Search results for: small world

Authors: Kimberley Rain Miner, Karl Kreutz, Larry LeBlanc

Abstract:

During the period of 1950-1970 persistent organic pollutants such as DDT, dioxin and PCB were released in the atmosphere and distributed through precipitation into glaciers throughout the world. Recent abrupt climate change is increasing the melt rate of these glaciers, introducing the toxins to the watershed. Studies have shown the existence of legacy pollutants in glacial ice, but neither the impact nor quantity of these toxins on downstream populations has been assessed. If these pollutants are released at toxic levels it will be necessary to create a mitigation plan to lower their impact on the affected communities.

Keywords: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 357

Authors: Yusuf Ziya Halefoğlu

Abstract:

Phosphorescence, classically, excitation effects (radiation, electron beam, electric field, temperature, etc.) is the name given after the elimination of materials that glow in the visible region. This event continues to glow after the elimination of the effect of excitation is called phosphorescence. In this study were synthesized by the method of the combustion lanthanide doped alkaline earth aluminates. High temperature and long reaction time required and the sol-gel method of combustion according to the methods of solid state synthesis temperature lower than the short reaction time, a small particle size, convenience, and is superior in terms of being secured. Their microstructures and its effect on the photoluminescence properties were studied. Phosphorescence is derived in the dark when produced materials are held in sunlight or under ultraviolet light typically at 365-520 nm wavelength range. In this study, the optimal ratio of rare earth elements, in terms of brightness and glow duration was examined by SEM, XRD and photoluminescence analysis.

Keywords: persistence luminescence, phosphorescence, trap depth, combustion method

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Ju Peng Poh, Jun Yu Charles Lee, Jonathan Chew Hoe Khoo

Abstract:

The emergence of digital twin technology, a digital replica of physical world, has improved the real-time access to data from sensors about the performance of buildings. This digital transformation has opened up many opportunities to improve the management of the building by using the data collected to help monitor consumption patterns and energy leakages. One example is the integration of predictive models for anomaly detection. In this paper, we use the GAM (Generalised Additive Model) for the anomaly detection of Air Handling Units (AHU) power consumption pattern. There is ample research work on the use of GAM for the prediction of power consumption at the office building and nation-wide level. However, there is limited illustration of its anomaly detection capabilities, prescriptive analytics case study, and its integration with the latest development of digital twin technology. In this paper, we applied the general GAM modelling framework on the historical data of the AHU power consumption and cooling load of the building between Jan 2018 to Aug 2019 from an education campus in Singapore to train prediction models that, in turn, yield predicted values and ranges. The historical data are seamlessly extracted from the digital twin for modelling purposes. We enhanced the utility of the GAM model by using it to power a real-time anomaly detection system based on the forward predicted ranges. The magnitude of deviation from the upper and lower bounds of the uncertainty intervals is used to inform and identify anomalous data points, all based on historical data, without explicit intervention from domain experts. Notwithstanding, the domain expert fits in through an optional feedback loop through which iterative data cleansing is performed. After an anomalously high or low level of power consumption detected, a set of rule-based conditions are evaluated in real-time to help determine the next course of action for the facilities manager. The performance of GAM is then compared with other approaches to evaluate its effectiveness. Lastly, we discuss the successfully deployment of this approach for the detection of anomalous power consumption pattern and illustrated with real-world use cases.

Keywords: anomaly detection, digital twin, generalised additive model, GAM, power consumption, supervised learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Puspa Maharani, Hendy Muagiri Margono, Izzatul Fithriyah

Abstract:

Contraception is a medium used to prevent conception, aimed at couples who do not want pregnancy to occur. Unintended pregnancies have a prevalence of 48% per year of the total pregnancies that occur throughout the world. Schizophrenia sufferers have a high probability of being involved in unwanted sexual relations, but are not supported by adequate knowledge and use of contraception, so they are vulnerable to experiencing unwanted pregnancies. Unwanted pregnancy can pose significant health risks for patients with schizophrenia. There are many types of contraception that can be discussed and considered for patients with schizophrenia in order to improve the quality and well- being of their lives. Choosing the right contraceptive for patients with schizophrenia requires consideration of its use by taking into account the many factors that influence it.

Keywords: schizophrenia, contraception, pregnancy, mental health

Procedia PDF Downloads 12

Authors: Sonia Sassi, Mostapha Tarfaoui, Hamza Benyahia

Abstract:

