Search results for: sustainable quality of life

Authors: Nathaniel Carpenter

Abstract:

Web-enabled systems for supporting youth mental health management in Australia are pioneering in their field; however, with their success, these systems are experiencing exponential growth in demand which is straining an already stretched service. Supporting youth mental is critical as the lack of support is associated with significant and lasting negative consequences. To meet this growing demand, and provide critical support, investigations are needed on evaluating and improving existing online support services. Improvements should focus on developing frameworks capable of augmenting and scaling service provisions. There are few investigations informing best-practice frameworks when implementing e-mental health support systems for youth mental health; there are fewer which implement machine learning or artificially intelligent systems to facilitate the delivering of services. This investigation will use a case study methodology to highlight the design features which are important for systems to enable young people to self-manage their mental health. The investigation will also highlight the current information system challenges, to include challenges associated with service quality, provisioning, and scaling. This work will propose methods of meeting these challenges through improved design, service augmentation and automation, service quality, and through artificially intelligent inspired solutions. The results of this study will inform a framework for supporting youth mental health with intelligent and scalable web-enabled technologies to support an ever-growing user base.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, information systems, machine learning, youth mental health

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: B. Coşgun, O. Ozturk

Abstract:

Canola is a specific edible type of rapeseed, developed in the 1970s, which contains about 40 percent oil. This research was carried out to determine the yield and some quality characteristics of some winter canola cultivars during the 2010-2011 vegetation period in Central Anatolia of Turkey. In this research; Oase, Dante, Californium, Excalibur, Elvis, ES Hydromel, Licord, Orkan, Vectra, Nelson, Champlain and NK Petrol winter canola varieties were used as material. The field experiment was set up in a “Randomized Complete Block Design” with three replications on 21 September 2010. In this research; seed yield, oil content, protein content, oil yield and protein yield were examined. As a result of this research; seed yield, oil content, oil yield and protein yield (except protein content) were significant differences between the cultivars. The highest seed yield (6348 kg ha-1) was obtained from the NK Petrol, while the lowest seed yield (3949 kg ha-1) was determined from the Champlain cultivar was obtained. The highest oil content (46.73%) was observed from Oase and the lowest value was obtained from Vectra (41.87%) cultivar. The highest oil yield (2950 kg ha-1) was determined from NK Petrol while the least value (1681 kg ha-1) was determined from Champlain cultivar. The highest protein yield (1539.3 kg ha-1) was obtained from NK Petrol and the lowest protein yield (976.5 kg ha-1) was obtained from Champlain cultivar. The main purpose of the cultivation of oil crops, to increase the yield of oil per unit area. According the result of this research, NK Petrol cultivar which ranks first with regard to both seed yield and oil yield between cultivars as the most suitable winter canola cultivar of local conditions.

Keywords: rapeseed, cultivar, seed yield, crude oil ratio, crude protein ratio, crude oil yield, crude protein yield

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Jamie E. Banker

Abstract:

For many families, pregnancy and the postpartum time are filled with both anticipation and change. For some pregnant or postpartum women, this time is marked by the onset of a mood or anxiety disorder. Experiencing a mood or anxiety disorders during this time of life differs from depression or anxiety at other times of life. Not only because of the physical changes occurring in the mother’s body but also the mental and physical preparation necessary to redefine family roles, responsibilities, and develop new identities in the life transition. The presence of a mood or anxiety disorder can influence the way in which a mother defines herself and can complicate her understanding of her abilities and competencies as a mother. The complexity of experiencing a mood or anxiety disorder in the midst of these changes necessitates specific treatment interventions to match both the symptomatology and psychological adjustments. This study explores the use of narrative family therapy techniques when treating a mother who is experiencing postpartum depression. Externalization is a common technique used in narrative family therapy and can help client’s separate their identity from the problems they are experiencing. This is crucial to a new mom who is in the middle of defining her identity during her transition to parenthood. The goal of this study is to examine how the use of externalization techniques help postpartum women separate their mood and anxiety symptoms from their identity as a mother. An exploratory case study design was conducted in a single setting, private practice therapy office, and explored how a narrative family therapy approach can be used to treat perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. The therapy sessions were audio recorded and transcribed. Constructivism and narrative theory are used as theoretical frameworks and data from the therapy sessions, and a follow-up survey was triangulated and analyzed. During the course of the treatment, the participant reports using the new externalizing labels for her symptoms. Within one month of treatment, the participant reports that she could stop herself from thinking the harmful thoughts faster, and within three months, the harmful thoughts went away. The main themes in this study were building courage and less self-blame. This case highlights the role narrative family therapy can play in the treatment of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and the importance of separating a women’s mood from her identity as a mother. This conceptual framework was beneficial to the postpartum mother when treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorder symptoms.

Keywords: externalizing techniques, narrative family therapy, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, postpartum depression

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Ignatio Madanhire, Charles Mbohwa

Abstract:

This study explores to improve the resource efficiency, waste water reduction and to reduce losses of raw materials in a beverage making industry. A number of cleaner production technologies were put across in this work. It was also noted that cleaner production technology practices are not only desirable from the environmental point of view, but they also make good economic sense, in their contribution to the bottom line by conserving resources like energy, raw materials and manpower, improving yield as well as reducing treatment/disposal costs. This work is a resource in promoting adoption and implementation of CP in other industries for sustainable development.

