Search results for: high distress target

Authors: Alok Madan, Arshad K. Hashmi

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The paper presents a plastic analysis procedure based on the energy balance concept for performance based seismic retrofit of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames with a ‘soft’ ground story using passive energy dissipation (PED) devices with the objective of achieving a target performance level of the retrofitted R/C frame for a given seismic hazard level at the building site. The proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure was employed for developing performance based design (PBD) formulations for PED devices for a simulated application in seismic retrofit of existing frame structures designed in compliance with the prevalent standard codes of practice. The PBD formulations developed for PED devices were implemented for simulated seismic retrofit of a representative code-compliant masonry infilled R/C frame with a ‘soft’ ground story using friction dampers as the PED device. Non-linear dynamic analyses of the retrofitted masonry infilled R/C frames is performed to investigate the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed energy based plastic analysis procedure in achieving the target performance level under design level earthquakes. Results of non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrate that the maximum inter-story drifts in the masonry infilled R/C frames with a ‘soft’ ground story that is retrofitted with the friction dampers designed using the proposed PBD formulations are controlled within the target drifts under near-field as well far-field earthquakes.

Keywords: energy methods, masonry infilled frame, near-field earthquakes, seismic protection, supplemental damping devices

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Authors: Arif Budiman

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Any organization or company that wishes to achieve vision, mission, and goals of the organization is required to implement a performance management system or known as the Performance Management System (PMS) in every part of the whole organization. PMS is a tool to help visualize the direction and work program of the organization to achieve the goal. The challenge is PMS should not stop merely as a visualization tool to achieve the vision and mission of the organization, but PMS should also be able to create a high-performance culture that is inherent in each individual of the organization. Establishment of a culture within an organization requires the support of top leaders and also requires a system or governance that encourages every individual in the organization to be involved in any work program of the organization. Keywords of creating a high-performance culture are the formation of communication pattern involving the whole individual, either vertically or horizontally, and performed consistently and persistently by all individuals in each line of the organization. PT Pertamina (Persero) as the state-owned national energy company holds a system to internalize the culture of high performance through a system called Performance Management System Cycle (PMS Cycle). This system has 7 stages of the cycle, those are: (1) defining vision, mission and strategic plan of the company, (2) defining key performance indicator of each line and the individual (‘expectation setting conversation’), (3) defining performance target and performance agreement, (4) monitoring performance on a monthly regular basis (‘pulse check’), (5) implementing performance dialogue between leaders and staffs periodically every 3 months (‘performance dialogue’), (6) defining rewards and consequences based on the achievement of the performance of each line and the individual, and (7) calculating the final performance value achieved by each line and individual from one period of the current year. Perform PMS is a continual communication running throughout the year, that is why any three performance discussion that should be performed, include expectation setting conversations, pulse check and performance dialogue. In addition, another significant point and necessary undertaken to complete the assessment of individual performance assessment is soft competencies through 360-degree assessment by leaders, staffs, and peers.

Keywords: 360-degree assessment, expectation setting conversation, performance management system cycle, performance dialogue, pulse check

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Authors: Walid A. Attia, Taher M. Bazan, Fawzy Eltohamy, Mahmoud Fathy

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System performance evaluation is an essential stage in the design of high-resolution satellite telescopes prior to the development process. In this paper, a system performance evaluation of a very high-resolution satellite telescope is investigated. The evaluated system has a Korsch optical scheme design. This design has been discussed in another paper with respect to three-mirror anastigmat (TMA) scheme design and the former configuration showed better results. The investigated system is based on the Korsch optical design integrated with a time-delay and integration charge coupled device (TDI-CCD) sensor to achieve a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 25 cm. The key performance metrics considered are the spatial resolution, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the total modulation transfer function (MTF) of the system. In addition, the national image interpretability rating scale (NIIRS) metric is assessed to predict the image quality according to the modified general image quality equation (GIQE). Based on the orbital, optical and detector parameters, the estimated GSD is found to be 25 cm. The SNR has been analyzed at different illumination conditions of target albedos, sun and sensor angles. The system MTF has been computed including diffraction, aberration, optical manufacturing, smear and detector sampling as the main contributors for evaluation the MTF. Finally, the system performance evaluation results show that the computed MTF value is found to be around 0.08 at the Nyquist frequency, the SNR value was found to be 130 at albedo 0.2 with a nadir viewing angles and the predicted NIIRS is in the order of 6.5 which implies a very good system image quality.

Keywords: modulation transfer function, national image interpretability rating scale, signal to noise ratio, satellite telescope performance evaluation

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Authors: Yayra Dzakadzie

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The descriptive cross-sectional survey study assessed dishonest academic intention, mediating academic goals, and attitude relationship with academic dishonesty among university undergraduate students in Ghana. The target population for this study was all the final-year undergraduate students enrolled full-time in Ghanaian public universities. One thousand two hundred (1,200) undergraduate students participated in the study. Multistage sampling was used to select the sample for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the needed data to test hypotheses. Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analyses. The results revealed that academic goals and attitudes had direct and indirect effects on academic dishonesty behaviour. Also, academic intention was statistically a significant mediator in the relationship that academic goals and attitude have with academic dishonesty. It was concluded that when academic goals are high, it compels individual students to try new strategies, and when academic goals are low, the students would like to “cut corners” to meet expectations. It was also concluded that when the attitude towards academic dishonesty is low, students are more unlikely to form an intention to be academically dishonest. It is recommended that lecturers should make their students aware of the goals that need to be attained in their courses and provide them with feedback on goal progress. Students should set their proximal goals and enhance their commitment so that they avoid putting things off. Enforcement of rules and regulations against academic dishonesty must be fully adhered to since students’ positive attitudes can result in high intention, which would lead to academic dishonesty behaviour.

