Search results for: myelin basic protein

Authors: Okechukwu B. C. Nwankwo

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The surge of social protests sweeping through the globe is a contemporary phenomenon. Yet the phenomenon in itself is not new. Thus, various scholars have over the years developed conceptual frameworks for evaluating it. Adopting and adapting some of these frameworks this paper begins from a purely theoretical perspective exploring the concept and content of social protest within the specific context of Nigeria. It proceeds to build a typology of the phenomenon in terms of form, actors, origin, character, organisation, goal, dynamics, outcome and a whole lot of other variables that are context relevant for evaluating it in an operationally useful manner. The centrality of the context in which protest evolves is demonstrated. Adopting Easton’s systems theory, the paper builds on the assumption that protests emerge whenever and wherever political institutions and structures prove unable or unwilling to transform inputs in form of basic demands into outputs in form of responsive policies. It argues that protests in Nigeria are simply the crystallisation of opposition in the streets. Protests are thus extra-institutional politics. This is usually the case, as elsewhere, where there is no functional institutionalised opposition. Noting that protest, disruptive or otherwise, is an influence strategy, it argues that every single protest is a new opportunity for reform, for reorganisation of state capacities, for modifying rights and obligation of citizens and government to each other. Each reform outcome is, however, only a temporal antecedent. Its extensity gives signal for the next similar protest event. Through providing evidence on how protests in Nigeria create opportunity for reform, for more accountable, more effective governance, the paper shows the positive impact of protests and its importance even in the consolidation effort for the nation’s nascent democracy. Data on protest events will be based on media reports, especially print media.

Keywords: democracy, dialectics, social protest, reform

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Authors: Nouzha Yasmina Soulimane-Benhabib

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Language is a medium of communication and a means of expression that is why today the learning of foreign languages especially the English language has become a basic necessity for every student who is ambitious. It is known that culture and language are inseparable and complementary, however, in the process of teaching a foreign language, teachers used to focus mainly on preparing adequate syllabi for ESP students, yet, some parameters should be considered. For instance; the culture of the target language may play an important role since students attitudes towards a foreign language enhance their learning or vice versa. The aim of this study is to analyse how culture could influence the teaching of a foreign language, we have taken the example of the English language as it is considered as the second foreign language in Algeria after French. The study is conducted at the Preparatory School of Sciences and Techniques, Tlemcen where twenty-five students participated in this research. The reasons behind learning the English language are various, and since English is the most widely-spoken language in the world, it is the language of research and education and it is used in many other fields, we have to take into consideration one important factor which is the social distance between the culture of the Algerian learner and the culture of the target language, this gap may lead to a culture shock. Two steps are followed in this research: The first one is to collect data from those students who are studying at the Preparatory School under the form of questionnaire and an interview is submitted to six of them in order to reinforce our research and get effective and precise results, and the second step is to analyse these data taking into consideration the diversity of the learners within this institution. The results obtained show that learners’ attitudes towards the English community and culture are mixed and it may influence their curiosity and attention to learn. Despite of big variance between Algerian and European cultures, some of the students focused mainly on the benefits of the English language since they need it in their studies, research and a future carrier, however, the others manifest their reluctance towards this language and this is mainly due to the profound impact of the English culture which is different from the Algerian one.

Keywords: Algeria, culture, English, impact

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Rossy G. Olan Villegas, Gerardo Acosta Garcia, Aurea Bernardino Nicanor, Leopoldo Gonzalez Cruz, Humberto Ramirez Medina

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Capsicum annuum is a crop of agricultural and economic importance in Mexico and other countries. The fruit (pepper) contains bioactive components such as carotenoids, phenolic compounds and capsaicinoids that improve health. However, pepper cultivation is affected by biotic and abiotic factors that decrease yield. Some phytohormones like gibberellins and auxins induce the formation and development of fruit in several plants. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the exogenous application of phytohormones like gibberellic acid and indolbutyric acid on fruit development of jalapeno pepper plants, the protein profile of plant tissues, the accumulation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity in the pericarp and seeds. For that, plants were sprinkled with these phytohormones. The fruit collection for the control, indolbutyric acid and gibberellic acid treatments was 7 peppers per plant; however, for the treatment that combines indolbutyric acid and gibberellic acid, a fruit with the shortest length (1.52 ± 1.00 cm) and weight (0.41 ± 1.0 g) was collected compared to fruits of plants grown under other treatments. The length (4,179 ± 0,130 cm) and weight of the fruit (8,949 ± 0.583 g) increased in plants treated with indolbutyric acid, but these characteristics decreased with the application of GA3 (length of 3,349 ± 0.127 cm and a weight 4,429 ± 0.144 g). The content of carotenes and phenolic compounds increased in plants treated with GA3 (1,733 ± 0.092 and 1,449 ± 0.009 mg / g, respectively) or indolbutyric acid (1,164 ± 0.042 and 0.970 ± 0.003 mg / g). However, this effect was not observed in plants treated with both phytohormones (0.238 ± 0.021 and 0.218 ± 0.004 mg / g). Capsaicin content was higher in all treatments; but it was more noticeable in plants treated with both phytohormones, the value being 0.913 ± 0.001 mg / g (three times greater in amount). The antioxidant activity was measured by 3 different assays, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), antioxidant power of ferric reduction (FRAP) and 2,2'-Azinobis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid ( ABTS) to find the minimum inhibitory concentration of the reducing radical (IC50 and EC50). Significant differences were observed from the application of the phytohormone, being the fruits treated with gibberellins, which had a greater accumulation of bioactive compounds. Our results suggest that the application of phytohormones modifies the development of fruit and its content of bioactive compounds.

Keywords: auxins, capsaicinoids, carotenoids, gibberellins

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Authors: Bouanati Sidi Mohammed, N. E. Chabane Sari, Mostefa Kara Selma

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It is well-known that Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are attracting great interest in the display technology industry due to their many advantages, such as low price of manufacturing, large-area of electroluminescent display, various colors of emission included white light. Recently, there has been much progress in understanding the device physics of OLEDs and their basic operating principles. In OLEDs, Light emitting is the result of the recombination of electron and hole in light emitting layer, which are injected from cathode and anode. For improve luminescence efficiency, it is needed that hole and electron pairs exist affluently and equally and recombine swiftly in the emitting layer. The aim of this paper is to modeling polymer LED and OLED made with small molecules for studying the electrical and optical characteristics. The first simulation structures used in this paper is a mono layer device; typically consisting of the poly (2-methoxy-5(2’-ethyl) hexoxy-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) polymer sandwiched between an anode usually an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate, and a cathode, such as Al. In the second structure we replace MEH-PPV by tris (8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum (Alq3). We choose MEH-PPV because of it's solubility in common organic solvents, in conjunction with a low operating voltage for light emission and relatively high conversion efficiency and Alq3 because it is one of the most important host materials used in OLEDs. In this simulation, the Poole-Frenkel- like mobility model and the Langevin bimolecular recombination model have been used as the transport and recombination mechanism. These models are enabled in ATLAS -SILVACO software. The influence of doping and thickness on I(V) characteristics and luminescence, are reported.

