Search results for: agricultural object detection

Authors: Paula I. Buonfiglio, Carlos David Bruque, Lucia Salatino, Vanesa Lotersztein, Sebastián Menazzi, Paola Plazas, Ana Belén Elgoyhen, Viviana Dalamón

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Hearing loss (HL) is the most prevalent sensorineural disorder affecting about 10% of the global population, with more than half due to genetic causes. About 1 in 500-1000 newborns present congenital HL. Most of the patients are non-syndromic with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. To date, more than 100 genes are related to HL. Therefore, the Whole-exome sequencing (WES) technique has become a cost-effective alternative approach for molecular diagnosis. Nevertheless, new challenges arise from the detection of novel variants, in particular missense changes, which can lead to a spectrum of genotype-to-phenotype correlations, which is not always straightforward. In this work, we aimed to identify the genetic causes of HL in isolated and familial cases by designing a multistep approach to analyze target genes related to hearing impairment. Moreover, we performed in silico and in vivo analyses in order to further study the effect of some of the novel variants identified in the hair cell function using the zebrafish model. A total of 650 patients were studied by Sanger Sequencing and Gap-PCR in GJB2 and GJB6 genes, respectively, diagnosing 15.5% of sporadic cases and 36% of familial ones. Overall, 50 different sequence variants were detected. Fifty of the undiagnosed patients with moderate HL were tested for deletions in STRC gene by Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification technique (MLPA), leading to 6% of diagnosis. After this initial screening, 50 families were selected to be analyzed by WES, achieving diagnosis in 44% of them. Half of the identified variants were novel. A missense variant in MYO6 gene detected in a family with postlingual HL was selected to be further analyzed. A protein modeling with AlphaFold2 software was performed, proving its pathogenic effect. In order to functionally validate this novel variant, a knockdown phenotype rescue assay in zebrafish was carried out. Injection of wild-type MYO6 mRNA in embryos rescued the phenotype, whereas using the mutant MYO6 mRNA (carrying c.2782C>A variant) had no effect. These results strongly suggest the deleterious effect of this variant on the mobility of stereocilia in zebrafish neuromasts, and hence on the auditory system. In the present work, we demonstrated that our algorithm is suitable for the sequential multigenic approach to HL in our cohort. These results highlight the importance of a combined strategy in order to identify candidate variants as well as the in silico and in vivo studies to analyze and prove their pathogenicity and accomplish a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the physiopathology of the hearing impairment.

Keywords: diagnosis, genetics, hearing loss, in silico analysis, in vivo analysis, WES, zebrafish

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Authors: Massimiliano Panella, Sara Bortoluzzi, Sophia Russotto, Daniele Nicolini, Carmela Rinaldi

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Osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people worldwide. About 75% of osteoporosis cases are undiagnosed or diagnosed only when a bone fracture occurs. Since osteoporosis related fractures are significant determinants of the burden of disease and health and social costs of aging populations, we believe that this is the early identification and treatment of high-risk patients should be a priority in actual healthcare systems. Screening for osteoporosis by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is not cost-effective for general population. An alternative is pulse-echo ultrasound (PEUS) because of the minor costs. To this end, we developed an early detection program for osteoporosis with PEUS, and we evaluated is possible impact and sustainability. We conducted a cross-sectional study including 1,050 people in Italy. Subjects with >1 major or >2 minor risk factors for osteoporosis were invited to PEUS bone mass density (BMD) measurement at the proximal tibia. Based on BMD values, subjects were classified as healthy subjects (BMD>0.783 g/cm²) and pathological including subjects with suspected osteopenia (0.783≤BMD>0.719 g/cm²) or osteoporosis (BMD ≤ 0.719 g/cm²). The responder rate was 60.4% (634/1050). According to the risk, PEUS scan was recommended to 436 people, of whom 300 (mean age 45.2, 81% women) accepted to participate. We identified 240 (80%) healthy and 60 (20%) pathological subjects (47 osteopenic and 13 osteoporotic). We observed a significant association between high risk people and reduced bone density (p=0.043) with increased risks for female gender, older ages, and menopause (p<0.01). The yearly cost of the screening program was 8,242 euros. With actual Italian fracture incidence rates in osteoporotic patients, we can reasonably expect in 20 years that at least 6 fractures will occur in our sample. If we consider that the mean costs per fracture in Italy is today 16,785 euros, we can estimate a theoretical cost of 100,710 euros. According to literature, we can assume that the early treatment of osteoporosis could avoid 24,170 euros of such costs. If we add the actual yearly cost of the treatments to the cost of our program and we compare this final amount of 11,682 euros to the avoidable costs of fractures (24,170 euros) we can measure a possible positive benefits/costs ratio of 2.07. As a major outcome, our study let us to early identify 60 people with a significant bone loss that were not aware of their condition. This diagnostic anticipation constitutes an important element of value for the project, both for the patients, for the preventable negative outcomes caused by the fractures, and for the society in general, because of the related avoidable costs. Therefore, based on our finding, we believe that the PEUS based screening performed could be a cost-effective approach to early identify osteoporosis. However, our study has some major limitations. In fact, in our study the economic analysis is based on theoretical scenarios, thus specific studies are needed for a better estimation of the possible benefits and costs of our program.

Keywords: osteoporosis, prevention, public health, screening

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Authors: Sam Derakhshan Deilami, Iain N. Kings, Lynne E. Macaskie, Brajendra K. Sharma, Anthony V. Bridgwater, Joseph Wood

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This paper reports the application of a bacteria-supported palladium catalyst to the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of pyrolysis bio-oil, towards producing an upgraded transport fuel. Biofuels are key to the timely replacement of fossil fuels in order to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases and depletion of non-renewable resources. The process is an essential step in the upgrading of bio-oils derived from industrial by-products such as agricultural and forestry wastes, the crude oil from pyrolysis containing a large amount of oxygen that requires to be removed in order to create a fuel resembling fossil-derived hydrocarbons. The bacteria supported catalyst manufacture is a means of utilizing recycled metals and second life bacteria, and the metal can also be easily recovered from the spent catalysts after use. Comparisons are made between bio-Pd, and a conventional activated carbon supported Pd/C catalyst. Bio-oil was produced by fast pyrolysis of beechwood at 500 C at a residence time below 2 seconds, provided by Aston University. 5 wt % BioPd/C was prepared under reducing conditions, exposing cells of E. coli MC4100 to a solution of sodium tetrachloropalladate (Na2PdCl4), followed by rinsing, drying and grinding to form a powder. Pd/C was procured from Sigma-Aldrich. The HDO experiments were carried out in a 100 mL Parr batch autoclave using ~20g bio-crude oil and 0.6 g bio-Pd/C catalyst. Experimental variables investigated for optimization included temperature (160-350C) and reaction times (up to 5 h) at a hydrogen pressure of 100 bar. Most of the experiments resulted in an aqueous phase (~40%) and an organic phase (~50-60%) as well as gas phase (<5%) and coke (<2%). Study of the temperature and time upon the process showed that the degree of deoxygenation increased (from ~20 % up to 60 %) at higher temperatures in the region of 350 C and longer residence times up to 5 h. However minimum viscosity (~0.035 Pa.s) occurred at 250 C and 3 h residence time, indicating that some polymerization of the oil product occurs at the higher temperatures. Bio-Pd showed a similar degree of deoxygenation (~20 %) to Pd/C at lower temperatures of 160 C, but did not rise as steeply with temperature. More coke was formed over bio-Pd/C than Pd/C at temperatures above 250 C, suggesting that bio-Pd/C may be more susceptible to coke formation than Pd/C. Reactions occurring during bio-oil upgrading include catalytic cracking, decarbonylation, decarboxylation, hydrocracking, hydrodeoxygenation and hydrogenation. In conclusion, it was shown that bio-Pd/C displays an acceptable rate of HDO, which increases with residence time and temperature. However some undesirable reactions also occur, leading to a deleterious increase in viscosity at higher temperatures. Comparisons are also drawn with earlier work on the HDO of Chlorella derived bio-oil manufactured from micro-algae via hydrothermal liquefaction. Future work will analyze the kinetics of the reaction and investigate the effect of bi-metallic catalysts.

