Search results for: survival predictive values

Authors: Odukunle Adebayo Atewolara-Odule

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Music is an electronic medium and an integral content of the broadcast media, which has communicative values even in the process of entertaining listeners. The communicative values of music could have implications on what adults learn about culture and society. This study aimed at examining the communicative values of Yoruba traditional music and adulthood socialisation by comparing the situation of the late 20th with early 21st centuries. From the population of literate adults of between the ages of 30 years and 65 years in Ijebu North Local Government area of Ogun state, a sample of 200 respondents was drawn into the study through the stratified technique. A descriptive survey was conducted on the sample with the use of a structured questionnaire as the research instrument. Findings showed a significant relationship between what adults learned about the society and its culture from this category of music (p=0.000<0.05) but there was a higher significant relationship between Yoruba traditional music and adulthood socialisation in the late 20th than in early 21st centuries. Results also showed a significant communicative influence of Yoruba traditional music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries on adulthood socialisation (p=0.000<0.05). Respondents’ demographic characteristics were observed to play significant intervening roles on the communicative influence of Yoruba traditional music on socialisation among the adults between the late 20th and early 21st centuries (p=0.000<0.05). The study recommends that stakeholders should take cognisance of the lyrical contents of Yoruba traditional music due to its implications to inculcate values into people and shape their behaviour.

Keywords: adulthood socialisation, communicative values, traditional music, Voruba

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Authors: E. M. D. Akuoko, Eliana Vasquez Osorio, Marcel Van Herk, Marianne Aznar

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Radiotherapy is an integral part of treatment for many patients with breast cancer. However, side effects can occur, e.g., fibrosis or erythema. If patients at higher risks of radiation-induced side effects could be identified before treatment, they could be given more individual information about the risks and benefits of radiotherapy. We hypothesize that breast density is correlated with the risk of side effects and present a novel method for automatic evaluation based on radiotherapy planning CT scans. Methods: 799 supine CT scans of breast radiotherapy patients were available from the REQUITE dataset. The methodology was first established in a subset of 114 patients (cohort 1) before being applied to the whole dataset (cohort 2). All patients were scanned in the supine position, with arms up, and the treated breast (ipsilateral) was identified. Manual experts contour available in 96 patients for both the ipsilateral and contralateral breast in cohort 1. Breast tissue was segmented using atlas-based automatic contouring software, ADMIRE® v3.4 (Elekta AB, Sweden). Once validated, the automatic segmentation method was applied to cohort 2. Breast density was then investigated by thresholding voxels within the contours, using Otsu threshold and pixel intensity ranges based on Hounsfield units (-200 to -100 for fatty tissue, and -99 to +100 for fibro-glandular tissue). Volumetric breast density (VBD) was defined as the volume of fibro-glandular tissue / (volume of fibro-glandular tissue + volume of fatty tissue). A sensitivity analysis was performed to verify whether calculated VBD was affected by the choice of breast contour. In addition, we investigated the correlation between volumetric breast density (VBD) and patient age and breast size. VBD values were compared between ipsilateral and contralateral breast contours. Results: Estimated VBD values were 0.40 (range 0.17-0.91) in cohort 1, and 0.43 (0.096-0.99) in cohort 2. We observed ipsilateral breasts to be denser than contralateral breasts. Breast density was negatively associated with breast volume (Spearman: R=-0.5, p-value < 2.2e-16) and age (Spearman: R=-0.24, p-value = 4.6e-10). Conclusion: VBD estimates could be obtained automatically on a large CT dataset. Patients’ age or breast volume may not be the only variables that explain breast density. Future work will focus on assessing the usefulness of VBD as a predictive variable for radiation-induced side effects.

Keywords: breast cancer, automatic image segmentation, radiotherapy, big data, breast density, medical imaging

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Authors: M. I. A. Adziz, J. Sharib Sarip, M. T. Ishak, D. N. A. Tugi

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Radiation exposure to humans and the environment is caused by natural radioactive material sources. Given that exposure to people and communities can occur through several pathways, it is necessary to pay attention to the increase in naturally radioactive material, particularly in the soil. Continuous research and monitoring on the distribution and determination of these natural radionuclides' activity as a guide and reference are beneficial, especially in an accidental exposure. Surface soil/sediment samples from several locations identified around the Sembrong catchment area were taken for the study. After 30 days of secular equilibrium with their daughters, the activity concentrations of the naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) members, i.e. ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra, ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K, were measured using high purity germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometer. The results obtained showed that the radioactivity concentration of ²³⁸U ranged between 17.13 - 30.13 Bq/kg, ²³²Th ranged between 22.90 - 40.05 Bq/kg, ²²⁶Ra ranged between 19.19 - 32.10 Bq/kg, ²²⁸Ra ranged between 21.08 - 39.11 Bq/kg and ⁴⁰K ranged between 9.22 - 51.07 Bq/kg with average values of 20.98 Bq/kg, 27.39 Bq/kg, 23.55 Bq/kg, 26.93 Bq/kg and 23.55 Bq/kg respectively. The values obtained from this study were low or equivalent to previously reported in previous studies. It was also found that the mean/mean values obtained for the four parameters of the Radiation Hazard Index, namely radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external dose rate (D), annual effective dose and external hazard index (Hₑₓ), were 65.40 Bq/kg, 29.33 nGy/h, 19.18 ¹⁰⁻⁶Sv and 0.19 respectively. These obtained values are low compared to the world average values and the values of globally applied standards. Comparison with previous studies (dry season) also found that the values for all four parameters were low and equivalent. This indicates the level of radiation hazard in the area around the study is safe for the public.

