Search results for: food service providers

Authors: Shilpi Malik, Ramneek Kaur, Archita Gupta, Deepshikha Yadav, Ashwani Mathur, Manisha Singh

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Glucosamine (GS) is the most abundant naturally occurring amino monosaccharide and is normally produced in human body via cellular glucose metabolism. It is regarded as the building block of cartilage matrix and is also an essential component of cartilage matrix repair mechanism. Besides that, it can also be explored for its prebiotic potential as many bacterial species are known to utilize the amino sugar by acquiring them to form peptidoglycans and lipopolysaccharides in the bacterial cell wall. Glucosamine can therefore be considered for its fermentation by bacterial species present in the gut. Current study is focused on exploring the potential of glucosamine as prebiotic. The studies were done to optimize considerable concentration of GS to reach GI tract and being fermented by the complex gut microbiota and food grade GS was added to various Simulated Fluids of Gastro-Intestinal Tract (GIT) such as Simulated Saliva, Gastric Fluid (Fast and Fed State), Colonic fluid, etc. to detect its degradation. Since it was showing increase in microbial growth (CFU) with time, GS was Further, encapsulated to increase its residential time in the gut, which exhibited improved resistance to the simulated Gut conditions. Moreover, prepared microspehres were optimized and characterized for their encapsulation efficiency and toxicity. To further substantiate the prebiotic activity of Glucosamine, studies were also performed to determine the effect of Glucosamine on the known probiotic bacterial species, i.e. Lactobacillus delbrueckii (MTCC 911) and Bifidobacteriumbifidum (MTCC 5398). Culture conditions for glucosamine will be added in MRS media in anaerobic tube at 0.20%, 0.40%, 0.60%, 0.80%, and 1.0%, respectively. MRS media without GS was included in this experiment as the control. All samples were autoclaved at 118° C for 15 min. Active culture was added at 5% (v/v) to each anaerobic tube after cooling to room temperature and incubated at 37° C then determined biomass and pH and viable count at incubation 18h. The experiment was completed in triplicate and the results were presented as Mean ± SE (Standard error).The experimental results are conclusive and suggest Glucosamine to hold prebiotic properties.

Keywords: gastro intestinal tract, microspheres, peptidoglycans, simulated fluid

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Authors: Faizan Sultan

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Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan have the potential to deliver services such as health, education, and rural development through targeting the most vulnerable communities of society. Having this significant importance, NGOs are facing numerous challenges in service delivery. So, there is a need to identify the challenges NGOs face in community development, particularly post-conflict development. The current study has analyzed the social and political constraints in development projects in the post-conflict region of the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of this study are “What are the social and political constraints faced by the nongovernmental organizations in the implementation of development aid Projects in post-conflict development of Swat and to examine the challenges in coordination mechanism between government departments, NGOs, and community in reconstruction activities”. This research is based upon both the quantitative and qualitative data that is being gathered from the NGO representatives, government officials, and community members who were involved in post-conflict development interventions in the Swat region. A purposive sampling technique was used to select respondents from the community members/activists (25 in number) and government and NGO officials (10 in number). Based on analysis against our objectives, NGOs have faced numerous constraints such as Insecurity, Negative Perceptions about NGOs, restrictions on women's mobility, government policies and regulations, lack of coordination and networking, trust deficit, and political interference while implementing their project interventions. These findings concluded that constraints have affected project implementation to a greater extent, including women's participation, involvement of marginalized populations, and equal distribution of resources. In the Swat region, NGOs cannot openly discuss sensitive projects such as human rights, gender-based projects, or women empowerment as these issues are very sensitive to the local community due to their cultural values. The community may not allow their females to go outside their homes as this region is a male-dominated society. Similarly, lack of communication and poor networking for the arrangements of the project meetings were also the major constraints.

Keywords: national disaster management authority, millennium development goals, provincial disaster management authority, provincial reconstruction, rehabilitation and settlement authority

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Authors: Jo Angouri, Charlotte Kennedy, Shawnea Ting, David Rawlinson, Matthew Booker, Nigel Rees

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Ambulance services need to balance the large volume of emergency (999 in the UK) calls they receive (e.g., West Midlands Ambulance Service reports per day about 4,000 999 calls; about 679,000 calls per year are received in Wales), with dispatching limited resource for on-site intervention to the most critical cases. The process by which Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) decisions are made is related to risk assessment and involves the caller and call-taker as well as clinical teams negotiating risk levels on a case-by-case basis. Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS – also referred to as Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System AMPDS) are used in the UK by NHS Trusts (e.,g WAST) to process and prioritise 999 calls. MPDS / AMPDS provide structured protocols for call prioritisation and call management. Protocols/policy frameworks have not been examined before in the way we propose in our project. In more detail, the risk factors that play a role in the EMD negotiation between the caller and call-taker have been analysed in both medical and social science research. Research has focused on the structural, morphological and phonological aspects that could improve, and train, human-to-human interaction or automate risk detection, as well as the medical factors that need to be captured from the caller to inform the dispatch decision. There are two significant gaps in our knowledge that we address in our work: 1. the role of backstage clinical teams in translating the caller/call-taker interaction in their internal risk negotiation and, 2. the role of policy frameworks, protocols and regulations in the framing of institutional priorities and resource allocation. We take a multi method approach and combine the analysis of 999 calls with the analysis of policy documents. We draw on interaction analysis, corpus methodologies and thematic analysis. In this paper, we report on our preliminary findings and focus in particular on the risk factors we have identified and the relationship with the regulations that create the frame within which teams operate. We close the paper with implications of our study for providing evidence-based policy intervention and recommendations for further research.

Keywords: emergency (999) call, interaction analysis, discourse analysis, ambulance dispatch, medical discourse

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Authors: Meksem Amara Leila, Ferfar Meriem, Meksem Nabila, Djebar Mohammed Reda

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The wheat is the cereal the most consumed in the world. In Algeria, the production of this cereal covers only 20 in 25 % of the needs for the country, the rest being imported. To improve the efficiency and the productivity of the durum wheat, the farmers turn to the use of pesticides: weed-killers, fungicides and insecticides. However this use often entrains losses of products more at least important contaminating the environment and all the food chain. Weed-killers are substances developed to control or destroy plants considered unwanted. That they are natural or produced by the human being (molecule of synthesis), the absorption and the metabolization of weed-killers by plants cause the death of these plants.In this work, we set as goal the evaluation of the effect of a weed-killer sulfonylurea, the CossackOD with various concentrations (0, 2, 4 and 9 µg) on variety of Triticum durum: Cirta. We evaluated the plant growth by measuring the leaves and root length, compared with the witness as well as the content of proline and analyze the level of one of the antioxydative enzymes: catalse, after 14 days of treatment. Sulfonylurea is foliar and root weed-killers inhibiting the acetolactate synthase: a vegetable enzyme essential to the development of the plant. This inhibition causes the ruling of the growth then the death. The obtained results show a diminution of the average length of leaves and roots this can be explained by the fact that the ALS inhibitors are more active in the young and increasing regions of the plant, what inhibits the cellular division and talks a limitation of the foliar and root’s growth. We also recorded a highly significant increase in the proline levels and a stimulation of the catalase activity. As a response to increasing the herbicide concentrations a particular increases in antioxidative mechanisms in wheat cultivar Cirta suggest that the high sensitivity of Cirta to this sulfonylurea herbicide is related to the enhanced production and oxidative damage of reactive oxygen species.

