Search results for: electronic speckle pattern interferometry

Authors: N. Khursheed, M. Fatima, S. Jamal, A. Raza, S. Rattani, Q. Ahsan, A. Rasheed, M. Jawed

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Introduction: Antibiotics are among the commonly prescribed medicines to treat bacterial infections. Their misuse intensifies resistance, and overuse incurs heavy losses to the healthcare system in terms of increased treatment costs and enhanced disease burden. Studies show that 40% of empirically used antibiotics are irrationally utilized. The objective of this study was to evaluate prescribing pattern of antibiotics at six public sector tertiary care hospitals across Pakistan. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional point prevalence survey (PPS) was conducted in selected wards of six public sector tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan as part of the Clinical Engagement program by Fleming Fund Country Grant Pakistan in collaboration with Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN) from February to March 2021, these included Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center and Dr. Ruth K. M. Pfau Civil Hospital from Karachi, Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore, Nishtar Medical University Hospital Multan, Medical Teaching Institute Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar, and Provincial Headquarters Hospital Gilgit. WHO PPS methodology was used for data collection (Hospital, ward, and patient level data was collected). Data was entered into the open-source Kobo Collect application and was analyzed using SPSS (version 22.0). Findings: Medical records of 837 in-patients were surveyed, of which the prevalence of antibiotics use was 78.5%. The most commonly prescribed antimicrobial was Ceftriaxone (21.7%) which is categorized in the Watch group of WHO AWaRe Classification, followed by Metronidazole (17.3%), Cefoperazone/Sulbactam (8.4%), Co-Amoxiclav (6.3%) and Piperacillin/Tazobactam (5.9%). The antibiotics were prescribed largely for surgical prophylaxis (36.7%), followed by community-acquired infections (24.7%). One antibiotic was prescribed to 46.7%, two to 39.9%, and three or more to 12.5 %. Two of six (30%) hospitals had functional drug and therapeutic committees, three (50%) had infection prevention and control committees, and one facility had an antibiotic formulary. Conclusion: Findings demonstrate high consumption of broad-spectrum antimicrobials and emphasizes the importance of expanding the antimicrobial stewardship program. Mentoring clinical teams will help to rationalize antimicrobial use.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial stewardship, point prevalence survey, antibiotics

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Authors: Natia Jalagonia, Jimsher Maisuradze, Karlo Barbakadze, Tinatin Kuchukhidze

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At present intensive scientific researches of ceramics, cermets and metal alloys have been conducted for improving materials physical-mechanical characteristics. In purpose of increasing impact strength of ceramics based on alumina, simple method of graphene homogenization was developed. Homogeneous distribution of graphene (homogenization) in pressing composite became possible through the connection of functional groups of graphene oxide (-OH, -COOH, -O-O- and others) and alumina superficial OH groups with aluminum organic compounds. These two components connect with each other with -O-Al–O- bonds, and by their thermal treatment (300–500°C), graphene and alumina phase are transformed. Thus, choosing of aluminum organic compounds for modification is stipulated by the following opinion: aluminum organic compounds fragments fixed on graphene and alumina finally are transformed into an integral part of the matrix. By using of other elements as modifier on the matrix surface (Al2O3) other phases are transformed, which change sharply physical-mechanical properties of ceramic composites, for this reason, effect caused by the inclusion of graphene will be unknown. Fixing graphene fragments on alumina surface by alumoorganic compounds result in new type graphene-alumina complex, in which these two components are connected by C-O-Al bonds. Part of carbon atoms in graphene oxide are in sp3 hybrid state, so functional groups (-OH, -COOH) are located on both sides of graphene oxide layer. Aluminum organic compound reacts with graphene oxide at the room temperature, and modified graphene oxide is obtained: R2Al-O-[graphene]–COOAlR2. Remaining Al–C bonds also reacts rapidly with surface OH groups of alumina. In a result of these process, pressing powdery composite [Al2O3]-O-Al-O-[graphene]–COO–Al–O–[Al2O3] is obtained. For the purpose, graphene oxide suspension in dry toluene have added alumoorganic compound Al(iC4H9)3 in toluene with equimolecular ratio. Obtained suspension has put in the flask and removed solution in a rotary evaporate presence nitrogen atmosphere. Obtained powdery have been researched and used to consolidation of ceramic materials based on alumina. Ceramic composites are obtained in high temperature vacuum furnace with different temperature and pressure conditions. Received ceramics do not have open pores and their density reaches 99.5 % of TD. During the work, the following devices have been used: High temperature vacuum furnace OXY-GON Industries Inc (USA), device of spark-plasma synthesis, induction furnace, Electronic Scanning Microscopes Nikon Eclipse LV 150, Optical Microscope NMM-800TRF, Planetary mill Pulverisette 7 premium line, Shimadzu Dynamic Ultra Micro Hardness Tester DUH-211S, Analysette 12 Dynasizer and others.

Keywords: graphene oxide, alumo-organic, ceramic

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Authors: Linneth Nkateko Mabila, Patrick Hulisani Demana, Tebogo Maria Mothiba

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Background: Sustaining adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) over the long term by people, especially children living with Human-Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), requires accurate and consistent monitoring, and this is a particular challenge for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the regularity and punctuality in monthly antiretroviral treatment collections indicate medication adherence to a certain extent since it has been revealed to be a significant determinant of the outcome of ART. Aim: This study assessed and described the pattern of monthly antiretroviral treatment collections among a cohort of virally unsuppressed HIV-positive children initiated and managed on ART in the rural public clinics of Mopani District, Limpopo, and explored the nurses' perceptions and views of the findings. Methods: A facility-based mixed-methods study was conducted to assess the honoring of scheduled monthly treatment collection practices by a cohort of HIV-positive children under 15 years initiated and managed on ART by Nurse Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Treatment (NIMART)-trained professional nurses (PNs) from 01 January 2015 to 31 December 2015 in public PHC clinics of Mopani District Municipality. This was followed by the exploration of the nurses' perceptions and views regarding this issue to share their experiences and knowledge acquired through managing these children on ART. Results: From a total of 7105 analysable visits, only 44% (3134) were honored as scheduled, with 40% (2828) of children presenting to the clinics after the scheduled appointment date – they missed their appointments, and 11% (768) of treatment collections that took place before the scheduled appointment date. This finding was further confirmed by 90% (97) of the nurses, who reported that they have children who miss scheduled appointments in their public clinics. The primary reasons for children missing appointments were related to caregivers' forgetfulness and conflict between the school schedule and the dates of clinic visits. Conclusion: We confirmed a high prevalence of non-adherence to scheduled monthly ART collections and the existence of health system, social, and caregiver-related factors that threaten treatment adherence and proper clinical outcomes. These findings suggest an urgent need for intervention since non-adherence to ARV therapy can be life-threatening to the child and poses the danger of reduced life expectancy.

Keywords: antiretroviral therapy (art), nimart, virally unsuppressed children, missed appointments

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Authors: Xiaoling Ren, Guidong Yang

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Ammonia, as one of the largest-volume industrial chemicals, is mostly produced by century-old Haber-Bosch process with extreme conditionsand high-cost. Under the circumstance, researchersarededicated in finding new ways to replace the Haber-Bosch process. Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation is a promising sustainable, clear and green strategy for ammonia synthesis, butit is still a big challenge due to the high activation energy for nitrogen. It is essential to develop an efficient photocatalyst for making this approach industrial application. Constructing chemisorption active sites through defect engineering can be defined as an effective and reliable means to improve nitrogen activation by forming the extraordinary coordination environment and electronic structure. Besides, the construction of three-dimensionally orderdmacroporous (3DOM) structured photocatalyst is considered to be one of effectivestrategiesto improve the activity due to it canincrease the diffusion rate of reactants in the interior, which isbeneficial to the mass transfer process of nitrogen molecules in photocatalytic nitrogen reduction. Herein, Fe doped 3DOM WO₃(Fe-3DOM WO₃) without noble metal cocatalysts is synthesized by a polystyrene-template strategy, which is firstly used for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. To elucidate the chemical nature of the dopant, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysiswas conducted. The pure 3DOM WO₃ has a monoclinic type crystal structure. And no additional peak is observed in Fe doped 3DOM WO₃, indicating that the incorporation of Fe atoms did not result in a secondary phase formation. In order to confirm the morphologies of Fe-3DOM WO₃and 3DOM WO₃, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed. The synthesized Fe-3DOM WO₃and 3DOM WO₃ both exhibit a highly ordered three dimensional inverse opal structure with interconnected pores. From high-resolution TEM image of Fe-3DOM WO₃, the ordered lattice fringes with a spacing of 3.84 Å can be assigned to the (001) plane of WO₃, which is consistent with the XRD results. Finally, the photocatalytic nitrogen reduction performance of 3DOM WO₃ and Fe doped 3DOM WO₃with various Fe contents were examined. As a result, both Fe-3DOM WO₃ samples achieve higher ammonia production rate than that of pure 3DOM WO₃, indicating that the doped Fe plays a critical role in the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation performance. To verify the reaction process upon N2 reduction on the Fe-3DOM WO₃, in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy was employed to monitor the intermediates. The in-situ DRIFTS spectra of Fe-3DOM WO₃ exhibit the increased signals with the irradiation time from 0–60min in the N2 atmosphere. The above results prove that nitrogen is gradually hydrogenated to produce ammonia over Fe-3DOM WO₃. Thiswork would enrich our knowledge in designing efficient photocatalystsfor photocatalytic nitrogen reduction.

