Search results for: subtle change detection and quantification

Authors: Emma Worley, Mhairi De Sainte Croix, Savneet Lochab, Christopher Roberts, Mark Stroud, Mo Salehan, Kevin Jones

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Awareness about the importance of teaching about diversity at medical school is growing. In the realm of diversity includes discussion around the LGBTQ+ community. At Bristol, diversity is taught in first or second year. However, echoing and expanding that teaching throughout the curriculum is needed. This feeds into the spiral curriculum but also highlights the relevance of the topic. It is well known that some people in the LGBTQ+ community struggle the access healthcare due to previous negative experiences. In 2019, 1 in 7 LGBTQ+ people avoided seeking medical care due to fears about discrimination. If people have fears about seeking medical help, then seeking help from Palliative care when they are at their most vulnerable situation can be even harder. To improve positive healthcare situations for people who identify as LGBTQ+ needs to start with talking. Along with some of our CTAs (clinical teaching assistants) we created a teaching session to explore the barriers faced by LGBTQ+ and incorporated communication stations into this. Our plan is to run this session as a three-hour session first discussing different topics: ethnical diversity, ‘coming out’, LGBTQ+ in the older generation, transgender. This will be followed by looking more closely at the barriers to accessing the hospice. The next part of the session will encompass two or three communication scenarios hopefully prompting further discussion and reflection on ways to improve our communication. The first scenario outline is a gay man/lesbian woman with lung cancer discussing options around the hospice. The second scenario is a transgender person with female genitalia who now has cervical cancer (as was not followed up on pap smears after the change of name). The third scenario is a HIV homosexual male patient who has been admitted with dementia. He has a partner but is not married. His next of kin is down as his parents but his parents do not know about his sexuality and HIV status. It allows discussion around confidentiality as well as broaching the meaning of ‘family’ in the LGBTQ+ community. We have chosen to pitch this teaching session to Bristol Year 4 students. They will be currently doing their 6-week Palliative care block, which fits in well. Each session will have four students attend. We have been lucky enough to have two CTAs (clinical teaching assistants) who identify as LGBTQ+ offer their experiences and help. They have been able to help us with the preparation and delivery of the session. Given anecdotal evidence and stories helps to highlight the importance and relevance of this session. The aim is to increase awareness of some factors that may contribute to people who identify as LGBTQ+ having a negative healthcare experience. By starting to talk about it allows awareness and only then will we be able to start to change and improve. Our aim, if the sessions run well, is to expand these sessions to different academy hospitals. Therefore, all Bristol 4th year students would have the opportunity to take part in the teaching session. We would like to expand our portfolio of case scenarios, to address so tricker topics such as a transgender person with dementia who reverts back to a different gender. We would also like to recruit a diverse range of actors, ideally people who identify as the patient in the scenario does. For example, a transgender person acts the transgender scenario. This would give authenticity and enhance the student’s learning experience.

Keywords: communication skills, healthcare barriers, LGBTQ+, palliative care

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Authors: Pratibha Srivastava, Ayyamperumal Jeyaprakash, Gary Steck, Jason Stanley, Leroy Whilby

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Exotic, invasive tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are a major threat to fruit and vegetable industries in the United States. The establishment of pest fruit fly in the agricultural industries and produce severe ecological and economic impacts on agricultural diversification and trade. Detection and identification of these agricultural pests in a timely manner will facilitate the possibility of eradication from newly invaded areas. Identification of larval stages to species level is difficult, but is required to determine pest loads and their pathways into the United States. The aim of this study is the New World genus, Anastrepha which includes pests of major economic importance. Mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene sequences were amplified from Anastrepha fraterculus specimens collected from South America (Ecuador and Peru). Phylogenetic analysis was performed to characterize the Anastrepha fraterculus complex at a molecular level. During phylogenetics analysis numerous nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes (numts) were discovered in different specimens. The numts are nonfunctional copies of the mtDNA present in the nucleus and are easily coamplified with the mitochondrial COI gene copy by using conserved universal primers. This is problematic for DNA Barcoding, which attempts to characterize all living organisms by using the COI gene. This study is significant for national quarantine use, as morphological diagnostics to separate larvae of the various members remain poorly developed.

