Search results for: group method of data handling

Authors: Bandar A. Alkhayyal

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Modern supply chains are typically linear, transforming virgin raw materials into products for end consumers, who then discard them after use to landfills or incinerators. Nowadays, there are major efforts underway to create a circular economy to reduce non-renewable resource use and waste. One important aspect of these efforts is the development of Green Supply Chain (GSC) systems which enables a reverse flow of used products from consumers back to manufacturers, where they can be refurbished or remanufactured, to both economic and environmental benefit. This paper develops novel multi-objective optimization models to inform GSC system design at multiple levels: (1) strategic planning of facility location and transportation logistics; (2) tactical planning of optimal pricing; and (3) policy planning to account for potential valuation of GSC emissions. First, physical linear programming was applied to evaluate GSC facility placement by determining the quantities of end-of-life products for transport from candidate collection centers to remanufacturing facilities while satisfying cost and capacity criteria. Second, disassembly and remanufacturing processes have received little attention in industrial engineering and process cost modeling literature. The increasing scale of remanufacturing operations, worth nearly $50 billion annually in the United States alone, have made GSC pricing an important subject of research. A non-linear physical programming model for optimization of pricing policy for remanufactured products that maximizes total profit and minimizes product recovery costs were examined and solved. Finally, a deterministic equilibrium model was used to determine the effects of internalizing a cost of GSC greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into optimization models. Changes in optimal facility use, transportation logistics, and pricing/profit margins were all investigated against a variable cost of carbon, using case study system created based on actual data from sites in the Boston area. As carbon costs increase, the optimal GSC system undergoes several distinct shifts in topology as it seeks new cost-minimal configurations. A comprehensive study of quantitative evaluation and performance of the model has been done using orthogonal arrays. Results were compared to top-down estimates from economic input-output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) models, to contrast remanufacturing GHG emission quantities with those from original equipment manufacturing operations. Introducing a carbon cost of $40/t CO2e increases modeled remanufacturing costs by 2.7% but also increases original equipment costs by 2.3%. The assembled work advances the theoretical modeling of optimal GSC systems and presents a rare case study of remanufactured appliances.

Keywords: circular economy, extended producer responsibility, greenhouse gas emissions, industrial ecology, low carbon logistics, green supply chains

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Authors: Sukran Acikel, Mehmet Ekmekci, Otgonbayar Namkhai

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Lignite coal fields in western Turkey generally occurs in tensional Neogene basins bordered by major faults. Karacahisar coal field in Mugla province of western Turkey is a large Neogene basin filled with alternation of silisic and calcerous layers. The basement of the basin is composed of mainly karstified carbonate rocks of Mesozoic and schists of Paleozoic age. The basement rocks are exposed at highlands surrounding the basin. The basin fill deposits forms shallow, low yield and local aquifers whereas karstic carbonate rock masses forms the major aquifer in the region. The karstic aquifer discharges through a spring zone issuing at intersection of two major faults. Municipal water demand in Bodrum city, a touristic attraction area is almost totally supplied by boreholes tapping the karstic aquifer. A well field has been constructed on the eastern edge of the coal basin, which forms a ridge separating two Neogene basins. A major concern was raised about the plausible impact of mining activities on groundwater system in general and on water supply well field in particular. The hydrogeological studies carried out in the area revealed that the coal seam is located below the groundwater level. Mining operations will be affected by groundwater inflow to the pits, which will require dewatering measures. Dewatering activities in mine sites have two-sided effects: a) lowers the groundwater level at and around the pit for a safe and effective mining operation, b) continuous dewatering causes expansion of cone of depression to reach a spring, stream and/or well being utilized by local people, capturing their water. Plausible effect of mining operations on the flow of the spring zone was another issue of concern. Therefore, a detailed representative hydrogeological conceptual model of the site was developed on the basis of available data and field work. According to the hydrogeological conceptual model, dewatering of Neogene layers will not hydraulically affect the water supply wells, however, the ultimate perimeter of the open pit will expand to intersect the well field. According to the conceptual model, the coal seam is separated from the bottom by a thick impervious clay layer sitting on the carbonate basement. Therefore, the hydrostratigraphy does not allow a hydraulic interaction between the mine pit and the karstic carbonate rock aquifer. However, the structural setting in the basin suggests that deep faults intersecting the basement and the Neogene sequence will most probably carry the deep groundwater up to a level above the bottom of the pit. This will require taking necessary measure to lower the piezometric level of the carbonate rock aquifer along the faults. Dewatering the carbonate rock aquifer will reduce the flow to the spring zone. All findings were put together to recommend a strategy for safe and effective mining operation.

Keywords: conceptual model, dewatering, groundwater, mining operation

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Authors: Swati Vohra

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A genuine economic and social transformation requires equal contribution and participation from both men and women; however, achieving this gender parity is a global concern. In the patriarchal societies around the world, women have been silenced, oppressed, and subjugated. Girls and women comprise half of the world’s population. This, however, must not be the lone reason for recognizing and providing equal opportunities to them. Every individual has a right to develop through opportunities without the biases of gender, caste, race, or ethnicity. The world today is confronted by pressing issues of climate change, economic crisis, violence against women and children, escalating conflicts, to name a few. Achieving gender parity is thus an essential component in meeting this wide array of challenges in order to create just, robust and inclusive societies. In 2015, The United Nation enunciated achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, one of which is SGD#5- Gender Equality, that is not merely a stand-alone goal. It is central to the achievement of all 17 SDG’s. Without progress on gender equality, the global community will not only fail to achieve the SDG5, but it will also lose the impetus towards achieving the broad 2030 agenda. This research is based on a hypothesis that aims to connect the targets laid by the UN under SDG#5 - 5.4 (Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work) and 5.5 (Ensure women participation for leadership at all levels of decision-making). The study evaluates the impact of unpaid household responsibilities on women’s leadership in India. In Indian society, women have experienced a low social status for centuries, which is reflected throughout the Indian history with preference of a male child and common occurrences of female infanticides that are still prevalent in many parts of the country. Insistence on the traditional gender roles builds patriarchal inequalities into the structure of Indian society. It is argued that a burden of unpaid labor on women is placed, which narrows the opportunities and life chances women are given and the choices they are able to make, thereby shutting them from shared participation in public and economic leadership. The study investigates theoretical framework of social construction of gender, unpaid labor, challenges to women leaders and peace theorist perspective as the core components. The methodology used is qualitative research of comprehensive literature, accompanied by the data collected through interviews of representatives of women leaders from various fields within Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). The women leaders interviewed had the privilege of receiving good education and a conducive family support; however, post marriage and children it was not the case and the social obligations weighed heavy on them. The research concludes by recommending the importance of gender-neutral parenting and education along with government ratified paternal leaves for at least six months and childcare facilities available for both the parents at workplace.

Keywords: gender equality, gender roles, peace studies, sustainable development goals, social construction, unpaid labor, women’s leadership

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Authors: Jungyeol Hong, Dongjoo Park

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The urban transit system is a critical part of a solution to the economic, energy, and environmental challenges. Furthermore, it ultimately contributes the improvement of people’s quality of lives. For taking these kinds of advantages, the city of Seoul has tried to construct an integrated transit system including both subway and buses. The effort led to the fact that approximately 6.9 million citizens use the integrated transit system every day for their trips. Diagnosing the current transit network is a significant task to provide more convenient and pleasant transit environment. Therefore, the critical objective of this study is to establish a methodological framework for the analysis of an integrated bus-subway network and to examine the relationship between subway ridership and parameters such as network topology measures, bus demand, and a variety of commercial business facilities. Regarding a statistical approach to estimate subway ridership at a station level, many previous studies relied on Ordinary Least Square regression, but there was lack of studies considering the endogeneity issues which might show in the subway ridership prediction model. This study focused on both discovering the impacts of integrated transit network topology measures and endogenous effect of bus demand on subway ridership. It could ultimately contribute to developing more accurate subway ridership estimation accounting for its statistical bias. The spatial scope of the study covers Seoul city in South Korea, and it includes 243 subway stations and 10,120 bus stops with the temporal scope set during twenty-four hours with one-hour interval time panels each. The subway and bus ridership information in detail was collected from the Seoul Smart Card data in 2015 and 2016. First, integrated subway-bus network topology measures which have characteristics regarding connectivity, centrality, transitivity, and reciprocity were estimated based on the complex network theory. The results of integrated transit network topology analysis were compared to subway-only network topology. Also, the non-recursive approach which is Three-Stage Least Square was applied to develop the daily subway ridership model as capturing the endogeneity between bus and subway demands. Independent variables included roadway geometry, commercial business characteristics, social-economic characteristics, safety index, transit facility attributes, and dummies for seasons and time zone. Consequently, it was found that network topology measures were significant size effect. Especially, centrality measures showed that the elasticity was a change of 4.88% for closeness centrality, 24.48% for betweenness centrality while the elasticity of bus ridership was 8.85%. Moreover, it was proved that bus demand and subway ridership were endogenous in a non-recursive manner as showing that predicted bus ridership and predicted subway ridership is statistically significant in OLS regression models. Therefore, it shows that three-stage least square model appears to be a plausible model for efficient subway ridership estimation. It is expected that the proposed approach provides a reliable guideline that can be used as part of the spectrum of tools for evaluating a city-wide integrated transit network.

