Search results for: ECG baseline removal

Authors: Rewadee Anuwattana, Narumol Soparatana, Pattamaphorn Phuangngamphan, Worapong Pattayawan, Atiporn Jinprayoon, Saroj Klangkongsap, Supinya Sutthima

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In this work focus on clarification in palm oil wastewater treatment by using coagulant composite from palm oil ash. The design of this study was carried out by two steps; first, synthesis of new coagulant composite from palm oil ash which was fused by using Al source combined with Fe source and form to the crystal by the hydrothermal crystallization process. The characterization of coagulant composite from palm oil ash was analyzed by advanced instruments, and The pattern was analyzed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), chemical composition by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRFS) and morphology characterized by SEM. The second step, the clarification wastewater treatment efficiency of synthetic coagulant composite, was evaluated by coagulation/flocculation process based on the COD, turbidity, phosphate and color removal of wastewater from palm oil factory by varying the coagulant dosage (1-8 %w/v) with no adjusted pH and commercial coagulants (Alum, Ferric Chloride and poly aluminum chloride) which adjusted the pH (6). The results found that the maximum removal of 6% w/v of synthetic coagulant from palm oil ash can remove COD, turbidity, phosphate and color was 88.44%, 93.32%, 93.32% and 93.32%, respectively. The experiments were compared using 6% w/v of commercial coagulants (Alum, Ferric Chloride and Polyaluminum Chloride) can remove COD of 74.29%, 71.43% and 57.14%, respectively.

Keywords: coagulation, coagulant, wastewater treatment, waste utilization, palm oil ash

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Authors: A. Anandha Selvan, B. Malarvizhi

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In recent year the problem of space debris have become very serious. The mass of the artificial objects in orbit increased quite steadily at the rate of about 145 metric tons annually, leading to a total tally of approximately 7000 metric tons. Now most of space debris object orbiting in LEO region about 97%. The catastrophic collision can be mostly occurred in LEO region, where this collision generate the new debris. Thus, we propose a concept for cleaning the space debris in the region of thermosphere by passing the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) radiation to in front of space debris object from the re-orbiter. So in our concept the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) radiation will create the thermosphere expansion by reacting with atmospheric gas particles. So the drag is produced in front of the space debris object by thermosphere expansion. This drag force is high enough to slow down the space debris object’s relative velocity. Therefore the space debris object gradually reducing the altitude and finally enter into the earth’s atmosphere. After the first target is removed, the re-orbiter can be goes into next target. This method remove the space debris object without catching debris object. Thus it can be applied to a wide range of debris object without regard to their shapes or rotation. This paper discusses the operation of re-orbiter for removing the space debris in thermosphere region.

Keywords: active space debris removal, space debris, LEO, extreme ultraviolet, re-orbiter, thermosphere

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Authors: S. Agarwal, A. Rani

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Catechol is a natural polyphenolic compound that widely exists in higher plants such as teas, vegetables, fruits, tobaccos, and some traditional Chinese medicines. The fly ash-based zeolites are capable of absorbing a wide range of pollutants. But the process of zeolite synthesis is time-consuming and requires technical setups by the industries. The marketed costs of zeolites are quite high restricting its use by small-scale industries for the removal of phenolic compounds. The present research proposes a simple method of alkaline treatment of FA to produce an effective adsorbent for catechol removal from wastewater. The experimental parameter such as pH, temperature, initial concentration and adsorbent dose on the removal of catechol were studied in batch reactor. For this purpose the adsorbent materials were mixed with aqueous solutions containing catechol ranging in 50 – 200 mg/L initial concentrations and then shaken continuously in a thermostatic Orbital Incubator Shaker at 30 ± 0.1 °C for 24 h. The samples were withdrawn from the shaker at predetermined time interval and separated by centrifugation (Centrifuge machine MBL-20) at 2000 rpm for 4 min. to yield a clear supernatant for analysis of the equilibrium concentrations of the solutes. The concentrations were measured with Double Beam UV/Visible spectrophotometer (model Spectrscan UV 2600/02) at the wavelength of 275 nm for catechol. In the present study, the use of low-cost adsorbent (BTFA) derived from coal fly ash (FA), has been investigated as a substitute of expensive methods for the sequestration of catechol. The FA and BTFA adsorbents were well characterized by XRF, FE-SEM with EDX, FTIR, and surface area and porosity measurement which proves the chemical constituents, functional groups and morphology of the adsorbents. The catechol adsorption capacities of synthesized BTFA and native material were determined. The adsorption was slightly increased with an increase in pH value. The monolayer adsorption capacities of FA and BTFA for catechol were 100 mg g⁻¹ and 333.33 mg g⁻¹ respectively, and maximum adsorption occurs within 60 minutes for both adsorbents used in this test. The equilibrium data are fitted by Freundlich isotherm found on the basis of error analysis (RMSE, SSE, and χ²). Adsorption was found to be spontaneous and exothermic on the basis of thermodynamic parameters (ΔG°, ΔS°, and ΔH°). Pseudo-second-order kinetic model better fitted the data for both FA and BTFA. BTFA showed large adsorptive characteristics, high separation selectivity, and excellent recyclability than FA. These findings indicate that BTFA could be employed as an effective and inexpensive adsorbent for the removal of catechol from wastewater.

Keywords: catechol, fly ash, isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamic parameters

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Authors: Rakesh Namdeti

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Toxic dyes found in industrial effluent must be treated before being disposed of due to their harmful impact on human health and aquatic life. Thus, Musa acuminata (Banana Leaves) was employed in the role of a biosorbent in this work to get rid of methylene blue derived from a synthetic solution. The effects of five process parameters, such as temperature, pH, biosorbent dosage, and initial methylene blue concentration, using a central composite design (CCD), and the percentage of dye clearance were investigated. The response was modelled using a quadratic model based on the CCD. The analysis of variance revealed the most influential element on experimental design response (ANOVA). The temperature of 44.30C, pH of 7.1, biosorbent dose of 0.3 g, starting methylene blue concentration of 48.4 mg/L, and 84.26 percent dye removal were the best conditions for Musa acuminata (Banana leave powder). At these ideal conditions, the experimental percentage of biosorption was 76.93. The link between the estimated results of the developed ANN model and the experimental results defined the success of ANN modeling. As a result, the study's experimental results were found to be quite close to the model's predicted outcomes.

