Search results for: internal contraction ratio

Authors: Hsin-Hung Lin, Janet Chang, Te-Yi Chang, You-Sheng Huang

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The natural and men-made disasters have become huge challenges for tourism destinations as well as emphasizing the fragility of the industry. Hot springs, among all destinations, are prone to disasters due to their dependence on natural resources and locations. After the COVID-19 outbreak, hot spring destinations have experienced not only the loss of businesses but also the psychological trauma. However, evidence has also shown that the impacts may not necessarily reduce the resilience for people but may be converted into posttraumatic growth. In Taiwan, a large proportion of hot springs are located in rural or indigenous areas. As a result, hot spring resources are associated with community cohesion for local residents. Yet prior research on hot spring destinations has mainly focused on visitors, whereas residents have been overlooked. More specifically, the relationship between hot springs resources and resident resilience in the face of the COVID-19 impacts remains unclear. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to explore the COVID-19 impacts on residents’ hot spring experiences as well as individual and community resilience from the perspective of posttraumatic growth. A total of 315 residents of 13 hot spring destinations that are most popular in Taiwan were recruited. Online questionnaires were distributed over travel forums and social networks after the COVID-19. This paper subsequently used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for data analysis as the technique offers significant advantages in addressing nonnormal data and small sample sizes. A preliminary test was conducted, and the results showed acceptable internal consistency and no serious common method variance. The path analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 impacts strengthened residents’ perceptions of hot spring resources and experiences, implying that the pandemic had propelled the residents to visit hot springs for the healing benefits. In addition, the COVID-19 impacts significantly enhanced residents’ individual and community resilience, which indicates that the residents at hot springs are more resilient thanks to their awareness of external risks. Thirdly, residents’ individual resilience was positively associated with hot spring experiences, while community resilience was not affected by hot spring experiences. Such findings may suggest that hot spring experiences are more related to individual-level experiences and, consequently, have insignificant influence on community resilience. Finally, individual resilience was proved to be the most relevant factor that help foster community resilience. To conclude, the authorities may consider exploiting the hot spring resources so as to increase individual resilience for local residents. Such implications can be used as a reference for other post-disaster tourist destinations as well.As for future research, longitudinal studies with qualitative methods are suggested to better understand how the hot spring experiences have changed individuals and communities over the long term. It should be noted that the main subjects of this paper were focused on the hot spring communities in Taiwan. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for all types of tourism destinations. That is, more diverse tourism destinations may be investigated to provide a broader perspective of post-disaster recovery.

Keywords: community resilience, hot spring destinations, individual resilience, posttraumatic growth (PTG)

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Authors: Khemakhem Nahed, Hammami Fatma, Trabelsi Houaida, Neji Sourour, Sellami Hayet, Makni Fattouma, Turki Hamida, Ayadi Ali

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Dermatophytoses are considered a public health problem and represent 10% of dermatological consultations in our region. Their epidemiology is influenced by various factors, such as lifestyle, human migration patterns, changes in the environment and the host relationship. The understanding of epidemiology has a major impact on their prevention and treatment. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence pattern of aetiological agents and to describe the clinical characteristics of dermatophytoses between 1999 and 2019. Out of 65 059 subjects suspected to have superficial mycoses, 36 220 (55.67%) were affected with dermatophytoses. The mean age was 40.1 years (range: 10 days to 99 years). The sex ratio was 0.8. Our patients were from urban regions in 80.9% of cases. The most common type of infection was onychomycosis (42.64%), followed by tinea pedis (20.8%), intertrigo (18.3%), tinea corporis (8.48%) and tinea capitis (7.87%). The most isolated dermatophyte was Trichophyton rubrum (76.5%), followed by T. mentagrophytes complex (6.3%), Microsporum canis (5.8%), T. violaceum (5.3%), T. verrucosum (0.83%) and Epidermophyton floccosum (0.3%). Zoophilic agents have become more prevalent and their frequency has been increased from 6.46% in 1999 to 13% in 2019. It is interesting to note that M. canis has been on the rise since 2010 and it was the first etiological agent of tinea capitis (48%), while infections caused by T. violaceum continued to decrease from 1999 (16.2%) to 2019 (4.7%). Other dermatophytes have been rarely isolated: T. tonsurans (9 cases), T. schoenleinii (3 cases), T. soudanense (2 cases), M. fulvum (1 case), M. audouinii (1 case) and M. ferrugineum (2 cases).T. mentagrophytes var. quinckeanum was isolated from an inflammatory tinea capitis lesion in an a-3-year-old girl. T. mentagrophytes var. erinacei was isolated from the first case of tinea manuum, in-a-10-year-old girl. The same fungus was isolated from the hair and scales of the hedgehog. Our study showed significant changes in the dermatophytes spectrum in our region. The prevalence of zoophilic species increased in recent years due to people's behavioral changes with the adoption of pets and animal husbandry in urban settings. Molecular methods are often crucial that help us to refine the identification strains of dermatophytes and to identify their origin of the contamination.

Keywords: dermatophytoses, PCR-sequencing, spectrum, Sfax, Tunisia

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Authors: Gordana Branković, Vesna Dragičević, Dejan Dodig, Desimir Knežević, Srbislav Denčić, Gordana Šurlan-Momirović

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Phytic acid is a major pool in the flux of phosphorus through agroecosystems and represents a sum equivalent to > 50% of all phosphorus fertilizer used annually. Nutrition rich in phytic acid can substantially decrease micronutrients apsorption as calcium, zink, iron, manganese, copper due to phytate salts excretion by human and non-ruminant animals as poultry, swine and fish, having in common very scarce phytase activity, and consequently the ability to digest and utilize phytic acid, thus phytic acid derived phosphorus in animal waste contributes to water pollution. The tested accessions consisted of 15 genotypes of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. vulgare) and of 15 genotypes of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.). The trials were sown at the three test sites in Serbia: Rimski Šančevi (RS) (45º19´51´´N; 19º50´59´´E), Zemun Polje (ZP) (44º52´N; 20º19´E) and Padinska Skela (PS) (44º57´N 20º26´E) during two vegetation seasons 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The experimental design was randomized complete block design with four replications. The elementary plot consisted of 3 internal rows of 0.6 m2 area (3 × 0.2 m × 1 m). Grains were grinded with Laboratory Mill 120 Perten (“Perten”, Sweden) (particles size < 500 μm) and flour was used for the analysis. Phytic acid grain content was determined spectrophotometrically with the Shimadzu UV-1601 spectrophotometer (Shimadzu Corporation, Japan). Objectives of this study were to determine: i) variability and stability of the phytic acid content among selected genotypes of bread and durum wheat, ii) predominant source of variation regarding genotype (G), environment (E) and genotype × environment interaction (GEI) from the multi-environment trial, iii) influence of climatic variables on the GEI for the phytic acid content. Based on the analysis of variance it had been determined that the variation of phytic acid content was predominantly influenced by environment in durum wheat, while the GEI prevailed for the variation of the phytic acid content in bread wheat. Phytic acid content expressed on the dry mass basis was in the range 14.21-17.86 mg g-1 with the average of 16.05 mg g-1 for bread wheat and 14.63-16.78 mg g-1 with the average of 15.91 mg g-1 for durum wheat. Average-environment coordination view of the genotype by environment (GGE) biplot was used for the selection of the most desirable genotypes for breeding for low phytic acid content in the sense of good stability and lower level of phytic acid content. The most desirable genotypes of bread and durum wheat for breeding for phytic acid were Apache and 37EDUYT /07 No. 7849. Models of climatic factors in the highest percentage (> 91%) were useful in interpreting GEI for phytic acid content, and included relative humidity in June, sunshine hours in April, mean temperature in April and winter moisture reserves for genotypes of bread wheat, as well as precipitation in June and April, maximum temperature in April and mean temperature in June for genotypes of durum wheat.

