Search results for: multi-well 3d cell culture

Authors: Animesh Pan, Geoffrey D. Bothun

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With the development of nanotechnology, research in multifunctional delivery systems has a new pace and dimension. An incipient challenge is to design an all-in-one delivery system that can be used for multiple purposes, including tumor targeting therapy, radio-frequency (RF-), near-infrared (NIR-), light-, or pH-induced controlled release, photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), and medical diagnosis. In this regard, various inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are known to show great potential as the 'functional components' because of their fascinating and tunable physicochemical properties and the possibility of multiple theranostic modalities from individual NPs. Magnetic, luminescent, and plasmonic properties are the three most extensively studied and, more importantly biomedically exploitable properties of inorganic NPs. Although successful attempts of combining any two of them above mentioned functionalities have been made, integrating them in one system has remained challenge. Keeping those in mind, controlled designs of complex colloidal nanoparticle system are one of the most significant challenges in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Therefore, systematic and planned studies providing better revelation are demanded. We report a multifunctional delivery platform-based liposome loaded with drug, iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), and a gold shell on the surface of liposomes, were synthesized using a lipid with polyelectrolyte (layersomes) templating technique. MNPs and the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) were co-encapsulated inside liposomes composed by zwitterionic phophatidylcholine and anionic phosphatidylglycerol using reverse phase evaporation (REV) method. The liposomes were coated with positively charge polyelectrolyte (poly-L-lysine) to enrich the interface with gold anion, exposed to a reducing agent to form a gold nanoshell, and then capped with thio-terminated polyethylene glycol (SH-PEG2000). The core-shell nanostructures were characterized by different techniques like; UV-Vis/NIR scanning spectrophotometer, dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscope (TEM). This multifunctional system achieves a variety of functions, such as radiofrequency (RF)-triggered release, chemo-hyperthermia, and NIR laser-triggered for photothermal therapy. Herein, we highlight some of the remaining major design challenges in combination with preliminary studies assessing therapeutic objectives. We demonstrate an efficient loading and delivery system to significant cell death of human cancer cells (A549) with therapeutic capabilities. Coupled with RF and NIR excitation to the doxorubicin-loaded core-shell nanostructure helped in securing targeted and controlled drug release to the cancer cells. The present core-shell multifunctional system with their multimodal imaging and therapeutic capabilities would be eminent candidates for cancer theranostics.

Keywords: cancer thernostics, multifunctional nanostructure, photothermal therapy, radiofrequency targeting

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Authors: Young Ik Suh, Sanghak Lee, Tywan G. Martin

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An increasing number of athletes, across all sports, are moving from their home countries to play in foreign countries. The migration of athletes, coaches, managers, and administrators within and between nations is an important aspect of the social and cultural changes taking place in modern, global sports. It is especially important to understand the context of these migrations as they are critical factors in the successful development of sports policies. In previous decades, efforts have been made to understand the motives of migrating athletes from a variety of sports, including rugby, cricket, baseball, and soccer. These studies focused on the athletes’ motivations, experiences as migrants, and recruit process. However, few studies have been conducted in order to understand athletes’ constraints of migration. The concept of constraints in leisure studies refers to the barriers that exist between an individual’s desire for participation and an individual’s real participation. The study of constraints is not a new topic in the fields of sports and recreation. In addition to understanding the motives that drive athletes to work or play in foreign countries, it is also important to recognize that negative dimensions exist that stop some athletes from migrating. Furthermore, little research has explored what makes athletes consider playing in small and unknown volleyball markets, such as the Korean Volleyball League (V-League). The V-League is a professional men’s and women’s volleyball league, started in 2005. It consists of seven men’s clubs, and six women’s clubs and each team has one foreign player. In addition, several limitations are placed on the foreign players, such as on height, position, and salary to play in the V-League. Thus, the main focus of the present research is to understand why foreign athletes (e.g., European, American, Brazil, etc.) are attracted to the V-League, which has a smaller market compared to its neighbors (i.e., China, Japan, and The Philippines). In addition, the current study seeks to identify the negative factors that prevent athletes from playing in the V-League. The participants for this study will be foreign volleyball players participating in the V-League. The investigators will provide a brief introduction to this study and inform the potential participants that they can choose whether to participate in this study. In terms of theoretical saturation, at least 12 participants are generally an adequate number to reach saturation, if they belong to a relatively homogenous group based on culture and ethnicity. This study utilizes a qualitative approach in order to understand the migration experiences foreign volleyball athletes playing in the V-League. The proposed study represents ongoing research to support work conducted by the investigators to understand the possible motivations and constraints for foreign volleyball players playing in the V-League. In addition, significant contributions to scholarship in the field of sports, psychology, and coaching studies will be an outcome of this study along with additions to the body of knowledge in several disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and social work.

Keywords: athletes’ migration, motivation, constraints, volleyball

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Authors: Chiun-C. R. Wang, I-Yu Chiu

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Drying is the most difficult and critical step to control in the dried salted noodles production. Microwave drying has the specific advantage of rapid and uniform heating due to the penetration of microwaves into the body of the product. Microwave-assisted facility offers a quick and energy saving method during food dehydration as compares to the conventional air-dried method for the noodle preparation. Recently, numerous studies in the rheological characteristics of pasta or spaghetti were carried out with microwave–assisted and conventional air driers and many agricultural products were dried successfully. There is very few research associated with the evaluation of physicochemical characteristics and cooking quality of microwave-assisted air dried salted noodles. The purposes of this study were to compare the difference between conventional air and microwave-assisted air drying method on the physicochemical properties and eating quality of rice bran noodles. Three different microwave power including 0.5 KW, 0.75 KW and 1.0 KW installing with 50℃ hot air were applied for dehydration of rice bran noodles in this study. Three proportion of rice bran ranging in 0-20% were incorporated into salted noodles processing. The appearance, optimum cooking time, cooking yield and losses, textural profiles analysis, and sensory evaluation of rice bran noodles were measured in this study. The results indicated that high power (1.0 KW) microwave facility caused partially burnt and porous on the surface of rice bran noodles. However, no significant difference of noodle was appeared on the surface of noodles between low power (0.5 KW) microwave-assisted salted noodles and control set. The optimum cooking time of noodles was decreased as higher power microwave was applied or higher proportion of rice bran was incorporated in the preparation of salted noodles. The higher proportion of rice bran (20%) or higher power of microwave-assisted dried noodles obtained the higher color intensity and the higher cooking losses as compared with conventional air dried noodles. Meanwhile, the higher power of microwave-assisted air dried noodles indicated the larger air cell inside the noodles and appeared little burnt stripe on the surface of noodles. The firmness of cooked rice bran noodles slightly decreased in the cooked noodles which were dried by high power microwave-assisted method. The shearing force, tensile strength, elasticity and texture profiles of cooked rice noodles decreased with the progress of the proportion of rice bran. The results of sensory evaluation indicated conventional dried noodles obtained the higher springiness, cohesiveness and overall acceptability of cooked noodles than high power (1.0 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles. However, low power (0.5 KW) microwave-assisted dried noodles showed the comparable sensory attributes and acceptability with conventional dried noodles. Moreover, the sensory attributes including firmness, springiness, cohesiveness decreased, but stickiness increased with the increases of rice bran proportion in the salted noodles. These results inferred that incorporation of lower proportion of rice bran and lower power microwave-assisted dried noodles processing could produce faster cooking time and more acceptable quality of cooked noodles as compared to conventional dried noodles.

Keywords: white salted noodles, microwave-assisted air drying processing, cooking yield, appearance, texture profiles, scanning electrical microscopy, sensory evaluation

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Authors: Edite Kulmane, Mara Pilmane, Romans Lacis

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Introduction: Acquired heart diseases remain one of the leading health care problems in the world. Changes in myocardium of the diseased hearts are complex and pathogenesis is still not fully clear. The aim of this study was to identify appearance and distribution of apoptosis, homeostasis regulating factors, and innervation and ischemia markers in right atrial tissue in different acquired heart diseases. Methods: During elective open heart surgery were taken right atrial tissue fragments from 12 patients. All patients were operated because of acquired heart diseases- aortic valve stenosis (5 patients), coronary heart disease (5 patients), coronary heart disease and secondary mitral insufficiency (1 patient) and mitral disease (1 patient). The mean age was (mean±SD) 70,2±7,0 years (range 58-83 years). The tissues were stained with haematoxylin and eosin methods for routine light-microscopical examination and for immunohistochemical detection of protein gene peptide 9.5 (PGP 9.5), human atrial natriuretic peptide (hANUP), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), chromogranin A and endothelin. Apoptosis was detected by TUNEL method. Results: All specimens showed degeneration of cardiomyocytes with lysis of myofibrils, diffuse vacuolization especially in perinuclear region, different size of cells and their nuclei. The severe invasion of connective tissue was observed in main part of all fragments. The apoptotic index ranged from 24 to 91%. One specimen showed region of newly performed microvessels with cube shaped endotheliocytes that were positive for PGP 9.5, endothelin, chromogranin A and VEGF. From all fragments, taken from patients with coronary heart disease, there were observed numerous PGP 9.5-containing nerve fibres, except in patient with secondary mitral insufficiency, who showed just few PGP 9.5 positive nerves. In majority of specimens there were regions observed with cube shaped mixed -VEGF immunoreactive endocardial and epicardial cells. Only VEGF positive endothelial cells were observed just in few specimens. There was no significant difference of hANUP secreting cells among all specimens. All patients operated due to the coronary heart disease moderate to numerous number of chromogranin A positive cells were seen while in patients with aortic valve stenosis tissue demonstrated just few factor positive cells. Conclusions: Complex detection of different factors may indicate selectively disordered morphopathogenetical event of heart disease: decrease of PGP 9.5 nerves suggests the decreased innervation of organ; increased apoptosis indicates the cell death without ingrowth of connective tissue; persistent presence of hANUP proves the unchanged homeostasis of cardiomyocytes probably supported by expression of chromogranins. Finally, decrease of VEGF detects the regions of affected blood vessels in heart affected by acquired heart disease.