Keywords: Musa acuminata, central composite design, methylene blue, artificial neural network

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Authors: Wu Xiaojun, Liu Ruiping, Yu Xingzhan, Wu Qian

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In precision grinding, utilizing the elastic matrix ball has higher processing efficiency and better superficial quality than traditional grinding. The diversity of characteristics which elastic abrasive tool contact with bend surface results in irregular wear abrasion，and abrasive tool machining status get complicated. There is no theoretical interpretation that parameters affect the grinding accuracy.Aiming at corrosion resistance, wear resistance and other characteristics of M 300 material, it is often used as a material on aerospace precision components. The paper carried out grinding and polishing experiments by using material of M 300,to theoretically show the relationship between stress magnitude and grinding efficiency，and predict the optimal combination of grinding parameter for effective grinding, just for the high abrasion resistance features of M 300, analyzing the micro-contact of elastic ball abrasive tool (Whetstone), using mathematical methods deduce the functional relationship between residual peak removal rate and the main parameters which impact the grinding accuracy on the plane case.Thus laying the foundation for the study of elastic abrasive prediction and compensation.

Keywords: flexible abrasive tool, polishing parameters, Hertz theory, removal rate

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Authors: A. Alhusban, M. Alqawasmeh, F. Alfawares

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Introduction: Despite improvements in stroke management, it remains the leading cause of disability worldwide. It has been suggested that enhancing brain angiogenesis after stroke will improve stroke outcome. Promoting post stroke angiogenesis requires the upregulation of angiogenic factors with a simultaneous reduction of anti-angiogenic factors. Thrombospondin-1 is the main anti-angiogenic protein in the living cells. Counterintuitively, it has been shown that animals with Thrombospondin-1 knockdown will have better stroke outcome. Data about the clinical significance of Thrombspondin-1 levels at the time of admission is still lacking. The objective of this work is to assess the association between serum Thrombospondin-1 levels measured at the time of admission and baseline neurologic severity after stroke. Patients and Methods: Blood samples were collected from patients admitted to the King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH) with ischemic stroke at the time of admission and serum Thrombopsondin-1 levels were measured using ELISA. Patients neurologic severity was evaluated using the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Results: Samples from 50 patients admitted between January 2016 and December 2016 were collected. The median age of participants was 68 years and the median NIHSS was 3. Multinomial regression identified serum Thrombospondin-1 as an independent predictor of stroke outcome (p=0.003). Baseline serum Thrombsopondin-1 was negatively associated with NIHSS at the time of admission (spearman rho correlation coefficient=0.272, p=0.032). Conclusion: Serum Thrombospondin-1 at the time of admission may be a useful marker of stroke severity that predicts more severe neurologic severity.

Keywords: thrombospondin, stroke, neuroprotection, biomarkers

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Authors: Aakash Kumar R. G., Anees K. Ahamed, Raj M. Mohan

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Effective engine cooling can improve the engine’s life and efficacy. The design of the fin of the cylinder head and block determines the cooling mechanism of air cooled engine. The heat conduction takes place through the engine parts and convection of heat from the surface of the fins takes place with air as the heat transferring medium. The air surrounding the cooling fins helps in removal of heat built up by the air cooled engine. If the heat removal rate is inadequate, it will result in lower engine efficiency and high thermal stresses in the engine. The main drawback of the air cooled engine is the low heat transfer rate of the cooling fins .This work is based on scrutiny of previous researches that involves enhancing of heat transfer rate of cooling fins. The current research is about augmentation of heat transfer rate of longitudinal rectangular fin profiles by varying the length of the fin and diameter of holes on the fins. Thermal and flow analysis is done for two different models of fins. One is simple fin without holes and the other is perforated (consist of holes). It can be inferred from the research that the fins with holes have a higher fin efficiency than the fins without holes. The geometry of the fin is done in CREO. The heat transfer analysis is done using ANSYS software.

Keywords: fins, heat transfer, perforated fins, thermal analysis, thermal flux

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Authors: Danish Laidin, Peter Gostomski, Aaron Marshall, Carlo Carere

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Groundwater contamination of nitrate (NO3-) is becoming more prevalent in regions of intensive and extensive agricultural activities. Household nitrate removal involves using ion exchange membranes and reverse osmosis (RO) systems, whereas industrial nitrate removal may use organic carbon substrates (e.g. methanol) for heterotrophic microbial denitrification. However, these approaches both require high capital investment and operating costs. In this study, denitrification was demonstrated using bio-electrochemical systems (BESs) inoculated from sediments and microbial enrichment cultures. The BES reactors were operated continuously as microbial electrolytic cells (MECs) with a poised potential of -0.7V and -1.1V vs Ag/AgCl. Three parallel MECs were inoculated using hydrogen-driven denitrifying enrichments, stream sediments, and biofilm harvested from a denitrifying biotrickling filter, respectively. These reactors were continuously operated for over a year as various operating conditions were investigated to determine the optimal conditions for electroactive denitrification. The mass loading rate of nitrate was varied between 10 – 70 mg NO3-/d, and the maximum observed nitrate removal rate was 22 mg NO3- /(cm2∙d) with a current of 2.1 mA. For volumetric load experiments, the dilution rate of 1 mM NO3- feed was varied between 0.01 – 0.1 hr-1 to achieve a nitrate loading rate similar to the mass loading rate experiments. Under these conditions, the maximum rate of denitrification observed was 15.8 mg NO3- /(cm2∙d) with a current of 1.7mA. Hydrogen (H2) was supplied intermittently to investigate the hydrogenotrophic potential of the denitrifying biofilm electrodes. H2 supplementation at 0.1 mL/min resulted in an increase of nitrate removal from 0.3 mg NO3- /(cm2∙d) to 3.4 mg NO3- /(cm2∙d) in the hydrogenotrophically subcultured reactor but had no impact on the reactors which exhibited direct electron transfer properties. Results from this study depict the denitrification performance of the immobilized biofilm electrodes, either by direct electron transfer or hydrogen-driven denitrification, and the contribution of the planktonic cells present in the growth medium. Other results will include the microbial community analysis via 16s rDNA amplicon sequencing, varying the effect of poising cathodic potential from 0.7V to 1.3V vs Ag/AgCl, investigating the potential of using in-situ electrochemically produced hydrogen for autotrophic denitrification and adjusting the conductivity of the feed solution to mimic groundwater conditions. These findings highlight the overall performance of sediment inoculated MECs in removing nitrate and will be used for the future development of sustainable solutions for the treatment of nitrate polluted groundwater.