Keywords: genotype × environment interaction, phytic acid, stability, variability

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Authors: Yemane Hailu Fissuh, Zhongzhan Zhang

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In biomedical researches and randomized clinical trials, the most commonly interested outcomes are time-to-event so-called survival data. The importance of robust models in this context is to compare the effect of randomly controlled experimental groups that have a sense of causality. Causal estimation is the scientific concept of comparing the pragmatic effect of treatments conditional to the given covariates rather than assessing the simple association of response and predictors. Hence, the causal effect based semiparametric transformation model was proposed to estimate the effect of treatment with the presence of possibly time-varying covariates. Due to its high flexibility and robustness, the semiparametric transformation model which shall be applied in this paper has been given much more attention for estimation of a causal effect in modeling left-truncated and right censored survival data. Despite its wide applications and popularity in estimating unknown parameters, the maximum likelihood estimation technique is quite complex and burdensome in estimating unknown parameters and unspecified transformation function in the presence of possibly time-varying covariates. Thus, to ease the complexity we proposed the modified estimating equations. After intuitive estimation procedures, the consistency and asymptotic properties of the estimators were derived and the characteristics of the estimators in the finite sample performance of the proposed model were illustrated via simulation studies and Stanford heart transplant real data example. To sum up the study, the bias of covariates was adjusted via estimating the density function for truncation variable which was also incorporated in the model as a covariate in order to relax the independence assumption of failure time and truncation time. Moreover, the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was described for the estimation of iterative unknown parameters and unspecified transformation function. In addition, the causal effect was derived by the ratio of the cumulative hazard function of active and passive experiments after adjusting for bias raised in the model due to the truncation variable.

Keywords: causal estimation, EM algorithm, semiparametric transformation models, time-to-event outcomes, time-varying covariate

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Authors: Sima Aznavi, Poria Fajri, Hanif Livani

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Smart homes are small energy systems which may be equipped with renewable energy sources, storage devices, and loads. Energy management strategy plays a main role in the efficient operation of smart homes. Effective energy scheduling of the renewable energy sources and storage devices guarantees efficient energy management in households while reducing the energy imports from the grid. Nevertheless, despite such strategies, independently day ahead energy schedules for multiple households can cause undesired effects such as high power exchange with the grid at certain times of the day. Therefore, the interactions between multiple smart home day ahead energy projections is a challenging issue in a smart grid system and if not managed appropriately, the imported energy from the power network can impose additional burden on the distribution grid. In this paper, a central energy management strategy for a network consisting of multiple households each equipped with renewable energy sources, storage devices, and Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) is proposed. The decision-making strategy alongside the smart home energy management system, minimizes the energy purchase cost of the end users, while at the same time reducing the stress on the utility grid. In this approach, the smart home energy management system determines different operating scenarios based on the forecasted household daily load and the components connected to the household with the objective of minimizing the end user overall cost. Then, selected projections for each household that are within the same cost range are sent to the central decision-making system. The central controller then organizes the schedules to reduce the overall peak to average ratio of the total imported energy from the grid. To validate this approach simulations are carried out for a network of five smart homes with different load requirements and the results confirm that by applying the proposed central energy management strategy, the overall power demand from the grid can be significantly flattened. This is an effective approach to alleviate the stress on the network by distributing its energy to a network of multiple households over a 24- hour period.

Keywords: energy management, renewable energy sources, smart grid, smart home

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Authors: Zhaoyang Liu, Detao Qin, Darren Delai Sun

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The onshore production of oil and gas (for example, shale gas) generates large quantities of wastewater, referred to be ‘produced water’, which contains high contents of oils and salts. The direct discharge of produced water, if not appropriately treated, can be toxic to the environment and human health. Membrane filtration has been deemed as an environmental-friendly and cost-effective technology for treating oily wastewater. However, conventional polymeric membranes have their drawbacks of either low salt rejection rate or high membrane fouling tendency when treating oily wastewater. Recent years, forward osmosis (FO) membrane filtration has emerged as a promising technology with its unique advantages of low operation pressure and less membrane fouling tendency. However, until now there is still no report about FO membranes specially designed and fabricated for treating the oily and salty produced water. In this study, a novel nanocomposite FO membrane was developed specially for treating oil- and salt-polluted produced water. By leveraging the recent advance of nanomaterials and nanotechnology, this nanocomposite FO membrane was designed to be made of double layers: an underwater oleophobic selective layer on top of a nanomaterial infused polymeric support layer. Wherein, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were selected to add into the polymeric support layer because adding GO nanosheets can optimize the pore structures of the support layer, thus potentially leading to high water flux for FO membranes. In addition, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel was selected as the selective layer because hydrated and chemically-crosslinked PVA hydrogel is capable of simultaneously rejecting oil and salt. After nanocomposite FO membranes were fabricated, the membrane structures were systematically characterized with the instruments of TEM, FESEM, XRD, ATR-FTIR, surface zeta-potential and Contact angles (CA). The membrane performances for treating produced waters were tested with the instruments of TOC, COD and Ion chromatography. The working mechanism of this new membrane was also analyzed. Very promising experimental results have been obtained. The incorporation of GO nanosheets can reduce internal concentration polarization (ICP) effect in the polymeric support layer. The structural parameter (S value) of the new FO membrane is reduced by 23% from 265 ± 31 μm to 205 ± 23 μm. The membrane tortuosity (τ value) is decreased by 20% from 2.55 ± 0.19 to 2.02 ± 0.13 μm, which contributes to the decrease of S value. Moreover, the highly-hydrophilic and chemically-cross-linked hydrogel selective layer present high antifouling property under saline oil/water emulsions. Compared with commercial FO membrane, this new FO membrane possesses three times higher water flux, higher removal efficiencies for oil (>99.9%) and salts (>99.7% for multivalent ions), and significantly lower membrane fouling tendency (<10%). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a nanocomposite FO membrane with the combined merits of high salt rejection, high oil repellency and high water flux for treating onshore oil/gas produced waters. Due to its outstanding performance and ease of fabrication, this novel nanocomposite FO membrane possesses great application potential in wastewater treatment industry.

Keywords: nanocomposite, membrane, polymer, graphene oxide

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Authors: Nicola Menga, Giuseppe Carbone

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Although contact mechanics has been widely focused on the study of contacts between half-space, it has been recently pointed out that in presence of finite thickness elastic layers the results of the contact problem show significant difference in terms of the main contact quantities (e.g. contact area, penetration, mean pressure, etc.). Actually, there exist a wide range of industrial application demanding for this kind of studies, such as seals leakage prediction or pressure-sensitive coatings for electrical applications. In this work, we focus on the contact between a rigid profile and an elastic layer of thickness h confined under two different configurations: rigid constrain and applied uniform pressure. The elastic problem at hand has been formalized following Green’s function method and then numerically solved by means of a matrix inversion. We study different contact conditions, both considering and neglecting adhesive interactions at the interface. This leads to different solution techniques: Adhesive contacts equilibrium solution is found, in term of contact area for given penetration, making stationary the total free energy of the system; whereas, adhesiveless contacts are addressed defining an equilibrium criterion, again on the contact area, relying on the fracture mechanics stress intensity factor KI. In particular, we make the KI vanish at the edges of the contact area, as peculiar for adhesiveless elastic contacts. The results are obtained in terms of contact area, penetration, and mean pressure for both adhesive and adhesiveless contact conditions. As expected, in the case of a uniform applied pressure the slab turns out much more compliant than the rigidly constrained one. Indeed, we have observed that the peak value of the contact pressure, for both the adhesive and adhesiveless condition, is much higher for the rigidly constrained configuration than in the case of applied uniform pressure. Furthermore, we observed that, for little contact area, both systems behave the same and the pull-off occurs at approximately the same contact area and mean contact pressure. This is an expected result since in this condition the ratio between the layers thickness and the contact area is very high and both layer configurations recover the half-space behavior where the pull-off occurrence is mainly controlled by the adhesive interactions, which are kept constant among the cases.

