Search results for: distance training

Authors: Nagore Guerra Bilbao, Clemente Lobato Fraile

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This paper outlines the design and development of the MENDEPRO questionnaire, designed to analyze mentoring performance within a professional development process carried out with professors at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. The study took into account the international research carried out over the past two decades into teachers' professional development, and was also based on a thorough review of the most common instruments used to identify and analyze mentoring styles, many of which fail to provide sufficient psychometric guarantees. The present study aimed to gather empirical data in order to verify the metric quality of the questionnaire developed. To this end, the process followed to validate the theoretical construct was as follows: The formulation of the items and indicators in accordance with the study variables; the analysis of the validity and reliability of the initial questionnaire; the review of the second version of the questionnaire and the definitive measurement instrument. Content was validated through the formal agreement and consensus of 12 university professor training experts. A reduced sample of professors who had participated in a lifelong learning program was then selected for a trial evaluation of the instrument developed. After the trial, 18 items were removed from the initial questionnaire. The final version of the instrument, comprising 33 items, was then administered to a sample group of 99 participants. The results revealed a five-dimensional structure matching theoretical expectations. Also, the reliability data for both the instrument as a whole (.98) and its various dimensions (between .91 and .97) were very high. The questionnaire was thus found to have satisfactory psychometric properties and can therefore be considered apt for studying the performance of mentoring in both induction programs for young professors and lifelong learning programs for senior faculty members.

Keywords: higher education, mentoring, professional development, university teaching

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Authors: Khader A. Almhdawi, Saddam F. Kanaan

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Background: Allied health (AH) students, including rehabilitation sciences students, are subjected to significant levels of physical and mental stressors, which could affect their education. This study aimed to study physical and mental of Health-related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) levels along with their predictors among students of nine AH majors. Methods: Students filled validated anonymous surveys covering demographics and life style, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS- 42). SF-12 Mental (MCS) and Physical (PCS) summary scores were compared between academic majors and gender. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to examine potential predictors of PCS and MCS scores. Results: 838 students (77.4% females) participated in this study. Participants’ PCS mean score was 45.64±7.93 and found statistically different between the nine academic majors (P < 0.001). Additionally, participants’’ MCS mean score was 39.45±10.86 and significantly greater in males (P < 0.001). Significant PCS scores predictors included hip and upper back musculoskeletal pain, anxiety score, diet self-evaluation, and GPA. Finally, MCS scores were statistically associated with neck musculoskeletal pain, stress score, depression score, number of weekly clinical training hours, gender, university year, GPA, sleep quality self-evaluation, and diet self-evaluation. Conclusion: Clinical educators of AH need to account for students’ low levels of HR-QoL and their academic-related, health-related, and lifestyle-related associated factors. More studies are recommended to investigate the progression of HR-QoL throughout university years and to create effective interventions to improve HR-QoL among healthcare students.

Keywords: medical education, quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression

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Authors: Moaawia Abdulgader Gdara

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En Naga sub - basin considered the most southern of the concessions in the Sirte Basin operated by HOO. En Naga Sub-basin has likely been point-sourced of CO₂ accumulations during the last 7 million years from local satellite intrusives associated with the Haruj Al Aswad igneous complex. CO₂ occurs in the En Naga Sub-basin as a result of the igneous activity of the Al Harouge Al Aswad complex. Igneous extrusives have been pierced in the subsurface and are exposed to the surface. The lower cretaceous Bahi Sandstone facies are recognized in the En Naga Sub-basin. In the Lower Cretaceous Bahi Sandstones, the presence of trapped carbon dioxide is proven within the En Naga Sub-basin. This makes it unique in providing an abundance of CO₂ gas reservoirs with almost pure magmatic CO₂, which can be easily sampled. Huge amounts of CO₂ exist in the Lower Cretaceous Bahi Sandstones in the En Naga sub-basin, where the economic value of CO₂ is related to its use for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Based on the production tests for the drilled wells that make Lower Cretaceous Bahi sandstones the principal reservoir rocks for CO₂ where large volumes of CO₂ gas have been discovered in the Bahi Formation on and near Concession 72 (En Naga sub-basin). The Bahi sandstones are generally described as a good reservoir rock. Intergranular porosities and permeabilities are highly variable and can exceed 25% and 100 MD. In the (En Naga sub-basin), three main developed structures (Barrut I, En Naga A, and En Naga O) are thought to be prospective for the lower Cretaceous Bahi sandstone reservoir. These structures represent a good example of the deep over-pressure potential in (the En Naga sub-basin). The very high pressures assumed to be associated with local igneous intrusives may account for the abnormally high Bahi (and Lidam) reservoir pressures. The best gas tests from these facies are at F1-72 on the (Barrut I structure) from part of a 458 feet+ section having an estimated high value of CO₂ as 98% overpressured. Bahi CO₂ prospectivity is thought to be excellent in the central to western areas where At U1-72 (En Naga O structure). A significant CO₂ gas kick occurred at 11,971 feet and quickly led to blowout conditions due to uncontrollable leaks in the surface equipment, which reflects better reservoir quality sandstones associated with Paleostructural highs. Condensate and gas prospectivity increases to the east as the CO₂ prospectivity decreases with distance away from the Al Haruj Al Aswad igneous complex. To date, it has not been possible to accurately determine the volume of these strategically valuable reserves, although there are positive indications that they are very large.

Keywords: En Naga Sub Basin, Al Harouge Al Aswad, CO₂ generation and migration in the Bahi sandstone reservoir, lower cretaceous Bahi sandstone

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Authors: Tomas O. Ortega, Cecilia T. Reyes, Cecile O. Legaspi, Cylde G. Abayon, Anna Mae C. Relingo, Mary Eden M. Teruel

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A study was conducted to evaluate the performance in the delivery of environmental management programs of the local government of Malay, Aklan, Philippines. The samples were determined by adopting the Multi-Stage Random Probability Sampling technique. The 150 respondents were drawn from barangays with larger shares of the population based on the Philippine Statistical Authority’s Data on Census Population and Housing for the year 2015. The qualified sample respondents were selected using the Kish Grid. Female respondents were targeted for even numbered questionnaires while male respondents were targeted for odd numbers. The four major core concepts namely awareness, availment, satisfaction and need for action were used in measuring the rating of the respondents and presented in frequency and percentage distributions. The reasons for their response were likewise gathered. The study inferred that a large portion of the respondents was profoundly aware of the environmental management programs implemented by their local government unit especially the solid waste management and the clean-up programs/projects. Programs to control air pollution and waste water management obtained the least awareness ratings from the respondents. A high percentage of respondents had availed of environmental management programs, particularly solid waste management. Overall, majority of the respondents were satisfied with the environmental management programs rendered by the local government unit and therefore needs less action. It is recommended that the local government unit must strengthen air pollution control program. Appropriate action must be taken to support the people’s interest in this program most particularly to the individuals who burn their garbage. Seminars and training-workshops about appropriate waste disposal will most likely help settle this issue.