Keywords: sulfonylurea, Triticum durum, oxydative stress, Toxicity

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Authors: Mohamed S. Selim, Nesreen A. Fatthallah, Shimaa A. Higazy, Hekmat R. Madian, Sherif A. El-Safty, Mohamed A. Shenashen

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After the 2003 prohibition on employing TBT-based antifouling coatings, polysiloxane antifouling nano-coatings have gained in popularity as environmentally friendly and cost-effective replacements. A series of non-toxic polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites filled with nanosheets of graphene oxide (GO) decorated with magnetite nanospheres (GO-Fe₃O₄ nanospheres) were developed and cured via a catalytic hydrosilation method. Various GO-Fe₃O₄ hybrid concentrations were mixed with the silicone resin via solution casting technique to evaluate the structure–property connection. To generate GO nanosheets, a modified Hummers method was applied. A simple co-precipitation method was used to make spherical magnetite particles under inert nitrogen. Hybrid GO-Fe₃O₄ composite fillers were developed by a simple ultrasonication method. Superhydrophobic PDMS/GO-Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite surface with a micro/nano-roughness, reduced surface-free energy (SFE), high fouling release (FR) efficiency was achieved. The physical, mechanical, and anticorrosive features of the virgin and GO-Fe₃O₄ filled nanocomposites were investigated. The synergistic effects of GO-Fe₃O4 hybrid's well-dispersion on the water-repellency and surface topological roughness of the PDMS/GO-Fe₃O₄ nanopaints were extensively studied. The addition of the GO-Fe₃O₄ hybrid fillers till 1 wt.% could increase the coating's water contact angle (158°±2°), minimize its SFE to 12.06 mN/m, develop outstanding micro/nano-roughness, and improve its bulk mechanical and anticorrosion properties. Several microorganisms were employed for examining the fouling-resistance of the coated specimens for 1 month. Silicone coatings filled with 1 wt.% GO-Fe₃O₄ nanofiller showed the least biodegradability% among all the tested microorganisms. Whereas GO-Fe₃O4 with 5 wt.% nanofiller possessed the highest biodegradability% potency by all the microorganisms. We successfully developed non-toxic and low cost nanostructured FR composite coating with high antifouling-resistance, reproducible superhydrophobic character, and enhanced service-time for maritime navigation.

Keywords: silicone antifouling, environmentally friendly, nanocomposites, nanofillers, fouling repellency, hydrophobicity

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Authors: Pierre Mintom, William Djeukeu Asongni, Michelle Moni, William Dakam, Christine Fernande Nyangono Biyegue.

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Background: In order to prevent congestive heart failure, control of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia is necessary because those risk factors frequently occur in combination. Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence and risk factors of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and double burden HTA-Hypercholesterolemia in patients with congestive heart failure. Methodology: A database of 98 patients suffering from congestive heart failure was used. The latter were recruited from August 15, 2017, to March 5, 2018, in the Cardiology department of Deido District Hospital of Douala. This database provides information on sociodemographic parameters, biochemical examinations, characteristics of heart failure and food consumption. ESC/ESH and NCEP-ATPIII definitions were used to define Hypercholesterolemia (total cholesterol ≥200mg/dl), Hypertension (SBP≥140mmHg and/or DBP≥90mmHg). Double burden hypertension-hypercholesterolemia was defined as follows: total cholesterol (CT)≥200mg/dl, SBP≥140mmHg and DBP≥90mmHg. Results: The prevalence of hypertension (HTA), hypercholesterolemia (hyperchol) and double burden HTA-Hyperchol were 61.2%, 66.3% and 45.9%, respectively. No sociodemographic factor was associated with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and double burden, but Male gender was significantly associated (p<0.05) with hypercholesterolemia. HypoHDLemia significantly increased hypercholesterolemia and the double burden by 19.664 times (p=0.001) and 14.968 times (p=0.021), respectively. Regarding dietary habits, the consumption of rice, peanuts and derivatives and cottonseed oil respectively significantly (p<0.05) exposed to the occurrence of hypertension. The consumption of tomatoes, green bananas, corn and derivatives, peanuts and derivatives and cottonseed oil significantly exposed (p<0.05) to the occurrence of hypercholesterolemia. The consumption of palm oil and cottonseed oil exposed the occurrence of the double burden of hypertension-hypercholesterolemia. Consumption of eggs protects against hypercholesterolemia, and consumption of peanuts and tomatoes protects against the double burden. Conclusion: hypercholesterolemia associated with hypertension appears as a complicating factor of congestive heart failure. Key risk factors are mainly diet-based, suggesting the importance of nutritional education for patients. New management protocols emphasizing diet should be considered.

Keywords: risk factors, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, congestive heart failure

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Authors: U. K. Tamuli

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Introduction: North East India is graced with natural beauty and hazards. This area is prone to major earthquakes, floods, landslides, accidents, terrorist activities etc. Academy of Trauma (AOT), an NGO of Doctors, conducts training programs, mock drills, field trials amongst the doctors and paramedics in North East India. The present study is to evaluate the efficacy of such training in terms of sensitivity, awareness, and delivery systems of the products. Here the health care delivery system for disaster management is inadequate. Clear guideline of mass casualty management is unavailable. AOT has initiated steps to increase the awareness and handling of mass casualty management to improve the emergency health care delivery system. Method: AOT has conducted training programmes on emergency health management, mass casualty management and hospital preparedness amongst 800 doctors and 1200 paramedics in twenty-two districts of Assam in Northeast India. The training module consists of lectures, hands-on workshop using manikins, mock drills, distribution of manuals, emergency management exercises, periodic exchange of experience and debriefings. AOT evaluates the impact of these trainings by conducting pre and post tests of delegates, trainer’s evaluation, delegate’s satisfaction and confidence level and their suggestions. Results: The module, training, hands-on workshops, mock drills were highly appreciated. There is significant improvement in scores on the post-training tests. The confidence level of the participants has risen to deal with emergency medical situation Conclusion: These kinds of trainings increase the awareness of the medical members to handle mass casualties in different situations. One such training actually sensitises the delegates. Repetition of such training, TOT (Training-of-Trainers) programs, and individual efforts of delegates are extremely important for sustenance and success of health care delivery service during disasters in the developing countries. Further collaboration, assistance, networking, suggestions from established global agencies in this field will be highly appreciated.

