Search results for: market risk

Authors: Haoming Ma, Guo Yu, Peiru Zhou

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Background: Previous studies show that dysglycemia, mostly hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and glycemic variability(GV), are associated with excess mortality in critically ill patients, especially those without diabetes. Glycemic variability is an increasingly important measure of glucose control in the intensive care unit (ICU) due to this association. However, there is limited data pertaining to the relationship between different clinical factors and glycemic variability and clinical outcomes categorized by their DM status. This retrospective study of 958 intensive care unit(ICU) patients was conducted to investigate the relationship between GV and outcome in critically ill patients and further to determine the significant factors that contribute to the glycemic variability. Aim: We hypothesize that the factors contributing to mortality and the glycemic variability are different from critically ill patients with or without diabetes. And the primary aim of this study was to determine which dysglycemia (hyperglycemia\hypoglycemia\glycemic variability) is independently associated with an increase in mortality among critically ill patients in different groups (DM/Non-DM). Secondary objectives were to further investigate any factors affecting the glycemic variability in two groups. Method: A total of 958 diabetic and non-diabetic patients with severe diseases in the ICU were selected for this retrospective analysis. The glycemic variability was defined as the coefficient of variation (CV) of blood glucose. The main outcome was death during hospitalization. The secondary outcome was GV. The logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with mortality. The relationships between GV and other variables were investigated using linear regression analysis. Results: Information on age, APACHE II score, GV, gender, in-ICU treatment and nutrition was available for 958 subjects. Predictors remaining in the final logistic regression model for mortality were significantly different in DM/Non-DM groups. Glycemic variability was associated with an increase in mortality in both DM(odds ratio 1.05; 95%CI:1.03-1.08,p＜0.001) or Non-DM group(odds ratio 1.07; 95%CI:1.03-1.11,p=0.002). For critically ill patients without diabetes, factors associated with glycemic variability included APACHE II score(regression coefficient, 95%CI:0.29,0.22-0.36,p＜0.001), Mean BG(0.73,0.46-1.01,p＜0.001), total parenteral nutrition(2.87,1.57-4.17,p＜0.001), serum albumin(-0.18,-0.271 to -0.082,p＜0.001), insulin treatment(2.18,0.81-3.55,p=0.002) and duration of ventilation(0.006,0.002-1.010,p=0.003).However, for diabetes patients, APACHE II score(0.203,0.096-0.310,p＜0.001), mean BG(0.503,0.138-0.869,p=0.007) and duration of diabetes(0.167,0.033-0.301,p=0.015) remained as independent risk factors of GV. Conclusion: We found that the relation between dysglycemia and mortality is different in the diabetes and non-diabetes groups. And we confirm that GV was associated with excess mortality in DM or Non-DM patients. Furthermore, APACHE II score, Mean BG, total parenteral nutrition, serum albumin, insulin treatment and duration of ventilation were significantly associated with an increase in GV in Non-DM patients. While APACHE II score, mean BG and duration of diabetes (years) remained as independent risk factors of increased GV in DM patients. These findings provide important context for further prospective trials investigating the effect of different clinical factors in critically ill patients with or without diabetes.

Keywords: diabetes, glycemic variability, predictors, severe disease

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Authors: Temmuz Gönç Şavran

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Migration is a multidimensional and health-related concept that has important consequences for both migrants and the host society. Due to past conflicts and poor living conditions that lead to migration, the dangerous and difficult journey, and the problems they face upon arrival in the destination country, migrants are at higher risk for poor health. Health is a human right, and all societies and communities, including migrant groups, must receive adequate health care. In addition, the health of migrants must be improved to protect the health of the host society and ensure social integration. The main determinants of health are employment, income, education, good housing, and adequate nutrition. It can be said that migrants are among the most vulnerable groups in society in these respects, and migrant health is negatively affected by this situation. Rigid immigration policies or financial constraints in destination countries, the complexity and bureaucracy of health systems, the low health literacy of migrant groups, and the inadequate provision of translation services in health facilities are among the other main factors affecting migrant health. Migrants are also at risk of stigma, exclusion, detection, and deportation when seeking medical care. Based on data from a qualitative study with a descriptive case study design, this paper aims to highlight and sociologically assess the health-related problems of international migrants in Eskisehir, Turkey. The sample consists of 30 international migrants living in Eskisehir, two-thirds of whom are from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Those who are citizens of the Republic of Turkey are excluded from the study; otherwise, the legal status of the participants is not considered in the selection of the sample. This makes it possible to distinguish the different needs and problems of subgroups and to consider migrant health as a comprehensive concept. The research is supported by Anadolu University in Eskisehir, and data will be collected through semi-structured interviews between November 2022 and February 2023. With holistic sociology of health approach, this study considers migrant health as a comprehensive sociological concept. It aims to reveal the health-related resources and needs of the international migrant groups living in the center of Eskisehir, the problems they encounter in meeting these needs, and the strategies they use to solve these problems. The results are expected to show that the health of migrants is not only influenced by legislation but is shaped by many processes, from housing conditions to cultural habits. It is expected that the results will also raise awareness of discrimination, exclusion, marginalization, and hate speech in migrants’ access to health services.

