Search results for: legal judgment prediction

Authors: Temmuz Gönç Şavran

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Migration is a multidimensional and health-related concept that has important consequences for both migrants and the host society. Due to past conflicts and poor living conditions that lead to migration, the dangerous and difficult journey, and the problems they face upon arrival in the destination country, migrants are at higher risk for poor health. Health is a human right, and all societies and communities, including migrant groups, must receive adequate health care. In addition, the health of migrants must be improved to protect the health of the host society and ensure social integration. The main determinants of health are employment, income, education, good housing, and adequate nutrition. It can be said that migrants are among the most vulnerable groups in society in these respects, and migrant health is negatively affected by this situation. Rigid immigration policies or financial constraints in destination countries, the complexity and bureaucracy of health systems, the low health literacy of migrant groups, and the inadequate provision of translation services in health facilities are among the other main factors affecting migrant health. Migrants are also at risk of stigma, exclusion, detection, and deportation when seeking medical care. Based on data from a qualitative study with a descriptive case study design, this paper aims to highlight and sociologically assess the health-related problems of international migrants in Eskisehir, Turkey. The sample consists of 30 international migrants living in Eskisehir, two-thirds of whom are from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Those who are citizens of the Republic of Turkey are excluded from the study; otherwise, the legal status of the participants is not considered in the selection of the sample. This makes it possible to distinguish the different needs and problems of subgroups and to consider migrant health as a comprehensive concept. The research is supported by Anadolu University in Eskisehir, and data will be collected through semi-structured interviews between November 2022 and February 2023. With holistic sociology of health approach, this study considers migrant health as a comprehensive sociological concept. It aims to reveal the health-related resources and needs of the international migrant groups living in the center of Eskisehir, the problems they encounter in meeting these needs, and the strategies they use to solve these problems. The results are expected to show that the health of migrants is not only influenced by legislation but is shaped by many processes, from housing conditions to cultural habits. It is expected that the results will also raise awareness of discrimination, exclusion, marginalization, and hate speech in migrants’ access to health services.

Keywords: migrant health, sociology of health, sociology of migration, Turkey, refugees

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Authors: El Khaddam Safaa, Soulaymani Abdelmajid, Mokhtari Abdelghani, Ouammi Lahcen, Rachida Soulaymani-Beincheikh

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The poisonings represent a problem of health in the world and Morocco, The exact dimensions of this phenomenon are still poorly recorded that we see the lack of exhaustive statistical data. The objective of this retrospective study of a series of cases of the poisonings declared at the level of the region of Tadla-Azilal and collected by the Moroccan Poison Control and Pharmacovigilance Center. An epidemiological profile of the poisonings was to raise, to determine the risk factors influencing the vital preview of the poisoned And to follow the evolution of the incidence, the lethality, and the mortality. During the period of study, we collected and analyzed 9303 cases of poisonings by different incriminated toxic products with the exception of the scorpion poisonings. These poisonings drove to 99 deaths. The epidemiological profile which we raised, showed that the poisoned were of any age with an average of 24.62±16.61 years, The sex-ratio (woman/man) was 1.36 in favor of the women. The difference between both sexes is highly significant (χ2 = 210.5; p<0,001). Most of the poisoned which declared to be of urban origin (60.5 %) (χ2=210.5; p<0,001). Carbon monoxide was the most incriminated among the cases of poisonings (24.15 %), them putting in head, followed by some pesticides and farm produces (21.44 %) and food (19.95 %). The analysis of the risk factors showed that the grown-up patients whose age is between 20 and 74 years have twice more risk of evolving towards the death (RR=1,57; IC95 % = 1,03-2,38) than the other age brackets, so the male genital organ was the most exposed (explained) to the death that the female genital organ (RR=1,59; IC95 % = 1,07-2,38) The patients of rural origin had presented 5 times more risk (RR=4,713; IC95 % = 2,543-8,742). Poisoned by the mineral products had presented the maximum of risk on the vital preview death (RR=23,19, IC95 % = 2,39-224,1). The poisonings by pesticides produce a risk of 9 (RR=9,31; IC95 % = 6,10-14,18). The incidence was 3,3 cases of 10000 inhabitants, and the mortality was 0,004 cases of 1000 inhabitants (that is 4 cases by 1000 000 inhabitants). The rate of lethality registered annually was 10.6 %. The evolution of the indicators of health according to the years showed that the rate of statement measured by the incidence increased by a significant way. We also noted an improvement in the coverage which (who) ended up with a decrease in the rate of the lethality and the mortality during last years. The fight anti-toxic is a work of length time. He asks for a lot of work various levels. It is necessary to attack the delay accumulated by our country on the various legal, institutional and technical aspects. The ideal solution is to develop and to set up a national strategy.

Keywords: epidemiology, poisoning, risk factors, indicators of health, Tadla-Azilal grated by anti-toxic fight

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Authors: Calvin Ralph, Edward Archer, Alistair McIlhagger

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3D woven textile composites continue to emerge as an advanced material for structural applications and composite manufacture due to their bespoke nature, through thickness reinforcement and near net shape capabilities. When 3D woven preforms are produced, they are in their optimal physical state. As 3D weaving is a dry preforming technology it relies on compression of the preform to achieve the desired composite thickness, fibre volume fraction (Vf) and consolidation. This compression of the preform during manufacture results in changes to its thickness and architecture which can often lead to under-performance or changes of the 3D woven composite. Unlike traditional 2D fabrics, the bespoke nature and variability of 3D woven architectures makes it difficult to know exactly how each 3D preform will behave during processing. Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate the effect of compression on differing 3D woven architectures in terms of structure, crimp or fibre waviness and thickness as well as analysing the accuracy of available software to predict how 3D woven preforms behave under compression. To achieve this, 3D preforms are modelled and compression simulated in Wisetex with varying architectures of binder style, pick density, thickness and tow size. These architectures have then been woven with samples dry compression tested to determine the compressibility of the preforms under various pressures. Additional preform samples were manufactured using Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) with varying compressive force. Composite samples were cross sectioned, polished and analysed using microscopy to investigate changes in architecture and crimp. Data from dry fabric compression and composite samples were then compared alongside the Wisetex models to determine accuracy of the prediction and identify architecture parameters that can affect the preform compressibility and stability. Results indicate that binder style/pick density, tow size and thickness have a significant effect on compressibility of 3D woven preforms with lower pick density allowing for greater compression and distortion of the architecture. It was further highlighted that binder style combined with pressure had a significant effect on changes to preform architecture where orthogonal binders experienced highest level of deformation, but highest overall stability, with compression while layer to layer indicated a reduction in fibre crimp of the binder. In general, simulations showed a relative comparison to experimental results; however, deviation is evident due to assumptions present within the modelled results.

Keywords: 3D woven composites, compression, preforms, textile composites

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Authors: Isabel Brás, Artur Figueirinha, Bruno Esteves, Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes

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The agriculture lignocellulosic by-products are receiving increased attention, namely in the search for filter materials that retain contaminants from water. These by-products, specifically almond and hazelnut shells are abundant in Portugal once almond and hazelnuts production is a local important activity. Hazelnut and almond shells have as main constituents lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, water soluble extractives and tannins. Along the adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated waters, water soluble compounds can leach from shells and have a negative impact in the environment. Usually, the chemical characterization of treated water by itself may not show environmental impact caused by the discharges when parameters obey to legal quality standards for water. Only biological systems can detect the toxic effects of the water constituents. Therefore, the evaluation of toxicity by biological tests is very important when deciding the suitability for safe water discharge or for irrigation applications. The main purpose of the present work was to assess the potential impacts of waters after been treated for heavy metal removal by hazelnut and almond shells adsorption systems, with short term acute toxicity tests. To conduct the study, water at pH 6 with 25 mg.L-1 of lead, was treated with 10 g of shell per litre of wastewater, for 24 hours. This procedure was followed for each bark. Afterwards the water was collected for toxicological assays; namely bacterial resistance, seed germination, Lemna minor L. test and plant grow. The effect in isolated bacteria strains was determined by disc diffusion method and the germination index of seed was evaluated using lettuce, with temperature and humidity germination control for 7 days. For aquatic higher organism, Lemnas were used with 4 days contact time with shell solutions, in controlled light and temperature. For terrestrial higher plants, biomass production was evaluated after 14 days of tomato germination had occurred in soil, with controlled humidity, light and temperature. Toxicity tests of water treated with shells revealed in some extent effects in the tested organisms, with the test assays showing a close behaviour as the control, leading to the conclusion that its further utilization may not be considered to create a serious risk to the environment.