Keywords: catchment area, gamma spectrometry, naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), soil

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Authors: Heshalini Rajagopal, Li Sze Chow, Raveendran Paramesran

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most important medical imaging modality. Subjective assessment of the image quality is regarded as the gold standard to evaluate MR images. In this study, a database of 210 MR images which contains ten reference images and 200 distorted images is presented. The reference images were distorted with four types of distortions: Rician Noise, Gaussian White Noise, Gaussian Blur and DCT compression. The 210 images were assessed by ten subjects. The subjective scores were presented in Difference Mean Opinion Score (DMOS). The DMOS values were compared with four FR-IQA metrics. We have used Pearson Linear Coefficient (PLCC) and Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient (SROCC) to validate the DMOS values. The high correlation values of PLCC and SROCC shows that the DMOS values are close to the objective FR-IQA metrics.

Keywords: medical resonance (MR) images, difference mean opinion score (DMOS), full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA)

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Authors: Christian T. Lystbaek

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Background: The importance of innovation management has traditionally been ascribed to private production companies, however, there is an increasing interest in public services innovation management. One of the major theoretical challenges arising from this situation is to understand public values justifying public services innovation management. However, there is not single and stable definition of public value in the literature. The research question guiding this paper is: What is the supposed added value operating in the public sphere? Methodology: The study takes an action research strategy. This is highly contextualized methodology, which is enacted within a particular set of social relations into which on expects to integrate the results. As such, this research strategy is particularly well suited for its potential to generate results that can be applied by managers. The aim of action research is to produce proposals with a creative dimension capable of compelling actors to act in a new and pertinent way in relation to the situations they encounter. The context of the study is a workshop on public services innovation within elderly care. The workshop brought together different actors, such as managers, personnel and two groups of users-citizens (elderly clients and their relatives). The process was designed as an extension of the co-construction methods inherent in action research. Scenario methods and focus groups were applied to generate dialogue. The main strength of these techniques is to gather and exploit as much data as possible by exposing the discourse of justification used by the actors to explain or justify their points of view when interacting with others on a given subject. The approach does not directly interrogate the actors on their values, but allows their values to emerge through debate and dialogue. Findings: The public values related to public services innovation management in elderly care were identified in two steps. In the first step, identification of values, values were identified in the discussions. Through continuous analysis of the data, a network of interrelated values was developed. In the second step, tracking group consensus, we then ascertained the degree to which the meaning attributed to the value was common to the participants, classifying the degree of consensus as high, intermediate or low. High consensus corresponds to strong convergence in meaning, intermediate to generally shared meanings between participants, and low to divergences regarding the meaning between participants. Only values with high or intermediate degree of consensus were retained in the analysis. Conclusion: The study shows that the fundamental criterion for justifying public services innovation management is the capacity for actors to enact public values in their work. In the workshop, we identified two categories of public values, intrinsic value and behavioural values, and a list of more specific values.

Keywords: public services innovation management, public value, co-creation, action research

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Authors: Yan Cheng, Yijun Shao, James Rudolph, Charlene R. Weir, Beth Sahlmann, Qing Zeng-Treitler

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Supervised predictive models require labeled data for training purposes. Complete and accurate labeled data, i.e., a ‘gold standard’, is not always available, and imperfectly labeled data may need to serve as an alternative. An important question is if the accuracy of the labeled data creates a performance ceiling for the trained model. In this study, we trained several models to recognize the presence of delirium in clinical documents using data with annotations that are not completely accurate (i.e., weakly-supervised learning). In the external evaluation, the support vector machine model with a linear kernel performed best, achieving an area under the curve of 89.3% and accuracy of 88%, surpassing the 80% accuracy of the training sample. We then generated a set of simulated data and carried out a series of experiments which demonstrated that models trained on imperfect data can (but do not always) outperform the accuracy of the training data, e.g., the area under the curve for some models is higher than 80% when trained on the data with an error rate of 40%. Our experiments also showed that the error resistance of linear modeling is associated with larger sample size, error type, and linearity of the data (all p-values < 0.001). In conclusion, this study sheds light on the usefulness of imperfect data in clinical research via weakly-supervised learning.

Keywords: weakly-supervised learning, support vector machine, prediction, delirium, simulation

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Authors: Bongs Lainjo

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The evolution and escalation of bike-sharing programs (BSP) continue unabated. Since the sixties, many countries have introduced different models and strategies of BSP. These include variations ranging from dockless models to electronic real-time monitoring systems. Reasons for using this BSP include recreation, errands, work, etc. And there is all indication that complex, and more innovative rider-friendly systems are yet to be introduced. The objective of this paper is to analyze current variables established by different operators and streamline them identifying the most compelling ones using analytics. Given the contents of available databases, there is a lack of uniformity and common standard on what is required and what is not. Two factors appear to be common: user type (registered and unregistered, and duration of each trip). This article uses historical data provided by one operator based in the greater Washington, District of Columbia, USA area. Several variables including categorical and continuous data types were screened. Eight out of 18 were considered acceptable and significantly contribute to determining a useful and reliable predictive model. Bike-sharing systems have become popular in recent years all around the world. Although this trend has resulted in many studies on public cycling systems, there have been few previous studies on the factors influencing public bicycle travel behavior. A bike-sharing system is a computer-controlled system in which individuals can borrow bikes for a fee or free for a limited period. This study has identified unprecedented useful, and pragmatic parameters required in improving BSP ridership dynamics.

Keywords: sharing program, historical data, parameters, ridership dynamics, trip duration

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Authors: Ewa M. Laskowska, Jorn Vatn

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Industry 4.0 focuses on digital optimization of industrial processes. The idea is to use extracted data in order to build a decision support model enabling use of those data for real time decision making. In terms of predictive maintenance, the desired decision support tool would be a model enabling prognostics of system's health based on the current condition of considered equipment. Within area of system prognostics and health management, a commonly used health indicator is Remaining Useful Lifetime (RUL) of a system. Because the RUL is a random variable, it has to be estimated based on available health indicators. Health indicators can be of different types and come from different sources. They can be process variables, equipment performance variables, data related to number of experienced failures, etc. The aim of this study is the analysis of performance variables of emergency shutdown valves (ESV) used in oil and gas industry. ESV is inspected periodically, and at each inspection torque and time of valve operation are registered. The data will be analyzed by means of machine learning or statistical analysis. The purpose is to investigate whether the available data could be used as a health indicator for a prognostic purpose. The second objective is to examine what is the most efficient way to incorporate the data into predictive model. The idea is to check whether the data can be applied in form of explanatory variables in Markov process or whether other stochastic processes would be a more convenient to build an RUL model based on the information coming from registered data.