Keywords: heart, apoptosis, protein-gene peptide 9.5, atrial natriuretic peptide, vascular endothelial growth factor, chromogranin A, endothelin

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Authors: Jelena Kovačević Vorgučin, Sibila Petenji Arbutina

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The postmodern age brings a rapid development of technology which inevitably leads to man's need to adapt to modern lifestyle. On the one hand, technological achievements have made human life easier, but there are numerous risks involved. Moreover, man's awareness and perception is changing and adapting unconsciously to the world we live in, while communication in the 21st century is predominantly based on the consumption of images. This paper presents sociological aspects of a community which is confined due to turbulent political-economic circumstances and its impact on the development of media literacy in Serbia. Previous researches led to the conclusion that the media culture is on an extremely low level, and that it can have a strong influence on the general development of the society, starting from the youngest segment of the population. Our aim is to use the conceptual authorial photographs inspired by the obtained research results to emphasize the importance that the impact of visual art has in delivering the message, its role in education and in raising awareness of universal social problems. The paper presents a number of stages involved in the conceptual project which is designed to last over a longer period of time in order to facilitate dissemination of information. First, a survey was carried out in several preschool institutions. This resulted in obtaining the necessary information on the habitual use of the medium of television in children and their carers-parents. The second stage focused on the relationship between the parent and the child in TV consumption. Further, an overview of the visual part of the project was made, which consisted of photographs in various dimensions, ranging from miniature to large dimensions, and following various exhibition principles in both gallery and alternative spaces. This stage of the project placed particular emphasis on the non-standard exhibiting formats and alternative exhibition principles which are increasingly present in all kinds of visual art aimed at achieving a higher level of information noticing and memorizing. The motif on the authorial photographs is children's portraits taken while they are watching different television contents, with emphasis on their emotional response. The importance of the medium of TV is particularly emphasized due to the fact that its consumption is the highest, even though there are newer and more advanced information-technological achievements. The already realized part of the project was used for an analysis of the results in the last stage of the project, which led to the conclusion that the response to the entire visual expression campaign was extremely positive, and action as such very useful indeed. The results obtained speak in favour of widening and continuation of the project, both on a greater number of sites locally as well as in other communities in Serbia with the aim of guiding people towards meaningful consumption of the television medium.

Keywords: alternative space exhibiting, children and TV, conceptual portrait photography, media literacy

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Authors: Chen Shuwen, Nunthapin Chantachaimongkol

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Since the world has moved into a transitional period, known as globalization; the business environment is now more complicated than ever before. Corporate information has become a matter of great importance for stakeholders, in order to understand the current situation. As a result of this, the concept of corporate governance has been broadly introduced to manage and control the affairs of corporations while businesses are required to disclose both financial and non-financial information to public via various communication channels such as the annual report, the financial report, the company’s website, etc. However, currently there are several other issues related to asymmetric information such as moral hazard or adverse selection that still occur intensively in workplaces. To prevent such problems in the business, it is required to have an understanding of what factors strengthen their transparency, accountability, fairness, and responsibility. Under aforementioned arguments, this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework that enables an investigation on how corporate governance mechanism influences disclosure efficiency of listed companies in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) and the factors that should be considered for further development of good behaviors, particularly in regards to voluntary disclosure practices. To achieve its purpose, extensive reviews of literature are applied as a research methodology. It is divided into three main steps. Firstly, the theories involved with both corporate governance and disclosure practices such as agency theory, contract theory, signaling theory, moral hazard theory, and information asymmetry theory are examined to provide theoretical backgrounds. Secondly, the relevant literatures based on multi- perspectives of corporate governance, its attributions and their roles on business processes, the influences of corporate governance mechanisms on business performance, and the factors determining corporate governance characteristics as well as capability are reviewed to outline the parameters that should be included in the proposed model. Thirdly, the well-known regulatory document OECD principles and previous empirical studies on the corporate disclosure procedures are evaluated to identify the similarities and differentiations with the disclosure patterns in the ASEAN. Following the processes and consequences of the literature review, abundant factors and variables are found. Further to the methodology, additional critical factors that also have an impact on the disclosure behaviors are addressed in two groups. In the first group, the factors which are linked to the national characteristics - the quality of national code, legal origin, culture, the level of economic development, and so forth. Whereas in the second group, the discoveries which refer to the firm’s characteristics - ownership concentration, ownership’s rights, controlling group, and so on. However, because of research limitations, only some literature are chosen and summarized to form part of the conceptual framework that explores the relationship between corporate governance and the disclosure practices of listed companies in ASEAN.

Keywords: corporate governance, disclosure practice, ASEAN, listed company

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Authors: Olatokunbo Yakeem

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Human trafficking is a crime against gross violations of human rights. Trafficking in persons is a severe socio-economic dilemma that affects the national and international dimensions. Human trafficking or modern-day-slavery emanated from slavery, and it has been in existence before the 6ᵗʰ century. Today, no country is exempted from dehumanizing human beings, and as a result, it has been an international issue. The United Nations (UN) presented the International Protocol to fight human trafficking worldwide, which brought about the international definition of human trafficking. The protocol is to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children. The trafficking protocol has a link with transnational organised crime rather than migration. Over a hundred and fifty countries nationwide have enacted their criminal and panel code trafficking legislation from the UN trafficking protocol. Sex trafficking is the most common type of exploitation of women and children. Other forms of this crime involve exploiting vulnerable victims through forced labour, child involvement in warfare, domestic servitude, debt bondage, and organ removal for transplantation. Trafficking of women and children into sexual exploitation represents the highest form of human trafficking than other types of exploitation. Trafficking of women and children can either happen internally or across the border. It affects all kinds of people, regardless of their race, social class, culture, religion, and education levels. However, it is more of a gender-based issue against females. Furthermore, human trafficking can lead to life-threatening infections, mental disorders, lifetime trauma, and even the victim's death. The study's significance is to explore why the root causes of women and children trafficking in Nigeria are based around poverty, entrusting children in the hands of relatives and friends, corruption, globalization, weak legislation, and ignorance. The importance of this study is to establish how the national, regional, and international organisations are using the 3P’s Protection, Prevention, and Prosecution) to tackle human trafficking. The methodology approach for this study will be a qualitative paradigm. The rationale behind this selection is that the qualitative method will identify the phenomenon and interpret the findings comprehensively. The data collection will take the form of semi-structured in-depth interviews through telephone and email. The researcher will use a descriptive thematic analysis to analyse the data by using complete coding. In summary, this study aims to recommend to the Nigerian federal government to include human trafficking as a subject in their educational curriculum for early intervention to prevent children from been coerced by criminal gangs. And the research aims to find the root causes of women and children trafficking. Also, to look into the effectiveness of the strategies in place to eradicate human trafficking globally. In the same vein, the research objective is to investigate how the anti-trafficking bodies such as law enforcement and NGOs collaborate to tackle the upsurge in human trafficking.

Keywords: children, Nigeria, trafficking, women

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Authors: S. Sabatino, V. Calderaro, V. Galdi, G. Graber, L. Ippolito

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Climate change is a rapidly growing global threat caused mainly by increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. These emissions come from multiple sources, including industry, power generation, and the transport sector. The need to tackle climate change and reduce CO₂ emissions is indisputable. A crucial solution to achieving decarbonization in the transport sector is the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). These vehicles use lithium (Li-Ion) batteries as an energy source, making them extremely efficient and with low direct emissions. However, Li-Ion batteries are not without problems, including the risk of overheating and performance degradation. To ensure its safety and longevity, it is essential to use a battery management system (BMS). The BMS constantly monitors battery status, adjusts temperature and cell balance, ensuring optimal performance and preventing dangerous situations. From the monitoring carried out, it is also able to optimally manage the battery to increase its life. Among the parameters monitored by the BMS, the main ones are State of Charge (SoC), State of Health (SoH), and State of Power (SoP). The evaluation of these parameters can be carried out in two ways: offline, using benchtop batteries tested in the laboratory, or online, using batteries installed in moving vehicles. Online estimation is the preferred approach, as it relies on capturing real-time data from batteries while operating in real-life situations, such as in everyday EV use. Actual battery usage conditions are highly variable. Moving vehicles are exposed to a wide range of factors, including temperature variations, different driving styles, and complex charge/discharge cycles. This variability is difficult to replicate in a controlled laboratory environment and can greatly affect performance and battery life. Online estimation captures this variety of conditions, providing a more accurate assessment of battery behavior in real-world situations. In this article, a hybrid approach based on a neural network and a statistical method for real-time estimation of SoC, SoH, and SoP parameters of interest is proposed. These parameters are estimated from the analysis of a one-day driving profile of an electric vehicle, assumed to be divided into the following four phases: (i) Partial discharge (SoC 100% - SoC 50%), (ii) Partial discharge (SoC 50% - SoC 80%), (iii) Deep Discharge (SoC 80% - SoC 30%) (iv) Full charge (SoC 30% - SoC 100%). The neural network predicts the values of ohmic resistance and incremental capacity, while the statistical method is used to estimate the parameters of interest. This reduces the complexity of the model and improves its prediction accuracy. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated by analyzing its performance in terms of square mean error (RMSE) and percentage error (MAPE) and comparing it with the reference method found in the literature.

