Search results for: process quality management method

Authors: Rajasekar Elangopandian, Anand Shanmugam

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Now-a-days for surveillances unmanned aerial vehicle plays a vital role. Not only for surveillances, aerial photography disaster management and the notice of earth behavior UAV1s envisages meticulously. To reduce the maintenance and fuel nuclear powered Vehicles are greater support. The design consideration is much important for the UAV manufacturing industry and Research and development agency. Eventually design is looking like a pentagon shaped fuselage and black rubber coated paint in order to escape from the enemy radar and other targets. The pentagon shape fuselage has large space to keep the mini nuclear reactor inside and the material is carbon – carbon fiber specially designed by the software called cosmol and hyper mesh 14.2. So the weight consideration will produce the positive result for productivity. The walls of the fuselage are coated with lead and protective shield. A double layer of W/Bi sheet is proposed for radiation protection at the energy range of 70 Kev to 90 Kev. The designed W/bi sheet, only 0.14 mm thick and is 36% light. The properties of the fillers were determined from zeta potential and particle size measurements. The Exposes of the radiation can be attenuated by 3 ways such as minimizing exposure time, Maximizing distance from the radiation source and shielding the whole vehicle. The inside reactor will be switched ON when the UAV starts its cruise. The moderators and the control rods can be inserted by automation technique by newly developed software. The heat generated by the reactor will be used to run the turbine which is fixed inside the UAV called mini turbine with natural rubber composite Shaft radiation shield. Cooling system will be in two mode such as liquid and air cooled. Liquid coolant for the heat regeneration is ordinary water, liquid sodium, helium and the walls are made up of regenerative and radiation protective material. The other components like camera and arms bay will be located at the bottom of the UAV high are specially made products in order to escape from the radiation. They are coated with lead Pb and natural rubber composite material. This technique provides the long rang and endurance for eternal flight mission until we need any changeability of parts or product. This UAV has the special advantage of ` land on String` means it`ll land at electric line to charge the automated electronics. Then the fuel is enriched uranium (< 5% U - 235) contains hundreds of fuel pins. This technique provides eternal duty for surveillances and aerial photography. The landing of the vehicle is ease of operation likewise the takeoff is also easier than any other mechanism which present in nowadays. This UAV gives great immense and immaculate technology for surveillance and target detecting and smashing the target.

Keywords: mini turbine, liquid coolant for the heat regeneration, in order to escape from the radiation, eternal flight mission, it`ll land at electric line

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Authors: Xuechun Kan, Dongdong Li, Fan Li, Peidang Liu

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis, and radiotherapy is one of the main treatment methods. However, due to the obvious resistance of tumor cells to radiotherapy, high dose of ionizing radiation is required during radiotherapy, which causes serious damage to normal tissues near the tumor. Therefore, how to improve radiotherapy resistance and enhance the specific killing of tumor cells by radiation is a hot issue that needs to be solved in clinic. Recent studies have shown that silver-based nanoparticles have strong radiosensitization, and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) also provide a broad prospect for tumor targeted radiosensitization therapy due to their ultra-small size, low toxicity or non-toxicity, self-fluorescence and strong photostability. Aptamer 5TR1 is a 25-base oligonucleotide aptamer that can specifically bind to mucin-1 highly expressed on the membrane surface of TNBC 4T1 cells, and can be used as a highly efficient tumor targeting molecule. In this study, AgNCs were synthesized by DNA template based on 5TR1 aptamer (NC-T5-5TR1), and its role as a targeted radiosensitizer in TNBC radiotherapy was investigated. The optimal DNA template was first screened by fluorescence emission spectroscopy, and NC-T5-5TR1 was prepared. NC-T5-5TR1 was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. The inhibitory effect of NC-T5-5TR1 on cell activity was evaluated using the MTT method. Laser confocal microscopy was employed to observe NC-T5-5TR1 targeting 4T1 cells and verify its self-fluorescence characteristics. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 by 4T1 cells was observed by dark-field imaging, and the uptake peak was evaluated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The radiation sensitization effect of NC-T5-5TR1 was evaluated through cell cloning and in vivo anti-tumor experiments. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining flow cytometry was utilized to detect the impact of nanomaterials combined with radiotherapy on apoptosis. The results demonstrated that the particle size of NC-T5-5TR1 is about 2 nm, and the UV-visible absorption spectrum detection verifies the successful construction of NC-T5-5TR1, and it shows good dispersion. NC-T5-5TR1 significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and effectively targeted and fluoresced within 4T1 cells. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 reached its peak at 3 h in the tumor area. Compared with AgNCs without aptamer modification, NC-T5-5TR1 exhibited superior radiation sensitization, and combined radiotherapy significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and tumor growth in 4T1-bearing mice. The apoptosis level of NC-T5-5TR1 combined with radiation was significantly increased. These findings provide important theoretical and experimental support for NC-T5-5TR1 as a radiation sensitizer for TNBC.

Keywords: 5TR1 aptamer, silver nanoclusters, radio sensitization, triple-negative breast cancer

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Authors: Lucile Rapin, Cynthia El Hage, Rihab Gamaoun, Maria-Fernanda Arboleda, Erin Prosk

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Introduction: Sante Cannabis (SC), a Canadian group of clinics dedicated to medical cannabis, based in Montreal and in the province of Quebec, has served more than 8000 patients seeking cannabis-based treatment over the past five years. As randomized clinical trials with natural medical cannabis are scarce, real-world evidence offers the opportunity to fill research gaps between scientific evidence and clinical practice. Data on the use of medical cannabis products from SC patients were prospectively collected, leading to a large real-world database on the use of medical cannabis. The aim of this study was to report information on the profiles of both patients and prescribed medical cannabis products at SC clinics, and to assess the safety of medical cannabis among Canadian patients. Methods: This is an observational retrospective study of 1342 adult patients who were authorized with medical cannabis products between October 2017 and September 2019. Information regarding demographic characteristics, therapeutic indications for medical cannabis use, patterns in dosing and dosage form of medical cannabis and adverse effects over one-year follow-up (initial and 4 follow-up (FUP) visits) were collected. Results: 59% of SC patients were female, with a mean age of 56.7 (SD= 15.6, range= (19-97)). Cannabis products were authorized mainly for patients with a diagnosis of chronic pain (68.8% of patients), cancer (6.7%), neurological disorders (5.6%), and mood disorders (5.4 %). At initial visit, a large majority (70%) of patients were authorized exclusively medical cannabis products, 27% were authorized a combination of pharmaceutical cannabinoids and medical cannabis and 3% were prescribed only pharmaceutical cannabinoids. This pattern was recurrent over the one-year follow-up. Overall, oil was the preferred formulation (average over visits 72.5%) followed by a combination of oil and dry (average 19%), other routes of administration accounted for less than 4%. Patients were predominantly prescribed products with a balanced THC:CBD ratio (59%-75% across visits). 28% of patients reported at least one adverse effect (AE) at the 3-month follow-up visit and 12% at the six-month FUP visit. 84.8% of total AEs were mild and transient. No serious AE was reported. Overall, the most common side effects reported were dizziness (11.95% of total AEs), drowsiness (11.4%), dry mouth (5.5%), nausea (4.8%), headaches (4.6%), cough (4.4%), anxiety (4.1%) and euphoria (3.5%). Other adverse effects accounted for less than 3% of total AE. Conclusion: Our results confirm that the primary area of clinical use for medical cannabis is in pain management. Patients in this cohort are largely utilizing plant-based cannabis oil products with a balanced ratio of THC:CBD. Reported adverse effects were mild and included dizziness and drowsiness. This real-world data confirms the tolerable safety profile of medical cannabis and suggests medical indications not yet validated in controlled clinical trials. Such data offers an important opportunity for the investigation of the long-term effects of cannabinoid exposure in real-life conditions. Real-world evidence can be used to direct clinical trial research efforts on specific indications and dosing patterns for product development.

Keywords: medical cannabis, safety, real-world data, Canada

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Authors: T. Al-Alawi, N. Shorbaji, E. Rashaidi, M.Alidrisi

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Purpose/Objective(s): The main purpose of this study is to analyze the planning of SBRT treatments for localized prostate cancer with 6FFF and 10FFF energies to see if there is a dosimetric difference between the two energies and how we can increase the plan efficiency and reduce its complexity. Also, to introduce a planning method in our department to treat prostate cancer by utilizing high energy photons without increasing patient toxicity and fulfilled all dosimetric constraints for OAR (an organ at risk). Then toevaluate the target 95% coverage PTV95, V5%, V2%, V1%, low dose volume for OAR (V1Gy, V2Gy, V5Gy), monitor unit (beam-on time), and estimate the values of homogeneity index HI, conformity index CI a Gradient index GI for each treatment plan.Materials/Methods: Two treatment plans were generated for15 patients with localized prostate cancer retrospectively using the CT planning image acquired for radiotherapy purposes. Each plan contains two/three complete arcs with two/three different collimator angle sets. The maximum dose rate available is 1400MU/min for the energy 6FFF and 2400MU/min for 10FFF. So in case, we need to avoid changing the gantry speed during the rotation, we tend to use the third arc in the plan with 6FFF to accommodate the high dose per fraction. The clinical target volume (CTV) consists of the entire prostate for organ-confined disease. The planning target volume (PTV) involves a margin of 5 mm. A 3-mm margin is favored posteriorly. Organs at risk identified and contoured include the rectum, bladder, penile bulb, femoral heads, and small bowel. The prescription dose is to deliver 35Gyin five fractions to the PTV and apply constraints for organ at risk (OAR) derived from those reported in references. Results: In terms of CI=0.99, HI=0.7, and GI= 4.1, it was observed that they are all thesame for both energies 6FFF and 10FFF with no differences, but the total delivered MUs are much less for the 10FFF plans (2907 for 6FFF vs.2468 for 10FFF) and the total delivery time is 124Sc for 6FFF vs. 61Sc for 10FFF beams. There were no dosimetric differences between 6FFF and 10FFF in terms of PTV coverage and mean doses; the mean doses for the bladder, rectum, femoral heads, penile bulb, and small bowel were collected, and they were in favor of the 10FFF. Also, we got lower V1Gy, V2Gy, and V5Gy doses for all OAR with 10FFF plans. Integral dosesID in (Gy. L) were recorded for all OAR, and they were lower with the 10FFF plans. Conclusion: High energy 10FFF has lower treatment time and lower delivered MUs; also, 10FFF showed lower integral and meant doses to organs at risk. In this study, we suggest usinga 10FFF beam for SBRTprostate treatment, which has the advantage of lowering the treatment time and that lead to lessplan complexity with respect to 6FFF beams.