Keywords: emergency shutdown valves, health indicator, prognostics, remaining useful lifetime, RUL

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Authors: R. Sudhesh Solomon, P. Y. K. L. Srinivas, Abhay Narayan, Amitava Das

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Users in social networks either unicast or broadcast their messages. At mention is the popular way of unicasting for Twitter whereas general tweeting could be considered as broadcasting method. Understanding the information flow and dynamics within a Social Network and modeling the same is a promising and an open research area called Information Diffusion. This paper seeks an answer to a fundamental question - understanding if the at-mention network or the unicasting pattern in social media is purely random in nature or is there any user specific selectional preference? To answer the question we present an empirical analysis to understand the sociological aspects of Twitter mentions network within a social network community. To understand the sociological behavior we analyze the values (Schwartz model: Achievement, Benevolence, Conformity, Hedonism, Power, Security, Self-Direction, Stimulation, Traditional and Universalism) of all the users. Empirical results suggest that values traits are indeed salient cue to understand how the mention-based communication network functions. For example, we notice that individuals possessing similar values unicast among themselves more often than with other value type people. We also observe that traditional and self-directed people do not maintain very close relationship in the network with the people of different values traits.

Keywords: information diffusion, personality and values, social network analysis, twitter mentions network

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Authors: Vandna Raghuvanshi, Vikrant Thakur, Anupam Jhobta

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Objective: To design HRCT criterion to forecast the threat of pulmonary tuberculosis. Material and methods: This was a prospective study of 69 patients with clinical suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis. We studied their medical characteristics, numerous separate HRCT-results, and a combination of HRCT findings to foresee the danger for PTB by utilizing univariate and multivariate investigation. Temporary HRCT diagnostic criteria were planned in view of these outcomes to find out the risk of PTB and tested these criteria on our patients. Results: The results of HRCT chest were analyzed, and Rank was given from 1 to 4 according to the HRCT chest findings. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were calculated. Rank 1: Highly suspected PTB. Rank 2: Probable PTB Rank 3: Nonspecific or difficult to differentiate from other diseases Rank 4: Other suspected diseases • Rank 1 (Highly suspected TB) was present in 22 (31.9%) patients, all of them finally diagnosed to have pulmonary tuberculosis. The sensitivity, specificity, and negative likelihood ratio for RANK 1 on HRCT chest was 53.6%, 100%, and 0.43, respectively. • Rank 2 (Probable TB) was present in 13 patients, out of which 12 were tubercular, and 1 was non-tubercular. • The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio of the combination of Rank 1 and Rank 2 was 82.9%, 96.4%, 23.22, and 0.18, respectively. • Rank 3 (Non-specific TB) was present in 25 patients, and out of these, 7 were tubercular, and 18 were non-tubercular. • When all these 3 ranks were considered together, the sensitivity approached 100% however, the specificity reduced to 35.7%. The positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 1.56 and 0, respectively. • Rank 4 (Other specific findings) was given to 9 patients, and all of these were non-tubercular. Conclusion: HRCT is useful in selecting individuals with greater chances of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Keywords: pulmonary, tuberculosis, multivariate, HRCT

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Authors: Xin Wu, Yongfeng Zhao, Qingxiang Meng

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In China, quite low proportion of crop residues were used as feedstuff because of its poor palatability and low digestibility. Steam explosion is a physical and chemical feed processing technology which has great potential to improve sapidity and digestibility of crop residues. To investigate the effect of the steam explosion on chemical compositions and efficient energy values, crop residues (rice straw, wheat straw and maize stover) were processed by steam explosion (steam temperature 120-230°C, steam pressure 2-26kg/cm², 40min). Steam-exploded crop residues were regarded as treatment groups and untreated ones as control groups, nutritive compositions were analyzed and effective energy values were calculated by prediction model in INRA (1988, 2010) for both groups. Results indicated that the interaction between treatment and variety has a significant effect on chemical compositions of crop residues. Steam explosion treatment of crop residues decreased neutral detergent fiber (NDF) significantly (P < 0.01), and compared with untreated material, NDF content of rice straw, wheat straw, and maize stover lowered 21.46%, 32.11%, 28.34% respectively. Acid detergent lignin (ADL) of crop residues increased significantly after the steam explosion (P < 0.05). The content of crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and Ash increased significantly after steam explosion (P < 0.05). Moreover, predicted effective energy values of each steam-exploded residue were higher than that of untreated ones. The digestible energy (DE), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy for maintenance (NEm) and net energy for gain (NEg)of steam-exploded rice straw were 3.06, 2.48, 1.48and 0.29 MJ/kg respectively and increased 46.21%, 46.25%, 49.56% and 110.92% compared with untreated ones(P < 0.05). Correspondingly, the energy values of steam-exploded wheat straw were 2.18, 1.76, 1.03 and 0.15 MJ/kg, which were 261.78%, 261.29%, 274.59% and 1014.69% greater than that of wheat straw (P < 0.05). The above predicted energy values of steam exploded maize stover were 5.28, 4.30, 2.67 and 0.82 MJ/kg and raised 109.58%, 107.71%, 122.57% and 332.64% compared with the raw material(P < 0.05). In conclusion, steam explosion treatment could significantly decrease NDF content, increase ADL, CP, EE, Ash content and effective energy values of crop residues. The effect of steam explosion was much more obvious for wheat straw than the other two kinds of residues under the same condition.

