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Authors: Gordon Weight, Hermione Tsoi, Patrick Cutinha, Sanjay Rajpal

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Aim: Greenlight-laser prostatectomy (GLLP) is becoming a popular treatment option for bladder outlet obstruction and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). In this retrospective study, we aim to explore the patient selection, perioperative morbidity, and functional outcomes of GLLP. Methods: Patients who underwent GLLP at a UK tertiary centre between June 2018 and November 2021 were included in this study. Retrospective data covering patient demographics, perioperative parameters and postoperative outcomes were collected using the electronic records systems. Results: 305 patients were included in this study with a mean age of 73 (range 30-90) years. The most common indication (62.6%) for the procedure was patient’s wish to be free from long-term catheters (LTC) or intermittent catheterisation (ISC), followed by failed medical therapy for LUTS (36.4%). 84.6% of patients had an ASA ≥2, and 32.1% took anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy. Inpatient stays were minimal, with the majority (68.2%) of patients were performed as day case, and only 10.5% of patients requiring more than a single night admission. The 3-month readmission rate was 10.8%, with the most common causes being haematuria and urinary-tract infection. The successful TWOC rate at follow up was 91.2%. Amongst the 19 patients who failed TWOC, 14 had LTC prior to the procedure and 4 had been performing ISC. Conclusions: Our study shows that GLLP is a safe and effective day case treatment and can be suitable for elderly and comorbid patients. Patients requiring LTC or ISC pre-operatively should be counselled carefully about the risk of not being catheter-free post procedure.

Keywords: urology, endourology, prostate, bladder outlet obstruction, laser

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Tomasz Kosicki

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The subject of the presentation will be the administrative and legal instruments of disciplining maintenance debtors adopted by the Polish legislator, the substantive legal bases of which were adopted in the Act of 7 September 2007 on assistance to persons entitled to maintenance (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1205). These provisions are complemented by procedural regulations resulting from the Act of 14 June 1960 - Code of Administrative Procedure (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 735, as amended). The first part of the paper will focus on the administrative proceedings regarding the recognition of the debtor as evading maintenance obligations. The initiation of this procedure ex officio is preceded by a number of actions by public administration bodies, including Conducting a maintenance interview with the debtor, during which his health and professional situation and the reasons for non-payment of maintenance are determined, Professional activation in a situation where the lack of payment of maintenance results from the lack of employment. The reasons for initiating the above-mentioned administrative proceedings ex officio will be indicated, taking into account the current views of the judicial decisions. The second part of the paper will focus on the instrument of retaining the driving license of the debtor, who was previously found to be evading maintenance. The author points out that the detention of the driving license is one of the types of administrative sanctions of a very severe nature. Doubts of a constitutional nature will also be highlighted, as well as those concerning the effectiveness of this legal instrument and the protection of the debtor's rights. The thesis will be presented that the administrative procedure for the retention of a driving license does not fulfill its role and especially does not affect the collection of maintenance obligations from debtors. All the considerations will be based on the current and most representative views of the literature on the subject and the jurisprudence of Polish administrative courts.

Keywords: maintenance debtor, administrative proceedings, detention of driving license, administrative sanction, polish administrative law, public administration

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: Serge B. Provost

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Numerous statistical inference and modeling methodologies are based on sample moments rather than the actual observations. A result justifying the validity of this approach is introduced. More specifically, it will be established that given the first n moments of a sample of size n, one can recover the original n sample points. This implies that a sample of size n and its first associated n moments contain precisely the same amount of information. However, it is efficient to make use of a limited number of initial moments as most of the relevant distributional information is included in them. Two types of density estimation techniques that rely on such moments will be discussed. The first one expresses a density estimate as the product of a suitable base density and a polynomial adjustment whose coefficients are determined by equating the moments of the density estimate to the sample moments. The second one assumes that the derivative of the logarithm of a density function can be represented as a rational function. This gives rise to a system of linear equations involving sample moments, the density estimate is then obtained by solving a differential equation. Unlike kernel density estimation, these methodologies are ideally suited to model ‘big data’ as they only require a limited number of moments, irrespective of the sample size. What is more, they produce simple closed form expressions that are amenable to algebraic manipulations. They also turn out to be more accurate as will be shown in several illustrative examples.

Keywords: density estimation, log-density, polynomial adjustments, sample moments

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Felermino D. M. A. Ali, S. C. Ng

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E-learning is an evolutionary form of distance learning and has become better over time as new technologies emerged. Today, efforts are still being made to embrace E-learning systems with emerging technologies in order to make them better. Among these advancements, Educational Data Mining (EDM) is one that is gaining a huge and increasing popularity due to its wide application for improving the teaching-learning process in online practices. However, even though EDM promises to bring many benefits to educational industry in general and E-learning environments in particular, its principal drawback is the lack of easy to use tools. The current EDM tools usually require users to have some additional technical expertise to effectively perform EDM tasks. Thus, in response to these limitations, this study intends to design and implement an EDM application framework which aims at automating and simplify the development of EDM in E-learning environment. The application framework introduces a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that hides the complexity of technical details and enables users to perform EDM in an automated fashion. The framework was designed based on abstraction, extensibility, and interoperability principles. The framework implementation was made up of three major modules. The first module provides an abstraction for data gathering, which was done by extending Moodle LMS (Learning Management System) source code. The second module provides data mining methods and techniques as services; it was done by converting Weka API into a set of Web services. The third module acts as an intermediary between the first two modules, it contains a user-friendly interface that allows dynamically locating data provider services, and running knowledge discovery tasks on data mining services. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the overhead of the proposed framework through a combination of simulation and implementation. The experiments have shown that the overhead introduced by the SOA mechanism is relatively small, therefore, it has been concluded that a service-oriented architecture can be effectively used to facilitate educational data mining in E-learning environments.

