Search results for: post classification change detection

Authors: Ajay Kumar Pandey, Mayank Kumar

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White grub (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a major destructive pest in western Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. Beetles feed on apple, apricot, plum, walnut etc. during night while, second and third instar grubs feed on live roots of cultivated as well as non-cultivated crops. Collection and identification of scarab beetles through light trap was carried out at Crop Research Centre, Govind Ballab Pant University Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand) during 2018. Field trials were also conducted in 2018 to evaluate pre and post sown application of different insecticides against the white grub infesting soybean. The insecticides like Carbofuran 3 Granule (G) (750 g a.i./ha), Clothianidin 50 Water Dispersal Granule (WG) (120 g a.i./ha), Fipronil 0.3 G (50 g a.i./ha), Thiamethoxam 25 WG (80 g a.i./ha), Imidacloprid 70 WG (300 g a.i./ha), Chlorantraniliprole 0.4% G(100 g a.i./ha) and mixture of Fipronil 40% and Imidacloprid 40% WG (300 g a.i./ha) were applied at the time of sowing in pre sown experiment while same dosage of insecticides were applied in standing soybean crop during (first fortnight of July). Commutative plant mortality data were recorded after 20, 40, 60 days intervals and compared with untreated control. Total 23 species of white grub beetles recorded on the light trap and Holotrichia serrata Fabricious (Coleoptera: Melolonthinae) was found to be predominant species by recording 20.6% relative abundance out of the total light trap catch (i.e. 1316 beetles) followed by Phyllognathus sp. (14.6% relative abundance). H. rosettae and Heteronychus lioderus occupied third and fourth rank with 11.85% and 9.65% relative abundance, respectively. The emergence of beetles of predominant species started from 15th March, 2018. In April, average light trap catch was 382 white grub beetles, however, peak emergence of most of the white grub species was observed from June to July, 2018 i.e. 336 beetles in June followed by 303 beetles in the July. On the basis of the emergence pattern of white grub beetles, it may be concluded that the Peak Emergence Period (PEP) for the beetles of H. serrata was second fortnight of April for the total period of 15 days. In May, June and July relatively low population of H. serrata was observed. A decreasing trend in light trap catch was observed and went on till September during the study. No single beetle of H. serrata was observed on light trap from September onwards. The cumulative plant mortality data in both the experiments revealed that all the insecticidal treatments were significantly superior in protection-wise (6.49-16.82% cumulative plant mortality) over untreated control where highest plant mortality was 17.28 to 39.65% during study. The mixture of Fipronil 40% and Imidacloprid 40% WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha proved to be most effective having lowest plant mortality i.e. 9.29 and 10.94% in pre and post sown crop, followed by Clothianidin 50 WG (120 g a.i. per ha) where the plant mortality was 10.57 and 11.93% in pre and post sown treatments, respectively. Both treatments were found significantly at par among each other. Production-wise, all the insecticidal treatments were found statistically superior (15.00-24.66 q per ha grain yields) over untreated control where the grain yield was 8.25 & 9.13 q per ha. Treatment Fipronil 40% + Imidacloprid 40% WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha proved to be most effective and significantly superior over Imidacloprid 70WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha.

Keywords: bio efficacy, insecticide, soybean, white grub

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Authors: Babak Forouraghi

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A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of the flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on the spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts, as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with an attention mechanism. In previous works on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work, with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on the presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: machine learning, classification and regression, gene circuit design, bidirectional transformers

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Authors: Padam Pandey, Madhu Sudan Dhakal

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As a consequence of being a patrimonial society, most of the Nepalese women work inside the house and take care their children. Men are always regarded to be responsible for managing fund to fulfill the family requirement. Outgoing men of 25-35 for employment in foreign country is a common practice. In the absence of man, women aged of 20-45 have to be active in society. The responsibility of women is not only looking after inside the house but also leading the society. This study analysis gender aspect of household work and involvement in the society. This study shows that women are leading 56% different organizations in the society where 51% women spend more than 54% time in community development work. The involvement of man in the house work has significantly increased. The women leadership has succeeded to show the transparency in all the community development activities. It shows a model of social harmony, solidarity, and unity in the Sarankot Village Development Committee. Social behavior change towards women is a milestone of sustainable community development. This study recommends that the equal participation is essential to sustain community development.

Keywords: gender, women leadership, social harmony, unity sustainable development

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Authors: Margarida Matos, João Pereira dos Santos, José Tavares

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Anti-minority discrimination is a persistent phenomenon with long-run effects. While there is a vast literature in economics and psychology that shows that personality and beliefs are not fixed and can be altered by experience, particularly in the so-called impressionable years in early adulthood, less is known about the long-lasting impacts of major events occurring during this time on minority attitudes. In this paper, we study the impact of serving in the military on long-term attitudes towards minorities. For many, military conscription and serving in war are unique life-shaping events. In the context of military service, individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds interact and learn with each other, potentially changing their views and attitudes in a persistent manner. A prominent theory about the change of attitudes is the contact theory. It suggests that prejudice can be decreased if members of the groups interact with one another. The present paper adds to the literature by providing evidence from a more complicated setting involving the exposure to combat. We study the attitudes of veterans of the Portuguese Colonial War between 1961 and 1974, what was the latest war between African independence movements and Europeans. More than 70 percent of military age Portuguese men were drafted every year and sent to fight in Africa in the widest draft in post-World War II Western Europe. The contact between Portuguese and African soldiers was both cooperative as well as adversarial. Portuguese fought against but also alongside locally recruited African men, who represented half of the Portuguese contingent for substantial periods. We use data from the European Social Survey to identify Portuguese citizens likely to have been drafted and were send to fight in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. We show that men likely to have fought in African wars are more accepting of immigrants than women of their same cohort, as well as than males from younger and older cohorts. The use of corresponding cohorts from Spain as placebo tests confirms our results. Our findings also hold in a regression discontinuity design setting.