Keywords: resource efficiency, beverages, reduce losses, cleaner production, energy, yield

Procedia PDF Downloads 403

Authors: Tomas Macsotay

Abstract:

If monument removal and monument effacement may call to mind a Nietzschean proposal for vitalist disregard of conventional morality, it remains the case that it is often only by a willingness to go “beyond good and evil” in inherited monument politics that truthful, be it unexpected aspects of our co-existence with monuments can finally start to rise into fuller consciousness. A series of urgent questions press themselves in the panorama created by the affirmative idea that we can, as a community, make crucial decisions with regard to monumental preservation or discontinuation. Memorials are not the core concern for decolonial and racial dignity movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM), which have repeatedly shown they regard these actions as a welcome, albeit complementary, part of a reckoning with a past of racial violence and injustice, slavery, and colonial subaltern existence. As such, the iconoclastic issue of “rights and prohibitions of images” only tangentially touches on a cultural movement that seems rather question dominant ideas of history, pertinence, and the long life of the class, gender, and racial conflict through ossified memorial cultures. In the recent monument insurrection, we face a rare case of a new negotiation of rights of existence for this particular tract of material culture. This engenders a debate on how and why we accord rights to objects in public dominion ― indeed, how such rights impinge upon the rights of subjects who inhabit the public sphere. Incidentally, the possibility of taking away from monuments such imagined or adjoined rights has made it possible to tease open a sphere of emotionality that could not be expressed in patrimonial thinking: the reality of atmospheres as settings, often dependent on pseudo-objects and half-conscious situations, that situate individuals involuntarily in a pathic aesthetics. In this way, the unique moment we now witness ― full of the possibility of going “beyond good and evil” of monument preservation ― starts to look more like a moment of involuntary awaking: an awakening to the encrypted gaze of the monument and the enigma that the same monument or memorial site can carry day-to-day habits of life for some bystanders, while racialized and disenfranchised communities experience discomfort and erosion of subjective life in the same sites.

Keywords: monument, memorial, atmosphere, racial justice, decolonialism

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Dmytro D. Buiadzhy

Abstract:

The modern psychiatric discourse proves the existence of the direct ties between the children's mental health and their success in life as adults. The unresolved mental health problems in childhood are likely to lead individuals to poverty, isolation, and social exclusion as stated by Marcus Richards. Such an approach justifies the involvement of children in the view of supervision and control of power. The discourse, related to the mental health of children, provides a tight impact of family, educational institutions and medical authorities on the child through any manifestations of his psychic, having signs of "abnormality.” Throughout the adult life, the individual continues to feel the pressure of power through legal, political, and economic institutions that also appeal to the mental health regulation. The juvenile law declares the equality of a child and an adult, but in fact simply delegates the powers of parents to impersonal social institutions of the guardianship, education, and social protection. The psychiatric power in this study is considered in accordance with the Michel Foucault’s concept of power as a manifestation of "positive" technologies of power, which include various manifestations of subjectivity, in particular children’s one, in a view of supervision and control of the state power. The main issue disclosed in this paper is how weakening of the parental authority, in the context of legislative ratification of the child rights, strengthens the other forms of power over children, especially the psychiatric power, which justifies and affects the children mancipation.

Keywords: child rights, psychiatric power, discourse, parental authority

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Mirjana Ruppel, Rajendra Persad, Amit Bahl, Sanja Dogramadzi, Chris Melhuish, Lyndon Smith

Abstract:

Multimodal image registration is a profoundly complex task which is why deep learning has been used widely to address it in recent years. However, two main challenges remain: Firstly, the lack of ground truth data calls for an unsupervised learning approach, which leads to the second challenge of defining a feasible loss function that can compare two images of different modalities to judge their level of alignment. To avoid this issue altogether we implement a generative adversarial network consisting of two registration networks GAB, GBA and two discrimination networks DA, DB connected by spatial transformation layers. GAB learns to generate a deformation field which registers an image of the modality B to an image of the modality A. To do that, it uses the feedback of the discriminator DB which is learning to judge the quality of alignment of the registered image B. GBA and DA learn a mapping from modality A to modality B. Additionally, a cycle-consistency loss is implemented. For this, both registration networks are employed twice, therefore resulting in images ˆA, ˆB which were registered to ˜B, ˜A which were registered to the initial image pair A, B. Thus the resulting and initial images of the same modality can be easily compared. A dataset of liver CT and MRI was used to evaluate the quality of our approach and to compare it against learning and non-learning based registration algorithms. Our approach leads to dice scores of up to 0.80 ± 0.01 and is therefore comparable to and slightly more successful than algorithms like SimpleElastix and VoxelMorph.

Keywords: cycle consistency, deformable multimodal image registration, deep learning, GAN

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Meiyun Meng

Abstract:

Urban China is now undergoing social transformation based on its rapid economic growth, developing its individualism and feminism. This paper approaches emergent relationships between female individuals’ everyday lives and urban China through internal migration, home-making practices and life-course perspectives. Focusing on Shenzhen, it explores how ten highly educated female migrants pursue aspirations of accommodating ‘non-majority’ identities, such as lesbians, divorced, or childless women, in urban China. Based on life stories and home video tours, this paper finds how these women develop non-majority lifestyles to negotiate their aspirations. On the one hand, they ‘sail’ away from past/present situations where collectivist and hetero-patriarchal norms marginalised their non-majority identities. On the other hand, they ‘anchor’ in places where ‘new’ socio-cultural contexts allow female individuals to pursue alternative opportunities and preferential lifestyles. This paper provides fresh insights to interpret the social transformation in urban China, under the collectivist culture and hetero-patriarchal norms, through the lens of individual everyday home-making practices.

Keywords: home-making practices, internal migration, highly educated women, shenzhen, transforming urban China

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Deshar Bashu Dev

Abstract:

In this modern age, most people in developed and developing countries are affected by mental illness. There are many mental illnesses, and their differing symptoms impact peoples’ lives in different ways. These illnesses affect the way people think and feel, as well as how they behave with others. Mental illness results from compound interactions between the mind, body, and environment. New technologies and sciences make the world a better place. These technologies are becoming smarter and are being developed every day to help make daily life easier However, people suffer from mental illness in every part of the world. The philosophy propounded by the Buddha, Buddhism, teaches that all life is connected, from the microcosm to macrocosm. In the 2,500 years that elapsed since the death of the Buddha, his disciples have spread his teachings and developed sophisticated psycho-therapeutic methodologies. We can find many examples in Buddhist texts and in the modern age where Buddhist philosophy modern science could not solve. The Noble Eightfold Path, which is one of the main philosophies of Buddhism; it eradicates hatred and ill will and cultivates good deeds, kindness, and compassion. Buddhism, as a practice of dialectic conversation and mindfulness training, is full of rich therapeutic tools that the mental health community has adopted to help people. Similarly, Buddhist meditation is very necessary; it purifies thoughts and avoids unnecessary thinking. This research aims to study different causes of mental illness; analyzes the different approaches to eradicate mental illness problems and provides conclusions and recommendations present solutions through Buddhism in this modern age.