Keywords: organic light emitting diode, polymer lignt emitting diode, organic materials, hexoxy-phenylenevinylene

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Authors: Rachel Y. Zhang, Christopher K. Anderson

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A critical aspect of revenue management is a firm’s ability to predict demand as a function of price. Historically hotels have used simple time series models (regression and/or pick-up based models) owing to the complexities of trying to build casual models of demands. Machine learning approaches are slowly attracting attention owing to their flexibility in modeling relationships. This study provides an overview of approaches to forecasting hospitality demand – focusing on the opportunities created by machine learning approaches, including K-Nearest-Neighbors, Support vector machine, Regression Tree, and Artificial Neural Network algorithms. The out-of-sample performances of above approaches to forecasting hotel demand are illustrated by using a proprietary sample of the market level (24 properties) transactional data for Las Vegas NV. Causal predictive models can be built and evaluated owing to the availability of market level (versus firm level) data. This research also compares and contrast model accuracy of firm-level models (i.e. predictive models for hotel A only using hotel A’s data) to models using market level data (prices, review scores, location, chain scale, etc… for all hotels within the market). The prospected models will be valuable for hotel revenue prediction given the basic characters of a hotel property or can be applied in performance evaluation for an existed hotel. The findings will unveil the features that play key roles in a hotel’s revenue performance, which would have considerable potential usefulness in both revenue prediction and evaluation.

Keywords: hotel revenue, k-nearest-neighbors, machine learning, neural network, prediction model, regression tree, support vector machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Liu Yi Hui

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The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has globally affected all aspects of life, with social distancing and quarantine orders causing turmoil and learning in community colleges being temporarily paused. In fact, this is the first time that adult education has faced such a severe challenge. It forces researchers to reflect on the impact of pandemics on adult education and ways to respond. Distance learning appears to be one of the pedagogical tools capable of dealing with interpersonal isolation and social distancing caused by the pandemic. This research aims to examine whether the impact of social distancing during COVID-19 will lead to increased acceptance of technology and, subsequently, an increase in adults ’ willingness to participate in distance learning. The hypothesis that social distancing and the desire to participate in distance learning affects learners’ tendency to accept technology is investigated. Teachers ’ participation in distance education and acceptance of technology are used as adjustment variables with the relationship to “social distancing,” “participation in distance learning,” and “acceptance of technology” of learners. A questionnaire survey was conducted over a period of twelve months for teachers and learners at all community colleges in Taiwan who enrolled in a basic unit course. Community colleges were separated using multi-stage cluster sampling, with their locations being metropolitan, non-urban, south, and east as criteria. Using the G*power software, 660 samples were selected and analyzed. The results show that through appropriate pedagogical strategies or teachers ’ own acceptance of technology, adult learners’ willingness to participate in distance learning could be influenced. A diverse model of participation can be developed, improving adult education institutions’ ability to plan curricula to be flexible to avoid the risk associated with epidemic diseases.

Keywords: social distancing, adult learning, community colleges, technology acceptance model

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Henry Kuppen

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In the last decade, tree managers have faced many threats of pests and diseases and the effects of climate change. Managers will recognize that they have to put more energy and more money into tree management. By recognizing the cause behind this, the opportunity will arise to build sustainable tree populations for the future. More and more, unwanted larvae are sprayed, ash dieback infected trees are pruned or felled, and emerald ash borer is knocking at the door of West Europe. A lot of specific knowledge is needed to produce management plans and best practices. If pest and disease have a large impact, society loses complete tree species and need to start all over again building urban forest. But looking at the cause behind it, landscape design, and tree species selection, the sustainable solution does not present itself in managing these threats. Every pest or disease needs two important basic ingredients to be successful: climate and food. The changing climate is helping several invasive pathogens to survive. Food is often designed by the landscapers and managers of the urban forest. Monocultures promote the success of pathogens. By looking more closely at the basics, tree managers will realise very soon that the solution will not be the management of pathogens. The long-term solution for sustainable tree populations is a different design of our urban landscape. The use of tree species diversity can help to reduce the impact of climate change and pathogens. Therefore landscapers need to be supported. They are the specialists in designing the landscape using design values like canopy volume, ecosystem services, and seasonal experience. It’s up to the species specialist to show what the opportunities are for different species that meet the desired interpretation of the landscape. Based on landscapers' criteria, selections can be made, including tree species related requirements. Through this collaboration and formation of integral teams, sustainable plant design will be possible.

Keywords: climate change, landscape design, resilient landscape, tree species selection

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Bambang Novianto, Rizal Aditya Herdianto, Raphael Bianco Huwae, Afifah, Alfonso Brolin Sihite, Rudi Lumanto

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The mobile banking application is a type of mobile application that is growing rapidly. This is caused by the ease of service and time savings in making transactions. On the other hand, this certainly provides a challenge in security issues. The use of mobile banking can not be separated from cyberattacks that may occur which can result the theft of sensitive information or financial loss. The financial loss and the theft of sensitive information is the most avoided thing because besides harming the user, it can also cause a loss of customer trust in a bank. Cyberattacks that are often carried out against mobile applications are phishing, hacking, theft, misuse of data, etc. Cyberattack can occur when a vulnerability is successfully exploited. OWASP mobile Top 10 has recorded as many as 10 vulnerabilities that are most commonly found in mobile applications. In the others, android permissions also have the potential to cause vulnerabilities. Therefore, an overview of the profile of the mobile banking application becomes an urgency that needs to be known. So that it is expected to be a consideration of the parties involved for improving security. In this study, an experiment has been conducted to capture the profile of the mobile banking applications in Indonesia based on android permission and OWASP mobile top 10 2016. The results show that there are six basic vulnerabilities based on OWASP Mobile Top 10 that are most commonly found in mobile banking applications in Indonesia, i.e. M1:Improper Platform Usage, M2:Insecure Data Storage, M3:Insecure Communication, M5:Insufficient Cryptography, M7:Client Code Quality, and M9:Reverse Engineering. The most permitted android permissions are the internet, status network access, and telephone read status.

