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Authors: Ammar Asma, Bouafia Nabiha, Ghammam Rim, Ezzi Olfa, Ben Cheikh Asma, Mahjoub Mohamed, Helali Radhia, Sma Nesrine, Chouchène Imed, Boussarsar Hamadi, Njah Mansour

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Background: Central venous catheter associated infections (CVC-AI) are among the serious hospital-acquired infections. The aims of this study are to determine the incidence of CVC-AI, and their risk factors among patients followed in a Tunisian medical intensive care unit (ICU). Materials / Methods: A prospective cohort study conducted between September 15th, 2015 and November 15th, 2016 in an 8-bed medical ICU including all patients admitted for more than 48h. CVC-AI were defined according to CDC of ATLANTA criteria. The enrollment was based on clinical and laboratory diagnosis of CVC-AI. For all subjects, age, sex, underlying diseases, SAPS II score, ICU length of stay, exposure to CVC (number of CVC placed, site of insertion and duration catheterization) were recorded. Risk factors were analyzed by conditional stepwise logistic regression. The p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among 192 eligible patients, 144 patients (75%) had a central venous catheter. Twenty-eight patients (19.4%) had developed CVC-AI with density rate incidence 20.02/1000 CVC-days. Among these infections, 60.7% (n=17) were systemic CVC-AI (with negative blood culture), and 35.7% (n=10) were bloodstream CVC-AI. The mean SAPS II of patients with CVC-AI was 32.76 14.48; their mean Charlson index was 1.77 1.55, their mean duration of catheterization was 15.46 10.81 days and the mean duration of one central line was 5.8+/-3.72 days. Gram-negative bacteria was determined in 53.5 % of CVC-AI (n= 15) dominated by multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumani (n=7). Staphylococci were isolated in 3 CVC-AI. Fourteen (50%) patients with CVC-AI died. Univariate analysis identified men (p=0.034), the referral from another hospital department (p=0.03), tobacco (p=0.006), duration of sedation (p=0.003) and the duration of catheterization (p=0), as possible risk factors of CVC-AI. Multivariate analysis showed that independent factors of CVC-AI were, male sex; OR= 5.73, IC 95% [2; 16.46], p=0.001, Ramsay score; OR= 1.57, IC 95% [1.036; 2.38], p=0.033, and duration of catheterization; OR=1.093, IC 95% [1.035; 1.15], p=0.001. Conclusion: In a monocenter cohort, CVC-AI had a high density and is associated with poor outcome. Identifying the risk factors is necessary to find solutions for this major health problem.

Keywords: central venous catheter associated infection, intensive care unit, prospective cohort studies, risk factors

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Authors: Neha Toppo

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Method and strategies of teaching instruction highly influence learning of students. In second language teaching, number of ways and methods has been suggested by different scholars and researchers through times. The present article deals with the role of teaching instruction in developing compositional ability of students in writing. It focuses on the secondary level students of rural areas, whose exposure to English language is limited and they face challenges even in simple compositions. The students till high school suffer with their disability in writing formal letter, application, essay, paragraph etc. They face problem in note making, writing answers in examination using their own words and depend fully on rote learning. It becomes difficult for them to give language to their own ideas. Teaching writing composition deserves special attention as writing is an integral part of language learning and students at this level are expected to have sound compositional ability for it is useful in numerous domains. Effective method of instruction could help students to learn expression of self, correct selection of vocabulary and grammar, contextual writing, composition of formal and informal writing. It is not limited to school but continues to be important in various other fields outside the school such as in newspaper and magazine, official work, legislative work, material writing, academic writing, personal writing, etc. The study is based on the experimental method, which hypothesize that guided instruction will be more effective in teaching writing compositions than usual instruction in which students are left to compose by their own without any help. In the test, students of one section are asked to write an essay on the given topic without guidance and another section are asked to write the same but with the assistance of guided instruction in which students have been provided with a few vocabulary and sentence structure. This process is repeated in few more schools to get generalize data. The study shows the difference on students’ performance using both the instructions; guided and unguided. The conclusion of the study is followed by the finding that writing skill of the students is quite poor but with the help of guided instruction they perform better. The students are in need of better teaching instruction to develop their writing skills.

Keywords: composition, essay, guided instruction, writing skill

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Authors: Şenay Güngör, Emre Elbaşi, Beyda Sadikğlu, Utku Eren Bağci, Ömer Uzunel

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One of the first places that comes to mind when it comes to tourism in Turkey is the Cappadocia Region. Due to its rich geological and geomorphological heritage, Cappadocia is one of the most visited destinations in the world. In fact, in the first half of 2023, the number of international tourists visiting Cappadocia exceeded 2 million. Considering that the economy of the Cappadocia region is largely based on tourism, it is understood that the quality and technology integration levels of the touristic services offered in the region are of great importance. In this context; as a result of the observations made in Kızılçukur, Meskendir, Güllüdere 1 and Güllüdere 2 valleys, where the important hiking routes of the Cappadocia Region are located, it has been observed that the digital level of the routes is insufficient. It has been observed that the telephone networks in the area are very low or have completely lost their signal strength. In addition, it was determined that the materials such as maps and brochures used by tourism agencies to introduce the valleys are simple and incomplete. It is thought that this situation negatively affects the tourists' orientation and touristic experience in the field. Eliminating these deficiencies identified in the field, improving the digital level of the above-mentioned hiking routes and increasing the added value in destinations are among the main objectives of our study. Within the scope of the study, a mobile application that can work both online and offline on hiking routes has been prepared. 3D modeling of Kızılçukur, Meskendir, Güllüdere 1 and Güllüdere 2 valleys were made using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). In addition, a website has been created to enable tourists to easily access all the above-mentioned information, visuals and technological applications related to the routes. As it is known, the effective use of information and communication technologies in touristic regions not only increases the satisfaction levels of tourists, but also positively affects the attraction of qualified tourists to the region. When the tangible and intangible outputs of this study are evaluated, it is thought that it will serve the social and economic development of the region and set an example for the digital transformation of other routes in the region.

