Search results for: nonlinear response history analysis

Authors: Sahar El Shair, Laura Greco, William Reay, Murray Cairns

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Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systematic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease that involves damages to joints and erosions to the associated bones and cartilage, resulting in reduced physical function and disability. RA is a multifactorial disorder influenced by heterogenous genetic and environmental factors. Whilst different medications have proven successful in reducing inflammation associated with RA, they often come with significant side effects and limited efficacy. To address this, the novel pharmagenic enrichment score (PES) algorithm was tested in self-reported RA patients from the UK Biobank (UKBB), which is a cohort of predominantly European ancestry, and identified individuals with a high genetic risk in clinically actionable biological pathways to identify novel opportunities for precision interventions and drug repurposing to treat RA. Methods and materials: Genetic association data for rheumatoid arthritis was derived from publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics (N=97173). The PES framework exploits competitive gene set enrichment to identify pathways that are associated with RA to explore novel treatment opportunities. This data is then integrated into WebGestalt, Drug Interaction database (DGIdb) and DrugBank databases to identify existing compounds with existing use or potential for repurposed use. The PES for each of these candidates was then profiled in individuals with RA in the UKBB (Ncases = 3,719, Ncontrols = 333,160). Results A total of 209 pathways with known drug targets after multiple testing correction were identified. Several pathways, including interferon gamma signaling and TID pathway (which relates to a chaperone that modulates interferon signaling), were significantly associated with self-reported RA in the UKBB when adjusting for age, sex, assessment centre month and location, RA polygenic risk and 10 principal components. These pathways have a major role in RA pathogenesis, including autoimmune attacks against certain citrullinated proteins, synovial inflammation, and bone loss. Encouragingly, many also relate to the mechanism of action of existing RA medications. The analyses also revealed statistically significant association between RA polygenic scores and self-reported RA with individual PES scorings, highlighting the potential utility of the PES algorithm in uncovering additional genetic insights that could aid in the identification of individuals at risk for RA and provide opportunities for more targeted interventions. Conclusions In this study, pharmacologically annotated genetic risk was explored through the PES framework to overcome inter-individual heterogeneity and enable precision drug repurposing in RA. The results showed a statistically significant association between RA polygenic scores and self-reported RA and individual PES scorings for 3,719 RA patients. Interestingly, several enriched PES pathways were targeted by already approved RA drugs. In addition, the analysis revealed genetically supported drug repurposing opportunities for future treatment of RA with a relatively safe profile.

Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, precision medicine, drug repurposing, system biology, bioinformatics

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Authors: Maria de Fátima Lambert

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Following previous studies about Writing and Seeing, this paper focuses on the aesthetic assumptions within the concept of Winter Journey (Voyage d’Hiver/Winterreise) both in Georges Perec’s Saga and the Oulipo Group vis-à-vis with the creations by William Kentridge and Michael Borremans. The aesthetic and artistic connections are widespread. Nevertheless, we can identify common poetical principles shared by these different authors, not only according to the notion of ekphrasis, but also following the procedures of contemporary creation in literature and visual arts. The analysis of the ongoing process of the French writers as individuals and as group and the visual artists’ acting might contribute for another crossed definition of contemporary conception. The same title/theme was a challenge and a goal for them. Let’s wonder how deep the concept encouraged them and which symbolic upbringings were directing their poetical achievements. The idea of an inner journey became the main point, and got “over” and “across” a shared path worth to be followed. The authors were chosen due to the resilient contents of their visual and written images, and looking for the reasons that might had driven their conceptual basis to be. In Pérec’s “Winter Journey” as for the following fictions by Jacques Roubaud, Hervé le Tellier, Jacques Jouet and Hugo Vernier (that emerges from Perec’s fiction and becomes a real author) powerful aesthetic and enigmatic reflections grow connected with a poetic (and aesthetic) understanding of Walkscapes. They might be assumed as ironic fictions and poetical drifts. Outstanding from different logics, the overwhelming impact of Winterreise Lied by Schubert after Wilhelm Müller’s poems is a major reference in present authorship creations. Both Perec and Oulipo’s author’s texts are powerfully ekphrastic, although we should not forget they follow goals, frameworks and identities. When acting as a reader, they induce powerful imageries - cinematic or cinematographic - that flow in our minds. It was well-matched with William Kentridge animated video Winter Journey (2014) and the creations (sharing the same title) of Michael Borremans (2014) for the KlaraFestival, Bozar, Cité de la musique, in Belgium. Both were taken by the foremost Schubert’s Winterreise. Several metaphors fulfil new Winter Journeys (or Travels) that were achieved in contemporary art and literature, as it once succeeded in the 19^th century. Maybe the contemporary authors and artists were compelled by the consciousness of nothingness, although outstanding different aesthetics and ontological sources. The unbearable knowledge of the road’s end, and also the urge of fulfilling the void might be a common element to all of them. As Schopenhauer once wrote, after all, Art is the only human subjective power that we can call upon in life. These newer aesthetic meanings, released from these winter journeys are surely open to wider approaches that might happen in other poetic makings to be.

Keywords: Aesthetic, voyage D’Hiver, George Perec & Oulipo, William Kentridge & Michael Borreman, Schubert's Winterreise

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Authors: Lauren Beth Birney

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BOP-CCERS is a consortium of scientists, K-16 New York City students, faculty, academicians, teachers, stakeholders, STEM Industry professionals, CBO’s, NPO’s, citizen scientists, and local businesses working in partnership to restore New York Harbor’s oyster populations while at the same time providing clean water in New York Harbor. BOP-CCERS gives students an opportunity to learn hands-on about environmental stewardship as well as environmental law and policy by giving students real responsibility. The purpose of this REU will allow for the BOP CCERS Project to further broaden its parameters into the focus of environmental law and policy where further change can be affected. Creating opportunities for undergraduates to work collaboratively with graduate students in law and policy and envision themselves in STEM careers in the field of law continues to be of importance in this project. More importantly, creating opportunities for underrepresented students to pursue careers in STEM Education has been a goal of the project over the last ten years. By raising the level of student interest in community-based citizen science integrated into environmental law and policy, a more diversified workforce will be fostered through the momentum of this dynamic program. The continuing climate crisis facing our planet calls for 21st-century skill development that includes learning and innovation skills derived from critical thinking, which will help REU students address the issues of climate change facing our planet. The demand for a climate-friendly workforce will continue to be met through this community-based citizen science effort. Environmental laws and policies play a crucial role in protecting humans, animals, resources, and habitats. Without these laws, there would be no regulations concerning pollution or contamination of our waterways. Environmental law serves as a mechanism to protect the land, air, water, and soil of our planet. To protect the environment, it is crucial that future policymakers and legal experts both understand and value the importance of environmental protection. The Environmental Law and Policy REU provides students with the opportunity to learn, through hands-on work, the skills, and knowledge needed to help foster a legal workforce centered around environmental protection while participating alongside the BOP CCERS researchers in order to gain research experience. Broadening this area to law and policy will further increase these opportunities and permit students to ultimately affect and influence larger-scale change on a global level while further diversifying the STEM workforce. Students’ findings will be shared at the annual STEM Institute at Pace University in August 2022. Basic research methodologies include qualitative and quantitative analysis performed by the research team. Early findings indicate that providing students with an opportunity to experience, explore and participate in environmental science programs such as these enhances their interests in pursuing STEM careers in Law and Policy, with the focus being on providing opportunities for underserved, marginalized, and underrepresented populations.

Keywords: environmental restoration science, citizen science, environmental law and policy, STEM education

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Authors: Fiona Mwaniki

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Climate change is considered a serious threat to sustainable development globally and as one of the greatest ecological, economic and social challenges of our time. The global demand for food is projected to increase by 60% by 2050. Small holder farmers who are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change are expected to contribute to this projected demand. Effective climate change education and communication is therefore required for smallholder and subsistence farmers’ in order to build communities that are more climate change aware, prepared and resilient. In Kenya radio is the most important and dominant mass communication tool for agricultural extension. This study investigated the potential role of radio in influencing farmers’ understanding and use of climate change information. The broad aims of this study were three-fold. Firstly, to identify Kenyan farmers’ perceptions and responses to the impacts of climate change. Secondly, to develop radio programs that communicate climate change information to Kenyan farmers and thirdly, to evaluate the impact of information disseminated through radio on farmers’ understanding and responses to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study was conducted within the farming community of Kilifi County, located along the Kenyan coast. Education and communication about climate change was undertaken using radio to make available information understandable to different social and cultural groups. A mixed methods pre-and post-intervention design that provided the opportunity for triangulating results from both quantitative and qualitative data was used. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected simultaneously, where quantitative data was collected through semi structured surveys with 421 farmers’ and qualitative data was derived from 11 focus group interviews, six interviews with key informants and nine climate change experts. The climate change knowledge gaps identified in the initial quantitative and qualitative data were used in developing radio programs. Final quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis enabled an assessment of the impact of climate change messages aired through radio on the farming community in Kilifi County. Results of this study indicate that 32% of the farmers’ listened to the radio programs and 26% implemented technologies aired on the programs that would help them adapt to climate change. The most adopted technologies were planting drought tolerant crops including indigenous crop varieties, planting trees, water harvesting and use of manure. The proportion of farmers who indicated they knew “a fair amount” about climate change increased significantly (Z= -5.1977, p < 0.001) from 33% (at the pre intervention phase of this study) to 64% (post intervention). However, 68% of the farmers felt they needed “a lot more” information on agriculture interventions (43%), access to financial resources (21%) and the effects of climate change (15%). The challenges farmers’ faced when adopting the interventions included lack of access to financial resources (18%), high cost of adaptation measures (17%), and poor access to water (10%). This study concludes that radio effectively complements other agricultural extension methods and has the potential to engage farmers’ on climate change issues and motivate them to take action.