Keywords: intention, academic goals, attitude, academic dishonesty, public university

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Authors: Kristine Vike-Jonas, Susana V. Gonzalez, Olav L. Bakkerud, Karoline S. Gjelstad, Shazia N. Aslam, Øyvind Mikkelsen, Alexandros Asimakopoulos

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P-hydrobenzoic acid esters (parabens), paraben metabolites, and triclocarban (TCC) are a group of synthetic antimicrobials classified as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and emerging pollutants. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of these compounds in sediment near the effluent of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in the Trondheim Fjord, Norway. Paraben, paraben metabolites, and TCC are high volume production chemicals that are found in a range of consumer products, especially pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PCPs). In this study, six parabens (methyl paraben; MeP, ethyl paraben; EtP, propyl paraben; PrP, butyl paraben; BuP, benzyl paraben; BezP, heptyl paraben; HeP), four paraben metabolites (4-hydroxybenzoic acid; 4-HB, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid; 3,4-DHB, methyl protocatechuic acid; OH-MeP, ethyl protocatechuic acid; OH-EtP) and TCC were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) in 64 sediment samples from 10 different locations outside Trondheim, Norway. Of these 11 target analytes, four were detected in 40 % or more of the samples. The sum of six parabens (∑Parabens), four paraben metabolites (∑Metabolites) and TCC in sediment ranged from 4.88 to 11.56 (mean 6.81) ng/g, 52.16 to 368.28 (mean 93.89) ng/g and 0.53 to 3.65 (mean 1.50) ng/g dry sediment, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated that TCC was positively correlated with OH-MeP, but negatively correlated with 4-HB. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first time parabens, paraben metabolites and TCC have been reported in the Trondheim Fjord.

Keywords: parabens, liquid chromatography, sediment, tandem mass spectrometry

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Authors: Salvatore Luongo, Carlo Luongo

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

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

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Authors: Maciej Sobczak, Julita Pietrzak, Tomasz Płoszaj, Agnieszka Robaszkiewicz

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Brg1, a member of SWI/SNF complex, plays a role in chromatin remodeling, therefore, regulates expression of many genes. Brg1 is an ATPase of SWI/SNF complex, thus its activity requires ATP. Through its bromodomain recognizes acetylated histone residues and evicts them, thus promoting transcriptionally active state of chromatin. One of the enzymes that is responsible for acetylation of histone residues is Ep300. It was previously shown in the literature that cooperation of Brg1 and Ep300 occurs at the promoter regions that have binding sites for E2F-family transcription factors as well as CpG islands. According to literature, approximately 20% of human cancer possess mutation in Brg1 or any other crucial SWI/SNF subunit. That phenomenon makes Brg1-Ep300 a very promising target for anti-cancer therapy. Therefore in our study, we investigated if physical interaction between Brg1 and Ep300 exists and what impact those two proteins have on key for breast cancer cells processes such as DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Bioinformatical analysis pointed out, that genes involved in cell proliferation and DNA damage repair are overexpressed in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, promoter regions of these genes are highly acetylated, which suggests high transcriptional activity of those sites. Notably, many of those gene possess within their promoters an E2F, Brg1 motives, as well as CpG islands and acetylated histones. Our data show that Brg1 physically interacts with Ep300, and together they regulate expression of genes involved in DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Upon inhibiting Brg1 or Ep300, expression of vital for cancer cell survival genes such as CDK2/4, BRCA1/2, PCNA, and XRCC1 is decreased in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells. Moreover, inhibition or silencing of either Brg1 or Ep300 leads to cell cycle arrest in G1. After inhibition of BRG1 or Ep300 on tested gene promoters, the repressor complex including Rb, HDAC1, and EZH2 is formed, which inhibits gene expression. These results highlight potentially significant target for targeted anticancer therapy to be introduced as a supportive therapy.