Keywords: attitudes, immigration, war in Africa, veterans, portugal

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Authors: Hoda Aslani, Mohammad Moghiman, Mohammad Aslani

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Considering the demand to reduce global warming potential and importance of solidification in various applications, there is an increasing interest in energy storage systems to find the efficient phase change materials. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental study and comparison on the potential of titania nanofluids with and without surfactant for cooling energy storage systems. A designed cooling generation device based on compression refrigeration cycle is used to explore nanofluids solidification characteristics. In this work, titania nanoparticles of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04 wt.% are dispersed in deionized water as base fluid. Measurement of phase change parameters of nanofluids illustrates that the addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as surfactant to titania nanofluids advances the onset nucleation time and leads to lower solidification time. Also, the experimental results show that only adding 0.02 wt.% titania nanoparticles, especially in the case of nanofluids with a surfactant, can evidently reduce the supercooling degree by nearly 70%. Hence, it is concluded that there is a great energy saving potential in the energy storage systems using titania nanofluid with PVP.

Keywords: cooling energy storage, nanofluid, PVP, solidification, titania

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Authors: Salvatore Luongo, Carlo Luongo

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This paper discusses the implementation solutions to reduce the computational load for the Traffic Situational Awareness with Alerts (TSAA) application, based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology. In 2008, there were 23 total mid-air collisions involving general aviation fixed-wing aircraft, 6 of which were fatal leading to 21 fatalities. These collisions occurred during visual meteorological conditions, indicating the limitations of the see-and-avoid concept for mid-air collision avoidance as defined in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA). The commercial aviation aircraft are already equipped with collision avoidance system called TCAS, which is based on classic transponder technology. This system dramatically reduced the number of mid-air collisions involving air transport aircraft. In general aviation, the same reduction in mid-air collisions has not occurred, so this reduction is the main objective of the TSAA application. The major difference between the original conflict detection application and the TSAA application is that the conflict detection is focused on preventing loss of separation in en-route environments. Instead TSAA is devoted to reducing the probability of mid-air collision in all phases of flight. The TSAA application increases the flight crew traffic situation awareness providing alerts of traffic that are detected in conflict with ownship in support of the see-and-avoid responsibility. The relevant effort has been spent in the design process and the code generation in order to maximize the efficiency and performances in terms of computational load and memory consumption reduction. The TSAA architecture is divided into two high-level systems: the “Threats database” and the “Conflict detector”. The first one receives the traffic data from ADS-B device and provides the memorization of the target’s data history. Conflict detector module estimates ownship and targets trajectories in order to perform the detection of possible future loss of separation between ownship and each target. Finally, the alerts are verified by additional conflict verification logic, in order to prevent possible undesirable behaviors of the alert flag. In order to reduce the computational load, a pre-check evaluation module is used. This pre-check is only a computational optimization, so the performances of the conflict detector system are not modified in terms of number of alerts detected. The pre-check module uses analytical trajectories propagation for both target and ownship. This allows major accuracy and avoids the step-by-step propagation, which requests major computational load. Furthermore, the pre-check permits to exclude the target that is certainly not a threat, using an analytical and efficient geometrical approach, in order to decrease the computational load for the following modules. This software improvement is not suggested by FAA documents, and so it is the main innovation of this work. The efficiency and efficacy of this enhancement are verified using fast-time and real-time simulations and by the execution on a real device in several FAA scenarios. The final implementation also permits the FAA software certification in compliance with DO-178B standard. The computational load reduction allows the installation of TSAA application also on devices with multiple applications and/or low capacity in terms of available memory and computational capabilities

Keywords: traffic situation awareness, general aviation, aircraft conflict detection, computational load reduction, implementation solutions, software certification

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Authors: Youval Aberman, Jason E. Plaks

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This research provides initial evidence that self-efficacy of mitigation behavior – the belief that one’s action can make a difference on the environment – can be implicitly inferred from the way numerical information is presented in environmental messages. The scientific community sees climate change as a pressing issue, but the general public tends to construe climate change as an abstract phenomenon that is psychologically distant. As such, a main barrier to pro-environmental behavior is that individuals often believe that their own behavior makes little to no difference on the environment. When it comes to communicating how the behavior of billions of individuals affects global climate change, it might appear valuable to aggregate those billions and present the shocking enormity of the resources individuals consume. This research provides initial evidence that, in fact, this strategy is ineffective; presenting large-scale aggregate data dilutes the contribution of the individual and impedes individuals’ motivation to act pro-environmentally. The high-impact, underrepresented behavior of eating a sustainable diet was chosen for the present studies. US Participants (total N = 668) were recruited online for a study on ‘meat and the environment’ and received information about some of resources used in meat production – water, CO2e, and feed – with numerical information that varied in its frame of reference. A ‘Nation’ frame of reference discussed the resources used in the beef industry, such as the billions of CO2e released daily by the industry, while a ‘Meal’ frame of reference presented the resources used in the production of a single beef dish. Participants completed measures of pro-environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions, either immediately (Study 1) or two days (Study 2) after reading the information. In Study 2 (n = 520) participants also indicated whether they consumed less or more meat than usual. Study 2 included an additional control condition that contained no environmental data. In Study 1, participants who read about meat production at a national level, compared to at a meal level, reported lower motivation to make ecologically conscious dietary choices and reported lower behavioral intention to change their diet. In Study 2, a similar pattern emerged, with the added insight that the Nation condition, but not the Meal condition, deviated from the control condition. Participants across conditions, on average, reduced their meat consumption in the duration of Study 2, except those in the Nation condition who remained unchanged. Presenting nation-wide consequences of human behavior is a double-edged sword: Framing in a large scale might reveal the relationship between collective actions and environmental issues, but it hinders the belief that individual actions make a difference.