Keywords: chemical compositions, crop residues, efficient energy values, steam explosion

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Authors: Vipan Kumar Sohpal

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Temperature effect on the adsorption of crystal violet dye (CVD) was investigated using a castor leaf powder (CLP) that was prepared from the mature leaves of castor trees, through chemical reaction. The optimum values of pH (8), adsorbent dose (10g/L), initial dye concentration (10g/L), time (2hrs), and stirrer speed (120 rpm) were fixed to investigate the influence of temperature on adsorption capacity, percentage of removal of dye and free energy. A central composite design (CCD) was successfully employed for experimental design and analysis of the results. The combined effect of temperature, absorbance, and concentration on the dye adsorption was studied and optimized using response surface methodology. The optimum values of adsorption capacity, percentage of removal of dye and free energy were found to be 0.965(mg/g), 93.38 %, -8202.7(J/mol) at temperature 55.97 °C having desirability > 90% for removal of crystal violet dye respectively. The experimental values were in good agreement with predicted values.

Keywords: crystal violet dye, CVD, castor leaf powder, CLP, response surface methodology, temperature, optimization

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Authors: Yazan Al-Kofahi, Jamal Alqawasmi.

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In this study, a comprehensive literature review (SLR) was conducted, with the main goal of assessing the existing literature about how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) models are used in sustainable architecture applications and issues including thermal comfort satisfaction, energy efficiency, cost prediction and many others issues. For this reason, the search strategy was initiated by using different databases, including Scopus, Springer and Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria were used by two research strings related to DL, ML and sustainable architecture. Moreover, the timeframe for the inclusion of the papers was open, even though most of the papers were conducted in the previous four years. As a paper filtration strategy, conferences and books were excluded from database search results. Using these inclusion and exclusion criteria, the search was conducted, and a sample of 59 papers was selected as the final included papers in the analysis. The data extraction phase was basically to extract the needed data from these papers, which were analyzed and correlated. The results of this SLR showed that there are many applications of ML and DL in Sustainable buildings, and that this topic is currently trendy. It was found that most of the papers focused their discussions on addressing Environmental Sustainability issues and factors using machine learning predictive models, with a particular emphasis on the use of Decision Tree algorithms. Moreover, it was found that the Random Forest repressor demonstrates strong performance across all feature selection groups in terms of cost prediction of the building as a machine-learning predictive model.

Keywords: machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, sustainable building

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Authors: Prof. Ammal Mokhtar Metwally, Samia M. Sami, Nihad A. Ibrahim, Fatma A. Shaaban, Iman I. Salama

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Objectives: Reducing neonatal mortality by 2030 is still a challenging goal in developing countries. low birth weight (LBW) is a significant contributor to this, especially where weighing newborns is not possible routinely. The present study aimed to determine a simple, easy, reliable anthropometric measure(s) that can predict LBW) and neonatal mortality. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 570 babies born in districts of El Menia governorate, Egypt (where most deliveries occurred at home) was examined at birth. Newborn weight, length, head, chest, mid-arm, and thigh circumferences were measured. Follow up of the examined neonates took place during their first four weeks of life to report any mortalities. The most predictable anthropometric measures were determined using the statistical package of SPSS, and multiple Logistic regression analysis was performed.: Results: Head and chest circumferences with cut-off points < 33 cm and ≤ 31.5 cm, respectively, were the significant predictors for LBW. They carried the best combination of having the highest sensitivity (89.8 % & 86.4 %) and least false negative predictive value (1.4 % & 1.7 %). Chest circumference with a cut-off point ≤ 31.5 cm was the significant predictor for neonatal mortality with 83.3 % sensitivity and 0.43 % false negative predictive value. Conclusion: Using chest circumference with a cut-off point ≤ 31.5 cm is recommended as a single simple anthropometric measurement for the prediction of both LBW and neonatal mortality. The predicted measure could act as a substitute for weighting newborns in communities where scales to weigh them are not routinely available.

Keywords: low birth weight, neonatal mortality, anthropometric measures, practical screening

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Authors: C. Han, H. Kim, S. Park

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The purpose of the present study is to analyze the effect of surface roughness on fatigue life of SCM440 steel. Two groups of specimens were made from SCM440 steel with and without surface polished after forging process and resulted in different values of surface roughness. The difference of the surface roughness between two groups was clearly distinguished even to the naked eye. Surface roughness of both groups of the specimens was quantitatively measured by a roughness measuring device, Talysurf series2 (Taylor-Hobson Co., USA). Average roughness (Ra) and maximum roughness depth (Rmax) values were obtained by scanning 45 mm with a speed of 0.25 mm/s. Fatigue tests were conducted using a three-point bending method with a cyclic sinusoidal profile of 5 Hz, stress ratio of R = 0.1 and reference life for fatigue limit of 1 × 106 cycles. Ra and Rmax without surface polished were 10.497 ± 1.721 μm and 87.936 ± 16.210 μm, respectively while those values with surface polished were much smaller (ongoing measurements). Fatigue lives of the surface-polished specimens achieved approximately 1 × 106 cycles under the maximum stress of 900 MPa, which was 10 times longer than those of the surface-untreated specimens with an average roughness of 10.082 μm. The results showed that an increase in surface roughness values led to a decrease in fatigue lives.

Keywords: surface roughness, fatigue test, fatigue life, SCM440 steel

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Authors: Yuchao Yao

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As two of the main characteristics of Chinese demographic trends, increasing divorce rates and decreasing fertility rates both shaped the population structure in the recent decade. Figuring out to what extent can be having a child make a difference in the divorce rate of a couple will not only draw a picture of Chinese families but also bring about a new perspective to evaluate the Chinese child-breeding policies. Based on China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) Data 2010-2018, this paper provides a systematic evaluation of how children influence a couple’s marital stability through a series of empirical models. Using survival analysis and propensity score matching (PSM) model, this paper finds that the number and age of children that a couple has mattered in consolidating marital relationship, and these effects vary little over time; during the last decade, newly having children can in fact decrease the possibility of divorce for Chinese couples; the such decreasing effect is largely due to the birth of a second child. As this is an inclusive attempt to study and compare not only the effects but also the causality of children on divorce risk in the last decade, the results of this research will do a good summary of the status quo of divorce in China. Furthermore, this paper provides implications for further reforming the current marriage and child-breeding policies.