Keywords: lignocellulosic wastes, adsorption, acute toxicity tests, risk assessment

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Authors: Hernando Santamaría-García, Sandra Báez, Pablo Reyes, José Santamaría-García, Diana Matallana, Adolfo García, Agustín Ibañez

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The study of moral emotions (i.e., Schadenfreude and envy) is critical to understand the ecological complexity of everyday interactions between cognitive, affective, and social cognition processes. Most previous studies in this area have used correlational imaging techniques and framed Schadenfreude and envy as monolithic domains. Here, we profit from a relevant neurodegeneration model to disentangle the brain regions engaged in three dimensions of Schadenfreude and envy: deservingness, morality, and legality. We tested 20 patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), 24 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as a contrastive neurodegeneration model, and 20 healthy controls on a novel task highlighting each of these dimensions in scenarios eliciting Schadenfreude and envy. Compared with the AD and control groups, bvFTD patients obtained significantly higher scores on all dimensions for both emotions. Interestingly, the legal dimension for both envy and Schadenfreude elicited higher emotional scores than the deservingness and moral dimensions. Furthermore, correlational analyses in bvFTD showed that higher envy and Schadenfreude scores were associated with greater deficits in social cognition, inhibitory control, and behavior. Brain anatomy findings (restricted to bvFTD and controls) confirmed differences in how these groups process each dimension. Schadenfreude was associated with the ventral striatum in all subjects. Also, in bvFTD patients, increased Schadenfreude across dimensions was negatively correlated with regions supporting social-value rewards, mentalizing, and social cognition (frontal pole, temporal pole, angular gyrus and precuneus). In all subjects, all dimensions of envy positively correlated with the volume of the anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved in processing unfair social comparisons. By contrast, in bvFTD patients, the intensified experience of envy across all dimensions was negatively correlated with a set of areas subserving social cognition, including the prefrontal cortex, the parahippocampus, and the amygdala. Together, the present results provide the first lesion-based evidence for the multidimensional nature of the emotional experiences of envy and Schadenfreude. Moreover, this is the first demonstration of a selective exacerbation of envy and Schadenfreude in bvFTD patients, probably triggered by atrophy to social cognition networks. Our results offer new insights into the mechanisms subserving complex emotions and moral cognition in neurodegeneration, paving the way for groundbreaking research on their interaction with other cognitive, social, and emotional processes.

Keywords: social cognition, moral emotions, neuroimaging, frontotemporal dementia

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Authors: Uyanga Jadamba

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Globalisation of the world economy has necessitated the development and implementation of a comparable and understandable reporting language suitable for use by all reporting entities. The International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) provides an international reporting language that lets all users understand the financial information of their business and potentially allows them to have access to finance at an international level. The study is based on logistic regression analysis to investigate the factors for the adoption of theInternational Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs). The study started with a list of 217 countries from World Bank data. Due to the lack of availability of data, the final sample consisted of 136 countries, including 60 countries that have adopted the IFRS for SMEs and 76 countries that have not adopted it yet. As a result, the study included a period from 2010 to 2020 and obtained 1360 observations. The findings confirm that the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs is significantly related to the existence of national reporting standards, law enforcement quality, common law (legal system), and extent of disclosure. It means that the likelihood of adoption of the IFRS for SMEs decreases if the country already has a national reporting standard for SMEs, which suggests that implementation and transitional costs are relatively high in order to change the reporting standards. The result further suggests that the new standard adoption is easier in countries with constructive law enforcement and effective application of laws. The finding also shows that the adoption increases if countries have a common law system which suggests that efficient reportingregulations are more widespread in these countries. Countries with a high extent of disclosing their financial information are more likely to adopt the standard than others. The findings lastly show that the audit qualityand primary education levelhave no significant impact on the adoption.One possible explanation for this could be that accounting professionalsfrom in developing countries lacked complete knowledge of the international reporting standards even though there was a requirement to comply with them. The study contributes to the literature by providing factors that impact the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs. It helps policymakers to better understand and apply the standard to improve the transparency of financial statements. The benefit of adopting the IFRS for SMEs is significant due to the relaxed and tailored reporting requirements for SMEs, reduced burden on professionals to comply with the standard, and provided transparent financial information to gain access to finance.The results of the study are useful toemerging economies where SMEs are dominant in the economy in informing its evaluation of the adoption of the IFRS for SMEs.

Keywords: IFRS for SMEs, international financial reporting standard, adoption, institutional factors

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Authors: Abdullah Mohammadi

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Years of prolong war in Afghanistan has led to one of the largest refugee and migrant populations in the contemporary world. During this continuous unrest which began in 1970s (by military coup, Marxist revolution and the subsequent invasion of USSR), over one-third of the population migrated to neighboring countries, especially Pakistan and Iran. After the Soviet Army withdrawal in 1989, a new wave of conflicts emerged between rival Afghan groups and this led to new refugees. Taliban period, also, created its own refugees. During all these years, I.R. of Iran has been one of the main destinations of Afghan refugees and migrants. At first, due to the political situation after Islamic Revolution, Iran government didn’t restrict the entry of Afghan refugees. Those who came first in Iran received ID cards and had access to education and healthcare services. But in 1990s, due to economic and social concerns, Iran’s policy towards Afghan refugees and migrants changed. The government has tried to identify and register Afghans in Iran and limit their access to some services and jobs. Unfortunately, there are few studies on Afghan refugees and migrants’ situation in Iran and we have a dim and vague picture of them. Of the few studies done on this group, none of them focus on the illegal Afghan migrants’ situation in Iran. Here, we tried to study the social and economic aspects of illegal Afghan migrants’ living in Iran. In doing so, we interviewed 24 illegal Afghan migrants in Iran. The method applied for analyzing the data is thematic analysis. For the interviews, we chose family heads (17 men and 7 women). According to the findings, illegal Afghan migrants’ socio-economic situation in Iran is very undesirable. Its main cause is the marginalization of this group which is resulted from government policies towards Afghan migrants. Most of the illegal Afghan migrants work in unskilled and inferior jobs and live in rent houses on the margins of cities and villages. None of them could buy a house or vehicle due to law. Based on their income, they form one of the lowest, unprivileged groups in the society. Socially, they face many problems in their everyday life: social insecurity, harassment and violence, misuse of their situation by police and people, lack of education opportunity, etc. In general, we may conclude that illegal Afghan migrant have little adaptation with Iran’s society. They face severe limitations compared to legal migrants and refugees and have no opportunity for upward social mobility. However, they have managed some strategies to face these difficulties including: seeking financial and emotional helps from family and friendship networks, sending one of the family members to third country (mostly to European countries), establishing self-administered schools for children (schools which are illegal and run by Afghan educated youth).