Keywords: mental illness, Buddhism, mindfulness, Buddhist practices

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: V. Jamuna, A. K. Chakravarty, C. S. Patil, Vijay Kumar, M. A. Mir, Rakesh Kumar

Abstract:

Intense selection of buffaloes for milk production at organized herds of the country without giving due attention to fertility traits viz. pregnancy rate has lead to deterioration in their performances. Aim of study is to develop an optimum model for predicting pregnancy rate and to assess the level of pregnancy rate with respect to milk production Murrah buffaloes. Data pertaining to 1224 lactation records of Murrah buffaloes spread over a period 21 years were analyzed and it was observed that pregnancy rate depicted negative phenotypic association with lactation milk yield (-0.08 ± 0.04). For developing optimum model for pregnancy rate in Murrah buffaloes seven simple and multiple regression models were developed. Among the seven models, model II having only Service period as an independent reproduction variable, was found to be the best prediction model, based on the four statistical criterions (high coefficient of determination (R 2), low mean sum of squares due to error (MSSe), conceptual predictive (CP) value, and Bayesian information criterion (BIC). For standardizing the level of fertility with milk production, pregnancy rate was classified into seven classes with the increment of 10% in all parities, life time and their corresponding average pregnancy rate in relation to the average lactation milk yield (MY).It was observed that to achieve around 2000 kg MY which can be considered optimum for Indian Murrah buffaloes, level of pregnancy rate should be in between 30-50%.

Keywords: life time, pregnancy rate, production, service period, standardization

Procedia PDF Downloads 620

Authors: Meital Amzalag, Sharon Hardof-Jaffe

Abstract:

In the last few decades, children and youth have been immersed in digital technologies. Indeed, recent studies explored the implication of technology use in their leisure and learning activities. Educators face an essential need to utilize technology and implement them into the curriculum. To do that, educators need to understand how young people use digital technology. This study aims to explore K12 students' digital lives from their point of view, to reveal their digital activities, age and gender differences with respect to digital activities, and to present the students' attitudes towards technologies in learning. The study approach is quantitative and includes354 students ages 6-16 from three schools in Israel. The online questionnaire was based on self-reports and consists of four parts: Digital activities: leisure time activities (such as social networks, gaming types), search activities (information types and platforms), and digital application use (e.g., calendar, notes); Digital skills (requisite digital platform skills such as evaluation and creativity); Social and emotional aspects of digital use (conducting digital activities alone and with friends, feelings, and emotions during digital use such as happiness, bullying); Digital attitudes towards digital integration in learning. An academic ethics board approved the study. The main findings reveal the most popular K12digital activities: Navigating social network sites, watching TV, playing mobile games, seeking information on the internet, and playing computer games. In addition, the findings reveal age differences in digital activities, such as significant differences in the use of social network sites. Moreover, the finding raises gender differences as girls use more social network sites and boys use more digital games, which are characterized by high complexity and challenges. Additionally, we found positive attitudes towards technology integration in school. Students perceive technology as enhancing creativity, promoting active learning, encouraging self-learning, and helping students with learning difficulties. The presentation will provide an up-to-date, accurate picture of the use of various digital technologies by k12 students. In addition, it will discuss the learning potentials of such use and how to implement digital technologies in the curriculum. Acknowledgments: This study is a part of a broader study about K-12 digital life in Israel and is supported by Mofet-the Israel Institute for Teachers'Development.

Keywords: technology and learning, K-12, digital life, gender differences

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Leila Habibi, Hadi Hakimi, Maryam Jafari Mehrabadi, Hadi Sadeghian

Abstract:

Nowadays, the importance of information technology and web- based information in tourism is very obvious. Increasing of sales and promotion of brands, the rise of information about tourist attractions and tourist areas, Entrepreneurship and making money, introducing of hotels and side information to tourists via web are some Examples of website effects on tourism. The hotels using web-based information can succeed in attracting tourists and improve the quality of services to the tourists so; the study of hotel websites has become one of the most important issues in tourism. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the status of hotel websites in Yazd City as one of the most tourist visited counties in Iran. The quality of hotel website in a city such as this city can be very vital for tourism. Hence, this research compares the status of hotel websites in Yazd City with standard indexes and items that extracted from Literature and theoretical framework. It is used content analysis for analyzing of hotel websites with indexes and items in methodology. In the other words, all of the items is compared with the content of hotel-websites in Yazd one by one. Finally, every hotel archived final score and it represents the position of the hotel among the others. All of scores and status of hotels is displayed in their own Figures. The result of this research shows that many hotels do not offer standard web -based services and information. So, the existing situation is not very suitable for the attraction of web users or improving the tourism. The result of this research may help the managers and authorities of tourism to offer and improve the web- based services and information.

Keywords: e-tourism, hotel websites, tourism, web-tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Mohammad Mirwais Arghandiwal, Fujita Motohiro, Wisinee Wisetjindawat

Abstract:

Since 2001, the new government of Afghanistan addressed the improvement of transportation in rural areas as one of the key issues for the country development. This paper thus, aims to show the impotency of transportation in the rural area of Kabul province. A field survey in Kabul Province capital of Afghanistan has been conducted during March, 2015, and 201 questionnaires were collected from four districts named Shakar Dara, Paghman, Char Asyab, and Khak Jabar to investigate the impacts of road transportation on the people’s daily life. The districts had their road projects constructed during the last 3-5 years. The interviewees are chosen randomly from a different category of districts residences. As transportation is one of the most important factors for the development of the communities, during the survey it was very easily to observe a positive effect on the life of people. The improvement on the accessibility has had a positive impact on the land and land price. In this paper, a model is created to show the relationship between different factors and the land price improvement. In the end, a recommendation is presented on the establishment of the community council for a better use and maintenance of road projects. We emphasize on a public and private partnership at a community level in the districts during the construction period too. In addition, the communities should be encouraged on their positive role in the improvement of transportation through their participation and collaboration with the local government.