Keywords: brg1, ep300, breast cancer, epigenetics

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Authors: Haykal. Kay-Anne

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The health and well-being of students is a priority for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. The demands of medical studies are extreme, and many studies confirm that the prevalence of psychological distress is very high among medical students and that it is higher than that of the general population of the same age. The main goal is to identify risk factors for mental health among medical students at the University of Ottawa. The secondary objectives are to determine the variation of these risk factors according to demographic variables, as well as to determine if there is a change in the mental health of students during the 1st and 3rd years of their study. Medical students have a mandatory first and third-year wellness check meeting. This assessment includes a questionnaire on demographic information, mental health, and risk factors such as physical health, sleep, social support, financial stress, education and career, stress and drug use and/or alcohol. Student responses were converted to numerical values and analyzed statistically. The results show that 61% of the variation in the mean of the mental health score is explained by the following risk factors (R2 = 0.61, F (9.396) = 67.197, p < 0.01): lack of sleep and fatigue (β = 0.281, p < 0.001), lack of social support (β = 0.217, p <0.001), poor study or career development (β = 0.195, p < 0.001) and an increase stress and drug and alcohol use (β = -0.239, p < 0.001). No demographic variable has a significant effect on the presence of risk factors. In addition, fixed-effects regression demonstrated significantly lower mental health (p < 0.1) among first-year students (M = 0.587, SD = 0.072) than among third-year students (M = 0.719, SD = 0.071). This preliminary study indicates the need to continue data collection and analysis to increase the significance of the study results. As risk factors are present at the beginning of medical studies, it is important to offer resources to students very early in their medical studies and to have close monitoring and supervision.

Keywords: assessment of mental health, medical students, risk factors for mental health, wellness assessment

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Authors: Soam Prakash, Namita Soni

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The synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is an active area of academic and more significantly, applied research in nanotechnology. Currently, nanoparticle research is an area of intense scientific interest. Silver (Ag) and Gold (Au) nanoparticles (NPs) have been the focus of fungi and plant based syntheses. Silver and gold nanoparticles are nanoparticles of silver and gold. These particles are of between 1 nm and 100 nm in size. Silver and gold have been use in the wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, electronic field, treatment of burns, wounds, and several bacterial infections. There is a crucial need to produce new insecticides due to resistance and high-cost of organic insecticides which are more environmentally-friendly, safe, and target-specific. Synthesizing nanoparticles using plants and microorganisms can eliminate this problem by making the nanoparticles more biocompatible. Here we reviewed the mosquitocidal and antimicrobials activity of silver and gold nanoparticles using fungi, plants as well as bacteria.

Keywords: nano gold, nano silver, Malaria, Chikengunia, dengue control

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Authors: Frank Papworth, Inam Khan

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Fib’s model code 2020 has four approaches for design life verification. Historically ‘deemed to satisfy provisions have been the principal approach, but this has limited options for materials and covers. The use of an equation in fib’s model code for service life design to predict time to corrosion initiation has become increasingly popular to justify further options, but in some cases, the analysis approaches are incorrect. Even when the equations are computed using full probabilistic analysis, there are common mistakes. This paper reviews the work of recent fib commissions on implementing the service life model to assess the reliability of durability designs, including initiation and propagation periods. The paper goes on to consider the assessment of deemed to satisfy requirements in national codes and considers the influence of various options, including different steel types, various cement systems, quality of concrete and cover, on reliability achieved. As modelling is based on achieving agreed target reliability, consideration is given to how a project might determine appropriate target reliability.

Keywords: chlorides, marine, exposure, design life, reliability, modelling

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Authors: Bahar Urhan Torun, Havva Nur Tarakcı

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At the present time, online marketing has become the common target of small and full-scale organizations. Today’s humanbeing who has to spend most of their time in front of the computer because of his job, prefers to socialize by internet due to the easy access to technology. So online marketing area expands day by day. All business organizations from the smallest to the biggest are in a race in order to get a cut from the virtual market share in an extreme competitive environment. However these organizations which use the internet to reach more consumers cannot determine their target group accurately, so this is the biggest handicap of online marketing sales nowadays. The aim of this study is to determine some significant elements about need for communicating efficiently with the consumer on the internet on online marketing. The strategies that can be used in order to increase sales and the limitations of virtual environment where cannot be communicated with the consumer face to face are argued in this study’s scope. As a consequence it is thought that to study on this subject because of lacking and also being limited efficiency of researches and outputs. Within this scope suggesting some proposals about how to communicate efficiently with the consumer and also offering the consumers’ demands efficiently is the essential objective of this study.

Keywords: online marketing, competition, consumer, communication

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Authors: Khadija Refouh

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Culture bound-expressions have been a bottleneck for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and comprehension, especially in the case of machine translation (MT). In the last decade, the field of machine translation has greatly advanced. Neural machine translation NMT has recently achieved considerable development in the quality of translation that outperformed previous traditional translation systems in many language pairs. Neural machine translation NMT is an Artificial Intelligence AI and deep neural networks applied to language processing. Despite this development, there remain some serious challenges that face neural machine translation NMT when translating culture bounded-expressions, especially for low resources language pairs such as Arabic-English and Arabic-French, which is not the case with well-established language pairs such as English-French. Machine translation of opaque idioms from English into French are likely to be more accurate than translating them from English into Arabic. For example, Google Translate Application translated the sentence “What a bad weather! It runs cats and dogs.” to “يا له من طقس سيء! تمطر القطط والكلاب” into the target language Arabic which is an inaccurate literal translation. The translation of the same sentence into the target language French was “Quel mauvais temps! Il pleut des cordes.” where Google Translate Application used the accurate French corresponding idioms. This paper aims to perform NMT experiments towards better translation of opaque idioms using high quality clean multilingual corpus. This Corpus will be collected analytically from human generated idiom translation. AutoML translation, a Google Neural Machine Translation Platform, is used as a custom translation model to improve the translation of opaque idioms. The automatic evaluation of the custom model will be compared to the Google NMT using Bilingual Evaluation Understudy Score BLEU. BLEU is an algorithm for evaluating the quality of text which has been machine-translated from one natural language to another. Human evaluation is integrated to test the reliability of the Blue Score. The researcher will examine syntactical, lexical, and semantic features using Halliday's functional theory.