Keywords: climate change, climate change intervention, farmers, radio

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Pazandeh, Monir Doudi, Sona Rostampour Yasouri

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Irregular consumption of current antibiotic makes increases of antibiotic resistance between urin pathogens on all worlds. This study selected based on this great community problem. The aim of this study was the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles from Zataria multiflora extract and then to investigate its antibacterial effect on gram-negative bacilli common in Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) and MDR. The plant used in the present research was Zataria multiflora whose extract was prepared through Soxhlet extraction method. Green synthesis condition of silver nanoparticles was investigated in terms of three parameters including the extract amount, concentration of silver nitrate salt, and temperature. The seizes of nanoparticles were determined by Zetasizer. In order to identify synthesized silver nanoparticles Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) methods were used. For evaluating the antibacterial effects of nanoparticles synthesized through biological method different concentrations of silver nanoparticles were studied on 140 cases of Muliple Drug Resistance (MDR) bacteria strains Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Proteus vulgaris,Citrobacter freundii, Acinetobacter bumanii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, (each genus of bacteria, 20 samples), which all were MDR and cause urinary tract infections , for identification of bacteria were used of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and laboratory methods (Agar well diffusion and Microdilution methods) to assess their sensitivity to Nanoparticles. The data were analyzed using SPSS software by nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Significant results were found about the effects of silver nitrate concentration, different amounts of Zataria multiflora extract, and temperature on nanoparticles; that is, by increasing the concentration of silver nitrate, extract amount, and temperature, the sizes of synthesized nanoparticles declined. However, the effect of above mentioned factors on particles diffusion index was not significant. Based on the TEM results, particles were mainly spherical shape with a diameter range of 25 to 50 nm. The results of XRD Analysis indicated the formation of Nanostructures and Nanocrystals of silver.. The obtained results of antibacterial effects of different concentrations of silver nanoparticles on according to agar well diffusion and microdilution method, biologically synthesized nanoparticles showed 1000 mg /ml highest and lowest mean inhibition zone diameter in E.coli , Acinetobacter bumanii 23 and 15mm, respectively. MIC was observed for all of bacteria 125mg/ml and for Acinetobacter bumanii 250mg/ml.Comparing the growth inhibitory effect of chemically synthesized Nanoparticles and biologically synthesized Nanoparticles showed that in the chemical method the highest growth inhibition belonged to the concentration of 62.5 mg /ml. The inhibitory effect on the growth all of bacteria causes of urine infection and MDR was observed and by increasing silver ion concentration in Nanoparticles, antibacterial activity increased. Generally, the biological synthesis can be considered an efficient way not only in making Nanoparticles but also for having anti-bacterial properties. It is more biocompatible and may be possess less toxicity than the Nanoparticles synthesized chemically.

Keywords: biosynthesis, MDR bacteria, silver nanoparticles, UTI

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Authors: Mogale T. E., Ayisi K. K., Munjonji L., Kifle Y. G.

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Grain sorghum and cowpea are important staple crops in many areas of South Africa, particularly the Limpopo Province. The two crops are produced under a wide range of unsustainable conventional methods, which reduces productivity in the long run. Climate-smart traditional methods such as intercropping can be adopted to ensure sustainable production of these important two crops in the province. A no-tillage field experiment was laid out in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) with four replications over two seasons in two distinct agro-ecological zones, Syferkuil and Ofcolacoin, the province to assess the productivity of sorghum-cowpea intercropped under two cowpea densities.LCi Ultra compact photosynthesis machine was used to collect photosynthetic rate data biweekly between 11h00 and 13h00 until physiological maturity. Biomass and grain yield of the component crops in binary and sole cultures were determined at harvest maturity from middle rows of 2.7 m2 area. The biomass was oven dried in the laboratory at 65oC till constant weight. To obtain grain yield, harvested sorghum heads and cowpea pods were threshed, cleaned, and weighed. Harvest index (HI) and land equivalent ratio (LER) of the two crops were calculated to assess intercrop productivity relative to sole cultures. Data was analysed using the statistical analysis software system (SAS) 9.4 version, followed by mean separation using the least significant difference method. The photosyntheticrate of sorghum-cowpea intercrop was influenced by cowpea density and sorghum cultivar. Photosynthetic rate under low density was higher compared to high density, but this was dependent on the growing conditions. Dry biomass accumulation, grain yield, and harvest index differed among the sorghum cultivars and cowpea in both binary and sole cultures at the two test locations during the 2018/19 and 2020/21 growing seasons. Cowpea grain and dry biomass yields werein excess of 60% under high density compared to low density in both binary and sole cultures. The results revealed that grain yield accumulation of sorghum cultivars was influenced by the density of the companion cowpea crop as well as the production season. For instant, at Syferkuil, Enforcer and Ns5511 accumulated high yield under low density, whereas, at Ofcolaco, the higher yield was recorded under high density. Generally, under low cowpea density, cultivar Enforcer produced relatively higher grain yield whereas, under higher density, Titan yield was superior. The partial and total LER varied with growing season and the treatments studied. The total LERs exceeded 1.0 at the two locations across seasons, ranging from 1.3 to 1.8. From the results, it can be concluded that resources were used more efficiently in sorghum-cowpea intercrop at both Syferkuil and Ofcolaco. Furthermore, intercropping system improved photosynthetic rate, grain yield, and dry matter accumulation of sorghum and cowpea depending on growing conditions and density of cowpea. Hence, the sorghum-cowpea intercropping system can be adopted as a climate-smart practice for sustainable production in the Limpopo province.

Keywords: cowpea, climate-smart, grain sorghum, intercropping

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Authors: Vikas Kumar, Kailash Chandra, Kaomud Tyagi

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The insect order Thysanoptera includes small insects commonly called thrips. As insect vectors, only thrips are capable of Tospoviruses transmission (genus Tospovirus, family Bunyaviridae) affecting various crops. Currently, fifteen species of subfamily Thripinae (Thripidae) have been reported as vectors for tospoviruses. Frankliniella schultzei, which is reported as act as a vector for at least five tospovirses, have been suspected to be a species complex with more than one species. It is one of the historical unresolved issues where, two species namely, F. schultzei Trybom and F. sulphurea Schmutz were erected from South Africa and Srilanaka respectively. These two species were considered to be valid until 1968 when sulphurea was treated as colour morph (pale form) and synonymised under schultzei (dark form) However, these two have been considered as valid species by some of the thrips workers. Parallel studies have indicated that brown form of schultzei is a vector for tospoviruses while yellow form is a non-vector. However, recent studies have shown that yellow populations have also been documented as vectors. In view of all these facts, it is highly important to have a clear understanding whether these colour forms represent true species or merely different populations with different vector carrying capacities and whether there is some hidden diversity in 'Frankliniella schultzei species complex'. In this study, we aim to study the 'Frankliniella schultzei species complex' with molecular spectacles with DNA data from India and Australia and Africa. A total of fifty-five specimens was collected from diverse locations in India and Australia. We generated molecular data using partial fragments of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I gene (mtCOI) and 28S rRNA gene. For COI dataset, there were seventy-four sequences, out of which data on fifty-five was generated in the current study and others were retrieved from NCBI. All the four different tree construction methods: neighbor-joining, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis, yielded the same tree topology and produced five cryptic species with high genetic divergence. For, rDNA, there were forty-five sequences, out of which data on thirty-nine was generated in the current study and others were retrieved from NCBI. The four tree building methods yielded four cryptic species with high bootstrap support value/posterior probability. Here we could not retrieve one cryptic species from South Africa as we could not generate data on rDNA from South Africa and sequence for rDNA from African region were not available in the database. The results of multiple species delimitation methods (barcode index numbers, automatic barcode gap discovery, general mixed Yule-coalescent, and Poisson-tree-processes) also supported the phylogenetic data and produced 5 and 4 Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) for mtCOI and 28S dataset respectively. These results of our study indicate the likelihood that F. sulphurea may be a valid species, however, more morphological and molecular data is required on specimens from type localities of these two species and comparison with type specimens.

Keywords: DNA barcoding, species complex, thrips, species delimitation

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Authors: Kiran Baldavoo, Mishelle Doorasamy

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Universities have a role to play in the preservation of the environment, and the study attempted to evaluate the environmental management accounting (EMA) processes at UKZN. UKZN, a South African university, generates the same direct and indirect environmental impacts as the higher education sector worldwide. This is significant within the context of the South African environment which is constantly plagued by having to effectively manage the already scarce resources of water and energy, evident through the imposition of water and energy restrictions over the recent years. The study’s aim is to increase awareness of having a structured approach to environmental management in order to achieve the strategic environmental goals of the university. The research studied the experiences of key managers within UKZN, with the purpose of exploring the potential factors which influence the decision to adopt and apply EMA within the higher education sector. The study comprised two objectives, namely understanding the current state of accounting practices for managing major environmental costs and identifying factors influencing EMA adoption within the university. The study adopted a case study approach, comprising semi-structured interviews of key personnel involved in Management Accounting, Environmental Management, and Academic Schools within the university. Content analysis was performed on the transcribed interview data. A Theoretical Framework derived from literature was adopted to guide data collection and focus the study. Contingency and Institutional theory was the resultant basis of the derived framework. The findings of the first objective revealed that there was a distinct lack of EMA utilization within the university. There was no distinct policy on EMA, resulting in minimal environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. The university embraced the principles of environmental sustainability; however, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability primarily from an accounting perspective was absent. The findings of the second objective revealed that five key barriers contributed to the lack of EMA utilization within the university. The barriers being attitudinal, informational, institutional, technological, and lack of incentives (financial). The results and findings of this study supported the use and application of EMA within the higher education sector. Participants concurred that EMA was underutilized and if implemented, would realize significant benefits for both the university and environment. Environmental management accounting is being widely acknowledged as a key management tool that can facilitate improved financial and environmental performance via the concept of enhanced environmental accountability. Historically research has been concentrated primarily on the manufacturing industry, due to it generating the greatest proportion of environmental impacts. Service industries are also an integral component of environmental management as they contribute significant environmental impacts, both direct and indirect. Educational institutions such as universities form part of the service sector and directly impact on the environment through the consumption of paper, energy, and water and solid waste generated, with the associated demands.