Keywords: accessibility, Afghanistan, poverty, rural area, transportation development

Procedia PDF Downloads 415

Authors: Rajaram Kr. Gupta, Bhupendra Kumar, T. V. K. Gupta, D. S. Ramteke

Abstract:

Machining of hard materials is a recent technology for direct production of work-pieces. The primary challenge in machining these materials is selection of cutting tool inserts which facilitates an extended tool life and high-precision machining of the component. These materials are widely for making precision parts for the aerospace industry. Nickel-based alloys are typically used in extreme environment applications where a combination of strength, corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance material characteristics are required. The present paper reports the theoretical and experimental investigations carried out to understand the influence of machining parameters on the response parameters. Considering the basic machining parameters (speed, feed and depth of cut) a study has been conducted to observe their influence on material removal rate, surface roughness, cutting forces and corresponding tool wear. Experiments are designed and conducted with the help of Central Composite Rotatable Design technique. The results reveals that for a given range of process parameters, material removal rate is favorable for higher depths of cut and low feed rate for cutting forces. Low feed rates and high values of rotational speeds are suitable for better finish and higher tool life.

Keywords: speed, feed, depth of cut, roughness, cutting force, flank wear

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Milica Karadžić, Lidija Jevrić, Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanović, Strahinja Kovačević, Anamarija Mandić, Aleksandar Oklješa, Andrea Nikolić, Marija Sakač, Katarina Penov Gaši

Abstract:

Using chemometric approach, the relationships between the chromatographic lipophilicity and in silico molecular descriptors for twenty-nine selected steroid derivatives were studied. The chromatographic lipophilicity was predicted using artificial neural networks (ANNs) method. The most important in silico molecular descriptors were selected applying stepwise selection (SS) paired with partial least squares (PLS) method. Molecular descriptors with satisfactory variable importance in projection (VIP) values were selected for ANN modeling. The usefulness of generated models was confirmed by detailed statistical validation. High agreement between experimental and predicted values indicated that obtained models have good quality and high predictive ability. Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) confirmed the importance of each molecular descriptor used as an input variable. High-quality networks indicate a strong non-linear relationship between chromatographic lipophilicity and used in silico molecular descriptors. Applying selected molecular descriptors and generated ANNs the good prediction of chromatographic lipophilicity of the studied steroid derivatives can be obtained. This article is based upon work from COST Actions (CM1306 and CA15222), supported by COST (European Cooperation and Science and Technology).

Keywords: artificial neural networks, chemometrics, global sensitivity analysis, liquid chromatography, steroids

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: H. S. Sathish, H. S. Jagadeesh, Skanda Kumar

Abstract:

Journey time and delay study is used to evaluate the quality of service, the travel time and study can also be used to evaluate the quality of traffic movement along the route and to determine the location types and extent of traffic delays. Components of delay are boarding and alighting, issue of tickets, other causes and distance between each stops. This study investigates the total journey time required to travel along the stretch and the influence the delays. The route starts from Kempegowda Bus Station to Yelahanka Satellite Station of Bangalore City. The length of the stretch is 16.5 km. Modal split analysis has been done for this stretch. This stretch has elevated highway connecting to Bangalore International Airport and the extension of metro transit stretch. From the regression analysis of total journey time it is affected by delay due to boarding and alighting moderately, Delay due to issue of tickets affects the journey time to a higher extent. Some of the delay factors affecting significantly the journey time are evident from F-test at 10 percent level of confidence. Along this stretch work trips are more prevalent as indicated by O-D study. Modal shift analysis indicates about 70 percent of commuters are ready to shift from current system to Metro Rail System. Metro Rail System carries maximum number of trips compared to private mode. Hence Metro is a highly viable choice of mode for Bangalore Metropolitan City.

Keywords: delay, journey time, modal choice, regression analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 484

Authors: Riina I. Bray, Yifan Wang, Nikolas Argiropoulos, Stephanie Robins, John Molot, Kelly Tragash, Lynn M. Marshall, Margaret E. Sears, Marie-Andrée Pigeon, Michel Gaudet, Pierre Auger, Emily Bélanger, Rohini Peris

Abstract:

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a chronic medical condition characterized by intolerances to chemical substances. Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated health measures, people experiencing MCS (PEMCS) are at a heightened risk of environmental exposures associated with cleaners, disinfectants, and sanitizers. Little attention has been paid to the well-being of PEMCS in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: This study assesses the lived experiences of Canadian adults with MCS in relation to their living environment, access to healthcare, and levels of perceived social support before and during the pandemic. Methods: A total of 119 PEMCS completed an online questionnaire. McNemar Chi-Squared and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to evaluate if there were statistically significant changes in participants’ perception of their living environment, access to healthcare, and levels of social support before and after March 11, 2020. Results: Both positive and negative outcomes were noted. Participants reported an increase in exposure to disinfectants/sanitizers that entered their living environment (p<.001). There was a reported decrease in access to a family doctor during the pandemic (p<0.001). Although PEMCS experienced increased social isolation (p<0.001), they also reported an increase in understanding from family (p<0.029) and a decrease in stigma for wearing personal protective equipment (p<0.001). Conclusion: PEMCS reported experiencing: increased exposure to disinfectants or sanitizers, a loss of social support, and barriers in accessing healthcare during the pandemic. However, COVID-19 provided an opportunity to normalize the living conditions of PEMCS, such as wearing masks and social isolation. These findings can guide decision-makers on the importance of implementing nontoxic alternatives for cleaning and disinfection, as well as improving accommodation measures for PEMCS.

Keywords: covid-19, multiple chemical sensitivity, MCS, quality of life, social isolation, physical environment, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: Namfon Samsalee, Rungsinee Sothornvit

Abstract:

Turmeric is a natural plant herb and generally extracted as essential oil and widely used in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical products including insect repellent. However, turmeric oil is a volatile essential oil which is easy to be lost during storage or exposure to light. Therefore, biopolymers such as protein and polysaccharide can be used as wall materials to encapsulate the essential oil which will solve this drawback. Approximately 60% plasma from porcine blood contains 6-7% of protein content mainly albumin and globulin which can be a good source of animal protein at the low-cost biopolymer from by-product. Microencapsulation is a useful technique to entrap volatile compounds in the biopolymer matrix and protect them to degrade. The objective of this research was to investigate the different ratios of two biopolymers (PPP and maltodextrin; MD) as wall materials at 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100 at a fixed ratio of wall material: core material (turmeric oil) at 3:1 (oil in water) on the qualities of microencapsulated powder using freeze drying. It was found that the combination of PPP and MD showed higher solubility of microencapsules compared to the use of PPP alone (P < 0.05). Moreover, the different ratios of wall materials also affected on color (L*, a* and b*) of microencapsulated powder. Morphology of microencapsulated powder using a scanning electron microscope showed holes on the surface reflecting on free oil content and encapsulation efficiency of microencapsules. At least 50% of MD was needed to increase encapsulation efficiency of microencapsulates rather than using only PPP as the wall material (P < 0.05). Microencapsulated turmeric oil powder can be useful as food additives to improve food texture, as a biopolymer material for edible film and coating to maintain quality of food products.