Keywords: tephritid, Anastrepha fraterculus, COI, numts

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Authors: Manal Kamel, Sara Maher, Hanan El Baz, Faten Salah, Omar Sayyouh, Zeinab Demerdash

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In the recent COVID 19 pandemic, experts of public health have emphasized testing, tracking infected people, and tracing their contacts as an effective strategy to reduce the spread of the virus. Development of rapid and sensitive diagnostic assays to replace reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is mandatory..Our innovative test strip relying on the application of nanoparticles conjugated to recombinant nanobodies for SARS-COV-2 spike protein (S1) & angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (that is responsible for the virus entry into host cells) for rapid detection of SARS-COV-2 spike protein (S1) in saliva or sputum specimens. Comparative tests with RT-PCR will be held to estimate the significant effect of using COVID 19 nanobodies for the first time in the development of lateral flow test strip. The SARS-CoV-2 S1 (3 ng of recombinant proteins) was detected by our developed LFIA in saliva specimen of COVID-19 Patients No cross-reaction was detected with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) or SARS- CoV antigens..Our developed system revealed 96 % sensitivity and 100% specificity for saliva samples compared to 89 % and 100% sensitivity and specificity for nasopharyngeal swabs. providing a reliable alternative for the painful and uncomfortable nasopharyngeal swab process and the complexes, time consuming PCR test. An increase in testing compliances to be expected.

Keywords: COVID 19, diagnosis, LFIA, nanobodies, ACE2

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Authors: Oloniyo Kemisola Eunice, Odere Oladunni Oluwafeyikemi

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Technological change and globalization have created a new global economy with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) occupying a complex position in relation to globalization. The emergence of this new global economy has serious implications on the nature and purpose of educational institutions. The paper is basically a theoretical discourse. Data for analysis were obtained from secondary sources. The paper found that significant challenges confront the integration of ICTs in education in the areas of educational policy and planning, infrastructure, language and content, capacity building and financing in Nigeria. The paper concluded that business education needs to be well equipped to anticipate and respond to opportunities created by ICTs in order to participate productively and equitably in an increasingly technology-rich and knowledge-driven world. The paper recommended, among others, that the investments in ICTs should be used to promote the development of basic skills, problem-solving and communication skills and the professional development of teachers.

Keywords: information, communication, technology, business, education

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Authors: Mustafa Kamoona, Mohamed El-Sharkawy

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Although the latest Wireless Local Area Network technology Wi-Fi 802.11i standard addresses many of the security weaknesses of the antecedent Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, there are still scenarios where the network security are still vulnerable. The first security model that 802.11i offers is the Personal model which is very cheap and simple to install and maintain, yet it uses a Pre Shared Key (PSK) and thus has a low to medium security level. The second model that 802.11i provide is the Enterprise model which is highly secured but much more expensive and difficult to install/maintain and requires the installation and maintenance of an authentication server that will handle the authentication and key management for the wireless network. A central issue with the personal model is that the PSK needs to be shared with all the devices that are connected to the specific Wi-Fi network. This pre-shared key, unless changed regularly, can be cracked using offline dictionary attacks within a matter of hours. The key is burdensome to change in all the connected devices manually unless there is some kind of algorithm that coordinate this PSK update. The key idea of this paper is to propose a new algorithm that proactively and effectively coordinates the pre-shared key generation, management, and distribution in the cheap WPA/WPA2 personal security model using only a DD-WRT router.

Keywords: Wi-Fi, WPS, TLS, DD-WRT

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Authors: D. S. Malatesh, K. J. Ananda, C. Ansar Kamran, K. Ganesh Udupa

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Dirofilaria repens is a mosquito-borne filarioid nematode of dogs and other carnivores and accidentally affects humans. D. repens is reported in many countries, including India. Subcutaneous dirofilariosis caused by D. repens is a zoonotic disease, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, with higher prevalence reported in dogs from Sri Lanka (30-60%), Iran (61%) and Italy (21-25%). Dirofilariasis in dogs was diagnosed by detection of microfilariae in blood. Identification of different Dirofilaria species was done by using molecular methods like polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Even though many researchers reported molecular evidence of D. repens across India, to our best knowledge there is no data available on molecular diagnosis of D. repens in dogs and its zoonotic implication in Karnataka state a southern state in India. The aim of the present study was to identify the Dirofilaria species occurring in dogs from Karnataka, India. Out of 310 samples screened for the presence of microfilariae using traditional diagnostic methods, 99 (31.93%) were positive for the presence of microfilariae. Based on the morphometry, the microfilariae were identified as D. repens. For confirmation of species, the samples were subjected to PCR using pan filarial primers (DIDR-F1, DIDR-R1) for amplification of internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2) of the ribosomal DNA. The PCR product of 484 base pairs on agarose gel was indicative of D. repens. Hence, a single PCR reaction using pan filarial primers can be used to differentiate filarial species found in dogs. The present study confirms that dirofilarial species occurring in dogs from Karnataka is D. repens and further sequencing studies are needed for genotypic characterization of D. repens.