Keywords: mobile banking application, OWASP mobile top 10 2016, android permission, sensitive information, financial loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Elena G. Diryugina, Maria A. Dovger, Maria V. Lunkina, Alexandra A. Ianchenko

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The personality development and well-being of children have become important focuses of school education and indicators of its quality. The studies show that academic success depends more on personality and motivation than on intelligence and giftedness. Those personality resources that help a person to maintain well-being both here and now and in the future constitute their personality potential. The development of schoolchildrens' personality potential can help them meet the challenges of the modern world and achieve new educational goals. At the same time, it is noted that the pedagogical factor is one of the most significant in relation to schoolchildrens' success and well-being. What is important for teachers to develop in order to make their students feel more competent and maintain well-being? As part of the Developmental Environment Programme of the Charitable Foundation ‘Investment in the Future’, a longitudinal study of the personality potential and well-being of educators and schoolchildren was conducted from 2018 to 2023. More than 2,500 teachers and over 4,000 students from Russia took part. It was found that behind a teacher's communication style, an important construct that influences the motivation of schoolchildren and the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs, is the personal potential of that teacher. Their personality potential correlates with the social-emotional development of schoolchildren in junior grades. A teacher's communication style with adolescents contributes to their academic motivation, self-esteem and satisfaction with life and learning. In addition, child well-being cannot be promoted in isolation from attention to the psychological well-being of teachers. Their social well-being and engagement are higher when they are included in professional learning communities. The results will be helpful for both positive education researchers and practitioners to identify an approach to child personality development and well-being that is achieved primarily through the personality development and well-being of school staff members and mostly teachers.

Keywords: Personality development, personality potential, schoolchildren, teaching style, well-being

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Authors: Menna Ewida, Dalal Abou El-Ella, Dina Lasheen, Huessin El-Subbagh

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Introduction: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor receptor (VEGF) is a signal protein produced by cells that stimulates vasculogenesis to create new blood vessels. VEGF family binds to three trans-membrane tyrosine kinase receptors,Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an enzyme of crucial importance in medicinal chemistry. DHFR catalyzes the reduction 7,8 dihydro-folate to tetrahydrofolate and intimately couples with thymidylate synthase which is a pivotal enzyme that catalysis the reductive methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP) utilizing N5,N10-methylene tetrahydrofolate as a cofactor which functions as the source of the methyl group. Purpose: Novel substituted Thiazole agents were designed as DHFR and VEGF-TK inhibitors with increased synergistic activity and decreased side effects. Methods: Five series of compounds were designed with a rational that mimic the pharmacophoric features present in the reported active compounds that target DHFR & VEGFR. These molecules were docked against Methotrexate & Sorafenib as controls. An in silico ADMET study was also performed to validate the bioavailability of the newly designed compounds. The in silico molecular docking & ADMET study were also applied to the non-classical antifolates for comparison. The interaction energy comparable to that of MTX for DHFRI and Sorafenib for VEGF-TKI activity were recorded. Results: Compound 5 exhibited the highest interaction energy when docked against Sorafenib, While Compound 9 showed the highest interaction energy when docked against MTX with the perfect binding mode. Comparable results were also obtained for the ADMET study. Most of the compounds showed absorption within (95-99) zone which varies according to the type of substituents. Conclusions: The Substituted Thiazole Analogues could be a suitable template for antitumor drugs that possess enhanced bioavailability and act as DHFR and VEGF-TK inhibitors.

Keywords: anti-tumor agents, DHFR, drug design, molecular modeling, VEGFR-TKIs

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Authors: Thomas Schalow

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It is commonly recognized that our present curriculum is not preparing students to function in the 21st century. This is particularly true in regard to communication needs across cultures - both human and non-human. In this paper, a comprehensive theory of communication-based on communication with non-human cultures and intelligences is presented to meet the following three imminent contingencies: communicating with sentient biological intelligences, communicating with extraterrestrial intelligences, and communicating with artificial super-intelligences. The paper begins with the argument that we need to become much more serious about communicating with the non-human, intelligent life forms that already exists around us here on Earth. We need to broaden our definition of communication and reach out to other sentient life forms in order to provide humanity with a better perspective of its place within our ecosystem. The paper next examines the science and philosophy behind CETI (communication with extraterrestrial intelligences) and how it could prove useful even in the absence of contact with alien life. However, CETI’s assumptions and methodology need to be revised in accordance with the communication theory being proposed in this paper if we are truly serious about finding and communicating with life beyond Earth. The final theme explored in this paper is communication with non-biological super-intelligences. Humanity has never been truly compelled to converse with other species, and our failure to seriously consider such intercourse has left us largely unprepared to deal with communication in a future that will be mediated and controlled by computer algorithms. Fortunately, our experience dealing with other cultures can provide us with a framework for this communication. The basic concepts behind intercultural communication can be applied to the three types of communication envisioned in this paper if we are willing to recognize that we are in fact dealing with other cultures when we interact with other species, alien life, and artificial super-intelligence. The ideas considered in this paper will require a new mindset for humanity, but a new disposition will yield substantial gains. A curriculum that is truly ready for the 21st century needs to be aligned with this new theory of communication.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, CETI, communication, language

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Authors: Clemence Collon, Didier Poracchia

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The manipulation of sports competitions is a new type of sports integrity problem. While doping has become an organized, institutionalized struggle, the manipulation of sports competitions is gradually building up. This study aims to describe and understand how the soft Olympic and Paralympic law was gradually built. It also summarizes the legal tools for prevention, detection, and sanction developed by the international Olympic movement. Then, it analyzes the impact of this soft law on the law of the States, in particular in French law. This study is mainly based on an analysis of existing legal literature and non-binding law in the International Olympic and Paralympic movement and on the French National Olympic Committee. Interviews were carried out with experts from the Olympic movement or experts working on combating the manipulation of sports competitions; the answers are also used in this article. The International Olympic Committee has created a supranational legal base to fight against the manipulation of sports competitions. This legal basis must be respected by sports organizations. The Olympic Charter, the Olympic Code of Ethics, the Olympic Movement Code on the prevention of the manipulation of sports competitions, the rules of standards, the basic universal principles, the manuals, the declarations have been published in this perspective. This sports soft law has influences or repercussions in each state. Many states take this new form of integrity problem into account by creating state laws or measures in favor of the fight against sports manipulations. France has so far only a legal basis for manipulation related to betting on sports competitions through the infraction of sports corruption included in the penal code and also created a national platform with various actors to combat this cheating. This legal study highlights the progressive construction of the sports law rules of the Olympic movement in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions linked to sports betting and their impact on the law of the states.