Keywords: bio-electrochemical systems, groundwater, electroactive denitrification, microbial electrolytic cell

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Authors: T. V. K. Gupta, J. Ramkumar, Puneet Tandon, N. S. Vyas

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Abrasive Water Jet Machining (AWJM) is an unconventional machining process well known for machining hard to cut materials. The primary research focus on the process was for through cutting and a very limited literature is available on pocket milling using AWJM. The present work is an attempt to use this process for milling applications considering a set of various process parameters. Four different input parameters, which were considered by researchers for part separation, are selected for the above application i.e. abrasive size, flow rate, standoff distance, and traverse speed. Pockets of definite size are machined to investigate surface roughness, material removal rate, and pocket depth. Based on the data available through experiments on SS304 material, it is observed that higher traverse speeds gives a better finish because of reduction in the particle energy density and lower depth is also observed. Increase in the standoff distance and abrasive flow rate reduces the rate of material removal as the jet loses its focus and occurrence of collisions within the particles. ANOVA for individual output parameter has been studied to know the significant process parameters.

Keywords: abrasive flow rate, surface finish, abrasive size, standoff distance, traverse speed

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Authors: D. E. Egirani, J. E. Andrews, A. R. Baker

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This study investigates sorption of Cu and Zn contained in natural mine wastewater, using mixed mineral systems in sulfidic-anoxic condition. The mine wastewater was obtained from disused mine workings at Cwmheidol in Wales, United Kingdom. These contaminants flow into water courses. These water courses include River Rheidol. In this River fishing activities exist. In an attempt to reduce Cu-Zn levels of fish intake in the watercourses, single mineral systems and 1:1 mixed mineral systems of clay and goethite were tested with the mine waste water for copper and zinc removal at variable pH. Modelling of hydroxyl complexes was carried out using phreeqc method. Reactions using batch mode technique was conducted at room temperature. There was significant differences in the behaviour of copper and zinc removal using mixed mineral systems when compared  to single mineral systems. All mixed mineral systems sorb more Cu than Zn when tested with mine wastewater.

Keywords: Cu- Zn, hydroxyl complexes, kinetics, mixed mineral systems, reactivity

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Authors: Shao Bo Cheng, Yong-Jin Han, Se Young Park, Seong-Bae Park

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Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) E-commerce has been growing at a very high speed in recent years. Since identical or nearly-same kinds of products compete one another by relying on keyword search in C2C E-commerce, some sellers describe their products with spam keywords that are popular but are not related to their products. Though such products get more chances to be retrieved and selected by consumers than those without spam keywords, the spam keywords mislead the consumers and waste their time. This problem has been reported in many commercial services like e-bay and taobao, but there have been little research to solve this problem. As a solution to this problem, this paper proposes a method to classify whether keywords of a product are spam or not. The proposed method assumes that a keyword for a given product is more reliable if the keyword is observed commonly in specifications of products which are the same or the same kind as the given product. This is because that a hierarchical category of a product in general determined precisely by a seller of the product and so is the specification of the product. Since higher layers of the hierarchical category represent more general kinds of products, a reliable degree is differently determined according to the layers. Hence, reliable degrees from different layers of a hierarchical category become features for keywords and they are used together with features only from specifications for classification of the keywords. Support Vector Machines are adopted as a basic classifier using the features, since it is powerful, and widely used in many classification tasks. In the experiments, the proposed method is evaluated with a golden standard dataset from Yi-han-wang, a Chinese C2C e-commerce, and is compared with a baseline method that does not consider the hierarchical category. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the baseline in F1-measure, which proves that spam keywords are effectively identified by a hierarchical category in C2C e-commerce.

Keywords: spam keyword, e-commerce, keyword features, spam filtering

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Authors: Marzieh Khedmati, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt

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Vegetative Filter Strips (VFS) are used for controlling the volume of runoff and decreasing contaminant concentrations in runoff before entering water bodies. Many studies have investigated the role of VFS in sediment and nutrient removal, but little is known about their efficiency for the removal of emerging contaminants such as antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). Vegetative Filter Strip Modeling System (VFSMOD) was used to simulate the efficiency of VFS in this regard. Several studies demonstrated the ability of VFSMOD to predict reductions in runoff volume and sediment concentration moving through the filters. The objectives of this study were to calibrate the VFSMOD with experimental data and assess the efficiency of the model in simulating the filter behavior in removing ARGs (ermB) and tylosin. The experimental data were obtained from a prior study conducted at the University of Nebraska (UNL) Rogers Memorial Farm. Three treatment factors were tested in the experiments, including manure amendment, narrow grass hedges and rainfall events. Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) was defined as the filter efficiency and the related experimental and model values were compared to each other. The VFS Model generally agreed with the experimental results and as a result, the model was used for predicting filter efficiencies when the runoff data are not available. Narrow Grass Hedges (NGH) were shown to be effective in reducing tylosin and ARGs concentration. The simulation showed that the filter efficiency in removing ARGs is different for different soil types and filter lengths. There is an optimum length for the filter strip that produces minimum runoff volume. Based on the model results increasing the length of the filter by 1-meter leads to higher efficiency but widening beyond that decreases the efficiency. The VFSMOD, which was proved to work well in estimation of VFS trapping efficiency, showed confirming results for ARG removal.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance genes, emerging contaminants, narrow grass hedges, vegetative filter strips, vegetative filter strip modeling system