Keywords: Dirofilaria repens, molecular characterization, polymerase chain reaction, Karnataka, India

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Authors: Naniek Widayati Priyomarsono

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Introduction: In beginning of Karaton formation, namely, era of Javanese kingdom town had the power region outside castle town (called as Mancanegara), settlement of karaton can function as “the space-between” and “space-defense”, besides it was one of components from governmental structure and karaton power at that time (internal servant/abdi dalem and sentana dalem). Upon the Independence of Indonesia in 1945 “Kingdom-City” converted its political status into part of democratic town managed by statutes based on the classification. The latter affects local culture hierarchy alteration due to the physical development and events. Dynamics of social economy activities in Kampung Karaton surrounded by buildings of Complex of Karaton Kasunanan ini, have impact on the urban system disturbed into the región. Also cultural region image fades away with the weak visual access from existant cultural artefacts. That development lacks of giving appreciation to the established region image providing identity of Karaton Kasunanan particularly and identity of Surakarta city in general. Method used is strategy of grounded theory research (research providing strong base of a theory). Research is focused on actors active and passive relevantly getting involved in change process of Karaton settlement. Data accumulated is “Investigation Focus” oriented on actors affecting that change either internal or external. Investigation results are coupled with field observation data, documentation, literature study, thus it takes accurate findings. Findings: Karaton village has potential products as attraction, possessing human resource support, strong motivation from society still living in that settlement, possessing facilities and means supports, tourism event-supporting facilities, cultural art institution, available fields or development area. Data analyzed: To get the expected result it takes restoration in social cultural development direction, and economy, with ways of: Doing social cultural development strategy, economy, and politics. To-do steps are program socialization of Karaton village as Tourism Village, economical development of local society, regeneration pattern, filtering, and selection of tourism development, integrated planning system development, development with persuasive approach, regulation, market mechanism, social cultural event sector development, political development for region activity sector. Summary: In case the restoration is done by getting society involved as subject of that settlement (active participation in the field), managed and packed interestingly and naturally with tourism-supporting facilities development, village of Karaton Kasunanan Surakarta is ready to receive visit of domestic and foreign tourists.

Keywords: karaton village, finding, restoration, economy, Indonesia

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Authors: Sze Shin Low, Michelle T. T. Tan, Poi Sim Khiew, Hwei-San Loh

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An efficient graphene/zinc oxide (PSE-G/ZnO) platform based on pi-pi stacking, non-covalent interactions for the development of aptamer-based biosensor was presented in this study. As a proof of concept, the DNA recognition capability of the as-developed PSE-G/ZnO enhanced aptamer-based biosensor was evaluated using Coconut Cadang-cadang viroid disease (CCCVd). The G/ZnO nanocomposite was synthesised via a simple, green and efficient approach. The pristine graphene was produced through a single step exfoliation of graphite in sonochemical alcohol-water treatment while the zinc nitrate hexahydrate was mixed with the graphene and subjected to low temperature hydrothermal growth. The developed facile, environmental friendly method provided safer synthesis procedure by eliminating the need of harsh reducing chemicals and high temperature. The as-prepared nanocomposite was characterised by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to evaluate its crystallinity, morphology and purity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was employed for the detection of CCCVd sequence with the use of potassium ferricyanide (K3[Fe(CN)6]). Recognition of the RNA analytes was achieved via the significant increase in resistivity for the double stranded DNA, as compared to single-stranded DNA. The PSE-G/ZnO enhanced aptamer-based biosensor exhibited higher sensitivity than the bare biosensor, attributing to the synergistic effect of high electrical conductivity of graphene and good electroactive property of ZnO.

Keywords: aptamer-based biosensor, graphene/zinc oxide nanocomposite, green synthesis, screen printed carbon electrode

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Authors: Richard J. Sobelsohn

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Green Building and Sustainable Development help fight climate change, and protects the ozone, animal habitats, air quality, and ground water. The myriad of reasons to go Green has multiplied to the point that a developer that is building a ground-up or renovating/retrofitting a property has a plethora of choices to get to the green goal post. Sustainability not affects the bottom line but satisfies corporate mandates (ESG), consumer demand, market requirements, and the many laws dictating green building practices. The good news is that there are many paths a property owner can take to become green. The bad news is that there are many paths a property owner can take to become green, and they need to choose which direction to take. Certification of a building used to be the highest achievement in the Green building world. Now there are so many variables and laws with which a property owner must comply, and the legal analysis has mushroomed. Operation and Maintenance have also become one of the most important functions for a prudent Green Building owner. So adding to the “development/retrofit” parties involved in the sustainable building legal world, we now need to include all those people who keep the building green, and there are a lot of them!

