Search results for: Major Melusi Mabuza

Authors: Maria Bonolo Mathevula

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Background: Children are important members of communities playing major role in the future of any given country (Pera, Fails, Gelsomini, &Garzotto, 2018). Visual Perceptual Skills (VPSs) in children are important health aspect of early childhood development through the Foundation Phases in school. Subsequently, children should undergo visual screening before commencement of schooling for early diagnosis ofVPSs anomalies because the primary role of VPSs is to capacitate children with academic performance in general. Aim : The aim of this study was to determine the anomalies of visual VPSs amongst school children in Foundation Phase. The study’s objectives were to determine the prevalence of VPSs anomalies amongst school children in Foundation Phase; Determine the relationship between children’s academic and VPSs anomalies; and to investigate the relationship between VPSs anomalies and refractive error. Methodology: This study was a mixed method whereby triangulated qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire and clinical data) was used. This was, therefore, descriptive by nature. The study’s target population was school children in Foundation Phase. The study followed purposive sampling method. School children in Foundation Phase were purposively sampled to form part of this study provided their parents have given a signed the consent. Data was collected by the use of standardized interviews; questionnaire; clinical data card, and TVPS standard data card. Results: Although the study is still ongoing, the preliminary study outcome based on data collected from one of the Foundation Phases have suggested the following:While VPSs anomalies is not prevalent, it, however, have indirect relationship with children’s academic performance in Foundation phase; Notably, VPSs anomalies and refractive error are directly related since majority of children with refractive error, specifically compound hyperopic astigmatism, failed most subtests of TVPS standard tests. Conclusion: Based on the study’s preliminary findings, it was clear that optometrists still have a lot to do in as far as researching on VPSs is concerned. Furthermore, the researcher recommends that optometrist, as the primary healthcare professionals, should also conduct the school-readiness pre-assessment on children before commencement of their grades in Foundation phase.

Keywords: foundation phase, visual perceptual skills, school children, refractive error

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Authors: Pampita Chakraborty, Sukumar Mukherjee

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People with diabetes mellitus are more susceptible to developing infections, as high blood sugar levels can weaken the patient's immune system defences. People with diabetes are more adversely affected when they get an infection than someone without the disease, because you have weakened immune defences in diabetes. People who have minimally elevated blood sugar levels experience worse outcomes with infections. Diabetic patients in hospitals do not necessarily have a higher mortality rate due to infections, but they do face longer hospitalisation and recovery times. A study was done in a tertiary care unit in eastern India. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus infection were recruited in the study. A total of 520 cases of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus were recorded out of which 200 infectious cases was included in the study. All subjects underwent detailed history & clinical examination. Microbiological samples were collected from respective site of the infection for microbial culture and antibiotic sensitivity test. Out of the 200 infectious cases urinary tract infection(UTI) was found in majority of the cases followed by diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), respiratory tract infection(RTI) and sepsis. It was observed that Escherichia coli was the most commonest pathogen isolated from UTI cases and Staphylococcus aureus was predominant in foot ulcers followed by other organisms. Klebsiella pneumonia was the major organism isolated from RTI and Enterobacter aerogenes was commonly observed in patients with sepsis. Isolated bacteria showed differential sensitivity pattern against commonly used antibiotics. The majority of the isolates were resistant to several antibiotics that are usually prescribed on an empirical basis. These observations are important, especially for patient management and the development of antibiotic treatment guidelines. It is recommended that diabetic patients receive pneumococcal and influenza vaccine annually to reduce morbidity and mortality. Appropriate usage of antibiotics based on local antibiogram pattern can certainly help the clinician in reducing the burden of infections.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, diabetic foot ulcer, respiratory tract infection, urinary tract infection

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Authors: Michael P. Mannino, Gerald W. Hart

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The majority of glucose metabolism proceeds through glycolytic pathways such as glycolysis or pentose phosphate pathway, however, about 5% is shunted through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, producing uridine diphosphate N-acetyl glucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc). This precursor can then be incorporated into complex oligosaccharides decorating the cell surface or remain as an intracellular post-translational-modification (PTM) of serine/threonine residues (O-GlcNAcylation, OGN), which has been identified on over 4,000 cytosolic or nuclear proteins. Intracellular OGN has major implications on cellularprocesses, typically by modulating protein localization, protein-protein interactions, protein degradation, and gene expression. Additionally, OGN is known to have an extensive cross-talk with phosphorylation, be in a competitive or cooperative manner. Unlike other PTMs there are only two cycling enzymes that are capable of adding or removing the GlcNAc moiety, O-linked N-aceytl glucosamine Transferase (OGT) and O-linked N-acetyl glucoamidase (OGA), respectively. The activity of OGT has been shown to be sensitive to cellular UDP-GlcNAc levels, even changing substrate affinity. Owing to this and that the concentration of UDP-GlcNAc is related to the metabolisms of glucose, amino acid, fatty acid, and nucleotides, O-GlcNAc is often referred to as a nutrient sensing rheostat. Indeed OGN is known to regulate several signaling pathways as a result of nutrient levels, such as insulin signaling. Dysregulation of OGN is associated with several disease states such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. Improvements in glycomics over the past 10-15 years has significantly increased the OGT substrate pool, suggesting O-GlcNAc’s involvement in a wide variety of signaling pathways. However, O-GlcNAc’s role at the receptor level has only been identified in a case-by-case basis of known pathways. Examining the OGN of the plasma membrane (PM) may better focus our understanding of O-GlcNAc-effected signaling pathways. In this current study, PM fractions were isolated from several cell types via ultracentrifugation, followed by purification and MS/MS analysis in several cell lines. This process was repeated with or without OGT/OGA inhibitors or with increased/decreased glucose levels in media to ascertain the importance of OGN. Various pathways are followed up on in more detailed studies employing methods to localize OGN at the PM specifically.

Keywords: GlcNAc, nutrient sensitive, post-translational-modification, receptor

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Authors: Nina Berding

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Migration and the ensuing diversity are integral parts of urban societies. However, engaging with the urban society and its diversification is rarely perceived as something trivial but rather as a difficult task and a major challenge. A central aspect of the discourse is the current migration of refugees from countries of the southern hemisphere to Europe and the resulting challenges for cities, their municipalities and the civil society as a whole. Based on exploratory field research in a German inner-city neighborhood, it is aimed to show that the discourses about migration and diversity are completely contrary to the everyday life actions of the urban society. Processes of migration that include leaving one’s hometown and moving to other places, searching for ‘safe’ environments or better opportunities are, historically speaking, not a new phenomenon. The urban dwellers have a large repertoire of strategies in managing processes of difference in everyday life situations, guided them well for centuries and also in these contemporary processes with an increased mobility and diversity. So there is obviously a considerable discrepancy between what is practically lived in everyday life, and how it is talked about. The results of the study demonstrate that the current discourse about the challenges of migration seems to legitimize interventions beyond humanist approaches where migrants serve as collective scapegoats for social problems and affected by different discrimination and criminalization processes. On the one hand, everyone takes advantage of the super-mobility and super-diversity in their daily lives and on the other hand, powerful stakeholders and designated authorities operate a sort of retro- nationalism and identity collectivism. Political players, the municipalities and other stakeholders then follow an urban public policy that takes actions (increasing police presence, concepts and activities for special groups, exclusion from active social life, preventing participation etc.) towards different ‘groups’ of residents, produced along ‘ethnic’ lines. The results also show that, despite the obstacles and adversities placed in their way, the excluded residents perpetually relocate and re-position themselves and attempt to empower themselves by redefining their identities in their neighborhood.