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Authors: Belal Bakheet, John Beardall, Xiwang Zhang, David McCarthy

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The potential risks associated with toxic cyanobacteria have raised growing environmental and public health concerns leading to an increasing effort into researching ways to bring about their removal from water, together with destruction of their associated cyanotoxins. A variety of toxins are synthesized by cyanobacteria and include hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, and cytotoxins which can cause a range of symptoms in humans from skin irritation to serious liver and nerve damage. Therefore drinking water treatment processes should ensure the consumers’ safety by removing both cyanobacterial cells, and cyanotoxins from the water. Cyanobacterial cells and cyanotoxins presented challenges to the conventional water treatment systems; their accumulation within drinking water treatment plants has been reported leading to plants shut down. Thus, innovative and effective water purification systems to tackle cyanobacterial pollution are required. In recent years there has been increasing attention to the electrochemical oxidation process as a feasible alternative disinfection method which is able to generate in situ a variety of oxidants that would achieve synergistic effects in the water disinfection process and toxin degradation. By utilizing only electric current, the electrochemical process through electrolysis can produce reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals from the water, or other oxidants such as chlorine from chloride ions present in the water. From extensive physiological and morphological investigation of cyanobacterial cells during electrolysis, our results show that these oxidants have significant impact on cell inactivation, simultaneously with cyanotoxins removal without the need for chemicals addition. Our research aimed to optimize existing electrochemical oxidation systems and develop new systems to treat water containing toxic cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins. The research covers detailed mechanism study on oxidants production and cell inactivation in the treatment under environmental conditions. Overall, our study suggests that the electrochemical treatment process e is an effective method for removal of toxic cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins.

Keywords: toxic cyanobacteria, cyanotoxins, electrochemical process, oxidants

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Authors: Derwin K. C. Chan, Alfred S. Y. Lee

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The integrated model of self-determination theory and the theory of planned behaviour has been successfully applied to explain individuals’ adherence to health behaviours, including behavioural adherence toward rehabilitation. This study was a randomised controlled trial that examined the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention (i.e., mobile application) developed based on this integrated model in promoting treatment adherence of patients of anterior cruciate ligament rupture during their post-surgery home-based rehabilitation period. Subjects were 67 outpatients (aged between 18 and 60) who undertook anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery for less than 2 months for this study. Participants were randomly assigned either into the treatment group (who received the smartphone application; N = 32) and control group (who receive standard treatment only; N = 35), and completed psychological measures relating to the theories (e.g., motivations, social cognitive factors, and behavioural adherence) and clinical outcome measures (e.g., subjective knee function (IKDC), laxity (KT-1000), muscle strength (Biodex)) relating to ACL recovery at baseline, 2-month, and 4-month. Generalise estimating equation showed the interaction between group and time was significant on intention was only significant for intention (Wald x² = 5.23, p = .02), that of perceived behavioural control (Wald x² = 3.19, p = .07), behavioural adherence (Wald x² = 3.08, p = .08, and subjective knee evaluation (Wald x² = 2.97, p = .09) were marginally significant. Post-hoc between-subject analysis showed that control group had significant drop of perceived behavioural control (p < .01), subjective norm (p < .01) and intention (p < .01), behavioural adherence (p < .01) from baseline to 4-month, but such pattern was not observed in the treatment group. The treatment group had a significant decrease of behavioural adherence (p < .05) in the 2-month, but such a decrease was not observed in 4-month (p > .05). Although the subjective knee evaluation in both group significantly improved at 2-month and 4-month from the baseline (p < .05), and the improvements in the control group (mean improvement at 4-month = 40.18) were slightly stronger than the treatment group (mean improvement at 4-month = 34.52). In conclusion, the findings showed that the theory driven mobile application ameliorated the decline of treatment intention of home-based rehabilitation. Patients in the treatment group also reported better muscle strength than control group at 4-month follow-up. Overall, the mobile application has shown promises on tackling the problem of orthopaedics outpatients’ non-adherence to medical treatment.

Keywords: self-determination theory, theory of planned behaviour, mobile health, orthopaedic patients

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Authors: Bernat-Carles Serdà Ferrer, Arantza Del Valle Gómez

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The Quality of Life (QoL) paradigm is multidimensional, dynamic and modular and its definition differs across the cancer continuum. The challenge in the interpretation of QoL data in clinical research is that QoL is influenced by psychological phenomena such as adaptation to illness. This research aims to obtain a valid and sensitive assessment of QoL change over the continuum disease, and to evaluate a rehabilitation programme aimed at inverting the observed decrease in QoL when patients return to daily living activities. The sample comprised 66 men. Patients were first assessed to establish a baseline (P1-diagnosis). This was followed by a post-test (P2-discharge) and a then-test measurement (P3-retrospective evaluation) and after returning home patients were randomized in experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended a rehabilitation programme over 24 weeks (P4). Results show that from baseline to post-test, QoL decreased significantly. The recalibration then-test confirmed a low QoL in all periods evaluated. Significant differences between the experimental and control groups prove the positive effect of the Exercise Rehabilitation Programme (ERP) on QoL. Understanding the real dynamic of QoL over time would help to adapt rehabilitation programmes by improving sensitivity and efficacy and provide professionals with a more accurate perception of the impact of treatment and side effects on patients’ QoL. Our results underline the importance of changing the approach adopted by health professionals towards one of watchful waiting on patients’ QoL until their complete recovery in daily life.