Keywords: integrity, law and ethics, manipulation of sports competitions, olympic, sports law

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Authors: Min Liu, Jirui Gong, Qinpu Luo, Lili Yang, Bo Yang, Zihe Zhang, Yan Pan, Zhanwei Zhai

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Grazing disturbance is one of the important land-use types that affect plant growth and ecosystem processes. In order to study the responses of dominant species to grazing in the semiarid temperate grassland of Inner Mongolia, we set five grazing intensity plots: a control and four levels of grazing (light (LG), moderate (MG), heavy (HG) and extreme heavy grazing (EHG)) to test the morphological and physiological responses of Stipa grandis, Leymus chinensis at the individual levels. With the increase of grazing intensity, Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis both exhibited reduced plant height, leaf area, stem length and aboveground biomass, showing a significant dwarf phenomenon especially in HG and EHG plots. The photosynthetic capacity decreased along the grazing gradient. Especially in the MG plot, the two dominant species have lowest net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and water use efficiency (WUE). However, in the HG and EHG plots, the two species had high light saturation point (LSP) and low light compensation point (LCP), indicating they have high light-use efficiency. They showed a stimulation of compensatory photosynthesis to the remnant leaves as compared with grasses in MG plot. For Leymus chinensis, the lipid peroxidation level did not increase with the low malondialdehyde (MDA) content even in the EHG plot. It may be due to the high enzymes activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) to reduce the damage of reactive oxygen species. Meanwhile, more carbohydrate was stored in the leaf of Leymus chinensis to provide energy to the plant regrowth. On the contrary, Stipa grandis showed the high level of lipid peroxidation especially in the HG and EHG plots with decreased antioxidant enzymes activity. The soluble protein content did not change significantly in the different plots. Therefore, with the increase of grazing intensity, plants changed morphological and physiological traits to defend themselves effectively to herbivores. Leymus chinensis is more resistant to grazing than Stipa grandis in terms of tolerance traits, particularly under heavy grazing pressure.

Keywords: antioxidant enzymes activity, grazing density, morphological responses, photosynthesis

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Authors: O. A. Adebiyi, A. O. Oni, A. O. K. Adeshehinwa, I. O. Adejumo

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In forty nine (49) days, twenty four (24) growing pigs (Landrace x Large white) with an average weight of 17 ±2.1kg were allocated to four experimental treatments T1 (dry mash without probiotics), T2 (wet feed without probiotics), T3 (dry mash + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) and T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) which were replicated three times with two pigs per replicate in a completely randomised design. The basal feed (dry feed) was formulated to meet the nutritional requirement of the animal with crude protein of 18.00% and metabolisable energy of 2784.00kcal/kgME. Growth pattern, faecal microbial load and behavioural activities (eating, drinking, physical pen interaction and frequency of visiting the drinking troughs) were accessed. Pigs fed dry mash without probiotics (T1) had the highest daily feed intake among the experimental animals (1.10kg) while pigs on supplemented diets (T3 and T4) had an average daily feed intake of 0.95kg. However, the feed conversion ratio was significantly (p < 0.05) affected with pigs on T3 having least value of 6.26 compared those on T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae) with means of 7.41. Total organism counts varied significantly (p < 0.05) with pigs on T1, T2, T3 and T4 with mean values of 179.50 x106cfu; 132.00 x 106cfu; 32.00 x 106cfu and 64.50 x 106cfu respectively. Coliform count was also significantly (p < 0.05) different among the treatments with corresponding values of 117.50 x 106cfu; 49.00 x 106cfu, 8.00 x 106cfu for pigs in T1, T2 and T4 respectively. The faecal Saccaromyces cereviseae was significantly lower in pigs fed supplemented diets compared to their counterparts on unsupplemented diets. This could be due to the inability of yeast organisms to be voided easily through feaces. The pigs in T1 spent the most time eating (7.88%) while their counterparts on T3 spent the least time eating. The corresponding physical pen interaction times expressed in percentage of a day for pigs in T1, T2, T3 and T4 are 6.22%, 5.92%, 4.04% and 4.80% respectively. These behavioural responses exhibited by these pigs (T3) showed that little amount of dry feed supplemented with probiotics is needed for better performance. The water intake increases as a result of the dryness of the feed with consequent decrease in pen interaction and more time was spent resting than engaging in other possible vice-habit like fighting or tail biting. Pigs fed dry feed (T3) which was supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics had a better overall performance, least faecal microbial load than wet fed pigs either supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae or non-supplemented.

Keywords: behaviour, feed forms, feed utilization, growth, microbial

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Authors: Alhage Drammeh

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The research is on the occurrence of certain diseases among children in rural and far-flung parts of the Gambia and the extent to which they are caused by lack of access to clean water. A baseline survey was used to discover, describe, and explain the actual processes. The paper explains the purpose of the research, which is majorly to improve the health condition of children, especially those living in rural communities. The paper also gives a brief overview of the socio-economic situation of The Gambia, emphasizing its status as a Least Developed Country (LDC) and the majority of its population living below the poverty line, with women and children hardest hit. The research used as case studies of two rural communities in the Gambia -Basse Dampha Kunda Village and Foni Besse. Data was collected through oral interviews and medical tests conducted among people in both villages, with an emphasis on children. The demographic detail of those tested is tabulated for a clearer understanding. The results were compared, revealing that skin rashes, hepatitis, and certain other diseases are more prevalent in communities lacking access to safe drinking water. These results were also presented in a tabular form. The study established how some policy failures and neglect on the part of the Government of The Gambia are imperiling the health of many rural dwellers in the country, the most glaring being that the research team was unable to test water samples collected from the two communities, as there are no laboratory reagents for testing water anywhere in The Gambia. Many rural communities lack basic amenities, especially clean and potable water, as well as health facilities. The study findings also highlighted the need for healthcare providers and medical NGOs to voice the plight of rural dwellers and collaborate with the government to set up health facilities in rural areas of The Gambia.

