Search results for: positive mindset

Authors: Oshma Chakoory, Sophie Comtet-Marre, Pierre Peyret

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Metagenomic classifiers are widely used for the taxonomic profiling of metagenomic data and estimation of taxa relative abundance. Small subunit rRNA genes are nowadays a gold standard for the phylogenetic resolution of complex microbial communities, although the power of this marker comes down to its use as full-length. We benchmarked the performance and accuracy of rRNA-specialized versus general-purpose read mappers, reference-targeted assemblers and taxonomic classifiers. We then built a pipeline called RiboTaxa to generate a highly sensitive and specific metataxonomic approach. Using metagenomics data, RiboTaxa gave the best results compared to other tools (Kraken2, Centrifuge (1), METAXA2 (2), PhyloFlash (3)) with precise taxonomic identification and relative abundance description, giving no false positive detection. Using real datasets from various environments (ocean, soil, human gut) and from different approaches (metagenomics and gene capture by hybridization), RiboTaxa revealed microbial novelties not seen by current bioinformatics analysis opening new biological perspectives in human and environmental health. In a study focused on corals’ health involving 20 metagenomic samples (4), an affiliation of prokaryotes was limited to the family level with Endozoicomonadaceae characterising healthy octocoral tissue. RiboTaxa highlighted 2 species of uncultured Endozoicomonas which were dominant in the healthy tissue. Both species belonged to a genus not yet described, opening new research perspectives on corals’ health. Applied to metagenomics data from a study on human gut and extreme longevity (5), RiboTaxa detected the presence of an uncultured archaeon in semi-supercentenarians (aged 105 to 109 years) highlighting an archaeal genus, not yet described, and 3 uncultured species belonging to the Enorma genus that could be species of interest participating in the longevity process. RiboTaxa is user-friendly, rapid, allowing microbiota structure description from any environment and the results can be easily interpreted. This software is freely available at https://github.com/oschakoory/RiboTaxa under the GNU Affero General Public License 3.0.

Keywords: metagenomics profiling, microbial diversity, SSU rRNA genes, full-length phylogenetic marker

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Authors: Tomoya Oshiro, Hiroko Ono

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Japan's aging population is increasing due to the decrease in birthrate. It causes various problems like the decrease in the gross domestic product of the country. The reason is why the local government of Japan has been on the way to a sustainable city recently. Then it is essential to get control of an urban structure to make the compact city successful. There are many kinds of paper about the compact city; however, the paper about a compact city of the island-type city is less. The purpose of this study is to clarify difference of urban structure between an island-type and a general city type. The method which has conducted in this research has two steps. First of all, by using evaluation indexes in the handbook, we evaluated the urban structures among each same -population-class cities from 50,000 to 100,000 people. Next, to clear the difference about the urban structure and feature between island-type and general-type cities compare the radar chart which is composed with each evaluation indexes of urban structure. Moreover, in order to clarify the relationship between evaluation indexes and the place of residence by using GIS software to show up population density on the map. As a result of this research, the management of local government and the local economy in evaluation indexes are indicated to be negative point in comparison of island-type cities with general cities. However, evaluation indexes of safety/security and low-carbon/energy are proved to be positive point. The research to find the difference features of the island-type of urban structure proves that the management of local government or the local economy is negative point in these island-type cities. In addition, the public transportation coverage in Miyako Island, Sado Island, and Amakusa Island show low value compare with other islands and average value. Relationship between evaluation indexes of an urban structure and the place of residence prove that the place of residence is related to public transportation coverage. If the place of residence is spread out, the public transportation coverage will be decreased. The results of this research reveal that the finances in island-type cities are negative point compare to general cities. This problem is caused by declining population. In addition, the place of residence is related to the public transportation coverage. Even though, it needs a much money to increase the public transportation coverage. It is possibly to cause other problems furthermore the aspect of finance is influenced by that as well. The conclusion in this research suggests that it is important for creating the compact city in island-type cities that we first need to address solving the problems about the management of local government and the local economy.

Keywords: sustainable city, comparative analysis, geographic information system, urban structure

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Authors: Muhammad Arif Jalil, Xaythavay Luangvilay, Montree Bunruangses, Somchat Sonasang, Preecha Yupapin

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Black and white holes form the entangled pair⟨BH│WH⟩, where a white hole occurs when the particle moves at the same speed as light. The entangled black-white hole pair is at the center with the radian between the gap. When the speed of particle motion is slower than light, the black hole is gravitational (positive gravity), where the white hole is smaller than the black hole. On the downstream side, the entangled pair appears to have a black hole outside the gap increases until the white holes disappear, which is the emptiness paradox. On the upstream side, when moving faster than light, white holes form times tunnels, with black holes becoming smaller. It will continue to move faster and further when the black hole disappears and becomes a wormhole (Singularity) that is only a white hole in emptiness (Emptiness). This research studies use of black and white holes generated by a two-level circuit for communication transmission carriers, in which high ability and capacity of data transmission can be obtained. The black and white hole pair can be generated by the two-level system circuit when the speech of a particle on the circuit is equal to the speed of light. The black hole forms when the particle speed has increased from slower to equal to the light speed, while the white hole is established when the particle comes down faster than light. They are bound by the entangled pair, signal and idler, ⟨Signal│Idler⟩, and the virtual ones for the white hole, which has an angular displacement of half of π radian. A two-level system is made from an electronic circuit to create black and white holes bound by the entangled bits that are immune or cloning-free from thieves. Start by creating a wave-particle behavior when its speed is equal to light black hole is in the middle of the entangled pair, which is the two bit gate. The required information can be input into the system and wrapped by the black hole carrier. A timeline (Tunnel) occurs when the wave-particle speed is faster than light, from which the entangle pair is collapsed. The transmitted information is safely in the time tunnel. The required time and space can be modulated via the input for the downlink operation. The downlink is established when the particle speed is given by a frequency(energy) form is down and entered into the entangled gap, where this time the white hole is established. The information with the required destination is wrapped by the white hole and retrieved by the clients at the destination. The black and white holes are disappeared, and the information can be recovered and used.

Keywords: cloning free, time machine, teleportation, two-level system

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Authors: Tatyane Lopes de Freitas, Antonio Diogo S. Vieira, Susana Marta Isay Saad, Maria Ines Genovese

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The fruit processing industries generate a large volume of residues to produce juices, pulps, and jams. These residues, or by-products, consisting of peels, seeds, and pulps, are routinely discarded. Fruits are rich in bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, which have positive effects on health. Dry residues from two fruits, acerola (M. emarginata D. C.) and orange (C. sinensis), were characterized in relation to contents of ascorbic acid, minerals, total dietary fibers, moisture, ash, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, and also high performance liquid chromatographic profile of flavonoids, total polyphenols and proanthocyanidins contents, and antioxidant capacity by three different methods (Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay-FRAP, Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity-ORAC, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazil (DPPH) radical scavenging activity). Acerola by-products presented the highest acid ascorbic content (605 mg/100 g), and better antioxidant capacity than orange by-products. The dry residues from acerola demonstrated high contents of proanthocyanidins (617 µg CE/g) and total polyphenols (2525 mg gallic acid equivalents - GAE/100 g). Both presented high total dietary fiber (above 60%) and protein contents (acerola: 10.4%; orange: 9.9%), and reduced fat content (acerola: 1.6%; orange: 2.6%). Both residues showed high levels of potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and were considered sources of these minerals. With acerola by-product, four formulations of probiotics fermented milks were produced: F0 (without the addition of acerola residue (AR)), F2 (2% AR), F5 (5% AR) and F10 (10% AR). The physicochemical characteristics of the fermented milks throughout of storage were investigated, as well as the impact of in vitro simulated gastrointestinal conditions on flavonoids and probiotics. The microorganisms analyzed maintained their populations around 8 log CFU/g during storage. After the gastric phase of the simulated digestion, the populations decreased, and after the enteric phase, no colonies were detected. On the other hand, the flavonoids increased after the gastric phase, maintaining or suffering small decrease after enteric phase. Acerola by-products powder is a valuable ingredient to be used in functional foods because is rich in vitamin C, fibers and flavonoids. These flavonoids appear to be highly resistant to the acids and salts of digestion.