Keywords: nevşehir, cappadocia, cappadocia valleys, tourism route

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Authors: Gülcan Taşkıran, Ülkü Tatar Baykal

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Aim: To identify nurses’ perceived competencies for disaster preparedness. Background: Recently, the number of disasters has increased worldwide. Since disasters often strike without warning, healthcare providers, especially nurses must be prepared with appropriate competencies for disaster procedures. Nurses’ perceptions of their own competencies for disaster preparedness need to be evaluated to aid in the creation of effective national plans and educational programs. Design: This study was conducted with a descriptive and cross-sectional design. Methods: Nurses’ perceptions were assessed using the 13-item Demographic Profile Questionnaire that is based on previous literature and the 45-item Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale (NPCDPS). Data were collected from June to September 2014 from 406 (79.9% return rate) Turkish nurses working in the western region of Turkey. Results: At the end of the study, it was found that out of the nurses whose mean age was 31.27 ± 5.86 and mean of working time was 8.07 ± 6.60 by the time vast majority of the nurses were women (85.7%), married (59.4%), bachelor’s degree holder (88.2%) and service nurses (56.2%). The most potential disaster that nurses think is an earthquake (70.9%) by the time majority of nurses consider having a role as a nurse at every stage of disasters. The mean total point score of nurses’ perception of disaster preparedness was 4.62. The mean total point score of the nurses from the Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale was 133.96. When the subscales’ mean scores are examined, the highest average of the mean score is for Technical Skills (44.52), and the lowest is for Critical Thinking Skills (10.47). When the subscales of Nurses’ Perception of Core Competencies for Disaster Preparedness Scale compared with sex, marital status and education level out of independent variable of nurses there is no significant difference (p > 0.05); compared with age group, working years, duty and being with a disaster out of independent variable of nurses there is a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Nurses generally perceive themselves as sufficient at a ‘medium level’ in terms of meeting the core competencies that are required for disaster preparedness. Nurses are not adequately prepared for disasters, but they are aware of the need for such preparation and disaster education. Disaster management training should be given to all nurses in their basic education.

Keywords: disaster competencies, disaster management, disaster nursing, disaster preparedness, nursing, nursing administration, Turkish nurses

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Authors: Bhawesh Kumar, A. P. Krishna

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There are continuous changes upon earth’s surface by a variety of natural and anthropogenic agents cut, carry away and depositing of minerals from land. Running water has higher capacity of erosion than other geomorphologic agents. This research work has been carried out on Ganga River, whose channel is continuously changing under the influence of geomorphic agents and human activities in the surrounding regions. The main focus is to study morphological characteristics and sand dynamics of Ganga River with particular emphasis on bank lines and width changes using remote sensing and GIS techniques. The advance remote sensing data and topographical data were interpreted for obtaining 52 years of changes. For this, remote sensing data of different years (LANDSAT TM 1975, 1988, 1993, ETM 2005 and ETM 2012) and toposheet of SOI for the year 1960 were used as base maps for this study. Sinuosity ratio, braiding index and migratory activity index were also established. It was found to be 1.16 in 1975 and in 1988, 1993, 2005 and 2005 it was 1.09, 1.11, 1.1, 1.09 respectively. The analysis also shows that the minimum value found in 1960 was in reach 1 and maximum value is 4.8806 in 2012 found in reach 4 which suggests creation of number of islands in reach 4 for the year 2012. Migratory activity index (MAI), which is a standardized function of both length and time, was computed for the 8 representative reaches. MAI shows that maximum migration was in 1975-1988 in reach 6 and 7 and minimum migration was in 1993-2005. From the channel change analysis, it was found that the shifting of bank line was cyclic and the river Ganges showed a trend of southward maximum values. The advanced remote sensing data and topographical data helped in obtaining 52 years changes in the river due to various natural and manmade activities like flood, water velocity and excavation, removal of vegetation cover and fertile soil excavation for the various purposes of surrounding regions.