Keywords: bio-oil, catalyst, palladium, upgrading

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Authors: Kaitlyn O'Mara, Michele Burford

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Estuaries and coastal bays can receive large quantities of sediment from surrounding catchments during flooding or high flow periods. Large river systems that feed freshwater into estuaries can flow through several catchments of varying geology. Human modification of catchments for agriculture, industry and urban use can contaminate soils with excess nutrients, trace metals and other pollutants. Land clearing, especially clearing of riparian vegetation, can accelerate erosion, mobilising, transporting and depositing soil particles into rivers, estuaries and coastal bays. In this study, a flood simulation experiment was used to study the flux of nutrients between soil particles and water during this erosion, transport and deposition process. Granite, sedimentary and basalt surface soils (as well as sub-soils of granite and sedimentary) were collected from eroding areas surrounding the Brisbane River, Australia. The <63 µm size fraction of each soil type was tumbled in freshwater for 3 days, to simulation flood erosion and transport, followed by stationary exposure to seawater for 4 weeks, to simulate deposition into estuaries. Filtered water samples were taken at multiple time points throughout the experiment and analysed for water nutrient concentrations. The highest rates of nutrient release occurred during the first hour of exposure to freshwater and seawater, indicating a chemical reaction with seawater that may act to release some nutrient particles that remain bound to the soil during turbulent freshwater transport. Although released at a slower rate than the first hour, all of the surface soil types showed continual ammonia, nitrite and nitrate release over the 4-week seawater exposure, suggesting that these soils may provide ongoing supply of these nutrients to estuarine waters after deposition. Basalt surface soil released the highest concentrations of phosphates and dissolved organic phosphorus. Basalt soils are found in much of the agricultural land surrounding the Brisbane River and contributed largely to the 2011 Brisbane River flood plume deposit in Moreton Bay, suggesting these soils may be a source of phosphate enrichment in the bay. The results of this study suggest that erosion of catchment soils during storm and flood events may be a source of nutrient supply in receiving waterways, both freshwater and marine, and that the amount of nutrient release following these events may be affected by the type of soil deposited. For example, flooding in different catchments of a river system over time may result in different algal and food web responses in receiving estuaries.

Keywords: flood, nitrogen, nutrient, phosphorus, sediment, soil

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Authors: Geday Elias, Montaigne Etienne, Padilla Martine, Tollossa Degefa

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Smallholder farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain identified as a pathway to get out of poverty trap in Ethiopia. The smallholder dairy activities have a huge potential in poverty reduction through enhancing income, achieving food and nutritional security in the country. However, much less is known about the effects of smallholder’s participation in milk value chain on household food security and nutrition. This paper therefore, aims at evaluating the effects of smallholders’ participation in milk value chain on household food security taking in to account the four pillars of food security measurements (availability, access, utilization and stability). Using a semi-structured interview, a cross sectional farm household data collected from a randomly selected sample of 333 households (170 in Amhara and 163 in Oromia regions).Binary logit and propensity score matching( PSM) models are employed to examine the mechanisms through which smallholder’s participation in the milk value chain affects household food security where crop production, per capita calorie intakes, diet diversity score, and food insecurity access scale are used to measure food availability, access, utilization and stability respectively. Our findings reveal from 333 households, only 34.5% of smallholder farmers are participated in the milk value chain. Limited access to inputs and services, limited access to inputs markets and high transaction costs are key constraints for smallholders’ limited access to the milk value chain. To estimate the true average participation effects of milk value chain for participated households, the outcome variables (food security) of farm households who participated in milk value chain are compared with the outcome variables if the farm households had not participated. The PSM analysis reveals smallholder’s participation in milk value chain has a significant positive effect on household income, food security and nutrition. Smallholder farmers who are participated in milk chain are better by 15 quintals crops production and 73 percent of per capita calorie intakes in food availability and access respectively than smallholder farmers who are not participated in the market. Similarly, the participated households are better in dietary quality by 112 percents than non-participated households. Finally, smallholders’ who are participated in milk value chain are better in reducing household vulnerability to food insecurity by an average of 130 percent than non participated households. The results also shows income earned from milk value chain participation contributed to reduce capital’s constraints of the participated households’ by higher farm income and total household income by 5164 ETB and 14265 ETB respectively. This study therefore, confirms the potential role of smallholders’ participation in food value chain to get out of poverty trap through improving rural household income, food security and nutrition. Therefore, identified the determinants of smallholder participation in milk value chain and the participation effects on food security in the study areas are worth considering as a positive knock for policymakers and development agents to tackle the poverty trap in the study area in particular and in the country in general.

Keywords: effects, food security and nutrition, milk, participation, smallholders, value chain

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Authors: Moletsane Makgotso, Mogakabe Elijah, Marrengane Zinhle

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South Africa’s water resources quality is becoming more and more weakened by eutrophication, which deteriorates its usability. Thirty five percent of fresh water resources are eutrophic to hypertrophic, including grossly-enriched reservoirs that go beyond the globally-accepted definition of hypertrophy. Failing infrastructure adds to the problem of contaminated urban runoff which encompasses an important fraction of flows to inland reservoirs, particularly in the non-coastal, economic heartland of the country. Eutrophication threatens the provision of potable and irrigation water in the country because of the dependence on fresh water resources. Eutrophicated water reservoirs increase water treatment costs, leads to unsuitability for recreational purposes and health risks to human and animal livelihood due to algal proliferation. Eutrophication is caused by high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen in water bodies. In South Africa, Microsystis and Anabaena are widely distributed cyanobacteria, with Microcystis being the most dominant bloom-forming cyanobacterial species associated with toxin production. Two impoundments were selected, namely the Klipvoor and Leeukraal dams as they are mainly used for fishing, recreational, agricultural and to some extent, potable water purposes. The total oxidized nitrogen and total phosphorus concentration were determined as causative nutrients for eutrophication. Chlorophyll a and total microcystins, as well as the identification of cyanobacteria was conducted as indicators of cyanobacterial infestation. The orthophosphate concentration was determined by subjecting the samples to digestion and filtration followed by spectrophotometric analysis of total phosphates and dissolved phosphates using Aquakem kits. The total oxidized nitrates analysis was conducted by initially conducting filtration followed by spectrophotometric analysis. Chlorophyll a was quantified spectrophotometrically by measuring the absorbance of before and after acidification. Microcystins were detected using the Quantiplate Microcystin Kit, as well as microscopic identification of cyanobacterial species. The Klipvoor dam was found to be hypertrophic throughout the study period as the mean Chlorophyll a concentration was 269.4µg/l which exceeds the mean value for the hypertrophic state. The mean Total Phosphorus concentration was >0.130mg/l, and the total microcystin concentration was > 2.5µg/l throughout the study. The most predominant algal species were found to be the Microcystis. The Leeukraal dam was found to be mesotrophic with the potential of it becoming eutrophic as the mean concentration for chlorophyll a was 18.49 µg/l with the mean Total Phosphorus > 0.130mg/l and the Total Microcystin concentration < 0.16µg/l. The cyanobacterial species identified in Leeukraal have been classified as those that do not pose a potential risk to any impoundment. Microcystis was present throughout the sampling period and dominant during the warmer seasons. The high nutrient concentrations led to the dominance of Microcystis that resulted in high levels of microcystins rendering the impoundments, particularly Klipvoor undesirable for utilisation.

Keywords: nitrogen, phosphorus, cyanobacteria, microcystins

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Authors: Antònio Inês, Davide Silva, Filipa Carvalho, Luís Filipe-Riberiro, Fernando M. Nunes, Luís Abrunhosa, Fernanda Cosme

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The presence of mycotoxins in foodstuff is a matter of concern for food safety. Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain molds, being ochratoxin A (OTA) one of the most relevant. Wines can also be contaminated with these toxicants. Several authors have demonstrated the presence of mycotoxins in wine, especially ochratoxin A. Its chemical structure is a dihydro-isocoumarin connected at the 7-carboxy group to a molecule of L-β-phenylalanine via an amide bond. As these toxicants can never be completely removed from the food chain, many countries have defined levels in food in order to attend health concerns. OTA contamination of wines might be a risk to consumer health, thus requiring treatments to achieve acceptable standards for human consumption. The maximum acceptable level of OTA in wines is 2.0 μg/kg according to the Commission regulation No. 1881/2006. Therefore, the aim of this work was to reduce OTA to safer levels using different fining agents, as well as their impact on white wine physicochemical characteristics. To evaluate their efficiency, 11 commercial fining agents (mineral, synthetic, animal and vegetable proteins) were used to get new approaches on OTA removal from white wine. Trials (including a control without addition of a fining agent) were performed in white wine artificially supplemented with OTA (10 µg/L). OTA analyses were performed after wine fining. Wine was centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 10 min and 1 mL of the supernatant was collected and added of an equal volume of acetonitrile/methanol/acetic acid (78:20:2 v/v/v). Also, the solid fractions obtained after fining, were centrifuged (4000 rpm, 15 min), the resulting supernatant discarded, and the pellet extracted with 1 mL of the above solution and 1 mL of H2O. OTA analysis was performed by HPLC with fluorescence detection. The most effective fining agent in removing OTA (80%) from white wine was a commercial formulation that contains gelatin, bentonite and activated carbon. Removals between 10-30% were obtained with potassium caseinate, yeast cell walls and pea protein. With bentonites, carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone and chitosan no considerable OTA removal was verified. Following, the effectiveness of seven commercial activated carbons was also evaluated and compared with the commercial formulation that contains gelatin, bentonite and activated carbon. The different activated carbons were applied at the concentration recommended by the manufacturer in order to evaluate their efficiency in reducing OTA levels. Trial and OTA analysis were performed as explained previously. The results showed that in white wine all activated carbons except one reduced 100% of OTA. The commercial formulation that contains gelatin, bentonite and activated carbon reduced only 73% of OTA concentration. These results may provide useful information for winemakers, namely for the selection of the most appropriate oenological product for OTA removal, reducing wine toxicity and simultaneously enhancing food safety and wine quality.

