Search results for: normalized difference vegetation index

Authors: Francesca Gullo, Paola Palmero, Massimo Messori

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Transparent wood is considered a promising structural material for the development of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient engineered components. To obtain transparent wood from natural wood materials two approaches can be used: i) bottom-up and ii) top-down. Through the second method, the color of natural wood samples is lightened through a chemical bleaching process that acts on chromophore groups of lignin, such as the benzene ring, quinonoid, vinyl, phenolics, and carbonyl groups. These chromophoric units form complex conjugate systems responsible for the brown color of wood. There are two strategies to remove color and increase the whiteness of wood: i) lignin removal and ii) lignin bleaching. In the lignin removal strategy, strong chemicals containing chlorine (chlorine, hypochlorite, and chlorine dioxide) and oxidizers (oxygen, ozone, and peroxide) are used to completely destroy and dissolve the lignin. In lignin bleaching methods, a moderate reductive (hydrosulfite) or oxidative (hydrogen peroxide) is commonly used to alter or remove the groups and chromophore systems of lignin, selectively discoloring the lignin while keeping the macrostructure intact. It is, therefore, essential to manipulate nanostructured wood by precisely controlling the nanopores in the cell walls by monitoring both chemical treatments and process conditions, for instance, the treatment time, the concentration of chemical solutions, the pH value, and the temperature. The elimination of wood light scattering is the second step in the fabrication of transparent wood materials, which can be achieved through two-step approaches: i) the polymer impregnation method and ii) the densification method. For the polymer impregnation method, the wood scaffold is treated with polymers having a corresponding refractive index (e.g., PMMA and epoxy resins) under vacuum to obtain the transparent composite material, which can finally be pressed to align the cellulose fibers and reduce interfacial defects in order to have a finished product with high transmittance (>90%) and excellent light-guiding. However, both the solution-based bleaching and the impregnation processes used to produce transparent wood generally consume large amounts of energy and chemicals, including some toxic or pollutant agents, and are difficult to scale up industrially. Here, we report a method to produce optically transparent wood by modifying the lignin structure with a chemical reaction at room temperature using small amounts of hydrogen peroxide in an alkaline environment. This method preserves the lignin, which results only deconjugated and acts as a binder, providing both a strong wood scaffold and suitable porosity for infiltration of biobased polymers while reducing chemical consumption, the toxicity of the reagents used, polluting waste, petroleum by-products, energy and processing time. The resulting transparent wood demonstrates high transmittance and low thermal conductivity. Through the combination of process efficiency and scalability, the obtained materials are promising candidates for application in the field of construction for modern energy-efficient buildings.

Keywords: bleached wood, energy-efficient components, hydrogen peroxide, transparent wood, wood composites

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Authors: Brian Yulianto, Syachrial, Saeful Aziz, Anggita Clara Shinta

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Indonesia, with a population of about two hundred and fifty million people in quantity, indicates the outstanding wealth of human resources. Hundreds of millions of the population scattered in various communities in various regions in Indonesia with the different characteristics of economic, social and unique culture. Broadly speaking, the community in Indonesia is divided into two classes, namely urban communities and rural communities. The rural communities characterized by low potential and management of natural and human resources, limited access of development, and lack of social and economic infrastructure, and scattered and isolated population. West Java is one of the provinces with the largest population in Indonesia. Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2015 the number of population in West Java reached 46.7096 million souls spread over 18 districts and 9 cities. The big difference in geographical and social conditions of people in West Java from one region to another, especially the south to the north causing the gap is high. It is closely related to the flow of investment to promote the area. Poverty and underdevelopment are the classic problems that occur on a massive scale in the region as the effects of inequity in development. South Cianjur and Tasikmalaya area South became one of the portraits area where the existing potential has not been capable of prospering society. Tri Dharma College not only define the College as a pioneer implementation of education and research to improve the quality of human resources but also demanded to be a pioneer in the development through the concept of public service. Bandung Institute of Technology as one of the institutions of higher education to implement community service system through collaborative community work program "one of the university community" as one approach to developing villages. The program is based Community Service, where students are not only required to be able to take part in community service, but also able to develop a community development strategy that is comprehensive and integrity in cooperation with government agencies and non-government related as a real form of effort alignment potential, position and role from various parties. Areas of western Java in particular have high poverty rates and disparity. On the other hand, there are three fundamental pillars in the development of rural communities, namely economic development, community development, and the integrated infrastructure development. These pillars require the commitment of all components of community, including the students and colleges for upholding success. College’s community program is one of the approaches in the development of rural communities. ITB is committed to implement as one form of student community service as community-college programs that integrate all elements of the community which is called Kuliah Kerja Nyata-Thematic.

Keywords: development in rural area, collaborative, student community service, Kuliah Kerja Nyata-Thematic ITB

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Authors: Liu Jia’nan

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The default accounts hold the view that there exists a kind of scalar implicature which can be processed without context and own a psychological privilege over other scalar implicatures which depend on context. In contrast, the Relevance Theorist regards context as a must because all the scalar implicatures have to meet the need of relevance in discourse. However, in Katsos, the experimental results showed: Although quantitatively the adults rejected under-informative utterance with lexical scales (context-independent) and the ad hoc scales (context-dependent) at almost the same rate, adults still regarded the violation of utterance with lexical scales much more severe than with ad hoc scales. Neither default account nor Relevance Theory can fully explain this result. Thus, there are two questionable points to this result: (1) Is it possible that the strange discrepancy is due to other factors instead of the generation of scalar implicature? (2) Are the ad hoc scales truly formed under the possible influence from mental context? Do the participants generate scalar implicatures with ad hoc scales instead of just comparing semantic difference among target objects in the under- informative utterance? In my Experiment 1, the question (1) will be answered by repetition of Experiment 1 by Katsos. Test materials will be showed by PowerPoint in the form of pictures, and each procedure will be done under the guidance of a tester in a quiet room. Our Experiment 2 is intended to answer question (2). The test material of picture will be transformed into the literal words in DMDX and the target sentence will be showed word-by-word to participants in the soundproof room in our lab. Reading time of target parts, i.e. words containing scalar implicatures, will be recorded. We presume that in the group with lexical scale, standardized pragmatically mental context would help generate scalar implicature once the scalar word occurs, which will make the participants hope the upcoming words to be informative. Thus if the new input after scalar word is under-informative, more time will be cost for the extra semantic processing. However, in the group with ad hoc scale, scalar implicature may hardly be generated without the support from fixed mental context of scale. Thus, whether the new input is informative or not does not matter at all, and the reading time of target parts will be the same in informative and under-informative utterances. People’s mind may be a dynamic system, in which lots of factors would co-occur. If Katsos’ experimental result is reliable, will it shed light on the interplay of default accounts and context factors in scalar implicature processing? We might be able to assume, based on our experiments, that one single dominant processing paradigm may not be plausible. Furthermore, in the processing of scalar implicature, the semantic interpretation and the pragmatic interpretation may be made in a dynamic interplay in the mind. As to the lexical scale, the pragmatic reading may prevail over the semantic reading because of its greater exposure in daily language use, which may also lead the possible default or standardized paradigm override the role of context. However, those objects in ad hoc scale are not usually treated as scalar membership in mental context, and thus lexical-semantic association of the objects may prevent their pragmatic reading from generating scalar implicature. Only when the sufficient contextual factors are highlighted, can the pragmatic reading get privilege and generate scalar implicature.

Keywords: scalar implicature, ad hoc scale, dynamic interplay, default account, Mandarin Chinese processing

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Authors: P. Dubcek, B. Pivac, J. Dasovic, V. Janicki, S. Bernstorff

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When grown only to nanometric sizes, metallic particles (e.g. Ag, Au and Cu) exhibit specific optical properties caused by the presence of plasmon band. The plasmon band represents collective oscillation of the conduction electrons, and causes a narrow band absorption of light in the visible range. When the nanoparticles are embedded in a dielectric, they also cause modifications of dielectrics optical properties. This can be fine-tuned by tuning the particle size. We investigated Cu nanoparticle growth with and without surrounding dielectric (SiO2 capping layer). The morphology and crystallinity were investigated by GISAXS and GIWAXS, respectively. Samples were produced by high vacuum thermal evaporation of Cu onto monocrystalline silicon substrate held at room temperature, 100°C or 180°C. One series was in situ capped by 10nm SiO2 layer. Additionally, samples were annealed at different temperatures up to 550°C, also in high vacuum. The room temperature deposited samples annealed at lower temperatures exhibit continuous film structure: strong oscillations in the GISAXS intensity are present especially in the capped samples. At higher temperatures enhanced surface dewetting and Cu nanoparticles (nanoislands) formation partially destroy the flatness of the interface. Therefore the particle type of scattering is enhanced, while the film fringes are depleted. However, capping layer hinders particle formation, and continuous film structure is preserved up to higher annealing temperatures (visible as strong and persistent fringes in GISAXS), compared to the non- capped samples. According to GISAXS, lateral particle sizes are reduced at higher temperatures, while particle height is increasing. This is ascribed to close packing of the formed particles at lower temperatures, and GISAXS deduced sizes are partially the result of the particle agglomerate dimensions. Lateral maxima in GISAXS are an indication of good positional correlation, and the particle to particle distance is increased as the particles grow with temperature elevation. This coordination is much stronger in the capped and lower temperature deposited samples. The dewetting is much more vigorous in the non-capped sample, and since nanoparticles are formed in a range of sizes, correlation is receding both with deposition and annealing temperature. Surface topology was checked by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Capped sample's surfaces were smoother and lateral size of the surface features were larger compared to the non-capped samples. Altogether, AFM results suggest somewhat larger particles and wider size distribution, and this can be attributed to the difference in probe size. Finally, the plasmonic effect was monitored by UV-Vis reflectance spectroscopy, and relative weak plasmonic effect could be explained by uncomplete dewetting or partial interconnection of the formed particles.