Keywords: FFF beam, SBRT prostate, VMAT, prostate cancer

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Authors: Noel Smith

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To achieve professional registration, UK social workers need to complete a programme of education and training which meets standards set down by central government. When it comes to practice, social work in local authorities must fulfil requirements of national legislation but there is considerable local variation in the organisation and delivery of services. This presentation discusses the on-going reform of social work education by central government in the context of research of social work services in a local authority. In doing so it highlights that the ‘direction of travel’ of the national reform of social work education seems at odds with the trajectory of development of local social work services. In terms of education reform, the presentation cites key government initiatives including the knowledge and skills requirements which have been published separately for, respectively, child and family social work and adult social work. Also relevant is the Government’s new ‘teaching partnership’ pilot which focuses exclusively on social work in local government, in isolation from social work in NGOs. In terms of research, the presentation discusses two studies undertaken by Professor Smith in Suffolk County Council, a local authority in the east of England. The first is an equality impact analysis of the introduction of a new model for the delivery of adult and community services in Suffolk. This is based on qualitative research with local government representatives and NGOs involved in social work with older people and people with disabilities. The second study is an on-going, mixed method evaluation of the introduction of a new model of social care for children and young people in Suffolk. This new model is based on the international ‘Signs of Safety’ approach, which is applied in this model to a wide range of services from early intervention to child protection. While both studies are localised, the service models they examine are good illustrations of the way services are developing nationally. Analysis of these studies suggest that, if services continue to develop as they currently are, then social workers will require particular skills which are not be adequately addressed in the Government’s plans for social work education. Two issues arise. First, education reform concentrates on social work within local government while increasingly local authorities are outsourcing service provision to NGOs, expecting greater community involvement in providing care, and integrating social care with health care services. Second, education reform focuses on the different skills required for working with older and disabled adults and working with children and families, to the point where potentially the profession would be fragmented into two different classes of social worker. In contrast, the development of adult and children’s services in local authorities re-asserts the importance of common social work skills relating to personalisation, prevention and community development. The presentation highlights the importance for social work education in the UK to be forward looking, in terms of the changing design of service delivery, and outward looking, in terms of lessons to be drawn from international social work.

Keywords: adult social work, children and families social work, European social work, social work education

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Authors: Enya Trenholm-Jensen

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This paper employs various semiotic methodologies to examine the mechanism of soft power. Soft power refers to a country’s global reputation and their ability to leverage that reputation to achieve certain aims. South Korea has invested heavily in their soft power strategy for a multitude of predominantly historical and geopolitical reasons. On account of this investment and the global prominence of their strategy, South Korea was considered to be the optimal candidate for the aims of this investigation. Having isolated the entertainment industry as one of the most heavily funded segments of the South Korean soft power strategy, the analysis restricted itself to this sector. Within this industry, two entertainment products were selected as case studies. The case studies were chosen based on commercial success according to metrics such as streams, purchases, and subsequent revenue. This criterion was deemed to be the most objective and verifiable indicator of the products general appeal. The entertainment products which met the chosen criterion were Netflix’ “Squid Game” and BTS’ hit single “Butter”. The methodologies employed were chosen according to the medium of the entertainment products. For “Squid Game,” an aesthetic analysis was carried out to investigate how multi- layered meanings were mobilized in a show popularized by its visual grammar. To examine “Butter”, both music semiology and linguistic analysis were employed. The music section featured an analysis underpinned by denotative and connotative music semiotic theories borrowing from scholars Theo van Leeuwen and Martin Irvine. The linguistic analysis focused on stance and semantic fields according to scholarship by George Yule and John W. DuBois. The aesthetic analysis of the first case study revealed intertextual references to famous artworks, which served to augment the emotional provocation of the Squid Game narrative. For the second case study, the findings exposed a set of musical meaning units arranged in a patchwork of familiar and futuristic elements to achieve a song that existed on the boundary between old and new. The linguistic analysis of the song’s lyrics found a deceptively innocuous surface level meaning that bore implications for authority, intimacy, and commercial success. Whether through means of visual metaphor, embedded auditory associations, or linguistic subtext, the collective findings of the three analyses exhibited a desire to conjure a form of positive arousal in the spectator. In the synthesis section, this process is likened to that of branding. Through an exploration of branding, the entertainment products can be understood as cogs in a larger operation aiming to create positive associations to Korea as a country and a concept. Limitations in the form of a timeframe biased perspective are addressed, and directions for future research are suggested. This paper employs semiotic methodologies to examine two entertainment products as mechanisms of soft power. Through means of visual metaphor, embedded auditory associations, or linguistic subtext, the findings reveal a desire to conjure positive arousal in the spectator. The synthesis finds similarities to branding, thus positioning the entertainment products as cogs in a larger operation aiming to create positive associations to Korea as a country and a concept.

Keywords: BTS, cognitive semiotics, entertainment, soft power, south korea, squid game

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Authors: Priyanka Manghani, Manthan Patel, Rahul Peddawad

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Cervical Cancer is a major public health hurdle in the area of women’s health. The most common cause of Cervical Cancer is the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Human papilloma virus has various genotypes, with HPV 16 and HPV 18 being the major etiological factor causing carcinoma of the Cervix. Early screening and detection by Papanicolaou Smears (PAP) is an effective method for identifying premalignant and malignant lesions. In case of existing pre- malignant lesions /cervical dysplasia’s found with HPV 16 or 18, appropriate follow up can be done to prevent it from developing into a neoplasm. Aims and Objectives: Primary Aim; To study various abnormal cervical cytology reports as detected by Pap Smear Tests, using the Bethesda System in women at a Tertiary Care Hospital. Secondary Aim; To discuss the importance of Pap smear in Cervical Cancer Screening Program. Materials and Methods: Our study is a prospective study, based on 101 women who attended the Out-patient department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at a tertiary care hospital in age group 20-40 years with chief complaints of white/foul vaginal discharge, post-coital Bleeding, low back pain, irregular menstruation, etc. 60 women, who were tested, of the total no of women, were commercial sex workers, thus being a high-risk group for HPV infection. All women underwent conventional cytology. For all the abnormal smears, further cervical biopsies were done, and the final diagnosis was done on the basis of histopathology (gold standard). Results: In all these patients, 16 patients presented with normal smears out of which 2 belonged to the category of commercial sex workers (3.33%) and 14 being from the normal/control group (34.15%). 44 women presented with inflammatory smears out of which 30 were commercial sex workers (50%) and 14 from the control Group (34.15%). A total of 11 women presented with infectious etiology with 6 being commercial sex workers (10%) and 5 (12.2%) being in the control group. A total of 8 patients presented with low-grade squamous intra epithelial lesion (LSIL) with 7 (11.7%) being commercial sex workers and 1(2.44%) patient belonging to the control group. A Total of 7 patients presented with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) with 6 (10%) being commercial sex workers and 1 (2.44%) belonging to the control group. 9 patients in total presented with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) with 6(10%) being commercial sex workers and 3 (7.32%) belonging to the control group. Squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) presence was found only in 1(1.7%) commercial sex worker. Conclusion – We conclude that HSIL, LSIL, SCC and sexually related infections are comparatively more common in vulnerable groups such as sex workers due to a variety of factors such as multiple sexual partners and poor genital hygiene. Early screening and follow up interventions are highly needed for them along with Health education for risk factors and to emphasize on the importance of Pap smear screening.

Keywords: cervical cancer, papanicolaou (pap) smear, bethesda system, neoplasm

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Authors: Anastasios Zopiatis, Antonis L. Theocharous

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In the midst of a fierce war for talent, the hospitality industry is seeking new and innovative ways to enrich its image as an employer of choice and not a necessity. Historically, the industry’s professions are portrayed as ‘unattractive’ due to their repetitious nature, long and unsocial working schedules, below average remunerations, and the mental and physical demands of the job. Aligning with the industry, hospitality and tourism scholars embarked on a journey to investigate pertinent topics with the aim of enhancing our conceptual understanding of the elements that influence employees at the hospitality world of work. Topics such as job involvement, commitment, job and career satisfaction, and turnover intentions became the focal points in a multitude of relevant empirical and conceptual investigations. Nevertheless, gaps or inconsistencies in existing theories, as a result of both the volatile complexity of the relationships governing human behavior in the hospitality workplace, and the academic community’s unopposed acceptance of theoretical frameworks mainly propounded in the United States and United Kingdom years ago, necessitate our continuous vigilance. Thus, in an effort to enhance and enrich the discourse, we set out to investigate the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction traits and the individual’s career satisfaction, and subsequent intention to remain in the hospitality industry. Reflecting on existing literature, a quantitative survey was developed and administered, face-to-face, to 650 individuals working as full-time employees in 4- and 5- star hotel establishments in Cyprus, whereas a multivariate statistical analysis method, namely Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), was utilized to determine whether relationships existed between constructs as a means to either accept or reject the hypothesized theory. Findings, of interest to both industry stakeholders and academic scholars, suggest that the individual’s future intention to remain within the industry is primarily associated with extrinsic job traits. Our findings revealed that positive associations exist between extrinsic job traits, and both career satisfaction and future intention. In contrast, when investigating the relationship of intrinsic traits, a positive association was revealed only with career satisfaction. Apparently, the local industry’s environmental factors of seasonality, excessive turnover, overdependence on seasonal, and part-time migrant workers, prohibit industry stakeholders in effectively investing the time and resources in the development and professional growth of their employees. Consequently intrinsic job satisfaction factors such as advancement, growth, and achievement, take backstage to the more materialistic extrinsic factors. Findings from the subsequent mediation analysis support the notion that intrinsic traits can positively influence future intentions indirectly only through career satisfaction, whereas extrinsic traits can positively impact both career satisfaction and future intention both directly and indirectly.