Keywords: wine, ota removal, food safety, fining

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Authors: Denisa Denglerova, Radim Sip

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Academic sources as well as international agreements and national documents define inclusion in terms of several criteria: equal opportunities, fulfilling individual needs, development of human resources, community participation. In order for these criteria to be met, the community must be cohesive. Community cohesion, which is a relatively new concept, is not determined by homogeneity, but by the acceptance of diversity among the community members and utilisation of its positive potential. This brings us to a central category of inclusion - appreciating diversity and using it to a positive effect. However, school diversity is a real phenomenon, which schools need to tackle more and more often. This is also indicated by the number of publications focused on diversity in schools. These sources present recent analyses of using identity as a tool of coping with the demands of a diversified society. The aim of this study is to identify and describe in detail the processes taking place in selected schools, which contribute to their pro-inclusive character. The research is designed around a multiple case study of three pro-inclusive schools. Paradigmatically speaking, the research is rooted in situational epistemology. This is also related to the overall framework of interpretation, for which we are going to use innovative methods of situational analysis. In terms of specific research outcomes this will manifest itself in replacing the idea of “objective theory” by the idea of “detailed cartography of a social world”. The cartographic approach directs both the logic of data collection and the choice of methods of their analysis and interpretation. The research results include detection of the following sensitive concepts: Key persons. All participants can contribute to promoting an inclusion-friendly environment; however, some do so with greater motivation than others. These could include school management, teachers with a strong vision of equality, or school counsellors. They have a significant effect on the transformation of the school, and are themselves deeply convinced that inclusion is necessary. Accordingly, they select suitable co-workers; they also inspire some of the other co-workers to make changes, leading by example. Employees with strongly opposing views gradually leave the school, and new members of staff are introduced to the concept of inclusion and openness from the beginning. Manifestations of school openness in working with diversity on all important levels. By this we mean positive manipulation with diversity both in the relationships between “traditional” school participants (directors, teachers, pupils) and school-parent relationships, or relationships between schools and the broader community, in terms of teaching methods as well as ways how the school culture affects the school environment. Other important detected concepts significantly helping to form a pro-inclusive environment in the school are individual and parallel classes; freedom and responsibility of both pupils and teachers, manifested on the didactic level by tendencies towards an open curriculum; ways of asserting discipline in the school environment.

Keywords: inclusion, diversity, education, sensitive concept, situational analysis

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Authors: Nisa Mohan

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Clinical coding is a feasible method for estimating the national prevalence of adverse drug event (ADE) admissions. However, under-coding of ADE admissions is a limitation of this method. Whilst the under-coding will impact the accurate estimation of the actual burden of ADEs, the feasibility of the coded data in estimating the adverse drug event admissions goes much further compared to the other methods. Therefore, it is necessary to know the reasons for the under-coding in order to improve the clinical coding of ADE admissions. The ability to identify the reasons for the under-coding of ADE admissions rests on understanding the decision-making process of coding ADE admissions. Hence, the current study aimed to explore the decision-making process of clinical coders when coding cases of ADE admissions. Clinical coders from different levels of coding job such as trainee, intermediate and advanced level coders were purposefully selected for the interviews. Thirteen clinical coders were recruited from two Auckland region District Health Board hospitals for the interview study. Semi-structured, one-on-one, face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions were conducted with the selected clinical coders. Interviews were about 20 to 30 minutes long and were audio-recorded with the approval of the participants. The interview data were analysed using a general inductive approach. The interviews with the clinical coders revealed that the coders have targets to meet, and they sometimes hesitate to adhere to the coding standards. Coders deviate from the standard coding processes to make a decision. Coders avoid contacting the doctors for clarifying small doubts such as ADEs and the name of the medications because of the delay in getting a reply from the doctors. They prefer to do some research themselves or take help from their seniors and colleagues for making a decision because they can avoid a long wait to get a reply from the doctors. Coders think of ADE as a small thing. Lack of time for searching for information to confirm an ADE admission, inadequate communication with clinicians, along with coders’ belief that an ADE is a small thing may contribute to the under-coding of the ADE admissions. These findings suggest that further work is needed on interventions to improve the clinical coding of ADE admissions. Providing education to coders about the importance of ADEs, educating clinicians about the importance of clear and confirmed medical records entries, availing pharmacists’ services to improve the detection and clear documentation of ADE admissions, and including a mandatory field in the discharge summary about external causes of diseases may be useful for improving the clinical coding of ADE admissions. The findings of the research will help the policymakers to make informed decisions about the improvements. This study urges the coding policymakers, auditors, and trainers to engage with the unconscious cognitive biases and short-cuts of the clinical coders. This country-specific research conducted in New Zealand may also benefit other countries by providing insight into the clinical coding of ADE admissions and will offer guidance about where to focus changes and improvement initiatives.

Keywords: adverse drug events, clinical coders, decision making, hospital admissions

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Authors: P. Serrano-Pérez, M. C. Rodríguez-Molina, C. Palo, E. Palo, A. Lacasa

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Phytophthora nicotianae is the principal causal agent of root and crown rot disease of red pepper plants in Extremadura (Western Spain). There is a need to develop a biologically-based method of soil disinfestation that facilitates profitable and sustainable production without the use of chemical fumigants. Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), as well know as biodisinfestation, has been shown to control a wide range of soil-borne pathogens and nematodes in numerous crop production systems. This method implies soil wetting, incorporation of a easily decomposable carbon-rich organic amendment and covering with plastic film for several weeks. ASD with rapeseed cake (var. Tocatta, a glucosinolates-free variety) used as C-source was assayed in spring 2014, before the pepper crop establishment. The field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Centre Finca La Orden (Southwestern Spain) and the treatments were: rapeseed cake (RCP); rapeseed cake without plastic cover (RC); control non-amendment (CP) and control non-amendment without plastic cover (C). The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with four replicates and a plot size of 5 x 5 m. On 26 March, rapeseed cake (1 kg·m-2) was incorporated into the soil with a rotovator. Biological probes with the inoculum were buried at 15 and 30-cm depth (biological probes were previously prepared with 100 g of disinfected soil inoculated with chlamydospores (chlam) of P. nicotianae P13 isolate [100 chlam·g-1 of soil] and wrapped in agryl cloth). Sprinkler irrigation was run until field capacity and the corresponding plots were covered with transparent plastic (PE 0.05 mm). On 6 May plastics were removed, the biological probes were dug out and a bioassay was established. One pepper seedling at the 2 to 4 true-leaves stage was transplanted in the soil from each biological probe. Plants were grown in a climatic chamber and disease symptoms were recorded every week during 2 months. Fragments of roots and crown of symptomatic plants were analyzed on NARPH media and soil from rizospheres was analyzed using carnation petals as baits. Results of “survival” were expressed as the percentage of soil samples where P. nicotianae was detected and results of “infectivity” were expressed as the percentage of diseased plants. No differences were detected in deep effect. Infectivity of P. nicotianae chlamydospores was successfully reduced in RCP treatment (4.2% of infectivity) compared with the controls (41.7% of infectivity). The pattern of survival was similar to infectivity observed by the bioassay: 21% of survival in RCP; 79% in CP; 83% in C and 87% in RC. Although ASD may be an effective alternative to chemical fumigants to pest management, more research is necessary to show their impact on the microbial community and chemistry of the soil.

Keywords: biodisinfestation, BSD, soil fumigant alternatives, organic amendments

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Wang, Min Hsu, Bo-Ya Juan, Hsiv Ching Lin, Hsveh Min Lin, Hsiu-Fang Yeh

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The success of Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) system attracts widespread praise from the international society. However, the availability of medical care in a emote area is limited. Without the convenient public transportation system and mature social welfare policy, these people are difficult to regain their health and prevent disability. Preterm children have more risk to get development delay. Preterm children in a remote area have the human right to get rehabilitation resources as those in the city area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to show the importance of development screening to preterm children in a remote area and a tract the government to notice the issue. In Pingtung, children who are suspected development delay would be suggested to take a skillful screening evaluation in our hospital. Those preterm children (within 1-year-old) visited our pediatric clinic would also be referred to take the development evaluation. After the physiatrist’s systemic evaluation, the subjects would be scheduled to take the development evaluation. Gross motor, fine motor, speech comprehension/expression and mental study were included. The evaluation was in-charged by a physical therapist, occupational therapy, speech therapist and pediatric psychologist. The tools were Peabody developmental scale, Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) and Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R). In 2013, 459 children received the service in our hospital. Among these children, fifty-seven were noted with preterm baby history (gestation within 37 weeks). Thirty-six of these preterm children, who had never receive development evaluation, were included in this study. Thirty-six subjects (twenty-six male and ten female) were included. Nineteen subjects were found development delay. Six subjects were found suspected development delay. In gross motor, six subjects were development delay and eight were suspected development delay. In fine motor, five subjects were development delay and three were suspected development delay. In speech, sixteen subjects were development delay and six were suspected development delay. In our study, through the provision of development evaluation service, 72.2% preterm baby were found their development delay or suspected delay. They need further early intervention rehabilitation service. We made their parents realize that when development delay was recognized at the early stage, they are often reversible. No only the patients but also their families were improved their health status. The number of the subjects was limited in our study. Further study might be needed. Compared with 770 physical therapist (PT) and 370 occupational therapy (OT) in Taipei, there are only 108 PT and 54 OT in Pingtung. Further, there are much fewer therapists working on the field of pediatric rehabilitation. Living healthy is a human's right, no matter where does he live. For those development delay children in remote area, particularly preterm children, early detection, and early intervention rehabilitation service could play an important role in decreasing their disability and improving their quality of life. Through this study, we suggest the government to add more national resources on the development evaluation to preterm children in a remote area.