Keywords: environmental management accounting, environmental impacts, higher education, Southern Africa

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Authors: Yuli Hou, Jianping Sun, Mengdan Gao, Hui Liu, Ling Qin, Ang Li, Dongfu Li, Yonghong Zhang, Yan Zhao

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Background and Aims: Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) is a component of ISG (Interferon-Stimulated Gene) family. IFITM3 has been recognized as a key signal molecule regulating cell growth in some tumors. However, the function of IFITM3 rs12252-CC genotype in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown to author’s best knowledge. A cohort study was employed to clarify the relationship between IFITM3 rs12252-CC genotype and HCC progression, and cellular experiments were used to investigate the correlation of function of IFITM3 and the progress of HCC. Methods: 336 candidates were enrolled in study, including 156 with HBV related HCC and 180 with chronic Hepatitis B infections or liver cirrhosis. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to determine the gene polymorphism of IFITM3. The functions of IFITM3 were detected in PLC/PRF/5 cell with different treated:LV-IFITM3 transfected with lentivirus to knockdown the expression of IFITM3 and LV-NC transfected with empty lentivirus as negative control. The IFITM3 expression, proliferation and migration were detected by Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), QuantiGene Plex 2.0 assay, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, Cell Counting Kit(CCK)-8 and wound healing respectively. Six samples (three infected with empty lentiviral as control; three infected with LV-IFITM3 vector lentiviral as experimental group ) of PLC/PRF/5 were sequenced at BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen,China) using RNA-seq technology to identify the IFITM3-related signaling pathways and chose PI3K/AKT pathway as related signaling to verify. Results: The patients with HCC had a significantly higher proportion of IFITM3 rs12252-CC compared with the patients with chronic HBV infection or liver cirrhosis. The distribution of CC genotype in HCC patients with low differentiation was significantly higher than that in those with high differentiation. Patients with CC genotype found with bigger tumor size, higher percentage of vascular thrombosis, higher distribution of low differentiation and higher 5-year relapse rate than those with CT/TT genotypes. The expression of IFITM3 was higher in HCC tissues than adjacent normal tissues, and the level of IFITM3 was higher in HCC tissues with low differentiation and metastatic than high/medium differentiation and without metastatic. Higher RNA level of IFITM3 was found in CC genotype than TT genotype. In PLC/PRF/5 cell with knockdown, the ability of cell proliferation and migration was inhibited. Analysis RNA sequencing and verification of RT-PCR found out the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin(PI3K/AKT/mTOR) pathway was associated with knockdown IFITM3.With the inhibition of IFITM3, the expression of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway was blocked and the expression of vimentin was decreased. Conclusions: IFITM3 rs12252-CC with the higher expression plays a vital role in the progress of HCC by regulating HCC cell proliferation and migration. These effects are associated with PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

Keywords: IFITM3, interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3, HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma, PI3K/ AKT/mTOR, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin

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Authors: Adriana Pereira Arteaga

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In many Latin American countries the transition towards legal pluralism - has developed as part of what is called Latin-American-Constitutionalism over the last thirty years. The aim of this paper is to discuss how legal pluralism in its current form in Bolivia may produce exclusion and violence. Legal sources and discourse analysis - as an approach to examine written language on discourse documentation- will be used to develop this paper. With the constitution of 2009, Bolivia was symbolically "re-founded" into a multi-nation state. This shift goes hand in hand with the "indigenista" and "decolonisation" ideologies developing since the early 20th century. Discourses based on these ideologies reflect the rejection of liberal and western premises on which the Bolivian republic was originally built after independence. According to the "indigenista" movements, the liberal nation-state generates institutions corresponding to a homogenous society. These liberal institutions not only ignore the Bolivian multi-nation reality, but also maintain the social structures originating form the colony times, based on prejudices against the indigenous. The described statements were elaborated through the image: the indigenous people humiliated by a cruel western system as highlighted by the constitution's preamble. This narrative had a considerable impact on the sensitivity of people and received great social support. Therefore the proposal for changing structures of the nation-state, is charged with an emancipatory message of restoring even the pre-Columbian order. An order at times romantically described as the perfect order. Legally this connotes a rejection of the positivistic national legal system based on individual rights and the promotion of constitutional recognition of indigenous justice administration. The pluralistic Constitution is supposed to promote tolerance and a peaceful coexistence among nations, so that the unity and integrity of the country could be maintained. In its current form, legal pluralism in Bolivia is justified on pre-existing rights contained for example in the International - Labour - Organization - Convention 169, but it is more developed on the described discursive constructions. Over time these discursive constructions created inconsistencies in terms of putting indigenous justice administration into practice: First, because legal pluralism has been more developed on level of political discourse, so a real interaction between the national and the indigenous jurisdiction cannot be observed. There are no clear coordination and cooperation mechanisms. Second, since the recently reformed constitution is based on deep sensitive experiences, little is said about the general legal principles on which a pluralistic administration of justice in Bolivia should be based. Third, basic rights, liberties, and constitutional guarantees are also affected by the antagonized image of the national justice administration. As a result, fundamental rights could be violated on a large scale because many indigenous justice administration practices run counter to these constitutional rules. These problems are not merely Bolivian but may also be encountered in other regional countries with similar backgrounds, like Ecuador.

Keywords: discourse, indigenous justice, legal pluralism, multi-nation

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Authors: Özgür Bahadir, Meltem Kurtuncu

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The study was designed as quasi-experimental and conducted to determine the effect of music therapy on anxiety, fear and pain management in 6-12-year-old children undergoing surgery. The present study was carried out between 01.01.2016 and 19.08.2016 in BEU. Application and Research Center. The children aged 6 -12 who applied for surgery between the mentioned dates constituted the universe of the study. In the quasi-experimental study that was conducted in the clinics where children received operational treatment, two groups were formed: experimental group (the children who received musical therapy before the surgery) and control group (the children who were administered surveys and the surgery service routines only). Each group consisted of 30 children, and the participants of the study were 60 children in total. Necessary permissions were obtained from the parents of the children hospitalized before the beginning of the implementation. The data was collected through Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), “Fear In Medical Treatment Scale”, Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability Scale (FLACC), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Participant Information Form. In the analysis of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution scale was used to examine the normality of the distribution along with descriptive statistics methods (Frequency, Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation). Data was presented in the tables in numbers and percentages. Means were demonstrated along with the standard deviations. The research compared children received; case and control groups include socio-demographic perspective, non-significant difference statistically among similar groups are intertwined. The general level of fear regarding the medical processes before returning to service after the operation and 30 minutes before getting discharged was found to be significantly low in the experimental group compared to control group (p<0.05). No statistically significant difference was found between experimental and control groups in terms of general level of fear regarding the medical processes before the operation, during the operation day and in the recovery room after the operation (p>0.05). Total CASI AD (anxiety sensitivity) levels before the operation, day of the operation and 30 minutes before the discharge for patients in experimental group was found to be significantly higher than the control group (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the total CASI AD levels for the post-operative recovery room and for returning to the service room after the operation (p>0.05). VAS levels for patients in the experimental group in the post-operative recovery room was significantly higher than the control group (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of VAS findings in returning to service room after the operation and in 30 minutes before the discharge (p>0.05). As a result of the research; applied children music therapy in the experimental group anxiety, fear, and pain of the scales, their scores average, is lower than the control group children in this situation an increase in the satisfaction of children and parents was observed. In line with this, music therapy preoperative anxiety, fear, and can be used as an effective method of decreasing postoperative pain clinics is suggested.