Keywords: ammonia, photocatalytic, nitrogen fixation, Fe doped 3DOM WO₃

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Authors: Derwin K. C. Chan, Alfred S. Y. Lee

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The integrated model of self-determination theory and the theory of planned behaviour has been successfully applied to explain individuals’ adherence to health behaviours, including behavioural adherence toward rehabilitation. This study was a randomised controlled trial that examined the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention (i.e., mobile application) developed based on this integrated model in promoting treatment adherence of patients of anterior cruciate ligament rupture during their post-surgery home-based rehabilitation period. Subjects were 67 outpatients (aged between 18 and 60) who undertook anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery for less than 2 months for this study. Participants were randomly assigned either into the treatment group (who received the smartphone application; N = 32) and control group (who receive standard treatment only; N = 35), and completed psychological measures relating to the theories (e.g., motivations, social cognitive factors, and behavioural adherence) and clinical outcome measures (e.g., subjective knee function (IKDC), laxity (KT-1000), muscle strength (Biodex)) relating to ACL recovery at baseline, 2-month, and 4-month. Generalise estimating equation showed the interaction between group and time was significant on intention was only significant for intention (Wald x² = 5.23, p = .02), that of perceived behavioural control (Wald x² = 3.19, p = .07), behavioural adherence (Wald x² = 3.08, p = .08, and subjective knee evaluation (Wald x² = 2.97, p = .09) were marginally significant. Post-hoc between-subject analysis showed that control group had significant drop of perceived behavioural control (p < .01), subjective norm (p < .01) and intention (p < .01), behavioural adherence (p < .01) from baseline to 4-month, but such pattern was not observed in the treatment group. The treatment group had a significant decrease of behavioural adherence (p < .05) in the 2-month, but such a decrease was not observed in 4-month (p > .05). Although the subjective knee evaluation in both group significantly improved at 2-month and 4-month from the baseline (p < .05), and the improvements in the control group (mean improvement at 4-month = 40.18) were slightly stronger than the treatment group (mean improvement at 4-month = 34.52). In conclusion, the findings showed that the theory driven mobile application ameliorated the decline of treatment intention of home-based rehabilitation. Patients in the treatment group also reported better muscle strength than control group at 4-month follow-up. Overall, the mobile application has shown promises on tackling the problem of orthopaedics outpatients’ non-adherence to medical treatment.

Keywords: self-determination theory, theory of planned behaviour, mobile health, orthopaedic patients

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Authors: Kamal Kithsiri Karunadasa Hewawasam Revulge

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This paper is an interpretative historical analysis of Australian migration laws that examines asylum and refugee policies and attitudes in Australia. It looks at major turning points in Australian migration history, and in doing so, the researcher reviewed relevant literature on the aspects crucial to highlighting the current trend of Australian migration policies. The data was collected using secondary data from official government sources, including annual reports, media releases on immigration, inquiry reports, statistical information, and other available literature to identify critical historical events that significantly affected the systematic developments of asylum seekers and refugee policies in Australia and to look at the historical trends of official thinking. A reliance on using these official sources is justified as those are the most convincing sources to analyse the historical events in Australia. Additional literature provides us with critical analyses of the behaviour and culture of the Australian immigration administration. The analytical framework reviewed key Australian Government immigration policies since British colonization and the settlement era of 1787–the 1850s and to the present. The fundamental basis for doing so is that past events and incidents offer us clues and lessons relevant to the present day. Therefore, providing a perspective on migration history in Australia helps analyse how current policymakers' strategies developed and changed over time. Attention is also explicitly focused on Australian asylum and refugee policy internationally, as it helped to broaden the analysis. The finding proved a link between past events and adverse current Australian government policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. It highlighted that Australia's current migration policies are part of a carefully and deliberately planned pattern that arose from the occupation of Australia by early British settlers. In this context, the remarkable point is that the historical events of taking away children from their Australian indigenous parents, widely known as the 'stolen generation' reflected a model of assimilation, or a desire to absorb other cultures into Australian society by fully adopting the settlers' language, their culture, and losing indigenous people's traditions. Current Australian policies towards migrants reflect the same attitude. Hence, it could be argued that policies and attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees, particularly so-called 'boat people' to some extent, still reflect Australia's earlier colonial and 'white Australia' history.

Keywords: migration law, refugee law, international law, administrative law

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Authors: Evelyn Bilias-Lolis, Emily Louise Winter

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Schools have a responsibility to implement school-wide frameworks that actively prevent, detect, and support all aspects of child development and learning. Such efforts can range from individual or classroom-level supports to school-wide primary prevention practices for the school’s infrastructure or climate. This study assessed the perceptions of educators across a variety of disciplines in Connecticut (i.e., elementary and secondary education, special education, school psychology, and school social work) on the perceived impact of their beliefs, language, and behavior about food and body consciousness on student self-image and school climate. Participants (N=50) completed a short electronic questionnaire measuring perceptions of how their behavior can influence their students’ opinions about themselves, their emerging self-image, and the overall climate of the school community. Secondly, the beliefs that were directly assessed in the first portion of the survey were further measured through the use of applied social vignettes involving students directly or as bystanders. Preliminary findings are intriguing. When asked directly, 100% of the respondents reported that what they say to students directly could influence student opinions about themselves and 98% of participants further agreed that their behavior both to and in front of students could impact a student’s developing self-image. Likewise, 82% of the sample agreed that their personal language and behavior affect the overall climate of a school building. However, when the above beliefs were assessed via applied social vignettes depicting routine social exchanges, results were significantly more widespread (i.e., results were evenly dispersed among levels of agreement and disagreement across participants in all areas). These preliminary findings offer humble but critical implications for informing integrated school wellness frameworks that aim to create body-sensitive school communities. Research indicates that perceptions about body image, attitudes about eating, and the onset of disordered eating practices surface in school-aged years. Schools provide a natural setting for instilling foundations for child wellness as a natural extension of existing school climate reform efforts. These measures do not always need to be expansive or extreme. Rather, educators have a ripe opportunity to become champions for health and wellness through increased self-awareness and subtle shifts in language and behavior. Future psychological research needs to continue to explore this line of inquiry using larger and more varied samples of educators in order to identify needs in teacher training and development that can yield positive and preventative health outcomes for children.

Keywords: body-sensitive schools, integrated school health, school climate reform, teacher awareness

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Authors: Ante Turudic, Filip Varga, Zlatko Liber, Jernej Jakse, Zlatko Satovic, Ivan Radosavljevic, Martina Grdisa

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Microsatellites (SSRs) are highly informative repetitive sequences of 2-6 base pairs, which are the most used molecular markers in assessing the genetic diversity of plant species. Dalmatian pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium /Trevir./ Sch. Bip) is an outcrossing diploid (2n = 18) endemic to the eastern Adriatic coast and source of the natural insecticide pyrethrin. Due to the high repetitiveness and large size of the genome (haploid genome size of 9,58 pg), previous attempts to develop microsatellite markers using the standard methods were unsuccessful. A next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach was applied on genomic DNA extracted from fresh leaves of Dalmatian pyrethrum. The sequencing was conducted using NovaSeq6000 Illumina sequencer, after which almost 400 million high-quality paired-end reads were obtained, with a read length of 150 base pairs. Short reads were assembled by combining two approaches; (1) de-novo assembly and (2) joining of overlapped pair-end reads. In total, 6.909.675 contigs were obtained, with the contig average length of 249 base pairs. Of the resulting contigs, 31.380 contained one or multiple microsatellite sequences, in total 35.556 microsatellite loci were identified. Out of detected microsatellites, dinucleotide repeats were the most frequent, accounting for more than half of all microsatellites identifies (21,212; 59.7%), followed by trinucleotide repeats (9,204; 25.9%). Tetra-, penta- and hexanucleotides had similar frequency of 1,822 (5.1%), 1,472 (4.1%), and 1,846 (5.2%), respectively. Contigs containing microsatellites were further filtered by SSR pattern type, transposon occurrences, assembly characteristics, GC content, and the number of occurrences against the draft genome of T. cinerariifolium published previously. After the selection process, 50 microsatellite loci were used for primer design. Designed primers were tested on samples from five distinct populations, and 25 of them showed a high degree of polymorphism. The selected loci were then genotyped on 20 samples belonging to one population resulting in 17 microsatellite markers. Availability of codominant SSR markers will significantly improve the knowledge on population genetic diversity and structure as well as complex genetics and biochemistry of this species. Acknowledgment: This work has been fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under the project ‘Genetic background of Dalmatian pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium /Trevir/ Sch. Bip.) insecticidal potential’ - (PyrDiv) (IP-06-2016-9034).