Keywords: migrant health, sociology of health, sociology of migration, Turkey, refugees

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Authors: Asma Moomal, Zukarnain Zakaria

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In this uncertain, highly competitive and hasty moving era, most of the organizations are surviving under the pressure of complex dynamics, fierce competition and many challenges in terms of global talent management within the global market. One key result of these challenges is that the organizations have to be organized and good at handling human capital if they want to gain sustainable and steady success in near future. By keeping in mind the importance of global competition, many human resource (HR) professionals are diagnosing the complexities in managing talent of human capital at global level, especially those of multinational enterprises (MNEs). As, there has been little research in the country regarding identification of the GTM in MNEs, this paper reviewed the relevant literature in order to examine the role of GTM strategies in enhancing the organizational development in the MNEs of Malaysia. The data collection technique used in this study was done through the secondary data resources (i.e. the existing literature analysis). This study contributes to extend our understanding of the impact of GTM on organizational development of MNEs within the country.

Keywords: Global Talent Management (GTM), multinational enterprises (MNEs), organizational development, talent

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Authors: Muna Jalal Ali, Essam A. Makky, Mashitah M. Yusoff

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Objectives: The aim of this study to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility of combined toothpaste with medicinal plants and the relations between the commercial toothpaste to its price and the patient age as well. Materials and Methods: Oral isolates of different patients aged 3 to 60 years were obtained, purified, and tested against four different ethnomedicinal plant extracts for antimicrobial activity. A total of 10 different commercial toothpastes (different brands and prices) were collected from the market, and the combined action of the medicinal plants and toothpaste was studied. Results: We found a higher bacterial population in the age group of 3–40 years than the group of 40–60 years, with approximately 44% and 32%, respectively. The combined action of ethanolic extract (alone) against oral isolates showed a synergistic effect, with 32.20, 30.50, and 25.42% for combinations A (Ci/Ca), B (Ci/Ca/P), and C (Ci/Ca/P/N), respectively. By contrast, the combined action of ethnomedicinal plants with 10 different toothpastes improved the antimicrobial sensitivity by 60, 100, and 0% for combinations A, B, and C respectively. Clinical relevance: The ethanolic extract of only combinations A and B with commercial toothpaste showed high antibacterial activity against oral isolates and the effectiveness of toothpaste is not related to the price.

Keywords: microbial evolution, oral isolates, ethnomedicinal plants, antimicrobial activity, toothpaste

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Authors: Potjana Chunthanom

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The Thai labor market experiences increasing challenges due to disruptive technologies and demographic shifts, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is a widening gap between the skills that firms seek and the skills that employees possess. This study aims to examine the incidence of vertical and horizontal mismatches and their impact on wages in Thailand before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using data from the third quarter of 2018 to 2021 from Thailand's National Labor Force Survey. This paper applies three methods: ordinary least squares (OLS), pooled ordinary least squares (Pooled OLS), and counterfactual decomposition. The findings suggest that the incidence of overeducation and field-of-study mismatch continues to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to the two previous years. In contrast, there is a notable decline in the percentage of undereducated workers during the same period. Additionally, overeducated workers earn wage premiums, whereas undereducated and horizontally mismatched workers face wage penalties. The result also indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has significant negative (positive) effects on overeducated (undereducated) workers.

Keywords: COVID-19, horizontal mismatch, overeducation, undereducation

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Authors: Isabel Brás, Artur Figueirinha, Bruno Esteves, Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes

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The agriculture lignocellulosic by-products are receiving increased attention, namely in the search for filter materials that retain contaminants from water. These by-products, specifically almond and hazelnut shells are abundant in Portugal once almond and hazelnuts production is a local important activity. Hazelnut and almond shells have as main constituents lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, water soluble extractives and tannins. Along the adsorption of heavy metals from contaminated waters, water soluble compounds can leach from shells and have a negative impact in the environment. Usually, the chemical characterization of treated water by itself may not show environmental impact caused by the discharges when parameters obey to legal quality standards for water. Only biological systems can detect the toxic effects of the water constituents. Therefore, the evaluation of toxicity by biological tests is very important when deciding the suitability for safe water discharge or for irrigation applications. The main purpose of the present work was to assess the potential impacts of waters after been treated for heavy metal removal by hazelnut and almond shells adsorption systems, with short term acute toxicity tests. To conduct the study, water at pH 6 with 25 mg.L-1 of lead, was treated with 10 g of shell per litre of wastewater, for 24 hours. This procedure was followed for each bark. Afterwards the water was collected for toxicological assays; namely bacterial resistance, seed germination, Lemna minor L. test and plant grow. The effect in isolated bacteria strains was determined by disc diffusion method and the germination index of seed was evaluated using lettuce, with temperature and humidity germination control for 7 days. For aquatic higher organism, Lemnas were used with 4 days contact time with shell solutions, in controlled light and temperature. For terrestrial higher plants, biomass production was evaluated after 14 days of tomato germination had occurred in soil, with controlled humidity, light and temperature. Toxicity tests of water treated with shells revealed in some extent effects in the tested organisms, with the test assays showing a close behaviour as the control, leading to the conclusion that its further utilization may not be considered to create a serious risk to the environment.

Keywords: lignocellulosic wastes, adsorption, acute toxicity tests, risk assessment

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Authors: Ihugba Okezie A., Oguzie Emeka E.

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Nigeria's renewable energy market is expanding due to increased environmental awareness, supportive government policies, and the need for energy diversification. This paper examines the role of solar batteries in enhancing Nigeria's energy security. With growing energy demands and frequent power outages, integrating solar batteries presents a viable solution to stabilize the energy supply. The study investigates the current state of solar battery technology in Nigeria, its economic and environmental benefits, and the challenges to implementation. Through a literature review, case studies, and stakeholder interviews, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis of solar batteries' contribution to a resilient energy future. Key players include Engie SA, TotalEnergies SE, Starsight Energy, Enel SpA, and North-South Power Co. Ltd. Challenges include high upfront costs, inadequate policies, weak infrastructure, and security risks. The paper recommends that the government should strengthen policies and incentives to encourage investments through tax breaks, subsidies, and financial incentives.