Keywords: exercise, prostate cancer, quality of life, rehabilitation programme, response shift

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Authors: Stefana Francisca Lupu, Jasmin Chantah, Mara Krone, Ingo Roden, Stephan Bongard, Gunter Kreutz

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Long-term music interventions could enhance both musical and nonmusical skills. The present study was designed to explore cognitive, socio-emotional, and musical development in a longitudinal setting. Third-graders (N = 184: 87 male, 97 female; mean age = 8.61 years; 115 native German and 69 migrant children) were randomly assigned to two intervention groups (music and maths) and a control group over a period of one school-year. At baseline, children in these groups were similar in basic cognitive skills, with a trend of advantage in the control group. Dependent measures included the culture fair intelligence test CFT 20-R; the questionnaire of emotional and social school experience for grade 3 and 4 (FEESS 3-4), the test of resources in childhood and adolescence (FRKJ 8-16), the test of language proficiency for German native and non-native primary school children (SFD 3), the reading comprehension test (ELFE 1-6), the German math test (DEMAT 3+) and the intermediate measures of music audiation (IMMA). Data were collected two times at the beginning (T1) and at the end of the school year (T2). A third measurement (T3) followed after a six months retention period. Data from baseline and post-intervention measurements are currently being analyzed. Preliminary results of all three measurements will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: musical training, primary-school German and migrant children, socio-emotional skills, transfer

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Authors: Alemi Asefa Wordofa

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The textile industry is among the biggest industries in the world, producing a wide variety of products. Industry plays an important role in the world economy as well as in our daily lives. In Ethiopia, this has also been aided by the country’s impressive economic growth over the years. However, Textile industries consume large amounts of water and produce colored wastewater, which results in polluting the environment. In this study, the efficiency of the electrocoagulation treatment process using Iron electrodes to treat textile wastewater containing Reactive black everzol was studied. The effects of parameters such as voltage, time of reaction, and inter-electrode distance on Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and dye removal efficiency were investigated. In addition, electrical energy consumption at optimum conditions has been investigated. The results showed that COD and dye removals were 90.76% and 97.66%, respectively, at the optimum point of input voltage of 14v, inter-electrode distance of 7.24mm, and 47.86min electrolysis time. Energy consumption at the optimum point is also 2.9*10-3. It can be concluded that the electrocoagulation process by the iron electrode is a very efficient and clean process for COD and reactive black removal from wastewater.

Keywords: iron electrode, electrocoagulation, chemical oxygen demand, wastewater

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Authors: Hammad Khan, Wookeun Bae

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The objective of this study was to optimize and control the highly loaded and efficient nitrite production having suitability for autotrophic and heterotrophic denitritation. A lab scale CSTR for partial and full nitritation was operated to treat the livestock manure digester liquor having an ammonium concentration of ~2000 mg-NH4+-N/L and biodegradable contents of ~0.8 g-COD/L. The experiments were performed at 30°C, pH: 8.0 DO: 1.5 mg/L and SRT ranging from 7-20 days. After 125 days operation, >95% nitrite buildup having the ammonium loading rate of ~3.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day was seen with almost complete ammonium conversion. On increasing the loading rate further (i.e. from 3.2-6.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day), stability of the system remained unaffected. On decreasing the pH from 8 to7.5 and further 7.2, removal rate can be easily controlled as 95%, 75% and even 50%. Results demonstrated that nitritation stability and desired removal rates are controlled by a balance of simultaneous inhibition by FA and FNA, pH affect and DO limitation. These parameters proved to be effective even to produce an appropriate influent for anammox. In addition, a mathematical model, identified through the occurring biological reactions, is proposed to optimize the full and partial nitritation process. The proposed model presents relationship between pH, ammonium and produced nitrite for full and partial nitritation under the varying concentrations of DO, and simultaneous inhibition by FA and FNA.

Keywords: stable nitritation, high loading, autrophic denitritation, hetrotrophic denitritation

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Authors: Mia Schneeweiss, Joseph Merola

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Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition with a prevalence of 9.6 million in children under the age of 18 in the US, 3.2 million of those suffer severe AD. AD has significant effects on the quality of life and psychiatric comorbidity in affected patients. We sought to quantify the use of psychotropic medications and mental health services in children. We used longitudinal claims data form commercially insured patients in the US between 2003 and 2016 to identify children aged 18 or younger with a diagnosis of AD associated with an outpatient or inpatient encounter. A 180-day enrollment period was required before the first diagnosis of AD. Among those diagnosed, we computed the use of psychiatric services and dispensing of psychotropic medications during the following 6 months. Among 1.6 million children <18 years with a diagnosis of AD, most were infants (0-1 years: 17.6%), babies (1-2 years: 12.2%) and young children (2-4 years: 15.4). 5.1% were in age group 16-18 years. Among younger children 50% of patients were female, after the age of 14 about 60% were female. In 16-18 years olds 6.4% had at least one claim with a recorded psychopathology during the 6-month baseline period; 4.6% had depression, 3.3% anxiety, 0.3% panic disorder, 0.6% psychotic disorder, 0.1% anorexia. During the 6 months following the physician diagnosis of AD, 66% used high-potency topical corticosteroids, 3.5% used an SSRI, 0.3% used an SNRI, 1.2% used a tricyclic antidepressant, 1.4% used an antipsychotic medication, and 5.2% used an anxiolytic agent. 4.4% had an outpatient visit with a psychiatrist and 0.1% had been hospitalized with a psychiatric diagnosis. In 14-16 years olds, 4.7% had at least one claim with a recorded psychopathology during the 6-month baseline period; 3.3% had depression, 2.5% anxiety, 0.2% panic disorder, 0.5% psychotic disorder, 0.1% anorexia. During the 6 months following the physician diagnosis of AD, 68% used high-potency topical corticosteroids, 4.6% used an SSRI, 0.6% used an SNRI, 1.5% used a tricyclic antidepressant, 1.4% used an antipsychotic medication, and 4.6% used an anxiolytic agent. 4.7% had an outpatient visit with a psychiatrist and 0.1% had been hospitalized with a psychiatric diagnosis. In 12-14 years olds, 3.3% had at least one claim with a recorded psychopathology during the 6-month baseline period; 1.9% had depression, 2.2% anxiety, 0.1% panic disorder, 0.7% psychotic disorder, 0.0% anorexia. During the 6 months following the physician diagnosis of AD, 67% used high-potency topical corticosteroids, 2.1% used an SSRI, 0.1% used an SNRI, 0.7% used a tricyclic antidepressant, 0.9 % used an antipsychotic medication, and 4.1% used an anxiolytic agent. 3.8% had an outpatient visit with a psychiatrist and 0.05% had been hospitalized with a psychiatric diagnosis. In younger children psychopathologies were decreasingly common: 10-12: 2.8%; 8-10: 2.3%; 6-8: 1.3%; 4-6: 0.6%. In conclusion, there is substantial psychiatric comorbidity among children, <18 years old, with diagnosed atopic dermatitis in a US commercially insured population. Meaningful psychiatric medication use (>3%) starts as early as 12 years old.