Keywords: genome assembly, NGS, SSR, Tanacetum cinerariifolium

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Authors: I. Gupta, N. Setia

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Introduction. Buyer conduct is a progression of practices or examples that buyers pursue before making a buy. It begins when the shopper ends up mindful of a need or wish for an item, at that point finishes up with the buying exchange. Business visionaries can't generally simply shake hands with their intended interest group people and become more acquainted with them. Research is often necessary, so every organization primarily involves doing continuous research to understand and satisfy consumer needs pattern. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine the different behaviors of the consumer, including pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Materials and Methods: In order to get results, face to face interview held with 80 people which comprise a larger part of female individuals having upper as well as middle-class status. The prime source of data collection was primary. However, the study has also used the theoretical contribution of many researchers in their respective field. Results: Majority of the respondents were females (70%) from the age group of 20-50. The collected data was analyzed through hypothesis testing statistical techniques such as correlation analysis, single regression analysis, and ANOVA which has rejected the null hypothesis that there is no relation between researching the consumer behavior at different stages and organizational performance. The real finding of this study is that simply focusing on the buying part isn't enough to gain profits and fame, however, understanding the pre, buy and post-buy behavior of consumer performs a huge role in organization success. The outcomes demonstrated that the organization, which deals with the three phases of research of purchasing conduct is able to establish a great brand image as compare to their competitors. Alongside, enterprises can observe customer conduct in a considerably more proficient manner. Conclusion: The analyses of consumer behavior presented in this study is an attempt to understand the factors affecting consumer purchasing behavior. This study has revealed that those corporations are more successful, which work on understanding buying behavior instead to just focus on the selling products. As a result, organizations perform good and grow rapidly because consumers are the one who can make or break the company. The interviews that were conducted face to face, clearly revealed that those organizations become at top-notch whom consumers are satisfied, not just with product but also with services of the company. The study is not targeting the particular class of audience; however, it brings out benefits to the masses, in particular to business organizations.

Keywords: consumer behavior, pre purchase, post purchase, consumer satisfaction

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Authors: Xiao-Mei Zhang, Sian-Hong Tseng, Ming-Yen Lu

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Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), such as MoS₂, have attracted considerable attention owing to the unique optical and electronic properties related to its 2D ultrathin atomic layer structure. MoS₂ is becoming prevalent in post-silicon digital electronics and in highly efficient optoelectronics due to its extremely low thickness and its tunable band gap (Eg = 1-2 eV). For low-power, high-performance complementary logic applications, both p- and n-type MoS₂ FETs (NFETs and PFETs) must be developed. NFETs with an electron accumulation channel can be obtained using unintentionally doped n-type MoS₂. However, the fabrication of MoS₂ FETs with complementary p-type characteristics is challenging due to the significant difficulty of injecting holes into its inversion channel. Plasma treatments with different species (including CF₄, SF₆, O₂, and CHF₃) have also been found to achieve the desired property modifications of MoS₂. In this work, we demonstrated a p-type multilayer MoS₂ enabled by selective-area doping using CHF₃ plasma treatment. Compared with single layer MoS₂, multilayer MoS₂ can carry a higher drive current due to its lower bandgap and multiple conduction channels. Moreover, it has three times the density of states at its minimum conduction band. Large-area growth of MoS₂ films on 300 nm thick SiO₂/Si substrate is carried out by thermal decomposition of ammonium tetrathiomolybdate, (NH₄)₂MoS₄, in a tube furnace. A two-step annealing process is conducted to synthesize MoS₂ films. For the first step, the temperature is set to 280 °C for 30 min in an N₂ rich environment at 1.8 Torr. This is done to transform (NH₄)₂MoS₄ into MoS₃. To further reduce MoS₃ into MoS₂, the second step of annealing is performed. For the second step, the temperature is set to 750 °C for 30 min in a reducing atmosphere consisting of 90% Ar and 10% H₂ at 1.8 Torr. The grown MoS₂ films are subjected to out-of-plane doping by CHF₃ plasma treatment using a Dry-etching system (ULVAC original NLD-570). The radiofrequency power of this dry-etching system is set to 100 W and the pressure is set to 7.5 mTorr. The final thickness of the treated samples is obtained by etching for 30 s. Back-gated MoS₂ PFETs were presented with an on/off current ratio in the order of 10³ and a field-effect mobility of 65.2 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹. The MoS₂ PFETs photodetector exhibited ultraviolet (UV) photodetection capability with a rapid response time of 37 ms and exhibited modulation of the generated photocurrent by back-gate voltage. This work suggests the potential application of the mild plasma-doped p-type multilayer MoS₂ in UV photodetectors for environmental monitoring, human health monitoring, and biological analysis.

Keywords: photodetection, p-type doping, multilayers, MoS₂

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Authors: E. O. Clarke, O. J. Aderinola, O. A. Adeboyejo, M. A. Anetekhai

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Aims: The study is aimed at establishing the influence of some physical and chemical parameters on the abundance, distribution pattern and seasonal variations of the planktonic crustacean populations. Place and Duration of Study: A premier investigation into the dynamics of planktonic crustacean populations in Ologe lagoon was carried out from January 2011 to December 2012. Study Design: The study covered identification, temporal abundance, spatial distribution and diversity of the planktonic crustacea. Methodology: Standard techniques were used to collect samples from eleven stations covering five proximal satellite towns (Idoluwo, Oto, Ibiye, Obele, and Gbanko) bordering the lagoon. Data obtained were statistically analyzed using linear regression and hierarchical clustering. Results:Thirteen (13) planktonic crustacean populations were identified. Total percentage abundance was highest for Bosmina species (20%) and lowest for Polyphemus species (0.8%). The Pearson’s correlation coefficient (“r” values) between total planktonic crustacean population and some physical and chemical parameters showed that positive correlations having low level of significance occurred with salinity (r = 0.042) (sig = 0.184) and with surface water dissolved oxygen (r = 0.299) (sig = 0.155). Linear regression plots indicated that, the total population of planktonic crustacea were mainly influenced and only increased with an increase in value of surface water temperature (Rsq = 0.791) and conductivity (Rsq = 0.589). The total population of planktonic crustacea had a near neutral (zero correlation) with the surface water dissolved oxygen and thus, does not significantly change with the level of the surface water dissolved oxygen. The correlations were positive with NO3-N (midstream) at Ibiye (Rsq =0.022) and (downstream) Gbanko (Rsq =0.013), PO4-P at Ibiye (Rsq =0.258), K at Idoluwo (Rsq =0.295) and SO4-S at Oto (Rsq = 0.094) and Gbanko (Rsq = 0.457). The Berger-Parker Dominance Index (BPDI) showed that the most dominant species was Bosmina species (BPDI = 1.000), followed by Calanus species (BPDI = 1.254). Clusters by squared Euclidan distances using average linkage between groups showed proximities, transcending the borders of genera. Conclusion: The results revealed that planktonic crustacean population in Ologe lagoon undergo seasonal perturbations, were highly influenced by nutrient, metal and organic matter inputs from river Owoh, Agbara industrial estate and surrounding farmlands and were patchy in spatial distribution.