Keywords: illegal Afghan migrants, marginalization, social insecurity, upward social mobility

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Authors: Obaidul Fattah Tanvir, Zinat Ara Afroze

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Community living adjacent to forests and Protected Areas, especially in South Asian countries, have a common practice in extracting resources for their living and livelihoods. This extraction of resources, because the way it is done, destroys the biophysical features of the area. Deforestation, wildlife poaching, illegal logging, unauthorized hill cutting etc. are some of the serious issues of concern for the sustainability of the natural resources that has a direct impact on environment and climate as a whole. To ensure community involvement in conservation initiatives of the state, community based forest management, commonly known as Comanagement, has been in practice in 6 South Asian countries. These are -India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Involving community in forestry management was initiated first in Bangladesh in 1979 and reached as an effective co-management approach through a several paradigm shifts. This idea of Comanagement has been institutionalized through a Government Order (GO) by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of Bangladesh on November 23, 2009. This GO clearly defines the structure and functions of Co-management and its different bodies. Bangladesh Forest Department has been working in association with community to conserve and manage the Forests and Protected areas of Bangladesh following this legal document. Demographically young people constitute the largest segment of population in Bangladesh. This group, if properly sensitized, can produce valuable impacts on the conservation initiatives, both by community and government. This study traced the major factors that motivate community youths to work effectively with different tiers of comanagement organizations in conservation of forests and Protected Areas of Bangladesh. For the purpose of this study, 3 FGDs were conducted with 30 youths from the community living around the Protected Areas of Cox’s bazar, South East corner of Bangladesh, who are actively involved in Co-management organizations. KII were conducted with 5 key officials of Forest Department stationed at Cox’s Bazar. 2 FGDs were conducted with the representatives of 7 Co-management organizations working in Cox’s Bazar region and approaches of different community outreach activities conducted for forest conservation by 3 private organizations and Projects have been reviewed. Also secondary literatures were reviewed for the history and evolution of Co-management in Bangladesh and six South Asian countries. This study found that innovative community outreach activities that are financed by public and private sectors involving youths and community as a whole have played a pivotal role in conservation of forests and Protected Areas of the region. This approach can be replicated in other regions of Bangladesh as well as other countries of South Asia where Co-Management exists in practice.

Keywords: community, co-management, conservation, forests, protected areas, youth

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Authors: R. Rajeswari

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An investigation was carried out to know the SOC stock and its change over time in benchmark soils of different agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu. Roth.C model was used to assess SOC stock under existing and alternate cropping pattern. Soil map prepared on 1:50,000 scale from Natural Resources Information System (NRIS) employed under satellite data (IRS-1C/1D-PAN sharpened LISS-III image) was used to estimate SOC stock in different agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu. Fifteen benchmark soils were selected in different agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu based on their land use and the areal extent to assess SOC level and its change overtime. This revealed that, between eleven years of period (1997 - 2007). SOC buildup was higher in soils under horticulture system, followed by soils under rice cultivation. Among different agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu hilly zone have the highest SOC stock, followed by north eastern, southern, western, cauvery delta, north western, and high rainfall zone. Although organic carbon content in the soils of North eastern, southern, western, North western, Cauvery delta were less than high rainfall zone, the SOC stock was high. SOC density was higher in high rainfall and hilly zone than other agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu. Among low rainfall regions of Tamil Nadu cauvery delta zone recorded higher SOC density. Roth.C model was used to assess SOC stock under existing and alternate cropping pattern in viz., Periyanaickenpalayam series (western zone), Peelamedu series (southern zone), Vallam series (north eastern zone), Vannappatti series (north western zone) and Padugai series (cauvery delta zone). Padugai series recorded higher TOC, BIO, and HUM, followed by Periyanaickenpalayam series, Peelamedu series, Vallam series, and Vannappatti series. Vannappatti and Padugai series develop high TOC, BIO, and HUM under existing cropping pattern. Periyanaickenpalayam, Peelamedu, and Vallam series develop high TOC, BIO, and HUM under alternate cropping pattern. Among five selected soil series, Periyanaickenpalayam, Peelamedu, and Padugai series recorded 0.75 per cent TOC during 2025 and 2018, 2100 and 2035, 2013 and 2014 under existing and alternate cropping pattern, respectively.

Keywords: agro climatic zones, benchmark soil, land use, soil organic carbon

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Authors: Alexander Chinyere Nwankpa, Nneka Ngozi Nwankpa

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In Nigeria, the Federal government is trying to make sure that everyone has access to enough food that is nutritiously adequate and safe. But in the southwest of Nigeria, notably in Ondo State, the most valuable minerals such as oil and gas, bitumen, kaolin, limestone talc, columbite, tin, gold, coal, and phosphate are abundant. Therefore, some regions of Ondo State are now linked to large quantities of natural radioactivity as a result of the mineral presence. In this work, the baseline radioactivity levels in some of the most important food crops in Ondo State were analyzed, allowing for the prediction of probable radiological health impacts. To this effect, maize (Zea mays), yam (Dioscorea alata) and cassava (Manihot esculenta) tubers were collected from the farmlands in the State because they make up the majority of food's nutritional needs. Ondo State was divided into eight zones in order to provide comprehensive coverage of the research region. At room temperature, the maize (Zea mays), yam (Dioscorea alata), and cassava (Manihot esculenta) samples were dried until they reached a consistent weight. They were pulverized, homogenized, and 250 g packed in a 1-liter Marinelli beaker and kept for 28 days to achieve secular equilibrium. The activity concentrations of Radium-226 (Ra-226), Thorium-232 (Th-232), and Potassium-40 (K-40) were determined in the food samples using Gamma-ray spectrometry. Firstly, the Hyper Pure Germanium detector was calibrated using standard radioactive sources. The gamma counting, which lasted for 36000s for each sample, was carried out in the Centre for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The mean activity concentration of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 for yam were 1.91 ± 0.10 Bq/kg, 2.34 ± 0.21 Bq/kg and 48.84 ± 3.14 Bq/kg, respectively. The content of the radionuclides in maize gave a mean value of 2.83 ± 0.21 Bq/kg for Ra-226, 2.19 ± 0.07 Bq/kg for Th-232 and 41.11 ± 2.16 Bq/kg for K-40. The mean activity concentrations in cassava were 2.52 ± 0.31 Bq/kg for Ra-226, 1.94 ± 0.21 Bq/kg for Th-232 and 45.12 ± 3.31 Bq/kg for K-40. The average committed effective doses in zones 6-8 were 0.55 µSv/y for the consumption of yam, 0.39 µSv/y for maize, and 0.49 µSv/y for cassava. These values are higher than the annual dose guideline of 0.35 µSv/y for the general public. Therefore, the values obtained in this work show that there is radiological contamination of some foodstuffs consumed in some parts of Ondo State. However, we recommend that systematic and appropriate methods also need to be established for the measurement of gamma-emitting radionuclides since these constitute important contributors to the internal exposure of man through ingestion, inhalation, or wound on the body.

Keywords: contamination, environment, radioactivity, radionuclides

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Authors: Carolina S. Monteiro, Eugénia Pinto, Miguel A. Faria, Sara C. Cunha

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Rice (Oryza sativa) production plays a vital role in reducing hunger and poverty and assumes particular importance in low-income and developing countries. Rice is a sensitive plant, and production occurs strictly where suitable temperature and water conditions are found. Climatic changes are likely to affect worldwide, and some models have predicted increased temperatures, variations in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and modification in precipitation patterns. Therefore, the ongoing climatic changes threaten rice production by increasing biotic and abiotic stress factors, and crops will grow in different environmental conditions in the following years. Around the world, the effects will be regional and can be detrimental or advantageous depending on the region. Mediterranean zones have been identified as possible hot spots, where dramatic temperature changes, modifications of CO₂ levels, and rainfall patterns are predicted. The actual estimated atmospheric CO₂ concentration is around 400 ppm, and it is predicted that it can reach up to 1000–1200 ppm, which can lead to a temperature increase of 2–4 °C. Alongside, rainfall patterns are also expected to change, with more extreme wet/dry episodes taking place. As a result, it could increase the migration of pathogens, and a shift in the occurrence of mycotoxins, concerning their types and concentrations, is expected. Mycotoxigenic spoilage fungi can colonize the crops and be present in all rice food chain supplies, especially Penicillium species, mainly resulting in ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination. In this scenario, the objectives of the present study are evaluating the effect of temperature (20 vs. 25 °C), CO₂ (400 vs. 1000 ppm), and water stress (0.93 vs 0.95 water activity) on growth and OTA production by a Penicillium nordicum strain in vitro on rice-based media and when colonizing layers of raw rice. Results demonstrate the effect of temperature, CO₂ and drought on the OTA production in a rice-based environment, thus contributing to the development of mycotoxins predictive models in climate change scenarios. As a result, improving mycotoxins' surveillance and monitoring systems, whose occurrence can be more frequent due to climatic changes, seems relevant and necessary. The development of prediction models for hazard contaminants presents in foods highly sensitive to climatic changes, such as mycotoxins, in the highly probable new agricultural scenarios is of paramount importance.