Keywords: acerola, orange, by-products, fermented milk

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Authors: Maria Sofia Palagonia, Doriano Brogioli, Fabio La Mantia

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In the last decade, lithium has become an important raw material in various sectors, in particular for rechargeable batteries. Its production is expected to grow more and more in the future, especially for mobile energy storage and electromobility. Until now it is mostly produced by the evaporation of water from salt lakes, which led to a huge water consumption, a large amount of waste produced and a strong environmental impact. A new, clean and faster electrochemical technique to recover lithium has been recently proposed: electrochemical ion pumping. It consists in capturing lithium ions from a feed solution by intercalation in a lithium-selective material, followed by releasing them into a recovery solution; both steps are driven by the passage of a current. In this work, a new configuration of the electrochemical cell is presented, used to study and optimize the process of the intercalation of lithium ions through the hydrodynamic condition. Lithium Manganese Oxide (LiMn₂O₄) was used as a cathode to intercalate lithium ions selectively during the reduction, while Nickel Hexacyano Ferrate (NiHCF), used as an anode, releases positive ion. The effect of hydrodynamics on the process has been studied by conducting the experiments at various fluxes of the electrolyte through the electrodes, in terms of charge circulated through the cell, captured lithium per unit mass of material and overvoltage. The result shows that flowing the electrolyte inside the cell improves the lithium capture, in particular at low lithium concentration. Indeed, in Atacama feed solution, at 40 mM of lithium, the amount of lithium captured does not increase considerably with the flux of the electrolyte. Instead, when the concentration of the lithium ions is 5 mM, the amount of captured lithium in a single capture cycle increases by increasing the flux, thus leading to the conclusion that the slowest step in the process is the transport of the lithium ion in the liquid phase. Furthermore, an influence of the concentration of other cations in solution on the process performance was observed. In particular, the capturing of the lithium using a different concentration of NaCl together with 5 mM of LiCl was performed, and the results show that the presence of NaCl limits the amount of the captured lithium. Further studies can be performed in order to understand why the full capacity of the material is not reached at the highest flow rate. This is probably due to the porous structure of the material since the liquid phase is likely not affected by the convection flow inside the pores. This work proves that electrochemical ion pumping, with a suitable hydrodynamic design, enables the recovery of lithium from feed solutions at the lower concentration than the sources that are currently exploited, down to 1 mM.

Keywords: desalination battery, electrochemical ion pumping, hydrodynamic, lithium

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Authors: M. Azharul Islam, M. Russel Sarker, M. Shahadat Hossen

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Air pollution is one of the major environmental problems that have gained importance in all over the world. Air pollution is a problem for all of us. The present study was conducted to explore the people’s perception level and awareness of air pollution in selected areas of Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Health impacts of air pollution also studied through personal interview and structured questionnaire. The relationship of independent variables (age, educational qualification, family size, residence and communication exposure) with the respondent’s perception level and awareness of air pollution (dependent variable) was studied to achieve the objectives of the study. About 600 respondents were selected randomly from six sites for collecting data during the period of July 2016 to June 2017. Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients were computed to examine the relationship between the concerned variables. The results revealed that about half (46.67%) of the respondents had a medium level of perception and awareness about air pollution in their areas where 31.67 percent had low, and 21.67 percent had a high level. In rural areas of the study sites, 43.33 percent respondents had low, 50 percent had medium, and only 6.67 percent had high perception and awareness on air pollution. In case of urban areas, 20 percent respondents had low, 43.33 percent had medium, and 36.67 percent had a high level of awareness and perception on air pollution. The majority of the respondents (93.33 percent) were lacking of proper awareness about air pollution in rural areas while 63.33 percent in urban areas. Out of five independent variables, three variables such as- educational qualification, residence status and communication exposure had positive and significant relationship. Age of respondents had negative and significant relationship with their awareness of air pollution where family size of the respondents had no significant relationship with their perception and awareness of air pollution. Thousands of people live in urban areas where urban smog, particle pollution, and toxic pollutants pose serious health concerns. But most of the respondents of the urban sites are not familiarize about the real causes of air pollution. Respondents exposed higher level of experience for air pollutants, such as- irritation of the eyes, coughing, tightness of chest and many health difficulties. But respondents of both rural and urban area hugely suffered such health problems and the tendency of certain difficulties increased day by day. In this study, most of the respondents had lack of knowledge on the causes of such health difficulties due to their lower perception level. Proper attempts should be taken to raise literacy level, communication exposure to increase the perception and awareness of air pollution among the respondents of the study areas. Extra care with above concerned fields should be taken to increase perception and awareness of air pollution in rural areas.

Keywords: air pollution, awareness, health impacts, perception of people

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Authors: Charles Akinola Imolehin

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According to the news on world population record, over 6.6 billion people on earth, and almost a quarter million added each day, the scale of human activity and environmental impact is unprecedented. Soaring human population growth over the past century has created a visible challenge to earth’s life support systems. Critical natural resources such as clean ground water, fertile topsoil, and biodiversity are diminishing at an exponential rate, orders of magnitude above that at which they can be regenerated. In addition, the world faces an onslaught of other environmental threats including degenerated global climate change, global warming, intensified acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion and health threatening pollution. Overpopulation and the use of deleterious technologies combine to increase the scale of human activities to a level that underlies these entire problems. These intensifying trends cannot continue indefinitely, hopefully, through increased understanding and valuation of ecosystems and their services, earth’s basic life-support system will be protected for the future. To say the fact, human civilization is now the dominant cause of change in the global environment. Now that human relationship to the earth has change so utterly, there is need to see to that change and understand its implication. These are two aspects to the challenges which all should believe. The first is to realize that human activity has power to harm the earth and can indeed have global and even permanent effects. Second is to realize that the only way to understand human new role as a co-architect of nature is to see human activities as part of a complex system that does operate according to the same simple rules of cause and effect commonly used to. So, understanding the physical/biological dimension of earth system is an important precondition for making sensible policy to protect our environment. Because believing in Sustainable Development is a matter of reconciling respect for the environment, social equity, and economic profitability. Also, there is strong believe that environmental protection is naturally about reducing air and water pollution, but it also includes the improvement of the environmental performance of existing process. That is why is important to always have it at the heart of business policy that the environmental problem is not our effect on the environment so much as the relationship of production activities on the environment. There should be this positive thinking in all operation to always be environmentally friendly especially in projection and considering Sustainable ALL awareness in all sites of operation.

Keywords: earth's ocean, marine animals life under treat, flooding, ctritical natiural resouces polluted

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Authors: Saad Mohamed Elsaid, Nabil Anwar, Mahmoud Rushdi

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One of the reasons for the intensive use of pesticides is to protect agricultural crops and orchards from pests or agricultural worms. The period of time that pesticides stay inside the soil is estimated at about (2) to (12) weeks. Perhaps the most important reason that led to groundwater pollution is the easy leakage of these harmful pesticides from the soil into the aquifers. This research aims to find the best ways to use traded activated charcoal with gold nitrate solution; for removing the deadly pesticides from the aqueous solution by adsorption phenomenon. The most used pesticides in Egypt were selected, such as Malathion, Methomyl Abamectin and, Thiamethoxam. Activated charcoal doped with gold ions was prepared by applying chemical and thermal treatments to activated charcoal using gold nitrate solution. Adsorption of studied pesticide onto activated carbon /Au was mainly by chemical adsorption, forming a complex with the gold metal immobilized on activated carbon surfaces. In addition, the gold atom was considered as a catalyst to cracking the pesticide molecule. Gold activated charcoal is a low cost material due to the use of very low concentrations of gold nitrate solution. its notice the great ability of activated charcoal in removing selected pesticides due to the presence of the positive charge of the gold ion, in addition to other active groups such as functional oxygen and lignin cellulose. The presence of pores of different sizes on the surface of activated charcoal is the driving force for the good adsorption efficiency for the removal of the pesticides under study The surface area of the prepared char as well as the active groups, were determined using infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Some factors affecting the ability of activated charcoal were applied in order to reach the highest adsorption capacity of activated charcoal, such as the weight of the charcoal, the concentration of the pesticide solution, the time of the experiment, and the pH. Experiments showed that the maximum limit revealed by the batch adsorption study for the adsorption of selected insecticides was in contact time (80) minutes at pH (7.70). These promising results were confirmed, and by establishing the practical application of the developed system, the effect of various operating factors with equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies is evident, using the Langmuir application on the effectiveness of the absorbent material with absorption capacities higher than most other adsorbents.

