Search results for: multiple variations

Authors: Priyanwada I. Singhapathirana

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The public land ownership is a common phenomenon in many countries in the world however, the development approaches and the institutional structures are greatly diverse. The existing scholarship around public land development has been greatly limited to Europe and advanced Asian economies. Inferences of such studies seem to be inadequate and inappropriate to comprehend the peculiarities of public land development in developing Asian economies. The absence of critical inquiry on the public land ownership and the long-established institutional structures which govern the development has restrained these countries from institutional innovations. In this context, this research investigates the issues related to public land development and the institutional responses in Sri Lanka. This study introduces the concept of ‘Institutional Responsiveness’ in Public land development, which is conceptualized as the ability of the institutions to respond to the spatial, market and fiscal stimulus. The inquiry was carried out through in-depth interviews with five key informants from apex public agencies in order to explore the responsiveness of land institutions form decision-makers' perspectives. Further, the analysis of grey literature and recent media reports are used to supplement the analysis. As per the findings, long term abandonment of public lands and high transaction costs are some of the key issues in relation to public land development. The inability of the institutions to respond to the market and fiscal stimulus has left many potential public lands underutilized. As a result, the public sector itself and urban citizens have not been able to relish the benefits of the public lands in cities. Spatial analysis at the local scale is suggested for future studies in order to capture the multiple dimensions of the responsiveness of institutions to the development stimulus.

Keywords: institutions, public land, responsiveness, under-utilization

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Authors: Khalda Amr, Noha Eltaweel, Sherif Ismail, Hala Raslan

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Introduction: Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that involves the wearing away of the cartilage that caps the bones in the joints. While rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the joints, beginning with the lining of joints. In this study, we aimed to study the top deregulated miRNAs that might be the cause of pathogenesis in both diseases. Methods: Eight cases were recruited in this study: 4 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 2 osteoarthritis (OA) patients, as well as 2 healthy controls. Total RNA was isolated from plasma to be subjected to miRNA profiling by NGS. Sequencing libraries were constructed and generated using the NEBNextR UltraTM small RNA Sample Prep Kit for Illumina R (NEB, USA), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The quality of samples were checked using fastqc and multiQC. Results were compared RA vs Controls and OA vs. Controls. Target gene prediction and functional annotation of the deregulated miRNAs were done using Mienturnet. The top deregulated miRNAs in each disease were selected for further validation using qRT-PCR. Results: The average number of sequencing reads per sample exceeded 2.2 million, of which approximately 57% were mapped to the human reference genome. The top DEMs in RA vs controls were miR-6724-5p, miR-1469, miR-194-3p (up), miR-1468-5p, miR-486-3p (down). In comparison, the top DEMs in OA vs controls were miR-1908-3p, miR-122b-3p, miR-3960 (up), miR-1468-5p, miR-15b-3p (down). The functional enrichment of the selected top deregulated miRNAs revealed the highly enriched KEGG pathways and GO terms. Six of the deregulated miRNAs (miR-15b, -128, -194, -328, -542 and -3180) had multiple target genes in the RA pathway, so they are more likely to affect the RA pathogenesis. Conclusion: Six of our studied deregulated miRNAs (miR-15b, -128, -194, -328, -542 and -3180) might be highly involved in the disease pathogenesis. Further functional studies are crucial to assess their functions and actual target genes.

Keywords: next generation sequencing, mirnas, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis

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Authors: Hamide Farshad, Mohammadreza Javidi Abdollah Zadeh Aval

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As a result of the growing penetration of the media into human life, a new role under the title of "audience" is defined in the social life .A kind of role which is dramatically changed since its formation. This article aims to define the audience position in the new media equations which is concluded to the transformation of the media role. By using the Library and Attributive method to study the history, the evolutionary outlook to the audience and the recognition of the audience and the media relation in the new media context is studied. It was perceived in past that public communication would result in receiving the audience. But after the emergence of the interactional media and transformation in the audience social life, a new kind of public communication is formed, and also the imaginary picture of the audience is replaced by the audience impact on the communication process. Part of this impact can be seen in the form of feedback which is one of the public communication elements. In public communication, the audience feedback is completely accepted. But in many cases, and along with the audience feedback, the media changes its direction; this direction shift is known as media feedback. At this state, the media and the audience are both doers and consistently change their positions in an interaction. With the greater number of the audience and the media, this process has taken a new role, and the role of this doer is sometimes taken by an audience while influencing another audience, or a media while influencing another media. In this article, this multiple public communication process is shown through representing a model under the title of ”The bilateral influence of the audience and the media.” Based on this model, the audience and the media power are not the two sides of a coin, and as a result, by accepting these two as the doers, the bilateral power of the audience and the media will be complementary to each other. Also more, the compatibility between the media and the audience is analyzed in the bilateral and interactional relation hypothesis, and by analyzing the action law hypothesis, the dos and don’ts of this role are defined, and media is obliged to know and accept them in order to be able to survive. They also have a determining role in the strategic studies of a media.