Keywords: climate changes, ochratoxin A, penicillium, rice

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Authors: Jithin S. Kumar, Ramesh Kannan Kandasami

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Geomaterials are generally porous in nature due to the presence of discrete particles and interconnected voids. The porosity present in these geomaterials play a critical role in many engineering applications such as CO2 sequestration, well bore strengthening, enhanced oil and hydrocarbon recovery, hydraulic fracturing, and subsurface waste storage. These applications involves solid-fluid interactions, which govern the changes in the porosity which in turn affect the permeability and stiffness of the medium. Injecting fluid into the geomaterials results in permeation which exhibits small or negligible deformation of the soil skeleton followed by cavity expansion/ fingering/ fracturing (different forms of instabilities) due to the large deformation especially when the flow rate is greater than the ability of the medium to permeate the fluid. The complexity of this problem increases as the geomaterial behaves like a solid and fluid under certain conditions. Thus it is important to understand this multiphysics problem where in addition to the permeation, the elastic-plastic deformation of the soil skeleton plays a vital role during fluid injection. The phenomenon of permeation and cavity expansion in porous medium has been studied independently through extensive experimental and analytical/ numerical models. The analytical models generally use Darcy's/ diffusion equations to capture the fluid flow during permeation while elastic-plastic (Mohr-Coulomb and Modified Cam-Clay) models were used to predict the solid deformations. Hitherto, the research generally focused on modelling cavity expansion without considering the effect of injected fluid coming into the medium. Very few studies have considered the effect of injected fluid on the deformation of soil skeleton. However, the porosity changes during the fluid injection and coupled elastic-plastic deformation are not clearly understood. In this study, the phenomenon of permeation and instabilities such as cavity and finger/ fracture formation will be quantified extensively by performing experiments using a novel experimental setup in addition to utilizing image processing techniques. This experimental study will describe the fluid flow and soil deformation characteristics under different boundary conditions. Further, a well refined coupled semi-analytical model will be developed to capture the physics involved in quantifying the deformation behaviour of geomaterial during fluid injection.

Keywords: solid-fluid interaction, permeation, poroelasticity, plasticity, continuum model

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Authors: Kongmeng Ly

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The management of transboundary river basins across developing countries, such as the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB), is frequently challenging given the development and conservation divergences of the basin countries. Driven by needs to sustain economic performance and reduce poverty, the LMB countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam) are embarking on significant land use changes in the form hydropower dam, to fulfill their energy requirements. This pathway could lead to irreversible changes to the ecosystem of the Mekong River, if not properly managed. Given the uncertain trade-offs of hydropower development and operation, the Lower Mekong River Basin Countries through the technical support of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat embarked on decade long the development of Technical Guidelines for Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment. Through a series of workshops, seminars, national and regional consultations, and pilot studies and further development following the recommendations generated through legal and institutional reviews undertaken over two decades period, the LMB Countries jointly adopted the MRC Technical Guidelines for Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (TbEIA Guidelines). These guidelines were developed with particular regard to the experience gained from MRC supported consultations and technical reviews of the Xayaburi Dam Project, Don Sahong Hydropower Project, Pak Beng Hydropower Project, and lessons learned from the Srepok River and Se San River case studies commissioned by the MRC under the generous supports of development partners around the globe. As adopted, the TbEIA Guidelines have been designed as a supporting mechanism to the national EIA legislation, processes and systems in each Member Country. In recognition of the already agreed mechanisms, the TbEIA Guidelines build on and supplement the agreements stipulated in the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin and its Procedural Rules, in addressing potential transboundary environmental impacts of development projects and ensuring mutual benefits from the Mekong River and its resources. Since its adoption in 2022, the TbEIA Guidelines have already been voluntary implemented by Lao PDR on its underdevelopment Sekong A Downstream Hydropower Project, located on the Sekong River – a major tributary of the Mekong River. While this implementation is ongoing with results expected in early 2024, the implementation thus far has strengthened cooperation among concerned Member Countries with multiple successful open dialogues organized at national and regional levels. It is hope that lessons learnt from this application would lead to a wider application of the TbEIA Guidelines for future water resources development projects in the LMB.

Keywords: transboundary, EIA, lower mekong river basin, mekong river

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Authors: Mubarack Ahmed, Gabriele Gradoni, Stephen C. Creagh, Gregor Tanner

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High-frequency cables commonly connect modern devices and sensors. Interestingly, the proportion of electric components is rising fast in an attempt to achieve lighter and greener devices. Modelling the propagation of signals through these cable networks in the presence of parameter uncertainty is a daunting task. In this work, we study the response of high-frequency cable networks using both Transmission Line and Quantum Graph (QG) theories. We have successfully compared the two theories in terms of reflection spectra using measurements on real, lossy cables. We have derived a generalisation of the vertex scattering matrix to include non-uniform networks – networks of cables with different characteristic impedances and propagation constants. The QG model implicitly takes into account the pseudo-chaotic behavior, at the vertices, of the propagating electric signal. We have successfully compared the asymptotic growth of eigenvalues of the Laplacian with the predictions of Weyl law. We investigate the nearest-neighbour level-spacing distribution of the resonances and compare our results with the predictions of Random Matrix Theory (RMT). To achieve this, we will compare our graphs with the generalisation of Wigner distribution for open systems. The problem of scattering from networks of cables can also provide an analogue model for wireless communication in highly reverberant environments. In this context, we provide a preliminary analysis of the statistics of communication capacity for communication across cable networks, whose eventual aim is to enable detailed laboratory testing of information transfer rates using software defined radio. We specialise this analysis in particular for the case of MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) protocols. We have successfully validated our QG model with both TL model and laboratory measurements. The growth of Eigenvalues compares well with Weyl’s law and the level-spacing distribution agrees so well RMT predictions. The results we achieved in the MIMO application compares favourably with the prediction of a parallel on-going research (sponsored by NEMF21.)

Keywords: eigenvalues, multiple-input multiple-output, quantum graph, random matrix theory, transmission line

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Authors: Agnieszka A. Malinowska, R. Hejmanowski

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A number of European cities are strongly affected by ground movements caused by anthropogenic activities or post-anthropogenic metamorphosis. Those are mainly water pumping, current mining operation, the collapse of post-mining underground voids or mining-induced earthquakes. These activities lead to large and small-scale ground displacements and a ground ruptures. The ground movements occurring in urban areas could considerably affect stability and safety of structures and infrastructures. The complexity of the ground deformation phenomenon in relation to the structures and infrastructures vulnerability leads to considerable constraints in assessing the threat of those objects. However, the increase of access to the free software and satellite data could pave the way for developing new methods and strategies for environmental risk mitigation and management. Open source geographical information systems (OS GIS), may support data integration, management, and risk analysis. Lately, developed methods based on fuzzy logic and experts methods for buildings and infrastructure damage risk assessment could be integrated into OS GIS. Those methods were verified base on back analysis proving their accuracy. Moreover, those methods could be supported by ground displacement observation. Based on freely available data from European Space Agency and free software, ground deformation could be estimated. The main innovation presented in the paper is the application of open source software (OS GIS) for integration developed models and assessment of the threat of urban areas. Those approaches will be reinforced by analysis of ground movement based on free satellite data. Those data would support the verification of ground movement prediction models. Moreover, satellite data will enable our mapping of ground deformation in urbanized areas. Developed models and methods have been implemented in one of the urban areas hazarded by underground mining activity. Vulnerability maps supported by satellite ground movement observation would mitigate the hazards of land displacements in urban areas close to mines.