Keywords: electric vehicle, Li-Ion battery, BMS, state-of-charge, state-of-health, state-of-power, artificial neural networks

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Authors: Reetinder Kaur, R. K. Pathak

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Mental health is recognised as an important global health concern. World Health Organisation in 2004 estimated that neuropsychiatric illnesses in India account for 10.8 percent of the global burden. The prevalence of serious mental illnesses is estimated as 6.5 percent by National Commission of Macroeconomics and Health in 2005. India spends only 0.06 percent of its health budget on mental health. One of the major problems that exist in Indian mental health care is the treatment gap due to scarcity of manpower, inadequate infrastructure and deficiencies in policy initiatives. As a result, traditional healing is a popular resource for mentally ill individuals and their families. The various traditional healing resources include faith healers, healers at temples and Dargahs. Chandigarh is a Union Territory located in North India. It has surplus manpower and infrastructure available for mental health care. Inspite of availability of mental health care services, mentally ill individuals and their families seek help from traditional healers at various Dargahs within or outside Chandigarh. For the present study, the data was collected from four dargahs. A total of thirty patients medically diagnosed with various mental illnesses, their family members who accompanied them and healers were part of this study. The aim of the study was to: Understand the interactions between healer, patient and family members during the course of treatment, understand explanations of mental illnesses and analyse the healing practices in context of culture. The interviews were conducted using an interview guide for the three sets of informants: Healers, patients and family members. The interview guide for healer focussed on the healing process, healer’s understanding of patient’s explanatory models, healer’s knowledge about mental illnesses and types of these illnesses cured by the healer. The interview guide for patients and family members focussed on their understanding of the symptoms, explanations for illness and help-seeking behaviour. The patients were observed over the weeks (every Thursday, the day of pir and healing) during their visits to the healer. Detailed discussions were made with the healer regarding the healing process and benefits of healing. The data was analysed thematically and the themes: The role of sacred, holistic healing, healer’s understanding of patient’s explanatory models of mental illness, the patient’s, and family’s understanding of mental illnesses, healer’s knowledge about mental illnesses, types of mental illnesses cured by the healer, bad dreams and their interpretation emerged. From the analysis of data, it was found that the healers concentrate their interventions in the social arena, ‘curing’ distressed patients by bringing significant changes in their social environment. It is suggested that in order to make the mental health care services effective in India, the collaboration between healers and psychiatrist is essential. However, certain specifications need to be made to make this kind of collaboration successful and beneficial for the stakeholders.

Keywords: Dargah, mental illness, traditional healing, policy

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Authors: Sudha Arlikatti, Laura Siebeneck, Simon A. Andrew

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The objective of this research is to measure organizational resiliency through five attributes namely, rapidity, redundancy, resourcefulness, and robustness and to provide recommendations for resiliency building in flood risk communities. The research was conducted in Thailand following the severe floods of 2011 triggered by Tropical Storm Nock-ten. The floods lasted over eight months starting in June 2011 affecting 65 of the country’s 76 provinces and over 12 million people. Funding from a US National Science Foundation grant was used to collect ephemeral data in rural (Ayutthaya), suburban (Pathum Thani), and urban (Bangkok) provinces of Thailand. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted in Thai with 44 contacts from public, private, and non-profit organizations including universities, schools, automobile companies, vendors, tourist agencies, monks from temples, faith based organizations, and government agencies. Multiple triangulations were used to analyze the data by identifying selective themes from the qualitative data, validated with quantitative data and news media reports. This helped to obtain a more comprehensive view of how organizations in different geographic settings varied in their understanding of what enhanced or hindered their resilience and consequently their speed and capacities to respond. The findings suggest that the urban province of Bangkok scored highest in resourcefulness, rapidity of response, robustness, and ability to rebound. This is not surprising considering that it is the country’s capital and the seat of government, economic, military and tourism sectors. However, contrary to expectations all 44 respondents noted that the rural province of Ayutthaya was the fastest to recover amongst the three. Its organizations scored high on redundancy and rapidity of response due to the strength of social networks, a flood disaster sub-culture due to annual flooding, and the help provided by monks from and faith based organizations. Organizations in the suburban community of Pathum Thani scored lowest on rapidity of response and resourcefulness due to limited and ambiguous warnings, lack of prior flood experience and controversies that government flood protection works like sandbagging favored the capital city of Bangkok over them. Such a micro-level examination of organizational resilience in rural, suburban and urban areas in a country through mixed methods studies has its merits in getting a nuanced understanding of the importance of disaster subcultures and religious norms for resilience. This can help refocus attention on the strengths of social networks and social capital, for flood mitigation.

Keywords: disaster subculture, flood response, organizational resilience, Thailand floods, religious beliefs and response, social capital and disasters

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Authors: Cyril O. Ehi-Eromosele, Ajayi Kayode

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The Li-rich layered metal oxides (LLO) are the most promising candidates for promising electrodes of high energy Li-ion battery (LIB). In literature, these electrode system has either been designed as a hetero-structure of the primary components (composite) or as a core-shell structure with improved electrochemistry reported for both configurations when compared with its primary components. With the on-going efforts to improve on the electrochemical performance of the LIB, it is important to investigate comparatively the structural and electrochemical characteristics of the core-shell like and ‘composite’ forms of these materials with the same compositions and synthesis conditions which could influence future engineering of these materials. Therefore, this study concerns the structural and electrochemical properties of the ‘composite’ and core-shell like LLO cathode materials with the same nominal composition of 0.5Li₂MnO₃-0.5LiNi₀.₅Mn₀.₃Co₀.₂O₂ (LiNi₀.₅Mn₀.₃Co₀.₂O₂ as core and Li₂MnO₃ as the shell). The results show that the core-shell sample (–CS) gave better electrochemical performance than the ‘composite’ sample (–C). Both samples gave the same initial charge capacity of ~300 mAh/g when cycled at 10 mA/g and comparable charge capacity (246 mAh/g for the –CS sample and 240 mAh/g for the –C sample) when cycled at 200 mA/g. However, the –CS sample gave a higher initial discharge capacity at both current densities. The discharge capacity of the –CS sample was 232 mAh/g and 164 mAh/g while the –C sample is 208 mAh/g and 143 mAh/g at the current densities of 10 mA/g and 200 mA/g, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results show that the –CS sample generally exhibited a smaller resistance than the –C sample both for the uncycled and after 50th cycle. Detailed structural analysis is on-going, but preliminary results show that the –CS sample had bigger unit cell volume and a higher degree of cation mixing. The thermal stability of the –CS sample was higher than the –C sample. XPS investigation also showed that the pristine –C sample gave a more reactive surface (showing formation of carbonate species to a greater degree) which could result in the greater resistance seen in the EIS result. To reinforce the results obtained for the 0.5Li₂MnO₃-0.5LiNi₀.₅Mn₀.₃Co₀.₃O₂ composition, the same investigations were extended to another ‘composite’ and core-shell like LLO cathode materials also with the same nominal composition of 0.5Li₂MnO₃-0.5LiNi₀.₃Mn₀.₃Co₀.₃O₂. In this case, the aim was to determine the electrochemical performance of the material using a low Ni content (LiNi₀.₃Mn₀.₃Co₀.₃O₂) as the core to clarify the contributions of the core-shell configuration to the electrochemical performance of these materials. Ni-rich layered oxides show active catalytic surface leading to electrolyte oxidation resulting in poor thermal stability and cycle life. Here, the core-shell sample also gave better electrochemical performance than the ‘composite’ sample with 0.5Li₂MnO₃-0.5LiNi₀.₃Mn₀.₃Co₀.₃O₂ composition. Furthermore, superior electrochemical performance was also recorded for the core-shell like spinel modified LLO (0.5Li₂MnO₃-0.45LiNi₀.₅Mn₀.₃Co₀.₂O₂-0.05LiNi₀.₅Mn₁.₅O₄) when compared to the composite system. These results show that the core-shell configuration can generally be used to improve the structural and electrochemical properties of the LLO and spinel modified LLO materials.