Keywords: braided index, migratory activity index (MAI), Ganga river, river morphology

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Authors: Nadwah Onwi, Puspa Maniam, Azmawanie A. Aziz, Fairus Mukhtar, Nor Azrita Mohamed Zin, Nurul Haslina Mohd Zin, Nurul Fatehah Ismail, Mohamad Safwan Yusoff, Susilidianamanalu Abd Rahman, Siti Munirah Harris, Maryam Aizuddin

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Objective: Malaysia has a growing number of individuals with complex communication needs (CCN). The initiation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention may facilitate individuals with CCN to understand and express themselves optimally and actively participate in activities in their daily life. AAC is defined as multimodal use of communication ability to allow individuals to use every mode possible to communicate with others using a set of symbols or systems that may include the symbols, aids, techniques, and strategies. It is consequently critical to evaluate the deficits to inform treatment for AAC intervention. However, no known measurement tools are available to evaluate the user with CCN available locally. Design: A systematic review (SR) is designed to analyze the psychometric properties of AAC assessment for adolescents with CCN published in peer-reviewed journals. Tools are rated by the methodological quality of studies and the psychometric measurement qualities of each tool. Method: A literature search identifying AAC assessment tools with psychometrically robust properties and conceptual framework was considered. Two independent reviewers screened the abstracts and full-text articles and review bibliographies for further references. Data were extracted using standardized forms and study risk of bias was assessed. Result: The review highlights the psychometric properties of AAC assessment tools that can be used by speech-language therapists applicable to be used in the Malaysian context. The work outlines how systematic review methods may be applied to the consideration of published material that provides valuable data to initiate the development of Malay Language AAC assessment tools. Conclusion: The synthesis of evidence has provided a framework for Malaysia Speech-Language therapists in making an informed decision for AAC intervention in our standard operating procedure in the Ministry of Health, Malaysia.

Keywords: augmentative and alternative communication, assessment, adolescents, complex communication needs

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Authors: Tom Nakotte, Hongmei Luo

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Lead chalcogenide-based (PbS, PbSe, and PbTe) quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized for the purpose of implementing them in radiation detectors. Pb based materials have long been of interest for gamma and x-ray detection due to its high absorption cross section and Z number. The emphasis of the studies was on exploring how to control charge carrier transport within thin films containing the QDs. The properties of QDs itself can be altered by changing the size, shape, composition, and surface chemistry of the dots, while the properties of carrier transport within QD films are affected by post-deposition treatment of the films. The QDs were synthesized using colloidal synthesis methods and films were grown using multiple film coating techniques, such as spin coating and doctor blading. Current QD radiation detectors are based on the QD acting as fluorophores in a scintillation detector. Here the viability of using QDs in solid-state radiation detectors, for which the incident detectable radiation causes a direct electronic response within the QD film is explored. Achieving high sensitivity and accurate energy quantification in QD radiation detectors requires a large carrier mobility and diffusion lengths in the QD films. Pb chalcogenides-based QDs were synthesized with both traditional oleic acid ligands as well as more weakly binding oleylamine ligands, allowing for in-solution ligand exchange making the deposition of thick films in a single step possible. The PbS and PbSe QDs showed better air stability than PbTe. After precipitation the QDs passivated with the shorter ligand are dispersed in 2,6-difloupyridine resulting in colloidal solutions with concentrations anywhere from 10-100 mg/mL for film processing applications, More concentrated colloidal solutions produce thicker films during spin-coating, while an extremely concentrated solution (100 mg/mL) can be used to produce several micrometer thick films using doctor blading. Film thicknesses of micrometer or even millimeters are needed for radiation detector for high-energy gamma rays, which are of interest for astrophysics or nuclear security, in order to provide sufficient stopping power.

Keywords: colloidal synthesis, lead chalcogenide, radiation detectors, quantum dots

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Authors: Sunethra Jayathilake, Vathsala Jayasuriya-Illesinghe, Kerstin Samarasinghe, Himani Molligoda, Rasika Perera

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In Sri Lanka, postnatal care in the state hospitals is provided by different professional categories: Midwifery trained registered nurses (MTRNs), Registered Nurses (RNs) who do not have midwifery training, doctors and midwives. Even though four professional categories provide postnatal care to mothers and newborn babies, they are not aware of their own tasks and responsibilities in postnatal care. Particularly MTRN’s role in the postnatal unit is unclear. The current study aimed to identify nurses’ (both MTRN and RNs) perception on MTRN’s tasks and responsibilities in postnatal care. This is a descriptive cross sectional study using postal survey. All nurses who were currently working in postnatal units at five selected tertiary care hospitals in the Western Province at that time were invited to participate in the study. Accordingly, the pre evaluated self-administered questionnaire was sent to 201 nurses (53 MTRNs and 148 RNs) in the study setting. The number of valid return questionnaire was 166; response rate was 83%. Respondents rated the responsibility of four professional categories: MTRN, RN, doctor and midwife whether they are 'primarily responsible', 'responsible in absence' and 'not responsible', for each of 15 postnatal (PN) tasks which were previously identified from focus group discussions with care providers during the first phase of the study. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20; descriptive statistics were calculated. Out of the 15 PN tasks, 13 were identified as MTRNs’ primary responsibilities by 71%-93% of respondents. The respondents also considered six (6) tasks out of 15 as primary responsibility of both MTRN and RN, seven (7) tasks as primary responsibility of MTRN, RN and doctor and the remaining two (2) tasks were identified as the primary responsibility of MTRN, RN and midwife. All 15 PN tasks overlapped with other professional categories. Overlapping tasks may create role confusion leading to conflicts among professional categories which affect the quality of care they provide, eventually, threaten the safety of the client. It is recommended that an official job description for each care provider is needed to recognize their own professional boundaries for ensuring safe, quality care delivery in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: overlapping, postnatal, responsibilities, tasks