Keywords: availment, awareness, environmental management, need for action, satisfaction

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Authors: Jung-Il Kang, Jeon Eon Park, Yu-Jin Moon, Young-Seok Ahn, Eun-Sook Yoo, Hee-Kyoung Kang

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Undariopsis peterseniana, a seaweed native to Jeju Island, Korea, on the growth of hair. The dermal papilla cells (DPCs) have known to regulate hair growth cycle and length of hair follicle through interact with epithelial cells. When immortalized vibrissa DPCs were treated with the U. peterseniana extract, the U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the proliferation of DPCs. The effect of U. peterseniana extract on the growth of vibrissa follicles was also examined. U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the hair-fiber lengths of the vibrissa follicles. Hair loss is partly caused by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) binding to androgen receptor in hair follicles, and the inhibition of 5α-reductase activity can prevent hair loss through the decrease of DHT level. The U. peterseniana extract inhibited 5α-reductase activity. Minoxidil, a potent hair-growth agent, can induce proliferation in NIH3T3 fibroblasts by opening KATP channels. We thus examined the proliferative effects of U. peterseniana extract in NIH3T3 fibroblasts. U. peterseniana extract significantly increased the proliferation of NIH3T3 fibroblasts. Tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA), a K+ channel blocker, inhibited U. peterseniana-induced proliferation in NIH3T3 fibroblasts. These results suggest that U. peterseniana could have the potential to treat alopecia through the proliferation of DPCs, the inhibition of 5α-reductase activity and the opening of KATP channels. [Acknowledgement] This research was supported by The Leading Human Resource Training Program of Regional Neo industry through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning (2016H1D5A1908786).

Keywords: hair growth, Undariopsis peterseniana, vibrissa follicles, dermal papilla cells, 5α-reductase, KATP channels

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Authors: T. Obateru, Samuel Olaniran

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In an era when the new media is affording easy access to packaging and dissemination of information, the social media have become a popular avenue for sharing information for good or ill. It is evident that the traditional role of journalists as ‘news breakers’ is fast being eroded. People now share information on happenings via the social media like Facebook, Twitter and the rest, such that journalists themselves now get leads on happenings from such sources. Beyond the access to information provided by the new media is the erosion of the gatekeeping role of journalists who by their training and calling, are supposed to handle information with responsibility. Thus, sensitive information that journalists would normally filter is randomly shared by social media activists. This was the experience of journalists in Jos, Plateau State in January 2010 when another of the recurring ethnoreligious crisis that engulfed the state resulted in another widespread killing, vandalism, looting, and displacements. Considered as one of the high points of crises in the state, journalists who had the duty of covering the crisis also relied on some of these sources to get their bearing on the violence. This paper examined the role of Facebook in the work of journalists who covered the 2010 crisis. Taking the gatekeeping perspective, it interrogated the extent to which Facebook impacted their professional duty positively or negatively vis-à-vis the peace journalism model. It employed survey to elicit information from 50 journalists who covered the crisis using questionnaire as instrument. The paper revealed that the dissemination of hate information via mobile phones and social media, especially Facebook, aggravated the crisis situation. Journalists became news followers rather than news breakers because a lot of them were put on their toes by information (many of which were inaccurate or false) circulated on Facebook. It recommended that journalists must remain true to their calling by upholding their ‘gatekeeping’ role of disseminating only accurate and responsible information if they would remain the main source of credible information on which their audience rely.

Keywords: crisis, ethnoreligious, Facebook, journalists

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Authors: Xiaobo Rui, Zhoumo Zeng, Yibo Li

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A novel tri-cantilever energy harvester with magnetic oscillator was presented, which could convert the ambient vibration into electrical energy to power the low-power devices such as wireless sensor networks. The most common way to harvest vibration energy is based on the use of linear resonant devices such as cantilever beam, since this structure creates the highest strain for a given force. The highest efficiency will be achieved when the resonance frequency of the harvester matches the vibration frequency. The limitation of the structure is the narrow effective bandwidth. To overcome this limitation, this article introduces a broadband tri-cantilever harvester with nonlinear stiffness. This energy harvester typically consists of three thin cantilever beams vertically arranged with Neodymium Magnets ( NdFeB)magnetics at its free end and a fixed base at the other end. The three cantilevers have different resonant frequencies by designed in different thicknesses. It is obviously that a similar advantage of multiple resonant frequencies as piezoelectric cantilevers array structure is built. To achieve broadband energy harvesting, magnetic interaction is used to introduce the nonlinear system stiffness to tune the resonant frequency to match the excitation. Since the three cantilever tips are all free and the magnetic force is distance dependent, the resonant frequencies will be complexly changed with the vertical vibration of the free end. Both model and experiment are built. The electromechanically coupled lumped-parameter model is presented. An electromechanical formulation and analytical expressions for the coupled nonlinear vibration response and voltage response are given. The entire structure is fabricated and mechanically attached to a electromagnetic shaker as a vibrating body via the fixed base, in order to couple the vibrations to the cantilever. The cantilevers are bonded with piezoelectric macro-fiber composite (MFC) materials (Model: M8514P2). The size of the cantilevers is 120*20mm2 and the thicknesses are separately 1mm, 0.8mm, 0.6mm. The prototype generator has a measured performance of 160.98 mW effective electrical power and 7.93 DC output voltage via the excitation level of 10m/s2. The 130% increase in the operating bandwidth is achieved. This device is promising to support low-power devices, peer-to-peer wireless nodes, and small-scale wireless sensor networks in ambient vibration environment.