Keywords: divorce risk, fertility, China, survival analysis, propensity score matching

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Authors: Francesco Pantano, Marta Fogolari, Michele Iuliani, Sonia Simonetti, Silvia Cavaliere, Marco Russano, Fabrizio Citarella, Bruno Vincenzi, Silvia Angeletti, Giuseppe Tonini

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Background: Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the treatment paradigm of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), these drugs fail to elicit durable responses in the majority of NSCLC patients. The gut microbiota, able to regulate immune responsiveness, is emerging as a promising, modifiable target to improve ICIs response rates. Since the oral microbiome has been demonstrated to be the primary source of bacterial microbiota in the lungs, we investigated its composition as a potential predictive biomarker to identify and select patients who could benefit from immunotherapy. Methods: Thirty-five patients with stage IV squamous and non-squamous cell NSCLC eligible for an anti-PD-1/PD-L1 as monotherapy were enrolled. Saliva samples were collected from patients prior to the start of treatment, bacterial DNA was extracted using the QIAamp® DNA Microbiome Kit (QIAGEN) and the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced on a MiSeq sequencing instrument (Illumina). Results: NSCLC patients were dichotomized as “Responders” (partial or complete response) and “Non-Responders” (progressive disease), after 12 weeks of treatment, based on RECIST criteria. A prevalence of the phylum Candidatus Saccharibacteria was found in the 10 responders compared to non-responders (abundance 5% vs 1% respectively; p-value = 1.46 x 10-7; False Discovery Rate (FDR) = 1.02 x 10-6). Moreover, a higher prevalence of Saccharibacteria Genera Incertae Sedis genus (belonging to the Candidatus Saccharibacteria phylum) was observed in "responders" (p-value = 6.01 x 10-7 and FDR = 2.46 x 10-5). Finally, the patients who benefit from immunotherapy showed a significant abundance of TM7 Phylum Sp Oral Clone FR058 strain, member of Saccharibacteria Genera Incertae Sedis genus (p-value = 6.13 x 10-7 and FDR=7.66 x 10-5). Conclusions: These preliminary results showed a significant association between oral microbiota and ICIs response in NSCLC patients. In particular, the higher prevalence of Candidatus Saccharibacteria phylum and TM7 Phylum Sp Oral Clone FR058 strain in responders suggests their potential immunomodulatory role. The study is still ongoing and updated data will be presented at the congress.

Keywords: oral microbiota, immune checkpoint inhibitors, non-small cell lung cancer, predictive biomarker

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Authors: Olajide Emmanuel Adedeji, Olufunke O. Ezekiel

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Moringa seed (20%) was incorporated into ogi (80%) at different stages in the flow line of ogi flour. Functional, pasting and L*a*b* colour characteristics of the samples were determined using standard methods. Loose and packed bulk densities ranged from 0.32 to 0.39 g/cm3 and 0.57 to 0.70 g/cm3 respectively. 100% ogi flour had the lowest values in both parameters. Water absorption and swelling capacities of the samples ranged from 0.89 to 1.80 ml/g and from 5.81 to 6.99 respectively. Pasting viscosity ranged from 870.33 RVU to 4660.67 RVU with the sample produced through the incorporation of full fat moringa seed flour during souring stage and 100% ogi flour having the least and highest values respectively. Stage of moringa seed inclusion also had effect on the trough, breakdown and final viscosity of the samples. The range of values obtained for these pasting parameters were 599.33-2940.00 RVU, 271.00-1720.67 RVU and 840.00-5451.67 RVU respectively. There was no significant difference (p≥ 0.05) in L*(a measure of whiteness) among the co fermented, blend of ogi and full fat moringa flours, blend of ogi and defatted moringa flour and 100% ogi flour samples. Low values were recorded for these samples in a* (measure of redness), b* (measure of yellowness) and colour intensity.

Keywords: stage of inclusion, functional property, ogi, moringa seed

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Authors: Endeshaw Assefa Derso, Maria Gabriella Campolo, Angela Alibrandi

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Objectives:Early childhood malnutrition can have long-term and irreversible effects on a child's health and development. This study uses the Bayesian method with spatial variation to investigate the flexible trends of metrical covariates and to identify communities at high risk of injury. Methods: Cross-sectional data on underweight are collected from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). The Bayesian geo-additive model is performed. Appropriate prior distributions were provided for scall parameters in the models, and the inference is entirely Bayesian, using Monte Carlo Markov chain (MCMC) stimulation. Results: The results show that metrical covariates like child age, maternal body mass index (BMI), and maternal age affect a child's underweight non-linearly. Lower and higher maternal BMI seem to have a significant impact on the child’s high underweight. There was also a significant spatial heterogeneity, and based on IDW interpolation of predictive values, the western, central, and eastern parts of the country are hotspot areas. Conclusion: Socio-demographic and community- based programs development should be considered compressively in Ethiopian policy to combat childhood underweight malnutrition.