Keywords: fuzzy logic, open source geographic information science (OS GIS), risk assessment on urbanized areas, satellite interferometry (InSAR)

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Authors: Ana Campina, José Caramelo Gomes, Maria Emília Teixeira, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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In the pursuit of educational equity within Human Rights and European Fundamental Laws, the reality presents serious problems based on the psychologic, social understanding. Take into account the miscellaneous cultures in the global context and the nowadays numbers of Human mobilities, there are serious problems affecting the societies. This justifies the diagnosed need of a renew pedagogical and social education strategy to achieve the integration positive context preventing violence and discrimination, especially in Education systems. Consequently, it is important to have in mind the respect, acceptance, and integration of special needs students in all study degrees, as it is law but a complex reality. Despite the UN and International Human Rights, European Fundamental Chart, and all EU Treats, as the 28th EU State Member’s fundamental laws forecast the right of Education, the respect, the action and promotion of different cultures and the Education for ‘Difference’ integration – cultures; ideologies, Special Needs Students/Citizens – there are different and severe problems. Firstly, there are questions/contexts/problems not denounced by the lack of investments, political, social or ‘powers’ pressures, so, consequently, the authorities don’t have the action as laws demand and the transgressors haven´t any juridical or judicial punishment. Secondly, and our most important point: Governments, authorities and even victims hide these violations/violence/problems what disable the effective protection and law enforcement. Finally, the official and non-official strategies to get around the duties, break away the laws, failing the victims protection and consequently enable the problems increase dramatically. With this research, we observed that there are international Organizations/regions and States acting without respect to the Education right despite their democratic ideology and the generated external ‘image’ of law-abiding and Human Rights defenders. Nevertheless, it is urgent to develop a consistent Human Rights Education program aiming to protect, promote and implement the Right to be different and be respected by the law, the governments, institutions official and non-official, adapted to the needs in each society. The background of this research is the International and European laws, in accordance with the state’s legal systems. The approaches and the differences of the Education for Human and Fundamental Rights execution in the different EU countries, studying the pedagogy and social inclusion programs/strategies, with particular analysis of the Special Needs students. The results aim to construct a European Education profiling, with the governments and EU interventions need, as well as the panorama of the Special Needs Students effective integration achieving a renewed strategy to promote the respect of the Differences and an Inclusive School life.

Keywords: international human rights, culture, differences, European education profiling

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Authors: Ivana Čavlina Tomašević, Višnjica Vučetić, Maja Telišman Prtenjak, Barbara Malečić

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The Split wildfire on the mid-Adriatic Coast in July 2017 is one of the most severe wildfires in Croatian history, given the size and unexpected fire behavior, and it is used in this research as a case study to run the Weather Research and Forecasting Spread Fire (WRF SFIRE) model. This coupled fire-atmosphere model was successfully run for the first time ever for one Croatian wildfire case. Verification of coupled simulations was possible by using the detailed reconstruction of the Split wildfire. Specifically, precise information on ignition time and location, together with mapped fire progressions and spotting within the first 30 hours of the wildfire, was used for both – to initialize simulations and to evaluate the model’s ability to simulate fire’s propagation and final fire scar. The preliminary simulations were obtained using high-resolution vegetation and topography data for the fire area, additionally interpolated to fire grid spacing at 33.3 m. The results demonstrated that the WRF SFIRE model has the ability to work with real data from Croatia and produce adequate results for forecasting fire spread. As the model in its setup has the ability to include and exclude the energy fluxes between the fire and the atmosphere, this was used to investigate possible fire-atmosphere interactions during the Split wildfire. Finally, successfully coupled simulations provided the first numerical evidence that a wildfire from the Adriatic coast region can modify the dynamical structure of the surrounding atmosphere, which agrees with observations from fire grounds. This study has demonstrated that the WRF SFIRE model has the potential for operational application in Croatia with more accurate fire predictions in the future, which could be accomplished by inserting the higher-resolution input data into the model without interpolation. Possible uses for fire management in Croatia include prediction of fire spread and intensity that may vary under changing weather conditions, available fuels and topography, planning effective and safe deployment of ground and aerial firefighting forces, preventing wildland-urban interface fires, effective planning of evacuation routes etc. In addition, the WRF SFIRE model results from this research demonstrated that the model is important for fire weather research and education purposes in order to better understand this hazardous phenomenon that occurs in Croatia.

Keywords: meteorology, agrometeorology, fire weather, wildfires, couple fire-atmosphere model

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Authors: Henry Okechukwu Onyeiwu, Arfah Ab. Majid

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To fully understand the critical role of marriage in society, it is important to view it as a social institution that provides some basic social needs for society. A ‘social institution’ is the network of shared meanings, norms, definitions, expectations, and understandings held by the members of society. It is what guides and governs how the members of the society are expected to act and interact, what is socially desirable and legitimate, what they should be striving for, and so on. One of the major social institutions is marriage. Marriage is and has often focused on children and what is best for them because the rising generation literally is the future of every society. However, according to the aforementioned definition, which notes that marriage may also be a union between two persons of the same sex with legal support, this study stands with the definitions that are based on marriage being a union between a man and woman that is the most appropriate in Igbo land and not the other way round. The issue to be evaluated concerns marriage as it associates with Igbo Catholic Christians in Nigeria. Pasts of Igbo culture should be better organized into the Christian faith. Igbo Christians actually convey a significant number of their customary thoughts, customs, and social qualities, particularly regarding marriage, in the aftermath of switching to Christianity. The analyst agrees that marriage among Igbo Christians warrants adequate evolution. This study, therefore, concentrates on the Igbo community’s interpretation of the concept of culture and religion and the religious implications of traditional marriage and Christian marriage ceremonies in Igbo. The research design of this study is a qualitative design that provides in-depth information on the dual religious identity of the Igbo people on the rite of marriage in Imo state. The study population was composed of both male and female members from each selected local government area in Imo State. Thematic analysis was used to elaborate on the result from the respondents. This survey found that reputation is a major concern for Ibo people. Parental discomfort can lead to the use of coping strategies such as displacement, in which parents pass on their own vulnerable sentiments to their children. Those who participate in marriage negotiations feel the pain of their parents because they are unable to communicate their own feelings. As a result, participants experience increased stress and a range of negative emotions related to their marriage, including worry, dissatisfaction, and ambivalence. It was concluded that when it comes to Igbo culture, marriage is seen as a need for the continuation of the family’s lineage of descent, according to the outcome. The Task at hand was to discover how the locals preparing to get married define the impending transition. Imo State is home to the practice of Igba-nkwu, where the woman is either inherited or taken in the place of another.

Keywords: Igbo, culture, Christianity, traditional marriage, Christian wedding

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Authors: Hany Elsaid Fawaz Abdallah

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This study presents a new artificial neural network(ANN) model to predict the Nusselt Number and pressure drop for the turbulent flow in a triangular corrugated plate heat exchanger for forced air and turbulent water flow. An experimental investigation was performed to create a new dataset for the Nusselt Number and pressure drop values in the following range of dimensionless parameters: The plate corrugation angles (from 0° to 60°), the Reynolds number (from 10000 to 40000), pitch to height ratio (from 1 to 4), and Prandtl number (from 0.7 to 200). Based on the ANN performance graph, the three-layer structure with {12-8-6} hidden neurons has been chosen. The training procedure includes back-propagation with the biases and weight adjustment, the evaluation of the loss function for the training and validation dataset and feed-forward propagation of the input parameters. The linear function was used at the output layer as the activation function, while for the hidden layers, the rectified linear unit activation function was utilized. In order to accelerate the ANN training, the loss function minimization may be achieved by the adaptive moment estimation algorithm (ADAM). The ‘‘MinMax’’ normalization approach was utilized to avoid the increase in the training time due to drastic differences in the loss function gradients with respect to the values of weights. Since the test dataset is not being used for the ANN training, a cross-validation technique is applied to the ANN network using the new data. Such procedure was repeated until loss function convergence was achieved or for 4000 epochs with a batch size of 200 points. The program code was written in Python 3.0 using open-source ANN libraries such as Scikit learn, TensorFlow and Keras libraries. The mean average percent error values of 9.4% for the Nusselt number and 8.2% for pressure drop for the ANN model have been achieved. Therefore, higher accuracy compared to the generalized correlations was achieved. The performance validation of the obtained model was based on a comparison of predicted data with the experimental results yielding excellent accuracy.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, corrugated channel, heat transfer enhancement, Nusselt number, pressure drop, generalized correlations