Keywords: career satisfaction, Cyprus, hotel employees, structural equation modeling, SEM

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Authors: Lina Paola Orozco Marin, Yuliet Montoya Osorio, John Bustamante Osorno

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Ischemic events can culminate in acute myocardial infarction by irreversible cardiac lesions that cannot be restored due to the limited regenerative capacity of the heart. Cell therapy seeks to replace these injured or necrotic cells by transplanting healthy and functional cells. The therapeutic alternatives proposed by tissue engineering and cardiovascular regenerative medicine are the use of biomaterials to mimic the native extracellular medium, which is full of proteins, proteoglycans, and glycoproteins. The selected biomaterials must provide structural support to the encapsulated cells to avoid their migration and death in the host tissue. In this context, the present research work focused on developing a natural thermosensitive hydrogel, its physical and chemical characterization, and the determination of its biocompatibility in vitro. The hydrogel was developed by mixing hydrolyzed bovine and porcine collagen at 2% w/v, chitosan at 2.5% w/v, and beta-glycerolphosphate at 8.5% w/w and 10.5% w/w in magnetic stirring at 4°C. Once obtained, the thermosensitivity and gelation time were determined, incubating the samples at 37°C and evaluating them through the inverted tube method. The morphological characterization of the hydrogels was carried out through scanning electron microscopy. Chemical characterization was carried out employing infrared spectroscopy. The biocompatibility was determined using the MTT cytotoxicity test according to the ISO 10993-5 standard for the hydrogel’s precursors using the fetal human ventricular cardiomyocytes cell line RL-14. The RL-14 cells were also seeded on the top of the hydrogels, and the supernatants were subculture at different periods to their observation under a bright field microscope. Four types of thermosensitive hydrogels were obtained, which differ in their composition and concentration, called A1 (chitosan/bovine collagen/beta-glycerolphosphate 8.5%w/w), A2 (chitosan/porcine collagen/beta-glycerolphosphate 8.5%), B1 (chitosan/bovine collagen/beta-glycerolphosphate 10.5%) and B2 (chitosan/porcine collagen/beta-glycerolphosphate 10.5%). A1 and A2 had a gelation time of 40 minutes, and B1 and B2 had a gelation time of 30 minutes at 37°C. Electron micrographs revealed a three-dimensional internal structure with interconnected pores for the four types of hydrogels. This facilitates the exchange of nutrients, oxygen, and the exit of metabolites, allowing to preserve a microenvironment suitable for cell proliferation. In the infrared spectra, it was possible to observe the interaction that occurs between the amides of polymeric compounds with the phosphate groups of beta-glycerolphosphate. Finally, the biocompatibility tests indicated that cells in contact with the hydrogel or with each of its precursors are not affected in their proliferation capacity for a period of 16 days. These results show the potential of the hydrogel to increase the cell survival rate in the cardiac cell therapies under investigation. Moreover, the results lay the foundations for its characterization and biological evaluation in both in vitro and in vivo models.

Keywords: cardiac cell therapy, cardiac ischemia, natural polymers, thermosensitive hydrogel

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Authors: Priya Nangia, Sanchita Bansal

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As fashion cycles become more rapid, some segments of the fashion industry have adopted increasingly unsustainable production processes to keep up with demand and enhance profit margins. The growing threat to environmental and social wellbeing posed by unethical fast fashion practices and the need to integrate the targets of SDGs into this industry necessitates a shift in the fashion industry's unsustainable nature, which can only be accomplished in the long run if consumers support sustainable fashion by purchasing it. Fast fashion is defined as low-cost, trendy apparel that takes inspiration from the catwalk or celebrity culture and rapidly transforms it into garments at high-street stores to meet consumer demand. Given the importance of identity formation to many consumers, the desire to be “fashionable” often outweighs the desire to be ethical or sustainable. This paradox exemplifies the tension between the human drive to consume and the will to do so in moderation. Previous research suggests that there is an attitude-behavior gap when it comes to determining consumer purchasing behavior, but to the best of our knowledge, no study has analysed how to encourage customers to shift from fast to slow fashion. Against this backdrop, the aim of this study is twofold: first, to identify and examine the factors that impact consumers' decisions to engage in sustainable fashion, and second, the authors develop a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing and encouraging researchers and practitioners to foster sustainable consumer behavior. This study used a systematic approach to collect data and analyse literature. The approach included three key steps: review planning, review execution, and findings reporting. Authors identified the keywords “sustainable consumption” and “sustainable fashion” and retrieved studies from the Web of Science (WoS) (126 records) and Scopus database (449 records). To make the study more specific, the authors refined the subject area to management, business, and economics in the second step, retrieving 265 records. In the third step, the authors removed the duplicate records and manually reviewed the articles to examine their relevance to the research issue. The final 96 research articles were used to develop this study's systematic scheme. The findings indicate that societal norms, demographics, positive emotions, self-efficacy, and awareness all have an effect on customers' decisions to purchase sustainable apparel. The authors propose a framework, denoted by the acronym SHIFT, in which consumers are more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors when the message or context leverages the following factors: (s)social influence, (h)habit formation, (i)individual self, (f)feelings, emotions, and cognition, and (t)tangibility. Furthermore, the authors identify five broad challenges that encourage sustainable consumer behavior and use them to develop novel propositions. Finally, the authors discuss how the SHIFT framework can be used in practice to drive sustainable consumer behaviors. This research sought to define the boundaries of existing research while also providing new perspectives on future research, with the goal of being useful for the development and discovery of new fields of study, thereby expanding knowledge.

Keywords: consumer behavior, fast fashion, sustainable consumption, sustainable fashion, systematic literature review

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Authors: Hsin-Hung Lin, Janet Chang, Te-Yi Chang, You-Sheng Huang

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The natural and men-made disasters have become huge challenges for tourism destinations as well as emphasizing the fragility of the industry. Hot springs, among all destinations, are prone to disasters due to their dependence on natural resources and locations. After the COVID-19 outbreak, hot spring destinations have experienced not only the loss of businesses but also the psychological trauma. However, evidence has also shown that the impacts may not necessarily reduce the resilience for people but may be converted into posttraumatic growth. In Taiwan, a large proportion of hot springs are located in rural or indigenous areas. As a result, hot spring resources are associated with community cohesion for local residents. Yet prior research on hot spring destinations has mainly focused on visitors, whereas residents have been overlooked. More specifically, the relationship between hot springs resources and resident resilience in the face of the COVID-19 impacts remains unclear. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to explore the COVID-19 impacts on residents’ hot spring experiences as well as individual and community resilience from the perspective of posttraumatic growth. A total of 315 residents of 13 hot spring destinations that are most popular in Taiwan were recruited. Online questionnaires were distributed over travel forums and social networks after the COVID-19. This paper subsequently used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for data analysis as the technique offers significant advantages in addressing nonnormal data and small sample sizes. A preliminary test was conducted, and the results showed acceptable internal consistency and no serious common method variance. The path analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 impacts strengthened residents’ perceptions of hot spring resources and experiences, implying that the pandemic had propelled the residents to visit hot springs for the healing benefits. In addition, the COVID-19 impacts significantly enhanced residents’ individual and community resilience, which indicates that the residents at hot springs are more resilient thanks to their awareness of external risks. Thirdly, residents’ individual resilience was positively associated with hot spring experiences, while community resilience was not affected by hot spring experiences. Such findings may suggest that hot spring experiences are more related to individual-level experiences and, consequently, have insignificant influence on community resilience. Finally, individual resilience was proved to be the most relevant factor that help foster community resilience. To conclude, the authorities may consider exploiting the hot spring resources so as to increase individual resilience for local residents. Such implications can be used as a reference for other post-disaster tourist destinations as well. As for future research, longitudinal studies with qualitative methods are suggested to better understand how the hot spring experiences have changed individuals and communities over the long term. It should be noted that the main subjects of this paper were focused on the hot spring communities in Taiwan. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for all types of tourism destinations. That is, more diverse tourism destinations may be investigated to provide a broader perspective of post-disaster recovery.