Keywords: contact mechanics, adhesion, friction, thick layer

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Authors: Behcet Al, Mustafa Bogan, Mehmet Murat Oktay, Suat Zengin, Hasan Bayram

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Objective: In the last two decades there is a strong scientific interest regarding the role of aerosols for the Earth’s climate and associated changes. Aerosol particles are very important to the Earth-atmosphere climate system playing a crucial role in cloud and precipitation processes, air quality and climate. Here, we evaluated the association between saharran dust and emergency department admission, hospitalization, and mortality. Method: The records of admission to emergency department of Gaziantep University and the dust stroms of 31 months were studied. Patients admitted to ED at dust strom with chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), asthma bronchiale (AB), serebrovascular events (SVE), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stabile and unstabile angina pectoris (SAAP andUSAP); and the days with and without dust stroms were included. The study was realized from March 2010 to October 2012. The admission of three days before strom (group 1), during strom days (group 2) and three days after strom (group 3) were determined. The mean level of dust PM10 particulate was calculated, and the results were compared. Results: 5864 patients with chronic obstructive lung disease, asthma bronchiale, serebrovascular events, acute myocardial infarction, stabile and unstabile angyina pectoris admitted during the days with and without dust stroms. 28 dust stroms ocurred during 31 months. The totaliy of stroms continiued 78 days. Of admissions, 35.5% (n=2075) were in group1, 29.8% (n=1746) in group 2, and 34.8% (n=2043) were in group 3. The mean of PM10 for groups (group 1, 2 and 3) were 78.53 mg/m3 (range 19–276) particulate, 108.7 mg/m3 (range 34–631) particulate, and 60.9 mg/m3 (range 17–160) particulate respectively. The mean admission per a day for groups were 24.86, 22.55, and 24.50 respectively. The mortality was 12 in group 1, 12 in group 2, and 17 in grou 3. The hospitalization ratio for groups were 0.24, 0.27, and 0.27 respectively. Conclusion: However, the mean level of PM10 particulate for groups 2 (in dust strom days) is significantly higher (p=0.001) than the days before (group 1) and after (group 3) dust stroms, the mean admissions/day, hostilalization and mortality related to deseases (COLD, AB, SVE, AMI, SAAP andUSA) for group 2 is lower than the group 1 and group 3.

Keywords: Saharran dust, PM10 particulate, emergency department admission, mortality

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Authors: O. A. Adebiyi, A. O. Oni, A. O. K. Adeshehinwa, I. O. Adejumo

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In forty nine (49) days, twenty four (24) growing pigs (Landrace x Large white) with an average weight of 17 ±2.1kg were allocated to four experimental treatments T1 (dry mash without probiotics), T2 (wet feed without probiotics), T3 (dry mash + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) and T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics) which were replicated three times with two pigs per replicate in a completely randomised design. The basal feed (dry feed) was formulated to meet the nutritional requirement of the animal with crude protein of 18.00% and metabolisable energy of 2784.00kcal/kgME. Growth pattern, faecal microbial load and behavioural activities (eating, drinking, physical pen interaction and frequency of visiting the drinking troughs) were accessed. Pigs fed dry mash without probiotics (T1) had the highest daily feed intake among the experimental animals (1.10kg) while pigs on supplemented diets (T3 and T4) had an average daily feed intake of 0.95kg. However, the feed conversion ratio was significantly (p < 0.05) affected with pigs on T3 having least value of 6.26 compared those on T4 (wet feed + Saccaromyces cereviseae) with means of 7.41. Total organism counts varied significantly (p < 0.05) with pigs on T1, T2, T3 and T4 with mean values of 179.50 x106cfu; 132.00 x 106cfu; 32.00 x 106cfu and 64.50 x 106cfu respectively. Coliform count was also significantly (p < 0.05) different among the treatments with corresponding values of 117.50 x 106cfu; 49.00 x 106cfu, 8.00 x 106cfu for pigs in T1, T2 and T4 respectively. The faecal Saccaromyces cereviseae was significantly lower in pigs fed supplemented diets compared to their counterparts on unsupplemented diets. This could be due to the inability of yeast organisms to be voided easily through feaces. The pigs in T1 spent the most time eating (7.88%) while their counterparts on T3 spent the least time eating. The corresponding physical pen interaction times expressed in percentage of a day for pigs in T1, T2, T3 and T4 are 6.22%, 5.92%, 4.04% and 4.80% respectively. These behavioural responses exhibited by these pigs (T3) showed that little amount of dry feed supplemented with probiotics is needed for better performance. The water intake increases as a result of the dryness of the feed with consequent decrease in pen interaction and more time was spent resting than engaging in other possible vice-habit like fighting or tail biting. Pigs fed dry feed (T3) which was supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae probiotics had a better overall performance, least faecal microbial load than wet fed pigs either supplemented with Saccaromyces cereviseae or non-supplemented.

Keywords: behaviour, feed forms, feed utilization, growth, microbial

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Authors: Delphine Mukaneza, Lin Qiao, Wang Pengxin, Li Yan, Chen Yingyi

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Human activities on land use make the land-cover gradually change or transit. In this study, we examined the use of Landsat TM data to detect the land use change of Kigali between 1987 and 2009 using remote sensing techniques and analysis of data using ENVI and ArcGIS, a GIS software. Six different categories of land use were distinguished: bare soil, built up land, wetland, water, vegetation, and others. With remote sensing techniques, we analyzed land use data in 1987, 1999 and 2009, changed areas were found and a dynamic situation of land use in Kigali city was found during the 22 years studied. According to relevant Landsat data, the research focused on land use change in accordance with the role of remote sensing in the process of urbanization. The result of the work has shown the rapid increase of built up land between 1987 and 1999 and a big decrease of vegetation caused by the rebuild of the city after the 1994 genocide, while in the period of 1999 to 2009 there was a reduction in built up land and vegetation, after the authority of Kigali city established, a Master Plan where all constructions which were not in the range of the master Plan were destroyed. Rwanda's capital, Kigali City, through the expansion of the urban area, it is increasing the internal employment rate and attracts business investors and the service sector to improve their economy, which will increase the population growth and provide a better life. The overall planning of the city of Kigali considers the environment, land use, infrastructure, cultural and socio-economic factors, the economic development and population forecast, urban development, and constraints specification. To achieve the above purpose, the Government has set for the overall planning of city Kigali, different stages of the detailed description of the design, strategy and action plan that would guide Kigali planners and members of the public in the future to have more detailed regional plans and practical measures. Thus, land use change is significantly the performance of Kigali active human area, which plays an important role for the country to take certain decisions. Another area to take into account is the natural situation of Kigali city. Agriculture in the region does not occupy a dominant position, and with the population growth and socio-economic development, the construction area will gradually rise and speed up the process of urbanization. Thus, as a developing country, Rwanda's population continues to grow and there is low rate of utilization of land, where urbanization remains low. As mentioned earlier, the 1994 genocide massacres, population growth and urbanization processes, have been the factors driving the dramatic changes in land use. The focus on further research would be on analysis of Rwanda’s natural resources, social and economic factors that could be, the driving force of land use change.

Keywords: land use change, urbanization, Kigali City, Landsat

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Authors: Haileyesus Tessema Alemneh, Abiyu Enyew Molla, Oluwole Daniel Makinde

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Introduction: Faba bean is one of the most important grown plants worldwide for humans and animals. Several biotic and abiotic elements have limited the output of faba beans, irrespective of their diverse significance. Many faba bean pathogens have been reported so far, of which the most important yield-limiting disease is chocolate spot disease (Botrytis fabae). The dynamics of disease transmission and decision-making processes for intervention programs for disease control are now better understood through the use of mathematical modeling. Currently, a lot of mathematical modeling researchers are interested in plant disease modeling. Objective: In this paper, a deterministic mathematical model for chocolate spot disease (CSD) on faba bean plant with an optimal control model was developed and analyzed to examine the best strategy for controlling CSD. Methodology: Three control interventions, quarantine (u2), chemical control (u3), and prevention (u1), are employed that would establish the optimal control model. The optimality system, characterization of controls, the adjoint variables, and the Hamiltonian are all generated employing Pontryagin’s maximum principle. A cost-effective approach is chosen from a set of possible integrated strategies using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The forward-backward sweep iterative approach is used to run numerical simulations. Results: The Hamiltonian, the optimality system, the characterization of the controls, and the adjoint variables were established. The numerical results demonstrate that each integrated strategy can reduce the diseases within the specified period. However, due to limited resources, an integrated strategy of prevention and uprooting was found to be the best cost-effective strategy to combat CSD. Conclusion: Therefore, attention should be given to the integrated cost-effective and environmentally eco-friendly strategy by stakeholders and policymakers to control CSD and disseminate the integrated intervention to the farmers in order to fight the spread of CSD in the Faba bean population and produce the expected yield from the field.