Composite materials are increasingly being used as a substitute for metallic materials in many technological applications like aeronautics, aerospace, marine and civil engineering applications. For composite materials, the thermomechanical response evolves with the strain rate. The energy balance equation for anisotropic, elastic materials includes heat source terms that govern the conversion of some of the kinetic work into heat. The remainder contributes to the stored energy creating the damage process in the composite material. In this paper, we investigate the bulk thermomechanical behavior of adhesively-bonded composite assemblies to quantitatively asses the temperature rise which accompanies adiabatic deformations. In particular, adhesively bonded joints in glass/vinylester composite material are subjected to in-plane dynamic loads under a range of strain rates. Dynamic thermomechanical behavior of this material is investigated using compression Split Hopkinson Pressure Bars (SHPB) coupled with a high speed infrared camera and a high speed camera to measure in real time the dynamic behavior, the damage kinetic and the temperature variation in the material. The interest of using high speed IR camera is in order to view in real time the evolution of heat dissipation in the material when damage occurs. But, this technique does not produce thermal values in correlation with the stress-strain curves of composite material because of its high time response in comparison with the dynamic test time. For this reason, the authors revisit the application of specific thermocouples placed on the surface of the material to ensure the real thermal measurements under dynamic loading using small thermocouples. Experiments with dynamically loaded material show that the thermocouples record temperatures values with a short typical rise time as a result of the conversion of kinetic work into heat during compression test. This results show that small thermocouples can be used to provide an important complement to other noncontact techniques such as the high speed infrared camera. Significant temperature rise was observed in in-plane compression tests especially under high strain rates. During the tests, it has been noticed that sudden temperature rise occur when macroscopic damage occur. This rise in temperature is linked to the rate of damage. The more serve the damage is, a higher localized temperature is detected. This shows the strong relationship between the occurrence of damage and induced heat dissipation. For the case of the in plane tests, the damage takes place more abruptly as the strain rate is increased. The difference observed in the obtained thermomechanical response in plane compression is explained only by the difference in the damage process being active during the compression tests. In this study, we highlighted the dependence of the thermomechanical response on the strain rate of bonded specimens. The effect of heat dissipation of this material cannot hence be ignored and should be taken into account when defining damage models during impact loading.

Keywords: adhesively-bonded composite joints, damage, dynamic compression tests, energy balance, heat dissipation, SHPB, thermomechanical behavior

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Chanmoly Or, Kyuro Sasaki, Yuichi Sugai, Masanori Nakano, Motonao Imai

Abstract:

Cold drainage mechanism of oil production is a complicated process which involves with solubility and foaming processes. Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate the CO2 gas solubility in hexadecane (as light oil) and the effect of depressurization processes on microbubble generation. The experimental study of sensitivity parameters of temperature and pressure on CO2 gas solubility in hexadecane was conducted at temperature of 20 °C and 50 °C and pressure ranged 2.0–7.0 MPa by using PVT (RUSKA Model 2370) apparatus. The experiments of foamy hexadecane were also prepared by depressurizing from saturated pressure of 6.4 MPa and temperature of 50 °C. The experimental results show the CO2 gas solubility in hexadecane linearly increases with increasing pressure. At pressure 4.5 MPa, CO2 gas dissolved in hexadecane 2.5 mmol.g-1 for temperature of 50 °C and 3.5 mmol.g-1 for temperature of 20 °C. The bubbles of foamy hexadecane were observed that most of large bubbles were coalesced shortly whereas the small one keeps presence. The experimental result of foamy hexadecane indicated large depressurization step (∆P) produces high quality of foam with high microbubble distribution.

Keywords: CO2 gas solubility, depressurization process, foamy hexadecane, microbubble distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 488

Authors: Nura Suleiman

Abstract:

The foreign policy of any country or nation is intended to promote and protect the country’s national interest. To achieve this interest, a country has to be guided by certain principles and influence of domestic and international conditions. The history of Nigerian foreign policy is directed to defend its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, to promote and sustain the economic well-being of Nigerians, and promotion of Africa and world peace with justice. With the change of time and leadership, coupled with corruption, despite all the foreign policy determinants endowed with Nigeria as a country, sacrificed its foreign interest for the benefit of the western powers, by this it lost the opportunity to formulate policies according to its own need and desires.

Keywords: foreign policy, Nigeria, Western power

Procedia PDF Downloads 488

Authors: Mohamad Khairi Ishak

Abstract:

Conventional public key crypto systems such as RSA (Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman), DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm), and Elgamal are no longer efficient to be implemented in the small, memory constrained devices. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which allows smaller key length as compared to conventional public key crypto systems, has thus become a very attractive choice for many applications. This paper describes implementation of an elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) encryption engine on a FPGA. The system has been implemented in 2 different key sizes, which are 131 bits and 163 bits. Area and timing analysis are provided for both key sizes for comparison. The crypto system, which has been implemented on Altera’s EPF10K200SBC600-1, has a hardware size of 5945/9984 and 6913/9984 of logic cells for 131 bits implementation and 163 bits implementation respectively. The crypto system operates up to 43 MHz, and performs point multiplication operation in 11.3 ms for 131 bits implementation and 14.9 ms for 163 bits implementation. In terms of speed, our crypto system is about 8 times faster than the software implementation of the same system.

