Search results for: chemistry cases

Authors: Blair Arthur Agero Jr., Lucia Garcia Heras

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The triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) is one of the crucial stabilizing ligaments of the wrist. The TFCC is also subject to excessive stress amongst performance athletes and enthusiasts. The excessive loading of the TFCC may lead to a partial or complete rupture that requires surgery. The recovery from an open TFCC surgical repair may take several months. Immobilization of the repaired wrist for a given period is part of all the current protocols in the post-surgical treatment. The immobilization to prevent the rotation of the forearm can last from six weeks to eight weeks with the wrist held in a neutral position. In all protocols reviewed, the pronosupination is only initiated between the 6th week and 8th week or even later after the cast is removed. The prolonged immobilization can cause stiffness of the wrist and hand. Furthermore, the entire period of post-surgical hand therapy has its economic impact, especially for performing athletes. However, delayed mobilization, specifically rotation of the wrist, is necessary to allow ligament healing. This study aims to report the effects of early mobilization of the wrist in athletes who had an open surgical repair of the TFCC. The surgery was done by the co-author, and the hand therapy was implemented by the main author. The cases documented spans from 2014 to 2019 and were all performed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. All selected participants in this case study were provided with a follow-up questionnaire to ascertain their current condition since their surgery. The respondents reported high satisfaction in the results of their treatment and have verified zero re-rupture of their TFCC despite mobilizing and rotating the wrist at the third-week post-surgery during their hand therapy. There is also a negligible number of respondents who reported a limitation in their ranges of pronosupination. This case study suggests that early mobilization of the wrist after an open TFCC surgical repair can be more beneficial to the patient as opposed to the traditional treatment of prolonged immobilization. However, it should be considered that the patients selected in this case study are professional performance athletes and advanced fitness enthusiasts. Athletes are known to withstand vigorous physical stress in their training that may correlate to their ability to better cope with the progressive stress that was implemented during their hand therapy. Nevertheless, this approach has its merits, and application of it may be adjusted for patients with a similar injury and surgical procedure.

Keywords: hand therapy, performance athlete, TFCC repair, wrist ligament

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Authors: Teklay Gebrecherkos, Mahmud Abdulkadir

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Abstract: The emergence and subsequent rapid worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have posed a global crisis, with a tremendously increasing burden of infection, morbidity, and mortality risks. Recent studies have suggested that severe cases of COVID-19 are characterized by massive biochemical, hematological, and inflammatory alterations whose synergistic effect is estimated to progress to multiple organ damage and failure. In this regard, biochemical monitoring of COVID-19 patients, based on comprehensive laboratory assessments and findings, is expected to play a crucial role in effective clinical management and improving the survival rates of patients. However, biochemical markers that can be informative of COVID-19 patient risk stratification and predictor of clinical outcomes are currently scarcely available. The study aims to investigate the profiles of common biochemical markers and their influence on the severity of the COVID-19 infection in Tigray, Ethiopia. Methods: A laboratory-based cross-sectional study was conducted from July to August 2020 at Quiha College of Engineering, Mekelle University COVID-19 isolation and treatment center. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Whole blood was collected from each study participant, and serum samples were separated after being delivered to the laboratory. Hematological biomarkers were analyzed using FACS count, while organ tests and serum electrolytes were analyzed using ion-selective electrode methods using a Cobas-6000 series machine. Data was analyzed using SPSS Vs 20. Results: A total of 120 SARS-CoV-2 patients were enrolled during the study. The participants ranged between 18 and 91 years, with a mean age of 52 (±108.8). The majority (40%) of participants were between the ages of 60 and above. Patients with multiple comorbidities developed severe COVID-19, though not statistically significant (p=0.34). Mann-Whitney U test analysis showed that biochemical tests such as neuropile count (p=0.003), AST levels (p=0.050), serum creatinine (p=0.000), and serum sodium (p=0.015) were significantly correlated with severe COVID-19 disease as compared to non-severe disease. Conclusion: The severity of COVID-19 was associated with higher age, organ tests AST and creatinine, serum Na+, and elevated total neutrophile count. Thus, further study needs to be conducted to evaluate the alterations of biochemical biomarkers and their impact on COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19, biomarkers, mortality, Tigray, Ethiopia

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Authors: Staņislavs Gendelis, Andris Jakovičs, Jānis Ratnieks, Aigars Laizāns, Dāvids Vardanjans

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Dehumidification of biogas at the biomass plants is very important to provide the energy efficient burning of biomethane at the outlet. A few methods are widely used to reduce the water content in biogas, e.g. chiller/heat exchanger based cooling, usage of different adsorbents like PSA, or the combination of such approaches. A quite different method of biogas dehumidification is offered and analyzed in this paper. The main idea is to direct the flow of biogas from the plant around it downwards; thus, creating additional insulation layer. As the temperature in gas shell layer around the plant will decrease from ~ 38°C to 20°C in the summer or even to 0°C in the winter, condensation of water vapor occurs. The water from the bottom of the gas shell can be collected and drain away. In addition, another upward shell layer is created after the condensate drainage place on the outer side to further reducing heat losses. Thus, counterflow biogas heat exchanger is created around the biogas plant. This research work deals with the numerical modelling of biogas flow, taking into account heat exchange and condensation on cold surfaces. Different kinds of boundary conditions (air and ground temperatures in summer/winter) and various physical properties of constructions (insulation between layers, wall thickness) are included in the model to make it more general and useful for different biogas flow conditions. The complexity of this problem is fact, that the temperatures in both channels are conjugated in case of low thermal resistance between layers. MATLAB programming language is used for multiphysical model development, numerical calculations and result visualization. Experimental installation of a biogas plant’s vertical wall with an additional 2 layers of polycarbonate sheets with the controlled gas flow was set up to verify the modelling results. Gas flow at inlet/outlet, temperatures between the layers and humidity were controlled and measured during a number of experiments. Good correlation with modelling results for vertical wall section allows using of developed numerical model for an estimation of parameters for the whole biogas dehumidification system. Numerical modelling of biogas counterflow heat exchanger system placed on the plant’s wall for various cases allows optimizing of thickness for gas layers and insulation layer to ensure necessary dehumidification of the gas under different climatic conditions. Modelling of system’s defined configuration with known conditions helps to predict the temperature and humidity content of the biogas at the outlet.

Keywords: biogas dehumidification, numerical modelling, condensation, biogas plant experimental model

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Authors: Wayne Tarrant, Ethan Petersen

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The concept of a flat tax goes back to at least the Biblical tithe. A progressive income tax was first vociferously espoused in a small, but famous, pamphlet in 1848 (although England had an emergency progressive tax for war costs prior to this). Within a few years many countries had adopted the progressive structure. The flat tax was only reinstated in some small countries and British protectorates until Mart Laar was elected Prime Minister of Estonia in 1992. Since Estonia’s adoption of the flat tax in 1993, many other formerly Communist countries have likewise abandoned progressive income taxes. Economists had expectations of what would happen when a flat tax was enacted, but very little work has been done on actually measuring the effect. With a testbed of 21 countries in this region that currently have a flat tax, much comparison is possible. Several countries have retained progressive taxes, giving an opportunity for contrast. There are also the cases of Czech Republic and Slovakia, which have adopted and later abandoned the flat tax. Further, with over 20 years’ worth of economic history in some flat tax countries, we can begin to do some serious longitudinal study. In this paper we consider many economic variables to determine if there are statistically significant differences from before to after the adoption of a flat tax. We consider unemployment rates, tax receipts, GDP growth, Gini coefficients, and market data where the data are available. Comparisons are made through the use of event studies and time series methods. The results are mixed, but we draw statistically significant conclusions about some effects. We also look at the different implementations of the flat tax. In some countries there are equal income and corporate tax rates. In others the income tax has a lower rate, while in others the reverse is true. Each of these sends a clear message to individuals and corporations. The policy makers surely have a desired effect in mind. We group countries with similar policies, try to determine if the intended effect actually occurred, and then report the results. This is a work in progress, and we welcome the suggestion of variables to consider. Further, some of the data from before the fall of the Iron Curtain are suspect. Since there are new ruling regimes in these countries, the methods of computing different statistical measures has changed. Although we first look at the raw data as reported, we also attempt to account for these changes. We show which data seem to be fictional and suggest ways to infer the needed statistics from other data. These results are reported beside those on the reported data. Since there is debate about taxation structure, this paper can help inform policymakers of change the flat tax has caused in other countries. The work shows some strengths and weaknesses of a flat tax structure. Moreover, it provides beginnings of a scientific analysis of the flat tax in practice rather than having discussion based solely upon theory and conjecture.