Keywords: lithium-ion battery, lithium rich oxide cathode, core-shell structure, composite structure

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Authors: Douglas N. Simões, Michele Pittol, Vanda F. Ribeiro, Daiane Tomacheski, Ruth M. C. Santana

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The increasing demand of thermoplastic elastomers is related to the wide range of applications, such as automotive, footwear, wire and cable industries, adhesives and medical devices, cell phones, sporting goods, toys and others. These materials are susceptible to microbial attack. Moisture and organic matter present in some areas (such as shower area and sink), provide favorable conditions for microbial proliferation, which contributes to the spread of diseases and reduces the product life cycle. Compounds based on SEBS copolymers, poly(styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene, are a class of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), fully recyclable and largely used in domestic appliances like bath mats and tooth brushes (soft touch). Zinc oxide and zinc ions loaded in personal and home care products have become common in the last years due to its biocidal effect. In that sense, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of zinc as antimicrobial agent in compounds based on SEBS/polypropylene/oil/ calcite for use as refrigerator seals (gaskets), bath mats and sink squeegee. Two zinc oxides from different suppliers (ZnO-Pe and ZnO-WR) and one masterbatch of zinc ions (M-Zn-ion) were used in proportions of 0%, 1%, 3% and 5%. The compounds were prepared using a co-rotating double screw extruder (L/D ratio of 40/1 and 16 mm screw diameter). The extrusion parameters were kept constant for all materials. Tests specimens were prepared using the injection molding machine. A compound with no antimicrobial additive (standard) was also tested. Compounds were characterized by physical (density), mechanical (hardness and tensile properties) and rheological properties (melt flow rate - MFR). The Japan Industrial Standard (JIS) Z 2801:2010 was applied to evaluate antibacterial properties against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) NBR 15275:2014 were used to evaluate antifungal properties against Aspergillus niger (A. niger), Aureobasidium pullulans (A. pullulans), Candida albicans (C. albicans), and Penicillium chrysogenum (P. chrysogenum). The microbiological assay showed a reduction over 42% in E. coli and over 49% in S. aureus population. The tests with fungi showed inconclusive results because the sample without zinc also demonstrated an inhibition of fungal development when tested against A. pullulans, C. albicans and P. chrysogenum. In addition, the zinc loaded samples showed worse results than the standard sample when tested against A. niger. The zinc addition did not show significant variation in mechanical properties. However, the density values increased with the rise in ZnO additives concentration, and had a little decrease in M-Zn-ion samples. Also, there were differences in the MFR results in all compounds compared to the standard.

Keywords: antimicrobial, home device, SEBS, zinc

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Authors: Carolina Gheller Miguens

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Feeding is, and should be, pleasurable for living beings so they desire to nourish themselves while preserving the continuity of the species. Social rites usually revolve around the table and are closely linked to the cultural traditions of each region and social group. Since the beginning, food has been closely linked with the products each region provides, and, also, related to the respective seasons of production. With the globalization and facilities of modern life we are able to find an ever increasing variety of products at any time of the year on supermarket shelves. These lifestyle changes end up directly influencing food traditions. With the era of uncontrolled obesity caused by the dazzle with the large and varied supply of low-priced to ultra-processed industrial products now in the past, today we are living a time when people are putting aside the pleasure of eating to exclusively eat food dictated by the media as healthy. Recently the medicalization of food in our society has become so present in daily life that almost without realizing we make food choices conditioned to the studies of the properties of these foods. The fact that people are more attentive to their health is interesting. However, when this care becomes an obsessive disorder, which imposes itself on the pleasure of eating and extinguishes traditional customs, it becomes dangerous for our recognition as citizens belonging to a culture and society. This new way of living generates a rupture with the social environment of origin, possibly exposing old traditions to oblivion after two or three generations. Based on these facts, the presented study analyzes these social transformations that occur in our society that triggered the current medicalization of food. In order to clarify what is actually a healthy diet, this research proposes a critical analysis on the subject aiming to understand nutritional rationality and relate how it acts in the medicalization of food. A wide bibliographic review on the subject was carried out followed by an exploratory research in online (especially social) media, a relevant source in this context due to the perceived influence of such media in contemporary eating habits. Finally, this data was crossed, critically analyzing the current situation of the concept of healthy eating and medicalization of food. Throughout this research, it was noticed that people are increasingly seeking information about the nutritional properties of food, but instead of seeking the benefits of products that traditionally eat in their social environment, they incorporate external elements that often bring benefits similar to the food already consumed. This is because the access to information is directed by the media and exalts the exotic, since this arouses more interest of the population in general. Efforts must be made to clarify that traditional products are also healthy foods, rich in history, memory and tradition and cannot be replaced by a standardized diet little concerned with the construction of taste and pleasure, having a relationship with food as if it were a Medicinal product.

Keywords: food traditions, food transformations, healthy eating, medicalization of food

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Authors: Isis Ribeiro Berger

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In view of recent war conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, the government of Paraná State, in Brazil, started a program to host Ukrainian scientists in state universities in 2022. The initiative aimed at integrating these scientists into the Brazilian academic community, strengthening the role of universities in producing science and innovation even in times of war, as well as fostering Higher Education internationalization. Paraná state was a pioneer in this initiative due to the fact it has been home to the largest contingent of immigrants and descendants of Ukrainians in Brazil because of migratory processes that began at the end of the 19th century. One of the universities receiving Ukrainian scientists is in Foz do Iguaçu, a city that borders Argentina and Paraguay. It is a multilingual environment, whose majority languages are Portuguese (the official language of Brazil), Spanish (the official language of both Argentina and Paraguay), as well as Guarani (the co-official indigenous language of Paraguay). It is in such a sociolinguistic environment that two Ukrainian professors began their activities within the scope of an Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program (master’s and doctorate degree). This case study, whose theme is the management of multilingualism, was developed within the scope of Language Policy. It aimed at identifying the attitudes of both Ukrainian professors and postgraduate students towards multilingualism in this context, given the plural linguistic repertoire of the academic community, as well as identifying the language management strategies for the construction of knowledge implemented by the program and in the classroom by these participants. Therefore, the study was conducted under a qualitative approach, for which surveys and interviews were adopted as part of its methodological procedures. Data revealed the presence of different languages in the classroom (Portuguese, Spanish, English and Ukrainian), which made pedagogical practices challenging for both professors and students, whose levels of knowledge in the different languages varied significantly. The results indicate that multilingualism was the norm as the means of instruction adopted in this context, in which bilingual Portuguese-English-Ukrainian instruction was used by the professors in their lectures. Although English has been privileged for the internationalization of Higher Education in various contexts, it was not used as an exclusive means of instruction in this case, mostly because it is a predominantly Portuguese-Spanish-speaking environment. In addition, the professors counted on the mediation of an interpreter hired by the program since not every student had sufficient knowledge of English as part of their repertoires. The findings also suggest Portuguese is the language that most of the participants of this study prefer, both because it is the mother tongue of majority, and because it is the official language of the host country to the professors, who have sought to integrate to the local culture and community. This research is inserted in the Axis: Multilingualism and Education, of the UNESCO Chair on Language Policies for Multilingualism to which this study is related.

Keywords: attitudes, border region, multilingualism management, Ukrainian professors

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Authors: Vandana Mohan, Ashwani Koul

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Aim: To evaluate the potential of Aqueous Tinospora cordifolia stem extract (Aq.Tc) and Arabinogalactan (AG) on pulmonary carcinogenesis and associated tumor markers. Background: Lung cancer is one of the most frequent malignancy with high mortality rate due to limitation of early detection resulting in low cure rates. Current research effort focuses on identifying some blood-based biomarkers like CEA, ctDNA and LDH which may have potential to detect cancer at an early stage, evaluation of therapeutic response and its recurrence. Medicinal plants and their active components have been widely investigated for their anticancer potentials. Aqueous preparation of T. Cordifolia extract is enriched in the polysaccharide fraction i.e., AG when compared with other types of extract. Moreover, reports are available of polysaccharide fraction of T. Cordifolia in in vitro lung cancer models which showed profound anti-metastatic activity against these cell lines. However, not much has been explored about its effect in in vivo lung cancer models and the underlying mechanism involved. Experimental Design: Mice were randomly segregated into six groups. Group I animals served as control. Group II animals were administered with Aq. Tc extract (200 mg/kg b.w.) p.o.on the alternate days. Group III animals were fed with AG (7.5 mg/kg b.w.) p.o. on the alternate days (thrice a week). Group IV animals were installed with Benzo(a)pyrene (50 mg/kg b.w.), i.p. twice within an interval of two weeks. Group V animals received Aq. Tc extract as in group II along with it B(a)P was installed after two weeks of Aq. Tc administration following the same protocol as for group IV. Group VI animals received AG as in group III along with it B(a)P was installed after two weeks of AG administration. Results: Administration of B(a)P to mice resulted in increased tumor incidence, multiplicity and pulmonary somatic index with concomitant increase in serum/plasma markers like CEA, ctDNA, LDH and TNF-α.Aq.Tc and AG supplementation significantly attenuated these alterations at different stages of tumorigenesis thereby showing potent anti-cancer effect in lung cancer. A pronounced decrease in serum/plasma markers were observed in animals treated with Aq.Tc as compared to those fed with AG. Also, extensive hyperproliferation of alveolar epithelium was prominent in B(a)P induced lung tumors. However, treatment of Aq.Tc and AG to lung tumor bearing mice exhibited reduced alveolar damage evident from decreased number of hyperchromatic irregular nuclei. A direct correlation between the concentration of tumor markers and the intensity of lung cancer was observed in animals bearing cancer co-treated with Aq.Tc and AG. Conclusion: These findings substantiate the chemopreventive potential of Aq.Tc and AG against lung tumorigenesis. Interestingly, Aq.Tc was found to be more effective in modulating the cancer as reflected by various observations which may be attributed to the synergism offered by various components of Aq.Tc. Further studies are in progress to understand the underlined mechanism in inhibiting lung tumorigenesis by Aq.Tc and AG.

