Search results for: feature detection

Authors: Eric Dede, Marcus Tindall, John W. Cherrie, Steve Hankin, Christopher Collins

Abstract:

Current exposure models used in contaminated land risk assessment are highly conservative. Use of these models may lead to over-estimation of actual exposures, possibly resulting in negative financial implications due to un-necessary remediation. Thus, we are carrying out a study seeking to improve our understanding of human exposure to selected toxic elements in soil: arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) resulting from allotment land-use. The study employs biomonitoring and physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling to quantify human exposure to these elements. We recruited 37 allotment users (adults > 18 years old) in Scotland, UK, to participate in the study. Concentrations of the elements (and their bioaccessibility) were measured in allotment samples (soil and allotment produce). Amount of produce consumed by the participants and participants’ biological samples (urine and blood) were collected for up to 12 consecutive months. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Reading Research Ethics Committee. PBPK models (coded in MATLAB) were used to estimate the distribution and accumulation of the elements in key body compartments, thus indicating the internal body burden. Simulating low element intake (based on estimated ‘doses’ from produce consumption records), predictive models suggested that detection of these elements in urine and blood was possible within a given period of time following exposure. This information was used in planning biomonitoring, and is currently being used in the interpretation of test results from biological samples. Evaluation of the models is being carried out using biomonitoring data, by comparing model predicted concentrations and measured biomarker concentrations. The PBPK models will be used to generate bioavailability values, which could be incorporated in contaminated land exposure models. Thus, the findings from this study will promote a more sustainable approach to contaminated land management.

Keywords: biomonitoring, exposure, PBPK modelling, toxic elements

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Authors: Eman Ghoneim, Amr S. Fahil

Abstract:

Many regions in Egypt are facing a reduction in crop productivity due to environmental degradation. One factor of crop deterioration includes the unsustainable drainage of surface water, leading to salinized soil conditions. Egypt has exerted time and effort to identify solutions to mitigate the surface water drawdown problem and its resulting effects by exploring renewable and sustainable sources of energy. Siwa Oasis represents one of the most favorable regions in Egypt for geothermal exploitation since it hosts an evident cluster of superficial thermal springs. Some of these hot springs are characterized by high surface temperatures and bottom hole temperatures (BHT) ranging between 20°C to 40 °C and 21 °C to 121.7°C, respectively. The depth to the Precambrian basement rock is commonly greater than 440 m, ranging from 440 m to 4724.4 m. It is this feature that makes the locality of Siwa Oasis sufficient for industrial processes and geothermal power production. In this study, BHT data from 27 deep oil wells were processed by applying the widely used Horner and Gulf of Mexico correction methods to obtain formation temperatures. BHT, commonly used in geothermal studies, remains the most abundant and readily available data source for subsurface temperature information. Outcomes of the present work indicated a geothermal gradient ranging from 18 to 42 °C/km, a heat flow ranging from 24.7 to 111.3 m.W.k⁻¹, and a thermal conductivity of 1.3–2.65 W.m⁻¹.k⁻¹. Remote sensing thermal infrared, topographic, geologic, and geothermal data were utilized to provide geothermal potential maps for the Siwa Oasis. Important physiographic variables (including surface elevation, lineament density, drainage density), geological and geophysical parameters (including land surface temperature, depth to basement, bottom hole temperature, magnetic, geothermal gradient, heat flow, thermal conductivity, and main rock units) were incorporated into GIS to produce a geothermal potential map (GTP) for the Siwa Oasis region. The model revealed that both the northeastern and southeastern sections of the study region are of high geothermal potential. The present work showed that combining bottom-hole temperature measurements and remote sensing data with the selected geospatial methodologies is a useful tool for geothermal prospecting in geologically and tectonically comparable settings in Egypt and East Africa. This work has implications for identifying sustainable resources needed to support food production and renewable energy resources.

Keywords: BHT, geothermal potential map, geothermal gradient, heat flow, thermal conductivity, satellite imagery, GIS

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Supria Sarkar, Vasit Sagan, Sourav Bhadra, Meghnath Pokharel, Felix B.Fritschi

Abstract:

Soybean and their derivatives are very important agricultural commodities around the world because of their wide applicability in human food, animal feed, biofuel, and industries. However, the significance of soybean production depends on the quality of the soybean seeds rather than the yield alone. Seed composition is widely dependent on plant physiological properties, aerobic and anaerobic environmental conditions, nutrient content, and plant phenological characteristics, which can be captured by high temporal resolution remote sensing datasets. Planet scope (PS) satellite images have high potential in sequential information of crop growth due to their frequent revisit throughout the world. In this study, we estimate soybean seed composition while the plants are in the field by utilizing PlanetScope (PS) satellite images and different machine learning algorithms. Several experimental fields were established with varying genotypes and different seed compositions were measured from the samples as ground truth data. The PS images were processed to extract 462 hand-crafted vegetative and textural features. Four machine learning algorithms, i.e., partial least squares (PLSR), random forest (RFR), gradient boosting machine (GBM), support vector machine (SVM), and two recurrent neural network architectures, i.e., long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) were used in this study to predict oil, protein, sucrose, ash, starch, and fiber of soybean seed samples. The GRU and LSTM architectures had two separate branches, one for vegetative features and the other for textures features, which were later concatenated together to predict seed composition. The results show that sucrose, ash, protein, and oil yielded comparable prediction results. Machine learning algorithms that best predicted the six seed composition traits differed. GRU worked well for oil (R-Squared: of 0.53) and protein (R-Squared: 0.36), whereas SVR and PLSR showed the best result for sucrose (R-Squared: 0.74) and ash (R-Squared: 0.60), respectively. Although, the RFR and GBM provided comparable performance, the models tended to extremely overfit. Among the features, vegetative features were found as the most important variables compared to texture features. It is suggested to utilize many vegetation indices for machine learning training and select the best ones by using feature selection methods. Overall, the study reveals the feasibility and efficiency of PS images and machine learning for plot-level seed composition estimation. However, special care should be given while designing the plot size in the experiments to avoid mixed pixel issues.

Keywords: agriculture, computer vision, data science, geospatial technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Fumihiro Ima, Shinichi Watanabe, Shingo Maeda, Haruna Imai, Hiroki Niimi

Abstract:

It is important to know growth rate of brain tumors before surgery because it influences treatment planning including not only surgical resection strategy but also adjuvant therapy after surgery. Amide proton transfer (APT) imaging is an emerging molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique based on chemical exchange saturation transfer without administration of contrast medium. The underlying assumption in APT imaging of tumors is that there is a close relationship between the proliferative activity of the tumor and mobile protein synthesis. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of APT imaging of pre-and post-treatment brain tumors. Ten patients with brain tumor underwent conventional and APT-weighted sequences on a 3.0 Tesla MRI before clinical intervention. The maximum and the minimum APT-weighted signals (APTWmax and APTWmin) in each solid tumor region were obtained and compared before and after clinical intervention. All surgical specimens were examined for histopathological diagnosis. Eight of ten patients underwent adjuvant therapy after surgery. Histopathological diagnosis was glioma in 7 patients (WHO grade 2 in 2 patients, WHO grade 3 in 3 patients and WHO grade 4 in 2 patients), meningioma WHO grade1 in 2 patients and primary lymphoma of the brain in 1 patient. High-grade gliomas showed significantly higher APTW-signals than that in low-grade gliomas. APTWmax in one huge parasagittal meningioma infiltrating into the skull bone was higher than that in glioma WHO grade 4. On the other hand, APTWmax in another convexity meningioma was the same as that in glioma WHO grade 3. Diagnosis of primary lymphoma of the brain was possible with APT imaging before pathological confirmation. APTW-signals in residual tumors decreased dramatically within one year after adjuvant therapy in all patients. APT imaging demonstrated excellent diagnostic performance for the planning of surgery and adjuvant therapy of brain tumors.