Keywords: waste water, pesticides pollution, adsorption, activated carbon

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Authors: Bola Adeleke, Kayode Ogunsusi

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Heritage sites have evolved to preserve culture and heritage and also to educate and entertain tourists. Tourist travel decisions and behavior are influenced by destination image and value of the experience of tourists. Perceived value is one of the important tools for securing a competitive edge in tourism destinations. The model of Ritchie and Crouch distinguished 36 attributes of competitiveness which are classified into five factors which are quality of experience, touristic attractiveness, environment and infrastructure, entertainment/outdoor activities and cultural traditions. The study extended this model with a different grouping of the determinants of destination competitiveness. The theoretical framework used for this study assumes that apart from attractions already situated in the grove, satisfaction with destination common service, and entertainment and events, can all be used in creating a positive image for/and in attracting customers (destination selection) to visit Osun Sacred Osogbo Grove during and after annual celebrations. All these will impact positively on travel experience of customers as well as their spiritual fulfillment. Destination image has a direct impact on tourists’ satisfaction which consequently impacts on tourists’ likely future behavior on whether to revisit a cultural destination or not. The study investigated the variables responsible for destination image competitiveness of the Heritage Site; assessed the factors enhancing the destination image; and evaluated the perceived value realized by tourists from their cultural experience at the grove. A complete enumeration of tourists above 18 years of age who visited the Heritage Site within the month of March and April 2017 was taken. 240 respondents, therefore, were used for the study. The structured questionnaire with 5 Likert scales was administered. Five factors comprising 63 variables were used to determine the destination image competitiveness through principal component analysis, while multiple regressions were used to evaluate perceived value of tourists at the grove. Results revealed that 11 out of the 12 variables determining the destination image competitiveness were significant in attracting tourists to the grove. From the R-value, all factors predicted tourists’ value of experience strongly (R= 0.936). The percentage variance of customer value was explained by 87.70% of the variance of destination common service, entertainment and event satisfaction, travel environment satisfaction and spiritual satisfaction, with F-value being significant at 0.00. Factors with high alpha value contributed greatly to adding value to enhancing destination and tourists’ experience. 11 variables positively predicted tourist value with significance. Managers of Osun World Heritage Site should improve on variables critical to adding values to tourists’ experience.

Keywords: competitiveness, destination image, Osun Osogbo world heritage site, tourists

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Authors: Hsiu-Tsu Cho

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Collective efficacy refers to a group’s sense of its capacity to complete a task successfully or to reach objectives. Little effort has been expended on investigating the relationship between the emotion expression of a leader and collective efficacy. In this study, we examined the impact of the different emotions and emotion expression of a group leader on collective efficacy and explored whether the emotion–expressive effects differed under conditions of negative and positive emotions. A total of 240 undergraduate and graduate students recruited using Facebook and posters at a university participated in this research. The participants were separated randomly into 80 groups of four persons consisting of three participants and a confederate. They were randomly assigned to one of five conditions in a 2 (pride vs. guilt) × 2 (emotion expression of group leader vs. no emotion expression of group leader) factorial design and a control condition. Each four-person group was instructed to get the reward in a group competition of solving the five-disk Tower of Hanoi puzzle and making decisions on an investment case. We surveyed the participants by employing the emotional measure revised from previous researchers and collective efficacy questionnaire on a 5-point scale. To induce an emotion of pride (or guilt), the experimenter announced whether the group performance was good enough to have a chance of getting the reward (ranking the top or bottom 20% among all groups) after group task. The leader (confederate) could either express or not express a feeling of pride (or guilt) following the instruction according to the assigned condition. To check manipulation of emotion, we added a control condition under which the experimenter revealed no results regarding group performance in maintaining a neutral emotion. One-way ANOVAs and post hoc pairwise comparisons among the three emotion conditions (pride, guilt, and control condition) involved assigning pride and guilt scores (pride: F(1,75) = 32.41, p < .001; guilt: F(1,75) = 6.75, p < .05). The results indicated that manipulations of emotion were successful. A two-way between-measures ANOVA was conducted to examine the predictions of the main effects of emotion types and emotion expression as well as the interaction effect of these two variables on collective efficacy. The experimental findings suggest that pride did not affect collective efficacy (F(1,60) = 1.90, ns.) more than guilt did and that the group leader did not motivate collective efficacy regardless of whether he or she expressed emotion (F(1,60) = .89, ns.). However, the interaction effect of emotion types and emotion expression was statistically significant (F(1,60) = 4.27, p < .05, ω2 = .066); the effects accounted for 6.6% of the variance. Additional results revealed that, under the pride condition, the leader enhanced group efficacy when expressing emotion, whereas, under the guilt condition, an expression of emotion could reduce collective efficacy. Overall, these findings challenge the assumption that the effect of expression emotion are the same on all emotions and suggest that a leader should be cautious when expressing negative emotions toward a group to avoid reducing group effectiveness.

Keywords: collective efficacy, group leader, emotion expression, pride, guilty

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Authors: Ekeh Greg

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Learning has been part of human existence from time immemorial. The aim of every learning is to know the truth. In education, it is desirable that true knowledge is imparted and imbibed. For this to be achieved, there is need for honesty, in this context, academic honesty among students, especially in e-learning. This is an ethical issue since honesty bothers on human conduct. However, research findings have shown that academic honesty has remained a big challenge to online learners, especially among the university students. This is worrisome since the university education is the final education system and a gateway to life in the wider society after schooling. If they are practicing honesty in their academic life, it is likely that they will practice honesty in the in the society, thereby bringing positive contributions to the society wherever they find themselves. With this in mind, the significance of this study becomes obvious. On grounds of this significance, this paper focuses on strategies that are adjudged certain to enhance the practice of honesty in e-learning so as to enable learners to be well equipped to contribute to the society through honest ways. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the efforts of instilling the consciousness and practice of honesty in the minds and hearts of learners. This will, in turn, promote effective teaching and learning, academic high standard, competence and self-confidence in university education. Philosophical methods of conceptual analysis, clarification, description and prescription are adopted for the study. Philosophical perspective is chosen so as to ground the paper on the basis of rationality rather than emotional sentiments and biases emanating from cultural, religious and ethnic differences and orientations. Such sentiments and biases can becloud objective reasoning and sound judgment. A review of related literature is also carried out. The findings show that academic honesty in e-learning is a cherished value, but it is bedeviled by some challenges, such as care-free attitude on the part of students and absence of monitoring. The findings also show that despite the challenges facing academic honesty, strategies such as self-discipline, determination, hard work, imbibing ethical and philosophical principles, among others, can certainly enhance the practice of honesty in e-learning among university students. The paper, therefore, concludes that these constitute strategies for enhancing academic honesty among students. Consequently, it is suggested that instructors, school counsellors and other stakeholders should endeavour to see that students are helped to imbibe these strategies and put them into practice. Students themselves are enjoined to cherish honesty in their academic pursuit and avoid short-cuts. Short-cuts can only lead to mediocrity and incompetence on the part of the learners, which may have long adverse consequences, both on themselves and others.