Keywords: integrated transit system, network topology measures, three-stage least squared, endogeneity, subway ridership

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Authors: A. Odoom, A. Salama, H. Ibrahim

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Hydrogen is a clean source of energy for power production and transportation. The main source of hydrogen in this research is biodiesel. Glycerol also called glycerine is a by-product of biodiesel production by transesterification of vegetable oils and methanol. This is a reliable and environmentally-friendly source of hydrogen production than fossil fuels. A typical composition of crude glycerol comprises of glycerol, water, organic and inorganic salts, soap, methanol and small amounts of glycerides. Crude glycerol has limited industrial application due to its low purity thus, the usage of crude glycerol can significantly enhance the sustainability and production of biodiesel. Reforming techniques is an approach for hydrogen production mainly Steam Reforming (SR), Autothermal Reforming (ATR) and Partial Oxidation Reforming (POR). SR produces high hydrogen conversions and yield but is highly endothermic whereas POR is exothermic. On the downside, PO yields lower hydrogen as well as large amount of side reactions. ATR which is a fusion of partial oxidation reforming and steam reforming is thermally neutral because net reactor heat duty is zero. It has relatively high hydrogen yield, selectivity as well as limits coke formation. The complex chemical processes that take place during the production phases makes it relatively difficult to construct a reliable and robust numerical model. Numerical model is a tool to mimic reality and provide insight into the influence of the parameters. In this work, we introduce a finite volume numerical study for an 'in-house' lab-scale experiment of ATR. Previous numerical studies on this process have considered either using Comsol or nodal finite difference analysis. Since Comsol is a commercial package which is not readily available everywhere and lab-scale experiment can be considered well mixed in the radial direction. One spatial dimension suffices to capture the essential feature of ATR, in this work, we consider developing our own numerical approach using MATLAB. A continuum fixed bed reactor is modelled using MATLAB with both pseudo homogeneous and heterogeneous models. The drawback of nodal finite difference formulation is that it is not locally conservative which means that materials and momenta can be generated inside the domain as an artifact of the discretization. Control volume, on the other hand, is locally conservative and suites very well problems where materials are generated and consumed inside the domain. In this work, species mass balance, Darcy’s equation and energy equations are solved using operator splitting technique. Therefore, diffusion-like terms are discretized implicitly while advection-like terms are discretized explicitly. An upwind scheme is adapted for the advection term to ensure accuracy and positivity. Comparisons with the experimental data show very good agreements which build confidence in our modeling approach. The models obtained were validated and optimized for better results.

Keywords: autothermal reforming, crude glycerol, hydrogen, numerical model

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Authors: Maria C. Proença, Maria T. Rebelo, Marília Antunes, Maria J. Alves, Hugo Osório, Sofia Cunha, REVIVE team

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The environment of the mosquitoes complex Culex pipiens sl. in Portugal mainland is evaluated based in its abundance, using a data set georeferenced, collected during seven years (2006-2012) from May to October. The suitability of the different regions can be delineated using the relative abundance areas; the suitablility index is directly proportional to disease transmission risk and allows focusing mitigation measures in order to avoid outbreaks of vector-borne diseases. The interest in the Culex pipiens complex is justified by its medical importance: the females bite all warm-blooded vertebrates and are involved in the circulation of several arbovirus of concern to human health, like West Nile virus, iridoviruses, rheoviruses and parvoviruses. The abundance of Culex pipiens mosquitoes were documented systematically all over the territory by the local health services, in a long duration program running since 2006. The environmental factors used to characterize the vector habitat are land use/land cover, distance to cartographed water bodies, altitude and latitude. Focus will be on the mosquito females, which gonotrophic cycle mate-bloodmeal-oviposition is responsible for the virus transmission; its abundance is the key for the planning of non-aggressive prophylactic countermeasures that may eradicate the transmission risk and simultaneously avoid chemical ambient degradation. Meteorological parameters such as: air relative humidity, air temperature (minima, maxima and mean daily temperatures) and daily total rainfall were gathered from the weather stations network for the same dates and crossed with the standardized females’ abundance in a geographic information system (GIS). Mean capture and percentage of above average captures related to each variable are used as criteria to compute a threshold for each meteorological parameter; the difference of the mean capture above/below the threshold was statistically assessed. The meteorological parameters measured at the net of weather stations all over the country are averaged by month and interpolated to produce raster maps that can be segmented according to the meaningful thresholds for each parameter. The intersection of the maps of all the parameters obtained for each month show the evolution of the suitable meteorological conditions through the mosquito season, considered as May to October, although the first and last month are less relevant. In parallel, mean and above average captures were related to the physiographic parameters – the land use/land cover classes most relevant in each month, the altitudes preferred and the most frequent distance to water bodies, a factor closely related with the mosquito biology. The maps produced with these results were crossed with the meteorological maps previously segmented, in order to get an index of suitability for the complex Culex pipiens evaluated all over the country, and its evolution from the beginning to the end of the mosquitoes season.

Keywords: suitability index, Culex pipiens, habitat evolution, GIS model

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Authors: G. Kiran Kumar, K. Padmaja

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The rise of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is an important urban phenomenon that needs to be well understood before we pronounce a verdict whether it is beneficial or not. The challenge of supply of safe and nutritious food is faced by urban inhabitants. The definition of urban and peri-urban varies from city to city depending on the local policies framed with a view to bring regulated urban habitations as part of governance. Expansion of cities and the blurring of boundaries between urban and rural areas make it difficult to define peri-urban agriculture. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that definition adopted in one region may not fit in the other. On the other hand the proportion of urban population is on the rise vis-à-vis rural. The rise of UPA does not promise that the food requirements of cities can be entirely met from this practice, since availability of enormous amounts of spaces on rooftops and vacant plots is impossible for raising crops. However, UPA reduces impact of price volatility, particularly for vegetables, which relatively have a longer shelf life. UPA improves access to fresh, nutritious and safe food for the urban poor. UPA provides employment to food handlers and traders in the supply chain. UPA can pose environmental and health risks from inappropriate agricultural practices; increased competition for land, water and energy; alter the ecological landscape and make it vulnerable to increased pollution. The present work is based on case studies in peri-urban agriculture in Hyderabad, India and relies on secondary data. This paper tries to analyze the need for more intensive production technologies without affecting the environment. An optimal solution in terms of urban-rural linkages has to be devised. There is a need to develop a spatial vision and integrate UPA in urban planning in a harmonious manner. Zoning of peri-urban areas for agriculture, milk and poultry production is an essential step to preserve the traditional nurturing character of these areas. Urban local bodies in conjunction with Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture can provide uplift to existing UPA models, without which the UPA can develop into a haphazard phenomenon and add to the increasing list of urban challenges. Land to be diverted for peri-urban agriculture may render the concept of urban and peri-urban forestry ineffective. This paper suggests that UPA may be practiced for high value vegetables which can be cultivated under protected conditions and are better resilient to climate change. UPA can provide models for climate resilient agriculture in urban areas which can be replicated in rural areas. Production of organic farm produce is another option for promote UPA owing to the proximity to informed consumers and access to markets within close range. Waste lands in peri-urban areas can be allotted to unemployed rural youth with the support of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and used for UPA. This can serve the purposes of putting wastelands to food production, enhancing employment opportunities and enhancing access to fresh produce for urban consumers.

Keywords: environment, food security, urban and peri-urban agriculture, zoning

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Authors: Ntandazo Dlatu, Benjamin Longo-Mbenza, Andre Renzaho, Ruffin Appalata, Yolande Yvonne Valeria Matoumona Mavoungou, Mbenza Ben Longo, Kenneth Ekoru, Blaise Makoso, Gedeon Longo Longo

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Background: The gap between complexities related to the integration of Tuberculosis /HIV control and evidence-based knowledge motivated the initiation of the study. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore correlations between national TB management guidelines, multiple deprivation indexes, quantiles, components and levels of Tuberculosis control programme using mathematical modeling in rural O.R. Tambo District Health Facilities, South Africa. Methods: The study design used mixed secondary data analysis and cross-sectional analysis between 2009 and 2013 across O.R Tambo District, Eastern Cape, South Africa using univariate/ bivariate analysis, linear multiple regression models, and multivariate discriminant analysis. Health inequalities indicators and component of an impediment to the tuberculosis control programme were evaluated. Results: In total, 62 400 records for TB notification were analyzed for the period 2009-2013. There was a significant but negative between Financial Year Expenditure (r= -0.894; P= 0.041) Seropositive HIV status(r= -0.979; P= 0.004), Population Density (r = -0.881; P= 0.048) and the number of TB defaulter in all TB cases. It was shown unsuccessful control of TB management program through correlations between numbers of new PTB smear positive, TB defaulter new smear-positive, TB failure all TB, Pulmonary Tuberculosis case finding index and deprivation-concentration-dispersion index. It was shown successful TB program control through significant and negative associations between declining numbers of death in co-infection of HIV and TB, TB deaths all TB and SMIAD gradient/ deprivation-concentration-dispersion index. The multivariate linear model was summarized by unadjusted r of 96%, adjusted R2 of 95 %, Standard Error of estimate of 0.110, R2 changed of 0.959 and significance for variance change for P=0.004 to explain the prediction of TB defaulter in all TB with equation y= 8.558-0.979 x number of HIV seropositive. After adjusting for confounding factors (PTB case finding the index, TB defaulter new smear-positive, TB death in all TB, TB defaulter all TB, and TB failure in all TB). The HIV and TB death, as well as new PTB smear positive, were identified as the most important, significant, and independent indicator to discriminate most deprived deprivation index far from other deprivation quintiles 2-5 using discriminant analysis. Conclusion: Elimination of poverty such as overcrowding, lack of sanitation and environment of highest burden of HIV might end the TB threat in O.R Tambo District, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Furthermore, ongoing adequate budget comprehensive, holistic and collaborative initiative towards Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) is necessary for complete elimination of TB in poor O.R Tambo District.