Keywords: community resilience, hot spring destinations, individual resilience, posttraumatic growth

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Authors: O. F. Elkommos

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Teaching and learning EFL speaking modules is one of the most challenging productive modules for both instructors and learners. In a student-centered interactive communicative language teaching approach, learners and instructors should be aware of the fact that the target language must be taught as/for communication. The student must be empowered by tools that will work on more than one level of their communicative competence. Communicative learning will need a teaching and learning methodology that will address the goal. Teaching turn-taking rules, pragmatic principles and speech acts will enhance students' sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence together with discourse competence. Sociolinguistic competence entails the mastering of speech act conventions and illocutionary acts of refusing, agreeing/disagreeing; emotive acts like, thanking, apologizing, inviting, offering; directives like, ordering, requesting, advising, and hinting, among others. Strategic competence includes enlightening students’ consciousness of the various particular turn-taking systemic rules of organizing techniques of opening and closing conversation, adjacency pairs, interrupting, back-channeling, asking for/giving opinion, agreeing/disagreeing, using natural fillers for pauses, gaps, speaker select, self-select, and silence among others. Students will have the tools to manage a conversation. Students are engaged in opportunities of experiencing the natural language not as a mere extra student talking time but rather an empowerment of knowing and using the strategies. They will have the component items they need to use as well as the opportunity to communicate in the target language using topics of their interest and choice. This enhances students' communicative abilities. Available websites and textbooks now use one or more of these tools of turn-taking or pragmatics. These will be students' support in self-study in their independent learning study hours. This will be their reinforcement practice on e-Learning interactive activities. The students' target is to be able to communicate the intended meaning to an addressee that is in turn able to infer that intended meaning. The combination of these tools will be assertive and encouraging to the student to beat the struggle with what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. Teaching the rules, principles and techniques is an act of awareness raising method engaging students in activities that will lead to their pragmatic discourse competence. The aim of the paper is to show how the suggested pragmatic model will empower students with tools and systems that would support their learning. Supporting students with turn taking rules, speech act theory, applying both to texts and practical analysis and using it in speaking classes empowers students’ pragmatic discourse competence and assists them to understand language and its context. They become more spontaneous and ready to learn the discourse pragmatic dimension of the speaking techniques and suitable content. Students showed a better performance and a good motivation to learn. The model is therefore suggested for speaking modules in EFL classes.

Keywords: communicative competence, EFL, empowering learners, enhance learning, speech acts, teaching speaking, turn taking, learner centred, pragmatics

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Authors: Erol Bayraktarov, Asya Ilgun, Thomas Schickl, Alexandre Campo, Nicolis Stamatios

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Traditional means of harvesting honey are often stressful for honeybees. Each time honey is collected a portion of the colony can die. In consequence, the colonies’ resilience to environmental stressors will decrease and this ultimately contributes to the global problem of honeybee colony losses. As part of the project HIVEOPOLIS, we design and build a different kind of beehive, incorporating technology to reduce negative impacts of beekeeping procedures, including honey harvesting. A first step in maintaining more sustainable honey harvesting practices is to design honey storage frames that can automate the honey collection procedures. This way, beekeepers save time, money, and labor by not having to open the hive and remove frames, and the honeybees' nest stays undisturbed.This system shows promising features, e.g., high reliability which could be a key advantage compared to current honey harvesting technologies.Our original concept of fractional honey harvesting has been to encourage the removal of honey only from "safe" locations and at levels that would leave the bees enough high-nutritional-value honey. In this abstract, we describe the current state of our honey harvester, its technology and areas to improve. The honey harvester works by separating the honeycomb cells away from the comb foundation; the movement and the elastic nature of honey supports this functionality. The honey sticks to the foundation, because of the surface tension forces amplified by the geometry. In the future, by monitoring the weight and therefore the capped honey cells on our honey harvester frames, we will be able to remove honey as soon as the weight measuring system reports that the comb is ready for harvesting. Higher viscosity honey or crystalized honey cause challenges in temperate locations when a smooth flow of honey is required. We use resistive heaters to soften the propolis and wax to unglue the moving parts during extraction. These heaters can also melt the honey slightly to the needed flow state. Precise control of these heaters allows us to operate the device for several purposes. We use ‘Nitinol’ springs that are activated by heat as an actuation method. Unlike conventional stepper or servo motors, which we also evaluated throughout development, the springs and heaters take up less space and reduce the overall system complexity. Honeybee acceptance was unknown until we actually inserted a device inside a hive. We not only observed bees walking on the artificial comb but also building wax, filling gaps with propolis and storing honey. This also shows that bees don’t mind living in spaces and hives built from 3D printed materials. We do not have data yet to prove that the plastic materials do not affect the chemical composition of the honey. We succeeded in automatically extracting stored honey from the device, demonstrating a useful extraction flow and overall effective operation this way.

Keywords: honey harvesting, honeybee, hiveopolis, nitinol

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Soumya Awasthi

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The spread of radical ideology is possible not merely through public meetings, protests, and mosques but even in schools, seminaries, and madrasas. The rhetoric created around the relationship between religion and conflict has been the primary factor for instigating global conflicts – when religion is used to achieve broader objectives. There have been numerous cases of religion-driven conflict around the world be it the Jewish revolt between 66 AD and 628 AD or the 1119 AD the Crusades revolt or during the Cold War period or the rise of right-wing politics in India. Some of the major developments which reiterate the significance of religion in the contemporary times include: (1) The emergence of theocracy in Iran in 1979 (2) Resurgence of world-wide religious beliefs in post-Soviet space. (3) Emergence of transnational terrorism shaped by twisted depiction of Islam by the self proclaimed protectors of the religion. Therefore this paper is premised in the argument that religion has always found itself on the periphery of the discipline of International Relations (IR), and has received less attention than it deserves. The focus of the topic is on the discourses of ‘Deobandi’ and its impact both on the geopolitics of the region- particularly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan- and also at the global level. Discourse is a mechanism in use since time immemorial and has been a key tool to mobilise masses against the ruling authority. With the help of field surveys, qualitative and analytical method of research in religion and international relations, it has been found that they are numerous madrassas that are running illegally and are unregistered. These seminaries are operating in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, relation between religion and geopolitics was highlighted when there was a sudden spread of radical ideas, finding support from countries like Saudi Arabia (who funded the campaign) and Pakistan (which organised the Saudi funds and set up training camps, both educational and military). During this period there was a huge influence of Wahabi theology on the madrasas which started with Deoband philosophy and later became a mix of Wahabi (influenced by Ahmad Ibn Hannabal and Ibn Taimmiya) and Deobandi philosophy, tending towards fundamentalism. Later the impact of regional geopolitics had influence on the global geopolitics when the incidents like attack on the US in 2001, bomb blasts in U.K, Indonesia, Turkey, and Israel in 2000s. In the midst of all this, there were several scholars who pointed towards Deobandi Philosophy as one of the drivers in the creation of armed Islamic groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan. Hence this paper will make an attempt to understand the trend as to how Deobandi religious discourses originating from India have changed over the decades, and who the agents of such changes are. It will throw light on Deoband from pre-independence till date to create a narrative around the religious discourses and Deobandi philosophy and its spill over impact on the map of global and regional security.

Keywords: Deobandi School of Thought, radicalization, regional and global geopolitics, religious discourses, Whabi movement

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Hsin-Hung Lin, Janet Chang, Te-Yi Chang, You-Sheng Huang

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The natural and men-made disasters have become huge challenges for tourism destinations as well as emphasizing the fragility of the industry. Hot springs, among all destinations, are prone to disasters due to their dependence on natural resources and locations. After the COVID-19 outbreak, hot spring destinations have experienced not only the loss of businesses but also the psychological trauma. However, evidence has also shown that the impacts may not necessarily reduce the resilience for people but may be converted into posttraumatic growth. In Taiwan, a large proportion of hot springs are located in rural or indigenous areas. As a result, hot spring resources are associated with community cohesion for local residents. Yet prior research on hot spring destinations has mainly focused on visitors, whereas residents have been overlooked. More specifically, the relationship between hot springs resources and resident resilience in the face of the COVID-19 impacts remains unclear. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to explore the COVID-19 impacts on residents’ hot spring experiences as well as individual and community resilience from the perspective of posttraumatic growth. A total of 315 residents of 13 hot spring destinations that are most popular in Taiwan were recruited. Online questionnaires were distributed over travel forums and social networks after the COVID-19. This paper subsequently used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for data analysis as the technique offers significant advantages in addressing nonnormal data and small sample sizes. A preliminary test was conducted, and the results showed acceptable internal consistency and no serious common method variance. The path analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 impacts strengthened residents’ perceptions of hot spring resources and experiences, implying that the pandemic had propelled the residents to visit hot springs for the healing benefits. In addition, the COVID-19 impacts significantly enhanced residents’ individual and community resilience, which indicates that the residents at hot springs are more resilient thanks to their awareness of external risks. Thirdly, residents’ individual resilience was positively associated with hot spring experiences, while community resilience was not affected by hot spring experiences. Such findings may suggest that hot spring experiences are more related to individual-level experiences and, consequently, have insignificant influence on community resilience. Finally, individual resilience was proved to be the most relevant factor that help foster community resilience. To conclude, the authorities may consider exploiting the hot spring resources so as to increase individual resilience for local residents. Such implications can be used as a reference for other post-disaster tourist destinations as well.As for future research, longitudinal studies with qualitative methods are suggested to better understand how the hot spring experiences have changed individuals and communities over the long term. It should be noted that the main subjects of this paper were focused on the hot spring communities in Taiwan. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for all types of tourism destinations. That is, more diverse tourism destinations may be investigated to provide a broader perspective of post-disaster recovery.