Keywords: tri-cantilever, ambient vibration, energy harvesting, magnetic oscillator

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Authors: Mohammed Seid, Aklilu Azazh, Fikre Enquselassie, Engida Yisma

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Background: Road traffic injuries are the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the leading cause of death for young people. More than a million people die each year on the world’s roads, and the risk of dying as a result of a road traffic injury is highest in the Africa. Methods: A prospective hospital-based study was undertaken to assess injury characteristics and outcome of road traffic accident among victims at Adult Emergency Department of Tikur Anbesa specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A structured pre-tested questionnaire was used to gather the required data. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: A total of 230 road traffic accident victims were studied. The majority of the study subjects were men 165 (71.7%) and the male/female ratio was 2.6:1. The victims’ ages ranged from 14 to 80 years with the mean and standard deviations of 32.15 and ± 14.38 years respectively. Daily laborers (95 (41.3%)) and students (28 (12.2%)) were the majority of road traffic accident victims. Long-distance travelling Minibus (16.5%) was responsible for the majority of road traffic crash followed by followed by Taxi (14.8%) and pedestrians (62.6%) accounted for the majority of road traffic accident. Head (50.4%) and musculoskeletal (extremities) (47.0%) were the most common body region injured. Fractures (78.0%) and open wounds (56.5%) were the most common type of injuries sustained. Treatment of fracture was the most common procedure performed in 57.7 % of the victims. The overall length of hospital stay (LOS) ranged from 1 day to 61 days with mean (± standard deviation) of 7.12 ± 10.5 days and the mortality rate was 7.4 %. A significant higher proportion of victims aged 14-55 years were had less likelihood of death compared to those victims aged more than 55 years of age [Adjusted OR = 0.1 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.82)]. Conclusions: This study showed diverse injury characteristics and high morbidity and mortality among the victims attending Adult Emergency Department of Tikur Anbesa specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The findings reflect that road traffic accident is a major public health problem. Urgent road traffic accident preventive measures and prompt treatment of the victims are warranted in order to reduce morbidity and mortality among the victims.

Keywords: road traffic accident, injury characteristics, outcome, Tikur Anbesa specialized hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Authors: Ava Zarif Sanayei, Sedigheh Sina

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Despite the advancement of radiation-free interventions in the gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary fields, endoscopy and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) remain indispensable procedures that necessitate radiation exposure. ERCP, in particular, relies heavily on radiation-guided imaging to ensure precise delivery of therapy. Meanwhile, interventional radiology (IR) procedures also utilize imaging modalities like X-rays and CT scans to guide therapy, often under local anesthesia via small needle insertion. However, the complexity of these procedures raises concerns about radiation exposure to healthcare professionals, including nurses, who play a crucial role in these interventions. This study aims to assess the radiation exposure to the hands and fingers of nurses 1 and 2, who are directly involved in ERCP procedures utilizing (TLD-100) dosimeters at the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy department of a clinic in Shiraz, Iran. The dosimeters were initially calibrated using various phantoms and then a group was prepared and used over a two-month period. For personal equivalent dose measurement, two TLD chips were mounted on a finger ring to monitor exposure to the hands and fingers. Upon completion of the monitoring period, the TLDs were analyzed using a TLD reader, showing that Nurse 1 received an equivalent dose of 298.26 µSv and Nurse 2 received an equivalent dose of 195.39 µSv. The investigation revealed that the total radiation exposure to the nurses did not exceed the annual limit for occupational exposure. Nevertheless, it is essential to prioritize radiation protection measures to prevent potential harm. The study showed that positioning staff members and placing two nurses in a specific location contributed to somehow equal doses. To reduce exposure further, we suggest providing education and training on radiation safety principles, particularly for technologists.

Keywords: dose measurement, ERCP, interventional radiology, medical imaging

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Authors: Kalpeshkumar L. Gupta, Shivali Rathore

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India is home to over 30 crore rural poor, aware of the criticality of the situation that has made to come with an innovative business idea. Entrepreneurship in India is on the verge of explosive growth and which is actually need of an hour for employment generation, poverty elevation at grass root through developmental intervention. India economic progress has started from the development of its small and medium scale enterprises to ensure that the sectors continues to stay competitive and achieve sustained growth in the era of global economy many incubators centers has been established with the mission to give the encouragement to many innovative ideas. If we define an Incubator, it is simply an enclosed apparatus in which premature small babies are placed and which provides a controlled and protective environment for their care this gives them a chance to adjust to outside environment, and grow stronger before they face the outside world. In a similar way the startup entrepreneur’s business idea is incubated in the incubation centers. Entrepreneurship has been conventionally rated as risky career, to break the myth and to augment the supply of new entrepreneurs through education; research training the incubation centers has been established, their goal is to help create and grow young businesses by providing them with necessary support and financial and technical services. The startup companies spend on an average two years in a business incubator during which numerous benefits like funding, office space, equipment’s etc. is provided by the incubators to the startup business. Present paper will study the background, role, objectives of different incubators set up in Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) for our study.

Keywords: incubation centres, entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology

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Authors: Ibrahim Magaji

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WhatsApp messaging platform brings about new opportunities for users to participate in unique storytelling experiences and audience engagement, particularly to Students of Mass communication who receive training to report events and issues accurately and objectively in accordance with official controls. Also, the complex nature of society today made it possible to use the WhatsApp platform that revolutionizes the means of sharing information, ideas, and experiences. This paper examined the WhatsApp messaging platform and how it influenced the academic performance of students in the Department of Mass Communication, Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara. It used in-depth interview techniques and focus group discussion with students, as well as the use of published materials as well as unpublished materials to gather related and relevant data. Also, the paper used procedures involved to analyze long interview content. This procedure includes observation of a useful utterance, development of expanded observation, the examination of the interconnection of observed comments, collective scrutiny of observation for patterns and themes, and review and analysis of the themes across all interviews for development of the thesis. The result revealed that the majority of students used WhatsApp messenger for making friends and chatting. Also, the students experienced negative effects such as poor grammar and spelling, less study time, and poor academic performance because of active participation in the use of WhatsApp messaging platform. Surprisingly, there was a high addiction rate among students in the usage of WhatsApp messenger. However, other students experienced an improvement in their readings skills as a result of participation in the use of the platform. Also, students shared ideas, discussed, and shared examination questions among themselves on WhatsApp messenger.