Keywords: coper, GISAXS, nanoparticles, plasmonics

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Authors: Elham Bagheri, Yalda Mohsenzadeh

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Image memorability refers to the phenomenon where certain images are more likely to be remembered by humans than others. It is a quantifiable and intrinsic attribute of an image. Understanding how visual perception and memory interact is important in both cognitive science and artificial intelligence. It reveals the complex processes that support human cognition and helps to improve machine learning algorithms by mimicking the brain's efficient data processing and storage mechanisms. To explore the computational underpinnings of image memorability, this study examines the relationship between an image's reconstruction error, distinctiveness in latent space, and its memorability score. A trained autoencoder is used to replicate human-like memorability assessment inspired by the visual memory game employed in memorability estimations. This study leverages a VGG-based autoencoder that is pre-trained on the vast ImageNet dataset, enabling it to recognize patterns and features that are common to a wide and diverse range of images. An empirical analysis is conducted using the MemCat dataset, which includes 10,000 images from five broad categories: animals, sports, food, landscapes, and vehicles, along with their corresponding memorability scores. The memorability score assigned to each image represents the probability of that image being remembered by participants after a single exposure. The autoencoder is finetuned for one epoch with a batch size of one, attempting to create a scenario similar to human memorability experiments where memorability is quantified by the likelihood of an image being remembered after being seen only once. The reconstruction error, which is quantified as the difference between the original and reconstructed images, serves as a measure of how well the autoencoder has learned to represent the data. The reconstruction error of each image, the error reduction, and its distinctiveness in latent space are calculated and correlated with the memorability score. Distinctiveness is measured as the Euclidean distance between each image's latent representation and its nearest neighbor within the autoencoder's latent space. Different structural and perceptual loss functions are considered to quantify the reconstruction error. The results indicate that there is a strong correlation between the reconstruction error and the distinctiveness of images and their memorability scores. This suggests that images with more unique distinct features that challenge the autoencoder's compressive capacities are inherently more memorable. There is also a negative correlation between the reduction in reconstruction error compared to the autoencoder pre-trained on ImageNet, which suggests that highly memorable images are harder to reconstruct, probably due to having features that are more difficult to learn by the autoencoder. These insights suggest a new pathway for evaluating image memorability, which could potentially impact industries reliant on visual content and mark a step forward in merging the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The current research opens avenues for utilizing neural representations as instruments for understanding and predicting visual memory.

Keywords: autoencoder, computational vision, image memorability, image reconstruction, memory retention, reconstruction error, visual perception

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Authors: Qaisar Ali, Waqar A. Khan, Shafiq R. Qureshi

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Heat transfer in Power Law Fluids across cylindrical surfaces has copious engineering applications. These applications comprises of areas such as underwater pollution, bio medical engineering, filtration systems, chemical, petroleum, polymer, food processing, recovery of geothermal energy, crude oil extraction, pharmaceutical and thermal energy storage. The quantum of research work with diversified conditions to study the effects of combined heat transfer and fluid flow across porous media has increased considerably over last few decades. The most non-Newtonian fluids of practical interest are highly viscous and therefore are often processed in the laminar flow regime. Several studies have been performed to investigate the effects of free and mixed convection in Newtonian fluids along vertical and horizontal cylinder embedded in a saturated porous medium, whereas very few analysis have been performed on Power law fluids along wedge. In this study, boundary layer analysis under the effects of radiation-mixed convection in power law fluids along vertical wedge in porous medium have been investigated using an implicit finite difference method (Keller box method). Steady, 2-D laminar flow has been considered under prescribed surface heat flux condition. Darcy, Boussinesq and Roseland approximations are assumed to be valid. Neglecting viscous dissipation effects and the radiate heat flux in the flow direction, the boundary layer equations governing mixed convection flow over a vertical wedge are transformed into dimensionless form. The single mathematical model represents the case for vertical wedge, cone and plate by introducing the geometry parameter. Both similar and Non- similar solutions have been obtained and results for Non similar case have been presented/ plotted. Effects of radiation parameter, variable heat flux parameter, wedge angle parameter ‘m’ and mixed convection parameter have been studied for both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids. The results are also compared with the available data for the analysis of heat transfer in the prescribed range of parameters and found in good agreement. Results for the details of dimensionless local Nusselt number, temperature and velocity fields have also been presented for both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian fluids. Analysis of data revealed that as the radiation parameter or wedge angle is increased, the Nusselt number decreases whereas it increases with increase in the value of heat flux parameter at a given value of mixed convection parameter. Also, it is observed that as viscosity increases, the skin friction co-efficient increases which tends to reduce the velocity. Moreover, pseudo plastic fluids are more heat conductive than Newtonian and dilatant fluids respectively. All fluids behave identically in pure forced convection domain.

Keywords: porous medium, power law fluids, surface heat flux, vertical wedge

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Authors: Taher Abofol, Eldad Yechiam, Thorsten Pachur

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In four studies, we examined whether seller and buyers differ not only in subjective price levels for objects (i.e., the endowment effect) but also in their relative accuracy given objects varying in expected value. If, as has been proposed, sellers stand to accrue a more substantial loss than buyers do, then their pricing decisions should be more sensitive to expected-value differences between objects. This is implied by loss aversion due to the steeper slope of prospect theory’s value function for losses than for gains, as well as by loss attention account, which posits that losses increase the attention invested in a task. Both accounts suggest that losses increased sensitivity to relative values of different objects, which should result in better alignment of pricing decisions to the objective value of objects on the part of sellers. Under loss attention, this characteristic should only emerge under certain boundary conditions. In Study 1 a published dataset was reanalyzed, in which 152 participants indicated buying or selling prices for monetary lotteries with different expected values. Relative EV sensitivity was calculated for participants as the Spearman rank correlation between their pricing decisions for each of the lotteries and the lotteries' expected values. An ANOVA revealed a main effect of perspective (sellers versus buyers), F(1,150) = 85.3, p < .0001 with greater EV sensitivity for sellers. Study 2 examined the prediction (implied by loss attention) that the positive effect of losses on performance emerges particularly under conditions of time constraints. A published dataset was reanalyzed, where 84 participants were asked to provide selling and buying prices for monetary lotteries in three deliberations time conditions (5, 10, 15 seconds). As in Study 1, an ANOVA revealed greater EV sensitivity for sellers than for buyers, F(1,82) = 9.34, p = .003. Importantly, there was also an interaction of perspective by deliberation time. Post-hoc tests revealed that there were main effects of perspective both in the condition with 5s deliberation time, and in the condition with 10s deliberation time, but not in the 15s condition. Thus, sellers’ EV-sensitivity advantage disappeared with extended deliberation. Study 3 replicated the design of study 1 but administered the task three times to test if the effect decays with repeated presentation. The results showed that the difference between buyers and sellers’ EV sensitivity was replicated in repeated task presentations. Study 4 examined the loss attention prediction that EV-sensitivity differences can be eliminated by manipulations that reduce the differential attention investment of sellers and buyers. This was carried out by randomly mixing selling and buying trials for each participant. The results revealed no differences in EV sensitivity between selling and buying trials. The pattern of results is consistent with an attentional resource-based account of the differences between sellers and buyers. Thus, asking people to price, an object from a seller's perspective rather than the buyer's improves the relative accuracy of pricing decisions; subtle changes in the framing of one’s perspective in a trading negotiation may improve price accuracy.

Keywords: decision making, endowment effect, pricing, loss aversion, loss attention

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Authors: Jungyeol Hong, Dongjoo Park

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The primary purpose of this study is to develop a methodological framework to predict daily subway ridership at a station-level and to examine the association between subway ridership and bus demand incorporating commercial business facility in the vicinity of each subway station. The socio-economic characteristics, land-use, and built environment as factors may have an impact on subway ridership. However, it should be considered not only the endogenous relationship between bus and subway demand but also the characteristics of commercial business within a subway station’s sphere of influence, and integrated transit network topology. Regarding a statistical approach to estimate subway ridership at a station level, therefore it should be considered endogeneity and heteroscedastic issues which might have in the subway ridership prediction model. This study focused on both discovering the impacts of bus demand, commercial business characteristics, and network topology on subway ridership and developing more precise subway ridership estimation accounting for its statistical bias. The spatial scope of the study covers entire Seoul city in South Korea and includes 243 stations with the temporal scope set at twenty-four hours with one-hour interval time panels each. The data for subway and bus ridership was collected Seoul Smart Card data from 2015 and 2016. Three-Stage Least Square(3SLS) approach was applied to develop daily subway ridership model as capturing the endogeneity and heteroscedasticity between bus and subway demand. Independent variables incorporating in the modeling process were commercial business characteristics, social-economic characteristics, safety index, transit facility attributes, and dummies for seasons and time zone. As a result, it was found that bus ridership and subway ridership were endogenous each other and they had a significantly positive sign of coefficients which means one transit mode could increase another transportation mode’s ridership. In other words, two transit modes of subway and bus have a mutual relationship instead of the competitive relationship. The commercial business characteristics are the most critical dimension among the independent variables. The variables of commercial business facility rate in the paper containing six types; medical, educational, recreational, financial, food service, and shopping. From the model result, a higher rate in medical, financial buildings, shopping, and food service facility lead to increment of subway ridership at a station, while recreational and educational facility shows lower subway ridership. The complex network theory was applied for estimating integrated network topology measures that cover the entire Seoul transit network system, and a framework for seeking an impact on subway ridership. The centrality measures were found to be significant and showed a positive sign indicating higher centrality led to more subway ridership at a station level. The results of model accuracy tests by out of samples provided that 3SLS model has less mean square error rather than OLS and showed the methodological approach for the 3SLS model was plausible to estimate more accurate subway ridership. Acknowledgement: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2017R1C1B2010175).