Keywords: multilingual corpora, natural language processing (NLP), neural machine translation (NMT), opaque idioms

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Authors: Emiljan Karma

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One of the major problems of the present is young people who are not concerned with employment, education, or training (NEETs). Unfortunately, this group of people in Albania is a considerable part of working-age people, and despite the measures taken, they remain a major problem. NEETs in Albania are very heterogeneous. This is since youth unemployment and inactivity rate are at a very high level (Albania has the highest NEET rate among EU candidates/potential candidates’ countries and EU countries); the high level of NEET rate in Albania means that government agencies responsible for labour market regulation and other social actors interested in the phenomenon (representatives of employees, representatives of employers, non-governmental organizations, etc.) did not effectively materialize the policies in the field of youth employment promotion. The National Agency for Employment and Skills (NAES) delivers measures specifically designed to target unemployed youth, being the key stakeholder in the implementation of employment policies and skills development in Albania. In the context of identifying and assisting NEETs, this role becomes even stronger. The experience of different EU countries (e.g., Youth Guarantee) indicates that there are different policy-making structures and various outreach mechanisms for constraining the youth NEET phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to highlight: (1) The identification of NEETs feature in Albania; (2) The identification of tailored and efficient outreach mechanisms to assist vulnerable NEETs; (3) The fundamental importance of stakeholders’ partnership at central and regional level.

Keywords: labor market, NEETs, non-registered NEETs, unemployment

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Authors: Ghazwan Al-Haji

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Traffic safety has become a major concern in Southeast Asia due to the increasing number of road accidents resulting in fatalities and injuries. Southeast Asia has one of the highest road traffic fatality rates in the world, in terms of both population and number of cars, nearly six times higher than the EU region. One of the reasons for this concerning trend is the increasing share of motorcycles as a form of transportation throughout Southeast Asia. The purpose of this study is to benchmark traffic safety situations and statistics in six countries in Asia and the EU, which Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. The research will assess the priorities and causes of road accidents in the target nations. Further, the study will analyze the existing practices and promote best practices that can be implemented toward safer roads in Asian target countries. In order to achieve this goal, the study categorizes various factors contributing to traffic accidents and best practices into 4 pillars (Safer Behavior, Safer Roads, Safer Vehicles and Road Safety Management). The result of the study consists of a list of recommendations that can be applied by policymakers to promote safer roads in Asia towards 2030. The study is co-financed by the EU project ASIASAFE.

Keywords: traffic safety, ASIASAFE, Southeast Asia, EU project

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Authors: B. Akturk, N. Yuzer, N. Kabay

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High temperature is one of the most detrimental effects that cause important changes in concrete’s mechanical, physical, and thermo-physical properties. As a result of these changes, especially high strength concrete (HSC), may exhibit damages such as cracks and spallings. To overcome this problem, incorporating polymer fibers such as polypropylene (PP) in concrete is a very well-known method. In this study, using RRH as a sustainable material instead of PP fiber in HSC to prevent spallings and improve physical and thermo-physical properties were investigated. Therefore, seven HSC mixtures with 0.25 water to binder ratio were prepared, incorporating silica fume and blast furnace slag. PP and RRH were used at 0.2-0.5% and 0.5-3% by weight of cement, respectively. All specimens were subjected to high temperatures (20 (control), 300, 600 and 900˚C) with a heating rate of 2.5˚C/min and after cooling, residual physical and thermo-physical properties were determined.

Keywords: high temperature, high strength concrete, polypropylene fiber, raw rice husk, thermo-physical properties

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Authors: A. Kumar, D. Himanshu, Ak Vaish, K. Usman , A. Singh, R. Misra, V. Atam, S. P. Verma, S. Singhal

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Introduction: Resistant and uncontrolled hypertension offer great challenge, in terms of higher risk of morbidity, mortality and not the least, difficulty in diagnosis and management. Our study tries to identify the importance of two crucial aspects of hypertension management, i.e. drug compliance and optimum dosing and also the effect of spironolactone on blood pressure in cases of resistant hypertension. Methodology: A prospective study was carried out among patients, who were referred as case of resistant hypertension to Hypertension Clinic at Gandhi memorial and associated hospital, Lucknow, India from August, 2013 to July 2014. A total of 122 Subjects having uncontrolled BP with ≥3 antihypertensives were selected. After ruling out secondary resistance and with appropriate lifestyle modifications, effect of adherence and optimum doses was seen with monitoring of BP. Only those having blood pressure still uncontrolled were true resistant. These patients were given spironolactone to see its effect on BP over next 12 weeks. Results: Mean baseline BP of all (n=122) patients was 150.4±7.2 mmHg systolic and 92.1±5.7 mmHg diastolic. After promoting adherence to the regimen, there was reduction of 4.20±3.65 mmHg systolic and 2.08±4.74 mmHg Diastolic blood pressure, with 26 patients achieving target blood pressure goal. Further reduction of 6.66±5.99 mmHg in systolic and 2.59±3.67 mmHg in diastolic BP was observed after optimizing the drug doses with another 66 patients achieving target blood pressure goal. Only 30 patients were true resistant hypertensive and prescribed spironolactone. Over 12 weeks, mean reduction of 20.62±3.65 mmHg in systolic and 10.08 ± 6.46 mmHg in diastolic BP was observed. Out of these 30, BP was controlled in 24 patients. Side effects observed were hyperkalemia in 2 patients and breast tenderness in 2 patients. Conclusion: Improper adherence and suboptimal regimen appear to be the important reasons for uncontrolled hypertension. By virtue of maintaining proper adherence to an optimum regimen, target BP goal can be reached in many without adding much to the regimen. Spironolactone is effective in patients with resistant hypertension, in terms of blood pressure reduction with minimal side effects.