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Authors: Yosef Kassa

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Gondar City, a city in Ethiopia, is going through growth and increased use of motor vehicles, causing issues of traffic congestion, pollution, and limited mobility options. Despite the growing number of cars on the road, walking still accounts for 54% of all journeys. However, the city’s transportation planning has mainly focused on accommodating vehicles, leading to a lack of infrastructure for non-motorized transportation (nmt). This study utilized GIS analysis and surveys involving residents to examine how aspects of the city impact motorized transport. The GIS analysis objectively evaluated built environment factors influencing nmt, such as infrastructure quality, land usage patterns, topography features, and environmental factors using a multi-criteria analysis method (mca). The survey gathered feedback from residents on these factors and analyzed them statistically. The GIS analysis pinpointed areas with potential for nmt, slopes (<10.03°), mixed-use developments with 15% coverage, and high intersection densities (> 4.2/100m). On the hand, steep slopes (>23.77°) and low intersection areas require interventions. The MCA analysis indicated that 66% of areas in Gondar City had limited nmt accessibility levels, while only 7% were considered accessible. According to survey findings, environmental characteristics such as building density differed throughout sub-cities and demographics, with 1-3 story townhouses dominating Azezo Teda compared to connected kebele housing in Arada, while agreeing topography has obstructed walking. Correlation analysis shows significant relationships like topographies' negative associations with connectivity (-0.373**) and infrastructure (-0.391**). Although, regression analysis found housing type (1.036), safety (-0.688), land use (0.933), connectedness (0.585), and infrastructure (0.889) with p<0.05 were among the determinants of transportation frequency. The integrated analysis uncovered disparities between survey analysis and GIS analysis. In Azezo Teda, the GIS score is 2.27, while the survey score is 2.89. However, there is a correlation (rho=0.56, p<0.01) indicating the reliability of gis in assessing walkability. This research offers insights for enhancing nmt accessibility in Gondar City by promoting transportation planning that focuses on (nmt) and the needs of residents.

Keywords: non-motorized transportation, accessibility, built environment, infrastructure

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Authors: Siti Rahmawati

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Indonesia has had long period of monetary economic crisis and it is followed by an upward trend in the price of fuel oil. This situation impacts all aspects of tuna fishermen community. For instance, the basic needs of fishing communities increase and the lower purchasing power then lead to economic and social instability as well as the health of fishermen household. To understand this AHP method is applied to acknowledge the model of tuna fisheries management priorities and cold chain marketing channel and the utilization levels that impact on human health. The study is designed as a development research with the number of 180 respondents. The data were analyzed by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The development of tuna fishery business can improve productivity of production with economic empowerment activities for coastal communities, improving the competitiveness of products, developing fish processing centers and provide internal capital for the development of optimal fishery business. From economic aspects, fishery business is more attracting because the benefit cost ratio of 2.86. This means that for 10 years, the economic life of this project can work well as B/C> 1 and therefore the rate of investment is economically viable. From the health aspects, tuna can reduce the risk of dying from heart disease by 50%, because tuna contain selenium in the human body. The consumption of 100 g of tuna meet 52.9% of the selenium in the body and activating the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidaxe which can protect the body from free radicals and stimulate various cancers. The results of the analytic hierarchy process that the quality of tuna products is the top priority for export quality as well as quality control in order to compete in the global market. The implementation of the policy can increase the income of fishermen and reduce the poverty of fishermen households and have impact on the human health whose has high risk of disease.

Keywords: management of tuna, social, economic, health

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Authors: F. A. M. Safwan, H. N. N. Dilrukshi, P. U. S. Peiris

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Less availability of high quality green forages leads to low productivity of national dairy herd of Sri Lanka. Growing grass and fodder to suit the production system is an efficient and economical solution for this problem. CO-3 is placed in a higher category, especially on tillering capacity, green forage yield, regeneration capacity, leaf to stem ratio, high crude protein content, resistance to pests and diseases and free from adverse factors along with other fodder varieties grown within the country. An experiment was designed to determine the effect of organic sheep manure, inorganic fertilizers and liquid sheep manure on growth, yield and nutritive value of CO-3. The study was consisted with three treatments; sheep manure (T1), recommended inorganic fertilizers (T2) and liquid sheep manure (T3) which was prepared using bucket fermentation method and each treatment was consisted with three replicates and those were assigned randomly. First harvest was obtained after 40 days of plant establishment and number of leaves (NL), leaf area (LA), tillering capacity (TC), fresh weight (FW) and dry weight (DW) were recorded and second harvest was obtained after 30 days of first harvest and same set of data were recorded. SPSS 16 software was used for data analysis. For proximate analysis AOAC, 2000 standard methods were used. Results revealed that the plants treated with T1 recorded highest NL, LA, TC, FW and DW and were statistically significant at first and second harvest of CO-3 (p˂ 0.05) and it was found that T1 was statistically significant from T2 and T3. Although T3 was recorded higher than the T2 in almost all growth parameters; it was not statistically significant (p ˃0.05). In addition, the crude protein content was recorded highest in T1 with the value of 18.33±1.61 and was lowest in T2 with the value of 10.82±1.14 and was statistically significant (p˂ 0.05). Apart from this, other proximate composition crude fiber, crude fat, ash, moisture content and dry matter were not statistically significant between treatments (p ˃0.05). In accordance with the results, it was found that the organic fertilizer is the best fertilizer for CO-3 in terms of growth parameters and crude protein content.