Keywords: green building, sustainable development, legal issues, greenwashing, green cleaning, compliance, ESQ

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Authors: S. Saroop, D. Allopi

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In the area of civil infrastructure, there is an urgent need to apply technologies that deliver infrastructure sustainably in a way that is cost-effective. Civil engineering projects can have a significant impact on ecological and social systems if not correctly planned, designed and implemented. It can impact climate change by addressing the issue of flooding and sustainability. Poor design choices now can result in future generations to live in a climate with depleted resources and without green spaces. The objectives of the research study were to rate the sensitivity of various greener infrastructure technologies that can be used in township infrastructure, at the various stages of the project. This paper discusses the Green Township Infrastructure Design Toolkit, that is used to rate the sustainability of infrastructure service projects. Various case studies were undertaken on a range of infrastructure projects to test the sensitivity of various design solution against sustainability criteria. The Green reporting tools ensure efficient, economical and sustainable provision of infrastructure services.

Keywords: eco-efficiency, green infrastructure, green technology, infrastructure design, sustainable development

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Authors: Ranajoy Bhattcharyya

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We estimate international product cycles as shifting product spaces by using 1976 to 2010 UN Comtrade data on all differentiated tradable products in all countries. We use a product space approach to identify the representative product baskets of high-, middle and low-income countries and then use these baskets to identify the patterns of change in comparative advantage of countries over time. We find evidence of a product cycle in two senses: First, high-, middle- and low-income countries differ in comparative advantage, and high-income products migrate to the middle-income basket. A similar pattern is observed for middle- and low-income countries. Our estimation of the lag shows that middle-income countries tend to quickly take up the products of high-income countries, but low-income countries take a longer time absorbing these products. Thus, the gap between low- and middle-income countries is considerably higher than that between middle- and high-income nations.

Keywords: product cycle, comparative advantage, representative product basket, ex-post data

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Authors: R. Vidhya

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Nigeria, the seat of canonical literature in Africa, though widely acclaimed as the literary capital of the continent, it failed to produce women writers in its literary arena till the 1960s. Only after 1966, with the publication of the first novel by a women writer, Nigeria saw the emergence of women’s writing through which the world witnessed an upsurge in the sensitization of women’s issues in Africa. The Nigerian Igbo women’s writing threw light on gender discrimination in postcolonial Africa. Their works were instrumental in bringing a remarkable change in the perception of gender in a male dominated society. The social mindscape of the land which strongly believed that feminist ideologies could be highly detrimental to its patriarchal setup is slowly changed through the changing perspectives of gender. This paper aims to analyse the select works of Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to deconstruct the dialectics of gender, which has been realised in the works of these women writers.

Keywords: gender discrimination, Igbo women's writings, postcolonial Africa, changing perspective

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Authors: Gomti Devi

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Photoisomerization has been attracting to researchers due to its wide range of applications in optical switches, polymeric chains, liquid-crystalline systems and bilayer membranes etc. Azobenzene is a photochromic molecule which exhibits a reversible isomerisation process between its trans and cis isomers of different stability. An investigation has been conducted of the effects of temperature on intensity and position of Raman band of N=N, C-N stretching modes of Azobenzene (AZBN). It was found that the N=N stretching mode of Raman band shape shifts to lower frequency region with the increase in temperature. The Raman intensity was also decreased with the increase of temperature. The change in bandwidth with the increase in temperature has been studied. The FTIR spectrum of the molecule is recorded so as to complement the Raman spectra. In order to investigate the possibility of undergoing dimerization and trimerization as well as the stability of this molecule, ab initio calculation for geometry optimization and vibrational wavenumber calculation have been performed. Theoretically calculated values are found in good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords: azobenzene, temperature, ab-initio, frequency

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Authors: Asma Lamin, Anna H. Kaksonen, Ivan Cole, Paul White, Xiao-Bo Chen

