under conditions of the post-bureaucratic organization. Through an initial individual case study, which is part of a multiple-case project, the innovation practices of an innovative and highly heterarchical medium-sized company in the German fire engineering industry are investigated. In a pragmatic mixed methods approach media resonance, company documents, and workspace architecture are analyzed, in addition to qualitative interviews with the CEO and employees of the case company, as well as a quantitative survey aiming to characterize the company along five scaled dimensions of a heterarchy spectrum. The analysis reveals some similarities and striking differences to approaches suggested by classic innovation management. The studied heterarchy has no predefined innovation strategy guiding new product and service development. Instead, strategic direction is provided by the CEO, described as visionary and creative. Procedures for innovation are hardly formalized, with new product ideas being evaluated on the basis of gut feeling and flexible, rather general criteria. Employees still being hesitant to take responsibility and make decisions, hierarchical influence is still prominent. Described as open-minded and collaborative, culture and leadership were found largely congruent with definitions of innovation culture. Overall, innovation efforts at the case company tend to be coordinated more through cultural than through formal organizational mechanisms. To better enable innovation in mainstream organizations, responsible practitioners are recommended not to limit changes to reducing the central elements of the bureaucratic organization, formalization, and centralization. The freedoms this entails need to be sustained through cultural coordination mechanisms, with personal initiative and responsibility by employees as well as common innovation-supportive norms and values. These allow to integrate diverse competencies, opinions, and activities and, thus, to guide innovation efforts.

Keywords: bureaucracy, heterarchy, innovation management, values

Procedia PDF Downloads 187

Authors: A. J. Al-Graitti, G. A. Khalid, P. Berthelson, A. Mason-Jones, R. Prabhu, M. D. Jones

Abstract:

Motor vehicle related pedestrian road traffic collisions are a major road safety challenge, since they are a leading cause of death and serious injury worldwide, contributing to a third of the global disease burden. The auto rickshaw, which is a common form of urban transport in many developing countries, plays a major transport role, both as a vehicle for hire and for private use. The most common auto rickshaws are quite unlike ‘typical’ four-wheel motor vehicle, being typically characterised by three wheels, a non-tilting sheet-metal body or open frame construction, a canvas roof and side curtains, a small drivers’ cabin, handlebar controls and a passenger space at the rear. Given the propensity, in developing countries, for auto rickshaws to be used in mixed cityscapes, where pedestrians and vehicles share the roadway, the potential for auto rickshaw impacts with pedestrians is relatively high. Whilst auto rickshaws are used in some Western countries, their limited number and spatial separation from pedestrian walkways, as a result of city planning, has not resulted in significant accident statistics. Thus, auto rickshaws have not been subject to the vehicle impact related pedestrian crash kinematic analyses and/or injury mechanics assessment, typically associated with motor vehicle development in Western Europe, North America and Japan. This study presents a parametric analysis of auto rickshaw related pedestrian impacts by computational simulation, using a Finite Element model of an auto rickshaw and an LS-DYNA 50^th percentile male Hybrid III Anthropometric Test Device (dummy). Parametric variables include auto rickshaw impact velocity, auto rickshaw impact region (front, centre or offset) and relative pedestrian impact position (front, side and rear). The output data of each impact simulation was correlated against reported injury metrics, Head Injury Criterion (front, side and rear), Neck injury Criterion (front, side and rear), Abbreviated Injury Scale and reported risk level and adds greater understanding to the issue of auto rickshaw related pedestrian injury risk. The parametric analyses suggest that pedestrians are subject to a relatively high risk of injury during impacts with an auto rickshaw at velocities of 20 km/h or greater, which during some of the impact simulations may even risk fatalities. The present study provides valuable evidence for informing a series of recommendations and guidelines for making the auto rickshaw safer during collisions with pedestrians. Whilst it is acknowledged that the present research findings are based in the field of safety engineering and may over represent injury risk, compared to “Real World” accidents, many of the simulated interactions produced injury response values significantly greater than current threshold curves and thus, justify their inclusion in the study. To reduce the injury risk level and increase the safety of the auto rickshaw, there should be a reduction in the velocity of the auto rickshaw and, or, consideration of engineering solutions, such as retro fitting injury mitigation technologies to those auto rickshaw contact regions which are the subject of the greatest risk of producing pedestrian injury.

Keywords: auto rickshaw, finite element analysis, injury risk level, LS-DYNA, pedestrian impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 194

Authors: Roula Kitsiou, Sofia Tsioli, Eleni Gana

Abstract:

The current sociopolitical realities (displacement, encampment, and resettlement) refugees experience in Greece are a quite complex issue. Their educational and social ‘integration’ is characterized by transition, insecurity, and constantly changing needs. Based on the current research data, technology and more specifically mobile phones are one of the most important resources for refugees, regardless of their levels of conventional literacy. The proposed paper discusses the challenges encountered during the design and implementation of the educational Action 16 ‘Language Education for Adult Refugees’. Action 16 is one of the 24 Actions of the Project PRESS (Provision of Refugee Education and Support Scheme), funded by the Hellenic Open University (2016-2017). Project PRESS had two main objectives: a) to address the educational and integration needs of refugees in transit, who currently reside in Greece, and b) implement research-based educational interventions in online and offline sites. In the present paper, the focus is on reflection and discussion about the challenges and the potential of integrating technology in language learning for a target-group with many specific needs, which have been recorded in field notes among other research tools (ethnographic data) used in the context of PRESS. Action 16, explores if and how technology enhanced language activities in real-time and place mediated through teachers, as well as an autonomous computer-mediated learning space (moodle platform and application) builds on and expands the linguistic, cultural and digital resources and repertoires of the students by creating collaborative face-to-face and digital learning spaces. A broader view on language as a dynamic puzzle of semiotic resources and processes based on the concept of translanguaging is adopted. Specifically, designing the blended learning environment we draw on the construct of translanguaging a) as a symbolic means to valorize students’ repertoires and practices, b) as a method to reach to specific applications of a target-language that the context brings forward (Greek useful to them), and c) as a means to expand refugees’ repertoires. This has led to the creation of a learning space where students' linguistic and cultural resources can find paths to expression. In this context, communication and learning are realized by mutually investing multiple aspects of the team members' identities as educational material designers, teachers, and students on the teaching and learning processes. Therefore, creativity, humour, code-switching, translation, transference etc. are all possible means that can be employed in order to promote multilingual communication and language learning towards raising intercultural awareness in a critical digital pedagogy context. The qualitative analysis includes critical reflection on the developed educational material, team-based reflexive discussions, teachers’ reports data, and photographs from the interventions. The endeavor to involve women and men with a refugee background into a blended learning experience was quite innovative especially for the Greek context. It reflects a pragmatist ethos of the choices made in order to respond to the here-and-now needs of the refugees, and finally it was a very challenging task that has led all actors involved into Action 16 to (re)negotiations of subjectivities and products in a creative and hopeful way.