Keywords: WhatsApp messenger, students, participation, group

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Authors: K. Al Ammari, B. G. Clarke

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Soil improvement using vibro stone column techniques consists of two main parts: (1) the installed load bearing columns of well-compacted, coarse-grained material and (2) the improvements to the surrounding soil due to vibro compaction. Extensive research work has been carried out over the last 20 years to understand the improvement in the composite foundation performance due to the second part mentioned above. Nevertheless, few of these studies have tried to quantify some of the key design parameters, namely the changes in the stiffness and stress state of the treated soil, or have consider these parameters in the design and calculation process. Consequently, empirical and conservative design methods are still being used by ground improvement companies with a significant variety of results in engineering practice. Two-dimensional finite element study to develop an axisymmetric model of a single stone column reinforced foundation was performed using PLAXIS 2D AE to quantify the effect of the vibro installation of this column in soft saturated clay. Settlement and bearing performance were studied as an essential part of the design and calculation of the stone column foundation. Particular attention was paid to the large deformation in the soft clay around the installed column caused by the lateral expansion. So updated mesh advanced option was taken in the analysis. In this analysis, different degrees of stone column lateral expansions were simulated and numerically analyzed, and then the changes in the stress state, stiffness, settlement performance and bearing capacity were quantified. It was found that application of radial expansion will produce a horizontal stress in the soft clay mass that gradually decrease as the distance from the stone column axis increases. The excess pore pressure due to the undrained conditions starts to dissipate immediately after finishing the column installation, allowing the horizontal stress to relax. Changes in the coefficient of the lateral earth pressure K ٭, which is very important in representing the stress state, and the new stiffness distribution in the reinforced clay mass, were estimated. More encouraging results showed that increasing the expansion during column installation has a noticeable effect on improving the bearing capacity and reducing the settlement of reinforced ground, So, a design method should include this significant effect of the applied lateral displacement during the stone column instillation in simulation and numerical analysis design.

Keywords: bearing capacity, design, installation, numerical analysis, settlement, stone column

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Authors: Foster Chilufya

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This study sought to determine factors that affect academic performance of mature age students in Science Education at University of Zambia. It was guided by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The theory provided relationship between achievement motivation and academic performance. A descriptive research design was used. Both Qualitative and Quantitative research methods were used to collect data from 88 respondents. Simple random and purposive sampling procedures were used to collect from the respondents. Concerning factors that motivate mature-age students to choose Science Education Programs, the following were cited: need for self-actualization, acquisition of new knowledge, encouragement from friends and family members, good performance at high school and diploma level, love for the sciences, prestige and desire to be promoted at places of work. As regards factors that affected the academic performance of mature-age students, both negative and positive factors were identified. These included: demographic factors such as age and gender, psychological characteristics such as motivation and preparedness to learn, self-set goals, self esteem, ability, confidence and persistence, student prior academic performance at high school and college level, social factors, institutional factors and the outcomes of the learning process. In order to address the factors that negatively affect academic performance of mature-age students, the following measures were identified: encouraging group discussions, encouraging interactive learning process, providing a conducive learning environment, reviewing Science Education curriculum and providing adequate learning materials. Based on these factors, it is recommended that, the School of Education introduces a program in Science Education specifically for students training to be teachers of science. Additionally, introduce majors in Physics Education, Biology Education, Chemistry Education and Mathematics Education relevant to what is taught in high schools.

Keywords: academic, performance, in-service, science

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Authors: Yarra Sulina, Nunna Tagore Sai Priya, Ankhi Banerjee

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With the rapid growth in tourist arrivals, there has been a huge demand for the growth of infrastructure in the destinations. With the increasing preference of tourists to stay near attractions, there has been a considerable change in the land use around tourist sites. However, with the inclusion of certain regulations and guidelines provided by the authorities based on the nature of tourism activity and geographical constraints, the pattern of growth of built form is different for various tourist sites. Therefore, this study explores the patterns of growth of built-up for a decade from 2009 to 2019 through two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis. Land use maps are created through supervised classification of satellite images obtained from LANDSAT 4-5 and LANDSAT 8 for 2009 and 2019, respectively. The overall expansion of the built-up area in the region is analyzed in relation to the distance from the city's geographical center and the tourism-related growth regions are identified which are influenced by the proximity of tourist attractions. The primary tourist sites of various destinations with different geographical characteristics and tourism activities, that have undergone a significant increase in built-up area and are occupied with tourism-related infrastructure are selected for further study. Proximity analysis of the tourism-related growth sites is carried out to delineate the influence zone of the tourist site in a destination. Further, a temporal analysis of volumetric growth of built form is carried out to understand the morphology of the tourist precincts over time. The Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) are used to extract the building footprints along with building height. Factors such as building height, and building density are evaluated to understand the patterns of three-dimensional growth of the built area in the region. The study also explores the underlying reasons for such changes in built form around various tourist sites and predicts the impact of such growth patterns in the region. The building height and building density around tourist site creates a huge impact on the appeal of the destination. The surroundings that are incompatible with the theme of the tourist site have a negative impact on the attractiveness of the destination that leads to negative feedback by the tourists, which is not a sustainable form of development. Therefore, proper spatial measures are necessary in terms of area and volume of the built environment for a healthy and sustainable environment around the tourist sites in the destination.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, growth patterns, land-use changes, 3-dimensional analysis of built-up area

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Authors: H. Abas Nejad, A. R. Teymoori

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Facial expression recognition is one of the open problems in computer vision. Robust neutral face recognition in real time is a major challenge for various supervised learning based facial expression recognition methods. This is due to the fact that supervised methods cannot accommodate all appearance variability across the faces with respect to race, pose, lighting, facial biases, etc. in the limited amount of training data. Moreover, processing each and every frame to classify emotions is not required, as the user stays neutral for the majority of the time in usual applications like video chat or photo album/web browsing. Detecting neutral state at an early stage, thereby bypassing those frames from emotion classification would save the computational power. In this work, we propose a light-weight neutral vs. emotion classification engine, which acts as a preprocessor to the traditional supervised emotion classification approaches. It dynamically learns neutral appearance at Key Emotion (KE) points using a textural statistical model, constructed by a set of reference neutral frames for each user. The proposed method is made robust to various types of user head motions by accounting for affine distortions based on a textural statistical model. Robustness to dynamic shift of KE points is achieved by evaluating the similarities on a subset of neighborhood patches around each KE point using the prior information regarding the directionality of specific facial action units acting on the respective KE point. The proposed method, as a result, improves ER accuracy and simultaneously reduces the computational complexity of ER system, as validated on multiple databases.