Keywords: coexistence, everyday life, migration and diversity regimes, urban policy

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Authors: Zia R. Tahir, P. Mandal

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This paper presents the details of a numerical study of buckling and post buckling behaviour of laminated carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) thin-walled cylindrical shell under axial compression using asymmetric meshing technique (AMT) by ABAQUS. AMT is considered to be a new perturbation method to introduce disturbance without changing geometry, boundary conditions or loading conditions. Asymmetric meshing affects both predicted buckling load and buckling mode shapes. Cylindrical shell having lay-up orientation [0°/+45°/-45°/0°] with radius to thickness ratio (R/t) equal to 265 and length to radius ratio (L/R) equal to 1.5 is analysed numerically. A series of numerical simulations (experiments) are carried out with symmetric and asymmetric meshing to study the effect of asymmetric meshing on predicted buckling behaviour. Asymmetric meshing technique is employed in both axial direction and circumferential direction separately using two different methods, first by changing the shell element size and varying the total number elements, and second by varying the shell element size and keeping total number of elements constant. The results of linear analysis (Eigenvalue analysis) and non-linear analysis (Riks analysis) using symmetric meshing agree well with analytical results. The results of numerical analysis are presented in form of non-dimensional load factor, which is the ratio of buckling load using asymmetric meshing technique to buckling load using symmetric meshing technique. Using AMT, load factor has about 2% variation for linear eigenvalue analysis and about 2% variation for non-linear Riks analysis. The behaviour of load end-shortening curve for pre-buckling is same for both symmetric and asymmetric meshing but for asymmetric meshing curve behaviour in post-buckling becomes extraordinarily complex. The major conclusions are: different methods of AMT have small influence on predicted buckling load and significant influence on load displacement curve behaviour in post buckling; AMT in axial direction and AMT in circumferential direction have different influence on buckling load and load displacement curve in post-buckling.

Keywords: CFRP composite cylindrical shell, asymmetric meshing technique, primary buckling, secondary buckling, linear eigenvalue analysis, non-linear riks analysis

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Authors: M. Amparo Nunez-Andres, Nieves Lantada

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One of the most harmful geological risks is rockfalls. They cause both economic lost, damaged in buildings and infrastructures, and personal ones. Therefore, in order to estimate the risk of the exposed elements, it is necessary to know the mechanism of this kind of events, since the characteristics of the rock walls, to the propagation of fragments generated by the initial detached rock mass. In the framework of the research RockModels project, several inventories of rockfalls were carried out along the northeast of the Spanish peninsula and the Mallorca island. These inventories have general information about the events, although the important fact is that they contained detailed information about fragmentation. Specifically, the IBSD (Insitu Block Size Distribution) is obtained by photogrammetry from drone or TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) and the RBSD (Rock Block Size Distribution) from the volume of the fragment in the deposit measured by hand. In order to share all this information with other scientists, engineers, members of civil protection, and stakeholders, it is necessary a platform accessible from the internet and following interoperable standards. In all the process, open-software have been used: PostGIS 2.1., Geoserver, and OpenLayers library. In the first step, a spatial database was implemented to manage all the information. We have used the data specifications of INSPIRE for natural risks adding specific and detailed data about fragmentation distribution. The next step was to develop a WMS with Geoserver. A previous phase was the creation of several views in PostGIS to show the information at different scales of visualization and with different degrees of detail. In the first view, the sites are identified with a point, and basic information about the rockfall event is facilitated. In the next level of zoom, at medium scale, the convex hull of the rockfall appears with its real shape and the source of the event and fragments are represented by symbols. The queries at this level offer a major detail about the movement. Eventually, the third level shows all elements: deposit, source, and blocks, in their real size, if it is possible, and in their real localization. The last task was the publication of all information in a web mapping site (www.rockdb.upc.edu) with data classified by levels using libraries in JavaScript as OpenLayers.

Keywords: geological risk, web mapping, WMS, rockfalls

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Authors: Igor Jerkovic

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Owing to the attractive sensory properties and low odour thresholds, norisoprenoids (degraded carotenoid-like structures with 3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-enoic unit) have been identified as aroma contributors in a number of different matrices. C₁₃-Norisoprenoids have been found among volatile organic compounds of various honey types as well as C₉//C₁₀-norisoprenoids or C₁₄/C₁₅-norisoprenoids. Besides degradation of abscisic acid (which produces, e.g., dehydrovomifoliol, vomifoliol, others), the cleavage of the C(9)=C(10) bond of other carotenoid precursors directly generates nonspecific C₁₃-norisoprenoids such as trans-β-damascenone, 3-hydroxy-trans-β-damascone, 3-oxo-α-ionol, 3-oxo-α-ionone, β-ionone found in various honey types. β-Damascenone and β-ionone smelling like honey, exhibit the lowest odour threshold values of all C₁₃-norisoprenoids. The presentation is targeted on two uncommon C₁₃-norisoprenoids in the honey flavor that could be used as specific or nonspecific chemical markers of the botanical origin. Namely, after screening of different honey types, the focus was directed on Centaruea cyanus L. and Allium ursinum L. honey. The samples were extracted by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and ultrasonic solvent extraction (USE) and the extracts were analysed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). SPME fiber with divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) coating was applied for the research of C. cyanus honey headspace and predominant identified compound was 3,4-dihydro-3-oxoedulan (2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-2,3,5,6,8,8a-hexahydro-7H-chromen-7-one also known as 2,3,5,6,8,8a-hexahydro-2,5,5,8a-tetramethyl-7H-1-benzo-pyran-7-one). The oxoedulan structure contains epoxide and it is more volatile in comparison with its hydroxylated precursors. This compound has not been found in other honey types and can be considered specific for C. cyanus honey. The dichloromethane extract of A. ursinum honey contained abundant (E)-4-(r-1',t-2',c-4'-trihydroxy-3',6',6'-trimethylcyclohexyl)-but-3-en-2-one that was previously isolated as dominant substance from the ether extracts of New Zealand thyme honey. Although a wide variety of degraded carotenoid-like substances have been identified from different honey types, this appears to be rare situation where 3,4-dihydro-3-oxoedulan and (E)-4-(r-1',t-2',c-4'-trihydroxy-3',6',6'-trimethylcyclohexyl)-but-3-en-2-one have been found that is of great importance for chemical fingerprinting and identification of the chemical biomarkers that can complement the pollen analysis as the major method for the honey classification.