Keywords: blended learning, integration, language education, refugees

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Ruth Shapira

Abstract:

Introduction: The rapid urbanization of the last century confronts planners, regulatory bodies, developers and most of all the public with seemingly unsolved conflicts regarding values, capital, and wellbeing of the built and un-built urban space. There is an out of control change of scale of the urban form and of the rhythm of the urban life which has known no significant progress in the last 2-3 decades despite the on-growing urban population. It is the objective of this paper to analyze some of these fundamental issues through the case study of a relatively small town in the center of Israel (Kiryat-Ono, 36,000 inhabitants), unfold the deep structure of qualities versus disruptors, present some cure that we have developed to bridge over and humbly suggest a practice that may bring about a sustainable new urban environment based on timeless values of the past, an approach that can be generic for similar cases. Basic Methodologies:The object, the town of Kiryat Ono, shall be experimented upon in a series of four action processes: De-composition, Re-composition, the Centering process and, finally, Controlled Structural Disintegration. Each stage will be based on facts, analysis of previous multidisciplinary interventions on various layers – and the inevitable reaction of the OBJECT, leading to the conclusion based on innovative theoretical and practical methods that we have developed and that we believe are proper for the open ended network, setting the rules for the contemporary urban society to cluster by – thus – a new urban vocabulary based on the old structure of times passed. The Study: Kiryat Ono, was founded 70 years ago as an agricultural settlement and rapidly turned into an urban entity. In spite the massive intensification, the original DNA of the old small town was still deeply embedded, mostly in the quality of the public space and in the sense of clustered communities. In the past 20 years, the recent demand for housing has been addressed to on the national level with recent master plans and urban regeneration policies mostly encouraging individual economic initiatives. Unfortunately, due to the obsolete existing planning platform the present urban renewal is characterized by pressure of developers, a dramatic change in building scale and widespread disintegration of the existing urban and social tissue.Our office was commissioned to conceptualize two master plans for the two contradictory processes of Kiryat Ono’s future: intensification and conservation. Following a comprehensive investigation into the deep structures and qualities of the existing town, we developed a new vocabulary of conservation terms thus redefying the sense of PLACE. The main challenge was to create master plans that should offer a regulatory basis to the accelerated and sporadic development providing for the public good and preserving the characteristics of the place consisting of a tool box of design guidelines that will have the ability to reorganize space along the time axis in a sustainable way. In conclusion: The system of rules that we have developed can generate endless possible patterns making sure that at each implementation fragment an event is created, and a better place is revealed. It takes time and perseverance but it seems to be the way to provide a healthy and sustainable framework for the accelerated urbanization of our chaotic present.

Keywords: sustainable urban design, intensification, emergent urban patterns, sustainable housing, compact urban neighborhoods, sustainable regeneration, restoration, complexity, uncertainty, need for change, implications of legislation on local planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Philip A. Szlosek, M. Susan Guyer, Mary G. Barnum, Elizabeth M. Mullin

Abstract:

In the United States, athletic training is a healthcare profession that encompasses the prevention, examination, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions. Athletic trainers work under the direction of or in collaboration with a physician and are recognized by the American Medical Association as allied healthcare professionals. Internationally, this profession is often known as athletic therapy. As healthcare professionals, athletic trainers must be prepared for autonomous practice immediately after graduation. However, new athletic trainers have been shown to have clinical areas of strength and weakness.To better assess professional readiness and improve the preparedness of new athletic trainers, the factors of athletic training professional readiness must be defined. Limited research exists defining the holistic aspects of professional readiness needed for athletic trainers. Confirming the factors of professional readiness in athletic training could enhance the professional preparation of athletic trainers and result in more highly prepared new professionals. The objective of this study was to further explore and confirm the factors of professional readiness in athletic training. Authors useda qualitative design based in grounded theory. Participants included athletic trainers with greater than 24 months of experience from a variety of work settings from each district of the National Athletic Trainer’s Association. Participants took the demographic questionnaire electronically using Qualtrics Survey Software (Provo UT). After completing the demographic questionnaire, 20 participants were selected to complete one-on-one interviews using GoToMeeting audiovisual web conferencing software. IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, v. 21.0) was used to calculate descriptive statistics for participant demographics. The first author transcribed all interviews verbatim and utilized a grounded theory approach during qualitative data analysis. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative analysis and open and axial coding. Trustworthiness was established using reflexivity, member checks, and peer reviews. Analysis revealed four overarching themes, including management, interpersonal relations, clinical decision-making, and confidence. Management was categorized as athletic training services not involving direct patient care and was divided into three subthemes, including administration skills, advocacy, and time management. Interpersonal Relations was categorized as the need and ability of the athletic trainer to properly interact with others. Interpersonal relations was divided into three subthemes, including personality traits, communication, and collaborative practice. Clinical decision-making was categorized as the skills and attributes required by the athletic trainer whenmaking clinical decisions related to patient care. Clinical decision-making was divided into three subthemes including clinical skills, continuing education, and reflective practice. The final theme was confidence. Participants discussed the importance of confidence regarding relationships building, clinical and administrative duties, and clinical decision-making. Overall, participants explained the value of a well-rounded athletic trainer and emphasized that athletic trainers need communication and organizational skills, the ability to collaborate, and must value self-reflection and continuing education in addition to having clinical expertise. Future research should finalize a comprehensive model of professional readiness for athletic training, develop a holistic assessment instrument for athletic training professional readiness, and explore the preparedness of new athletic trainers.