Keywords: neutral vs. emotion classification, Constrained Local Model, procrustes analysis, Local Binary Pattern Histogram, statistical model

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Authors: Antonella Poce, Deborah Seid Howes, Maria Rosaria Re, Mara Valente

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The Creative Industries education contexts, Museum Education in particular, generally presents a low emphasis on the use of new digital technologies, digital abilities and transversal skills development. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of these abilities and skills in cultural heritage education contexts: gaining digital skills, museum professionals will improve their career opportunities with access to new distribution markets through internet access and e-commerce, new entrepreneurial tools, or adding new forms of digital expression to their work. However, the use of web, mobile, social, and analytical tools is becoming more and more essential in the Heritage field, and museums, in particular, to face the challenges posed by the current worldwide health emergency. Recent studies highlight the need for stronger partnerships between the cultural and creative sectors, social partners and education and training providers in order to provide these sectors with the combination of skills needed for creative entrepreneurship in a rapidly changing environment. Considering the above conditions, the paper presents different examples of digital learning experiences carried out in Italian and USA contexts with the aim of promoting digital skills in museum professionals. In particular, a quali-quantitative research study has been conducted on two international Postgraduate courses, “Advanced Studies in Museum Education” (2 years) and “Museum Education” (1 year), in order to identify the educational effectiveness of the online learning strategies used (e.g., OBL, Digital Storytelling, peer evaluation) for the development of digital skills and the acquisition of specific content. More than 50 museum professionals participating in the mentioned educational pathways took part in the learning activity, providing evaluation data useful for research purposes.

Keywords: digital skills, museum professionals, technology, education

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Authors: Hamed K. Esfahani, Bithin Datta

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Transport of reactive chemical contaminant species in groundwater aquifers is a complex and highly non-linear physical and geochemical process especially for real life scenarios. Simulating this transport process involves solving complex nonlinear equations and generally requires huge computational time for a given aquifer study area. Development of optimal remediation strategies in aquifers may require repeated solution of such complex numerical simulation models. To overcome this computational limitation and improve the computational feasibility of large number of repeated simulations, Genetic Programming based trained surrogate models are developed to approximately simulate such complex transport processes. Transport process of acid mine drainage, a hazardous pollutant is first simulated using a numerical simulated model: HYDROGEOCHEM 5.0 for a contaminated aquifer in a historic mine site. Simulation model solution results for an illustrative contaminated aquifer site is then approximated by training and testing a Genetic Programming (GP) based surrogate model. Performance evaluation of the ensemble GP models as surrogate models for the reactive species transport in groundwater demonstrates the feasibility of its use and the associated computational advantages. The results show the efficiency and feasibility of using ensemble GP surrogate models as approximate simulators of complex hydrogeologic and geochemical processes in a contaminated groundwater aquifer incorporating uncertainties in historic mine site.

Keywords: geochemical transport simulation, acid mine drainage, surrogate models, ensemble genetic programming, contaminated aquifers, mine sites

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Authors: Maria Rodriguez-Gazquez, Sara Chaparro-Hernandez, Jose Rafael Gonzalez-Lopez

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Introduction: Nurses are models in healthy behaviors for their patients. This is why it is important for these professionals to not only have a good knowledge of healthy behaviors but also practice. Today’s nursing students will be tomorrow’s professionals and to fulfill their role in caring they not only need knowledge, they also must maintain behaviors which enable them to improve and protect both the health of others and their own. This is why the university is a unique environment of opportunities to foster the maximum potential of health. To care for others we first have to take care of ourselves. It is important for these behaviors in Nursing students to be evaluated during the years of their university education in order to design timely interventions which improve the health behaviors of the future professionals. Aim: The objective of this study was to evaluate the lifestyles of first year nursing students of two Universities. Methodology: Cross-sectional study. In 2014, 140 first year Nursing students of two Universities Seville –US- (Spain -Europe, n=37) and Antioquia –UA- (Colombia -South America, n=93) self-reported the FANTASTIC Lifestyle checklist. Results: Findings reveal that (I) UA students doubled the percentage of dangerous or bad lifestyles with respect to the US students, (II) the lifestyles are not appropriate in 1 of 3 of nursing students in both Universities, (II) there are statistically significant differences for family support items (higher in US), positive thinkers (higher in UA), the use of safety belts and alcohol consumption before driving (higher in US). Discussion: The nursing students are mostly young people who are at a stage in which some of the most important behaviors for adult life can still be molded. It is necessary to develop educational interventions in their Nursing curricula to strengthen healthy behaviours during training. Nursing Schools not only have the duty to train professionals, but to also be agents that foster the health, welfare and quality of those who study and work there. It must encourage knowledge and skills oriented to healthy lifestyles.

Keywords: cross-sectional studies, life style, nursing students, questionnaires

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Authors: Tuğçe Kiper Elibol, İbrahim Uslan, Mehmet Ali Guler, Murat Buyuk, Uğur Yolum

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According to the FAA report, 142603 bird strikes were reported for a period of 24 years, between 1990 – 2013. Bird strike with aerospace structures not only threaten the flight security but also cause financial loss and puts life in danger. The statistics show that most of the bird strikes are happening with the nose and the leading edge of the wings. Also, a substantial amount of bird strikes is absorbed by the jet engines and causes damage on blades and engine body. Crash proof designs are required to overcome the possibility of catastrophic failure of the airplane. Using computational methods for bird strike analysis during the product development phase has considerable importance in terms of cost saving. Clearly, using simulation techniques to reduce the number of reference tests can dramatically affect the total cost of an aircraft, where for bird strike often full-scale tests are considered. Therefore, development of validated numerical models is required that can replace preliminary tests and accelerate the design cycle. In this study, to verify the simulation parameters for a bird strike analysis, several different numerical options are studied for an impact case against a primitive structure. Then, a representative bird mode is generated with the verified parameters and collided against the leading edge of a training aircraft wing, where each structural member of the wing was explicitly modeled. A nonlinear explicit dynamics finite element code, LS-DYNA was used for the bird impact simulations. SPH methodology was used to model the behavior of the bird. Dynamic behavior of the wing superstructure was observed and will be used for further design optimization purposes.