Keywords: resistant, hypertension, spironolactone, blood pressure

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Authors: Sarah A. Goodchild, Rachel Gao, Philip N. Bartlett

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A novel detection approach using immobilized DNA probes labeled with Anthraquinone (AQ) as an electrochemically active reporter moiety has been successfully developed as a new, simple, reliable method for the detection of DNA. This method represents a step forward in DNA detection as it can discriminate between multiple nucleotide polymorphisms within target DNA strands without the need for any additional reagents, reporters or processes such as melting of DNA strands. The detection approach utilizes single-stranded DNA probes immobilized on gold surfaces labeled at the distal terminus with AQ. The effective immobilization has been monitored using techniques such as AC impedance and Raman spectroscopy. Simple voltammetry techniques (Differential Pulse Voltammetry, Cyclic Voltammetry) are then used to monitor the reduction potential of the AQ before and after the addition of complementary strand of target DNA. A reliable relationship between the shift in reduction potential and the number of base pair mismatch has been established and can be used to discriminate between DNA from highly related pathogenic organisms of clinical importance. This indicates that this approach may have great potential to be exploited within biosensor kits for detection and diagnosis of pathogenic organisms in Point of Care devices.

Keywords: Anthraquinone, discrimination, DNA detection, electrochemical biosensor

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Authors: Sara Fallahi

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This paper reviews the importance of content familiarity of receptive skills and offers solutions to the issue of content unfamiliarity in language learning materials. Presently, language learning materials are mainly comprised of global issues and target language speakers’ culture(s) in receptive skills. This might leadlearners to focus on content rather than the language. As a solution, materials on receptive skills can be developed with a focus on learners’culture and social concerns, especially in the beginner levels of learning. Language learners often learn their target language through the receptive skills of listening and reading before language production ensues through speaking and writing. Students’ journey from receptive skills to productive skills is mainly concentrated on by teachers. There are barriers to language learning, such as time and energy, that can hinder learners’ understanding and ability to build the required background knowledge of the content. This is generated due to learners’ unfamiliarity with the skill’s content. Therefore, materials that improve content familiarity will help learners improve their language comprehension, learning, and usage. This presentation will conclude with practical solutions to help teachers and learners more authentically integrate language and culture to elevate language learning.

Keywords: language learning, listening content, reading content, content familiarity, ESL books, language learning books, cultural familiarity

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Authors: Lydia Tan, Philippe Lemey, Lieselot Houspie, Marco Viveen, Darren Martin, Frank Coenjaerts

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Introduction: Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is the leading cause of severe respiratory tract infections in infants under the age of two. Genomic substitutions and related evolutionary dynamics of hRSV are of great influence on virus transmission behavior. The evolutionary patterns formed are due to a precarious interplay between the host immune response and RSV, thereby selecting the most viable and less immunogenic strains. Studying genomic profiles can teach us which genes and consequent proteins play an important role in RSV survival and transmission dynamics. Study design: In this study, genetic diversity and evolutionary rate analysis were conducted on 36 RSV subgroup B whole genome sequences and 37 subgroup A genome sequences. Clinical RSV isolates were obtained from nasopharyngeal aspirates and swabs of children between 2 weeks and 5 years old of age. These strains, collected during epidemic seasons from 2001 to 2011 in the Netherlands and Belgium by either conventional or 454-sequencing. Sequences were analyzed for genetic diversity, recombination events, synonymous/non-synonymous substitution ratios, epistasis, and translational consequences of mutations were mapped to known 3D protein structures. We used Bayesian statistical inference to estimate the rate of RSV genome evolution and the rate of variability across the genome. Results: The A and B profiles were described in detail and compared to each other. Overall, the majority of the whole RSV genome is highly conserved among all strains. The attachment protein G was the most variable protein and its gene had, similar to the non-coding regions in RSV, more elevated (two-fold) substitution rates than other genes. In addition, the G gene has been identified as the major target for diversifying selection. Overall, less gene and protein variability was found within RSV-B compared to RSV-A and most protein variation between the subgroups was found in the F, G, SH and M2-2 proteins. For the F protein mutations and correlated amino acid changes are largely located in the F2 ligand-binding domain. The small hydrophobic phosphoprotein and nucleoprotein are the most conserved proteins. The evolutionary rates were similar in both subgroups (A: 6.47E-04, B: 7.76E-04 substitution/site/yr), but estimates of the time to the most recent common ancestor were much lower for RSV-B (B: 19, A: 46.8 yrs), indicating that there is more turnover in this subgroup. Conclusion: This study provides a detailed description of whole RSV genome mutations, the effect on translation products and the first estimate of the RSV genome evolution tempo. The immunogenic G protein seems to require high substitution rates in order to select less immunogenic strains and other conserved proteins are most likely essential to preserve RSV viability. The resulting G gene variability makes its protein a less interesting target for RSV intervention methods. The more conserved RSV F protein with less antigenic epitope shedding is, therefore, more suitable for developing therapeutic strategies or vaccines.