Keywords: educational data mining, e-learning, distributed data mining, moodle, service-oriented architecture, Weka

Procedia PDF Downloads 234

Authors: Maryam Heidari, James H. Jones Jr.

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Millions of online posts about different topics and products are shared on popular social media platforms. One use of this content is to provide crowd-sourced information about a specific topic, event or product. However, this use raises an important question: what percentage of information available through these services is trustworthy? In particular, might some of this information be generated by a machine, i.e., a bot, instead of a human? Bots can be, and often are, purposely designed to generate enough volume to skew an apparent trend or position on a topic, yet the consumer of such content cannot easily distinguish a bot post from a human post. In this paper, we introduce a model for social media bot detection which uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (Google Bert) for sentiment classification of tweets to identify topic-independent features. Our use of a Natural Language Processing approach to derive topic-independent features for our new bot detection model distinguishes this work from previous bot detection models. We achieve 94\% accuracy classifying the contents of data as generated by a bot or a human, where the most accurate prior work achieved accuracy of 92\%.

Keywords: bot detection, natural language processing, neural network, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Dhivya Arumugam, Kaliyappan Thananjeyan

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The monomer of (3-((4-(methacryloyloxy)phenylimino)methyl)-2-hydroxybenzoic acid) schiff base polymer was prepared by reacting methacryloyl chloride with imine compound derived from 3-formylsalisylic acid and 4- aminophenol. The monomer was polymerized in DMF at 70oC using benzoyl peroxide as free radical initiator. Polymer metal complex was obtained in DMF solution of polymer with aqueous solution of metal ions. The polymer and the polymer metal complex were characterized by elemental analysis and spectral studies. The elemental analysis data suggest that the metal to ligand ratio is 1:1 and hence, it acts as a binucleating compartmental ligand. The IR spectral data of these complexes suggest that the metals are coordinated through nitrogen of the imine group, the oxygen of carboxylate ion and the oxygen of the phenolic –OH group which also acts as the bridging ligand. The electronic spectra and magnetic moments of the polychelates shows that octahedral and square planar structure for Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes respectively. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that polychelates are highly crystalline. The thermal and electrical properties, catalytic activity, structure property relationships are discussed. Further the synthesized polymer was used for metal uptake studies from waste water, which is one of the effective waste water treatment strategies. And also, the polymers and polychelates were investigated for antimicrobial activity with various microorganisms by using agar well diffusion method and the results have been discussed.

Keywords: acyclic compartmental ligands, binucleating ligand, 3-formylsalicylic acid, free radical polymerization, polluting ions, polychelate

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Kevin Moustapha

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Psychopathy is perceived today as being «the most important concept in the criminal justice system» and as «the most important legal notion of the early 21 th century». The explosion of research related to psychopathy seems to perfectly illustrate this trend. Traditionally, many studies tend to focus on links between insanity defense and psychopathy. That is why our purpose in this article is to analyze psychopathic disorders in the scope of judges sentencing in Canada. Indeed, in every Canadian case related to dangerous offenders, judges must balance between fairness and protection of the individuals rights of the accused and protection of society from dangerous predators who may commit future acts of physical or sexual violence. Increasingly, psychopathic disorders are taking an important part in judge sentencing, especially in Canada. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the high proportion of psychopath offenders incarcerated in North American prisons. Many decisions in Canadians courtrooms seem to point out that psychopathy is often used as a strong argument by the judges to preserve public safety. The fact that psychopathy is often associated with violence, recklessness and recidivism, it could explain why many judges consider psychopathic disorders as an aggravating factor. Generally, the judge reasoning is based on article 753 of Canadian Criminal Code related to dangerous offenders, which is used for individuals who show a pattern of repetitive and persistent aggressive behaviour. However, with cognitive neurosciences, the psychopath’s situation in courtrooms would probably change. Cerebral imaging and news data provided by the neurosciences show that emotional and volitional functions in psychopath’s brains are impaired. Understanding these new issues could enable some judges to recognize psychopathic disorders as a mitigating factor. Two important questions ought to be raised in this article: can exploring psychopaths ‘brains really change the judge sentencing in Canadian courtrooms? If yes, can judges consider psychopathy more as a mitigating factor than an aggravating factor?