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Authors: Hsiao-Lin Fang

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The Patient Self-Determination Act is based on the belief that each life is unique. The act regards each patient as an autonomous entity and explicitly protects the patient’s rights to know and make decisions and choices while ensuring that the patient’s wish for a peaceful end is granted. Even when the patient is unconscious and unable to express himself/herself, the patient’s self-determination and its exercise are still protected under the law. The act also ensures that healthcare professionals (HCPs) have a specific set of rules to follow and complete legal protection when their patients are unable to express themselves clearly. This report is about a 55-year-old female patient who weighed 110 kg and was diagnosed with acute type A aortic dissection. The case was that the patient suddenly felt backache and nausea during sleep before daybreak and was therefore transferred to this hospital from the original one. After the doctor explained the patient’s conditions, it was concluded that surgery was necessary. However, the patient’s family was immediately against the surgery after having heard its possible complications. Nevertheless, the patient was still willing to receive the surgery. Being at odds with her family, the patient decided to sign the surgery agreement herself and agreed to receive the two surgical procedures: (1) ascending aorta replacement and (2) innominate artery debranching. After the surgery, the patient did not regain consciousness and therefore received computed tomography scanning of the brain, which revealed false lumen involving proximal left common carotid artery, left subclavian artery and innominate artery, and severe compression of the true lumen with total/subtotal occlusion in the left common carotid artery. On the following day, the doctor discussed two further surgical procedures: (1) endografting for descending aorta and (2) endografting for left common carotid artery and subclavian artery with the family. However, as the patient’s postoperative recovery of consciousness only reached the level of stupor and her family had no intention of subsequent healthcare for the patient, the family made the joint decision three days later to have the endotracheal tube removed from the patient and let her die a natural death. Suggestion: An advance directive (AD) can be created beforehand. Once the patient is in a special clinical state (e.g., terminal illness, permanent vegetative state, etc.), the AD can determine whether to sustain the patient’s life through ‘medical intervention’ or to respect the patient’s rights to choose a peaceful end and receive palliative care. Through the expression of self-determination, it is possible to respect the patient’s medical practice autonomy and protect the patient’s dignity and right to a peaceful end, thereby respecting and supporting the patient’s decision. This also allows the three sides: the patient, the family and the medical team to understand the patient’s true wish in the process of advance care planning (ACP) and thereby promote harmony in the HCP-patient relationship.

Keywords: intensive care unit patient, cardiovascular surgery, self-determination, advance directive

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Authors: Zolani Metu

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The death of more than 140 psychiatric patients who were unethically deinstitutionalized from the Life Esidimeni hospital Johannesburg, in 2016, shined a light on South Africa’s failing public mental healthcare system. Compounded by insufficient research evidence on African deinstitutionalization, this necessitates inquiries into deinstitutionalized mental healthcare, reintegration and community-based mental healthcare within the South African context. This study employed a quantitative research approach which utilized a cross-sectional research design, to investigate experiences with the reintegration of institutionalized forensic mental health service users into communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. A convenience sample of 100 mental health care workers from different occupational and organizational backgrounds in the Western Cape was purposively selected using the Western Cape Health Directorate as a sampling frame. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used as the data collection instrument. The results of the study indicate that criminogenic factors such as substance use, history of violent behaviour, criminal history and disruptive social behaviour complicate the reintegration of forensic mental health service users into communities. The current extent of reintegration of forensic mental health service users was found to be 'poor' (46%; n= 46); and financial difficulties, criminogenic factors and limited Community-Based Care (CBC) facilities were identified as key barriers to the reintegration process. 56% of all job applications for forensic mental health service users were unsuccessful, and 53% of all applications for their admission into CBC facilities were declined. Although social support (informal) was found to be essential for successful reintegration, institutional support (formal) through assertive community treatment (35%; n= 35) and CBC facilities (21%) and the disability grant (DG=50%) was found to be more important for family coping and reintegration. Moreover, 72% of respondents had positive perceptions about the process of reintegration; no statistically significant relationship was found between years of experience and perceptions about reintegration (P-value = 0.062); and perceptions were not found to be a barrier to reintegration. No statistically significant relationship was found between years of working experience and understanding the legislative framework of deinstitutionalization (P-Value =.0.061). However, using a Chi-square test, a significant relationship (P-value = 0.021) was found between sex and understanding the legal framework involved in the process of reintegration. The study recommends a post-2020 deinstitutionalization agenda that factors-in criminogenic realities associated with forensic mental health service users, and affirms the strengthening of PHC and community based care systems as precedents of successful deinstitutionalization and reintegration of mental health service users.

Keywords: forensic mental health, deinstitutionalization, reintegration, mental health service users

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Authors: Josiah Damisa, Michelle Louise Richardson, Morenike Adewuyi

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Lower back pain is a significant cause of disability worldwide and associated with great implications in terms of the well-being of affected individuals and society as a whole due to its undeniable socio-economic impact. With its prevalence on the increase as a result of an aging global population, the need for novel forms of pain management is ever paramount. This review aims to provide further insight into current research regarding a role for the endocannabinoid signaling pathway as a target in the treatment of chronic pain, with particular emphasis on its potential use as part of the treatment of lower back pain. Potential advantages and limitations of cannabis-based medicines over other forms of analgesia currently licensed for medical use are discussed in addition to areas that require ongoing consideration and research. To evaluate the efficacy of cannabis-based medicines in chronic pain, studies pertaining to the role of medical cannabis in chronic disease were reviewed. Standard searches of PubMed, Google Scholar and Web of Science databases were undertaken with peer-reviewed journal articles reviewed based on the indication for pain management, cannabis treatment modality used and study outcomes. Multiple studies suggest an emerging role for cannabis-based medicines as therapeutic agents in the treatment of chronic back pain. A potential synergistic effect has also been purported if these medicines are co-administered with opiate analgesia due to the similarity of the opiate and endocannabinoid signaling pathways. However, whilst recent changes to legislation in the United Kingdom mean that cannabis is now licensed for medicinal use on NHS prescription for a number of chronic health conditions, concerns remain as to the efficacy and safety of cannabis-based medicines. Research is lacking into both their side effect profiles and the long-term effects of cannabis use. Legal and ethical considerations to the use of these products in standardized medical practice also persist due to the notoriety of cannabis as a drug of abuse. Despite this, cannabis is beginning to gain traction as an alternative or even complementary drug to opiates, with some preclinical studies showing opiate-sparing effects. Whilst there is a paucity of clinical trials in this field, there is scope for cannabinoids to be successful anti-nociceptive agents in managing chronic back pain. The ultimate aim would be to utilize cannabis-based medicines as alternative or complementary therapies, thereby reducing opiate over-reliance and providing hope to individuals who have exhausted all other forms of standard treatment.