Keywords: pediatric atopic dermatitis, phychotropic medication use, psychiatric comorbidity, claims database

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Authors: Asma Ahmed, Farah Khalid, Sahlah Sohail, Saira Banusokwalla, Sabiha Banu, Inaara Akbar, Safia Awan, Syed Iqbal Azam

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Background and Objectives: The level of knowledge regarding obesity as a disease condition and health-seeking behavior regarding its management is grossly lacking. We present data from our multidisciplinary obesity clinic at the large tertiary care facility in Karachi, Pakistan, to provide baseline profiles and outcomes of patients attending these clinics. Methods: 260 who attended the obesity clinic between June 2018 to March 2020 were enrolled in this study. The analysis included descriptive and ROC analysis to identify the best cut-offs of theanthropometric measurements to diagnose obesity-related comorbid conditions. Results: The majority of the studied population were women (72.3%) and employed(43.7%) with a mean age of 35.5 years. Mean BMIwas 37.4, waist circumference was 112.4 cm, visceral fat was 11.7%, and HbA1C was 6.9%. The most common comorbidities were HTN & D.M (33 &31%, respectively). The prevalence of MetS was 16.3% in patients and was slightly higher in males. Visceral fat was the main factor in predicting D.M (0.750; 95% CI: 0.665, 0.836) and MetS (0.709; 95% CI: 0.590, 0.838) compared to total body fat, waist circumference, and BMI. The risk of predicting DM &MetS for the visceral fat above 9.5% in women had the highest sensitivity (80% for D.M & 79% for MetS) and an NPV (92.75% for D.M & 95% for MetS). Conclusions: This study describes and establishes characteristics of these obese individuals, which can help inform clinical practices. These practices may involve using visceral fat for earlier identification and counseling-based interventions to prevent more severe surgical interventions down the line.

Keywords: obesity, metabolic syndrome, tertiary care facility, BMI, waist circumference, visceral fat

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Authors: Bahiru Tsegaye, Chandrajit Balomajumder, Partha Roy

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The limited supply and related negative environmental consequence of fossil fuels are driving researcher for finding sustainable sources of energy. Lignocellulose biomass like sorghum straw is considered as among cheap, renewable and abundantly available sources of energy. However, lignocellulose biomass conversion to bioenergy like bioethanol is hindered due to the reluctant nature of lignin in the biomass. Therefore, removal of lignin is a vital step for lignocellulose conversion to renewable energy. The aim of this study is to optimize microwave pretreatment conditions using design expert software to remove lignin and to release maximum possible polysaccharides from sorghum straw for efficient hydrolysis and fermentation process. Sodium hydroxide concentration between 0.5-1.5%, v/v, pretreatment time from 5-25 minutes and pretreatment temperature from 120-2000C were considered to depolymerize sorghum straw. The effect of pretreatment was studied by analyzing the compositional changes before and after pretreatments following renewable energy laboratory procedure. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the significance of the model used for optimization. About 32.8%-48.27% of hemicellulose solubilization, 53% -82.62% of cellulose release, and 49.25% to 78.29% lignin solubilization were observed during microwave pretreatment. Pretreatment for 10 minutes with alkali concentration of 1.5% and temperature of 1400C released maximum cellulose and lignin. At this optimal condition, maximum of 82.62% of cellulose release and 78.29% of lignin removal was achieved. Sorghum straw at optimal pretreatment condition was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The efficiency of hydrolysis was measured by analyzing reducing sugars by 3, 5 dinitrisylicylic acid method. Reducing sugars of about 619 mg/g of sorghum straw were obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis. This study showed a significant amount of lignin removal and cellulose release at optimal condition. This enhances the yield of reducing sugars as well as ethanol yield. The study demonstrates the potential of microwave pretreatments for enhancing bioethanol yield from sorghum straw.

Keywords: cellulose, hydrolysis, lignocellulose, optimization

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Authors: Antonis Elia, Theo Loizou, Gladys Onambele-Pearson, Matthew Barlow, Georgina Stebbings

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Hypoxic conditions have been reported to enhance red blood cell production in both acclimatised low-landers and altitude adapted populations. This process is mediated by the erythropoietin hormone, which is released predominantly by the hypoxic kidney. A higher haemoglobin concentration was previously reported in elite breath-hold divers when compared to elite-skiers and untrained individuals. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether apnoea induced hypoxia could induce a significant increase in serum erythropoietin concentration in recreational breath-hold divers which would provide an explanation to the higher haemoglobin levels observed in elite breath-hold divers. Identifying whether apnoea induced hypoxia induces a significant increase in serum erythropoietin might suggest that apnoea can be used as an alternative acclimatisation method to high altitude exposure. Seven healthy, recreational male breath-hold divers performed two sets of five 180 second breath-holds with a ten-minute supine rest between each set and a two-minute seated rest between each apnoea. During each breath-hold, participant’s heart rate and peripheral oxygen saturation levels were recorded every subsequent 10 seconds until the end of the 180 second breath-hold. After each 180 second breath-hold a capillary blood sample was collected from the finger to identify circulating haemoglobin levels. Following completion of the apnoeic protocol, three blood samples were collected at 30, 90 and 180 minutes to measure circulating erythropoietin levels. A significant interaction between erythropoietin and time was observed (F(3,18)= 4.72, p < 0.001), with significant increases in erythropoietin evident at 30 (t(6)= -5.035, p < 0.0590 (t(6)= -6.162, p < 0.05) and 180 (t(6)= - 7.232, p < 0.001) minutes post the last apnoea when compared to baseline. Corresponding average increases when compared to baseline were 16% at 30, 23% at 90 and 40% at 180 minutes post the last apnoea. A significant interaction between haemoglobin and time was observed (F(78,84)= 20.814, p < 0.001), with significant increases in haemoglobin evident at the fifth (t(29)= -1.124, p < 0.001), ninth (t(29)= -1.357, p < 0.001) and tenth (t(29)= -1.211, p < 0.05) apnoeas when compared to baseline. A significant interaction between peripheral oxygen saturation and time was observed (F(10,60)= 408.23, p < 0.001). The present study demonstrates that a series of ten 180 second breath-holds is sufficient to induce a significant increase in the circulating erythropoietin concentration of recreational breath hold divers. These observations may suggest that apnoea induced hypoxia may be used as an alternative acclimatisation method to high altitude exposure.