Keywords: Arabinogalactan, Benzo(a)pyrene B(a)P, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Tinospora cordifolia

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Authors: Avadh Bihari

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a global parameter to define corporates' ethical and responsible behaviour. It was a voluntary practice in India till 2013, driven by various guidelines, which has become a mandate since 2014 under the Companies Act, 2013. This has compelled the corporates to redesign their CSR strategies by bringing in structures, planning, accountability, and transparency in their processes with a mandate to 'comply or explain'. Based on the author's M.Phil. dissertation, this paper presents the changes in organisational practices and institutional mechanisms of third-sector organisations (TSOs) with the theoretical frameworks of institutionalism and co-optation. It became an interesting case as India is the only country to have a law on CSR, which is not only mandating the reporting but the spending too. The space of CSR in India is changing rapidly and affecting multiple institutions, in the context of the changing roles of the state, market, and TSOs. Several factors such as stringent regulation on foreign funding, mandatory CSR pushing corporates to look out for NGOs, and dependency of Indian NGOs on CSR funds have come to the fore almost simultaneously, which made it an important area of study. Further, the paper aims at addressing the gap in the literature on the effects of mandated CSR on the functioning of TSOs through the empirical and theoretical findings of this study. The author had adopted an interpretivist position in this study to explore changes in organisational practices from the participants' experiences. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with five corporate officials, eleven officials from six TSOs, and two academicians, located at Mumbai and Delhi, India. The findings of this study show the legislation has institutionalised CSR, and TSOs get co-opted in the process of implementing mandated CSR. Seventy percent of the corporates implement their CSR projects through TSOs in India; this has affected the organisational practices of TSOs to a large extent. They are compelled to recruit expert workforce, create new departments for monitoring & evaluation, communications, and adopt management practices of project implementation from corporates. These are attempts to institutionalise the TSOs so that they can produce calculated results as demanded by corporates. In this process, TSOs get co-opted in a struggle to secure funds and lose their autonomy. The normative, coercive, and mimetic isomorphisms of institutionalism come into play as corporates are mandated to take up CSR, thereby influencing the organisational practices of TSOs. These results suggest that corporates and TSOs require an understanding of each other's work culture to develop mutual respect and work towards the goal of sustainable development of the communities. Further, TSOs need to retain their autonomy and understanding of ground realities without which they become an extension of the corporate-funder. For a successful CSR project, engagement beyond funding is required from corporate, through their involvement and not interference. CSR-led community development can be structured by management practices to an extent, but cannot overshadow the knowledge and experience of TSOs.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, institutionalism, organisational practices, third-sector organisations

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Authors: Liliana Gomez Cardona, Mary McComber, Kristyn Brown, Arlene Laliberté, Outi Linnaranta

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The history of colonialism and more contemporary political issues have resulted in the exposure of Kanien'kehá:ka: non (Kanien'kehá:ka of Kahnawake) to challenging and even traumatic experiences. Colonization, religious missions, residential schools as well as economic and political marginalization are the factors that have challenged the wellbeing and mental health of these populations. In psychiatry, screening for mental illness is often done using questionnaires with which the patient is expected to respond to how often he/she has certain symptoms. However, the Indigenous view of mental wellbeing may not fit well with this approach. Moreover, biomedical treatments do not always meet the needs of Indigenous people because they do not understand the culture and traditional healing methods that persist in many communities. Assess whether the questionnaires used to measure symptoms, commonly used in psychiatry are appropriate and culturally safe for the Mohawk in Quebec. Identify the most appropriate tool to assess and promote wellbeing and follow the process necessary to improve its cultural sensitivity and safety for the Mohawk population. Qualitative, collaborative, and participatory action research project which respects First Nations protocols and the principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP). Data collection based on five focus groups with stakeholders working with these populations and members of Indigenous communities. Thematic analysis of the data collected and emerging through an advisory group that led a revision of the content, use, and cultural and conceptual relevance of the instruments. The questionnaires measuring psychiatric symptoms face significant limitations in the local indigenous context. We present the factors that make these tools not relevant among Mohawks. Although the scale called Growth and Empowerment Measure (GEM) was originally developed among Indigenous in Australia, the Mohawk in Quebec found that this tool comprehends critical aspects of their mental health and wellbeing more respectfully and accurately than questionnaires focused on measuring symptoms. We document the process of cultural adaptation of this tool which was supported by community members to create a culturally safe tool that helps in growth and empowerment. The cultural adaptation of the GEM provides valuable information about the factors affecting wellbeing and contributes to mental health promotion. This process improves mental health services by giving health care providers useful information about the Mohawk population and their clients. We believe that integrating this tool in interventions can help create a bridge to improve communication between the Indigenous cultural perspective of the patient and the biomedical view of health care providers. Further work is needed to confirm the clinical utility of this tool in psychological and psychiatric intervention along with social and community services.

Keywords: cultural adaptation, cultural safety, empowerment, Mohawks, mental health, Quebec

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Authors: Xabier Barandiaran, Igone Guerra

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The economic and financial crisis that hit European countries in 2008 revealed the inability of governments to respond unilaterally to the so-called “wicked” problems that affect our societies. Closely linked to this, the increasing disaffection of citizens towards politics has resulted in growing distrust of the citizenry not only in the institutions in general but also in the political system, in particular. Precisely, these two factors provoked the action of the local government of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country) to move from old ways of “doing politics” to a new way of “thinking politics” based on a collaborative approach, in which innovative modes of public decision making are prominent. In this context, in 2015, the initiative Etorkizuna Eraikiz (Building the Future), a contemporary form of networked governance, was launched by the Provincial Government. The paper focuses on the Etorkizuna Eraikiz initiative, a sound commitment from a local government to build jointly with the citizens the future of the territory. This paper will present preliminary results obtained from three different experiences of co-creation developed within Etorkizuna Eraikiz in which the formulation of networked governance is a mandatory pre-requisite. These experiences show how the network building approach among the different agents of the territory as well as the co-creation of public policies is the cornerstone of this challenging mission. Through the analysis of the information and documentation gathered during the four years of Etorkizuna-Eraikiz, and, specifically by delving into the strategy promoted by the initiative, some emerging analytical conclusions resulting from the promotion of this collaborative culture will be presented. For example, some preliminary results have shown a significant positive relationship between shared leadership and the formulation of the public good. In the period 2016-2018, a total of 73 projects were launched and funding by the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa within the Etorkizuna Eraikiz initiative, that indicates greater engagement of the citizenry in the process of policy-making and therefore improving, somehow, the quality of the public policies. These statements have been supported by the last survey about the perspectives of the citizens toward politics and policies. Some of the more prominent results show us that there is still a high level of distrust in Politics (78,9% of respondents) but a greater trust in institutions such the Political Government of Gipuzkoa (40,8% of respondents declared as “good” the performance of this provincial institution). Regarding the Etorkizuna Eraikiz Initiative, it is being more readily recognized by citizens over this period of time (25,4% of the respondents in June 2018 agreed to know about the initiative giving it a mark of 5,89 ) and thus build trust and a sense of ownership. Although, there is a clear requirement for further research on the linkages between collaborative governance and level of trust, the paper, based on these findings, will provide some managerial and theoretical implications for collaborative governance in the territory.

Keywords: network governance, collaborative governance, public sector innovation, citizen participation, trust

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Authors: Maria V. Mishatkina

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The modelling of dialogical environment is an essential feature of modern education. The dialogue of cultures is a foundation and an important prerequisite for a formation of a human’s main moral qualities such as an ability to understand another person, which is manifested in such values as tolerance, respect, mutual assistance and mercy. A formation of a modern expert occurs in an educational environment that is significantly different from what we had several years ago. Nowadays university education has qualitatively new characteristics. They may be observed in Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), a top Russian higher education institution which unites representatives of more than 150 countries. The content of its educational strategies is not an adapted cultural experience but material between science and innovation. Besides, RUDN University’s profiles and specialization are not equal to the professional structures. People study not a profession in a strict sense but a basic scientific foundation of an activity in different socio-cultural areas (science, business and education). RUDN University also provides a considerable unit of professional education components. They are foreign languages skills, economic, political, ethnic, communication and computer culture, theory of information and basic management skills. Moreover, there is a rich social life (festive multicultural events, theme parties, journeys) and prospects concerning the inclusive approach to education (for example, a special course ‘Social Pedagogy: Issues of Tolerance’). In our research, we use such methods as analysis of modern and contemporary scientific literature, opinion poll (involving students, teachers and research workers) and comparative data analysis. We came to the conclusion that knowledge transfer of RUDN student in the activity happens through making goals, problems, issues, tasks and situations which simulate future innovative ambiguous environment that potentially prepares him/her to dialogical way of life. However, all these factors may not take effect if there is no ‘personal inspiration’ of students by communicative and dialogic values, their participation in a system of meanings and tools of learning activity that is represented by cooperation within the framework of scientific and pedagogical schools dialogue. We also found out that dominating strategies of ensuring the quality of education are those that put students in the position of the subject of their own education. Today these strategies and approaches should involve such approaches and methods as task, contextual, modelling, specialized, game-imitating and dialogical approaches, the method of practical situations, etc. Therefore, University in the modern sense is not only an educational institution, but also a generator of innovation, cooperation among nations and cultural progress. RUDN University has been performing exactly this mission for many decades.