Keywords: audience, effect, media, interaction, action laws

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Authors: Shian-Ling Keng, Onn Siong Yim, Poh San Lai, Soo Chong Chew, Anne Chong, Richard Ebstein

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Research has demonstrated a positive association between mindfulness meditation and physical health. Little work, however, has examined the association between trait mindfulness and leukocyte telomere length (LTL), an emerging marker of cellular aging. The present study aimed to examine whether facets of trait mindfulness are correlated with longer LTL in a Singaporean Han Chinese sample and whether these facets may mediate the association between psychological symptoms and LTL. 158 adults (mean age = 27.24 years) completed measures assessing trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms (i.e., depression and stress) and provided blood samples for analyses of LTL using qPCR. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between facets of trait mindfulness and LTL. Bootstrapping-based mediational analyses were run to examine the role of trait mindfulness as a mediator of the association between psychological symptoms and LTL. Of five facets of trait mindfulness (describe, act with awareness, observe, nonreactivity, and nonjudging), nonreactivity was significantly associated with LTL, after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and education, β = .21, p = .006. Further, there was a trend for overall trait mindfulness, β = .15, p = .06, and nonjudging, β = .13, p = .095, to each predict longer LTL. Nonreactivity significantly mediated the association between depression and LTL, BCa 95% CI [-.004, -.0004], p=.03, as well as the association between stress and LTL, BCa 95% CI [-.004, -.0004], p=.04. The results provide preliminary evidence for a positive association between selected facets of trait mindfulness and slower cellular aging, indexed by LTL. The findings suggest that individuals who are high on equanimity may experience slower aging at the cellular level, presumably through engaging in more effective coping mechanisms and modulation of stress. The findings also highlight the role of nonreactivity as a potential mechanism that underlies the association between LTL and psychological symptoms.

Keywords: depression, mindfulness, stress, telomere length

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Authors: Afentoula Mavrodi, Andreas Georgiou, Georgios Tsiotras, Vassilis Aletras

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Placing a monetary value on a quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY) is of utmost importance in economic evaluation. Identifying the population’s preferences is critical in order to understand some of the reasons driving variations in the assigned monetary value. Yet, evidence of the motives behind value assignment to a QALY by the general public is limited. Developing an instrument that would capture the population’s motives could be proven valuable to policy-makers, to guide them in allocating different values to a QALY based on users’ motivations. The aim of this study was to identify the most relevant motives and develop an appropriate instrument to assess them. To design the instrument, we employed: a) the EQ-5D-3L tool to assess participants’ current health status, and b) the Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) approach, within the Contingent Valuation (CV) Method framework, to elicit the monetary value. Advancing the open-ended approach adopted to assess solely protest bidders’ motives; a variety of follow-up item-specific statements were designed (deductive approach), aiming to evaluate motives of both protest bidders and participants willing to pay for the hypothetical treatment under consideration. The initial design of the survey instrument was the outcome of an extensive literature review. This instrument was revised based on 15 semi-structured interviews that took place in September 2018 and a pilot study held during two months (October-November) in 2018. Individuals with different educational, occupational and economical backgrounds and adequate verbal skills were recruited to complete the semi-structured interviews. The follow-up motivation statements of both protest bidders and those willing to pay were revised and rephrased after the semi-structured interviews. In total 4 statements for protest bidders and 3 statements for those willing to pay for the treatment were chosen to be included in the survey tool. Using the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) method, a randomly selected sample of 97 persons living in Thessaloniki, Greece, completed the questionnaire on two occasions over a period of 4 weeks. Based on pilot study results, a test-retest reliability assessment was performed using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). All statements formulated for protest bidders showed acceptable reliability (ICC values of 0.84 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.92) and above). Similarly, all statements for those willing to pay for the treatment showed high reliability (ICC values of 0.86 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.91) and above). Overall, the instrument designed in this study was reliable with regards to the item-specific statements assessing participants’ motivation. Validation of the instrument will take place in a future study. For a holistic WTP per QALY instrument, participants’ motivation must be addressed broadly. The instrument developed in this study captured a variety of motives and provided insight with regards to the method through which the latter are evaluated. Last but not least, it extended motive assessment to all study participants and not only protest bidders.

Keywords: contingent valuation method, instrument, motives, quality-adjusted life-year, willingness-to-pay

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Authors: Lemar Blake, Chris Oura, Ayanna C. N. Phillips Savage

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Improved DNA sequencing technology has greatly enhanced bacterial identification, especially for organisms that are difficult to culture. Mycobacteriosis with consistent hyphema, bilateral exophthalmia, open mouth gape and ocular lesions, were observed in various fish populations at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Aquaculture/Aquatic Animal Health Unit. Objective: To identify the species of Mycobacterium that is affecting aquarium fish at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Aquaculture/Aquatic Animal Health Unit. Method: A total of 13 fish samples were collected and analyzed via: Ziehl-Neelsen, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR. These tests were carried out simultaneously for confirmation. The following combination of conventional primers: 16s rRNA (564 bp), rpoB (396 bp), sod (408 bp) were used. Concatenation of the gene fragments was carried out to phylogenetically classify the organism. Results: Acid fast non-branching bacilli were detected in all samples from homogenized internal organs. All 13 acid fast samples were positive for Mycobacterium via real-time PCR. Partial gene sequences using all three primer sets were obtained from two samples and demonstrated a novel strain. A strain 99% related to Mycobacterium marinum was also confirmed in one sample, using 16srRNA and rpoB genes. The two novel strains were clustered with the rapid growers and strains that are known to affect humans. Conclusions: Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated two novel Mycobacterium strains with the potential of being zoonotic and one strain 99% related to Mycobacterium marinum.

Keywords: polymerase chain reaction, phylogenetic, DNA sequencing, zoonotic

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Authors: Antarip Bhattacharya, Dhritiman Maitra

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Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is the most common cause of hypercalcemia due to autonomous production of parathormone (PTH) and the third most common endocrine disorder. Upto 2% of postmenopausal women could have this condition. Primary hyperparathyroidism is characterized by hypercalcemia with a high or insufficiently suppressed level of parathyroid hormone and is caused by a solitary parathyroid adenoma in 85-90% of patients. PHPT may also be caused by parathyroid hyperplasia (involving multiple glands) or parathyroid carcinoma. Associated morbidities and sequelae include decreased bone mineral density, fractures, kidney stones, hypertension, cardiac comorbidities and psychiatric disorder which entail huge costs for treatment. In the year 2021, by virtue of running a Breast and Endocrine Surgery clinic in a Tier 1 city at a tertiary care hospital, the opportunity to be associated with patients of hyperparathyroidism came our way. Here, we shall describe the spectrum of clinical presentations and customisation of treatment for parathyroid diseases with reference to the above patients. A retrospective analysis of the data of all patients presenting with symptoms of parathyroid diseases was made and classified according to the cause. 13 patients had presented with symptoms of hyperparathyroidism and each case presented with unique symptoms and necessitated detailed evaluation. The treatment or surgery offered to each patient was tailored to his/her individual disease and led to favourable outcomes. Diseases affecting parathyroid are not as rare as we believe. Each case merits detailed clinical evaluation, investigations and tailoring of suitable treatment with regard to medical management and extent of surgery. Intra-operative frozen section/iOPTH monitoring are really useful adjuncts for intra-operative decision making.