Keywords: criminal law, judges sentencing, neurosciences, psychopathy

Procedia PDF Downloads 921

Authors: Madhav Khadilkar

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Construction of a large standby reservoir was required to provide secure water supply. The new reservoir was required to be constructed at the same location of an abandoned old open pond due to space constraints. Some investigations were carried out earlier to improvise and re-commission the existing pond. But due to a lack of quantified risk of settlement from voids in the underlying limestone, the shallow foundations were not found feasible. Since the reservoir was resting on hard strata for about three-quarter of plan area and one quarter was resting on soil underlying with limestone and considerably low subgrade modulus. Further investigations were carried out to ascertain the locations and extent of voids within the limestone. It was concluded that the risk due to lime dissolution was acceptably low, and the site was found geotechnically feasible. The hazard posed by limestone dissolution was addressed through the integrated structural and geotechnical analysis and design approach. Finite Element Analysis was carried out to quantify the stresses and differential settlement due to various probable loads and soil-structure interaction. Walls behaving as cantilever under operational loads were found undergoing in-plane bending and tensile forces due to soil-structure interaction. Sensitivity analysis for varying soil subgrade modulus was carried out to check the variation in the response of the structure and magnitude of stresses developed. The base slab was additionally checked for the loss of soil contact due to lime pocket formations at random locations. The expansion and contraction joints were planned to receive minimal additional forces due to differential settlement. The reservoir was designed to sustain the actions corresponding to allowable deformation limits per code, and geotechnical measures were proposed to achieve the soil parameters set in structural analysis.

Keywords: differential settlement, limestone dissolution, reservoir, soil structure interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Ameer A. Jebur, William Atherton, Rafid M. Alkhaddar, Edward Loffill

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Superstructures like offshore platforms, tall buildings, transition towers, skyscrapers and bridges are normally designed to resist compression, uplift and lateral forces from wind waves, negative skin friction, ship impact and other applied loads. Better understanding and the precise simulation of the response of batter piles under the action of independent uplift loads is a vital topic and an area of active research in the field of geotechnical engineering. This paper investigates the use of finite element code (FEC) to examine the behaviour of model batter piles penetrated in dense sand, subjected to pull-out pressure by means of numerical modelling. The concept of the Winkler Model (beam on elastic foundation) has been used in which the interaction between the pile embedded depth and adjacent soil in the bearing zone is simulated by nonlinear p-y curves. The analysis was conducted on different pile slenderness ratios (lc⁄d) ranging from 7.5, 15.22 and 30 respectively. In addition, the optimum batter angle for a model steel pile penetrated in dense sand has been chosen to be 20° as this is the best angle for this simulation as demonstrated by other researcher published in literature. In this numerical analysis, the soil response is idealized as elasto-plastic and the model piles are described as elastic materials for the purpose of simulation. The results revealed that the applied loads affect the pullout pile capacity as well as the lateral pile response for dense sand together with varying shear strength parameters linked to the pile critical depth. Furthermore, the pile pull-out capacity increases with increasing the pile aspect ratios.

Keywords: slenderness ratio, soil-pile interaction, winkler model (beam on elastic foundation), pull-out capacity

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Hemang Madhusudan Anglay, Akash Gaur

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Value of visual perception in today’s context is vulnerable. Visual Graphic broadly and conveniently expresses culture, language and science of art that satisfactorily is a mould to cast various expressions. It is one of the essential parts of communication design which relatively can be used to approach the above areas of expressions. In between the receptors and interpreters, there is an expanse of comprehension and cliché in relation to the use of Visual Graphics. There are pedagogies, commodification and honest reflections where Visual Graphic is a common area of interest. The traditional receptors amidst the dilemma of this very situation find themselves in the pool of media, medium and interactions. Followed by a very vague interpretation the entire circle of communication becomes a question of comprehension vs cliché. Residing in the same ‘eco-system’ these communities who make pedagogies and multiply its reflections sometimes with honesty and sometimes on commercial values tend to function differently. With the advent of technology, which is a virtual space allows the user to access various forms of content. This diminishes the core characteristics and creates a vacuum even though it satisfies the user. The symbolic interpretation of visual form and structure is transmitted in a culture by the means of contemporary media. Starting from a very individualistic approach, today it is beyond Print & Electronic media. The expected outcome will be a study of Ahmedabad City, situated in the Gujarat State of India. It is identity with respect to socio-cultural as well as economic changes. The methodology will include process to understand the evolution and narratives behind it that will encompass diverse community, its reflection and it will sum up the salient features of communication through combination of visual and graphic that is relevant in Indian context trading its values to global scenario.

Keywords: communication, culture, graphic, visual

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: Hong-Jin Joo, Hee-Yoel Kwak

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Vacuum Membrane Distillation (VMD) uses pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure. The feed seawater is capable of producing more vapor at the same temperature than Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD), Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) or Sweep Gas Membrane Distillation (SGMD). It is advantageous because it is operable at a lower temperature than other membrane distillations. However, no commercial product is available that uses the VMD method, as it is still in the study stage. In this study, therefore, thermal performance test according to the feed water conditions was performed prior to both construction of the demonstration plant, which uses VMD module of the capacity of 400m³/d in South Korea, and commercialization of VMD module with hollow fiber membrane. Such study was performed by designing and constructing the VMD module of the capacity of 2 m³/day which utilizes the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membrane. The results obtained from the VMD module manufactured by ECONITY Co., Ltd in South Korea, showed that the maximum performance ratio (PR) value of 0.904, feed water temperature of 75 ℃, and the flow rate of 8 m3/h. As the temperature of and flow rate of the feed water increased, the PR value of the VMD module also increased.