Keywords: fertilizer, growth parameters, Hybrid Napier CO-3, proximate composition

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Authors: Joelle Fong

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Older persons are at greatest risk of becoming frail. As survival to the age of 80 and beyond continues to increase, the health and frailty of older Americans has garnered much recent attention among policy makers and healthcare administrators. This paper examines patterns in old-age frailty within a multistate actuarial model that characterizes the stochastic process of biological ageing. Using aggregate population-level U.S. mortality data, we implement a stochastic aging model to examine cohort trends and gender differences in frailty distributions for older Americans born 1865 – 1894. The stochastic ageing model, which draws from the fields of actuarial science and gerontology, is well-established in the literature. The implications for public health insurance programs are also discussed. Our results suggest that, on average, women tend to be frailer than men at older ages and reveal useful insights about the magnitude of the male-female differential at critical age points. Specifically, we note that the frailty statuses of males and females are actually quite comparable from ages 65 to 80. Beyond age 80, however, the frailty levels start to diverge considerably implying that women are moving quicker into worse states of health than men. Tracking average frailty by gender over 30 successive birth cohorts, we also find that frailty levels for both genders follow a distinct peak-and-trough pattern. For instance, frailty among 85-year old American survivors increased in years 1954-1963, decreased in years 1964-1971, and again started to increase in years 1972-1979. A number of factors may have accounted for these cohort differences including differences in cohort life histories, differences in disease prevalence, differences in lifestyle and behavior, differential access to medical advances, as well as changes in environmental risk factors over time. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of our findings on spending for long-term care programs within the broader health insurance system.

Keywords: actuarial modeling, cohort analysis, frail elderly, health

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Authors: Sena Park

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Background: The concurrent presentation with colorectal cancer in the inguinal hernia has been extremely rare. Due to its rarity, its presentation may lead to diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas. We aim to review all the reported cases on colorectal cancer incarcerated in the inguinal hernia in the last 20 years, and discuss the operative approaches. Methods: We identified all case reports on colorectal cancer within inguinal hernia using PUBMED (2002-2022) and MEDLINE (2002-2022). The search strategy included the following keywords: colorectal cancer (title/abstract) AND inguinal hernia (title/abstract) OR incarceration (title/abstract). The search did not include letters, book chapters, systemic reviews, meta-analysis and editorials. Results: In the last 20 years, a total of 19 cases on colorectal cancer within the inguinal hernia were identified. The age of the patients ranged between 48 and 89. Majority of the patients were male (95%). Most commonly involved part of the large intestine was sigmoid colon (79%). Of all the cases, 79 percent of patients received open procedure and 21 percent had laparoscopic procedure. Discussion: Inguinal hernias are common with an incidence of approximately 1.7 percent. Colorectal cancer is the one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. However, their concurrent presentation has been extremely rare. In the last 20 years, 19 cases on concurrent presentation of colorectal cancer and inguinal hernia have been reported. Most patients who had open procedures had two incisions of groin incision and a midline laparotomy. There were 4 cases where the oncological resection was performed laparoscopically. The advantages of laparoscopic resection include reduced blood lost, reduced post-operative pain, reduced length of hospital stay and similar number of lymph nodes taken. From the review of the cases in the last 20 years, both open and laparoscopic approaches seemed to be safe and achieve adequate oncological resections. Conclusion: This is a brief overview of reported cases of colorectal cancer presenting with inguinal hernia concurrently. Due to its rarity, there are no current guidelines on operative approach in clinical practice. The experience in the last 20 years supports both open and laparoscopic approach.

Keywords: colorectal cancer, inguinal hernia, incarceration, operative approach

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Authors: Oluwasina Folajinmi, Kate Ssamulla, Penninah Lutung, Daniel Reijer

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Background: Despite of well-verified benefits of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in prolonging life expectancy being lost to follow-up (LTFU) presents a challenge to the success of ART programs in resource limited countries like Nigeria. In several studies of ART programs in developing countries, researchers have reported that there has been a high rate of LTFU among patients receiving care and treatment at ART treatment centers. This study seeks to determine the cause of LTFU among HIV clients. Method: A descriptive cross sectional study focused on a population of 9,280 persons living with HIV/AIDS who were enrolled in nine treatment centers in Nigeria (both pre-ART and ART patients were included). Out of the total population, 1752 (18.9%) were found to be LTFU. Of this group we randomly selected 1200 clients (68.5%) their d patients’ information was generated through a database. Data on demographics and CD4 counts, causes of LTFU were analyzed and summarized. Results: Out of 1200 LTFU clients selected, 462 (38.5%) were on ART; 341 clients (73.8%) had CD4 level < 500cell/µL and 738 (61.5%) on pre-ART had CD4 level >500/µL. In our records we found telephone number for 675 (56.1%) of these clients. 675 (56.1%) were owners of a phone. The majority of the client’s 731 (60.9%) were living at not more than 25km away from the ART center. A majority were females (926 or 77.2%) while 274 (22.8%) were male. 675 (56.1%) clients were reported traced via telephone and home address. 326 (27.2%) of clients phone numbers were not reachable; 173 (14.4%) of telephone numbers were incomplete. 71 (5.9%) had relocated due to communal crises and expert client trackers reported that some patient could not afford transportation to ART centers. Conclusion: This study shows that, low health education levels, poverty, relocations and lack of reliable phone contact were major predictors of LTFU. Periodic updates of home addresses, telephone contacts including at least two next of kin, phone text messages and home visits may improve follow up. Early and consistent tracking of missed appointments is crucial. Creation of more ART decentralized centres are needed to avoid long distances.