Keywords: autonomous practice, newly certified athletic trainer, preparedness for professional practice, transition to practice skills

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Dina Ibrahim Abouelamaiem, Ana Jorge Sobrido, Magdalena Titirici, Paul R. Shearing, Daniel J. L. Brett

Abstract:

Global warming and scarcity of fossil fuels have had a radical impact on the world economy and ecosystem. The urgent need for alternative energy sources has hence elicited an extensive research for exploiting efficient and sustainable means of energy conversion and storage. Among various electrochemical systems, supercapacitors attracted significant attention in the last decade due to their high power supply, long cycle life compared to batteries and simple mechanism. Recently, the performance of these devices has drastically improved, as tuning of nanomaterials provided efficient charge and storage mechanisms. Carbon materials, in various forms, are believed to pioneer the next generation of supercapacitors due to their attractive properties that include high electronic conductivities, high surface areas and easy processing and functionalization. Cellulose has eco-friendly attributes that are feasible to replace man-made fibers. The carbonization of cellulose yields carbons, including activated carbon and graphite fibers. Activated carbons successively are the most exploited candidates for supercapacitor electrode materials that can be complemented with pseudocapacitive materials to achieve high energy and power densities. In this work, the optimum functionalization conditions of cellulose have been investigated for supercapacitor electrode materials. The precursor was treated with potassium hydroxide (KOH) at different KOH/cellulose ratios prior to the carbonization process in an inert nitrogen atmosphere at 850 °C. The chalky products were washed, dried and characterized with different techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray tomography and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. The morphological characteristics and their effect on the electrochemical performances were investigated in two and three-electrode systems. The KOH/cellulose ratios of 0.5:1 and 1:1 exhibited the highest performances with their unique hierarchal porous network structure, high surface areas and low cell resistances. Both samples acquired the best results in three-electrode systems and coin cells with specific gravimetric capacitances as high as 187 F g-1 and 20 F g-1 at a current density of 1 A g-1 and retention rates of 72% and 70%, respectively. This is attributed to the morphology of the samples that constituted of a well-balanced micro-, meso- and macro-porosity network structure. This study reveals that the electrochemical performance doesn’t solely depend on high surface areas but also an optimum pore size distribution, specifically at low current densities. The micro- and meso-pore contribution to the final pore structure was found to dominate at low KOH loadings, reaching ‘equilibrium’ with macropores at the optimum KOH loading, after which macropores dictate the porous network. The wide range of pore sizes is detrimental for the mobility and penetration of electrolyte ions in the porous structures. These findings highlight the influence of various morphological factors on the double-layer capacitances and high performance rates. In addition, they open a platform for the investigation of the optimized conditions for double-layer capacitance that can be coupled with pseudocapacitive materials to yield higher energy densities and capacities.

Keywords: carbon, electrochemical performance, electrodes, KOH/cellulose optimized ratio, morphology, supercapacitor

Procedia PDF Downloads 219

Authors: Siti Rahayu, Khairulniza Mohd Puat, Kesavan R., Mohammad Harris A., Jalila, Kunalan G., Fazir Mohamad

Abstract:

The greatest challenge has been in establishing and maintaining the dedicated nursing team. Continuity is served when nurses are assigned exclusively for managing wound, where they can continue to build expertise and skills. In addition, there is a growing incidence of chronic wounds and recognition of the complexity involved in caring for these patients. We would like to share 4 cases with different techniques of wound management. 1st case, 39 years old gentleman with underlying rheumatoid arthritis with chronic periprosthetic joint infection of right total knee replacement presented with persistent drainage over right knee. Patient was consulted for two stage revision total knee replacement. However, patient only agreed for debridement and retention of implant. After debridement, large medial and lateral wound was treated with Instillation Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Dressings. After several cycle, the wound size reduced, and conventional dressing was applied. 2nd case, 58 years old gentleman with underlying diabetes presented with right foot necrotizing fasciitis with gangrene of 5th toe. He underwent extensive debridement of foot with rays’ amputation of 5th toe. Post debridement patient was started on Instillation Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Dressings. After several cycle of VAC, the wound bed was prepared, and he underwent split skin graft over right foot. 3 rd case, 60 years old gentleman with underlying diabetes mellitus presented with right foot necrotizing soft tissue infection. He underwent rays’ amputation and extensive wound debridement. Upon stabilization of general condition, patient was discharge with regular wound dressing by same nurse and doctor during each visit to clinic follow up. After 6 months of follow up, the wound healed well. 4th case, 38-year-old gentleman had alleged motor vehicle accident and sustained closed fracture right tibial plateau. Open reduction and proximal tibial locking plate were done. At 2 weeks post-surgery, the patient presented with warm, erythematous leg and pus discharge from the surgical site. Empirical antibiotic was started, and wound debridement was done. Intraoperatively, 50cc pus was evacuated, unhealthy muscle and tissue debrided. No loosening of the implant. Patient underwent multiple wound debridement. At 2 weeks post debridement wound healed well, but the proximal aspect was unable to close immediately. This left the proximal part of the implant to be exposed. Patient was then put on VAC dressing for 3 weeks until healthy granulation tissue closes the implant. Meanwhile, antibiotic was change according to culture and sensitivity. At 6 weeks post the first debridement, the wound was completely close, and patient was discharge home well. At 3 months post operatively, patient wound and fracture healed uneventfully and able to ambulate independently. Complex wounds are too serious to be dealt with. Team managing complex wound need continuous support through the provision of educational tools to support their professional development, engagement with local and international expert, as well as highquality products that increase efficiencies in services

Keywords: VAC (Vacuum Assisted Closure), empirical- initial antibiotics, NPWT- negative pressure wound therapy, NF- necrotizing fasciitis, gangrene- blackish discoloration due to poor blood supply

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Joseph M. Rich, Vinay A. Duddalwar, Assad A. Oberai

Abstract:

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common cancer in males, with osseous metastases as the commonest site of metastatic prostate carcinoma (mPC). Treatment monitoring is based on the evaluation and characterization of lesions on multiple imaging studies, including Computed Tomography (CT). Monitoring of the osseous disease burden, including follow-up of lesions and identification and characterization of new lesions, is a laborious task for radiologists. Deep learning algorithms are increasingly used to perform tasks such as identification and segmentation for osseous metastatic disease and provide accurate information regarding metastatic burden. Here, nnUNet was used to produce a model which can segment CT scan images of prostate adenocarcinoma vertebral bone metastatic lesions. nnUNet is an open-source Python package that adds optimizations to deep learning-based UNet architecture but has not been extensively combined with transfer learning techniques due to the absence of a readily available functionality of this method. The IRB-approved study data set includes imaging studies from patients with mPC who were enrolled in clinical trials at the University of Southern California (USC) Health Science Campus and Los Angeles County (LAC)/USC medical center. Manual segmentation of metastatic lesions was completed by an expert radiologist Dr. Vinay Duddalwar (20+ years in radiology and oncologic imaging), to serve as ground truths for the automated segmentation. Despite nnUNet’s success on some medical segmentation tasks, it only produced an average Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.31 on the USC dataset. DSC results fell in a bimodal distribution, with most scores falling either over 0.66 (reasonably accurate) or at 0 (no lesion detected). Applying more aggressive data augmentation techniques dropped the DSC to 0.15, and reducing the number of epochs reduced the DSC to below 0.1. Datasets have been identified for transfer learning, which involve balancing between size and similarity of the dataset. Identified datasets include the Pancreas data from the Medical Segmentation Decathlon, Pelvic Reference Data, and CT volumes with multiple organ segmentations (CT-ORG). Some of the challenges of producing an accurate model from the USC dataset include small dataset size (115 images), 2D data (as nnUNet generally performs better on 3D data), and the limited amount of public data capturing annotated CT images of bone lesions. Optimizations and improvements will be made by applying transfer learning and generative methods, including incorporating generative adversarial networks and diffusion models in order to augment the dataset. Performance with different libraries, including MONAI and custom architectures with Pytorch, will be compared. In the future, molecular correlations will be tracked with radiologic features for the purpose of multimodal composite biomarker identification. Once validated, these models will be incorporated into evaluation workflows to optimize radiologist evaluation. Our work demonstrates the challenges of applying automated image segmentation to small medical datasets and lays a foundation for techniques to improve performance. As machine learning models become increasingly incorporated into the workflow of radiologists, these findings will help improve the speed and accuracy of vertebral metastatic lesions detection.

Keywords: deep learning, image segmentation, medicine, nnUNet, prostate carcinoma, radiomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: C. Bel, J. Nevado, F. Ciceri, M. Ropacki, T. Hoffmann, P. Lapunzina, C. Buesa

Abstract:

Background: The Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a genetic disorder caused by the deletion of the terminal region of chromosome 22 or mutation of the SHANK3 gene. Shank3 disruption in mice leads to dysfunction of synaptic transmission, which can be restored by epigenetic regulation with both Lysine Specific Demethylase 1 (LSD1) inhibitors. PMS subjects result in a variable degree of intellectual disability, delay or absence of speech, autistic spectrum disorders symptoms, low muscle tone, motor delays and epilepsy. Vafidemstat is an LSD1 inhibitor in Phase II clinical development with a well-established and favorable safety profile, and data supporting the restoration of memory and cognition defects as well as reduction of agitation and aggression in several animal models and clinical studies. Therefore, vafidemstat has the potential to become a first-in-class precision medicine approach to treat PMS patients. Aims: The goal of this research is to perform an observational trial to psychometrically characterize individuals carrying deletions in SHANK3 and build a foundation for subsequent precision psychiatry clinical trials with vafidemstat. Methodology: This study is characterizing the clinical profile of 20 to 40 subjects, > 16-year-old, with genotypically confirmed PMS diagnosis. Subjects will complete a battery of neuropsychological scales, including the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ), Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Escala de Observación para el Diagnostico del Autismo (Autism Diagnostic Observational Scale) (ADOS)-2, the Battelle Developmental Inventory and the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI). Results: By March 2021, 19 patients have been enrolled. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the results obtained so far identifies 3 groups of patients, characterized by different profiles of cognitive and behavioral scores. The first cluster is characterized by low Battelle age, high ADOS and low Vineland, RBQ and BPI scores. Low Vineland, RBQ and BPI scores are also detected in the second cluster, which in contrast has high Battelle age and low ADOS scores. The third cluster is somewhat in the middle for the Battelle, Vineland and ADOS scores while displaying the highest levels of aggression (high BPI) and repeated behaviors (high RBQ). In line with the observation that female patients are generally affected by milder forms of autistic symptoms, no male patients are present in the second cluster. Dividing the results by gender highlights that male patients in the third cluster are characterized by a higher frequency of aggression, whereas female patients from the same cluster display a tendency toward higher repetitive behavior. Finally, statistically significant differences in deletion sizes are detected comparing the three clusters (also after correcting for gender), and deletion size appears to be positively correlated with ADOS and negatively correlated with Vineland A and C scores. No correlation is detected between deletion size and the BPI and RBQ scores. Conclusions: Precision medicine may open a new way to understand and treat Central Nervous System disorders. Epigenetic dysregulation has been proposed to be an important mechanism in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and autism. Vafidemstat holds exciting therapeutic potential in PMS, and this study will provide data regarding the optimal endpoints for a future clinical study to explore vafidemstat ability to treat shank3-associated psychiatric disorders.

Keywords: autism, epigenetics, LSD1, personalized medicine

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Shatarupa Thakurta Roy

Abstract:

Along the limelight of mainstream academic practices in Indian art, exist a significant lot of habitual art practices that are mutually susceptible in their contemporary forms. Narrative folk paintings of regional India has successfully dispersed to its audience social messages through pulsating pictures and orations. The paper consists of images from narrative scroll paintings on ‘Ramayana’ theme from various neighboring states as well as districts in India, describing their subtle differences in style of execution, method, and use of material. Despite sharing commonness in the choice of subject matter, habitual and ceremonial Indian folk art in its formative phase thrived within isolated locations to yield in remarkable variety in the art styles. The differences in style took place district wise, cast wise and even gender wise. An open flow is only evident in the contemporary expressions as a result of substantial changes in social structures, mode of communicative devices, cross-cultural exposures and multimedia interactivities. To decipher the complex nature of popular cultural taste of contemporary India it is important to categorically identify its root in vernacular symbolism. The realization of modernity through European primitivism was rather elevated as a perplexed identity in Indian cultural margin in the light of nationalist and postcolonial ideology. To trace the guiding factor that has still managed to obtain ‘Indianness’ in today’s Indian art, researchers need evidences from the past that are yet to be listed in most instances. They are commonly created on ephemeral foundations. The artworks are also found in endangered state and hence, not counted much friendly for frequent handling. The museums are in dearth of proper technological guidelines to preserve them. Even though restoration activities are emerging in the country, the existing withered and damaged artworks are in threat to perish. An immediacy of digital achieving is therefore envisioned as an alternative to save this cultural legacy. The method of this study is, two folded. It primarily justifies the richness of the evidences by conducting categorical aesthetic analysis. The study is supported by comments on the stylistic variants, thematic aspects, and iconographic identities alongside its anthropological and anthropomorphic significance. Further, it explores the possible ways of cultural preservation to ensure cultural sustainability that includes technological intervention in the form of digital transformation as an altered paradigm for better accessibility to the available recourses. The study duly emphasizes on visual description in order to culturally interpret and judge the rare visual evidences following Feldman’s four-stepped method of formal analysis combined with thematic explanation. A habitual design that emerges and thrives within complex social circumstances may experience change placing its principle philosophy at risk by shuffling and altering with time. A tradition that respires in the modern setup struggles to maintain timeless values that operate its creative flow. Thus, the paper hypothesizes the survival and further growth of this practice within the dynamics of time and concludes in realization of the urgency to transform the implicitness of its knowledge into explicit records.