Keywords: membrane distillation, vacuum membrane distillation, hollow fiber membrane, desalination

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Helga Martins, Idália Matias

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Background: Dementia is an important research topic since that life expectancy worldwide is increasing, so people are getting older. The aging of populations has a major impact on the increase in dementia, and nurses play a major role in taking care of these patients. Therefore, the implementation of nursing interventions based on evidence is vital so that we are aware of what we can do in clinical practice in order to provide patient cantered care to patients with dementia. Aim: To identify the nurse´s interventions in patients with dementia during clinical practice. Method: Literature review grounded on an electronic search in the EBSCOhost platform (CINAHL Plus with Full Text, MEDLINE with Full Text, and Nursing & Allied Health Collection), using the search terms of "dementia" AND "nurs*" AND “interventions” in the abstracts. The inclusion criteria were: original papers published up to June 2021. A total of 153 results after de duplicate removal we kept 104. After the application of the inclusion criteria, we included 15 studies This literature review was performed by two independent researchers. Results: A total of 15 results about nurses’ interventions in patients with dementia were included in the study. The major interventions are therapeutic communication strategies, environmental management of stressors involving family/caregivers; strategies to promote patient safety, and assistance in activities of daily living in patients who are clinically deteriorated. Conclusion: Taking care of people with dementia is a complex and demanding task. Nurses are required to have a set of skills and competences in order to provide nursing interventions. We highlight that is necessary an awareness in nursing education regarding providing nursing care to patients with dementia.

Keywords: dementia, interventions, nursing, review

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Angad Arora

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In production operations/manufacturing, a cell or line is typically a bunch of similar machines (computer numerical control (CNCs), advanced cutting, 3D printing or special purpose machines. For qualifying a typical manufacturing line /cell / new process, Ideally, we need a sample of parts that can be flown through the process and then we make a judgment on the health of the line/cell. However, with huge volumes and mass production scope, such as in the mobile phone industry, for example, the actual cells or lines can go in thousands and to qualify each one of them with statistical confidence means utilizing samples that are very large and eventually add to product /manufacturing cost + huge waste if the parts are not intended to be customer shipped. To solve this, we come up with 2 steps statistical approach. We start with a small sample size and then objectively evaluate whether the process needs additional samples or not. For example, if a process is producing bad parts and we saw those samples early, then there is a high chance that the process will not meet the desired yield and there is no point in keeping adding more samples. We used this hypothesis and came up with 2 steps binomial testing approach. Further, we also prove through results that we can achieve an 18-25% reduction in samples while keeping the same statistical confidence.

Keywords: statistics, data science, manufacturing process qualification, production planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Mikiyas Yonas Fufa

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- Maternal and child health service was a critical service which may have many risks and many maternal and newborn mortality is there if not managed properly. In middle and low countries like Ethiopia accessibility and quality of MCH service is low. During this COVID-19 Pandemics even the pervious access of MCH will be decreased. So many pregnant mothers are not attending their ANC, Delivery and other services in the hospital because they think they are more vulnerable to COVID-19. This condition may make an increase of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. The innovation is an idea (which is development of a mobile app prepared by Maternity Foundation organization that focuses on midwifery care. The app has detailed videos on danger signs in pregnancy and procedures during labor and delivery). By telling this to clients it is planned to explore the perception, attitude towards this innovation and barriers to accepting it. What is planned to study is to explore the perceptions and barriers towards using of new idea which is innovation of mHealth on the MCH services. It is planned to interview the pregnant mothers who come for ANC at health facility and mothers who are absent from their appointment of services. In this way it is planned to explore how the mothers accept this idea and what barriers make them from accepting this idea. This is a phenomenological qualitative study and application of diffusion of innovation theory on the MCH services. The participant will be selected by using quota sampling methods for the mother who are interviewed at hospitals and snowball/quota sampling methods for the mother who are absent from their appointment/visits. Sample size of the participant depends on the saturation of data/idea. Each participant will be interviewed based the open-ended questionnaires, and the interview will be recorded then transcribed then finally analyzed by the open code 4.03. Beneficiaries: The federal ministry of health prepares them to develop the apk of mhealth. Health professionals in the MCH will have a low overload and accessibility and the quality of care will be increased during COVID-19 Different collaborations will be participated and promote the mother to enjoy the new idea.

Keywords: COVID-19, m health, MCH, diffusion of innovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 16

Authors: Taoues Hadour

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Twitter has become a popular means of communication used in a variety of fields, such as politics, journalism, and academia. This widely used online platform has an impact on the way people express themselves and is changing language usage worldwide at an unprecedented pace. The language used online reflects the linguistic battle that has been going on for several decades in French society. This study enables a deeper understanding of users' linguistic behavior online. The implications are important and allow for a rise in awareness of intercultural and cross-language exchanges. This project investigates the mixing of French-English language usage among French users of Twitter using a topic analysis approach. This analysis draws on Gumperz's theory of conversational switching. In order to collect tweets at a large scale, the data was collected in R using the rtweet package to access and retrieve French tweets data through Twitter’s REST and stream APIs (Application Program Interface) using the software RStudio, the integrated development environment for R. The dataset was filtered manually and certain repetitions of themes were observed. A total of nine topic categories were identified and analyzed in this study: entertainment, internet/social media, events/community, politics/news, sports, sex/pornography, innovation/technology, fashion/make up, and business. The study reveals that entertainment is the most frequent topic discussed on Twitter. Entertainment includes movies, music, games, and books. Anglicisms such as trailer, spoil, and live are identified in the data. Change in language usage is inevitable and is a natural result of linguistic interactions. The use of different languages online is just an example of what the real world would look like without linguistic regulations. Social media reveals a multicultural and multilinguistic richness which can deepen and expand our understanding of contemporary human attitudes.