Keywords: anti-retroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS, predictors, lost to follow up

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Authors: Harika Atmaca, Emir Bozkurt, Latife Merve Oktay, Selim Uzunoglu, Ruchan Uslu, Burçak Karaca

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Microarrays have been developed for highly parallel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) applications. The most common protein arrays are produced by using multiple monoclonal antibodies, since they are robust molecules which can be easily handled and immobilized by standard procedures without loss of activity. Protein expression profiling with protein array technology allows simultaneous analysis of the protein expression pattern of a large number of proteins. Trabectedin, a tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloid derived from a Caribbean tunicate, Ecteinascidia turbinata, has been shown to have antitumor effects. Here, we used a novel proteomic approach to explore the mechanism of action of trabectedin in prostate cancer cell line PC-3 by apoptosis antibody microarray. XTT cell proliferation kit and Cell Death Detection Elisa Plus Kit (Roche) was used for measuring cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Human Apoptosis Protein Array (R&D Systems) which consists of 35 apoptosis related proteins was used to assess the omic protein expression pattern. Trabectedin induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis in prostate cancer cells in a time and concentration-dependent manner. The expression levels of the death receptor pathway molecules, TRAIL-R1/DR4, TRAIL R2/DR5, TNF R1/TNFRSF1A, FADD were significantly increased by 4.0-, 21.0-, 4.20- and 11.5-fold by trabectedin treatment in PC-3 cells. Moreover, mitochondrial pathway related pro-apoptotic proteins Bax, Bad, Cytochrome c, and Cleaved Caspase-3 expressions were induced by 2.68-, 2.07-, 2.8-, and 4.5-fold and the expression levels of anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL were reduced by 3.5- and 5.2-fold in PC-3 cells. Proteomic (antibody microarray) analysis suggests that the mechanism of action of trabectedin may be exerted via the induction of both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. The antibody microarray platform can be utilised to explore the molecular mechanism of action of novel anticancer agents.

Keywords: trabectedin, prostate cancer, omic protein expression profile, apoptosis

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Authors: Maria E. Fortună, Elena Ungureanu, Răzvan Rotaru, Valeria Harabagiu

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Polymers are used in a variety of areas due to their unique mechanical and chemical properties. Natural polymers are biodegradable, whereas synthetic polymers are rarely biodegradable but can be modified. As a result, by combining the benefits of natural and synthetic polymers, composite materials that are biodegradable can be obtained with potential for biomedical and environmental applications. However, because of their strong resistance to degradation, it may be difficult to eliminate waste. As a result, interest in developing biodegradable polymers has risen significantly. This research involves obtaining and characterizing two biodegradable poly-ε-caprolactone-polydimethylsiloxane copolymers. A comparison study was conducted using an aminopropyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane macroinitiator with two distinct molecular weights. The copolymers were obtained by ring-opening polymerization of poly (ɛ-caprolactone) in the presence of aminopropyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane as initiator and comonomers and stannous 2-ethylhexanoate as a catalyst. The materials were characterized using a number of techniques, including NMR, FTIR, EDX, SEM, AFM, and DSC. Additionally, the water contact angle and water vapor sorption capacity were assessed. Furthermore, the copolymers were examined for environmental susceptibility by conducting biological tests on tomato plants (Lypercosium esculentum), with an accent on biological stability and metabolism. Subsequent to the copolymer's degradation, the dynamics of nitrogen experience evolutionary alterations, validating the progression of the process accompanied by the liberation of organic nitrogen. The biological tests performed (germination index, average seedling height, green and dry biomass) on Lypercosium esculentum, San Marzano variety tomato plants in direct contact with the copolymer indicated normal growth and development, suggesting a minimal toxic effect and, by extension, compatibility of the copolymer with the environment. The total chlorophyll concentration of plant leaves in contact with copolymers was determined, considering the pigment's critical role in photosynthesis and, implicitly, plant metabolism and physiological state.

Keywords: biodegradable, biological stability, copolymers, polydimethylsiloxane

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Authors: Xuhui Lin, Qiuchen Lu, Yi An, Tao Yang

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As global climate change intensifies, extreme weather events such as floods increasingly threaten urban infrastructure, making the vulnerability of urban road networks a pressing issue. Existing static repair strategies fail to adapt to the rapid changes in road network conditions during flood events, leading to inefficient resource allocation and suboptimal recovery. The main research gap lies in the lack of repair strategies that consider both the dynamic characteristics of networks and the progression of flood propagation. This paper proposes a topology-based dynamic repair strategy that adjusts repair priorities based on real-time changes in flood propagation and traffic demand. Specifically, a novel method is developed to assess and enhance the resilience of urban road networks during flood events. The method combines road network topological analysis, flood propagation modelling, and traffic flow simulation, introducing a local importance metric to dynamically evaluate the significance of road segments across different spatial and temporal scales. Using London's road network and rainfall data as a case study, the effectiveness of this dynamic strategy is compared to traditional and Transport for London (TFL) strategies. The most significant highlight of the research is that the dynamic strategy substantially reduced the number of stranded vehicles across different traffic demand periods, improving efficiency by up to 35.2%. The advantage of this method lies in its ability to adapt in real-time to changes in network conditions, enabling more precise resource allocation and more efficient repair processes. This dynamic strategy offers significant value to urban planners, traffic management departments, and emergency response teams, helping them better respond to extreme weather events like floods, enhance overall urban resilience, and reduce economic losses and social impacts.