Keywords: CSD, optimal control theory, Pontryagin’s maximum principle, numerical simulation, cost-effectiveness analysis

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Authors: Severino Machingambi

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Most academics entering Higher education as lecturers in South Africa do not have qualifications in Education or teaching. This creates serious problems since they are not sufficiently equipped with pedagogical approaches and theories that inform their facilitation of learning strategies. This, arguably, is one of the reasons why higher education institutions are experiencing high student failure rate. In order to mitigate this problem, it is critical that higher education institutions devise internal academic staff development programmes to capacitate academics with pedagogical skills and competencies so as to enhance the quality of student learning. This paper reported on how the Teaching and Learning Development Centre of a university used design-based research methodology to conceptualise and implement an academic staff development programme for new academics at a university of technology. This approach revolves around the designing, testing and refining of an educational intervention. Design-based research is an important methodology for understanding how, when, and why educational innovations work in practice. The need for a professional development course for academics arose due to the fact that most academics at the university did not have teaching qualifications and many of them were employed straight from industry with little understanding of pedagogical approaches. This paper examines three key aspects of the programme namely, the preliminary phase, the teaching experiment and the retrospective analysis. The preliminary phase is the stage in which the problem identification takes place. The problem that this research sought to address relates to the unsatisfactory academic performance of the majority of the students in the institution. It was therefore hypothesized that the problem could be dealt with by professionalising new academics through engagement in an academic staff development programme. The teaching experiment phase afforded researchers and participants in the programme the opportunity to test and refine the proposed intervention and the design principles upon which it was based. The teaching experiment phase revolved around the testing of the new academics professional development programme. This phase created a platform for researchers and academics in the programme to experiment with various activities and instructional strategies such as case studies, observations, discussions and portfolio building. The teaching experiment phase was followed by the retrospective analysis stage in which the research team looked back and tried to give a trustworthy account of the teaching/learning process that had taken place. A questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect data from participants that helped to evaluate the programme and its implementation. One of the findings of this study was that academics joining university really need an academic induction programme that inducts them into the discourse of teaching and learning. The study also revealed that existing academics can be placed on formal study programmes in which they acquire educational qualifications with a view to equip them with useful classroom discourses. The study, therefore, concludes that new and existing academics in universities should be supported through induction programmes and placement on formal studies in teaching and learning so that they are capacitated as facilitators of learning.

Keywords: academic staff, pedagogy, programme, staff development

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Authors: Haftay Abraha Tadesse, Dawit Gebreegziabiher Hagos, Atsebaha Gebrekidan Kahsay, Mahumd Abdulkader

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Background: Salmonella species and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are important foodborne pathogens affecting humans and animals. They are among the most important causes of infection that are associated with the consumption of contaminated food. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and associated risk factors for Salmonella species and E. coli in raw meat from butchery houses of Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to December 2019. Socio-demographic data and risk factors were collected using a predesigned questionnaire. Meat samples were collected aseptically from the butchery houses and transported using icebox to Mekelle University, College of Veterinary Sciences for the isolation and identification of Salmonella species and E. coli. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were determined using Kirby disc diffusion method. Data obtained were cleaned and entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22 and logistic regression models with odds ratio were calculated. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: A total of 153 out of 384 (39.8%) of the meat specimens were found to be contaminated. The contamination of Salmonella species and E. coli were 15.6% (n=60) and 20.8%) (n=80), respectively. Mixed contamination (Salmonella species and E. coli) was observed in 13 (3.4 %) of the analyzed. Poor washing hands regularly (AOR = 8.37; 95% CI: 2.75-25.50) and not using gloves during meat handling (AOR=11. 28; 95% CI:(4.69 27.10) were associated with overall bacterial contamination. About 100% of the tested isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, Co trimoxazole , sulphamethoxazole, ceftriaxone, and trimethoprim and ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, and norfloxacine of E. coli and Salmonella species, respectively, while the resistance of amoxyclav_amoxicillin and erythromycin were both isolated bacteria species. The overall multidrug resistance pattern for Salmonella and E. coli were 51.4% (n=19) and 31.8% (14), respectively. Conclusion: Of the 153 (153/384) contaminated raw meat, 60 (15.6%) and 80 (20.8%) were contaminated by Salmonella species and E. coli, respectively. Poor handwashing practice and not using glove during meat handling showed a significant association with bacterial contamination. Multidrug-resistant showed in Salmonella species, and E. coli were 19 (51.4%) and 14 (31.8%), respectively.

Keywords: antimicrobial susceptibility test, butchery houses, E. coli, raw meat, salmonella species

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Authors: José Álvarez Pérez, Ramón García Cedeño, Gerardo Fajardo-San Miguel, Jorge H. Chávez Gómez, Franco A. Carpio Santamaría, Milena Mesa Lavista

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The uniaxial compressive strength and modulus of elasticity in hollow concrete block masonry (HCBM) represent key mechanical properties for structural design considerations. These properties are obtained through experimental tests conducted on prisms or wallettes and depend on various factors, with the HCB contributing significantly to overall strength. One influential factor in the compressive behaviour of masonry is the thickness and method of mortar placement. Mexican regulations stipulate mortar placement over the entire net area (full-shell) for strength computation based on the gross area. However, in professional practice, there's a growing trend to place mortar solely on the lateral faces. Conversely, the United States of America standard dictates mortar placement and computation over the net area of HCB. The Canadian standard specifies mortar placement solely on the lateral face (Face-Shell-Bedding), where computation necessitates the use of the effective load area, corresponding to the mortar's placement area. This research aims to evaluate the influence of different mortar placement methods on the axial compression behaviour of HCBM. To achieve this, an experimental campaign was conducted, including: (1) 10 HCB specimens with mortar on the entire net area, (2) 10 HCB specimens with mortar placed on the lateral faces, (3) 10 prisms of 2-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in full-shell, (4) 10 prisms of 2-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in face-shell-bedding, (5) 10 prisms of 3-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in full-shell, (6) 10 prisms of 3-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in face-shell-bedding, (7) 10 prisms of 4-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in full-shell, and, (8) 10 prisms of 4-course HCB under axial compression with mortar in face-shell-bedding. A combination of sulphur and fly ash in a 2:1 ratio was used for the capping material, meeting the average compressive strength requirement of over 35 MPa as per NMX-C-036 standards. Additionally, a mortar with a strength of over 17 MPa was utilized for the prisms. The results indicate that prisms with mortar placed over the full-shell exhibit higher strength compared to those with mortar over the face-shell-bedding. However, the elastic modulus was lower for prisms with mortar placement over the full-shell compared to face-shell bedding.