Keywords: code-switching, French, sociolinguistics, Twitter

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Anis A. Ansari, M. Kamil

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The development of 3D printing technology has allowed the manufacturing industry to create parts with a high degree of automation, increased design freedom, and improved mechanical performance. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is a 3D printing technique in which successive layers of thermoplastic polymer are deposited and controlled to create a three-dimensional product. In this study, process parameters such as nozzle temperature and printing speed were chosen to investigate their effects on hardness properties. 3D printed specimens were fabricated by an FDM 3D printer from Polylactic acid (PLA) polymer. After analysis, it was observed that the hardness property is much influenced by print speed and nozzle temperature parameters. Maximum hardness was achieved at higher print speed which indicates that the Shore D hardness is directly proportional to the print speed. Moreover, at higher print speed, it has no significant dependence on the nozzle temperature. Hardness is also influenced by nozzle temperature, though to a lesser extent. The hardness slightly lowers when the nozzle temperature is raised from 190 to 210 oC, but due to improved bonding between each raster, a further rise in temperature increases the hardness property.

Keywords: 3D printing, fused deposition modeling (FDM), polylactic acid (PLA), print speed, nozzle temperature, hardness property

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: A. Bhattacharya, Sanjay Gupta, S. H. Bodakhe

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HbA1c is form of the haemoglobin that is used to measure the average plasma glucose concentration over prolonged periods of time. It is formed in a non-enzymatic glycation pathway by hemoglobin's exposure to plasma glucose. In diabetes mellitus, higher amounts of glycated hemoglobin, indicating poorer control of blood glucose levels, have been associated with cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, and retinopathy. Guraku’s basic components are nicotine and jaggery, jaggery is made up of sugarcane so can have a diabetogenic potential which is exacerbated in presence of nicotine. This work had done with the aim to find correlation between Diabetic cataract, HbA1c and Guraku. Subjects were enrolled according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In this study total 75 subjects were included. In the study it was found that people consuming Guraku had a high level of HbA1c thus are more prone to the development of diabetic cataract. Male subjects are the more than female subjects. Most of the subjects belong to the lower socioeconomical class and not very educated. It could be concluded that this type of study could be useful in indentifying number of subjects suffering from diabetic cataract whose condition get worse by use of nicotine product like Guraku and preventive measure to be taken in prevention of this type of diabetic complication.

Keywords: diabetic cataract, HbA1c, Guraku, diabetogenic potential

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Dua K. S. Y. Klaas, Monzur A. Imteaz, Ika Sudiayem, Elkan M. E. Klaas, Eldav C. M. Klaas

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Developing tailored management strategies to ensure the sustainability of groundwater resource under climate and demographic changes is critical for tropical karst island, where relatively small watershed and highly porous soil nature make this natural resource highly susceptible and thus very sensitive to those changes. In this study, long-term impacts of climate variability on groundwater recharge and discharge at the Oemau spring, Rote Island, Indonesia were investigated. Following calibration and validation of groundwater model using MODFLOW code, groundwater flow was simulated for period of 2020-2090 under HadCM3 global model climate (GCM) scenarios, using input data of weather variables downscaled by Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM). The reported analysis suggests that the sustainability of groundwater resources will be adversely affected by climate change during dry years. The area is projected to variably experience 2.53-22.80% decrease of spring discharge. A subsequent comprehensive set of management strategies as palliative and adaptive efforts was proposed to be implemented by relevant stakeholders to assist the community dealing with water deficit during the dry years. Three main adaptive strategies, namely socio-cultural, technical, and ecological measures, were proposed by incorporating physical and socio-economic characteristics of the area. This study presents a blueprint for assessing groundwater sustainability under climate change scenarios and developing tailored management strategies to cope with adverse impacts of climate change, which may become fundamental necessities across other tropical karst islands in the future.

Keywords: climate change, groundwater, management strategies, tropical karst island, Rote Island, Indonesia

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Athanasios A. Tountas, Geoffrey A. Ozin, Mohini M. Sain

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Renewable hydrogen (H₂) carriers such as methanol (MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME), oxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OMEs), and conceivably ammonia (NH₃) can be reformed back into H₂ and are fundamental chemical conversions for the long-term viability of the H₂ economy due to their higher densities and ease of transportability compared to H₂. MeOH is an especially important carrier as it is a simple C1 chemical that can be produced from green solar-PV-generated H₂ and direct-air-captured CO₂ with a current commercially practical solar-to-fuel efficiency of 10% from renewable solar energy. MeOH steam reforming (MSR) in stationary systems next to H₂ fuel-cell filling stations can eliminate the need for onboard mobile reformers, and the former systems can be more robust in terms of attaining strict H₂ product specifications, and MeOH is a safe, lossless, and compact medium for long-term H₂ storage. Both thermal- and photo-catalysts are viable options for achieving the stable, long-term performance of stationary MSR systems.