Keywords: amides, magnetic resonance imaging, brain tumors, cell proliferation

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Authors: Mohammed Seyam, Faridah Othman, Ahmed El-Shafie

Abstract:

The early warning of high stream flow events (HSF) and floods is an important aspect in the management of surface water and rivers systems. This process can be performed using either process-based models or data driven-based models such as artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The main goal of this study is to develop efficient AI-based model for predicting the real-time hourly stream flow (Q) and apply it as early warning tool of HSF and floods in the downstream area of the Selangor River basin, taken here as a paradigm of humid tropical rivers in Southeast Asia. The performance of AI-based models has been improved through the integration of the lag time (Lt) estimation in the modelling process. A total of 8753 patterns of Q, water level, and rainfall hourly records representing one-year period (2011) were utilized in the modelling process. Six hydrological scenarios have been arranged through hypothetical cases of input variables to investigate how the changes in RF intensity in upstream stations can lead formation of floods. The initial SF was changed for each scenario in order to include wide range of hydrological situations in this study. The performance evaluation of the developed AI-based model shows that high correlation coefficient (R) between the observed and predicted Q is achieved. The AI-based model has been successfully employed in early warning throughout the advance detection of the hydrological conditions that could lead to formations of floods and HSF, where represented by three levels of severity (i.e., alert, warning, and danger). Based on the results of the scenarios, reaching the danger level in the downstream area required high RF intensity in at least two upstream areas. According to results of applications, it can be concluded that AI-based models are beneficial tools to the local authorities for flood control and awareness.

Keywords: floods, stream flow, hydrological modelling, hydrology, artificial intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: Van Trieu, Shouhuai Xu, Yusheng Feng

Abstract:

Tracking attack trajectories can be difficult, with limited information about the nature of the attack. Even more difficult as attack information is collected by Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) due to the current IDSs having some limitations in identifying malicious and anomalous traffic. Moreover, IDSs only point out the suspicious events but do not show how the events relate to each other or which event possibly cause the other event to happen. Because of this, it is important to investigate new methods capable of performing the tracking of attack trajectories task quickly with less attack information and dependency on IDSs, in order to prioritize actions during incident responses. This paper proposes a two-level graph causality framework for tracking attack trajectories in internet networks by leveraging observable malicious behaviors to detect what is the most probable attack events that can cause another event to occur in the system. Technically, given the time series of malicious events, the framework extracts events with useful features, such as attack time and port number, to apply to the conditional independent tests to detect the relationship between attack events. Using the academic datasets collected by IDSs, experimental results show that the framework can quickly detect the causal pairs that offer meaningful insights into the nature of the internet network, given only reasonable restrictions on network size and structure. Without the framework’s guidance, these insights would not be able to discover by the existing tools, such as IDSs. It would cost expert human analysts a significant time if possible. The computational results from the proposed two-level graph network model reveal the obvious pattern and trends. In fact, more than 85% of causal pairs have the average time difference between the causal and effect events in both computed and observed data within 5 minutes. This result can be used as a preventive measure against future attacks. Although the forecast may be short, from 0.24 seconds to 5 minutes, it is long enough to be used to design a prevention protocol to block those attacks.

Keywords: causality, multilevel graph, cyber-attacks, prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Barry D. Kyle, Jessica Boyd, Robin Pickersgill, Nicole Squires, Cynthia Balion

Abstract:

Background-Aim: Fentanyl is a highly-potent synthetic μ-opioid receptor agonist used for exceptional pain management. Its main metabolite, norfentanyl, is typically present in urine at significantly high concentrations (i.e. ~20%) representing an effective targeting molecule for immunoassay detection. Here, we evaluated the NCS^TM One Step Fentanyl Test Device© and the BTNX Rapid Response^TM Single Drug Test Strip© point of care (POC) test strips targeting norfentanyl (20 ng/ml) and fentanyl (100 ng/ml) molecules for potential risperidone interference. Methods: POC tests calibrated against norfentanyl (20 ng/ml) used [immunochromatographic] lateral flow devices to provide qualitative results within five minutes of urine sample contact. Results were recorded as negative if lines appeared in the test and control regions according to manufacturer’s instructions. Positive results were recorded if no line appeared in the test region (i.e., control line only visible). Pooled patient urine (n=20), that screened negative for drugs of abuse (using NCS One Step Multi-Line Screen) and fentanyl (using BTNX Rapid Response Strip) was used for spiking studies. Urine was spiked with risperidone alone and with combinations of fentanyl, norfentanyl and/or risperidone to evaluate cross-reactivity in each test device. Results: A positive screen result was obtained when 8,000 ng/mL of risperidone was spiked into drug free urine using the NCS test device. Positive screen results were also obtained in spiked urine samples containing fentanyl and norfentanyl combinations below the cut-off concentrations when 4000 ng/mL risperidone was present using the NCS testing device. There were no screen positive test results using the BTNX test strip with up to 8,000 ng/mL alone or in combination with concentrations of fentanyl and norfentanyl below the cut-off. Both devices screened positive when either fentanyl or norfentanyl exceeded the cut-off threshold in the absence and presence of risperidone. Conclusion: We report that urine samples containing risperidone may give a false positive result using the NCS One Step Fentanyl Test Device.

Keywords: fentanyl, interferences, point of care test, Risperidone

Procedia PDF Downloads 246

Authors: Jeroen De Ceuster

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This study is the first empirical analysis of the link between corporate governance and European Union competition law. Although competition law enforcement is often studied through the lens of competition law, we offer an alternative perspective by looking at a number of corporate governance factor at the level of the board of directors. We find that undertakings where the Chief Executive Officer is also chairman of the board are twice as likely to violate European Union competition law. No significant relationship was found between European Union competition law infringements and gender diversity of the board, the size of the board, the percentage of directors appointed after the Chief Executive Officer, the percentage of independent directors, or the presence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee. This contribution is based on a 1-1 matched peer study. Our sample includes all ultimate parent companies with a board that have been sanctioned by the European Commission for either anticompetitive agreements or abuse of dominance for the period from 2004 to 2018. These companies were matched to a company with headquarters in the same country, belongs to the same industry group, is active in the European Economic Area, and is the nearest neighbor to the infringing company in terms of revenue. Our final sample includes 121 pairs. As is common with matched peer studies, we use CLR to analyze the differences within these pairs. The only statistically significant independent variable after controlling for size and performance is CEO/Chair duality. The results indicate that companies whose Chief Executive Officer also functions as chairman of the board are twice as likely to infringe European Union competition law. This is in line with the monitoring theory of the board of directors, which states that its primary function is to monitor top management. Since competition law infringements are mostly organized by management and hidden from board directors, the results suggest that a Chief Executive Officer who is also chairman is more likely to be either complicit in the infringement or less critical towards his day-to-day colleagues and thus impedes proper detection by the board of competition law infringements.