Keywords: hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid adenoma, parathyroid surgery, PTH

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Authors: Khin Thanda Win, Chunying Zhang, Sanghyeob Lee

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Mildew resistance locus o (Mlo), a plant-specific gene family with seven-transmembrane (TM), plays an important role in plant resistance to powdery mildew (PM). PM caused by Podosphaera xanthii is a widespread plant disease and probably represents the major fungal threat for many Cucurbits. The recent Cucurbita maxima genome sequence data provides an opportunity to identify and characterize the MLO gene family in this species. Total twenty genes (designated CmaMLO1 through CmaMLO20) have been identified by using an in silico cloning method with the MLO gene sequences of Cucumis sativus, Cucumis melo, Citrullus lanatus and Cucurbita pepo as probes. These CmaMLOs were evenly distributed on 15 chromosomes of 20 C. maxima chromosomes without any obvious clustering. Multiple sequence alignment showed that the common structural features of MLO gene family, such as TM domains, a calmodulin-binding domain and 30 important amino acid residues for MLO function, were well conserved. Phylogenetic analysis of the CmaMLO genes and other plant species reveals seven different clades (I through VII) and only clade IV is specific to monocots (rice, barley, and wheat). Phylogenetic and structural analyses provided preliminary evidence that five genes belonged to clade V could be the susceptibility genes which may play the importance role in PM resistance. This study is the first comprehensive report on MLO genes in C. maxima to our knowledge. These findings will facilitate the functional analysis of the MLOs related to PM susceptibility and are valuable resources for the development of disease resistance in pumpkin.

Keywords: Mildew resistance locus o (Mlo), powdery mildew, phylogenetic relationship, susceptibility genes

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Authors: Niharika Bala, Alaa Habib, Marianne Kozuch, Nancy Denslow, Sarah Glover, Abdel Alli

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The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and associated with systemic inflammation. Inflammation is an important process that follows infection and facilitates the repair of damaged tissue. Polyunsaturated fatty acids play an important role in the inflammatory process. These lipids can target transcription factors to modulate gene expression and protein function. Here, we evaluated whether differences in basal levels of different types of biomarkers can be detected in freshly frozen plasma samples from patients with and without COVID-19. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis showed a decrease in arachidic acid and myristic acid but an increase in caprylic acid, palmitic acid, and eicosenoic acid in the plasma of COVID-19 patients compared to non-COVID19 patients. Multiple chemokines, including IP-10, MCP-1, and MIP-1 beta, were increased in the COVID-19 group compared to the non-COVID-19 group. Similarly, cytokines, including IL-1 alpha and IL-8, and cell adhesion and inflammatory response markers, including ICAM-1 and E-selectin, were greater in the plasma of COVID-19 patients compared to non-COVID-19 patients. A baseline signature of specific polyunsaturated fatty acids, cytokines, and chemokines present in the plasma after COVID-19 viral infection may serve as biomarkers that can be useful in various applications, including determination of severity of infection, indication of disease prognosis, and consideration for therapeutic options.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, fatty acids, inflammation, cytokines, chemokines

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Authors: Matthias Banholzer, Hagen Müller, Michael Pfitzner

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Gas internal combustion engines are widely used as propulsion systems or in power plants to generate heat and electricity. While there are different types of injection methods including the manifold port fuel injection and the direct injection, the latter has more potential to increase the specific power by avoiding air displacement in the intake and to reduce combustion anomalies such as backfire or pre-ignition. During the opening process of the injector, multiple flow regimes occur: subsonic, transonic and supersonic. To cover the wide range of Mach numbers a compressible pressure-based solver is used. While the standard Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operators (PISO) method is used for the coupling between velocity and pressure, a high-resolution non-oscillatory central scheme established by Kurganov and Tadmor calculates the convective fluxes. A blending function based on the local Mach- and CFL-number switches between the compressible and incompressible regimes of the developed model. As the considered operating points are well above the critical state of the used fluids, the ideal gas assumption is not valid anymore. For the real gas thermodynamics, the models based on the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state were implemented. The caloric properties are corrected using a departure formalism, for the viscosity and the thermal conductivity the empirical correlation of Chung is used. For the injector geometry, the dimensions of a diesel injector were adapted. Simulations were performed using different nozzle and needle geometries and opening curves. It can be clearly seen that there is a significant influence of all three parameters.

Keywords: high pressure gas injection, hybrid solver, hydrogen injection, needle opening process, real-gas thermodynamics

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Authors: Ange Weinrabe, James Tran, Ian B. Hickie

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Risk-taking behaviour is common during youth. In the time between adolescence and early adulthood, young people (aged 15-25 years) are more vulnerable to mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression. What impact does an emerging mood disorder have on decision-making in youth at critical decision points in their lives? In this article, we explore the impact of risk and ambiguity on youth decision-making in a clinical setting using a well-known economic experiment. At two time points, separated by six to eight weeks, we measured risky and ambiguous choices concurrently with findings from three psychological questionnaires, the 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the 17-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Adolescent Version (QIDS-A17), and the 12-item Somatic and Psychological Health Report (SPHERE-12), for young help seekers aged 16-25 (n=30, mean age 19.22 years, 19 males). When first arriving for care, we found that 50% (n=15) of participants experienced severe anxiety (K10 ≥ 30) and were severely depressed (QIDS-A17 ≥ 16). In Session 2, taking attrition rates into account (n=5), we found that 44% (n=11) remained severe across the full battery of questionnaires. When applying multiple regression analyses of the pooled sample of observations (N=55), across both sessions, we found that participants who rated severely anxious avoided making risky decisions. We suggest there is some statistically significant (although weak) (p=0.09) relation between risk and severe anxiety scores as measured by K10. Our findings may support working with novel tools with which to evaluate youth experiencing an emerging mood disorder and their cognitive capacities influencing decision-making.