Keywords: aesthetic, identity, implicitness, paradigm

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: M. Doudi, M. H. Pazandeh, L. Rahimzadeh Torabi

Abstract:

Bedsores are pressure ulcers that occur on the skin or tissue due to being immobile and lying in bed for extended periods. Bedsores have the potential to progress into open ulcers, increasing the possibility of variety of bacterial infection. Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogen of considerable clinical importance, exhibited a significant correlation with Bedsores (pressure ulcers) infections, thereby manifesting a wide spectrum of antibiotic resistance. The emergence of drug resistance has led researchers to focus on alternative methods, particularly phage therapy, for tackling bacterial infections. Phage therapy has emerged as a novel therapeutic approach to regulate the activity of these agents. The management of bacterial infections greatly benefits from the clinical utilization of bacteriophages as a valuable antimicrobial intervention. The primary objective of this investigation consisted of isolating and discerning potent bacteriophage capable of targeting multi drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) bacteria obtained from pressure ulcers. In present study, analyzed and isolated A. baumannii strains obtained from a cohort of patients suffering from pressure ulcers at Taleghani Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. An approach that included biochemical and molecular identification techniques was used to determine the taxonomic classification of bacterial isolates at the genus and species levels. The molecular identification process was facilitated by using the 16S rRNA gene in combination with universal primers 27 F, and 1492 R. Bacteriophage was obtained through the isolation process conducted on treatment plant sewage located in Isfahan, Iran. The main goal of this study was to evaluate different characteristics of phage, such as their appearance, range of hosts they can infect, how quickly they can enter a host, their stability at varying temperatures and pH levels, their effectiveness in killing bacteria, the growth pattern of a single phage stage, mapping of enzymatic digestion, and identification of proteomics patterns. The findings demonstrated that an examination was conducted on a sample of 50 specimens, wherein 15 instances of A. baumannii were identified. These microorganisms are the predominant Gram-negative agents known to cause wound infections in individuals suffering from bedsores. The study's findings indicated a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the strains isolated from pressure ulcers, excluding the clinical strains that exhibited responsiveness to colistin.According to the findings obtained from assessments of host range and morphological characteristics of bacteriophage VbɸAB-1, it can be concluded that this phage possesses specificity towards A. Baumannii BAH_Glau1001 was classified as a member of the Plasmaviridae family. The bacteriophage mentioned earlier showed the strongest antibacterial effect at a temperature of 18 °C and a pH of 6.5. Through the utilization of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis on protein fragments, it was established that the bacteriophage VbɸAB-1 exhibited a size range between 50 and 75 kilodaltons (KDa). The numerous research findings on the effectiveness of phages and the safety studies conducted suggest that the phages studied in this research can be considered as a practical solution and recommended approach for controlling and treating stubborn pathogens in burn wounds among hospitalized patients.

Keywords: acinetobacter baumannii, extremely drug- resistant, phage therapy, surgery wound

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: L. Calcagni, A. Battisti, M. Hensel, D. S. Hensel

Abstract:

Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen a dynamic growth of water-based (WB) architecture, mainly due to the increasing threat of floods caused by sea level rise and heavy rains, all correlated with climate change. At the same time, the shortage of land available for urban development also led architects, engineers, and policymakers to reclaim the seabed or to build floating structures. Furthermore, the drive to produce energy from renewable resources has expanded the sector of offshore research, mining, and energy industry which seeks new types of WB structures. In light of these considerations, the time is ripe to consider floating architecture as a full-fledged building typology. Currently, there is no universally recognized academic definition of a floating building. Research on floating architecture lacks a proper, commonly shared vocabulary and typology distinction. Moreover, there is no global international legal framework for urban development on water, and there is no structured performance based building design (PBBD) approach for floating architecture in most countries, let alone national regulatory systems. Thus, first of all, the research intends to overcome the semantic and typological issues through the conceptualization of floating architecture, laying the proto-ontological conditions for floating development, and secondly to identify the parameters to be considered in the definition of a specific PBBD framework, setting the scene for national planning strategies. The theoretical overview and re-semanticization process involve the attribution of a new meaning to the term floating architecture. This terminological work of semantic redetermination is carried out through a systematic literature review and involves quantitative and historical research as well as logical argumentation methods. As it is expected that floating urban development is most likely to take place as an extension of coastal areas, the needs and design criteria are definitely more similar to those of the urban environment than to those of the offshore industry. Therefore, the identification and categorization of parameters –looking towards the potential formation of a PBBD framework for floating development– takes the urban and architectural guidelines and regulations as the starting point, taking the missing aspects, such as hydrodynamics (i.e. stability and buoyancy) from the offshore and shipping regulatory frameworks. This study is carried out through an evidence-based assessment of regulatory systems that are effective in different countries around the world, addressing on-land and on-water architecture as well as offshore and shipping industries. It involves evidence-based research and logical argumentation methods. Overall, inhabiting water is proposed not only as a viable response to the problem of rising sea levels, thus as a resilient frontier for urban development, but also as a response to energy insecurity, clean water, and food shortages, environmental concerns, and urbanization, in line with Blue Economy principles and the Agenda 2030. This review shows how floating architecture is to all intents and purposes, an urban adaptation measure and a solution towards self-sufficiency and energy-saving objectives. Moreover, the adopted methodology is, to all extents, open to further improvements and integrations, thus not rigid and already completely determined. Along with new designs and functions that will come into play in the practice field, eventually, life on water will seem no more unusual than life on land, especially by virtue of the multiple advantages it provides not only to users but also to the environment.