Keywords: fuel-cell vehicle filling stations, methanol steam reforming, hydrogen transport and storage, stationary reformer, liquid hydrogen carriers

Procedia PDF Downloads 98

Authors: An-Hsu Chen

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The study intends to explore how the athletic trainings (12 hours per day, four days per week) have impacts on athlete burnout and their leisure participations. The connection between athlete burnout and leisure participation of collegiate athletes is also discussed. Athlete burnout and leisure participation questionnaire were administrated and 186 valid responses were collected. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Results suggest that athlete burnout among collegiate athletes with different specialties are significant distinct. Participants who train more days per week are more likely to participate in entertainment activities while those who have higher training hours per day tend to avoid knowledge-based activities. The research also finds there is a significant positive correlation between athlete burnout and leisure participation of collegiate athletes while sport devaluation is negatively correlated with sport activities in leisure participation. Hence, adjust and well-arrange training quality and quantity may help to avoid over-trainings. Away trainings, uploading training volumes, and group leisure activities are suggested to be arranged properly to allow athletes cope with the burnout and stress caused by long-term trainings and periodical competitions.

Keywords: emotional and physical exhaustion, leisure activities, sport devaluation, training hours

Procedia PDF Downloads 329

Authors: Maulita Sari Hani, Abraham B. Sianipar, Abdi Hasan, Erfa Canistya, Ismail Alaydrus, Asril Djunaidi

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Whale shark tourism offer potential benefits to support economic alternative livelihood. Since 2017, Conservation International Indonesia worked in Sumbawa to monitor whale shark distribution and identified species aggregation in Teluk Saleh. We conducted a survey on May 23th-27th, 2018 and involved 86 local community from five hamlets in Labuan Jambu village. Furthermore, forum group discussion (FGD) held with 20 village representative on July 30th, 2018. The result of frequency distribution demonstrated 95% of respondents show positive perceptions towards sustainable development of whale shark tourism with 40% willing to participate in boat rental services. The community also proposes to participate in providing other tourism services including the local guide (12%), food and beverage or F&B (8%), local transport (8%), and homestay (6%). 34% of respondents agreed to establish a new institution (under village officials) to coordinate tourism services provided by the local community. We also conducted participatory mapping with 15 key informants where the result confirmed 13 areas of whale shark aggregation with all-year-round sightings. The FGD results in 20 participants ready to start the pilot project of community-based whale shark tourism in August 2018, including 4 boat rental (3 speedboats and 1 floating cage boat), 6 homestays, 4 car rentals, 1 F&B, 1 gear rental, 2 guides, and 2 local products. In addition, we facilitate village official in establishing policy and regulations for whale shark conservation and sustainable community-based tourism through village regulation, code of conduct, best practices, and capacity building program.

Keywords: marine wildlife tourism, elasmobranch, conservation, sustainable tourism, co-management

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Ali Seirafi

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect and application of starch nanocrystals on physicochemical and microbial properties in the industrial production of probiotic yogurt. In this study, probiotic yoghurt was manufactured by industrial method with the optimization and control of the technological factors affecting the probabilistic biomass, using probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum with commonly used yogurt primers. Afterwards, the effects of different levels of fat (1.3%, 2.5 and 4%), as well as the effects of various perbiotic compounds include starch nanocrystals (0.5%, 1 and 1.5%), galactolegalosaccharide (0.5% 1 and 1.5%) and fructooligosaccharide (0.5%, 1 and 1.5%) were evaluated. In addition, the effect of packaging (polyethylene and glass) was studied, while the effect of pH changes and final acidity were studied at each stage. In this research, all experiments were performed in 3 replications and the results were analyzed in a completely randomized design with SAS version 9.1 software. The results of this study showed that the addition of starch nanocrystal compounds as well as the use of glass packaging had the most positive effects on the survival of Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria and the addition of nano-crystals and the increase in the cooling rate of the product, had the most positive effects on the survival of bacteria Bifidobacterium bifidum.

Keywords: Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, prebiotics, probiotic yogurt

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Muhammad Minhaj Khan, Jaemin Lee, Suhong Lee, Jinyoung Chung, Johoo Whang

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The Republic of Korea has been facing strong storage crisis from nuclear waste generation as At Reactor (AR) temporary storage sites are about to reach saturation. Since the country is densely populated with a rate of 491.78 persons per square kilometer, Construction of High-level waste repository will not be a feasible option. In order to tackle the storage waste generation problem which is increasing at a rate of 350 tHM/Yr. and 380 tHM/Yr. in case of 20 PWRs and 4 PHWRs respectively, the study strongly focuses on the advancement of current nuclear power plants to GEN-IV sustainable and ecological nuclear systems by burning TRUs (Pu, MAs). First, Calculations has made to estimate the generation of SNF including Pu and MA from PWR and PHWR NPPS by using the IAEA code Nuclear Fuel Cycle Simulation System (NFCSS) for the period of 2016, 2030 (including the saturation period of each site from 2024~2028), 2089 and 2109 as the number of NPPS will increase due to high import cost of non-nuclear energy sources. 2ndly, in order to produce environmentally sustainable nuclear energy systems, 4 scenarios to burnout the Plutonium and MAs are analyzed with the concentration on burning of MA only, MA and Pu together by utilizing SFR, LFR and KALIMER-600 burner reactor after recycling the spent oxide fuel from PWR through pyro processing technology developed by Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) which shows promising and sustainable future benefits by minimizing the HLW generation with regard to waste amount, decay heat, and activity. Finally, With the concentration on front and back end fuel cycles for open and closed fuel cycles of PWR and Pyro-SFR respectively, an overall assessment has been made which evaluates the quantitative as well as economical combativeness of SFR metallic fuel against PWR once through nuclear fuel cycle.