Keywords: academic, ethical, philosophical, strategies

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Authors: Amanda Sheard, Garry Lee, Katherine Stockham

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Introduction: Health benefits associated with wine consumption have been well documented; these include anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular protection. The majority of these health benefits have been linked to polyphenols found within wine and grapes. Once consumed polyphenols exhibit free radical quenching capabilities. Environmental factors such as rainfall, temperature, CO2 levels and sunlight exposure have been shown to affect the polyphenol content of grapes. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of growing conditions on the antioxidant capacity of grapes obtained from a single plot vineyard in Perth. This was achieved through the analysis of samples using; oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC), cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) in human red blood cells, ICP-MS and ICP-OES, total polyphenols (PP’s), and total flavonoid’s (FLa). The data obtained was compared to observed climate data. The 14 Selected Vitis Vinefera L. cultivars included Cabernet franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carnelian, Chardonnay, Grenache, Melbec, Merlot, Orange muscat, Rousanne, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Tempernillo, Verdelho, and Voignier. Results: Notable variation’s between cultivars included results ranging from 125 mg/100 g-350 mg/100 g for PP’s, 93 mg/100 g–300 mg/100 g for FLa, 13 mM T.E/kg–33 mM T.E/kg for ORAC and 0.3 mM Q.E/kg–27 mM Q.E/kg CAA were found between red and white grape cultivars. No correlation was found between CAA and the ORAC obtained in this study; except that white cultivars were consistently lower than red. ICP analysis showed that seeds contained the highest concentration of copper followed by skins and flesh of the grape. A positive correlation between copper and ORAC was found. The ORAC, PP’s, and FLa in red grapes were consistently higher than white grape cultivars; these findings were supported by literature values. Significance: The cellular antioxidant activities of white and red wine cultivars were used to compare the bioactivity of these grapes against the chemical ORAC measurement. The common method of antioxidant activity measurement is the chemical value from ORAC analysis; however this may not reflect the activity within the human body. Hence, the measurements were also carried out using the cellular antioxidant activity to perform a comparison. Additionally, the study explored the influence of weather systems such as El Niño and La Niña on the polyphenol content of Australian wine cultivars grown in Perth.

Keywords: oxygen radical antioxidant activity, cellular antioxidant activity, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, wine grapes, climate

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Authors: Mohammed Messaoudi

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The higher education sector in Algeria has witnessed in recent years a remarkable transformation, as it witnessed the integration of institutions within the modern technological environment and harnessing all appropriate mechanisms to raise the level of education and the level of training. Observers and those interested that it is necessary for the Algerian university to enter this field, especially with the efforts that seek to employ modern technology in the sector and encourage investment in this field, in addition to the state’s keenness to move towards building a path to benefit from modern technology, and to encourage energies in light of a reality that carries many Aspirations and challenges by achieving openness to the new digital environment and keeping pace with the ranks of international universities. Higher education is one of the engines of development for societies, as it is a vital field for the transfer of knowledge and scientific expertise, and the university is at the top of the comprehensive educational system for various disciplines in light of the achievement of a multi-dimensional educational system, and amid the integration of three basic axes that establish the sound educational process (teaching, research, relevant outputs efficiency), and according to a clear strategy that monitors the advancement of academic work, and works on developing its future directions to achieve development in this field. The Algerian University is considered one of the service institutions that seeks to find the optimal mechanisms to keep pace with the changes of the times, as it has become necessary for the university to enter the technological space and thus ensure the quality of education in it and achieve the required empowerment by dedicating a structure that matches the requirements of the challenges on which the sector is based, amid unremitting efforts to develop the capabilities. He sought to harness the mechanisms of communication and information technology and achieve transformation at the level of the higher education sector with what is called higher education technology. The conceptual framework of information and communication technology at the level of higher education institutions in Algeria is determined through the factors of organization, factors of higher education institutions, characteristics of the professor, characteristics of students, the outcomes of the educational process, and there is a relentless pursuit to achieve a positive interaction between these axes as they are basic components on which the success and achievement of higher education are based for his goals.

Keywords: Information and communication technology, Algerian university, scientific and cognitive development, challenges

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Authors: Rosa S. Wong, Keith T.S. Tung, H.W. Tsang, Frederick K. Ho, Patrick Ip

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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and hyperactive-impulsive behavior. Evidence shows that ADHD and mood problems such as depression and anxiety often co-occur and yet not everyone with ADHD reported elevated emotional problems. Given that cholesterol is essential for healthy brain development including the regions governing emotion regulation, reports found lower cholesterol levels in patients with major depressive disorder and those with suicide attempt behavior compared to healthy subjects. This study explored whether ADHD adolescents experienced more emotional problems and whether emotional problems correlated with cholesterol levels in these adolescents. This study used a portion of data from the longitudinal cohort study which was designed to investigate the long-term impact of family socioeconomic status on child development. In 2018/19, parents of 300 adolescents (average age: 12.57+/-0.49 years) were asked to rate their children’s emotional problems and report whether their children had doctor-diagnosed psychiatric diseases. We further collected blood samples from 263 children to study their lipid profile (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol). Regression analyses were performed to test the relationships between variables of interest. Among 300 children, 27 (9%) had ADHD diagnosis. Analysis based on overall sample found no association between ADHD and emotional problems, but when investigating the relationship by gender, there was a significant interaction effect of ADHD and gender on emotional problems (p=0.037), with ADHD males displaying more emotional problems than ADHD females. Further analyses based on 263 children (21 with ADHD diagnosis) found significant interaction effect of ADHD and gender on total cholesterol (p=0.038) and low LDL-cholesterol levels (p=0.013) after adjusting for the child’s physical disease history. Specifically, ADHD males had significantly lower total cholesterol and low lipoprotein-cholesterol levels than ADHD females. In ADHD males, more emotional problems were associated with lower LDL-cholesterol levels (B = -4.26, 95%CI (-7.46, -1.07), p=0.013). We found preliminary support for the association between more emotional problems and lower cholesterol levels in ADHD children, especially among males. Although larger prospective studies are needed to substantiate these claims, the evidence highlights the importance of healthy lifestyle to keep cholesterol levels in normal range which can have positive effects on physical and mental health.

Keywords: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, cholesterol, emotional problems, adolescents

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Authors: Kirsty Biggs, Peter Larsen-Disney

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Background: The UK cervical screening programme significantly reduces cancer mortality through the early detection of abnormal cells. Despite this, over a quarter of eligible women choose not to attend their appointment. Objective: To qualitatively explore patients’ barriers to attending cervical smear appointments and identify key trends of cervical screening behaviour, knowledge, and attitudes in primary and secondary care. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate smear services in Brighton and Hove using questionnaires in general practice and colposcopy. 226 patients participated in the voluntary questionnaire between 10/11/2017 and 02/02/2018. 118 patients were recruited from general practice surgeries and 108 from the colposcopy department. Women were asked about their smear knowledge, self-perceived risks factors, prior experiences and reasons for non-attendance. Demographic data was also collected. Results: Approximately a third of women did not engage in smear testing services. This was consistent across primary and secondary care groups. Over 90% were aware of the role of the screening process in relation to cervical cancer; however, over two thirds believed the smear was also a tool to screen for other pathologies. The most commonly cited reasons for non-attendance were negative emotions or previous experiences. Inconvenient appointment times were also commonly described. In a comparison of attenders versus non-attenders previous negative experiences (p < 0.01) and number of identified risk factors (p = 0.02) were statistically significant with non-attenders describing more prior negative smears and identifying more risk factors. Smear knowledge, risk perception and perceived importance of screening were not significant. Negative previous experiences were described in relation to poor bedside manner, pain, embarrassment and staff competency. Conclusions: In contrary to the literature, our white Caucasian cohort experienced significant barriers to accessing smear services. Women’s prior negative experiences are overriding their perceived importance to attend the screening programme; therefore, efforts need to focus on improving clinical experiences through auditing tools, training and providing a supportive appointment setting. Positive changes can also be expected by improving appointment availabilities with extended hours and self-booking systems.