Keywords: 3, 4-dihydro-3-oxoedulan, (E)-4-(r-1', t-2', c-4'-trihydroxy-3', 6', 6'-trimethylcyclohexyl)-but-3-en-2-one, honey flavour, C₁₃-norisoprenoids

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Authors: Janani Selvaraj, M. Prashanthi Devi, P. B. Harathi

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Epidemiologic studies conducted over several decades have provided evidence to suggest that long-term exposure to elevated ambient levels of particulate air pollution is associated with increased mortality. Air quality risk management is significant in developing countries and it highlights the need to understand the role of ecologic covariates in the association between air pollution and mortality. Several new methods show promise in exploring the geographical distribution of disease and the identification of high risk areas using epidemiological maps. However, the addition of the temporal attribute would further give us an in depth idea of the disease burden with respect to forecasting measures. In recent years, new methods developed in the reanalysis were useful for exploring the spatial structure of the data and the impact of spatial autocorrelation on estimates of risk associated with exposure to air pollution. Based on this, our present study aims to explore the spatial and temporal distribution of the lung cancer cases in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu in relation to air pollution risk areas. A spatio temporal moving average method was computed using the CrimeStat software and visualized in ArcGIS 10.1 to document the spatio temporal movement of the disease in the study region. The random walk analysis performed showed the progress of the peak cancer incidences in the intersection regions of the Coimbatore North and South taluks that include major commercial and residential regions like Gandhipuram, Peelamedu, Ganapathy, etc. Our study shows evidence that daily exposure to high air pollutant concentration zones may lead to the risk of lung cancer. The observations from the present study will be useful in delineating high risk zones of environmental exposure that contribute to the increase of cancer among daily commuters. Through our study we suggest that spatially resolved exposure models in relevant time frames will produce higher risks zones rather than solely on statistical theory about the impact of measurement error and the empirical findings.

Keywords: air pollution, cancer, spatio-temporal analysis, India

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Authors: Rashedul Islam

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A firmly-validated aim of teaching science is to support student enthusiasm for science learning with an outspread interest in scientific issues in future life. This is in keeping with the recent development in Gifted and Talented Education statement which instructs that gifted students have a renewed interest and natural aptitude in science. Yet, the practice of science teaching leaves many students with the feeling that science is difficult and compared to other school subjects, students interest in science is declining at the final years of the primary school. As a curriculum guides the teaching-learning activities in school, where significant consequences may result from the context of the curricula and syllabi, are a major feature of certain educational jurisdictions in NSW, Australia. The purpose of this study was an exploration of the curriculum sets the context to identify how science education is practiced through primary schools in Sydney, Australia. This phenomenon was explored through document review from two publicly available documents namely: the NSW Science Syllabus K-6, and Australian Curriculum: Foundation - 10 Science. To analyse the data, this qualitative study applied themed content analysis at three different levels, i.e., first cycle coding, second cycle coding- pattern codes, and thematic analysis. Preliminary analysis revealed the phenomenon of teaching-learning practices drawn from eight themes under three phenomena aligned with teachers’ practices and gifted student’s learning characteristics based on Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Gifted and Talent (DMGT). From the results, it appears that, overall, the two documents are relatively well-placed in terms of identifying the context of teaching and learning primary science to gifted students. However, educators need to make themselves aware of the ways in which the curriculum needs to be adapted to meet gifted students learning needs in science. It explores the important phenomena of teaching-learning context to provide gifted students with optimal educational practices including inquiry-based learning, problem-solving, open-ended tasks, creativity in science, higher order thinking, integration, and challenges. The significance of such a study lies in its potential to schools and further research in the field of gifted education.

Keywords: teaching primary science, gifted student learning, curriculum context, science syllabi, Australia

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Authors: Madia Safdar, G. Amjad Hussain, Mashhood Ahmad

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One of the major challenges of today’s era is peak demand which causes stress on the transmission lines and also raises the cost of energy generation and ultimately higher electricity bills to the end users, and it was used to be managed by the supply side management. However, nowadays this has been withdrawn because of existence of potential in the demand side management (DSM) having its economic and- environmental advantages. DSM in domestic load can play a vital role in reducing the peak load demand on the network provides a significant cost saving. In this paper the potential of demand response (DR) in reducing the peak load demands and electricity bills to the electric users is elaborated. For this purpose the domestic appliances are modeled in MATLAB Simulink and controlled by a module called energy management controller. The devices are categorized into controllable and uncontrollable loads and are operated according to real-time tariff pricing pattern instead of fixed time pricing or variable pricing. Energy management controller decides the switching instants of the controllable appliances based on the results from optimization algorithms. In GAMS software, the MILP (mixed integer linear programming) algorithm is used for optimization. In different cases, different constraints are used for optimization, considering the comforts, needs and priorities of the end users. Results are compared and the savings in electricity bills are discussed in this paper considering real time pricing and fixed tariff pricing, which exhibits the existence of potential to reduce electricity bills and peak loads in demand side management. It is seen that using real time pricing tariff instead of fixed tariff pricing helps to save in the electricity bills. Moreover the simulation results of the proposed energy management system show that the gained power savings lie in high range. It is anticipated that the result of this research will prove to be highly effective to the utility companies as well as in the improvement of domestic DR.

Keywords: controllable and uncontrollable domestic loads, demand response, demand side management, optimization, MILP (mixed integer linear programming)

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Authors: N. Kashif, M. K. Naseer

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This is an undeniable fact that parents are the very first role model for their children and children are the silent observers and followers of their parents. The environment they would be provided will leave either positive or negative lasting impact on their physical and mental behavior and abilities to grow, progress and conquer. This paper focuses on the observation particularly in South Asian countries where females have been facing problems in accessing education and getting financially independent or stable. This paper emphasizes on a survey conducted in rural areas of Punjab State in Pakistan. It explains how the parents’ educational background, financial status, conservative and interdependent accommodation style influence a prominent inequality of giving their female child right to study and get empowered. The forces behind this gender discrimination are not limited to parents’ life style impact but also include some major social problems like distant schools, gender-based harassment, and threat, insecurities, employment opportunities, so on. As a grass root level solution, it is proposed to develop an institution which collects data regarding child birth in their region and can contact the parent when their child is ready to start school. Building up trust based relationship with parents is the most crucial and significant factor. Secondly, celebrities and public figures can play an extraordinary role in running a campaign to advocate and encourage people living in rural areas, villages and small towns. All possible solutions can never be implemented without the support of the state government. Therefore, this paper invites more thoughtful actions, properly planned strategies, initiators to take the lead and make a platform for those who are underprivileged and deprived of their basic rights. Any country, where female constitute 49% of its entire population can never progress without promoting female empowerment and their right to compulsory education, and it is never late or impossible to admit the facts and practically start a flexible solution- oriented approach.