Keywords: diversity, dominance, perturbations, richness, crustacea, lagoon

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Authors: Rosa S. Wong, Keith T. S. Tung, Frederick K. Ho, Winnie W. Y. Tso, King-wa Fu, Nirmala Rao, Patrick Ip

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As technology advances, exposures in early childhood are no longer confined to stimulations in the surrounding physical environments. Children nowadays are also subject to influences from the digital world. In particular, early access to game consoles can cause risks to child development, especially when the game is not developmentally appropriate for young children. Overstimulation is possible and could impair brain development. On the other hand, recreational parent-child activities, including outdoor activities and visits to museums, require child interaction with parents, which is beneficial for developing adaptive emotion regulation and social skills. Given the differences between these two types of exposures, this study investigated and compared the independent effects of early exposure to a game console and early play-based parent-child activities on children’s long-term psychosocial outcomes. This study used data from a subset of children (n=304, 142 male and 162 female) in the longitudinal cohort study, which studied the long-term impact of family socioeconomic status on child development. In 2012/13, we recruited a group of children at Kindergarten 3 (K3) randomly from Hong Kong local kindergartens and collected data regarding their duration of exposure to game console and recreational parent-child activities at that time. In 2018/19, we re-surveyed the parents of these children who were matriculated as Form 1 (F1) students (ages ranging from 11 to 13 years) in secondary schools and asked the parents to rate their children’s psychosocial problems in F1. Linear regressions were conducted to examine the associations between early exposures and adolescent psychosocial problems with and without adjustment for child gender and K3 family socioeconomic status. On average, K3 children spent about 42 minutes on a game console every day and had 2-3 recreational activities with their parents every week. Univariate analyses showed that more time spent on game consoles at K3 was associated with more psychosocial difficulties in F1 particularly more externalizing problems. The effect of early exposure to game console on externalizing behavior remained significant (B=0.59, 95%CI: 0.15 to 1.03, p=0.009) after adjusting for recreational parent-child activities and child gender. For recreational parent-child activities at K3, its effect on overall psychosocial difficulties became insignificant after adjusting for early exposure to game consoles and child gender. However, it was found to have significant protective effect on externalizing problems (B=-0.65, 95%CI: -1.23 to -0.07, p=0.028) even after adjusting for the confounders. Early exposure to game consoles has negative impact on children’s psychosocial health, whereas play-based parent-child activities can foster positive psychosocial outcomes. More efforts should be directed to propagate the risks and benefits of these activities and urge the parents and caregivers to replace child-alone screen time with parent-child play time in daily routine.

Keywords: early childhood, electronic device, parenting, psychosocial wellbeing

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Authors: Kaushal Kishore, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Susovan Das, Manashi Adhikary, Sandip Bhattacharyya

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In integrated steel plants, conveyor belts are widely used for transferring raw materials from one location to another. An output pin bush coupling attached with a conveyor transferring iron ore fines and fluxes failed after two years of service life. This led to an operational delay of approximately 15 hours. This study is focused on failure analysis of the coupling and recommending counter-measures to prevent any such failures in the future. Investigation consisted of careful visual observation, checking of operating parameters, stress calculation and analysis, macro and micro-fractography, material characterizations like chemical and metallurgical analysis and tensile and impact testings. The fracture occurred from an unusually sharp double step. There were multiple corrosion pits near the step that aggravated the situation. Inner contact surface of the coupling revealed differential abrasion that created a macroscopic difference in the height of the component. This pointed towards misalignment of the coupling beyond a threshold limit. In addition to these design and installation issues, material of the coupling did not meet the quality standards. These were made up of grey cast iron having graphite morphology intermediate between random distribution (Type A) and rosette pattern (Type B). This manifested as a marked reduction in impact toughness and tensile strength of the component. These findings corroborated well with the brittle mode of fracture that might have occurred during minor impact loading while loading of conveyor belt with raw materials from height. Simulated study was conducted to examine the effect of corrosion pits on tensile and impact toughness of grey cast iron. It was observed that pitting marginally reduced tensile strength and ductility. However, there was marked (up to 45%) reduction in impact toughness due to pitting. Thus, it became evident that failure of the coupling occurred due to combination of factors like inferior material, misalignment, poor step design and corrosion pitting. Recommendation for life enhancement of coupling included the use of tougher SG 500/7 grade, incorporation of proper fillet radius for the step, correction of alignment and application of corrosion resistant organic coating to prevent pitting.

Keywords: brittle fracture, cast iron, coupling, double step, pitting, simulated impact tests

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Authors: Yusuf U. Datti

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It is becoming increasingly clear that the consumption of resources now enjoyed in the developed nations will be impossible to be sustained worldwide. While developing countries still have the advantage of low consumption and a smaller ecological footprint per person, they cannot simply develop in the same way as other western cities have developed in the past. The severe reality of population and consumption inequalities makes it contentious whether studies done in developed countries can be translated and applied to developing countries. Additional to this disparities, there are few or no metabolism of energy studies in Nigeria. Rather more contentious majority of energy metabolism studies have been done only in developed countries. While researches in Nigeria concentrate on other aspects/principles of sustainability such as water supply, sewage disposal, energy supply, energy efficiency, waste disposal, etc., which will not accurately capture the environmental impact of energy flow in Nigeria, this research will set itself apart by examining the flow of energy in Nigeria and the impact that the flow will have on the environment. The aim of the study is to examine and quantify the metabolic flows of energy in Nigeria and its corresponding environmental impact. The study will quantify the level and pattern of energy inflow and the outflow of greenhouse emissions in Nigeria. This study will describe measures to address the impact of existing energy sources and suggest alternative renewable energy sources in Nigeria that will lower the emission of greenhouse gas emissions. This study will investigate the metabolism of energy in Nigeria through a three-part methodology. The first step involved selecting and defining the study area and some variables that would affect the output of the energy (time of the year, stability of the country, income level, literacy rate and population). The second step involves analyzing, categorizing and quantifying the amount of energy generated by the various energy sources in the country. The third step involves analyzing what effect the variables would have on the environment. To ensure a representative sample of the study area, Africa’s most populous country, with economy that is the second biggest and that is among the top largest oil producing countries in the world is selected. This is due to the understanding that countries with large economy and dense populations are ideal places to examine sustainability strategies; hence, the choice of Nigeria for the study. National data will be utilized unless where such data cannot be found, then local data will be employed which will be aggregated to reflect the national situation. The outcome of the study will help policy-makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs and enables early identification and mitigation of any negative effects in the environment.

Keywords: built environment, energy metabolism, environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability

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Authors: Arianna Vedaschi

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This paper addresses the relationship between freedom of expression, national security and radicalization. Is it still possible to talk about a balance between the first two elements? Or, due to the intrusion of the third, is it more appropriate to consider freedom of expression as “permanently disfigured” by securitarian concerns? In this study, both the legislative and the judicial level are taken into account and the comparative method is employed in order to provide the reader with a complete framework of relevant issues and a workable set of solutions. The analysis moves from the finding according to which the tension between free speech and national security has become a major issue in democratic countries, whose very essence is continuously endangered by the ever-changing and multi-faceted threat of international terrorism. In particular, a change in terrorist groups’ recruiting pattern, attracting more and more people by way of a cutting-edge communicative strategy, often employing sophisticated technology as a radicalization tool, has called on law-makers to modify their approach to dangerous speech. While traditional constitutional and criminal law used to punish speech only if it explicitly and directly incited the commission of a criminal action (“cause-effect” model), so-called glorification offences – punishing mere ideological support for terrorism, often on the web – are becoming commonplace in the comparative scenario. Although this is direct, and even somehow understandable, consequence of the impending terrorist menace, this research shows many problematic issues connected to such a preventive approach. First, from a predominantly theoretical point of view, this trend negatively impacts on the already blurred line between permissible and prohibited speech. Second, from a pragmatic point of view, such legislative tools are not always suitable to keep up with ongoing developments of both terrorist groups and their use of technology. In other words, there is a risk that such measures become outdated even before their application. Indeed, it seems hard to still talk about a proper balance: what was previously clearly perceived as a balancing of values (freedom of speech v. public security) has turned, in many cases, into a hierarchy with security at its apex. In light of these findings, this paper concludes that such a complex issue would perhaps be better dealt with through a combination of policies: not only criminalizing ‘terrorist speech,’ which should be relegated to a last resort tool, but acting at an even earlier stage, i.e., trying to prevent dangerous speech itself. This might be done by promoting social cohesion and the inclusion of minorities, so as to reduce the probability of people considering terrorist groups as a “viable option” to deal with the lack of identification within their social contexts.

Keywords: radicalization, free speech, international terrorism, national security

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: Magdalena Wilk-Kozubek, Magdalena Rowińska, Krzysztof Rola, Joanna Cybińska

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Leuco dye-based thermochromic systems are classified as intelligent materials because they exhibit thermally induced color changes. Thanks to this feature, they are mainly used as temperature sensors in many industrial sectors. For example, placing a thermochromic material on a chemical reactor may warn about exceeding the maximum permitted temperature for a chemical process. Usually two components, a color former and a developer are needed to produce a system with irreversible color change. The color former is an electron donating (proton accepting) compound such as fluoran leuco dye. The developer is an electron accepting (proton donating) compound such as organic carboxylic acid. When the developer melts, the color former - developer complex is created and the termochromic system becomes colored. Typically, the melting point of the applied developer determines the temperature at which the color change occurs. When the lactone ring of the color former is closed, then the dye is in its colorless state. The ring opening, induced by the addition of a proton, causes the dye to turn into its colored state. Since the color former and the developer are often solid, they can be incorporated into polymer films to facilitate their practical use in industry. The objective of this research was to fabricate a leuco dye-based termochromic system that will irreversibly change color after reaching the temperature of 100°C. For this purpose, benzofluoran leuco dye (as color former) and phenoxyacetic acid (as developer with a melting point of 100°C) were introduced into the polymer films during the drop casting process. The film preparation process was optimized in order to obtain thin films with appropriate properties such as transparency, flexibility and homogeneity. Among the optimized factors were the concentration of benzofluoran leuco dye and phenoxyacetic acid, the type, average molecular weight and concentration of the polymer, and the type and concentration of the surfactant. The selected films, containing benzofluoran leuco dye and phenoxyacetic acid, were combined by mild heat treatment. Structural characterization of single and combined films was carried out by FTIR spectroscopy, morphological analysis was performed by optical microscopy and SEM, phase transitions were examined by DSC, color changes were investigated by digital photography and UV-Vis spectroscopy, while emission changes were studied by photoluminescence spectroscopy. The resulting thermochromic system is colorless at room temperature, but after reaching 100°C the developer melts and it turns irreversibly pink. Therefore, it could be used as an additional sensor to warn against boiling of water in power plants using water cooling. Currently used electronic temperature indicators are prone to faults and unwanted third-party actions. The sensor constructed in this work is transparent, thanks to which it can be unnoticed by an outsider and constitute a reliable reference for the person responsible for the apparatus.