Keywords: corporate governance, competition law, board of directors, board independence, ender diversity, corporate social responisbility

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Authors: Maftunakhon Latipova, Feruza Khaydarova

Abstract:

Obesity is considered a chronic metabolic disease that occurs at any age. Regulation of body weight in the body is carried out through complex interaction of a complex of interrelated systems that control the body's energy system. Energy imbalance is the cause of obesity and overweight, in which the supply of energy from food exceeds the energy needs of the body. Obesity is closely related to impaired appetite regulation, and a hypothalamus is a key place for neural regulation of food consumption. The nucleus of the hypothalamus is connected and interdependent on receiving, integrating and sending hunger signals to regulate appetite. Purpose of the study: to identify markers of food behavior. Materials and methods: The screening was carried out to identify eating disorders in 200 men and women aged 18 to 35 years with overweight and obesity and to check the effects of Orexin A and Neuropeptide Y markers. A questionnaire and questionnaires were conducted with over 200 people aged 18 to 35 years. Questionnaires were for eating disorders and hidden depression (on the Zang scale). Anthropometry is measured by OT, OB, BMI, Weight, and Height. Based on the results of the collected data, 3 groups were divided: People with obesity, People with overweight, Control Group of Healthy People. Results: Of the 200 analysed persons, 86% had eating disorders. Of these, 60% of eating disorders were associated with childhood. According to the Zang test result: Normal condition was about 37%, mild depressive disorder 20%, moderate depressive disorder 25% and 18% of people suffered from severe depressive disorder without knowing it. One group of people with obesity had eating disorders and moderate and severe depressive disorder, and group 2 was overweight with mild depressive disorder. According to laboratory data, the first group had the lowest concentration of Orexin A and Neuropeptide U in blood serum. Conclusions: Being overweight and obese are the first signal of many diseases, and prevention and detection of these disorders will prevent various diseases, including type 2 diabetes. Obesity etiology is associated with eating disorders and signal transmission of the orexinorghetic system of the hypothalamus.

Keywords: obesity, endocrinology, hypothalamus, overweight

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Tarek Duzan

Abstract:

Fractures are a fundamental property of most reservoirs. Despite their abundance, they remain difficult to detect and quantify. The most effective characterization of fractured reservoirs is accomplished by integrating geological, geophysical, and engineering data. Detection of fractures and defines their relative contribution is crucial in the early stages of exploration and later in the production of any field. Because fractures could completely change our thoughts, efforts, and planning to produce a specific field properly. From the structural point of view, all reservoirs are fractured to some point of extent. North Gialo field is thought to be a naturally fractured reservoir to some extent. Historically, natural fractured reservoirs are more complicated in terms of their exploration and production efforts, and most geologists tend to deny the presence of fractures as an effective variable. Our aim in this paper is to determine the degree of fracturing, and consequently, our evaluation and planning can be done properly and efficiently from day one. The challenging part in this field is that there is no enough data and straightforward well testing that can let us completely comfortable with the idea of fracturing; however, we cannot ignore the fractures completely. Logging images, available well testing, and limited core studies are our tools in this stage to evaluate, model, and predict possible fracture effects in this reservoir. The aims of this study are both fundamental and practical—to improve the prediction and diagnosis of natural-fracture attributes in N. Gialo hydrocarbon reservoirs and accurately simulate their influence on production. Moreover, the production of this field comes from 2-phase plan; a self depletion of oil and then gas injection period for pressure maintenance and increasing ultimate recovery factor. Therefore, well understanding of fracturing network is essential before proceeding with the targeted plan. New analytical methods will lead to more realistic characterization of fractured and faulted reservoir rocks. These methods will produce data that can enhance well test and seismic interpretations, and that can readily be used in reservoir simulators.

Keywords: natural fracture, sandstone reservoir, geological, geophysical, and engineering data

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: S. Hatamikia, A. Biguri, H. Furtado, G. Kronreif, J. Kettenbach, W. Birkfellner

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Nowadays, three dimensional Cone Beam CT (CBCT) has turned into a widespread clinical routine imaging modality for interventional radiology. In conventional CBCT, a circular sourcedetector trajectory is used to acquire a high number of 2D projections in order to reconstruct a 3D volume. However, the accumulated radiation dose due to the repetitive use of CBCT needed for the intraoperative procedure as well as daily pretreatment patient alignment for radiotherapy has become a concern. It is of great importance for both health care providers and patients to decrease the amount of radiation dose required for these interventional images. Thus, it is desirable to find some optimized source-detector trajectories with the reduced number of projections which could therefore lead to dose reduction. In this study we investigate some source-detector trajectories with the optimal arbitrary orientation in the way to maximize performance of the reconstructed image at particular regions of interest. To achieve this approach, we developed a box phantom consisting several small target polytetrafluoroethylene spheres at regular distances through the entire phantom. Each of these spheres serves as a target inside a particular region of interest. We use the 3D Point Spread Function (PSF) as a measure to evaluate the performance of the reconstructed image. We measured the spatial variance in terms of Full-Width-Half-Maximum (FWHM) of the local PSFs each related to a particular target. The lower value of FWHM shows the better spatial resolution of reconstruction results at the target area. One important feature of interventional radiology is that we have very well-known imaging targets as a prior knowledge of patient anatomy (e.g. preoperative CT) is usually available for interventional imaging. Therefore, we use a CT scan from the box phantom as the prior knowledge and consider that as the digital phantom in our simulations to find the optimal trajectory for a specific target. Based on the simulation phase we have the optimal trajectory which can be then applied on the device in real situation. We consider a Philips Allura FD20 Xper C-arm geometry to perform the simulations and real data acquisition. Our experimental results based on both simulation and real data show our proposed optimization scheme has the capacity to find optimized trajectories with minimal number of projections in order to localize the targets. Our results show the proposed optimized trajectories are able to localize the targets as good as a standard circular trajectory while using just 1/3 number of projections. Conclusion: We demonstrate that applying a minimal dedicated set of projections with optimized orientations is sufficient to localize targets, may minimize radiation.

Keywords: CBCT, C-arm, reconstruction, trajectory optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Sungho Kim, Jaechoul Shin, Yujin Baek, Nakseok Kim, Kyungnam Kim, Shinhaeng Jo

Abstract:

The climate change and increase in heavy traffic have been accelerating damages that cause the problems such as pothole on asphalt pavement. Pothole causes traffic accidents, vehicle damages, road casualties and traffic congestion. A quick and efficient maintenance method is needed because pothole is caused by stripping and accelerates pavement distress. In this study, we propose a rapid and systematic pothole management by developing a pothole automated repairing equipment including a volume measurement system of pothole. Three kinds of cold mix asphalt mixture were investigated to select repair materials. The materials were evaluated for satisfaction with quality standard and applicability to automated equipment. The volume measurement system of potholes was composed of multi-sensor that are combined with laser sensor and ultrasonic sensor and installed in front and side of the automated repair equipment. An algorithm was proposed to calculate the amount of repair material according to the measured pothole volume, and the system for releasing the correct amount of material was developed. Field test results showed that the loss of repair material amount could be reduced from approximately 20% to 6% per one point of pothole. Pothole rapid automated repair equipment will contribute to improvement on quality and efficient and economical maintenance by not only reducing materials and resources but also calculating appropriate materials. Through field application, it is possible to improve the accuracy of pothole volume measurement, to correct the calculation of material amount, and to manage the pothole data of roads, thereby enabling more efficient pavement maintenance management. Acknowledgment: The author would like to thank the MOLIT(Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport). This work was carried out through the project funded by the MOLIT. The project name is 'development of 20mm grade for road surface detecting roadway condition and rapid detection automation system for removal of pothole'.