Keywords: apnoea, breath-holding, diving reflex, erythropoietin, haemoglobin

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Authors: Pushpendra S. Bharti, S. Maheshwari

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Electric discharge machining (EDM) is one of the most widely used non-conventional manufacturing process to shape difficult-to-cut materials. The process yield, in terms of material removal rate, surface roughness and tool wear rate, of EDM may considerably be improved by selecting the optimal combination(s) of process parameters. This paper employs Multi-response signal-to-noise (MRSN) ratio technique to find the optimal combination(s) of the process parameters during EDM of Inconel 718. Three cases v.i.z. high cutting efficiency, high surface finish, and normal machining have been taken and the optimal combinations of input parameters have been obtained for each case. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been employed to find the dominant parameter(s) in all three cases. The experimental verification of the obtained results has also been made. MRSN ratio technique found to be a simple and effective multi-objective optimization technique.

Keywords: electric discharge machining, material removal rate, surface roughness, too wear rate, multi-response signal-to-noise ratio, multi response signal-to-noise ratio, optimization

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Authors: Usha N. Murthy, H. B. Rekha, Mahaveer Devoor

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The introduction of more stringent pollution regulations, in relation to financial and social pressures for sustainable development, has pressed toward limiting the volumes of industrial and domestic effluents discharged into the environment-as well as to increase the efforts within research and development of new or more efficient wastewater treatment technologies. Considering both discharge volume and effluent composition, wastewater generated by the textile industry is rated as the most polluting among all industrial sectors. The pollution load is mainly due to spent dye baths, which are composed of unreacted dyes, dispersing agents, surfactants, salts and organics. In the present investigation, the textile dye wastewater was characterized by high colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS) and pH. Electrochemical oxidation process for four plate electrodes was carried out at five different current intensities, out of which 0.14A has achieved maximum percentage removal of COD with 75% and 83% of colour. The COD removal rate in kg COD/h/m2 decreases with increase in the current intensity. The energy consumption increases with increase in the current intensity. Hence, textile dye wastewater can be effectively pre-treated by electrochemical oxidation method where the process limits objectionable colour while leaving the COD associated with organics left for natural degradation thus causing a sustainable reduction in pollution load.

Keywords: electrochemical treatment, COD, colour, environmental engineering

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Authors: R. L. P. de Lima, F. C. B. Boogaard, D. Setyo Rini, P. Arisandi, R. E. de Graaf-Van Dinther

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Water quality in many Asian countries is very poor due to inefficient solid waste management, high population growth and the lack of sewage and purification systems for households and industry. A consortium of Indonesian and Dutch organizations has begun a large-scale international research project to evaluate and propose solutions to face the surface water pollution challenges in Brantas Basin, Indonesia (East Java: Malang / Surabaya). The first phase of the project consisted in a baseline study to assess the current status of surface water bodies and to determine the ambitions and strategies among local stakeholders. This study was conducted with high participatory / collaborative and knowledge sharing objectives. Several methods such as using mobile sensors (attached to boats or underwater drones), test strips and mobile apps, bio-monitoring (sediments), ecology scans using underwater cameras, or continuous / static measurements, were applied in different locations in the regions of the basin, at multiple locations within the water systems (e.g. spring, upstream / downstream of industry and urban areas, mouth of the Surabaya River, groundwater). Results gave an indication of (reference) values of basic water quality parameters such as turbidity, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen or nutrients (ammonium / nitrate). An important outcome was that collecting random samples may not be representative of a body of water, given that water quality parameters can vary widely in space (x, y, and depth) and time (day / night and seasonal). Innovative / dynamic monitoring methods (e.g. underwater drones, sensors on boats) can contribute to better understand the quality of the living environment (water, ecology, sediment) and factors that affect it. The field work activities, in particular, underwater drones, revealed potential as awareness actions as they attracted interest from locals and local press. This baseline study involved the cooperation with local managing organizations with Dutch partners, and their willingness to work together is important to ensure participatory actions and social awareness regarding the process of adaptation and strengthening of regulations, or for the construction of facilities such as sewage.

Keywords: water quality monitoring, pollution, underwater drones, social awareness

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Authors: Lawrence Mzukisi Madikizela, Luke Chimuka

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Removal of organics from wastewater offers a better water quality, therefore, the purpose of this work was to investigate the use of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for the elimination of selected organics from water. A multi-template MIP for the adsorption of naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac was synthesized using a bulk polymerization method. A MIP was synthesized at 70°C by employing 2-vinylpyridine, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, toluene and 1,1’-azobis-(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) as functional monomer, cross-linker, porogen and initiator, respectively. Thermogravimetric characterization indicated that the polymer backbone collapses at 250°C and scanning electron microscopy revealed the porous and roughness nature of the MIP after elution of templates. The performance of the MIP in aqueous solutions was evaluated by optimizing several adsorption parameters. The optimized adsorption conditions were 50 mg of MIP, extraction time of 10 min, a sample pH of 4.6 and the initial concentration of 30 mg/L. The imprinting factors obtained for naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac were 1.25, 1.42, and 2.01, respectively. The order of selectivity for the MIP was; diclofenac > ibuprofen > naproxen. MIP showed great swelling in water with an initial swelling rate of 2.62 g/(g min). The synthesized MIP proved to be able to adsorb naproxen, ibuprofen and diclofenac from contaminated deionized water, wastewater influent and effluent.