Keywords: dialogical developing situation, dialogue of cultures, readiness for dialogue, university graduate

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Authors: Mirjana Dokmanovic

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The main topic of this paper is the analysis of the presence of gender stereotypes in the media content in the Republic of Serbia with respect to the state commitments to eliminate discrimination against women. The research methodology included the analysis of the media content of six daily newspapers and two magazines on the date of 28 December 2015 and the analysis of the reality TV show programs in 2015 from gender perspective. The methods of the research has also included a desk research and a qualitative analysis of the available data, statistics, policy papers, studies, and reports produced by the government, the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, the Press Council, the associations of media professionals, the independent human rights bodies, and civil society organizations (CSOs). As a State Signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Republic of Serbia has adopted numerous measures in this field, including the Law on Equality between Sexes and the national gender equality strategies. Special attention has been paid to eliminating gender stereotypes and prejudices in the media content and portraying of women. This practice has been forbidden by the Law on Electronic Media, the Law on Public Information and Media, the Law on Public Service Broadcasting and the Bylaw on the Protection of Human Rights in the Provision of Media Services. Despite these commitments, there has not been achieved progress regarding eliminating gender stereotypes in the media content. The research indicates that the media perpetuate traditional gender roles and patriarchal patterns. Female politicians, entrepreneurs, academics, scientists, and engineers have been very rarely portrayed in the media. On the other side, women are in their focus as celebrities, singers, and actresses. Women are underrepresented in the pages related to politics and economy, while they are mostly present in the cover stories related to show-business, health care, family and household matters. Women are three times more than men identified on the basis of their family status, as mothers, wives, daughters, etc. Hate speech, misogyny, and violence against women are often present in the reality TV shows. The abuse of women and their bodies in advertising is still widely present. The cases of domestic violence are still presented with sensationalism, although there has been achieved progress in portraying victims of domestic violence with respect and dignity. The issues related to gender equality and the position of the vulnerable groups of women, such as Roma women or rural women, are not visible in the media. This research, as well as warnings of women’s CSOs and independent human rights bodies, indicates the necessity to implement legal and policy measures in this field consistently and with due diligence. The aim of the paper is to contribute eliminating gender stereotypes in the media content and advancing gender equality.

Keywords: discrimination against women, gender roles, gender stereotypes, media, misogyny, portraying women in the media, prejudices against women, Republic of Serbia

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Authors: Julia A. Ermakova

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In today's multicultural societies, dialogue, self-respect, and cultural etiquette play a vital role in fostering mutual respect and understanding. Whether viewed from an Islamic or secular perspective, the importance of these values cannot be overstated. Firstly, dialogue is essential in multicultural societies as it allows individuals from different cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas, opinions, and experiences. To engage in dialogue, one must be open and willing to listen, understand, and respect the views of others. This requires a level of self-awareness, where individuals must know themselves and their interlocutors to create a productive and respectful conversation. Secondly, self-respect is crucial for individuals living in multicultural societies (McLarney). One must have adequately high self-esteem and self-confidence to interact with others positively. By valuing oneself, individuals can create healthy relationships and foster mutual respect, which is essential in diverse communities. Thirdly, cultural etiquette is a way of demonstrating the beauty of one's culture by exhibiting good temperament (Al-Ghazali). Adab, a concept that encompasses good manners, praiseworthy words and deeds, and the pursuit of what is considered good, is highly valued in Islamic teachings. By adhering to Adab, individuals can guard against making mistakes and demonstrate respect for others. Islamic teachings provide etiquette for every situation in life, making up the way of life for Muslims. In the Islamic view, an elegant Muslim woman has several essential qualities, including cultural speech and erudition, speaking style, awareness of how to greet, the ability to receive compliments, lack of desire to argue, polite behavior, avoiding personal insults, and having good intentions (Al-Ghazali). The Quran highlights the inclination of people towards arguing, bickering, and disputes (Qur'an, 4:114). Therefore, it is imperative to avoid useless arguments and disputes, for they are poison that poisons our lives. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, warned that the most hateful person to Allah is an irreconcilable disputant (Al-Ghazali). By refraining from such behavior, individuals can foster respect and understanding in multicultural societies. From a secular perspective, respecting the views of others is crucial to engage in productive dialogue. The rule of argument emphasizes the importance of showing respect for the other person's views, allowing for the possibility of error on one's part, and avoiding telling someone they are wrong (Atamali). By exhibiting polite behavior and having respect for everyone, individuals can create a welcoming environment and avoid conflict. In conclusion, the importance of dialogue, self-respect, and cultural etiquette in multicultural societies cannot be overstated. By engaging in dialogue, respecting oneself and others, and adhering to cultural etiquette, individuals can foster mutual respect and understanding in diverse communities. Whether viewed from an Islamic or secular perspective, these values are essential for creating harmonious societies.

Keywords: multiculturalism, self-respect, cultural etiquette, adab, ethics, secular perspective

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Authors: Luiza Toschi

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This work presents part of an empirical and theoretical master's degree meta-research that is interested in the relationship between the disciplinary area of Social Communication, to be investigated with the characteristics of the Bourdieusian scientific field, and the emergence of public interest in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in Brazil and the world. To this end, the state of the art of this conceptual and practical relationship is investigated based on scientific productions available in spaces of academic credibility, such as conferences and scientific journals renowned in the field. From there, agents and the sociological aspects that make them contribute or not to scientific production in Brazil and the world are mapped. In this work, a brief dive into the international context is presented to understand if and how nonviolent communication permeates scientific production in communication in a systematic way. Using three accessible articles published between 2013 and 2022 in the 117 magazines classified as Quartiles Q1 in the Journal Ranking of Communication, the international production on the subject is compared with the Brazilian one from its context. The social conditions of the international circulation of ideas are thus discussed. Science is a product of its social environment, arising from relations of interest and power that compete in the political dimension at the same time as in the epistemological dimension. In this way, scientific choices are linked to the resources mobilized from or through the prestige and recognition of peers. In this sense, an object of interest stands out to a scientist for its academic value, but also and inseparably that which has a social interest within the collective, their social stratification, and the context of legitimacy created in their surroundings, influenced by cultural universalism. In Brazil, three published articles were found in congresses and journals that mention NVC in their abstract or keywords. All were written by Public Relations undergraduate students. Between the most experienced researchers who guided or validated the publications, it is possible to find two professionals who are interested in the Culture of Peace and Dialogy. Likewise, internationally, only three of the articles found mention the term in their abstract or title. Two analyze journalistic coverage based on the principles of NVC and Journalism for Peace. The third is from one of the Brazilian researchers identified as interested in dialogic practices, who analyses audiovisual material and promotes epistemological reflections. If, on the one hand, some characteristics inside and outside Brazil are similar: small samples, relationship with peace studies, and female researchers, two of whom are Brazilian, on the other hand, differences are obvious. If within the country, the subject is mostly Organizational Communication, outside this intersection, it is not presented explicitly. Furthermore, internationally, there is an interest in analyzing from the perspective of NVC, which has not been found so far in publications in Brazil. Up to the present moment, it is possible to presume that, universally, the legitimacy of the topic is sought by its association with conflict conciliation research and communication for peace.

Keywords: academic field sociology, international circulation of ideas, meta research in communication, nonviolent communication

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Authors: X. King, E. Nazarzadeh, J. Reboud, J. Cooper

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Pulmonary diseases, such as asthma, are generally treated by the inhalation of aerosols that has the advantage of reducing the off-target (e.g., toxicity) effects associated with systemic delivery in blood. Effective respiratory drug delivery requires a droplet size distribution between 1 and 5 µm. Inhalation of aerosols with wide droplet size distribution, out of this range, results in deposition of drug in not-targeted area of the respiratory tract, introducing undesired side effects on the patient. In order to solely deliver the drug in the lower branches of the lungs and release it in a targeted manner, a control mechanism to produce the aerosolized droplets is required. To regulate the drug release and to facilitate the uptake from cells, drugs are often encapsulated into protective liposomes. However, a multistep process is required for their formation, often performed at the formulation step, therefore limiting the range of available drugs or their shelf life. Using surface acoustic waves (SAWs), a pulmonary drug delivery platform was produced, which enabled the formation of defined size aerosols and the formation of liposomes in situ. SAWs are mechanical waves, propagating along the surface of a piezoelectric substrate. They were generated using an interdigital transducer on lithium niobate with an excitation frequency of 9.6 MHz at a power of 1W. Disposable silicon superstrates were etched using photolithography and dry etch processes to create an array of cylindrical through-holes with different diameters and pitches. Superstrates were coupled with the SAW substrate through water-based gel. As the SAW propagates on the superstrate, it enables nebulisation of a lipid solution deposited onto it. The cylindrical cavities restricted the formation of large drops in the aerosol, while at the same time unilamellar liposomes were created. SAW formed liposomes showed a higher monodispersity compared to the control sample, as well as displayed, a faster production rate. To test the aerosol’s size, dynamic light scattering and laser diffraction methods were used, both showing the size control of the aerosolised particles. The use of silicon superstate with cavity size of 100-200 µm, produced an aerosol with a mean droplet size within the optimum range for pulmonary drug delivery, containing the liposomes in which the medicine could be loaded. Additionally, analysis of liposomes with Cryo-TEM showed formation of vesicles with narrow size distribution between 80-100 nm and optimal morphology in order to be used for drug delivery. Encapsulation of nucleic acids in liposomes through the developed SAW platform was also investigated. In vitro delivery of siRNA and DNA Luciferase were achieved using A549 cell line, lung carcinoma from human. In conclusion, SAW pulmonary drug delivery platform was engineered, in order to combine multiple time consuming steps (formation of liposomes, drug loading, nebulisation) into a unique platform with the aim of specifically delivering the medicament in a targeted area, reducing the drug’s side effects.