Keywords: community resilience, hot spring destinations, individual resilience, posttraumatic growth (PTG)

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Akm Badrul Alam, Yoshiaki Fujii, Nahid Hasan Dipu, Shakil Ahmed Razo

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Shale rockmasses often include silt layers, impacting slope stability in construction and mining. Analyzing their interaction is crucial for long-term stability. A study used an elastoplastic model, incorporating the stress transfer method and Coulomb's criterion, to assess a shale rock mass with silt layers. It computed stress distribution, assessed failure potential, and identified vulnerable regions where nodal forces were calculated for a comprehensive analysis. A shale rock mass ranging from 14.75 to 16.75 meters thick, with silt layers varying from 0.36 to 0.5 meters, was considered in the model. It examined four silt layer conditions: horizontal (SiHL), vertical (SiVL), inclined against slope (SiIincAGS), and along slope (SilincALO). Mechanical parameters like uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), tensile strength (TS), Young’s modulus (E), Poisson’s ratio, and density were adjusted for varied scenarios: UCS (0.5 to 5 MPa), TS (0.1 to 1 MPa), and E (6 to 60 MPa). In elastic analysis of shale rock masses, stress distributions vary based on layer properties. When shale and silt layers have the same elasticity modulus (E), stress concentrates at corners. If the silt layer has a lower E than shale, marginal changes in maximum stress (σmax) occur for SilHL. A decrease in σmax is evident at SilVL. Slight variations in σmax are observed for SilincAGS and SilincALO. In the elastoplastic analysis, the overall decrease of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 90% was considered. For SilHL:(i) Same E, UCS, and TS for silt layer and shale, UCS/TS ratio 5: strength decrease led to shear (S), tension then shear (T then S) failure; noticeable failure at 60% decrease, significant at 80%, collapse at 90%. (ii) Lower E for silt layer, same strength as shale: No significant differences. (iii) Lower E and UCS, silt layer strength 1/10: No significant differences. For SilVL: (i) Same E, UCS, and TS for silt layer and shale, UCS/TS ratio 5: Similar effects as SilHL. (ii) Lower E for silt layer, same strength as shale: Slip occurred. (iii) Lower E and UCS, silt layer strength 1/10: Bitension failure also observed with larger slip. For SilincAGS: (i) Same E, UCS, and TS for silt layer and shale, UCS/TS ratio 5: Effects similar to SilHL. (ii) Lower E for silt layer, same strength as shale: Slip occurred. (iii) Lower E and UCS, silt layer strength 1/10: Tension failure also observed with larger slip. For SilincALO: (i) Same E, UCS, and TS for silt layer and shale, UCS/TS ratio 5: Similar to SilHL with tension failure. (ii) Lower E for silt layer, same strength as shale: No significant differences; failure diverged. (iii) Lower E and UCS, silt layer strength 1/10: Bitension failure also observed with larger slip; failure diverged. Toppling failure was observed for lower E cases of SilVL and SilincAGS. The presence of silt interlayers in shale greatly impacts slope stability. Designing slopes requires careful consideration of both the silt and shale's mechanical properties. The temporal degradation of strength in these layers is a major concern. Thus, slope design must comprehensively analyze the immediate and long-term mechanical behavior of interlayer silt and shale to effectively mitigate instability.

Keywords: shale rock masses, silt layers, slope stability, elasto-plastic model, temporal degradation

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Authors: Tugba Altin

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In an era marked by pronounced climate change consequences, communities are observed to confront traumatic events that yield both tangible and intangible repercussions. Such events not only cause discernible damage to the landscape but also deeply affect the intangible aspects, including emotional distress and disruptions to cultural landscapes. The Lytton Creek Fire of 2021 serves as a case in point. Beyond the visible destruction, the less overt but profoundly impactful disturbance to place attachment (PA) is scrutinized. PA, representing the emotional and cognitive bonds individuals establish with their environments, is crucial for understanding how such events impact cultural identity and connection to the land. The study underscores the significance of addressing both tangible and intangible traumas for holistic community recovery. As communities renegotiate their affiliations with altered environments, the cultural landscape emerges as instrumental in shaping place-based identities. This renewed understanding is pivotal for reshaping adaptation planning. The research advocates for adaptation strategies rooted in the lived experiences and testimonies of the affected populations. By incorporating both the tangible and intangible facets of trauma, planning efforts are suggested to be more culturally attuned and emotionally insightful, fostering true resonance with the affected communities. Through such a comprehensive lens, this study contributes enriching the climate change discourse, emphasizing the intertwined nature of tangible recovery and the imperative of emotional and cultural healing after environmental disasters. Following the pronounced aftermath of the Lytton Creek Fire in 2021, research aims to deeply understand its impact on place attachment (PA), encompassing the emotional and cognitive bonds individuals form with their environments. The interpretive phenomenological approach, enriched by a hermeneutic framework, is adopted, emphasizing the experiences of the Lytton community and co-researchers. Phenomenology informed the understanding of 'place' as the focal point of attachment, providing insights into its formation and evolution after traumatic events. Data collection departs from conventional methods. Instead of traditional interviews, walking audio sessions and photo elicitation methods are utilized. These allow co-researchers to immerse themselves in the environment, re-experience, and articulate memories and feelings in real-time. Walking audio facilitates reflections on spatial narratives post-trauma, while photo voices captured intangible emotions, enabling the visualization of place-based experiences. The analysis is collaborative, ensuring the co-researchers' experiences and interpretations are central. Emphasizing their agency in knowledge production, the process is rigorous, facilitated by the harmonious blend of interpretive phenomenology and hermeneutic insights. The findings underscore the need for adaptation and recovery efforts to address emotional traumas alongside tangible damages. By exploring PA post-disaster, the research not only fills a significant gap but advocates for an inclusive approach to community recovery. Furthermore, the participatory methodologies employed challenge traditional research paradigms, heralding potential shifts in qualitative research norms.

Keywords: wildfire recovery, place attachment, trauma recovery, cultural landscape, visual methodologies

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Digdem M. Siyez, Bariscan Ozturk, Erol Esen, Ender Siyez, Yelda Kagnici, Bahar Baran

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Infertility is a reproductive disease identified with the absence of pregnancy after regular unprotected sexual intercourse that has been lasting for 12 months or more. Some of the factors that cause infertility, which has been considered as a social and societal issue since the first days of the humankind, are preventable. These are veneral diseases, age, the frequency of the intercourse and its timing, drug use, bodyweight, environmental and professional conditions. Having actual information about the reproductive health is essential to take protective and preventive measures, and it is accepted as the most effective way to reduce the rate of infertility. However, during the literature review, it has been observed that there are so few studies that focus on the prevention of the infertility. The aim of this study is to develop a psycho-education program to reduce infertility among university students and also to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. It is believed that this program will increase the information level about infertility among the university students, help them to adopt healthy attitudes, develop life skills, create awareness about the risk factors and also contribute to the literature. Throughout the study, first, the contents of sexual/reproductive health programs developed for university students were examined by the researches. Besides, “Views about Reproductive Health Psycho-education Program Survey” was developed and applied to 10221 university students from 21 universities. In accordance with the literature and the university students’ views about reproductive health psycho-education program consisting of 9 sessions each of which lasts for 90 minutes was developed. The pilot program was carried out with 16 volunteer undergraduate students attending to a state university. During the evaluation of the pilot study, at the end of each session “Session Evaluation Form” and at the end of the entire program “Program Evaluation Form” were administered to the participants. Besides, one week after the end of the program, a focus group with half of the group, and individual interviews with the rest were conducted. Based on the evaluations, it was determined that the session duration is enough, the teaching methods meet the expectation, the techniques applied are appropriate and clear, and the materials are adequate. Also, an extra session was added to psycho-education program based on the feedbacks of the participants. In order to evaluate program’s effectiveness, Solomon control group design will be used. According to this design, the research has 2 experiment groups and 2 control groups. The participants who voluntarily participated in the research after the announcement of the psycho-education program were divided into experiment and control groups. In the experiment 1 and control 1 groups, “Personal Information Test”, “Infertility Information Test” and “Infertility Attitude Scale”, “Self Identification Inventory” and “Melbourne Decision Scale” were administered as a preliminary test. Currently, at the present stage, psycho-education still continues. After this 10-week program, the same tests will be administered again as the post-tests. The decision upon which statistical method will be applied in the analysis will be made afterwards according to whether the data meets the presuppositions or not.

Keywords: infertility, prevention, psycho-education, reproductive health

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: L. Calcagni, A. Battisti, M. Hensel, D. S. Hensel

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Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen a dynamic growth of water-based (WB) architecture, mainly due to the increasing threat of floods caused by sea level rise and heavy rains, all correlated with climate change. At the same time, the shortage of land available for urban development also led architects, engineers, and policymakers to reclaim the seabed or to build floating structures. Furthermore, the drive to produce energy from renewable resources has expanded the sector of offshore research, mining, and energy industry which seeks new types of WB structures. In light of these considerations, the time is ripe to consider floating architecture as a full-fledged building typology. Currently, there is no universally recognized academic definition of a floating building. Research on floating architecture lacks a proper, commonly shared vocabulary and typology distinction. Moreover, there is no global international legal framework for urban development on water, and there is no structured performance based building design (PBBD) approach for floating architecture in most countries, let alone national regulatory systems. Thus, first of all, the research intends to overcome the semantic and typological issues through the conceptualization of floating architecture, laying the proto-ontological conditions for floating development, and secondly to identify the parameters to be considered in the definition of a specific PBBD framework, setting the scene for national planning strategies. The theoretical overview and re-semanticization process involve the attribution of a new meaning to the term floating architecture. This terminological work of semantic redetermination is carried out through a systematic literature review and involves quantitative and historical research as well as logical argumentation methods. As it is expected that floating urban development is most likely to take place as an extension of coastal areas, the needs and design criteria are definitely more similar to those of the urban environment than to those of the offshore industry. Therefore, the identification and categorization of parameters –looking towards the potential formation of a PBBD framework for floating development– takes the urban and architectural guidelines and regulations as the starting point, taking the missing aspects, such as hydrodynamics (i.e. stability and buoyancy) from the offshore and shipping regulatory frameworks. This study is carried out through an evidence-based assessment of regulatory systems that are effective in different countries around the world, addressing on-land and on-water architecture as well as offshore and shipping industries. It involves evidence-based research and logical argumentation methods. Overall, inhabiting water is proposed not only as a viable response to the problem of rising sea levels, thus as a resilient frontier for urban development, but also as a response to energy insecurity, clean water, and food shortages, environmental concerns, and urbanization, in line with Blue Economy principles and the Agenda 2030. This review shows how floating architecture is to all intents and purposes, an urban adaptation measure and a solution towards self-sufficiency and energy-saving objectives. Moreover, the adopted methodology is, to all extents, open to further improvements and integrations, thus not rigid and already completely determined. Along with new designs and functions that will come into play in the practice field, eventually, life on water will seem no more unusual than life on land, especially by virtue of the multiple advantages it provides not only to users but also to the environment.