Keywords: adsorption, molecularly imprinted polymer, multi template, pharmaceuticals

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Authors: Hammad Khan, Wookeun Bae

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The objective of this study was to achieve, optimize and control the highly loaded and efficient nitrite production having suitability for autotrophic and heterotrophic denitritation. A lab scale CSTR for partial and full nitritation was operated to treat the livestock manure digester liquor having an ammonium concentration of ~2000 mg-NH4+-N/L and biodegradable contents of ~0.8 g-COD/L. The experiments were performed at 30°C, pH: 8.0, DO: 1.5 mg/L and SRT ranging from 7-20 days. After 125 days operation, >95% nitrite buildup having the ammonium loading rate of ~3.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day was seen with almost complete ammonium conversion. On increasing the loading rate further (i-e, from 3.2-6.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day), stability of the system remained unaffected. On decreasing the pH from 8 to 7.5 and further 7.2, removal rate can be easily controlled as 95%, 75% and even 50%. Results demonstrated that nitritation stability and desired removal rates are controlled by a balance of simultaneous inhibition by FA & FNA, pH affect and DO limitation. These parameters proved to be effective even to produce an appropriate influent for anammox. In addition, a mathematical model, identified through the occurring biological reactions, is proposed to optimize the full and partial nitritation process. The proposed model present relationship between pH, ammonium and produced nitrite for full and partial nitritation under the varying concentrations of DO, and simultaneous inhibition by FA and FNA.

Keywords: stable nitritation, high loading, autrophic denitritation, hetrotrophic denitritation

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Authors: Xiaocong Liu, Huazhen Wang, Ting He, Xiaozheng Li, Weihan Zhang, Jian Chen

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The utilization of electronic medical record (EMR) data to establish the disease diagnosis model has become an important research content of biomedical informatics. Deep learning can automatically extract features from the massive data, which brings about breakthroughs in the study of EMR data. The challenge is that deep learning lacks semantic knowledge, which leads to impracticability in medical science. This research proposes a method of incorporating lexical-semantic knowledge from abundant entities into a convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for pediatric disease diagnosis. Firstly, medical terms are vectorized into Lexical Semantic Vectors (LSV), which are concatenated with the embedded word vectors of word2vec to enrich the feature representation. Secondly, the semantic distribution of medical terms serves as Semantic Decision Guide (SDG) for the optimization of deep learning models. The study evaluate the performance of LSV-SDG-CNN model on four kinds of Chinese EMR datasets. Additionally, CNN, LSV-CNN, and SDG-CNN are designed as baseline models for comparison. The experimental results show that LSV-SDG-CNN model outperforms baseline models on four kinds of Chinese EMR datasets. The best configuration of the model yielded an F1 score of 86.20%. The results clearly demonstrate that CNN has been effectively guided and optimized by lexical-semantic knowledge, and LSV-SDG-CNN model improves the disease classification accuracy with a clear margin.

Keywords: convolutional neural network, electronic medical record, feature representation, lexical semantics, semantic decision

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Authors: Juan Francisco Morales Arteaga, Simon Gluhar, Anela Kaurin, Domen Lestan

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Contaminated soils are recognized as one of the most pressing global environmental problems. As is one of the most hazardous elements: chronic exposure to arsenic has devastating effects on health, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and eventually death. Pb, Zn and Cd are very highly toxic metals that affect almost every organ in the body. With this in mind, new technologies for soil remediation processes are urgently needed. Calcareous artificially contaminated soil containing 231 mg kg-1 As and historically contaminated with Pb, Zn and Cd was washed with a 1:1.5 solid-liquid ratio of 90 mM EDTA, 100 mM oxalic acid, and 50 mM sodium dithionite to remove 59, 75, 29, and 53% of As, Pb, Zn, and Cd, respectively. To reduce emissions of residual EDTA and chelated metals from the remediated soil, zero valent iron (ZVI) was added (1% w/w) to the slurry of the washed soil immediately prior to rinsing. Experimental controls were conducted without the addition of ZVI after remediation. The use of ZVI reduced metal leachability and minimized toxic emissions 21 days after remediation. After this time, NH4NO3 extraction was performed to determine the mobility of toxic elements in the soil. In addition, Unified Human BioaccessibilityMethod (UBM) was performed to quantify the bioaccessibility levels of metals in stimulated human gastric and gastrointestinal phases.

Keywords: soil remediation, soil science, soil washing, toxic metals removal

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Authors: Freddy Patricio Moncayo-Matute, Pablo Gerardo Peña-Tapia, Vázquez-Silva Efrén, Paúl Bolívar Torres-Jara, Diana Patricia Moya-Loaiza, Gabriela Abad-Farfán

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This study describes a clinical case and the results on the application of additive manufacturing for the surgical planning in the removal of a cranial spheno-orbital meningioma. It is verified that the use of personalized anatomical models and cutting guides helps to manage the cranial anomalies approach. The application of additive manufacturing technology: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), as a low-cost alternative, enables the printing of the test anatomical model, which in turn favors the reduction of surgery time, as well the morbidity rate reduction too. And the printing of the personalized cutting guide, which constitutes a valuable aid to the surgeon in terms of improving the intervention precision and reducing the invasive effect during the craniotomy. As part of the results, post-surgical follow-up is included as an instrument to verify the patient's recovery and the validity of the procedure.

Keywords: surgical planning, additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, fused deposition modeling, custom anatomical model

Procedia PDF Downloads 90