Keywords: jaundice, skin rashes, children, rural communities, the Gambia, causes

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Kateryna Kulyk

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Anti-corruption education is an integral element of the corruption prevention mechanism of any state. Effective implementation of anti-corruption policy is impossible without awareness-raising activities. Information campaigns should target different social groups and aim to reduce tolerance to any form of corruption. Today, Ukraine and Lithuania have all the necessary infrastructure to actively work in this direction. Anti-corruption measures and building a society resistant to corruption are particularly important in the context of martial law in Ukraine and the state of emergency in Lithuania, as these conditions increase the risks of corrupt practices. To implement this area of activity, it is recommended to actively involve all state and local authorities, business representatives, non-governmental organisations, and all interested citizens. As of today, educational institutions, specialised anti-corruption bodies, and the public are already involved in this process. The purpose of the research is to draw public attention to the need and importance of obtaining basic knowledge on combating and preventing corruption, even in a state of emergency or martial law. This topic remains relevant even during the period of a state of emergency or martial law, as the risk of corrupt practices increases during these periods. The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of the anti-corruption policies of Ukraine and Lithuania, sociological research, and our own survey of anti-corruption experts. Legislation, reports of anti-corruption bodies and civil society organisations were analysed. We also conducted an anonymous survey of 13 anti-corruption experts on the most important anti-corruption measures in the countries studied. The main contribution of the research is to draw attention to the problem of low awareness of the population of countries about the importance of anti-corruption education as one of the necessary conditions for reducing corruption practices.

Keywords: corruption, prevention and combating of corruption, education, anti-corruption education, martial law, state of emergency

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: Manal Elsayed Elkheshin, Rasha Saleh Mansour, Mohamed Fawzy Mohamed Eldnasury, Mamdouh Elbadry Mohamed

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This research Aims to identify the main factors affecting the production and the fish consumption in Egypt, through the econometric estimation for various forms functions of fish production and fish consumption during the period (1991-2014), as the aim of this research to forecast the production and the fish consumption in Egypt until 2020, through determine the best standard methods using (ARIMA).This research also aims to the economic feasibility of the production of fish in aquaculture farms study; investment cost and represents the value of land, buildings, equipment and irrigation. Aquaculture requires three types of fish (Tilapia, carp fish, and mullet fish), and the total area of the farm, about an acre. The annual Fish production from this project about 3.5 tons. The annual investment costs of about 50500 pounds, Find conclude that the project can repay the cost of their investments after about 4 years and 5 months, and therefore recommend the implementation of the project, and internal rate of return reached (IRR) of about 22.1%, where it is clear that the rate of large internal rate of return, and achieves pound invested in this project annual return is estimated at 22.1 pounds, more than the opportunity cost, so we recommend the need to implement the project.Recommendations:1. Increasing the fish agriculture to decrease the gap of animal protein. 2.Increasing the number of mechanism fishing boats, and the provision of transport equipped to maintain the quality of fish production. 3.Encourage and attract the local and foreign investments, providing advice to the investor on the aquaculture field. 4. Action newsletters awareness of the importance of these projects where these projects resulted in a net profit after recovery in less than five years, IRR amounted to about 23%, which is much more than the opportunity cost of a bank interest rate is about 7%, helping to create work and graduates opportunities, and contribute to the reduction of imports of the fish, and improve the performance of the food trade balance.

Keywords: equation model, individual share, red meat, consumption, production, endogenous variable, exogenous variable, financial performance evaluates fish culture, feasibility study, fish production, aquaculture

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Authors: Francesca Lombardi, Francesca Rosaria Augello, Benedetta Cinque, Maria Grazia Cifone, Paola Palumbo

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a high-grade primary brain tumor refractory to current forms of treatment. The survival benefits of patients with GBM remain unsatisfactory due to the intrinsic or acquired resistance to temozolomide (TMZ), an alkylating agent, used as the first-line chemotherapeutic drug to treat GBM patients. Its cytotoxic effect is visualized by the induction of O6-methylguanine (O6MeG) within DNA. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), an inflammation-associated enzyme, has been implicated in tumorigenesis and progression of GBM, its inhibition shows anticancer activities. In the present study, it was verified if the combination of a COX-2 selective inhibitor, NS398, with TMZ could counteract the TMZ resistance. In particular, the effect of NS398 mixed with TMZ was investigated in the GBM TMZ-resistant cell line, T98G. Cells were pretreated with NS398 (100µM, 24 hours) and then exposed to TMZ alone (200µM), NS398 alone, or both for 72 hours, after which cell growth rate and cycle phases, as well as apoptosis level, were evaluated. Coadministration of NS398 and TMZ caused a significant decrease in cell growth and a progressive increase of dead cells detected by trypan blue staining. Moreover, a significant level of apoptotic cell percentage and alteration of cell cycle phases were observed in T98G treated with TMZ-NS398 combination when compared to untreated cells or TMZ-treated cells. TMZ-resistant tumors, as GBM, express elevated levels of DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT). The mixture drastically reduced MGMT expression in the TMZ-resistant cell line T98G, known to express high levels of MGMT basically. Moreover, while TMZ alone did not influence the COX-2 protein expression, the combination successfully reduced it. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that NS398 enhanced the efficacy of TMZ through cell number reduction, apoptosis induction, and decreased MGMT levels, suggesting the ability of drug combination to reduce the chemoresistance. This drug combination deserves attention and could be considered as a promising therapeutic strategy for GBM patients.

Keywords: COX-2, COX-2 inhibitor, glioblastoma, NS398, T98G, temozolomide

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Authors: Eunice Tang

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The main focus of this study is investigating introvert and extrovert university students’ perception of the use of interactive digital tools (such as Padlet and Mentimeter) in a face-to-face English for Specific Purposes (ESP) class after all classes in the university had been switched to online mode for three semesters. The subjects of the study were business students from three ESP classes at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The basic tool for data collection was an anonymous online survey, which included 3 required multiple-choice questions and 3 open questions (2 required; 1 optional) about the effects of interactive digital tools on their amount of contribution to the class discussions, their perception of the role of interactive digital tools to the sharing of ideas and whether the students considered themselves introvert or extrovert. The online survey will be emailed to all 54 students in the three ESP classes and subjected to a three-week data collection period. The survey results will then be analyzed qualitatively, particularly on the effect the use of interactive digital tools had on the amount of contribution to the class among introvert and extrovert students, their perception of a language class with and without digital tools and most importantly, the implication to educators about how interactive digital tools can be used (or not) to cater for the needs of the introvert and extrovert students. The pandemic has given educators various opportunities to use interactive digital tools in class, especially in an online environment. It is interesting for educators to explore the potential of such tools when classes are back face-to-face. This research thus offers the students’ perspective on using interactive digital tools in a face-to-face classroom. While a lot has been said about introverted students responding positively to digital learning online, the student's perception of their own personality collected in the survey and the digital impact tools have on their contribution to class may shed some light on the potential of interactive digital tools in a post-pandemic era.