Keywords: masonry, hollow concrete blocks, mortar placement, prisms tests

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Authors: Yang-Ho Jang, Soon-Ok Jee, Hae-Chul Park, Jeong-Woo Kang, Byung-Jae So, Sung-Shik Shin, Kyu-Sung Ahn, Kwang-Jick Lee

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Introduction: Antibiotics have been used as feed additives for the growth promotion and performance in food-producing animals. However, the possibility of selection of antimicrobial resistance and the concerns of residue in animal products led to ban the use of antibiotics in farm animals at 2011 in Korea. This strategy is also adjusted to anticoccidial drugs soon but these are still allowed for the time being to use in a diet for the treatment and control for the enteric necrosis in poultry. Therefore substantial focus has been given to find alternatives to antimicrobial agents. Several phytogenic materials have been reported to have positive effects on coccidiosis. This study was to evaluate the effects on anti-coccidial effect of oregano oil based herb mixture on Eimeria spp. in poultry. Materials and Methods: A total of one day-old boiler chickens divided into six groups (each group=30 chkckens) were used in this study. The herbal mixture was fed with water freely as follows: two groups, one infected with Eimeria spp. and the other group served as controls without herbal mixture respectively; 0.2ml/L of oregano oil; 0.2ml/L of oregano oil and Sanguisorbae radix; 0.2ml/L of Sanguisorbae radix; last group was fed with dichlazuril diet as positive control. Sporulated Eimeria spp. was infected at 14 day-old. Following infection, survival rate, bloody diarrhea, OPG (oocyst per gram) and feed conversion ratios were determined. The experimental period was lasted for 4 weeks. Results: Herbal mixture feeding groups (Group 3,4,5) showed low feed conversion ratio comparing with negative control. Oregano oil group and positive control group recorded the highest survival rate. The grade of bloody diarrhea was scored 0 to 5. Herbal mixture feeding groups showed 2, 3 and 1 score respectively however, group 2 (infection and no-treatment) showed 4. OPG results in herbal mixture feeding group were 3 to 4 times higher than diclazuril diet feeding group. Conclusions: These results showed that oregano oil and Sanguisorbae radix mixture may have an anti-coccidial effect and also affect chick performance.

Keywords: anticoccidial effects, oregano oil based herb mixture, herbal mixture, antibiotics

Procedia PDF Downloads 554

Authors: Isobel M. Thompson, Dorian Audot, Dominic Hudson, Martin Warner, Joseph Banks

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Underwater fly kick is an essential skill in swimming, which can have a considerable impact upon overall race performance in competition, especially in sprint events. Reduced wave drags acting upon the body under the surface means that the underwater fly kick will potentially be the fastest the swimmer is travelling throughout the race. It is therefore critical to understand fly kicking techniques and determining biomechanical factors involved in the performance. Most previous studies assessing fly kick kinematics have focused on two-dimensional analysis; therefore, the three-dimensional elements of the underwater fly kick techniques are not well understood. Those studies that have investigated fly kicking techniques using three-dimensional methodologies have not reported full three-dimensional kinematics for the techniques observed, choosing to focus on one or two joints. There has not been a direct comparison completed on the results obtained using two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis, and how these different approaches might affect the interpretation of subsequent results. The aim of this research is to quantify the differences in kinematics observed in underwater fly kicks obtained from both two and three-dimensional analyses of the same test conditions. In order to achieve this, a six-camera underwater Qualisys system was used to develop an experimental methodology suitable for assessing the kinematics of swimmer’s starts and turns. The cameras, capturing at a frequency of 100Hz, were arranged along the side of the pool spaced equally up to 20m creating a capture volume of 7m x 2m x 1.5m. Within the measurement volume, error levels were estimated at 0.8%. Prior to pool trials, participants completed a landside calibration in order to define joint center locations, as certain markers became occluded once the swimmer assumed the underwater fly kick position in the pool. Thirty-four reflective markers were placed on key anatomical landmarks, 9 of which were then removed for the pool-based trials. The fly-kick swimming conditions included in the analysis are as follows: maximum effort prone, 100m pace prone, 200m pace prone, 400m pace prone, and maximum pace supine. All trials were completed from a push start to 15m to ensure consistent kick cycles were captured. Both two-dimensional and three-dimensional kinematics are calculated from joint locations, and the results are compared. Key variables reported include kick frequency and kick amplitude, as well as full angular kinematics of the lower body. Key differences in these variables obtained from two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis are identified. Internal rotation (up to 15º) and external rotation (up to -28º) were observed using three-dimensional methods. Abduction (5º) and adduction (15º) were also reported. These motions are not observed in the two-dimensional analysis. Results also give an indication of different techniques adopted by swimmers at various paces and orientations. The results of this research provide evidence of the strengths of both two dimensional and three dimensional motion capture methods in underwater fly kick, highlighting limitations which could affect the interpretation of results from both methods.

Keywords: swimming, underwater fly kick, performance, motion capture

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Authors: Antoine Karam, Lotfi Khiari, Bruno Breton, Alfred Jaouich

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Anthropogenic sources of zinc (Zn), including industrial emissions and effluents, Zn–rich fertilizer materials and pesticides containing Zn, can contribute to increasing the concentration of soluble Zn at levels toxic to plants in acid sandy soils. The application of municipal sewage sludge or biosolids (MBS) which contain metal immobilizing agents on coarse-textured soils could improve the metal sorption capacity of the low-CEC soils. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the sorption of Zn in surface samples (0-15 cm) of six Quebec (Canada) soils amended with MBS (pH 6.9) from Val d’Or (Quebec, Canada). Soil samples amended with increasing amounts (0 to 20%) of MBS were equilibrated with various amounts of Zn as ZnCl2 in 0.01 M CaCl2 for 48 hours at room temperature. Sorbed Zn was calculated from the difference between the initial and final Zn concentration in solution. Zn sorption data conformed to the linear form of Freundlich equation. The amount of sorbed Zn increased considerably with increasing MBS rate. Analysis of variance revealed a highly significant effect (p ≤ 0.001) of soil texture and MBS rate on the amount of sorbed Zn. The average values of the Zn-sorption capacity of MBS-amended coarse-textured soils were lower than those of MBS-amended fine textured soils. The two sandy soils (86-99% sand) amended with MBS retained 2- to 5-fold Zn than those without MBS (control). Significant Pearson correlation coefficients between the Zn sorption isotherm parameter, i.e. the Freundlich sorption isotherm (KF), and commonly measured physical and chemical entities were obtained. Among all the soil properties measured, soil pH gave the best significant correlation coefficients (p ≤ 0.001) for soils receiving 0, 5 and 10% MBS. Furthermore, KF values were positively correlated with soil clay content, exchangeable basic cations (Ca, Mg or K), CEC and clay content to CEC ratio. From these results, it can be concluded that (i) municipal biosolids provide sorption sites that have a strong affinity for Zn, (ii) both soil texture, especially clay content, and soil pH are the main factors controlling anthropogenic Zn sorption in the municipal biosolids-amended soils, and (iii) the effect of municipal biosolids on Zn sorption will be more pronounced for a sandy soil than for a clay soil.

Keywords: metal, recycling, sewage sludge, trace element

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Authors: K. Yang, Y. Wei, M. Zhang, S. Yong, R. Torah, J. Tudor, S. Beeby

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E-textiles are traditional textiles with integrated electronic functionality. It is an emerging innovation with numerous applications in fashion, wearable computing, health and safety monitoring, and the military and medical sectors. The piezoelectric effect is a widespread and versatile transduction mechanism used in sensor and actuator applications. Piezoelectric materials produce electric charge when stressed. Conversely, mechanical deformation occurs when an electric field is applied across the material. Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) is a widely used piezoceramic material which has been used to fabricate e-textiles through screen printing, electro spinning and hydrothermal synthesis. This paper explores an alternative fabrication process: Spray coating. Spray coating is a straightforward and cost effective fabrication method applicable on both flat and curved surfaces. It can also be applied selectively by spraying through a stencil which enables the required design to be realised on the substrate. This work developed a sprayable PZT based piezoelectric ink consisting of a binder (Fabink-Binder-01), PZT powder (80 % 2 µm and 20 % 0.8 µm) and acetone as a thinner. The optimised weight ratio of PZT/binder is 10:1. The components were mixed using a SpeedMixer DAC 150. The fabrication processes is as follows: 1) Screen print a UV-curable polyurethane interface layer on the textile to create a smooth textile surface. 2) Spray one layer of a conductive silver polymer ink through a pre-designed stencil and dry at 90 °C for 10 minutes to form the bottom electrode. 3) Spray three layers of the PZT ink through a pre-designed stencil and dry at 90 °C for 10 minutes for each layer to form a total thickness of ~250µm PZT layer. 4) Spray one layer of the silver ink through a pre-designed stencil on top of the PZT layer and dry at 90 °C for 10 minutes to form the top electrode. The domains of the PZT elements were aligned by polarising the material at an elevated temperature under a strong electric field. A d33 of 37 pC/N has been achieved after polarising at 90 °C for 6 minutes with an electric field of 3 MV/m. The application of the piezoelectric textile was demonstrated by fabricating a pressure sensor to switch an LED on/off. Other potential applications on e-textiles include motion sensing, energy harvesting, force sensing and a buzzer.