Keywords: Urban resilience, road networks, flood response, dynamic repair strategy, topological analysis

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Authors: María Graciela Aguayo, Laura Reyes, Claudia Oviedo, José Navarrete, Liset Gómez, Hugo Torres

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Most wood species used in construction deteriorate when exposed to environmental conditions that favor wood-degrading organisms’ growth. Therefore, chemical protection by impregnation allows more efficient use of forest resources extending the wood useful life. A wood protection treatment which has attracted considerable interest in the scientific community during the last decade is wood impregnation with nano compounds. Radiata pine is the main wood species used in the Chilean construction industry, with total availability of 8 million m³ sawn timber. According to the requirements of the American Wood Protection Association (AWPA) and the Chilean Standards (NCh) radiata pine timber used in construction must be protected due to its low natural durability. In this work, the impregnation with copper nanoparticles (CuNP) was studied in terms of penetration and its protective effect against wood rot fungi. Two concentrations: 1 and 3 g/L of NPCu were applied by impregnation on radiata pine sapwood. Test penetration under AWPA A3-91 standard was carried out, and wood decay tests were performed according to EN 113, with slight modifications. The results of penetration for 1 g/L CuNP showed an irregular total penetration, and the samples impregnated with 3 g/L showed a total penetration with uniform concentration (blue color in all cross sections). The impregnation wood mass losses due to fungal exposure were significantly reduced, regardless of the concentration of the solution or the fungus. In impregnated wood samples, exposure to G. trabeum resulted ML values of 2.70% and 1.19% for 1 g/L and 3 g/L CuNP, respectively, and exposure to P. placenta resulted in 4.02% and 0.70%-ML values for 1 g/L and 3 g/L CuNP, respectively. In this study, the penetration analysis confirmed a uniform distribution inside the wood, and both concentrations were effective against the tested fungi, giving mass loss values lower than 5%. Therefore, future research in wood preservatives should focus on new nanomaterials that are more efficient and environmentally friendly. Acknowledgments: CONICYT FONDEF IDeA I+D 2019, grant number ID19I10122.

Keywords: copper nanoparticles, fungal degradation, radiata pine wood, wood preservation

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Authors: Marina Shurupova, Victor Anisimov, Alexander Latanov

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Background: The cerebellar lesions inevitably provoke oculomotor impairments in patients of different age. Symptoms of subtentorial tumors, particularly medulloblastomas, include static and dynamic coordination disorders (ataxia, asynergia, imbalance), hypo-muscle tonus, disruption of the cranial nerves, and within the oculomotor system - nystagmus (fine or gross). Subtentorial tumors can also affect the areas of cerebellum that control the oculomotor system. The noninvasive eye-tracking technology allows obtaining multiple oculomotor characteristics such as the number of fixations and their duration, amplitude, latency and velocity of saccades, trajectory and scan path of gaze during the process of the visual field navigation. Eye tracking could be very useful in clinical studies serving as convenient and effective tool for diagnostics. The aim: We studied the dynamics of oculomotor system functioning in patients undergoing remission from cerebellar tumors removal surgeries and following neurocognitive rehabilitation. Methods: 38 children (23 boys, 15 girls, 9-17 years old) that have recovered from the cerebellar tumor-removal surgeries, radiation therapy and chemotherapy and were undergoing course of neurocognitive rehabilitation participated in the study. Two tests were carried out to evaluate oculomotor performance - gaze stability test and counting test. The monocular eye movements were recorded with eye tracker ArringtonResearch (60 Hz). Two experimental sessions with both tests were conducted before and after rehabilitation courses. Results: Within the final session of both tests we observed remarkable improvement in oculomotor performance: 1) in the gaze stability test the spread of gaze positions significantly declined compared to the first session, and 2) the visual path in counting test significantly shortened both compared to the first session. Thus, neurocognitive rehabilitation improved the functioning of the oculomotor system in patients following the cerebellar tumor removal surgeries and subsequent therapy. Conclusions: The experimental data support the effectiveness of the utilization of the eye tracking technique as diagnostic tool in the field of neurooncology.