Keywords: endocannabinoids, cannabis-based medicines, chronic pain, lower back pain

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Authors: Jane E. Hill

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Many variables led to the changes in the insanity defense since the Wild Beast Standard of 1723 until the Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984. The insanity defense is used in criminal trials and argued that the defendant is ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ because the individual was unable to distinguish right from wrong during the time they were breaking the law. The issue that surrounds whether or not to use the insanity defense in the criminal court depends on the mental state of the defendant at the time the criminal act was committed. This leads us to the question of did the defendant know right from wrong when they broke the law? In 1723, The Wild Beast Test stated that to be exempted from punishment the individual is totally deprived of their understanding and memory and doth not know what they are doing. The Wild Beast Test became the standard in England for over seventy-five years. In 1800, James Hadfield attempted to assassinate King George III. He only made the attempt because he was having delusional beliefs. The jury and the judge gave a verdict of not guilty. However, to legal confine him; the Criminal Lunatics Act was enacted. Individuals that were deemed as ‘criminal lunatics’ and were given a verdict of not guilty would be taken into custody and not be freed into society. In 1843, the M'Naghten test required that the individual did not know the quality or the wrongfulness of the offense at the time they committed the criminal act(s). Daniel M'Naghten was acquitted on grounds of insanity. The M'Naghten Test is still a modern concept of the insanity defense used in many courts today. The Irresistible Impulse Test was enacted in the United States in 1887. The Irresistible Impulse Test suggested that offenders that could not control their behavior while they were committing a criminal act were not deterrable by the criminal sanctions in place; therefore no purpose would be served by convicting the offender. Due to the criticisms of the latter two contentions, the federal District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in 1954 to adopt the ‘product test’ by Sir Isaac Ray for insanity. The Durham Rule also known as the ‘product test’, stated an individual is not criminally responsible if the unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect. Therefore, the two questions that need to be asked and answered are (1) did the individual have a mental disease or defect at the time they broke the law? and (2) was the criminal act the product of their disease or defect? The Durham courts failed to clearly define ‘mental disease’ or ‘product.’ Therefore, trial courts had difficulty defining the meaning of the terms and the controversy continued until 1972 when the Durham rule was overturned in most places. Therefore, the American Law Institute combined the M'Naghten test with the irresistible impulse test and The United States Congress adopted an insanity test for the federal courts in 1984.

Keywords: insanity defense, psychology law, The Federal Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984, The Wild Beast Standard in 1723

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Junie B. Billones, Maria Constancia O. Carrillo, Voltaire G. Organo, Stephani Joy Y. Macalino, Inno A. Emnacen, Jamie Bernadette A. Sy

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The drug discovery and development process is generally known to be a very lengthy and labor-intensive process. Therefore, in order to be able to deliver prompt and effective responses to cure certain diseases, there is an urgent need to reduce the time and resources needed to design, develop, and optimize potential drugs. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) is able to alleviate this issue by applying computational power in order to streamline the whole drug discovery process, starting from target identification to lead optimization. This drug design approach can be predominantly applied to diseases that cause major public health concerns, such as tuberculosis. Hitherto, there has been no concrete cure for this disease, especially with the continuing emergence of drug resistant strains. In this study, CADD is employed for tuberculosis by first identifying a key enzyme in the mycobacterium’s metabolic pathway that would make a good drug target. One such potential target is the lipoate protein ligase B enzyme (LipB), which is a key enzyme in the M. tuberculosis metabolic pathway involved in the biosynthesis of the lipoic acid cofactor. Its expression is considerably up-regulated in patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and it has no known back-up mechanism that can take over its function when inhibited, making it an extremely attractive target. Using cutting-edge computational methods, compounds from AnalytiCon Discovery Natural Derivatives database were screened and docked against the LipB enzyme in order to rank them based on their binding affinities. Compounds which have better binding affinities than LipB’s known inhibitor, decanoic acid, were subjected to in silico toxicity evaluation using the ADMET and TOPKAT protocols. Out of the 31,692 compounds in the database, 112 of these showed better binding energies than decanoic acid. Furthermore, 12 out of the 112 compounds showed highly promising ADMET and TOPKAT properties. Future studies involving in vitro or in vivo bioassays may be done to further confirm the therapeutic efficacy of these 12 compounds, which eventually may then lead to a novel class of anti-tuberculosis drugs.

Keywords: pharmacophore, molecular docking, lipoate protein ligase B (LipB), ADMET, TOPKAT

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Authors: Stefan Papastefanou

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is an interdisciplinary field of computer science with the aim of creating intelligent machine behavior. Early approaches to AI have been configured to operate in very constrained environments where the behavior of the AI system was previously determined by formal rules. Knowledge was presented as a set of rules that allowed the AI system to determine the results for specific problems; as a structure of if-else rules that could be traversed to find a solution to a particular problem or question. However, such rule-based systems typically have not been able to generalize beyond the knowledge provided. All over the world and especially in IT-heavy industries such as the United States, the European Union, Singapore, and China, machine learning has developed to be an immense asset, and its applications are becoming more and more significant. It has to be examined how such products of machine learning models can and should be protected by IP law and for the purpose of this paper patent law specifically, since it is the IP law regime closest to technical inventions and computing methods in technical applications. Genetic breeding models are currently less popular than recursive neural network method and deep learning, but this approach can be more easily described by referring to the evolution of natural organisms, and with increasing computational power; the genetic breeding method as a subset of the evolutionary algorithms models is expected to be regaining popularity. The research method focuses on patentability (according to the world’s most significant patent law regimes such as China, Singapore, the European Union, and the United States) of AI inventions and machine learning. Questions of the technical nature of the problem to be solved, the inventive step as such, and the question of the state of the art and the associated obviousness of the solution arise in the current patenting processes. Most importantly, and the key focus of this paper is the problem of patenting inventions that themselves are developed through machine learning. The inventor of a patent application must be a natural person or a group of persons according to the current legal situation in most patent law regimes. In order to be considered an 'inventor', a person must actually have developed part of the inventive concept. The mere application of machine learning or an AI algorithm to a particular problem should not be construed as the algorithm that contributes to a part of the inventive concept. However, when machine learning or the AI algorithm has contributed to a part of the inventive concept, there is currently a lack of clarity regarding the ownership of artificially created inventions. Since not only all European patent law regimes but also the Chinese and Singaporean patent law approaches include identical terms, this paper ultimately offers a comparative analysis of the most relevant patent law regimes.

Keywords: algorithms, inventor, genetic breeding models, machine learning, patentability

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Authors: Raveena Naz

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The concept of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) has often relied on firms thinking beyond their economic interest despite the larger debate of shareholder versus stakeholder interest. India gave legal recognition to CSR in the Companies Act, 2013 which promises better corporate governance. CSR in India is believed to be different for two reasons: the dominance of family business and the history of practice of social responsibility as a form of philanthropy (mainly among the family business). This paper problematises the actual structure of business houses in India and the role of CSR in India. When the law identifies each company as a separate business entity, the economics of institutions emphasizes the ‘business group’ consisting of a plethora of firms as the institutional organization of business. The capital owned or controlled by the family group is spread across the firms through the interholding (interlocked holding) structures. This creates peculiar implications for CSR legislation in India. The legislation sets criteria for individual firms to undertake liability of mandatory CSR if they are above a certain threshold. Within this framework, the largest family firms which are all part of family owned business groups top the CSR expenditure list. The interholding structures, common managers, auditors and series of related party transactions among these firms help the family to run the business as a ‘family business’ even when the shares are issued to the public. This kind of governance structure allows family owned business group to show mandatory compliance of CSR even when they actually spend much less than what is prescribed by law. This aspect of the family firms is not addressed by the CSR legislation in particular or corporate governance legislation in general in India. The paper illustrates this with an empirical study of one of the largest family owned business group in India which is well acclaimed for its CSR activities. The individual companies under the business group are identified, shareholding patterns explored, related party transactions investigated, common managing authorities are identified; and assets, liabilities and profit/loss accounting practices are analysed. The data has been mainly collected from mandatory disclosures in the annual reports and financial statements of the companies within the business group accessed from the official website of the ultimate controlling authority. The paper demonstrates how the business group through these series of shareholding network reduces its legally mandated CSR liability. The paper thus indicates the inadequacy of CSR legislation in India because the unit of compliance is an individual firm and it assumes that each firm is independent and only connected to each other through market dealings. The law does not recognize the inter-connections of firms in corporate governance structures of family owned business group and hence is inadequate in its design to effect the threshold level of CSR expenditure. This is the central argument of the paper.