Keywords: flat tax, financial markets, GDP, unemployment rate, Gini coefficient

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Authors: Inger Eriksson, Lisbeth Ohlsson, Jeremias Rosenqvist

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Ingress: Focus in the study is directed towards phenomena and concepts of segregation, integration, and inclusion of students attending a special school form in Sweden, namely compulsory school for pupils with learning disabilities (in Swedish 'särskola') as an alternative to mainstream compulsory school. Aim: The aim of the study is to examine the school situation for students attending särskola from a historical perspective focussing the 1980s, 1990s and the 21st century, from an integration perspective, and from a perspective of power. Procedure: Five sub-studies are reported, where integration and inclusion are looked into by observation studies and interviews with school leaders, teachers, special and remedial teachers, psychologists, coordinators, and parents in the special schools/särskola. In brief, the study about special school students attending mainstream classes from 1998 takes its point of departure in the idea that all knowledge development takes place in a social context. A special interest is taken in the school’s role for integration generally, and the role of special education particularly and on whose conditions the integration is taking place – the special school students' or the other students,' or may be equally, in the class. Pedagogical and social conditions for so called individually integrated special school students in elementary school classes were studied in eleven classes. Results: The findings are interpreted in a power perspective supported by Foucault and relationally by Vygotsky. The main part of the data consists of extensive descriptions of the eleven cases, here called integration situations. Conclusions: In summary, this study suggests that the possibilities for a special school student to get into the class community and fellowship and thereby be integrated with the class are to a high degree dependant on to what extent the student can take part in the pedagogical processes. The pedagogical situation for the special school student is affected not only by the class teacher and the support and measures undertaken but also by the other students in the class as they, in turn, are affected by how the special school student is acting. This mutual impact, which constitutes the integration process in itself, might result in a true integration if the special school student attains the status of being accepted on his/her own terms not only being cared for or cherished by some classmates. A special school student who is not accepted even on the terms of the class will often experience severe problems in the contacts with classmates and the school situation might thus be a mere placement.

Keywords: integration/inclusion, mainstream school, power, special school students

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Authors: Abulbasit G. Abdulsayid, Zinab F. Abdulla, Asma A. Omer

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On the ground that the orifice plate is relatively inexpensive, requires very little maintenance and only calibrated during the occasion of plant turnaround, the orifice plate has turned to be in a real prevalent use in gas industry. Inaccuracy of measurement in the fiscal metering stations may highly be accounted to be the most vital factor for mischarges in the natural gas industry in Libya. A very trivial error in measurement can add up a fast escalating financial burden to the custodian transactions. The unaccounted gas quantity transferred annually via orifice plates in Libya, could be estimated in an extent of multi-million dollars. As the oil and gas wealth is the solely source of income to Libya, every effort is now being exerted to improve the accuracy of existing orifice metering facilities. Discharge coefficient has become pivotal in current researches undertaken in this regard. Hence, increasing the knowledge of the flow field in a typical orifice meter is indispensable. Recently and in a drastic pace, the CFD has become the most time and cost efficient versatile tool for in-depth analysis of fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer of various industrial applications. Getting deeper into the physical phenomena lied beneath and predicting all relevant parameters and variables with high spatial and temporal resolution have been the greatest weighing pros counting for CFD. In this paper, flow phenomena for air passing through an orifice meter were numerically analyzed with CFD code based modeling, giving important information about the effect of orifice plate specifications on the discharge coefficient for three different tappings locations, i.e., flange tappings, D and D/2 tappings compared with vena contracta tappings. Discharge coefficients were paralleled with discharge coefficients estimated by ISO 5167. The influences of orifice plate bore thickness, orifice plate thickness, beveled angle, perpendicularity and buckling of the orifice plate, were all duly investigated. A case of an orifice meter whose pipe diameter of 2 in, beta ratio of 0.5 and Reynolds number of 91100, was taken as a model. The results highlighted that the discharge coefficients were highly responsive to the variation of plate specifications and under all cases, the discharge coefficients for D and D/2 tappings were very close to that of vena contracta tappings which were believed as an ideal arrangement. Also, in general sense, it was appreciated that the standard equation in ISO 5167, by which the discharge coefficient was calculated, cannot capture the variation of the plate specifications and thus further thorough considerations would be still needed.

Keywords: CFD, discharge coefficients, orifice meter, orifice plate specifications

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Authors: Begum Rokeya, Rahelee Zinnat, Fatema Jebunnesa, Israt Ara Hossain, A. Rahman

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Background and Aims: Arsenic in drinking water is a global environmental health problem, and the exposure may increase dyslipidemia and cerebrovascular diseases mortalities, most likely through causing atherosclerosis. However, the mechanism of lipid metabolism, atherosclerosis formation, arsenic exposure and impact in pregnancy is still unclear. Recent epidemiological evidences indicate close association between inorganic arsenic exposure via drinking water and Dyslipidemia. However, the exact mechanism of this arsenic-mediated increase in atherosclerosis risk factors remains enigmatic. We explore the association of the effect of arsenic on serum lipid profile in pregnant subjects. Methods: A total 200 pregnant mother screened in this study from arsenic exposed area. Our study group included 100 exposed subjects were cases and 100 Non exposed healthy pregnant were controls requited by a cross-sectional study. Clinical and anthropometric measurements were done by standard techniques. Lipidemic status was assessed by enzymatic endpoint method. Urinary As was measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and adjusted with specific gravity and Arsenic exposure was assessed by the level of urinary arsenic level > 100 μg/L was categorized as arsenic exposed and < 100 μg/L were categorized as non-exposed. Multivariate logistic regression and Student’s t - test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure both were significantly higher in the Arsenic exposed pregnant subjects compared to the Non-exposed group (p<0.001). Arsenic exposed subjects had 2 times higher chance of developing hypertensive pregnancy (Odds Ratio 2.2). In parallel to the findings in Ar exposed subjects showed significantly higher proportion of triglyceride and total cholesterol and low density of lipo protein when compare to non- arsenic exposed pregnant subjects. Significant correlation of urinary arsenic level was also found with SBP, DBP, TG, T chol and serum LDL-Cholesterol. On multivariate logistic regression showed urinary arsenic had a positive association with DBP, SBP, Triglyceride and LDL-c. Conclusion: In conclusion, arsenic exposure may induce dyslipidemia like atherosclerosis through modifying reverse cholesterol transport in cholesterol metabolism. For decreasing atherosclerosis related mortality associated with arsenic, preventing exposure from environmental sources in early life is an important element.

Keywords: Arsenic Exposure, Dyslipidemia, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, Serum lipid profile

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Authors: Kasra Afsahi, Maryam Soheilifar, S. Hossein Hosseini

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Background: There is growing evidence that Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA) can be a consequence of Covid-19 infection. Understanding novel treatment approaches are important in optimizing patient outcomes. Case: This case explores the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in the treatment of a 23-year-old COVID-positive female presenting with left hemiparesis in August 2020. Imaging showed right globus pallidus, thalamus, and internal capsule ischemic stroke. Conventional rehabilitation was started two weeks later, with virtual reality (VR) included. This game-based virtual reality (VR) technology developed for stroke patients was based on upper extremity exercises and functions for stroke. Physical examination showed left hemiparesis with muscle strength 3/5 in the upper extremity and 4/5 in the lower extremity. The range of motion of the shoulder was 90-100 degrees. The speech exam showed a mild decrease in fluency. Mild lower lip dynamic asymmetry was seen. Babinski was positive on the left. Gait speed was decreased (75 steps per minute). Intervention: Our game-based VR system was developed based on upper extremity physiotherapy exercises for post-stroke patients to increase the active, voluntary movement of the upper extremity joints and improve the function. The conventional program was initiated with active exercises, shoulder sanding for joint ROMs, walking shoulder, shoulder wheel, and combination movements of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, alternative flexion-extension, pronation-supination movements, Pegboard and Purdo pegboard exercises. Also, fine movements included smart gloves, biofeedback, finger ladder, and writing. The difficulty of the game increased at each stage of the practice with progress in patient performances. Outcome: After 6 weeks of treatment, gait and speech were normal and upper extremity strength was improved to near normal status. No adverse effects were noted. Conclusion: This case suggests that VR is a useful tool in the treatment of a patient with covid-19 related CVA. The safety of newly developed instruments for such cases provides new approaches to improve the therapeutic outcomes and prognosis as well as increased satisfaction rate among patients.