Keywords: anxiety, decision-making, risk, adolescence

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Authors: David Robert Irvine

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In the dental restoration sector, there has been a shift to using zirconia. With the ever increasing need to decrease lead times to deliver restorations faster the zirconia is machined in its pre-sintered state instead of grinding the very hard sintered state. As with all machining, there is tool wear and while investigating the tooling used to machine pre-sintered zirconia it became apparent that the wear rate is based more on material build up and abrasion than it is on plastic deformation like conventional metal machining. It also came to light that the tool material can currently not be selected based on wear resistance, as there is no data. Different works have analysed the effect of the individual wear mechanism separately using similar if not the same material. In this work, the testing method used to analyse the wear was a modified from ISO 8688:1989 to use the pre-sintered zirconia and the cutting conditions used in dental to machine it. This understanding was developed through a series of tests based in machining operations, to give the best representation of the multiple wear factors that can occur in machining of pre-sintered zirconia such as 3 body abrasion, material build up, surface welding, plastic deformation, tool vibration and thermal cracking. From the testing, it found that carbide grades with low trans-granular rupture toughness would fail due to abrasion while those with high trans-granular rupture toughness failed due to edge chipping from build up or thermal properties. The results gained can assist the development of these tools and the restorative dental process. This work was completed with the aim of assisting in the selection of tool material for future tools along with a deeper understanding of the properties that assist in abrasive wear resistance and material build up.

Keywords: abrasive wear, cemented carbide, pre-sintered zirconia, tool wear

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Authors: Cabangile Ncengeni Ngwane, Gerald Mills

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Anthropogenic climate change is exacerbating natural hazards such as droughts, heat waves and sea-level rise. The associated risks are the greatest in places where socio-ecological systems are exposed to these changes and the populations and infrastructure are vulnerable. Identifying the communities at risk and enhancing local resilience are key issues in responding to the current and project climate changes. This paper explores the types of risks associated with multiple overlapping hazards in Durban, South Africa where the social, cultural and economic dimensions that contribute to exposure and vulnerability are compounded by its history of apartheid. As a result, climate change risks are highly concentrated in marginalized communities that have the least adaptive capacity. In this research, a Geographic Information System is to explore the spatial correspondence among geographic layers representing hazards, exposure and vulnerability across Durban. This quantitative analysis will allow authors to identify communities at high risk and focus our study on the nature of the current human-environment relationships that result in risk inequalities. This work will employ qualitative methods to critically examine policies (including educational practices and financial support systems) and on-the-ground actions that are designed to improve the adaptive capacity of these communities and meet UN Sustainable Development Goals. This work will contribute to a growing body of literature on disaster risk management, especially as it relates to developing economies where socio-economic inequalities are correlated with ethnicity and race.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, disaster risk reduction, exposure, resilience, South Africa

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Authors: Anandit Sachdev

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Auroville, a settlement in Tamil Nadu, India, is based on the principles of ‘human unity’as defined by Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo. The settlement was conceptualized on these principles by Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual partner Mirra Alfassa, known as ‘The Mother’ to the Aurovillians. In common perception, the settlement is an experiment in achieving ‘human unity’ through sustainable living. Since its inception in late 1960s, the settlement has attracted people from a variety of nationalities, each understanding, seeking, and rendering ‘human unity’ in their own unique way. This multiplicity of inhabitation has created and continues to create complex and layered human and more-than-human geographies, which are collectively understood as Auroville. This essay builds on these multiple narratives of local metaphysical and every inhabitation of spiritual and philosophical ideas of Sri Aurobindo as rendered in materiality by the Mother. The research aims to assess how theseforms of everyday spirituality conflict, interact, and engage with the principles of Auroville. The research further aims to understands how, if at all, the diverse landscapes of social, cultural, and infrastructural conflictssynthesizewhen perceived through the lens of spirituality. The research does so by detailing the different forms of the built environment which evoke the transcendental and its underlying processes. While doing so, it aims to understand how different manifestations of interiority within the Aurovillian landscape tie back to the self and its entanglements. By analysing the settlement through a spiritual lens, the research ultimately ties together questions relating to the built environment and ontology and asks how each facilitates a continuous synthesis with the other. Lastly, the paper enquires if these ongoing processes of synthesis of built space and ontological entanglements are what can be conceptualized as ‘human unity’ as perceived by Sri Aurobindo himself.

Keywords: sacrality, sacred, spirituality, philosophy, Indian philosophy, auroville, India

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Authors: Md Ruhul Amin

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This study was conducted in the experimental field of the Department of Entomology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh during November 2017 to May 2018 with a view to understanding the seasonal abundance of the major sucking pests namely thrips, aphid and red spider mite on rose. The findings showed that the thrips started to build up their population from the middle of January with abundance 1.0 leaf⁻¹, increased continuously, reached to the peak level (2.6 leaf⁻¹) in the middle of February and then declined. Aphid started to build up their population from the second week of November with abundance 6.0 leaf⁻¹, increased continuously, reached to the peak level (8.4 leaf⁻¹) in the last week of December and then declined. Mite started to build up their population from the first week of December with abundance 0.8 leaf⁻¹, increased continuously, reached to the peak level (8.2 leaf⁻¹) in the second week of March and then declined. Thrips and mite prevailed until the last week of April, and aphid showed their abundance till last week of May. The daily mean temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall had an insignificant negative correlation with thrips and significant negative correlation with aphid abundance. The daily mean temperature had significant positive, relative humidity had an insignificant positive, and rainfall had an insignificant negative correlation with mite abundance. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the weather parameters together contributed 38.1, 41.0 and 8.9% abundance on thrips, aphid and mite on rose, respectively and the equations were insignificant.