Keywords: anxiety, children, fear, music therapy, pain

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Authors: Elaine Crable, Amit Sen

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Short-term study abroad programs have become a mainstay of MBA programs. The benefits of international business experiences, along with its exposure to global cultures, are well documented. However, developing a rewarding study, abroad program at the graduate level can be challenging for Faculty, especially when devising such a program for a group of part-time MBA students who come with a wide range of experiences and demographic characteristics. Each student has individual expectations for the study abroad experience. This study provides suggestions and considerations for Faculty that are planning to design a short-term study abroad program, especially for part-time MBA students. Insights are based on a recent experience leading a group of twenty-one students on a ten-day program to Morocco. The trip was designed and facilitated by two faculty members and a local Moroccan facilitator. This experience led to a number of insights and recommendations. First, the choice of location is critical. The choice of Morocco was very deliberate, owing to its multi-faceted cultural landscape and international business interest. It is an Islamic State with close ties to Europe both culturally and geographically and Morocco is a multi-lingual country with some combination of three languages spoken by most – English, Arabic, and French. Second, collaboration with a local ‘academic’ partner allowed the level of instruction to be both rigorous and significantly more engaging. Third, allowing students to participate in the planning of the trip enabled the trip participants to collaborate, negotiate, and share their own experiences and strengths. The pre-trip engagement was structured by creating four sub-groups, each responsible for an assigned city. Each student sub-group had to provide a historical background of the assigned city, plan the itinerary including sites to visit, cuisine to experience, industries to explore, markets to visit, plus provide a budget for that city’s expenses. The pre-planning segment of the course was critical for the success of the program as students were able to contribute to the design of the program through collaboration and negotiation with their peers. Fourth, each student sub-group was assigned industry to study within Morocco. The student sub-group prepared a presentation and a group paper with their analysis of the chosen industries. The pre-planning activities created strong bonds among the trip participants, which was evident when faced with on-ground challenges, especially when it was necessary to quickly evacuate due to a surprise USA COVID evacuation notice. The entire group supported each other when quickly making their way back to the United States. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short by two days due to this emergency exit, but the feedback regarding the program was very positive all around. While the program design put pressure on the Faculty leads regarding planning and coordination upfront, the outcome in terms of student engagement, student learning, collaboration and negotiation were all favorable and worth the effort. Finally, an added value, the cost of the program for the student was significantly lower compared to running a program with a professional provider.

Keywords: business education, experiential learning, international education, study abroad

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Authors: Tomaz Oliveira, Rui Medeiros, André Lacerda

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Introduction: Cleft lip and/or palate are the most frequent forms of congenital craniofacial anomalies, affecting mainly the middle third of the face and manifesting by functional and aesthetic changes. Bilateral cleft lip represents a reconstructive surgical challenge, not only for the labial component but also for the associated nasal deformation. Recently, the paradigm of the approach to this pathology has changed, placing the focus on muscle reconstruction and anatomical repositioning of the nasal cartilages in order to obtain the best aesthetic and functional results. The aim of this study is to carry out a systematic review of the surgical approach to bilateral cleft lip, retrospectively analyzing the case series of Plastic Surgery Service at Hospital Santa Maria (Lisbon, Portugal) regarding this pathology, the global assessment of the characteristics of the operated patients and the study of the different surgical approaches and their complications in the last 20 years. Methods: The present work demonstrates a retrospective and descriptive study of patients who underwent at least one reconstructive surgery for cleft lip and/or palate, in the CPRE service of the HSM, in the period between January 1 of 1997 and December 31 of 2017, in which the data relating to 361 individuals were analyzed who, after applying the exclusion criteria, constituted a sample of 212 participants. The variables analyzed were the year of the first surgery, gender, age, type of orofacial cleft, surgical approach, and its complications. Results: There was a higher overall prevalence in males, with cleft lip and cleft palate occurring in greater proportion in males, with the cleft palate being more common in females. The most frequently recorded malformation was cleft lip and palate, which is complete in most cases. Regarding laterality, alterations with a unilateral labial component were the most commonly observed, with the left lip being described as the most affected. It was found that the vast majority of patients underwent primary intervention up to 12 months of age. The surgical techniques used in the approach to this pathology showed an important chronological variation over the years. Discussion: Cleft lip and/or palate is a medical condition associated with high aesthetic and functional morbidity, which requires early treatment in order to optimize the long-term outcome. The existence of a nasolabial component and its respective surgical correction plays a central role in the treatment of this pathology. The high rates of post-surgical complications and unconvincing aesthetic results have motivated an evolution of the surgical technique, increasingly evident in recent years, allowing today to achieve satisfactory aesthetic results, even in bilateral cleft lip with high deformation complexity. The introduction of techniques that favor nasolabial reconstruction based on anatomical principles has been producing increasingly convincing results. The analyzed sample shows that most of the results obtained in this study are, in general, compatible with the results published in the literature. Conclusion: This work showed that the existence of small variations in the surgical technique can bring significant improvements in the functional and aesthetic results in the treatment of bilateral cleft lip.

Keywords: cleft lip, palate lip, congenital abnormalities, cranofacial malformations

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Authors: Guido Lorenzi, Massimo Santarelli, Carlos Augusto Santos Silva

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The growth of non-dispatchable renewable energy sources in the European electricity generation mix is promoting the research of technically feasible and cost-effective solutions to make use of the excess energy, produced when the demand is low. The increasing intermittent renewable capacity is becoming a challenge to face especially in Europe, where some countries have shares of wind and solar on the total electricity produced in 2015 higher than 20%, with Denmark around 40%. However, other consumption sectors (mainly transportation) are still considerably relying on fossil fuels, with a slow transition to other forms of energy. Among the opportunities for different mobility concepts, electric (EV) and biofuel-powered vehicles (BPV) are the options that currently appear more promising. The EVs are targeting mainly the light duty users because of their zero (Full electric) or reduced (Hybrid) local emissions, while the BPVs encourage the use of alternative resources with the same technologies (thermal engines) used so far. The batteries which are applied to EVs are based on ions of Lithium because of their overall good performance in energy density, safety, cost and temperature performance. Biofuels, instead, can be various and the major difference is in their physical state (liquid or gaseous). In this study gaseous biofuels are considered and, more specifically, Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) produced through a process of Power-to-Gas consisting in an electrochemical upgrade (with Solid Oxide Electrolyzers) of biogas with CO2 recycling. The latter process combines a first stage of electrolysis, where syngas is produced, and a second stage of methanation in which the product gas is turned into methane and then made available for consumption. A techno-economic comparison between the two alternatives is possible, but it does not capture all the different aspects involved in the two routes for the promotion of a more sustainable mobility. For this reason, a more comprehensive methodology, i.e. Life Cycle Assessment, is adopted to describe the environmental implications of using excess electricity (directly or indirectly) for new vehicle fleets. The functional unit of the study is 1 km and the two options are compared in terms of overall CO2 emissions, both considering Cradle to Gate and Cradle to Grave boundaries. Showing how production and disposal of materials affect the environmental performance of the analyzed routes is useful to broaden the perspective on the impacts that different technologies produce, in addition to what is emitted during the operational life. In particular, this applies to batteries for which the decommissioning phase has a larger impact on the environmental balance compared to electrolyzers. The lower (more than one order of magnitude) energy density of Li-ion batteries compared to SNG implies that for the same amount of energy used, more material resources are needed to obtain the same effect. The comparison is performed in an energy system that simulates the Western European one, in order to assess which of the two solutions is more suitable to lead the de-fossilization of the transport sector with the least resource depletion and the mildest consequences for the ecosystem.

Keywords: electrical energy storage, electric vehicles, power-to-gas, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Antonia Egli, Theo Lynn, Pierangelo Rosati, Gary Sinclair

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The World Health Organization (WHO) defines vaccine hesitancy as the postponement or complete denial of vaccines and estimates a direct linkage to approximately 1.5 million avoidable deaths annually. This figure is not immune to public health developments, as has become evident since the global spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan, China in early 2020. Since then, the proliferation of influential, but oftentimes inaccurate, outdated, incomplete, or false vaccine-related information on social media has impacted hesitancy levels to a degree described by the WHO as an infodemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and related vaccine hesitancy levels have in 2022 resulted in the largest drop in childhood vaccinations of the 21st century, while the prevalence of online stigma towards vaccine hesitant consumers continues to grow. Simultaneously, a second disease has risen to global importance: Monkeypox is an infection originating from west and central Africa and, due to racially motivated online hate, was in August 2022 set to be renamed by the WHO. To better understand public reactions towards two viral infections that became global threats to public health no two years apart, this research examines user replies to threads published by the WHO on Twitter. Replies to two Tweets from the @WHO account declaring COVID-19 and Monkeypox as ‘public health emergencies of international concern’ on January 30, 2020, and July 23, 2022, are gathered using the Twitter application programming interface and user mention timeline endpoint. Research methodology is unique in its analysis of stigmatizing, racist, and hateful content shared on social media within the vaccine discourse over the course of two disease outbreaks. Three distinct analyses are conducted to provide insight into (i) the most prevalent topics and sub-topics among user reactions, (ii) changes in sentiment towards the spread of the two diseases, and (iii) the presence of stigma, racism, and online hate. Findings indicate an increase in hesitancy to accept further vaccines and social distancing measures, the presence of stigmatizing content aimed primarily at anti-vaccine cohorts and racially motivated abusive messages, and a prevalent fatigue towards disease-related news overall. This research provides value to non-profit organizations or government agencies associated with vaccines and vaccination programs in emphasizing the need for public health communication fitted to consumers' vaccine sentiments, levels of health information literacy, and degrees of trust towards public health institutions. Considering the importance of addressing fears among the vaccine hesitant, findings also illustrate the risk of alienation through stigmatization, lead future research in probing the relatively underexamined field of online, vaccine-related stigma, and discuss the potential effects of stigma towards vaccine hesitant Twitter users in their decisions to vaccinate.