Keywords: drug target selection, epidemiology, respiratory syncytial virus, RSV

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Authors: Camille Perréard, Yoann Ladner, Fanny D'Orlyé, Stéphanie Descroix, Vélan Taniga, Anne Varenne, Cédric Guyon, Michael. Tatoulian, Frédéric Kanoufi, Cyrine Slim, Sophie Griveau, Fethi Bedioui

Abstract:

The development of micro total analysis systems is of major interest for contaminant and biomarker analysis. As a lab-on-chip integrates all steps of an analysis procedure in a single device, analysis can be performed in an automated format with reduced time and cost, while maintaining performances comparable to those of conventional chromatographic systems. Moreover, these miniaturized systems are either compatible with field work or glovebox manipulations. This work is aimed at developing an analytical microsystem for trace and ultra trace quantitation in complex matrices. The strategy consists in the integration of a sample pretreatment step within the lab-on-chip by a confinement zone where selective ligands are immobilized for target extraction and preconcentration. Aptamers were chosen as selective ligands, because of their high affinity for all types of targets (from small ions to viruses and cells) and their ease of synthesis and functionalization. This integrated target extraction and concentration step will be followed in the microdevice by an electrokinetic separation step and an on-line detection. Polymers consisting of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) or fluoropolymer (Dyneon THV) were selected as they are easy to mold, transparent in UV-visible and have high resistance towards solvents and extreme pH conditions. However, because of their low chemical reactivity, surface treatments are necessary. For the design of this miniaturized diagnostics, we aimed at modifying the microfluidic system at two scales : (1) on the entire surface of the microsystem to control the surface hydrophobicity (so as to avoid any sample wall adsorption) and the fluid flows during electrokinetic separation, or (2) locally so as to immobilize selective ligands (aptamers) on restricted areas for target extraction and preconcentration. We developed different novel strategies for the surface functionalization of COC and Dyneon, based on plasma, chemical and /or electrochemical approaches. In a first approach, a plasma-induced immobilization of brominated derivatives was performed on the entire surface. Further substitution of the bromine by an azide functional group led to covalent immobilization of ligands through “click” chemistry reaction between azides and terminal alkynes. COC and Dyneon materials were characterized at each step of the surface functionalization procedure by various complementary techniques to evaluate the quality and homogeneity of the functionalization (contact angle, XPS, ATR). With the objective of local (micrometric scale) aptamer immobilization, we developed an original electrochemical strategy on engraved Dyneon THV microchannel. Through local electrochemical carbonization followed by adsorption of azide-bearing diazonium moieties and covalent linkage of alkyne-bearing aptamers through click chemistry reaction, typical dimensions of immobilization zones reached the 50 µm range. Other functionalization strategies, such as sol-gel encapsulation of aptamers, are currently investigated and may also be suitable for the development of the analytical microdevice. The development of these functionalization strategies is the first crucial step in the design of the entire microdevice. These strategies allow the grafting of a large number of molecules for the development of new analytical tools in various domains like environment or healthcare.

Keywords: alkyne-azide click chemistry (CuAAC), electrochemical modification, microsystem, plasma bromination, surface functionalization, thermoplastic polymers

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Authors: Onur Özdemir, M.Erhan ORHAN

Abstract:

Knowledge Development (KD) is just one of the important phases of Knowledge Management (KM). KD is the phase in which intelligence is used to see the big picture. In order to understand whether information is important or not, we have to use the intelligence cycle that includes four main steps: aiming, collecting data, processing and utilizing. KD also needs these steps. To make a precise decision, the decision maker has to be aware of his subordinates’ ideas. If the decision maker ignores the ideas of his subordinates or participants of the organization, it is not possible for him to get the target. KD is a way of using wisdom to accumulate the puzzle. If the decision maker does not bring together the puzzle pieces, he cannot get the big picture, and this shows its effects on the battlefield. In order to understand the battlefield, the decision maker has to use the intelligence cycle. To convert information to knowledge, KD is the main means for the intelligence cycle. On the other hand, the “Z Generation” born after the millennium are really the game changers. They have different attitudes from their elders. Their understanding of life is different - the definition of freedom and independence have different meanings to them than others. Decision makers have to consider these factors and rethink their decisions accordingly. This article tries to explain the relation between KD and Generation Z. KD is the main method of target managing. But if leaders neglect their people, the world will be seeing much more movements like the Arab Spring and other insurgencies.