Keywords: covid-19, stroke, virtual reality, rehabilitation

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Authors: Faozia A. S. Abuhtana, Yahia S. Abujnah, Said O. Gnann

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Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processed milk is widely distributed and preferred in numerous countries all over the world due its relatively high quality and long shelf life. Because of the notable high consumption rate of UHT in Libya in addition to negligible studies related to such product on the local level, this study was designed to assess the shelf life of locally produced as well as imported reconstituted sterilized whole milk samples marketed in Tripoli, Libya . Four locally produced vs. three imported brands were used in this study. All samples were stored at room temperature (25± 2C ) for 8 month long period, and subjected to physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory tests. These tests included : measurement of pH, specific gravity, percent acidity, and determination of fat, protein and melamine content. Microbiological tests included total aerobic count, total psychotropic bacteria, total spore forming bacteria and total coliform counts. Results indicated no detection of microbial growth of any type during the study period, in addition to no detection of melamine in all samples. On the other hand, a gradual decline in pH accompanied with gradual increase in % acidity of both locally produced and imported samples was observed. Such changes in both pH and % acidity reached their lowest and highest values respectively during the 24th week of storage. For instance pH values were (6.40, 6.55, 6.55, 6.15) and (6.30, 6.50, 6.20) for local and imported brands respectively. On the other hand, % acidity reached (0.185, 0181, 0170, 0183) and (0180, 0.180, 0.171) at the 24th week for local and imported brands respectively. Similar pattern of decline was also observed in specific gravity, fat and protein content in some local and imported samples especially at later stages of the study. In both cases, some of the recorded pH values, % acidity, sp. gravity and fat content were in violation of the accepted limits set by Libyan standard no. 356 for sterilized milk. Such changes in pH, % acidity and other UHT sterilized milk constituents during storage were coincided with a gradual decrease in the degree of acceptance of the stored milk samples of both types as shown by sensory scores recorded by the panelists. In either case degree of acceptance was significantly low at late stages of storage and most milk samples became relatively unacceptable after the 18th and 20th week for both untrained and trained panelists respectively.

Keywords: UHT milk, shelf life, quality, gravity, bacteria

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Authors: J. Marie Hicks

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The art of the poetic conjoins meaning and symbolism with imagery and rhythm. Perhaps the reader might read this opening sentence as 'The art of the poetic combines meaning and symbolism with imagery and rhythm,' which holds a similar message, but is not quite the same. The reader understands that these factors are combined in this literary form, but to gain a sense of the conjoining of these factors, the reader is forced to consider that these aspects of poetry are not simply combined, but actually adjoin, abut, skirt, or touch in the poetic form. This alternative word choice is an example of substitutional inference. Poetry is, ostensibly, a literary form where language is used precisely or creatively to evoke specific images or emotions for the reader. Often, the reader can predict a coming rhyme or descriptive word choice in a poem, based on previous rhyming pattern or earlier imagery in the poem. However, there are instances when the poet uses an unexpected word choice to create multiple meanings and connections. In these cases, the reader is presented with an unusual phrase or image, requiring that they think about what that image is meant to suggest, and their mind also suggests the word they expected, creating a second, overlying image or meaning. This is what is meant by the term 'substitutional inference.' This is different than simply using a double entendre, a word or phrase that has two meanings, often one complementary and the other disparaging, or one that is innocuous and the other suggestive. In substitutional inference, the poet utilizes an unanticipated word that is either visually or phonetically similar to the expected word, provoking the reader to work to understand the poetic phrase as written, while unconsciously incorporating the meaning of the line as anticipated. In other words, by virtue of a word substitution, an inference of the logical word choice is imparted to the reader, while they are seeking to rationalize the word that was actually used. There is a substitutional inference of meaning created by the alternate word choice. For example, Louise Bogan, 4th Poet Laureate of the United States, used substitutional inference in the form of homonyms, malapropisms, and other unusual word choices in a number of her poems, lending depth and greater complexity, while actively engaging her readers intellectually with her poetry. Substitutional inference not only adds complexity to the potential interpretations of Bogan’s poetry, as well as the poetry of others, but provided a method for writers to infuse additional meanings into their work, thus expressing more information in a compact format. Additionally, this nuancing enriches the poetic experience for the reader, who can enjoy the poem superficially as written, or on a deeper level exploring gradations of meaning.

Keywords: poetic inference, poetic word play, substitutional inference, word substitution

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Authors: Hamed Kalhori, Lin Ye

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In this study, an inverse method was developed to reconstruct the magnitude and duration of impact forces exerted to a rectangular carbon fibre-epoxy composite honeycomb sandwich panel. The dynamic signals captured by Piezoelectric (PZT) sensors installed on the panel remotely from the impact locations were utilized to reconstruct the impact force generated by an instrumented hammer through an extended deconvolution approach. Two discretized forms of convolution integral are considered; the traditional one with an explicit transfer function and the modified one without an explicit transfer function. Deconvolution, usually applied to reconstruct the time history (e.g. magnitude) of a stochastic force at a defined location, is extended to identify both the location and magnitude of the impact force among a number of potential impact locations. It is assumed that a number of impact forces are simultaneously exerted to all potential locations, but the magnitude of all forces except one is zero, implicating that the impact occurs only at one location. The extended deconvolution is then applied to determine the magnitude as well as location (among the potential ones), incorporating the linear superposition of responses resulted from impact at each potential location. The problem can be categorized into under-determined (the number of sensors is less than that of impact locations), even-determined (the number of sensors equals that of impact locations), or over-determined (the number of sensors is greater than that of impact locations) cases. For an under-determined case, it comprises three potential impact locations and one PZT sensor for the rectangular carbon fibre-epoxy composite honeycomb sandwich panel. Assessments are conducted to evaluate the factors affecting the precision of the reconstructed force. Truncated Singular Value Decomposition (TSVD) and the Tikhonov regularization are independently chosen to regularize the problem to find the most suitable method for this system. The selection of optimal value of the regularization parameter is investigated through L-curve and Generalized Cross Validation (GCV) methods. In addition, the effect of different width of signal windows on the reconstructed force is examined. It is observed that the impact force generated by the instrumented impact hammer is sensitive to the impact locations of the structure, having a shape from a simple half-sine to a complicated one. The accuracy of the reconstructed impact force is evaluated using the correlation co-efficient between the reconstructed force and the actual one. Based on this criterion, it is concluded that the forces reconstructed by using the extended deconvolution without an explicit transfer function together with Tikhonov regularization match well with the actual forces in terms of magnitude and duration.