Keywords: social marketing, social media, public health communication, vaccines

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Eliane Abdo, Olivier Colot

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SMEs are always considered as a national priority due to their contribution to job creation, innovation and growth. Once the start-up phase is crossed with encouraging results, the company enters the phase of growth. In order to improve its competitiveness, maintain and increase its market share, the company is in the necessity even the obligation to develop its tangible and intangible investments. SMEs are generally closed companies with special and critical financial situation, limited resources and difficulty to access the capital markets; their shareholders are always living in a conflict between their independence and their need to increase capital that leads to the entry of new shareholder. The capital structure was always considered the core of research in corporate finance; moreover, the financial crisis and its repercussions on the credit’s availability, especially for SMEs make SME financing a hot topic. On the other hand, financial theories do not provide answers to capital structure’s questions; they offer tools and mode of financing that are more accessible to larger companies. Yet, SME’s capital structure can’t be independent of their governance structure. The classic financial theory supposes independence between the investment decision and the financing decision. Thus, investment determines the volume of funding, but not the split between internal or external funds. In this context, we find interesting to study the hypothesis that SMEs respond positively to the financial theories applied to large firms and to check if they are constrained by conventional solutions used by large companies. In this context, this research focuses on the analysis of the resource’s structure of SME in parallel with their investments’ structure, in order to highlight a link between their assets and liabilities structure. We founded our conceptual model based on two main theoretical frameworks: the Pecking order theory, and the Trade Off theory taking into consideration the SME’s characteristics. Our data were generated from DIANE database. Five hypotheses were tested via a panel regression to understand the type of dependence between the financing methods of 3,244 French SMEs and the development of their investment over a period of 10 years (2007-2016). The results show dependence between equity and internal financing in case of intangible investments development. Moreover, this type of business is constraint to financial debts since the guarantees provided are not sufficient to meet the banks' requirements. However, for tangible investments development, SMEs count sequentially on internal financing, bank borrowing, and new shares issuance or hybrid financing. This is compliant to the Pecking Order Theory. We, therefore, conclude that unlisted SMEs incur more financial debts to finance their tangible investments more than their intangible. However, they always prefer internal financing as a first choice. This seems to be confirmed by the assumption that the profitability of the company is negatively related to the increase of the financial debt. Thus, the Pecking Order Theory predictions seem to be the most plausible. Consequently, SMEs primarily rely on self-financing and then go, into debt as a priority to finance their financial deficit.

Keywords: capital structure, investments, life cycle, pecking order theory, trade off theory

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Marielcio Lacerda, Angelo Paulino, Elcio Shiguemori, Alvaro Damiao, Lamartine Guimaraes, Camila Anjos

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Accurate information about the terrain is extremely important in disaster management activities or conflict. This paper proposes the use of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) at the identification of Airdrop Zones (AZs) and Helicopter Landing Zones (HLZs). In this paper we consider the AZs the zones where troops or supplies are dropped by parachute, and HLZs areas where victims can be rescued. The use of digital image processing enables the automatic generation of an orthorectified mosaic and an actual Digital Surface Model (DSM). This methodology allows obtaining this fundamental information to the terrain’s comprehension post-disaster in a short amount of time and with good accuracy. In order to get the identification and classification of AZs and HLZs images from DJI drone, model Phantom 4 have been used. The images were obtained with the knowledge and authorization of the responsible sectors and were duly registered in the control agencies. The flight was performed on May 24, 2017, and approximately 1,300 images were obtained during approximately 1 hour of flight. Afterward, new attributes were generated by Feature Extraction (FE) from the original images. The use of multispectral images and complementary attributes generated independently from them increases the accuracy of classification. The attributes of this work include the Declivity Map and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For the classification four distinct classes were considered: HLZ 1 – small size (18m x 18m); HLZ 2 – medium size (23m x 23m); HLZ 3 – large size (28m x 28m); AZ (100m x 100m). The Decision Tree method Random Forest (RF) was used in this work. RF is a classification method that uses a large collection of de-correlated decision trees. Different random sets of samples are used as sampled objects. The results of classification from each tree and for each object is called a class vote. The resulting classification is decided by a majority of class votes. In this case, we used 200 trees for the execution of RF in the software WEKA 3.8. The classification result was visualized on QGIS Desktop 2.12.3. Through the methodology used, it was possible to classify in the study area: 6 areas as HLZ 1, 6 areas as HLZ 2, 4 areas as HLZ 3; and 2 areas as AZ. It should be noted that an area classified as AZ covers the classifications of the other classes, and may be used as AZ, HLZ of large size (HLZ3), medium size (HLZ2) and small size helicopters (HLZ1). Likewise, an area classified as HLZ for large rotary wing aircraft (HLZ3) covers the smaller area classifications, and so on. It was concluded that images obtained through small UAV are of great use in calamity situations since they can provide data with high accuracy, with low cost, low risk and ease and agility in obtaining aerial photographs. This allows the generation, in a short time, of information about the features of the terrain in order to serve as an important decision support tool.

Keywords: disaster management, unmanned aircraft systems, helicopter landing zones, airdrop zones, random forest

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Authors: Salma Akter, Md. Kamal Uddin

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This study aims to demonstrate how top-down shelter policy and its resultant dwelling environment leads to ‘everyday compromise’ by the grassroots according to subjective (satisfaction) and objective (physical design elements and physical environmental elements) indicators, which are measured across three levels of the settlement; macro (Community), meso (Neighborhood or shelter/built environment) and micro (family). Ashrayan Prakalpa is a resettlement /housing project of Government of Bangladesh for providing shelters and human resources development activities like education, microcredit, and training programme to landless, homeless and rootless people. Despite the integrated nature of the shelter policies (comprises poverty alleviation, employment opportunity, secured tenure, and livelihood training), the ‘quality of life’ issue at the different levels of settlements becomes questionable. As dwellers of shelter units (although formally termed as ‘barracks’ rather shelter or housing) remain on the receiving end of government’s resettlement policies, they often involve with spatial-physical and socio-economic negotiation and assume curious forms of spatial practice, which often upholds contradiction with policy planning. Thus, policy based shelter force dwellers to persistently compromise with their provided built environments both in overtly and covertly. Compromising with prescribed designed space and facilities across living places articulated their negotiation with the quality of allocated space, built form and infrastructures, which in turn exert as less quality of life. The top-down shelter project, Dakshin Chandani Mahal Ashrayan Prakalpa at Dighalia Upazila, the study area located at the Eastern fringe area of Khulna, Bangladesh, is still in progress to resettle internally displaced and homeless people. In terms of methodology, this research is primarily exploratory and adopts a case study method, and an analytical framework is developed through the deductive approach for evaluating the quality of life. Secondary data have been obtained from housing policy analysis and relevant literature review, while key informant interview, focus group discussion, necessary drawings and photographs and participant observation across dwelling, neighborhood, and community level have also been administered as primary data collection methodology. Findings have revealed that various shortages, inadequacies, and negligence of policymakers force to compromise with allocated designed space, physical infrastructure and economic opportunities across dwelling, neighborhood and mostly community level. Thus, the outcome of this study can be beneficial for a global-level understating of the compromising the ‘quality of life’ under top-down shelter policy. Locally, for instance, in the context of Bangladesh, it can help policymakers and concerned authorities to formulate the shelter policies and take initiatives to improve the well-being of marginalized.

Keywords: Ashrayan Prakalpa, compromise, displaced people, quality of life

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Authors: S. Dalvi, N. Sane, V. Patil, D. Bansode, A. Tharakan, V. Mathur

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Measurement of routine clinical electrolyte tests is common in labs worldwide for screening of illness or diseases. All the analyzers for the measurement of electrolyte parameters have sensors, reagents, sampler, pump tubing, valve, other tubing’s separate that are either expensive, require heavy maintenance and have a short shelf-life. Moreover, the costs required to maintain such Lab instrumentation is high and this limits the use of the device to only highly specialized personnel and sophisticated labs. In order to provide Healthcare Diagnostics to ALL at affordable costs, there is a need for an All-in-one Universal Modular Cartridge that contains sensors, reagents, sampler, valve, pump tubing, and other tubing’s in one single integrated module-in-module cartridge that is affordable, reliable, easy-to-use, requires very low sample volume and is truly modular and maintenance-free. DiaSys India has developed a World’s first, Patent Pending, Versatile All-in-one Universal Module-in-Module Cartridge based Electrolyte Analyzer (QDx InstaLyte) that can perform sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, pH, lithium tests. QDx InstaLyte incorporates High Performance, Inexpensive All-in-one Universal Cartridge for rapid quantitative measurement of electrolytes in body fluids. Our proposed methodology utilizes Advanced & Improved long life ISE sensors to provide a sensitive and accurate result in 120 sec with just 100 µl of sample volume. The All-in-One Universal Cartridge has a very low reagent consumption capable of maximum of 1000 tests with a Use-life of 3-4 months and a long Shelf life of 12-18 months at 4-25°C making it very cost-effective. Methods: QDx InstaLyte analyzers with All-in-one Universal Modular Cartridges were independently evaluated with three R&D lots for Method Performance (Linearity, Precision, Method Comparison, Cartridge Stability) to measure Sodium, Potassium, Chloride. Method Comparison was done against Medica EasyLyte Plus Na/K/Cl Electrolyte Analyzer, a mid-size lab based clinical chemistry analyzer with N = 100 samples run over 10 days. Within-run precision study was done using modified CLSI guidelines with N = 20 samples and day-to-day precision study was done for 7 consecutive days using Trulab N & P Quality Control Samples. Accelerated stability testing was done at 45oC for 4 weeks with Production Lots. Results: Data analysis indicates that the CV for within-run precision for Na is ≤ 1%, for K is ≤2%, and for Cl is ≤2% and with R2 ≥ 0.95 for Method Comparison. Further, the All-in-One Universal Cartridge is stable up to 12-18 months at 4-25oC storage temperature based on preliminary extrapolated data. Conclusion: The Developed Technology Platform of All-in-One Universal Module-in-Module Cartridge based QDx InstaLyte is Reliable and meets all the performance specifications of the lab and is Truly Modular and Maintenance-Free. Hence, it can be easily adapted for low cost, sensitive and rapid measurement of electrolyte tests in low resource settings such as in urban, semi-urban and rural areas in the developing countries and can be used as a Point-of-care testing system for worldwide applications.