Keywords: color developer, leuco dye, thin film, thermochromism

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Authors: Dalicia Bouallouche, Jean-Baptiste Vioix, Stéphane Millot, Eric Busvelle

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When researchers or logistics software developers deal with vehicle routing optimization, they mainly focus on minimizing the total travelled distance or the total time spent in the tours by the trucks, and maximizing the number of visited customers. They assume that the upstream real data given to carry the optimization of a transporter tours is free from errors, like customers’ real constraints, customers’ addresses and their GPS-coordinates. However, in real transporter situations, upstream data is often of bad quality because of address geocoding errors and the irrelevance of received addresses from the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In fact, geocoders are not exempt from errors and could give impertinent GPS-coordinates. Also, even with a good geocoding, an inaccurate address can lead to a bad geocoding. For instance, when the geocoder has trouble with geocoding an address, it returns those of the center of the city. As well, an obvious geocoding issue is that the mappings used by the geocoders are not regularly updated. Thus, new buildings could not exist on maps until the next update. Even so, trying to optimize tours with impertinent customers GPS-coordinates, which are the most important and basic input data to take into account for solving a vehicle routing problem, is not really useful and will lead to a bad and incoherent solution tours because the locations of the customers used for the optimization are very different from their real positions. Our work is supported by a logistics software editor Tedies and a transport company Upsilon. We work with Upsilon's truck routes data to carry our experiments. In fact, these trucks are equipped with TOMTOM GPSs that continuously save their tours data (positions, speeds, tachograph-information, etc.). We, then, retrieve these data to extract the real truck routes to work with. The aim of this work is to use the experience of the driver and the feedback of the real truck tours to validate GPS-coordinates of well geocoded addresses, and bring a correction to the badly geocoded addresses. Thereby, when a vehicle makes its tour, for each visited customer, the vehicle might have trouble with finding this customer’s address at most once. In other words, the vehicle would be wrong at most once for each customer’s address. Our method significantly improves the quality of the geocoding. Hence, we achieve to automatically correct an average of 70% of GPS-coordinates of a tour addresses. The rest of the GPS-coordinates are corrected in a manual way by giving the user indications to help him to correct them. This study shows the importance of taking into account the feedback of the trucks to gradually correct address geocoding errors. Indeed, the accuracy of customer’s address and its GPS-coordinates play a major role in tours optimization. Unfortunately, address writing errors are very frequent. This feedback is naturally and usually taken into account by transporters (by asking drivers, calling customers…), to learn about their tours and bring corrections to the upcoming tours. Hence, we develop a method to do a big part of that automatically.

Keywords: driver experience feedback, geocoding correction, real truck tours

Procedia PDF Downloads 659

Authors: Paul E. Jose

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A new self-report measure named the General Emotion Regulation Measure (GERM) assesses four key goals for experiencing broad valenced groups of emotions: 1) trying to experience positive emotions (e.g., joy, pride, liking a person); 2) trying to avoid experiencing positive emotions; 3) trying to experience negative emotions (e.g., anger, anxiety, contempt); and 4) trying to avoid experiencing negative emotions. Although individual differences in GERM motives have been identified, evidence of validity with common mood outcomes is lacking. In the present study, whether GERM motives predict self-reported subjective happiness and depressive symptoms (CES-D) was tested with a community sample of 833 young adults. It was predicted that the GERM motive of trying to experience positive emotions would positively predict subjective happiness, and analogously trying to experience negative emotions would predict depressive symptoms. An initial path model was constructed in which the four GERM motives predicted both subjective happiness and depressive symptoms. The fully saturated model included three non-significant paths, which were subsequently pruned, and a good fitting model was obtained (CFI = 1.00; RMR = .007). Two GERM motives significantly predicted subjective happiness: 1) trying to experience positive emotions ( = .38, p < .001) and 2) trying to avoid experiencing positive emotions ( = -.48, p <.001). Thus, individuals who reported high levels of trying to experience positive emotions reported high levels of happiness, and individuals who reported low levels of trying to avoid experiencing positive emotions also reported high levels of happiness. Three GERM motives significantly predicted depressive symptoms: 1) trying to avoid experiencing positive emotions ( = .20, p <.001); 2) trying to experience negative emotions ( = .15, p <.001); and 3) trying to experience positive emotions (= -.07, p <.001). In agreement with predictions, trying to experience positive emotions was positively associated with subjective happiness and trying to experience negative emotions was positively associated with depressive symptoms. In essence, these two valenced mood states seem to be sustained by trying to experience similarly valenced emotions. However, the three other significant paths in the model indicated that emotional motives play a complicated role in supporting both positive and negative mood states. For subjective happiness, the GERM motive of not trying to avoid positive emotions, i.e., not avoiding happiness, was also a strong predictor of happiness. Thus, people who report being the happiest are those individuals who not only strive to experience positive emotions but also are not ambivalent about them. The pattern for depressive symptoms was more nuanced. Individuals who reported higher depressive symptoms also reported higher levels of avoiding positive emotions and trying to experience negative emotions. The strongest predictor for depressed mood was avoiding positive emotions, which would suggest that happiness aversion or fear of happiness is an important motive for dysphoric people. Future work should determine whether these patterns of association are similar among clinically depressed people, and longitudinal data are needed to determine temporal relationships between motives and mood states.

Keywords: emotions motives, depression, subjective happiness, path model

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: A. Bentley, A. Prost, N. Daruwalla, D. Osrin

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Background: This study aims to investigate the relationship between experiences of violence against women in the family, and levels of self-esteem in women residing in informal settlement (slum) areas of Mumbai, India. The authors hypothesise that violence against women in Indian households extends beyond that of intimate partner violence (IPV), to include other members of the family and that experiences of violence are associated with lower levels of self-esteem. Methods: Experiences of violence were assessed through a cross-sectional survey of 598 women, including questions about specific acts of emotional, economic, physical and sexual violence across different time points, and the main perpetrator of each. Self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire. A global score for self-esteem was calculated and the relationship between violence in the past year and Rosenberg self-esteem score was assessed using multivariable linear regression models, adjusted for years of education completed, and clustering using robust standard errors. Results: 482 (81%) women consented to interview. On average, they were 28.5 years old, had completed 6 years of education and had been married 9.5 years. 88% were Muslim and 46% lived in joint families. 44% of women had experienced at least one act of violence in their lifetime (33% emotional, 22% economic, 24% physical, 12% sexual). Of the women who experienced violence after marriage, 70% cited a perpetrator other than the husband for at least one of the acts. 5% had low self-esteem (Rosenberg score < 15). For women who experienced emotional violence in the past year, the Rosenberg score was 2.6 points lower (p < 0.001). It was 1.2 points lower (p = 0.03) for women who experienced economic violence. For physical or sexual violence in the past year, no statistically significant relationship with Rosenberg score was seen. However, for a one-unit increase in the number of different acts of each type of violence experienced in the past year, a decrease in Rosenberg score was seen (-0.62 for emotional, -0.76 for economic, -0.53 for physical and -0.47 for sexual; p < 0.05 for all). Discussion: The high prevalence of violence experiences across the lifetime was likely due to the detailed assessment of violence and the inclusion of perpetrators within the family other than the husband. Experiences of emotional or economic violence in the past year were associated with lower Rosenberg scores and therefore lower self-esteem, but no relationship was seen between experiences of physical or sexual violence and Rosenberg score overall. For all types of violence in the past year, a greater number of different acts were associated with a decrease in Rosenberg score. Emotional violence showed the strongest relationship with self-esteem, but for all types of violence the more complex the pattern of perpetration with different methods used, the lower the levels of self-esteem. Due to the cross-sectional nature of the study causal directionality cannot be attributed. Further work to investigate the relationship between severity of violence and self-esteem and whether self-esteem mediates relationships between violence and poorer mental health would be beneficial.