Keywords: piezoelectric, PZT, spray coating, pressure sensor, e-textile

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Authors: Sophio Kobauri, Tengiz Kantaria, Temur Kantaria, David Tugushi, Nina Kulikova, Ramaz Katsarava

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Polymeric disperse systems such as nanoparticles (NPs) are of high interest for numerous applications in contemporary medicine and nanobiotechnology to a considerable potential for treatment of many human diseases. The important technological advantages of NPs usage as drug carriers (nanocontainers) are their high stability, high carrier capacity, feasibility of encapsulation of both hydrophilic or hydrophobic substances, as well as a high variety of possible administration routes, including oral application and inhalation. NPs can also be designed to allow controlled (sustained) drug release from the matrix. These properties of NPs enable improvement of drug bioavailability and might allow drug dosage decrease. The targeted and controlled administration of drugs using NPs might also help to overcome drug resistance, which is one of the major obstacles in the control of epidemics. Various degradable and non-degradable polymers of both natural and synthetic origin have been used for NPs construction. One of the most promising for the design of NPs are amino acid-based biodegradable polymers (AABBPs) which can clear from the body after the fulfillment of their function. The AABBPs are composed of naturally occurring and non-toxic building blocks such as α-amino acids, fatty diols and dicarboxylic acids. The particles designed from these polymers are expected to have an improved bioavailability along with a high biocompatibility. The present work deals with a systematic study of the preparation of NPs by cost-effective polymer deposition/solvent displacement method using AABBPs. The influence of the nature and concentration of surfactants, concentration of organic phase (polymer solution), and the ratio organic phase/inorganic(water) phase, as well as of some other factors on the size of the fabricated NPs have been studied. It was established that depending on the used conditions the NPs size could be tuned within 40-330 nm. At the next step of this research was carried out an evaluation of biocompability and bioavailability of the synthesized NPs using a stable human cell culture line – A549. It was established that the obtained NPs are not only biocompatible but they stimulate the cell growth.

Keywords: amino acids, biodegradable polymers, bioavailability, nanoparticles

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Authors: Arman Kishan, Sanjay Kubsad, Steve Li, Mark Haft, Duc Nguyen, Dawn Laporte

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Objective: Carpal tunnel syndrome can be managed surgically with endoscopic or open carpal tunnel release (CTR). Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a known risk factor for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and is believed to be related to compression of the median nerve secondary to inflammation. We aimed to analyze national trends, outcomes, and patient-specific comorbidities associated with ECTR and OCTR in patients with RA. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the PearlDiver database, identifying 683 RA patients undergoing ECTR and 4234 undergoing OCTR between 2010 and 2014. Demographic data, comorbidities, and complication rates were analyzed. Univariate and multivariable analyses assessed differences between the treatment methods. Results:  Patients with RA undergoing ECTR in comparison to OCTR had no significant differences in medical comorbidities such as hypertension, obesity, chronic kidney disease, hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus. Patients in the ECTR group reported a risk ratio of 1.44 (95%CI: 1.10-1.89, p=0.01) of requiring repeat procedures within 90 days of the initial procedure. Five-year trends in ECTR and OCTR procedures reported a combined annual growth rate of 5.6% and 13.15, respectively. Conclusion: Endoscopic and open approaches to CTR are important considerations in surgical planning. RA and ECTR have previously been identified as independent risk factors for revision CTR. Our study has identified the 90-day risk of repeat procedures to be elevated in the ECTR group in comparison to the OCTR group. Additionally, the growth of OCTR procedures has outpaced the growth of ECTR procedures in the same period, likely in response to the trend of ECTR leading to higher rates of repeat procedures. The need for revision following ECTR in patients with RA could be related to chronic inflammation leading to transverse carpal ligament thickening and concomitant tenosynovitis. Future directions could include further characterization of repeat procedures performed in this subset of patients. 

Keywords: endoscopic treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome, open treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, trends analysis, carpal tunnel syndrome

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Authors: Ghodratollah Rostami Paydar

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The Baba-Ali and Galali iron deposits are located in northwest Hamedan and the Iranian Sanandaj-Sirjan geological structural zone. The host rocks of these deposits are metavolcanosedimentary successions of Songhor stratigraphic series with permo-trriassic age. Field investigation, ore geometry, textures and structures and paragenetic sequence of minerals, all indicate that the ore minerals are crystallized in four stages: primary volcanosedimentary stage, secondary regional metamorphism with formation of ductile shear zones, contact metamorphism and metasomatism stage and the finally late hydrothermal mineralization within uplift and exposure. Totally 29 samples of sulfide, oxide-silicate and carbonate minerals of iron orees and gangue has been purified for stable isotope analysis. The isotope ratio data assure that occurrence of dynamothermal metamorphism in these areas typically involves a lengthy period of time, which results in a tendency toward isotopic homogenization specifically in O and H stable isotopes and showing the role of metamorphic waters in mineralization process. Measurement of δ34S (CDT) in first generation of pyrite is higher than another ones, so it confirms the volcanogenic origin of primary iron mineralization. δ13C data measurements in Galali carbonate country rocks show a marine origin. δ18O in magnetite and skarn forming silicates, δ18O and δ13C in limestone and skarn calcite and δ34S in sulphides are all consistent with the interaction of a magmatic-equilibrated fluid with Galali limestone, and a dominantly magmatic source for S. All these data imply skarn formation and mineralisation in a magmatic-hydrothermal system that maintained high salinity to relatively late stages resulting in the formation of the regional Na metasomatic alteration halo. Late stage hydrothermal quartz-calcite veinlets are important for gold mineralization, but the economic evaluation is required to detailed geochemical studies.

Keywords: iron, polygenetic, stable isotope, BabaAli, Galali

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Authors: Álvaro Turriago-Hoyos

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Most research tends to see innovation as an explanatory factor in achieving high levels of competitiveness and productivity. More recent studies have begun to analyze the determinants of innovation in the services sector as opposed to the much-discussed industrial sector of a country’s economy. This research paper focuses on the services sector in Colombia, one of Latin America’s fastest growing and biggest economies. Over the past decade, much of Colombia’s economic expansion has relied on commodity exports (mainly oil and coffee) whilst the industrial sector has performed relatively poorly. Such developments highlight the potential of the innovative role played by the services sector of the Colombian economy and its future growth prospects. This research paper analyzes the relationship between inputs, which at the same time are internal sources of innovation (such as R&D activities), and external sources that are improved by technology acquisition. The outputs are basically the four kinds of innovation that the OECD Oslo Manual recognizes: product, process, marketing and organizational innovations. The instrument used to measure this input-output relationship is based on Knowledge Production Function approaches. We run Probit models in order to identify the existing relationships between the above inputs and outputs, but also to identify spill-overs derived from interactions of the components of the value chain of the services firms analyzed: customers, suppliers, competitors, and complementary firms. Data are obtained from the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics for the period 2008 to 2013 published in the II and III Colombian National Innovation Survey. A short summary of the results obtained lead to conclude that firm size and a firm’s level of technological development turn out to be important discriminating factors for the description of the innovative process at the firm level. The model’s outcomes show a positive impact on the probability of introducing any kind of innovation both on R&D and Technology Acquisition investment. Also, cooperation agreements with customers, research institutes, competitors, and the suppliers are significant. Belonging to a particular industrial group is an important determinant but only to product and organizational innovation. It is possible to establish that Health Services, Education, Computer, Wholesale trade, and Financial Intermediation are the ISIC sectors, which report the highest number of frequencies of the considered set of firms. Those five sectors of the sixteen considered, in all cases, explained more than half of the total of all kinds of innovations. Product Innovation, which is followed by Marketing Innovation, gets the highest results. Displaying the same set of firms distinguishing by size, and belonging to high and low tech services sector shows that the larger the firms the larger a number of innovations, but also that always high-tech firms show a better innovation performance.