Keywords: development, early intervention, preterm children, rehabilitation

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Authors: Irene Capecchi, Tommaso Borghini, Iacopo Bernetti

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One of the most common pieces of equipment still used today for pruning, felling, and processing trees is the chainsaw in forestry. However, chainsaw use highlights dangers and one of the highest rates of accidents in both professional and non-professional work. Felling is proportionally the most dangerous phase, both in severity and frequency, because of the risk of being hit by the plant the operator wants to cut down. To avoid this, a correct sequence of chainsaw cuts must be taught concerning the different conditions of the tree. Virtual reality (VR) makes it possible to virtually simulate chainsaw use without danger of injury. The limitations of the existing applications are as follow. The existing platforms are not symmetrical collaborative because the trainee is only in virtual reality, and the trainer can only see the virtual environment on a laptop or PC, and this results in an inefficient teacher-learner relationship. Therefore, most applications only involve the use of a virtual chainsaw, and the trainee thus cannot feel the real weight and inertia of a real chainsaw. Finally, existing applications simulate only a few cases of tree felling. The objectives of this research were to implement and test a symmetrical collaborative training application based on VR and mixed reality (MR) with the overlap between real and virtual chainsaws in MR. The research and training platform was developed for the Meta quest 2 head-mounted display. The research and training platform application is based on the Unity 3D engine, and Present Platform Interaction SDK (PPI-SDK) developed by Meta. PPI-SDK avoids the use of controllers and enables hand tracking and MR. With the combination of these two technologies, it was possible to overlay a virtual chainsaw with a real chainsaw in MR and synchronize their movements in VR. This ensures that the user feels the weight of the actual chainsaw, tightens the muscles, and performs the appropriate movements during the test allowing the user to learn the correct body posture. The chainsaw works only if the right sequence of cuts is made to felling the tree. Contact detection is done by Unity's physics system, which allows the interaction of objects that simulate real-world behavior. Each cut of the chainsaw is defined by a so-called collider, and the felling of the tree can only occur if the colliders are activated in the right order simulating a safe technique felling. In this way, the user can learn how to use the chainsaw safely. The system is also multiplayer, so the student and the instructor can experience VR together in a symmetrical and collaborative way. The platform simulates the following tree-felling situations with safe techniques: cutting the tree tilted forward, cutting the medium-sized tree tilted backward, cutting the large tree tilted backward, sectioning the trunk on the ground, and cutting branches. The application is being evaluated on a sample of university students through a special questionnaire. The results are expected to test both the increase in learning compared to a theoretical lecture and the immersive and telepresence of the platform.

Keywords: chainsaw, collaborative symmetric virtual reality, mixed reality, operator training

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Authors: Adeleke G. E., Bello M. A., Abdulateef R. B., Olasinde T. T., Oriaje K. O., AransiI A., Elaigwu K. O., Omidoyin O. S., Shoyinka E. D., Awoyomi M. B., Akano M., Adaramoye O. A.

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Hymenocardia acidatul belongs to the genus, Hymenocardiaceae, which is widely distributed in Africa. Both the leaf and stem bark of the plant have been used in the treatment of several diseases. The present study examined the chemical constituents of the H. acida stem bark extract (HASBE) and its effects on some antioxidant indices and esterase enzymes in female Wistar rats. The HASBE was obtained by Soxhlet extraction using methanol and then subjected to Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) for elemental analysis, and Fourier-Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, for functional group analysis, while High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and Gas Chromatography-Flame ionization detection (GC-FID) were carried out for compound identification. Forty-eight female Wistar rats were assigned into eight groups of six rats each and separately administered orally with normal saline (Control), 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 mg/kg of HASBE twice per week for eight weeks. The rats were sacrificed under chloroform anesthesia, and kidneys and heart were excised and processed to obtain homogenates. The levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, Malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and carboxylesterase (CE) were determined spectrophotometrically. The AAS of HASBE shows the presence of eight elements, including Cobalt (0.303), Copper (0.222), Zinc (0.137), Iron (2.027), Nickel (1.304), Chromium (0.313), Manganese (0.213), and Magnesium (0.337 ppm). The FT-IR result of HASBE shows four peaks at 2961.4, 2926.0, 1056.7, and 1034.3 cm-1, while UV analysis shows a maximum absorbance (0.522) at 205 nm. The HPLC spectrum of HASBE indicates the presence of four major compounds, including orientin (77%), β-sitosterol (6.58%), rutin (5.02%), and betulinic acid (3.33%), while GC-FID result shows five major compounds, including rutin (53.27%), orientin (13.06%) and stigmasterol (11.73%), hymenocardine (6.43%) and homopterocarpin (5.29%). The SOD activity was significantly (p < 0.05) lowered in the kidney but elevated in the heart, while catalase was elevated in both organs relative to control rats. The GPx activity was significantly elevated only in the kidney, while MDA was not significantly (p > 0.05) affected in the two organs compared with controls. The activity of AChE was significantly elevated in both organs, while CE activity was elevated only in the kidney relative to control rats. The present study reveals that Hymenocardia acida stem bark extract majorly contains orientin, rutin, stigmasterol, hymenocardine, β-sitosterol, homopterocarpin, and betulinic acid. In addition, these compounds could possibly enhance redox status and esterase activities in the kidney and heart of Wistar rats.

Keywords: hymenocardia acida, elemental analysis, compounds identification, redox status, organs

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Authors: E. Fabre, C. Vale, E. Pereira, C. M. Silva

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Introduction: Mercury is one of the most troublesome toxic metals responsible for the contamination of the aquatic systems due to its accumulation and bioamplification along the food chain. The 2030 agenda for sustainable development of United Nations promotes the improving of water quality by reducing water pollution and foments an enhance in wastewater treatment, encouraging their recycling and safe water reuse globally. Sorption processes are widely used in wastewater treatments due to their many advantages such as high efficiency and low operational costs. In these processes the target contaminant is removed from the solution by a solid sorbent. The more selective and low cost is the biosorbent the more attractive becomes the process. Agricultural wastes are especially attractive approaches for sorption. They are largely available, have no commercial value and require little or no processing. In this work, banana peels were tested for mercury removal from low concentrated solutions. In order to investigate the applicability of this solid, six water matrices were used increasing the complexity from natural waters to a real wastewater. Studies of kinetics and equilibrium were also performed using the most known models to evaluate the viability of the process In line with the concept of circular economy, this study adds value to this by-product as well as contributes to liquid waste management. Experimental: The solutions were prepared with Hg(II) initial concentration of 50 µg L-1 in natural waters, at 22 ± 1 ºC, pH 6, magnetically stirring at 650 rpm and biosorbent mass of 0.5 g L-1. NaCl was added to obtain the salt solutions, seawater was collected from the Portuguese coast and the real wastewater was kindly provided by ISQ - Instituto de Soldadura e qualidade (Welding and Quality Institute) and diluted until the same concentration of 50 µg L-1. Banana peels were previously freeze-drying, milled, sieved and the particles < 1 mm were used. Results: Banana peels removed more than 90% of Hg(II) from all the synthetic solutions studied. In these cases, the enhance in the complexity of the water type promoted a higher mercury removal. In salt waters, the biosorbent showed removals of 96%, 95% and 98 % for 3, 15 and 30 g L-1 of NaCl, respectively. The residual concentration of Hg(II) in solution achieved the level of drinking water regulation (1 µg L-1). For real matrices, the lower Hg(II) elimination (93 % for seawater and 81 % for the real wastewaters), can be explained by the competition between the Hg(II) ions and the other elements present in these solutions for the sorption sites. Regarding the equilibrium study, the experimental data are better described by the Freundlich isotherm (R ^ 2=0.991). The Elovich equation provided the best fit to the kinetic points. Conclusions: The results exhibited the great ability of the banana peels to remove mercury. The environmental realist conditions studied in this work, highlight their potential usage as biosorbents in water remediation processes.