Keywords: business group, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, family firm

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Authors: Kouassi Louis Kra

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The nearshore deep-water gravity flow deposits in the Northern steep slope of Dongying depression, Bohai Bay basin, have been acknowledged as important reservoirs in the rift lacustrine basin. These deep strata term as coarse clastic sediment, deposit at the root of the slope have complex depositional processes and involve wide diagenetic events which made high-quality reservoir prediction to be complex. Based on the integrated study of seismic interpretation, sedimentary analysis, petrography, cores samples, wireline logging data, 3D seismic and lithological data, the reservoir formation mechanism deciphered. The Geoframe software was used to analyze 3-D seismic data to interpret the stratigraphy and build a sequence stratigraphic framework. Thin section identification, point counts were performed to assess the reservoir characteristics. The software PetroMod 1D of Schlumberger was utilized for the simulation of burial history. CL and SEM analysis were performed to reveal diagenesis sequences. Backscattered electron (BSE) images were recorded for definition of the textural relationships between diagenetic phases. The result showed that the nearshore steep slope deposits mainly consist of conglomerate, gravel sandstone, pebbly sandstone and fine sandstone interbedded with mudstone. The reservoir is characterized by low-porosity and ultra-low permeability. The diagenesis reactions include compaction, precipitation of calcite, dolomite, kaolinite, quartz cement and dissolution of feldspars and rock fragment. The main types of reservoir space are primary intergranular pores, residual intergranular pores, intergranular dissolved pores, intergranular dissolved pores, and fractures. There are three obvious anomalous high-porosity zones in the reservoir. Overpressure and early hydrocarbon filling are the main reason for abnormal secondary pores development. Sedimentary facies control the formation of high-quality reservoir, oil and gas filling preserves secondary pores from late carbonate cementation.

Keywords: Bohai Bay, Dongying Sag, deep strata, formation mechanism, high-quality reservoir

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Tae Young Jin, Jin Soo Kim

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Carbon emissions have emerged as global concerns. Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) have published reports about Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions regularly. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have held a conference yearly since 1995. Especially, COP21 held at December 2015 made the Paris agreement which have strong binding force differently from former COP. The Paris agreement was ratified as of 4 November 2016, they finally have legal binding. Participating countries set up their own Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), and will try to achieve this. Thus, carbon emissions must be reduced. The energy sector is one of most responsible for carbon emissions and fossil fuels particularly are. Thus, this paper attempted to examine the relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth. To achieve this, we adopted the Cobb-Douglas production function that consists of natural gas consumption, economic growth, capital, and labor using dependent panel analysis. Data were preprocessed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to remove cross-sectional dependency which can disturb the panel results. After confirming the existence of time-trended component of each variable, we moved to cointegration test considering cross-sectional dependency and structural breaks to describe more realistic behavior of volatile international indicators. The cointegration test result indicates that there is long-run equilibrium relationship between selected variables. Long-run cointegrating vector and Granger causality test results show that while natural gas consumption can contribute economic growth in the short-run, adversely affect in the long-run. From these results, we made following policy implications. Since natural gas has positive economic effect in only short-run, the policy makers in developing countries must consider the gradual switching of major energy source, from natural gas to sustainable energy source. Second, the technology transfer and financing business suggested by COP must be accelerated. Acknowledgement—This work was supported by the Energy Efficiency & Resources Core Technology Program of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) granted financial resource from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea (No. 20152510101880) and by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-205S1A3A2046684).

Keywords: developing countries, economic growth, natural gas consumption, panel data analysis

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Authors: Anette Alén

Abstract:

Intellectual property (IP) regimes have traditionally been designed to integrate various conflicting elements stemming from private entitlement and the public good. In IP laws and regulations, this design takes the form of specific uses of protected subject-matter without the right-holder’s consent, or exhaustion of exclusive rights upon market release, and the like. More recently, the pursuit of ‘balance’ has gained ground in the conceptualization of these conflicting elements both in terms of IP law and related policy. This can be seen, for example, in European Union (EU) copyright regime, where ‘balance’ has become a key element in argumentation, backed up by fundamental rights reasoning. This development also entails an ever-expanding dialogue between the IP regime and the constitutional safeguards for property, free speech, and privacy, among others. This study analyses the concept of ‘balance’ in EU copyright law: the research task is to examine the contents of the concept of ‘balance’ and the way it is operationalized and pursued, thereby producing new knowledge on the role and manifestations of ‘balance’ in recent copyright case law and regulatory instruments in the EU. The study discusses two particular pieces of legislation, the EU Digital Single Market (DSM) Copyright Directive (EU) 2019/790 and the finalized EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, including some of the key preparatory materials, as well as EU Court of Justice (CJEU) case law pertaining to copyright in the digital era. The material is examined by means of document analysis, mapping the ways ‘balance’ is approached and conceptualized in the documents. Similarly, the interaction of fundamental rights as part of the balancing act is also analyzed. Doctrinal study of law is also employed in the analysis of legal sources. This study suggests that the pursuit of balance is, for its part, conducive to new battles, largely due to the advancement of digitalization and more recent developments in artificial intelligence. Indeed, the ‘balancing act’ rather presents itself as a way to bypass or even solidify some of the conflicting interests in a complex global digital economy. Indeed, such a conceptualization, especially when accompanied by non-critical or strategically driven fundamental rights argumentation, runs counter to the genuine acknowledgment of new types of conflicting interests in the copyright regime. Therefore, a more radical approach, including critical analysis of the normative basis and fundamental rights implications of the concept of ‘balance’, is required to readjust copyright law and regulations for the digital era. Notwithstanding the focus on executing the study in the context of the EU copyright regime, the results bear wider significance for the digital economy, especially due to the platform liability regime in the DSM Directive and with the AI Act including objectives of a ‘level playing field’ whereby compliance with EU copyright rules seems to be expected among system providers.

Keywords: balance, copyright, fundamental rights, platform liability, artificial intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 31

Authors: Rawan K. Al-Duaij, Salem A. Al-Salem

Abstract:

Projects, the unique and temporary process of achieving a set of requirements have always been challenging; Planning the schedule and budget, managing the resources and risks are mostly driven by a similar past experience or the technical consultations of experts in the matter. With that complexity of Projects in Scope, Time, and execution environment, Adjustment Orders are tools to reflect changes to the original project parameters after Contract signature. Adjustment Orders are the official/legal amendments to the terms and conditions of a live Contract. Reasons for issuing Adjustment Orders arise from changes in Contract scope, technical requirement and specification resulting in scope addition, deletion, or alteration. It can be as well a combination of most of these parameters resulting in an increase or decrease in time and/or cost. Most business leaders (handling projects in the interest of the owner) refrain from using Adjustment Orders considering their main objectives of staying within budget and on schedule. Success in managing the changes results in uninterrupted execution and agreed project costs as well as schedule. Nevertheless, this is not always practically achievable. In this paper, a detailed study through utilizing Industrial Engineering & Systems Management tools such as Six Sigma, Data Analysis, and Quality Control were implemented on the organization’s five years records of the issued Adjustment Orders in order to investigate their prevalence, and time and cost impact. The analysis outcome revealed and helped to identify and categorize the predominant causations with the highest impacts, which were considered most in recommending the corrective measures to reach the objective of minimizing the Adjustment Orders impacts. Data analysis demonstrated no specific trend in the AO frequency in past five years; however, time impact is more than the cost impact. Although Adjustment Orders might never be avoidable; this analysis offers’ some insight to the procedural gaps, and where it is highly impacting the organization. Possible solutions are concluded such as improving project handling team’s coordination and communication, utilizing a blanket service contract, and modifying the projects gate system procedures to minimize the possibility of having similar struggles in future. Projects in the Oil and Gas sector are always evolving and demand a certain amount of flexibility to sustain the goals of the field. As it will be demonstrated, the uncertainty of project parameters, in adequate project definition, operational constraints and stringent procedures are main factors resulting in the need for Adjustment Orders and accordingly the recommendation will be to address that challenge.

Keywords: adjustment orders, data analysis, oil and gas sector, systems management

Procedia PDF Downloads 165