Keywords: honeycomb composite panel, deconvolution, impact localization, force reconstruction

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Authors: Mohammadreza Hedyehzadeh, Mahdi Yousefi

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Colon cancer is one of the most common cancer, which predicted to increase its prevalence due to the bad eating habits of peoples. Nowadays, due to the busyness of people, the use of fast foods is increasing, and therefore, diagnosis of this disease and its treatment are of particular importance. To determine the best treatment approach for each specific colon cancer patients, the oncologist should be known the stage of the tumor. The most common method to determine the tumor stage is TNM staging system. In this system, M indicates the presence of metastasis, N indicates the extent of spread to the lymph nodes, and T indicates the size of the tumor. It is clear that in order to determine all three of these parameters, an imaging method must be used, and the gold standard imaging protocols for this purpose are CT and PET/CT. In CT imaging, due to the use of X-rays, the risk of cancer and the absorbed dose of the patient is high, while in the PET/CT method, there is a lack of access to the device due to its high cost. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to estimate the tumor size and the extent of its spread to the lymph nodes using MR images. More than 1300 MR images collected from the TCIA portal, and in the first step (pre-processing), histogram equalization to improve image qualities and resizing to get the same image size was done. Two expert radiologists, which work more than 21 years on colon cancer cases, segmented the images and extracted the tumor region from the images. The next step is feature extraction from segmented images and then classify the data into three classes: T0N0، T3N1 و T3N2. In this article, the VGG-16 convolutional neural network has been used to perform both of the above-mentioned tasks, i.e., feature extraction and classification. This network has 13 convolution layers for feature extraction and three fully connected layers with the softmax activation function for classification. In order to validate the proposed method, the 10-fold cross validation method used in such a way that the data was randomly divided into three parts: training (70% of data), validation (10% of data) and the rest for testing. It is repeated 10 times, each time, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the model are calculated and the average of ten repetitions is reported as the result. The accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of the proposed method for testing dataset was 89/09%, 95/8% and 96/4%. Compared to previous studies, using a safe imaging technique (MRI) and non-use of predefined hand-crafted imaging features to determine the stage of colon cancer patients are some of the study advantages.

Keywords: colon cancer, VGG-16, magnetic resonance imaging, tumor size, lymph node metastasis

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Authors: Kim Kennedy, Daren Gibson, Stephanie Flukes, Chandra Diwakarla, Lisa Spalding, Leanne Pilkington, Andrew Redfern

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Introduction: Head and neck cancers (HNC) are often associated with the development of non-HNC primaries, as the risk factors that predispose patients to HNC are often risk factors for other cancers. Aim: We sought to evaluate whether there was an increased risk of smoking and alcohol-related cancers and also other cancers in HNC patients and to evaluate whether there is a difference between the rates of non-HNC primaries in Aboriginal compared with non-Aboriginal HNC patients. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of 320 HNC patients from a single center in Western Australia, identifying 80 Aboriginal and 240 non-Aboriginal patients matched on a 1:3 ratio by sites, histology, rurality, and age. We collected data on the patient characteristics, tumour features, treatments, outcomes, and past and subsequent HNCs and non-HNC primaries. Results: In the overall study population, there were 86 patients (26.9%) with a metachronous or synchronous non-HNC primary. Non-HNC primaries were actually significantly more common in the non-Aboriginal population compared with the Aboriginal population (30% vs. 17.5%, p=0.02); however, half of these were patients with cutaneous squamous or basal cell carcinomas (cSCC/BCC) only. When cSCC/BCCs were excluded, non-Aboriginal patients had a similar rate as Aboriginal patients (16.7% vs. 15%, p=0.73). There were clearly more cSCC/BCCs in non-Aboriginal patients compared with Aboriginal patients (16.7% vs. 2.5%, p=0.001) and more patients with melanoma (2.5% vs. 0%, p value not significant (p=NS). Rates of most cancers were similar between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal patients, including prostate (2.9% vs. 3.8%), colorectal (2.9% vs. 2.5%), kidney (1.2% vs. 1.2%), and these rates appeared comparable to Australian Age Standardised Incidence Rates (ASIR) in the general community. Oesophageal cancer occurred at double the rate in Aboriginal patients (3.8%) compared with non-Aboriginal patients (1.7%), which was far in excess of ASIRs which estimated a lifetime risk of 0.59% in the general population. Interestingly lung cancer rates did not appear to be significantly increased in our cohort, with 2.5% of Aboriginal patients and 3.3% of non-Aboriginal patients having lung cancer, which is in line with ASIRs which estimates a lifetime risk of 5% (by age 85yo). Interestingly the rate of Glioma in the non-Aboriginal population was higher than the ASIR, with 0.8% of non-Aboriginal patients developing Glioma, with Australian averages predicting a 0.6% lifetime risk in the general population. As these are small numbers, this finding may well be due to chance. Unsurprisingly, second HNCs occurred at an increased incidence in our cohort, in 12.5% of Aboriginal patients and 11.2% of non-Aboriginal patients, compared to an ASIR of 17 cases per 100,000 persons, estimating a lifetime risk of 1.70%. Conclusions: Overall, 26.9% of patients had a non-HNC primary. When cSCC/BCCs were excluded, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients had similar rates of non-HNC primaries, although non-Aboriginal patients had a significantly higher rate of cSCC/BCCs. Aboriginal patients had double the rate of oesophageal primaries; however, this was not statistically significant, possibly due to small case numbers.

Keywords: head and neck cancer, synchronous and metachronous primaries, other primaries, Aboriginal

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Authors: Akbarova Gulnozakhon

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Relevance. Physical exercises can prolong the function of the growth zones of long tubular bones, delay the fusion of the epiphyses and diaphyses of bones and, thus, increase the growth of the body. At the same time, intensive strength exercises can accelerate the process of ossification of bone growth zones and slow down their growth in length. The influence of physical exercises on the process of biological maturation is noted. Gymnastics, which requires intense speed and strength loads, delays puberty. On the other hand, it is indicated that the relatively slow puberty of gymnasts is associated with the selection of girls with a special somatotype in this sport. It was found that the later onset of menstruation in female athletes does not have a negative effect on the maturation process and fertility (the ability to procreate). Observations are made about the normalizing influence of sports on the puberty of girls. The purpose of the study. Our goal is to study physical activity of varying intensity on the formation of secondary sexual characteristics and hormonal status of girls in adolescence. Each biological process peculiar to a given organism is not in a stationary state, but fluctuates with a certain frequency. According to the duration, there are, for example, circadian cycles, and infradian cycles, a typical example of which is the menstrual cycle. Materials and methods, results. Violations of menstrual function in athletes were detected by applying a questionnaire survey that contains several paragraphs and sub-paragraphs where passport data, anthropometric indicators, taking into account anthropometric indices, information about the menstrual cycle are indicated. Of 135 female athletes aged 1-3 to 16 years engaged in various sports - gymnasts, menstrual function disorders were noted in 86.7% (primary or secondary amenorrhea, irregular MC), in swimming-in 57.1%. The general condition also changes during the menstrual cycle. In a large percentage of cases, athletes indicate an increase in irritability in the premenstrual (45%) and menstrual (36%) phases. During these phases, girls note an increase in fatigue of 46.5% and 58% (respectively). In girls, secondary sexual characteristics continue to form during puberty and the clearest indicator of the onset of puberty is the age of the onset of the first menstruation - menarche. Conclusions. 1. Physical exercise has a positive effect on all major systems of the body and thus promotes health.2. Along with a beneficial effect on human health, physical exercise, if the requirements of sports are not observed, can be harmful.

Keywords: girls health, anthropometric, physical development, reproductive health

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Authors: Martina Katalin Szabó, Bernadett Lipóczi, Csenge Guba, István Uveges

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In this study, an exhaustive analysis was carried out about the historical development of negative emotive intensifiers in the Hungarian language via NLP methods. Intensifiers are linguistic elements which modify or reinforce a variable character in the lexical unit they apply to. Therefore, intensifiers appear with other lexical items, such as adverbs, adjectives, verbs, infrequently with nouns. Due to the complexity of this phenomenon (set of sociolinguistic, semantic, and historical aspects), there are many lexical items which can operate as intensifiers. The group of intensifiers are admittedly one of the most rapidly changing elements in the language. From a linguistic point of view, particularly interesting are a special group of intensifiers, the so-called negative emotive intensifiers, that, on their own, without context, have semantic content that can be associated with negative emotion, but in particular cases, they may function as intensifiers (e.g.borzasztóanjó ’awfully good’, which means ’excellent’). Despite their special semantic features, negative emotive intensifiers are scarcely examined in literature based on large Historical corpora via NLP methods. In order to become better acquainted with trends over time concerning the intensifiers, The exhaustively analysed a specific historical corpus, namely the Magyar TörténetiSzövegtár (Hungarian Historical Corpus). This corpus (containing 3 millions text words) is a collection of texts of various genres and styles, produced between 1772 and 2010. Since the corpus consists of raw texts and does not contain any additional information about the language features of the data (such as stemming or morphological analysis), a large amount of manual work was required to process the data. Thus, based on a lexicon of negative emotive intensifiers compiled in a previous phase of the research, every occurrence of each intensifier was queried, and the results were stored in a separate data frame. Then, basic linguistic processing (POS-tagging, lemmatization etc.) was carried out automatically with the ‘magyarlanc’ NLP-toolkit. Finally, the frequency and collocation features of all the negative emotive words were automatically analyzed in the corpus. Outcomes of the research revealed in detail how these words have proceeded through grammaticalization over time, i.e., they change from lexical elements to grammatical ones, and they slowly go through a delexicalization process (their negative content diminishes over time). What is more, it was also pointed out which negative emotive intensifiers are at the same stage in this process in the same time period. Giving a closer look to the different domains of the analysed corpus, it also became certain that during this process, the pragmatic role’s importance increases: the newer use expresses the speaker's subjective, evaluative opinion at a certain level.