Keywords: aphid, mite, thrips, weather factors

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Authors: Catrin Morgan, Atholl Johnston

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Creatine supplementation should theoretically increase total muscle creatine and so enhance the generation of intramuscular phosphocreatine and subsequent ATP formation. The use of creatine as a potential ergogenic aid in sport has been an area of significant scientific research for a number of years. However the effect of creatine supplementation and swimming performance is a relatively new area of research and is the subject of this review. In swimming creatine supplementation could help maintain maximal power output, aid recovery and increase lean body mass. After investigating the underlying theory and science behind creatine supplementation, a literature review was conducted to identify the best evidence looking at the effect of creatine supplementation on swimming performance. The search identified 27 potential studies, and of these 17 were selected for review. The studies were then categorised into single sprint performance, which involves swimming a short distance race, or repeated interval performance, which involves swimming a series of sprints with intervals of rest between them. None of the studies on the effect of creatine controlled for the multiple confounding factors associated with measurement of swimming performance. The sample size in the studies was limited and this reduced the reliability of the studies and introduced the possibility of bias. The studies reviewed provided insufficient evidence to determine if creatine supplementation is beneficial to swimming performance. However, what data there was supported the use of creatine supplementation in repeated interval swimming rather than in single sprint swimming. From a review of the studies, it was calculated on average, there was a 1.37% increase in swimming performance with the use of creatine for repeated intervals and a 0.86% increase in performance for single sprint. While this may seem minor, it should be remembered that swimming races are often won by much smaller margins. In the 2012 London Olympics the Men’s 100 metres freestyle race was won by a margin of only 0.01 of a second. Therefore any potential benefit could make a dramatic difference to the final outcome of the race. Overall more research is warranted before the benefits of creatine supplementation in swimming performance can be further clarified.

Keywords: creatine supplementation, repeated interval, single sprint, swimming performance

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Authors: Harshadkumar Rajgor, Jeff Butterworth

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Background: Barretts oesophagus increases the risk of developing oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Over the last 40 years, there has been a 6 fold increase in the incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in the western world and the incidence rates are increasing at a greater rate than cancers of the colon, breast and lung. Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is a relatively new technique being used by 2 centres in the greater midlands cancer network. EMR can be used for curative or staging purposes, for high-grade dysplasia’s and T1 tumours of the oesophagus. EMR is also suitable for those who are deemed high risk for oesophagectomy. EMR has a recurrence rate of 21% according to the Wiesbaden data. Method: A retrospective study of prospectively collected data was carried out involving 24 patients who had EMR for curative or staging purposes. Complications of residual or recurrent disease following EMR that required further treatment were investigated. Results: In 54% of cases residual or recurrent disease was suspected. 96% of patients were given clear and concise information regarding their diagnosis of high-grade dysplasia or T1 tumours. All 24 patients consulted the same specialist healthcare team. Conclusion: EMR is a safe and effective treatment for patients who have high-grade dysplasia and T1NO tumours. In 54% of cases residual or recurrent disease was suspected. Initially, only single resections were undertaken. Multiple resections are now being carried out to reduce the risk of recurrence. Complications from EMR remain low in this series and consisted of a single episode of post procedural bleeding.

Keywords: endoscopic mucosal resection, oesophageal dysplasia, T1 tumours, cancer network

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Authors: Selim Kermasha

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A process for the synthesis of structured lipids (SLs) by the lipase-catalyzed interesterification of selected endogenous edible oils such as flaxseed oil (FO) and medium-chain triacylglyceols such as tricaprylin (TC) in non-conventional media (NCM), including organic solvent media (OSM) and solvent-free medium (SFM), was developed. The bioconversion yield of the medium-long-medium-type SLs (MLM-SLs were monitored as the responses with use of selected commercial lipases. In order to optimize the interesterification reaction and to establish a model system, a wide range of reaction parameters, including TC to FO molar ratio, reaction temperature, enzyme concentration, reaction time, agitation speed and initial water activity, were investigated to establish the a model system. The model system was monitored with the use of multiple response surface methodology (RSM) was used to obtain significant models for the responses and to optimize the interesterification reaction, on the basis of selected levels and variable fractional factorial design (FFD) with centre points. Based on the objective of each response, the appropriate level combination of the process parameters and the solutions that met the defined criteria were also provided by means of desirability function. The synthesized novel molecules were structurally characterized, using silver-ion reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrophotometry (APCI-MS) analyses. The overall experimental findings confirmed the formation of dicaprylyl-linolenyl glycerol, dicaprylyl-oleyl glycerol and dicaprylyl-linoleyl glycerol resulted from the lipase-catalyzed interesterification of FO and TC.