Keywords: all-in-one modular catridge, electrolytes, maintenance free, QDx instalyte

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Authors: A. Odoom, A. Salama, H. Ibrahim

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Hydrogen is a clean source of energy for power production and transportation. The main source of hydrogen in this research is biodiesel. Glycerol also called glycerine is a by-product of biodiesel production by transesterification of vegetable oils and methanol. This is a reliable and environmentally-friendly source of hydrogen production than fossil fuels. A typical composition of crude glycerol comprises of glycerol, water, organic and inorganic salts, soap, methanol and small amounts of glycerides. Crude glycerol has limited industrial application due to its low purity thus, the usage of crude glycerol can significantly enhance the sustainability and production of biodiesel. Reforming techniques is an approach for hydrogen production mainly Steam Reforming (SR), Autothermal Reforming (ATR) and Partial Oxidation Reforming (POR). SR produces high hydrogen conversions and yield but is highly endothermic whereas POR is exothermic. On the downside, PO yields lower hydrogen as well as large amount of side reactions. ATR which is a fusion of partial oxidation reforming and steam reforming is thermally neutral because net reactor heat duty is zero. It has relatively high hydrogen yield, selectivity as well as limits coke formation. The complex chemical processes that take place during the production phases makes it relatively difficult to construct a reliable and robust numerical model. Numerical model is a tool to mimic reality and provide insight into the influence of the parameters. In this work, we introduce a finite volume numerical study for an 'in-house' lab-scale experiment of ATR. Previous numerical studies on this process have considered either using Comsol or nodal finite difference analysis. Since Comsol is a commercial package which is not readily available everywhere and lab-scale experiment can be considered well mixed in the radial direction. One spatial dimension suffices to capture the essential feature of ATR, in this work, we consider developing our own numerical approach using MATLAB. A continuum fixed bed reactor is modelled using MATLAB with both pseudo homogeneous and heterogeneous models. The drawback of nodal finite difference formulation is that it is not locally conservative which means that materials and momenta can be generated inside the domain as an artifact of the discretization. Control volume, on the other hand, is locally conservative and suites very well problems where materials are generated and consumed inside the domain. In this work, species mass balance, Darcy’s equation and energy equations are solved using operator splitting technique. Therefore, diffusion-like terms are discretized implicitly while advection-like terms are discretized explicitly. An upwind scheme is adapted for the advection term to ensure accuracy and positivity. Comparisons with the experimental data show very good agreements which build confidence in our modeling approach. The models obtained were validated and optimized for better results.

Keywords: autothermal reforming, crude glycerol, hydrogen, numerical model

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Authors: Aikaterini-Melpomeni Papadopoulou, Kyriaki Apergi, Margarita-Vasiliki Panagopoulou, Olga Malisova

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Introduction: Adequate hydration is a vital factor that enhances concentration, memory, and decision-making abilities throughout the workday. Various factors may affect hydration status in workplace settings, and many variables, such as age, gender and activity level affect hydration needs. Employees frequently overlook their hydration needs amid busy schedules and demanding tasks, leading to dehydration that can negatively affect cognitive function, productivity, and overall well-being In addition, dietary habits, including fluid intake and food choices, can either support or hinder optimal hydration. However, factors that affect hydration balance among workers in Greece have not been adequately studied. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the hydration status of the working population in Greece and investigate the various factors that impact hydration status in workplace settings, considering demographic, dietary, and occupational influences in a Greek sample of employees from diverse working environments Materials & Methods: The study included 212 participants (46.2% women) from the working population in Greece. Water intake from both solid and liquid foods was recorded using a semi-quantified drinking frequency questionnaire the validated Water Balance Questionnaire was used to evaluate hydration status. The calculation of water from solid and liquid foods was based on data from the USDA National Nutrient Database. Water balance was calculated subtracting the total fluid loss from the total fluid intake in the body. Furthermore, the questionnaire including additional questions on drinking habits and work-related factors.volunteers answered questions of different categories such as a) demographic socio-economic b) work style characteristics c) health, d) physical activity, e) food and fluid intake, f) fluid excretion and g) trends on fluid and water intake. Individual and multivariate regression analyses were performed to assess the relationships between demographic, work-related factors, and hydration balance. Results: Analysis showed that demographic factors like gender, age, and BMI, as well as certain work-related factors, had a weak and statistically non-significant effect on hydration balance. However, the use of a bottle or water container during work hours (b = 944.93, p < 0.001) and engaging in intense physical activity outside of work (b = -226.28, p < 0.001) were found to have a significant impact. Additionally, the consumption of beverages other than water (b = -416.14, p = 0.059) could negatively impact hydration balance. On average, the total consumption of the sample is 3410 ml of water daily, with men consuming approximately 440 ml / day more water (3470 ml / day) compared to women (3030 ml / day) with this difference also being statistically significant. Finally, the water balance, defined as the difference between water intake and water excretion, was found to be negative on average for the entire sample. Conclusions: This study is among the first to explore hydration status within the Greek working population. Findings indicate that awareness of adequate hydration and individual actions, such as using a water bottle during work, may influence hydration balance.

Keywords: hydration, working population, water balance, workplace behavior

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Authors: M. Regina Carreira-Lopez

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Lightweight ontologies seek to concrete union relationships between a parent node, and a secondary node, also called "child node". This logic relation (L) can be formally defined as a triple ontological relation (LO) equivalent to LO in ⟨LN, LE, LC⟩, and where LN represents a finite set of nodes (N); LE is a set of entities (E), each of which represents a relationship between nodes to form a rooted tree of ⟨LN, LE⟩; and LC is a finite set of concepts (C), encoded in a formal language (FL). Mondoc enables more refined searches on semantic and classified facets for retrieving specialized knowledge about Atlantic migrations, from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (1776) and to the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939). The model looks forward to increasing documentary relevance by applying an inverse frequency of co-ocurrent hypernymy phenomena for a concrete dataset of textual corpora, with RMySQL package. Mondoc profiles archival utilities implementing SQL programming code, and allows data export to XML schemas, for achieving semantic and faceted analysis of speech by analyzing keywords in context (KWIC). The methodology applies random and unrestricted sampling techniques with RMySQL to verify the resonance phenomena of inverse documentary relevance between the number of co-occurrences of the same term (t) in more than two documents of a set of texts (D). Secondly, the research also evidences co-associations between (t) and their corresponding synonyms and antonyms (synsets) are also inverse. The results from grouping facets or polysemic words with synsets in more than two textual corpora within their syntagmatic context (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) state how to proceed with semantic indexing of hypernymy phenomena for subject-heading lists and for authority lists for documentary and archival purposes. Mondoc contributes to the development of web directories and seems to achieve a proper and more selective search of e-documents (classification ontology). It can also foster on-line catalogs production for semantic authorities, or concepts, through XML schemas, because its applications could be used for implementing data models, by a prior adaptation of the based-ontology to structured meta-languages, such as OWL, RDF (descriptive ontology). Mondoc serves to the classification of concepts and applies a semantic indexing approach of facets. It enables information retrieval, as well as quantitative and qualitative data interpretation. The model reproduces a triple tuple ⟨LN, LE, LT, LCF L, BKF⟩ where LN is a set of entities that connect with other nodes to concrete a rooted tree in ⟨LN, LE⟩. LT specifies a set of terms, and LCF acts as a finite set of concepts, encoded in a formal language, L. Mondoc only resolves partial problems of linguistic ambiguity (in case of synonymy and antonymy), but neither the pragmatic dimension of natural language nor the cognitive perspective is addressed. To achieve this goal, forthcoming programming developments should target at oriented meta-languages with structured documents in XML.

Keywords: hypernymy, information retrieval, lightweight ontology, resonance

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Authors: Bruno RamaëL, GwenaëL Page, Catherine Knopf-Lenoir, Olivier Baledent, Anne-Virginie Salsac

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No routine technique currently exists for clinicians to measure the mechanical properties of vascular walls non-invasively. Most of the data available in the literature come from traction or dilatation tests conducted ex vivo on native blood vessels. The objective of the study is to develop a non-invasive characterization technique based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measurements of the deformation of vascular walls under pulsating blood flow conditions. The goal is to determine the mechanical properties of the vessels by inverse analysis, coupling imaging measurements and numerical simulations of the fluid-structure interactions. The hyperelastic properties are identified using Solidworks and Ansys workbench (ANSYS Inc.) solving an optimization technique. The vessel of interest targeted in the study is the common carotid artery. In vivo MRI measurements of the vessel anatomy and inlet velocity profiles was acquired along the facial vascular network on a cohort of 30 healthy volunteers: - The time-evolution of the blood vessel contours and, thus, of the cross-section surface area was measured by 3D imaging angiography sequences of phase-contrast MRI. - The blood flow velocity was measured using a 2D CINE MRI phase contrast (PC-MRI) method. Reference arterial pressure waveforms were simultaneously measured in the brachial artery using a sphygmomanometer. The three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the arterial network was reconstructed by first creating an STL file from the raw MRI data using the open source imaging software ITK-SNAP. The resulting geometry was then transformed with Solidworks into volumes that are compatible with Ansys softwares. Tetrahedral meshes of the wall and fluid domains were built using the ANSYS Meshing software, with a near-wall mesh refinement method in the case of the fluid domain to improve the accuracy of the fluid flow calculations. Ansys Structural was used for the numerical simulation of the vessel deformation and Ansys CFX for the simulation of the blood flow. The fluid structure interaction simulations showed that the systolic and diastolic blood pressures of the common carotid artery could be taken as reference pressures to identify the mechanical properties of the different arteries of the network. The coefficients of the hyperelastic law were identified using Ansys Design model for the common carotid. Under large deformations, a stiffness of 800 kPa is measured, which is of the same order of magnitude as the Young modulus of collagen fibers. Areas of maximum deformations were highlighted near bifurcations. This study is a first step towards patient-specific characterization of the mechanical properties of the facial vessels. The method is currently applied on patients suffering from facial vascular malformations and on patients scheduled for facial reconstruction. Information on the blood flow velocity as well as on the vessel anatomy and deformability will be key to improve surgical planning in the case of such vascular pathologies.