Keywords: bird impact, bird strike, finite element modeling, smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: S. Surapa Raju

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In Andhra Pradesh, the symptoms of climate variations in coastal villages can be observed from various studies. The Andhra Pradesh coast is known its frequent tropical cyclones and associated floods and tidal surges causing loss of life and property in the region. In the last decade alone, the state experienced 18 devastating storms causing huge loss to coastal people. The year 2007 was the fourth warmest year on record since 1901 and 2009 witnessed the heat wave conditions prevailing over the coastal Andhra Pradesh. With regarding to sea level rise (SLR), 43 percent of the coastal areas considered to be at high risk. The main objectives of the study are: to know the perceptions of fisher people on climate variations and to find out the awareness of the fisher people on climate variations and its effects at village and on fishing households. Altogether 150 households were chosen purposively for this study and collected information from the households based on semi-structured schedule. The present field-based study observed that most of the fisher people are experienced about the changes in climate variations in their villages. The first generation fisher people expressed that the at least 1/2km of sea erosion taken place from the last 20 years and most of them displaced. With regard to fishing activities, first generation fisher people revealed that 20 years back they were fishing in near-shore areas, but now availability of near shore is decreased at a large extent. The present study observed the lot of variations in growth of species in marine districts of Andhra Pradesh from the year 2005-2010. Some species like Silver pomfret, Sole (flat fish), Chriocentrus, Thrisocies, Stakes, Rays etc. are in decaling. The results of the study indicate that huge variation observed in growth rates of fish species. Small and traditional fishers have drastically effected in El NiNo years than the normal years as they have not own suitable equipment such as crafts and nets. The study discovered that many changes taken place in the fishing activities and they are: go for long distance for fishing which increases the cost of fishing operations; decrease in fish catches. Need to take up in-depth studies in the marine villages and tackle the situation by creating more awareness about the negative effects of climate variations among fishing households. Suitable fish craft technology is to be supplied and create more employment opportunities for the fishers in other than fishery.

Keywords: climate, Andhra Pradesh, El nino years, India

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Pisut Boonkaew, Jatuporn Thongsri

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In hard disk drive manufacturing industry, the process of reducing an unnecessary part and qualifying the quality of part before assembling is important. Thus, clamp was designed and fabricated as a fixture for holding in testing process. Basically, testing by trial and error consumes a long time to improve. Consequently, the simulation was brought to improve the part and reduce the time taken. The problem is the present clamp has a low life expectancy because of the critical stress that occurred. Hence, the simulation was brought to study the behavior of stress and compressive force to improve the clamp expectancy with all probability of designs which are present up to 27 designs, which excluding the repeated designs. The probability was calculated followed by the full fractional rules of six sigma methodology which was provided correctly. The six sigma methodology is a well-structured method for improving quality level by detecting and reducing the variability of the process. Therefore, the defective will be decreased while the process capability increasing. This research focuses on the methodology of stress and fatigue reduction while compressive force still remains in the acceptable range that has been set by the company. In the simulation, ANSYS simulates the 3D CAD with the same condition during the experiment. Then the force at each distance started from 0.01 to 0.1 mm will be recorded. The setting in ANSYS was verified by mesh convergence methodology and compared the percentage error with the experimental result; the error must not exceed the acceptable range. Therefore, the improved process focuses on degree, radius, and length that will reduce stress and still remain in the acceptable force number. Therefore, the fatigue analysis will be brought as the next process in order to guarantee that the lifetime will be extended by simulating through ANSYS simulation program. Not only to simulate it, but also to confirm the setting by comparing with the actual clamp in order to observe the different of fatigue between both designs. This brings the life time improvement up to 57% compared with the actual clamp in the manufacturing. This study provides a precise and trustable setting enough to be set as a reference methodology for the future design. Because of the combination and adaptation from the six sigma method, finite element, fatigue and linear regressive analysis that lead to accurate calculation, this project will able to save up to 60 million dollars annually.

Keywords: clamp, finite element analysis, structural, six sigma, linear regressive analysis, fatigue analysis, probability

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Rebecca Haythorne

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Background: Agendas continuously emphasise the need to increase work based training and opportunities for individuals with learning disabilities. However research and statistics suggest that there is still significant stigma and stereotypes as to what they can contribute, or gain from being part of the working environment. Method: To tackles some of these prejudices an Occupational Therapy based intervention was developed for learning disability service users working at a social enterprise farm. The intervention aimed to increase positive public perception around individual capabilities and encourage individuals with learning disabilities to take ownership and be proud of their individual personhood and citizenship. This was achieved by using components of the Model of Human Occupation to tailor the intervention to individual values, skills and working contributions. The final project involved making creative wall art for public viewing, focusing on 'who works there and what they do'. This was accompanied by a visitor information guide, allowing individuals to tell visitors about themselves, the work they do and why it is meaningful to them. Outcomes: The intervention has helped to increased metal well-being and confidence of learning disability service users “people will know I work here now” and “I now have something to show my family about the work I do at the farm”. The intervention has also increased positive public perception and community awareness “you can really see the effort that’s gone into doing this” and “it’s a really visual experience to see people you don’t expect to see doing this type of work”. Resources left behind have further supported individuals to take ownership in creating more wall art to be sold at the farm shop. Conclusion: the intervention developed has helped to improve mental well-being of both service users and staff and improve community awareness. Due to this, the farm has decided to roll out the intervention to other areas of the social enterprise and is considering having more Occupational Therapy involvement in the future.

Keywords: citizenship, intervention, occupational therapy, personhood

Procedia PDF Downloads 473

Authors: B. E. Adeyanju, M. K. Bolade, V. N. Enijuigha

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This work examined the nutritional composition of maize-based snack (kango) fortified with kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and alligator pepper (Aframomum melegueta). The snack is essentially traditional food being consumed by all ages in the southwestern part of Nigeria. Three varieties of maize were obtained from the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Ibadan, Nigeria, namely: ART-98-SW06-W, Br 9943-DMR-SR-W and SUWAN-1-SR-Y. Flour blends were obtained using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) which resulted in appropriate blending ratios of maize, kidney beans and alligator pepper. Kango was prepared by milling maize grain into flour; ingredients such as pepper, onion, salt and water were added to the maize flour, mixed together to make a slurry. The slurry was fried in hot groundnut oil at a temperature of 126°C for 8 minutes. The incorporation of kidney bean and alligator pepper in maize flour was observed to increase the water and oil absorption capacities of the resultant blends thereby giving 109.21 to 156.90 ml/mg and 110.68 to 136.67 ml/mg respectively for kango. The pasting properties of the maize flour blends were also enhanced due to the incorporation of kidney bean and alligator pepper. The peak viscosity of the flour blends ranged from 3.24 to 7.67 RVU. The incorporation of kidney bean and alligator pepper in the production of the snacks increased the protein contents from 9.63 to 16.37%. The mineral contents (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc) of the snacks were equally increased due to the incorporation of kidney bean and alligator pepper. A general increase was observed for vitamin B1 (0.69- 1.25 mg/100g), B2 (0.09 - 0.46 mg/100g) and B3 (0.11 - 0.72 mg/100g) in the snacks due to the incorporation of kidney bean and alligator pepper. This research work showed that kango produced from the composited maize flour, kidney bean and alligator pepper had better functional properties and higher nutritional contents.