Keywords: enzymatic interesterification, non-conventinal media, nutraceuticals, structured lipids

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Authors: Shruti Malviya, Chris Bowler

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Environmental processes acting at multiple spatial scales control marine diatom community structure. However, the contribution of local factors (e.g., temperature, salinity, etc.) in these highly complex systems is poorly understood. We, therefore, investigated the diatom community organization as a function of environmental predictors and determined the relative contribution of various environmental factors on the structure of marine diatoms assemblages in the world’s ocean. The dataset for this study was derived from the Tara Oceans expedition, constituting 46 sampling stations from diverse oceanic provinces. The V9 hypervariable region of 18s rDNA was organized into assemblages based on their distributional co-occurrence. Using Ward’s hierarchical clustering, nine clusters were defined. The number of ribotypes and reads varied within each cluster-three clusters (II, VIII and IX) contained only a few reads whereas two of them (I and IV) were highly abundant. Of the nine clusters, seven can be divided into two categories defined by a positive correlation with phosphate and nitrate and a negative correlation with longitude and, the other by a negative correlation with salinity, temperature, latitude and positive correlation with Lyapunov exponent. All the clusters were found to be remarkably dominant in South Pacific Ocean and can be placed into three classes, namely Southern Ocean-South Pacific Ocean clusters (I, II, V, VIII, IX), South Pacific Ocean clusters (IV and VII), and cosmopolitan clusters (III and VI). Our findings showed that co-occurring ribotypes can be significantly associated into recognizable clusters which exhibit a distinct response to environmental variables. This study, thus, demonstrated distinct behavior of each recognized assemblage displaying a taxonomic and environmental signature.

Keywords: assemblage, diatoms, hierarchical clustering, Tara Oceans

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Authors: P. Hooshangitabrizi, I. Contreras, N. Bhuiyan

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This work presents an online scheduling problem which accommodates multiple requests of patients for chemotherapy treatments in a cancer center of a major metropolitan hospital in Canada. To solve the problem, an adaptive flexible approach is proposed which systematically combines two optimization models. The first model is intended to dynamically schedule arriving requests in the form of waiting lists whereas the second model is used to reschedule the already booked patients with the goal of finding better resource allocations when new information becomes available. Both models are created as mixed integer programming formulations. Various controllable and flexible parameters such as deviating the prescribed target dates by a pre-determined threshold, changing the start time of already booked appointments and the maximum number of appointments to move in the schedule are included in the proposed approach to have sufficient degrees of flexibility in handling arrival requests and unexpected changes. Several computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach using historical data provided by the oncology clinic. Our approach achieves outstandingly better results as compared to those of the scheduling system being used in practice. Moreover, several analyses are conducted to evaluate the effect of considering different levels of flexibility on the obtained results and to assess the performance of the proposed approach in dealing with last-minute changes. We strongly believe that the proposed flexible adaptive approach is very well-suited for implementation at the clinic to provide better patient-care services and to utilize available resource more efficiently.

Keywords: chemotherapy scheduling, multi-appointment modeling, optimization of resources, satisfaction of patients, mixed integer programming

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Authors: Xiaoyuan Suo

Abstract:

3D object reconstruction is a broad research area within the computer vision field involving many stages and still open problems. One of the existing challenges in this field lies with micromotion, such as the facial expressions on the appearance of the human or animal face. Similar literatures in this field focuses on 3D reconstruction in stable conditions such as an existing image or photos taken in a rather static environment, while the purpose of this work is to discuss a flexible scan system using multiple cameras that can correctly reconstruct 3D stable and moving objects -- human face with expression in particular. Further, a mathematical model is proposed at the end of this literature to automate the 3D object reconstruction process. The reconstruction process takes several stages. Firstly, a set of simple 2D lines would be projected onto the object and hence a set of uneven curvy lines can be obtained, which represents the 3D numerical data of the surface. The lines and their shapes will help to identify object’s 3D construction in pixels. With the two-recorded angles and their distance from the camera, a simple mathematical calculation would give the resulting coordinate of each projected line in an absolute 3D space. This proposed research will benefit many practical areas, including but not limited to biometric identification, authentications, cybersecurity, preservation of cultural heritage, drama acting especially those with rapid and complex facial gestures, and many others. Specifically, this will (I) provide a brief survey of comparable techniques existing in this field. (II) discuss a set of specialized methodologies or algorithms for effective reconstruction of 3D objects. (III)implement, and testing the developed methodologies. (IV) verify findings with data collected from experiments. (V) conclude with lessons learned and final thoughts.

Keywords: 3D photogrammetry, 3D object reconstruction, facial expression recognition, facial recognition

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Authors: Vincent A. Adzika, Franklin N. Glozah, Collins S. K. Ahorlu

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Background: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is of major public-health concern globally, with majority of patients living in Africa. Despite its relevance, there is a dearth of research to determine the socio-demographic distribution and psychosocial impact of SCD in Africa. The objective of this study therefore was to examine the socio-demographic distribution and psychosocial consequences of SCD among patients in Ghana and to assess their quality of life and coping mechanisms. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was used, involving the completion of questionnaires on socio-demographic characteristics, quality of life of individuals, anxiety and depression. Participants were 387 male and female patients attending a sickle cell clinic in a public hospital. Results: Results showed no gender and marital status differences in anxiety and depression. However, there were age and level of education variances in depression but not in anxiety. In terms of quality of life, patients were more satisfied by the presence of love, friends, relatives as well as home, community and neighbourhood environment. While pains of varied nature and severity were the major reasons for attending hospital in SCD condition, going to the hospital as well as having Faith in God was the frequently reported mechanisms for coping with an unbearable SCD attacks. Multiple regression analysis showed that some socio-demographic and quality of life indicators had strong associations with anxiety and/or depression. Conclusion: It is recommended that a multi-dimensional intervention strategy incorporating psychosocial dimensions should be considered in the treatment and management of SCD.