Keywords: climate change communication, environmental concern, meat consumption, motivation

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Authors: Akbar Nawaz Khan, Abdul Ghaffar, Abdur Rehman, Muhammad Naeem Riaz, Sayed Muhammad Hassan Andrabi

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The present study was conducted to compare sheep rearing in nomadic with transhumance system in term of production parameters. The following parameters which studied for comparison were household size, landholding area, flock size, body condition score, fecal egg count and live weight change in sheep under nomadic and transhumance systems of management in Malakand since October 2010 to March 2011. Further the effects of Body Condition Score (BCS) and Fecal Egg Count (FEC) on production were also examined. Two systems were checked for the purpose to check the efficiency of production. A total of eight flocks, four each from nomadic and transhumance system were selected for the study; each flock was divided into treatment and controlled groups to check the effect of treatment or de-wormers. A total of 160 animals were selected randomly (80 treated, 80 controlled). The adult ram average weight transhumance system was 55.58 kg while in nomadic that was 54.16 kg, weight change was positive, and the highest change was recorded in transhumance treated which was 13%. Fecal egg count was record low (75 EPG) in transhumance treated group while high (330 EPG) in nomadic controlled. Body condition score was recorded 3.6 for transhumance treated and 3.32 for nomadic treated. It is concluded from the present study that transhumance system performed significantly (p < 0.05) better in respect of live weight, BCS, FEC, family size, Landholding area, number of animals in a flock, offspring record, culling, and mortality. Mean values are 7.367 ± 0221, 0.900 ± 0.071, 63.167 ± 1.559, 55.600 ± 1.480, 8.300 ± 0.321 and 2.500 ± 0.158 respectively. De-wormer effect on FEC showed a significant reduction in egg load in mature sheep on both systems.

Keywords: small ruminant, sheep, nomadic, transhumance, Malakand, production efficiency

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Authors: Saman Javadi, Mohammad Hassan Mahmoudi, Fatemeh Jafari, Aminreza Neshat

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Urmia Lake’s water level has been dropped during the past decade. Although the most common reason in studies was declared climate change, but observation of adjacent lake (like Van in Turkey) is not the same as the common reason. Most of studies were focused on climate and land use change, but groundwater resource as one of the most important element is negligible. Due to population and agriculture activities growth, exploration of groundwater resource has been increased. In as much as continued decline of water levels can lead to saltwater intrusion, reduce stream discharge near outcrop regions and threaten groundwater quality, aquifers of this region were affected by saltwater intrusion of Urmia Lake. In this research comparison of saltwater intrusion into eastern and western coastal aquifer was studied. In conclusion eastern aquifers are in a critical situation; vice versa the western ones are in a better situation. Thus applying management of groundwater operation would be necessary for eastern aquifers.

Keywords: coastal aquifer, groundwater over-exploration, saltwater intrusion, Urmia Lake

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Authors: Khadem Hichem

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With the new technology challenges, dynamics and challenges of the contemporary world, most teachers are struggling to maintain effective and successful teaching /learning environment for learners. Teachers as a key to the success of reforms in the educational setting, they must improve their competencies to teach effectively. Many researchers emphasis on the ongoing professional development of the teacher by enhancing their experiences and encouraging their responsibility for learning, and thus promoting self-reliance, collaboration, and reflection. In short, teachers are considered as learners and they need to learn together. The educational system must support, both conceptually and financially, the teachers’ development as lifelong learners Teachers need opportunities to grow in language proficiency and in knowledge. Changing nature of language and culture in the world, all teachers must have opportunities to update their knowledge and practices. Many researchers in the field of foreign or additional languages indicate that teachers keep side by side of effective instructional practices and they need special support with the challenging task of developing and administering proficiency tests to their students. For significant change to occur, each individual teacher’s needs must be addressed. The teacher must be involved experientially in the process of development, since, by itself, knowledge of how to change does not mean change will be initiated. For improvement to occur, new skills have to be guided, practiced, and reflected upon in collaboration with colleagues. Clearly, teachers are at different places developmentally; therefore, allowances for various entry levels and individual differences need to be built into the professional development structure. Objectives must be meaningful to the participant and teacher improvement must be stated terms of student knowledge, student performance, and motivation. The most successful professional development process acknowledges the student-centered nature of good teaching. This paper highlights the importance of teacher professional development process and institutional supports as way to enhance good teaching and learning environment.

Keywords: teacher professional development, teacher competencies, institutional support, teacher education

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Authors: Abdelhadi Lotfi, Abdelkader Benyettou

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In this work, a training algorithm for probabilistic neural networks (PNN) is presented. The algorithm addresses one of the major drawbacks of PNN, which is the size of the hidden layer in the network. By using a cross-validation training algorithm, the number of hidden neurons is shrunk to a smaller number consisting of the most representative samples of the training set. This is done without affecting the overall architecture of the network. Performance of the network is compared against performance of standard PNN for different databases from the UCI database repository. Results show an important gain in network size and performance.

Keywords: classification, probabilistic neural networks, network optimization, pattern recognition

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Authors: Keltoum Benaissa, Mohamed Belhamra

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The henna powder is one of the more important natural cosmetic product used especially by the women in Algeria to dye their hair and to stain the hand, nails and feet. To obtain a better powder of henna is one of the concerns of bride’s mothers during the obtaining of this material very important for the wedding ceremony. For this objective, we led an investigation in the most producing henna regions in Biskra (a South East department in Algeria), interview with rural women concerning the manipulations made on post-harvest to obtain a good quality henna powder. The investigated rural women gave us the main as well as the necessary conditions to obtain desired dye since the stage of harvest of henna, the place of drying of the production, the collection of leaves and the ways of grinding it, all those steps to have finally the best tattoo on hands and feet of the bride. For this objective we led an investigation in the most producing henna regions in Biskra (a South East department in Algeria), interview with rural women concerning the manipulations made on post harvest to obtain a good quality henna powder. The investigated rural women gave us the main as well as the necessary conditions to obtain desired dye since the stage of harvest of henna, the place of drying of the production, the collection of leaves and the ways of grinding it, all those steps to have finally the best tattoo on hands and feet of the bride.

Keywords: henna, powder quality, women experience, investigation, cosmetic plant

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Authors: Archna Mall, Neelam Agrawal, Hari O. Saxena, Bhavana Sharma

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Butea monosperma occurs widely throughout central Indian states. Eco-friendly natural dyes were isolated in aqueous medium from leaves, bark and flowers of this plant. These dyes were used for dyeing on cotton fabric using various chemical (potassium aluminium sulphate, potassium dichromate, ferrous sulphate, stannous chloride & tannic acid) and natural mordants (rinds of Terminallia bellerica & Terminalia chebula fruits and shells of Prunus dulcis & Juglans regia nuts). Dyeing was carried out using the pre-mordanting technique. Large range of beautiful shades in terms of hue and darkness were recorded because of varying mordant concentrations and combinations. More importantly dyed fabrics registered varying the degree of colour fastness properties to washing (1-3, colour change and 4-5, colour staining), light (2-4), rubbing (4-5, dry and 3-5, wet) and perspiration (1-4, colour change and 4-5, colour staining). Thus, along with flowers which are traditionally known for natural dyes, the leaves and bark may also find their place in textile industries.