Keywords: acoustics, drug delivery, liposomes, surface acoustic waves

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Authors: Ružica Tomičić, Zorica Tomičić, Peter Raspor

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An abundant growth of unwanted yeasts in food processing plants can lead to problems in quality and safety with significant financial losses. Candida and Pichia are the genera mainly involved in spoilage of products in the food and beverage industry. These contaminating microorganisms can form biofilms on food contact surfaces, being difficult to eradicate, increasing the probability of microbial survival and further dissemination during food processing. It is well known that biofilms are more resistant to antimicrobial agents compared to planktonic cells and this makes them difficult to eliminate. Among the strategies used to overcome resistance to antifungal drugs and preservatives, the use of natural substances such as plant extracts has shown particular promise, and many natural substances have been found to exhibit antifungal properties. This study aimed to investigated the impact of growth medium (Malt Extract broth (MEB) or Yeast Peptone Dextrose (YPD) broth) and temperatures (7°C, 37°C, 43°C for Candida strains and 7°C, 27°C, 32°C for Pichia strains) on the adhesion of Candida spp. and Pichia spp. to stainless steel (AISI 304) discs with different degrees of surface roughness (Ra = 25.20 – 961.9 nm), a material commonly used in the food industry. We also evaluated the antifungal and antiadhesion activity of plant extracts such as Humulus lupulus, Alpinia katsumadai and Evodia rutaecarpa against C. albicans, C glabrata and P. membranifaciens and investigated whether these plant extracts can interfere with biofilm formation. The adhesion was assessed by the crystal violet staining method, while the broth microdilution method CLSI M27-A3 was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of plant extracts. Our results indicated that the nutrient content of the medium significantly influenced the amount of adhered cells of the tested yeasts. The growth medium which resulted in a higher adhesion of C. albicans and C. glabrata was MEB, while for C. parapsilosis and C. krusei was YPD. In the case of P. pijperi and P. membranifaciens, YPD broth was more effective in promoting adhesion than MEB. Regarding the effect of temperature, C. albicans strain adhered to stainless steel surfaces in significantly higher level at a temperature of 43°C, while on the other hand C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis and C. krusei showed a different behavior with significantly higher adhesion at 37°C than at 7°C and 43°C. Further, the adherence ability of Pichia strains was highest at 27°C. Based on the MIC values, all plant extracts exerted significant antifungal effects with MIC values ranged from 100 to 400 μg/mL. It was observed that biofilm of C. glabrata were more resistance to plant extracts as compared to C. albicans. However, extracts of A. katsumadai and E. rutaecarpa promoted the growth and development of the preformed biofilm of P. membranifaciens. Thus, the knowledge of how these microorganisms adhere and which factors affect this phenomenon is of great importance in order to avoid their colonization on food contact surfaces.

Keywords: adhesion, Candida spp., Pichia spp., plant extracts

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Authors: Hanan M. Hassan, Laila Abouzeid, Lamya H. Al-Wahaibi, George S. G. Shehatou, Ali A. El-Emam

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Cancer is a major public health problem and the second leading cause of death worldwide. In 2020, cancer diagnosis and treatment have been negatively affected by the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. During the quarantine, because of the limited access to healthcare and avoiding exposure to COVID-19 as a contagious disease; patients of cancer suffered deferments in follow-up and treatment regimens leading to substantial worsening of disease, death, and increased healthcare costs. Thus, this study is designed to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which adamantne derivatives attenuate hepatocllular carcinoma experimentally and theoretically. There is a close association between increased resistance to anticancer drugs and defective apoptosis that considered a causative factor for oncogenesis. Cancer cells use different molecular pathways to inhibit apoptosis, BAX and Bcl-2 proteins have essential roles in the progression or inhibition of intrinsic apoptotic pathways triggered by mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, their balance ratio can promote the cellular apoptotic fate. In this study, the in vitro cytotoxic effects of seven synthetic adamantyl isothiorea derivatives were evaluated against five human tumor cell lines by MTT assay. Compounds 5 and 6 showed the best results, mostly against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hence, in vivo studies were performed in male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats in which experimental hepatocellular carcinoma was induced with thioacetamide (TAA) (200 mg/kg, i.p., twice weekly) for 16 weeks. The most promising compounds, 5 and 6, were administered to treat liver cancer rats at a dose of 10 mg/kg/day for an additional two weeks, and the effects were compared with doxorubicin (DR), the anticancer drug. Hepatocellular carcinoma was evidenced by a dramatic increase in liver indices, oxidative stress markers, and immunohistochemical studies that were accompanied by a plethora of inflammatory mediators and alterations in the apoptotic cascade. Our results showed that treatment with adamantane derivatives 5 and 6 significantly suppressed fibrosis, inflammation, and other histopathological insults resulting in the diminished formation of hepatocyte tumorigenesis. Moreover, administration of the tested compounds resulted in amelioration of EGFR protein expression, upregulation of BAX, and lessening down of Bcl-2 levels that prove their role as apoptosis inducers. Also, the docking simulations performed for adamantane showed good fit and binding to the EGFR protein through hydrogen bond formation with conservative amino acids, which gives a shred of strong evidence for its hepatoprotective effect. In most analyses, the effects of compound 6 were more comparable to DR than compound 5. Our findings suggest that adamantane derivatives 5 and 6 are shown to have cytotoxic activity against HCC in vitro and in vivo, by more than one mechanism, possibly by inhibiting the TLR4-MyD88-NF-κB pathway and targeting EGFR signaling.

Keywords: adamantane, EGFR, HCC, apoptosis

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Authors: Kaushiki Sanyal, Rajesh Chakrabarti

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In India, on average, about 60 Bills are passed every year in both Houses of Parliament – Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (calculated from information on websites of both Houses). These are debated in both Lok Sabha (House of Commons) and Rajya Sabha (Council of States) before they are passed. However, lawmakers rarely use empirical evidence to make a case for a law. Most of the time, they support a law on the basis of anecdote, intuition, and common sense. While these do play a role in law-making, without the necessary empirical evidence, laws often fail to achieve their desired results. The quality of legislative debates is an indicator of the efficacy of the legislative process through which a Bill is enacted. However, the study of legislative debates has not received much attention either in India or worldwide due to the difficulty of objectively measuring the quality of a debate. Broadly, three approaches have emerged in the study of legislative debates. The rational-choice or formal approach shows that speeches vary based on different institutional arrangements, intra-party politics, and the political culture of a country. The discourse approach focuses on the underlying rules and conventions and how they impact the content of the debates. The deliberative approach posits that legislative speech can be reasoned, respectful, and informed. This paper aims to (a) develop a framework to judge the quality of debates by using the deliberative approach; (b) examine the legislative debates of three Bills passed in different periods as a demonstration of the framework, and (c) examine the broader structural issues that disincentive MPs from scrutinizing Bills. The framework would include qualitative and quantitative indicators to judge a debate. The idea is that the framework would provide useful insights into the legislators’ knowledge of the subject, the depth of their scrutiny of Bills, and their inclination toward evidence-based research. The three Bills that the paper plans to examine are as follows: 1. The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985: This act was passed to curb drug trafficking and abuse. However, it mostly failed to fulfill its purpose. Consequently, it was amended thrice but without much impact on the ground. 2. The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2013: This act amended the Indian Penal Code to add a section on human trafficking. The purpose was to curb trafficking and penalise traffickers, pimps, and middlemen. However, the crime rate remains high while the conviction rate is low. 3. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021: This act bans commercial surrogacy allowing only relatives to act as surrogates as long as there is no monetary payment. Experts fear that instead of preventing commercial surrogacy, it would drive the activity underground. The consequences would be borne by the surrogate, who would not be protected by law. The purpose of the paper is to objectively analyse the quality of parliamentary debates, get insights into how MPs understand the evidence and deliberate on steps to incentivise them to use empirical evidence.