Keywords: barriers, cervical, Papanicolaou, screening, smear

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Authors: Mei Lin, Chang Liu

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Argumentative writing is the most prevalent genre in diverse writing tests. How to construct academic arguments is often regarded as a difficult task by most English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. A failure to generate enough ideas and organise them coherently and logically as well as a lack of competence in supporting their arguments with relevant evidence are frequent problems faced by EFL learners when approaching an English argumentative writing task. Overall, these problems are closely related to planning, and planning an argumentative writing at pre-writing stage plays a vital role in a good academic essay. However, how teachers can effectively guide students to generate ideas is rarely discussed in planning English argumentative writing, apart from brainstorming. Brainstorming has been a common practice used by teachers to help students generate ideas. However, some limitations of brainstorming suggest that it can help students generate many ideas, but ideas might not necessarily be coherent and logic, and could sometimes impede production. It calls for a need to explore effective instructional strategies at pre-writing stage of English argumentative writing. This paper will first examine how a Six Thinking Hats approach can be used to provide a dialogic space for EFL learners to experience and collaboratively generate ideas from multiple perspectives at pre-writing stage. Part of the findings of the impact of a twelve-week intervention (from March to July 2021) on students learning to generate ideas through engaging in group discussions of using Six Thinking Hats will then be reported. The research design is based on the sociocultural theory. The findings present evidence from a mixed-methods approach and fifty-nine participants from two first-year undergraduate natural classes in a Chinese university. Analysis of pre- and post- questionnaires suggests that participants had a positive attitude toward the Six Thinking Hats approach. It fosters their understanding of prewriting and argumentative writing, helps them to generate more ideas not only from multiple perspectives but also in a systematic way. A comparison of participants writing plans confirms an improvement in generating counterarguments and rebuttals to support their arguments. Above all, visual and transcripts data of group discussion collected from different weeks throughout the intervention enable teachers and researchers to ‘see’ the hidden process of learning to generate ideas in action.

Keywords: argumentative writing, innovative pedagogy, six thinking hats, dialogic space, prewriting, higher education

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Authors: V. I. Kozyavkin, L. F. Shestopalova, T. B. Voloshyn

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Introduction: Rehabilitation of children with Autism is the issue of the day in psychiatry and neurology. It is attributed to constantly increasing quantity of autistic children - Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Existing rehabilitation approaches in treatment of children with Autism improve their medico- social and social- psychological adjustment. Experience of treatment for different kinds of Autistic disorders in International Clinic of Rehabilitation (ICR) reveals the necessity of complex intensive approach for healing this malady and wider implementation of a Kozyavkin method for treatment of children with ASD. Methods: 19 children aged from 3 to 14 years were examined. They were diagnosed ‘Autism’ (F84.0) with comorbid neurological pathology (from pyramidal insufficiency to para- and tetraplegia). All patients underwent rehabilitation in ICR during two weeks, where INRS approach was used. INRS included methods like biomechanical correction of the spine, massage, physical therapy, joint mobilization, wax-paraffin applications. They were supplemented by art- therapy, ergotherapy, rhythmical group exercises, computer game therapy, team Olympic games and other methods for improvement of motivation and social integration of the child. Estimation of efficacy was conducted using parent’s questioning and done twice- on the onset of INRS rehabilitation course and two weeks afterward. For efficacy assessment of rehabilitation of autistic children in ICR standardized tool was used, namely Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC). This scale was selected because any rehabilitation approaches for the child with Autism can be assessed using it. Results: Before the onset of INRS treatment mean score according to ATEC scale was 64,75±9,23, it reveals occurrence in examined children severe communication, speech, socialization and behavioral impairments. After the end of the rehabilitation course, the mean score was 56,5±6,7, what indicates positive dynamics in comparison to the onset of rehabilitation. Generally, improvement of psychoemotional state occurred in 90% of cases. Most significant changes occurred in the scope of speech (16,5 before and 14,5 after the treatment), socialization (15.1 before and 12,5 after) and behavior (20,1 before and 17.4 after). Conclusion: As a result of INRS rehabilitation course reduction of autistic symptoms was noted. Particularly improvements in speech were observed (children began to spell out new syllables, words), there was some decrease in signs of destructiveness, quality of contact with the surrounding people improved, new skills of self-service appeared. The prospect of the study is further, according to evidence- based medicine standards, deeper examination of INRS and assessment of its usefulness in treatment for Autism and ASD.

Keywords: intensive neurophysiological rehabilitation system (INRS), international clinic od rehabilitation, ASD, rehabilitation

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Authors: Emilio Galdeano-Gómez, Ángeles Godoy-Durán, Juan C. Pérez-Mesa, Laura Piedra-Muñoz

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Eco-efficiency is receiving ever-increasing interest as an indicator of sustainability, as it links environmental and economic performances in productive activities. In agriculture, these indicators and their determinants prove relevant due to the close relationships in this activity between the use of natural resources, which is generally limited, and the provision of basic goods to society. In this context, various analyses have focused on eco-efficiency by considering individual family farms as the basic production unit. However, not only must the measure of efficiency be taken into account, but also the existence of a series of factors which constitute socio-economic, political-institutional, and environmental determinants. Said factors have been studied to a lesser extent in the literature. The present work analyzes eco-efficiency at a micro level, focusing on small-scale family farms as the main decision-making units in horticulture in southeast Spain, a sector which represents about 30% of the fresh vegetables produced in the country and about 20% of those consumed in Europe. The objectives of this study are a) to obtain a series of eco-efficiency indicators by estimating several pressure ratios and economic value added in farming, b) to analyze the influence of specific social, economic and environmental variables on the aforementioned eco-efficiency indicators. The present work applies the method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which calculates different combinations of environmental pressures (water usage, phytosanitary contamination, waste management, etc.) and aggregate economic value. In a second stage, an analysis is conducted on the influence of the socio-economic and environmental characteristics of family farms on the eco-efficiency indicators, as endogeneous variables, through the use of truncated regression and bootstrapping techniques, following Simar-Wilson methodology. The results reveal considerable inefficiency in aspects such as waste management, while there is relatively little inefficiency in water usage and nitrogen balance. On the other hand, characteristics, such as product specialization, the adoption of quality certifications and belonging to a cooperative do have a positive impact on eco-efficiency. These results are deemed to be of interest to agri-food systems structured on small-scale producers, and they may prove useful to policy-makers as regards managing public environmental programs in agriculture.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, eco-efficiency, family farms, horticulture, socioeconomic features

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Authors: Xiaohong Li, Wenfan Yan

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Background: While it is widely considered that the university library plays a critical role in fulfilling the institution's mission and providing students’ learning experience beyond the classrooms, how the technology-enhanced library reform changed college students’ learning experience hasn’t been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study is to explore how technology-enhanced library reform affects students’ learning experience and career readiness and further identify the factors and effective conditions that enable the quality learning outcome of Chinese college students. Methodologies: This study selected the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method to explore the effects of technology-enhanced university library reform on college students’ learning experience and career readiness. QCA is unique in explaining the complex relationship between multiple factors from a holistic perspective. Compared with the traditional quantitative and qualitative analysis, QCA not only adds some quantitative logic but also inherits the characteristics of qualitative research focusing on the heterogeneity and complexity of samples. Shenyang Normal University (SNU) selected a sample of the typical comprehensive university in China that focuses on students’ learning and application of professional knowledge and trains professionals to different levels of expertise. A total of 22 current university students and 30 graduates who joined the Library Readers Association of SNU from 2011 to 2019 were selected for semi-structured interviews. Based on the data collected from these participating students, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), including univariate necessity analysis and the multi-configuration analysis, was conducted. Findings and Discussion: QCA analysis results indicated that the influence of technology-enhanced university library restructures and reorganization on student learning experience and career readiness is the result of multiple factors. Technology-enhanced library equipment and other hardware restructured to meet the college students learning needs and have played an important role in improving the student learning experience and learning persistence. More importantly, the soft characteristics of technology-enhanced library reform, such as library service innovation space and culture space, have a positive impact on student’s career readiness and development. Technology-enhanced university library reform is not only the change in the building's appearance and facilities but also in library service quality and capability. The study also provides suggestions for policy, practice, and future research.