Keywords: historical corpus analysis, historical linguistics, negative emotive intensifiers, semantic changes over time

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Authors: Eze Chinwe Catherine, Orji Nkiru Marykate, Anyaegbunam L. C., Igbodika M.C.

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Uterine Leiomyomata (ULs) are the most frequently occurring pelvic and gynaecologic tumors in premenopausal women, occurring globally with a prevalence of 21.4%. UL represents a major public health problem in African women; therefore, this study aimed to reveal public health impact and risk factors associated with uterine leiomyomata among women in Imo state. A convenience sample of 2965 women was studied for gynaecological cases from October 2020 to March 2021 at the selected clinics of study. Eligible women were recruited to participate in a non interventional descriptive cross-sectional study. Data on socio demographic and gynaecological characteristics, BMI, parity, age, age at menarche, knowledge, attitudes, and perception were collected using a structured questionnaire, guided interviews, anthropometrics, and haematological tests. These were analyzed using SPSS Version 23. Associations between continuous variables were analysed appropriately and tested at 95% confidence level and standard error of 5%. A total of 652(22.0%) were diagnosed having uterine Leiomyomata (UL), and the overall prevalence of UF at clinics/Diagnostic centre in Imo State was 22%. A total of 652 women (46.1%) responded. More than half of the women had a parity of zero (1623: 54.8%), 664 (22.4%) had a parity of 1-2, and 491 (16.6%) had a parity of 3-4. Majority (68.6%) indicated that they experience an irregular menstrual cycle, and a similar proportion (67%) number experience pelvic pain. Age was found as a significant associating factor of uterine fibroids in this study (p=0.046, χ2= 6.158), lowest among the women between 16 to 25 years old and highest among the women between 36 – 45 years of age. The rate of UF was found to be 62.1% on the studied women menarche age of 11 years old or less while it was approximately 18% among the women whose age at menarche were at least 14 years old. Education ((p=0.003, χ²= 13.826), residency (p=0.066, χ²= 3.372). BMI (p= 0.000, χ²=102.36) were significantly associated with the risk of UL. Some of the Clinical presentation includes anaemia, abdominal pelvic mass, and infertility. The poor positive perception was obtained on the general perception (16.7%) as well as on treatment seeking behavior (28%). The study concluded that UL had a significant impact on health related quality of life on respondents due to its relatively high prevalence and their probable impact on patient’s quality of life.UL was especially prevalent in women aged between 36 to 45 years, nulliparous women, and women of higher BMI. Community enlightenment to enhance knowledge, attitude, and perception on fibroids and risk factors necessary to ensure early diagnosis and presentation, including patient centered treatment option.

Keywords: fibroids, prevalence, risk factors, body mass index, menarche, anaemia, KAP

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Authors: Rostyslav Horbay, Nick Korolis, Vahid Anvari, Rostyslav Stoika

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Introduction: Giant cancer cells (GCC) are common in all types of cancer, especially after poor therapy. Some specific features of such cells include ~10-fold enlargement, drug resistance, and the ability to propagate similar daughter cells. We used murine NK/Ly lymphoma, an aggressive and fast growing lymphoma model that has already shown drastic changes in GCC comparing to parental cells (chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation, tighter OXPHOS/cellular respiration coupling, multidrug resistance). Materials and methods: In this study, we compared morpho-functional changes of GCC that predominantly show either a cytostatic or a cytotoxic effect after treatment with drugs. We studied the effect of a combined cytostatic/cytotoxic drug treatment to determine the correlation of drug efficiency and GCC formation. Doses of G1/S-specific drug paclitaxel/PTX (G2/M-specific, 50 mg/mouse), vinblastine/VBL (50 mg/mouse), and DNA-targeting agents doxorubicin/DOX (125 ng/mouse) and cisplatin/CP (225 ng/mouse) on C57 black mice. Several tests were chosen to estimate morphological and physiological state (propidium iodide, Rhodamine-123, DAPI, JC-1, Janus Green, Giemsa staining and other), which included cell integrity, nuclear fragmentation and chromatin condensation, mitochondrial activity, and others. A single and double factor ANOVA analysis were performed to determine correlation between the criteria of applied drugs and cytomorphological changes. Results: In all cases of treatment, several morphological changes were observed (intracellular vacuolization, membrane blebbing, and interconnected mitochondrial network). A lower gain in ascites (49.97% comparing to control group) and longest lifespan (22+9 days) after tumor injection was obtained with single VBL and single DOX injections. Such ascites contained the highest number of GCC (83.7%+9.2%), lowest cell count number (72.7+31.0 mln/ml), and a strong correlation coefficient between increased mitochondrial activity and percentage of giant NK/Ly cells. A high number of viable GCC (82.1+9.2%) was observed compared to the parental forms (15.4+11.9%) indicating that GCC are more drug resistant than the parental cells. All this indicates that the giant cell formation and its ability to obtain drug resistance is an expanding field in cancer research.

Keywords: ANOVA, cisplatin, doxorubicin, drug resistance, giant cancer cells, NK/Ly lymphoma, paclitaxel, vinblastine

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Authors: Peyman Mosberian-Tanha, Mona Rezaei

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Aquaculture sector is the fastest growing food sector with annual growth rate of about 10%. The sustainability of aquaculture production, however, has been debated mainly in relation to the feed ingredients used for farmed fish. The industry has been able to decrease its dependency on marine-based ingredients in line with policies for more sustainable production. As a result, plant-based ingredients have increasingly been incorporated in aquaculture feeds, especially in feeds for popular carnivorous species, salmonids. The effect of these ingredients on salmonids’ health and performance has been widely studied. In most cases, plant-based diets are associated with varying degrees of health and performance issues across salmonids, partly depending on inclusion levels of plant ingredients and the species in question. However, aquaculture sector is facing another challenge of concern. Environmental challenges in association with climate change is another issue the aquaculture sector must deal with. Data from trials in salmonids subjected to environmental challenges of various types show adverse physiological responses, partly in relation to stress. To date, there are only a limited number of studies reporting the interactive effects of adverse environmental conditions and dietary regimens on salmonids. These studies have shown that adverse environmental conditions exacerbate the detrimental effect of plant-based diets on digestive function and health in salmonids. This indicates an additional challenge for the aquaculture sector to grow in a sustainable manner. The adverse environmental conditions often studied in farmed fish is the change in certain water quality parameters such as oxygen and/or temperature that are typically altered in response to climate change and, more specifically, global warming. In a challenge study, we observed that the in the fish fed a plant-based diet, the fish’s ability to absorb dietary energy was further reduced when reared under low oxygen level. In addition, gut health in these fish was severely impaired. Some other studies also confirm the adverse effect of environmental challenge on fish’s gut health. These effects on the digestive function and gut health of salmonids may result in less resistance to diseases and weaker performance with significant economic and ethical implications. Overall, various findings indicate the multidimensional negative effects of climate change, as a major environmental issue, in different sectors, including aquaculture production. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of different ways to cope with climate change is essential for planning more sustainable strategies in aquaculture sector.