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Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) is a process in which microorganisms initiate, facilitate, or accelerate the electrochemical corrosion reactions of metallic components. Several reports documented that MIC accounts for about 20 to 40 % of the total cost of corrosion. Biofilm formation due to the presence of microorganisms on the surface of metal components is known to play a vital role in MIC, which can lead to severe consequences in various environmental and industrial settings. Quorum sensing (QS) system plays a major role in regulating biofilm formation and control the expression of some microbial enzymes. QS is a communication mechanism between microorganisms that involves the regulation of gene expression as a response to the microbial cell density within an environment. This process is employed by both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria to regulate different physiological functions. QS involves production, detection, and responses to signalling chemicals, known as auto-inducers. QS controls specific processes important for the microbial community, such as biofilm formation, virulence factor expression, production of secondary metabolites and stress adaptation mechanisms. The use of QS inhibitors (QSIs) has been proposed as a possible solution to biofilm related challenges in many different applications. Although QSIs have demonstrated some strength in tackling biofouling, QSI-based strategies to control microbially influenced corrosion have not been thoroughly investigated. As such, our research aims to target the QS mechanisms as a strategy for mitigating MIC on metal surfaces in engineered systems.

Keywords: quorum sensing, quorum quenching, biofilm, biocorrosion

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Authors: Jafar Kazemzadeh, Soheila Rabiepoor, Saeedeh Alizadeh

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Introduction: Burn, especially in women, can affect the quality of life and their quality of life due to a change in appearance. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women with burn. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study conducted on 101 women with severe burns referring to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia in 2016. The data gathering scales were demographic questionnaire, burn specific health scale-brief (BSHS-B) and index of sexual satisfaction (ISS). The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16. Results: Mean score of quality of life was 102.94 ± 20.88 and sexual satisfaction was 57.03 ± 25.91. Also, there was a significant relationship between quality of life and its subscales with sexual satisfaction and some demographic variables (p < 0.05). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it should be noted that interventional efforts for improving sexual satisfaction and thus improving the quality of life in these patients are important. The findings of this study appear to be effective in planning for women with a history of burns.

Keywords: burn, quality of life, sexual satisfaction, women

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Authors: V. V. Lakshmi, Y. V. S. Annapurna

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Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infectious diseases seen in the community. Susceptible individuals experience multiple episodes, and progress to acute pyelonephritis or uro-sepsis or develop asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU). Ability to cause extraintestinal infections depends on several virulence factors required for survival at extraintestinal sites. Presence of virulence phenotypes enhances the pathogenicity of these otherwise commensal organisms and thus augments its ability to cause extraintestinal infections, the most frequent in urinary tract infections(UTI). The present study focuses on detection of the virulence characters exhibited by the uropathogenic organism and most common factors exhibited in the local pathogens. A total of 700 isolates of E.coli and Klebsiella spp were included in the study.These were isolated from patients from local hospitals reported to be suffering with UTI over a period of three years. Isolation and identification was done based on Gram character and IMVIC reactions. Antibiotic sensitivity profile was carried out by disc diffusion method and multi drug resistant strains with MAR index of 0.7 were further selected. Virulence features examined included their ability to produce exopolysaccharides, protease- gelatinase production, hemolysin production, haemagglutination and hydrophobicity test. Exopolysaccharide production was most predominant virulence feature among the isolates when checked by congo red method. The biofilms production examined by microtitre plates using ELISA reader confirmed that this is the major factor contributing to virulencity of the pathogens followed by hemolysin production.

Keywords: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp, Uropathogens, virulence features

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Authors: S. Gvazava, N. Khidasheli, V. Tediashvili, M. Donadze

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The work presented in this paper studied the of austempered ductile iron (ADI) with different combinations of structural composition (upper bainite, lower bainite, retained austenite) in rainwater. A range of structural states of the metal matrix was obtained by changing the regimes of thermal treantments of a high-strength cast iron. The specimens were austenised at 900 0C for 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes. Afterwards, isothermal quenching was performed at 280 and 400 0C for40 seconds. The study was carried out using weight-change (WC), cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CPP), open-circuit potential (OCP), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements and complemented by scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS). According to the results, corrosion resistance of the boron microallyedbainitic ADI greatly depends on the type of the bainitic matrix and the amount of the retained austenite, which is driven by diffusion permeability of interphase and intergrain boundaries.