Keywords: career readiness, college student learning experience, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), technology-enhanced library reform

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Authors: Yi-Tung Lin

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Researchers commonly assess implicit self-esteem with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT’s measure, often referred to as the IAT effect, indicates the strengths of automatic preferences for the self relative to others, which is often considered an index of implicit self-esteem. However, based on the Dual-process theory, the IAT does not rely entirely on the automatic process; it is also influenced by a controlled process. The present study, therefore, analyzed the IAT data with the Quad model, separating four processes on the IAT performance: the likelihood that automatic association is activated by the stimulus in the trial (AC); that a correct response is discriminated in the trial (D); that the automatic bias is overcome in favor of a deliberate response (OB); and that when the association is not activated, and the individual fails to discriminate a correct answer, there is a guessing or response bias drives the response (G). The AC and G processes are automatic, while the D and OB processes are controlled. The AC parameter is considered as the strength of the association activated by the stimulus, which reflects what implicit measures of social cognition aim to assess. The stronger the automatic association between self and positive valence, the more likely it will be activated by a relevant stimulus. Therefore, the AC parameter was used as the index of implicit self-esteem in the present study. Meanwhile, the relationship between implicit self-esteem and depression is not fully investigated. In the cognitive theory of depression, it is assumed that the negative self-schema is crucial in depression. Based on this point of view, implicit self-esteem would be negatively associated with depression. However, the results among empirical studies are inconsistent. The aims of the present study were to examine the psychometric properties of the AC (i.e., test-retest reliability and its correlations with explicit self-esteem and depression) and compare it with that of the IAT effect. The present study had 105 patients with depressive disorders completing the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II and the IAT on the pretest. After at least 3 weeks, the participants completed the second IAT. The data were analyzed by the latent-trait multinomial processing tree model (latent-trait MPT) with the TreeBUGS package in R. The result showed that the latent-trait MPT had a satisfactory model fit. The effect size of test-retest reliability of the AC and the IAT effect were medium (r = .43, p < .0001) and small (r = .29, p < .01) respectively. Only the AC showed a significant correlation with explicit self-esteem (r = .19, p < .05). Neither of the two indexes was correlated with depression. Collectively, the AC parameter was a satisfactory index of implicit self-esteem compared with the IAT effect. Also, the present study supported the results that implicit self-esteem was not correlated with depression.

Keywords: cognitive modeling, implicit association test, implicit self-esteem, quad model

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Authors: Liat Shamri-Zeevi, Neta Ram-Vlasov

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Today the world as a whole is attempting to cope with the COVID-19, which has affected all facets of personal and social life from country-wide confinement to maintaining social distance and taking protective measures to maintain hygiene. One of the populations faced with the most severe restrictions is seniors. Various studies have shown that creativity plays a crucial role in dealing with crisis events. Painting - regardless of media - allows for emotional and cognitive processing of these situations, and enables the expression of experiences in a tangible creative way that conveys and endows meaning to the artwork. The current study was conducted in Israel immediately after a 6-week lockdown. It was designed to specifically examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of elderly women as reflected in their artworks. The sample was composed of 21 Israeli women aged 60-90, in good mental health (without diagnosed dementia or Alzheimer's), all of whom were Hebrew-speaking, and retired with an extended family, who indicated that they painted and had engaged in artwork on an ongoing basis throughout the lockdown (from March 12 to May 30, 2020). The participants' artworks were collected, and a semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted that lasted one to two hours. The participants were asked about their feelings during the pandemic and the artworks they produced during this time, and completed a questionnaire on well-being and mental health. The initial analysis of the interviews and artworks revealed themes related to the specific role of each piece of artwork. The first theme included notions that the artwork was an activity and a framework for doing, which supported positive emotions, and provided a sense of vitality during the closure. Most of the participants painted images of nature and growth which were ascribed concrete and symbolic meaning. The second theme was that the artwork enabled the processing of difficult and /or conflicting emotions related to the situation, including anxiety about death and loneliness that were symbolically expressed in the artworks, such as images of the Corona virus and the respiratory machines. The third theme suggested that the time and space prompted by the lockdown gave the participants time for a gathering together of the self, and freed up time for creative activities. Many participants stated that they painted more and more frequently during the Corona lockdown. At the conference, additional themes and findings will be presented.

Keywords: Corona virus, artwork, quality of life of elderly

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Authors: Elsadig Naseraddeen Ahmed Mohamed

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In contrast to the uncertainty and complementary principle, it will be shown in the present paper that the probability of the simultaneous occupation event of any definite values of coordinates by any definite values of momentum and energy at any definite instance of time can be described by a binary definite function equivalent to the difference between their numbers of occupation and evacuation epochs up to that time and also equivalent to the number of exchanges between those occupation and evacuation epochs up to that times modulus two, these binary definite quantities can be defined at all point in the time’s real-line so it form a binary signal represent a complete mechanical description of physical reality, the time of these exchanges represent the boundary of occupation and evacuation epochs from which we can calculate these binary signals using the fact that the time of universe events actually extends in the positive and negative of time’s real-line in one direction of extension when these number of exchanges increase, so there exists noninvertible transformation matrix can be defined as the matrix multiplication of invertible rotation matrix and noninvertible scaling matrix change the direction and magnitude of exchange event vector respectively, these noninvertible transformation will be called actual transformation in contrast to information transformations by which we can navigate the universe’s events transformed by actual transformations backward and forward in time’s real-line, so these information transformations will be derived as an elements of a group can be associated to their corresponded actual transformations. The actual and information model of the universe will be derived by assuming the existence of time instance zero before and at which there is no coordinate occupied by any definite values of momentum and energy, and then after that time, the universe begin its expanding in spacetime, this assumption makes the need for the existence of Laplace’s demon who at one moment can measure the positions and momentums of all constituent particle of the universe and then use the law of classical mechanics to predict all future and past of universe’s events, superfluous, we only need for the establishment of our analog to digital converters to sense the binary signals that determine the boundaries of occupation and evacuation epochs of the definite values of coordinates relative to its origin by the definite values of momentum and energy as present events of the universe from them we can predict approximately in high precision it's past and future events.

Keywords: binary-signal mechanics, actual-information model of the universe, actual-transformation, information-transformation, uncertainty principle, Laplace's demon

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Authors: Rosely Sichieri, Bruna K. Hassan, Michele Sgambato, Barbara S. N. Souza, Rosangela A. Pereira, Edna M. Yokoo, Diana B. Cunha

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Obesity is increasing at a fast rate in low and middle-income countries where few school-based obesity interventions have been conducted. Results of obesity prevention studies are still inconclusive mainly due to underestimation of sample size in cluster-randomized trials and overestimation of changes in body mass index (BMI). The pooled analysis in the present study overcomes these design problems by analyzing 4,448 students (mean age 11.7 years) from three randomized behavioral school-based interventions, conducted in public schools of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The three studies focused on encouraging students to change their drinking and eating habits over one school year, with monthly 1-h sessions in the classroom. Folders explaining the intervention program and suggesting the participation of the family, such as reducing the purchase of sodas were sent home. Classroom activities were delivered by research assistants in the first two interventions and by the regular teachers in the third one, except for culinary class aimed at developing cooking skills to increase healthy eating choices. The first intervention was conducted in 2005 with 1,140 fourth graders from 22 public schools; the second, with 644 fifth graders from 20 public schools in 2010; and the last one, with 2,743 fifth and sixth graders from 18 public schools in 2016. The result was a non-significant change in BMI after one school year of positive changes in dietary behaviors associated with obesity. Pooled intention-to-treat analysis using linear mixed models was used for the overall and subgroup analysis by BMI status, sex, and race. The estimated mean BMI changes were from 18.93 to 19.22 in the control group and from 18.89 to 19.19 in the intervention group; with a p-value of change over time of 0.94. Control and intervention groups were balanced at baseline. Subgroup analyses were statistically and clinically non-significant, except for the non-overweight/obese group with a 0.05 reduction of BMI comparing the intervention with control. In conclusion, this large pooled analysis showed a very small effect on BMI only in the normal weight students. The results are in line with many of the school-based initiatives that have been promising in relation to modifying behaviors associated with obesity but of no impact on excessive weight gain. Changes in BMI may require great changes in energy balance that are hard to achieve in primary prevention at school level.