Keywords: psychology for language learning, interactive digital tools, personality-based investigation, ESP

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Authors: Yolla Miranda, Marini Altyra, Karina Kalmapuspita Imas

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Oily sludge wastes always fill in upstream and downstream petroleum industry process. Sludge still contains oil that can use for energy storage. Recycling sludge is a method to handling it for reduce the toxicity and very probable to get the remaining oil around 20% from its volume. Froth flotation, a common method based on chemical unit for separate fine solid particles from an aqueous suspension. The basic composition of froth flotation is the capture of oil droplets or small solids by air bubbles in an aqueous slurry, followed by their levitation and collection in a froth layer. This method has been known as no intensive energy requirement and easy to apply. But the low efficiency and unable treat the high viscosity become the biggest problem in froth flotation unit. This study give the design to manage the high viscosity of sludge first and then entering the froth flotation including cavitation tube on it to change the bubbles into nano particles. The recovery in flotation starts with the collision and adhesion of hydrophobic particles to the air bubbles followed by transportation of the hydrophobic particle-bubble aggregate from the collection zone to the froth zone, drainage and enrichment of the froth, and finally by its overflow removal from the cell top. The effective particle separation by froth flotation relies on the efficient capture of hydrophobic particles by air bubbles in three steps. The important step is collision. Decreasing the bubble particles will increasing the collision effect. It cause the process more efficient. The pre-treatment, froth flotation, and cavitation tube integrated each other. The design shows the integrated unit and its process.

Keywords: sludge oil recovery, froth flotation, cavitation tube, nanobubbles, high viscosity

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Authors: Bua Srikos, Phusit Phukamchanoad

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The purpose is to study the model and characteristic of participation of the suitable community to lead to develop permanent water marketing in Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti District, Samutsongkhram Province. A total of 342 survey questionnaires were administered to potential respondents. The researchers interviewed the leader of the community. Appreciation Influence Control (AIC) was used to talk with 20 villagers on arena. The findings revealed that overall, most people had the middle level of the participation in developing the durable Bang Noi Floating Market, Bangkonti, Samutsongkhram Province and in aspects of gaining benefits from developing it with atmosphere and a beautiful view for tourism. For example, the landscape is beautiful with public utilities. The participation in preserving and developing Bang Noi Floating Market remains in the former way of life. The basic factor of person affects to the participation of people such as age, level of education, career, and income per month. Most participants are the original hosts that have houses and shops located in the marketing and neighbor. These people involve with the benefits and have the power to make a water marketing strategy, the major role to set the information database. It also found that the leader and the villagers play the important role in setting a five-physical database. Data include level of information such as position of village, territory of village, road, river, and premises. Information of culture consists of a two-level of information, interesting point, and Itinerary. The information occurs from presenting and practicing by the leader and villagers in the community.All of phases are presented for listening and investigating database together in both the leader and villagers in the process of participation.

Keywords: participation, community, sustainable development, encouragement, tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Apisit Nawapanpong, Natthapat Boonjerm

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This project aims to analyze and identify the flight plan of low-altitude aviation in Thailand and other countries. The development of UAV technology has led the innovation and revolution in the aviation industry; this includes the development of new modes of passenger or freight transportation, and it has also affected other industries widely. At present, this technology is being developed rapidly and has been tested all over the world to make the most efficient for technology or innovation, and it is likely to grow more extensively. However, no flight plan for low-altitude operation has been published by the government organization; when compared with high-altitude aviation with manned aircraft, various unique factors are different, whether mission, operation, altitude range or airspace restrictions. In the study of the essential components of low-altitude operation measures to be practical and tangible, there were major problems, so the main consideration of this project is to analyze the components of low-altitude operations which are conducted up to the altitudes of 400 ft or 120 meters above ground level referring to the terrain, for example, air traffic management, classification of aircraft, basic necessity and safety, and control area. This research will focus on confirming the theory through qualitative and quantitative research combined with theoretical modeling and regulatory framework and by gaining insights from various positions in aviation industries, including aviation experts, government officials, air traffic controllers, pilots, and airline operators to identify the critical essential components of low-altitude flight operation. This project analyzes by using computer programs for science and statistics research to prove that the result is equivalent to the theory and be beneficial for regulating the flight plan for low-altitude operation by different essential components from this project and can be further developed for future studies and research in aviation industries.

Keywords: low-altitude aviation, UAV technology, flight plan, air traffic management, safety measures

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Authors: Rosa Figueroa, Christopher Flores

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Text categorization is the problem of assigning a new document to a set of predetermined categories, on the basis of a training set of free-text data that contains documents whose category membership is known. To train a classification model, it is necessary to extract characteristics in the form of tokens that facilitate the learning and classification process. In text categorization, the feature extraction process involves the use of word sequences also known as N-grams. In general, it is expected that documents belonging to the same category share similar features. The Smith-Waterman (SW) algorithm is a dynamic programming algorithm that performs a local sequence alignment in order to determine similar regions between two strings or protein sequences. This work explores the use of SW algorithm as an alternative to feature extraction in text categorization. The dataset used for this purpose, contains 2,610 annotated documents with the classes Obese/Non-Obese. This dataset was represented in a matrix form using the Bag of Word approach. The score selected to represent the occurrence of the tokens in each document was the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF). In order to extract features for classification, four experiments were conducted: the first experiment used SW to extract features, the second one used unigrams (single word), the third one used bigrams (two word sequence) and the last experiment used a combination of unigrams and bigrams to extract features for classification. To test the effectiveness of the extracted feature set for the four experiments, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier was tuned using 20% of the dataset. The remaining 80% of the dataset together with 5-Fold Cross Validation were used to evaluate and compare the performance of the four experiments of feature extraction. Results from the tuning process suggest that SW performs better than the N-gram based feature extraction. These results were confirmed by using the remaining 80% of the dataset, where SW performed the best (accuracy = 97.10%, weighted average F-measure = 97.07%). The second best was obtained by the combination of unigrams-bigrams (accuracy = 96.04, weighted average F-measure = 95.97) closely followed by the bigrams (accuracy = 94.56%, weighted average F-measure = 94.46%) and finally unigrams (accuracy = 92.96%, weighted average F-measure = 92.90%).