Keywords: knowledge development, knowledge management, generation Z, intelligence cycle

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Authors: Oliver Takawira, Thembi Hope

Abstract:

This study will analyse the relationship between Bitcoin price movements and the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE). The aim is to determine whether Bitcoin price movements affect the stock market performance. As crypto currencies continue to gain prominence as a safe asset during periods of economic distress, this raises the question of whether Bitcoin’s prosperity could affect investment in the stock market. To identify the existence of a short run and long run linear relationship, the study will apply the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) bounds test and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) after testing the data for unit roots and cointegration using the Augmented Dicker Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP). The Non-Linear Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) will then be used to check if there is a non-linear relationship between bitcoin prices and stock market prices.

Keywords: bitcoin, stock market, interest rates, ARDL

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Authors: Simin Khodabakhshi, Hossein Rassi

Abstract:

Hyperlipidemia refers to any of several acquired or genetic disorders that result in a high level of lipids circulating in the blood. Helicobacter pylori infection is a contributing factor in the progression of hyperlipidemia with serum lipid changes. The aim of this study was to detect of Helicobacter pylori by PCR and serological methods in patients with hyperlipidemia. In this case-control study, 174 patients with hyperlipidemia and 174 healthy controls were studied. Also, demographics, physical and biochemical parameters were performed in all samples. The DNA extracted from blood specimens was amplified by H pylori cagA specific primers. The results show that H. pylori cagA positivity was detected in 79% of the hyperlipidemia and in 56% of the control group by ELISA test and 49% of the hyperlipidemia and in 24% of the control group by PCR test. Prevalence of H. pylori infection was significantly higher in hyperlipidemia as compared to controls. In addition, patients with hyperlipidemia had significantly higher values for triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL-C, waist to hip ratio, body mass index, diastolic and systolic blood pressure and lower levels of HDL-C than control participants (all p < 0.0001). Our result detected the ELISA was a rapid and cost-effective detection and considering the high prevalence of cytotoxigenic H. pylori strains, cag A is suggested as a promising target for PCR and ELISA tests for detection of infection with toxigenic strains. In general, it can be concluded that molecular analysis of H. pylori cagA and clinical parameters are important in early detection of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis with H. pylori infection by PCR and ELISA tests.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, hyperlipidemia, PCR, ELISA

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Authors: Yimei Huang, Harvey Lui, Jianhua Zhao, Zhenguo Wu, Haishan Zeng

Abstract:

Conventional laser treatment of skin diseases and cosmetic surgery is based on the principle of one-photon absorption selective photothermolysis which relies strongly on the difference in the light absorption between the therapeutic target and its surrounding tissue. However, when the difference in one-photon absorption is not sufficient, collateral damage would occur due to indiscriminate and nonspecific tissue heating. To overcome this problem, we developed a spatially selective photothermolysis method based on multiphoton absorption in which the heat generation is restricted to the focal point of a tightly focused near-infrared femtosecond laser beam aligned with the target of interest. A multimodal optical microscope with co-registered reflectance confocal imaging (RCM), two-photon fluorescence imaging (TPF), and second harmonic generation imaging (SHG) capabilities was used to perform and monitor the spatially selective photothermolysis. Skin samples excised from the shaved backs of euthanized NODSCID mice were used in this study. Treatments were performed by focusing and scaning the laser beam in the dermis with a 50µm×50µm target area. Treatment power levels of 200 mW to 400 mW and modulated pulse trains of different duration and period were experimented. Different treatment parameters achieved different degrees of spatial confinement of tissue alterations as visualized by 3-D RCM/TPF/SHG imaging. At 200 mW power level, 0.1 s pulse train duration, 4.1 s pulse train period, the tissue damage was found to be restricted precisely to the 50µm×50µm×10µm volume, where the laser focus spot had scanned through. The overlying epidermis/dermis tissue and the underneath dermis tissue were intact although there was light passing through these regions.

Keywords: multiphoton absorption photothermolysis, reflectance confocal microscopy, second harmonic generation microscopy, spatially selective photothermolysis, two-photon fluorescence microscopy

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Authors: M. A. I Perera, C. R. Wijesinghe, A. R. Weerasinghe

Abstract:

his study was conducted to review and identify the unsupervised techniques that can be employed to analyze gene expression data in order to identify better subtypes of tumors. Identifying subtypes of cancer help in improving the efficacy and reducing the toxicity of the treatments by identifying clues to find target therapeutics. Process of gene expression data analysis described under three steps as preprocessing, clustering, and cluster validation. Feature selection is important since the genomic data are high dimensional with a large number of features compared to samples. Hierarchical clustering and K Means are often used in the analysis of gene expression data. There are several cluster validation techniques used in validating the clusters. Heatmaps are an effective external validation method that allows comparing the identified classes with clinical variables and visual analysis of the classes.