Keywords: adolescents, obesity prevention, randomized controlled trials, school-based study

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Authors: Eric Bates

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Higher education is recognised as being of critical importance in Ireland and has been linked as a vital factor to national well-being. Statistics show that Ireland has one of the highest rates of higher education participation in Europe. However, student retention and progression, especially in Institutes of Technology, is becoming an issue as rates on non-completion rise. Both within Ireland and across Europe student retention is seen as a key performance indicator for higher education and with these increasing rates the Irish higher education system needs to be flexible and adapt to the situation it now faces. The author is a Programme Chair on a Level 6 full time undergraduate programme and experience to date has shown that the first year undergraduate students take some time to identify themselves as a group within the setting of a higher education institute. Despite being part of a distinct class on a specific programme some individuals can feel isolated as he or she take the first step into higher education. Such feelings can contribute to students eventually dropping out. This paper reports on an ongoing initiative that aims to accelerate the bonding experience of a distinct group of first year undergraduates on a programme which has a high rate of non-completion. This research sought to engage the students in dynamic interactions with their peers to quickly evolve a group sense of coherence. Two separate modules – a Research Module and a Communications module - delivered by the researcher were linked across two semesters. Students were allocated into random groups and each group was given a topic to be researched. There were six topics – essentially the six sub-headings on the DIT Graduate Attribute Statement. The research took place in a computer lab and students also used the library. The output from this was a document that formed part of the submission for the Research Module. In the second semester the groups then had to make a presentation of their findings where each student spoke for a minimum amount of time. Presentation workshops formed part of that module and students were given the opportunity to practice their presentation skills. These presentations were video recorded to enable feedback to be given. Although this was a small scale study preliminary results found a strong sense of coherence among this particular cohort and feedback from the students was very positive. Other findings indicate that spreading the initiative across two semesters may have been an inhibitor. Future challenges include spreading such Initiatives College wide and indeed sector wide.

Keywords: first year experience, student retention, group work, presentation workshops

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Authors: Josine Beek, S. Agten, R. Del Pozo, B. Balis

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The objective of the present study was to compare the safety of intramuscular administration of Zuprevo® (tildipirosin, 40 mg/mL) with Draxxin® (tulathromycin, 100 mg/mL) in the treatment of swine respiratory disease at weaning age. The trial was carried out in two farrow-to-finish farms with 300 sows (farm A) and 500 sows (farm B) in a batch-production system. Farm A had no history of respiratory problems, whereas farm B had a history of respiratory outbreaks with increased mortality ( > 2%) in the nursery. Both farms were positive to Pasteurella multocida, Bordetella bronchiseptica, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Haemophilus parasuis. From each farm, one batch of piglets was included (farm A: 644 piglets; farm B: 963 piglets). One day before weaning (day 0; 18-21 days of age), piglets were identified by an individual ear tag and randomly assigned to a treatment group. At day 0, Group 1 was treated with a single intramuscular injection with Zuprevo® (tildipirosin, 40 mg/mL; 1 mL/10 kg) and group 2 with Draxxin® (tulathromycin, 100 mg/mL; 1 mL/40 kg). For practical reasons, dosage of the product was adjusted according to three weight categories: < 4 kg, 4-6 kg and > 6 kg. Within each farm, piglets of both groups were comingled at weaning and subsequently managed and located in the same facilities and with identical environmental conditions. Our study involved the period from day 0 until 10 weeks of age. Safety of treatment was evaluated by 1) visual examination for signs of discomfort directly after treatment and after 15 min, 1 h and 24 h and 2) mortality rate within 24 h after treatment. Efficacy of treatment was evaluated based on mortality rate from day 0 until 10 weeks of age. Each piglet that died during the study period was necropsied by the herd veterinarian to determine the probable cause of death. Data were analyzed using binary logistic regression and differences were considered significant if p < 0.05. The pig was the experimental unit. In total, 848 piglets were treated with tildipirosin and 759 piglets with tulathromycin. In farm A, one piglet with retarded growth ( < 1 kg at 18 days of age) showed an adverse reaction after injection of tildipirosin: lateral recumbence and dullness for ± 30 sec. The piglet recovered after 1-2 min. This adverse reaction was probably due to overdosing (12 mg/kg). No adverse effect of treatment was observed in any other piglet. There was no mortality within 24 h after treatment. No significant difference was found in mortality rate between both groups from day 0 until 10 weeks of age. In farm A, overall mortality rate was 0.3% (2/644). In farm B, mortality rate was 0.2% (1/502) in group 1 (tildipirosin) and 0.9% (4/461) in group 2 (tulathromycin)(p=0.60). The necropsy of piglets that died during the study period revealed no macroscopic lesions of the respiratory tract. In conclusion, Zuprevo® (tildipirosin, 40 mg/mL) was shown to be a safe and efficacious alternative to Draxxin® (tulathromycin, 100 mg/mL) for the early treatment of swine respiratory disease at weaning age.

Keywords: antibiotic treatment, safety, swine respiratory disease, tildipirosin

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Authors: Şenol Yanar, Sinan Çeli̇kbi̇lek, Mehmet Bayansalduz, Yusuf Can

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Managerial competence defines as the skills that managers in managerial positions have in relation to managerial responsibilities and managerial duties. Today's organizations, which are in a competitive environment, have the desire to work with effective managers in order to be more advantageous position than the other organizations they are competing with. In today's organizations, self-efficacy and collective competence belief that determine managerial competencies of managers to assume managerial responsibility are of special importance. In this framework, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of sports managers' perceptions of self-efficacy and collective competence in managerial competence perceptions. In the study, it has also been analyzed if there is a significant difference between self-efficacy, collective competence and managerial competence levels of sports managers in terms of their gender, age, duty status, year of service and level of education. 248 sports managers, who work at the department of sports service’s central and field organization at least as a chief in the manager position, have been chosen with random sampling method and they have voluntarily participated in the study. In the study, the self-efficacy scale which was developed by Schwarzer, R. & Jerusalem, M. (1995), collective competence scale developed by Goddard, Hoy and Woolfolk-Hoy (2000) and managerial competence scale developed by Cetinkaya (2009) have been used as a data collection tool. The questionnaire form used as a data collection tool in the study includes a personal information form consisting of 5 questions; questioning gender, age, duty status, years of service and level of education. In the study, Pearson Correlation Analysis has been used for defining the correlation among self-efficacy, collective competence belief, and managerial competence levels in sports managers and regression analysis have been used to define the affect of self-efficacy and collective competence belief on the perception of managerial competence. T-test for binary grouping and ANOVA analysis have been used for more than binary groups in order to determine if there is any significant difference in the level of self-efficacy, collective and managerial competence in terms of the participants’ duty status, year of service and level of education. According to the research results, it has been found that there is a positive correlation between sports managers' self-efficacy, collective competence beliefs, and managerial competence levels. According to the results of the regression analysis, it is understood that the managers’ perception of self-efficacy and collective competence belief significantly defines the perception of managerial competence. Also, the results show that there is no significant difference in self-efficacy, collective competence, and level of managerial competence of sports managers in terms of duty status, year of service and level of education.