Keywords: adaptation measures, building typology, floating architecture, performance based building design, rising sea levels

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Manuel I. Capel, Antonio Tomeu, Alberto Salguero

Abstract:

Tumor growth from a transformed cancer-cell up to a clinically apparent mass spans through a range of spatial and temporal magnitudes. Through computer simulations, Cellular Automata (CA) can accurately describe the complexity of the development of tumors. Tumor development prognosis can now be made -without making patients undergo through annoying medical examinations or painful invasive procedures- if we develop appropriate CA-based software tools. In silico testing mainly refers to Computational Biology research studies of application to clinical actions in Medicine. To establish sound computer-based models of cellular behavior, certainly reduces costs and saves precious time with respect to carrying out experiments in vitro at labs or in vivo with living cells and organisms. These aim to produce scientifically relevant results compared to traditional in vitro testing, which is slow, expensive, and does not generally have acceptable reproducibility under the same conditions. For speeding up computer simulations of cellular models, specific literature shows recent proposals based on the CA approach that include advanced techniques, such the clever use of supporting efficient data structures when modeling with deterministic stochastic cellular automata. Multiparadigm and multiscale simulation of tumor dynamics is just beginning to be developed by the concerned research community. The use of stochastic cellular automata (SCA), whose parallel programming implementations are open to yield a high computational performance, are of much interest to be explored up to their computational limits. There have been some approaches based on optimizations to advance in multiparadigm models of tumor growth, which mainly pursuit to improve performance of these models through efficient memory accesses guarantee, or considering the dynamic evolution of the memory space (grids, trees,…) that holds crucial data in simulations. In our opinion, the different optimizations mentioned above are not decisive enough to achieve the high performance computing power that cell-behavior simulation programs actually need. The possibility of using multicore and GPU parallelism as a promising multiplatform and framework to develop new programming techniques to speed-up the computation time of simulations is just starting to be explored in the few last years. This paper presents a model that incorporates parallel processing, identifying the synchronization necessary for speeding up tumor growth simulations implemented in Java and C++ programming environments. The speed up improvement that specific parallel syntactic constructs, such as executors (thread pools) in Java, are studied. The new tumor growth parallel model is proved using implementations with Java and C++ languages on two different platforms: chipset Intel core i-X and a HPC cluster of processors at our university. The parallelization of Polesczuk and Enderling model (normally used by researchers in mathematical oncology) proposed here is analyzed with respect to performance gain. We intend to apply the model and overall parallelization technique presented here to solid tumors of specific affiliation such as prostate, breast, or colon. Our final objective is to set up a multiparadigm model capable of modelling angiogenesis, or the growth inhibition induced by chemotaxis, as well as the effect of therapies based on the presence of cytotoxic/cytostatic drugs.

Keywords: cellular automaton, tumor growth model, simulation, multicore and manycore programming, parallel programming, high performance computing, speed up

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Mumtaz Mooncey, Alexander Jolly, Megan Fisher, Kerry Robinson, Robert Lloyd, Dave Fielding

Abstract:

Introduction: The integration of the WingFactors in-situ simulation programme has transformed the education landscape at the Whittington Health NHS Trust. To date, there have been a total of 90 simulations - 19 aimed at Paediatric trainees, including 2 Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) scenarios. The opportunity for joint debriefs provided by clinical faculty and airline pilots, has created a new exciting avenue to explore human factors within psychiatry. Through the use of real clinical environments and primed actors; the benefits of high fidelity simulation, interdisciplinary and interprofessional learning has been highlighted. The use of in-situ simulation within Psychiatry is a newly emerging concept and its success here has been recognised by unanimously positive feedback from participants and acknowledgement through nomination for the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Award (Best Education Programme 2021). Methodology: The first CAMHS simulation featured a collapsed patient in the toilet with a ligature tied around her neck, accompanied by a distressed parent. This required participants to consider:; emergency physical management of the case, alongside helping to contain the mother and maintaining situational awareness when transferring the patient to an appropriate clinical area. The second simulation was based on a 17- year- old girl attempting to leave the ward after presenting with an overdose, posing potential risk to herself. The safe learning environment enabled participants to explore techniques to engage the young person and understand their concerns, and consider the involvement of other members of the multidisciplinary team. The scenarios were followed by an immediate ‘hot’ debrief, combining technical feedback with Human Factors feedback from uniformed airline pilots and clinicians. The importance of psychological safety was paramount, encouraging open and honest contributions from all participants. Key learning points were summarized into written documents and circulated. Findings: The in-situ simulations demonstrated the need for practical changes both in the Emergency Department and on the Paediatric ward. The presence of airline pilots provided a novel way to debrief on Human Factors. The following key themes were identified: -Team-briefing (‘Golden 5 minutes’) - Taking a few moments to establish experience, initial roles and strategies amongst the team can reduce the need for conversations in front of a distressed patient or anxious relative. -Use of checklists / guidelines - Principles associated with checklist usage (control of pace, rigor, team situational awareness), instead of reliance on accurate memory recall when under pressure. -Read-back - Immediate repetition of safety critical instructions (e.g. drug / dosage) to mitigate the risks associated with miscommunication. -Distraction management - Balancing the risk of losing a team member to manage a distressed relative, versus it impacting on the care of the young person. -Task allocation - The value of the implementation of ‘The 5A’s’ (Availability, Address, Allocate, Ask, Advise), for effective task allocation. Conclusion: 100% of participants have requested more simulation training. Involvement of airline pilots has led to a shift in hospital culture, bringing to the forefront the value of Human Factors focused training and multidisciplinary simulation. This has been of significant value in not only physical health, but also mental health simulation.

Keywords: human factors, in-situ simulation, inter-professional, multidisciplinary

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Daniele Lerede, Gianvito Colucci, Matteo Nicoli, Laura Savoldi

Abstract:

The European Green Deal is the first internationally agreed set of measures to contrast climate change and environmental degradation. Besides the main target of reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030, it sets the target of accompanying European countries through an energy transition to make the European Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive net-zero emissions economy by 2050, decoupling growth from the use of resources and ensuring a fair adaptation of all social categories to the transformation process. While the general purpose to allow the realization of the purposes of the Green Deal already dates back to 2019, strategies and policies keep being developed coping with recent circumstances and achievements. However, general long-term measures like the Circular Economy Action Plan, the proposals to shift from fossil natural gas to renewable and low-carbon gases, in particular biomethane and hydrogen, and to end the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2035, will all have significant effects on energy supply and demand evolution across the next decades. The interactions between energy supply and demand over long-term time frames are usually assessed via energy system models to derive useful insights for policymaking and to address technological choices and research and development. TEMOA-Europe is a newly developed energy system optimization model instance based on the minimization of the total cost of the system under analysis, adopting a technologically integrated, detailed, and explicit formulation and considering the evolution of the system in partial equilibrium in competitive markets with perfect foresight. TEMOA-Europe is developed on the TEMOA platform, an open-source modeling framework totally implemented in Python, therefore ensuring third-party verification even on large and complex models. TEMOA-Europe is based on a single-region representation of the European Union and EFTA countries on a time scale between 2005 and 2100, relying on a set of assumptions for socio-economic developments based on projections by the International Energy Outlook and a large technological dataset including 7 sectors: the upstream and power sectors for the production of all energy commodities and the end-use sectors, including industry, transport, residential, commercial and agriculture. TEMOA-Europe also includes an updated hydrogen module considering its production, storage, transportation, and utilization. Besides, it can rely on a wide set of innovative technologies, ranging from nuclear fusion and electricity plants equipped with CCS in the power sector to electrolysis-based steel production processes and steel in the industrial sector – with a techno-economic characterization based on public literature – to produce insightful energy scenarios and especially to cope with the very long analyzed time scale. The aim of this work is to examine in detail the scheme of measures and policies for the realization of the purposes of the Green Deal and to transform them into a set of constraints and new socio-economic development pathways. Based on them, TEMOA-Europe will be used to produce and comparatively analyze scenarios to assess the consequences of Green Deal-related measures on the future evolution of the energy mix over the whole energy system in an economic optimization environment.

Keywords: European Green Deal, energy system optimization modeling, scenario analysis, TEMOA-Europe

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: A. Calabrese, V. F. Uricchio, D. di Noia, S. Favale, C. Caiati, G. P. Maggi, G. Donvito, D. Diacono, S. Tangaro, A. Italiano, E. Riezzo, M. Zippitelli, M. Toriello, E. Celiberti, D. Festa, A. Colaianni

Abstract:

Climate change has a severe impact on human health. There is a vast literature demonstrating temperature increase is causally related to cardiovascular problem and represents a high risk for human health, but there are not study that improve a solution. In this work, it is studied how the clime influenced the human parameter through the analysis of climatic conditions in an area of the Apulia Region: Capurso Municipality. At the same time, medical personnel involved identified a set of variables useful to define an index describing health condition. These scientific studies are the base of an innovative alert system, IPPOCRATE, whose aim is to asses climate risk and share information to population at risk to support prevention and mitigation actions. IPPOCRATE is an e-health system, it is designed to provide technological support to analysis of health risk related to climate and provide tools for prevention and management of critical events. It is the first integrated system of prevention of human risk caused by climate change. IPPOCRATE calculates risk weighting meteorological data with the vulnerability of monitored subjects and uses mobile and cloud technologies to acquire and share information on different data channels. It is composed of four components: Multichannel Hub. Multichannel Hub is the ICT infrastructure used to feed IPPOCRATE cloud with a different type of data coming from remote monitoring devices, or imported from meteorological databases. Such data are ingested, transformed and elaborated in order to be dispatched towards mobile app and VoIP phone systems. IPPOCRATE Multichannel Hub uses open communication protocols to create a set of APIs useful to interface IPPOCRATE with 3rd party applications. Internally, it uses non-relational paradigm to create flexible and highly scalable database. WeHeart and Smart Application The wearable device WeHeart is equipped with sensors designed to measure following biometric variables: heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, body temperature and blood glucose for diabetic subjects. WeHeart is designed to be easy of use and non-invasive. For data acquisition, users need only to wear it and connect it to Smart Application by Bluetooth protocol. Easy Box was designed to take advantage from new technologies related to e-health care. EasyBox allows user to fully exploit all IPPOCRATE features. Its name, Easy Box, reveals its purpose of container for various devices that may be included depending on user needs. Territorial Registry is the IPPOCRATE web module reserved to medical personnel for monitoring, research and analysis activities. Territorial Registry allows to access to all information gathered by IPPOCRATE using GIS system in order to execute spatial analysis combining geographical data (climatological information and monitored data) with information regarding the clinical history of users and their personal details. Territorial Registry was designed for different type of users: control rooms managed by wide area health facilities, single health care center or single doctor. Territorial registry manages such hierarchy diversifying the access to system functionalities. IPPOCRATE is the first e-Health system focused on climate risk prevention.

Keywords: climate change, health risk, new technological system

Procedia PDF Downloads 867

Authors: Farhana Alam Bhuiyan, Saad Khan, Tanveer Hassan, Jhalok Ranjon Talukder, Syeda Farjana Ahmed, Rahil Roodsaz, Els Rommes, Sabina Faiz Rashid

Abstract:

Breaking the shame’ is a 3 year (2015-2018) qualitative implementation research project which investigates several aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues for adolescents living in Bangladesh. Scope of learning SRHR issues for adolescents is limited here due to cultural and religious taboos. This study adds to the ongoing discussions around adolescent’s SRHR needs and aims to, 1) understand the overall SRHR needs of urban and rural unmarried female and male adolescents and the challenges they face, 2) explore existing gaps in the content of SRHR curriculum and 3) finally, addresses some critical knowledge gaps by developing and implementing innovative SRHR educational materials. 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and 10 focus-group discussions (FGDs) with boys and 21 IDIs and 14 FGDs with girls of ages 13-19, from both urban and rural setting took place. Curriculum materials from two leading organizations, Unite for Body Rights (UBR) Alliance Bangladesh and BRAC Adolescent Development Program (ADP) were also reviewed, with discussions with 12 key program staff. This paper critically analyses the relevance of some of the SRHR topics that are covered, the challenges with existing pedagogic approaches and key sexuality issues that are not covered in the content, but are important for adolescents. Adolescents asked for content and guidance on a number of topics which remain missing from the core curriculum, such as emotional coping mechanisms particularly in relationships, bullying, impact of exposure to porn, and sexual performance anxiety. Other core areas of concern were effects of masturbation, condom use, sexual desire and orientation, which are mentioned in the content, but never discussed properly, resulting in confusion. Due to lack of open discussion around sexuality, porn becomes a source of information for the adolescents. For these reasons, several myths and misconceptions regarding SRHR issues like body, sexuality, agency, and gender roles still persist. The pedagogical approach is very didactic, and teachers felt uncomfortable to have discussions on certain SRHR topics due to cultural taboos or shame and stigma. Certain topics are favored- such as family planning, menstruation- and presented with an emphasis on biology and risk. Rigid formal teaching style, hierarchical power relations between students and most teachers discourage questions and frank conversations. Pedagogy approaches within classrooms play a critical role in the sharing of knowledge. The paper also describes the pilot approaches to implementing new content in SRHR curriculum. After a review of findings, three areas were selected as critically important, 1) myths and misconceptions 2) emotional management challenges, and 3) how to use condom, that have come up from adolescents. Technology centric educational materials such as web page based information platform and you tube videos are opted for which allow adolescents to bypass gatekeepers and learn facts and information from a legitimate educational site. In the era of social media, when information is always a click away, adolescents need sources that are reliable and not overwhelming. The research aims to ensure that adolescents learn and apply knowledge effectively, through creating the new materials and making it accessible to adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, Bangladesh, media, sexuality education, unmet needs