Keywords: banana peels, mercury removal, sorption, water treatment

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Authors: Zheng Lulin, Xiong Guoping

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In recent years, agriculture, rural development, and peasants are among the top concerns and priorities of the Chinese Government. Several related issues have been paid many attentions by academic communities, including the impacts of corresponding policies on the rural villages, the mechanisms of these impacts, and the future development of rural society. However, most of the researchers focus on single rural policy instead of integral rural policy system. Hence, this dissertation focused on the mechanisms of policies’ influence on rural changes through a case study from Changfu Village in central Guangxi Province, China, to propose the optimized suggestions for rural development. Forty-three relevant pivotal policies of significant influence on rural development are summarized from literature and documents, covering five aspects of agricultural production, rural living security, open rural markets, rural household registration systems, and farmland transferring. Besides, having been live in this area for more than 20 years, researchers obtain the basic information about changing the social connection between citizens and villagers, the habitat of villagers by years of informal interviews. Furthermore, more than 200 questionnaires are given to villagers to analyze the changing of their personal and family information. The summary of rural policies revealed that the development trend of public rural policies followed the U-shape curve and these policies are characterized by economic intentions and operative economy. Report of questionnaires and interviews show that the development of rural economy was promoted greatly by public policies. Firstly, Social communication and rural culture were affected to a certain extent. Secondly, the educational level of rural individuals was significantly enhanced, whereas the quality of population had limited progress. Finally, the freedom of occupational choice for rural individuals into cities was greater than before, but still restricted by the class solidification of social background, resulting in more obstacles for rural individuals to settle down in cities. From what we discuss about, we may reach the conclusion on several perspectives: Firstly, the impact of the rural policies has a significant role in promoting the economy development of the rural area. However, separations between rural and urban area are still a major problem since rural policy contributed little to improve the rural population quality. Therefore, in the future, providing high quality educational facilities including teachers, libraries, and opportunities of broadening their knowledge base are key issues of future rural policy. Secondly, the development of rural economy would be a lack of driving force for further improvement owning to the fact that working hard couldn’t get more improvement. In the future, public policies should support the rural development of culture, technology, and personal qualities to create favorable social environment for the free increase of rural population.

Keywords: changing of rural area, rural development of China, rural policy, social environment

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Authors: Vaidehi Raipat

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A city is an expression of coexistence between its users and built environment. The way in which its spaces are animated signify the quality of this coexistence. Urban sustainability is the ability of a city to respond efficiently towards its people, culture, environment, visual image, history, visions and identity. The quality of built environment determines the quality of our lifestyles, but poor ability of the built environment to adapt and sustain itself through the changes leads to degradation of cities. Ranchi was created in November 2000, as the capital of the newly formed state Jharkhand, located on eastern side of India. Before this Ranchi was known as summer capital of Bihar and was a little larger than a town in terms of development. But since then it has been vigorously expanding in size, infrastructure as well as population. This sudden expansion has created a stress on existing built environment. The large forest covers, agricultural land, diverse culture and pleasant climatic conditions have degraded and decreased to a large extent. Narrow roads and old buildings are unable to bear the load of the changing requirements, fast improving technology and growing population. The built environment has hence been rendered unsustainable and unadaptable through fastidious changes of present era. Some of the common hazards that can be easily spotted in the built environment are half-finished built forms, pedestrians and vehicles moving on the same part of the road. Unpaved areas on street edges. Over-sized, bright and randomly placed hoardings. Negligible trees or green spaces. The old buildings have been poorly maintained and the new ones are being constructed over them. Roads are too narrow to cater to the increasing traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular. The streets have a large variety of activities taking place on them, but haphazardly. Trees are being cut down for road widening and new constructions. There is no space for greenery in the commercial as well as old residential areas. The old infrastructure is deteriorating because of poor maintenance and the economic limitations. Pseudo understanding of functionality as well as aesthetics drive the new infrastructure. It is hence necessary to evaluate the extent of sustainability of existing built environment of the city and create or regenerate the existing built environment into a more sustainable and adaptable one. For this purpose, research titled “Sustainability of the Built Environment of Ranchi District” has been carried out. In this research the condition of the built environment of Ranchi are explored so as to figure out the problems and shortcomings existing in the city and provide for design strategies that can make the existing built-environment sustainable. The built environment of Ranchi that include its outdoor spaces like streets, parks, other open areas, its built forms as well as its users, has been analyzed in terms of various urban design parameters. Based on which strategies have been suggested to make the city environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable.

Keywords: adaptable, built-environment, sustainability, urban

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Authors: Simona Maria Ignat

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Bullying online has been an increasing studied topic during the last years. Different approaches, psychological, linguistic, or computational, have been applied. To our best knowledge, a definition and a set of characteristics of phenomenon agreed internationally as a common framework are still waiting for answers. Thus, the objectives of this paper are the identification of bullying utterances on Twitter and their algorithms. This research paper is focused on the identification of words or groups of words, categorized as “utterances”, with bullying effect, from Twitter platform, extracted on a set of legislative criteria. This set is the result of analysis followed by synthesis of law documents on bullying(online) from United States of America, European Union, and Ireland. The outcome is a linguistic corpus with approximatively 10,000 entries. The methods applied to the first objective have been the following. The discourse analysis has been applied in identification of keywords with bullying effect in texts from Google search engine, Images link. Transcription and anonymization have been applied on texts grouped in CL1 (Corpus linguistics 1). The keywords search method and the legislative criteria have been used for identifying bullying utterances from Twitter. The texts with at least 30 representations on Twitter have been grouped. They form the second corpus linguistics, Bullying utterances from Twitter (CL2). The entries have been identified by using the legislative criteria on the the BoW method principle. The BoW is a method of extracting words or group of words with same meaning in any context. The methods applied for reaching the second objective is the conversion of parts of speech to alphabetical and numerical symbols and writing the bullying utterances as algorithms. The converted form of parts of speech has been chosen on the criterion of relevance within bullying message. The inductive reasoning approach has been applied in sampling and identifying the algorithms. The results are groups with interchangeable elements. The outcomes convey two aspects of bullying: the form and the content or meaning. The form conveys the intentional intimidation against somebody, expressed at the level of texts by grammatical and lexical marks. This outcome has applicability in the forensic linguistics for establishing the intentionality of an action. Another outcome of form is a complex of graphemic variations essential in detecting harmful texts online. This research enriches the lexicon already known on the topic. The second aspect, the content, revealed the topics like threat, harassment, assault, or suicide. They are subcategories of a broader harmful content which is a constant concern for task forces and legislators at national and international levels. These topic – outcomes of the dataset are a valuable source of detection. The analysis of content revealed algorithms and lexicons which could be applied to other harmful contents. A third outcome of content are the conveyances of Stylistics, which is a rich source of discourse analysis of social media platforms. In conclusion, this corpus linguistics is structured on legislative criteria and could be used in various fields.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, cyberbullying, legislation, natural language processing, twitter

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Authors: Ligang Wang, Theodoros Damartzis, Stefan Diethelm, Jan Van Herle, François Marechal

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Biogas production from anaerobic digestion of organic sludge from wastewater treatment as well as various urban and agricultural organic wastes is of great significance to achieve a sustainable society. Two upgrading approaches for cleaned biogas can be considered: (1) direct H₂ injection for catalytic CO₂ methanation and (2) CO₂ separation from biogas. The first approach usually employs electrolysis technologies to generate hydrogen and increases the biogas production rate; while the second one usually applies commercially-available highly-selective membrane technologies to efficiently extract CO₂ from the biogas with the latter being then sent afterward for compression and storage for further use. A straightforward way of utilizing the captured CO₂ is on-site catalytic CO₂ methanation. From the perspective of system complexity, the second approach may be questioned, since it introduces an additional expensive membrane component for producing the same amount of methane. However, given the circumstance that the sustainability of the produced biogas should be retained after biogas upgrading, renewable electricity should be supplied to drive the electrolyzer. Therefore, considering the intermittent nature and seasonal variation of renewable electricity supply, the second approach offers high operational flexibility. This indicates that these two approaches should be compared based on the availability and scale of the local renewable power supply and not only the technical systems themselves. Solid-oxide electrolysis generally offers high overall system efficiency, and more importantly, it can achieve simultaneous electrolysis of CO₂ and H₂O (namely, co-electrolysis), which may bring significant benefits for the case of CO₂ separation from the produced biogas. When taking co-electrolysis into account, two additional upgrading approaches can be proposed: (1) direct steam injection into the biogas with the mixture going through the SOE, and (2) CO₂ separation from biogas which can be used later for co-electrolysis. The case study of integrating SOE to a wastewater treatment plant is investigated with wind power as the renewable power. The dynamic production of biogas is provided on an hourly basis with the corresponding oxygen and heating requirements. All four approaches mentioned above are investigated and compared thermo-economically: (a) steam-electrolysis with grid power, as the base case for steam electrolysis, (b) CO₂ separation and co-electrolysis with grid power, as the base case for co-electrolysis, (c) steam-electrolysis and CO₂ separation (and storage) with wind power, and (d) co-electrolysis and CO₂ separation (and storage) with wind power. The influence of the scale of wind power supply is investigated by a sensitivity analysis. The results derived provide general understanding on the economic competitiveness of SOE for sustainable biogas upgrading, thus assisting the decision making for biogas production sites. The research leading to the presented work is funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 under grant agreements n° 699892 (ECo, topic H2020-JTI-FCH-2015-1) and SCCER BIOSWEET.