Keywords: anxiety, depression, sickle cell disease, socio-demographic quality of life, characteristics, Ghana

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Authors: Vivian Khamis

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Exposure to war and forced migration have been widely linked to child subsequent adaptation. What remains sparse is research spanning multiple risk and protective factors and examining their unique and relative implications to difficulties in mental health among refugee girls. This study investigated the mechanisms through which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emotion dysregulation , neuroticism, and behavioral and emotional disorders in Syrian refugee girls is impacted by exposure to war traumas, age, and other risk and protective factors such as coping styles, family relationships, and school environment. The sample consisted of 539 Syrian refugee girls who ranged in age from 7 to 18 years attending public schools in various governorates in Lebanon and Jordan. Two school counselors carried out the interviews with children at school. Results indicated that war trauma, older age, and a combination of negative copying style associated with conflict in the family could lead to an overall state of emotion dysregulation, neuroticism, behavioral and emotional disorders, and PTSD in refugee girls. On the other hand, lapse of time since resettlement in host country, positive copying style, cohesion, and expressiveness in the family would lead to more positive mental health status, including lower levels of emotion dysregulation, neuroticism, behavioral and emotional disorders, and PTSD . Enhanced understanding of the mechanistic role of risk and protective factors in contributing to difficulties in mental health in refugee girls may contribute to the development of effective interventions to target the psychological effects of the refugee experience.

Keywords: refugee girls, PTSD, emotion dysregulation, neuroticism, behavioral and emotional disorders

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Authors: C. Sridawruang

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Young people today has sexual activities differing from those of earlier generations, in that teenagers are likely to have multiple partners, and are frequently in short-term relationships or with partners that are not well known to them. The proportion of teenage mothers in Thailand has increased. Young people were not specifically addressed during the overall very successful HIV-prevention campaigns. Because of this missed opportunity, they are still unaware of the risk of unsafe sexual behavior. Aims: To describe the reproductive health care services in perspectives of rural Thai teenagers Methods: This survey was one part of a mixed method approach taken using survey and focus groups with 439 teenagers aged 12-18 years in 5 villages, Udon Thani, Thailand. The standard questionnaire survey had been used for collecting data. The numeric data was checked and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Results: Most teenager respondents stated that they do not know where sexual reproductive health services provided for them. Most teenagers felt difficult to access and talk with health staff about sexual related issues. They stated that discussing, or consulting with health providers might not be safe. Teenagers might lose opportunities to access and get advice from health care services. The mean knowledge score of contraception and condom reproductive was 6.34 from a total score 11. Most teenagers especially girls expressed a need for counseling services and reported a need for telephone services. Conclusions: The need of appropriate information focusing on sexual relationships and contraception should be designed to help young people make wise decisions and there should be set health care services for Thai teenagers to make sure that teenagers could access easily. Health care providers need to be trained to improve their knowledge, attitudes and skills in reproductive health care practices for Thai teenagers.

Keywords: youth friendly health services, rural, Thai, teenagers

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Authors: Saeed Vahedikamal, Ian Hepburn

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Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are considered as one of the most promising photon detectors of the future in many Astronomical applications such as exoplanet detections. The MKID advantages stem from their single photon sensitivity (ranging from UV to optical and near infrared), photon energy resolution and high temporal capability (~microseconds). There has been substantial progress in the development of these detectors and MKIDs with Megapixel arrays is now possible. The unique capability of recording an incident photon and its energy (or wavelength) while also registering its time of arrival to within a microsecond enables an array of MKIDs to produce a four-dimensional data block of x, y, z and t comprising x, y spatial, z axis per pixel spectral and t axis per pixel which is temporal. This offers the possibility that the spectrum and brightness variation for any detected piece of space debris as a function of time might offer a unique identifier or fingerprint. Such a fingerprint signal from any object identified in multiple detections by different observers has the potential to determine the orbital features of the object and be used for their tracking. Modelling performed so far shows that with a 20 cm telescope located at an Astronomical observatory (e.g. La Palma, Canary Islands) we could detect sub cm objects at GEO. By considering a Lambertian sphere with a 10 % reflectivity (albedo of the Moon) we anticipate the following for a GEO object: 10 cm object imaged in a 1 second image capture; 1.2 cm object for a 70 second image integration or 0.65 cm object for a 4 minute image integration. We present details of our modelling and the potential instrument for a dedicated GEO surveillance system.

Keywords: space debris, orbital debris, detection system, observation, microwave kinetic inductance detectors, MKID

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Authors: Mouktafi Amine, Tahiri Asmaa

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A substantial number of traditional medical research has been put forward to managing and treating mental disorders. At the present time, to our best knowledge, it is believed that a fundamental understanding of the underlying causes of the majority of psychological disorders needs to be explored further to inform early diagnosis, managing symptoms and treatment. The emerging field of evolutionary psychology is a promising prospect to address the origin of mental disorders, potentially leading to more effective treatments. Schizophrenia as a topical mental disorder has been linked to the evolutionary adaptation of the human brain represented in the brain connectivity and asymmetry directly linked to humans' higher brain cognition in contrast to other primates being our direct living representation of the structure and connectivity of our earliest common African ancestors. As proposed in the evolutionary psychology scientific literature, the pathophysiology of schizophrenia is expressed and directly linked to altered connectivity between the Hippocampal Formation (HF) and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC). This research paper presents the results of the use of tractography analysis using multiple open access Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) datasets of healthy subjects, schizophrenia-affected subjects and primates to illustrate the relevance of the aforementioned brain regions' connectivity and the underlying evolutionary changes in the human brain. Deterministic fiber tracking and streamline analysis were used to generate connectivity matrices from the DWI datasets overlaid to compute distances and highlight disconnectivity patterns in conjunction with other fiber tracking metrics: Fractional Anisotropy (FA), Mean Diffusivity (MD) and Radial Diffusivity (RD).