Keywords: elliptic curve cryptography, FPGA, key sizes, memory

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Scott Andersen

Abstract:

Perhaps simply and rather unadornedly, consciousness is having multiple goals for action and the continuously adjudication of such goals to implement action, referred to as the Maps of Meaning (MoM) Consciousness Theory. The MoM theory triangulates through three parallel corollaries, action (behavior), mechanism (morphology/pathophysiology), and goals (teleology). (1) An organism’s consciousness contains a fluid, nested goals. These goals are not intentionality, but intersectionality, embodiment meeting the world. i.e., Darwinian inclusive fitness or randomization, then survival of the fittest. These goals form via gradual descent under inclusive fitness, the goals being the abstraction of a ‘match’ between the evolutionary environment and organism. Human consciousness implements the brain efficiency hypothesis, genetics, epigenetics, and experience crystallize efficiencies, not necessitating best or objective but fitness, i.e., perceived efficiency based on one’s adaptive environment. These efficiencies are objectively arbitrary, but determine the operation and level of one’s consciousness, termed extreme thrownness. Since inclusive fitness drives efficiencies in physiologic mechanism, morphology and behavior (action) and originates one’s goals, embodiment is necessarily entangled to human consciousness as its the intersection of mechanism or action (both necessitating embodiment) occurring in the world that determines fitness. Perception is the operant process of consciousness and is the consciousness’ de facto goal adjudication process. Goal operationalization is fundamentally efficiency-based via one’s unique neuronal mapping as a byproduct of genetics, epigenetics, and experience. Perception involves information intake and information discrimination, equally underpinned by efficiencies of inclusive fitness via extreme thrownness. Perception isn’t a ‘frame rate,’ but Bayesian priors of efficiency based on one’s extreme thrownness. Consciousness and human consciousness is a modular (i.e., a scalar level of richness, which builds up like building blocks) and dimensionalized (i.e., cognitive abilities become possibilities as emergent phenomena at various modularities, like stratified factors in factor analysis). The meta dimensions of human consciousness seemingly include intelligence quotient, personality (five-factor model), richness of perception intake, and richness of perception discrimination, among other potentialities. Future consciousness research should utilize factor analysis to parse modularities and dimensions of human consciousness and animal models.

Keywords: consciousness, perception, prospection, embodiment

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Samia Alblwi, Amani Ayad

Abstract:

Mutation testing is the art of generating syntactic variations of a base program and checking whether a candidate test suite can identify all the mutants that are not semantically equivalent to the base: this technique is widely used by researchers to select quality test suites. One of the main obstacles to the widespread use of mutation testing is cost: even small pro-grams (a few dozen lines of code) can give rise to a large number of mutants (up to hundreds): this has created an incentive to seek to reduce the number of mutants while preserving their collective effectiveness. Two criteria have been used to reduce the size of mutant sets: equiva-lence, which aims to partition the set of mutants into equivalence classes modulo semantic equivalence, and selecting one representative per class; subsumption, which aims to define a partial ordering among mutants that ranks mutants by effectiveness and seeks to select maximal elements in this ordering. In this paper we analyze these two policies using analytical and em-pirical criteria.

Keywords: mutation testing, mutant sets, mutant equivalence, mutant subsumption, mutant set minimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Andreas Latz, Daniela Heinz, Fatima Hashemi, Melek Baygül

Abstract:

Introduction: Feline leukemia virus (FeLV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and feline coronavirus (FCoV) are serious infectious diseases affecting cats worldwide. Transmission of these viruses occurs primarily through close contact with infected cats (via saliva, nasal secretions, faeces, etc.). FeLV, FIV, and FCoV infections can occur in combination and are expressed in similar clinical symptoms. Diagnosis can therefore be challenging: Symptoms are variable and often non-specific. Sick cats show very similar clinical symptoms: apathy, anorexia, fever, immunodeficiency syndrome, anemia, etc. Sample volume for small companion animals for diagnostic purposes can be challenging to collect. In addition, multiplex diagnosis of diseases can contribute to an easier, cheaper, and faster workflow in the lab as well as to the better differential diagnosis of diseases. For this reason, we wanted to develop a new diagnostic tool that utilizes less sample volume, reagents, and consumables than multiplesingleplex ELISA assays Methods: The Multiplier from Dynextechonogies (USA) has been used as platform to develop a Multiplex diagnostic tool for the detection of antibodies against FIV and FCoV/FIP and antigens for FeLV. Multiplex diagnostics. The Dynex®Multiplier®is a fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay analyzer that significantly simplifies laboratory workflow. The Multiplier®ease-of-use reduces pre-analytical steps by combining the power of efficiently multiplexing multiple assays with the simplicity of automated microplate processing. Plastic beads have been coated with antigens for FIV and FCoV/FIP, as well as antibodies for FeLV. Feline blood samples are incubated with the beads. Read out of results is performed via chemiluminescence Results: Bead coating was optimized for each individual antigen or capture antibody and then combined in the multiplex diagnostic tool. HRP: Antibody conjugates for FIV and FCoV antibodies, as well as detection antibodies for FeLV antigen, have been adjusted and mixed. 3 individual prototyple batches of the assay have been produced. We analyzed for each disease 50 well defined positive and negative samples. Results show an excellent diagnostic performance of the simultaneous detection of antibodies or antigens against these feline diseases in a fully automated system. A 100% concordance with singleplex methods like ELISA or IFA can be observed. Intra- and Inter-Assays showed a high precision of the test with CV values below 10% for each individual bead. Accelerated stability testing indicate a shelf life of at least 1 year. Conclusion: The new tool can be used for multiplex diagnostics of the most important feline infectious diseases. Only a very small sample volume is required. Fully automation results in a very convenient and fast method for diagnosing animal diseases.With its large specimen capacity to process over 576 samples per 8-hours shift and provide up to 3,456 results, very high laboratory productivity and reagent savings can be achieved.