Keywords: capacity building, North East India, non-governmental organization, trauma

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Authors: Sardar Khana, Zar Ali Khana

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Rapid industrial development and urbanization contribute a lot to wastewater discharge. The wastewater enters into natural aquatic ecosystems from industrial activities and considers as one of the main sources of water pollution. Discharge of effluents loaded with heavy metals into the surrounding environment has become a key issue regarding human health risk, environment, and food chain contamination. Nickel causes fatigue, cancer, headache, heart problems, skin diseases (Nickel Itch), and respiratory disorders. Nickel compounds such as Nickel Sulfide and Nickel oxides in industrial environment, if inhaled, have an association with an increased risk of lung cancer. Therefore the removal of Nickel from effluents before discharge is necessary. Removal of Nickel by low-cost biosorbents is an efficient method. This study was aimed to investigate the efficiency of activated carbon and Pinusroxburgiisaw dust for the removal of Nickel from industrial effluents using commercial Activated Carbon, and raw P.roxburgii saw dust. Batch and column adsorption experiments were conducted for the removal of Nickel. The study conducted indicates that removal of Nickel greatly dependent on pH, contact time, Nickel concentration, and adsorbent dose. Maximum removal occurred at pH 9, contact time of 600 min, and adsorbent dose of 1 g/100 mL. The highest removal was 99.62% and 92.39% (pH based), 99.76% and 99.9% (dose based), 99.80% and 100% (agitation time), 92% and 72.40% (Ni Conc. based) for P.roxburgii saw dust and activated Carbon, respectively. Similarly, the Ni removal in column adsorption was 99.77% and 99.99% (bed height based), 99.80% and 99.99% (Concentration based), 99.98%, and 99.81% (flow rate based) during column studies for Nickel using P.Roxburgiisaw dust and activated carbon, respectively. Results were compared with Freundlich isotherm model, which showed “r2” values of 0.9424 (Activated carbon) and 0.979 (P.RoxburgiiSaw Dust). While Langmuir isotherm model values were 0.9285 (Activated carbon) and 0.9999 (P.RoxburgiiSaw Dust), the experimental results were fitted to both the models. But the results were in close agreement with Langmuir isotherm model.

Keywords: nickel removal, batch, and column, activated carbon, saw dust, plant uptake

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Authors: Radovan Čobanović, Milica Rankov Šicar

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The fresh cheese is in the group of perishable food which cannot be kept a long period of time. The study of sustainability have been done in order to extend the shelf-life of the product which was 15 days. According to the plan of sustainability it was defined that 35 samples had to be stored for 30 days at 2°C−6°C and analyzed every 7th day from the day of reception until 30th day. Shelf life of the cheese has expired during the study of sustainability in the period between 15th and 30th day of analyses. Cheese samples were subjected to sensory analysis (appearance, odor, taste, color, aroma) and bacteriological analyzes (Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and total plate count) according to Serbian state regulation. All analyses were tested according to ISO methodology: sensory analysis ISO 6658, Listeria monocytogenes ISO 11 290-1, Salmonella spp ISO 6579, Bacillus cereus ISO 7932, Staphylococcus aureus ISO 6888-1, and total plate count ISO 4833. Analyses showed that after fifteen days of storage at a temperature defined by the manufacturers and within the product's shelf life, the cheese did not have any noticeable changes in sensory characteristics. Smell and taste are unaffected there was no separation of whey and there was not presence of strange smell or taste. As far as microbiological analyses are concerned neither one pathogen was detected and total plate count was at level of 103 cfu/g. After expiry of shelf life in a period of 15th and 30th day of storage, the analysis showed that there was a separation of whey on the surface. Along the edge of the container was present a dried part of cheese and sour-milky smell and taste were very weakly expressed. Concerning the microbiological analyses there still were not positive results for pathogen microorganisms but the total plate count was at a level of 106cfu/g. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that this product cannot have longer shelf life than shelf life which is already defined because there are a sensory changes that would certainly have influence on decision of customers when purchase of this product is concerned.

Keywords: sustainability, fresh cheese, shelf-life, product

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Authors: David Lynch Steinicke, Citlali Aguilera Lira, Andrea León García

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The proposal posed in this work comes from a researching-action approach. In Mexico, a dialogue of knowledge may function as a link between traditional, local, pragmatic knowledge, and technological, scientific knowledge. The advantage of generating this nexus lies on the positive impact in the environment, in society and economy. This work attempts to combine, on the one hand the traditional Mexican knowledge such as the usage of medicinal herb and the agroecosystem milpa; and on the other hand make use of a newly created agricultural ecotechnology which main function is to take advantage of the urban space and to save water. This ecotechnology is the wicking bed. In a globalized world, is relevant to have a proposal where the most important aspect is to revalorize the culture through the acquisition of traditional knowledge but at the same time adapting them to the new social and urbanized structures without threatening the environment. The methodology used in this work comes from a researching-action approach combined with a practical dimension where an experimental model made of three wickingbeds was implemented. In this model, there were cultivated medicinal herb and milpa components. The water efficiency and the social acceptance were compared with a traditional ground crop, all this practice was made in an urban social context. The implementation of agricultural ecotechnology has had great social acceptance as its irrigation involves minimal effort and it is economically feasible for low-income people. The wicking bed system raised in this project is attainable to be implemented in schools, urban and peri-urban environments, homemade gardens and public areas. The proposal managed to carry out an innovative and sustainable knowledge-based traditional Mexican agricultural technology, allowing regain Milpa agroecosystem in urban environments to strengthen food security in favour of nutritional and protein benefits for the Mexican fare.

Keywords: milpa, traditional medicine, urban agriculture, wicking bed

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Authors: Arlinda Memetaj

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A sound system of administrative justice represents a vital element of democratic governance. The proper control of public administration consists not only of a sound civil service framework and legislative oversight, but empowerment of the public and courts to hold public officials accountable for their decision-making through the application of fair administrative procedural rules and the use of appropriate administrative appeals processes and judicial review. The establishment of effective public administration, has been since 1990s among the most 'important and urgent' final strategic objectives of the Republic of Macedonia. To this aim the country has so far adopted a huge series of legislative and strategic documents related to any aspects of the administrative justice system. The latter is designed to strengthen the legal position of citizens, businesses, civic organizations, and other societal subjects. 'Changes and reforms' in this field have been thus the most frequent terms being used in the country for the last more than 20 years. Several years ago the County established Administrative Courts, while permanently amending the Law on the General Administrative procedure (LGAP). The new LGAP was adopted in 2015 and it introduced considerable innovations concerned. The most recent inputs in this regard includes the National Public Administration Reform Strategy 2017 – 2022, one of the key expected result of which includes both providing effective protection of the citizens` rights. In doing the aforesaid however there is still a series of interrelated shortcomings in this regard, such as (just to mention few) the complex appeal procedure, delays in enforcing court rulings, etc. Against the above background, the paper firstly describes the Macedonian institutional and legislative framework in the above field, and then illustrates the shortcomings therein. It finally claims that the current status quo situation may be overcome only if there is a proper implementation of the administrative courts decisions and far stricter international monitoring process thereof. A new approach and strong political commitment from the highest political leadership is thus absolutely needed to ensure the principles of transparency, accountability and merit in public administration. The main method used in this paper is the descriptive, analytical and comparative one due to the very character of the paper itself.