Keywords: employment opportunities, female empowerment, gender based harassment, gender discrimination, inequality, parents' life style impact

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Authors: Bencharif Meriem, Sersar Ibrahim, Djaafri Zineb

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Introduction and purpose of the study: Education plays a fundamental role in the lives of young people, but what about their physical well-being as they spend long hours sitting at school? School inactivity is a problem that deserves particular attention because it can have significant repercussions on the health and development of students. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate the physical activity of students in different practices in class, at recess and in the canteen. Material and methods: A physical activity diary and an anthropometric measurement sheet (weight, height) were provided to 123 school-aged adolescents. The measurements were carried out according to international recommendations. The statistical tests were carried out with the R software. 3.2.4. The significance threshold retained was 0.05. Results and Statistical Analysis: One hundred and twenty-three students agreed to participate in the study. Their average age was 16.5±1.60 years. Overweight was present in 8.13% and obesity in 4.06%. For the practice of physical activity, during physical education and sports classes, all students played sports with an average of 1.94±1.00 hours/week, of which 74.00% sweated or were out of breath during these hours of physical activity. It was also noted that boys practiced sports more than girls (p<0.0001). Each day, on average, students spent 39.78±37.85 min walking or running during recess. On the other hand, they spent, on average 4.25±2.65 hours sitting per day in class, at recess, in the canteen, etc., without counting the time spent in front of a screen. The increasing use of screens has become a major concern for parents and educators. On average, students spent approximately 42.90±38.41 min per day using screens in class, at recess, in the canteen and at home. (computer, tablet, telephone, video games, etc.) and therefore to a prolonged sedentary lifestyle. On average, students sat for more than 1.5 hours without moving for at least 2 minutes in a row approximately 1.72±0.71 times per day. Conclusion: These students spent many hours sitting at school. This prolonged inactivity can have negative consequences on their health, including problems with posture and cardiovascular health. It is crucial that schools, educators and parents collaborate to promote more active learning environments where students can move more and thus contribute to their overall well-being. It's time to rethink how we approach education and student health to give them a healthier, more active future.

Keywords: physical acivity, sedentarity, adolescents, school

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Authors: Mahmoud Mourad, Ahmad Hamza H. Ali, S.Ookawara, Ali Kamel Abdel-Rahman, Nady M. Abdelkariem

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The energy consumption of a house can be affected simultaneously by many building design factors related to its main architectural features, building elements and materials. This study focuses on the impact of passive design factors on the annual energy consumption of a suggested prototype house for single-family detached houses of 240 m2 in two floors, each floor of 120 m2 in new Egyptian cities located in (Alexandria - Cairo - Siwa - Assuit – Aswan) which resemble five different climatic zones (Northern coast – Northern upper Egypt - dessert region- Southern upper Egypt – South Egypt) respectively. This study present the effect of the passive design factors affecting the building energy consumption as building orientation, building material (walls, roof and slabs), building type (residential, educational, commercial), building occupancy (type of occupant, no. of occupant, age), building landscape and site selection, building envelope and fenestration (glazing material, shading), and building plan form. This information can be used to estimate the approximate saving in energy consumption, which would result on a change in the design datum for the future houses development, and to identify the major design problems for energy efficiency. To achieve the above objective, this paper presents a study for the factors affecting on the building energy consumption in the hot arid area in new Egyptian cities in five different climatic zones , followed by defining the energy needs for different utilization in this suggested prototype house. Consequently, a detailed analysis of the available Renewable Energy utilizations technologies used in the suggested home, and a calculation of the energy as a function of yearly distribution that required for this home will presented. The results obtained from building annual energy analyses show that architecture passive design factors saves about 35% of the annual energy consumption. It shows also passive cooling techniques saves about 45%, and renewable energy systems saves about 40% of the annual energy needs for this proposed home depending on the cities location on the climatic zones.

Keywords: architecture passive design factors, energy efficient homes, Egypt new cites, renewable energy technologies

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Authors: James Skon, Irina Beshentseva, Michelle Polak

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Wifi solutions come in two major classes. Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) WiFi, characterized by inexpensive WiFi routers, with one or two service set identifiers (SSIDs), and a single shared passphrase. These access points provide no significant user management or monitoring, and no aggregation of monitoring and control for multiple routers. The other solution class is managed enterprise WiFi solutions, which involve expensive Access Points (APs), along with (also costly) local or cloud based management components. These solutions typically provide portal based login, per user virtual local area networks (VLANs), and sophisticated monitoring and control across a large group of APs. The cost for deploying and managing such managed enterprise solutions is typically about 10 fold that of inexpensive consumer APs. Low revenue organizations, such as schools, non-profits, non-government organizations (NGO's), small businesses, and even homes cannot easily afford quality enterprise WiFi solutions, though they may need to provide quality WiFi access to their population. Using available lower cost Wifi solutions can significantly reduce their ability to provide reliable, secure network access. This project explored and created a new approach for providing secured managed enterprise WiFi based on low cost hardware combined with both new and existing (but modified) open source software. The solution provides a cloud based management interface which allows organizations to aggregate the configuration and management of small, medium and large WiFi solutions. It utilizes a novel approach for user management, giving each user a unique passphrase. It provides unlimited SSID's across an unlimited number of WiFI zones, and the ability to place each user (and all their devices) on their own VLAN. With proper configuration it can even provide user local services. It also allows for users' usage and quality of service to be monitored, and for users to be added, enabled, and disabled at will. As inferred above, the ultimate goal is to free organizations with limited resources from the expense of a commercial enterprise WiFi, while providing them with most of the qualities of such a more expensive managed solution at a fraction of the cost.

Keywords: wifi, enterprise, cloud, managed

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Authors: Mazyar Yosofi, Olivier Kerbrat, Pascal Mognol

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Life cycle assessment of additive manufacturing processes has evolved significantly since these past years. A lot of existing studies mainly focused on energy consumption. Nowadays, new methodologies of life cycle inventory acquisition came through the literature and help manufacturers to take into account all the input and output flows during the manufacturing step of the life cycle of products. Indeed, the environmental analysis of the phenomena that occur during the manufacturing step of additive manufacturing processes is going to be well known. Now it becomes possible to count and measure accurately all the inventory data during the manufacturing step. Optimization of the environmental performances of processes can now be considered. Environmental performance improvement can be made by varying process parameters. However, a lot of these parameters (such as manufacturing speed, the power of the energy source, quantity of support materials) affect directly the mechanical properties, surface finish and the dimensional accuracy of a functional part. This study aims to improve the environmental performance of an additive manufacturing process without deterioration of the part quality. For that purpose, the authors have developed a generic method that has been applied on multiple parts made by additive manufacturing processes. First, a complete analysis of the process parameters is made in order to identify which parameters affect only the environmental performances of the process. Then, multiple parts are manufactured by varying the identified parameters. The aim of the second step is to find the optimum value of the parameters that decrease significantly the environmental impact of the process and keep the part quality as desired. Finally, a comparison between the part made by initials parameters and changed parameters is made. In this study, the major finding claims by authors is to reduce the environmental impact of an additive manufacturing process while respecting the three quality criterion of parts, mechanical properties, dimensional accuracy and surface roughness. Now that additive manufacturing processes can be seen as mature from a technical point of view, environmental improvement of these processes can be considered while respecting the part properties. The first part of this study presents the methodology applied to multiple academic parts. Then, the validity of the methodology is demonstrated on functional parts.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, environmental impact, environmental improvement, mechanical properties

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Authors: Remy Kulagowski, Tobias Sturm, Audrey Leopold, Aurelie Metay, Josephine Peigne, Alexis Thoumazeau, Alain Brauman, Bruno Fogliani, Florent Tivet