Keywords: functional properties, kango, nutritional composition, snack

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Shakhawath Hossain, Tazkia Tahsin

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Introduction/Background: Intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. Vocational education is a multi-professional approach that is provided to individuals of working age with health-related impairments, limitations, or restrictions with work functioning and whose primary aim is to optimize work participation. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living activities to support daily life within the home and community. Like as community mobility, financial management, meal preparation, and clean-up, shopping. Material and Method: Electronic searches of Medline, PubMed, Google scholar, OT Seeker literature using the key terms of intellectual disability, vocational rehabilitation, instrumental activities of daily living and Occupational Therapy, as well as a thorough manual search for relevant literature. Results: There were 13 articles, all qualitative and quantitative, which are included in this review. All studies were mixed methods in design. To take the Occupational Therapy services, there is a significant improvement in their children's various areas like as sensory issues, cognitive abilities, perceptual skills, visual, motor planning, and group therapy. After taking the vocational and instrumental activities of daily living training children with intellectual disabilities to participate in their daily activities and work as an employee different company or organizations. Conclusion: The persons with intellectual disability are an integral part of our society who deserves social support and opportunities like other human beings. From the result section of the project papers, it is found that the significant benefits of Occupational Therapy services in the aspects of vocational and instrumental activities of daily living.

Keywords: occupational therapy, daily living activities, intellectual disabilities, instrumental ADL

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Benjamin Bressolette, S´ebastien Denjean, Vincent Roussarie, Mitsuko Aramaki, Sølvi Ystad, Richard Kronland-Martinet

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New sensors and technologies – such as microphones, touchscreens or infrared sensors – are currently making their appearance in the automotive sector, introducing new kinds of Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs). The interactions with such tools might be cognitively expensive, thus unsuitable for driving tasks. It could for instance be dangerous to use touchscreens with a visual feedback while driving, as it distracts the driver’s visual attention away from the road. Furthermore, new technologies in car cockpits modify the interactions of the users with the central system. In particular, touchscreens are preferred to arrays of buttons for space improvement and design purposes. However, the buttons’ tactile feedback is no more available to the driver, which makes such interfaces more difficult to manipulate while driving. Gestures combined with an auditory feedback might therefore constitute an interesting alternative to interact with the HMI. Indeed, gestures can be performed without vision, which means that the driver’s visual attention can be totally dedicated to the driving task. In fact, the auditory feedback can both inform the driver with respect to the task performed on the interface and on the performed gesture, which might constitute a possible solution to the lack of tactile information. As audition is a relatively unused sense in automotive contexts, gesture sonification can contribute to reducing the cognitive load thanks to the proposed multisensory exploitation. Our approach consists in using a virtual object (VO) to sonify the consequences of the gesture rather than the gesture itself. This approach is motivated by an ecological point of view: Gestures do not make sound, but their consequences do. In this experiment, the aim was to identify efficient sound strategies, to transmit dynamic information of VOs to users through sound. The swipe gesture was chosen for this purpose, as it is commonly used in current and new interfaces. We chose two VO parameters to sonify, the hand-VO distance and the VO velocity. Two kinds of sound parameters can be chosen to sonify the VO behavior: Spectral or temporal parameters. Pitch and brightness were tested as spectral parameters, and amplitude modulation as a temporal parameter. Performances showed a positive effect of sound compared to a no-sound situation, revealing the usefulness of sounds to accomplish the task.

Keywords: auditory feedback, gesture sonification, sound perception, virtual object

Procedia PDF Downloads 303

Authors: Tomilola J. Ajayi

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A category of nanovalves system containing the α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) ring on a stalk tethered to the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) is theoretically and computationally modelled. This functions to control opening and blocking of the MSN pores for efficient targeted drug release system. Modeling of the nanovalves is based on the interaction between α-CD and the stalk (p-anisidine) in relation to pH variation. Conformational analysis was carried out prior to the formation of the inclusion complex, to find the global minimum of both neutral and protonated stalk. B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) basis set was employed to attain all theoretically possible conformers of the stalk. Six conformers were taken into considerations, and the dihedral angle (θ) around the reference atom (N17) of the p-anisidine stalk was scanned from 0° to 360° at 5° intervals. The most stable conformer was obtained at a dihedral angle of 85.3° and was fully optimized at B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) level of theory. The most stable conformer obtained from conformational analysis was used as the starting structure to create the inclusion complexes. 9 complexes were formed by moving the neutral guest into the α-CD cavity along the Z-axis in 1 Å stepwise while keeping the distance between dummy atom and OMe oxygen atom on the stalk restricted. The dummy atom and the carbon atoms on α-CD structure were equally restricted for orientation A (see Scheme 1). The generated structures at each step were optimized with B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) methods to determine their energy minima. Protonation of the nitrogen atom on the stalk occurs at acidic pH, leading to unsatisfactory host-guest interaction in the nanogate; hence there is dethreading. High required interaction energy and conformational change are theoretically established to drive the release of α-CD at a certain pH. The release was found to occur between pH 5-7 which agreed with reported experimental results. In this study, we applied the theoretical model for the prediction of the experimentally observed pH-responsive nanovalves which enables blocking, and opening of mesoporous silica nanoparticles pores for targeted drug release system. Our results show that two major factors are responsible for the cargo release at acidic pH. The higher interaction energy needed for the complex/nanovalve formation to exist after protonation as well as conformational change upon protonation are driving the release due to slight pH change from 5 to 7.