Keywords: renewable energy, solar batteries, energy security, Nigeria’s electricity generation, job creation

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Authors: Ouazoul Abdeloauhd, Jemjami Nadia

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The concept of well-being at work is one of today's significant challenges in maintaining quality of life and managing psycho-social risks at work. Indeed, work in the sports sector has evolved, and this exponential evolution, marked by increasing demands and psychological, physical, and social challenges, which sometimes exceed the resources of sports actors, influences their sense of well-being at work. Well-being and burnout as antagonists provide information on the quality of working life in sports. The Basic aim of this literature review is to analyze the scientific corpus dealing with the subject of well-being at work in the sports sector while exploring the link between sports burnout and well-being. The results reveal the richness of the conceptual approaches and the difficulties of implementing them. Prospects for future research have, therefore, been put forward.

Keywords: well-being, burnout, quality of life, psycho-social risk, work on sports sector

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Authors: Salina Y. Saddick

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Mild gestational hyperglycemia (MGH) is a very common complication of pregnancy that is characterized by intolerance to glucose. The association of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism to MGH has been previously reported. In this study, we evaluated the association between ACE polymorphism and the risk of MGH in a Saudi population. We conducted a case-control study in a population of 100 MGH patients and 100 control subjects. ACE gene polymorphism was analyzed by the novel approach of tetraprimer amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The frequency of ACE polymorphism was not associated with either alleles or genotypes in MGH patients. Glucose concentration was found to be significantly associated with the MGH group. Our study suggests that ACE genotypes were not associated with ACE polymorphism in a Saudi population.

Keywords: MGH, ACE, insertion polymorphism, deletion polymorphism

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Authors: Sivilai Jayankura

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This research aims to study the religious economic behavior that effect the lifestyle of the people in Dusit area. The result shows that religious identity salience makes people increase contributions to public goods. Most of the Buddhism decrease contributions to public goods, expect others to contribute less to public goods, and become less risk averse. We find no evidence of religious identity salience effects on disutility of work effort, discount rates or generosity in life spending. Mostly the people like to make merit in the temple during special day of religion. The atmosphere in the temple leads the people like to travel and merit at the temple near their home.

Keywords: Dusit province, identity, lifestyle, religious economic behavior

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Authors: Annisa I. Reza, Jasril Karim

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Despite the availability of antimicrobial agents in the market, the urge to study and find other chemical compounds with the better potential of replacing them still tempting the scientists. This experiment is in the aim to explore a novel brominated pyrazoline ring which was made from intermediate chalcone as a candidate to answer the challenge. Using green chemistry approach by microwave irradiation from domestic oven, both known chalcone and 5-(2-bromophenyl)-3-(naphthalen-1-yl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole were successfully synthesized. Pyrazoline’s structure was confirmed based on UV, IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR and MS and together with its intermediate were examined against some microorganisms (Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans) under agar diffusion method. The results collected during experiment revealed that both tested compounds showed weak activity on B.subtilis which was proven by a zone of inhibitions, while there was no zone of inhibitions observed in E. coli and C. albicans. This is suggested because of the bulky structure around pyrazoline could not provide the main ring to interact with microbial’s cell wall. The study shows that the proposed compound had the low capability as a promising antimicrobial agent, yet it still enriches the information about pyrazoline ring.

Keywords: antimicrobial, chalcone, microwave irradiation, pyrazoline

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Authors: Funda Kul, İsmail Gür

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Pension scheme providers have to price mortality risk by accurate mortality forecasting method. There are many mortality-forecasting methods constructed and used in literature. The Lee-Carter model is the first model to consider stochastic improvement trends in life expectancy. It is still precisely used. Mortality forecasting is done by mortality index in the Lee-Carter model. It is assumed that mortality index fits ARIMA time series model. In this paper, we propose and use dynamic normal inverse gaussian distribution to modeling mortality indes in the Lee-Carter model. Using population mortality data for Italy, France, and Turkey, the model is forecasting capability is investigated, and a comparative analysis with other models is ensured by some well-known benchmarking criterions.

Keywords: mortality, forecasting, lee-carter model, normal inverse gaussian distribution

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Authors: Lei Qin

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As shared accommodation has become one of the most important market developments in the tourism industry, numerous contributions have emerged on travelers’ motivations to choose shared accommodation. A debated question, however, resides in the heterogeneity of travelers based on motivations. This paper aims to reconcile opposing perspectives by comparing motivation segmentation at two distinct phases of innovation adoption of this new hospitality option: (i) before the first travel – potential users showing interest (n=420) and (ii) after the first travel – users (n=420). Interestingly, we find that travelers (including pre-and-post adopters) have a stronger agreement in experiential motivations than practical motivations. However, the heterogeneity of motivations among travelers is significantly higher in users, increasing from two to six clusters, which means travelers cluster into more and distinct motivation groups after adoption. Rather than invalidating specific assumptions used in the literature in terms of motivation heterogeneity, this paper reconciles opposing findings by putting them along with one another in the process of innovation adoption. A subsequent tourists’ segmentation based on motivations were conducted according to their innovation adoption stages.