Keywords: subway ridership, bus ridership, commercial business characteristic, endogeneity, network topology

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Authors: Tiffany Riggleman, Andrea Schultheis, Kalyn Jannace, Jerika Taylor, Michelle Nordstrom, Paul F. Pasquina

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Introduction: Posttraumatic Stress (PTS) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) remain significant problems for military and veteran communities. Symptoms of PTSD often include poor sleep, intrusive thoughts, difficulty concentrating, and trouble with emotional regulation. Unfortunately, despite its high prevalence, service members diagnosed with PTSD often do not seek help, usually because of the perceived stigma surrounding behavioral health care. To help address these challenges, non-pharmacological, therapeutic approaches are being developed to help improve care and enhance compliance. The Service Dog Training Program (SDTP), which involves teaching patients how to train puppies to become mobility service dogs, has been successfully implemented into PTS/PTSD care programs with anecdotal reports of improved outcomes. This study was designed to assess the biopsychosocial effects of SDTP from military beneficiaries with PTS symptoms. Methods: Individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 with PTS symptom were recruited to participate in this prospective study. Each subject completes 4 weeks of baseline testing, followed by 6 weeks of active service dog training (twice per week for one hour sessions) with a professional service dog trainer. Outcome measures included the Posttraumatic Stress Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5), Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), social support/interaction, anthropometrics, blood/serum biomarkers, and qualitative interviews. Preliminary analysis of 17 participants examined mean scores on the GAD-7, PCL-5, and PHQ-9, pre- and post-SDTP, and changes were assessed using Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests. Results: Post-SDTP, there was a statistically significant mean decrease in PCL-5 scores of 13.5 on an 80-point scale (p=0.03) and a significant mean decrease of 2.2 in PHQ-9 scores on a 27 point scale (p=0.04), suggestive of decreased PTSD and depression symptoms. While there was a decrease in mean GAD-7 scores post-SDTP, the difference was not significant (p=0.20). Recurring themes among results from the qualitative interviews include decreased pain, forgetting about stressors, improved sense of calm, increased confidence, improved communication, and establishing a connection with the service dog. Conclusion: Preliminary results of the first 17 participants in this study suggest that individuals who received SDTP had a statistically significant decrease in PTS symptom, as measured by the PCL-5 and PHQ-9. This ongoing study seeks to enroll a total of 156 military beneficiaries with PTS symptoms. Future analyses will include additional psychological outcomes, pain scores, blood/serum biomarkers, and other measures of the social aspects of PTSD, such as relationship satisfaction and sleep hygiene.

Keywords: post-concussive syndrome, posttraumatic stress, service dog, service dog training program, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Naod Mekonnen Anega

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The very objective of this paper was to empirically identify technology tailored determinants to the adoption and adoption intensity (extent of use) of agricultural water management technologies in Meda Welabu Woreda, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. Meda Welabu Woreda which is one of the administrative Woredas of the Oromia regional state was selected purposively as this Woreda is one of the Woredas in the region where small scale irrigation practices and the use of agricultural water management technologies can be found among smallholders. Using the existence water management practices (use of water management technologies) and land use pattern as a criterion Genale Mekchira Kebele is selected to undergo the study. A total of 200 smallholders were selected from the Kebele using the technique developed by Krejeie and Morgan. The study employed the Logit and Tobit models to estimate and identify the economic, social, geographical, household, institutional, psychological, technological factors that determine adoption and adoption intensity of water management technologies. The study revealed that while 55 of the sampled households are adopters of agricultural water management technology the rest 140 were non adopters of the technologies. Among the adopters included in the sample 97% are using river diversion technology (traditional) with traditional canal while the rest 7% percent are using pond with treadle pump technology. The Logit estimation reveled that while adoption of river diversion is positively and significantly affected by membership to local institutions, active labor force, income, access to credit and land ownership, adoption of treadle pump technology is positively and significantly affected by family size, education level, access to credit, extension contact, income, access to market, and slope. The Logit estimation also revealed that whereas, group action requirement, distance to farm, and size of active labor force negative and significantly influenced adoption of river diversion, age and perception has negatively and significantly influenced adoption decision of treadle pump technology. On the other hand, the Tobit estimation reveled that while adoption intensity (extent of use) of agricultural water management is positively and significantly affected by education, credit, and extension contact, access to credit, access to market and income. This study revealed that technology tailored study on adoption of Agricultural water management technologies (AWMTs) should be considered to indentify and scale up best agricultural water management practices. In fact, in countries like Ethiopia, where there is difference in social, economic, cultural, environmental and agro ecological conditions even within the same Kebele technology tailored study that fit the condition of each Kebele would help to identify and scale up best practices in agricultural water management.

Keywords: water management technology, adoption, adoption intensity, smallholders, technology tailored approach

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Authors: Sara Qandil, Harriet Bothwell, Lowri Evans, Kevin Jones, Simon Collin

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Background: Uganda suffers from high rates of HIV. Misconceptions around HIV are known to be prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Two of the most common misconceptions in Uganda are that HIV can be transmitted by mosquito bites or from sharing food. The aim of this project was to establish the local misconceptions around HIV in a Central Ugandan population, and identify if there is a role for patient education leaflets. This project was undertaken as a student selected component (SSC) offered by Swindon Academy, based at the Great Western Hospital, to medical students in their fourth year of the undergraduate programme. Methods: The study was conducted at Villa Maria Hospital; a private, rural hospital in Kalungu District, Central Uganda. 36 patients, 23 from the hospital clinic and 13 from the community were interviewed regarding their understanding of HIV and by what channels they had obtained this understanding. Interviews were conducted using local student nurses as translators. Verbal responses were translated and then transcribed by the researcher. The same 36 patients then undertook a 'misconception' test consisting of 35 questions. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and results were scored based on three components of 'transmission knowledge', 'prevention knowledge' and 'misconception rejection'. Each correct response to a question was scored one point, otherwise zero e.g. correctly rejecting a misconception scored one point, but answering ‘yes’ or ‘don’t know’ scored zero. Scores ≤ 27 (the average score) were classified as having ‘poor understanding’. Mean scores were compared between participants seen at the HIV clinic and in the community, and p-values (including Fisher’s exact test) were calculated using Stata 2015. Level of significance was set at 0.05. Interviews with 7 members of staff working in the HIV clinic were undertaken to establish what methods of communication are used to educate patients. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis undertaken. Results: The commonest misconceptions which failed to be rejected included transmission of HIV by kissing (78%), mosquitoes (69%) and touching (36%). 33% believed HIV may be prevented by praying. The overall mean scores for transmission knowledge (87.5%) and prevention knowledge (81.1%) were better than misconception rejection scores (69.3%). HIV clinic respondents did tend to have higher scores, i.e. fewer misconceptions, although there was statistical evidence of a significant difference only for prevention knowledge (p=0.03). Analysis of the qualitative data is ongoing but several patients expressed concerns about not being able to read and therefore leaflets not having a helpful role. Conclusions: Results from this paper identified that a high proportion of the population studied held misconceptions about HIV. Qualitative data suggests that there may be a role for patient education leaflets, if pictorial-based and suitable for those with low literacy skill.

Keywords: HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, misconceptions, patient education, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda

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Authors: Mala Mukherjee

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Background: India is urbanizing very fast and urbanisation in India is treated as one of the most crucial components of economic growth. Though the pace of urbanisation (31.6 per cent in 2011) is however slower and lower than the average for Asia but the absolute number of people residing in cities and towns has increased substantially. Rapid urbanization leads to urban poverty and it is well represented in slums. Currently India has four metropolises and 53 million plus cities. All of them have significant slum population but the standard of living and success of slum development programmes varies across regions. Objectives: Objectives of the paper are to show how urbanisation and slum development varies across space; to show spatial variation in the standard of living in Indian slums; to analyse how the implementation of slum development policies like JNNURM, Rajiv Awas Yojana varies across cities and bring different results in different regions and what are the factors responsible for such variation. Data Sources and Methodology: Census 2011 data on urban population and slum households and amenities have been used for analysing the regional variation of urbanisation in 53 million plus cities of India. Special focus has been put on Kolkata Metropolitan Area. Statistical techniques like z-score and PCA have been employed to work out Standard of Living Deprivation score for all the slums of 53 metropolises. ARC-GIS software is used for making maps. Standard of living has been measured in terms of access to basic amenities, infrastructure and assets like drinking water, sanitation, housing condition, bank account, and so on. Findings: 1. The first finding reveals that migration and urbanization is very high in Greater Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata; but slum population is high in Greater Mumbai (50% population live in slums), Meerut, Faridabad, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Kolkata etc. Though the rate of urbanization is high in southern and western states but the percentage of slum population is high in northern states (except Greater Mumbai). 2. Standard of Living also varies widely. Slums of Greater Mumbai and North Indian Cities score fairly high in the index indicating the fact that standard of living is high in those slums compare to the slums in eastern India (Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata). Therefore, though Kolkata have relatively lesser percentage of slum population compare to north and south Indian cities but the standard of living in Kolkata’s slums is deplorable. 3. It is interesting to note that even within Kolkata Metropolitan Area slums located in the southern and eastern municipal towns like Rajpur-Sonarpur, Pujali, Diamond Harbour, Baduria and Dankuni have lower standard of living compare to the slums located in the Hooghly Industrial belt like Titagarh, Rishrah, Srerampore etc. Slums of the Hooghly Industrial Belt are older than the slums located in eastern and southern part of the urban agglomeration. 4. Therefore, urban development and emergence of slums should not be the only issue of urban governance but standard of living should be the main focus. Slums located in the main cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata get more attention from the urban planners and similarly, older slums in a city receives greater political attention compare to the slums of smaller cities and newly emerged slums of the peripheral parts.