Keywords: adaptation measures, building typology, floating architecture, performance based building design, rising sea levels

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Hansraj Bookun, Rachel Xuan, Angela Tan, Kejia Wang, Animesh Singla, David Kim, Christopher Loupos, Jim Iliopoulos

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Introduction: Complex endovascular aortic aneursymal repairs with fenestrated and branched endografts require customised devices to exclude the pathology while reducing morbidity and mortality, which was historically associated with open repair of complex aneurysms. Such endovascular procedures have predominantly been performed in a large volume dedicated tertiary centres. We present here our nine year multidisciplinary experience with this technology in an Australian tertiary centre. Method: This was a cross-sectional, single-centre observational study of 670 patients who had undergone complex endovascular aortic aneurysmal repairs with conventional endografts, fenestrated endografts, and iliac-branched devices from January 2010 to July 2019. Descriptive statistics were used to characterise our sample with regards to demographic and perioperative variables. Homogeneity of the sample was tested using multivariant regression, which did not identify any statistically significant confounding variables. Results: 670 patients of mean age 74, were included (592 males) and the comorbid burden was as follows: ischemic heart disease (55%), diabetes (18%), hypertension (90%), stage four or greater kidney impairment (8%) and current or ex-smoking (78%). The main indications for surgery were elective aneurysms (86%), symptomatic aneurysms (5%), and rupture aneurysms (5%). 106 patients (16%) underwent fenestrated or branched endograft repairs. The mean length of stay was 7.6 days. 2 patients experienced reactionary bleeds, 11 patients had access wound complications (6 lymph fistulae, 5 haematoms), 11 patients had cardiac complications (5 arrhythmias, 3 acute myocadial infarctions, 3 exacerbation of congestive cardiac failure), 10 patients had respiratory complications, 8 patients had renal impairment, 4 patients had gastrointestinal complications, 2 patients suffered from paraplegia, 1 major stroke, 1 minor stroke, and 1 acute brain syndrome. There were 4 vascular occlusions requiring further arterial surgery, 4 type I endoleaks, 4 type II endoleaks, 3 episodes of thromboembolism, and 2 patients who required further arterial operations in the setting of patient vessels. There were 9 unplanned returns to the theatre. Discussion: Our numbers of 10 years suggest that we are not a dedicated high volume centre focusing on aortic repairs. However, we have achieved significantly low complication rates. This can be attributed to our multidisciplinary approach with the intraoperative involvement of skilled interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons as well as postoperative protocols with particular attention to spinal cord protection. Additionally, we have a ratified perioperative pathway that involves multidisciplinary team discussions of patient-related factors and lesion-centered characteristics, which allows for holistic, patient-centered care.

Keywords: aneurysm, aortic, endovascular, fenestrated

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Authors: Anand R. Nair, Markus Trenker

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Lifting body concepts were conceived as early as 1917 and patented by Roy Scroggs. It was an idea of using the fuselage as a lift producing body with no or small wings. Many of these designs were developed and even flight tested between 1920’s to 1970’s, but it was not pursued further for commercial flight as at lower airspeeds, such a configuration was incapable to produce sufficient lift for the entire aircraft. The concept presented in this contribution is combining the lifting body design along with a fixed wing to maximise the lift produced by the aircraft. Conventional aircraft fuselages are designed to be aerodynamically efficient, which is to minimise the drag; however, these fuselages produce very minimal or negligible lift. For the design of an unmanned fixed wing transport aircraft, many of the restrictions which are present for commercial aircraft in terms of fuselage design can be excluded, such as windows for the passengers/pilots, cabin-environment systems, emergency exits, and pressurization systems. This gives new flexibility to design fuselages which are unconventionally shaped to contribute to the lift of the aircraft. The two lifting body concepts presented in this contribution are targeting different applications: For a fast cargo delivery drone, the fuselage is based on a scaled airfoil shape with a cargo capacity of 500 kg for euro pallets. The aircraft has a span of 14 m and reaches 1500 km at a cruising speed of 90 m/s. The aircraft could also easily be adapted to accommodate pilot and passengers with modifications to the internal structures, but pressurization is not included as the service ceiling envisioned for this type of aircraft is limited to 10,000 ft. The next concept to be investigated is called a multi-purpose drone, which incorporates a different type of lifting body and is a much more versatile aircraft as it will have a VTOL capability. The aircraft will have a wingspan of approximately 6 m and flight speeds of 60 m/s within the same service ceiling as the fast cargo delivery drone. The multi-purpose drone can be easily adapted for various applications such as firefighting, agricultural purposes, surveillance, and even passenger transport. Lifting body designs are not a new concept, but their effectiveness in terms of cargo transportation has not been widely investigated. Due to their enhanced lift producing capability, lifting body designs enable the reduction of the wing area and the overall weight of the aircraft. This will, in turn, reduce the thrust requirement and ultimately the fuel consumption. The various designs proposed in this contribution will be based on the general aviation category of aircrafts and will be focussed on unmanned methods of operation. These unmanned fixed-wing transport drones will feature appropriate cargo loading/unloading concepts which can accommodate large size cargo for efficient time management and ease of operation. The various designs will be compared in performance to their conventional counterpart to understand their benefits/shortcomings in terms of design, performance, complexity, and ease of operation. The majority of the performance analysis will be carried out using industry relevant standards in computational fluid dynamics software packages.

Keywords: lifting body concept, computational fluid dynamics, unmanned fixed-wing aircraft, cargo drone

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Authors: Deepak Loura

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Climate change is considered one of the major environmental problems of the 21st century and a lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. Agriculture and climate change are internally correlated with each other in various aspects, as the threat of varying global climate has greatly driven the attention of scientists, as these variations are imparting a negative impact on global crop production and compromising food security worldwide. The fast pace of development and industrialization and indiscriminate destruction of the natural environment, more so in the last century, have altered the concentration of atmospheric gases that lead to global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (NO) are important biogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the agricultural sector contributing to global warming and their concentration is increasing alarmingly. Agricultural productivity can be affected by climate change in 2 ways: first, directly, by affecting plant growth development and yield due to changes in rainfall/precipitation and temperature and/or CO₂ levels, and second, indirectly, there may be considerable impact on agricultural land use due to snow melt, availability of irrigation, frequency and intensity of inter- and intra-seasonal droughts and floods, soil organic matter transformations, soil erosion, distribution and frequency of infestation by insect pests, diseases or weeds, the decline in arable areas (due to submergence of coastal lands), and availability of energy. An increase in atmospheric CO₂ promotes the growth and productivity of C3 plants. On the other hand, an increase in temperature, can reduce crop duration, increase crop respiration rates, affect the equilibrium between crops and pests, hasten nutrient mineralization in soils, decrease fertilizer- use efficiencies, and increase evapotranspiration among others. All these could considerably affect crop yield in long run. Climate resilient agriculture consisting of adaptation, mitigation, and other agriculture practices can potentially enhance the capacity of the system to withstand climate-related disturbances by resisting damage and recovering quickly. Climate resilient agriculture turns the climate change threats that have to be tackled into new business opportunities for the sector in different regions and therefore provides a triple win: mitigation, adaptation, and economic growth. Improving the soil organic carbon stock of soil is integral to any strategy towards adapting to and mitigating the abrupt climate change, advancing food security, and improving the environment. Soil carbon sequestration is one of the major mitigation strategies to achieve climate-resilient agriculture. Climate-smart agriculture is the only way to lower the negative impact of climate variations on crop adaptation before it might affect global crop production drastically. To cope with these extreme changes, future development needs to make adjustments in technology, management practices, and legislation. Adaptation and mitigation are twin approaches to bringing resilience to climate change in agriculture.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, crop production, climate resilient agriculture

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Golson Mohamed, Yasmine Gamasy, Khaled EL-Khatib, Anas Al-Natour, Shady Fadel, Haytham Rashwan, Haytham Badawy, Nadia Farghaly

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Introduction: Wilm's tumor is the most common malignant renal tumor in children. Much progress has been made in the management of patients with this malignancy over the last 3 decades. Today treatments are based on several trials and studies conducted by the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) in Europe and National Wilm's Tumor Study Group (NWTS) in the USA. It is necessary for us to understand why do we follow either of the protocols, NWTS which follows the upfront surgery principle or the SIOP which follows the upfront chemotherapy principle in all stages of the disease. Objective: The aim of is to assess outcome in patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy and patients treated with upfront surgery to compare their effect on overall survival. Study design: to decide which protocol to follow, study was carried out on records for patients aged 1 day to 18 years old suffering from Wilm's tumor who were admitted to Alexandria University Hospital, pediatric oncology, pediatric urology and pediatric surgery departments, with a retrospective survey records from 2010 to 2015, Design and editing of the transfer sheet with a (PRISMA flow study) Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Data were fed to the computer and analyzed using IBM SPSS software package version 20.0. (11) Qualitative data were described using number and percent. Quantitative data were described using Range (minimum and maximum), mean, standard deviation and median. Comparison between different groups regarding categorical variables was tested using Chi-square test. When more than 20% of the cells have expected count less than 5, correction for chi-square was conducted using Fisher’s Exact test or Monte Carlo correction. The distributions of quantitative variables were tested for normality using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Shapiro-Wilk test, and D'Agstino test, if it reveals normal data distribution, parametric tests were applied. If the data were abnormally distributed, non-parametric tests were used. For normally distributed data, a comparison between two independent populations was done using independent t-test. For abnormally distributed data, comparison between two independent populations was done using Mann-Whitney test. Significance of the obtained results was judged at the 5% level. Results: A significantly statistical difference was observed for survival between the two studied groups favoring the upfront chemotherapy(86.4%)as compared to the upfront surgery group (59.3%) where P=0.009. As regard complication, 20 cases (74.1%) out of 27 were complicated in the group of patients treated with upfront surgery. Meanwhile, 30 cases (68.2%) out of 44 had complications in patients treated with upfront chemotherapy. Also, the incidence of intraoperative complication (rupture) was less in upfront chemotherapy group as compared to upfront surgery group. Conclusion: Upfront chemotherapy has superiority over upfront surgery.As the patient who started with upfront chemotherapy shown, higher survival rate, less percent in complication, less percent needed for radiotherapy, and less rate in recurrence.