Keywords: motivation, pre-and-post adoption, shared accommodation, segmentation

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Authors: Aleksandra Nocoń (Szunke)

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The study is a review of the literature concerning the consequences of non-standard monetary policy, which are used by central banks during unconventional periods, threatening instability of the banking sector. In particular, the attention was paid to the effects of non-standard monetary policy tools for financial markets. However, the empirical evidence about their effects and real consequences for the financial markets are still not final. The main aim of the study is to survey the consequences of standard and non-standard monetary policy instruments, implemented during the global financial crisis in the United States, United Kingdom and Euroland, with particular attention to the results for the stabilization of global financial markets. The study analyses the consequences for short and long-term market interest rates, interbank interest rates and LIBOR-OIS spread. The study consists mainly of the empirical review, indicating the impact of the implementation of these tools for the financial markets. The following research methods were used in the study: literature studies, including domestic and foreign literature, cause and effect analysis and statistical analysis.

Keywords: asset purchase facility, consequences of monetary policy instruments, non-standard monetary policy, quantitative easing

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Authors: Vincent Andrew Cappellano

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In the early phases of critical infrastructure system design, translating distributed computing requirements to an architecture has risk given the multitude of approaches (e.g., cloud, edge, fog). In many systems, a single requirement for system uptime / availability is used to encompass the system’s intended operations. However, when architected systems may perform to those availability requirements only during normal operations and not during component failure, or during outages caused by adversary attacks on critical infrastructure (e.g., physical, cyber). System designers lack a structured method to evaluate availability requirements against candidate system architectures through deep degradation scenarios (i.e., normal ops all the way down to significant damage of communications or physical nodes). This increases risk of poor selection of a candidate architecture due to the absence of insight into true performance for systems that must operate as a piece of critical infrastructure. This research effort proposes a process to analyze critical infrastructure system availability requirements and a candidate set of systems architectures, producing a metric assessing these architectures over a spectrum of degradations to aid in selecting appropriate resilient architectures. To accomplish this effort, a set of simulation and evaluation efforts are undertaken that will process, in an automated way, a set of sample requirements into a set of potential architectures where system functions and capabilities are distributed across nodes. Nodes and links will have specific characteristics and based on sampled requirements, contribute to the overall system functionality, such that as they are impacted/degraded, the impacted functional availability of a system can be determined. A machine learning reinforcement-based agent will structurally impact the nodes, links, and characteristics (e.g., bandwidth, latency) of a given architecture to provide an assessment of system functional uptime/availability under these scenarios. By varying the intensity of the attack and related aspects, we can create a structured method of evaluating the performance of candidate architectures against each other to create a metric rating its resilience to these attack types/strategies. Through multiple simulation iterations, sufficient data will exist to compare this availability metric, and an architectural recommendation against the baseline requirements, in comparison to existing multi-factor computing architectural selection processes. It is intended that this additional data will create an improvement in the matching of resilient critical infrastructure system requirements to the correct architectures and implementations that will support improved operation during times of system degradation due to failures and infrastructure attacks.

Keywords: architecture, resiliency, availability, cyber-attack

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Authors: Rodrigo Zeidan

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The paper identifies failures of decision making and corporate governance that allow non-financial companies around the world to develop hedging strategies that lead to hefty losses in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The sample is comprised of 346 companies from 10 international markets, of which 49 companies (and a subsample of 13 distressed companies) lose a combined US$18.9 billion. An event study shows that most companies that present losses in derivatives experience negative abnormal returns, including a number of companies in which the effect is persistent after a year. The results of a probit model indicate that the lack of a formal hedging policy, no monitoring to the CFOs, and considerations of hubris and remuneration contribute to the mismanagement of hedging policies.

Keywords: risk management, hedging, derivatives, monitoring, corporate governance structure, event study, hubris

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Authors: Oluwafunmibi Omotayo Fasanya, Augustine Kena Adjei

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To develop a machine learning model to predict diabetes (DM) prevalence in the U.S. population using demographic characteristics, physical indicators, and lifestyle habits, and to analyze how these factors contribute to the likelihood of diabetes. We analyzed data from 23,546 participants aged 20 and older, who were non-pregnant, from the 2009-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The dataset included key demographic (age, sex, ethnicity), physical (BMI, leg length, total cholesterol [TCHOL], fasting plasma glucose), and lifestyle indicators (smoking habits). A weighted sample was used to account for NHANES survey design features such as stratification and clustering. A classification machine learning model was trained to predict diabetes status. The target variable was binary (diabetes or non-diabetes) based on fasting plasma glucose measurements. The following models were evaluated: Logistic Regression (baseline), Random Forest Classifier, Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM), Support Vector Machine (SVM). Model performance was assessed using accuracy, F1-score, AUC-ROC, and precision-recall metrics. Feature importance was analyzed using SHAP values to interpret the contributions of variables such as age, BMI, ethnicity, and smoking status. The Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) model outperformed other classifiers with an AUC-ROC score of 0.85. Feature importance analysis revealed the following key predictors: Age: The most significant predictor, with diabetes prevalence increasing with age, peaking around the 60s for males and 70s for females. BMI: Higher BMI was strongly associated with a higher risk of diabetes. Ethnicity: Black participants had the highest predicted prevalence of diabetes (14.6%), followed by Mexican-Americans (13.5%) and Whites (10.6%). TCHOL: Diabetics had lower total cholesterol levels, particularly among White participants (mean decline of 23.6 mg/dL). Smoking: Smoking showed a slight increase in diabetes risk among Whites (0.2%) but had a limited effect in other ethnic groups. Using machine learning models, we identified key demographic, physical, and lifestyle predictors of diabetes in the U.S. population. The results confirm that diabetes prevalence varies significantly across age, BMI, and ethnic groups, with lifestyle factors such as smoking contributing differently by ethnicity. These findings provide a basis for more targeted public health interventions and resource allocation for diabetes management.