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: M. Doudi, M. H. Pazandeh, L. Rahimzadeh Torabi

Abstract:

Bedsores are pressure ulcers that occur on the skin or tissue due to being immobile and lying in bed for extended periods. Bedsores have the potential to progress into open ulcers, increasing the possibility of a variety of bacterial infections. Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogen of considerable clinical importance, exhibited a significant correlation with Bedsores (pressure ulcers) infections, thereby manifesting a wide spectrum of antibiotic resistance. The emergence of drug resistance has led researchers to focus on alternative methods, particularly phage therapy, for tackling bacterial infections. Phage therapy has emerged as a novel therapeutic approach to regulate the activity of these agents. The management of bacterial infections greatly benefits from the clinical utilization of bacteriophages as a valuable antimicrobial intervention. The primary objective of this investigation consisted of isolating and discerning potent bacteriophage capable of targeting multi-drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) bacteria obtained from pressure ulcers. The present study analyzed and isolated A. baumannii strains obtained from a cohort of patients suffering from pressure ulcers at Taleghani Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. An approach that included biochemical and molecular identification techniques was used to determine the taxonomic classification of bacterial isolates at the genus and species levels. The molecular identification process was facilitated by using the 16S rRNA gene in combination with universal primers 27 F and 1492 R. Bacteriophage was obtained through the isolation process conducted on treatment plant sewage located in Isfahan, Iran. The main goal of this study was to evaluate different characteristics of phage, such as their appearance, the range of hosts they can infect, how quickly they can enter a host, their stability at varying temperatures and pH levels, their effectiveness in killing bacteria, the growth pattern of a single phage stage, mapping of enzymatic digestion, and identification of proteomics patterns. The findings demonstrated that an examination was conducted on a sample of 50 specimens, wherein 15 instances of A. baumannii were identified. These microorganisms are the predominant Gram-negative agents known to cause wound infections in individuals suffering from bedsores. The study's findings indicated a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the strains isolated from pressure ulcers, excluding the clinical strains that exhibited responsiveness to colistin. According to the findings obtained from assessments of host range and morphological characteristics of bacteriophage VbɸAB-1, it can be concluded that this phage possesses specificity towards A. Baumannii BAH_Glau1001 was classified as a member of the Podoviridae family. The bacteriophage mentioned earlier showed the strongest antibacterial effect at a temperature of 18 °C and a pH of 6.5. Through the utilization of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis on protein fragments, it was established that the bacteriophage VbɸAB-1 exhibited a size range between 50 and 75 kilodaltons (KDa). The numerous research findings on the effectiveness of phages and the safety studies conducted suggest that the phages studied in this research can be considered as a practical solution and recommended approach for controlling and treating stubborn pathogens in burn wounds among hospitalized patients. The findings of our research indicated that isolated phages could be an effective antimicrobial and an appreciate candidate for prophylaxis against pressure ulcers.

Keywords: acinetobacter baumannii, extremely drug-resistant, phage therapy, surgery wound

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Jessica Ho

Abstract:

AI has helped government, businesses and industries transform the way they do things. AI is used in automating tasks to improve decision-making and efficiency. AI is embedded in sensors and used in automation to help save time and eliminate human errors in repetitive tasks. Today, we saw the growth in AI using the collection of vast amounts of data to forecast with greater accuracy, inform decision-making, adapt to changing market conditions and offer more personalised service based on consumer habits and preferences. Government around the world share the opportunity to leverage these disruptive technologies to improve productivity while reducing costs. In addition, these intelligent solutions can also help streamline government processes to deliver more seamless and intuitive user experiences for employees and citizens. This is a critical challenge for NSW Government as we are unable to determine the risk that is brought by the unprecedented pace of adoption of AI solutions in government. Government agencies must ensure that their use of AI complies with relevant laws and regulatory requirements, including those related to data privacy and security. Furthermore, there will always be ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI, such as the potential for bias, intellectual property rights and its impact on job security. Within NSW’s public sector, agencies are already testing AI for crowd control, infrastructure management, fraud compliance, public safety, transport, and police surveillance. Citizens are also attracted to the ease of use and accessibility of AI solutions without requiring specialised technical skills. This increased accessibility also comes with balancing a higher risk and exposure to the health and safety of citizens. On the other side, public agencies struggle with keeping up with this pace while minimising risks, but the low entry cost and open-source nature of generative AI led to a rapid increase in the development of AI powered apps organically – “There is an AI for That” in Government. Other challenges include the fact that there appeared to be no legislative provisions that expressly authorise the NSW Government to use an AI to make decision. On the global stage, there were too many actors in the regulatory space, and a sovereign response is needed to minimise multiplicity and regulatory burden. Therefore, traditional corporate risk and governance framework and regulation and legislation frameworks will need to be evaluated for AI unique challenges due to their rapidly evolving nature, ethical considerations, and heightened regulatory scrutiny impacting the safety of consumers and increased risks for Government. Creating an effective, efficient NSW Government’s governance regime, adapted to the range of different approaches to the applications of AI, is not a mere matter of overcoming technical challenges. Technologies have a wide range of social effects on our surroundings and behaviours. There is compelling evidence to show that Australia's sustained social and economic advancement depends on AI's ability to spur economic growth, boost productivity, and address a wide range of societal and political issues. AI may also inflict significant damage. If such harm is not addressed, the public's confidence in this kind of innovation will be weakened. This paper suggests several AI regulatory approaches for consideration that is forward-looking and agile while simultaneously fostering innovation and human rights. The anticipated outcome is to ensure that NSW Government matches the rising levels of innovation in AI technologies with the appropriate and balanced innovation in AI governance.

Keywords: artificial inteligence, machine learning, rules, governance, government

Procedia PDF Downloads 70