Keywords: tractography, diffusion weighted imaging, schizophrenia, evolutionary psychology

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Authors: Jan Dahlhaus, Alejandro Cardenas Miranda, Frederik Scholer, Maximilian Leonhardt, Matthias Moullion, Frank Beutenmuller, Julia Eckhardt, Josef Wasner, Frank Nittel, Sebastian Stoll, Devin Atukalp, Daniel Folgmann, Tobias Mayer, Obrad Dordevic, Paul Riley, Jean-Marc Le Peuvedic

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Electrical and hybrid aerospace technologies pose very challenging demands on the battery pack – especially with respect to weight and power. In the Clean Sky 2 research project LiBAT (funded by the EU), the consortium is currently building an ambitious prototype with state-of-the art cells that shows the potential of an intelligent pack design with a high level of integration, especially with respect to thermal management and power electronics. For the latter, innovative multi-level-inverter technology is used to realize the required power converting functions with reduced equipment. In this talk the key approaches and methods of the LiBat project will be presented and central results shown. Special focus will be set on the simulative methods used to support the early design and development stages from an overall system perspective. The applied methods can efficiently handle multiple domains and deal with different time and length scales, thus allowing the analysis and optimization of overall- or sub-system behavior. It will be shown how these simulations provide valuable information and insights for the efficient evaluation of concepts. As a result, the construction and iteration of hardware prototypes has been reduced and development cycles shortened.

Keywords: electric aircraft, battery, Li-ion, multi-level-inverter, Novec

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Authors: Meltem Koray, Arda Ozgon, Duygu Ofluoglu, Mehmet Yaltirik

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Oral ulcerations can be seen as a side effect of different drugs. These ulcers usually appear within a few weeks following drug treatment. In most of cases, these ulcers resist to conventional treatments, such as anesthetics, antiseptics, anti-inflammatory agents, cauterization, topical tetracycline and corticosteroid treatment. The diagnosis is usually difficult, especially in patients receiving multiple drug therapies. Hyaluronan or hyaluronic acid (HA) is a biomaterial that has been introduced as an alternative approach to enhance wound healing and also used for oral ulcer treatment. The aim of this report is to present the treatment of drug-induced oral ulceration on maxillary mucosa with HA gel. 60-year-old male patient was referred to Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery complaining of oral ulcerations during few weeks. He had received chemotherapy and radiotherapy in 2014 with the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and he has accompanying systemic diseases such as; cardiological, neurological diseases and gout. He is medicated with Escitalopram (Cipralex® 20mg), Quetiapine (Seroquel® 100mg), Mirtazapine (Zestat® 15mg), Acetylsalicylic acid (Coraspin® 100mg), Ramipril-hydrochlorothiazide (Delix® 2.5mg), Theophylline anhydrous (Teokap Sr® 200mg), Colchicine (Colchicum Dispert® 0.5mg), Spironolactone (Aldactone® 100mg), Levothyroxine sodium (Levotiron® 50mg). He had painful oral ulceration on the right side of maxillary mucosa. The diagnosis was 'drug-induced oral ulceration' and HA oral gel (Aftamed® Oral gel) was prescribed 3 times a day for 2 weeks. Complete healing was achieved within 3 weeks without any side effect and discomfort. We suggest that HA oral gel is a potentially useful local drug which can be an alternative for management of drug-induced oral ulcerations.

Keywords: drug-induced, hyaluronic acid, oral ulceration, maxillary mucosa

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Authors: Siddhi Khaire, Samarth Hawaldar, Baladitya Suri

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As efforts towards quantum communication advance, the need for single photon sources becomes imminent. Due to the extremely low energy of a single microwave photon, efforts to build single photon sources and detectors in the microwave range are relatively recent. We plan to use a Cooper Pair Box (CPB) that has a ‘sweet-spot’ where the two energy levels have minimal separation. Moreover, these qubits have fairly large anharmonicity making them close to ideal two-level systems. If the external gate voltage of these qubits is varied rapidly while passing through the sweet-spot, due to Landau-Zener effect, the qubit can be excited almost deterministically. The rapid change of the gate control voltage through the sweet spot induces a non-adiabatic population transfer from the ground to the excited state. The qubit eventually decays into the emission line emitting a single photon. The advantage of this setup is that the qubit can be excited without any coherent microwave excitation, thereby effectively increasing the usable source efficiency due to the absence of control pulse microwave photons. Since the probability of a Landau-Zener transition can be made almost close to unity by the appropriate design of parameters, this source behaves as an on-demand source of single microwave photons. The large anharmonicity of the CPB also ensures that only one excited state is involved in the transition and multiple photon output is highly improbable. Such a system has so far not been implemented and would find many applications in the areas of quantum optics, quantum computation as well as quantum communication.

Keywords: quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum optics, superconducting qubits, flux qubit, charge qubit, microwave single photon source, quantum information processing

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Authors: Martyna Ekiert, Andrzej Mlyniec

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Tendons are the biological structures, which primary function is to transfer force generated by muscles to the bones. Unfortunately, damages of tendons are also one of the most common injuries of the human musculoskeletal system. For the most severe cases of tendon rupture, such as the tear of calcaneus tendon or anterior cruciate ligament of the knee, a surgical procedure is the only possible way of full recovery. Tendons used as biological grafts are usually subjected to the process of deep freezing and subsequent thawing. This, in particular for multiple freezing/thawing cycles, may result in changes of tendon internal structure causing deterioration of mechanical properties of the tissue. Therefore, studies on the influence of freezing on tendons biomechanics, including internal water content in soft tissue, seems to be greatly needed. An experimental study of the influence of freezing on mechanical properties of the tendon was performed on fascicles samples dissected form bovine flexor tendons. The preparation procedure was performed with the presence of 0.9% saline solution in order to prevent an excessive tissue drying. All prepared samples were subjected to the different number of freezing/thawing cycles. For freezing part of the protocol we used -80°C temperature while for slow thawing we used fridge temperature (4°C) combined with equalizing temperatures in the standard state (25°C). After final thawing, the mechanical properties of each sample was examined using cyclic loading test. Our results may contribute for better understanding of negative effects of soft tissues freezing, resulting from abnormal thermal expansion of water. This also may help to determine the limit of freezing/thawing cycles disqualifying tissue for surgical purposes and thus help optimize tissues storage conditions.

Keywords: freezing, soft tissue, tendon, bovine fascicles

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