Keywords: diabetes, NHANES, random forest, gradient boosting machine, support vector machine

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Authors: Minna Salim, James Brady

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Postoperative nausea and pain (PONV) are adverse effects following surgical procedures. It is especially pronounced in patients undergoing orthognathic surgery, as their mouth is closed postoperatively using wires or rubber bands. Postoperative mouth closure increases the discomfort and risk of complications associated with nausea and vomiting. Many surgeons and institutions apply gastric decompression in hopes of aspirating stomach contents and, therefore, decreasing PONV incidence. This review observed that PONV incidence was not affected by gastric decompression overall. However, the effect of gastric decompression on PONV in orthognathic surgery was variable. This paper aims to summarize the findings of gastric decompression on PONV and to determine the need for it in orthognathic surgery.

Keywords: gastric decompression, nasogastric tube, orthognathic surgery, postoperative nausea, vomiting

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Authors: Irina M. Kolesnikova, Andrey M. Gaponov, Sergey A. Roumiantsev, Tatiana V. Grigoryeva, Alexander V. Laikov, Alexander V. Shestopalov

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Background. Neuropathy is a common complication of obesity. In this regard, the content of neurotrophins in such patients is of particular interest. Neurotrophins are the proteins that regulate neuron survival and neuroplasticity and include brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF). However, the risk of complications depends on the metabolic type of obesity. Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUHO) is associated with a high risk of complications, while this is not the case with metabolically healthy obesity (MHO). Therefore, the aim of our work was to study the effect of the obesity metabolic type on serum neurotrophins levels. Patients, materials, methods. The study included 134 healthy donors and 104 obese patients. Depending on the metabolic type of obesity, the obese patients were divided into subgroups with MHO (n=40) and MUHO (n=55). In the blood serum, the concentration of BDNF and NGF was determined. In addition, the content of adipokines (leptin, asprosin, resistin, adiponectin), myokines (irisin, myostatin, osteocrin), indicators of carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism were measured. Correlation analysis revealed the relationship between the studied parameters. Results. We found that serum BDNF concentration was not different between obese patients and healthy donors, regardless of obesity metabolic type. At the same time, in obese patients, there was a decrease in serum NGF level versus control. A similar trend was characteristic of both MHO and MUHO. However, MUHO patients had a higher NGF level than MHO patients. The literature indicates that obesity is associated with an increase in the plasma concentration of NGF. It can be assumed that in obesity, there is a violation of NGF storage in platelets, which accelerates neurotrophin degradation. We found that BDNF concentration correlated with irisin levels in MUHO patients. Healthy donors had a weak association between NGF and VEGF levels. No such association was found in obese patients, but there was an association between NGF and leptin concentrations. In MHO, the concentration of NHF correlated with the content of leptin, irisin, osteocrin, insulin, and the HOMA-IR index. But in MUHO patients, we found only the relationship between NGF and adipokines (leptin, asprosin). It can be assumed that in patients with MHO, the replenishment of serum NGF occurs under the influence of muscle and adipose tissue. In the MUHO patients only the effect of adipose tissue on NGF was observed. Conclusion. Obesity, regardless of metabolic type, is associated with a decrease in serum NGF concentration. We showed that muscle and adipose tissues make a significant contribution to the serum NGF pool in the MHO patients. In MUHO there is no effect of muscle on the NGF level, but the effect of adipose tissue remains.

Keywords: neurotrophins, nerve growth factor, NGF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF, obesity, metabolically healthy obesity, metabolically unhealthy obesity

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Authors: Hanaa H. Abd El Baky, Gamal S. El Baroty, Eman A. Ibrahem

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Microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus, the carotenoides (astaxanine and β-caroteine) were identified as the major bioactive constituents. In this work we prepared functional pre-biotic cakes to increase general mental health. Functional cakes were formulated by adding algal caroteinods at 2 and 4 mg/100g to flower and the cakes were storage for 20 days. Oxidative stability of both function cakes products were examined during storage periods by DPPH and TBA assays, and the results revealed that both values in function food products were significantly much low than that in untreated food products. Data of sensory evaluation revealed that treated biscuit and cakes with algae or algae extracts were significantly acceptable as control for main sensory characteristics (colour, odour/aroma, flavour, texture, the global appreciation, and overall acceptability). Thus, it could be concluded that functional biscuits and cakes (very popular and well balanced nutritional food) had good sensory and nutritional profiles and can be developed as new niche food market.

Keywords: Scenedesmus obliquus, carotenoids, functional cakes antioxidant, nutritional profiles

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Authors: Miroslava Hujová, Patricia Rabello Monich, Jozef Kraxner, Dusan Galusek, Enrico Bernardo

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Inorganic waste upcycling offers a solution how to avoid landfilling and how to save raw materials at the same time. However, its practical implementations in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe, are rather limited despite the potential smaller countries like Slovakia have their advantage in closely-knitted inorganic materials industry. One part of discussion should include an overview of wastes that can be possibly used for upcycling, i.e. fly ashes, red mud, glass cullets, vitrified bottom ashes etc. These wastes can be processed by a variety of strategies, the one of our choice, alkali activation, opens the possibility for the formation of novel materials at almost negligible energetic expense. In the research, these materials are characterized by comprehensive means (X-Ray Fluorescece, Diffraction methods, Thermal Analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Mechanical tests and Chemical stability), which time and time again demonstrate their competitive properties against traditional materials available at the market. It is just a question for discussion why these materials do not receive more significant attention from industry and there is pressing interest for the solution of standing situation.