Keywords: aquaculture, climate change, sustainability, salmonids

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Authors: Matthew Sedgwick

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Introduction: Social media continues to grow in popularity and Instagram is one of the largest platforms available. It provides an invaluable method of communication between health care professionals and patients. Both patients and dentists can benefit from seeing clinical cases posted by other members of the profession. It can prompt discussion about how the outcome was achieved and showcases what is possible with the right techniques and planning. This study aimed to identify what people were posting about the topic ‘veneers’ and inform health care professionals as to what content had the most engagement and make recommendations as to how to improve the quality of social media posts. Design: 150 consecutive posts for the search term ‘veneers’ were analyzed retrospectively between 21st October 2021 to 31st October 2021. Non-English language posts duplicated posts, and posts not about dental veneers were excluded. After exclusions were applied, 80 posts were included in the study for analysis. The content of the posts was analyzed and coded and the main themes were identified. The number of comments, likes and views were also recorded for each post. Results: The themes were: before and after treatment, cost, dental training courses, treatment process and trial smiles. Dentists were the most common posters of content (82.5%) and it was interesting to note that there were no patients who posted about treatment in this sample. The main type of media was photographs (93.75%) compared to video (6.25%). Videos had an average of 45,541 views and more comments and likes than the average for photographs. The average number of comments and likes per post were 20.88 and 761.58, respectively. Conclusion: Before and after photographs were the most common finding as this is how dentists showcase their work. The study showed that videos showing the treatment process had more engagement than photographs. Dentists should consider making video posts showing the patient journey, including before and after veneer treatment, as this can result in more potential patients and colleagues viewing the content. Video content could help dentists distinguish their posts from others as it can also be used across other platforms such as TikTok or Facebook reaching a wider audience. More informative posts about how the result has shown are achieved required, including potential costs. This will help increase transparency regarding this treatment method, including the financial and potential biological cost to teeth. As a result, this will improve patient understanding and become an invaluable adjunct in informed consent.

Keywords: content analysis, dental veneers, Instagram, social media

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Authors: Protyoy Sen

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Heritage conservation often holds different meanings and values for different people. To a cultural or architectural body it might be about protecting relics of the past, while for an government body or corporate it might be the value of the real estate which generates profits in terms of hospitality, tourism or some form of trade. But often, a significant proportion of the built fabric in our cities comprises of what usually does not come under the common lenses of collective heritage or conservation i.e. private houses. Standing ode to a bygone era of different communities, trades and practices that once inhabited the city, old private houses of certain architectural or historic character face the gravest challenges of heritage conservation. These – despite being significant to the heritage fabric of a city – neither get the social attention nor the financial aid for repair and periodic maintenance, that many monuments and public buildings do. The situation in India is no different. Private residences belonging to affluent families of an earlier time, today lie in varying degrees of neglect and dilapidation. With the growth of nuclear families, drastic change in people’s and expensive repairs of historic material fabric (amongst other reasons), houses of heritage value often become liabilities, and metaphorical to a white elephant in a poor man’s backyard. In a capitalistic setup that values time and money over everything, it is not reasonable that one justifies the conservation of individual / family assets solely through architectural, historical or cultural values. It is quite logical them, that the houseowner – in most cases, a layperson – must be made to understand of both tangible and intangible values in order to (1) take the trouble of the effort, resources and aid (if possible) to repair and maintain a house of heritage character and, (2) choose to invest into a building that today might’ve lost its practical relevance, over demolishing and building new. The question that still remains is – Why? If heritage conservation is to be seen as an economically viable and realistic building activity, it must shed its image of being an ‘elitist, cultural pursuit’ in the eyes of the common person. Through contextual studies of historic areas in Ahmedabad and Calcutta, reading of theoretical pieces on the subject and conversations with multiple stakeholders, this study intended to justify the act of heritage conservation to the common person – one who is assumed to have no particular sensitivity towards architectural or cultural value, and rather questions what these buildings tangibly bring to the table. The theoretical frameworks (taken from literature) are then tested through actual case studies in Indian cities, followed by an elaborate inference on the subject.

Keywords: heritage values, heritage houses, private ownership, unprotected heritage

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Authors: J. Knight, E. Barberà

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Language learning strategies have been defined as thoughts and actions, consciously chosen and operationalized by language learners, to help them in carrying out a multiplicity of tasks from the very outset of learning to the most advanced levels of target language performance. While research in the field of Second Language Acquisition has focused on ‘good’ language learners, the effectiveness of strategy-use and orchestration by effective learners in face-to-face classrooms much less research has attended to learner strategies in online contexts, particular strategies in relation to technological tool use which can be part of a task design. In addition, much research on learner strategies and strategy use has been explored focusing on cognitive, attitudinal and metacognitive behaviour with less research focusing on the social aspect of strategies. This study focuses on how learners mediate with a technological tool designed to support synchronous spoken interaction and how this shape their spoken interaction in the opening of their talk. A case study approach is used incorporating notions from communities of practice theory to analyse and understand learner strategies of dyads carrying out a role play task. The study employs analysis of transcripts of spoken interaction in the openings of the talk along with log files of tool use. The study draws on results of previous studies pertaining to the same tool as a form of triangulation. Findings show how learners gain pre-task planning time through technological tool control. The strategies involving learners’ choices to enter and exit the tool shape their spoken interaction qualitatively, with some cases demonstrating long silences whilst others appearing to start the pedagogical task immediately. Who/what learners orientate to in the openings of the talk: an audience (i.e. the teacher), each other and/or screen-based signifiers in the opening moments of the talk also becomes a focus. The study highlights how tool use as a social practice should be considered a learning strategy in online contexts whereby different usages may be understood in the light of the more usual asynchronous social practices of the online community. The teachers’ role in the community is also problematised as the evaluator of the practices of that community. Results are pertinent for task design for synchronous speaking tasks. The use of community of practice theory supports an understanding of strategy use that involves both metacognition alongside social context revealing how tool-use strategies may need to be orally (socially) negotiated by learners and may also differ from an online language community.

Keywords: learner strategy, tool use, community of practice, speaking task

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Authors: Arto Grasten

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Given the rising trend in obesity in children and youth, age-related decline in moderate- to- vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) in several Western, African, and Asian countries in addition to limited evidence of behavioral, affective, cognitive outcomes in physical education, it is important to clarify the motivational processes in physical education classes behind total MVPA engagement. The present study examined the full sequence of the Hierarchical Model of Motivation in physical education including motivational climate, basic psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, contextual behavior, affect, cognition, total MVPA, and associated links to body mass index (BMI) and gender differences. A cross-sectional data comprised self-reports and objective assessments of 770 middle school students (Mage = 13.99 ± .81 years, 52% of girls) in North-East Finland. In order to test the associations between motivational climate, psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, cognition, behavior, affect, and total MVPA, a path model was implemented. Indirect effects between motivational climate and cognition, behavior, affect and total MVPA were tested by setting basic needs and intrinsic motivation as mediators into the model. The findings showed that direct and indirect paths for girls and boys associated with different contextual outcomes and girls’ indirect paths were not related with total MVPA. Precisely, task-involving climate-mediated by physical competence and intrinsic motivation related to enjoyment, importance, and graded assessments within girls, whereas task-involving climate associated with enjoyment and importance via competence and autonomy, and total MVPA via autonomy, intrinsic motivation, and importance within boys. Physical education assessments appeared to be essential in motivating students to participate in greater total MVPA. BMI was negatively linked with competence and relatedness only among girls. Although, the current and previous empirical findings supported task-involving teaching methods in physical education, in some cases, ego-involving climate should not be totally avoided. This may indicate that girls and boys perceive physical education classes in a different way. Therefore, both task- and ego-involving teaching practices can be useful ways of driving behavior in physical education classes.