Keywords: GEN IV nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear waste, waste sustainability, transmutation

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Authors: Thi Hai Anh Nguyen, Pantea Aria

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Tiki is one of the leading e-commerce companies in Viet Nam. Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 has been spreading around the world. Thanks to this pandemic, the Tiki platform has many strengths and has faced many threats. Customer behaviour was forecasted to change during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the investigation is (1) Identifying factors affecting online consumer behaviour of Tiki in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, (2) Measuring the level of impact of these factors, and (3) Recommendations for Tiki to improve its business strategy for the next stage. This research studies eight factors and collected 378 online surveys for analysis. Using SPSS software identified five factors (product, price, reliability, and web design) positively influencing customer behaviour. COVID-19 factor does not impact significantly Tiki’s customer behaviour. This research conducted some qualitative interviews to understand shopping experiences and customers’ expectations. One of these interviews’ main points is that Tiki’s customers have high trust in the Tiki brand and its high-quality products. Based on the results, the Tiki corporation should secure its core value. Tiki’s employees and logistics systems should be well-trained and optimized to improve customer experiences.

Keywords: COVID-19, e-commerce, impact, pandemic, Vietnam

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Authors: Fidel Lòpez Saca, Carlos Avilés-Cruz, Miguel Magos-Rivera, José Antonio Lara-Chávez

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Automated object recognition and identification systems are widely used throughout the world, particularly in assembly lines, where they perform quality control and automatic part selection tasks. This article presents the design and implementation of an object recognition system in an assembly line. The proposed shapes-color recognition system is based on deep learning theory in a specially designed convolutional network architecture. The used methodology involve stages such as: image capturing, color filtering, location of object mass centers, horizontal and vertical object boundaries, and object clipping. Once the objects are cut out, they are sent to a convolutional neural network, which automatically identifies the type of figure. The identification system works in real-time. The implementation was done on a Raspberry Pi 3 system and on a Jetson-Nano device. The proposal is used in an assembly course of bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. The results presented include studying the efficiency of the recognition and processing time.

Keywords: deep-learning, image classification, image identification, industrial engineering.

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Authors: Çiğdem Avcı Karataş

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Mitigation of structural damage caused by earthquake and reduction of fatality is one of the main concerns of engineers in seismic prone zones of the world. To achieve this aim many technologies have been developed in the last decades and applied in construction and retrofit of structures. On the one hand Turkey is well-known a country of high level of seismicity; on the other hand steel-composite structures appear competitive today in this country by comparison with other types of structures, for example only-steel or concrete structures. Composite construction is the dominant form of construction for the multi-storey building sector. The reason why composite construction is often so good can be expressed in one simple way - concrete is good in compression and steel is good in tension. By joining the two materials together structurally these strengths can be exploited to result in a highly efficient design. The reduced self-weight of composite elements has a knock-on effect by reducing the forces in those elements supporting them, including the foundations. The floor depth reductions that can be achieved using composite construction can also provide significant benefits in terms of the costs of services and the building envelope. The scope of this paper covers analysis, materials take-off, cost analysis and economic comparisons of a multi-storey building with composite and steel frames. The aim of this work is to show that designing load carrying systems as composite is more economical than designing as steel. Design of the nine stories building which is under consideration is done according to the regulation of the 2007, Turkish Earthquake Code and by using static and dynamic analysis methods. For the analyses of the steel and composite systems, plastic analysis methods have been used and whereas steel system analyses have been checked in compliance with EC3 and composite system analyses have been checked in compliance with EC4. At the end of the comparisons, it is revealed that composite load carrying systems analysis is more economical than the steel load carrying systems analysis considering the materials to be used in the load carrying system and the workmanship to be spent for this job.

Keywords: composite analysis, earthquake, steel, multi-storey building

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Authors: Jelena Filipovic, Milenko Kosutic

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The dynamic way of life has the tendency to simplify and decrease preparing healthy, quick, cheap and safe meals. Spelt pasta is meeting most of these goals. Contrary to bread, pasta can be stored a long time without deterioration in flavour, odour and usability without losing quality. This paper deals with the chemical composition and content of fatty acids in flaxseed and spelt flour. Ratio of essential fatty acids ω-6/ω-3 is also analysed in spelt pasta and pasta with 0%, 10% and 20% flaxseed flour. Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry is used for carrying out a quantitative analysis of flaxseed flour, spelt flour and pasta liposoluble extracts. Flaxseed flour has a better fatty acid profile than spelt flour, with low levels of saturated fat (approximately 9g/100g), high concentration of linolenic acid (57g/100g) and lower content of linoleic acid (16g/100g), as well as superior ω-6/ω-3 ratio that is 1:4. Flaxseed flour in the share of 10% and 20% in spelt pasta positively contributes to the essential fatty acids daily intake recommended by nutritionists and the improvement of ω-6/ω-3 ratio (6,7:1 and 1:1.2). This paper points out that investigated pasta with flaxseed is a new product with improved functional properties due to high level of ω-3 fatty acids and it is acceptable for consumers in regard to sensory properties.