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A major challenge for agriculture is to enhance productivity while limiting the impact on the environment. Conservation agriculture (CA) is one strategy whereby both sustainability and productivity can be achieved by preserving and improving the soil quality. Soils provide and regulate a large number of ecosystem services (ES) such as agricultural productivity and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The aim of this study is to assess the impacts of contrasted CA crop management on soil functions for maize (Zea mays L.) cultivation in an eight years field experiment (2010-2018). The study included two CA practices: direct seeding in dead mulch (DM) and living mulch (LM), and conventional plough-based tillage (CT) practices on a fluvisol in New Caledonia (French Archipelago in the South Pacific). In 2018, soil quality of the cropping systems were evaluated with the Biofunctool® set of indicators, that consists in twelve integrative, in-field, and low-tech indicators assessing the biological, physical and chemical properties of soils. Main soil functions were evaluated including (i) carbon transformation, (ii) structure maintenance, and (iii) nutrient cycling in the ten first soil centimeters. The results showed significant higher score for soil structure maintenance (e.g., aggregate stability, water infiltration) and carbon transformation function (e.g., soil respiration, labile carbon) under CA in DM and LM when compared with CT. Score of carbon transformation index was higher in DM compared with LM. However, no significant effect of cropping systems was observed on nutrient cycling (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus). In conclusion, the aggregated synthetic scores of soil multi-functions evaluated with Biofunctool® demonstrate that CA cropping systems lead to a better soil functioning. Further analysis of the results with agronomic performance of the soil-crop systems would allow to better understand the links between soil functioning and production ES of CA.

Keywords: conservation agriculture, cropping systems, ecosystem services, soil functions

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Authors: Sushma Tejwani, Shoruba Dinakaran, Rupa Rokhade, K. Bhujang Shetty

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Introduction and aim: One of the major causes for failure of trabeculectomy is fibrosis and scarring of subconjunctival tissue around the bleb, and hence intra operative usage of anti-fibrotic agents like Mitomycin C (MMC) has become very popular. However, the long term effects of MMC like thin, avascular bleb, hypotony, bleb leaks and late onset endophthalmitis cannot be ignored, and may preclude its usage in routine trabeculectomy. In this particular study we aim to study the outcomes of trabeculectomy with and without MMC in uncomplicated glaucoma patients. Methods: Retrospective study of series of patients that underwent trabeculectomy with or without cataract surgery in glaucoma department of a tertiary eye care centre by a single surgeon for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), angle closure glaucoma (PACG), Pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXF glaucoma). Patients with secondary glaucoma, juvenile and congenital glaucoma were excluded; also patients undergoing second trabeculectomy were excluded. The outcomes were studied in terms of IOP control at 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year and were analyzed separately for surgical outcomes with and without MMC. Success was considered if IOP was < 16 mmHg on applanation tonometry. Further, the necessity of medication, 5 fluorouracil (5FU) postoperative injections, needling post operatively was noted. Results: Eighty nine patient’s medical records were reviewed, of which 58 patients had undergone trabeculectomy without MMC and 31 with MMC. Mean age was 62.4 (95%CI 61- 64), 34 were females and 55 males. MMC group (n=31): Preoperative mean IOP was 21.1mmHg (95% CI: 17.6 -24.6), and 22 patients had IOP > 16. Three out of 33 patients were on single medication and rests were on multiple drugs. At 1 month (n=27) mean IOP was 12.4 mmHg (CI: 10.7-14), and 31/33 had success. At 6 months (n=18) mean IOP was 13mmHg (CI: 10.3-14.6) and 16/18 had good outcome, however at 1 year only 11 patients were available for follow up and 91% (10/11) had success. Overall, 3 patients required medication and one patient required postoperative injection of 5 FU. No MMC group (n=58): Preoperative mean IOP was 21.9 mmHg (CI: 19.8-24.2), and 42 had IOP > 16 mmHg. 12 out of 58 patients were on single medication and rests were on multiple drugs. At 1 month (n=52) mean IOP was14.6mmHg (CI: 13.2-15.9), and 45/ 58 had IOP < 16mmHg. At 6 months (n=31) mean IOP was 13.5 mmHg (CI: 11.9-15.2) and 26/31 had success, however at 1 year only 23 patients came for follow up and of these 87% (20/23) patients had success. Overall, 1 patient required needling, 5 required 5 FU injections and 5 patients required medication. The success rates at each follow up visit were not significantly different in both the groups. Conclusion: Intra-operative MMC usage may not be required in all patients undergoing trabeculectomy, and the ones without MMC also have fairly good outcomes in primary glaucoma.

Keywords: glaucoma filtration surgery, mitomycin C, outcomes of trabeculectomy, wound modulation

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Authors: AliAkbar Hafezi, Jamshid Abedi, Jalal Taherian, Behnam Kadkhodaei, Mahsa Elahi

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Background. Peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of the administration of neurotoxic chemotherapy agents. This adverse effect is a major dose-limiting factor of many commonly used chemotherapy drugs. Currently, there are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications for the prevention or treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the efficacy and safety of metformin on paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN). Methods. In this randomized clinical trial, cancer patients who were candidates for chemotherapy with paclitaxel referred to the radiation oncology departments in Iran from 2022 to 2023 were studied. Patients were randomly divided into two groups; 1- Case group (n = 30) received metformin 500 mg orally twice a day after meals during chemotherapy with paclitaxel, and 2- Control group (30 people) received chemotherapy without metformin or any additional medication. Patients were visited in terms of numbness or other neurological symptoms two weeks before chemotherapy, 1-2 days before and weekly during chemotherapy, and at the end of the study. They were assessed by nerve conduction study (NCS) before intervention and one week after the end of chemotherapy. The primary outcome was the efficacy in reducing PIPN and the secondary outcome was adverse effects. Eventually, the outcomes were compared between the two groups of patients. Results. A total of 60 female cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with paclitaxel were evaluated in two groups. The groups were matched in terms of age, body mass index, fasting blood sugar, smoking, pathologic stage, and creatinine levels. The results showed that 18 patients (60.0 %) in the case group and 23 patients (76.6 %) in the control group had PIPN clinically (P = 0.267), and NCS showed 11 patients (36.6 %) in the case group and 15 patients (50.0 %) in the control group suffered from PIPN which no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P = 0.435). Diarrhea (n = 3; 10.0 %) and nausea (n = 3; 10.0 %) were the most common side effects of metformin in the case group and no serious side effects (lactic acidosis and anemia) were found in these patients. Conclusion. This study indicated that metformin did not significantly prevent PIPN in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, although the frequency of peripheral neuropathy in the case group was lower than in the control group. The use of metformin in the patients had acceptable safety and no serious side effects were reported.

Keywords: peripheral neuropathy, chemotherapy, paclitaxel, metformin

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Authors: Akriti Kafle Baral, Ruixing Zhang, Dzifa K Lalit, Manthar M Alli

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Introduction: Hemodialysis is the most common type of dialysis globally approximately million are reported to receive this type of dialysis. Psychosocial issues in hemodialysis are the psychological and socioeconomic burdens emanating from the initiation and course of treatment and have the potential for gross deterioration in the quality of life and general well-being of patients. Understanding the psychosocial issues and needs of patients undergoing hemodialysis could pave the way for comprehensive support and therapies designed to reduce stress, improve social support, and foster mental resilience. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the psychosocial issues and support needs of patients undergoing hemodialysis at a tertiary care center in Nepal. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted among 20 purposefully selected patients attending hemodialysis treatment at Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal. Data was analyzed via thematic analysis. Results: The study resulted in three major themes which included Emotional, psychological, and spiritual struggles, Social and economic impacts, and Support and information needs. Moreover, 16 sub-themes emerged which are Frustration with daily life, Constant fear of death, Thoughts of self-harm, Perceived Burden on Family, Sense of Divine Punishment, Sense of Unfairness, Fear about future uncertainties, Social avoidance, Social stigmatization, Loss of employment, Financial strain, Transportation challenges, Need for early, clear and comprehensive information, Need for support and reassurance from family, Support through peer connections, and Reassurance from healthcare providers. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that patients undergoing hemodialysis in Nepal experience numerous hardships and multifaceted struggles that require support from different dimensions. Establishing robust support systems that include family involvement, peer networks, and effective communication from healthcare professionals can significantly mitigate feelings of anxiety and isolation.