Keywords: urbanisation, slum, spatial variation, India

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Authors: Ekaterina Zvorykina

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Nowadays, Arctic and Antarctic regions are distinguished to be one of the most important strategic resources for global development. Nonetheless, living conditions in Arctic regions still demand certain improvements. As soon as the region is rarely populated, one of the main points of interest is health accommodation of the people, who migrate to Arctic region for permanent and shift work. At Arctic and Antarctic latitudes, personnel face polar day and polar night conditions during the time of the year. It means that they are deprived of natural sunlight in winter season and have continuous daylight in summer. Firstly, the change in light intensity during 24-hours period due to migration affects circadian rhythms. Moreover, the controlled artificial light in winter is also an issue. The results of the recent studies on night shift medical professionals, who were exposed to permanent artificial light, have already demonstrated higher risks in cancer, depression, Alzheimer disease. Moreover, people exposed to frequent time zones change are also subjected to higher risks of heart attack and cancer. Thus, our main goals are to understand how high latitude work and living conditions can affect human health and how it can be prevented. In our study, we analyze molecular and cellular factors, which play important role in circadian rhythm change and distinguish main risk groups in people, migrating to high latitudes. The main well-studied index of circadian timing is melatonin or its metabolite 6-sulfatoxymelatonin. In low light intensity melatonin synthesis is disturbed and as a result human organism requires more time for sleep, which is still disregarded when it comes to working time organization. Lack of melatonin also causes shortage in serotonin production, which leads to higher depression risk. Melatonin is also known to inhibit oncogenes and increase apoptosis level in cells, the main factors for tumor growth, as well as circadian clock genes (for example Per2). Thus, people who work in high latitudes can be distinguished as a risk group for cancer diseases and demand more attention. Clock/Clock genes, known to be one of the main circadian clock regulators, decrease sensitivity of hypothalamus to estrogen and decrease glucose sensibility, which leads to premature aging and oestrous cycle disruption. Permanent light exposure also leads to accumulation superoxide dismutase and oxidative stress, which is one of the main factors for early dementia and Alzheimer disease. We propose a new screening system adjusted for people, migrating from middle to high latitudes and accommodation therapy. Screening is focused on melatonin and estrogen levels, sleep deprivation and neural disorders, depression level, cancer risks and heart and vascular disorders. Accommodation therapy includes different types artificial light exposure, additional melatonin and neuroprotectors. Preventive procedures can lead to increase of migration intensity to high latitudes and, as a result, the prosperity of Arctic region.

Keywords: circadian rhythm, high latitudes, melatonin, neuroprotectors

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Authors: Yohanna Panshak

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The impact of macroeconomic instability on economic growth and prosperity has been at forefront in many discourses among researchers and policy makers and has generated a lot of controversies over the years. This has generated series of research efforts towards understanding the remote causes of this phenomenon; its nature, determinants and how it can be targeted and mitigated. While others have opined that the root cause of macroeconomic flux in Nigeria is attributed to Oil-Price volatility, others viewed the issue as resulting from some constellation of structural constraints both within and outside the shores of the country. Research works of scholars such as [Akpan (2009), Aliyu (2009), Olomola (2006), etc] argue that oil volatility can determine economic growth or has the potential of doing so. On the contrary, [Darby (1982), Cerralo (2005) etc] share the opinion that it can slow down growth. The earlier argument rest on the understanding that for a net balance of oil exporting economies, price upbeat directly increases real national income through higher export earnings, whereas, the latter allude to the case of net-oil importing countries (which experience price rises, increased input costs, reduced non-oil demand, low investment, fall in tax revenues and ultimately an increase in budget deficit which will further reduce welfare level). Therefore, assessing the precise impact of oil price volatility on virtually any economy is a function of whether it is an oil-exporting or importing nation. Research on oil price volatility and its outcome on the growth of the Nigerian economy are evolving and in a march towards resolving Nigeria’s macroeconomic instability as long as oil revenue still remain the mainstay and driver of socio-economic engineering. Recently, a major importer of Nigeria’s oil- United States made a historic breakthrough in more efficient source of energy for her economy with the capacity of serving significant part of the world. This undoubtedly suggests a threat to the exchange earnings of the country. The need to understand fluctuation in its major export commodity is critical. This paper leans on the Renaissance growth theory with greater focus on theoretical work of Lee (1998); a leading proponent of this school who makes a clear cut of difference between oil price changes and oil price volatility. Based on the above background, the research seeks to empirically examine the impact oil-price volatility on government expenditure using quarterly time series data spanning 1986:1 to 2014:4. Vector Auto Regression (VAR) econometric approach shall be used. The structural properties of the model shall be tested using Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron. Relevant diagnostics tests of heteroscedasticity, serial correlation and normality shall also be carried out. Policy recommendation shall be offered on the empirical findings and believes it assist policy makers not only in Nigeria but the world-over.

Keywords: oil-price, volatility, prosperity, budget, expenditure

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Johnson Opoku-Asante, Emmanuel Bobobee, Joseph Akowuah, Eric Amoah Asante

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In recent years, the issue of postharvest losses has become a serious concern in Sub-Saharan Africa. Postharvest technology development and adaptation need urgent attention, particularly for small and medium-scale rice farmers in Africa. However, to better develop any postharvest technology, knowledge of the mechanical properties of different varieties of paddy rice is vital. There is also the issue of the development of new rice cultivars. The objectives of this research are to (1) determine the mechanical properties of the selected paddy rice varieties at varying moisture content. (2) conduct a comparative analysis of the mechanical properties of selected rice paddy for different variety-moisture content interactions. (3) determine the significant statistical differences between the mean values of the various variety-moisture content interactions The mechanical properties of AGRA rice, CRI-Amankwatia, CRI-Enapa and CRI-Dartey, four local varieties developed by Crop Research Institute of Ghana are compared at 11.5%, 13.0% and 16.5% dry basis moisture content. The mechanical properties measured are Sphericity, Aspect ratio, Grain mass, 1000 Grain mass, Bulk Density, True Density, Porosity and Angle of Repose. Samples were collected from the Kwadaso Agric College of the CRI in Kumasi. The samples were threshed manually and winnowed before conducting the experiment. The moisture content was determined on a dry basis using the Moistex Screw-Type Digital Grain Moisture Meter. Other equipment used for data collection were venire calipers and Citizen electronic scale. A 4×3 factorial arrangement was used in a completely randomized design in three replications. Tukey's HSD comparisons test was conducted during data analysis to compare all possible pairwise combinations of the various varieties’ moisture content interaction. From the results, it was concluded that Sphericity recorded 0.391 mm³ to 0.377 mm³ for CRI-Dartey at 16.5% and CRI-Enapa at 13.5%, respectively, whereas Aspect Ratio recorded 0.298 mm³ to 0.269 mm³ for CRI-Dartey at 16.5% and CRI-Enapa at 13.5% respectively. For grain mass, AGRA rice at 13.0% also recorded 0.0312 g as the highest score and CRI-Enapa at 13.0% obtained 0.0237 as the lowest score. For the GM1000, it was observed that it ranges from 29.33 g for CRI-Amankwatia at 16.5% moisture content to 22.54 g for CRI-Enapa at 16.5% interactions. Bulk Density ranged from 654.0 kg/m³ to 422.9 kg/m³ for CRI-Amankwatia at 16.5% and CRI-Enapa at 11.5% as the highest and lowest recordings, respectively. It was also observed that the true Density ranges from 1685.8 kg/m3 for AGRA rice at 13.0% moisture content to 1352.5 kg/m³ for CRI-Enapa at 16.5% interactions. In the case of porosity, CRI-Enapa at 11.5% received the highest score of 70.83% and CRI-Amankwatia at 16.5 received the lowest score of 55.88%. Finally, in the case of Angle of Repose, CRI-Amankwatia at 16.5% recorded the highest score of 47.3o and CRI-Enapa at 11.5% recorded the least score of 34.27o. In all cases, the difference in mean value was less than the LSD. This indicates that there were no significant statistical differences between their mean values, indicating that technologies developed and adapted for one variety can equally be used for all the other varieties.

Keywords: angle of repose, aspect ratio, bulk density, porosity, sphericity, mechanical properties

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Authors: Omer Leshem, Michael F. Schober

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This paper introduces a new method for assessing how audience members and performers feel and think during live concerts, and how audience members' recognized and felt emotions are related. Two hypotheses were tested in a live concert setting: (1) that audience members’ cognitive perspective taking ability predicts their accuracy in identifying an emotion that a jazz improviser intended to express during a performance, and (2) that audience members' affective empathy predicts their likelihood of feeling the same emotions as the performer. The aim was to stage a concert with audience members who regularly attend live jazz performances, and to measure their cognitive and affective reactions during the performance as non-intrusively as possible. Pianist and Grammy nominee Andy Milne agreed, without knowing details of the method or hypotheses, to perform a full-length solo improvised concert that would include an ‘unusual’ piece. Jazz fans were recruited through typical advertising for New York City jazz performances. The event was held at the New School’s Glass Box Theater, the home of leading NYC jazz venue ‘The Stone.’ Audience members were charged typical NYC jazz club admission prices; advertisements informed them that anyone who chose to participate in the study would be reimbursed their ticket price after the concert. The concert, held in April 2018, had 30 attendees, 23 of whom participated in the study. Twenty-two minutes into the concert, the performer was handed a paper note with the instruction: ‘Perform a 3-5-minute improvised piece with the intention of conveying sadness.’ (Sadness was chosen based on previous music cognition lab studies, where solo listeners were less likely to select sadness as the musically-expressed emotion accurately from a list of basic emotions, and more likely to misinterpret sadness as tenderness). Then, audience members and the performer were invited to respond to a questionnaire from a first envelope under their seat. Participants used their own words to describe the emotion the performer had intended to express, and then to select the intended emotion from a list. They also reported the emotions they had felt while listening using Izard’s differential emotions scale. The concert then continued as usual. At the end, participants answered demographic questions and Davis’ interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), a 28-item scale designed to assess both cognitive and affective empathy. Hypothesis 1 was supported: audience members with greater cognitive empathy were more likely to accurately identify sadness as the expressed emotion. Moreover, audience members who accurately selected ‘sadness’ reported feeling marginally sadder than people who did not select sadness. Hypotheses 2 was not supported; audience members with greater affective empathy were not more likely to feel the same emotions as the performer. If anything, members with lower cognitive perspective-taking ability had marginally greater emotional overlap with the performer, which makes sense given that these participants were less likely to identify the music as sad, which corresponded with the performer’s actual feelings. Results replicate findings from solo lab studies in a concert setting and demonstrate the viability of exploring empathy and collective cognition in improvised live performance.