Keywords: automated equipment, management, multi-beam sensor, pothole

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Fumihiro Imai, Shinichi Watanabe, Shingo Maeda, Haruna Imai, Hiroki Niimi

Abstract:

It is important to know the growth rate of brain tumors before surgery because it influences treatment planning, including not only surgical resection strategy but also adjuvant therapy after surgery. Amide proton transfer (APT) imaging is an emerging molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique based on chemical exchange saturation transfer without the administration of a contrast medium. The underlying assumption in APT imaging of tumors is that there is a close relationship between the proliferative activity of the tumor and mobile protein synthesis. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of APT imaging of pre-and post-treatment brain tumors. Ten patients with brain tumor underwent conventional and APT-weighted sequences on a 3.0 Tesla MRI before clinical intervention. The maximum and the minimum APT-weighted signals (APTWmax and APTWmin) in each solid tumor region were obtained and compared before and after a clinical intervention. All surgical specimens were examined for histopathological diagnosis. Eight of ten patients underwent adjuvant therapy after surgery. Histopathological diagnosis was glioma in 7 patients (WHO grade 2 in 2 patients, WHO grade 3 in 3 patients, and WHO grade 4 in 2 patients), meningioma WHO grade 1 in 2 patients, and primary lymphoma of the brain in 1 patient. High-grade gliomas showed significantly higher APTW signals than that low-grade gliomas. APTWmax in one huge parasagittal meningioma infiltrating into the skull bone was higher than that in glioma WHO grade 4. On the other hand, APTWmax in another convexity meningioma was the same as that in glioma WHO grade 3. Diagnosis of primary lymphoma of the brain was possible with APT imaging before pathological confirmation. APTW signals in residual tumors decreased dramatically within one year after adjuvant therapy in all patients. APT imaging demonstrated excellent diagnostic performance for the planning of surgery and adjuvant therapy of brain tumors.

Keywords: amides, magnetic resonance imaging, brain tumors, cell proliferation

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Jelka Pleadin, Greta Krešić, Tina Lešić, Ana Vulić, Renata Barić, Tanja Bogdanović, Dražen Oraić, Ana Legac, Snježana Zrnčić

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Fish has been acknowledged as an integral component of a well-balanced diet, providing a healthy source of energy, high-quality proteins, vitamins, essential minerals and, especially, n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC PUFA), mainly eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5 n-3 EPA), and docosahexaenoicacid, (22:6 n-3 DHA), whose pleiotropic effects in terms of health promotion and disease prevention have been increasingly recognised. In this study, the fatty acids composition of three commercially important farmed fish species: sea bream (Sparus aurata), sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and dentex (Dentex dentex) was investigated. In total, 60 fish samples were retrieved during 2015 (n = 30) and 2016 (n = 30) from different locations in the Adriatic Sea. Methyl esters of fatty acids were analysed using gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionization detection (FID). The results show that the most represented fatty acid in all three analysed species is oleic acid (C18:1n-9, OA), followed by linoleic acid (C18:2n-6, LA) and palmitic acid (C16:0, PA). Dentex was shown to have two to four times higher eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acid content as compared to sea bream and sea bass. The recommended n-6/n-3 ratio was determined in all fish species but obtained results pointed to statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in fatty acid composition among the analysed fish species and their potential as a dietary source of valuable fatty acids. Sea bass and sea bream had a significantly higher proportion of n-6 fatty acids, while dentex had a significantly higher proportion of n-3 (C18:4n-3, C20:4n-3, EPA, DHA) fatty acids. A higher hypocholesterolaemic and hypercholesterolaemic fatty acids (HH) ratio was determined for sea bass and sea bream, which comes as the consequence of a lower share of SFA determined in these two species in comparison to dentex. Since the analysed fish species vary in their fatty acids composition consumption of diverse fish species would be advisable. Based on the established lipid quality indicators, dentex, a fish species underutilised by the aquaculture, seems to be a highly recommendable and important source of fatty acids recommended to be included into the human diet.

Keywords: dentex, fatty acids, farmed fish, sea bass, sea bream

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Authors: C. Fornacelli, P. Colomban, E. Mugnaioli, I. Memmi Turbanti

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When semiconductor particles are reduced in scale to nanometer dimension, their optical and electro-optical properties strongly differ from those of bulk crystals of the same composition. Since sampling is often not allowed concerning cultural heritage artefacts, the potentialities of two non-invasive techniques, such as Raman and Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), have been investigated and the results of the analysis on some original glasses of different colours (from yellow to orange and deep red) and periods (from the second decade of the 20th century to present days) are reported in the present study. In order to evaluate the potentialities of the application of non-invasive techniques to the investigation of the structure and distribution of nanoparticles dispersed in a glass matrix, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and energy-disperse spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, together with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Electron Diffraction Tomography (EDT) have also been used. Raman spectroscopy allows a fast and non-destructive measure of the quantum dots composition and size, thanks to the evaluation of the frequencies and the broadening/asymmetry of the LO phonons bands, respectively, though the important role of the compressive strain arising from the glass matrix and the possible diffusion of zinc from the matrix to the nanocrystals should be taken into account when considering the optical-phonons frequency values. The incorporation of Zn has been assumed by an upward shifting of the LO band related to the most abundant anion (S or Se), while the role of the surface phonons as well as the confinement-induced scattering by phonons with a non-zero wavevectors on the Raman peaks broadening has been verified. The optical band gap varies from 2.42 eV (pure CdS) to 1.70 eV (CdSe). For the compositional range between 0.5≤x≤0.2, the presence of two absorption edges has been related to the contribution of both pure CdS and the CdSxSe1-x solid solution; this particular feature is probably due to the presence of unaltered cubic zinc blende structures of CdS that is not taking part to the formation of the solid solution occurring only between hexagonal CdS and CdSe. Moreover, the band edge tailing originating from the disorder due to the formation of weak bonds and characterized by the Urbach edge energy has been studied and, together with the FWHM of the Raman signal, has been assumed as a good parameter to evaluate the degree of topological disorder. SEM-EDS mapping showed a peculiar distribution of the major constituents of the glass matrix (fluxes and stabilizers), especially concerning those samples where a layered structure has been assumed thanks to the spectroscopic study. Finally, TEM-EDS and EDT were used to get high-resolution information about nanocrystals (NCs) and heterogeneous glass layers. The presence of ZnO NCs (< 4 nm) dispersed in the matrix has been verified for most of the samples, while, for those samples where a disorder due to a more complex distribution of the size and/or composition of the NCs has been assumed, the TEM clearly verified most of the assumption made by the spectroscopic techniques.

Keywords: CdSxSe1-x, EDT, glass, spectroscopy, TEM-EDS

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Shilpee Jain, Sachin Latiyan, Kaushik Suneet

Abstract:

Unlike traditional robots, medical microbots are not only smaller in size, but they also possess various unique properties, for example, biocompatibility, stability in the biological fluids, navigation opposite to the bloodstream, wireless control over locomotion, etc. The idea behind their usage in the medical field was to build a minimally invasive method for addressing the post-operative complications, including longer recovery time, infection eruption and pain. Herein, the present study demonstrates the fabrication of dual nature magneto-conducting Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and SU8 derived carbon-based Janus microbots for the efficient intracellular delivery of biomolecules. The low aspect ratio with feature size 2-5 μm microbots were fabricated by using a photolithography technique. These microbots were pyrolyzed at 900°C, which converts SU8 into amorphous carbon. The pyrolyzed microbots have dual properties, i.e., the half part is magneto-conducting and another half is only conducting for sufficing the therapeutic payloads efficiently with the application of external electric/magnetic field stimulations. For the efficient intracellular delivery of the microbots, the size and aspect ratio plays a significant role. However, on a smaller scale, the proper control over movement is difficult to achieve. The dual nature of Janus microbots allowed to control its maneuverability in the complex fluids using external electric as well as the magnetic field. Interestingly, Janus microbots move faster with the application of an external electric field (44 µm/s) as compared to the magnetic field (18 µm/s) application. Furthermore, these Janus microbots exhibit auto-fluorescence behavior that will help to track their pathway during navigation. Typically, the use of MNPs in the microdevices enhances the tendency to agglomerate. However, the incorporation of Fe₃O₄ MNPs in the pyrolyzed carbon reduces the chances of agglomeration of the microbots. The biocompatibility of the medical microbots, which is the essential property of any biosystems, was determined in vitro using HeLa cells. The microbots were found to compatible with HeLa cells. Additionally, the intracellular uptake of microbots was higher in the presence of an external electric field as compared to without electric field stimulation. In summary, the cytocompatible Janus microbots were fabricated successfully. They are stable in the biological fluids, wireless controllable navigation with the help of a few Guess external magnetic fields, their movement can be tracked because of autofluorescence behavior, they are less susceptible to agglomeration and higher cellular uptake could be achieved with the application of the external electric field. Thus, these carriers could offer a versatile platform to suffice the therapeutic payloads under wireless actuation.

Keywords: amorphous carbon, electric/magnetic stimulations, Janus microbots, magnetic nanoparticles, minimally invasive procedures

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Mohammad Nazri Abdul Bahari, Nurshafika Mohd Sakeh, Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah

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Basal stem rot (BSR) is the most devastating disease in oil palm. Among the oil palm pathogenic fungi, the most prevalent and virulent species associated with BSR is Ganoderma boninense. Early detection of G. boninense attack in oil palm wherein physical symptoms has not yet appeared can offer opportunities to prevent the spread of the necrotrophic fungus. However, poor understanding of molecular defense responses and roles of antifungal metabolites in oil palm against G. boninense has complicated the resolving measures. Hence, characterization of defense-related molecular responses and production of antifungal compounds during early interaction with G. boninense is of utmost important. Four month-old oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seedlings were artificially infected with G. boninense-inoculated rubber wood block via sitting technique. RNA of samples were extracted from roots and leaves tissues at 0, 3, 7 and 11 days post inoculation (d.p.i) followed with sequencing using RNA-Seq method. Differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) of oil palm-G. boninense interaction were identified, while changes in metabolite profile will be scrutinized related to the DEGs. The RNA-Seq data generated a total of 113,829,376 and 313,293,229 paired-end clean reads from untreated (0 d.p.i) and treated (3, 7, 11 d.p.i) samples respectively, each with two biological replicates. The paired-end reads were mapped to Elaeis guineensis reference genome to screen out non-oil palm genes and subsequently generated 74,794 coding sequences. DEG analysis of phytohormone biosynthetic genes in oil palm roots revealed that at p-value ≤ 0.01, ethylene and jasmonic acid may act in antagonistic manner with salicylic acid to coordinate defense response at early interaction with G. boninense. Findings on metabolite profiling of G. boninense-infected oil palm roots and leaves are hoped to explain the defense-related compounds elicited by Elaeis guineensis in response to G. boninense colonization. The study aims to shed light on molecular defense response of oil palm at early interaction with G. boninense and promote prevention measures against Ganoderma infection.

Keywords: Ganoderma boninense, metabolites, phytohormones, RNA-Seq

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Yanghui Xu, Qin Ou, Xintu Wang, Feng Hou, Peng Li, Jan Peter van der Hoek, Gang Liu

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The level and removal of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has been well evaluated by the particle number, while the mass concentration of MPs and especially nanoplastics (NPs) remains unclear. In this study, microfiltration, ultrafiltration and hydrogen peroxide digestion were used to extract MPs and NPs with different size ranges (0.01−1, 1−50, and 50−1000 μm) across the whole treatment schemes in two WWTPs. By identifying specific pyrolysis products, pyrolysis gas chromatography−mass spectrometry were used to quantify their mass concentrations of selected six types of polymers (i.e., polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyamide (PA)). The mass concentrations of total MPs and NPs decreased from 26.23 and 11.28 μg/L in the influent to 1.75 and 0.71 μg/L in the effluent, with removal rates of 93.3 and 93.7% in plants A and B, respectively. Among them, PP, PET and PE were the dominant polymer types in wastewater, while PMMA, PS and PA only accounted for a small part. The mass concentrations of NPs (0.01−1 μm) were much lower than those of MPs (>1 μm), accounting for 12.0−17.9 and 5.6− 19.5% of the total MPs and NPs, respectively. Notably, the removal efficiency differed with the polymer type and size range. The low-density MPs (e.g., PP and PE) had lower removal efficiency than high-density PET in both plants. Since particles with smaller size could pass the tertiary sand filter or membrane filter more easily, the removal efficiency of NPs was lower than that of MPs with larger particle size. Based on annual wastewater effluent discharge, it is estimated that about 0.321 and 0.052 tons of MPs and NPs were released into the river each year. Overall, this study investigated the mass concentration of MPs and NPs with a wide size range of 0.01−1000 μm in wastewater, which provided valuable information regarding the pollution level and distribution characteristics of MPs, especially NPs, in WWTPs. However, there are limitations and uncertainties in the current study, especially regarding the sample collection and MP/NP detection. The used plastic items (e.g., sampling buckets, ultrafiltration membranes, centrifugal tubes, and pipette tips) may introduce potential contamination. Additionally, the proposed method caused loss of MPs, especially NPs, which can lead to underestimation of MPs/NPs. Further studies are recommended to address these challenges about MPs/NPs in wastewater.

Keywords: microplastics, nanoplastics, mass concentration, WWTPs, Py-GC/MS

Procedia PDF Downloads 255

Authors: Deniz Guven, Wil Ward, Jinming Duan, Li Bai

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Over the past two decades or so, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been used to diagnose retina and optic nerve diseases. The retinal nerve fibre layer, for example, is a powerful diagnostic marker for detecting and staging glaucoma. With the advances in optical imaging hardware, the adoption of OCT is now commonplace in clinics. More and more OCT images are being generated, and for these OCT images to have clinical applicability, accurate automated OCT image segmentation software is needed. Oct image segmentation is still an active research area, as OCT images are inherently noisy, with the multiplicative speckling noise. Simple edge detection algorithms are unsuitable for detecting retinal layer boundaries in OCT images. Intensity fluctuation, motion artefact, and the presence of blood vessels also decrease further OCT image quality. In this paper, we introduce a new method for segmenting three-dimensional (3D) OCT images. This involves the use of a Kalman filter, which is commonly used in computer vision for object tracking. The Kalman filter is applied to the 3D OCT image volume to track the retinal layer boundaries through the slices within the volume and thus segmenting the 3D image. Specifically, after some pre-processing of the OCT images, points on the retinal layer boundaries in the first image are identified, and curve fitting is applied to them such that the layer boundaries can be represented by the coefficients of the curve equations. These coefficients then form the state space for the Kalman Filter. The filter then produces an optimal estimate of the current state of the system by updating its previous state using the measurements available in the form of a feedback control loop. The results show that the algorithm can be used to segment the retinal layers in OCT images. One of the limitations of the current algorithm is that the curve representation of the retinal layer boundary does not work well when the layer boundary is split into two, e.g., at the optic nerve, the layer boundary split into two. This maybe resolved by using a different approach to representing the boundaries, such as b-splines or level sets. The use of a Kalman filter shows promise to developing accurate and effective 3D OCT segmentation methods.