Keywords: upcycling, inorganic wastes, glass ceramics, alkali-activation

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Authors: Girija Madhavanprabhakaran, Frincy Franacis, Sheeba Elizabeth John

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Introduction: A wide range of prenatal genetic screening is introduced with increasing incidences of congenital anomalies even in low-risk pregnancies and is an emerging standard of care. Being frontline caretakers, the role and responsibilities of nurses and midwives are critical as they are working along with couples to provide evidence-based supportive educative care. The increasing genetic disorders and advances in prenatal genetic screening with limited genetic counselling facilities urge nurses and midwifery nurses with essential competencies to help couples to take informed decision. Objective: This integrative literature review aimed to explore nurse midwives’ knowledge and role in prenatal screening and genetic counselling competency and the challenges faced by them to cater to all pregnant women to empower their autonomy in decision making and ensuring psychological comfort. Method: An electronic search using keywords prenatal screening, genetic counselling, prenatal counselling, nurse midwife, nursing education, genetics, and genomics were done in the PUBMED, SCOPUS and Medline, Google Scholar. Finally, based on inclusion criteria, 8 relevant articles were included. Results: The main review results suggest that nurses and midwives lack essential support, knowledge, or confidence to be able to provide genetic counselling and help the couples ethically to ensure client autonomy and decision making. The majority of nurses and midwives reported inadequate levels of knowledge on genetic screening and their roles in obtaining family history, pedigrees, and providing genetic information for an affected client or high-risk families. The deficiency of well-recognized and influential clinical academic midwives in midwifery practice is also reported. Evidence recommended to update and provide sound educational training to improve nurse-midwife competence and confidence. Conclusion: Overcoming the challenges to achieving informed choices about fetal anomaly screening globally is a major concern. Lack of adequate knowledge and counselling competency, communication insufficiency, need for education and policy are major areas to address. Prenatal nurses' and midwives’ knowledge on prenatal genetic screening and essential counselling competencies can ensure services to the majority of pregnant women around the globe to be better-informed decision-makers and enhances their autonomy, and reduces ethical dilemmas.

Keywords: challenges, genetic counselling, prenatal screening, prenatal counselling

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Authors: Somsak Klaysung

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This study purpose to develop video to promote cultural tourism in Taling Chan District. For qualitative research, the sample size was 40 people from 5 group of the tourism entrepreneur in Taling Chan district, conducted the key informants’ content analysis by using focus group and structures in-depth interview from all stakeholders. Quota sampling was used for this kind of research. The findings indicated that get media video marketing and tourism contribute a set length 11.35 9 minutes there is plenty of social capital in Taling Chan District including detail like local wisdom, knowledge, and way of thinking related to nature, history, historic document, occupation, administration and attribute of local people. Additional research found the new path of travel through the water route according to Khlong Bang Ramat called Route 9 temples that travelers can travel by boat are available in the market in four areas Taling Chan also as well.

Keywords: digital video, integrated marketing communication, online media development, Taling Chan district

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Authors: Keith T. S. Tung, Frederick K. Ho, Rosa S. Wong, Camilla K. M. Lo, Wilfred H. S. Wong, C. B. Chow, Patrick Ip

Abstract:

Objectives: Underage drinking is an important public health problem both locally and globally. Conventional prevention/intervention relies on unidirectional knowledge transfer such as mail leaflets or health talks which showed mixed results in changing the target behaviour. Previously, we conducted a school internet-based intervention which was found to be effective in reducing alcohol use among adolescents, yet the underlying mechanisms have not been properly investigated. This study, therefore, examined the mechanisms that explain how the intervention produced a change in alcohol drinking behaviours among Chinese adolescent as observed in our previous clustered randomised controlled trial (RCT) study. Methods: This is a cluster randomised controlled trial with parallel group design. Participating schools were randomised to the Internet intervention or the conventional health education group (control) with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Secondary 1–3 students of the participating schools were enrolled in this study. The Internet intervention was a web-based quiz game competition, in which participating students would answer 1,000 alcohol-related multiple-choice quiz questions. Conventional health education group received a promotional package on equivalent alcohol-related knowledge. The participants’ alcohol-related attitude, knowledge, and perceived behavioural control were self-reported before the intervention (baseline) and one month and three months after the intervention. Results: Our RCT results showed that participants in the Internet group were less likely to drink (risk ratio [RR] 0.79, p < 0.01) as well as in lesser amount (β -0.06, p < 0.05) compared to those in the control group at both post-intervention follow-ups. Within the intervention group, regression analyses showed that high quiz scorer had greater improvement in alcohol-related knowledge (β 0.28, p < 0.01) and attitude (β -0.26, p < 0.01) at 1 month after intervention, which in turn increased their perceived behavioural control against alcohol use (β 0.10 and -0.26, both p < 0.01). Attitude, compared to knowledge, was found to be a stronger contributor to the intervention effect on perceived behavioural control. Conclusions: Our internet-based intervention has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing the risk of underage drinking when compared with conventional health education. Our study results further showed an attitude to be a more important factor than knowledge in changing health-related behaviour. This has an important implication for future prevention/intervention on an underage drinking problem.