Keywords: achievement goal theory, assessment, enjoyment, hierarchical model of motivation, physical activity, self-determination theory

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Authors: Moizza Tahir, Uzma Bashir, Aisha Akhtar, Zainab Ansari, Sameen Ansari, Muhammad Ali Tahir

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Cancer burden has globally increased. Among cutaneous cancers basal cell carcinoma constitute vast majority of skin cancer. There is need for appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic significance evaluation for skin cancers Present study report intraoperative frozen section (FS) histopathological clearance for excision of BCC in a tertiary care center and find the frequency of involvement of surgical margin with reference to anatomical site, with size and surgical technique. It was prospective open label interventional study conducted at Dermatology department of tertiary care hospital Rawalpindi Pakistan in lais on with histopathology department from January 2023 to April 2024. Total of thirty-six (n = 36) patients between age 45-80 years with basal cell carcinoma of 10-20mm on face were included following inclusion exclusion criteria by purposive sampling technique. Informed consent was taken. Surgical excision was performed and intraoperative frozen section histopathology clearance of tumor margin was taken from histopathologist on telephone. Surgical reconstruction was done. Final Histopathology report was reexamined on day 10th for margin and depth clearance. Descriptive statistics were calculated for age, gender, sun exposure, reconstructive technique, anatomical site, and tumor free margin report on frozen section analysis. Chi square test was employed for statistical significance of involvement of surgical margin with reference to anatomical site, size and decision on reconstructive surgical technique, p value of <0.05 was considered significant. Total of 36 patients of BCC were enrolled, males 12 (33.3%) and females were 24 (66.6%). Age ranged from 45 year to 80 year mean of 58.36 ±SD7.8. Size of BCC ranged from 10mm to 35mm mean of 25mm ±SD 0.63. Morphology was nodular 18 (50%), superficial spreading 11(30.6%), morphoeic 1 (2.8%) and ulcerative in 6(16.7%) cases. Intraoperative frozen section for histopathological margin clearance with 2-3 mm safety margin and surgical technique has p-value0.51, for anatomical site p value 0.24 and size p-0.84. Intraoperative frozen section (FS) histopathological clearance for BCC face with 2-3mm safety margin with reference to reconstructive technique, anatomical site and size of BCC were insignificant.

Keywords: basal cell carcinoma, tumor free amrgin, basal cell carcinoma and frozen section, safety margin

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Authors: Yulii D. Shikhmurzaev

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The modelling of the non-isothermal free-surface flows coupled with the solidification process has become the topic of intensive research with the advent of additive manufacturing, where complex 3-dimensional structures are produced by successive deposition and solidification of microscopic droplets of different materials. The issue is that both the spreading of liquids over solids and the propagation of the solidification front into the fluid and along the solid substrate pose fundamental difficulties for their mathematical modelling. The first of these processes, known as ‘dynamic wetting’, leads to the well-known ‘moving contact-line problem’ where, as shown recently both experimentally and theoretically, the contact angle formed by the free surfac with the solid substrate is not a function of the contact-line speed but is rather a functional of the flow field. The modelling of the propagating solidification front requires generalization of the classical Stefan problem, which would be able to describe the onset of the process and the non-equilibrium regime of solidification. Furthermore, given that both dynamic wetting and solification occur concurrently and interactively, they should be described within the same conceptual framework. The present work addresses this formidable problem and presents a mathematical model capable of describing the key element of additive manufacturing in a self-consistent and singularity-free way. The model is illustrated simple examples highlighting its main features. The main idea of the work is that both dynamic wetting and solidification, as well as some other fluid flows, are particular cases in a general class of flows where interfaces form and/or disappear. This conceptual framework allows one to derive a mathematical model from first principles using the methods of irreversible thermodynamics. Crucially, the interfaces are not considered as zero-mass entities introduced using Gibbsian ‘dividing surface’ but the 2-dimensional surface phases produced by the continuum limit in which the thickness of what physically is an interfacial layer vanishes, and its properties are characterized by ‘surface’ parameters (surface tension, surface density, etc). This approach allows for the mass exchange between the surface and bulk phases, which is the essence of the interface formation. As shown numerically, the onset of solidification is preceded by the pure interface formation stage, whilst the Stefan regime is the final stage where the temperature at the solidification front asymptotically approaches the solidification temperature. The developed model can also be applied to the flow with the substrate melting as well as a complex flow where both types of phase transition take place.

Keywords: dynamic wetting, interface formation, phase transition, solidification

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Authors: Janine Just, Kerstin Meints

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The research aims to compare vocabulary size and grammatical development between US American English- and British English-speaking children at age 2;0. As there is evidence that precocious children with large vocabularies develop grammar skills earlier than their typically developing peers, it was investigated if this also holds true across varieties of English. Thus, if US American children start to produce words earlier than their British counterparts, this could mean that US children are also at an advantage in the early developmental stages of acquiring grammar. This research employs a British English adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI Words and Sentences (Lincoln Toddler CDI) to compare vocabulary and also grammar scores with the updated US Toddler CDI norms. At first, the Lincoln TCDI was assessed for its concurrent validity with the Preschool Language Scale (PLS-5 UK). This showed high correlations for the vocabulary and grammar subscales between the tests. In addition, the frequency of the Toddler CDI’s words was also compared using American and British English corpora of adult spoken and written language. A paired-samples t-test found a significant difference in word frequency between the British and the American CDI demonstrating that the TCDI’s words were indeed of higher frequency in British English. We then compared language and grammar scores between US (N = 135) and British children (N = 96). A two-way between groups ANOVA examined if the two samples differed in terms of SES (i.e. maternal education) by investigating the impact of SES and country on vocabulary and sentence complexity. The two samples did not differ in terms of maternal education as the interaction effects between SES and country were not significant. In most cases, scores were not significantly different between US and British children, for example, for overall word production and most grammatical subscales (i.e. use of words, over- regularizations, complex sentences, word combinations). However, in-depth analysis showed that US children were significantly better than British children at using some noun categories (i.e. people, objects, places) and several categories marking early grammatical development (i.e. pronouns, prepositions, quantifiers, helping words). However, the effect sizes were small. Significant differences for grammar were found for irregular word forms and progressive tense suffixes. US children were more advanced in their use of these grammatical categories, but the effect sizes were small. In sum, while differences exist in terms of vocabulary and grammar ability, favouring US children, effect sizes were small. It can be concluded that most British children are ‘catching up’ with their US American peers at age 2;0. Implications of this research will be discussed.

Keywords: first language acquisition, grammar, parent report instrument, vocabulary

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Authors: Renata Hrecska

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This research seeks to fully examine the internal employment law of international organizations by comparing it with the characteristics of the national civil service. The aim of the research is to compare the legal system that has developed over many centuries and the relatively new internal staffing regulations to find out what solution schemes can help each other through mutual legal development in order to respond effectively to the social challenges of everyday life. Generally, the rules of civil service of any country or international entity have in common that they have, in their pragmatics inherently, the characteristic that makes them serving public interests. Though behind the common base there are many differences: there is the clear fragmentation of state regulation and the unity of organizational regulation. On the other hand, however, this difference disappears to some extent: the public service regulation of international organizations can be considered uniform until we examine it within, but not outside an organization. As soon as we compare the different organizations we may find many different solutions for staffing regulations. It is clear that the national civil service is a strong model for international organizations, but the question may be whether the staffing policy of international organizations can serve the national civil service as an example, too. In this respect, the easiest way to imagine a legislative environment would be to have a single comprehensive code, the general part of which is the Civil Service Act itself, and the specific part containing specific, necessarily differentiating rules for each layer of the civil service. Would it be advantageous to follow the footsteps of the leading international organizations, or is there any speciality in national level civil service that we cannot avoid during regulating processes? In addition to the above, the personal competencies of officials working in international organizations and public administrations also show a high degree of similarity, regardless of the type of employment. Thus, the whole public service system is characterized by the fundamental and special values that a person capable of holding a public office must be able to demonstrate, in some cases, even without special qualifications. It is also interesting how we can compare the two spheres of employment in light of the theory of Lawyer Louis Brandeis, a judge at the US Supreme Court, who formulated a complex theory of profession as distinguished from other occupations. From this point of view we can examine the continuous development of research and specialized knowledge at work; the community recognition and social status; that to what extent we can see a close-knit professional organization of altruistic philosophy; that how stability grows in the working conditions due to the stability of the profession; and that how the autonomy of the profession can prevail.