Keywords: optical coherence tomography, image segmentation, Kalman filter, object tracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 459

Authors: Nkechi V. Osuji

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The use of blockchain to address the issue of climate change is increasingly a discourse among countries, industries, and stakeholders. For a long time, the European Union (EU) has been combating the issue of climate action in industries through sustainability programs. One of such programs is the EU monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) program of the EU ETS. However, the system has some key challenges and areas for improvement, which makes it inefficient. The main objective of the research is to look at how blockchain can be used to improve the inefficiency of the EU ETS program for the Danish energy industry with a focus on its monitoring and reporting framework. Applying empirical data from 13 semi-structured expert interviews, three case studies, and literature reviews, three outcomes are presented in the study. The first is on the current conditions and challenges of monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading. The second is putting into consideration if blockchain is the right fit to solve these challenges and how. The third stage looks at the factors that might affect the implementation of such a system and provides recommendations to mitigate these challenges. The first stage of the findings reveals that the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emissions is a mandatory requirement by law for all energy operators under the EU ETS program. However, most energy operators are non-compliant with the program in reality, which creates a gap and causes challenges in the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emission trading. Other challenges the study found out are the lack of transparency, lack of standardization in CO₂ accounting, and the issue of double-counting in the current system. The second stage of the research was guided by three case studies and requirement engineering (RE) to explore these identified challenges and if blockchain is the right fit to address them. This stage of the research addressed the main research question: how can blockchain be used for monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading in the energy industry. Through analysis of the study data, the researcher developed a conceptual private permissioned Hyperledger blockchain and elucidated on how it can address the identified challenges. Particularly, the smart contract of blockchain was highlighted as a key feature. This is because of its ability to automate, be immutable, and digitally enforce negotiations without a middleman. These characteristics are unique in solving the issue of compliance, transparency, standardization, and double counting identified. The third stage of the research presents technological constraints and a high level of stakeholder collaboration as major factors that might affect the implementation of the proposed system. The proposed conceptual model requires high-level integration with other technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. Therefore, the study encourages future research in these areas. This is because blockchain is continually evolving its technology capabilities. As such, it remains a topic of interest in research and development for addressing climate change. Such a study is a good contribution to creating sustainable practices to solve the global climate issue.

Keywords: blockchain, carbon emission trading, European Union emission trading system, monitoring and reporting

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Latife Merve Oktay, Berrin Tugrul

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Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is a phenolic phytochemical molecule derived from the hydrolysis of oleuropein, which originates during the maturation of the olives. It has recently received particular attention because of its antioxidant, anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory activities. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of hydroxytyrosol and its effects on phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt (PI3K/Akt) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK 1/2) signaling pathways in human ovarian cancer cell lines OVCAR-3 and MDAH-2774. XTT cell proliferation kit, Cell Death Detection Elisa Plus Kit (Roche) and Human Apoptosis Array (R&D Systems) were used to determine the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of HT in OVCAR-3 and MDAH-2774 cell lines at 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. Effect of HT on PI3K/Akt and ERK 1/2 signaling pathways were investigated by using specific inhibitors of these pathways. IC50 values of HT were found to be 102.3 µM in MDAH-2774 cells at 72 h and 51.5 µM in OVCAR-3 cells at 96 h. Apoptotic effect of HT in MDAH-2774 cells was the highest at 50 µM at 72 h, and kept decreasing at 100 and 150 µM concentrations and was not seen at 200 µM and higher concentrations. Highest apoptotic effect was seen at 100 µM concentration in OVCAR-3 cells at 96 h, however apoptotic effect was decreased over 100 µM concentrations. According to antibody microarray results, HT increased the levels of pro-apoptotic molecules Bad, Bax, active caspase-3, Htra2/Omi by 2.0-, 1.4-, 1.2-, 4.2-fold, respectively and also increased the levels of pro-apoptotic death receptors TRAIL R1/DR4, TRAIL R2/DR5, FAS/TNFRSF6 by 2.1-, 1.7-, 1.6-fold, respectively, however, it decreased the level of Survivin by 1.6-fold which is one of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family in MDAH-2774 cells. In OVCAR-3 cells, HT decreased the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, pro-caspase 3 by 3.1-, 8.2-fold, respectively and IAP family proteins CIAP-1, CIAP-2, XIAP, Livin, Survivin by 6.5-, 6.0-, 3.2-, 2.2-, 2.7-fold, respectively and increased the level of cytochrome-c by 1.2-fold. We have shown that HT shows its cytotoxic and apoptotic effect through inhibiting ERK 1/2 signaling pathway in both OVCAR-3 and MDAH-2774 cells. Further studies are needed to investigate molecular mechanisms and modulatory effects of hydroxytyrosol.

Keywords: apoptosis, cytotoxicity, hydroxytyrosol, ovarian cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 339

Authors: Benlaifa Meriem, Berredjem Hajira, Bouasla Radia, Berredjem Malika, Djebar Med Reda

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Toxoplasmosis is a cosmopolitan infection due to Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii). It is a significant cause of congenital disease and an important opportunistic pathogen which has become a worldwide increasing problem due to the AIDS epidemic. Current available drugs do not give satisfactory results and often have only a static and several adverse side effects as it is the case of pyrimethamine. So, the need to develop and evaluate new drugs is critical. The purpose of this study is to investigate the in vitro and in vivo effects of the new chiral N-acylsulfonamide bis-oxazolidin-2-ones on T.gondii. In this study, anti-T.gondii RH strain activities, of two new chiral N-acylsulfonamide bis-oxazolidin-2-ones were evaluated in vitro, using a MRC-5 fibroblast tissue cultures to determine the concentration that inhibit parasite multiplication by 50% (IC50) of each drug and in vivo, by PCR detection of the tachyzoites in mice ascites after new molecules treatment, using the 35-fold repetitive B1 gene of T.gondii. The in vitro results demonstrated that the treatment with the tested molecules decreased the amount of tachyzoites in cell culture in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibition was complete for concentrations over 4 mg/ml. The IC50 of Mol 1 and Mol 2 were 1.5 and 3 mg/ml, respectively, and were quite similar to the control one (2 mg/ml). The Mol 1 was highly active against T.gondii in cell cultures than Mol 2; these results were similar to those of sulfadiazine-treated group (p < 0.05). Toxoplasma-specific DNA was demonstrated in all ascites samples from infected mice of the different tested groups. Mol 1 showed better effect than Mol 2, but it did not completely inhibit the parasite proliferation. The intensity of amplification products increased when the treatment started late after infection. These findings suggest continuous parasite replication despite the treatment. In conclusion, our results showed a promising treatment effect of the tested molecules and suggest that in vitro, the Mol 1, and Mol 2 have a dose-dependent effect and a high cytotoxicity on the studied cells. The present study revealed that concentration and duration of tested molecules treatment are major factors that influence the course of Toxoplasma infection in infected mice.