Keywords: identification, mechanical properties, arterial walls, MRI measurements, numerical simulations

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Authors: Beihai Xiong, Dengke Hua, Wouter Hendriks, Wilbert Pellikaan

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To improve the energy status of dairy cows in the early lactation, lots of jobs have been done on adjusting the starch to fiber ratio in the diet. As a complex ecosystem, the rumen contains a large population of microorganisms which plays a crucial role in feed degradation. Further study on the microbiota alterations and metabolic changes under different dietary energy sources is essential and valuable to better understand the function of the ruminal microorganisms and thereby to optimize the rumen function and enlarge feed efficiency. The present study will focus on the effects of two glucogenic diets (G: ground corn and corn silage; S: steam-flaked corn and corn silage) and a lipogenic diet (L: sugar beet pulp and alfalfa silage) on rumen fermentation, gas production, the ruminal microbiota and metabolome, and also their correlations in vitro. The gas production was recorded consistently, and the gas volume and producing rate at times 6, 12, 24, 48 h were calculated separately. The fermentation end-products were measured after fermenting for 48 h. The ruminal bacteria and archaea communities were determined by 16S RNA sequencing technique, the metabolome profile was tested through LC-MS methods. Compared to the diet G and S, the L diet had a lower dry matter digestibility, propionate production, and ammonia-nitrogen concentration. The two glucogenic diets performed worse in controlling methane and lactic acid production compared to the L diet. The S diet produced the greatest cumulative gas volume at any time points during incubation compared to the G and L diet. The metabolic analysis revealed that the lipid digestion was up-regulated by the diet L than other diets. On the subclass level, most metabolites belonging to the fatty acids and conjugates were higher, but most metabolites belonging to the amino acid, peptides, and analogs were lower in diet L than others. Differences in rumen fermentation characteristics were associated with (or resulting from) changes in the relative abundance of bacterial and archaeal genera. Most highly abundant bacteria were stable or slightly influenced by diets, while several amylolytic and cellulolytic bacteria were sensitive to the dietary changes. The L diet had a significantly higher number of cellulolytic bacteria, including the genera of Ruminococcus, Butyrivibrio, Eubacterium, Lachnospira, unclassified Lachnospiraceae, and unclassified Ruminococcaceae. The relative abundances of amylolytic bacteria genera including Selenomonas_1, Ruminobacter, and Succinivibrionaceae_UCG-002 were higher in diet G and S. These affected bacteria was also proved to have high associations with certain metabolites. The Selenomonas_1 and Succinivibrionaceae_UCG-002 may contribute to the higher propionate production in the diet G and S through enhancing the succinate pathway. The results indicated that the two glucogenic diets had a greater extent of gas production, a higher dry matter digestibility, and produced more propionate than diet L. The steam-flaked corn did not show a better performance on fermentation end-products than ground corn. This study has offered a deeper understanding of ruminal microbial functions which could assistant the improvement in rumen functions and thereby in the ruminant production.

Keywords: gas production, metabolome, microbiota, rumen fermentation

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Elena Samarsky

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According to German national records and willingness to migrate surveys, emigration is much more attractive for better educated citizens employed in white-collar positions, with academics displaying the highest migration rate. The case study of academic migration from Germany is furthermore intriguing due to the country's financial power, competitive labour market and relatively good life-standards, working conditions and high wage rates. Investigation of such mobility challenges traditional economic view on migration, as it raises the question of why people chose to leave their highly-industrialized countries known for their high life-standards, stable political scene and prosperous economy. Within the regional domain, examining mobility of Germans contributes to the ongoing debate over the extent of influence of the EU mobility principle on migration decision. The latter is of particular interest, as it may shed the light on the extent to which it frames individual migration path, defines motivations and colours the experiences of migration action itself. The paper is based on the analysis of the migration decisions obtained through in-depth interviews with German academics employed in the UK. These retrospective interviews were conducted with German academies across selected universities in the UK, employed in a variety of academic fields, and different career stages. Interviews provide a detailed description of what motivated people to search for a post in another country, which attributes of such job are needed to be satisfied in order to facilitate migration, as well as general information on particularities of an academic career and institutions involved. In the course of the project, it became evident that although securing financial stability was non-negotiable factor in migration (e.g., work contract singed before relocation) non-pecuniary motivations played significant role as well. Migration narratives of this group - the highly skilled, whose human capital is transferable, and whose expertise is positively evaluated by countries, is mainly characterised by search for personal development and career advancement, rather than a direct increase in their income. Such records are also consistent in showing that in case of academics, scientific freedom and independence are the main attributes of a perfect job and are a substantial motivator. On the micro level, migration is rather depicted as an opportunistic action addressed in terms of voluntary and rather imposed decision. However, on the macro level, findings allow suggesting that such opportunities are rather an outcome embedded in the peculiarities of academia and its historical and structural developments. This, in turn, contributes significantly to emergence of a scene in which migration action takes place. The paper suggest further comparative research on the intersection of the macro and micro level, and in particular how both national academic institutions and the EU mobility principle shape migration of academics. In light of continuous attempts to make the European labour market more mobile and attractive such findings ought to have direct implications on policy.

Keywords: migration, EU, academics, highly skilled labour

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Authors: M. Testa, L. Peotta, S. Giusiano, B. Lazzolino, U. Manera, A. Canosa, M. Grassano, F. Palumbo, A. Bombaci, S. Cabras, F. Di Pede, L. Solero, E. Matteoni, C. Moglia, A. Calvo, A. Chio

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of adulthood, which primarily affects the central nervous system and is characterized by progressive bilateral degeneration of motor neurons. The degeneration processes in ALS extend far beyond the neurons of the motor system, and affects cognition, behaviour and language. To outline the prevalence of language deficits in an ALS cohort and explore their profile along with demographic and neuropsychological data. A full neuropsychological battery and language assessment was administered to 56 ALS patients. Neuropsychological assessment included tests of executive functioning, verbal fluency, social cognition and memory. Language was assessed using tests for verbal comprehension, production and pragmatics. Patients were cognitively classified following the Revised Consensus Criteria and divided in three groups showing different levels of language deficits: group 1 - no language deficit; group 2 - one language deficit; group 3 - two or more language deficits. Chi-square for independence and non-parametric measures to compare groups were applied. Nearly half of ALS-CN patients (48%) reported one language test under the clinical cut-off, and only 13% of patents classified as ALS-CI showed no language deficits, while the rest 87% of ALS-CI reported two or more language deficits. ALS-BI and ALS-CBI cases all reported two or more language deficits. Deficits in production and in comprehension appeared more frequent in ALS-CI patients (p=0.011, p=0.003 respectively), with a higher percentage of comprehension deficits (83%). Nearly all ALS-CI reported at least one deficit in pragmatic abilities (96%) and all ALS-BI and ALS-CBI patients showed pragmatic deficits. Males showed higher percentage of pragmatic deficits (97%, p=0.007). No significant differences in language deficits have been found between bulbar and spinal onset. Months from onset and level of impairment at testing (ALS-FRS total score) were not significantly different between levels and type of language impairment. Age and education were significantly higher for cases showing no deficits in comprehension and pragmatics and in the group showing no language deficits. Comparing performances at neuropsychological tests among the three levels of language deficits, no significant differences in neuropsychological performances were found between group 1 and 2; compared to group 1, group 3 appeared to decay specifically on executive testing, verbal/visuospatial learning, and social cognition. Compared to group 2, group 3 showed worse performances specifically in tests of working memory and attention. Language deficits have found to be spread in our sample, encompassing verbal comprehension, production and pragmatics. Our study reveals that also cognitive intact patients (ALS-CN) showed at least one language deficit in 48% of cases. Pragmatic domain is the most compromised (84% of the total sample), present in nearly all ALS-CI (96%), likely due to the influence of executive impairment. Lower age and higher education seem to preserve comprehension, pragmatics and presence of language deficits. Finally, executive functions, verbal/visuospatial learning and social cognition differentiate the group with no language deficits from the group with a clinical language impairment (group 3), while attention and working memory differentiate the group with one language deficit from the clinical impaired group.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, language assessment, neuropsychological assessment, language deficit