Keywords: comorbidities, machine learning, obesity, Smith-Waterman algorithm

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Authors: Asma Inge-Hanif, Ayyub Ansari Hanif

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The impact of conflicts, the subsequent refugee migration to America and their attempted use of societal resources implicate the lack of further humanitarian aid as a consequence of the abrupt decrease in services and policy changes stemming from new governmental mandates and Executive Orders. Statistical research data indicates a substantial decline in access to standardized health services by refugee women creating a significant alteration in the management of their maternal health care in America, previously shown to result in decreased mortality and morbidity. Studying nursing at Howard University in Washington, D.C., observed doctors were not always sensitive to the needs and modesty concerns of immigrant Muslim women - often unintentionally. Among health care professionals, the prevailing belief should be that every man, woman and child has the right to quality care in a dignified manner and the achievement of optimal health and well-being, regardless of race, creed, socio-economic level or status. In 1987 Muslimat Al Nisaa Health and Social Services Center was established to care for underserved and uninsured women and children. This Center, plus the subsequent shelter, provided direct access to those homeless, refugees, human trafficking and women victims of domestic violence was established and provides the data for this study. Understanding specific culture, social, economic and religious nuances respects their diversity and addressing their basic human needs that they achieve optimal success. The ultimate goal being to facilitate the rescue and housing of those whom escaped from a country/communities where girls are devalued, brought, sold and abused.

Keywords: women, refugee, domestic violence, health care

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Yee-Seul So, Guiseppe Ianiri, Alex Idnurm, Yong-Sun Bahn

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Tor1 is a serine/threonine protein kinase that is widely conserved across eukaryotic species. Tor1 was first identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a target of rapamycin (TOR). The TOR pathway has been implicated in regulating cellular responses to nutrients, proliferation, translation, transcription, autophagy, and ribosome biogenesis. Here we identified two homologues of S. cerevisiae Tor proteins, CNAG_06642 (Tor1) and CNAG_05220 (Tlk1, TOR-like kinase 1), in Cryptococcus neoformans causing a life-threatening fungal meningoencephalitis. Both Tor1 and Tlk1 have rapamycin-binding (RB) domains but Tlk1 has truncated RB form. To study the TOR-signaling pathway in the fungal pathogen, we attempt to construct the tor1Δ and tlk1Δ mutants and phenotypically analyze them. Although we failed to construct the tor1Δ mutant, we successfully construct the tlk1Δ mutant. The tlk1Δ mutant does not exhibit any discernable phenotypes, suggesting that Tlk1 is dispensable in C. neoformans. The essentiality of TOR1 is independently confirmed by constructing the TOR1 promoter replacement strain by using a copper transporter 4 (CTR4) promoter and the TOR1/tor1 heterozygous mutant in diploid C. neoformans strain background followed by sporulation analysis. To further analyze the function of Tor1, we construct TOR1 overexpression mutant using a constitutively active histone H3 in C. neoformans. We find that the Tor1 overexpression mutant is resistant to rapamycin but the tlk1Δ mutant does not exhibit any altered resistance to rapamycin, further confirming that Tor1, but not Tlk1, is critical for TOR signaling. Furthermore, we found that Tor1 is involved in response to diverse stresses, including genotoxic stress, oxidative stress, thermo-stress, antifungal drug treatment, and production of melanin. To identify any TOR-related transcription factors, we screened C. neoformans transcription factor library that we constructed in our previous study and identified several potential downstream factors of Tor1, including Atf1, Crg1 and Bzp3. In conclusion, the current study provides insight into the role of the TOR signaling pathway in human fungal pathogens as well as C. neoformans.

Keywords: fungal pathogen, serine/threonine kinase, target of rapamycin, transcription factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 221

Authors: C. F. Jones Couto

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The implementation of quality Physical Education (PE) inspires and instils lasting healthy behavioural patterns, hence have the potential as an educational tool to teach values in today’s society. The goal of PE should be to contribute to the acceptance of the infinite qualities of South Africa’s (RSA) diversity and to claim RSA’s diversity as a source of strength that forms a universal bond of a common set of values. There is a global change in the interaction of children with their environment; their lives are shaped by forces that do not necessarily assist them in learning and applying values. In most countries today, the responsibility for developing values is assigned to schools in formal teaching settings. Values-based education offers an investment in individual and societal improvement through attendance to a values framework. The aim of this qualitative research is to develop a PE programme aligned with the current South African curriculum, enriched with values of Olympism and Ubuntuism, and to present PE teacher training workshops (TTW). Participatory action research will be used as the basis of how data will be collected, analysed, and presented on an ongoing, cyclical basis. PE teachers from different schools in the Tshwane District of RSA will participate as they can best inform the research questions and enhance the understanding of the phenomenon under study. The outcomes of using PE as a tool to teach values can propose recommendations to the Department of Basic Education of RSA to improve and implement a quality PE curriculum that is applicable to practice and that will optimize the chances of meeting the South African National Curriculum Statement standards. A PE programme with the aim of holistic development, based on the values of Olympism and Ubuntuism, can strive to ensure that the values set out in RSA’s constitution are part of PE organization, planning, and teaching at each South African school.

Keywords: olympism, physical education, teacher training, ubuntuism, values-based education

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Suprehatin Suprehatin

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Improving the participation of smallholder farmers in horticultural value chains to benefit from the rapidly growing demand for high-value agricultural products is one strategy for raising farm income. However, smallholder farmer participation in Indonesian horticultural value chains is under-researched. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to describe the current status of horticultural crop adoption in Indonesia and analyze the motivations and dynamics of smallholder farmer participation in horticultural value chains: why some small farmers join these new and potentially profitable chains and continue their participation. This study also examines the characteristics of farmers who adopted and those who did not adopt a new horticultural crop with respect to the household (farmer), farm and institutional characteristics. The analysis was conducted using unique data from a 2013 survey of 960 Indonesian farmers on Java Island that produce a variety of agricultural products. Basic statistical analysis showed relatively low adoption rates (10%) of new horticultural crops amongst 960 selected Indonesian farmers with different decisions made in terms of number and timing of new horticultural crop adoption. Adopters were motivated mainly by higher profit, higher yield, and more cash opportunities. The result also showed that current low rates of horticultural crop adoption are associated with a variety of factors, such as lower levels of education among farmers, resource constraints, lack of information on horticultural crop production and low participation in farmer groups. These findings will be helpful for policymakers when designing policies and programs to promote greater participation of Indonesian smallholder farmers in horticultural value chains. In other words, a revitalisation of agricultural policy beyond staple food is important to seize potential benefits from the ongoing agricultural food market transformation.