Keywords: Colombia, determinants of innovation, innovation, services sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Mia Françoise

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This report aims to develop a strategy for assisting short-term investors to benefit from the current economic climate in South Africa by utilizing technical analysis techniques and predictive analytics. As part of this research, value investing and technical analysis principles will be combined to maximize returns for South African investors while optimizing volatility. As an emerging market, South Africa offers many opportunities for high growth in sectors where other developed countries cannot grow at the same rate. Investing in South African companies with significant growth potential can be extremely rewarding. Although the risk involved is more significant in countries with less developed markets and infrastructure, there is more room for growth in these countries. According to recent research, the offshore market is expected to outperform the local market over the long term; however, short-term investments in the local market will likely be more profitable, as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is predicted to outperform the S&P500 over the short term. The instabilities in the economy contribute to increased market volatility, which can benefit investors if appropriately utilized. Price prediction and portfolio optimization comprise the two primary components of this methodology. As part of this process, statistics and other predictive modeling techniques will be used to predict the future performance of stocks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Following predictive data analysis, Modern Portfolio Theory, based on Markowitz's Mean-Variance Theorem, will be applied to optimize the allocation of assets within an investment portfolio. By combining different assets within an investment portfolio, this optimization method produces a portfolio with an optimal ratio of expected risk to expected return. This methodology aims to provide a short-term investment with a stock portfolio that offers the best risk-to-return profile for stocks listed on the JSE by combining price prediction and portfolio optimization.

Keywords: financial stocks, optimized asset allocation, prediction modelling, South Africa

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Authors: Ravinder Singh, Pratima Syal

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Background: The rising prevalence and incidence of Acute Pancreatitis (AP) and its associated metabolic variables known as metabolic syndrome (MetS) are common medical conditions with catastrophic consequences and substantial treatment costs. The correlation between MetS and AP, as well as their impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is uncertain, and because there are so few published studies, further research is needed. As a result, we planned this study to determine the relationship between MetS components impact on HRQoL in AP patients. Patients and Methods: A prospective, observational study involving the recruitment of patients with AP with and without MetS was carried out in tertiary care hospital of North India. Patients were classified with AP if they were diagnosed with two or more components of the following criteria, abdominal pain, serum amylase and lipase levels two or more times normal, imaging trans-abdominal ultrasound, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance. The National Cholesterol Education Program–Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criterion was used to diagnose the MetS. The various socio-demographic variables were also taken into consideration for the calculation of statistical significance (P≤.05) in AP patients. Finally, the correlation between AP and MetS, along with their impact on HRQoL was assessed using Student's t test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and Short Form-36 (SF-36). Results: AP with MetS (n = 100) and AP without MetS (n = 100) patients were divided into two groups. Gender, Age, Educational Status, Tobacco use, Body Mass Index (B.M.I), and Waist Hip Ratio (W.H.R) were the socio-demographic parameters found to be statistically significant (P≤.05) in AP patients with MetS. Also, all the metabolic variables were also found to statistically significant (P≤.05) and found to be increased in patients with AP with MetS as compared to AP without MetS except HDL levels. Using the SF-36 form, a greater significant decline was observed in physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) in patients with AP with MetS as compared to patients without MetS (P≤.05). Furthermore, a negative association between all metabolic variables with the exception of HDL, and AP was found to be producing deterioration in PCS and MCS. Conclusion: The study demonstrated that patients with AP with MetS had a worse overall HRQOL than patients with AP without MetS due to number of socio-demographic and metabolic variables having direct correlation impacting physical and mental health of patients.

Keywords: metabolic disorers, QOL, cost effectiveness, pancreatitis

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Authors: Henok Yebyo Henok, Araya Abrha Araya, Alemayehu Bayray Alemayehu, Gelila Goba Gelila

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Background: Every year, an estimated 19–20 million unsafe abortions take place, almost all in developing countries, leading to 68,000 deaths and millions more injured many permanently. Many women throughout the world, experience more than one abortion in their lifetimes. Repeat abortion is an indicator of the larger problem of unintended pregnancy. This study aimed to identify determinants of repeat abortion in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Methods: Unmatched case-control study was conducted in hospitals in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia, from November 2014 to June 2015. The sample included 105 cases and 204 controls, recruited from among women seeking abortion care at public hospitals. Clients having two or more abortions (“repeat abortion”) were taken as cases, and those who had a total of one abortion were taken as controls (“single abortion”). Cases were selected consecutive based on proportional to size allocation while systematic sampling was employed for controls. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Binary and multiple variable logistic regression analyses were calculated with 95% CI. Results: Mean age of cases was 24 years (±6.85) and 22 years (±6.25) for controls. 79.0% of cases had their sexual debut in less than 18 years of age compared to 57% of controls. 42.2% of controls and 23.8% of cases cited rape as the reason for having an abortion. Study participants who did not understand their fertility cycle and when they were most likely to conceive after menstruation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-3.7), having a previous abortion using medication(AOR=3.3, CI: 1.83, 6.11), having multiple sexual partners in the preceding 12 months (AOR=4.4, CI: 2.39,8.45), perceiving that the abortion procedure is not painful (AOR=2.3, CI: 1.31,4.26), initiating sexual intercourse before the age of 18 years (AOR=2.7, CI: 1.49, 5.23) and disclosure to a third-party about terminating the pregnancy (AOR=2.1, CI: 1.2,3.83) were independent predictors of repeat abortion. Conclusion: This study identified several factors correlated with women having repeat abortions. It may be helpful for the Government of Ethiopia to encourage women to delay sexual debut and decrease their number of sexual partners, including by promoting discussion within families about sexuality, to decrease the occurrence of repeated abortion.

Keywords: abortion, Ethiopia, repeated abortion, single abortion

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Maatouk Khoukhi

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Nowadays the reduction of the energy consumed by buildings to achieve mainly the thermal comfort for the occupants represent the main concern for architects and building designers. The common and traditional solution to achieve this target is the design of a highly insulated envelope and reduce the opening and the transparent elements such windows. However, this will lead to the artificial lighting system to consume more energy to compensate the lack of natural lighting coming through the glazed parts of the building envelope. Therefore, a good balance between sufficient daylight and control thermal heat through the building envelope should be considered for energy saving purpose. To achieve a better indoor environment the windows size and spacing including the interior finishing and the location of the partition must be assessed accurately. Daylighting is the controlled admission of natural light into space through windows and transparent elements of the building envelope which helps create a visually stimulating and productive environment for building occupants. The main concern is not to provide enough daylight to an occupied space, but how to achieve this without any undesirable side effect. Indeed, the glare is a major problem in glazed façade buildings, and this could be reduced by using tinted windows. The main target of this research is to investigate the daylight adequacy of functional needs in old Omani Forts and how they have been designed and built to avoid glare and overheating with the appropriate window-to-floor ratio. Because more windows do not automatically result in more daylighting but that is natural light has been controlled and distributed properly throughout the space. Spaces from different Omani and Portuguese Forts under the same climate conditions are considered in order to compare the daylight illuminance levels and examine the similarities and differences in visual attributes between them. The result of this study indicates that lighting preference is not universal and people from different geographical locations are adapted to certain illuminance levels. Therefore, the standards could not be generalized for the entire world. This would be useful to practitioners who are designing to effectively address the diversity of user’s lighting levels preferences in our globally connected society.