Keywords: administrative justice, administrative procedure, administrative courts/disputes, European Human Rights Court, human rights, monitoring, reform, benefit.

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Authors: Disciglio G., Lops F., Carlucci A., Gatta G., Tarantino A., Frabboni L, Tarantino E.

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The Phelipanche ramosa is considered the most damaging obligate flowering parasitic weed on a wide species of cultivated plants. The semiarid regions of the world are considered the main center of this parasitic weed, where heavy infestation are due to the ability to produce high numbers of seeds (up to 200,000), that remain viable for extended period (more than 19 years). In this paper 13 treatments of parasitic weed control, as physical, chemical, biological and agronomic methods, including the use of the resistant plants, have been carried out. In 2014 a trial was performed on processing tomato (cv Docet), grown in pots filled with soil taken from a plot heavily infested by Phelipanche ramosa, at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia (southern Italy). Tomato seedlings were transplanted on August 8, 2014 on a clay soil (USDA) 100 kg ha-1 of N; 60 kg ha-1 of P2O5 and 20 kg ha-1 of S. Afterwards, top dressing was performed with 70 kg ha-1 of N. The randomized block design with 3 replicates was adopted. During the growing cycle of the tomato, at 70-75-81 and 88 days after transplantation the number of parasitic shoots emerged in each pot was detected. Also values of leaf chlorophyll Meter SPAD of tomato plants were measured. All data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the JMP software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA), and for comparison of means was used Tukey's test. The results show lower values of the color index SPAD in tomato plants parasitized compared to those healthy. In addition, each treatment studied did not provide complete control against Phelipanche ramosa. However the virulence of the attacks was mitigated by some treatments: radicon product, compost activated with Fusarium, mineral fertilizer nitrogen, sulfur, enzone and resistant tomato genotype. It is assumed that these effects can be improved by combining some of these treatments each other, especially for a gradual and continuing reduction of the “seed bank” of the parasite in the soil.

Keywords: control methods, Phelipanche ramose, tomato crop

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Authors: Kalidas Sarma

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Fraud is a social problem changing with social change and it has a regional and global impact. Introduction of private domain in higher education along with public institutions has led to commercialization of higher education which encourages unprecedented mushrooming of private institutions resulting in fraudulent activities in higher educational institutions in Assam, India. Presently, fraud has been noticed in in-service promotion, fake entry qualification by teachers in different levels of work-place by using fake master degrees, master of philosophy and doctor of philosophy degree certificates. The aim and objective of the study are to identify grey areas in maintenance of quality in higher educational institutions in Assam and also to draw the contour for planning and implementation. This study is based on both primary and secondary data collected through questionnaire and seeking information through Right to Information Act 2005. In Assam, there are 301 undergraduate and graduate colleges distributed in 27 (Twenty seven) administrative districts with 11000 (Eleven thousand) college teachers. Total 421 (Four hundred twenty one) college teachers from the 14 respondent colleges have been taken for analysis. Data collected has been analyzed by using 'Hypertext Pre-processor' (PhP) application with My Sequel Structure Query Language (MySQL) and Google Map Application Programming Interface (APIs). Graph has been generated by using open source tool Chart.js. Spatial distribution maps have been generated with the help of geo-references of the colleges. The result shows: (i) the violation of University Grants Commission's (UGCs) Regulation for the awards of M. Phil/Ph.D. clearly exhibits. (ii) There is a gap between apex regulatory bodies of higher education at national and as well as state level to check fraud. (iii) Mala fide 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) issued by the Government of Assam have played pivotal role in the occurrence of fraudulent practices in higher educational institutions of Assam. (iv) Violation of verdict of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India regarding territorial jurisdiction of Universities for the awards of Ph.D. and M. Phil degrees in distance mode/study centre is also a responsible factor for the spread of these academic frauds in Assam and other states. The challenges and mitigation of these issues have been discussed.

Keywords: Assam, fraud, higher education, mitigation

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Authors: M. Kumpugdee-Vollrath, M. Tabatabaeifar, M. Helmis

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Shellac is a natural polyester resin secreted by insects. Pectins are natural, non-toxic and water-soluble polysaccharides extracted from the peels of citrus fruits or the leftovers of apples. Both polymers are allowed for the use in the pharmaceutical industry and as a food additive. SSB Aquagold® is the aqueous solution of shellac and can be used for a coating process as an enteric or controlled drug release polymer. In this study, tablets containing 10 mg methylene blue as a model drug were prepared with a rotary press. Those tablets were coated with mixtures of shellac and one of the pectin different types (i.e. CU 201, CU 501, CU 701 and CU 020) mostly in a 2:1 ratio or with pure shellac in a small scale fluidized bed apparatus. A stable, simple and reproducible three-stage coating process was successfully developed. The drug contents of the coated tablets were determined using UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The characterization of the surface and the film thickness were performed with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the light microscopy. Release studies were performed in a dissolution apparatus with a basket. Most of the formulations were enteric coated. The dissolution profiles showed a delayed or sustained release with a lagtime of at least 4 h. Dissolution profiles of coated tablets with pure shellac had a very long lagtime ranging from 13 to 17.5 h and the slopes were quite high. The duration of the lagtime and the slope of the dissolution profiles could be adjusted by adding the proper type of pectin to the shellac formulation and by variation of the coating amount. In order to apply a coating formulation as a colon delivery system, the prepared film should be resistant against gastric fluid for at least 2 h and against intestinal fluid for 4-6 h. The required delay time was gained with most of the shellac-pectin polymer mixtures. The release profiles were fitted with the modified model of the Korsmeyer-Peppas equation and the Hixson-Crowell model. A correlation coefficient (R²) > 0.99 was obtained by Korsmeyer-Peppas equation.

Keywords: shellac, pectin, coating, fluidized bed, release, colon delivery system, kinetic, SEM, methylene blue

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Authors: Cagdas Agirdas

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Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered private insurance plans, starting with plan years on or after September 23rd, 2010, to provide certain preventive care services without any cost sharing in the form of deductibles, copayments or co-insurance. This requirement may affect racial and ethnic disparities in preventive care as it provides the largest copay reduction in preventive care. Objectives: We ask whether the ACA’s free preventive care benefits are associated with a reduction in racial and ethnic disparities in the utilization of four preventive services: cholesterol screenings, colonoscopies, mammograms, and pap smears. Methods: We use a data set of over 6,000 individuals from the 2009, 2010, and 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS). We restrict our data set only to individuals who are old enough to be eligible for each preventive service. Our difference-in-differences logistic regression model classifies privately-insured Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians as the treatment groups and 2013 as the after-policy year. Our control group consists of non-Hispanic whites on Medicaid as this program already covered preventive care services for free or at a low cost before the ACA. Results: After controlling for income, education, marital status, preferred interview language, self-reported health status, employment, having a usual source of care, age and gender, we find that the ACA is associated with increases in the probability of the median, privately-insured Hispanic person to get a colonoscopy by 3.6% and a mammogram by 3.1%, compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. Similarly, we find that the median, privately-insured African American person’s probability of receiving these two preventive services improved by 2.3% and 2.4% compared to a non-Hispanic white person on Medicaid. We do not find any significant improvements for any racial or ethnic group for cholesterol screenings or pap smears. Furthermore, our results do not indicate any significant changes for Asians compared to non-Hispanic whites in utilizing the four preventive services. These reductions in racial/ethnic disparities are robust to reconfigurations of time periods, previous diagnosis, and residential status. Conclusions: Early effects of the ACA’s provision of free preventive care are significant for Hispanics and African Americans. Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.