Keywords: nanovalves, nanogate, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, cargo

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Andreas Ateke Njoh, Shalom Tchokfe Ndoula, Amani Adidja, Germain Nguessan Menan, Annie Mengue, Eric Mboke, Hassan Ben Bachir, Sangwe Clovis Nchinjoh, Yauba Saidu, Laurent Cleenewerck De Kiev

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Vaccines serve a great deal in protecting the population globally. Vaccine products are subject to rigorous quality control and approval before use to ensure safety. Even if all actors take the required precautions, some people could still have adverse events following immunization (AEFI) caused by the vaccine composition or an error in its administration. AEFI underreporting is pronounced in low-income settings like Cameroon. The Country introduced electronic platforms to strengthen surveillance. With the introduction of many novel vaccines, like COVID-19 and the novel Oral Polio Vaccine (nOPV) 2, there was a need to monitor AEFI in the Country. A cross-sectional study was conducted from July to December 2022. Data on AEFI per region of Cameroon were reviewed for the past five years. Data were analyzed with MS Excel, and the results were presented in proportions. AEFI reporting was uncommon in Cameroon. With the introduction of novel vaccines in 2021, the health authorities engaged in new tools and training to capture cases. AEFI detected almost doubled using the open data kit (ODK) compared to previous platforms, especially following the introduction of the nOPV2 and COVID-19 vaccines. The AEFI rate was 1.9 and 160 per administered 100 000 doses of nOPV2 and COVID-19 vaccines, respectively. This mobile tool captured individual information for people with AEFI from all regions. The platform helped to identify common AEFI following the use of these new vaccines. The ODK mobile technology was vital in improving AEFI reporting and providing data to monitor using new vaccines in Cameroon.

Keywords: adverse events following immunization, cameroon, COVID-19 vaccines, nOPV, ODK

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Abdurrauf M. Gusbi, Mahmud H. Arhima, Abdurrahim A. Elouzi, Ebtisam A. Benomran, Salsabeela Elmezwghi, Aram Elhatan, Nafesa Elgusbi

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Mass poisonings with methanol are rare but occur regularly both in developed and in non-developing countries. As a result of the tragedy that happened in the city of Tripoli Libya in March during year 2013 a number of patients were admitted to Tripoli Medical Center and Tripoli Central Hospital suffering from poisoning following ingestion of methanol by mistake. Our aims have been formulated to collect Information about those cases as much as we can from the archiving departments from the two hospitals including the number of cases that had been admitted, recovered patients and died victims. This retrospective study was planned to find out the reasons which allow those patients to drink methanol in our Muslim community and also the role of pharmacist to prevent such a disaster that claimed the lives of many people. During this tragedy 291 ospitalized patients their ages between 16-32 years old were admitted to both hospitals, total number of died 189 (121 at Tripoli medical center) and (68 at Tripoli central hospital), demographic data also shows that most of them are male (97%) and (3% female), about 4% of the patients foreigners and 96% were Libyans. There were a lot of obstacles and poor facilities at the time of patient admission as recognized in many cases including lack of first line of treatment. The morbidity was high due to the lack of antidote and availability of dialysis machines at this two main hospitals in Tripoli also according to survey done to the medical staff and also a random number of medical students shows about 28% have no idea about the first aid procedure used for methanol poisoning cases and this due to the absence of continuing education for all medical staff through the establishment of training courses on first aid, rapid diagnosis of poisoning and follow the written procedures to dealing with such cases.

Keywords: ethanol, fomepizole, methanol, poisoning

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Oumaima Khlifati, Khadija Baba

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Pavement distress is the main factor responsible for the deterioration of road structure durability, damage vehicles, and driver comfort. Transportation agencies spend a high proportion of their funds on pavement monitoring and maintenance. The auscultation of pavement distress was based on the manual survey, which was extremely time consuming, labor intensive, and required domain expertise. Therefore, the automatic distress detection is needed to reduce the cost of manual inspection and avoid more serious damage by implementing the appropriate remediation actions at the right time. Inspired by recent deep learning applications, this paper proposes an algorithm for automatic road distress detection and classification using on the Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN). In this study, the types of pavement distress are classified as transverse or longitudinal cracking, alligator, pothole, and intact pavement. The dataset used in this work is composed of public asphalt pavement images. In order to learn the structure of the different type of distress, the DCNN models are trained and tested as a multi-label classification task. In addition, to get the highest accuracy for our model, we adjust the structural optimization hyper parameters such as the number of convolutions and max pooling, filers, size of filters, loss functions, activation functions, and optimizer and fine-tuning hyper parameters that conclude batch size and learning rate. The optimization of the model is executed by checking all feasible combinations and selecting the best performing one. The model, after being optimized, performance metrics is calculated, which describe the training and validation accuracies, precision, recall, and F1 score.

Keywords: distress pavement, hyperparameters, automatic classification, deep learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 98

Authors: Coulibaly Fatoumata, Gragnon Biego, Aka N. David, Mbari K. Benjamin, Soro Y. René, Ndiaye Jean-louis

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Poultry is nowadays one of the most consumed sources of protein, and its livestock represents one of the few opportunities for savings, investment and protection against risk. It provides income for the most vulnerable sections of society, in particular, women (70%) and children who mainly practice this breeding. A study was conducted in the commune of Korhogo at the level of 52 poultry farms, the objective of which was to know the epidemiological situation of parasitism external and internal poultry in order to contribute to the improvement of the health status of modern poultry farms in the said commune. The method described by OIE (2005), consisting of using the standard formula (n = δ2*p*(1-p) *c /i2), made it possible to calculate the size of the sample. Then, samples of droppings and ectoparasites were taken from the affected farms. After analysis and identification, two (2) species of mallophagous lice, including Menopon gallinae (50%) and Menacanthus stramineus (33%) and a species of bug Cimex lectularius (17%) were highlighted. The laying hens were more infested than broilers. Regarding gastrointestinal parasites, different species (six) have been identified: Trichostrongylus tenuis (17%), Syngamus trachea (19%), Heterakis sp (10%), Ascaridia sp (17%), Raillietina sp (8%) and Eimeria sp (29%). In addition, coccidiosis (Eimeria sp) proved to be the dominant pathology representing 67% of pathologies in broiler farms and 33% in poultry farms. The presence of these parasitoses in these modern farms constitutes a constraint major contribution to productivity and their development In view of all these difficulties, proposals have been made in order to participate in the establishment of a good prophylaxis program (health and medical). In addition, the Ivorian government, with the support of veterinarians, must interfere more in the organization of the health monitoring of traditional chickens and poultry in general through supervision and training in order to preserve public health ( animal, human and environmental health).

Keywords: gastrointestinal parasites, ectoparasites, pathologies, poultry, korhogo.

Procedia PDF Downloads 90