Keywords: day lighting, energy, forts, thermal comfort

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Alexandra Sargent, Sarah Ferris, Ioannis Theofanous

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The Abbott RealTime High Risk HPV test (RealTime HPV) is one of five assays clinically validated and approved by the English NHS Cervical Screening Programme (CSP) for HPV triage of low grade dyskaryosis and test-of-cure of treated Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia. The assay is a highly automated multiplex real-time PCR test for detecting 14 high risk (hr) HPV types, with simultaneous differentiation of HPV 16 and HPV 18 versus non-HPV 16/18 hrHPV. An endogenous internal control ensures sample cellularity, controls extraction efficiency and PCR inhibition. The original cervical specimen collected in SurePath (SP) liquid-based cytology (LBC) medium (BD Diagnostics) and the SP post-gradient cell pellets (SPG) after cytological processing are both CE marked for testing with the RealTime HPV test. During the 2011 NHSCSP validation of new tests only the original aliquot of SP LBC medium was investigated. Residual sample volume left after cytology slide preparation is low and may not always have sufficient volume for repeat HPV testing or for testing of other biomarkers that may be implemented in testing algorithms in the future. The SPG samples, however, have sufficient volumes to carry out additional testing and necessary laboratory validation procedures. This study investigates the correlation of RealTime HPV results of cervical specimens collected in SP LBC medium from women with low grade cytological abnormalities observed with matched pairs of original SP LBC medium and SP post-gradient cell pellets (SPG) after cytology processing. Matched pairs of SP and SPG samples from 750 women with borderline (N = 392) and mild (N = 351) cytology were available for this study. Both specimen types were processed and parallel tested for the presence of hrHPV with RealTime HPV according to the manufacturer´s instructions. HrHPV detection rates and concordance between test results from matched SP and SPGCP pairs were calculated. A total of 743 matched pairs with valid test results on both sample types were available for analysis. An overall-agreement of hrHPV test results of 97.5% (k: 0.95) was found with matched SP/SPG pairs and slightly lower concordance (96.9%; k: 0.94) was observed on 392 pairs from women with borderline cytology compared to 351 pairs from women with mild cytology (98.0%; k: 0.95). Partial typing results were highly concordant in matched SP/SPG pairs for HPV 16 (99.1%), HPV 18 (99.7%) and non-HPV16/18 hrHPV (97.0%), respectively. 19 matched pairs were found with discrepant results: 9 from women with borderline cytology and 4 from women with mild cytology were negative on SPG and positive on SP; 3 from women with borderline cytology and 3 from women with mild cytology were negative on SP and positive on SPG. Excellent correlation of hrHPV DNA test results was found between matched pairs of SP original fluid and post-gradient cell pellets from women with low grade cytological abnormalities tested with the Abbott RealTime High-Risk HPV assay, demonstrating robust performance of the test with both specimen types and reassuring the utility of the assay for cytology triage with both specimen types.

Keywords: Abbott realtime test, HPV, SurePath liquid based cytology, surepath post-gradient cell pellet

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Authors: Bahar Ayberk

Abstract:

The study was conducted to determine the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance among university students. A far-famed saying ‘Sound mind in a sound body’ referring to the potential quality of increased physical fitness in the intellectual development of individuals seems to be endorsed. There is a growing body of literature the impact of physical fitness on academic achievement, especially in elementary and middle-school aged children. Even though there are numerous positive effects related to being physically active and physical fitness, their effect on academic achievement is not very much clear for university students. The subjects for this study included 25 students (20 female and 5 male) enrolled in Yeditepe University, Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department of Health Science Faculty. All participants filled in a questionnaire about their socio-demographic status, general health status, and physical activity status. Health-related physical fitness testing, included several core components: 1) body composition evaluation (body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio), 2) cardiovascular endurance evaluation (queen’s college step test), 3) muscle strength and endurance evaluation (sit-up test, push-up test), 4) flexibility evaluation (sit and reach test). Academic performance evaluation was based on student’s Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The prevalence of the subjects participating physical activity was found to be 40% (n = 10). CGPA scores were significantly higher among students having regular physical activity when we compared the students having regular physical activities or not (respectively 2,71 ± 0.46, 3.02 ± 0.28 scores, p = 0.076). The result of the study also revealed that there is positive correlation relationship between sit-up, push up and academic performance points (CGPA) (r = 0.43, p ≤ 0.05 ) and negative correlation relationship between cardiovascular endurance parameter (Queen's College Step Test) and academic performance points (CGPA) (r = -0.47, p ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, the findings confirmed that physical fitness level was generally associated with academic performance in the study group. Cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength and endurance were associated with student’s CGPA, whereas body composition and flexibility were unrelated to CGPA.

Keywords: academic performance, health-related physical fitness, physical activity, physical fitness testing

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: M. Paraipan, V. M. Javadova, S. I. Tyutyunnikov

Abstract:

The concept of energy amplifier or accelerator driven system (ADS) involves the use of a particle accelerator coupled with a nuclear reactor. The accelerated particle beam generates a supplementary source of neutrons, which allows the subcritical functioning of the reactor, and consequently a safe exploitation. The harder neutron spectrum realized ensures a better incineration of the actinides. The almost generalized opinion is that the optimal beam for ADS is represented by protons with energy around 1 GeV (gigaelectronvolt). In the present work, a systematic analysis of the energy gain for proton beams with energy from 0.5 to 3 GeV and ion beams from deuteron to neon with energies between 0.25 and 2 AGeV is performed. The target is an assembly of metallic U-Pu-Zr fuel rods in a bath of lead-bismuth eutectic coolant. The rods length is 150 cm. A beryllium converter with length 110 cm is used in order to maximize the energy released in the target. The case of a linear accelerator is considered, with a beam intensity of 1.25‧10¹⁶ p/s, and a total accelerator efficiency of 0.18 for proton beam. These values are planned to be achieved in the European Spallation Source project. The energy gain G is calculated as the ratio between the energy released in the target to the energy spent to accelerate the beam. The energy released is obtained through simulation with the code Geant4. The energy spent is calculating by scaling from the data about the accelerator efficiency for the reference particle (proton). The analysis concerns the G values, the net power produce, the accelerator length, and the period between refueling. The optimal energy for proton is 1.5 GeV. At this energy, G reaches a plateau around a value of 8 and a net power production of 120 MW (megawatt). Starting with alpha, ion beams have a higher G than 1.5 GeV protons. A beam of 0.25 AGeV(gigaelectronvolt per nucleon) ⁷Li realizes the same net power production as 1.5 GeV protons, has a G of 15, and needs an accelerator length 2.6 times lower than for protons, representing the best solution for ADS. Beams of ¹⁶O or ²⁰Ne with energy 0.75 AGeV, accelerated in an accelerator with the same length as 1.5 GeV protons produce approximately 900 MW net power, with a gain of 23-25. The study of the evolution of the isotopes composition during irradiation shows that the increase in power production diminishes the period between refueling. For a net power produced of 120 MW, the target can be irradiated approximately 5000 days without refueling, but only 600 days when the net power reaches 1 GW (gigawatt).

Keywords: accelerator driven system, ion beam, electrical power, energy gain

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Kara J. Coffman-Rea, Karen E. Samonds

Abstract:

Microplastic pollution is an urgent global threat to our planet and human health. Microplastic particles have been detected within our food, water, and atmosphere, and found within the human stool, placenta, and lung tissue. However, most spectrometric microplastic detection methods require chemical digestion which can alter or destroy microplastic particles and makes it impossible to acquire information about their in-situ distribution. MALDI TOF MS (Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry) is an analytical method using a soft ionization technique that can be used for polymer analysis. This method provides a valuable opportunity to both acquire information regarding the in-situ distribution of microplastics and also minimizes the destructive element of chemical digestion. In addition, MALDI TOF MS allows for expanded analysis of the microplastics including detection of specific additives that may be present within them. MALDI TOF MS is particularly sensitive to sample preparation and has not yet been used to analyze environmental microplastics within their specific location (e.g., biological tissues, sediment, water). In this study, microplastics were created using polyethylene gloves, polystyrene micro-foam, and polyethylene terephthalate cable sleeving. Plastics were frozen using liquid nitrogen and ground to obtain small fragments. An artificial tissue was created using a cellulose sponge as scaffolding coated with a MaxGel Extracellular Matrix to simulate human lung tissue. Optimal preparation techniques (e.g., matrix, cationization reagent, solvent, mixing ratio, laser intensity) were first established for each specific polymer type. The artificial tissue sample was subsequently spiked with microplastics, and specific polymers were detected using MALDI-TOF-MS. This study presents a novel method for the detection of environmental polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polystyrene microplastics within a complex sample. Results of this study provide an effective method that can be used in future microplastics research and can aid in determining the potential threats to environmental and human health that they pose.

Keywords: environmental plastic pollution, MALDI-TOF MS, microplastics, polymer identification

Procedia PDF Downloads 256