Keywords: family violence, India, informal settlements, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, self-esteem, violence against women

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Authors: Harald Lindorfer, Bettina Frauz, Dietmar Ramhold

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Next to the well-known inhibitors in anaerobic digestion like ammonia, antibiotics or disinfectants, the number of process failures connected with mould growth in the feedstock increased significantly in the last years. It was assumed that mycotoxins are the cause of the negative effects. The financial damage to plants associated with these process failures is considerable. The aim of this study was to find a way of predicting the failures and furthermore strategies for a fast process recovery. In a first step, mould-contaminated feedstocks causing process failures in full-scale digesters were sampled and analysed on mycotoxin content. A selection of these samples was applied to biological inhibition tests. In this test, crystalline cellulose is applied in addition to the feedstock sample as standard substrate. Affected digesters were also sampled and analytical process data as well as operational data of the plants were recorded. Additionally, different mycotoxin substances, Deoxynivalenol, Zearalenon, Aflatoxin B1, Mycophenolic acid and Citrinin, were applied as pure substances to lab-scale digesters, individually and in various combinations, and effects were monitored. As expected, various mycotoxins were detected in all of the mould-contaminated samples. Nevertheless, inhibition effects were observed with only one of the collected samples, after applying it to an inhibition test. With this sample, the biogas yield of the standard substrate was reduced by approx. 20%. This result corresponds with observations made on full-scale plants. However, none of the tested mycotoxins applied as pure substance caused a negative effect on biogas production in lab scale digesters, neither after application as individual substance nor in combination. The recording of the process data in full-scale plants affected by process failures in most cases showed a severe accumulation of fatty acids alongside a decrease in biogas production and methane concentration. In the analytical data of the digester samples, a typical distribution of fatty acids with exceptionally high acetic acid concentrations could be identified. This typical fatty acid pattern can be used as a rapid identification parameter pointing to the cause of the process troubles and enable a fast implication of countermeasures. The results of the study show that more attention needs to be paid to feedstock storage and feedstock conservation before their application to anaerobic digesters. This is all the more important since first studies indicate that the occurrence of mycotoxins will likely increase in Europe due to the ongoing climate change.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, Biogas, Feedstock conservation, Fungal mycotoxins, Inhibition, process failure

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Rajkumar Ghosh

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Jhakri Thrust (JT) coeval of Sarahan Thrust (ST) was later considered to be part of Chaura Thrust (CT). The Main Central Thrust (MCT) delimits the southern extreme of Higher Himalaya, whereas the northern boundary defines by South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). STDS is parallel set of north dipping extensional faults. The activation timing of MCT and STDS. MCT activated in two parts (MCT-L during 15- 0.7 Ma, and MCT-U during 25-14 Ma). Similarly, STDS triggered in two parts (STDS-L during 24-12 Ma, and STDS-U during 19-14 Ma). The activation ages for MBT and MFT. Besides, the MBT occurred during 11-9 Ma, and MFT followed as <2.5 Ma. There are two mylonitised zones (zone of S-C fabric) found under the microscope. Dynamic and bulging recrystallization and sub-grain formation was documented under the optical microscope from samples collected from these zones. The varieties of crenulated schistosity are shown in photomicrographs. In a rare and uncommon case, crenulation cleavage and sigmoid Muscovite were found together side-by-side. Recrystallized quartzo-feldspathic grains exist in between crenulation cleavages. These thin-section studies allow three possible hypotheses for such variations in crenulation cleavages. S/SE verging meso- and micro-scale box folds around Chaura might be a manifestation of some structural upliftment. Near Chaura, kink folds are visible. Prominent asymmetric shear sense indicators in augen mylonite are missing in meso-scale but dominantly present under the microscope. The main foliation became steepest (range of dip ~ 65 – 80 º) at this place. The aim of this section is to characterize the box fold and its signature in the regional geology of Himachal Himalaya. Grain Boundary Migration (GBM) associated temperature range (400–750 ºC) from microstructural studies in grain scale along Jhakri-Wangtu transect documented. Oriented samples were collected from the Jhakri-Chaura transect at a regular interval of ~ 1km for strain analysis. The Higher Himalayan Out-of-Sequence Thrust (OOST) in Himachal Pradesh is documented a decade ago. The OOST in other parts of the Himalayas is represented as a line in between MCTL and MCTU. But In Himachal Pradesh area, OOST activated the MCTL as well as in between a zone located south of MCTU. The expectations for strain variation near the OOST are very obvious. But multiple sets of OOSTs may produce a zigzag pattern of strain accumulation for this area and figure out the overprinting structures for multiple sets of OOSTs.

Keywords: Chaura Thrust, out-of-sequence thrust, Main Central Thrust, Sarahan Thrust

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Authors: Shan Jiang

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China is a country with a distinct cultural system. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the central factor for everything, which naturally includes culture. There are quite a lot of cultural policies in China. The same goes for TV dramas. This paper traces the evolution of Chinese TV drama policy since 1986, examines the realistic situation behind the changes, and explores the structure and role of the government in shaping the process. Using historical documents and media reports, it first analyzes four key time nodes: 1986, 2003, 2012, and 2022. It shows how the policy shifts from restricting private production to opening up to public participation, from imposing one censorship to another, and from promoting some content to restricting some other area. It finds that the policy process is not simply rectilinear but rather wandering between deregulation and strengthening control. Secondly, it divides the policies into "basic" policies that establish the overall layout and more refined "strategic" policies that respond to more refined needs. It argues that the "basic" policy process is caused by China's political, economic, and cultural system reform, and then the "strategic" policy process is affected by more environmental factors, such as the government's follow-up development strategy, industrial development, technological innovation, and specific situations. Thirdly, it analysis the main body of the 104 policies from 2000 to 2021 and puts these subjects into China's power structure and cultural system, revealing that the policy issuers are all under the highest leadership of the Chinese Central Committee. Further, the paper challenges the typical description of Chinese cultural policy, which focuses on state control exclusively, identifies the forces within and outside the system that participate in or affect the policy-making process, and reveals the inter-subjective mechanism of policy change. In conclusion, the paper reveals that China's TV drama policy is under the unified leadership of the Party and the government, which greatly guarantees the consistency of the overall direction of cultural policy, that is, the right to speak firmly in the hands. The forces within the system can sometimes promote policy changes due to common development needs. However, folk discourse is only the object of control: when it breeds a certain amount of industrial space, the government will strengthen control over this space, suppress its potential "adverse effects", and instead provide protection and create conditions for the cultivation and growth of its mainstream discourse. However, the policy combination of basic policy and strategic policy, while having a strong effect and emergency capacity, also inhibits the innovation and diversification of the TV drama market. However, the state's substantial regulation will continue to exist in the future.

Keywords: TV Policy, China, policy process, cultural policy, culture management

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Authors: A. Saravanan, B. R. Huang, C. J. Yeh, K. C. Leou, I. N. Lin

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A new class of ultra-nano diamond-graphite nano-hybrid (DGH) composite materials containing nano-sized diamond needles was developed at low temperature process. Such kind of diamond- graphite nano-hybrid composite nanowires exhibit high electrical conductivity and excellent electron field emission (EFE) properties. Few earlier reports mention that addition of N2 gas to the growth plasma requires high growth temperature (800°C) to trigger the dopants to generate the conductivity in the films. High growth temperature is not familiar with the Si-based device fabrications. We have used a novel process such as bias-enhanced-grown (beg) MPECVD process to grow diamond films at low substrate temperature (450°C). We observed that the beg-N/UNCD films thus obtained possess high conductivity of σ=987 S/cm, ever reported for diamond films with excellent Electron field emission (EFE) properties. TEM investigation indicated that these films contain needle-like diamond grains about 5 nm in diameter and hundreds of nanometers in length. Each of the grains was encased in graphitic layers about tens of nano-meters in thickness. These materials properties suitable for more specific applications, such as high conductivity for electron field emitters, high robustness for microplasma cathodes and high electrochemical activity for electro-chemical sensing. Subsequently, other hand, the highly conducting DGH films were coated on vertically aligned ZnO nanorods, there is no prior nucleation or seeding process needed due to the use of BEG method. Such a composite structure provides significant enhancement in the field emission characteristics of the cold cathode was observed with ultralow turn on voltage 1.78 V/μm with high EFE current density of 3.68 mA/ cm2 (at 4.06V/μm) due to decoration of DGH material on ZnO nanorods. The DGH/ZNRs based device get stable emission for longer duration of 562min than bare ZNRs (104min) without any current degradation because the diamond coating protects the ZNRs from ion bombardment when they are used as the cathode for microplasma devices. The potential application of these materials is demonstrated by the plasma illumination measurements that ignited the plasma at the minimum voltage by 290 V. The photoresponse (Iphoto/Idark) behavior of the DGH/ZNRs based photodetectors exhibits a much higher photoresponse (1202) than bare ZNRs (229). During the process the electron transport is easy from ZNRs to DGH through graphitic layers, the EFE properties of these materials comparable to other primarily used field emitters like carbon nanotubes, graphene. The DGH/ZNRs composite also providing a possibility of their use in flat panel, microplasma and vacuum microelectronic devices.