Keywords: audience, cognition, collective cognition, emotion, empathy, expressed emotion, felt emotion, improvisation, live performance, recognized emotion

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Authors: Irina Mizeva, Elena Potapova, Viktor Dremin, Mikhail Mezentsev, Valeri Shupletsov

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The local tissue perfusion is regulated by the microvascular tone which is under the control of a number of physiological mechanisms. Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) together with wavelet analyses is the most commonly used technique to study the regulatory mechanisms of cutaneous microcirculation. External factors such as temperature, local pressure of the probe on the skin, etc. influence on the blood flow characteristics and are used as physiological tests to evaluate microvascular regulatory mechanisms. Local probe pressure influences on the microcirculation parameters measured by optical methods: diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and LDF. Therefore, further study of probe pressure effects can be useful to improve the reliability of optical measurement. During pressure tests variation of the mean perfusion measured by means of LDF usually is estimated. An additional information concerning the physiological mechanisms of the vascular tone regulation system in response to local pressure can be obtained using spectral analyses of LDF samples. The aim of the present work was to develop protocol and algorithm of data processing appropriate for study physiological response to the local pressure test. Involving 6 subjects (20±2 years) and providing 5 measurements for every subject we estimated intersubject and-inter group variability of response of both averaged and oscillating parts of the LDF sample on external surface pressure. The final purpose of the work was to find special features which further can be used in wider clinic studies. The cutaneous perfusion measurements were carried out by LAKK-02 (SPE LAZMA Ltd., Russia), the skin loading was provided by the originally designed device which allows one to distribute the pressure around the LDF probe. The probe was installed on the dorsal part of the distal finger of the index figure. We collected measurements continuously for one hour and varied loading from 0 to 180mmHg stepwise with a step duration of 10 minutes. Further, we post-processed the samples using the wavelet transform and traced the energy of oscillations in five frequency bands over time. Weak loading leads to pressure-induced vasodilation, so one should take into account that the perfusion measured under pressure conditions will be overestimated. On the other hand, we revealed a decrease in endothelial associated fluctuations. Further loading (88 mmHg) induces amplification of pulsations in all frequency bands. We assume that such loading leads to a higher number of closed capillaries, higher input of arterioles in the LDF signal and as a consequence more vivid oscillations which mainly are formed in arterioles. External pressure higher than 144 mmHg leads to the decrease of oscillating components, after removing the loading very rapid restore of the tissue perfusion takes place. In this work, we have demonstrated that local skin loading influence on the microcirculation parameters measured by optic technique; this should be taken into account while developing portable electronic devices. The proposed protocol of local loading allows one to evaluate PIV as far as to trace dynamic of blood flow oscillations. This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under project N 18-15-00201.

Keywords: blood microcirculation, laser Doppler flowmetry, pressure-induced vasodilation, wavelet analyses blood

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Authors: Nahed Mohamed Ismail, Bayomy Mostafa, Ahmed Abdel Kader, Ahmed Mohamed Azzam

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Effect of lining watercourses on the distribution and abundance of fresh water snails at two Egyptian governorates, Baheria (new reclaimed area) and Giza was studied. Seasonal survey in lined and unlined sites during two successive years was carried out. Samples of snails and water were collected from each examined site and the ecological conditions were recorded. The collected snails from each site were placed in plastic aquaria and transferred to the laboratory, where they were sorted out, identified, counted and examined for natural infection. The size frequency distribution was calculated for each snail species. Results revealed that snails were represented in all examined watercourses (lined and unlined) at the two tested habitats by 14 species. (Biomphalaria alexandrina, B. glabrata, Bulinus truncatus, Physa acuta. Helisoma duryi, Lymnaea natalensis, Planorbis planorbis, Cleopatra bulimoids, Lanistes carinatus, Bellamya unicolor, Melanoides tuberculata, Theodoxus nilotica, Succinia cleopatra and Gabbiella senaarensis). During spring, the percentage of live (45%) and dead (55%) snail species was extremely highly significant lower (p>0.001) in lined water bodies compared to the unlined ones (93.5% and 6.5%, respectively) in the examined sites at Baheria. At Giza, the percentage values of live snail species from all lined watercourses (82.6% and 60.2%, during winter and spring, respectively) was significantly lower (p>0.05 & p>0.01) than those in unlined ones (91.1% and 79%, respectively). Size frequency distribution of snails collected from the lined and unlined water bodies at Baheria and Giza governorates during all seasons revealed that during survey, snail populations were stable and the recruitment of young to adult was continuing for some species, where the recruits were observed with adults. However, there was no sign of small snails occurrence in case of B. glabrata and B. alexandrina during autumn, winter and spring and disappear during summer at Giza. Meanwhile they completely absent during all seasons at Baheria Governorate. Chemical analysis of some heavy metals of water samples collected from lined and unlined sites from Baheria and Giza governorates during autumn, winter and spring were approximately as the same in both lined and unlined water bodies. However, Zn and Fe were higher in lined sites (0.78±0.37and 17.4 ± 4.3, respectively) than that of unlined ones (0.4±0.1 and 10.95 ± 1.93, respectively) and Cu was absent in both lined and unlined sites during summer at Baheria governorate. At Giza, Cu and Pb were absent and Fe were higher in lined sites (4.7± 4.2) than that of unlined ones (2.5 ± 1.4) during summer. Statistical analysis showed that no significant difference in all physico-chemical parameters of water in lined and unlined water bodies at the two tested habitats during all seasons. However, it was found that the water conductivity and TDS showed a lower mean values in lined sites than those of unlined ones. Thus, the present obtained data support the concept of utilizing environmental modification such as lining of water courses to help in minimizing the population density of certain vector snails and consequently reduce the transmission of snails born diseases.

Keywords: lining, fresh water, snails, watercourses

Procedia PDF Downloads 230

Authors: Efstratios Karavasilis, Foteini Christidi, Georgios Velonakis, Agapi Plousi, Kalliopi Platoni, Nikolaos Kelekis, Ioannis Evdokimidis, Efstathios Efstathopoulos

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Introduction: Advanced structural and functional neuroimaging techniques contribute to the study of anatomical and functional brain connectivity and its role in the pathophysiology and symptoms’ heterogeneity in several neurodegenerative disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Aim: In the present study, we applied multiparametric neuroimaging techniques to investigate the structural and functional cortico-cerebellar changes in MS patients. Material: We included 51 MS patients (28 with clinically isolated syndrome [CIS], 31 with relapsing-remitting MS [RRMS]) and 51 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC) who underwent MRI in a 3.0T MRI scanner. Methodology: The acquisition protocol included high-resolution 3D T1 weighted, diffusion-weighted imaging and echo planar imaging sequences for the analysis of volumetric, tractography and functional resting state data, respectively. We performed between-group comparisons (CIS, RRMS, HC) using CAT12 and CONN16 MATLAB toolboxes for the analysis of volumetric (cerebellar gray matter density) and functional (cortico-cerebellar resting-state functional connectivity) data, respectively. Brainance suite was used for the analysis of tractography data (cortico-cerebellar white matter integrity; fractional anisotropy [FA]; axial and radial diffusivity [AD; RD]) to reconstruct the cerebellum tracts. Results: Patients with CIS did not show significant gray matter (GM) density differences compared with HC. However, they showed decreased FA and increased diffusivity measures in cortico-cerebellar tracts, and increased cortico-cerebellar functional connectivity. Patients with RRMS showed decreased GM density in cerebellar regions, decreased FA and increased diffusivity measures in cortico-cerebellar WM tracts, as well as a pattern of increased and mostly decreased functional cortico-cerebellar connectivity compared to HC. The comparison between CIS and RRMS patients revealed significant GM density difference, reduced FA and increased diffusivity measures in WM cortico-cerebellar tracts and increased/decreased functional connectivity. The identification of decreased WM integrity and increased functional cortico-cerebellar connectivity without GM changes in CIS and the pattern of decreased GM density decreased WM integrity and mostly decreased functional connectivity in RRMS patients emphasizes the role of compensatory mechanisms in early disease stages and the disintegration of structural and functional networks with disease progression. Conclusions: In conclusion, our study highlights the added value of multimodal neuroimaging techniques for the in vivo investigation of cortico-cerebellar brain changes in neurodegenerative disorders. An extension and future opportunity to leverage multimodal neuroimaging data inevitably remain the integration of such data in the recently-applied mathematical approaches of machine learning algorithms to more accurately classify and predict patients’ disease course.