Keywords: civil service, comparative law, international organizations, regulatory systems

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Authors: Oya Isik, Filiz Yurtal, Kubilay Vursavus, Muge K. Davran, Metehan Celik, Munire Akgul, Olcay Karacan

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In this study, to discuss the causes and problems of women by bringing together different disciplines engaged in women's studies were aimed. Also, to solve these problems, to share information and experiences in different disciplines about women, and to reach the task areas and decision mechanisms in practice were other objectives. For this purpose, proceedings presented at the Second Congress of Women's Studies held in Adana, Turkey, on 28-30 November 2018 was evaluated. The document analysis model, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the evaluation of the congress proceedings. A total of 86 papers were presented in the congress and the topic distributions of the papers were determined. At the evaluation stage, the papers were classified according to their subjects and descriptive analyses were made on the papers. According to the analysis results of the papers presented in the congress, 64 % of the total 86 papers presented in the Congress were review-based and 36 % were research-based studies. When the distribution of these reports was examined based on subject, the biggest share with the rate of 34.9% (13 reviews and 17 research-based papers) has been studied on women's issues through sociology, psychology and philosophy. This was followed by the economy, employment, organization, and non-governmental organizations with 20.9% (9 reviews and nine research-based papers), arts and literature with 17.4% (15 reviews based papers) and law with 12.8% (11 reviews based papers). The lowest share of the congress was presented in politics with one review based paper (1.2%), health with two research-based paper (2.3%), history with two reviews based papers (2.3%), religion with two reviews and one research-based papers (3.5%) and media-communication with two compilations and two researches based papers (4.7%). In the papers categorized under main headings, women were examined in terms of gender and gender roles. According to the results, it was determined that discrimination against women continued, changes in-laws were not put into practice sufficiently, education and economic independence levels of women were insufficient, and violence against women continued increasingly. To eliminate all these problems and to make the society conscious, it was decided that scientific studies should be supported. Furthermore, support policies should be realized jointly for women and men to make women visible in public life, tolerance or mitigation should not be put forward for any reason or in any group in cases of harassment and assault against women. However, it has been determined that women in Turkey should be in a better position in the social, cultural, psychological, economic and educational areas, and future studies should be carried out to improve women's rights and to create a positive perspective.

Keywords: gender, gender roles, sociology, psychology and philosophy, women studies

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Authors: Sidra Suleman, Maliha Suleman, Stephen Brindley

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Oral rehabilitation of head and neck cancer patients plays a crucial role in the quality of life for such individuals post-treatment. Placement of dental implants or implant-retained prostheses can help restore oral function and aesthetics, which is often compromised following surgery. Conventional prosthodontic techniques can be insufficient in rehabilitating such patients due to their altered anatomy and reduced oral competence. Hence, there is a strong clinical need for the placement of dental implants. With an increasing incidence of head and neck cancer patients, the demand for such treatment is rising. Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the survival rate of dental implants in head and neck cancer patients placed at the Restorative and Maxillofacial Department, Royal Stoke University Hospital (RSUH), United Kingdom. Methodology: All patients who received dental implants between January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2020 were identified. Patients were excluded based on three criteria: 1) non-head and neck cancer patients, 2) no outpatient follow-up post-implant placement 3) provision of non-dental implants. Scanned paper notes and electronic records were extracted and analyzed. Implant survival was defined as fixtures that had remained in-situ / not required removal. Sample: Overall, 61 individuals were recruited from the 143 patients identified. The mean age was 64.9 years, with a range of 35 – 89 years. The sample included 37 (60.7%) males and 24 (39.3%) females. In total, 211 implants were placed, of which 40 (19.0%) were in the maxilla, 152 (72.0%) in the mandible and 19 (9.0%) in autogenous bone graft sites. Histologically 57 (93.4%) patients had squamous cell carcinoma, with 43 (70.5%) patients having either stage IVA or IVB disease. As part of treatment, 42 (68.9%) patients received radiotherapy, which was carried out post-operatively for 29 (69.0%) cases. Whereas 21 (34.4%) patients underwent chemotherapy, 13 (61.9%) of which were post-operative. The Median follow-up period was 21.9 months with a range from 0.9 – 91.4 months. During the study, 23 (37.7%) patients died and their data was censored beyond the date of death. Results: In total, four patients who had received radiotherapy had one implant failure each. Two mandibular implants failed secondary to osteoradionecrosis, and two maxillary implants did not survive as a result of failure to osseointegrate. The overall implant survival rates were 99.1% at three years and 98.1% at both 5 and 7 years. Conclusions: Although this data shows that implant failure rates are low, it highlights the difficulty in predicting which patients will be affected. Future studies involving larger cohorts are warranted to further analyze factors affecting outcomes.

Keywords: oncology, dental implants, survival, restorative

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Authors: Arzu Karahan, Loriano Ballarin, Baruch Rinkevich

Abstract:

Marine invertebrates, the highly diverse phyla of multicellular organisms, represent phenomena that are either not found or highly restricted in the vertebrates. These include phenomena like budding, fission, a fusion of ramets, and high regeneration power, such as the ability to create whole new organisms from either tiny parental fragment, many of which are controlled by totipotent, pluripotent, and multipotent stem cells. Thus, there is very much that can be learned from these organisms on the practical and evolutionary levels, further resembling Darwin's words, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”. The ‘stem cell’ notion highlights a cell that has the ability to continuously divide and differentiate into various progenitors and daughter cells. In vertebrates, adult stem cells are rare cells defined as lineage-restricted (multipotent at best) with tissue or organ-specific activities that are located in defined niches and further regulate the machinery of homeostasis, repair, and regeneration. They are usually categorized by their morphology, tissue of origin, plasticity, and potency. The above description not always holds when comparing the vertebrates with marine invertebrates’ stem cells that display wider ranges of plasticity and diversity at the taxonomic and the cellular levels. While marine/aquatic invertebrates stem cells (MISC) have recently raised more scientific interest, the know-how is still behind the attraction they deserve. MISC, not only are highly potent but, in many cases, are abundant (e.g., 1/3 of the entire animal cells), do not locate in permanent niches, participates in delayed-aging and whole-body regeneration phenomena, the knowledge of which can be clinically relevant. Moreover, they have massive hidden potential for the discovery of new bioactive molecules that can be used for human health (antitumor, antimicrobial) and biotechnology. The MARISTEM COST action (Stem Cells of Marine/Aquatic Invertebrates: From Basic Research to Innovative Applications) aims to connect the European fragmented MISC community. Under this scientific umbrella, the action conceptualizes the idea for adult stem cells that do not share many properties with the vertebrates’ stem cells, organizes meetings, summer schools, and workshops, stimulating young researchers, supplying technical and adviser support via short-term scientific studies, making new bridges between the MISC community and biomedical disciplines.

Keywords: aquatic/marine invertebrates, adult stem cell, regeneration, cell cultures, bioactive molecules

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Ece Cigdem Mutlu, Burak Alakent

Abstract:

Maintaining the quality of manufactured products at a desired level depends on the stability of process dispersion and location parameters and detection of perturbations in these parameters as promptly as possible. Shewhart control chart is the most widely used technique in statistical process monitoring to monitor the quality of products and control process mean and variability. In the application of Xbar control charts, sample standard deviation and sample mean are known to be the most efficient conventional estimators in determining process dispersion and location parameters, respectively, based on the assumption of independent and normally distributed datasets. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the real-world data would be normally distributed. In the cases of estimated process parameters from Phase I data clouded with outliers, efficiency of traditional estimators is significantly reduced, and performance of Xbar charts are undesirably low, e.g. occasional outliers in the rational subgroups in Phase I data set may considerably affect the sample mean and standard deviation, resulting a serious delay in detection of inferior products in Phase II. For more efficient application of control charts, it is required to use robust estimators against contaminations, which may exist in Phase I. In the current study, we present a simple approach to construct robust Xbar control charts using average distance to the median, Qn-estimator of scale, M-estimator of scale with logistic psi-function in the estimation of process dispersion parameter, and Harrell-Davis qth quantile estimator, Hodge-Lehmann estimator and M-estimator of location with Huber psi-function and logistic psi-function in the estimation of process location parameter. Phase I efficiency of proposed estimators and Phase II performance of Xbar charts constructed from these estimators are compared with the conventional mean and standard deviation statistics both under normality and against diffuse-localized and symmetric-asymmetric contaminations using 50,000 Monte Carlo simulations on MATLAB. Consequently, it is found that robust estimators yield parameter estimates with higher efficiency against all types of contaminations, and Xbar charts constructed using robust estimators have higher power in detecting disturbances, compared to conventional methods. Additionally, utilizing individuals charts to screen outlier subgroups and employing different combination of dispersion and location estimators on subgroups and individual observations are found to improve the performance of Xbar charts.

Keywords: average run length, M-estimators, quality control, robust estimators

Procedia PDF Downloads 175