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Authors: Marta Polec

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The paper outlines the problem of street performances in Poland in context of humanistic management studies. The Author perceives activity of street performers of various art and entertainment actions as a phenomenon of informal organizing, self-management and cultural entrepreneurship in urban sphere. What has to be highlighted, performative street art is not currently being an interest of scientific research as often as visual street art. That is why the Author indicates the need of including new approaches of humanistic and social disciplines, especially different management paradigms, in examining various aspects of the activity of street performers. The paper shows the results of ethnographic study based on anthropological interviews, participant observation non-participant observation, shadowing, field notes, audiovisual documentation and text analysis. The fieldwork was performed since 2014 in the old towns and major areas of several the most popular touristic Polish cities, mainly in Gdansk, Cracow, Lublin, Warsaw, and Wroclaw. The research group included street artists of various kinds of performative arts. The investigation was prepared within the ‘Ethnography of the informal organization of street artists in Poland’ project, as a part of Diamond Grant programme (the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland). The first conclusion of the study is that street shows form a way of artistic self-realization and unusual promotion of creative activity in public space. As street performance helps to make some extra money and even earning a living in general, it seems to constitute a new profession. Street performers as a specific environment usually know each other and in many ways cooperate informally to carry on their shows successfully. Secondly, this activity brings plenty benefits for the local communities. Street shows attract inhabitants and tourists quite often by appealing to intangible cultural heritage and memorializing it. They also pose a space for discussing current social issues. Moreover, they disseminate relatively inexpensive public access to culture, but also state an example of social courage of choosing unconventional occupation. Finally, currently being used terms of street performers/street artists/buskers in different languages, as instance as in Polish, are still fluent and undefined. As a consequence, it brings implications for existing common knowledge about street performers, for example in establishing and implementing public policies. It impedes solving many ethical and social dilemmas concerning the question of performances in public sphere, which in some cases seem to be related to, as: children’s work, beggars’ practices or question of harmony of public space. The main aim of this study was to expose street performances as yet undefined profession, including different possibilities of interacting with the audience, based on providing impressions, experiences and memories. Although the issue seems to be current and common, in indicated context there is a lack of equal and unified approach of managing urban sphere, which in practice differs both in informal rules and official policies concerning street performances not only in cities in Poland, but also generally in Europe.

Keywords: informal, organizing, street performance, urban sphere

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Authors: Mohamed Abouelresh, Subhajit Kumar, Lamidi Babalola, Septriandi Chan, Ali Al Musabeh A., Thadickal V. Joydas, Bruno Pulido

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Neom has a relatively long coastline on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, which is about 300 kilometres long, in addition to many naturally formed bays along the Red Sea coast. Undoubtedly, these coasts provide an excellent opportunity for tourism and other activities; however, these coastal areas host a wide range of salinity-dependent ecosystems that need to be protected. The main objective of the study was to identify the coastal features, including tidal flats and salt flats, along the NEOM coast. A base map of the study area generated from the satellite images contained the main landform features and, in particular, the boundaries of the inland and coastal sabkhas. A field survey was conducted to map and characterize the intertidal and sabkha landforms. The coastal and inner coastal areas of NEOM are mainly covered by the quaternary sediments, which include gravel sheets, terraces, raised reef limestone, evaporite successions, eolian dunes, and undifferentiated sand/gravel deposits (alluvium, alluvial outwash, wind-blown sand beach). There are different landforms that characterizes the NEOM coast, including rocky coast, tidal zone, and sabkha. Sabkha area ranges between a few to tens of square kilometers. Coastal sabkha extended across the shoreline of NEOM, specifically at Gayal and Sharma areas, while the continental sabkha only existed at Gayal Town. The inland Sabkha at Gayal is mainly composed of a thin (15-25 cm) evaporite crust composed of a dark brown, cavernous, rugged, pitted, colloidal salty sand layer with salt-tolerant vegetation. The inland Sabkha is considered a groundwater-driven sedimentary system as indicated by syndepositional intra-sediment capillary evaporites, which precipitate in both marine and continental salt flats. Gayal coastal Sabkha is made up of tidal inlets, tidal creeks, and lagoons followed in a landward direction with well-developed sabkha layers. The surface sediments of the coastal Sabkha are composed of unlithified calcareous, gypsiferous, coarse to medium sands, and silt with bioclastic fragments underlain by several organic-rich layers. The coastal flat is graded landward into widespread, flat vegetated Sabkhas dissected by tributaries of the fluvial system, which debouches to the Red Sea. The coast from Gayal to Magna through Ras El-Sheikh Humaid is continuously subjected to tidal flows, which create an intertidal depositional system. The intertidal flats at NEOM are extensive, nearly horizontal land forming a very dynamic system in which several physical, chemical, geomorphological, and biological processes are acting simultaneously. The current work provides a field-based identification of the coastal sabkha and intertidal sites at NEOM. However, the mutual interaction between tidal flows and sabkha development, particularly at Gayal, needs to be well understood through comprehensive field and lab analysis.

Keywords: coast, intertidal, deposition, sabkha

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Authors: Mary Ghobrial, Sahar Wefky

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Marine macroalgae have proven to be rich source of bioactive compounds with biomedical potential, not only for human but also for veterinary medicine. Emergence of microbial disease in aquaculture industries implies serious loses. Usage of commercial antibiotics for fish disease treatment produces undesirable side effects. Marine organisms are a rich source of structurally novel biologically active metabolites. Competition for space and nutrients led to the evolution of antimicrobial defense strategies in the aquatic environment. The interest in marine organisms as a potential and promising source of pharmaceutical agents has increased in the last years. Many bioactive and pharmacologically active substances have been isolated from microalgae. Compounds with antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities have been also detected in green, brown and red algae. Selected species of marine benthic algae belonging to the Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta, collected from different coastal areas of Alexandria (Egypt), were investigated for their antibacterial and antifungal, activities. Macroalgae samples were collected during low tide from the Alexandria Mediterranean coast. Samples were air dried under shade at room temperature. The dry algae were ground, using electric mixer grinder. They were soaked in 10 ml of each of the solvents acetone, ethanol, methanol and hexane. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated using well-cut diffusion technique In vitro screening of organic solvent extracts from the marine macroalgae Laurencia pinnatifida, Pterocladia capillaceae, Stepopodium zonale, Halopteris scoparia and Sargassum hystrix, showed specific activity in inhibiting the growth of five virulent strains of bacteria pathogenic to fish Pseudomonas fluorescens, Aeromonas hydrophila, Vibrio anguillarum, V. tandara, Escherichia coli and two fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. niger. Results showed that, acetone and ethanol extracts of all test macroalgae exhibited antibacterial activity, while acetone extract of the brown Sargassum hystrix displayed the highest antifungal activity. The extracts of seaweeds inhibited bacteria more strongly than fungi and species of the Rhodophyta showed the greatest activity against the bacteria rather than fungi tested. The gas liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry detection technique allows good qualitative and quantitative analysis of the fractionated extracts with high sensitivity to the smaller amounts of components. Results indicated that, the main common component in the acetone extracts of L. pinnatifida and P. capillacea is 4-hydroxy-4-methyl2-pentanone representing 64.38 and 58.60%. Thus, the extracts derived from the red macroalgae were more efficient than those obtained from the brown macroalgae in combating bacterial pathogens rather than pathogenic fungi. The most preferred species over all was the red Laurencia pinnatifida. In conclusion, the present study provides the potential of red and brown macroalgae extracts for development of anti-pathogenic agents for use in fish aquaculture.

Keywords: bacteria, fungi, extracts, solvents

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Authors: Breanna Wright, Peter Bragge

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Diagnostic error rates in healthcare are approximately 10% of cases. Diagnostic errors can cause patient harm due to inappropriate, inadequate or delayed treatment, and such errors contribute heavily to medical liability claims globally. Therefore, addressing diagnostic error is a high priority. In most cases, diagnostic errors are the result of faulty information synthesis rather than lack of knowledge. Specifically, the majority of diagnostic errors involve cognitive factors, and in particular, cognitive biases. Emergency Departments are an environment with heightened risk of diagnostic error due to time and resource pressures, a frequently chaotic environment, and patients arriving undifferentiated and with minimal context. This project aimed to develop a behavioural, evidence-informed intervention to reduce diagnostic error in Emergency Departments through co-design with emergency physicians, insurers, researchers, hospital managers, citizens and consumer representatives. The Forum Process was utilised to address this aim. This involves convening a small (4 – 6 member) expert panel to guide a focused literature and practice review; convening of a 10 – 12 person citizens panel to gather perspectives of laypeople, including those affected by misdiagnoses; and a 18 – 22 person structured stakeholder dialogue bringing together representatives of the aforementioned stakeholder groups. The process not only provides in-depth analysis of the problem and associated behaviours, but brings together expertise and insight to facilitate identification of a behaviour change intervention. Informed by the literature and practice review, the Citizens Panel focused on eliciting the values and concerns of those affected or potentially affected by diagnostic error. Citizens were comfortable with diagnostic uncertainty if doctors were honest with them. They also emphasised the importance of open communication between doctors and patients and their families. Citizens expect more consistent standards across the state and better access for both patients and their doctors to patient health information to avoid time-consuming re-taking of long patient histories and medication regimes when re-presenting at Emergency Departments and to reduce the risk of unintentional omissions. The structured Stakeholder Dialogue focused on identifying a feasible behavioural intervention to review diagnoses in Emergency Departments. This needed to consider the role of cognitive bias in medical decision-making; contextual factors (in Victoria, there is a legislated 4-hour maximum time between ED triage and discharge / hospital admission); resource availability; and the need to ensure the intervention could work in large metropolitan as well as small rural and regional ED settings across Victoria. The identified behavioural intervention will be piloted in approximately ten hospital EDs across Victoria, Australia. This presentation will detail the findings of all review and consultation activities, describe the behavioural intervention developed and present results of the pilot trial.

Keywords: behavioural intervention, cognitive bias, decision-making, diagnostic error

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