Keywords: cytotoxicity, PCR, sulfonamide, Toxoplasma gondii

Procedia PDF Downloads 484

Authors: T. Abbas, J. McEvoy, E. Khan

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Pesticide contamination in water supply is a common environmental problem in rural agricultural communities. Advanced water treatment processes such as membrane filtration and adsorption on activated carbon only remove pesticides from water without degrading them into less toxic/easily degradable compounds leaving behind contaminated brine and activated carbon that need to be managed. Rural communities which normally cannot afford expensive water treatment technologies need an economical and sustainable filter which not only treats pesticides from water but also degrades them into benign products. In this study, iron turning waste experimented as potential point-of-use filtration media for the removal/degradation of a mixture of six chlorinated pesticides (lindane, heptachlor, endosulfan, dieldrin, endrin, and DDT) in water. As a common and traditional medium for water filtration, sand was also tested along with iron turning waste. Iron turning waste was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-Ray analyzer. Four glass columns with different filter media layer configurations were set up: (1) only sand, (2) only iron turning, (3) sand and iron turning (two separate layers), and (4) sand, iron turning and sand (three separate layers). The initial pesticide concentration and flow rate were 2 μg/L and 10 mL/min. Results indicate that sand filtration was effective only for the removal of DDT (100%) and endosulfan (94-96%). Iron turning filtration column effectively removed endosulfan, endrin, and dieldrin (85-95%) whereas the lindane and DDT removal were 79-85% and 39-56%, respectively. The removal efficiencies for heptachlor, endosulfan, endrin, dieldrin, and DDT were 90-100% when sand and iron turning waste (two separate layers) were used. However, better removal efficiencies (93-100%) for five out of six pesticides were achieved, when sand, iron turning and sand (three separate layers) were used as filtration media. Moreover, the effects of water pH, amounts of media, and minerals present in water such as magnesium, sodium, calcium, and nitrate on the removal of pesticides were examined. Results demonstrate that iron turning waste efficiently removed all the pesticides under studied parameters. Also, it completely de-chlorinated all the pesticides studied and based on the detection of by-products, the degradation mechanisms for all six pesticides were proposed.

Keywords: pesticide contamination, rural communities, iron turning waste, filtration

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Bahram Besharti, Hossein Navid, Hadi Karimi, Hossein Behfar, Iraj Eskandari

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Multiple or miss sowing by seed drills is a common problem on the farm. This problem causes overuse of seeds, wasting energy, rising crop treatment cost and reducing crop yield in harvesting. To be informed of mentioned faults and monitoring the performance of seed drills during sowing, developing a seed sensor for detecting seed mass flow rate and monitoring in a delivery tube is essential. In this research, an infrared seed sensor was developed to estimate seed mass flow rate in seed drills. The developed sensor comprised of a pair of spaced apart circuits one acting as an IR transmitter and the other acting as an IR receiver. Optical coverage in the sensing section was obtained by setting IR LEDs and photo-diodes directly on opposite sides. Passing seeds made interruption in radiation beams to the photo-diode which caused output voltages to change. The voltage difference of sensing units summed by a microcontroller and were converted to an analog value by DAC chip. The sensor was tested by using a roller seed metering device with three types of seeds consist of chickpea, wheat, and alfalfa (representing large, medium and fine seed, respectively). The results revealed a good fitting between voltage received from seed sensor and mass flow of seeds in the delivery tube. A linear trend line was set for three seeds collected data as a model of the mass flow of seeds. A final mass flow model was developed for various size seeds based on receiving voltages from the seed sensor, thousand seed weight and equivalent diameter of seeds. The developed infrared seed sensor, besides monitoring mass flow of seeds in field operations, can be used for the assessment of mechanical planter seed metering unit performance in the laboratory and provide an easy calibrating method for seed drills before planting in the field.

Keywords: seed flow, infrared, seed sensor, seed drills

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Goksen Arik, Mihriban Korukluoglu

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Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and some yeast species are common microorganisms found in dairy products and most of them are responsible for the fermentation of foods. Such cultures are isolated and used as a starter culture in the food industry because of providing standardisation of the final product during the food processing. Choice of starter culture is the most important step for the production of fermented food. Isolated LAB and yeast cultures which have the ability to create a biofilm layer can be preferred as a starter in the food industry. The biofilm formation could be beneficial to extend the period of usage time of microorganisms as a starter. On the other hand, it is an undesirable property in pathogens, since biofilm structure allows a microorganism become more resistant to stress conditions such as antibiotic presence. It is thought that the resistance mechanism could be turned into an advantage by promoting the effective microorganisms which are used in the food industry as starter culture and also which have potential to stimulate the gastrointestinal system. Development of the biofilm layer is observed in some LAB and yeast strains. The resistance could make LAB and yeast strains dominant microflora in the human gastrointestinal system; thus, competition against pathogen microorganisms can be provided more easily. Based on this circumstance, in the study, 10 LAB and 10 yeast strains were isolated from various dairy products, such as cheese, yoghurt, kefir, and cream. Samples were obtained from farmer markets and bazaars in Bursa, Turkey. As a part of this research, all isolated strains were identified and their ability of biofilm formation was detected with two different methods and compared with each other. The first goal of this research was to determine whether isolates have the potential for biofilm production, and the second was to compare the validity of two different methods, which are known as “Tube method” and “96-well plate-based method”. This study may offer an insight into developing a point of view about biofilm formation and its beneficial properties in LAB and yeast cultures used as a starter in the food industry.

Keywords: biofilm, dairy products, lactic acid bacteria, yeast

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Graziella Ziino, Filippo Giarratana, Stefania Maria Marotta, Alessandro Giuffrida, Antonio Panebianco

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In Europe, North America and Japan, campylobacteriosis is one of the leading food-borne bacterial illnesses, often related to the consumption of poultry meats and/or by-products. The aim of this study was the evaluation of Campylobacter contamination of poultry meats marketed in Sicily (Italy) using both traditional methods and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). MALDI-TOF MS is considered a promising rapid (less than 1 hour) identification method for food borne pathogens bacteria. One hundred chicken and turkey meat preparations (no. 68 hamburgers, no. 21 raw sausages, no. 4 meatballs and no. 7 meat rolls) were taken from different butcher’s shops and large scale retailers and submitted to detection/enumeration of Campylobacter spp. according to EN ISO 10272-1:2006 and EN ISO 10272-2:2006. Campylobacter spp. was detected with general low counts in 44 samples (44%), of which 30 from large scale retailers and 14 from butcher’s shops. Chicken meats were significantly more contaminated than turkey meats. Among the preparations, Campylobacter spp. was found in 85.71% of meat rolls, 50% of meatballs, 44.12% of hamburgers and 28.57% of raw sausages. A total of 100 strains, 2-3 from each positive samples, were isolated for the identification by phenotypic, biomolecular and MALDI-TOF MS methods. C. jejuni was the predominant strains (63%), followed by C. coli (33%) and C. lari (4%). MALDI-TOF MS correctly identified 98% of the strains at the species level, only 1% of the tested strains were not identified. In the last 1%, a mixture of two different species was mixed in the same sample and MALDI-TOF MS correctly identified at least one of the strains. Considering the importance of rapid identification of pathogens in the food matrix, this method is highly recommended for the identification of suspected colonies of Campylobacteria.