Keywords: adolescents, internet-based intervention, randomized controlled trial, underage drinking

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Authors: Esra Yuce, Isil D. S. Yamaner, Murude Yazan

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Aims and objective: Antiresorptive agents including bisphosphonates and denosumab as strong suppressors of osteoclasts are the most commonly used antiresorptive medications for the treatment of osteoporosis which counteract the negative quantitative alteration of trabecular and cortical bone by inhibition of bone turnover. Oral bisphosphonate therapy for the treatment of osteopenia, osteoporosis or Paget's disease is associated with the low-grade risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw, while higher-grade risk is associated with receiving intravenous bisphosphonates therapy in the treatment of multiple myeloma and bone metastases. On the other hand, there has been a remarkable increase in incidences of antiresorptive related osteonecrosis of the jaw (ARONJ) in oral bisphosphonate users. This clinical presentation will evaluate the healing outcomes via piezoelectric bone surgery under the irrigation of PVP-I solution irrigation in patients received bisphosphonate therapy. Material-Method: The study involved 8 female and 5 male patients that have been treated for ARONJ. Among 13 necrotic sites, 9 were in the mandible and 4 were in the maxilla. All of these 13 patients treated with surgical debridement via piezoelectric bone surgery under irrigation by solution with 3% PVP-I concentration in combination with long-term antibiotic therapy and 5 also underwent removal of mobile segments of bony sequestrum. All removable prosthesis in 8 patients were relined with soft liners during the healing periods in order to eliminate chronic minor traumas. Results: All patients were on oral bisphosphonate therapy for at least 2 years and 5 of which had received intravenous bisphosphonates up to 1 year before therapy with oral bisphosphonates was started. According to the AAOMS staging system, four cases were stage II, eight cases were stage I, and one case was stage III. The majority of lesions were identified at sites of dental prostheses (38%) and dental extractions (62%). All patients diagnosed with ARONJ stage I had used unadjusted removable prostheses. No recurrence of the symptoms was observed during the present follow-up (9–37 months). Conclusion: Despite their confirmed effectiveness, the prevention and treatment of osteonecrosis of the jaw secondary to oral bisphosphonate therapy remain major medical challenges. Treatment with piezoelectric bone surgery with irrigation of povidone-iodine solution was effective for management of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw. Taking precautions for patients treated with oral bisphosphonates, especially also denture users, may allow for a reduction in the rate of developing osteonecrosis of the maxillofacial region.

Keywords: antiresorptive drug related osteonecrosis, bisphosphonate therapy, piezoelectric bone surgery, povidone iodine

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Authors: Arjun Kumar Rath, Titus Dhanasingh

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Embedded product development requires software to test hardware functionality during development and finding issues during manufacturing in larger quantities. As the components are getting integrated, the devices are tested for their full functionality using advanced software tools. Benchmarking tools are used to measure and compare the performance of product features. At present, these tests are based on a variety of methods involving varying hardware and software platforms. Typically, these tests are custom built for every product and remain unusable for other variants. A majority of the tests goes undocumented, not updated, unusable when the product is released. To bridge this gap, a solution accelerator in the form of a framework can address these issues for running all these tests from one place, using an off-the-shelf tests library in a continuous integration environment. There are many open-source test frameworks or tools (fuego. LAVA, AutoTest, KernelCI, etc.) designed for testing embedded system devices, with each one having several unique good features, but one single tool and framework may not satisfy all of the testing needs for embedded systems, thus an extensible framework with the multitude of tools. Embedded product testing includes board bring-up testing, test during manufacturing, firmware testing, application testing, and assembly testing. Traditional test methods include developing test libraries and support components for every new hardware platform that belongs to the same domain with identical hardware architecture. This approach will have drawbacks like non-reusability where platform-specific libraries cannot be reused, need to maintain source infrastructure for individual hardware platforms, and most importantly, time is taken to re-develop test cases for new hardware platforms. These limitations create challenges like environment set up for testing, scalability, and maintenance. A desirable strategy is certainly one that is focused on maximizing reusability, continuous integration, and leveraging artifacts across the complete development cycle during phases of testing and across family of products. To get over the stated challenges with the conventional method and offers benefits of embedded testing, an embedded test framework (ETF), a solution accelerator, is designed, which can be deployed in embedded system-related products with minimal customizations and maintenance to accelerate the hardware testing. Embedded test framework supports testing different hardwares including microprocessor and microcontroller. It offers benefits such as (1) Time-to-Market: Accelerates board brings up time with prepacked test suites supporting all necessary peripherals which can speed up the design and development stage(board bring up, manufacturing and device driver) (2) Reusability-framework components isolated from the platform-specific HW initialization and configuration makes the adaptability of test cases across various platform quick and simple (3) Effective build and test infrastructure with multiple test interface options and preintegrated with FUEGO framework (4) Continuos integration - pre-integrated with Jenkins which enabled continuous testing and automated software update feature. Applying the embedded test framework accelerator throughout the design and development phase enables to development of the well-tested systems before functional verification and improves time to market to a large extent.