Keywords: bayesX, Ethiopia, malnutrition, MCMC, semi-parametric bayesian analysis, spatial distribution, P- splines

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Authors: Y. Baba, A. Archibong-Eso, H. Yeung

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Experimental study of high viscosity oil-gas flows in horizontal pipelines published in literature has indicated that hydrodynamic slug flow is the dominant flow pattern observed. Investigations have shown that hydrodynamic slugging brings about high instabilities in pressure that can damage production facilities thereby making it inherent to study high viscous slug flow regime so as to improve the understanding of its flow dynamics. Most slug flow models used in the petroleum industry for the design of pipelines together with their closure relationships were formulated based on observations of low viscosity liquid-gas flows. New experimental investigations and data are therefore required to validate these models. In cases where these models underperform, improving upon or building new predictive models and correlations will also depend on the new experimental dataset and further understanding of the flow dynamics in high viscous oil-gas flows. In this study conducted at the Flow laboratory, Oil and Gas Engineering Centre of Cranfield University, slug flow variables such as pressure gradient, mean liquid holdup, frequency and slug length for oil viscosity ranging from 1..0 – 5.5 Pa.s are experimentally investigated and analysed. The study was carried out in a 0.076m ID pipe, two fast sampling gamma densitometer and pressure transducers (differential and point) were used to obtain experimental measurements. Comparison of the measured slug flow parameters to the existing slug flow prediction models available in the literature showed disagreement with high viscosity experimental data thus highlighting the importance of building new predictive models and correlations.

Keywords: gamma densitometer, mean liquid holdup, pressure gradient, slug frequency and slug length

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Authors: S. S. Nafee, A. M. Al-Ramady, S. A. Shaheen

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Evaluated nuclear decay data for the 217Po nuclide ispresented in the present work. These data include recommended values for the half-life T1/2, α-, β--, and γ-ray emission energies and probabilities. Decay data from 221Rn α and 217Bi β—decays are presented. Q(α) has been updated based on the recent published work of the Atomic Mass Evaluation AME2012. In addition, the logft values were calculated using the Logft program from the ENSDF evaluation package. Moreover, the total internal conversion electrons has been calculated using Bricc program. Meanwhile, recommendation values or the multi-polarities have been assigned based on recently measurement yield a better intensity balance at the 254 keV and 264 keV gamma transitions.

Keywords: nuclear decay data evaluation, mass evaluation, total converison coefficients, atomic mass evaluation

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Authors: S. Ahmet Bagci, Hayati Akman

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This study was conducted at the research laboratory and greenhouse conditions to determine the effect on germination and emergency values of long-term stored seed (7 years) and non-stored seed (control) of nine durum wheat varieties. Three replicates of 20 seeds were germinated between double layered rolled germination papers in the Petri plates. Seeds were allowed to germinate at 20±1°C in the dark for 8 days. The seeds were counted on the 8th day as per ISTA rules and calculated in percent to determine germination capacity. Seedling emergency values were determined by testing 20 seeds placed into the sands with three replications of pots. Plants were counted on the 7th day and 12th day to determined seedling emergency rate and capacity, respectively. According to results, there are significant differences among the varieties in terms of germination capacity, seedling emergency rate and capacity of long-term stored and non-stored seeds. Germination capacity values declined from 100% to 93,3% of non-stored seeds whereas they were from 96,7% to 71,7% of long-term stored seeds. Percentage of seedling emergency capacity varied from 65,0% to 93,3% for non-stored seeds, however, the percentage of it was between 11,7 and 86,7% for long-term stored seeds. Results indicate that germination and emergence values responses to long-term stored condition varied significantly among durum wheat cultivars. Research results showed that the long-term-storage resulted in significant decrease with 13.5 % for germination, 36.4 % for emergence on the seventh day and 32.4 % for emergence on the twelfth day. Germination values ranged from 93.3 to 100.0 % for control and 71.7 to 96.7 % for storage. Emergence values in seventh day varied between 51.7 % and 90.0 % for control and 75.0 % and 10.0 % for storage, however values in twelfth day were between 93.3 % and 65.0 % for control and 86.7 % and 11.7 % for storage. According to research results, germination and emergence responses to long-term storage condition varied significantly among durum wheat cultivars.

Keywords: germination, emergence, long-term-storage, durum wheat

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Authors: Mohammad B. HabibiNajafi, Saeideh Sadat Fatemizadeh, Maryam Tavakoli

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In recent years, the consumption of functional foods, including foods containing probiotic bacteria, has come to notice. Milk proteins have been identified as a source of angiotensin-I-converting enzyme )ACE( inhibitory peptides and are currently the best-known class of bioactive peptides. In this study, the effects of adding prebiotic ingredients (inulin and wheat fiber) and fat percentage (0%, 2% and 3.5%) in yogurt containing probiotic Lactobacillus casei on physicochemical properties, degree of proteolysis, antioxidant and ACE-inhibitory activity within 21 days of storage at 5 ± 1 °C were evaluated. The results of statistical analysis showed that the application of prebiotic compounds led to a significant increase in water holding capacity, proteolysis and ACE-inhibitory of samples. The degree of proteolysis in yogurt increases as storage time elapses (P < 0.05) but when proteolysis exceeds a certain threshold, this trend begins to decline. Also, during storage time, water holding capacity reduced initially but increased thereafter. Moreover, based on our findings, the survival of Lactobacillus casei in samples treated with inulin and wheat fiber increased significantly in comparison to the control sample (P < 0.05) whereas the effect of fat percentage on the survival of probiotic bacteria was not significant (P = 0.095). Furthermore, the effect of prebiotic ingredients and the presence of probiotic cultures on the antioxidant activity of samples was significant (P < 0.05).

Keywords: probiotic yogurt, proteolysis, ACE-inhibitory, antioxidant activity

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Authors: Samuel Fekadu A., Esayas Alemayehu B., Bultum Oljira D., Seid Tiku D., Dessalegn Dadi D., Bart Van Der Bruggen A.