Keywords: hemodialysis, psychosocial issues, support needs, chronic kidney disease, end stage renal disease, Nepal

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Authors: Jinghui Wang, Minjie Xing

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The increasing number of international students for doctoral education has brought vitality and diversity to the educational environment in China, and at the same time constituted a new challenge to the English teaching in the higher education as the majority of international students come from developing countries where English is not their first language. To make their contribution to knowledge development and technical innovation, these international doctoral students need to present their research work in English, locally and globally. This study reports an exploratory study with an emphasis on the cognition and construction of academic discourse in the multicultural context. The present study aims to explore ways to better prepare them for international academic exchange in English. Voluntarily, all international doctoral students (n = 81) from 35 countries enrolled in the English Course: Speaking and Writing as a New Scientist, participated in the study. Two research questions were raised: 1) What did these doctoral students say about their cognition and construction of English academic discourses? 2) How did they manage to develop their productive skills in a multicultural context? To answer the research questions, data were collected from self-reports, in-depth interviews, and video-recorded class observations. The major findings of the study suggest that the participants to varying degrees benefitted from the cognition and construction of English academic discourse in the multicultural context. Specifically, 1) The cognition and construction of meta-discourse allowed them to construct their own academic discourses in English; 2) In the light of Swales’ CARS Model, they became sensitive to the “moves” involved in the published papers closely related to their study, and learned to use them in their English academic discourses; 3) Multimodality-driven presentation (multimedia modes) enabled these doctoral student to have their voice heard for technical innovation purposes; 4) Speaking as a new scientist, every doctoral student felt happy and able to serve as an intercultural mediator in the multicultural context, bridging the gap between their home culture and the global culture; and most importantly, 5) most of the participants reported developing an English discourse community among international doctoral students, becoming resourceful and productive in the multicultural context. It is concluded that the cognition and construction of academic discourse in the multicultural context proves to be conducive to the productivity and intercultural citizenship education of international doctoral students.

Keywords: academic discourse, international doctoral students, meta-discourse, multicultural context

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Authors: Amina Akhtar, Rory O'Connor

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Introduction: There remains significant morbidity and mortality in young pedestrians hit by motor vehicles, even in the era of pedestrian crossings and speed limits. The aim of this study was to compare incidence and injury severity of motor vehicle-related pedestrian trauma according to time of day and season in a young population, based on the supposition that injuries would be more prevalent during dusk and dawn and during autumn and winter. Methods: Data was retrieved for patients between 10-25 years old from the National Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database who had been involved as pedestrians in motor vehicle accidents between 2015-2020. The incidence of injuries, their severity (using the Injury Severity Score [ISS]), hospital transfer time, and mortality were analysed according to the hours of daylight, darkness, and season. Results: The study identified a seasonal pattern, showing that autumn was the predominant season and led to 34.9% of injuries, with a further 25.4% in winter in comparison to spring and summer, with 21.4% and 18.3% of injuries, respectively. However, visibility alone was not a sufficient factor as 49.5% of injuries occurred during the time of darkness, while 50.5% occurred during daylight. Importantly, the greatest injury rate (number of injuries/hour) occurred between 1500-1630, correlating to school pick-up times. A further significant relationship between injury severity score (ISS) and daylight was demonstrated (p-value= 0.0124), with moderate injuries (ISS 9-14) occurring most commonly during the day (72.7%) and more severe injuries (ISS>15) occurred during the night (55.8%). Conclusion: We have identified a relationship between time of day and the frequency and severity of pedestrian trauma in young people. In addition, particular time groupings correspond to the greatest injury rate, suggesting that reduced visibility coupled with school pick-up times may play a significant role. This could be addressed through a targeted public health approach to implementing change. We recommend targeted public health measures to improve road safety that focus on these times and that increase the visibility of children combined with education for drivers.

Keywords: major trauma, paediatric trauma, road traffic accidents, diurnal pattern

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Authors: Pavel Damborsky, Martina Zamorova, Jaroslav Katrlik

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Prostate cancer is annually the most common newly diagnosed cancer among men. An extensive number of evidence suggests that traditional serum Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) assay still suffers from a lack of sufficient specificity and sensitivity resulting in vast over-diagnosis and overtreatment. Thus, the early-stage detection of prostate cancer (PCa) plays undisputedly a critical role for successful treatment and improved quality of life. Over the last decade, particular altered glycans have been described that are associated with a range of chronic diseases, including cancer and inflammation. These glycans differences enable a distinction to be made between physiological and pathological state and suggest a valuable biosensing tool for diagnosis and follow-up purposes. Aberrant glycosylation is one of the major characteristics of disease progression. Consequently, the aim of this study was to develop a more reliable tool for early-stage PCa diagnosis employing lectins as glyco-recognition elements. Biosensor and biochip technology putting to use lectin-based glyco-profiling is one of the most promising strategies aimed at providing fast and efficient analysis of glycoproteins. The proof-of-concept experiments based on sandwich assay employing anti-PSA antibody and an aptamer as a capture molecules followed by lectin glycoprofiling were performed. We present a lectin-based biosensing assay for glycoprofiling of serum biomarker PSA using different biosensor and biochip platforms such as label-free surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and microarray with fluorescent label. The results suggest significant differences in interaction of particular lectins with PSA. The antibody-based assay is frequently associated with the sensitivity, reproducibility, and cross-reactivity issues. Aptamers provide remarkable advantages over antibodies due to the nucleic acid origin, stability and no glycosylation. All these data are further step for construction of highly selective, sensitive and reliable sensors for early-stage diagnosis. The experimental set-up also holds promise for the development of comparable assays with other glycosylated disease biomarkers.