Keywords: tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, success, failure, control program, health inequalities, South Africa

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Authors: Sireetorn Kuharat, Anwar Beg

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Motivation- Solar energy constitutes the most promising renewable energy source on earth. Nanofluids are a very successful family of engineered fluids, which contain well-dispersed nanoparticles suspended in a stable base fluid. The presence of metallic nanoparticles (e.g. gold, silver, copper, aluminum etc) significantly improves the thermo-physical properties of the host fluid and generally results in a considerable boost in thermal conductivity, density, and viscosity of nanofluid compared with the original base (host) fluid. This modification in fundamental thermal properties has profound implications in influencing the convective heat transfer process in solar collectors. The potential for improving solar collector direct absorber efficiency is immense and to gain a deeper insight into the impact of different metallic nanoparticles on efficiency and temperature enhancement, in the present work, we describe recent computational fluid dynamics simulations of an annular solar collector system. The present work studies several different metallic nano-particles and compares their performance. Methodologies- A numerical study of convective heat transfer in an annular pipe solar collector system is conducted. The inner tube contains pure water and the annular region contains nanofluid. Three-dimensional steady-state incompressible laminar flow comprising water- (and other) based nanofluid containing a variety of metallic nanoparticles (copper oxide, aluminum oxide, and titanium oxide nanoparticles) is examined. The Tiwari-Das model is deployed for which thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and viscosity of the nanofluid suspensions is evaluated as a function of solid nano-particle volume fraction. Radiative heat transfer is also incorporated using the ANSYS solar flux and Rosseland radiative models. The ANSYS FLUENT finite volume code (version 18.1) is employed to simulate the thermo-fluid characteristics via the SIMPLE algorithm. Mesh-independence tests are conducted. Validation of the simulations is also performed with a computational Harlow-Welch MAC (Marker and Cell) finite difference method and excellent correlation achieved. The influence of volume fraction on temperature, velocity, pressure contours is computed and visualized. Main findings- The best overall performance is achieved with copper oxide nanoparticles. Thermal enhancement is generally maximized when water is utilized as the base fluid, although in certain cases ethylene glycol also performs very efficiently. Increasing nanoparticle solid volume fraction elevates temperatures although the effects are less prominent in aluminum and titanium oxide nanofluids. Significant improvement in temperature distributions is achieved with copper oxide nanofluid and this is attributed to the superior thermal conductivity of copper compared to other metallic nano-particles studied. Important fluid dynamic characteristics are also visualized including circulation and temperature shoots near the upper region of the annulus. Radiative flux is observed to enhance temperatures significantly via energization of the nanofluid although again the best elevation in performance is attained consistently with copper oxide. Conclusions-The current study generalizes previous investigations by considering multiple metallic nano-particles and furthermore provides a good benchmark against which to calibrate experimental tests on a new solar collector configuration currently being designed at Salford University. Important insights into the thermal conductivity and viscosity with metallic nano-particles is also provided in detail. The analysis is also extendable to other metallic nano-particles including gold and zinc.

Keywords: heat transfer, annular nanofluid solar collector, ANSYS FLUENT, metallic nanoparticles

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Authors: Irene Kalemaki, Ioanna Garefi

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Social Innovation Education (SIE) is a new educational approach that aims to empower students to take action for a more democratic and sustainable society. Conceptually and pedagogically wise, it is situated at the intersection of Enterprise Education and Citizenship Education as it aspires to i) combine action with activism, ii) personal development with collective efficacy, iii) entrepreneurial mindsets with democratic values and iv) individual competences with collective competences. This paper abstract presents the work of the NEMESIS project, funded by H2020, that aims to design, test and validate the first consolidated approach for embedding Social Innovation Education in schools of primary and secondary education. During the academic year 2018-2019, eight schools from five European countries experimented with different approaches and methodologies to incorporate SIE in their settings. This paper reports briefly on these attempts and discusses the wider educational philosophy underlying these interventions with a particular focus on analyzing the learning outcomes and impact on students. That said, this paper doesn’t only report on the theoretical and practical underpinnings of SIE, but most importantly, it provides evidence on the impact of SIE on students. In terms of methodology, the study took place from September 2018 to July 2019 in eight schools from Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, and the UK involving directly 56 teachers, 1030 students and 69 community stakeholders. Focus groups, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations as well as students' written narratives were used to extract data on the impact of SIE on students. The overall design of the evaluation activities was informed by a realist approach, which enabled us to go beyond “what happened” and towards understanding “why it happened”. Research findings suggested that SIE can benefit students in terms of their emotional, cognitive, behavioral and agentic engagement. Specifically, the emotional engagement of students was increased because through SIE interventions; students voice was heard, valued, and acted upon. This made students feel important to their school, increasing their sense of belonging, confidence and level of autonomy. As regards cognitive engagement, both students and teachers reported positive outcomes as SIE enabled students to take ownership of their ideas to drive their projects forward and thus felt more motivated to perform in class because it felt personal, important and relevant to them. In terms of behavioral engagement, the inclusive environment and the collective relationships that were reinforced through the SIE interventions had a direct positive impact on behaviors among peers. Finally, with regard to agentic engagement, it has been observed that students became very proactive which was connected to the strong sense of ownership and enthusiasm developed during collective efforts to deliver real-life social innovations. Concluding, from a practical and policy point of view these research findings could encourage the inclusion of SIE in schools, while from a research point of view, they could contribute to the scientific discourse providing evidence and clarity on the emergent field of SIE.

Keywords: education, engagement, social innovation, students

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Authors: Fouzia Khanam, Belal Hossain, Kaosar Afsana, Mahfuzar Rahman

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Aim: Although cardiovascular diseases (CVD) has already been recognized as a major cause of death in developed countries, its prevalence is rising in developing countries as well, and engendering a challenge for the health sector. Bangladesh has experienced an epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases over the last few decades. So, the rising prevalence of CVD and its risk factors are imposing a major problem for the country. We aimed to examine the prevalence of CVDs and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors related to it from a population-based survey. Methods: The data used for this study were collected as a part of a large-scale cross-sectional study conducted to explore the overall health status of children, mothers and senior citizens of Bangladesh. Multistage cluster random sampling procedure was applied by considering unions as clusters and households as the primary sampling unit to select a total of 11,428 households for the base survey. Present analysis encompassed 12338 respondents of ≥ 35 years, selected from both rural areas and urban slums of the country. Socio-economic, demographic and lifestyle information were obtained through individual by a face-to-face interview which was noted in ODK platform. And height, weight, blood pressure and glycosuria were measured using standardized methods. Chi-square test, Univariate modified Poisson regression model, and multivariate modified Poisson regression model were done using STATA software (version 13.0) for analysis. Results: Overall, the prevalence of CVD was 4.51%, of which 1.78% had stroke and 3.17% suffered from heart diseases. Male had higher prevalence of stroke (2.20%) than their counterparts (1.37%). Notably, thirty percent of respondents had high blood pressure and 5% population had diabetes and more than half of the population was pre-hypertensive. Additionally, 20% were overweight, 77% were smoker or consumed smokeless tobacco and 28% of respondents were physically inactive. Eighty-two percent of respondents took extra salt while eating and 29% of respondents had deprived sleep. Furthermore, the prevalence of risk factor of CVD varied according to gender. Women had a higher prevalence of overweight, obesity and diabetes. Women were also less physically active compared to men and took more extra salt. Smoking was lower in women compared to men. Moreover, women slept less compared to their counterpart. After adjusting confounders in modified Poisson regression model, age, gender, occupation, wealth quintile, BMI, extra salt intake, daily sleep, tiredness, diabetes, and hypertension remained as risk factors for CVD. Conclusion: The prevalence of CVD is significant in Bangladesh, and there is an evidence of rising trend for its risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes especially in older population, women and high-income groups. Therefore, in this current epidemiological transition, immediate public health intervention is warranted to address the overwhelming CVD risk.

Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, stroke

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Authors: Suparna Roy, Anatharaman Perumal

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The industrial effluent with high amount of heavy metals is known to have adverse effects on the environment. For the removal of heavy metals from aqueous environment, different conventional treatment technologies had been applied gradually which are not economically beneficial and also produce huge quantity of toxic chemical sludge. So, bio-sorption of heavy metals by marine plant is an eco-friendly innovative and alternative technology for removal of these pollutants from aqueous environment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the capacity of heavy metals accumulation and removal by some selected marine macroalgae (seaweeds) from marine environment. Methods: Seaweeds Acanthophora spicifera (Vahl.) Boergesen, Codium tomentosum Stackhouse, Halimeda gracilis Harvey ex. J. Agardh, Gracilaria opuntia Durairatnam.nom. inval. Valoniopsis pachynema (Martens) Boergesen, Caulerpa racemosa var. macrophysa (Sonder ex Kutzing) W. R. Taylor and Hydroclathrus clathratus (C. Agardh) Howe were collected from Olaikuda (09°17.526'N-079°19.662'E), Rameshwaram, south east coast of India during post monsoon period (April’2016). Seaweeds were washed with sterilized and filtered in-situ seawater repeatedly to remove all the epiphytes and debris and clean seaweeds were kept for shade drying for one week. The dried seaweeds were grinded to powder, and one gm powder seaweeds were taken in a 250ml conical flask, and 8 ml of 10 % HNO3 (70 % pure) was added to each sample and kept in room temperature (28 ̊C) for 24 hours and then samples were heated in hotplate at 120 ̊C, boiled to evaporate up to dryness and 20 ml of Nitric acid: Percholoric acid in 4:1 were added to it and again heated to hotplate at 90 ̊C up to evaporate to dryness, then samples were kept in room temperature for few minutes to cool and 10ml 10 % HNO3 were added to it and kept for 24 hours in cool and dark place and filtered with Whatman (589/2) filter paper and the filtrates were collected in 250ml clean conical flask and diluted accurately to 25 ml volume with double deionised water and triplicate of each sample were analysed with Inductively-Coupled plasma analysis (ICP-OES) to analyse total eleven heavy metals (Ag, Cd, B, Cu, Mn, Co, Ni, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Al content of the specified species and data were statistically evaluated for standard deviation. Results: Acanthophora spicifera contains highest amount of Ag (0.1± 0.2 mg/mg) followed by Cu (0.16±0.01 mg/mg), Mn (1.86±0.02 mg/mg), B (3.59±0.2 mg/mg), Halimeda gracilis showed highest accumulation of Al (384.75±0.12mg/mg), Valoniopsis pachynema accumulates maximum amount of Co (0.12±0.01 mg/mg), Zn (0.64±0.02 mg/mg), Caulerpa racemosa var. macrophysa contains Zn (0.63±0.01), Cr (0.26±0.01 mg/mg ), Ni (0.21±0.05), Pb (0.16±0.03 ) and Cd ( 0.02±00 ). Hydroclathrus clathratus, Codium tomentosum and Gracilaria opuntia also contain adequate amount of heavy metals. Conclusions: The mentioned species of seaweeds are contributing important role for decreasing the heavy metals pollution in marine environment by bioaccumulation. So, we can utilise this species to remove excess amount of heavy metals from polluted area.

Keywords: heavy metals pollution, seaweeds, bioaccumulation, eco-friendly, phyco-remediation

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Authors: Dahna Alkahtani, Faryal Suraya, Fadah Alanazi

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Background: Buccal mucosal graft for urethral augmentation has surpassed other grafting options, and is now considered the standard of choice for substitution Urethroplasty. The graft has gained its popularity due to its excellent short and long-term results, easy harvesting as well as its ability in withstanding wet environments. However, although Buccal mucosal grafts are an excellent option, it is not free of complications, potential intraoral complications are bleeding, pain, swelling, injury to the nerve resulting in numbness, lip deviation or retraction. Objectives: The current study aims to evaluate the intraoral complications of buccal mucosa grafts harvested from one cheek, and used in Augmentation Urethroplasty. Methodology: The study was conducted retrospectively using the medical records of patients who underwent open augmentation urethroplasty with a buccal mucosa graft at King Khalid University Hospital, Saudi Arabia. Data collection of demographics included the type of graft used, presence or absence of strictures and its etiological factors. Pre-operative and post-operative evaluations were carried out on the subjects including the medical history, physical examination, uroflowmetry, retrograde urethrography, voiding cystourethrography and urine cultures were also noted. Further, the quality of life and complications of the procedure including the presence or occurrence of bleeding within 3-days post-procedure, the severity of pain, oral swelling after grafting, length of return to normal daily diet, painful surgical site, intake of painkillers, presence or absence of speech disturbance, numbness in the cheeks and lips were documented. Results: Thirty-two male subjects with ages ranging from 15 years to 72 years were included in the current study. Following the procedure, a hundred percent of the subjects returned to their normal daily diet by the sixth postoperative day. Further, the majority of the patients reported experiencing mild pain accounting for 61.3%, and 90.3% of the subjects reported using painkillers to control the pain. Surgical wound Pain was reportedly more common at the perineal site as 48.4% of the subjects experienced it; on the other hand, 41.9% of the patients experienced pain in the oral mucosa. The presence of speech disorders, as assessed through medical history, was found to be present in 3.2% of patients. The presence of numbness in the cheeks and lips was found in 3.2% of patients. Other complications such as parotid duct injury, delayed wound healing, non-healing wound and suture granuloma were rare as 90.3% of the subjects denied experiencing any of them, there were nonetheless reports of parotid duct injury by 6.5% of the patients, and non-healing wound by the 3.2% of patients. Conclusion: Buccal Mucosa Graft in Augmentation Urethroplasty is an ideal source of allograft, although not entirely painless; it is considerably safe with minimal intra-oral complication and undetectable strain on the patients’ quality of life.

Keywords: augmentation, buccal, graft, oral

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Ana Rodrigues, Maria Cadilhe, Filipa Ferreira, Claudia Pereira, Marta Santos

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Professional paths must be understood in the multiplicity of their possible configurations. While some actors tend to represent their path as a harmonious succession of positions in the life cycle, most recognize the existence of unforeseen and uncontrollable bifurcations, caused, for example, by a work accident or by going through a period of unemployment. Considering the intensified challenges posed by the ongoing societal changes (e.g., technological and demographic), and looking at the Portuguese context, where the unemployment rate continues to be more evident in certain age groups, like in individuals aged 45 years or over, it is essential to support those adults by providing strategies capable of supporting them during professional transitions, being this a joint responsibility of governments, employers, workers, educational institutions, among others. Concerned about those issues, Porto City Council launched the challenge of designing and implementing a Lifelong Career Guidance program, which was answered with the presentation of a customized conceptual and operational model: groWing|Lifelong Career Guidance. A pilot project targeting working-age adults (35 or older) who were unemployed was carried out, aiming to support them to reconstruct their professional paths, through the recovery of their past experiences and through a reflection about dimensions such as skills, interests, constraints, and labor market. A research action approach was used to assess the proposed model, namely the perceived relevance of the theme and of the project, by adults themselves (N=44), employment professionals (N=15) and local companies (N=15), in an integrated manner. A set of activities were carried out: a train the trainer course and a monitoring session with employment professionals; collective and individual sessions with adults, including a monitoring session as well; and a workshop with local companies. Support materials for individual/collective reflection about professional paths were created and adjusted for each involved agent. An evaluation model was co-build by different stakeholders. Assessment was carried through a form created for the purpose, completed at the end of the different activities, which allowed us to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Statistical analysis was carried through SPSS software. Results showed that the participants, as well as the employment professionals and the companies involved, considered both the topic and the project as extremely relevant. Also, adults saw the project as an opportunity to reflect on their paths and become aware of the opportunities and the necessary conditions to achieve their goals; the professionals highlighted the support given by an integrated methodology and the existence of tools to assist the process; companies valued the opportunity to think about the topic and the possible initiatives they could implement within the company to diversify their recruitment pool. The results allow us to conclude that, in the local context under study, there is an alignment between different agents regarding the pertinence of supporting adults with work experience in professional transitions, seeing the project as a relevant strategy to address this issue, which justifies that it can be extended in time and to other working-age adults in the future.

Keywords: professional paths, research action, turning points, lifelong career guidance, relevance

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Khulud Alhussain, Anna Gavine, Stephen Macgillivray, Sushila Chowdhry

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Background: Estimates show that by the year 2030, mental illness will account for more than half of the global economic burden, second to non-communicable diseases. Often, the perinatal period is characterised by psychological ambivalence and a mixed anxiety-depressive condition. Maternal mental disorder is associated with perinatal anxiety and depression and affects breastfeeding behaviors. Studies also indicate that maternal mental health can considerably influence a baby's health in numerous aspects and impact the newborn health due to lack of adequate breastfeeding. However, studies reporting factors associated with breastfeeding behaviors are predominantly quantitative. Therefore, it is not clear what literature is available to understand the factors affecting breastfeeding and perinatal women’s perspectives and experiences. Aim: This review aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of women with perinatal anxiety and depression, as well as how these experiences influence their breastfeeding behaviours. Methods: A systematic literature review of qualitative studies in line with the Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research (ENTREQ). Four electronic databases (CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, and Google Scholar) were explored for relevant studies using a search strategy. The search was restricted to studies published in the English language between 2000 and 2022. Findings from the literature were screened using a pre-defined screening criterion and the quality of eligible studies was appraised using the Walsh and Downe (2006) checklist. Findings were extracted and synthesised based on Braun and Clark. The review protocol was registered on PROSPERO (Ref: CRD42022319609). Result: A total of 4947 studies were identified from the four databases. Following duplicate removal and screening 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The studies included 87 pregnant and 302 post-partum women from 12 countries. The participants were from a variety of economic, regional, and religious backgrounds, mainly from the age of 18 to 45 years old. Three main themes were identified: Barriers to breastfeeding, breastfeeding facilitators, emotional disturbance, and breastfeeding. Seven subthemes emerged from the data: expectation versus reality, uncertainly about maternal competencies, body image and breastfeeding, lack of sufficient breastfeeding support for family and caregivers’ support, influences positive breastfeeding practices, breastfeeding education, and causes of mental strain among breastfeeding women. Breastfeeding duration is affected in women with mental health disorders, irrespective of their desire to breastfeed. Conclusion: There is significant empirical evidence that breastfeeding behaviour and perinatal mental disturbance are linked. However, there is a lack of evidence to apply the findings to Saudi women due to lack of empirical qualitative information. To improve the psychological well-being of mothers, it is crucial to explore and recognise any concerns with their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Therefore, robust research is needed so that breastfeeding intervention researchers and policymakers can focus on specifically what needs to be done to help mentally distressed perinatal women and their new-born.