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The peroxi-photoelectrocoagulation process was evaluated for the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and color from healthcare wastewater. A 2-level full factorial design with center points was created to investigate the effect of the process parameters, i.e., initial COD, H₂O₂, pH, reaction time and current density. Furthermore, the total energy consumption and average current efficiency in the system were evaluated. Predictive models for % COD, % color removal and energy consumption were obtained. The initial COD and pH were found to be the most significant variables in the reduction of COD and color in peroxi-photoelectrocoagulation process. Hydrogen peroxide only has a significant effect on the treated wastewater when combined with other input variables in the process like pH, reaction time and current density. In the peroxi-photoelectrocoagulation process, current density appears not as a single effect but rather as an interaction effect with H₂O₂ in reducing COD and color. Lower energy expenditure was observed at higher initial COD, shorter reaction time and lower current density. The average current efficiency was found as low as 13 % and as high as 777 %. Overall, the study showed that hybrid electrochemical oxidation can be applied effectively and efficiently for the removal of pollutants from healthcare wastewater.

Keywords: electrochemical oxidation, UV, healthcare pollutants removals, factorial design

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Authors: Sarah Kalaouze, Maxine Iannucelli, Kristen Dunfield

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Children’s implicit beliefs regarding intelligence (i.e., intelligence mindsets) influence their motivation, perseverance, and success. Previous research suggests that the way parents perceive failure influences the development of their child’s intelligence mindsets. We invited 151 children-parent dyads (Age= 5–6 years) to complete a series of difficult puzzles over zoom. We assessed parents’ intelligence and failure mindsets using questionnaires and recorded parents’ person/performance-oriented (e.g., “you are smart” or "you were almost able to complete that one) and process-oriented (e.g., “you are trying really hard” or "maybe if you place the bigger pieces first") failure feedback. We were interested in observing the relation between parental mindsets and the type of feedback provided. We found that parents’ intelligence mindsets were not predictive of the feedback they provided children. Failure mindsets, on the other hand, were predictive of failure feedback. Parents who view failure-as-debilitating provided more person-oriented feedback, focusing on performance and personal ability. Whereas parents who view failure-as-enhancing provided process-oriented feedback, focusing on effort and strategies. Taken all together, our results allow us to determine that although parents might already have a growth intelligence mindset, they don’t necessarily have a failure-as-enhancing mindset. Parents adopting a failure-as-enhancing mindset would influence their children to view failure as a learning opportunity, further promoting practice, effort, and perseverance during challenging tasks. The focus placed on a child’s learning, rather than their performance, encourages them to perceive intelligence as malleable (growth mindset) rather than fix (fixed mindset). This implies that parents should not only hold a growth mindset but thoroughly understand their role in the transmission of intelligence beliefs.

Keywords: mindset(s), failure, intelligence, parental feedback, parents

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Authors: S. M. P Manjula, Ishara Amarathunga, Aryan Nath Koura, Jaideepraj Rao

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Background: Laparoscopic D2 Gastrectomy for non metastatic advanced Gastric cancer (AGC) has become a controversial topic as there are confronting ideas from experts in the field. Lack of consensus are mainly due to non feasibility of the dissection and safety and efficacy. Method: Data from all D2 Gastrectomies performed (both Subtotal and Total Gastrectomies) in our unit from 2009 December to 2013 December were retrospectively analysed. Computor database was prospectively maintained. Pathological stage two A (iiA) and above considered advanced Gastric cancers, who underwent curative intent D2 Gastrectomy were included for analysis(n=46). Four patients excluded from the study as peritoneal fluid cytology came positive for cancer cells and one patient exempted as microscopic resection margin positive(R1) after curative resection. Thirty day morbidity and mortality, operative time, lymph nodes harvest and survival (disease free and overall) analyzed. Results: Complete curative resection achieved in 40 patients. Mean age of the study population was 62.2 (32-88) and male to female ratio was 23: 17. Thirty day mortality (1/40) and morbidity (6/40). Average operative time 203.7 minutes (185- 400) and average lymphnodes harvest was 40.5 (18-91). Disease free survival of the AGC in this study population was 16.75 months (1-49). Average hospital stay was 6.8 days (3-31). Conclusion: Laparoscopic dissection is effective feasible and safe in AGC.

Keywords: laparoscopy, advanced gastric cancer, safety, efficacy

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Authors: Sibnath Sarkar

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Developing countries are facing many Social problems. In India, too there are several such problems. The problem of street children is one of them. No country or city anywhere in the world today is without the presence of street children, but the problem is most acute in developing countries. Thousands of street children can be seen in our populous cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, and Chennai. Most of them are in the age group of 5-15 years. The number of street children is increasing gradually. Poverty, unemployment, rapid urbanization, rural-urban migrations are the root causes of street children. Being deprive from many of their, they have escaped to the street as a safe place for living. Street children always related with the urban spaces in the developing world and it represents a sad outcome of the rapid urbanization process. After coming to the streets, these children have to cope with the new situation every day. They also adopt or develop many complex survival strategies and a variety of different informal or even illegal activities in public space and form supportive social networks in order to survive in street life. Street children use the different suitable urban spaces as their earning, living, entertaining spot. Therefore, the livelihoods of young people on the street should analyze in relation to the spaces they use, as well as their age and length of stay on the streets. This paper tries to explore the livelihood strategies and copping situation of street children in Sealdah station area. One hundred seventy-five street living children are included in the study living in and around the railway station.