Keywords: Wilm's tumor, renal tumor, chemotherapy, surgery

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Authors: Elisa Boatti, Ulisse Stefanelli, Alessandro Reali, Ferdinando Auricchio

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Thanks to their unusual properties, shape memory alloys (SMAs) are good candidates for advanced applications in a wide range of engineering fields, such as automotive, robotics, civil, biomedical, aerospace. In the last decades, the ever-growing interest for such materials has boosted several research studies aimed at modeling their complex nonlinear behavior in an effective and robust way. Since the constitutive response of SMAs is strongly thermomechanically coupled, the investigation of the non-isothermal evolution of the material must be taken into consideration. The present study considers an existing three-dimensional phenomenological model for SMAs, able to reproduce the main SMA properties while maintaining a simple user-friendly structure, and proposes a variational reformulation of the full non-isothermal version of the model. While the considered model has been thoroughly assessed in an isothermal setting, the proposed formulation allows to take into account the full nonisothermal problem. In particular, the reformulation is inspired to the GENERIC (General Equations for Non-Equilibrium Reversible-Irreversible Coupling) formalism, and is based on a generalized gradient flow of the total entropy, related to thermal and mechanical variables. Such phrasing of the model is new and allows for a discussion of the model from both a theoretical and a numerical point of view. Moreover, it directly implies the dissipativity of the flow. A semi-implicit time-discrete scheme is also presented for the fully coupled thermomechanical system, and is proven unconditionally stable and convergent. The correspondent algorithm is then implemented, under a space-homogeneous temperature field assumption, and tested under different conditions. The core of the algorithm is composed of a mechanical subproblem and a thermal subproblem. The iterative scheme is solved by a generalized Newton method. Numerous uniaxial and biaxial tests are reported to assess the performance of the model and algorithm, including variable imposed strain, strain rate, heat exchange properties, and external temperature. In particular, the heat exchange with the environment is the only source of rate-dependency in the model. The reported curves clearly display the interdependence between phase transformation strain and material temperature. The full thermomechanical coupling allows to reproduce the exothermic and endothermic effects during respectively forward and backward phase transformation. The numerical tests have thus demonstrated that the model can appropriately reproduce the coupled SMA behavior in different loading conditions and rates. Moreover, the algorithm has proved effective and robust. Further developments are being considered, such as the extension of the formulation to the finite-strain setting and the study of the boundary value problem.

Keywords: generalized gradient flow, GENERIC formalism, shape memory alloys, thermomechanical coupling

Procedia PDF Downloads 202

Authors: Tolga Levent

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Throughout the past few decades, forced immigration has been a significant problem for many developing countries. Turkey is one of those countries, which has experienced lots of forced immigration waves in the Republican era. However, the ongoing forced immigration wave of Syrians started with Syrian Civil War in 2011, is strikingly influential due to its intensity. In six years, approximately 3,4 million Syrians have entered to Turkey and presented high-level spatial concentrations in certain cities proximate to the Syrian border. These concentrations make Syrians and their problems relatively visible, especially in those cities. The problems of Syrians in Turkish cities could be associated with all dimensions of daily lives. Within economical dimension, high rates of Syrian unemployment push them to informal jobs offering very low wages. The financial aids they continuously demand from public authorities trigger anti-Syrian behaviors of local communities. Moreover, their relatively limited social adaptation capacities increase integration problems within social dimension day by day. Even, there are problems related to public health dimension such as the reappearance of certain child's illnesses due to the insufficiency of vaccination of Syrian children. These problems are significant but relatively easy to be prevented by using different types of management strategies and structural policies. However, there are other types of problems -urban problems- emerging with socio-spatial impacts of Syrians on Turkish cities in a very short period of time. There are relatively limited amount of studies about these impacts since they are difficult to be comprehended. The aim of the study, in this respect, is to understand these rapidly-emerging impacts and urban problems resulted from this massive immigration influx and to discuss new qualities of urban planning facing them. In the first part, there is a brief historical consideration of forced immigration waves in Turkey. These waves are important to make comparison with the ongoing immigration wave and to understand its significance. The second part is about quantitative and qualitative analyses of the spatial existence of Syrian immigrants in the city of Mersin, as an example of cities where Syrians are highly concentrated. By using official data from public authorities, quantitative statistical analyses are made to detect spatial concentrations of Syrians at neighborhood level. As methods of qualitative research, observations and in-depth interviews are used to define socio-spatial impacts of Syrians. The main results show that there emerges 'cities in cities' though sharp socio-spatial segregations which change density surfaces; produce unforeseen land-use patterns; result in inadequacies of public services and create degradations/deteriorations of urban environments occupied by Syrians. All these problems are significant; however, Turkish planning system does not have a capacity to cope with them. In the final part, there is a discussion about new qualities of urban planning facing these impacts and urban problems. The main point of discussion is the possibility of resilient urban planning under the conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability fostered by immigration crisis. Such a resilient planning approach might provide an option for countries aiming to cope with negative socio-spatial impacts of massive immigration influxes.

Keywords: cities, forced immigration, Syrians, urban planning

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Authors: Dahunsi Michael Oluseyi

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This paper aims to extensively examine eco-city planning and urban design in Lagos, Nigeria. It will delve into the city's developments, challenges, and potential solutions to offer insights for sustainable urban growth within the rapidly expanding urban landscape. The research will scrutinize recent innovations, emerging trends, and practical remedies to promote ecological sustainability within an urban framework. It will encompass a more in-depth review of current literature, case studies, and qualitative analyses, thereby augmenting the depth and breadth of the research. The objectives are to assess the current eco-city planning initiatives and urban design trends in Lagos, Nigeria, considering the city's unique characteristics and challenges. To identify and analyze the challenges encountered during the implementation of eco-friendly urban developments in Lagos, to explore and evaluate the innovative and practical solutions that are implemented to promote sustainability within the city, to provide comprehensive insights and actionable recommendations for policymakers, urban planners, and other stakeholders involved in sustainable urban development in Lagos, the rapid urbanization of Lagos has brought forth a myriad of challenges, including a burgeoning population, inadequate infrastructure, waste management issues, and environmental pollution. Eco-city planning has emerged as a promising approach to addressing these obstacles, striving to create urban spaces that are more habitable, resource-efficient, and environmentally friendly. This research holds substantial importance in exploring the application of eco-city planning principles within a megacity like Lagos. Analyzing recent innovations, trends, concerns, challenges, and solutions provides invaluable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders dedicated to fostering sustainable urban development. The methodologies employed in this research are structured to embrace a multifaceted and intricate approach, aiming to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent in eco-city planning and urban design in Lagos, Nigeria. This methodological framework is designed to encompass various diverse strategies and analytical tools to effectively capture the multidimensional aspects of sustainable urban development. It involves an in-depth analysis of academic publications, governmental reports, and urban planning documents to highlight global eco-city planning trends and gather Lagos-specific insights through a detailed exploration of eco-friendly initiatives and projects in Lagos to evaluate successes, challenges, and strategies for addressing environmental concerns by engaging key stakeholders, including urban planners, policymakers, environmental experts, and residents, to collect firsthand perspectives, concerns, and insights. Also, a thorough analysis will be carried out on data collected from literature reviews, case studies, interviews, and surveys used to extract prevalent patterns, challenges, and innovative solutions from diverse sources. This study aims to contribute to the discourse on sustainable urban development by offering a comprehensive analysis of eco-city planning in Lagos and providing practical recommendations for a more sustainable urban future.

Keywords: eco-friendly, innovation, sustainability, stakeholders

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Authors: Jatinder Pal Singh, Harpreet Singh, Gagandeep Singh Digra, Mandeep Kaur Sidhu, Pawan Kumar

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Introduction: Ganglion cyst is a benign condition in which there is a cystic lesion in relation to a joint or a tendon sheath arising from myxoid degeneration of fibrous connective tissue. These can be unilocular or multilocular. In rare cases, there may be multiple ganglion cysts, known as cystic ganglionosis. They can occur at any age but are commonly seen in adults. Clinically they may be asymptomatic or present as swelling or mass effect in adjacent structures. These are common in extremities such as hands and feet. Case Presentation: 11-year-old female child presented with slowly progressive painless swelling of her right hand since the age of 4. Antenatal and perinatal history was unremarkable. Her family history was negative. She denies fever, malaise, morning stiffness, weight loss, fatigue, restriction of joint movements, or any sensory and motor deficit. Lab parameters were negative for inflammatory or infectious etiology. No other joint or extremity involvement was present. On physical examination, the swelling was present on the dorsum and palmer aspect of the right hand and wrist. They were non-tender on palpation without any motor or sensory deficit. MRI hand revealed multiple well-defined fluid signal intensity cystic appearing lesions in periarticular/intraarticular locations in relation to distal radio-ulnar, radio-carpal, intercarpal, carpometacarpal, metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints as well as peritendinous location around flexor tendons more so in the region of wrist, palm, 1st and 5th digit and along extensor tendons in the region of wrist, largest one noted along flexor pollicis longus tendon in thenar region and along 1st digit measuring approx. 4.6 x 1.2 x 1.2 centimeter. Pressure erosions and bone remodelling were noted in the bases of the 2nd to 5th metacarpals, capitate, trapezoid, the distal shaft of 1st metacarpal, and proximal phalanx of 1st digit. Marrow edema was noted in the base and proximal shaft of the 4th metacarpal and proximal shaft of the 3rd metacarpal – likely stress or pressure related. The patient was advised of aspiration, but the family refused the procedure. Therefore the patient was kept on conservative treatment. Conclusion: Cystic ganglionosis is a rare condition with very few cases reported in the medical literature. Its prevalence and association are not known because of the rarity of this condition. It should be considered as an important differential in patients presenting with soft tissue swelling in extremities. Treatment option includes conservative management, aspiration, and surgery. Aspiration has a high recurrence rate. Although surgery has a low recurrence rate, it carries a high rate of complications. Imaging with MRI is essential for confirmation of the cystic nature of lesions and their relation with the joint capsules or tendons. This helps in differentiating from other soft tissue lesions and presurgical planning.