Keywords: microencapsulation, turmeric oil, porcine plasma protein, maltodextrin

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Kyere Francis, Sun Dongying, Asante Dennis, Nkrumah Nana Kwame Edmund, Naana Yaa Gyamea Kumah

Abstract:

With a focus on renewable energy to achieve low-carbon transition objectives, there is a greater demand for effective collaborative strategies for planning, strategic decision mechanisms, and long-term policy designs to steer the transitions. Government agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and individual citizens play an important role in sustainable energy production. In Ghana, however, such collaboration is fragile in the fight against climate change. This current study seeks to re-examine the position or potential of network governance in Ghana's renewable energy transition. The study adopted a qualitative approach and employed semi-structured interviews for data gathering. To explore network governance and low carbon transitions in Ghana, we examine key themes such as political environment and impact, actor cooperation and stakeholder interactions, financing and the transition, market design and renewable energy integration, existing regulation and policy gaps for renewable energy transition, clean cooking accessibility, and affordability. The findings reveal the following; Lack of comprehensive consultations with relevant stakeholders leads to lower acceptance of the policy model and sometimes lack of policy awareness. Again, the unavailability and affordability of renewable energy technologies and access to credit facilities is a significant hurdle to long-term renewable transition. Ghana's renewable energy transitions require strong networking and interaction among the public, private, and non-governmental organizations. The study participants believe that the involvement of relevant energy experts and stakeholders devoid of any political biases is instrumental in accelerating renewable energy transitions, as emphasized in the proposed framework. The study recommends that the national renewable energy transition plan be evident to all stakeholders and political administrators. Such policy may encourage renewable energy investment through stable and fixed lending rates by the financial institutions and build a network with international organizations and corporations. These findings could serve as valuable information for the transition-based energy process, primarily aiming to govern sustainability changes through network governance.

Keywords: actors, development, sustainable energy, network governance, renewable energy transition

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Kiran Kumar Gellaboina, Padmaja Kaja

Abstract:

Agricultural Education and Research in India needs a transformation to serve the needs of the farmers and that of the nation. The fact that Agriculture and allied activities act as main source of livelihood for more than 70% population of rural India reinforces its importance in administrative and policy arena. As per Census 2011 of India it provides employment to approximately 56.6 % of labour. India has achieved significant growth in agriculture, milk, fish, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables owing to green, white, blue and yellow revolutions which have brought prosperity to farmers. Many factors are responsible for these achievement viz conducive government policies, receptivity of the farmers and also establishment of higher agricultural education institutions. The new breed of skilled human resources were instrumental in generating new technologies, and in its assessment, refinement and finally its dissemination to the farming community through extension methods. In order to sustain, diversify and realize the potential of agriculture sectors, it is necessary to develop skilled human resources. Agricultural human resource development is a continuous process undertaken by agricultural universities. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) coordinates and promotes agricultural research & education in India. In India, agricultural universities were established on ‘land grant’ pattern of USA which helped incorporation of a number of diverse subjects in the courses as also provision of hands-on practical exposure to the student. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) established through the legislative acts of the respective states and with major financial support from them leading to administrative and policy controls. It has been observed that pace and quality of technology generation and human resource development in many of the SAUs has gone down. The reason for this slackening are inadequate state funding, reduced faculty strength, inadequate faculty development programmes, lack of modern infrastructure for education and research etc. Establishment of new state agricultural universities and new faculties/colleges without providing necessary financial and faculty support has aggrieved the problem. The present work highlights some of the key issues affecting agricultural education and research in India and the impact it would have on farm productivity and sustainability. Secondary data pertaining to budgetary spend on agricultural education and research will be analyzed. This paper will study the trends in public spending on agricultural education and research and the per capita income of farmers in India. This paper tries to suggest that agricultural education and research has a key role in equipping the human resources for enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainable use of natural resources. Further, a total re-orientation of agricultural education with emphasis on other agricultural related social sciences is needed for effective agricultural policy research.

Keywords: agriculture, challenges, education, research

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Christabel Ihedike, John Mooney, Monica Price

Abstract:

Summary: This study aims to critically evaluate effect of photochemical smog on respiratory health in Nigeria. Cohort of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients was recruited from two large hospitals in Abuja Nigeria. Respiratory health questionnaires, daily diaries, dyspnoea scale and lung function measurement were used to obtain health data and investigate the relationship with air quality data (principally ozone, NOx and particulate pollution). Concentrations of air pollutants were higher than WHO and Nigerian air quality standard. The result suggests a correlation between measured air quality and exacerbation of respiratory illness. Introduction: Photochemical smog is a significant health challenge in most cities and its effect on respiratory health is well acknowledged. This type of pollution is most harmful to the elderly, children and those with underlying respiratory disease. This study aims to investigate impact of increasing temperature and photo-chemically generated secondary air pollutants on respiratory health in Abuja Nigeria. Method and Result: Health data was collected using spirometry to measure lung function on routine attendance at the clinic, daily diaries kept by patients and information obtained using respiratory questionnaire. Questionnaire responses (obtained using an adapted and internally validated version of St George’s Hospital Respiratory Questionnaire), shows that ‘time of wheeze’ showed an association with participants activities: 30% had worse wheeze in the morning: 10% cannot shop, 15% take long-time to get washed, 25% walk slower, 15% if hurry have to stop and 5% cannot take-bath. There was also a decrease in Forced expiratory volume in the first second and Forced Vital Capacity, and daily change in the afternoon–morning may be associated with the concentration level of pollutants. Also, dyspnoea symptoms recorded that 60% of patients were on grade 3, 25% grade 2 and 15% grade 1. Daily frequency of the number of patients in the cohort that cough /brought sputum is 78%. Air pollution in the city is higher than Nigerian and WHO standards with NOx and PM10 concentrations of 693.59ug/m-3 and 748ugm-3 being measured respectively. The result shows that air pollution may increase occurrence and exacerbation of respiratory disease. Conclusion: High temperature and local climatic conditions in urban Nigeria encourages formation of Ozone, the major constituent of photochemical smog, resulting also in the formation of secondary air pollutants associated with health challenges. In this study we confirm the likely potency of the pattern of secondary air pollution in exacerbating COPD symptoms in vulnerable patient group in urban Nigeria. There is need for better regulation and measures to reduce ozone, particularly when local climatic conditions favour development of photochemical smog in such settings. Climate change and likely increasing temperatures add impetus and urgency for better air quality standards and measures (traffic-restrictions and emissions standards) in developing world settings such as Nigeria.