Keywords: strategies, street children, survive, urban-space

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Authors: Kshanaprava Dhalsamant, Punyadarshini P. Tripathy, Shanker L. Shrivastava

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Potato is chosen as the food product for carrying out the natural convection mixed-mode solar drying experiments since they are easily available and globally consumed. The convective heat and mass transfer coefficients along with effective diffusivity were calculated considering both shrinkage and without shrinkage for the potato cylinders of different geometry (8, 10 and 13 mm diameters and a constant length of 50 mm). The convective heat transfer coefficient (hc) without considering shrinkage effect were 24.28, 18.69, 15.89 W/m2˚C and hc considering shrinkage effect were 37.81, 29.21, 25.72 W/m2˚C for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively. Similarly, the effective diffusivity (Deff) without considering shrinkage effect were 3.20×10-9, 4.82×10-9, 2.48×10-8 m2/s and Deff considering shrinkage effect were 1.68×10-9, 2.56×10-9, 1.34×10-8 m2/s for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively and the mass transfer coefficient (hm) without considering the shrinkage effect were 5.16×10-7, 2.93×10-7, 2.59×10-7 m/s and hm considering shrinkage effect were 3.71×10-7, 2.04×10-7, 1.80×10-7 m/s for 8, 10 and 13 mm diameter samples respectively. Increased values of hc were obtained by considering shrinkage effect in all diameter samples because shrinkage results in decreasing diameter with time achieving in enhanced rate of water loss. The average values of Deff determined without considering the shrinkage effect were found to be almost double that with shrinkage effect. The reduction in hm values is due to the fact that with increasing sample diameter, the exposed surface area per unit mass decreases, resulting in a slower moisture removal. It is worth noting that considering shrinkage effect led to overestimation of hc values in the range of 55.72-61.86% and neglecting the shrinkage effect in the mass transfer analysis, the values of Deff and hm are overestimated in the range of 85.02-90.27% and 39.11-45.11%, respectively, for the range of sample diameter investigated in the present study.

Keywords: shrinkage, convective heat transfer coefficient, effectivive diffusivity, convective mass transfer coefficient

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Authors: Nwadike Emmanuel Chinagoron, Achebe Chukwunonso, Ezeliora Chukwuemeka Daniel, Azaka Onyemazuwa Andrew

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In this research work, the process of biodiesel production in a pilot plant was studied using cow tallow as raw material, methanol as the solvent and potassium hydroxide as catalysts. The biodiesel quality was determined by characterization. The tallow used in the production had a molecular weight of 860g. Its oil had a density value of 0.8g/ml, iodine value of 63.45, viscosity at 300C was 9.83pas, acid value was 1.96, free fatty acid (FFA) of 0.98%, saponification value of 82.75mleq/kg, specific gravity of 0.898, flash point of 1100C, cloud point of 950C and Calorific value also called Higher Heating Value (HHV) of 38.365MJ/Kg. The produced biodiesel had a density of 0.82g/ml, iodine value of 126.9, viscosity of 4.32pas at 300C, acid value of 0.561, FFA of 0.2805%, saponification value of 137.45 mleq/kg.Flash point, cloud point and centane number of the biodiesel produced are 1390C, 980C and 57.5 respectively, with fat content, protein content, ash content, moisture content, fiber content and carbohydrate content values of 10%, 2.8%, 5%, 5%, 20%, and 37.2% respectively. The biodiesel higher heating values (calorific values) when estimated from viscosity, density and flash points were 41.4MJ/Kg, 63.8MJ/Kg, and 34.6MJ/Kg respectively. The biodiesel was blended with conventional diesel. The blend B-10 had values of 1320C and 960C for flash and cloud points, with Calorific value (or HHV) of 34.6 MJ/Kg (when estimated from its Flash point) and fat content, protein content, ash content, moisture content, fiber content and carbohydrate content values of 5%, 2.1%,10%, 5%, 15%, and 62.9% respectively.

Keywords: biodiesel, characterization, cow-tallow, cetane rating

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Authors: G. O. Avwiri, E. O. Agbalagba, C. P. Ononugbo

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Activity concentrations of natural radionuclides (226Ra, 232Th and 40K) in the soil, sediment and water of oil producing communities in Delta and Rivers States were determined using γ-ray spectrometry. The mean soil/sediment activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in onshore west in Delta state is 40.2±5.1Bqkg-1, 29.9±4.2Bqkg-1 and 361.5±20.0Bqkg-1 respectively, the corresponding values obtained in onshore east1 of Rivers state is 20.9±2.8Bqkg-1, 19.4±2.5Bqkg-1and 260.0±14.1Bqkg-1 respectively. While the mean activity concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in onshore east2 of Rivers state is 29.3±3.5Bqkg-1, 21.6±2.6Bqkg-1 and 262.1±14.6Bqkg-1 respectively. These values obtained show enhanced NORMs but are well within the world range. All the radiation hazard indices examined in soil have mean values lower than their maximum permissible limits. In drinking water, the obtained average values of226Ra, 228Ra and 40K is 8.4±0.9, 7.3±0.7 and 29.9±2.2Bql-1 respectively for well water, 4.5±0.6, 5.1±0.4 and 20.9±2.0Bql-1 respectively for borehole water and 11.3±1.2, 8.5±0.7 and 32.4±3.7Bql-1 respectively for river water in onshore west. For onshore east1, average activity concentration of 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K is 8.3±1.0, 8.6±1.1 and 39.6±3.3Bql-1 respectively for well water, 3.8±0.8, 4.9±0.6 and 35.7±4.1Bql-1 respectively for borehole water and 5.5±0.8, 5.4±0.7 and 36.9±3.8Bql-1 respectively for river water. While in onshore east2 average value of 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K is 10.1±1.1, 8.3±1.0 and 50.0±3.9Bql-1 respectively for well water, 4.7±0.9, 4.0±0.4 and 28.8±3.0Bql-1 respectively for borehole water and 7.7±0.9, 6.1±0.8 and 27.1±2.9Bql-1 respectively for river water and the average activity concentrations in the produced water226Ra, 228Ra and 40K is 5.182.14Bql-1, 6.042.48Bql-1 and 48.7813.67Bql-1 respectively. These values obtained are well above world average values of 1.0, 0.1 and 10Bql-1 for 226Ra, 228Ra and 40K respectively, those of the control site values and most reported values around the world. Though the hazard indices (Raeq, Hex, Hin) examined in water is still within the tolerable level, the committed effective dose estimated are above ICPR 0.1 mSvy-1 permissible limits. The overall results show that soil and sediment in the area are safe radiologically, but the result indicates some level of water pollution in the studied area.

Keywords: radioactivity, soil, sediment and water, Niger Delta, gamma detector

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