Keywords: advanced neuroimaging techniques, cerebellum, MRI, multiple sclerosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Sahabettin Mete, Abdullah C. Hocagil, Hilal Hocagil, Volkan Ulker, Hasan C. Taskin

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Objectives and Goals: An emergency department is a place where people can come for a multitude of reasons 24 hours a day. As it is an easy, accessible place, thanks to self-sacrificing people who work in emergency departments. But the workload and overcrowding of emergency departments are increasing day by day. Under these circumstances, it is important to choose a quick, easily accessible and effective test for diagnosis. This results in laboratory and imaging tests being more than 40% of all emergency department costs. Despite all of the technological advances in imaging methods and available computerized tomography (CT), chest X-ray, the older imaging method, has not lost its appeal and effectiveness for nearly all emergency physicians. Progress in imaging methods are very convenient, but physicians should consider the radiation dose, cost, and effectiveness, as well as imaging methods to be carefully selected and used. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of chest X-ray in immediate diagnosis against the advancing technology by comparing chest X-ray and chest CT scan results of the patients in the emergency department. Methods: Patients who applied to Bulent Ecevit University Faculty of Medicine’s emergency department were investigated retrospectively in between 1 September 2014 and 28 February 2015. Data were obtained via MIAMED (Clear Canvas Image Server v6.2, Toronto, Canada), information management system which patients’ files are saved electronically in the clinic, and were retrospectively scanned. The study included 199 patients who were 18 or older, had both chest X-ray and chest CT imaging. Chest X-ray images were evaluated by the emergency medicine senior assistant in the emergency department, and the findings were saved to the study form. CT findings were obtained from already reported data by radiology department in the clinic. Chest X-ray was evaluated with seven questions in terms of technique and dose adequacy. Patients’ age, gender, application complaints, comorbid diseases, vital signs, physical examination findings, diagnosis, chest X-ray findings and chest CT findings were evaluated. Data saved and statistical analyses have made via using SPSS 19.0 for Windows. And the value of p < 0.05 were accepted statistically significant. Results: 199 patients were included in the study. In 38,2% (n=76) of all patients were diagnosed with pneumonia and it was the most common diagnosis. The chest X-ray imaging technique was appropriate in patients with the rate of 31% (n=62) of all patients. There was not any statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between both imaging methods (chest X-ray and chest CT) in terms of determining the rates of displacement of the trachea, pneumothorax, parenchymal consolidation, increased cardiothoracic ratio, lymphadenopathy, diaphragmatic hernia, free air levels in the abdomen (in sections including the image), pleural thickening, parenchymal cyst, parenchymal mass, parenchymal cavity, parenchymal atelectasis and bone fractures. Conclusions: When imaging findings, showing cases that needed to be quickly diagnosed, were investigated, chest X-ray and chest CT findings were matched at a high rate in patients with an appropriate imaging technique. However, chest X-rays, evaluated in the emergency department, were frequently taken with an inappropriate technique.

Keywords: chest x-ray, chest computerized tomography, chest imaging, emergency department

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Authors: Pinar Erturk, Sevde Altuntas, Fatih Buyukserin

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In order to obtain an effective integration between an implant and a bone, implant surfaces should have similar properties to bone tissue surfaces. Especially mimicry of the chemical, mechanical and topographic properties of the implant to the bone is crucial for fast and effective osseointegration. Titanium-based biomaterials are more preferred in clinical use, and there are studies of coating these implants with oxide layers that have chemical/nanotopographic properties stimulating cell interactions for enhanced osseointegration. There are low success rates of current implantations, especially in craniofacial implant applications, which are large and vital zones, and the oxide layer coating increases bone-implant integration providing long-lasting implants without requiring revision surgery. Our aim in this study is to examine bone-cell behavior on titanium implants with an aluminum oxide layer (AAO) on effective osseointegration potential in the deformation of large zones with difficult spontaneous healing. In our study, aluminum layer coated titanium surfaces were anodized in sulfuric, phosphoric, and oxalic acid, which are the most common used AAO anodization electrolytes. After morphologic, chemical, and mechanical tests on AAO coated Ti substrates, viability, adhesion, and mineralization of adult bone cells on these substrates were analyzed. Besides with atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a sensitive and conformal technique, these surfaces were coated with pure alumina (5 nm); thus, cell studies were performed on ALD-coated nanoporous oxide layers with suppressed ionic content too. Lastly, in order to investigate the effect of the topography on the cell behavior, flat non-porous alumina layers on silicon wafers formed by ALD were compared with the porous ones. Cell viability ratio was similar between anodized surfaces, but pure alumina coated titanium and anodized surfaces showed a higher viability ratio compared to bare titanium and bare anodized ones. Alumina coated titanium surfaces, which anodized in phosphoric acid, showed significantly different mineralization ratios after 21 days over other bare titanium and titanium surfaces which anodized in other electrolytes. Bare titanium was the second surface that had the highest mineralization ratio. Otherwise, titanium, which is anodized in oxalic acid electrolyte, demonstrated the lowest mineralization. No significant difference was shown between bare titanium and anodized surfaces except AAO titanium surface anodized in phosphoric acid. Currently, osteogenic activities of these cells on the genetic level are investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis results of RUNX-2, VEGF, OPG, and osteopontin genes. Also, as a result of the activities of the genes mentioned before, Western Blot will be used for protein detection. Acknowledgment: The project is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

Keywords: alumina, craniofacial implant, MG-63 cell line, osseointegration, oxalic acid, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, titanium

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Authors: Thomas Rockstuhl, Soon Ang, Kok Yee Ng, Linn Van Dyne

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Intercultural interactions are often challenging and fraught with conflicts. To shed light on how to interact effectively across cultures, academics and practitioners alike have advanced a plethora of intercultural competence models. However, the majority of this work has emphasized distal outcomes, such as job performance and cultural adjustment, rather than proximal outcomes, such as how individuals resolve inevitable intercultural conflicts. As a consequence, the processes by which individuals negotiate challenging intercultural conflicts are not well understood. The current study advances theorizing on intercultural conflict resolution by exploring antecedents of how people resolve intercultural conflicts. To this end, we examine creativity – the generation of novel and useful ideas – in the context of resolving cultural conflicts in intercultural interactions. Based on the dual-identity theory of creativity, we propose that individuals with greater international experience will display greater creativity and that the relationship is accentuated by individual’s cultural intelligence. Two studies test these hypotheses. The first study comprises 84 senior university students, drawn from an international organizational behavior course. The second study replicates findings from the first study in a sample of 89 executives from eleven countries. Participants in both studies provided protocols of their strategies for resolving two intercultural conflicts, as depicted in two multimedia-vignettes of challenging intercultural work-related interactions. Two research assistants, trained in intercultural management but blind to the study hypotheses, coded all strategies for their novelty and usefulness following scoring procedures for creativity tasks. Participants also completed online surveys of demographic background information, including their international experience, and cultural intelligence. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that surprisingly, while international experience is positively associated with usefulness, it is unrelated to novelty. Further, a person’s cultural intelligence strengthens the positive effect of international experience on usefulness and mitigates the effect of international experience on novelty. Theoretically, our findings offer an important theoretical extension to the dual-identity theory of creativity by identifying cultural intelligence as an important individual difference moderator that qualifies the relationship between international experience and creative conflict resolution. In terms of novelty, individuals higher in cultural intelligence seem less susceptible to rigidity effects of international experiences. Perhaps they are more capable of assessing which aspects of culture are relevant and apply relevant experiences when they brainstorm novel ideas. For utility, individuals high in cultural intelligence are better able to leverage on their international experience to assess the viability of their ideas because their richer and more organized cultural knowledge structure allows them to assess possible options more efficiently and accurately. In sum, our findings suggest that cultural intelligence is an important and promising intercultural competence that fosters creative resolutions to intercultural conflicts. We hope that our findings stimulate future research on creativity and conflict resolution in intercultural contexts.

Keywords: cultural Intelligence, intercultural conflict, intercultural creativity, international experience

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Authors: Rafael Sousa Santos, Clara Pimena Do Vale, Barbara Bogoni, Poul Henning Kirkegaard

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The representative component, a determining aspect of the architect's training, has been marked by an exponential and unprecedented development. However, the multiplication of possibilities has also multiplied uncertainties about architectural design teaching, and by extension, about the very principles of architectural education. In this paper, it is intended to present the results of a research developed on the following problem: the relation between the forms of representation and the architectural design teaching-learning processes. The research had as its object the educational model of two schools – the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) – and was led by three main objectives: to characterize the educational model followed in both schools focused on the representative component and its role; to interpret the relation between forms of representation and the architectural design teaching-learning processes; to consider their possibilities of valorisation. Methodologically, the research was conducted according to a qualitative embedded multiple-case study design. The object – i.e., the educational model – was approached in both POLIMI and FAUP cases considering its Context and three embedded unities of analysis: the educational Purposes, Principles, and Practices. In order to guide the procedures of data collection and analysis, a Matrix for the Characterization (MCC) was developed. As a methodological tool, the MCC allowed to relate the three embedded unities of analysis with the three main sources of evidence where the object manifests itself: the professors, expressing how the model is assumed; the architectural design classes, expressing how the model is achieved; and the students, expressing how the model is acquired. The main research methods used were the naturalistic and participatory observation, in-person-interview and documentary and bibliographic review. The results reveal the importance of the representative component in the educational model of both cases, despite the differences in its role. In POLIMI's model, representation is particularly relevant in the teaching of architectural design, while in FAUP’s model, it plays a transversal role – according to an idea of 'general training through hand drawing'. In fact, the difference between models relative to representation can be partially understood by the level of importance that each gives to hand drawing. Regarding the teaching of architectural design, the two cases are distinguished in the relation with the representative component: while in POLIMI the forms of representation serve essentially an instrumental purpose, in FAUP they tend to be considered also for their methodological dimension. It seems that the possibilities for valuing these models reside precisely in the relation between forms of representation and architectural design teaching. It is expected that the knowledge base developed in this research may have three main contributions: to contribute to the maintenance of the educational model of POLIMI and FAUP; through the precise description of the methodological procedures, to contribute by transferability to similar studies; through the critical and objective framework of the problem underlying the forms of representation and its relation with architectural design teaching, to contribute to the broader discussion concerning the contemporary challenges on architectural education.

Keywords: architectural design teaching, architectural education, educational models, forms of representation

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Authors: Bensaid A., Mostephaoui T., Nedjai R.