Keywords: biomarker, glycosylation, lectin, prostate cancer

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Authors: Y. Mohammed, A. I. Kabuga

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Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have continued to be a major public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa especially with the recent resurgence of syphilis. Syphilis is a systemic disease caused by the bacterium, spirochete Treponema pallidum and has been reported as one of the common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Nigeria. Presence of genital ulcer disease from syphilis facilitates human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission and their ¬diagnosis is essential for the proper management. Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test is used as a screening test for the diagnosis of syphilis. However, unusual VDRL test results have been reported in HIV-infected persons with syphilis. There are reports showing higher than expected VDRL titers as well as biological false positive in most of the studies. A negative Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) test or VDRL test result may not rule out syphilis in patients with HIV infection. For laboratory confirmation of syphilis, one specific Treponemal test, namely, Fluroscent Treponemal Antibody Absorption (FTA-ABS) test or Treponema Pallidum Haemagglutination Assay (TPHA) should be done along with VDRL. A prospective cross sectional study was conducted for 2 years from Jun, 2012 to Jun 2014 to determine the prevalence of syphilis in HIV-seroreactive patients at 5 selected HIV/AIDS treatment and counseling centers in Kano State, North Western, Nigeria. New HIV-Seroreactive patients who gave informed consent to participate in the study were recruited. Venereal Diseases Research Laboratory (VDRL) test for Syphilis screening was performed on the same sera samples which were collected for HIV testing. A total of 238 patients, 113 (47%) males and 125 (53%) females, were enrolled. In the present study, 238 HIV-seropositive patients were screened for syphilis by VDRL test. Out of these 238 cases, 72 (32%) patients were positive for TPHA and 8 (3.4%) patients were reactive for VDRL in various titers with an overall prevalence of 3.4%. All the eight patients who were reactive for VDRL test were also positive for TPHA test. In Conclusions, with high prevalence of syphilis among HIV-infected people from this study, it is recommended that serological testing for syphilis should be carried out in all patients with newly diagnosed HIV infection. Detection and treatment of STI should have a central role in HIV prevention and control. This will help in proper management of patients having STIs and HIV co infection.

Keywords: HIV, infections, STIs, syphilis

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Authors: Joan Edwards, J. Lawlor

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Technological innovation is frequently defined in terms of bringing a new invention to market through a relatively straightforward process of diffusion. In reality, this process is complex and non-linear in nature, and includes social and cognitive factors that influence the development of an emerging technology and its related market or environment. As recent studies contend technological trajectory is part of technological paradigms, which arise from the expectations and desires of industry agents and results in co-evolution, it may be realised that social factors play a major role in the development of a technology. It is conjectured that collective social behaviour is fuelled by individual motivations and expectations, which inform the possibilities and uses for a new technology. The individual outlook highlights the issues present at the micro-level of developing a technology. Accordingly, this may be zoomed out to realise how these embedded social structures, influence activities and expectations at a macro level and can ultimately strategically shape the development and use of a technology. These social factors rely on communication to foster the innovation process. As innovation may be defined as the implementation of inventions, technological change results from the complex interactions and feedback occurring within an extended environment. The framework presented in this paper, recognises that social mechanisms provide the basis for an iterative dialogue between an innovator, a new technology, and an environment - within which social and cognitive ‘identity-shaping’ elements of the innovation process occur. Identity-shaping characteristics indicate that an emerging technology has a performative nature that transforms, alters, and ultimately configures the environment to which it joins. This identity–shaping quality is termed as ‘performative’. This paper examines how technologies evolve within a socio-technological sphere and how 'performativity' facilitates the process. A framework is proposed that incorporates the performative elements which are identified as feedback, iteration, routine, expectations, and motivations. Additionally, the concept of affordances is employed to determine how the role of the innovator and technology change over time - constituting a more conducive environment for successful innovation.

Keywords: affordances, framework, performativity, strategic innovation

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Authors: I. Gupta, C. Kathpal

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Introduction: Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he cannot afford to lose. Work life balance is a contested term on which researchers have begun to study in 1960s. Work-life balance refers to how people allocate time between their jobs and other pursuits, such as family, hobbies, and community involvement and includes the mental health fitness of the employees so that the future goal of organization to sustain the employees and earning profits can be achieved. Every organization primarily involves making a parity between the employees' work and their personal life by contributing the maximum. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine the impact of work-life balance as well as employee satisfaction on the organizational performance by evaluating the inter-related factors in order to maintain the healthy growth of concerns. Materials and Methods: To realize the aim of the study, an unstructured questionnaire, as well as face to face interview, was conducted from 100 persons which consisted majority of male members of top as well as middle level positions in the various organizations. The prime source of data collection was primary; however, the study has also used the theoretical contribution done in this respective field by various researchers. Results: Majority of the respondents were males(80%) from age group of 25-45. The collected data was analyzed through hypothesis testing statistical techniques such as correlation analysis, single regression analysis and ANOVA which has rejected the null hypothesis that there is no relation between work-life interface and organizational performance. The major finding of this study is that work-life balance is directly related to the organizations performance. The results show that the organization which works on the employee satisfaction earns more. Along with, there is a reduction of turnout rates, absenteeism, moreover, enhancement of productivity as well as revenue of corporations. Conclusion: The present study reflects that the disparity in the work-life balance gives invitation to many disorders either mental or physical which leads the dearth in performance. As a result, not only employees, however, organizations also suffers which is clearly shown in the interviews conducted face to face with employees. The study is not targeting the particular class of audience; however, it brings out benefits to the masses.

Keywords: work-life balance, performance, culture, organization, satisfaction

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Authors: Zh. Saffari, A. Naeimi, M. S. Ekrami-Kakhki, Kh. Khandan-Barani

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The textile industries are becoming a major source of environmental contamination because an alarming amount of dye pollutants are generated during the dyeing processes. Organic dyes are one of the largest pollutants released into wastewater from textile and other industrial processes, which have shown severe impacts on human physiology. Nano-structure compounds have gained importance in this category due their anticipated high surface area and improved reactive sites. In recent years several novel adsorbents have been reported to possess great adsorption potential due to their enhanced adsorptive capacity. Nano-MnO2 has great potential applications in environment protection field and has gained importance in this category because it has a wide variety of structure with large surface area. The diverse structures, chemical properties of manganese oxides are taken advantage of in potential applications such as adsorbents, sensor catalysis and it is also used for wide catalytic applications, such as degradation of dyes. In this study, adsorption of Methyl Violet (MV) dye from aqueous solutions onto MnO2 nanoparticles (MNP) has been investigated. The surface characterization of these nano particles was examined by Particle size analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The effects of process parameters such as initial concentration, pH, temperature and contact duration on the adsorption capacities have been evaluated, in which pH has been found to be most effective parameter among all. The data were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich for explaining the equilibrium characteristics of adsorption. And kinetic models like pseudo first- order, second-order model and Elovich equation were utilized to describe the kinetic data. The experimental data were well fitted with Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and pseudo second order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters, such as Free energy of adsorption (ΔG°), enthalpy change (ΔH°) and entropy change (ΔS°) were also determined and evaluated.