Keywords: legislature, debates, empirical, India

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Authors: Yohann R. J. Thomas, Sébastien Solan

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Conventional battery technology includes the assembly of electrode/separator/electrode by standard techniques such as stacking or winding, depending on the format size. In that type of batteries, coating or pasting techniques are only used for the electrode process. The processes are suited for large scale production of batteries and perfectly adapted to plenty of application requirements. Nevertheless, as the demand for both easier and cost-efficient production modes, flexible, custom-shaped and efficient small sized batteries is rising. Thin-film, printable batteries are one of the key areas for printed electronics. In the frame of European BASMATI project, we are investigating the feasibility of a new design of lithium-ion battery: interdigitated planar core design. Polymer substrate is used to produce bendable and flexible rechargeable accumulators. Direct fully printed batteries lead to interconnect the accumulator with other electronic functions for example organic solar cells (harvesting function), printed sensors (autonomous sensors) or RFID (communication function) on a common substrate to produce fully integrated, thin and flexible new devices. To fulfill those specifications, a high resolution printing process have been selected: Aerosol jet printing. In order to fit with this process parameters, we worked on nanomaterials formulation for current collectors and electrodes. In addition, an advanced printed polymer-electrolyte is developed to be implemented directly in the printing process in order to avoid the liquid electrolyte filling step and to improve safety and flexibility. Results: Three different current collectors has been studied and printed successfully. An ink of commercial copper nanoparticles has been formulated and printed, then a flash sintering was applied to the interdigitated design. A gold ink was also printed, the resulting material was partially self-sintered and did not require any high temperature post treatment. Finally, carbon nanotubes were also printed with a high resolution and well defined patterns. Different electrode materials were formulated and printed according to the interdigitated design. For cathodes, NMC and LFP were efficaciously printed. For anodes, LTO and graphite have shown to be good candidates for the fully printed battery. The electrochemical performances of those materials have been evaluated in a standard coin cell with lithium-metal counter electrode and the results are similar with those of a traditional ink formulation and process. A jellified plastic crystal solid state electrolyte has been developed and showed comparable performances to classical liquid carbonate electrolytes with two different materials. In our future developments, focus will be put on several tasks. In a first place, we will synthesize and formulate new specific nano-materials based on metal-oxyde. Then a fully printed device will be produced and its electrochemical performance will be evaluated.

Keywords: high resolution digital printing, lithium-ion battery, nanomaterials, solid-state electrolytes

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Authors: Binder Hans

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Cancer is no longer seen as solely a genetic disease where genetic defects such as mutations and copy number variations affect gene regulation and eventually lead to aberrant cell functioning which can be monitored by transcriptome analysis. It has become obvious that epigenetic alterations represent a further important layer of (de-)regulation of gene activity. For example, aberrant DNA methylation is a hallmark of many cancer types, and methylation patterns were successfully used to subtype cancer heterogeneity. Hence, unraveling the interplay between different omics levels such as genome, transcriptome and epigenome is inevitable for a mechanistic understanding of molecular deregulation causing complex diseases such as cancer. This objective requires powerful downstream integrative bioinformatics methods as an essential prerequisite to discover the whole genome mutational, transcriptome and epigenome landscapes of cancer specimen and to discover cancer genesis, progression and heterogeneity. Basic challenges and tasks arise ‘beyond sequencing’ because of the big size of the data, their complexity, the need to search for hidden structures in the data, for knowledge mining to discover biological function and also systems biology conceptual models to deduce developmental interrelations between different cancer states. These tasks are tightly related to cancer biology as an (epi-)genetic disease giving rise to aberrant genomic regulation under micro-environmental control and clonal evolution which leads to heterogeneous cellular states. Machine learning algorithms such as self organizing maps (SOM) represent one interesting option to tackle these bioinformatics tasks. The SOMmethod enables recognizing complex patterns in large-scale data generated by highthroughput omics technologies. It portrays molecular phenotypes by generating individualized, easy to interpret images of the data landscape in combination with comprehensive analysis options. Our image-based, reductionist machine learning methods provide one interesting perspective how to deal with massive data in the discovery of complex diseases, gliomas, melanomas and colon cancer on molecular level. As an important new challenge, we address the combined portrayal of different omics data such as genome-wide genomic, transcriptomic and methylomic ones. The integrative-omics portrayal approach is based on the joint training of the data and it provides separate personalized data portraits for each patient and data type which can be analyzed by visual inspection as one option. The new method enables an integrative genome-wide view on the omics data types and the underlying regulatory modes. It is applied to high and low-grade gliomas and to melanomas where it disentangles transversal and longitudinal molecular heterogeneity in terms of distinct molecular subtypes and progression paths with prognostic impact.

Keywords: integrative bioinformatics, machine learning, molecular mechanisms of cancer, gliomas and melanomas

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Authors: Mohd Suhaizan Shamsuddin

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Urbanization exacerbates the environment quality and pressures of matured urban trees' growth and development in changing environment. The growth of struggled matured urban tree-roots by spreading within the existences of infrastructures, resulting in large damage to the structured and declined growth. Many physiological growths declined or damages by the present and installations of infrastructures within and nearby root zone. Afford to remain both matured urban tree and infrastructures as a service provider causes damage and death, respectively. Inasmuch, spending more expenditure on fixing both or removing matured urban trees as risky to the future environment as the mitigation methods to reduce the problems are unconcerned. This paper aims to explain mitigation method practices of reducing the encountered problems of matured urban tree-roots settling and infrastructures while modified urban soil to sustain at an optimum level. Three categories capturing encountered conflicts growth of matured urban tree-roots growth within and nearby infrastructures by mitigating the problems of limited soil spaces, poor soil structures and soil space barrier installations and maintenance. The limited soil space encountered many conflicts and identified six methods that mitigate the survival tree-roots, such as soil volume/mounding, soil replacement/amendment for the radial trench, soil spacing-root bridge, root tunneling, walkway/pavement rising/diverted, and suspended pavement. The limited soil spaces are mitigation affords of inadequate soil-roots and spreading root settling and modification of construction soil media since the barrier existed and installed in root trails or zones. This is the reason for enabling tree-roots spreading and finds adequate sources (nutrients, water uptake and oxygen), spaces and functioning to stability stand of root anchorage since the matured tree grows larger. The poor soil structures were identified as three methods to mitigate soil materials' problems, and fewer soil voids comprise skeletal soil, structural soil, and soil cell. Mitigation of poor soil structure is altering the existing and introducing new structures by modifying the quantities and materials ratio allowing more voids beneath for roots spreading by considering the above structure of foot and vehicle traffics functioning or load-bearing. The soil space barrier installations and maintenance recognized to sustain both infrastructures and tree-roots grown in limited spaces and its benefits, the root barrier installations and root pruning are recommended. In conclusion, these recommended methods attempt to mitigate the present problems encountered at a particular place and problems among tree-roots and infrastructures exist. The combined method is the best way to alleviates the conflicts since the recognized conflicts are between tree-roots and man-made while the urban soil is modified. These presenting methods are most considered to sustain the matured urban trees' lifespan growth in the urban environment.

Keywords: urban tree-roots, limited soil spaces, poor soil structures, soil space barrier and maintenance

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Authors: Mohammad Rahman, Guy Burton, Megan Mathias

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Strategic management as an organizational practice was adopted by the public sector in the New Public Management (NPM) era that began in most parts of the world in the 1980s. Strategy as a new public management concept was subscribed by governments in both developed and developing world, as they were persuaded that clearly defined vision, mission and goals, as well as programs and projects - aligned with the goals - could potentially help achieve government vision at the national level and organizational goals at the service-delivery level. The advocates for strategic management in the public sector saw an inherent link between strategy and performance, claiming that the implementation of organizational strategy has an effect on the overall performance of an organization. Arguably, many government entities that have failed in enhancing team and individual performance had poorly-designed strategy or weak strategy implementation. Another key argument about low-level performance is linked with lack of strategic sense-making and orientation by middle managers in particular. Scholars maintain that employees at all levels need to understand strategic management plan in order to facilitate its implementation. Therefore, involving employees (particularly the middle managers) from the beginning potentially helps an organization avoid the drop in performance, and on the contrary would increase their commitment. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is well known for adopting public sector reform strategies and tools since the 1990s. This observation is contextually pertinent in the case of the Government of Dubai, which has provided a Strategy Execution Guide to all of its entities to achieve high level strategic success in service delivery. The Dubai public sector also adopts road maps for e-Government, Smart Dubai, Expo 2020, investment, environment, education, health and other sectors. Evidently, some of these strategies are bringing tangible (e.g. Smart Dubai transformation) results in a transformational manner. However, the amount of academic research and literature on the strategy process vis-à-vis staff performance in the Government of Dubai is limited. In this backdrop, this study examines how individual performance of public sector employees in Dubai is linked with their sense-making, engagement and orientation with strategy development and implementation processes. Based on a theoretical framework, this study will undertake a sample-based questionnaire survey amongst middle managers in Dubai public sector to (a) measure the level of engagement of middle managers in strategy development and implementation processes as perceived by them; (b) observe the organizational landscape in which role expectations are placed on middle managers; and (c) examine the impact of employee engagement in strategy development process and the conditions for role expectations on individual performance. The paper is expected to provide new insights on the interface between strategic sense-making and performance in order to contribute a better understanding of the current culture/practices of staff engagement in strategic management in the public sector of Dubai.

Keywords: employee performance, government of Dubai, middle managers, strategic sense-making

Procedia PDF Downloads 180