Keywords: austempered ductile iron, corrosion behaviour, retained austenite, corrosion rate, interphase boundary, upper bainite, lower bainite

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Authors: Haslinda Nahazanan, Afshin Asadi, Zainuddin Md. Yusoff, Nik Nor Syahariati Nik Daud

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Mudrocks is considered as a problematic material due to their unexpected behaviour specifically when they are contacting with water or being exposed to the atmosphere. Many instability problems of cutting slopes were found lying on high slaking mudrocks. It has become one of the major concerns to geotechnical engineer as mudrocks cover up to 50% of sedimentary rocks in the geologic records. Mudrocks display properties between soils and rocks which can be very hard to understand. Therefore, this paper aims to review the definition, mineralogy, geo-chemistry, classification and engineering properties of mudrocks. As water has become one of the major factors that will rapidly change the behaviour of mudrocks, a review on the shear strength of mudrocks in Derbyshire has been made using a fully automated hydraulic stress path testing system under three states: dry, short-term inundated and long-term inundated. It can be seen that the strength of mudrocks has deteriorated as it condition changed from dry to short-term inundated and finally to long-term inundated.

Keywords: mudrocks, sedimentary rocks, inundation, shear strength

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Authors: Lu Zhao, Nadir Farhi, Yeltsin Valero, Zoi Christoforou, Nadia Haddadou

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In this paper, a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model is proposed to replicate simultaneously car-following and lane-changing behaviors in road networks. By combining two kinds of LSTM layers and three input designs of the neural network, six variants of the LSTM model have been created. These models were trained and tested on the NGSIM 101 dataset, and the results were evaluated in terms of longitudinal speed and lateral position, respectively. Then, we compared the LSTM model with a classical car-following model (the intelligent driving model (IDM)) in the part of speed decision. In addition, the LSTM model is compared with a model using classical neural networks. After the comparison, the LSTM model demonstrates higher accuracy than the physical model IDM in terms of car-following behavior and displays better performance with regard to both car-following and lane-changing behavior compared to the classical neural network model.

Keywords: traffic modeling, neural networks, LSTM, car-following, lane-change

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Authors: Vishal Jaunky, Jonas Grafström

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The development of the European Union’s (EU) single economic market and rapid technological change has resulted in major structural changes in EU’s member states economies. The general liberalization process that the countries has undergone together has convinced the governments of the member states of need to upgrade their economic and training systems in order to be able to face the economic globalization. Several signs of economic convergence have been found but less is known about the knowledge production. This paper addresses the convergence pattern of technological innovation in 13 European Union (EU) states over the time period 1990-2011 by means of parametric and non-parametric techniques. Parametric approaches revolve around the neoclassical convergence theories. This paper reveals divergence of both the β and σ types. Further, we found evidence of stochastic divergence and non-parametric convergence approach such as distribution dynamics shows a tendency towards divergence. This result is supported with the occurrence of γ-divergence. The policies of the EU to reduce technological gap among its member states seem to be missing its target, something that can have negative long run consequences for the market.

Keywords: convergence, patents, panel data, European union

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Authors: Eirini Arvanitaki

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The popular romance novel has the ability to withstand the test of time by carefully adjusting its contents to the twenty-first century and modern society. At the same time, it manages to preserve unaltered its traditional foundations (heteronormativity, heterosexual love, monogamy). This paper focuses on the projection of the hero’s masculinity in a selection of post-millennial popular romance narratives and attempts to discover if, and to what extent, this projection reinforces or challenges patriarchal ideas about gender. In the majority of these narratives, the hero is often presented as a hegemonic alpha male. However, hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed concept. Rather, it is subject to continuous change, which allows for the emergence of various dominant masculinities. With this in mind, and through a close textual analysis approach and a gender reading of romance narratives, the paper suggests that to a certain extent, the romance hero could be described as a platform onto which different forms of dominant masculinity are displayed and highlights that these masculinities do not necessarily clash, depend on, or function as a prerequisite for each other.

Keywords: gender, literary projections, masculinity, twenty-first century popular romance narratives

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Authors: A. Asambe, A. K. B. Sackey, L. B. Tekdek

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A serosurveillance study was conducted to detect the presence of antibodies to African swine fever virus (ASFV) and Classical swine fever virus in pigs sampled from piggeries and Makurdi central slaughter slab in Benue State, Nigeria. 416 pigs from 74 piggeries across 12 LGAs and 44 pigs at the Makurdi central slaughter slab were sampled for serum. The sera collected were analysed using Indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test kit to test for antibodies to ASFV, while competitive ELISA test kit was used to test for antibodies to CSFV. Of the 416 pigs from piggeries and 44 pigs sampled from the slaughter slab, seven (1.7%) and six (13.6%), respectively, tested positive to ASFV antibodies and was significantly associated (p < 0.0001). Out of the 12 LGAs sampled, Obi LGA had the highest ASFV antibody detection rate of (4.8%) and was significantly associated (p < 0.0001). None of the samples tested positive to CSFV antibodies. The study concluded that antibodies to CSFV were absent in the sampled pigs in piggeries and at the Makurdi central slaughter slab in Benue State, while antibodies to ASFV were present in both locations; hence, the need to keep an eye open for CSF too since both diseases may pose great risk in the study area. Further studies to characterise the ASFV circulating in Benue State and investigate the possible sources is recommended. Routine surveillance to provide a comprehensive and readily accessible data base to plan for the prevention of any fulminating outbreak is also recommended.