Keywords: Multiplex, FIV, FeLV, FCoV, FIP

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: Yu T. Tsai, Jin H. Huang

Abstract:

In this paper, the specific sound transmission loss (TL) of the laminated composite plate (LCP) with different material properties in each layer is investigated. The numerical method to obtain the TL of the LCP is proposed by using elastic plate theory. The transfer matrix approach is novelty presented for computational efficiency in solving the numerous layers of dynamic stiffness matrix (D-matrix) of the LCP. Besides the numerical simulations for calculating the TL of the LCP, the material properties inverse method is presented for the design of a laminated composite plate analogous to a metallic plate with a specified TL. As a result, it demonstrates that the proposed computational algorithm exhibits high efficiency with a small number of iterations for achieving the goal. This method can be effectively employed to design and develop tailor-made materials for various applications.

Keywords: sound transmission loss, laminated composite plate, transfer matrix approach, inverse problem, elastic plate theory, material properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Lu Si, Jie Yu, Shasha Li, Jun Ma, Lei Luo, Qingbo Wu, Yongqi Ma, Zhengji Liu

Abstract:

Instance selection (IS) technique is used to reduce the data size to improve the performance of data mining methods. Recently, to process very large data set, several proposed methods divide the training set into some disjoint subsets and apply IS algorithms independently to each subset. In this paper, we analyze the limitation of these methods and give our viewpoint about how to divide and conquer in IS procedure. Then, based on fast condensed nearest neighbor (FCNN) rule, we propose a large data sets instance selection method with MapReduce framework. Besides ensuring the prediction accuracy and reduction rate, it has two desirable properties: First, it reduces the work load in the aggregation node; Second and most important, it produces the same result with the sequential version, which other parallel methods cannot achieve. We evaluate the performance of FCNN-MR on one small data set and two large data sets. The experimental results show that it is effective and practical.

Keywords: instance selection, data reduction, MapReduce, kNN

Procedia PDF Downloads 250

Authors: Inigo Beckett

Abstract:

In forensic investigations, it is often the case that the most potentially useful recorded evidence derives from coincidental imagery, recorded immediately before or during an incident, and that during the incident (e.g. a ‘failure’ or fire event), the evidence is changed or destroyed. To an image analysis expert involved in photogrammetric analysis for Civil or Criminal Proceedings, traditional computer vision methods involving calibrated cameras is often not appropriate because image metadata cannot be relied upon. This paper presents an approach for resolving this problem, considering in particular and by way of a case study, the angle of a simple ladder shown in a photograph. The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance document published in 2014 (INDG455) advises that a leaning ladder should be erected at 75 degrees to the horizontal axis. Personal injury cases can arise in the construction industry because a ladder is too steep or too shallow. Ad-hoc photographs of such ladders in their incident position provide a basis for analysis of their angle. This paper presents a direct approach for ascertaining the position of the camera and the angle of the ladder simultaneously from the photograph(s) by way of a workflow that encompasses a novel application of projective geometry and matrix analysis. Mathematical analysis shows that for a given pixel ratio of directly measured collinear points (i.e. features that lie on the same line segment) from the 2D digital photograph with respect to a given viewing point, we can constrain the 3D camera position to a surface of a sphere in the scene. Depending on what we know about the ladder, we can enforce another independent constraint on the possible camera positions which enables us to constrain the possible positions even further. Experiments were conducted using synthetic and real-world data. The synthetic data modeled a vertical plane with a ladder on a horizontally flat plane resting against a vertical wall. The real-world data was captured using an Apple iPhone 13 Pro and 3D laser scan survey data whereby a ladder was placed in a known location and angle to the vertical axis. For each case, we calculated camera positions and the ladder angles using this method and cross-compared them against their respective ‘true’ values.

Keywords: image analysis, projective geometry, homography, photogrammetry, ladders, Forensics, Mathematical modeling, planar geometry, matrix analysis, collinear, cameras, photographs

Procedia PDF Downloads 44

Authors: Aparajita Mukherjee, D. P. Mukherjee

Abstract:

This paper critically assessed pollution problems in small and medium enterprises with unique references to foundries and sponge iron industries to survey the adverse impact on human societies and the environment. The objective of this paper was to show how cleaner production concept was implemented in one foundry through improvisation of existing technology in India. Incremental advancement of existing technology minimized environmental issues and resource utilization. This study depicted that poor fiscal help, poor enforcement of government regulations, owners’ attitude and lacking specialized technical workers were the significant hindrances towards cleaner production. The paper explored the possible ways to overcome these hindrances for cleaner production. On a more general level, findings raise important questions regarding the need for a new paradigm for the implementation of cleaner production. Improvisation of existing technology in these enterprises would be cost effective towards sustainable development.