Keywords: preventive care, Affordable Care Act, cost sharing, racial disparities

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Authors: Timilehin Martins Oyinloye, Won Byong Yoon

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Simulation technology is being adopted in many industries, with research focusing on the development of new ways in which technology becomes embedded within production, services, and society in general. 3D printing (3DP) technology is fast developing in the food industry. However, the limited processability of high-performance material restricts the robustness of the process in some cases. Significantly, the printability of materials becomes the foundation for extrusion-based 3DP, with residual stress being a major challenge in the printing of complex geometry. In many situations, the trial-a-error method is being used to determine the optimum printing condition, which results in time and resource wastage. In this report, the analysis of 3 moisture levels for surimi paste was investigated for an optimum 3DP material and printing conditions by probing its rheology, flow characteristics in the nozzle, and post-deposition process using the finite element method (FEM) model. Rheological tests revealed that surimi pastes with 82% moisture are suitable for 3DP. According to the FEM model, decreasing the nozzle diameter from 1.2 mm to 0.6 mm, increased the die swell from 9.8% to 14.1%. The die swell ratio increased due to an increase in the pressure gradient (1.15107 Pa to 7.80107 Pa) at the nozzle exit. The nozzle diameter influenced the fluid properties, i.e., the shear rate, velocity, and pressure in the flow field, as well as the residual stress and the deformation of the printed sample, according to FEM simulation. The post-printing stability of the model was investigated using the additive layer manufacturing (ALM) model. The ALM simulation revealed that the residual stress and total deformation of the sample were dependent on the nozzle diameter. A small nozzle diameter (0.6 mm) resulted in a greater total deformation (0.023), particularly at the top part of the model, which eventually resulted in the sample collapsing. As the nozzle diameter increased, the accuracy of the model improved until the optimum nozzle size (1.0 mm). Validation with 3D-printed surimi products confirmed that the nozzle diameter was a key parameter affecting the geometry accuracy of 3DP of surimi paste.

Keywords: 3D printing, deformation analysis, die swell, numerical simulation, surimi paste

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Authors: P. M. G. Pathiraja, P. Egodawatta, A. Goonetilleke, V. S. J. Te'o

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The production and use of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of synthetic halogenated hydrocarbons have been restricted worldwide due to its toxicity and categorized as one of the twelve priority persistent organic pollutants (POP) by the Stockholm Convention. Low reactivity and high chemical stability of PCBs have made them highly persistent in the environment and bio-concentration and bio-magnification along the food chain contribute to multiple health impacts in humans and animals. Remediating environments contaminated with PCBs is a challenging task for decades. Use of microorganisms for remediation of PCB contaminated soils and sediments have been widely investigated due to the potential of breakdown these complex contaminants with minimum environmental impacts. To achieve an effective bioremediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contaminated environments, microbes were sourced from environmental samples and tested for their ability to hydrolyze PCBs under different conditions. Comparison of PCB degradation efficiencies of four naturally occurring facultative bacterial cultures isolated through selective enrichment under aerobic and anaerobic conditions were simultaneously investigated in minimal salt medium using 50 mg/L Aroclor 1260, a commonly used commercial PCB mixture as the sole source of carbon. The results of a six-week study demonstrated that all the tested facultative Achromobacter, Ochrobactrum, Lysinibacillus and Pseudomonas strains are capable of degrading PCBs under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions while assisting hydrophobic PCBs to make solubilize in the aqueous minimal medium. Overall, the results suggest that some facultative bacteria are capable of effective in degrading PCBs under anaerobic conditions through reductive dechlorination and under aerobic conditions through oxidation. Therefore, use of suitable facultative microorganisms under combined anaerobic-aerobic conditions and combination of such strains capable of solubilization and breakdown of PCBs has high potential in achieving higher PCB removal rates.

Keywords: bioremediation, combined anaerobic-aerobic degradation, facultative microorganisms, polychlorinated biphenyls

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Zainab Dahrouch, Beatrix Petrovičová, Claudia Triolo, Fabiola Pantò, Angela Malara, Salvatore Patanè, Maria Allegrini, Saveria Santangelo

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Synthetic dyes dispersed in water cause environmental damage and have harmful effects on human health. Methylene blue (MB) is broadly used as a dye in the textile, pharmaceutical, printing, cosmetics, leather, and food industries. The complete removal of MB is difficult due to the presence of aromatic rings in its structure. The present study is focused on electrospun nanofibers (NFs) with engineered architecture and surface to be used as catalysts for the photodegradation of MB. Ti and/or Zn oxide NFs are produced by electrospinning precursor solutions with different Ti: Zn molar ratios (from 0:1 to 1:0). Subsequent calcination and cooling steps are operated at fast rates to generate porous NFs with capture centers to reduce the recombination rate of the photogenerated charges. The comparative evaluation of the NFs as photocatalysts for the removal of MB from an aqueous solution with a dye concentration of 15 µM under UV irradiation shows that the binary (wurtzite ZnO and anatase TiO₂) oxides exhibit higher catalytic activity compared to ternary (ZnTiO₃ and Zn₂TiO₄) oxides. The higher band gap and lower crystallinity of the ternary oxides are responsible for their lower photocatalytic activity. It has been found that the optimal load for the wurtzite ZnO is 0.66 mg mL⁻¹, obtaining a degradation rate of 7.94.10⁻² min⁻¹. The optimal load for anatase TiO₂ is lower (0.33 mg mL⁻¹) and the corresponding rate constant (1.12×10⁻¹ min⁻¹) is higher. This finding (higher activity with lower load) is of crucial importance for the scaling up of the process on an industrial scale. Indeed, the anatase NFs outperform even the commonly used P25-TiO₂ benchmark. Besides, they can be reused twice without any regeneration treatment, with 5.2% and 18.7% activity decrease after second and third use, respectively. Thanks to the scalability of the electrospinning technique, this laboratory-scale study provides a perspective towards the sustainable large-scale manufacture of photocatalysts for the treatment of industry effluents.