Keywords: African swine fever, classical swine fever, piggery, slaughter slab, surveillance

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Authors: Julia B. Kischkat, Charlie D. Waters

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This research aims to understand the factors that may affect the survival and productivity of Pacific salmonids through two components. The first component is lab-based and aims to improve high-performance liquid chromatography to better quantify vitamin deficiencies such as thiamine. The lab work is conducted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute in Juneau, Alaska. Deficiencies in thiamine have been shown to reduce the survival of salmonids at early life stages. The second component involves the analysis of a 22-year data set of migration timing of juvenile Coho Salmon, Dolly Varden, Steelhead, and returning adult Steelhead at Little Port Walter, Alaska. The statistical analysis quantifies their migration fluctuations and whether they correlate to various environmental conditions such as temperature, salinity, and precipitation.

Keywords: climate change, smolt timing, phenology, migration timing, salmon, time series analysis, ecology, chemistry, fisheries science

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Authors: Abdulla Al Hmoudi

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The impacts and costs of natural disasters on people, properties and the environment is often severe when they occur on a large scale or when not prepared for. Factors such as impacts of climate change, urban growth, poor planning to mention a few, have continued to significantly increase the frequencies and aggravate the impacts of natural hazards across the world; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inclusive. The lack of deployment of an early warning system, low risk and hazard knowledge and impact of natural hazard experienced in some communities in the UAE have emphasised the need for more effective early warning systems. This paper focuses on the collaborative approach taken to instituting and implementing an early warning system. Using mixed methods 888 people completed the questionnaire and eight people were interviewed in Abu Dhabi. The results indicate that the collaborative approach to early warning system is UAE is needed, but lacks essential principles of the early warning system and currently underutilised. It is recommended that the collaborative early warning system is applied at every stage of the early warning system with the specific responsibility of each stakeholder and actor.

Keywords: community, early warning system, emergency management, UAE

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Authors: Khalil Abdullah Ahmed Khalil, Elsadig Mohamed Ahmed

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Extracts of various plants material capable of decreasing blood sugar have been tested in experimental animal models and their effects confirmed. Neem or Margose (Azadirachta Indica) is an indigenous plant believed to have antiviral, antifungal, antidiabetic and many other properties. This paper deals with a comparative study of the effect of aqueous Neem leaves extract alone or in combination with glibenclamide on alloxan diabetic rabbits. Administration of crude aqueous Neem extract (CANE) alone (1.5 ml/kg/day), as well as the combination of CANE (1.5 ml/kg/day) with glibenclamide (0.25 mg/kg/day) significantly, decreased (P<0.05) the concentrations of serum lipids, blood glucose and lipoprotein VLDL(very low-density lipoproteins) and LDL(low-density lipoproteins) but significantly increased (P<0.05) the concentration of HDL(high-density lipoprotein). The change was observed significantly greater when the treatment was given in combination of CANE and glibenclamid than with CANE alone.

Keywords: neem, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, cholesterol

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Authors: Silvia Boschetti, Jakub Binter, Robin Kopecký, Lenka PříPlatová, Jaroslav Flegr

Abstract:

A strict dichotomy was present between religion and science, but recently, cognitive science focusses on the impact of supernatural beliefs on cognitive processes such as pattern recognition. It has been hypothesized that cognitive and perceptual processes have been under evolutionary pressures that ensured amplified perception of patterns, especially when in stressful and harsh conditions. The pattern detection in religious and non-religious individuals after induction of negative, anxious mood shall constitute a cornerstone of the general role of anxiety, cognitive bias, leading towards or against the by-product hypothesis, one of the main theories on the evolutionary studies of religion. The apophenia (tendencies to perceive connection and meaning on unrelated events) and perception of visual patterns (or pateidolia) are of utmost interest. To capture the impact of culture and upbringing, a comparative study of two European countries, the Czech Republic (low organized religion participation, high esoteric belief) and Italy (high organized religion participation, low esoteric belief), are currently in the data collection phase. Outcomes will be presented at the conference. A battery of standardized questionnaires followed by pattern recognition tasks (the patterns involve color, shape, and are of artificial and natural origin) using an experimental method involving the conditioning of (controlled, laboratory-induced) stress is taking place. We hypothesize to find a difference between organized religious belief and personal (esoteric) belief that will be alike in both of the cultural environments.