Keywords: campylobacter spp., Food Microbiology, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry, rapid microbial identification

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Mokhlisur Rahman

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Consumers' understanding of the products depends on what levels of information the advertisement contains. Consumers' attitudes vary widely depending on factors such as their level of environmental awareness, their perception of the company's motives, and the perceived effectiveness of the advertising campaign. Considering the growing eco-consciousness among consumers and their concern for the environment, strategies for green advertising have become equally significant for companies to attract new consumers. It is important to understand consumers' habits of purchasing, knowledge, and attitudes regarding eco-friendly products depending on promotion because of the limitless options of the products in the market. Additionally, encouraging consumers to buy sustainable products requires a platform that can message the world that being a stakeholder in sustainability is possible if consumers show eco-friendly behavior on a larger scale. Social media platforms provide an excellent atmosphere to promote companies' sustainable efforts to be connected engagingly with their potential consumers. The unique strategies of green advertising use techniques to carry information and rewards for the consumers. This study aims to understand the consumer behavior and effectiveness of green advertising by experimenting in collaboration with three companies in promoting their eco-friendly products using green designs on the products. The experiment uses three sustainable personalized offerings, Nike shoes, H&M t-shirts, and Patagonia school bags. The experiment uses a pretest and posttest design. 300 randomly selected participants take part in this experiment and survey through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Nike, H&M, and Patagonia share the post of the experiment on their social media homepages with a video advertisement for the three products. The consumers participate in a pre-experiment online survey before making a purchase decision to assess their attitudes and behavior toward eco-friendly products. The audio-only feature explains the product's information, like their use of recycled materials, their manufacturing methods, sustainable packaging, and their impact on the environment during the purchase while the consumer watches the product video. After making a purchase, consumers take a post-experiment survey to know their perception and behavior toward eco-friendly products. For the data analysis, descriptive statistical tools mean, standard deviation, and frequencies measure the pre- and post-experiment survey data. The inferential statistical tool paired sample t-test measures the difference in consumers' behavior and attitudes between pre-purchase and post-experiment survey results. This experiment provides consumers ample time to consider many aspects rather than impulses. This research provides valuable insights into how companies can adopt sustainable and eco-friendly products. The result set a target for the companies to achieve a sustainable production goal that ultimately supports companies' profit-making and promotes consumers' well-being. This empowers consumers to make informed choices about the products they purchase and support their companies of interest.

Keywords: green-advertising, sustainability, consumer-behavior, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Tatiana S. Ogneva

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Aluminum and nickel-based intermetallic compounds have attracted the attention of scientific community as promising materials for heat-resistant and wear-resistant coatings in such manufacturing areas as microelectronics, aircraft and rocket building and chemical industries. Magnetron sputtering makes possible to coat materials without formation of liquid phase and improves the mechanical and functional properties of nickel aluminides due to the possibility of nanoscale structure formation. The purpose of the study is the investigation of structure and properties of intermetallic coatings produced by magnetron sputtering technique. The feature of this work is the using of composite targets for sputtering, which were consisted of two semicircular sectors of cp-Ni and cp-Al. Plates of alumina, silicon, titanium and steel alloys were used as substrates. To estimate sputtering conditions on structure of intermetallic coatings, a series of samples were produced and studied in detail using scanning and transition electron microcopy and X-Ray diffraction. Besides, nanohardness and scratching tests were carried out. The varying parameters were the distance from the substrate to the target, the duration and the power of the sputtering. The thickness of the obtained intermetallic coatings varied from 0.05 to 0.5 mm depending on the sputtering conditions. The X-ray diffraction data indicated that the formation of intermetallic compounds occurred after sputtering without additional heat treatment. Sputtering at a distance not closer than 120 mm led to the formation of NiAl phase. Increase in the power of magnetron from 300 to 900 W promoted the increase of heterogeneity of the phase composition and the appearance of intermetallic phases NiAl, Ni₂Al₃, NiAl₃, and Al under the aluminum side, and NiAl, Ni₃Al, and Ni under the nickel side of the target. A similar trend is observed with increasing the distance of sputtering from 100 to 60 mm. The change in the phase composition correlates with the changing of the atomic composition of the coatings. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the coatings have a nanoscale grain structure. In this case, the substrate material and the distance from the substrate to the magnetron have a significant effect on the structure formation process. The size of nanograins differs from 10 to 83 nm and depends not only on the sputtering modes but also on material of a substrate. Nanostructure of the material influences the level of mechanical properties. The highest level of nanohardness of the coatings deposited during 30 minutes on metallic substrates at a distance of 100 mm reached 12 GPa. It was shown that nanohardness depends on the grain size of the intermetallic compound. Scratching tests of the coatings showed a high level of adhesion of the coating to substrate without any delamination and cracking. The results of the study showed that magnetron sputtering of composite targets consisting of nickel and aluminum semicircles makes it possible to form intermetallic coatings with good mechanical properties directly in the process of sputtering without additional heat treatment.

Keywords: intermetallic coatings, magnetron sputtering, mechanical properties, structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Dirson Santos De Campos, Deller James Ferreira, Anderson Cavalcante Gonçalves, Uyara Ferreira Silva

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Rubrics to learning research provide many evaluation criteria and expected performance standards linked to defined student activity for learning and pedagogical objectives. Despite the rubric being used in education at all levels, academic literature on rubrics as a tool to support research in SQL Education is quite rare. There is a large class of SQL queries is syntactically correct, but certainly, not all are semantically correct. Detecting and correcting errors is a recurring problem in SQL education. In this paper, we usthe Rubric Abstract Framework (RAF), which consists of steps, that allows us to map the information to measure student performance guided by didactic objectives defined by the teacher as long as it is contextualized domain modeling by rubric. An empirical study was done that demonstrates how rubrics can mitigate student difficulties in finding logical errors and easing teacher workload in SQL education. Detecting and correcting logical errors is an important skill for students. Researchers have proposed several ways to improve SQL education because understanding this paradigm skills are crucial in software engineering and computer science. The RAF instantiation was using in an empirical study developed during the COVID-19 pandemic in database course. The pandemic transformed face-to-face and remote education, without presential classes. The lab activities were conducted remotely, which hinders the teaching-learning process, in particular for this research, in verifying the evidence or statements of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of students. Various research in academia and industry involved databases. The innovation proposed in this paper is the approach used where the results obtained when using rubrics to map logical errors in query formulation have been analyzed with gains obtained by students empirically verified. The research approach can be used in the post-pandemic period in both classroom and distance learning.

Keywords: rubric, logical error, structured query language (SQL), empirical study, SQL education

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: Vijay Sodhi, Charanjit Singh, Neelam Sodhi, Puneet P. S. Cheema, Reena Sharma, Mithilesh K. Jha

Abstract:

The management and secure disposal of the biosludge generated from widely commercialized conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatments become a potential environmental issue. Thus, a sustainable technological upgradation to the CAS for sludge yield minimization has recently been gained serious attention of the scientific community. A number of recently reported studies effectively addressed the remedial technological advancements that in monopoly limited to the municipal wastewater. Moreover, the critical review of the literature signifies side-stream sludge minimization as a complex task to maintain. In this work, therefore, a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) configuration (named as AMOMOX process) for in-situ minimization of the excess biosludge generated from high organic strength tannery wastewater has been demonstrated. The AMOMOX collectively stands for anoxic MBBR (as AM), aerobic MBBR (OM) and an oxic CAS (OX). The AMOMOX configuration involved a combined arrangement of an anoxic MBBR and oxic MBBR coupled with the aerobic CAS. The AMOMOX system was run in parallel with an identical CAS reactor. Both system configurations were fed with same influent to judge the real-time operational changes. For the AMOMOX process, the strict maintenance of operational strategies resulted about 95% removal of NH4-N and SCOD from tannery wastewater. Here, the nourishment of filamentous microbiota and purposeful promotion of cell-lysis effectively sustained sludge yield (Yobs) lowering upto 0.51 kgVSS/kgCOD. As a result, the volatile sludge scarcity apparent in the AMOMOX system succeeded upto 47% reduction of the excess biosludge. The corroborated was further supported by FE-SEM imaging and thermogravimetric analysis. However, the detection of microbial strains habitat underlying extended SRT (23-26 days) of the AMOMOX system would be the matter of further research.

Keywords: tannery wastewater, moving bed biofilm reactor, sludhe yield, sludge minimization, solids retention time

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