Keywords: anatase, capture centers, methylene blue dye, nanofibers, photodegradation, zinc oxide

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Authors: Sanpetchuda Krutkrua, Suphawatchara Malanond

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Competition law is not a new thing in Thailand. Thailand first passed the first competition law during the Second World War in order to stop business operator monopolizing food and basic living supplies. The competition law in Thailand has been amended several times during the past eighty years in order to make it suitable for the current economic and social condition. In 2017, Thailand enacted the current Trade Competition Act of B.E. 2560, which contain several changes to the regime in order to enhance a prevention of collusive practices and monopolization through both vertical restraints and horizontal restraints. Section 56 of the Act provides exemptions for the vertical relationship; i.e., the arrangement in form of complementary relationship, between business operators, franchising agreements between franchisor and franchisee, and licensing agreement between licensor and licensee. The key is that such agreements must not be excessive, create monopolization or attempt to monopolize, or cause any impacts the consumers regarding price, quality, quantity of the goods. The goal of the paper is to explore the extent of the exemption under Section 56 and its sequential regulations regarding vertical trade restraints in the case intellectual property licensing. The research will be conducted in form of a comparative analysis on exemptions for collusive practices under the United States Antitrust law and the Thai Competition Act of B.E. 2560. The United Antitrust law, fairly similar to the Thai Competition Act of B.E. 2561, views the intellectual property licensing to have pro-competitive benefits to the market as long as the intellectual property licensing agreement does not harm the competition amongst the business operators that could have or would have been competitors. The United States Antitrust law identifies the relationship between the parties of the agreement whether such agreement is horizontal or vertical or both. Even though the nature of licensing agreements is primarily vertical, the relationship between licensor and licensees can also be horizontal if they could have been potential competitors in the market as well. The United States Antitrust law frowns upon, if not prohibits, the horizontal restraints regarding the intellectual property licensing but does not impose the same restrictions on the vertical trade restraints regarding intellectual property licensing.

Keywords: antitrust, competition law, vertical restraint, intellectual property, intellectual property licensing, comparative law

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Authors: Vilma Zydziunaite, Simona Kersiene

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The concept of focused leadership means that the leader gathers the entire community in various ways to communicate and cooperate with each other, to share their knowledge and responsibility, to get involved in problem-solving, to create a safe and trusting environment and to satisfy the needs and interests of each community member. The study's aim is to analyze the teamwork of teachers working in kindergartens and schools and its CEOs by implementing confused leadership. A mixed research design was used for the research study. Quantitative research used the teamwork test "Team-Puls" (2003). Data is processed by the IBM SPSS version 29.0 software package. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection, and qualitative content analysis was applied for data analysis. The results of quantitative research show that there is no statistically significant difference between the evaluation averages of kindergarten and school teachers. Likewise, the effectiveness and evaluation of teacher teamwork in educational institutions depend on different characteristics and processes, such as the number of participating teachers, the involvement of the institution's administration or the stages of team formation. In the qualitative research, the components of the focused leadership categories applied by the kindergarten and school CEOs emerged. The categories reflect the components of shared leadership. In the study, the sharing of responsibilities and cooperation among teachers and the sharing of knowledge among themselves is distinguished. This shows that the action takes place between the teachers when they participate in the processes voluntarily, according to their wishes or for certain reasons. Distributed leadership components occurs when leadership responsibility is extended beyond the school CEO. The components of servant leadership are expressed when the CEO achieves organizational goals in the service of others. Servant leadership is helping and striving for others, creating a safe environment. The level of the educational institution does not affect working teachers in the evaluation of working in a team. Giving freedom to teachers, the role of the CEO is dividing responsibilities and creating cooperation between teachers as well as ensuring teachers' interests, needs, emotional well-being and professional development.

Keywords: teamwork, school, teacher, school CEO, school environment, mixed research, Team-Puls test, semi-structured interview, questioning survey, qualitative content analysis, focused leadership, teacher leadership

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Authors: Vuyayo Tsheleza, Simbarashe Ndhleve, Christopher Mpundu Musampa

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Mismanagement of waste is continuously emerging as a rising malpractice in most developing countries, especially in fast growing cities. Household solid waste in Mthatha has been reported to be one of the problems facing the city and is overwhelming local authorities, as it is beyond the environment and management capacity of the existing waste management system. This study estimates per capita waste generation, quantity of different waste types generated by inhabitants of formal and informal settlements in Mthatha as well as waste management practices in the aforementioned socio-economic stratums. A total of 206 households were systematically selected for the study using stratified random sampling categorized into formal and informal settlements. Data on household waste generation rate, composition, awareness, and household waste management behaviour and practices was gathered through mixed methods. Sampled households from both formal and informal settlements with a total of 684 people generated 1949kg per week. This translates to 2.84kg per capita per week. On average, the rate of solid waste generation per capita was 0.40 kg per day for a person living in informal settlement and 0.56 kg per day person living in formal settlement. When recorded in descending order, the proportion food waste accounted for the most generated waste at approximately 23.7%, followed by disposable nappies at 15%, papers and cardboards 13.34%, glass 13.03%, metals at 11.99%, plastics at 11.58%, residue at 5.17, textiles 3.93%, with leather and rubber at 2.28% as the least generated waste type. Different waste management practices were reported in both formal and informal settlements with formal settlements proving to be more concerned about environmental management as compared to their counterparts, informal settlement. Understanding attitudes and perceptions on waste management, waste types and per capita solid waste generation rate can help evolve appropriate waste management strategies based on the principle of reduce, re-use, recycle, environmental sound disposal and also assist in projecting future waste generation rate. These results can be utilized as input when designing growing cities’ waste management plans.

Keywords: awareness, characterisation, per capita, quantification

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Dyah Larasati, Karishma Alize Huda, Sri Kusumastuti Rahayu, Martin Daniel Siyaranamual

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Indonesia continues to reform its social protection system to provide the needed protection for its citizen. Indonesia Social Protection consisted of social assistance programs (non-contributory/tax-financed) specifically targeted for the poor and at-risk and social security/insurance program (contributory system). The social assistance programs have mostly been implemented since 1998. The national health insurance has been implemented since 2014 and the employment social insurance since 2015. One major reform implemented has been improving the targeting performance of its major social assistance portfolios including (1) Food Assistance for the poor families (Rastra and BPNT/noncash foods assistance); (2) Education Assistance for poor children; (3) Conditional Cash Transfer for poor families (PKH); and (4) Subsidized beneficiaries of National Health Insurance (JKN-PBI) for the poor and at-risk individuals. For the Social Insurance (through BPJS Employment program), several initiatives have been implemented to expand the program contributing members, although it mostly benefits the formal sector workers. However, major gaps still exist especially for the emerging middle-income groups who typically work at the informal sectors. They have yet to get the protection needed to sustain their social and economic growth. Since 2017, TNP2K (the National Team for Poverty Reduction) under the Vice President office has led the social protection discourse as the government understands the need to address vulnerabilities across the lifecycle and prioritize support to the most at-risk population particularly the elderly, young children and people with disabilities. Discussion and advocacy to recommend for more investment is continuing in order for the government to establish a comprehensive social protection system in the near future (2020-2024) that protects children through an inclusive child benefit program; build a system to benefit more working-age adults (including individuals with disabilities) and a three-tier elderly protection as they reach 65 years.