Keywords: farmer adoption, high value, horticultural crops, Indonesia

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Hamdy Khamis Korayem, Manal Yehia Tayel, Abeer Shawky El Hadedy, Emmanuel Kamal Aziz Saba, Shimaa Badr Abdelnaby Badr

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The aim of the current study was to demonstrate whether serum Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is increased in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its correlation with disease activity, functional disability and quality of life in RA patients. The study included 30 RA patients and 20 healthy normal control subjects. The RA patients were diagnosed according to the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria for RA with the exclusion of those who had diabetes mellitus, endocrine disorders, associated rheumatologic diseases, viral hepatitis B or C and other diseases with increased serum IL-18 level. All patients were subjected to clinical evaluation of the musculoskeletal system. Disease activity was assessed by disease activity score 28 with 4 variables (DAS 28). Functional disability was assessed by health assessment questionnaire disability index (HAQ-DI). The quality of life was assessed by Short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Radiological assessment of both hands and feet by Sharp/van der Heijde (SvH) scoring method. Laboratory parameters including erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) were assessed in patients and serum level of IL-18 in both patients and control subjects. There was no statistically significant difference between patient and control group as regards age and sex. Among patients, 29 % were females and the age range was between 25 to 55 years. Extra-articular manifestations were presented in 56.7% of the patients. The mean of DAS 28 score was 5.73±1.46 and that of HAQ-DI was 1.22±0.72 while that of SF-36 was 40.03±13.96. The level of serum IL-18 was significantly higher in patients than in the control subjects (P= 0.030). Serum IL-18 was correlated with ACPA among the patient group. There were no statistically significant correlations between serum IL-18 and DAS28, HAQ-DI, SF-36, total SvH score and the other laboratory results. In conclusion, IL-18 is significantly higher in RA patient than in healthy control subjects and positively correlated with ACPA level. IL-18 is associated with extra-articular manifestations. However, it is not correlated with other laboratory parameters, disease activity, functional disability, quality of life nor radiological severity.

Keywords: disease activity score, Interleukin-18, quality of life assessment, rheumatoid arthritis

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Authors: Neslihan Cetin

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In this study, we will aim to analyze how the period of the state of emergency in Turkey lead to gaps in law and the formation of areas in which there was a complete lack of supervision. The state of emergency that was proclaimed following the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, continued until July 18, 2018, that is to say, 2 years, without taking into account whether the initial circumstances persisted. As part of this work, we claim that the state of emergency provided the executive power with important tools for governing, which it took constant use. We can highlight how the concern for security at the center of the basic considerations of the people in a city was exploited as a foundation by the military power in Turkey to interfere in the political, legal, and social spheres. The constitutions of 1924, 1961, and 1982 entrusted the army with the role of protector of the integrity of the state. This became an instrument at the hands of the military to legitimize their interventions in the name of public security. Its interventions in the political field are indeed politically motivated. The constitution, the legislative, and regulatory systems are modified and monopolized by the military power that dominates the legislative, regulatory, and judicial power, leading to a state of exception. With the political convulsions over a decade, the government was able to usurp the instrument called the state of exception. In particular, the decree-laws of the state of emergency, which the executive makes frequent and generally abusive use, became instruments in the hands of the government to take measures that it wishes to escape from the rules and the pre-established control mechanisms. Thus the struggle against the political opposition becomes more unbalanced and destructive. To this must also be added the ineffectiveness of ex-post controls and domestic remedies. This research allows us to stress how a legal concept, such as ‘the state of emergency’ can be politically exploited to make it a legal weapon that continues to produce victims.

Keywords: constitutional law, state of emergency, rule of law, instrumentalization of law

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Iwona Cieślik, Władysław Migdał, Kinga Topolska, Ewa Cieślik

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The consumption of fish is recommended as a means of preventing serious diseases, especially cardiovascular problems. Fish is known to be a valuable source of protein (rich in essential amino acids), unsaturated fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins, macro- and microelements. However, it can also contain several contaminants (e.g. pesticides, heavy metals) that may pose considerable risks for humans. Among others, pesticide are of special concern. Their widespread use has resulted in the contamination of environmental compartments, including water. The occurrence of pesticides in the environment is a serious problem, due to their potential toxicity. Therefore, a systematic monitoring is needed. The aim of the study was to determine the organochlorine and organophosphate pesticide residues in fish muscle tissues of the pike (Esox lucius, L.) and the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykkis, Walbaum) by a modified QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method, using Gas Chromatography Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (GC/Q-MS), working in selected-ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The analysis of α-HCH, β-HCH, lindane, diazinon, disulfoton, δ-HCH, methyl parathion, heptachlor, malathion, aldrin, parathion, heptachlor epoxide, γ-chlordane, endosulfan, α-chlordane, o,p'-DDE, dieldrin, endrin, 4,4'-DDD, ethion, endrin aldehyde, endosulfan sulfate, 4,4'-DDT, and metoxychlor was performed in the samples collected in the Carp Valley (Malopolska region, Poland). The age of the pike (n=6) was 3 years and its weight was 2-3 kg, while the age of the rainbow trout (n=6) was 0.5 year and its weight was 0.5-1.0 kg. Detectable pesticide (HCH isomers, endosulfan isomers, DDT and its metabolites as well as metoxychlor) residues were present in fish samples. However, all these compounds were below the limit of quantification (LOQ). The other examined pesticide residues were below the limit of detection (LOD). Therefore, the levels of contamination were - in all cases - below the default Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs), established by Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The monitoring of pesticide residues content in fish is required to minimize potential adverse effects on the environment and human exposure to these contaminants.

Keywords: contaminants, fish, pesticides residues, QuEChERS method

Procedia PDF Downloads 220