Keywords: sports manager, self-efficacy, collective competence, managerial competence

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Authors: Nawras Kurzom, Avi Mendelsohn

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The effects of background music on learning and memory are inconsistent, partly due to the intrinsic complexity and variety of music and partly to individual differences in music perception and preference. A prominent musical feature that is known to elicit strong emotional responses is musical tension. Musical tension can be brought about by building anticipation of rhythm, harmony, melody, and dynamics. Delaying the resolution of dominant-to-tonic chord progressions, as well as using dissonant harmonics, can elicit feelings of tension, which can, in turn, affect memory formation of concomitant information. The aim of the presented studies was to explore how forming declarative memory is influenced by musical tension, brought about within continuous music as well as in the form of isolated chords with varying degrees of dissonance/consonance. The effects of musical tension on long-term memory of declarative information were studied in two ways: 1) by evoking tension within continuous music pieces by delaying the release of harmonic progressions from dominant to tonic chords, and 2) by using isolated single complex chords with various degrees of dissonance/roughness. Musical tension was validated through subjective reports of tension, as well as physiological measurements of skin conductance response (SCR) and pupil dilation responses to the chords. In addition, music information retrieval (MIR) was used to quantify musical properties associated with tension and its release. Each experiment included an encoding phase, wherein individuals studied stimuli (words or images) with different musical conditions. Memory for the studied stimuli was tested 24 hours later via recognition tasks. In three separate experiments, we found positive relationships between tension perception and physiological measurements of SCR and pupil dilation. As for memory performance, we found that background music, in general, led to superior memory performance as compared to silence. We detected a trade-off effect between tension perception and memory, such that individuals who perceived musical tension as such displayed reduced memory performance for images encoded during musical tension, whereas tense music benefited memory for those who were less sensitive to the perception of musical tension. Musical tension exerts complex interactions with perception, emotional responses, and cognitive performance on individuals with and without musical training. Delineating the conditions and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between musical tension and memory can benefit our understanding of musical perception at large and the diverse effects that music has on ongoing processing of declarative information.

Keywords: musical tension, declarative memory, learning and memory, musical perception

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Authors: Lerato Dixon, Thorsten Chmura

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This paper explores whether ethnic identity in Zimbabwe leads to discriminatory behaviour and the degree to which a norm-based intervention can shift this discriminatory behaviour. Social Identity Theory suggests that group identity can lead to favouritism towards the in-group and discriminatory behaviour towards the out-group. Agents yield higher utility from maintaining positive self-esteem by confirming with group behaviour. This paper focuses on the two majority ethnic groups in Zimbabwe – the Ndebele and Shona. Racial identities are synonymous with the language spoken. Zimbabwe’s history highlights how identity formation took place. As following independence, political parties became recognised as either Ndebele or Shona-speaking. It is against this backdrop that this study investigates the degree to which norm-based nudge can alter behaviour. This paper uses experimental methods to analyse discriminatory behaviour between two naturally occurring ethnic groups in Zimbabwe. In addition, we investigate if social norm-based interventions can shift discriminatory behaviour to understand if the divide between these two identity groups can be further divided or healed. Participants are randomly assigned into three groups to receive information regarding a social norm. We compare the effect of a proscriptive social norm-based intervention, stating what shouldn't be done and prescriptive social norms as interventions, stating what should be done. Specifically, participants are either shown the socially appropriate (Heal) norm, the socially inappropriateness (Divide) norm regarding interethnic marriages or no norm-based intervention. Following the random assignment into intervention groups, participants take part in the Trust Game. We conjecture that discrimination will shift in accordance with the prevailing social norm. Instead, we find evidence of interethnic discriminatory behaviour. We also find that trust increases when interacting with Ndebele, Shona and Zimbabwean participants following the Heal intervention. However, if the participant is Shona, the Heal intervention decreases trust toward in-groups and Zimbabwean co-players. On the other hand, if the participant is Shona, the Divide treatment significantly increases trust toward Ndebele participants. In summary, we find evidence that norm-based interventions significantly change behaviour. However, the prescriptive norm-based intervention (Heal) decreases trust toward the in-group, out-group and national identity group if the participant is Shona – therefore having an adverse effect. In contrast, the proscriptive Divide treatment increases trust if the participant is Shona towards Ndebele co-players. We conclude that norm-based interventions have a ‘rebound’ effect by altering behaviour in the opposite direction.

Keywords: discrimination, social identity, social norm-based intervention, zimbabwe

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Authors: Muhammad Farhan Saeed, Waheed Aslam Khan, Muhammad Nadeem, Iftikhar Ahmad, Zakir Ali

Abstract:

Milk is an important and fundamental nutrition source of human diet. In Pakistan, the milk used by the consumer is of low quality and is often contaminated due to the lack of quality controls. Mycotoxins produced from molds which contaminate the agriculture commodities of animal feed. Mycotoxins are poisons which affect the animals when they consume contaminated feeds. Aflatoxin AFM1 is naturally occurring form of mycotoxins in milk which is carcinogenic. To assess public awareness regarding milk Aflatoxin contamination, a population-based survey using a questionnaire was carried out from general public and from farmers of both rural and urban areas. It was revealed from the data that people of rural area were more satisfied about quality of available milk but the awareness level about milk contamination was found lower in both areas. Total 297 samples of milk were collected from rural (n=156) and urban (n=141) areas of district Vehari during June-July 2015. Milk samples were collected from three different point sources; farmer, milkman and milkshop. These point sources had three types of dairy milk including cow milk, buffalo milk and mixed milk. After performing ELISA test 18 samples with positive ELISA results were maintain per source for further analysis for aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Higher percentages of samples were found exceeding the permissible limit for urban area. In rural area about 15% samples and from urban area about 35% samples were exceeded the permissible limit of AFM1 with 0.05µg/kg set by European Union. From urban areas about 55% of buffalo, 33% of cows and 17% of mixed milk samples were exceeded the permissible AFM1 level as compared with 17%, 11% and 17% for milk samples from rural areas respectively. Samples from urban areas 33%, 44% and 28% were exceeded the permissible AFM1 level for farmer, milkman and of milk shop respectively as compared with 28% and 17% of farmer and milkman’s samples from rural areas respectively. The presence of AFM1 in milk samples demands the implementation of strict regulations and also urges the need for continuous monitoring of milk and milk products in order to minimize the health hazards. Regulations regarding aflatoxins contamination and adulteration should be strictly imposed to prevent health problems related to milk quality. Permissible limits for aflatoxin should be enforced strongly in Pakistan so that economic loss due to aflatoxin contamination can be reduced.

Keywords: Vehari, aflatoxins AFM1, milk, HPLC

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: Martyn Queen, Diane Crone, Andrew Parker, Saul Bloxham

Abstract:

Rationale: There is a growing body of evidence that supports the use of physical activity during and after cancer treatment. However, activity levels for patients remain low. As more cancer patients are treated successfully, and treatment costs continue to escalate, physical activity may be a promising adjunct to a person-centred healthcare approach to recovery. Aim: The aim was to further understand how physical activity may enhance the recovery process for a group of mixed-site cancer patients. Objectives: The research investigated longitudinal changes in physical activity and perceived the quality of life between two and six month’s post-exercise interventions. It also investigated support systems that enabled patients to sustain these perceived changes. Method: The respondent cohort comprised 14 mixed-site cancer patients aged 43-70 (11 women, 3 men), who participated in a two-phase physical activity intervention that took place at a university in the South West of England. Phase 1 consisted of an eight-week structured physical activity programme; Phase 2 consisted of four months of non-supervised physical activity. Semi-structured interviews took place three times over six months with each participant. Grounded theory informed the data collection and analysis which, in turn, facilitated theoretical development. Findings: Our findings propose three theories on the impact of physical activity for recovering cancer patients: 1) Knowledge gained through a structured exercise programme can enable recovering cancer patients to independently sustain physical activity to four-month follow-up. 2) Sustaining physical activity for six months promotes positive changes in the quality of life indicators of chronic fatigue, self-efficacy, the ability to self-manage and energy levels. 3) Peer support from patients facilitates adherence to a structured exercise programme and support from a spouse, or life partner facilitates independently sustained physical activity to four-month follow-up. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that qualitative research can provide an evidence base that could be used to support future care plans for cancer patients. Findings also demonstrate that a physical activity intervention can be effective at helping cancer patients recover from the side effects of their treatment, and recommends that physical activity should become an adjunct therapy alongside traditional cancer treatments.

Keywords: physical activity, health, cancer recovery, quality of life, support systems, qualitative, grounded theory, person-centred healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 292