Keywords: Butea monosperma, cotton, mordants, natural dyes

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Authors: Eliza. E. Camaso, Guiller. B. Damian, Miguelito. F. Isip, Ronaldo T. Alberto

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Land-cover maps were important for many scientific, ecological and land management purposes and during the last decades, rapid decrease of soil fertility was observed to be due to land use practices such as rice cultivation. High-precision land-cover maps are not yet available in the area which is important in an economy management. To assure   accurate mapping of land cover to provide information, remote sensing is a very suitable tool to carry out this task and automatic land use and cover detection. The study did not only provide high precision land cover maps but it also provides estimates of rice production area that had undergone chemical degradation due to fertility decline. Land-cover were delineated and classified into pre-defined classes to achieve proper detection features. After generation of Land-cover map, of high intensity of rice cultivation, soil fertility degradation assessment in rice production area due to fertility decline was created to assess the impact of soils used in agricultural production. Using Simple spatial analysis functions and ArcGIS, the Land-cover map of Municipality of Quezon in Nueva Ecija, Philippines was overlaid to the fertility decline maps from Land Degradation Assessment Philippines- Bureau of Soils and Water Management (LADA-Philippines-BSWM) to determine the area of rice crops that were most likely where nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc and sulfur deficiencies were induced by high dosage of urea and imbalance N:P fertilization. The result found out that 80.00 % of fallow and 99.81% of rice production area has high soil fertility decline.

Keywords: aerial image, landcover, LiDAR, soil fertility degradation

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Authors: Syed Towseef Ahmad, Fatima Amin, Pritha Acharya, Anil K. Gupta, Pervez Ahmad

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Glaciers being the sentinels of climate change, are the most visible evidence of global warming. Given the unavailability of observed field-based data, this study has focussed on the use of geospatial techniques to obtain information about the glaciers of Pir-Panjal (PPJ) and the Great Himalayan Regions of Jhelum Basin (GHR). These glaciers need to be monitored in line with the variations in climatic conditions because they significantly contribute to various sectors in the region. The main aim of this study is to map the glaciers in the two adjacent regions (PPJ and GHR) in the north-western Himalayas with different topographies and compare the changes in various glacial attributes during two different time periods (1990-2020). During the last three decades, both PPJ as well as GHR regions have observed deglaciation of around 36 and 26 percent, respectively. The mean elevation of GHR glaciers has increased from 4312 to 4390 masl, while the same for PPJ glaciers has increased from 4085 to 4124 masl during the observation period. Using accumulation area ratio (AAR) method, mean mass balance of -34.52 and -37.6 cm.w.e was recorded for the glaciers of GHR and PPJ, respectively. The difference in areal and mass loss of glaciers in these regions may be due to (i) the smaller size of PPJ glaciers which are all smaller than 1 km² and are thus more responsive to climate change (ii) Higher mean elevation of GHR glaciers (iii) local variations in climatic variables in these glaciated regions. Time series analysis of climate variables indicates that both the mean maximum and minimum temperatures of Qazigund station (Tmax= 19.2, Tmin= 6.4) are comparatively higher than the Pahalgam station (Tmax= 18.8, Tmin= 3.2). Except for precipitation in Qazigund (Slope= - 0.3 mm a⁻¹), each climatic parameter has shown an increasing trend during these three decades, and with the slope of 0.04 and 0.03°c a⁻¹, the positive trend in Tmin (pahalgam) and Tmax (qazigund) are observed to be statistically significant (p≤0.05).

Keywords: glaciers, climate change, Pir-Panjal, greater Himalayas, mass balance

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Authors: Waisu Iliyasu

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It is a well-known fact that the Hausa people have, since time immemorial, had a distinct culture of living together and assisting one another. In fact, the communal bond has been an important aspect that bound society together. Over the years, this communal bond has been eroded, giving way to an individualistic society whereby everyone lives a different way of life free from social cohesion and family bonds. It is against this backdrop the paper examines the forces of change in Hausa society and their effect on communal living. The paper also highlights the factors and actors involved in such change and how, in the later years of Nigeria’s independence, such factors transformed the social, political and economic structures of Hausa society in Northern Nigeria. In writing this paper, qualitative research is used in which questionnaires and oral interviews were used as a method of data collection. Along this way, other sources like primary and secondary are also used extensively in writing the paper. The concluding part of the paper reveals that unless the problems of elitism, corruption and poverty are addressed, the gap between have and have-nots, wealthy and poor, literate and illiterate, will continue to widen, thereby leading to an individualistic society that negates all forms of communal living.