Keywords: SME pollution, ecological crisis, sustainable development, cleaner production, training

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Aneri Mehta, Krunal Mehta

Abstract:

The unpredictable and vacillating relationship between India and Pakistan since days of Independence struggle is known world over. And this instability has never lost its magnitude to decrease the tensions between the two countries. Since India aspires to run for the race of future superpower and Pakistan struggles to remove the tag of a highly fickle and under developed economy; ruined largely not by the outsiders, but its own people and systems; it becomes really important to gauge what steps would these neighbors take in years to come. The progress and stability of both countries heavily relies on the favorable equations between the two nations. Therefore the paper tries to trace some roots of their faltering relationship and attempts to predict their future in a multidimensional perspective.

Keywords: economy, faltering relationship, multidimensional perspective, international relations

Procedia PDF Downloads 282

Authors: Ya'u Saidu

Abstract:

The introduction of the non-interest banking system in Nigeria was part of the regulators efforts to increase the inclusion of other stakeholders into the financial sector who have stayed out of the sector for some reasons. However, the concept has been misunderstood by various stakeholders within the country where some view it as a Muslim affair which exclude the non-Muslims from gaining despite its existence in advance countries of the world. This paper attempts to fill-in the gap created by the literature especially with regards to the proper education and enlightenment of the Nigerian citizens. Survey research method was employed where primary data was collected using questionnaire and convenience sampling was used to select 100 respondents. The data was analysed using Chi-square. It was found that lack of knowledge on Islamic banking has significant effect on its prospects.

Keywords: finance, non-interest, sustainability, enlightenment

Procedia PDF Downloads 436

Authors: Ossama Al-Maliki

Abstract:

The Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) is the transaction protocol for most of the world and especially in Europe and the UK. EMV protocol consists of three main stages which are: card authentication, cardholder verification methods, and transaction authorization. This paper details in full the EMV card authentications. We have used AVISPA and SPAN tools to do our modulization for the EMV card authentications. The code for each type of the card authentication was written by using CAS+ language. The results showed that our modulations were successfully addressed all the steps of the EMV card authentications and the entire process of the EMV card authentication are secured. Also, our modulations were successfully addressed all the main goals behind the EMV card authentications according to the EMV specifications.

Keywords: EMV, card authentication, contactless card, SDA, DDA, CDA AVISPA

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: V. Reyes, P. Ferreira

Abstract:

In response to high levels of competitiveness, industrial systems have evolved to improve productivity. As a consequence, a rapid increase in volume production and simultaneously, a customization process require lower costs, more variety, and accurate quality of products. Reducing time-cycle production, enabling customizability, and ensure continuous quality improvement are key features in advance intelligent industry. In this scenario, customers and producers will be able to participate in the ongoing production life cycle through real-time interaction. To achieve this vision, transparency, predictability, and adaptability are key features that provide the industrial systems the capability to adapt to customer demands modifying the manufacturing process through an autonomous response and acting preventively to avoid errors. The industrial system incorporates a diversified number of components that in advanced industry are expected to be decentralized, end to end communicating, and with the capability to make own decisions through feedback. The evolving process towards advanced intelligent industry defines a set of stages to empower components of intelligence and enhancing efficiency to achieve the decision-making stage. The integrated system follows an industrial cyber-physical system (CPS) architecture whose real-time integration, based on a set of enabler technologies, links the physical and virtual world generating the digital twin (DT). This instance allows incorporating sensor data from real to virtual world and the required transparency for real-time monitoring and control, contributing to address important features of the advanced intelligent industry and simultaneously improve sustainability. Assuming the industrial CPS as the core technology toward the latest advanced intelligent industry stage, this paper reviews and highlights the correlation and contributions of the enabler technologies for the operationalization of each stage in the path toward advanced intelligent industry. From this research, a real-time integration architecture for a cyber-physical system with applications to collaborative robotics is proposed. The required functionalities and issues to endow the industrial system of adaptability are identified.

Keywords: cyber-physical systems, digital twin, sensor data, system integration, virtual model

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Esther Friedlander, Philip Friedlander

Abstract:

The use of immunotherapy that inhibits programmed death-1 (PD-1) or its ligand PD-L1 confers survival benefits in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, approximately 45% of patients experience primary treatment resistance, necessitating the development of strategies to improve efficacy. While the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has systemic hemodynamic effects, tissue-specific regulation exists along with modulation of immune activity in part through regulation of myeloid cell activity, leading to the hypothesis that RAS inhibition may improve anti-PD-1/L-1 efficacy. A retrospective analysis was conducted that included 173 advanced solid tumor cancer patients treated at Valley Hospital, a community Hospital in New Jersey, USA, who were treated with a PD-1/L-1 inhibitor in a defined time period showing a statistically significant relationship between RAS pathway inhibition (RASi through concomitant treatment with an ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker) and positive efficacy to the immunotherapy that was independent of age, gender and cancer type. Subset analysis revealed strong numerical benefit for efficacy in both patients with squamous and nonsquamous NSCLC as determined by documented clinician assessment of efficacy and by duration of therapy. A PUBMED literature search was now conducted to identify studies assessing the effect of RAS pathway inhibition on anti-PD-1/L1 efficacy in advanced solid tumor patients and compare these findings to those seen in the Valley Hospital retrospective study with a focus on NSCLC specifically. A total of 11 articles were identified assessing the effects of RAS pathway inhibition on the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy in advanced cancer patients. Of the 11 studies, 10 assessed the effect on survival of RASi in the context of treatment with anti-PD-1/PD-L1, while one assessed the effect on CTLA-4 inhibition. Eight of the studies included patients with NSCLC, while the remaining 2 were specific to genitourinary malignancies. Of the 8 studies, two were specific to NSCLC patients, with the remaining 6 studies including a range of cancer types, of which NSCLC was one. Of these 6 studies, only 2 reported specific survival data for the NSCLC subpopulation. Patient characteristics, multivariate analysis data and efficacy data seen in the 2 NSLCLC specific studies and in the 2 basket studies, which provided data on the NSCLC subpopulation, were compared to that seen in the Valley Hospital retrospective study supporting a broader effect of RASi on anti-PD-1/L1 efficacy in advanced NSLCLC with the majority of studies showing statistically significant benefit or strong statistical trends but with one study demonstrating worsened outcomes. This comparison of studies extends published findings to the community hospital setting and supports prospective assessment through randomized clinical trials of efficacy in NSCLC patients with pharmacodynamic components to determine the effect on immune cell activity in tumors and on the composition of the tumor microenvironment.