Keywords: radiology, rare, cystic ganglionosis, child

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Authors: T. Weber, D. MacKenzie

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The script in this paper describes the use of advanced simulation environment using electronic systems (microcontroller, operational amplifiers, and FPGA). The simulation was used for non-linear dynamic systems behaviour with required observer structure working with parallel real-time simulation based on state-space representation. The proposed deposited model was used for electrodynamic effects including ionising effects and eddy current distribution also. With the script and proposed method, it is possible to calculate the spatial distribution of the electromagnetic fields in real-time and such systems. For further purpose, the spatial temperature distribution may also be used. With upon system, the uncertainties and disturbances may be determined. This provides the estimation of the more precise system states for the required system and additionally the estimation of the ionising disturbances that arise due to radiation effects in space systems. The results have also shown that a system can be developed specifically with the real-time calculation (estimation) of the radiation effects only. Electronic systems can take damage caused by impacts with charged particle flux in space or radiation environment. TID (Total Ionising Dose) of 1 Gy and Single Effect Transient (SET) free operation up to 50 MeVcm²/mg may assure certain functions. Single-Event Latch-up (SEL) results on the placement of several transistors in the shared substrate of an integrated circuit; ionising radiation can activate an additional parasitic thyristor. This short circuit between semiconductor-elements can destroy the device without protection and measurements. Single-Event Burnout (SEB) on the other hand, increases current between drain and source of a MOSFET and destroys the component in a short time. A Single-Event Gate Rupture (SEGR) can destroy a dielectric of semiconductor also. In order to be able to react to these processes, it must be calculated within a shorter time that ionizing radiation and dose is present. For this purpose, sensors may be used for the realistic evaluation of the diffusion and ionizing effects of the test system. For this purpose, the Peltier element is used for the evaluation of the dynamic temperature increases (dT/dt), from which a measure of the ionization processes and thus radiation will be detected. In addition, the piezo element may be used to record highly dynamic vibrations and oscillations to absorb impacts of charged particle flux. All available sensors shall be used to calibrate the spatial distributions also. By measured value of size and known location of the sensors, the entire distribution in space can be calculated retroactively or more accurately. With the formation, the type of ionisation and the direct effect to the systems and thus possible prevent processes can be activated up to the shutdown. The results show possibilities to perform more qualitative and faster simulations independent of space-systems and radiation environment also. The paper gives additionally an overview of the diffusion effects and their mechanisms.

Keywords: cattle, biochar, manure, microbial activity

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Authors: Mami Miyasaka, Kaichi Yanaoka

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Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity; symptoms often manifest during childhood. In children with ADHD, the development of inhibitory processes is impaired. Inhibitory control allows people to avoid processing unnecessary stimuli and to behave appropriately in various situations; thus, people with ADHD require interventions to improve inhibitory control. Positive or negative reinforcements (i.e., reward or punishment) help improve the performance of children with such difficulties. However, in order to optimize impact, reward and punishment must be presented immediately following the relevant behavior. In regular elementary school classrooms, such supports are uncommon; hence, an alternative practical intervention method is required. One potential intervention involves setting goals to keep children motivated to perform tasks. This study examined whether goal setting improved inhibitory performances, especially for children with severe ADHD-related symptoms. We also focused on giving feedback on children's task performances. We expected that giving children feedback would help them set reasonable goals and monitor their performance. Feedback can be especially effective for children with severe ADHD-related symptoms because they have difficulty monitoring their own performance, perceiving their errors, and correcting their behavior. Our prediction was that goal setting by itself would be effective for children with mild ADHD-related symptoms, and goal setting based on feedback would be effective for children with severe ADHD-related symptoms. Japanese elementary school children and their parents were the sample for this study. Children performed two kinds of go/no-go tasks, and parents completed a checklist about their children's ADHD symptoms, the ADHD Rating Scale-IV, and the Conners 3rd edition. The go/no-go task is a cognitive task to measure inhibitory performance. Children were asked to press a key on the keyboard when a particular symbol appeared on the screen (go stimulus) and to refrain from doing so when another symbol was displayed (no-go stimulus). Errors obtained in response to a no-go stimulus indicated inhibitory impairment. To examine the effect of goal-setting on inhibitory control, 37 children (Mage = 9.49 ± 0.51) were required to set a performance goal, and 34 children (Mage = 9.44 ± 0.50) were not. Further, to manipulate the presence of feedback, in one go/no-go task, no information about children’s scores was provided; however, scores were revealed for the other type of go/no-go tasks. The results revealed a significant interaction between goal setting and feedback. However, three-way interaction between ADHD-related inattention, feedback, and goal setting was not significant. These results indicated that goal setting was effective for improving the performance of the go/no-go task only with feedback, regardless of ADHD severity. Furthermore, we found an interaction between ADHD-related inattention and feedback, indicating that informing inattentive children of their scores made them unexpectedly more impulsive. Taken together, giving feedback was, unexpectedly, too demanding for children with severe ADHD-related symptoms, but the combination of goal setting with feedback was effective for improving their inhibitory control. We discuss effective interventions for children with ADHD from the perspective of goal setting and feedback. This work was supported by the 14th Hakuho Research Grant for Child Education of the Hakuho Foundation.

Keywords: attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, feedback, goal-setting, go/no-go task, inhibitory control

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Authors: J. Yan, B. Pieper, B. Bucsky, B. Nasseri, S. Klotz, H. H. Sievers, S. Mohamed

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Cryoablation is evermore applied for interventional treatment of paroxysmal (PAAF) or persistent atrial fibrillation (PEAF). In the cardiac surgery, this procedure is often combined with coronary arterial bypass graft (CABG) and valve operations. Three different methods are feasible in this sense in respect to practicing extents and mechanisms such as lone left atrial cryoablation, Cox-Maze IV and III in our heart center. 415 patients (68 ± 0.8ys, male 68.2%) with predisposed atrial fibrillation who initially required either coronary or valve operations were enrolled and divided into 3 matched groups according to deployed procedures: CryoLA-group (cryoablation of lone left atrium, n=94); Cox-Maze-IV-group (n=93) and Cox-Maze-III-group (n=8). All patients additionally received closure of the left atrial appendage (LAA) and regularly underwent three-year ambulant follow-up assessments (3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months). Burdens of atrial fibrillation were assessed directly by means of cardiac monitor (Reveal XT, Medtronic) or of 3-day Holter electrocardiogram. Herewith, attacks frequencies of AF and their circadian patterns were systemically analyzed. Furthermore, anticoagulants and regular rate-/rhythm-controlling medications were evaluated and listed in terms of anti-rate and anti-rhythm regimens. Concerning PAAF treatment, Cox Maze IV procedure provided therapeutically acceptable effect as lone left atrium (LA) cryoablation did (5.25 ± 5.25% vs. 10.39 ± 9.96% AF-burden, p > 0.05). Interestingly, Cox Maze III method presented a better short-term effect in the PEAF therapy in comparison to lone cryoablation of LA and Cox Maze IV (0.25 ± 0.23% vs. 15.31 ± 5.99% and 9.10 ± 3.73% AF-burden within the first year, p < 0.05). But this therapeutic advantage went lost during ongoing follow-ups (26.65 ± 24.50% vs. 8.33 ± 8.06% and 15.73 ± 5.88% in 3rd follow-up year). In this way, lone LA-cryoablation established its antiarrhythmic efficacy and 69.5% patients were released from the Vit-K-antagonists, while Cox Maze IV liberated 67.2% patients from continuous anticoagulant medication. The AF-recurrences mostly performed such attacks property as less than 60min duration for all 3 procedures (p > 0.05). In the sense of the circadian distribution of the recurrence attacks, weighted by ongoing follow-ups, lone LA cryoablation achieved and stabilized the antiarrhythmic effects over time, which was especially observed in the treatment of PEAF, while Cox Maze IV and III had their antiarrhythmic effects weakened progressively. This phenomenon was likewise evaluable in the therapy of circadian rhythm of reverting AF-attacks. Furthermore, the strategy of rate control was much more often applied to support and maintain therapeutic successes obtained than the one of rhythm control. Derived from experiences in our heart center, lone LA cryoablation presented equivalent effects in the treatment of AF in comparison to Cox Maze IV and III procedures. These therapeutic successes were especially investigable in the patients suffering from persistent AF (PEAF). Additional supportive strategies such as rate control regime should be initialized and implemented to improve the therapeutic effects of the cryoablations according to appropriate criteria.

Keywords: AF-burden, atrial fibrillation, cardiac monitor, COX MAZE, cryoablation, Holter, LAA

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