Keywords: culture, esoteric belief, pattern perception, religiosity

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Authors: R. Hariprakash, K. Prabhakaran Nair

Abstract:

In this paper, the static and dynamic characteristics of hydrodynamic journal bearings operating under nano lubricants are presented. Hydrodynamic journal bearings are used in turbo machines of power plants to support heavy load. In power plants, bearings are getting failure because of its inability to support the heavy load due to various reasons. Failures of bearings make the power plant to be shutdown. The load carrying capacity of journal bearing mainly depends upon the viscosity of the lubricants. The addition of nano particles on commercially available lubricant may enhance the viscosity of lubricant and in turn, change the performance characteristics. In the literature, though many studies have been carried out for the hydrodynamic bearing operating under Newtonian and non-Newtonian lubricants, studies on hydrodynamic bearings operating under nano lubricants is scarce. Thus, it is felt that there is a need to recompute the performance characteristics of journal bearings operating under nano lubricants.

Keywords: hydrodynamic, journal, bearing, analysis

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Authors: Abdulrahman M. Homadi

Abstract:

As a great source of renewable energy, solar energy is considered to be one of the most important in the world, since it will be one of solutions cover the energy shortage in the future. Photovoltaic (PV) is the most popular and widely used among solar energy technologies. However, PV efficiency is fairly low and remains somewhat expensive. High temperature has a negative effect on PV efficiency and cooling system for these panels is vital, especially in warm weather conditions. This paper presents the results of a simulation study carried out on silicon solar cells to assess the effects of elevation on enhancing the efficiency of solar panels. The study included four different terrains. The study also took into account the direction of the wind hitting the solar panels. To ensure the simulation mimics reality, six silicon solar panels are designed in two columns and three rows, facing to the south at an angle of 30 ^o. The elevations are assumed to change from 10 meters to 200 meters. The results show that maximum increase in efficiency occurs when the wind comes from the north, hitting the back of the panels.

Keywords: solar panels, elevation, wind direction, efficiency

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Authors: Nishtha Madaan, Prateek Chaudhury, Nishant Kumar, Srikanta Bedathur

Abstract:

In modern NLP applications, word embeddings are a crucial backbone that can be readily shared across a number of tasks. However, as the text distributions change and word semantics evolve over time, the downstream applications using the embeddings can suffer if the word representations do not conform to the data drift. Thus, maintaining word embeddings to be consistent with the underlying data distribution is a key problem. In this work, we tackle this problem and propose TransDrift, a transformer-based prediction model for word embeddings. Leveraging the flexibility of the transformer, our model accurately learns the dynamics of the embedding drift and predicts future embedding. In experiments, we compare with existing methods and show that our model makes significantly more accurate predictions of the word embedding than the baselines. Crucially, by applying the predicted embeddings as a backbone for downstream classification tasks, we show that our embeddings lead to superior performance compared to the previous methods.

Keywords: NLP applications, transformers, Word2vec, drift, word embeddings

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Authors: Husham Bayazed

Abstract:

Immune responses following surgical trauma play a pivotal role in predicting postoperative outcomes from healing and recovery to postoperative complications. Postoperative complications, including infections and protracted recovery, occur in a significant number of about 300 million surgeries performed annually worldwide. Complications cause personal suffering along with a significant economic burden on the healthcare system in any community. The accurate prediction of postoperative complications and patient-targeted interventions for their prevention remain major clinical provocations. Recent Findings: Recent studies are focusing on immune dysregulation mechanisms that occur in response to surgical trauma as a key determinant of postoperative complications. Antecedent studies mainly were plunging into the detection of inflammatory plasma markers, which facilitate in providing important clues regarding their pathogenesis. However, recent Single-cell technologies, such as mass cytometry or single-cell RNA sequencing, have markedly enhanced our ability to understand the immunological basis of postoperative immunological trauma complications and to identify their prognostic biological signatures. Summary: The advent of proteomic technologies has significantly advanced our ability to predict the risk of postoperative complications. Multiomic modeling of patients' immune states holds promise for the discovery of preoperative predictive biomarkers and providing patients and surgeons with information to improve surgical outcomes. However, more studies are required to accurately predict the risk of postoperative complications in individual patients.

Keywords: immune dysregulation, postoperative complications, surgical trauma, flow cytometry

Procedia PDF Downloads 70