Keywords: communalism, individualism, historical insights, Hausa land

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Authors: Asmamaw Yehun

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The name “TANA” is one of International Geodetic Service (IGS) Global Positioning System (GPS) station which is found in Bahir Dar University in Institute of Land Administration. The station name taken from one of big Lakes in Africa ,Lake Tana. The Institute of Land Administration (ILA) is part of Bahir Dar University, located in the capital of the Amhara National Regional State, Bahir Dar. The institute is the first of its kind in East Africa. The station is installed by cooperation of ILA and Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) fund support. The Continues Operating Reference Station (CORS) is a network of stations that provide global satellite system navigation data to help three dimensional positioning, meteorology, space, weather, and geophysical applications throughout the globe. TANA station was as CORS since 2013 and sites are independently owned and operated by governments, research and education facilities and others. The data collected by the reference station is downloadable through Internet for post processing purpose by interested parties who carry out GNSS measurements and want to achieve a higher accuracy. We made a first observation on TANA, monitor stations on May 29th 2013. We used Leica 1200 receivers and AX1202GG antennas and made observations from 11:30 until 15:20 for about 3h 50minutes. Processing of data was done in an automatic post processing service CSRS-PPP by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) . Post processing was done June 27th 2013 so precise ephemeris was used 30 days after observation. We found Latitude (ITRF08): 11 34 08.6573 (dms) / 0.008 (m), Longitude (ITRF08): 37 19 44.7811 (dms) / 0.018 (m) and Ellipsoidal Height (ITRF08): 1850.958 (m) / 0.037 (m). We were compared this result with GAMIT/GLOBK processed data and it was very closed and accurate. TANA station is one of the second IGS station for Ethiopia since 2015 up to now. It provides data for any civilian users, researchers, governmental and nongovernmental users. TANA station is installed with very advanced choke ring antenna and GR25 Leica receiver and also the site is very good for satellite accessibility. In order to test hydrostatic and wet zenith delay for positional data quality, we used GAMIT/GLOBK and we found that TANA station is the most accurate IGS station in East Africa. Due to lower tropospheric zenith and ionospheric delay, TANA and ADIS IGS stations has 2 and 1.9 meters 3D positional accuracy respectively.

Keywords: atmosphere, GNSS, neutral atmosphere, precipitable water vapour

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Authors: Leixuri Aguirre, Iñaki Milton-Laskibar, Elizabeth Hijona, Luis Bujanda, Agnes M. Rimando, Maria P. Portillo

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Introduction: In recent years great attention has been paid by scientific community to phenolic compounds as active biomolecules naturally present in foodstuffs due to their beneficial effects on health. Pterostilbene is a resveratrol dimethylether derivative which shows higher biodisponibility. Objective. To analyze the effects of two doses of pterostilbene on several markers of thermogenic capacity in a model of genetic obesity, which shows reduced thermogenesis. Methods: The experiment was conducted with thirty Zucker (fa/fa) rats that were distributed in 3 experimental groups, the control group and two groups orally administered with pterostilbene at 15 and 30 mg/kg body weight/day for 6 weeks. Gene expression of Ucp1, Pgc-1α, Cpt1b, Pparα, Nfr1, Tfam and Cox-2 were assessed by RT-PCR, protein expression of UCP1 and GLUT4 by western blot and enzyme activity of carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1b and citrate synthase by spectrophotometry in interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT). Statistical analysis was performed by using one way ANOVA and Newman-Keuls as post-hoc test. Results: Pterostilbene did not change gene expression of Pgc-1α. However, significant increases were found in the expression of Ucp1, Pparα, Nfr-1 and Cox-2. Protein expression of UCP1 and GLUT4 was increased in animals treated with pterostilbene, as well as the activities of CPT-1b and CS. These effects were observed with both doses of pterostilbene, without differences between them. Conclusions: These results show that pterostilbene increases thermogenic and oxidative capacity of brown adipose tissue in obese rats. Whether these effects effectively contribute to the anti-obesity properties of these compound needs further research. Acknowledgments: MINECO-FEDER (AGL2015-65719-R), Basque Government (IT-572-13), University of the Basque Country (ELDUNANOTEK UFI11/32), Institut of Health Carlos III (CIBERobn). Iñaki Milton is a fellowship from the Basque Government.

Keywords: brown adipose tissue, pterostilbene, thermogenesis, uncoupling protein 1

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Authors: Gaurav Bhanjana, Ganga Ram Chaudhary, Sandeep Kumar, Neeraj Dilbaghi

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Main sources of endocrine disrupting compounds in the ecosystem are hormones, pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, dioxins, personal-care products, coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), bisphenol A, and parabens. These endocrine disrupting compounds are responsible for learning disabilities, brain development problems, deformations of the body, cancer, reproductive abnormalities in females and decreased sperm count in human males. Although discharge of these chemical compounds into the environment cannot be stopped, yet their amount can be retarded through proper evaluation and detection techniques. The available techniques for determination of these endocrine disrupting compounds mainly include high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), mass spectroscopy (MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). These techniques are accurate and reliable but have certain limitations like need of skilled personnel, time consuming, interference and requirement of pretreatment steps. Moreover, these techniques are laboratory bound and sample is required in large amount for analysis. In view of above facts, new methods for detection of endocrine disrupting compounds should be devised that promise high specificity, ultra sensitivity, cost effective, efficient and easy-to-operate procedure. Nowadays, electrochemical sensors/biosensors modified with nanomaterials are gaining high attention among researchers. Bioelement present in this system makes the developed sensors selective towards analyte of interest. Nanomaterials provide large surface area, high electron communication feature, enhanced catalytic activity and possibilities of chemical modifications. In most of the cases, nanomaterials also serve as an electron mediator or electrocatalyst for some analytes.

Keywords: electrochemical, endocrine disruptors, microscopy, nanoparticles, sensors

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Authors: Aneta Binkowska, Grzegorz Michalak, Slawomir Pilip, Lukasz Bondaruk, Daniel Celinski, Robert Slotwinski

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Post-traumatic mortality rates are still very high and show an increasing tendency. Early identification of patients at high risk of severe complications has a significant impact on treatment outcomes. The aim of the study was to better understand the early pathological inflammatory response to injury and infection and to determine the usefulness of the assessment of TNF-α and sTNFR1 concentrations in the peripheral blood as early indicators of severe post-traumatic complications. The study was carried out in a group of 51 patients after trauma treated in the ED, including 32 patients that met inclusion criteria for immunological analysis. Patients were divided into two groups using the ISS scale (group A with ISS ≥20, group B with ISS <20). Serum levels of TNF-α and sTNFR1 were determined after admission to the ED and after 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours. The highest TNF-α and sTNFR1 concentrations in both groups were recorded at admission and were significantly higher in group A compared to group B (A vs B TNF-α 2.46 pg/ml vs 1.78 pg/ml; sTNFR1 1667.5 pg/ml vs 875.2 p<0.005). The concentration of sTNFR1 in patients with severe complications was significantly higher compared to patients without complications and preceded clinical symptoms of complications ( C+ vs C- 1561.5 pg/ml vs 930.6 pg/ml). Spearman's correlation showed a statistically significant positive correlation between the baseline concentrations of IL-6 (r=0.38, p<0.043) and sTNFR1 (r=0.59, p=0.001) and the ISS scores. The high diagnostic sensitivity calculated from the ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves was found for the concentrations of both cytokines: TNF α (AUC=0.91, p=0.004) and sTNFR1 (AUC=0.86, p=0.011). Elevated levels of sTNFR1, determined in the peripheral blood shortly after injury, is significantly associated with the occurrence of later complications, which in some patients lead to death. In contrast, high levels of TNF-α shortly after injury are associated with high mortality.