Keywords: Abuja-Nigeria, effect, photochemical smog, respiratory health

Procedia PDF Downloads 207

Authors: David Obafemi Adebayo

Abstract:

An occupational challenge has been identified as one of the factors that could cripple set goals and life ambitions of an Internally Displaced Person (IDP). The main thrust of this study is therefore, explore the use of life support/adjustment strategy with a view to repositioning these internally displaced persons in Nigeria in revamping their goals and achieving their life-long ambitions. The study intends to investigate whether there exist, on the basis of gender, religion, years of working experience and educational qualification any significant difference in the occupational challenges and adjustment strategies of IDPs. The study being descriptive of survey type adopted a multi-stage sampling technique to select the minimum of 400 internally displaced persons from IDP camps in Yimitu Village, Waru District in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The research instrument used for the study was a researcher-designed questionnaire entitled “Questionnaire on Occupational Challenges and Adjustment Strategy of Internally Displaced Persons (QOCASIDPs)”. Eight null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels of significance. Frequency counts and percentages, means and rank order, t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) (where applicable) were employed to analyze the data. The Study determined whether occupational challenges of internally displaced persons included loss of employment, vocational discrimination, marginalization by employers of labour, isolation due to joblessness, lack of occupational freedom, which were found to be true. The results were discussed in line with the findings. The study established the place of notable adjustment strategies adopted by internally displaced person like engaging in petty trading, sourcing soft loans from NGOs, setting up small-scale businesses in groups, acquiring new skills, engaging in further education, among others. The study established that there was no significant difference in the occupational challenges of IDPs on the basis of years of working experience and highest educational qualifications, though there was significant difference on the basis of gender as well as religion. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made.

Keywords: internally displaced persons, occupational challenges, adjustment strategies, Abuja-Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Edokpa Idemudia Waziri, Salisu S. Umar

Abstract:

The Hotellng’s T^2 is a well-known statistic for detecting a shift in the mean vector of a multivariate normal distribution. Control charts based on T have been widely used in statistical process control for monitoring a multivariate process. Although it is a powerful tool, the T statistic is deficient when the shift to be detected in the mean vector of a multivariate process is small and consistent. The Multivariate Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (MEWMA) control chart is one of the control statistics used to overcome the drawback of the Hotellng’s T statistic. In this paper, the probability distribution of the Average Run Length (ARL) of the MEWMA control chart when the quality characteristics exhibit substantial cross correlation and when the process is in-control and out-of-control was derived using the Markov Chain algorithm. The derivation of the probability functions and the moments of the run length distribution were also obtained and they were consistent with some existing results for the in-control and out-of-control situation. By simulation process, the procedure identified a class of ARL for the MEWMA control when the process is in-control and out-of-control. From our study, it was observed that the MEWMA scheme is quite adequate for detecting a small shift and a good way to improve the quality of goods and services in a multivariate situation. It was also observed that as the in-control average run length ARL0¬ or the number of variables (p) increases, the optimum value of the ARL0pt increases asymptotically and as the magnitude of the shift σ increases, the optimal ARLopt decreases. Finally, we use the example from the literature to illustrate our method and demonstrate its efficiency.

Keywords: average run length, markov chain, multivariate exponentially weighted moving average, optimal smoothing parameter

Procedia PDF Downloads 409

Authors: Majed Alobudi

Abstract:

Edward Said is considered among the most prominent figures in postcolonial theoretical studies and his work has largely influenced critical discussion for many decades. And in the globalized world of today where immigration and dislocation are intense and thoroughly discussed, Said`s views on these issues seem more relevant than ever. This paper will endeavor to bring together Said`s theoretical texts and other writings on immigration and exile in parallel. The aim is to try to find a better understanding of Said`s theories on dislocation and exile theoretically and personally. The combination of these two strands of narrative will eventually shed more light on self location in postcolonial theories and further the understanding of Said's theories and personal life narratives. The paper propose the difficulty dislocation poses in counter colonial narratives such as those written by Said. As an exile, the mission of defining the self and the other becomes obscure when place becomes impossible or prohibited. The clear result becomes a self which proclaims rather than inhabits reality, a treat Said criticized in colonial representation. The self becomes trapped between the worlds of distant reality of dislocation and the estranged world of exile. The outcome would reveal a more weakened attempt at defining the self and countering the postcolonial narrative. The reason for such confusion and contradiction is directly connected to place and dis-location. To summarize, the paper proposes to examine and investigate the implications exile and dislocation have inflected on Said as a prominent postcolonial figure and how that affects his theories and personal life. The outcome, it is argued, would be a vast and lasting effect which such colonial and postcolonial phenomenon have on personal and theoretical narratives written by Said.