Keywords: pregnancy, perinatal period, anxiety, depression, emotional disturbance, breastfeeding

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: B. Atika, S. Lehmann, E. Wimmer

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The defense strategy is very common in the insect world. Defensive substances play a wide variety of functions for beetles, such as repellents, toxicants, insecticides, and antimicrobics. Beetles react to predators, invaders, and parasitic microbes with the release of toxic and repellent substances. Defensive substances are directed against a large array of potential target organisms or may function for boiling bombardment or as surfactants. Usually, Coleoptera biosynthesize and store their defensive compounds in a complex secretory organ, known as odoriferous defensive stink glands. The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), uses these glands to produce antimicrobial p-benzoquinones and 1-alkenes. In the past, the morphology of stink gland has been studied in detail in tenebrionid beetles; however, very little is known about the genes that are involved in the production of gland secretion. In this study, we studied a subset of genes that are essential for the benzoquinone production in red flour beetle. In the first phase, we selected 74 potential candidate genes from a genome-wide RNA interference (RNAi) knockdown screen named 'iBeetle.' All these 74 candidate genes were functionally characterized by RNAi-mediated gene knockdown. Therefore, they were selected for a subsequent gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of secretion volatiles in respective RNAi knockdown glands. 33 of them were observed to alter the phenotype of stink gland. In the GC-MS analysis, 7 candidate genes were noted to display a strongly altered gland, in terms of secretion color and chemical composition, upon knockdown, showing their key role in the biosynthesis of gland secretion. Morphologically altered stink glands were found for odorant receptor and protein kinase superfamily. Subsequent GC-MS analysis of secretion volatiles revealed reduced benzoquinone levels in LIM domain, PDZ domain, PBP/GOBP family knockdowns and a complete lack of benzoquinones in the knockdown of sulfatase-modifying factor enzyme 1, sulfate transporter family. Based on stink gland transcriptome data, we analyzed the function of sulfatase-modifying factor enzyme 1 and sulfate transporter family via RNAi-mediated gene knockdowns, GC-MS, in situ hybridization, and enzymatic activity assays. Morphologically altered stink glands were noted in knockdown of both these genes. Furthermore, GC-MS analysis of secretion volatiles showed a complete lack of benzoquinones in the knockdown of these two genes. In situ hybridization showed that these two genes are expressed around the vesicle of certain subgroup of secretory stink gland cells. Enzymatic activity assays on stink gland tissue showed that these genes are involved in p-benzoquinone biosynthesis. These results suggest that sulfatase-modifying factor enzyme 1 and sulfate transporter family play a role specifically in benzoquinone biosynthesis in red flour beetles.

Keywords: Red Flour Beetle, defensive stink gland, benzoquinones, sulfate transporter, sulfatase-modifying factor enzyme 1

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Trevor Stephen, Joshua D. Aceves, David Guyer, Jona Jacobson

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As a profession, social work has much to offer individuals, groups, and organizations. A multidisciplinary approach to understanding and solving complex challenges and a commitment to developing and training ethical practitioners outlines characteristics of a profession embedded with leadership skills. This presentation will take an overview of the historical context of social work leadership, examine social work as a unique leadership model composed of its qualities and theories that inform effective leadership capability as it relates to our code of ethics. Reflect critically on leadership theories and their foundational comparison. Finally, a look at recommendations and implementation to social work education and practice. Similar to defining leadership, there is no universally accepted definition of social work leadership. However, some distinct traits and characteristics are essential. Recent studies help set the stage for this research proposal because they measure views on effective social work leadership among social work and non-social leaders and followers. However, this research is interested in working backward from that approach and examining social workers' leadership preparedness perspectives based solely on social work training, competencies, values, and ethics. Social workers understand how to change complex structures and challenge resistance to change to improve the well-being of organizations and those they serve. Furthermore, previous studies align with the idea of practitioners assessing their skill and capacity to engage in leadership but not to lead. In addition, this research is significant because it explores aspiring social work leaders' competence to translate social work practice into direct leadership skills. The research question seeks to answer whether social work training and competencies are sufficient to determine whether social workers believe they possess the capacity and skill to engage in leadership practice. Aim 1: Assess whether social workers have the capacity and skills to assume leadership roles. Aim 2: Evaluate how the development of social workers is sufficient in defining leadership. This research intends to reframe the misconception that social workers do not possess the capacity and skills to be effective leaders. On the contrary, social work encompasses a framework dedicated to lifelong development and growth. Social workers must be skilled, competent, ethical, supportive, and empathic. These are all qualities and traits of effective leadership, whereas leaders are in relation with others and embody partnership and collaboration with followers and stakeholders. The proposed study is a cross-sectional quasi-experimental survey design that will include the distribution of a multi-level social work leadership model and assessment tool. The assessment tool aims to help define leadership in social work using a Likert scale model. A cross-sectional research design is appropriate for answering the research questions because the measurement survey will help gather data using a structured tool. Other than the proposed social work leadership measurement tool, there is no other mechanism based on social work theory and designed to measure the capacity and skill of social work leadership.

Keywords: leadership competencies, leadership education, multi-level social work leadership model, social work core values, social work leadership, social work leadership education, social work leadership measurement tool

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: U. S. Putro, L. Mayangsari, M. Siallagan, N. P. Tjahyani

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National Collective Management Institute (LKMN) in Indonesia stated that legal music products were about 77.552.008 unit while illegal music products were about 22.0688.225 unit in 1996 and this number keeps getting worse every year. Consequently, Indonesia named as one of the countries with high piracy levels in 2005. This study models people decision toward unlawful behavior, music content piracy in particular, using agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS). The classification of actors in the model constructed in this study are legal consumer, illegal consumer, and neutral consumer. The decision toward piracy among the actors is a manifestation of the social norm which attributes are social pressure, peer pressure, social approval, and perceived prevalence of piracy. The influencing attributes fluctuate depending on the majority of surrounding behavior called social network. There are two main interventions undertaken in the model, campaign and peer influence, which leads to scenarios in the simulation: positively-framed descriptive norm message, negatively-framed descriptive norm message, positively-framed injunctive norm with benefits message, and negatively-framed injunctive norm with costs message. Using NetLogo, the model is simulated in 30 runs with 10.000 iteration for each run. The initial number of agent was set 100 proportion of 95:5 for illegal consumption. The assumption of proportion is based on the data stated that 95% sales of music industry are pirated. The finding of this study is that negatively-framed descriptive norm message has a worse reversed effect toward music piracy. The study discovers that selecting the context-based campaign is the key process to reduce the level of intention toward music piracy as unlawful behavior by increasing the compliance awareness. The context of Indonesia reveals that that majority of people has actively engaged in music piracy as unlawful behavior, so that people think that this illegal act is common behavior. Therefore, providing the information about how widespread and big this problem is could make people do the illegal consumption behavior instead. The positively-framed descriptive norm message scenario works best to reduce music piracy numbers as it focuses on supporting positive behavior and subject to the right perception on this phenomenon. Music piracy is not merely economical, but rather social phenomenon due to the underlying motivation of the actors which has shifted toward community sharing. The indication of misconception of value co-creation in the context of music piracy in Indonesia is also discussed. This study contributes theoretically that understanding how social norm configures the behavior of decision-making process is essential to breakdown the phenomenon of unlawful behavior in music industry. In practice, this study proposes that reward-based and context-based strategy is the most relevant strategy for stakeholders in music industry. Furthermore, this study provides an opportunity that findings may generalize well beyond music piracy context. As an emerging body of work that systematically constructs the backstage of law and social affect decision-making process, it is interesting to see how the model is implemented in other decision-behavior related situation.