Keywords: cytokine, SIRS, MODS, trauma

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Authors: Allen A. Espinosa, Arlyne C. Marasigan, Janir T. Datukan

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The study explored how students visualize the states and classifications of matter using scientific models. It also identified misconceptions of students in using scientific models. In general, high percentage of students was able to use scientific models correctly and only a little misconception was identified. From the result of the study, a teaching framework was formulated wherein scientific models should be employed in classroom instruction to visualize abstract concepts in chemistry and for better conceptual understanding.

Keywords: visual conception, scientific models, mental models, states of matter, classification of matter

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Authors: Ching-Yi Yiu, Hui-Chen Hsu

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Objectives: Head and neck cancer (HNC) is a big global health problem in the world. Despite the development of diagnosis and treatment, the overall survival of HNC is still low. The well recognition of the interaction of the host immune system and cancer cells has led to realizing the processes of tumor initiation, progression and metastasis. Many systemic inflammatory responses have been shown to play a crucial role in cancer progression. The pre and post-treatment nutritional and immunological status of HNC patients is a reliable prognostic indicator of tumor outcomes and survivors. Methods: Between July 2020 to June 2022, We have enrolled 60 HNC patients, including 59 males and 1 female, in Chi Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Taiwan. The age distribution was from 37 to 81 years old (y/o), with a mean age of 57.6 y/o. We evaluated the pre-and post-treatment nutritional and immunological status of these HNC patients with body weight, body weight loss, body mass index (BMI), whole blood count including hemoglobin (Hb), lymphocyte, neutrophil and platelet counts, biochemistry including prealbumin, albumin, c-reactive protein (CRP), with the time period of before treatment, post-treatment 3 and 6 months. We calculated the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) to assess how these biomarkers influence the outcomes of HNC patients. Results: We have carcinoma of the hypopharynx in 21 cases with 35％, carcinoma of the larynx in 9 cases, carcinoma of the tonsil and tongue every 6 cases, carcinoma soft palate and tongue base every 5 cases, carcinoma of buccal mucosa, retromolar trigone and mouth floor every 2 cases, carcinoma of the hard palate and low lip each 1 case. There were stage I 15 cases, stage II 13 cases, stage III 6 cases, stage IVA 10 cases, and stage IVB 16 cases. All patients have received surgery, chemoradiation therapy or combined therapy. We have wound infection in 6 cases, 2 cases of pharyngocutaneous fistula, flap necrosis in 2 cases, and mortality in 6 cases. In the wound infection group, the average BMI is 20.4 kg/m2; the average Hb is 12.9 g/dL, the average albumin is 3.5 g/dL, the average NLR is 6.78, and the average PLR is 243.5. In the PC fistula and flap necrosis group, the average BMI is 21.65 kg/m2; the average Hb is 11.7 g/dL, the average albumin is 3.15 g/dL, average NLR is 13.28, average PLR is 418.84. In the mortality group, the average BMI is 22.3 kg/m2; the average Hb is 13.58 g/dL, the average albumin is 3.77 g/dL, the average NLR is 6.06, and the average PLR is 275.5. Conclusion: HNC is a big challenging public health problem worldwide, especially in the high prevalence of betel nut consumption area Taiwan. Besides the definite risk factors of smoking, drinking and betel nut related, the other biomarkers may play significant prognosticators in the HNC outcomes. We concluded that the average BMI is less than 22 kg/m2, the average Hb is low than 12.0 g/dL, the average albumin is low than 3.3 g/dL, the average NLR is low than 3, and the average PLR is more than 170, the surgical complications and mortality will be increased, and the prognosis is poor in HNC patients.

Keywords: nutritional, immunological, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, paltelet-to-lymphocyte ratio.

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Authors: Sanaullah Jalil, Abid Majeed, Syed Haider Abbas

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Direct dry seeded rice cultivation system is an emerging production technology in Pakistan. Weeds are a major constraint to the success of direct dry seeded rice (DDSR). Studies were carried out for two years during 2015 and 2016 to evaluate the performance of applications of pre-emergence herbicides (Top Max @ 2.25 lit/ha, Click @1.5 lit/ha and Pendimethaline @ 1.25 lit/ha) and post-emergence herbicides (Clover @ 200 g/ha, Pyranex Gold @ 250 g/ha, Basagran @ 2.50 lit/ha, Sunstar Gold @ 50 g/ha and Wardan @ 1.25 lit/ha) at rice research field area of National Agriculture Research Center (NARC), Islamabad. The experiments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. All evaluated herbicides reduced weed density and biomass by a significant amount. The net plot size was 2.5 x 5 m with 10 rows. Basmati-385 was used as test variety of rice. Data indicated that Top Max and Click provided best weed control efficiency but suppressed the germination of rice seed which causes the lowest grain yield production (680.6 kg/ha and 314.5 kg/ha respectively). A weedy check plot contributed 524.7 kg/ha paddy yield with highest weed density. Pyranex Gold provided better weed control efficiency and contributed to significantly higher paddy yield 5116.6 kg/ha than that of all other herbicide applications followed by the Clover which give paddy yield 4241.7 kg/ha. The results of our study suggest that pre-emergence herbicides provided best weed control but not fit for direct dry seeded rice (DDSR) cultivation system, and therefore post-emergence herbicides (Pyranex Gold and Clover) can be suggested for weed control and higher yield.