Keywords: biogas upgrading, solid-oxide electrolyzer, co-electrolysis, CO₂ utilization, energy storage

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Authors: Mohammed Hmimou, Khalid Amediaz, Imane Sebari, Nabil Bounajma

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Annual crop production is one of the most important macroeconomic indicators for the majority of countries around the world. This information is valuable, especially for exporting countries which need a yield estimation before harvest in order to correctly plan the supply chain. When it comes to estimating agricultural yield, especially for arboriculture, conventional methods are mostly applied. In the case of the citrus industry, the sale before harvest is largely practiced, which requires an estimation of the production when the fruit is on the tree. However, conventional method based on the sampling surveys of some trees within the field is always used to perform yield estimation, and the success of this process mainly depends on the expertise of the ‘estimator agent’. The present study aims to propose a methodology based on the combination of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) point cloud to estimate citrus production. During data acquisition, a fixed wing and rotatory drones, as well as a terrestrial laser scanner, were tested. After that, a pre-processing step was performed in order to generate point cloud and digital surface model. At the processing stage, a machine vision workflow was implemented to extract points corresponding to fruits from the whole tree point cloud, cluster them into fruits, and model them geometrically in a 3D space. By linking the resulting geometric properties to the fruit weight, the yield can be estimated, and the statistical distribution of fruits size can be generated. This later property, which is information required by importing countries of citrus, cannot be estimated before harvest using the conventional method. Since terrestrial laser scanner is static, data gathering using this technology can be performed over only some trees. So, integration of drone data was thought in order to estimate the yield over a whole orchard. To achieve that, features derived from drone digital surface model were linked to yield estimation by laser scanner of some trees to build a regression model that predicts the yield of a tree given its features. Several missions were carried out to collect drone and laser scanner data within citrus orchards of different varieties by testing several data acquisition parameters (fly height, images overlap, fly mission plan). The accuracy of the obtained results by the proposed methodology in comparison to the yield estimation results by the conventional method varies from 65% to 94% depending mainly on the phenological stage of the studied citrus variety during the data acquisition mission. The proposed approach demonstrates its strong potential for early estimation of citrus production and the possibility of its extension to other fruit trees.

Keywords: citrus, digital surface model, point cloud, terrestrial laser scanner, UAV, yield estimation, 3D modeling

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Authors: Stella Chioma Nwizu

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The National Commission for Adult and Non Formal Education (NMEC) in Nigeria is charged with the reduction of illiteracy rate through the development, monitoring, and supervision of literacy programmes in Nigeria. In spite of various efforts by NMEC to reduce illiteracy, literature still shows that the illiteracy rate is still high. According to NMEC/UNICEF, about 60 million Nigerians are non-literate, and nearly two thirds of them are women. This situation forced the government to search for innovative and better approaches to literacy promotion and delivery. The literacy by radio project was adopted as an innovative intervention to literacy delivery in Nigeria because the radio is the cheapest and most easily affordable medium for non-literates. The project aimed at widening access to literacy programmes for the non-literate marginalized and disadvantaged groups in Nigeria by taking literacy programmes to their door steps. The literacy by radio has worked perfectly well in non-literacy reduction in Cuba. This innovative intervention of literacy by radio is anchored on the diffusion of innovation theory by Rogers. The literacy by radio has been going on for fifteen years and the efficacy and contributions of this innovation need to be investigated. Thus, the purpose of this research is to review the contributions of the literacy by radio in Nigeria. The researcher adopted the survey research design for the study. The population for the study consisted of 2,706 participants and 47 facilitators of the literacy by radio programme in the 10 pilot states in Nigeria. A sample of four states made up of 302 participants and eight facilitators were used for the study. Information was collected through Focus Group Discussion (FGD), interviews and content analysis of official documents. The data were analysed qualitatively to review the contributions of literacy by radio project and determine the efficacy of this innovative approach in facilitating literacy in Nigeria. Results from the field experience showed, among others, that more non-literates have better access to literacy programmes through this innovative approach. The pilot project was 88% successful; not less than 2,110 adults were made literate through the literacy by radio project in 2017. However, lack of enthusiasm and commitment on the part of the technical committee and facilitators due to non-payment of honorarium, poor signals from radio stations, interruption of lectures with adverts, low community involvement in decision making in the project are challenges to the success rate of the project. The researcher acknowledges the need to customize all materials and broadcasts in all the dialects of the participants and the inclusion of more civil rights, environmental protection and agricultural skills into the project. The study recommends among others, improved and timely funding of the project by the Federal Government to enable NMEC to fulfill her obligations towards the greater success of the programme, setting up of independent radio stations for airing the programmes and proper monitoring and evaluation of the project by NMEC and State Agencies for greater effectiveness. In an era of the knowledge-driven economy, no one should be allowed to get saddled with the weight of illiteracy.

Keywords: innovative approach, literacy, project, radio, survey

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Authors: Ana Flavia Belchior De Andrade

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Forensic laboratories all over the world face a great challenge to overcame waiting time and backlog in many different areas. Many aspects contribute to this situation, such as an increase in drug complexity, increment in the number of exams requested and cuts in funding limiting laboratories hiring capacity. Altogether, those facts pose an essential challenge for forensic chemistry laboratories to keep both quality and time of response within an acceptable period. In this paper we will analyze how the backlog affects test results and, in the end, the whole judicial system. In this study data from marijuana samples seized by the Federal District Civil Police in Brazil between the years 2013 and 2017 were tabulated and the results analyzed and discussed. In the last five years, the number of petitioned exams increased from 822 in February 2013 to 1358 in March 2018, representing an increase of 32% in 5 years, a rise of more than 6% per year. Meanwhile, our data shows that the number of performed exams did not grow at the same rate. Product numbers are stationed as using the actual technology scenario and analyses routine the laboratory is running in full capacity. Marijuana detection is the most prevalence exam required, representing almost 70% of all exams. In this study, data from 7,110 (seven thousand one hundred and ten) marijuana samples were analyzed. Regarding waiting time, most of the exams were performed not later than 60 days after receipt (77%). Although some samples waited up to 30 months before being examined (0,65%). When marijuana´s exam is delayed we notice the enlargement of inconclusive results using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Our data shows that if a marijuana sample is stored for more than 18 months, inconclusive results rise from 2% to 7% and when if storage exceeds 30 months, inconclusive rates increase to 13%. This is probably because Cannabis plants and preparations undergo oxidation under storage resulting in a decrease in the content of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol ( Δ9-THC). An inconclusive result triggers other procedures that require at least two more working hours of our analysts (e.g., GC/MS analysis) and the report would be delayed at least one day. Those new procedures increase considerably the running cost of a forensic drug laboratory especially when the backlog is significant as inconclusive results tend to increase with waiting time. Financial aspects are not the only ones to be observed regarding backlog cases; there are also social issues as legal procedures can be delayed and prosecution of serious crimes can be unsuccessful. Delays may slow investigations and endanger public safety by giving criminals more time on the street to re-offend. This situation also implies a considerable cost to society as at some point, if the exam takes a long time to be performed, an inconclusive can turn into a negative result and a criminal can be absolved by flawed expert evidence.

Keywords: backlog, forensic laboratory, quality management, accreditation

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Authors: Hugo Lefeuvre, Jerôme Donnard, Michael Descostes, Sophie Billon, Samuel Duval, Tugdual Oger, Herve Toubon, Paul Sardini

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Spectroscopic autoradiography is a method of interest for geological sample analysis. Indeed, researchers may face different issues such as radioelement identification and quantification in the field of environmental studies. Imaging gaseous ionization detectors find their place in geosciences for conducting specific measurements of radioactivity to improve the monitoring of natural processes using naturally-occurring radioactive tracers, but also for the nuclear industry linked to the mining sector. In geological samples, the location and identification of the radioactive-bearing minerals at the thin-section scale remains a major challenge as the detection limit of the usual elementary microprobe techniques is far higher than the concentration of most of the natural radioactive decay products. The spatial distribution of each decay product in the case of uranium in a geomaterial is interesting for relating radionuclides concentration to the mineralogy. The present study aims to provide spectroscopic autoradiography analysis method for measuring the initial energy of alpha particles with a parallel ionization multiplier gaseous detector. The analysis method has been developed thanks to Geant4 modelling of the detector. The track of alpha particles recorded in the gas detector allow the simultaneous measurement of the initial point of emission and the reconstruction of the initial particle energy by a selection based on the linear energy distribution. This spectroscopic autoradiography method was successfully used to reproduce the alpha spectra from a 238U decay chain on a geological sample at the thin-section scale. The characteristics of this measurement are an energy spectrum resolution of 17.2% (FWHM) at 4647 keV and a spatial resolution of at least 50 µm. Even if the efficiency of energy spectrum reconstruction is low (4.4%) compared to the efficiency of a simple autoradiograph (50%), this novel measurement approach offers the opportunity to select areas on an autoradiograph to perform an energy spectrum analysis within that area. This opens up possibilities for the detailed analysis of heterogeneous geological samples containing natural alpha emitters such as uranium-238 and radium-226. This measurement will allow the study of the spatial distribution of uranium and its descendants in geo-materials by coupling scanning electron microscope characterizations. The direct application of this dual modality (energy-position) of analysis will be the subject of future developments. The measurement of the radioactive equilibrium state of heterogeneous geological structures, and the quantitative mapping of 226Ra radioactivity are now being actively studied.