Keywords: flaxseed, spelt, fatty acids, ω-3/ω-6 ratio, pasta

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Authors: Monthana Weerawatanakorn, Hajime Tamaki, Yonathan Asikin, Koji Wada, Makoto Takahashi, Chi-Tang Ho, Min-Hsiung Pan

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Rice bran and sugarcane are significant sources of wax containing policosanol (PC), the cholesterol-lowering nutraceutical available in the market. The processing of rice bran oil causes the loss of PC content into various waste products. Therefore, we hypothesise that defatted rice bran (DRB) as agricultural waste product and rice bran oil (RBO) retain a varying but significant amount of PC wax. Non-centrifugal cane sugar (NCS) or cane brown sugar has been consumed worldwide and possesses various health benefits. Since PC wax is mainly in the outer layer rinds of cane, PC contents of the granulated sugar are reduced due to the peeling step. The study aimed to increase PC contents of the granular brown sugar by adding wax extracted from DRB and RBO and to investigate the toxicity of the developed products. The results showed that the total PC contents including long chain aldehyde of products were increased to the maximum level of 147.97 mg/100 g and 40.14 mg/100 g for extracted wax and rice bran oil addition, respectively. PC content of RBO was found to be 96.93 mg/100 g. DRB is promising source of policosanol (6,044.7 mg/100 g). The 28-day toxicity evaluations of the developed sugar revealed no adverse effects on the liver, spleen or kidney.

Keywords: enrichment, sugarcane, policosanol, defatted rice bran, wax

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Authors: Charintorn Suwannawong, Tananpon Yavilas, Sopida Boonaneksap, Chotika Viriyarattanasak, Chairath Tangduangdee

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With increasing aging population and health conscious consumers, the demand for health promoting products such as functional foods, dietary supplements, and nutraceutical products has continuously increased in Thailand. Nevertheless, the strategic framework for regulatory functional food developments in Thailand is still unclear. The objective of this study was to survey stakeholders’ perspectives on three scopes, consisting of 1) the current status 2) obstacles, and 3) future trend for the development and production of functional foods in Thailand. A survey was conducted by interviewing ten experts from governmental organization, industrial sector and academic institute. The obtained results show that there is no established definition for functional foods in Thailand. There is a variety of raw materials that are capable to be potential ingredients for functional food production in Thailand and exported to global market. However, the scaling up technology into a commercial production is limited. Moreover, there is a need to establish the infrastructures, such as testing laboratory, and regulatory standards for quality control and ensuring product safety. This information is useful for government in the development of the strategic framework and policy statement on improvement of functional food industry in Thailand.

Keywords: functional foods, interview, perspective, Thailand

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Authors: Thembelihle Portia Lubisi, Malusi Ntandoyenkosi Mkhize, Jonas Kalebe Johakimu

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Fertilizers play an important role in maintaining the productivity and quality of plants. Inorganic fertilizers (containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are largely used in South Africa as they are considered inexpensive and highly productive. When applied, a portion of the excess fertilizer will be retained in the soil, a portion enters water streams due to surface runoff or the irrigation system adopted. Excess nutrient from the fertilizers entering the water stream eventually results harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwater systems, which not only disrupt wildlife but can also produce toxins harmful to humans. Use of agro-chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides has been associated with increased antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans as the plants are consumed by humans. This resistance of bacterial poses a threat as it prevents the Health sector from being able to treat infectious disease. Archaeological studies have found that pyrolysis liquids were already used in the time of the Neanderthal as a biocide and plant protection product. Pyrolysis is thermal degradation process of plant biomass or organic material under anaerobic conditions leading to production of char, bio-oils and syn gases. Bio-oil constituents can be categorized as water soluble (wood vinegar) and water insoluble fractions (tar and light oils). Wood vinegar (pyro-ligneous acid) is said to contain contains highly oxygenated compounds including acids, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, phenols, esters, furans, and other multifunctional compounds with various molecular weights and compositions depending on the biomass material derived from and pyrolysis operating conditions. Various researchers have found the wood vinegar to be efficient in the eradication of termites, effective in plant protection and plant growth, has antibacterial characteristics and was found effective in inhibiting the micro-organisms such as candida yeast, E-coli, etc. This study investigated characterisation of South African forestry product processing waste with intention of evaluating the potential of using the respective biomass waste as feedstock for boil oil production via pyrolysis process. Ability to use biomass waste materials in production of wood-vinegar has advantages that it does not only allows for reduction of environmental pollution and landfill requirement, but it also does not negatively affect food security. The biomass wastes investigated were from the popular tree types in KZN, which are, pine saw dust (PSD), pine bark (PB), eucalyptus saw dust (ESD) and eucalyptus bark (EB). Furthermore, the research investigates the possibility of mixing the different wastes with an aim to lessen the cost of raw material separation prior to feeding into pyrolysis process and mixing also increases the amount of biomass material available for beneficiation. A 50/50 mixture of PSD and ESD (EPSD) and mixture containing pine saw dust; eucalyptus saw dust, pine bark and eucalyptus bark (EPSDB). Characterisation of the biomass waste will look at analysis such as proximate (volatiles, ash, fixed carbon), ultimate (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur), high heating value, structural (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and thermogravimetric analysis.

Keywords: characterisation, biomass waste, saw dust, wood waste

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