Keywords: bias-enhanced nucleation and growth, ZnO nanorods, electrical conductivity, electron field emission, photo-detectors

Procedia PDF Downloads 357

Authors: Mindaye Teshome, Evaldo Muñoz Braz, Carlos M. M. Eleto Torres, Patricia Mattos

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Sustainable forest management planning requires up-to-date information on the structure, standing volume, biomass, and growth rate of trees from a given forest. This kind of information is lacking in many forests in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to quantify the population structure, diameter growth rate, and standing volume of wood from Juniperus procera trees in the Chilimo forest. A total of 163 sample plots were set up in the forest to collect the relevant vegetation data. Growth ring measurements were conducted on stem disc samples collected from 12 J. procera trees. Diameter and height measurements were recorded from a total of 1399 individual trees with dbh ≥ 2 cm. The growth rate, maximum current and mean annual increments, minimum logging diameter, and cutting cycle were estimated, and alternative cutting cycles were established. Using these data, the harvestable volume of wood was projected by alternating four minimum logging diameters and five cutting cycles following the stand table projection method. The results show that J. procera trees have an average density of 183 stems ha⁻¹, a total basal area of 12.1 m² ha⁻¹, and a standing volume of 98.9 m³ ha⁻¹. The mean annual diameter growth ranges between 0.50 and 0.65 cm year⁻¹ with an overall mean of 0.59 cm year⁻¹. The population of J. procera tree followed a reverse J-shape diameter distribution pattern. The maximum current annual increment in volume (CAI) occurred at around 49 years when trees reached 30 cm in diameter. Trees showed the maximum mean annual increment in volume (MAI) around 91 years, with a diameter size of 50 cm. The simulation analysis revealed that 40 cm MLD and a 15-year cutting cycle are the best minimum logging diameter and cutting cycle. This combination showed the largest harvestable volume of wood potential, volume increments, and a 35% recovery of the initially harvested volume. It is concluded that the forest is well stocked and has a large amount of harvestable volume of wood from J. procera trees. This will enable the country to partly meet the national wood demand through domestic wood production. The use of the current population structure and diameter growth data from tree ring analysis enables the exact prediction of the harvestable volume of wood. The developed model supplied an idea about the productivity of the J. procera tree population and enables policymakers to develop specific management criteria for wood harvesting.

Keywords: logging, growth model, cutting cycle, minimum logging diameter

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Authors: Aarti M. Shetty, Estela Davoodi, Subrata Gangooly, Anita Rao-Coppisetty

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Background: Testing Patency of Fallopian Tubes is among one of the several protocols for investigating Subfertile Couples. Both, Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) and Laparoscopy and dye test have been used as Tubal patency test for several years, with well-known limitation. Hysterosalpingo Contrast Sonography (HyCoSy) can be used as an alternative tool to HSG, to screen patency of Fallopian tubes, with an advantage of being non-ionising, and also, use of transvaginal scan to diagnose pelvic pathology. Aim: To determine the indication and analyse the performance of transvaginal scan and HyCoSy in Broomfield Hospital. Methods: We retrospectively analysed fertility workup of 282 women, who attended HyCoSy clinic at our institution from January 2015 to June 2016. An Audit proforma was designed, to aid data collection. Data was collected from patient notes and electronic records, which included patient demographics; age, parity, type of subfertility (primary or secondary), duration of subfertility, past medical history and base line investigation (hormone profile and semen analysis). Findings of the transvaginal scan, HyCoSy and Laparoscopy were also noted. Results: The most common indication for referral were as a part of primary fertility workup on couples who had failure to conceive despite intercourse for a year, other indication for referral were recurrent miscarriage, history of ectopic pregnancy, post reversal of sterilization(vasectomy and tuboplasty), Post Gynaecology surgery(Loop excision, cone biopsy) and amenorrhea. Basic Fertility workup showed 34% men had abnormal semen analysis. HyCoSy was successfully completed in 270 (95%) women using ExEm foam and Transvaginal Scan. Of the 270 patients, 535 tubes were examined in total. 495/535 (93%) tubes were reported as patent, 40/535 (7.5%) tubes were reported as blocked. A total of 17 (6.3%) patients required laparoscopy and dye test after HyCoSy. In these 17 patients, 32 tubes were examined under laparoscopy, and 21 tubes had findings similar to HyCoSy, with a concordance rate of 65%. In addition to this, 41 patients had some form of pelvic pathology (endometrial polyp, fibroid, cervical polyp, fibroid, bicornuate uterus) detected during transvaginal scan, who referred to corrective surgeries after attending HyCoSy Clinic. Conclusion: Our audit shows that HyCoSy and Transvaginal scan can be a reliable screening test for low risk women. Furthermore, it has competitive diagnostic accuracy to HSG in identifying tubal patency, with an additional advantage of screening for pelvic pathology. With addition of 3D Scan, pulse Doppler and other non-invasive imaging modality, HyCoSy may potentially replace Laparoscopy and chromopertubation in near future.

Keywords: hysterosalpingo contrast sonography (HyCoSy), transvaginal scan, tubal infertility, tubal patency test

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Authors: Simran Baweja, Bhavika Kalal, Surajit Maity

Abstract:

Photoinduced tautomerization reactions have been the centre of attention among the scientific community over the past several decades because of their significance in various biological systems. 7-azaindole (7AI) is considered a model system for DNA base pairing and to understand the role of such tautomerization reactions in mutations. To the best of our knowledge, extensive studies have been carried out on 7-azaindole and its solvent clusters exhibiting proton/ hydrogen transfer in both solution as well as gas phases. Derivatives of the above molecule, like 2,7- and 2,6-diazaindoles are proposed to have even better photophysical properties due to the presence of -aza group on the 2nd position. However, there are studies in the solution phase that suggest the relevance of these molecules, but there are no experimental studies reported in the gas phase yet. In our current investigation, we present the first gas phase spectroscopic data of 2,7-diazaindole (2,7-DAI) and its solvent cluster (2,7-DAI-H2O). In this, we have employed state-of-the-art laser spectroscopic methods such as fluorescence excitation (LIF), dispersed fluorescence (DF), resonant two-photon ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (2C-R2PI), photoionization efficiency spectroscopy (PIE), IR-UV double resonance spectroscopy, i.e., fluorescence-dip infrared spectroscopy (FDIR) and resonant ion-dip infrared spectroscopy (IDIR) to understand the electronic structure of the molecule. The origin band corresponding to the S1 ← S0 transition of the bare 2,7-DAI is found to be positioned at 33910 cm-1, whereas the origin band corresponding to S1 ← S0 transition of the 2,7-DAI-H2O is positioned at 33074 cm-1. The red-shifted transition in the case of solvent cluster suggests the enhanced feasibility of excited state hydrogen/ proton transfer. The ionization potential for the 2,7-DAI molecule is found to be 8.92 eV which is significantly higher than the previously reported 7AI (8.11 eV) molecule, making it a comparatively complex molecule to study. The ionization potential is reduced by 0.14 eV in the case of 2,7-DAI-H2O (8.78 eV) cluster compared to that of 2,7-DAI. Moreover, on comparison with the available literature values of 7AI, we found the origin band of 2,7-DAI and 2,7-DAI-H2O to be red-shifted by -729 and -280 cm-1 respectively. The ground and excited state N-H stretching frequencies of the 27DAI molecule were determined using fluorescence-dip infrared spectra (FDIR) and resonant ion dip infrared spectroscopy (IDIR), obtained at 3523 and 3467 cm-1, respectively. The lower value of vNH in the electronically excited state of 27DAI implies the higher acidity of the group compared to the ground state. Moreover, we have done extensive computational analysis, which suggests that the energy barrier in the excited state reduces significantly as we increase the number of catalytic solvent molecules (S= H2O, NH3) as well as the polarity of solvent molecules. We found that the ammonia molecule is a better candidate for hydrogen transfer compared to water because of its higher gas-phase basicity. Further studies are underway to understand the excited state dynamics and photochemistry of such N-rich chromophores.