Keywords: cancer subtypes, gene expression data analysis, clustering, cluster validation

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Authors: Rizka Ardhiyana, Liesbetini Haditjaroko, Sri Mulijani, Reki Ashadi Wicaksono, Raafqi Ranasasmita

Abstract:

Designing a sensitive, specific and easy to use method to detect pork contamination in the food industry remains a major challenge. In the current study, we developed a sensitive thiol-bond AuNP-Probe biosensor that will change color when detecting pork DNA in the Cytochrome B region. The interaction between the biosensors and DNA sample is measured by spectrophotometer at 540 nm. The biosensor is made by reducing gold with trisodium citrate to produce gold nanoparticle with 39.05 nm diameter. The AuNP-Probe biosensor (gold nanoprobe) achieved 16.04 ng DNA/µl limit of detection and 53.48 ng DNA/µl limit of quantification. The linearity (R2) between color absorbance changes and DNA concentration is 0.9916. The biosensor has a good specificty as it does not cross-react with DNA of chicken and beef. To verify specificity towards the target sequence, PCR was tested to the target sequence and reacted to the PCR product with the biosensor. The PCR DNA isolate resulted in a 2.7 fold higher absorbance compared to pork-DNA isolate alone (without PCR). The sensitivity and specificity of the method show the promising application of the thiol-bond AuNP biosensor in pork-detection.

Keywords: biosensor, DNA probe, gold nanoparticle (AuNP), pork meat, qPCR

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Authors: Saroj Kumar Rath

Abstract:

India's Muslims represent 15 percent of the nation's population, the world's third largest group in any nation after Indonesia and Pakistan. Extremist groups like the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network increasingly view India as a target. Several trends explain the rise: Terrorism threats in South Asia are linked and mobile - if one source is batted down, jihadists relocate to find another Islamic cause. As NATO withdraws from Afghanistan, some jihadists will eye India. Pakistan regards India as a top enemy and some officials even encourage terrorists to target areas like Kashmir or Mumbai. Meanwhile, a stream of Wahhabi preachers have visited India, offering hard-line messages; extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State compete for influence, and militants even pay jihadists. Muslims as a minority population in India could offer fertile ground for the extremist recruiters. This paper argues that there is an urgent need for the Indian government to profile militants and examine social media sites to attack Wahhabi indoctrination while supporting education and entrepreneurship for all of India's citizens.

Keywords: Al Qaeda, terrorism, Islamic state, India, haqqani network, Pakistan, Taliban

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Authors: Teerapon Pirom, Ura Pancharoen

Abstract:

Amoxicillin is an antibiotic which is widely used to treat various infections in both human beings and animals. However, when amoxicillin is released into the environment, it is a major problem. Amoxicillin causes bacterial resistance to these drugs and failure of treatment with antibiotics. Liquid membrane is of great interest as a promising method for the separation and recovery of the target ions from aqueous solutions due to the use of carriers for the transport mechanism, resulting in highly selectivity and rapid transportation of the desired metal ions. The simultaneous processes of extraction and stripping in a single unit operation of liquid membrane system are very interesting. Therefore, it is practical to apply liquid membrane, particularly the HFSLM for industrial applications as HFSLM is proved to be a separation process with lower capital and operating costs, low energy and extractant with long life time, high selectivity and high fluxes compared with solid membranes. It is a simple design amenable to scaling up for industrial applications. The extraction and recovery for (Amoxicillin) through the hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) using aliquat336 as a carrier were explored with the experimental data. The important variables affecting on transport of amoxicillin viz. extractant concentration and operating time were investigated. The highest AMOX- extraction percentages of 85.35 and Amoxicillin stripping of 80.04 were achieved with the best condition at 6 mmol/L [aliquat336] and operating time 100 min. The extraction reaction order (n) and the extraction reaction rate constant (kf) were found to be 1.00 and 0.0344 min-1, respectively.

Keywords: aliquat336, amoxicillin, HFSLM, kinetic

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Authors: Kohei Shimasaki, Tomoaki Okamura, Idaku Ishii

Abstract:

We propose a vibration imaging method for high frame rate (HFR)-video-based localization of vibrating objects with large translations. When the ratio of the translation speed of a target to its vibration frequency is large, obtaining its frequency response in image intensities becomes difficult because one or no waves are observable at the same pixel. Our method can precisely localize moving objects with vibration by virtually translating multiple image sequences for pixel-level short-time Fourier transform to observe multiple waves at the same pixel. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by analyzing several HFR videos of flying insects in real scenarios.

Keywords: HFR video analysis, pixel-level vibration source localization, short-time Fourier transform, virtual translation

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Authors: Mohamed Barbary, Mohamed H. Abd El-azeem

Abstract:

Maneuvering non-ellipsoidal extended object tracking (M-NEOT) using high-resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) observations is gaining momentum recently. This work presents a new robust implementation of the Jump Markov (JM) multi-Bernoulli (MB) filter for M-NEOT, where the M-NEOT’s ISAR observations are characterized using a skewed (SK) non-symmetrically normal distribution. To cope with the possible abrupt change of kinematic state, extension, and observation distribution over an extended object when a target maneuvers, a multiple model technique is represented based on an MB-track-before-detect (TBD) filter supported by SK-sub-random matrix model (RMM) or sub-ellipses framework. Simulation results demonstrate this remarkable impact.

Keywords: maneuvering extended objects, ISAR, skewed normal distribution, sub-RMM, JM-MB-TBD filter

Procedia PDF Downloads 45