Keywords: MnO2 nanoparticles, adsorption, methyl violet, isotherm models, kinetic models, surface chemistry

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Authors: Hossein Rassi, Alaheh Gholami Roud-Majany, Zahra Razavi, Massoud Hoshmand

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Cervical cancer is multi step disease that is thought to result from an interaction between genetic background and environmental factors. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the leading risk factor for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)and cervical cancer. In other hand, some of hTERT and miRNA polymorphism may plays an important role in carcinogenesis. This study attempts to clarify the relation of hTERT genotypes and miR-146a genotypes in cervical cancer. Forty two archival samples with cervical lesion retired from Khatam hospital and 40 sample from healthy persons used as control group. A simple and rapid method was used to detect the simultaneous amplification of the HPV consensus L1 region and HPV-16,-18, -11, -31, 33 and -35 along with the b-globin gene as an internal control. We use Multiplex PCR for detection of hTERT and miR-146a rs2910164 genotypes in our lab. Finally, data analysis was performed using the 7 version of the Epi Info(TM) 2012 software and test chi-square(x2) for trend. Cervix lesions were collected from 42 patients with Squamous metaplasia, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, and cervical carcinoma. Successful DNA extraction was assessed by PCR amplification of b-actin gene (99bp). According to the results, hTERT ( rs 2736098) GG genotype and miR-146a rs2910164 CC genotype was significantly associated with increased risk of cervical cancer in the study population. In this study, we detected 13 HPV 18 from 42 cervical cancer. The connection between several SNP polymorphism and human virus papilloma in rare researches were seen. The reason of these differences in researches' findings can result in different kinds of races and geographic situations and also differences in life grooves in every region. The present study provided preliminary evidence that a p53 GG genotype and miR-146a rs2910164 CC genotype may effect cervical cancer risk in the study population, interacting synergistically with HPV 18 genotype. Our results demonstrate that the testing of hTERT rs 2736098 genotypes and miR-146a rs2910164 genotypes in combination with HPV18 can serve as major risk factors in the early identification of cervical cancers. Furthermore, the results indicate the possibility of primary prevention of cervical cancer by vaccination against HPV18 in Iran.

Keywords: polymorphism of hTERT gene, miR-146a rs2910164 polymorphism, cervical cancer, virus

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Authors: Faiz Khan Mohammad, Saumya Ray Chaudhari, Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Swagatika Sahoo

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Cholera caused by pathogenic gut bacteria Vibrio Cholerae (VC), is a major health problem in developing countries. Different strains of VC exhibit variable responses subject to different extracellular medium (Nag et al, Infect Immun, 2018). In this study, we present a new approach to model the variable VC responses in mono- and co-cultures, subject to continuously changing growth medium, which is otherwise difficult via simple FBA model. Nine VC strain and seven E. coli (EC) models were assembled and considered. A continuously changing medium is modelled using a new iterative-based controlled medium technique (ITC). The medium is appropriately prefixed with the VC model secretome. As the flux through the bacteria biomass increases secretes certain by-products. These products shall add-on to the medium, either deviating the nutrient potential or block certain metabolic components of the model, effectively forming a controlled feed-back loop. Different VC models were setup as monoculture of VC in glucose enriched medium, and in co-culture with VC strains and EC. Constrained to glucose enriched medium, (i) VC_Classical model resulted in higher flux through acidic secretome suggesting a pH change of the medium, leading to lowering of its biomass. This is in consonance with the literature reports. (ii) When compared for neutral secretome, flux through acetoin exchange was higher in VC_El tor than the classical models, suggesting El tor requires an acidic partner to lower its biomass. (iii) Seven of nine VC models predicted 3-methyl-2-Oxovaleric acid, mysirtic acid, folic acid, and acetate significantly affect corresponding biomass reactions. (iv) V. parhemolyticus and vulnificus were found to be phenotypically similar to VC Classical strain, across the nine VC strains. The work addresses the advantage of the ITC over regular flux balance analysis for modelling varying growth medium. Future expansion to co-cultures, potentiates the identification of novel interacting partners as effective cholera therapeutics.

Keywords: cholera, vibrio cholera El. tor, vibrio cholera classical, acetate

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Authors: Faith Eweluegim Enahoro-Ofagbe, Alika Eke Joseph

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Information on genetic variation within a population is crucial for utilizing heterozygosity for breeding programs that aim to improve crop species. The study was conducted to ascertain the genotypic similarities among twelve sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) varieties to group them for purposes of hybridizations for cane yield improvement. The experiment was conducted at the University of Benin, Faculty of Agriculture Teaching and Research Farm, Benin City. Twelve sugarcane varieties obtained from National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State, Nigeria, were planted in three replications in a randomized complete block design. Each variety was planted on a five-row plot of 5.0 m in length. Data were collected on 12 agronomic traits, including; the number of millable cane, cane girth, internode length, number of male and female flowers (fuss), days to flag leaf, days to flowering, brix%, cane yield, and others. There were significant differences, according to the findings among the twelve genotypes for the number of days to flag leaf, number of male and female flowers (fuss), and cane yield. The relationship between the twelve sugarcane varieties was expressed using hierarchical cluster analysis. The twelve genotypes were grouped into three major clusters based on hierarchical classification. Cluster I had five genotypes, cluster II had four, and cluster III had three. Cluster III was dominated by varieties characterized by higher cane yield, number of leaves, internode length, brix%, number of millable stalks, stalk/stool, cane girth, and cane length. Cluster II contained genotypes with early maturity characteristics, such as early flowering, early flag leaf development, growth rate, and the number of female and male flowers (fuss). The maximum inter-cluster distance between clusters III and I indicated higher genetic diversity between the two groups. Hybridization between the two groups could result in transgressive recombinants for agronomically important traits.

Keywords: sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum, genotype, cluster analysis, principal components analysis

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Authors: Keping Zuo, Foad Kabinejadian, Gideon Praveen Kumar Vijayakumar, Fangsen Cui, Pei Ho, Hwa Liang Leo

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Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is the standard procedure for patients with severe carotid stenosis at high risk for carotid endarterectomy (CAE). A major drawback of CAS is the higher incidence of procedure-related stroke compared with traditional open surgical treatment for carotid stenosis - CEA, even with the use of the embolic protection devices (EPD). As the currently available bare metal stents cannot address this problem, our research group developed a novel preferential covered-stent for carotid artery aims to prevent friable fragments of atherosclerotic plaques from flowing into the cerebral circulation, and yet maintaining the flow of the external carotid artery. The preliminary animal studies have demonstrated the potential of this novel covered-stent design for the treatment of carotid atherosclerotic stenosis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of membrane coating on the stent flexibility in order to improve the clinical performance of our novel covered stents. A total of 21 stents were evaluated in this study: 15 self expanding bare nitinol stents and 6 PTFE-covered stents. 10 of the bare stents were coated with 11%, 16% and 22% Polyurethane(PU), 4%, 6.25% and 11% EE, as well as 22% PU plus 5 μm Parylene. Different laser cutting designs were performed on 4 of the PTFE covert stents. All the stents, with or without the covered membrane, were subjected to a three-point flexural test. The stents were placed on two supports that are 30 mm apart, and the actuator is applying a force in the exact middle of the two supports with a loading pin with radius 2.5 mm. The loading pin displacement change, the force and the variation in stent shape were recorded for analysis. The flexibility of the stents was evaluated by the lumen area preservation at three displacement bending levels: 5mm, 7mm, and 10mm. All the lumen areas in all stents decreased with the increase of the displacement from 0 to 10 mm. The bare stents were able to maintain 0.864 ± 0.015, 0.740 ± 0.025 and 0.597 ± 0.031of original lumen area at 5 mm, 7 mm and 10mm displacement respectively. For covered stents, the stents with EE coating membrane showed the best lumen area preservation (0.839 ± 0.005, 0.7334 ± 0.043 and 0.559 ± 0.014), whereas, the stents with PU and Parylene coating were only 0.662, 0.439 and 0.305. Bending stiffness was also calculated and compared. These results provided optimal material information and it was crucial for enhancing clinical performance of our novel covered stents.

Keywords: carotid artery, covered stent, nonlinear, hyperelastic, stress, strain

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