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Nowadays, wetlands are the subject of contradictory debates opposing scientific, political and administrative meanings. Indeed, given their multiple services (drinking water, irrigation, hydrological regulation, mineral, plant and animal resources...), wetlands concentrate many socio-economic and biodiversity issues. In some regions, they can cover vast areas (>100 thousand ha) of the landscape, such as the Camargue area in the south of France, inside the Rhone delta. The high biological productivity of wetlands, the strong natural selection pressures and the diversity of aquatic environments have produced many species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else. These environments are tremendous carbon sinks and biodiversity reserves depending on their age, composition and surrounding environmental conditions, wetlands play an important role in global climate projections. Covering more than 3% of the earth's surface, wetlands have experienced since the beginning of the 1990s a tremendous revival of interest, which has resulted in the multiplication of inventories, scientific studies and management experiments. The geographical and physical characteristics of the wetlands of the central region conceal a large number of natural habitats that harbour a great biological diversity. These wetlands, one of the natural habitats, are still influenced by human activities, especially agriculture, which affects its layout and functioning. In this perspective, decision-makers need to delimit spatial objects (natural habitats) in a certain way to be able to take action. Thus, wetlands are no exception to this rule even if it seems to be a difficult exercise to delimit a type of environment as whose main characteristic is often to occupy the transition between aquatic and terrestrial environment. However, it is possible to map wetlands with databases, derived from the interpretation of photos and satellite images, such as the European database Corine Land cover, which allows quantifying and characterizing for each place the characteristic wetland types. Scientific studies have shown limitations when using high spatial resolution images (SPOT, Landsat, ASTER) for the identification and characterization of small wetlands (1 hectare). To address this limitation, it is important to note that these wetlands generally represent spatially complex features. Indeed, the use of very high spatial resolution images (>3m) is necessary to map small and large areas. However, with the recent evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning methods for satellite image processing have shown a much better performance compared to traditional processing based only on pixel structures. Our research work is also based on spectral and textural analysis on THR images (Spot and IRC orthoimage) using two object-oriented approaches, the nearest neighbour approach (k-NN) and the Super Vector Machine approach (SVM). The k-NN approach gave good results for the delineation of wetlands (wet marshes and moors, ponds, artificial wetlands water body edges, ponds, mountain wetlands, river edges and brackish marshes) with a kappa index higher than 85%.

Keywords: land development, GIS, sand dunes, segmentation, remote sensing

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Authors: Michael Mertel, Lars Friedrich, Kai-Ingo Voigt

Abstract:

Based on principle-agent theory, an information asymmetry exists in the traditional donation process. Consumers cannot comprehend whether nonprofit organizations (NPOs) use raised funds according to the designated cause after the transaction took place (hidden action). Therefore, charity organizations have tried to appear transparent and gain trust by using the same marketing instruments for decades (e.g., releasing project success reports). However, none of these measures can guarantee consumers that charities will use their donations for the purpose. With awareness of misuse of donations rising due to the Ukraine conflict (e.g., funding crime), consumers are increasingly concerned about the destination of their charitable purposes. Therefore, innovative charities like the Human Rights Foundation have started to offer donations via blockchain. Blockchain technology has the potential to establish profound trust and transparency in the donation process: Consumers can publicly track the progress of their donation at any time after deciding to donate. This ensures that the charity is not using donations against its original intent. Hence, the aim is to investigate the effect of blockchain-enabled transactions on the willingness to donate. Sample and Design: To investigate consumers' behavior, we use a scenario-based experiment. After removing participants (e.g., due to failed attention checks), 3192 potential donors participated (47.9% female, 62.4% bachelor or above). Procedure: We randomly assigned the participants to one of two scenarios. In all conditions, the participants read a scenario about a fictive charity organization called "Helper NPO." Afterward, the participants answered questions regarding their perception of the charity. Manipulation: The first scenario (n = 1405) represents a typical donation process, where consumers donate money without any option to track and trace. The second scenario (n = 1787) represents a donation process via blockchain, where consumers can track and trace their donations respectively. Using t-statistics, the findings demonstrate a positive effect of donating via blockchain on participants’ willingness to donate (mean difference = 0.667, p < .001, Cohen’s d effect size = 0.482). A mediation analysis shows significant effects for the mediation of transparency (Estimate = 0.199, p < .001), trust (Estimate = 0.144, p < .001), and transparency and trust (Estimate = 0.158, p < .001). The total effect of blockchain usage on participants’ willingness to donate (Estimate = 0.690, p < .001) consists of the direct effect (Estimate = 0.189, p < .001) and the indirect effects of transparency and trust (Estimate = 0.501, p < .001). Furthermore, consumers' affinity for technology moderates the direct effect of blockchain usage on participants' willingness to donate (Estimate = 0.150, p < .001). Donating via blockchain is a promising way for charities to engage consumers for several reasons: (1) Charities can emphasize trust and transparency in their advertising campaigns. (2) Established charities can target new customer segments by specifically engaging technology-affine consumers in the future. (3) Charities can raise international funds without previous barriers (e.g., setting up bank accounts). Nevertheless, increased transparency can also backfire (e.g., disclosure of costs). Such cases require further research.

Keywords: blockchain, social sector, transparency, trust

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Authors: Shiva Mardani, Mehdi Nasr-Esfahani, Majid Olia, Hamid Molahosseini, Hamed Hassanzadeh Khankahdani

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Plant-parasitic nematodes cause serious diseases on plants and effectively reduce food production in quality and quantity worldwide, with at least 17 nematode species in the three important and major genera, including Meloidogyne, Heterodera, and Pratylenchus. Root-knot nematodes (RKN), Meloidogyne spp. with the dominant species, Meloidogynejavanica, are considered as the important plant pathogens of agricultural products globally. The hosts range can be vegetables, bedding plants, grasses, shrubs, numerous weeds, and trees, including forests. In this study, chemical management was carried out on RKN, M. javanica, to investigate the efficacy of Iranian Abamectin insecticide product [acaricide Abamectin (Vermectin® 2% EC, Gyah Corp., Iran)] verses imported normal Abamectin available in the Iran markets [acaricide Abamectin (Vermectin® 1.8% EC, Cropstar Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.)] each of which at the rate of 8 L./ha, on Tomatoes, Solanumlycopersicum L., (No. 29-41, Dutch company Siemens) as a test plant, and the controls (infested to RKN and without any chemical pesticides treatments); and (sterile soil without any RKN and chemical pesticides treatments) at the greenhouse in Isfahan, Iran. The trails were repeated thrice. The results indicated a highly significant reduction in RKN population and an increase in biomass parameters at 1% level of significance, respectively. Relatively similar results were obtained in all the three experiments conducted on tomato root-knot nematodes. The treatments of Gyah-Abamectin (51.6%) and external Abamectin (40.4%) had the highest to least effect on reducing the number of larvae in the soil compared to the infected controls, respectively. Gyah-Abamectin by 44.1% and then external one by 31.9% had the highest effect on reducing the number of larvae and eggs in the root and 31.4% and 24.1% reduction in the number of galls compared to the infected controls, respectively. Based on priority, Gyah-Abamectin (47.4 % ) and external Abamectin (31.1 %) treatments had the highest effect on reducing the number of egg- masses in the root compared to the infected controls, with no significant difference between Gyah-Abamectin and external Abamectin. The highest reproduction of larvae and egg in the root was observed in the infected controls (75.5%) and the lowest in the healthy controls (0.0%). The highest reduction in the larval and egg reproduction in the roots compared to the infected controls was observed in Gyah-Abamectin and the lowest in the external one. Based on preference, Gyah-Abamectin (37.6%) and external Abamectin (26.9%) had the highest effect on the reduction of the larvae and egg reproduction in the root compared to the infected controls, respectively. Regarding growth parameters factors, the lowest stem length was observed in external Abamectin (51.9 cm), with nosignificantly different from Gyah-Abamectin and healthy controls. The highest root fresh weight was recorded in the infected controls (19.81 gr.) and the lowest in the healthy ones (9.81 gr.); the highest root length in the healthy controls (22.4 cm), and the lowest in the infected controls and external Abamectin (12.6 and 11.9 cm), respectively. Conclusively, the results of these three tests on tomato plants revealed that Gyah-Abamectin 2% compared to external Abamectin 1.8% is competitive in the chemical management of the root nematodes of these types of products and is a suitable alternative in this regard.

Keywords: solanum lycopersicum, vermectin, biomass, tomato

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Authors: Miguel A. Figueroa, José A. Lara-Ramos, Miguel A. Mueses

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Pharmaceutical residues are a section of emerging contaminants of anthropogenic origin that are present in a myriad of waters with which human beings interact daily and are starting to affect the ecosystem directly. Conventional waste-water treatment systems are not capable of degrading these pharmaceutical effluents because their designs cannot handle the intermediate products and biological effects occurring during its treatment. That is why it is necessary to hybridize conventional waste-water systems with non-conventional processes. In the specific case of an ozonation process, its efficiency highly depends on a perfect dispersion of ozone, long times of interaction of the gas-liquid phases and the size of the ozone bubbles formed through-out the reaction system. In order to increase the efficiency of these parameters, the use of a modified flotation cell has been proposed recently as a reactive system, which is used at an industrial level to facilitate the suspension of particles and spreading gas bubbles through the reactor volume at a high rate. The objective of the present work is the development of a mathematical model that can closely predict the kinetic rates of reactions taking place in the flotation cell at an experimental scale by means of identifying proper reaction mechanisms that take into account the modified chemical and hydrodynamic factors in the FeO-catalyzed Ozonation of Diclofenac aqueous solutions in a flotation cell. The methodology is comprised of three steps: an experimental phase where a modified flotation cell reactor is used to analyze the effects of ozone concentration and loading catalyst over the degradation of Diclofenac aqueous solutions. The performance is evaluated through an index of utilized ozone, which relates the amount of ozone supplied to the system per milligram of degraded pollutant. Next, a theoretical phase where the reaction mechanisms taking place during the experiments must be identified and proposed that details the multiple direct and indirect reactions the system goes through. Finally, a kinetic model is obtained that can mathematically represent the reaction mechanisms with adjustable parameters that can be fitted to the experimental results and give the model a proper physical meaning. The expected results are a robust reaction rate law that can simulate the improved results of Diclofenac mineralization on water using the modified flotation cell reactor. By means of this methodology, the following results were obtained: A robust reaction pathways mechanism showcasing the intermediates, free-radicals and products of the reaction, Optimal values of reaction rate constants that simulated Hatta numbers lower than 3 for the system modeled, degradation percentages of 100%, TOC (Total organic carbon) removal percentage of 69.9 only requiring an optimal value of FeO catalyst of 0.3 g/L. These results showed that a flotation cell could be used as a reactor in ozonation, catalytic ozonation and photocatalytic ozonation processes, since it produces high reaction rate constants and reduces mass transfer limitations (Ha > 3) by producing microbubbles and maintaining a good catalyst distribution.