Keywords: alpha spectroscopy, digital autoradiography, mining activities, natural decay products

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Authors: László L. Lippai

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In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions. 

Keywords: health promotion, mental health promotion, mental state questionnaire, psychological well-being

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Authors: Hanan Algarni

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Background: Impairment of walking and balance skills has negative impact on functional independence and community participation after stroke. Gait recovery is considered a primary goal in rehabilitation by both patients and physiotherapists. Treadmill training coupled with virtual reality technology is a new emerging approach that offers patients with feedback, open and random skills practice while walking and interacting with virtual environmental scenes. Objectives: To synthesize the evidence around the effects of the VR treadmill training on gait speed and balance primarily, functional independence and community participation secondarily in stroke patients. Methods: Systematic review was conducted; search strategy included electronic data bases: MEDLINE, AMED, Cochrane, CINAHL, EMBASE, PEDro, Web of Science, and unpublished literature. Inclusion criteria: Participant: adult >18 years, stroke, ambulatory, without severe visual or cognitive impartments. Intervention: VR treadmill training alone or with physiotherapy. Comparator: any other interventions. Outcomes: gait speed, balance, function, community participation. Characteristics of included studies were extracted for analysis. Risk of bias assessment was performed using Cochrane's ROB tool. Narrative synthesis of findings was undertaken and summary of findings in each outcome was reported using GRADEpro. Results: Four studies were included involving 84 stroke participants with chronic hemiparesis. Interventions intensity ranged (6-12 sessions, 20 minutes-1 hour/session). Three studies investigated the effects on gait speed and balance. 2 studies investigated functional outcomes and one study assessed community participation. ROB assessment showed 50% unclear risk of selection bias and 25% of unclear risk of detection bias across the studies. Heterogeneity was identified in the intervention effects at post training and follow up. Outcome measures, training intensity and durations also varied across the studies, grade of evidence was low for balance, moderate for speed and function outcomes, and high for community participation. However, it is important to note that grading was done on few numbers of studies in each outcome. Conclusions: The summary of findings suggests positive and statistically significant effects (p<0.05) of VR treadmill training compared to other interventions on gait speed, dynamic balance skills, function and participation directly after training. However, the effects were not sustained at follow up in two studies (2 weeks-1 month) and other studies did not perform follow up measurements. More RCTs with larger sample sizes and higher methodological quality are required to examine the long term effects of VR treadmill effects on function independence and community participation after stroke, in order to draw conclusions and produce stronger robust evidence.

Keywords: virtual reality, treadmill, stroke, gait rehabilitation

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Authors: Danny Alexander R. Moreno, Gustavo L. Sartorello, Yuli Andrea P. Bermudez, Richard R. Lobo, Ives Claudio S. Bueno, Augusto H. Gameiro

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Meat production is a significant sector for Brazil's economy; however, the agricultural segment has suffered censure regarding the negative impacts on the environment, which consequently results in climate change. Therefore, it is essential the implementation of nutritional strategies that can improve the environmental performance of livestock. This research aimed to estimate the environmental impact and profitability of the use of yerba mate extract (Ilex paraguariensis) as an additive in the feeding of feedlot lamb. Thirty-six castrated male lambs (average weight of 23.90 ± 3.67 kg and average age of 75 days) were randomly assigned to four experimental diets with different levels of inclusion of yerba mate extract (0, 1, 2, and 4 %) based on dry matter. The animals were confined for fifty-three days and fed with 60:40 corn silage to concentrate ratio. As an indicator of environmental impact, the carbon footprint (CF) was measured as kg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂-eq) per kg of body weight produced (BWP). The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as methane (CH₄) generated from enteric fermentation, were calculated using the sulfur hexafluoride gas tracer (SF₆) technique; while the CH₄, nitrous oxide (N₂O - emissions generated by feces and urine), and carbon dioxide (CO₂ - emissions generated by concentrate and silage processing) were estimated using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology. To estimate profitability, the gross margin was used, which is the total revenue minus the total cost; the latter is composed of the purchase of animals and food. The boundaries of this study considered only the lamb fattening system. The enteric CH₄ emission from the lamb was the largest source of on-farm GHG emissions (47%-50%), followed by CH₄ and N₂O emissions from manure (10%-20%) and CO₂ emission from the concentrate, silage, and fossil energy (17%-5%). The treatment that generated the least environmental impact was the group with 4% of yerba mate extract (YME), which showed a 3% reduction in total GHG emissions in relation to the control (1462.5 and 1505.5 kg CO₂-eq, respectively). However, the scenario with 1% YME showed an increase in emissions of 7% compared to the control group. In relation to CF, the treatment with 4% YME had the lowest value (4.1 kg CO₂-eq/kg LW) compared with the other groups. Nevertheless, although the 4% YME inclusion scenario showed the lowest CF, the gross margin decreased by 36% compared to the control group (0% YME), due to the cost of YME as a food additive. The results showed that the extract has the potential for use in reducing GHG. However, the cost of implementing this input as a mitigation strategy increased the production cost. Therefore, it is important to develop political strategies that help reduce the acquisition costs of input that contribute to the search for the environmental and economic benefit of the livestock sector.

Keywords: meat production, natural additives, profitability, sheep

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Authors: Antonina Semakova, Karim Mynbaev, Nikolai Bazhenov, Anton Chernyaev, Sergei Kizhaev, Nikolai Stoyanov

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At present, heterostructures are used for fabrication of almost all types of optoelectronic devices. Our research focuses on the optoelectronic properties of InAs(Sb) solid solutions that are widely used in fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs) operating in middle wavelength infrared range (MWIR). This spectral range (2-6 μm) is relevant for laser diode spectroscopy of gases and molecules, for systems for the detection of explosive substances, medical applications, and for environmental monitoring. The fabrication of MWIR LEDs that operate efficiently at room temperature is mainly hindered by the predominance of non-radiative Auger recombination of charge carriers over the process of radiative recombination, which makes practical application of LEDs difficult. However, non-radiative recombination can be partly suppressed in quantum-well structures. In this regard, studies of such structures are quite topical. In this work, electroluminescence (EL) of LED heterostructures based on InAs(Sb) epitaxial films with the molar fraction of InSb ranging from 0 to 0.09 and multi quantum-well (MQW) structures was studied in the temperature range 4.2-300 K. The growth of the heterostructures was performed by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition on InAs substrates. On top of the active layer, a wide-bandgap InAsSb(Ga,P) barrier was formed. At low temperatures (4.2-100 K) stimulated emission was observed. As the temperature increased, the emission became spontaneous. The transition from stimulated emission to spontaneous one occurred at different temperatures for structures with different InSb contents in the active region. The temperature-dependent carrier lifetime, limited by radiative recombination and the most probable Auger processes (for the materials under consideration, CHHS and CHCC), were calculated within the framework of the Kane model. The effect of various recombination processes on the carrier lifetime was studied, and the dominant role of Auger processes was established. For MQW structures quantization energies for electrons, light and heavy holes were calculated. A characteristic feature of the experimental EL spectra of these structures was the presence of peaks with energy different from that of calculated optical transitions between the first quantization levels for electrons and heavy holes. The obtained results showed strong effect of the specific electronic structure of InAsSb on the energy and intensity of optical transitions in nanostructures based on this material. For the structure with MQWs in the active layer, a very weak temperature dependence of EL peak was observed at high temperatures (>150 K), which makes it attractive for fabricating temperature-resistant gas sensors operating in the middle-infrared range.