Keywords: board diagnostics software, embedded system, hardware testing, test frameworks

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Ana Paula Gomes Nogueira, Pietro Tonolini, Andrea Bonfanti

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Automotive braking systems must convert kinetic into thermal energy by friction. Nowadays, the disc brake system is the most widespread configuration on the automotive market, which its specific configuration provides a very efficient heat dissipation. At the same time, both discs and pads wear out. Different wear mechanisms can act during the braking, which makes the understanding of the phenomenon essential for the strategies to be applied when an increased lifetime of the components is required. In this study, a specific characterization approach was conducted to analyze the worn surfaces of commercial pad friction materials and its conterface cast iron disc after dynobench tests. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM), confocal microscope, and focus ion beam microscope (FIB) were used as the main tools of the analysis, and they allowed imaging of the footprint of the different wear mechanisms presenting on the worn surfaces. Aspects such as the temperature and specific ingredients of the pad friction materials are discussed since they play an important role in the wear mechanisms.

Keywords: wear mechanism, surface characterization, brake tests, friction materials, disc brake

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Authors: Simrin Kafle, Ulrika Enemark

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Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) is a critical issue in low- and middle-income countries like Nepal, exacerbating financial hardship among vulnerable households. This study assesses the effectiveness of Nepal’s National Health Insurance Program (NHIP), launched in 2015, to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare costs and mitigate CHE. Conducted in Pokhara Metropolitan City, the study used an analytical cross-sectional design, sampling 1276 households through a two-stage random sampling method. Data was collected via face-to-face interviews between May and October 2023. The analysis was conducted using SPSS version 29, incorporating propensity score matching to minimize biases and create comparable groups of enrolled and non-enrolled households in the NHIP. PSM helped reduce confounding effects by matching households with similar baseline characteristics. Additionally, a doubly robust methodology was employed, combining propensity score adjustment with regression modeling to enhance the reliability of the results. This comprehensive approach ensured a more accurate estimation of the impact of NHIP enrollment on CHE. Among the 1276 samples, 534 households (41.8%) were enrolled in NHIP. Of them, 84.3% of households renewed their insurance card, though some cited long waiting times, lack of medications, and complex procedures as barriers to renewal. Approximately 57.3% of households reported known diseases before enrollment, with 49.8% attending routine health check-ups in the past year. The primary motivation for enrollment was encouragement from insurance employees (50.2%). The data indicates that 12.5% of enrolled households experienced CHE versus 7.5% among non-enrolled. Enrollment into NHIP does not contribute to lower CHE (AOR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.21-3.24). Key factors associated with increased CHE risk were presence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (AOR: 3.94, 95% CI: 2.10-7.39), acute illnesses/injuries (AOR: 6.70, 95% CI: 3.97-11.30), larger household size (AOR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.81-5.28), and households below the poverty line (AOR: 5.82, 95% CI: 3.05-11.09). Other factors such as gender, education level, caste/ethnicity, presence of elderly members, and under-five children also showed varying associations with CHE, though not all were statistically significant. The study concludes that enrollment in the NHIP does not significantly reduce the risk of CHE. The reason for this could be inadequate coverage, where high-cost medicines, treatments, and transportation costs are not fully included in the insurance package, leading to significant out-of-pocket expenses. We also considered the long waiting time, lack of medicines, and complex procedures for the utilization of NHIP benefits, which might result in the underuse of covered services. Finally, gaps in enrollment and retention might leave certain households vulnerable to CHE despite the existence of NHIP. Key factors contributing to increased CHE include NCDs, acute illnesses, larger household sizes, and poverty. To improve the program’s effectiveness, it is recommended that NHIP benefits and coverage be expanded to better protect against high healthcare costs. Additionally, simplifying the renewal process, addressing long waiting times, and enhancing the availability of services could improve member satisfaction and retention. Targeted financial protection measures should be implemented for high-risk groups, and efforts should be made to increase awareness and encourage routine health check-ups to prevent severe health issues that contribute to CHE.

Keywords: catastrophic health expenditure, effectiveness, national health insurance program, Nepal

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Authors: Karthikeyan M., Paul M. J.

Abstract:

This abstract describes a case of central pancreatectomy (CP) for a 50-year-old woman with a neuroendocrine tumor in the mid-body of the pancreas. CP, a parenchyma-sparing surgical option, preserves the distal pancreas and spleen, reducing the risk of pancreatic endocrine and exocrine insufficiency compared to traditional resections. The patient, initially misdiagnosed with transient ischemic attack, presented with hypoglycemic symptoms and was found to have a pancreatic lesion. Post-operative results were positive, with a reduction in pancreatic drain volume and normalization of blood sugar levels. This case highlights CP's efficacy in treating centrally located pancreatic lesions while maintaining pancreatic function.

Keywords: central pancreatectomy without anastomosis, no endocrine deficiency on follow-op, less post-op hospital stay, less post-op complications

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Abolfazl Hosseinpour, Javad Marzbanrad

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In this research, the topology and shape optimization of a Macpherson control arm has been accomplished to achieve lighter weight. Present automotive market demands low cost and light weight component to meet the need of fuel efficient and cost effective vehicle. This in turn gives the rise to more effective use of materials for automotive parts which can reduce the mass of vehicle. Since automotive components are under dynamic loads which cause fatigue damage, considering fatigue criteria seems to be essential in designing automotive components. At first, in order to create severe loading condition for control arm, some rough roads are generated through power spectral density. Then, the most critical loading conditions are obtained through multibody dynamics analysis of a full vehicle model. Then, the topology optimization is performed based on fatigue life criterion using HyperMesh software, which resulted to 50 percent mass reduction. In the next step a CAD model is created using CATIA software and shape optimization is performed to achieve accurate dimensions with less mass.

Keywords: topology optimization, shape optimization, fatigue life, MacPherson control arm

Procedia PDF Downloads 318