Keywords: immunotherapy, cancer, angiotensin, efficacy, PD-1, lung cancer, NSCLC

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Umamaheswari Shanmugam, Silvia Ronchi, Radu Vornicu

Abstract:

Software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning can improve healthcare through innovative and advanced technologies that are able to use the large amount and variety of data generated during healthcare services every day. As we read the news, over 500 machine learning or other artificial intelligence medical devices have now received FDA clearance or approval, the first ones even preceding the year 2000. One of the big advantages of these new technologies is the ability to get experience and knowledge from real-world use and to continuously improve their performance. Healthcare systems and institutions can have a great benefit because the use of advanced technologies improves the same time efficiency and efficacy of healthcare. Software-defined as a medical device, is stand-alone software that is intended to be used for patients for one or more of these specific medical intended uses: - diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, prediction, prognosis, treatment or alleviation of a disease, any other health conditions, replacing or modifying any part of a physiological or pathological process–manage the received information from in vitro specimens derived from the human samples (body) and without principal main action of its principal intended use by pharmacological, immunological or metabolic definition. Software qualified as medical devices must comply with the general safety and performance requirements applicable to medical devices. These requirements are necessary to ensure high performance and quality and also to protect patients’ safety. The evolution and the continuous improvement of software used in healthcare must take into consideration the increase in regulatory requirements, which are becoming more complex in each market. The gap between these advanced technologies and the new regulations is the biggest challenge for medical device manufacturers. Regulatory requirements can be considered a market barrier, as they can delay or obstacle the device approval, but they are necessary to ensure performance, quality, and safety, and at the same time, they can be a business opportunity if the manufacturer is able to define in advance the appropriate regulatory strategy. The abstract will provide an overview of the current regulatory framework, the evolution of the international requirements, and the standards applicable to medical device software in the potential market all over the world.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, SaMD, regulatory, clinical evaluation, classification, international requirements, MDR, 510k, PMA, IMDRF, cyber security, health care systems.

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Kathy Gibbs

Abstract:

There is a paucity of research in Australia about educators’ use of differentiated instruction (DI) to support the learning of students with ADHD. This study reports on small-scale, qualitative research using interviews with teachers and school leaders to identify how they use DI as an effective teaching instruction for students with ADHD. Findings showed that teachers and school leaders have a good understanding of ADHD; teachers use DI as an effective teaching practice to enhance learning for this student group and ensure the classroom environment is safe and secure. However, they do not adjust assessments for students with ADHD. School leaders are not clear on how teachers differentiate assessments or adapt to the classroom environment. These results highlight the need for further research at the teacher and teacher-educator level teachers to ensure teaching practices are effective in reducing unwanted behaviours that prevent students with ADHD from achieving their full academic potential.

Keywords: teachers, differentiated instruction, ADHD, student learning, educators knowledge

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Claudia Mertens, Amanda Shufflebarger

Abstract:

Step one: What we know about effective learning for pupils with SEN: results of 2 systematic reviews: Before establishing principles and practices for teaching and learning of pupils with SEN, we need a good overview of the results of empirical studies conducted in the respective field. Therefore, two systematic reviews on the use of digital tools in inclusive and non-inclusive school settings were conducted - taking into consideration studies published in German: One systematic review included studies having undergone a peer review process, and the second included studies without peer review). The results (collaboration of two German universities) will be presented during the conference. Step two: Students’ results of a research lab on “inclusive media education”: On this basis, German students worked on “inclusive media education” in small research projects (duration: 1 year). They were “education majors” enrolled in a course on inclusive media education. They conducted research projects on topics ranging from smartboards in inclusive settings, digital media in gifted math education, Tik Tok in German as a Foreign Language education and many more. As part of their course, the German students created an academic conference poster. In the conference, the results of these research projects/papers are put into the context of the results of the systematic reviews. Step three: Global Classroom: The German students’ posters were critically discussed in a global classroom in cooperation with Indiana University East (USA) and Hamburg University (Germany) in the winter/spring term of 2022/2023. 15 students in Germany collaborated with 15 students at Indiana University East. The IU East student participants were enrolled in “Writing in the Arts and Sciences,” which is specifically designed for pre-service teachers. The joint work began at the beginning of the Spring 2023 semester in January 2023 and continued until the end of the Uni Hamburg semester in February 2023. Before January, Uni Hamburg students had been working on a research project individually or in pairs. Didactic Approach: Both groups of students posted a brief video or audio introduction to a shared Canvas discussion page. In the joint long synchronous session, the students discussed key content terms such as inclusion, inclusive, diversity, etc., with the help of prompt cards, and they compared how they understood or applied these terms differently. Uni Hamburg students presented drafts of academic posters. IU East students gave them specific feedback. After that, IU East students wrote brief reflections summarizing what they learned from the poster. After the class, small groups were expected to create a voice recording reflecting on their experiences. In their recordings, they examined critical incidents, highlighting what they learned from these incidents. Major results of the student research and of the global classroom collaboration can be highlighted during the conference. Results: The aggregated results of the two systematic reviews AND of the research lab/global classroom can now be a sound basis for 1) improving accessibility for students with SEN and 2) for adjusting teaching materials and concepts to the needs of the students with SEN - in order to create successful learning.

Keywords: digitalization, inclusion, inclusive media education, global classroom, systematic review

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Adil Ishag

Abstract:

Diglossia emerges in a situation where two distinctive varieties of a language are used alongside within a certain community. In this case, one is considered as a high or standard variety and the second one as a low or colloquial variety. Arabic is an extreme example of a highly diglossic language. This diglossity is due to the fact that Arabic is one of the most spoken languages and spread over 22 Countries in two continents as a mother tongue, and it is also widely spoken in many other Islamic countries as a second language or simply the language of Quran. The geographical variation between the countries where the language is spoken and the duality of the classical Arabic and daily spoken dialects in the Arab world on the other hand; makes the Arabic language one of the most diglossic languages. This paper tries to investigate this phenomena and its relation to learning Arabic as a first and second language.

Keywords: Arabic language, diglossia, first and second language, language learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 557

Authors: Valeria Tatano, Francesca Guidolin, Francesca Peltrera

Abstract:

The preservation of historical Italian heritage, at the urban and architectural scale, has to consider restrictions and requirements connected with conservation issues and usability needs, which are often at odds with historical heritage preservation. Recent decades have been marked by the search for increased accessibility not only of public and private buildings, but to the whole historical city, also for people with disability. Moreover, in the last years the concepts of Smart City and Healthy City seek to improve accessibility both in terms of mobility (independent or assisted) and fruition of goods and services, also for historical cities. The principles of Inclusive Design have introduced new criteria for the improvement of public urban space, between current regulations and best practices. Moreover, they have contributed to transforming “special needs” into an opportunity of social innovation. These considerations find a field of research and analysis in the historical city of Venice, which is at the same time a site of UNESCO world heritage, a mass tourism destination bringing in visitors from all over the world and a city inhabited by an aging population. Due to its conformation, Venetian urban fabric is only partially accessible: about four thousand bridges divide thousands of islands, making it almost impossible to move independently. These urban characteristics and difficulties were the base, in the last 20 years, for several researches, experimentations and solutions with the aim of eliminating architectural barriers, in particular for the usability of bridges. The Venetian Municipality with the EBA Office and some external consultants realized several devices (e.g. the “stepped ramp” and the new accessible ramps for the Venice Marathon) that should determine an innovation for the city, passing from the use of mechanical replicable devices to specific architectural projects in order to guarantee autonomy in use. This paper intends to present the state-of-the-art in bridges accessibility, through an analysis based on Inclusive Design principles and on the current national and regional regulation. The purpose is to evaluate some possible strategies that could improve performances, between limits and possibilities of interventions. The aim of the research is to lay the foundations for the development of a strategic program for the City of Venice that could successfully bring together both conservation and improvement requirements.

Keywords: accessibility of historical cities, historical heritage preservation, inclusive design, technological and social innovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 275

Authors: Andrea Ando

Abstract:

The development of the blockchain has been a major innovation in the technology field. It opened the door to the creation of novel cyberassets and currencies. In more recent times, the non-fungible tokens have started to be at the centre of media attention. Their popularity has been increasing since 2021, and they represent the latest in the world of distributed ledger technologies and cryptocurrencies. It seems more and more likely that NFTs will play a more important role in our online interactions. They are indeed increasingly taking part in the arts and technology sectors. Their impact on society and the market is still very difficult to define, but it is very likely that there will be a turning point in the world of digital assets. There are some examples of their peculiar behaviour and effect in our contemporary tech-market: the former CEO of the famous social media site Twitter sold an NFT of his first tweet for around £2,1 million ($2,5 million), or the National Basketball Association has created a platform to sale unique moment and memorabilia from the history of basketball through the non-fungible token technology. Their growth, as imaginable, paved the way for civil disputes, mostly regarding their position under the current intellectual property law in each jurisdiction. In April 2022, the High Court of England and Wales ruled in the OpenSea case that non-fungible tokens can be considered properties. The judge, indeed, concluded that the cryptoasset had all the indicia of property under common law (National Provincial Bank v. Ainsworth). The research has demonstrated that the ruling of the High Court is not providing enough answers to the dilemma of whether minting an NFT is a violation or not of intellectual property and/or property rights. Indeed, if, on the one hand, the technology follows the framework set by the case law (e.g., the 4 criteria of Ainsworth), on the other hand, the question that arises is what is effectively protected and owned by both the creator and the purchaser. Then the question that arises is whether a person has ownership of the cryptographed code, that it is indeed definable, identifiable, intangible, distinct, and has a degree of permanence, or what is attached to this block-chain, hence even a physical object or piece of art. Indeed, a simple code would not have any financial importance if it were not attached to something that is widely recognised as valuable. This was demonstrated first through the analysis of the expectations of intellectual property law. Then, after having laid the foundation, the paper examined the OpenSea case, and finally, it analysed whether the expectations were met or not.