Keywords: Edward Said, exile, postcolonialism, dislocation

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Phong Le Ha

Abstract:

In many cities the entire world, the relationship between cities and rivers is always considered as a fundament of urban history research because of their profound interactions. This kind of relationship makes the river zones become extremely sensitive in many aspects. One of the most important aspect is their roles in the drainage of cities. In this paper we will examine an extraordinary case of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and Red river zones. This river has contradictory impacts to this city: It is considered as a source of life of the inhabitants who live along its two banks, however, the risk of inundation caused by the complicated hydrology system of this river is always a real threat to the cities that it flows through. Morphologically, Red river was connected to the inner rivers system that made Hanoi a complete form of a river city. This structure combined with the topography of Hanoi helps this city to assure a stable drainage system in which the river zones in the north of Hanoi play some extreme important roles. Nevertheless, in the late 20 years, Hanoi's strong urbanization and the instability of Red river's complicated hydrology make the very remarkable transformations in the relationship river-city and in the river zones: The connection between the river and the city declines; the system of inner lakes are progressively replaced by habitat land; in the river zones, the infrastructure system can't adapt to the transformations of the new quarters which have the origin of the agricultural villages. These changes bring out many chances for the urban development, but also many risks and problems, particularly in the environment and technical sides. Among these, pluvial and used water evacuation is one of the most severe problems. The disappear of inner-city lakes, the high dike and the topographical changes of Hanoi blow up the risk of inundation of this city. In consequences, the riverine zones, particularly in the north of Hanoi, where the two most important water evacuation rivers of Hanoi meet each other, are burdened with the drainage pressure. The unique water treatment plant in this zone seems to be overcharged in receiving each day about 40000m3 of used water (not include pluvial water). This kind of problem leads also to another risk related to the environmental pollution (water pollution and air pollution). So, in order to better understand the situation and to propose the solutions to resolve the problems, an interdisciplinary research covering many different fields such urban planning, architecture, geography, and especially drainage and environment has been carried out. In general, this paper will analyze an important part of the research : the process of urban transformation of Hanoi (changes in urban morphology, infrastructure system, evolution of the dike system, ...) and the hydrological changes of Red river which cause the drainage and environmental problems. The conclusions of these analyses will be the solid base of the following researches focusing on the solutions of a sustainable development.

Keywords: drainage, environment, Hanoi, infrastructure, red rivers, urbanization

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: Alberto Veses, Olga Sanhauja, María Soledad Callén, Tomás García

Abstract:

The appropriate use of renewable sources emerges as a decisive point to minimize the environmental impact caused by fossil fuels use. Particularly, the use of lignocellulosic biomass becomes one of the best promising alternatives since it is the only carbon-containing renewable source that can produce bioproducts similar to fossil fuels and it does not compete with food market. Among all the processes that can valorize lignocellulosic biomass, pyrolysis is an attractive alternative because it is the only thermochemical process that can produce a liquid biofuel (bio-oil) in a simple way and solid and gas fractions that can be used as energy sources to support the process. However, in order to incorporate bio-oils in current infrastructures and further process in future biorefineries, their quality needs to be improved. Introducing different low-cost catalysts and/or incorporating different polymer residues to the process are some of the new, simple and low-cost strategies that allow the user to directly obtain advanced bio-oils to be used in future biorefineries in an economic way. In this manner, from previous thermogravimetric analyses, local agricultural wastes such as grape seeds (GS) were selected as lignocellulosic biomass while, waste tires (WT) were selected as polymer residue. On the other hand, CaO was selected as low-cost catalyst based on previous experiences by the group. To reach this aim, a specially-designed fixed bed reactor using N₂ as a carrier gas was used. This reactor has the peculiarity to incorporate a vertical mobile liner that allows the user to introduce the feedstock in the oven once the selected temperature (550 ºC) is reached, ensuring higher heating rates needed for the process. Obtaining a well-defined phase distribution in the resulting bio-oil is crucial to ensure the viability to the process. Thus, once experiments were carried out, not only a well-defined two layers was observed introducing several mixtures (reaching values up to 40 wt.% of WT) but also, an upgraded organic phase, which is the one considered to be processed in further biorefineries. Radical interactions between GS and WT released during the pyrolysis process and dehydration reactions enhanced by CaO can promote the formation of better-quality bio-oils. The latter was reflected in a reduction of water and oxygen content of bio-oil and hence, a substantial increase of its heating value and its stability. Moreover, not only sulphur content was reduced from solely WT pyrolysis but also potential and negative issues related to a strong acidic environment of conventional bio-oils were minimized due to its basic pH and lower total acid numbers. Therefore, acidic compounds obtained in the pyrolysis such as CO₂-like substances can react with the CaO and minimize acidic problems related to lignocellulosic bio-oils. Moreover, this CO₂ capture promotes H₂ production from water gas shift reaction favoring hydrogen-transfer reactions, improving the final quality of the bio-oil. These results show the great potential of grapes seeds to carry out the catalytic co-pyrolysis process with different plastic residues in order to produce a liquid bio-oil that can be considered as a high-quality renewable vector.

Keywords: advanced bio-oils, biorefinery, catalytic co-pyrolysis of biomass and waste tires, lignocellulosic biomass

Procedia PDF Downloads 221

Authors: G. Natuhwera, M. Rabwoni, P. Ellis, A. Merriman

Abstract:

Aims: Health workers are likely to document patients’ care inaccurately, especially when using new and revised case tools, and this could negatively impact patient care. This study set out to; (1) assess nurses’ and clinicians’ documentation practices when using a new patients’ continuation case sheet (PCCS) and (2) explore nurses’ and clinicians’ experiences regarding documentation of patients’ information in the new PCCS. The purpose of introducing the PCCS was to improve continuity of care for patients attending clinics at which they were unlikely to see the same clinician or nurse consistently. Methods: This was a mixed methods study. The cross-sectional inquiry retrospectively reviewed 100 case notes of active patients on hospice and palliative care program. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire with constructs formulated from the new PCCS under study. The qualitative element was face-to-face audio-recorded, open-ended interviews with a purposive sample of one palliative care clinician, and four palliative care nurse specialists. Thematic analysis was used. Results: Missing patients’ biogeographic information was prevalent at 5-10%. Spiritual and psychosocial issues were not documented in 42.6%, and vital signs in 49.2%. Poorest documentation practices were observed in past medical history part of the PCCS at 40-63%. Four themes emerged from interviews with clinicians and nurses-; (1) what remains unclear and challenges, (2) comparing the past with the present, (3) experiential thoughts, and (4) transition and adapting to change. Conclusions: The PCCS seems to be a comprehensive and simple tool to be used to document patients’ information at subsequent visits. The comprehensiveness and utility of the PCCS does paper to be limited by the failure to train staff in its use prior to introducing. The authors find the PCCS comprehensive and suitable to capture patients’ information and recommend it can be adopted and used in other palliative and hospice care settings, if suitable introductory training accompanies its introduction. Otherwise, the reliability and validity of patients’ information collected by this PCCS can be significantly reduced if some sections therein are unclear to the clinicians/nurses. The study identified clinicians- and nurses-related pitfalls in documentation of patients’ care. Clinicians and nurses need to prioritize accurate and complete documentation of patient care in the PCCS for quality care provision. This study should be extended to other sites using similar tools to ensure representative and generalizable findings.