Keywords: poverty reduction, social assistance, social insurance, social protection

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Zahraa Albasry, Hadeel D. Najim, Anmar Al-Taie

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Background: Hypertension is considered as one of the most important causes of cardiovascular complications and one of the leading causes of worldwide mortality. Identifying the potential risk factors associated with this medical health problem plays an important role in minimizing its incidence and related complications. The objective of this study is to explore the prevalence of receptor sensitivity regarding assess and understand the perception of specific predictive confounding factors on the prevalence of hypertension (HT) among a sample of Iraqi population in Baghdad, Iraq. Materials and Methods: A randomized cross sectional study was carried out on 100 adult subjects during their visit to the outpatient clinic at a certain sector of Baghdad Province, Iraq. Demographic, clinical and health records alongside specific screening and laboratory tests of the participants were collected and analyzed to detect the potential of confounding factors on the prevalence of HT. Results: 63% of the study participants suffered from HT, most of them were female patients (P < 0.005). Patients aged between 41-50 years old significantly suffered from HT than other age groups (63.5%, P < 0.001). 88.9% of the participants were obese (P < 0.001) and 47.6% had diabetes with HT. Positive family history and sedentary lifestyle were significantly higher among all hypertensive groups (P < 0.05). High salt and fatty food intake was significantly found among patients suffered from isolated systolic hypertension (ISHT) (P < 0.05). A significant positive correlation between packed cell volume (PCV) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.353, P = 0.048) found among normotensive participants. Among hypertensive patients, a positive significant correlation found between triglycerides (TG) and both SBP (r = 0.484, P = 0.031) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = 0.463, P = 0.040), while low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) showed a positive significant correlation with DBP (r = 0.443, P = 0.021). Conclusion: The prevalence of HT among Iraqi populations is of major concern. Further consideration is required to detect the impact of potential risk factors and to minimize blood pressure (BP) elevation and reduce the risk of other cardiovascular complications later in life.

Keywords: Correlation, Hypertension, Iraq, Risk factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Eleni C. Mazarakioti, Anastasios Zotos, Anna-Akrivi Thomatou, Efthimios Kokkotos, Achilleas Kontogeorgos, Athanasios Ladavos, Angelos Patakas

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“Gigantes Elefantes” is a particularly dynamic crop of giant beans cultivated in western Macedonia (Greece). This variety of large beans growing in this area and specifically in the regions of Prespes and Kastoria is a protected designation of origin (PDO) species with high nutritional quality. Mislabeling of geographical origin and blending with unidentified samples are common fraudulent practices in Greek food market with financial and possible health consequences. In the last decades, multi-elemental composition analysis has been used in identifying the geographical origin of foods and agricultural products. In an attempt to discriminate the authenticity of Greek beans, multi-elemental analysis (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Re, Se, Sr, Ta, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Zn, Zr) was performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) on 320 samples of beans, originated from Greece (Prespes and Kastoria), China and Poland. All samples were collected during the autumn of 2021. The obtained data were analysed by principal component analysis (PCA), an unsupervised statistical method, which allows for to reduce of the dimensionality of the enormous datasets. Statistical analysis revealed a clear separation of beans that had been cultivated in Greece compared with those from China and Poland. An adequate discrimination of geographical origin between bean samples originating from the two Greece regions, Prespes and Kastoria, was also evident. Our results suggest that multi-elemental analysis combined with the appropriate multivariate statistical method could be a useful tool for bean’s geographical authentication. Acknowledgment: This research has been financed by the Public Investment Programme/General Secretariat for Research and Innovation, under the call “YPOERGO 3, code 2018SE01300000: project title: ‘Elaboration and implementation of methodology for authenticity and geographical origin assessment of agricultural products.

Keywords: geographical origin, authenticity, multi-elemental analysis, beans, ICP-MS, PCA

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Hussein Lujuo Mohamed

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Introduction: Public health has always been influenced by climate and weather. Changes in climate and climate variability, particularly changes in weather extremes affect the environment that provides people with clean air, food, water, shelter, and security. Tanzania is not an exception to the threats of climate change. The health sector is mostly affected due to emergence and proliferation of infectious diseases, thereby affecting health of the population and thus impacting achievement of sustainable development goals. Methodology: A desk review on documented issues pertaining to climate change and health in Tanzania was done using Google search engine. Keywords included climate change, link, health, climate initiatives. In cases where information was not available, documents from Ministry of Health, Vice Presidents Office-Environment, Local Government Authority, Ministry of Water, WHO, research, and training institutions were reviewed. Some of the reviewed documents from these institutions include policy brief papers, fieldwork activity reports, training manuals, and guidelines. Results: Six main climate resilience activities were identified in Tanzania. These were development and implementation of climate resilient water safety plans guidelines both for rural and urban water authorities, capacity building of rural and urban water authorities on implementation of climate-resilient water safety plans, and capacity strengthening of local environmental health practitioners on mainstreaming climate change and health into comprehensive council health plans. Others were vulnerability and adaptation assessment for the health sector, mainstreaming climate change in the National Health Policy, and development of risk communication strategy on climate. In addition information, education, and communication materials on climate change and to create awareness were developed aiming to sensitize and create awareness among communities on climate change issues and its effect on public health. Conclusion: Proper implementation of these interventions will help the country become resilient to many impacts of climate change in the health sector and become a good example for other least developed countries.

Keywords: climate, change, Tanzania, health

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Sa’adu Mafara Abubakar, Muhammad Nuraddeen Danjuma, Adewole Tomiwa Adetunji, Richard Mundembe, Salisu Mohammed, Francis Bayo Lewu, Joseph I. Kiok

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Pearl millet is the most drought tolerant of all domesticated cereals, is cultivated extensively to feed millions of people who mainly live in hash agroclimatic zones. It serves as a major source of food for more than 40 million smallholder farmers living in the marginal agricultural lands of Northern Nigeria. Pearl millet grain is more nutritious than other cereals like maize, is also a principal source of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals for millions of poorest people in the regions where it is cultivated. Pearl millet has recorded relatively little research attention compared with other crops and no sufficient work has analyzed its genetic diversity in north-western Nigeria. Therefore, this study was undertaken with the objectives to analyze the genetic diversity of pearl millet accessions using SSR marker and to analyze the extent of evolutionary relationship among pearl millet accessions at the molecular level. The result of the present study confirmed diversity among accessions of pearl millet in the study area. Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers were used for genetic analysis and evolutionary relationship of the accessions of pearl millet. To analyze the level of genetic diversity, 8 polymorphic SSR markers were used to screen 69 accessions collected based on three maturity periods. SSR markers result reveal relationships among the accessions in terms of genetic similarities, evolutionary and ancestral origin, it also reveals a total of 53 alleles recorded with 8 microsatellites and an average of 6.875 per microsatellite, the range was from 3 to 9 alleles in PSMP2248 and PSMP2080 respectively. Moreover, both the factorial analysis and the dendrogram of phylogeny tree grouping patterns and cluster analysis were almost in agreement with each other that diversity is not clustering according to geographical patterns but, according to similarity, the result showed maximum similarity among clusters with few numbers of accessions. It has been recommended that other molecular markers should be tested in the same study area.