Keywords: advanced oxidation technologies, iron oxide, emergent contaminants, AOTS intensification

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Authors: Bangkit Adhi Nugraha, Bambang Suripto

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On September 2016 Bank Indonesia (BI) release regulation no.18/18/PBI/2016 that permit bank clients for using the FX option call spread USD/IDR. Basically, this product is a combination between clients buy FX call option (pay premium) and sell FX call option (receive premium) to protect against currency depreciation while also capping the potential upside with cheap premium cost. BI classifies this product as a structured product. The structured product is combination at least two financial instruments, either derivative or non-derivative instruments. The call spread is the first structured product against IDR permitted by BI since 2009 as response the demand increase from Indonesia firms on FX hedging through derivative for protecting market risk their foreign currency asset or liability. The composition of hedging products on Indonesian FX market increase from 35% on 2015 to 40% on 2016, the majority on swap product (FX forward, FX swap, cross currency swap). Swap is formulated by interest rate difference of the two currency pairs. The cost of swap product is 7% for USD/IDR with one year USD/IDR volatility 13%. That cost level makes swap products seem expensive for hedging buyers. Because call spread cost (around 1.5-3%) cheaper than swap, the most Indonesian firms are using NDF FX call spread USD/IDR on offshore with outstanding amount around 10 billion USD. The cheaper cost of call spread is the main advantage for hedging buyers. The problem arises because BI regulation requires the call spread buyer doing the dynamic hedging. That means, if call spread buyer choose strike price 1 and strike price 2 and volatility USD/IDR exchange rate surpass strike price 2, then the call spread buyer must buy another call spread with strike price 1’ (strike price 1’ = strike price 2) and strike price 2’ (strike price 2’ > strike price 1‘). It could make the premium cost of call spread doubled or even more and dismiss the purpose of hedging buyer to find the cheapest hedging cost. It is very crucial for the buyer to choose best optimum strike price before entering into the transaction. To help hedging buyer find the optimum strike price and avoid expensive multiple premium cost, we observe ten years 2005-2015 historical data of USD/IDR volatility to be compared with the price movement of the call spread USD/IDR using Garman–Kohlhagen Model (as a common formula on FX option pricing). We use statistical tools to analysis data correlation, understand nature of call spread price movement over ten years, and determine factors affecting price movement. We select some range of strike price and tenor and calculate the probability of dynamic hedging to occur and how much it’s cost. We found USD/IDR currency pairs is too uncertain and make dynamic hedging riskier and more expensive. We validated this result using one year data and shown small RMS. The study result could be used to understand nature of FX call spread and determine optimum strike price for hedging plan.

Keywords: FX call spread USD/IDR, USD/IDR volatility statistical analysis, Garman–Kohlhagen Model on FX Option USD/IDR, Bank Indonesia Regulation no.18/18/PBI/2016

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Swati Gautam, Salman Akhtar, S. P. Jaiswar, Amita Jain

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Background: FGTB is now a major global health problem mostly in developing countries including India. In humans, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (M.tb) is a causating agent of infection. High index of suspicion is required for early diagnosis due to asymptomatic presentation of FGTB disease. In macrophages Toll Like Receptor-2 (TLR-2) is one which mediated host’s immune response to M.tb. The expression of TLR-2 on macrophages is important to determine the fate of innate immune responses to M.tb. TLR-2 have two work. First its high expression on macrophages worsen the outer of infection and another side, it maintains M.tb to its dormant stage avoids activation of M.tb from latent phase. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) of TLR-2 gene plays an important role in susceptibility to TB among different populations and subsequently, in the development of infertility. Methodology: This Case-Control study was done in the Department of Obs and Gynae and Department of Microbiology at King George’s Medical University, U.P, Lucknow, India. Total 300 subjects (150 Cases and 150 Controls) were enrolled in the study. All subjects were enrolled only after fulfilling the given inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria: Age 20-35 years, menstrual-irregularities, positive on Acid-Fast Bacilli (AFB), TB-PCR, (LJ/MGIT) culture in Endometrial Aspiration (EA). Exclusion criteria: Koch’s active, on ATT, PCOS, and Endometriosis fibroid women, positive on Gonococal and Chlamydia. Blood samples were collected in EDTA tubes from cases and healthy control women (HCW) and genomic DNA extraction was carried out by salting-out method. Genotyping of TLR2 genetic variants (Arg753Gln and Arg677Trp) were performed by using single amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) PCR technique. PCR products were analyzed by electrophoresis on 1.2% agarose gel and visualized by gel-doc. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS 16.3 software and computing odds ratio (OR) with 95% CI. Linkage Disequiliribium (LD) analysis was done by SNP stats online software. Results: In TLR-2 (Arg753Gln) polymorphism significant risk of FGTB observed with GG homozygous mutant genotype (OR=13, CI=0.71-237.7, p=0.05), AG heterozygous mutant genotype (OR=13.7, CI=0.76-248.06, p=0.03) however, G allele (OR=1.09, CI=0.78-1.52, p=0.67) individually was not associated with FGTB. In TLR-2 (Arg677Trp) polymorphism a significant risk of FGTB observed with TT homozygous mutant genotype (OR= 0.020, CI=0.001-0.341, p < 0.001), CT heterozygous mutant genotype (OR=0.53, CI=0.33-0.86, p=0.014) and T allele (OR=0.463, CI=0.32-0.66, p < 0.001). TT mutant genotype was only found in FGTB cases and frequency of CT heterozygous more in control group as compared to FGTB group. So, CT genotype worked as protective mutation for FGTB susceptibility group. In haplotype analysis of TLR-2 genetic variants, four possible combinations, i.e. (G-T, A-C, G-C, and A-T) were obtained. The frequency of haplotype A-C was significantly higher in FGTB cases (0.32). Control group did not show A-C haplotype and only found in FGTB cases. Conclusion: In conclusion, study showed a significant association with both genetic variants of TLR-2 of FGTB disease. Moreover, the presence of specific associated genotype/alleles suggest the possibility of disease severity and clinical approach aimed to prevent extensive damage by disease and also helpful for early detection of disease.

Keywords: ARMS, EDTA, FGTB, TLR

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: Madina Tynybayeva, Sanya Zhumazhanova, Saltanat Kozhakhmetova, Merey Mussabayeva

Abstract:

One of the leading indicators of the education quality is the level of students’ educational achievements. The processes of modernization of Kazakhstani education system have predetermined the need to improve the national system by assessing the quality of education. The results of assessment greatly contribute to addressing questions about the current state of the educational system in the country. The monitoring of students’ educational achievements (MEAS) is the systematic measurement of the quality of education for compliance with the state obligatory standard of Kazakhstan. This systematic measurement is independent of educational organizations and approved by the order of the Minister of Education and Scienceof Kazakhstan. The MEAS was conducted in the regions of Kazakhstanfor the first time in 2022 by the National Testing Centre. The measurement does not have legal consequences either for students or for educational organizations. Students’ achievements were measured in three subject areas: reading, mathematics and science literacy. MEAS was held for the first time in April this year, 105 thousand students from 1436 schools of Kazakhstan took part in the testing. The monitoring was accompanied by a survey of students, teachers, and school leaders. The goal is to identify which contextual factors affect learning outcomes. The testing was carried out in a computer format. The test tasks of MEAS are ranked according to the three levels of difficulty: basic, medium, and high. Fourth graders are asked to complete 30 closed-type tasks. The average score of the results is 21 points out of 30, which means 70% of tasks were successfully completed. The total number of test tasks for 9th grade students – 75 questions. The results of ninth graders are comparatively lower, the success rate of completing tasks is 63%. MEAS participants did not reveal a statistically significant gap in results in terms of the language of instruction, territorial status, and type of school. The trend of reducing the gap in these indicators is also noted in the framework of recent international studies conducted across the country, in particular PISA for schools in Kazakhstan. However, there is a regional gap in MOES performance. The difference in the values of the indicators of the highest and lowest scores of the regions was 11% of the success of completing tasks in the 4th grade, 14% in the 9thgrade. The results of the 4th grade students in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are: 71.5%, 70%, and 66.9%, respectively. The results of ninth-graders in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are 69.6%, 54%, and 60.8%, respectively. From the surveys, it was revealed that the educational achievements of students are considerably influenced by such factors as the subject competences of teachers, as well as the school climate and motivation of students. Thus, the results of MEAS indicate the need for an integrated approach to improving the quality of education. In particular, the combination of improving the content of curricula and textbooks, internal and external assessment of the educational achievements of students, educational programs of pedagogical specialties, and advanced training courses is required.

Keywords: assessment, secondary school, monitoring, functional literacy, kazakhstan

Procedia PDF Downloads 83