Keywords: pyranex gold, clover, direct dry seeded rice (DDSR), yield

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Authors: May Khei Hu, Kevin Leong, Fu Siong Ng, Nicholas Peter

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Introduction: Sympathetic stimulation has been recognised as a potent stimulus of arrhythmogenesis in various cardiac pathologies, possibly by augmenting dispersion of repolarisation. The effects of sympathetic stimulation in healthy subjects however remain unclear. It is, therefore, crucial to first establish the effects of physiological stress on dispersion of repolarisation in healthy subjects before understanding these effects in pathological cardiac conditions. We hypothesised that activation-recovery interval (ARI; which is a surrogate of action potential duration) and dispersion of repolarisation decrease on sympathetic stimulation. Methods: Eight patients aged 18-55 years with structurally normal hearts underwent head-up tilt test (HUTT) and exercise tolerance test (ETT) while wearing the electrocardiographic imaging (ECGi) vest. Patients later underwent CT scan and the epicardial potentials are reconstructed using the ECGi software. Activation and recovery times were determined from the acquired electrograms. ARI was calculated and later corrected using Bazett’s formula. Global and regional dispersion of repolarisation were determined from standard deviation of the corrected ARI (ARIc). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Wilcoxon test were used to evaluate statistical significance. Results: Global ARIc increased significantly [p<0.01] when patients were tilted upwards but decreased significantly after five minutes [p<0.01]. A subsequent post- hoc analysis revealed that the decrease in R-R was more substantial compared to the change in ARI, resulting in the observed increase in ARIc. Global ARIc decreased on peak exercise [p<0.01] but increased on recovery [p<0.01]. Global dispersion increased significantly on peak exercise [p<0.05] although there were no significant changes in regional dispersion. There were no significant changes in both global and regional dispersion during tilt. Conclusion: ARIc decreases upon sympathetic stimulation in healthy subjects. Global dispersion of repolarisation increases upon exercise although there were no changes in global or regional dispersion during orthostatic stress.

Keywords: dispersion of repolarisation, sympathetic stimulation, Head-up tilt test (HUTT), Exercise tolerance test (ETT), Electrocardiographic imaging (ECGi)

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Authors: Ahmed Eid, Amita Gupta

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Abstract: Background: Background Medical gases are estimated to contribute to 5% of the carbon footprints produced by hospitals, Desflurane has the largest impact, but all increase significantly when used with N2O admixture. Climate Change Act 2008, we must reduce our carbon emission by 80% of the 1990 baseline by 2050.NHS carbon emissions have reduced by 18.5% (2007-2017). The NHS Long Term Plan has outlined measures to achieve this objective, including a 2% reduction by transforming anaesthetic practices. FGF is an important variable that determines the utilization of inhalational agents and can be tightly controlled by the anaesthetist. Aims and Objectives Environmental safety, Identification of areas of high N20 and different anaesthetic agents used across the St Helier operating theatres and consider improvising on the current practice. Methods: Data was collected from St Helier operating theatres and retrieved daily from Care Station 650 anaesthetic machines. 60 cases were included in the sample. Collected data (average flow rate, amount and type of agent used, duration of surgery, type of surgery, duration, and the total amount of Air, O2 and N2O used. AAGBI impact anaesthesia calculator was used to identify the amount of CO2 produced and also the cost per hour for every pt. Communication via reminder emails to staff emphasized the significance of low-flow anaesthesia and departmental meeting presentations aimed at heightening awareness of LFA, Distribution of AAGBI calculator QR codes in all theatres enables the calculation of volatile anaesthetic consumption and CO2e post each case, facilitating informed environmental impact assessment. Results: A significant reduction in the flow rate use in the 2nd sample was observed, flow rate usage between 0-1L was 60% which means a great reduction of the consumption of volatile anaesthetics and also Co2e. By using LFA we can save money but most importantly we can make our lives much greener and save the planet.

Keywords: low flow anesthesia, sustainability project, N₂0, Co2e

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Authors: T. Frawley, G. O'Kelly

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The UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems Higher Diploma in Mental Health (HDMH) nursing programme commenced in January 2017. Forty students successfully completed the programme. Programme evaluation was conducted from the outset. Research ethics approval was granted by the UCD Human Research Ethics Committee – Sciences in November 2016 (LS-E-16-163). Plan for Sustainability: Each iteration of the programme continues to be evaluated and adjusted accordingly. Aims: The ultimate purpose of the HDMH programme is to prepare registered nurses (registered children’s nurse (RCN), registered nurse in intellectual disability (RNID) and registered general nurse (RGN)) to function as effective registered psychiatric nurses in all settings which provide care and treatment for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Curriculum evaluation is essential to ensure that the programme achieves its purpose, that aims and expected outcomes are met and that required changes are highlighted for the programme’s continuing positive development. Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the evaluation. A series of questionnaires were used (the majority pre and post programme) to determine student perceptions of the programme, behaviour and attitudinal change from commencement to completion. These included the student assessment of learning gains (SALG); mental health knowledge schedule (MAKS); mental health clinician attitudes scale (MICA); reported and intended behaviour scale (RIBS); and community attitudes towards the mentally ill (CAMI). In addition, student and staff focus groups were conducted. Evaluation methods also incorporated module feedback. Outcome/Results: The evaluation highlighted a very positive response in relation to the achievement of programme outcomes and preparation for future work as registered psychiatric nursing. Some areas were highlighted for further development, which have been taken cognisance of in the 2019 iteration of the programme.