Keywords: Electroluminescence, InAsSb, light emitting diode, quantum wells

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Authors: J. M. Geyser

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Lamb is a popular meat throughout the world, particularly in Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. However, the conventional lamb industry faces challenges related to environmental sustainability, climate change, consumer health and dwindling profit margins. This has stimulated an increasing demand for organic lamb, as it is perceived to increase environmental sustainability, offer superior quality, taste, and nutritional value, which is appealing to farmers, including small-scale and female farmers, as it often commands a premium price. Despite its advantages, organic lamb production presents challenges, with a significant hurdle being the high production costs encompassing organic certification, lower stocking rates, higher mortality rates and marketing cost. These costs impact the profitability and competitiveness or organic lamb producers, particularly female and small-scale farmers, who often encounter additional obstacles, such as limited access to resources and markets. Therefore, this paper examines the cost of producing organic lambs and its impact on female farmers and raises the research question: “Is organic lamb production the saving grace for female and small-scale farmers?” Objectives include estimating and comparing production costs and profitability or organic lamb production with conventional lamb production, analyzing influencing factors, and assessing opportunities and challenges for female and small-scale farmers. The hypothesis states that organic lamb production can be a viable and beneficial option for female and small-scale farmers, provided that they can overcome high production costs and access premium markets. The study uses a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data involves semi-structured interviews with ten female and small-scale farmers engaged in organic lamb production in South Africa. The interview covered topics such as farm characteristics, practices, cost components, mortality rates, income sources and empowerment indicators. Quantitative data used secondary published information and primary data from a female farmer. The research findings indicate that when a female farmer moves from conventional lamb production to organic lamb production, the cost in the first year of organic lamb production exceed those of conventional lamb production by over 100%. This is due to lower stocking rates and higher mortality rates in the organic system. However, costs start decreasing in the second year as stocking rates increase due to manure applications on grazing and lower mortality rates due to better worm resistance in the herd. In conclusion, this article sheds light on the economic dynamics of organic lamb production, particularly focusing on its impact on female farmers. To empower female farmers and to promote sustainable agricultural practices, it is imperative to understand the cost structures and profitability of organic lamb production.

Keywords: cost analysis, empowerment, female farmers, organic lamb production

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Authors: Guilherme M. Pereira, Kimmo Teinïla, Danilo Custódio, Risto Hillamo, Célia Alves, Pérola de C. Vasconcellos

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South American large cities often present serious air pollution problems and their atmosphere composition is influenced by a variety of emissions sources. The South American Emissions Megacities, and Climate project (SAEMC) has focused on the study of emissions and its influence on climate in the South American largest cities and it also included Lima (Peru) and Medellin (Colombia), sites where few studies of the genre were done. Lima is a coastal city with more than 8 million inhabitants and the second largest city in South America. Medellin is a 2.5 million inhabitants city and second largest city in Colombia; it is situated in a valley. The samples were collected in quartz fiber filters in high volume samplers (Hi-Vol), in 24 hours of sampling. The samples were collected in intensive campaigns in both sites, in July, 2010. Several species were determined in the aerosol samples of Lima and Medellin. Organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC) in thermal-optical analysis; biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan - Lev, mannosan - Man and galactosan - Gal) in high-performance anion exchange ion chromatography with mass spectrometer detection; water soluble ions in ion chromatography. The average particulate matter was similar for both campaigns, the PM10 concentrations were above the recommended by World Health Organization (50 µg m⁻³ – daily limit) in 40% of the samples in Medellin, while in Lima it was above that value in 15% of the samples. The average total ions concentration was higher in Lima (17450 ng m⁻³ in Lima and 3816 ng m⁻³ in Medellin) and the average concentrations of sodium and chloride were higher in this site, these species also had better correlations (Pearson’s coefficient = 0,63); suggesting a higher influence of marine aerosol in the site due its location in the coast. Sulphate concentrations were also much higher at Lima site; which may be explained by a higher influence of marine originated sulphate. However, the OC, EC and monosaccharides average concentrations were higher at Medellin site; this may be due to the lower dispersion of pollutants due to the site’s location and a larger influence of biomass burning sources. The levoglucosan average concentration was 95 ng m⁻³ for Medellin and 16 ng m⁻³ and OC was well correlated with levoglucosan (Pearson’s coefficient = 0,86) in Medellin; suggesting a higher influence of biomass burning over the organic aerosol in this site. The Lev/Man ratio is often related to the type of biomass burned and was close to 18, similar to the observed in previous studies done at biomass burning impacted sites in the Amazon region; backward trajectories also suggested the transport of aerosol from that region. Biomass burning appears to have a larger influence on the air quality in Medellin, in addition the vehicular emissions; while Lima showed a larger influence of marine aerosol during the study period.

Keywords: aerosol transport, atmospheric particulate matter, biomass burning, SAEMC project

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Authors: Mudasir Ahmad Syed, Raashid Ahmd Wani, Mashooq Ahmad Dar, Uneeb Urwat, Riaz Ahmad Shah, Nazir Ahmad Ganai

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Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (Salmonella Typhimurium) is a primary avian pathogen responsible for severe intestinal pathology in younger chickens and economic losses. However, the Salmonella Typhimurium is also able to cause infection in humans, described by typhoid fever and acute gastro-intestinal disease. A study was conducted at days to investigate pathological, histopathological, haemato-biochemical, immunological and expression kinetics of NRAMP (natural resistance associated macrophage protein) gene family (NRAMP1 and NRAMP2) in broiler chickens following experimental infection of Salmonella Typhimurium at 0,1,3,5,7,9,11,13 and 15 days respectively. Infection was developed in birds through oral route at 2×108 CFU/ml. Clinical symptoms appeared 4 days post infection (dpi) and after one-week birds showed progressive weakness, anorexia, diarrhea and lowering of head. On postmortem examination, liver showed congestion, hemorrhage and necrotic foci on surface, while as spleen, lungs and intestines revealed congestion and hemorrhages. Histopathological alterations were principally observed in liver in second week post infection. Changes in liver comprised of congestion, areas of necrosis, reticular endothelial hyperplasia in association with mononuclear cell and heterophilic infiltration. Hematological studies confirm a significant decrease (P<0.05) in RBC count, Hb concentration and PCV. White blood cell count showed significant increase throughout the experimental study. An increase in heterophils was found up to 7dpi and a decreased pattern was observed afterwards. Initial lymphopenia followed by lymphocytosis was found in infected chicks. Biochemical studies showed a significant increase in glucose, AST and ALT concentration and a significant decrease (P<0.05) in total protein and albumin level in the infected group. Immunological studies showed higher titers of IgG in infected group as compared to control group. The real time gene expression of NRAMPI and NRAMP2 genes increased significantly (P<0.05) in infected group as compared to controls. The peak expression of NRAMP1 gene was seen in liver, spleen and caecum of infected birds at 3dpi, 5dpi and 7dpi respectively, while as peak expression of NRAMP2 gene in liver, spleen and caecum of infected chicken was seen at 9dpi, 5dpi and 9dpi respectively. This study has role in diagnostics and prognostics in the poultry industry for the detection of salmonella infections at early stages of poultry development.

Keywords: biochemistry, histopathology, NRAMP, poultry, real time expression, Salmonella Typhimurium

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Authors: C. Watson, T. Glare, M. O'Callaghan, M. Hurst

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The endemic New Zealand grass grub (Costelytra giveni, Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is an economically significant grassland pest in New Zealand. Due to their impacts on production within the agricultural sector, one of New Zealand's primary industries, several methods are being used to either control or prevent the establishment of new grass grub populations in the pasture. One such method involves the use of a biopesticide based on the bacterium Serratia entomophila. This species is one of the causative agents of amber disease, a chronic disease of the larvae which results in death via septicaemia after approximately 2 to 3 months. The ability of S. entomophila to cause amber disease is dependant upon the presence of the amber disease associated plasmid (pADAP), which encodes for the key virulence determinants required for the establishment and maintenance of the disease. Following the collapse of grass grub populations within the soil, resulting from either natural population build-up or application of the bacteria, non-pathogenic plasmid-free Serratia strains begin to predominate within the soil. Whilst the interactions between S. entomophila and grass grub larvae are well studied, less information is known on the interactions between plasmid-bearing and plasmid-free strains, particularly the potential impact of these interactions upon the efficacy of an applied biopesticide. Using a range of constructed strains with antibiotic tags, in vitro (broth culture) and in vivo (soil and larvae) experiments were conducted using inoculants comprised of differing ratios of isogenic pathogenic and non-pathogenic Serratia strains, enabling the relative growth of pADAP+ and pADAP- strains under competition conditions to be assessed. In nutrient-rich, the non-pathogenic pADAP- strain outgrew the pathogenic pADAP+ strain by day 3 when inoculated in equal quantities, and by day 5 when applied as the minority inoculant, however, there was an overall gradual decline in the number of viable bacteria for both strains over a 7-day period. Similar results were obtained in additional experiments using the same strains and continuous broth cultures re-inoculated at 24-hour intervals, although in these cultures, the viable cell count did not diminish over the 7-day period. When the same ratios were assessed in soil microcosms with limited available nutrients, the strains remained relatively stable over a 2-month period. Additionally, in vivo grass grub co-infections assays using the same ratios of tagged Serratia strains revealed similar results to those observed in the soil, but there was also evidence of horizontal transfer of pADAP from the pathogenic to the non-pathogenic strain within the larval gut after a period of 4 days. Whilst the influence of competition is more apparent in broth cultures than within the soil or larvae, further testing is required to determine whether this competition between pathogenic and non-pathogenic Serratia strains has any influence on efficacy and disease progression, and how this may impact on the ability of S. entomophila to cause amber disease within grass grub larvae when applied as a biopesticide.

Keywords: biological control, entomopathogen, microbial ecology, New Zealand

Procedia PDF Downloads 128