Keywords: technology, technology law, digital law, cryptoassets, NFTs, NFT, property law, intellectual property law, copyright law

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Isao Tomita

Abstract:

The detection of environmental gases, 12CO_2, 13CO_2, and CH_4, using near-infrared semiconductor lasers with a short laser path length is studied by means of wavelength-modulation spectroscopy. The developed system is compact and has high sensitivity enough to detect the absorption peaks of isotopic 13CO_2 of a 3-% CO_2 gas at 2 um with a path length of 2.4 m, where its peak size is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the ordinary 12CO_2 peaks. In addition, the detection of 12CO_2 peaks of a 385-ppm (0.0385-%) CO_2 gas in the air is made at 2 um with a path length of 1.4 m. Furthermore, in pursuing the detection of an ancient environmental CH_4 gas confined to a bubble in ice at the polar regions, measurements of the absorption spectrum for a trace gas of CH_4 in a small area are attempted. For a 100-% CH_4 gas trapped in a 1 mm^3 glass container, the absorption peaks of CH_4 are obtained at 1.65 um with a path length of 3 mm, and also the gas pressure is extrapolated from the measured data.

Keywords: environmental gases, Near-Infrared Laser Detection, Wavelength-Modulation Spectroscopy, gas pressure

Procedia PDF Downloads 416

Authors: Avinash Kharel

Abstract:

Recreational soccer (RS) as a medium of small-sided soccer game (SSG) has an immense positive effect on physical health, mental health and wellbeing. The RS has reflected both acute responses and long-term effects of training on sedentary, trained and clinical population on any age, gender or health status. The enjoyable mode of training elicits greater adherence by optimising intrinsic motivation while offering health benefits that match those achieved by treadmill and cycle ergometer programmes both as continuous and interval forms of training. Additionally, recreational soccer is effective and efficient regimens with highlighted social, motivational and competitive components overcoming the barriers such as cost-efficiency, time-efficiency, assess to facilities and intrinsic motivation. Further, it can be applied as an effective broad-spectrum non-pharmacological treatment of lifestyle diseases producing a positive physiological response in healthy subjects, patients and elderly people regardless of age, gender or training experience.

Keywords: recreational soccer, health benefits, diseases prevention, physiology

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: D. K. Maurya, S. M. Saini

Abstract:

We investigate theoretically the electronic and optical properties of YNi₄Si-type HoNi₄Si compound from first principle calculations. Calculations are performed using full-potential augmented plane wave (FPLAPW) method in the frame work of density functional theory (DFT). The Coulomb corrected local-spin density approximation (LSDA+U) in the self-interaction correction (SIC) has been used for exchange-correlation potential. Analysis of the calculated band structure of HoNi₄Si compound demonstrates their metallic character. We found Ni-3d states mainly contribute to density of states from -5.0 eV to the Fermi level while the Ho-f states peak stands tall in comparison to the small contributions made by the Ni-d and Ho-d states above Fermi level, which is consistent with experiment, in HoNi4Si compound. Our calculated optical conductivity compares well with the experimental data and the results are analyzed in the light of band to band transitions.

Keywords: electronic properties, density of states, optical properties, LSDA+U approximation, YNi₄Si-type HoNi4Si compound

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Flavio Araujo, Julio Lima, Paulo Scalize, Antonio Albuquerque, Isabela Santos

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to perform the physicochemical characterizations of the residue generated in the Meia-Ponte Water Treatment Plant, seeking to obtain normative parameters and consider sustainable alternatives for reincorporation of the residues in the productive chain for manufacturing various materials construction. In order to reduce the environmental liabilities generated by sanitation companies and discontinue unsustainable forms of disposal as the launching of the residue in the rivers, disposal in landfills or burning it, because such ways pollute watercourses, ground and air. The analyzes performed: Granulometry, identification of clay minerals, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and X-Ray Diffraction demonstrated the potential application of residues to replace the soil and sand, because it has characteristics compatible with small aggregate and can be used as feedstock for the manufacture of materials as ceramic and soil-cement bricks, mortars, interlocking floors and concrete artifacts.

Keywords: recovery of waste, residue, sustainable, water treatment plant, WTR

Procedia PDF Downloads 534