Keywords: learning gains, mental health, nursing, stigma

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Authors: Hassan Almoslim

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Background: The machine resistance training is an exercise that uses the equipment as loads to strengthen and condition the musculoskeletal system and improving muscle tone. The machine resistance training is easy to use, allow the individual to train with heavier weights without assistance, useful for beginners and elderly populations and specific muscle groups. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of nine weeks of machine resistance training on maximum strength among lean and normal weight male college students. Method: Thirty-six male college students aged between 19 and 21 years from King Fahd University of petroleum & minerals participated in the study. The subjects were divided into two an equal groups called Lean Group (LG, n = 18) and Normal Weight Group (NWG, n = 18). The subjects whose body mass index (BMI) is less than 18.5 kg / m2 is considered lean and who is between 18.5 to 24.9 kg / m2 is normal weight. Both groups performed machine resistance training nine weeks, twice per week for 40 min per training session. The strength measurements, chest press, leg press and abdomen exercises were performed before and after the training period. 1RM test was used to determine the maximum strength of all subjects. The training program consisted of several resistance machines such as leg press, abdomen, chest press, pulldown, seated row, calf raises, leg extension, leg curls and back extension. The data were analyzed using independent t-test (to compare mean differences) and paired t-test. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: No change was (P ˃ 0.05) observed in all body composition variables between groups after training. In chest press, the NWG recorded a significantly greater mean different value than the LG (19.33 ± 7.78 vs. 13.88 ± 5.77 kg, respectively, P ˂ 0.023). In leg press and abdomen exercises, both groups revealed similar mean different values (P ˃ 0.05). When the post-test was compared with the pre-test, the NWG showed significant increases in the chest press by 47% (from 41.16 ± 12.41 to 60.49 ± 11.58 kg, P ˂ 001), abdomen by 34% (from 45.46 ± 6.97 to 61.06 ± 6.45 kg, P ˂ 0.001) and leg press by 23.6% (from 85.27 ± 15.94 to 105.48 ± 21.59 kg, P ˂ 0.001). The LG also illustrated significant increases by 42.6% in the chest press (from 32.58 ± 7.36 to 46.47 ± 8.93 kg, P ˂ 0.001), the abdomen by 28.5% (from 38.50 ± 7.84 to 49.50 ± 7.88 kg, P ˂ 0.001) and the leg press by 30.8% (from 70.2 ± 20.57 to 92.01 ± 22.83 kg, P ˂ 0.001). Conclusion: It was concluded that the lean and the normal weight male college students can benefit from the machine resistance-training program remarkably.

Keywords: body composition, lean, machine resistance training, normal weight

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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: B. S. Muddukrishna, Karthik Aithal, Aravind Pai

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Introduction: Preparation of binary cocrystals of Etraverine (ETR) by using Tartaric Acid (TAR) as a conformer was the main focus of this study. Etravirine is a Class IV drug, as per the BCS classification system. Methods: Cocrystals were prepared by slow evaporation technique. A mixture of total 500mg of ETR: TAR was weighed in molar ratios of 1:1 (371.72mg of ETR and 128.27mg of TAR). Saturated solution of Etravirine was prepared in Acetone: Methanol (50:50) mixture in which tartaric acid is dissolved by sonication and then this solution was stirred using a magnetic stirrer until the solvent got evaporated. Shimadzu FTIR – 8300 system was used to acquire the FTIR spectra of the cocrystals prepared. Shimadzu thermal analyzer was used to achieve DSC measurements. X-ray diffractometer was used to obtain the X-ray powder diffraction pattern. Shake flask method was used to determine the equilibrium dynamic solubility of pure, physical mixture and cocrystals of ETR. USP buffer (pH 6.8) containing 1% of Tween 80 was used as the medium. The pure, physical mixture and the optimized cocrystal of ETR were accurately weighed sufficient to maintain the sink condition and were filled in hard gelatine capsules (size 4). Electrolab-Tablet Dissolution tester using basket apparatus at a rotational speed of 50 rpm and USP phosphate buffer (900 mL, pH = 6.8, 37 ˚C) + 1% Tween80 as a media, was used to carry out dissolution. Shimadzu LC-10 series chromatographic system was used to perform the analysis with PDA detector. An Hypersil BDS C18 (150mm ×4.6 mm ×5 µm) column was used for separation with mobile phase comprising of a mixture of ace¬tonitrile and phosphate buffer 20mM, pH 3.2 in the ratio 60:40 v/v. The flow rate was 1.0mL/min and column temperature was set to 30°C. The detection was carried out at 304 nm for ETR. Results and discussions: The cocrystals were subjected to various solid state characterization and the results confirmed the formation of cocrystals. The C=O stretching vibration (1741cm-1) in tartaric acid was disappeared in the cocrystal and the peak broadening of primary amine indicates hydrogen bond formation. The difference in the melting point of cocrystals when compared to pure Etravirine (265 °C) indicates interaction between the drug and the coformer which proves that first ordered transformation i.e. melting endotherm has disappeared. The difference in 2θ values of pure drug and cocrystals indicates the interaction between the drug and the coformer. Dynamic solubility and dissolution studies were also conducted by shake flask method and USP apparatus one respectively and 3.6 fold increase in the dynamic solubility were observed and in-vitro dissolution study shows four fold increase in the solubility for the ETR: TAR (1:1) cocrystals. The ETR: TAR (1:1) cocrystals shows improved solubility and dissolution as compared to the pure drug which was clearly showed by solid state characterization and dissolution studies.

Keywords: dynamic solubility, Etraverine, in vitro dissolution, slurry method

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Authors: Parvaneh Eskandari, Rachel O'Reilly

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In the last years, controlling the self-assembly behavior of stimuli-responsive nano-objects, including micelles, vesicles, worm-like, etc., at different conditions is considered a pertinent challenge in the polymer community. The aim of the project was to synthesize aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active stimuli-responsive polymeric nano-objects to control the self-assemblies morphologies of the prepared nano-objects. Two types of nanoobjects, micelle and vesicles, including PDMAEMA-b-P(BzMA-TPEMA) [PDMAEMA: poly(N,Ndimethylaminoethyl methacrylate); P(BzMA-TPEMA): poly[benzyl methacrylate-co- tetraphenylethene methacrylate]] were synthesized by using reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT)- mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA), which combines polymerization and self-assembly in a single step. Transmission electron microscope and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis were used to confirm the formed self-assemblies morphologies. The controlled self-assemblies were applied as nitrophenolic compounds (NPCs) adsorbents from wastewater, thanks to their CO2-responsive part, PDMAEMA. Moreover, the fluorescence-active part of the prepared nano-objects, P(BzMA-TPEMA), played a key role in the detection of the NPCs at the aqueous solution. The optical properties of the prepared nano-objects were studied by UV/Vis and fluorescence spectroscopies. For responsivity investigations, the hydrodynamic diameter and Zeta-potential (ζ-potential) of the sample's aqueous solution were measured by DLS. In the end, the prepared nano-objects were used for the detection and adsorption of different NPCs.

Keywords: aggregation-induced emission polymers, stimuli-responsive polymers, reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization, polymerization-induced self-assembly, wastewater treatment

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