Keywords: music piracy, social norm, behavioral decision-making, agent-based model, value co-creation

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Staci McGill, Morgan Hayes, Robert Coleman, Kimberly Tumlin

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The interaction and relationships between horses and humans have been shown to be positive for physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, however equine spaces where these interactions occur do include some environmental risks. There are 1.7 million jobs associated with the equine industry in the United States in addition to recreational riders, owners, and volunteers who interact with horses for substantial amounts of time daily inside built structures. One specialized facility, an “indoor arena” is a semi-indoor structure used for exercising horses and exhibiting skills during competitive events. Typically, indoor arenas have a sand or sand mixture as the footing or surface over which the horse travels, and increasingly, silica sand is being recommended due to its durable nature. It was previously identified in a semi-qualitative survey that the majority of individuals using indoor arenas have environmental concerns with dust. 27% (90/333) of respondents reported respiratory issues or allergy-like symptoms while riding with 21.6% (71/329) of respondents reporting these issues while standing on the ground observing or teaching. Frequent headaches and/or lightheadedness was reported in 9.9% (33/333) of respondents while riding and in 4.3% 14/329 while on the ground. Horse respiratory health is also negatively impacted with 58% (194/333) of respondents indicating horses cough during or after time in the indoor arena. Instructors who spent time in indoor arenas self-reported more respiratory issues than those individuals who identified as smokers, highlighting the health relevance of understanding these unique structures. To further elucidate environmental concerns and self-reported health issues, 35 facility assessments were conducted in a cross-sectional sampling design in the states of Kentucky and Ohio (USA). Data, including air speeds, were collected in a grid fashion at 15 points within the indoor arenas and then mapped spatially using krigging in ARCGIS. From the spatial maps, standard variances were obtained and differences were analyzed using multivariant analysis of variances (MANOVA) and analysis of variances (ANOVA). There were no differences for the variance of the air speeds in the spaces for facility orientation, presence and type of roof ventilation, climate control systems, amount of openings, or use of fans. Variability of the air speeds in the indoor arenas was 0.25 or less. Further analysis yielded that average air speeds within the indoor arenas were lower than 100 ft/min (0.51 m/s) which is considered still air in other animal facilities. The lack of air movement means that dust clearance is reliant on particle size and weight rather than ventilation. While further work on respirable dust is necessary, this characterization of the semi-indoor environment where animals and humans interact indicates insufficient air flow to eliminate or reduce respiratory hazards. Finally, engineering solutions to address air movement deficiencies within indoor arenas or mitigate particulate matter are critical to ensuring exposures do not lead to adverse health outcomes for equine professionals, volunteers, participants, and horses within these spaces.

Keywords: equine, indoor arena, ventilation, particulate matter, respiratory health

Procedia PDF Downloads 83

Authors: Elena I. Oprita, Oana Craciunescu, Rodica Tatia, Teodora Ciucan, Reka Barabas, Orsolya Raduly, Anca Oancea

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Healing of osteochondral defects requires repair of the damaged articular cartilage, the underlying subchondral bone and the interface between these tissues (the functional calcified layer). For this purpose, developing a single monophasic scaffold that can regenerate two specific lineages (cartilage and bone) becomes a challenge. The aim of this work was to develop variants of biodegradable cross-linked composite hydrogel based on natural polypeptides (gelatin), polysaccharides components (chondroitin-4-sulphate and hyaluronic acid), in a ratio of 2:0.08:0.02 (w/w/w) and mixed with Si-hydroxyapatite (Si-Hap), in two ratios of 1:1 and 2:1 (w/w). Si-Hap was synthesized and characterized as a better alternative to conventional Hap. Subsequently, both composite hydrogel variants were cross-linked with (N, N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N-ethyl carbodiimide (EDC) and enriched with a small bioactive molecule (icariin). The small molecule icariin (Ica) (C33H40O15) is the main active constituent (flavonoid) of Herba epimedium used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure bone- and cartilage-related disorders. Ica enhances osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), facilitates matrix calcification and increases the specific extracellular matrix (ECM) components synthesis by chondrocytes. Afterward, the composite hydrogels were characterized for their physicochemical properties in terms of the enzymatic biodegradation in the presence of type I collagenase and trypsin, the swelling capacity and the degree of crosslinking (TNBS assay). The cumulative release of Ica and real-time concentration were quantified at predetermined periods of time, according to the standard curve of standard Ica, after hydrogels incubation in saline buffer at physiological parameters. The obtained cross-linked composite hydrogels enriched with small-molecule Ica were also characterized for morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Their cytocompatibility was evaluated according to EN ISO 10993-5:2009 standard for medical device testing. Thus, analyses regarding cell viability (Live/Dead assay), cell proliferation (Neutral Red assay) and cell adhesion to composite hydrogels (SEM) were performed using NCTC clone L929 cell line. The final results showed that both cross-linked composite hydrogel variants enriched with Ica presented optimal physicochemical, structural and biological properties to be used as a natural scaffold able to repair osteochondral defects. The data did not reveal any toxicity of composite hydrogels in NCTC stabilized cell lines within the tested range of concentrations. Moreover, cells were capable of spreading and proliferating on both composite hydrogel surfaces. In conclusion, the designed biodegradable cross-linked composites enriched with Si and Ica are recommended for further testing as natural temporary scaffolds, which can allow cell migration and synthesis of new extracellular matrix within osteochondral defects.

Keywords: composites, gelatin, osteochondral defect, small molecule

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Abdou Elhendy

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Numerous study have shown the efficacy of the percutaneous intervention (PCI) and coronary stenting in improving left ventricular function and relieving exertional angina. Furthermore, PCI remains the main line of therapy in acute myocardial infarction. Improvement of procedural techniques and new devices have resulted in an increased number of PCI in those with difficult and extensive lesions, multivessel disease as well as total occlusion. Immediate and late outcome may be compromised by acute thrombosis or the development of fibro-intimal hyperplasia. In addition, progression of coronary artery disease proximal or distal to the stent as well as in non-stented arteries is not uncommon. As a result, complications can occur, such as acute myocardial infarction, worsened heart failure or recurrence of angina. In a stent, restenosis can occur without symptoms or with atypical complaints rendering the clinical diagnosis difficult. Routine invasive angiography is not appropriate as a follow up tool due to associated risk and cost and the limited functional assessment. Exercise and pharmacologic stress testing are increasingly used to evaluate the myocardial function, perfusion and adequacy of revascularization. Information obtained by these techniques provide important clues regarding presence and severity of compromise in myocardial blood flow. Stress echocardiography can be performed in conjunction with exercise or dobutamine infusion. The diagnostic accuracy has been moderate, but the results provide excellent prognostic stratification. Adding myocardial contrast agents can improve imaging quality and allows assessment of both function and perfusion. Stress radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging is an alternative to evaluate these patients. The extent and severity of wall motion and perfusion abnormalities observed during exercise or pharmacologic stress are predictors of survival and risk of cardiac events. According to current guidelines, stress echocardiography and radionuclide imaging are considered to have appropriate indication among patients after PCI who have cardiac symptoms and those who underwent incomplete revascularization. Stress testing is not recommended in asymptomatic patients, particularly early after revascularization, Coronary CT angiography is increasingly used and provides high sensitive for the diagnosis of coronary artery stenosis. Average sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of in stent stenosis in pooled data are 79% and 81%, respectively. Limitations include blooming artifacts and low feasibility in patients with small stents or thick struts. Anatomical and functional cardiac imaging modalities are corner stone for the assessment of patients after PCI and provide salient diagnostic and prognostic information. Current imaging techniques cans serve as gate keeper for coronary angiography, thus limiting the risk of invasive procedures to those who are likely to benefit from subsequent revascularization. The determination of which modality to apply requires careful identification of merits and limitation of each technique as well as the unique characteristic of each individual patient.

Keywords: coronary artery disease, stress testing, cardiac imaging, restenosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: Ja-Keoung Koo, Kensuke Nakamura, Hyohun Kim, Dongwha Shin, Yeonseok Kim, Ji-Su Ahn, Byung-Woo Hong

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The machine learning techniques based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) have been actively developed and successfully applied to a variety of image analysis tasks including reconstruction, noise reduction, resolution enhancement, segmentation, motion estimation, object recognition. The classical visual information processing that ranges from low level tasks to high level ones has been widely developed in the deep learning framework. It is generally considered as a challenging problem to derive visual interpretation from high dimensional imagery data. A CNN is a class of feed-forward artificial neural network that usually consists of deep layers the connections of which are established by a series of non-linear operations. The CNN architecture is known to be shift invariant due to its shared weights and translation invariance characteristics. However, it is often computationally intractable to optimize the network in particular with a large number of convolution layers due to a large number of unknowns to be optimized with respect to the training set that is generally required to be large enough to effectively generalize the model under consideration. It is also necessary to limit the size of convolution kernels due to the computational expense despite of the recent development of effective parallel processing machinery, which leads to the use of the constantly small size of the convolution kernels throughout the deep CNN architecture. However, it is often desired to consider different scales in the analysis of visual features at different layers in the network. Thus, we propose a CNN model where different sizes of the convolution kernels are applied at each layer based on the random projection. We apply random filters with varying sizes and associate the filter responses with scalar weights that correspond to the standard deviation of the random filters. We are allowed to use large number of random filters with the cost of one scalar unknown for each filter. The computational cost in the back-propagation procedure does not increase with the larger size of the filters even though the additional computational cost is required in the computation of convolution in the feed-forward procedure. The use of random kernels with varying sizes allows to effectively analyze image features at multiple scales leading to a better generalization. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed CNN based on random kernels are demonstrated by numerical experiments where the quantitative comparison of the well-known CNN architectures and our models that simply replace the convolution kernels with the random filters is performed. The experimental results indicate that our model achieves better performance with less number of unknown weights. The proposed algorithm has a high potential in the application of a variety of visual tasks based on the CNN framework. Acknowledgement—This work was supported by the MISP (Ministry of Science and ICT), Korea, under the National Program for Excellence in SW (20170001000011001) supervised by IITP, and NRF-2014R1A2A1A11051941, NRF2017R1A2B4006023.