Keywords: pearl millet, genetic diversity, simple sequence repeat (SSR)

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Authors: Mehdi Behbahani, Sebastian Rible, Charles Moulinec, Yvan Fournier, Mike Nicolai, Paolo Crosetto

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Computational Fluid Dynamics blood-flow simulations are increasingly used to develop and validate blood-contacting medical devices. This study shows that numerical simulations can provide additional and accurate estimates of relevant hemodynamic indicators (e.g., recirculation zones or wall shear stresses), which may be difficult and expensive to obtain from in-vivo or in-vitro experiments. The most recent FDA (Food and Drug Administration) benchmark consisted of a simplified centrifugal blood pump model that contains fluid flow features as they are commonly found in these devices with a clear focus on highly turbulent phenomena. The FDA centrifugal blood pump study is composed of six test cases with different volumetric flow rates ranging from 2.5 to 7.0 liters per minute, pump speeds, and Reynolds numbers ranging from 210,000 to 293,000. Within the frame of this study different turbulence models were tested including RANS models, e.g. k-omega, k-epsilon and a Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and, LES. The partitioners Hilbert, METIS, ParMETIS and SCOTCH were used to create an unstructured mesh of 76 million elements and compared in their efficiency. Computations were performed on the JUQUEEN BG/Q architecture applying the highly parallel flow solver Code SATURNE and typically using 32768 or more processors in parallel. Visualisations were performed by means of PARAVIEW. Different turbulence models including all six flow situations could be successfully analysed and validated against analytical considerations and from comparison to other data-bases. It showed that an RSM represents an appropriate choice with respect to modeling high-Reynolds number flow cases. Especially, the Rij-SSG (Speziale, Sarkar, Gatzki) variant turned out to be a good approach. Visualisation of complex flow features could be obtained and the flow situation inside the pump could be characterized.

Keywords: blood flow, centrifugal blood pump, high performance computing, scalability, turbulence

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Authors: Vishal Das, Tianyi Mao, Zhicheng Geng, Carmen Flores, Diego Pelloso, Fang Wang

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Accurate sell-in and sell-out forecasting is a ubiquitous problem in the retail industry. It is an important element of any demand planning activity. As a global food and beverage company, Nestlé has hundreds of products in each geographical location that they operate in. Each product has its sell-in and sell-out time series data, which are forecasted on a weekly and monthly scale for demand and financial planning. To address this challenge, Nestlé Chilein collaboration with Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Labhas developed their in-house solution of using machine learning models for forecasting. Similar products are combined together such that there is one model for each product category. In this way, the models learn from a larger set of data, and there are fewer models to maintain. The solution is scalable to all product categories and is developed to be flexible enough to include any new product or eliminate any existing product in a product category based on requirements. We show how we can use the machine learning development environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to explore a set of forecasting models and create business intelligence dashboards that can be used with the existing demand planning tools in Nestlé. We explored recent deep learning networks (DNN), which show promising results for a variety of time series forecasting problems. Specifically, we used a DeepAR autoregressive model that can group similar time series together and provide robust predictions. To further enhance the accuracy of the predictions and include domain-specific knowledge, we designed an ensemble approach using DeepAR and XGBoost regression model. As part of the ensemble approach, we interlinked the sell-out and sell-in information to ensure that a future sell-out influences the current sell-in predictions. Our approach outperforms the benchmark statistical models by more than 50%. The machine learning (ML) pipeline implemented in the cloud is currently being extended for other product categories and is getting adopted by other geomarkets.

Keywords: sell-in and sell-out forecasting, demand planning, DeepAR, retail, ensemble machine learning, time-series

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Authors: Akalework Mengesha

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The adoption of improved agricultural technologies has been connected with higher earnings and lower poverty, enhanced nutritional status, lower staple food prices, and increased employment opportunities for landless laborers. The adoption and extension of the technologies are vastly crucial in that it enables the countries to achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) of reducing extreme poverty and hunger. There are efforts which directed to the enlargement and provision of modern crop varieties in sub-Saharan Africa in the past 30 years. Nevertheless, by and large, the adoption and expansion of rates for improved technologies have insulated behind other regions. This research aims to assess social and economic barriers in the adoption and expansion of agricultural technologies by local communities living around a private agricultural farm in Woliatta Zone, Southern Ethiopia. The study has been carried out among rural households which are located in the three localities selected for the study in the Woliatta zone. Across sectional mixed method, the design was used to address the study objective. The qualitative method was employed (in-depth interview, key informant, and focus group discussion) involving a total of 42 in-depth informants, 17 key-informant interviews, 2 focus group discussions comprising of 10 individuals in each group through purposive sampling techniques. The survey method was mainly used in the study to examine the impact of attitudinal, demographic, and socioeconomic variables on farmers’ adoption of agricultural technologies for quantitative data. The finding of the study revealed that Amibara commercial farm has not made a resolute and well-organized effort to extend agricultural technology to the surrounding local community. A comprehensive agricultural technology transfer scheme hasn’t been put in place by the commercial farm ever since it commenced operating in the study area. Besides, there is an ongoing conflict of interest between the farm and the community, which has kept on widening through time, bounds to be irreversible.

Keywords: adoption, technology transfer, agriculture, barriers

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Matej Komanec, Jan Bohata, Stanislav Zvanovec, Tomas Nemecek, Jan Broucek, Josef Beran

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With the exponential growth of social networks, video streaming and increasing demands on data rates, the number of newly built data centers rises proportionately. The data centers, however, have to adjust to the rapidly increased amount of data that has to be processed. For this purpose, multi-mode (MM) fiber based infrastructures are often employed. It stems from the fact, the connections in data centers are typically realized within a short distance, and the application of MM fibers and components considerably reduces costs. On the other hand, the usage of MM components brings specific requirements for installation service conditions. Moreover, it has to be taken into account that MM fiber components have a higher production tolerance for parameters like core and cladding diameters, eccentricity, etc. Due to the high demands for the reliability of data center components, the determination of properly excited optical field inside the MM fiber core belongs to the key parameters while designing such an MM optical system architecture. Appropriately excited mode field of the MM fiber provides optimal power budget in connections, leads to the decrease of insertion losses (IL) and achieves effective modal bandwidth (EMB). The main parameter, in this case, is the encircled flux (EF), which should be properly defined for variable optical sources and consequent different mode-field distribution. In this paper, we present detailed investigation and measurements of the mode field distribution for short MM links purposed in particular for data centers with the emphasis on reliability and safety. These measurements are essential for large MM network design. The various scenarios, containing different fibers and connectors, were tested in terms of IL and mode-field distribution to reveal potential challenges. Furthermore, we focused on estimation of particular defects and errors, which can realistically occur like eccentricity, connector shifting or dust, were simulated and measured, and their dependence to EF statistics and functionality of data center infrastructure was evaluated. The experimental tests were performed at two wavelengths, commonly used in MM networks, of 850 nm and 1310 nm to verify EF statistics. Finally, we provide recommendations for data center systems and networks, using OM3 and OM4 MM fiber connections.

Keywords: optical fiber, multi-mode, data centers, encircled flux

Procedia PDF Downloads 363