Keywords: excited state hydrogen transfer, supersonic expansion, gas phase spectroscopy, IR-UV double resonance spectroscopy, laser induced fluorescence, photoionization efficiency spectroscopy

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Authors: P. L. Madhushi Kavindya

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Sri Lanka is a developing country where hydrology plays an important role in its economic and social growth, followed by irrigation and power generation. Therefore, reservoirs are a principal element of the culture and social status of Sri Lankans. The emergence of a newly built reservoir goes along with a community relocation process which eventually causes alterations in the cultural landscape around it. From the 18th century, the emergence of reservoirs has caused major impacts on the landscape of Sri Lanka. Foremost aspects can be identified as the increased and decreased value of the cultural landscape around a reservoir. Community relocation in regard to reservoir projects is discussed as a key factor in the research. The study further carries out observations and findings of the relocation process of reservoirs in global and local contexts. Consequently, the study discusses the vast study area of ‘cultural landscape’ in brief and its behavior overall. Besides, specific data about reservoir-related cultural landscapes in a worldwide context, along with facts about the evolution, has been discussed. The significance and diversity of the Sri Lankan reservoir-related cultural landscape are explored in the succeeding study. This study will mainly identify the existing constraints and tendencies regarding the relocation process in an overall status. The base for the research has been laid thereafter by broadening the study on alterations which occur in the cultural landscape in relevance to reservoir-related relocation. Uma Oya multipurpose development project is selected as the exemplary study area considering its visible impacts. This analysis will indicate strategies, theories, and methods that can be applied to apprehend the impact of the relocation process on the cultural landscape of reservoirs. The research was carried out by conducting the Uma Oya multipurpose development project case study and by defining its cultural landscape and process of relocation. A suitable theoretical framework is developed in order to assess the set of vulnerable areas of a cultural landscape which are likely to change due to relocation. A questionnaire survey is done in order to assess socio-economic aspects, and a GIS data analysis is conducted to analyze the impact on physical aspects. Findings show that the impacts of the cultural landscape fall under both positive and negative categories. It also shows that the previous condition before resettlement and post stages have significant changes, where the previous condition had more socio-economic benefits for the community. And it also shows a clear alteration pattern of physical environment changes. These specifically developed theories, areas of assessment, and strategies, along with the outcomes, can be used for any location with geographical similarities worldwide.

Keywords: cultural diffusion theory, cultural landscape, physical aspects, relocation, reservoirs, socio-economic aspects

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Authors: Aisling Davies, Ciara Greene

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Over the past decade the phenomenon of mind-wandering in cognitive tasks has attracted widespread scientific attention. Research indicates that mind-wandering occurrences can be detected through behavioural responses in the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and several studies have attributed a specific pattern of responding around an error in this task to an observable effect of a mind-wandering state. SART behavioural responses are also widely accepted as indices of sustained attention and of general attention lapses. However, evidence suggests that these same patterns of responding may be attributable to other factors associated with more focused states and that it may also be possible to distinguish the two states within the same task. To use behavioural responses in the SART to study mind-wandering, it is essential to establish both the SART parameters that would increase the likelihood of errors due to mind-wandering, and exactly what type of responses are indicative of mind-wandering, neither of which have yet been determined. The aims of this study were to compare different versions of the SART to establish which task would induce the most mind-wandering episodes and to determine whether mind-wandering related errors can be distinguished from errors during periods of focus, by behavioural responses in the SART. To achieve these objectives, 25 Participants completed four modified versions of the SART that differed from the classic paradigm in several ways so to capture more instances of mind-wandering. The duration that trials were presented for was increased proportionately across each of the four versions of the task; Standard, Medium Slow, Slow, and Very Slow and participants intermittently responded to thought probes assessing their level of focus and degree of mind-wandering throughout. Error rates, reaction times and variability in reaction times decreased in proportion to the decrease in trial duration rate and the proportion of mind-wandering related errors increased, until the Very Slow condition where the extra decrease in duration no longer had an effect. Distinct reaction time patterns around an error, dependent on level of focus (high/low) and level of mind-wandering (high/low) were also observed indicating four separate attention states occurring within the SART. This study establishes the optimal duration of trial presentation for inducing mind-wandering in the SART, provides evidence supporting the idea that different attention states can be observed within the SART and highlights the importance of addressing other factors contributing to behavioural responses when studying mind-wandering during this task. A notable finding in relation to the standard SART, was that while more errors were observed in this version of the task, most of these errors were during periods of focus, raising significant questions about our current understanding of mind-wandering and associated failures of attention.

Keywords: attention, mind-wandering, trial duration rate, Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

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Authors: Josiane Yaguibou, Ngoy Kishimba, Issiaka V. Coulibaly, Sabrina Pestilli, Falinirina Razanalison, Hantanirina V. Andremanisa

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Background In Madagascar modern contraceptive prevalence rate increased from 18% in 2003 to 43% in 2021. Anecdotal evidence suggests that increased use and frequent stock out in public health facilities of male condoms and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) can be related to diverted use of these products. This study analyzed the use of contraceptives and mode of utilization (correct or diverted) at the community level in the period 2019-2023 in Madagascar. Methodology: The study included a literature review, a quantitative survey combined with a qualitative study. It was carried out in 10 regions out of the 23 of the country. Eight regions (Bongolava, Vakinakaratra, Italy, Hautre Matsiatra, Betsiboka, Diana, Sofia and Anosy) were selected based on a study that showed existence of medroxyprogesterone acetate in pigs (MPA). The remaining 2 regions were selected due to high mCPR (Atsimo Andrefana) and to ensure coverage of all geographical zones in the country (Alaotra Mangoro). Sample random method was used, and the sample size was identified at 300 individuals per region. Zonal distribution is based on the urbanization rate for the region. 6 focus group discussions were organized in 3 regions, equally distributed between rural and urban areas. Key findings: Overall, 67% of those surveyed or their partner are currently using contraception. Injectables (MPA) are the most popular choice (33%), followed by implants and male condoms, 12% and 9%, respectively. The majority of respondents use condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy but also to prevent STDs. Still, 43% of respondents use condoms for other purposes, reaching 52% of respondents in urban areas and 71,2% in the age group 15-18. Diverted use includes hair growth (18.9%), as a toy (18.8%), cleaning the screen of electronic devices (10 %), cleaning shoes (3.1%) and for skincare (1.6%). Injectables are the preferred method of contraception both in rural areas (35%) and urban areas (21.2%). However, diverted use of injectables was confirmed by 4% of the respondents, ranging from 3 % in rural areas to 12% in urban. The diverted use of injectables in pig rearing was to avoid pregnancy and facilitate pig’s growth. Program Implications: The study confirmed the diverted use of some contraceptives. The misuse of male condoms is among the causes of stockouts of products in public health facilities, limiting their availability for pregnancy and STDs prevention. The misuse of injectables in pigs rearing needs to be further studied to learn the full extent of the misuse and eventual implications for meat consumption. The study highlights the importance of including messages on the correct use of products during sensibilization activities. In particular, messages need to address the anecdotal and false effects of male condoms, especially amongst young people. For misuse of injectables is critical to sensibilize farmers and veterinaries on possible negative effects for humans.

Keywords: diverted use, injectables, male condoms, sensibilization

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Authors: Sayantan Khanra, Rojers P. Joseph

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Background and Significance: This study is aimed at analyzing the role of demographic and service quality variables in the adoption and diffusion of e-government services among the users in India. The study proposes to examine the users' perception about e-Government services and investigate the key variables that are most salient to the Indian populace. Description of the Basic Methodologies: The methodology to be adopted in this study is Hierarchical Regression Analysis, which will help in exploring the impact of the demographic variables and the quality dimensions on the willingness to use e-government services in two steps. First, the impact of demographic variables on the willingness to use e-government services is to be examined. In the second step, quality dimensions would be used as inputs to the model for explaining variance in excess of prior contribution by the demographic variables. Present Status: Our study is in the data collection stage in collaboration with a highly reliable, authentic and adequate source of user data. Assuming that the population of the study comprises all the Internet users in India, a massive sample size of more than 10,000 random respondents is being approached. Data is being collected using an online survey questionnaire. A pilot survey has already been carried out to refine the questionnaire with inputs from an expert in management information systems and a small group of users of e-government services in India. The first three questions in the survey pertain to the Internet usage pattern of a respondent and probe whether the person has used e-government services. If the respondent confirms that he/she has used e-government services, then an aggregate of 15 indicators are used to measure the quality dimensions under consideration and the willingness of the respondent to use e-government services, on a five-point Likert scale. If the respondent reports that he/she has not used e-government services, then a few optional questions are asked to understand the reason(s) behind the same. Last four questions in the survey are dedicated to collect data related to the demographic variables. An indication of the Major Findings: Based on the extensive literature review carried out to develop several propositions; a research model is prescribed to start with. A major outcome expected at the completion of the study is the development of a research model that would help to understand the relationship involving the demographic variables and service quality dimensions, and the willingness to adopt e-government services, particularly in an emerging economy like India. Concluding Statement: Governments of emerging economies and other relevant agencies can use the findings from the study in designing, updating, and promoting e-government services to enhance public participation, which in turn, would help to improve efficiency, convenience, engagement, and transparency in implementing these services.

Keywords: adoption and diffusion of e-government services, demographic variables, hierarchical regression analysis, service quality dimensions

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