Keywords: deep learning, convolutional neural network, random kernel, random projection, dimensionality reduction, object recognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 262

Authors: Jingsi Li, Neil S. Ferguson

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Time pressure could have an influence on the productivity, quality of decision making, and the efficiency of problem-solving. This has been mostly stemmed from cognitive research or psychological literature. However, a salient scarce discussion has been held for transport adjacent fields. It is conceivable that in many activity-travel contexts, time pressure is a potentially important factor since an excessive amount of decision time may incur the risk of late arrival to the next activity. The activity-travel rescheduling behavior is commonly explained by costs and benefits of factors such as activity engagements, personal intentions, social requirements, etc. This paper hypothesizes that an additional factor of perceived time pressure could affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior, thus leading to an impact on travel demand management. Time pressure may arise from different ways and is assumed here to be essentially incurred due to travelers planning their schedules without an expectation of unforeseen elements, e.g., transport disruption. In addition to a linear-additive utility-maximization model, the less computationally compensatory heuristic models are considered as an alternative to simulate travelers’ responses. The paper will contribute to travel behavior modeling research by investigating the following questions: how to measure the time pressure properly in an activity-travel day plan context? How do travelers reschedule their plans to cope with the time pressure? How would the importance of the activity affect travelers’ rescheduling behavior? What will the behavioral model be identified to describe the process of making activity-travel rescheduling decisions? How do these identified coping strategies affect the transport network? In this paper, a Mixed Heuristic Model (MHM) is employed to identify the presence of different choice heuristics through a latent class approach. The data about travelers’ activity-travel rescheduling behavior is collected via a web-based interactive survey where a fictitious scenario is created comprising multiple uncertain events on the activity or travel. The experiments are conducted in order to gain a real picture of activity-travel reschedule, considering the factor of time pressure. The identified behavioral models are then integrated into a multi-agent transport simulation model to investigate the effect of the rescheduling strategy on the transport network. The results show that an increased proportion of travelers use simpler, non-compensatory choice strategies instead of compensatory methods to cope with time pressure. Specifically, satisfying - one of the heuristic decision-making strategies - is adopted commonly since travelers tend to abandon the less important activities and keep the important ones. Furthermore, the importance of the activity is found to increase the weight of negative information when making trip-related decisions, especially route choices. When incorporating the identified non-compensatory decision-making heuristic models into the agent-based transport model, the simulation results imply that neglecting the effect of perceived time pressure may result in an inaccurate forecast of choice probability and overestimate the affectability to the policy changes.

Keywords: activity-travel rescheduling, decision making under uncertainty, mixed heuristic model, perceived time pressure, travel demand management

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Tomasz Stenzel, Daria Dziewulska, Ewa Łukaszuk, Joy Custer, Simona Kraberger, Arvind Varsani

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Viral diseases, especially those leading to impairment of the immune system, are among the most important problems in avian pathology. However, there is not much data available on this subject other than commercial poultry bird species. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to racing pigeons, which have been refined for many years in terms of their ability to return to their place of origin. Currently, these birds are used for races at distances from 100 to 1000 km, and winning pigeons are highly valuable. The rearing system of racing pigeons contradicts the principles of biosecurity, as birds originating from various breeding facilities are commonly transported and reared in “One Loft Race” (OLR) facilities. This favors the spread of multiple infections and provides conditions for the development of novel variants of various pathogens through recombination. One of the most significant viruses occurring in this avian species is the pigeon circovirus (PiCV), which is detected in ca. 70% of pigeons. Circoviruses are characterized by vast genetic diversity which is due to, among other things, the recombination phenomenon. It consists of an exchange of fragments of genetic material among various strains of the virus during the infection of one organism. The rate and intensity of the development of PiCV recombinants have not been determined so far. For this reason, an experiment was performed to investigate the frequency of development of novel PiCV recombinants in racing pigeons kept in OLR-type conditions. 15 racing pigeons originating from 5 different breeding facilities, subclinically infected with various PiCV strains, were housed in one room for eight weeks, which was supposed to mimic the conditions of OLR rearing. Blood and swab samples were collected from birds every seven days to recover complete PiCV genomes that were amplified through Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA), cloned, sequenced, and subjected to bioinformatic analyses aimed at determining the genetic diversity and the dynamics of recombination phenomenon among the viruses. In addition, virus shedding rate/level of viremia, expression of the IFN-γ and interferon-related genes, and anti-PiCV antibodies were determined to enable the complete analysis of the course of infection in the flock. Initial results have shown that 336 full PiCV genomes were obtained, exhibiting nucleotide similarity ranging from 86.6 to 100%, and 8 of those were recombinants originating from viruses of different lofts of origin. The first recombinant appeared after seven days of experiment, but most of the recombinants appeared after 14 and 21 days of joint housing. The level of viremia and virus shedding was the highest in the 2nd week of the experiment and gradually decreased to the end of the experiment, which partially corresponded with Mx 1 gene expression and antibody dynamics. The results have shown that the OLR pigeon-rearing system could play a significant role in spreading infectious agents such as circoviruses and contributing to PiCV evolution through recombination. Therefore, it is worth considering whether a popular gambling game such as pigeon racing is sensible from both animal welfare and epidemiological point of view.

Keywords: pigeon circovirus, recombination, evolution, one loft race

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Quan Wen, Tianxiao Chang, Shaolu Shi, Yushi Wang, Guangyu Wang

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As a kind of working environment of the fuze, the spin rate decaying law of projectile in exterior trajectory is of great value in the design of the rotation count fixed distance fuze. In addition, it is significant in the field of devices for simulation tests of fuze exterior ballistic environment, flight stability, and dispersion accuracy of gun projectile and opening and scattering design of submunition and illuminating cartridges. Besides, the self-destroying mechanism of the fuze in small-caliber projectile often works by utilizing the attenuation of centrifugal force. In the theory of projectile aerodynamics and fuze design, there are many formulas describing the change law of projectile angular velocity in external ballistic such as Roggla formula, exponential function formula, and power function formula. However, these formulas are mostly semi-empirical due to the poor test conditions and insufficient test data at that time. These formulas are difficult to meet the design requirements of modern fuze because they are not accurate enough and have a narrow range of applications now. In order to provide more accurate ballistic environment parameters for the design of a hemispherical head projectile fuze, the projectile’s spin rate decaying law in exterior trajectory under the effect of air resistance was studied. In the analysis, the projectile shape was simplified as hemisphere head, cylindrical part, rotating band part, and anti-truncated conical tail. The main assumptions are as follows: a) The shape and mass are symmetrical about the longitudinal axis, b) There is a smooth transition between the ball hea, c) The air flow on the outer surface is set as a flat plate flow with the same area as the expanded outer surface of the projectile, and the boundary layer is turbulent, d) The polar damping moment attributed to the wrench hole and rifling mark on the projectile is not considered, e) The groove of the rifle on the rotating band is uniform, smooth and regular. The impacts of the four parts on aerodynamic moment of the projectile rotation were obtained by aerodynamic theory. The surface friction stress of the projectile, the polar damping moment formed by the head of the projectile, the surface friction moment formed by the cylindrical part, the rotating band, and the anti-truncated conical tail were obtained by mathematical derivation. After that, the mathematical model of angular spin rate attenuation was established. In the whole trajectory with the maximum range angle (38°), the absolute error of the polar damping torque coefficient obtained by simulation and the coefficient calculated by the mathematical model established in this paper is not more than 7%. Therefore, the credibility of the mathematical model was verified. The mathematical model can be described as a first-order nonlinear differential equation, which has no analytical solution. The solution can be only gained as a numerical solution by connecting the model with projectile mass motion equations in exterior ballistics.

Keywords: ammunition engineering, fuze technology, spin rate, numerical simulation

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Authors: Noorh Albadi, Salha Khayyat

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People's moods and well-being are affected by their environment. The built environment impacts one's level of activity and health. In order to enhance users' physical health, sustainable design strategies have been developed for the physical environment to improve users' health. This study aimed to determine whether adult resorts in Saudi Arabia meet standards that ensure physical wellness to identify the needed requirements. It will be significant to the Ministry of Tourism, Sports, developers, and designers. Physical activity affects human health physically and mentally. In Saudi Arabia, the percentage of people who practiced sports in the Kingdom in 2019 was 20.04% - males and females older than 15. On the other hand, there is a lack of physical activity in Saudi Arabia; 90% of the Kingdom's population spends more than two hours sitting down without moving, which puts them at risk of contracting a non-communicable disease. The lack of physical activity and movement led to an increase in the rate of obesity among Saudis by 59% in 2020 and consequently could cause chronic diseases or death. The literature generally endorses that leading an active lifestyle improves physical health and affects mental health. Therefore, the United Nations has set 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. One of SDG3's targets is reducing mortality, which can be achieved by raising physical activity. In order to support sustainable design, many rating systems and strategies have been developed, such as WELL building, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, (LEED), Active design strategies, and RIPA plan of work. The survey was used to gather qualitative and quantitative information. It was designed based on the Active Design and WELL building theories targeting beach resorts visitors, professional and beginner athletes, and non-athletics to ask them about the beach resorts they visited in the Kingdom and whether they met the criteria of sports resorts and healthy and active design theories, in addition to gathering information about the preferences of physical activities in the Saudi society in terms of the type of activities that young people prefer, where they prefer to engage in and under any thermal and light conditions. The final section asks about the design of residential units in beach sports resorts, the data collected from 127 participants. Findings revealed that participants prefer outdoor activities in moderate weather and sunlight or the evening with moderate and sufficient lighting and that no beach sports resorts in the country are constructed to support sustainable design criteria for physical activity. Participants agreed that several measures that lessen tension at beach resorts and enhance movement and activity are needed by Saudi society. The study recommends designing resorts that meet the sustainable design criteria regarding physical activity in Saudi Arabia to increase physical activity to achieve psychological and physical benefits and avoid psychological and physical diseases related to physical inactivity.