Keywords: documentation, information case sheet, palliative care, quality improvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Ismail Okur, Betul Taspinar, Turkan Pasali Kilit, Eda O. Okur, Ferruh Taspinar

Abstract:

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most important global health emergencies and every year more and more people are affected by T2DM. T2DM causes life-changing complications by affecting organ and systems. Although diet and exercise are the best way to treat patients with T2DM, those patients generally have a sedentary life style. This study was planned to determine whether patients with T2DM have kinesiophobia (fear of movement). A controlled trial was conducted on 87 adults. Forty-one individuals with T2DM (study group, 34 female and 7 male) and 46 nondiabetic individuals (control group, 39 female and 7 male) were included in the study. Patients were screened for fear of movement using the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). The data including age, sex, weight, height, and TSK scores were obtained. Mann Whitney U test were used to analyse the data. The mean ages and BMI of study and control groups were 51.98 ± 6.03 year and 49.52 ± 5.61 year and 31.82 ± 2.88 kg/m2 and 30.22 ± 2.91 kg/m2, respectively. The groups have similar demographic properties. The kinesiophobia scores of study and control groups were 42.78 ± 5.50 and 39.48 ± 5.05, respectively and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.05). This study showed that patients with T2DM had high kinesiophobia scores rather than nondiabetics. Those patients might avoid to do exercise. In other words, patients with T2DM might have lower physical activity level. Therefore the authors suggest that to evaluate and interfere with kinesiophobia before conducting exercise therapy will be useful for diabetes care.

Keywords: diabetes, fear of movement, kinesiophobia, type 2 diabetes mellitus

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Akulov M. A., Zaharov V. O., Jurishhev P. E., Tomskij A. A.

Abstract:

Introduction: Spasticity is a severe consequence of stroke, leading to profound disability, decreased quality of life and decrease of rehabilitation efficacy [4]. Spasticity is often associated with pain syndrome, arising from joint damage of paretic limbs (postural arthropathy) or painful spasm of paretic limb muscles. It is generally accepted that injection of botulinum toxin into a cramped muscle leads to decrease of muscle tone and improves motion range in paretic limb, which is accompanied by pain alleviation. Study aim: To evaluate the change in pain syndrome intensity after incections of botulinum toxin A (Xeomin) in stroke patients with upper limb spasticity. Patients and methods. 21 patients aged 47-74 years were evaluated. Inclusion criteria were: acute stroke 4-7 months before the inclusion into the study, leading to spasticity of wrist and/or finger flexors, elbow flexor or forearm pronator, associated with severe pain syndrome. Patients received Xeomin as monotherapy 90-300 U, according to spasticity pattern. Efficacy evaluation was performed using Ashworth scale, disability assessment scale (DAS), caregiver burden scale and global treatment benefit assessment on weeks 2, 4, 8 and 12. Efficacy criterion was the decrease of pain syndrome by week 4 on PQLS and VAS. Results: The study revealed a significant improvement of measured indices after 4 weeks of treatment, which persisted until the 12 week of treatment. Xeomin is effective in reducing muscle tone of flexors of wrist, fingers and elbow, forearm pronators. By the 4th week of treatment we observed a significant improvement on DAS (р < 0,05), Ashworth scale (1-2 points) in all patients (р < 0,05), caregiver burden scale (р < 0,05). A significant decrease of pain syndrome by the 4th week of treatment on PQLS (р < 0,05) и VAS (р < 0,05) was observed. No adverse effect were registered. Conclusion: Xeomin is an effective treatment of pain syndrome in postural upper limb spasticity after stroke. Xeomin treatment leads to a significant improvement on PQLS and VAS.

Keywords: botulinum toxin, pain syndrome, spasticity, stroke

Procedia PDF Downloads 298

Authors: M. A. Okezue, K. L. Clase, S. R. Byrn

Abstract:

The requirement for maintaining data integrity in laboratory operations is critical for regulatory compliance. Automation of procedures reduces incidence of human errors. Quality control laboratories located in low-income economies may face some barriers in attempts to automate their processes. Since data from quality control tests on pharmaceutical products are used in making regulatory decisions, it is important that laboratory reports are accurate and reliable. Zinc Sulphate (ZnSO₄) tablets is used in treatment of diarrhea in pediatric population, and as an adjunct therapy for COVID-19 regimen. Unfortunately, zinc content in these formulations is determined titrimetrically; a manual analytical procedure. The assay for ZnSO4 tablets involves time-consuming steps that contain mathematical formulae prone to calculation errors. To achieve consistency, save costs, and improve data integrity, validated spreadsheets were developed to simplify the two critical steps in the analysis of ZnSO4 tablets: standardization of 0.1M Sodium Edetate (EDTA) solution, and the complexometric titration assay procedure. The assay method in the United States Pharmacopoeia was used to create a process flow for ZnSO₄ tablets. For each step in the process, different formulae were input into two spreadsheets to automate calculations. Further checks were created within the automated system to ensure validity of replicate analysis in titrimetric procedures. Validations were conducted using five data sets of manually computed assay results. The acceptance criteria set for the protocol were met. Significant p-values (p < 0.05, α = 0.05, at 95% Confidence Interval) were obtained from students’ t-test evaluation of the mean values for manual-calculated and spreadsheet results at all levels of the analysis flow. Right-first-time analysis and principles of data integrity were enhanced by use of the validated spreadsheet calculators in titrimetric evaluations of ZnSO₄ tablets. Human errors were minimized in calculations when procedures were automated in quality control laboratories. The assay procedure for the formulation was achieved in a time-efficient manner with greater level of accuracy. This project is expected to promote cost savings for laboratory business models.

Keywords: data integrity, spreadsheets, titrimetry, validation, zinc sulphate tablets

Procedia PDF Downloads 157