Keywords: sustainable design, SDGs, active design strategies, well building, beach resort design

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Authors: A. Chávez, A. Rodríguez, F. Pinzón

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Society is concerned about measures of environmental, economic and social impacts generated in the solid waste disposal. These places of confinement, also known as landfills, are locations where problems of pollution and damage to human health are reduced. They are technically designed and operated, using engineering principles, storing the residue in a small area, compact it to reduce volume and covering them with soil layers. Problems preventing liquid (leachate) and gases produced by the decomposition of organic matter. Despite planning and site selection for disposal, monitoring and control of selected processes, remains the dilemma of the leachate as extreme concentration of pollutants, devastating soil, flora and fauna; aggressive processes requiring priority attention. A biological technology is the activated sludge system, used for tributaries with high pollutant loads. Since transforms biodegradable dissolved and particulate matter into CO2, H2O and sludge; transform suspended and no Settleable solids; change nutrients as nitrogen and phosphorous; and degrades heavy metals. The microorganisms that remove organic matter in the processes are in generally facultative heterotrophic bacteria, forming heterogeneous populations. Is possible to find unicellular fungi, algae, protozoa and rotifers, that process the organic carbon source and oxygen, as well as the nitrogen and phosphorus because are vital for cell synthesis. The mixture of the substrate, in this case sludge leachate, molasses and wastewater is maintained ventilated by mechanical aeration diffusers. Considering as the biological processes work to remove dissolved material (< 45 microns), generating biomass, easily obtained by decantation processes. The design consists of an artificial support and aeration pumps, favoring develop microorganisms (denitrifying) using oxygen (O) with nitrate, resulting in nitrogen (N) in the gas phase. Thus, avoiding negative effects of the presence of ammonia or phosphorus. Overall the activated sludge system includes about 8 hours of hydraulic retention time, which does not prevent the demand for nitrification, which occurs on average in a value of MLSS 3,000 mg/L. The extended aeration works with times greater than 24 hours detention; with ratio of organic load/biomass inventory under 0.1; and average stay time (sludge age) more than 8 days. This project developed a pilot system with sludge leachate from Doña Juana landfill - RSDJ –, located in Bogota, Colombia, where they will be subjected to a process of activated sludge and extended aeration through a sequential Bach reactor - SBR, to be dump in hydric sources, avoiding ecological collapse. The system worked with a dwell time of 8 days, 30 L capacity, mainly by removing values of BOD and COD above 90%, with initial data of 1720 mg/L and 6500 mg/L respectively. Motivating the deliberate nitrification is expected to be possible commercial use diffused aeration systems for sludge leachate from landfills.

Keywords: sludge, landfill, leachate, SBR

Procedia PDF Downloads 246

Authors: Giorgi Chichinadze, David Shengelia, Tamara Tsutsunava, Nikoloz Maisuradze, Giorgi Beridze

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The Jalovchat gabbro intrusive is exposed on the northern and southern slopes of Main Range zone of the Greater Caucasus, on an area about 25km2. It is intruded in Precambrian crystalline schists and amphibolites intensively metamorphose them along the contact zone. The intrusive is represented by hornblende-bearing gabbro, gabbro-norites and norites including thin vein bodies of gabbro-pegmatites, anorthosites and micro-gabbros. Especially should be noted the veins of gabbro-pegmatites with the gigantic (up to 0.5m) hornblende crystals. From this point of view, the Jalovchat gabbroid intrusive is particularly interesting and by its unusual composition has no analog in the Caucasus overall. The comprehensive petrologic and geochemical study of the intrusive was carried out by the authors. The results of investigations are following. Amphiboles correspond to magnesiohastingsite and magnesiohornblende. In hastingsite and hornblende as a result of isovalent isomorphism of Fe2+ by Mg, content of the latter has been increased. By AMF and Na20+K diagrams the intrusive rocks correspond to tholeiitic basalts or to basalts close to it by composition. According to ACM-AMF double diagram the samples distributed in the fields of MORB and alkali cumulates. In TiO2/FeO+Fe2O3, Zr/Y-Zr and Ti-Cr/Ni diagrams and Ti-Cr-Y triangular diagram samples are arranged in the fields of island-arc and mid-oceanic basalts or along the trends reflecting mid-oceanic ridges or island arcs. K2O/TiO2 diagram shows that these rocks belong to normal and enriched MORB type. According to Th/Nb/Y ratio, the Jalovchat intrusive composition corresponds to depleted mantle, but by Sm/Y-Ce/Sm - to the MORB area. Th/Y and Nb/Y ratios coincide with the MORB composition, Th/Yb-Ta/Yb and La/Nb-Ti ratios correspond to N MORB, and Rb/Y and N/Y - to the lower crust formations. Exceptional are Ce/Pb-Ce and Nb/Th-Nb diagrams, showing the area of primitive mantle. Spidergrams are characterized by almost horizontal trend, weakly expressed Eu minimums and by a slight depletion of light REE. Similar are characteristic of typical tholeiit basalts. In comparison to MORB spidergrams, they are characterized by depletion of light REE. Their correlation to the spidergrams of Jalovchat intrusive proves that they are more depleted. The above cited points to the gradual depletion of mantle with the light REE in geological time. The RE and REE diagrams reveal unexpected regularity. In particular, petro-geochemical characteristics of Jalovchat gabbroid intrusive predominantly correspond to MORB, that usually is an anomalous phenomenon, since in ‘ophiolitic’ section magmatic formations represented mainly by gigantic prismatic hornblende-bearing gabbro and gabbro-pegmatite are not indicated. On the basis of petro-mineralogical and petro-geochemical data analysis, the authors consider that the Jalovchat intrusive belongs to the subduction geodynamic type. In the depleted mantle rich in water the MORB rock system has subducted, where the favorable conditions for crystallization of hornblende and especially for its gigantic crystals occurred. It is considered that the Jalovchat intrusive was formed in deep horizons of the Earth’s crust as a result of crystallization of water-bearing Bajocian basalt magma.

Keywords: The Greater Caucasus, gabbro-pegmatite, hornblende-bearing gabbro, petrogenesis

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Authors: V. Giacometti, R. Mirabelli, V. Patera, D. Pinci, A. Sarti, A. Sciubba, G. Traini, M. Marafini

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The particle therapy (PT) is a very modern technique of non invasive radiotherapy mainly devoted to the treatment of tumours untreatable with surgery or conventional radiotherapy, because localised closely to organ at risk (OaR). Nowadays, PT is available in about 55 centres in the word and only the 20\% of them are able to treat with carbon ion beam. However, the efficiency of the ion-beam treatments is so impressive that many new centres are in construction. The interest in this powerful technology lies to the main characteristic of PT: the high irradiation precision and conformity of the dose released to the tumour with the simultaneous preservation of the adjacent healthy tissue. However, the beam interactions with the patient produce a large component of secondary particles whose additional dose has to be taken into account during the definition of the treatment planning. Despite, the largest fraction of the dose is released to the tumour volume, a non-negligible amount is deposed in other body regions, mainly due to the scattering and nuclear interactions of the neutrons within the patient body. One of the main concerns in PT treatments is the possible occurrence of secondary malignant neoplasm (SMN). While SMNs can be developed up to decades after the treatments, their incidence impacts directly life quality of the cancer survivors, in particular in pediatric patients. Dedicated Treatment Planning Systems (TPS) are used to predict the normal tissue toxicity including the risk of late complications induced by the additional dose released by secondary neutrons. However, no precise measurement of secondary neutrons flux is available, as well as their energy and angular distributions: an accurate characterization is needed in order to improve TPS and reduce safety margins. The project MONDO (MOnitor for Neutron Dose in hadrOntherapy) is devoted to the construction of a secondary neutron tracker tailored to the characterization of that secondary neutron component. The detector, based on the tracking of the recoil protons produced in double-elastic scattering interactions, is a matrix of thin scintillating fibres, arranged in layer x-y oriented. The final size of the object is 10 x 10 x 20 cm3 (squared 250µm scint. fibres, double cladding). The readout of the fibres is carried out with a dedicated SPAD Array Sensor (SBAM) realised in CMOS technology by FBK (Fondazione Bruno Kessler). The detector is under development as well as the SBAM sensor and it is expected to be fully constructed for the end of the year. MONDO will make data tacking campaigns at the TIFPA Proton Therapy Center of Trento, at the CNAO (Pavia) and at HIT (Heidelberg) with carbon ion in order to characterize the neutron component and predict the additional dose delivered on the patients with much more precision and to drastically reduce the actual safety margins. Preliminary measurements with charged particles beams and MonteCarlo FLUKA simulation will be presented.

Keywords: secondary neutrons, particle therapy, tracking detector, elastic scattering

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 69