Keywords: eye tracking, rehabilitation, cerebellar tumors, oculomotor system

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Authors: Monica Gonzalez Machorro

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Dementia is hard to diagnose because of the lack of early physical symptoms. Early dementia recognition is key to improving the living condition of patients. Speech technology is considered a valuable biomarker for this challenge. Recent works have utilized conventional acoustic features and machine learning methods to detect dementia in speech. BERT-like classifiers have reported the most promising performance. One constraint, nonetheless, is that these studies are either based on human transcripts or on transcripts produced by automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. This research contribution is to explore a method that does not require transcriptions to detect early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This is achieved by fine-tuning a pre-trained ASR model for the downstream early AD and MCI tasks. To do so, a subset of the thoroughly studied Pitt Corpus is customized. The subset is balanced for class, age, and gender. Data processing also involves cropping the samples into 10-second segments. For comparison purposes, a baseline model is defined by training and testing a Random Forest with 20 extracted acoustic features using the librosa library implemented in Python. These are: zero-crossing rate, MFCCs, spectral bandwidth, spectral centroid, root mean square, and short-time Fourier transform. The baseline model achieved a 58% accuracy. To fine-tune HuBERT as a classifier, an average pooling strategy is employed to merge the 3D representations from audio into 2D representations, and a linear layer is added. The pre-trained model used is ‘hubert-large-ls960-ft’. Empirically, the number of epochs selected is 5, and the batch size defined is 1. Experiments show that our proposed method reaches a 69% balanced accuracy. This suggests that the linguistic and speech information encoded in the self-supervised ASR-based model is able to learn acoustic cues of AD and MCI.

Keywords: automatic speech recognition, early Alzheimer’s recognition, mild cognitive impairment, speech impairment

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Authors: Sheraz Gul

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The requirements for progressing a compound to clinical trials is well established and relies on the results from in-vitro and in-vivo animal tests to indicate that it is likely to be safe and efficacious when testing in humans. The typical data package required will include demonstrating compound safety, toxicity, bioavailability, pharmacodynamics (potential effects of the compound on body systems) and pharmacokinetics (how the compound is potentially absorbed, distributed, metabolised and eliminated after dosing in humans). If the desired criteria are met and the compound meets the clinical Candidate criteria and is deemed worthy of further development, a submission to regulatory bodies such as the US Food & Drug Administration for an exploratory Investigational New Drug Study can be made. The purpose of this study is to collect data to establish that the compound will not expose humans to unreasonable risks when used in limited, early-stage clinical studies in patients or normal volunteer subjects (Phase I). These studies are also designed to determine the metabolism and pharmacologic actions of the drug in humans, the side effects associated with increasing doses, and, if possible, to gain early evidence on their effectiveness. In order to reach the above goals, we have developed a pre-clinical high throughput Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion–Toxicity (ADME–Toxicity) panel of assays to identify compounds that are likely to meet the Lead and Candidate compound acceptance criteria. This panel includes solubility studies in a range of biological fluids, cell viability studies in cancer and primary cell-lines, mitochondrial toxicity, off-target effects (across the kinase, protease, histone deacetylase, phosphodiesterase and GPCR protein families), CYP450 inhibition (5 different CYP450 enzymes), CYP450 induction, cardio-toxicity (hERG) and gene-toxicity. This panel of assays has been applied to multiple compound series developed in a number of projects delivering Lead and clinical Candidates and examples from these will be presented.

Keywords: absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion–toxicity , drug discovery, food and drug administration , pharmacodynamics

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Authors: Jonas Sanon

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The valorization of research is becoming a transversal instrument linking different sectors (academic, public and industrial). The practice of valorization seems to impact innovation techniques within companies where, there is often the implementation of industrial conventions of training through research (CIFRE), continuous training programs for employees, collaborations and partnerships around joint research and R&D laboratories focused on the needs of companies to improve or develop more efficient innovations. Furthermore, many public initiatives to support innovation and technology transfer have been developed at the international, European and national levels, with significant budget allocations. Thus, in the context of this work, we tried to analyze the way in which research transfer structures are evaluated within the Saclay ecosystem. In fact, the University-Paris-Saclay is one of the best French universities; it is made up of 10 university components, more than 275 laboratories and is in partnership with the largest French research centers This work mainly focused on how evaluations affected research transfer structures, how evaluations were conducted, and what the managers of research transfer structures thought about assessments. Thus, with the aid of the conducted interviews, it appears that the evaluations do not have a significant impact on the qualitative aspect of research and innovation, but is rather present a directive aspect to allow the structures to benefit or not from the financial resources to develop certain research work, sometimes directed and influenced by the market, some researchers might try to accentuate their research and experimentation work on themes that are not necessarily their areas of interest, but just to comply with the calls for proposed thematic projects. The field studies also outline the primary indicators used to assess the effectiveness of valorization structures as "the number of start-ups generated, the license agreements signed, the structure's patent portfolio, and the innovations of items developed from public research.". Finally, after mapping the actors, it became clear that the ecosystem of the University of Paris-Saclay benefits from a richness allowing it to better value its research in relation to the three categories of actors it has (internal, external and transversal), united and linked by a relationship of proximity of sharing and endowed with a real opportunity to innovate openly.

Keywords: research valorization, technology transfer, innovation, evaluation, impacts and performances, innovation policy

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Authors: Keethadath Arshad, Kappalli Sudha

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Mud crab, Scylla Serrata, a commercially important shellfish with high global demand appears to be the rich source of dietary fatty acids. Its increased production through aquaculture and highly perishable nature would necessitate improved techniques for their proper preservation. Optimized irradiation has been identified as an effective method to facilitate safety and extended shelf life for a broad range of the perishable food items including finfishes and shellfishes. The present study analyzed the effects of dose-dependent gamma irradiation on the fatty acid profile of the muscle derived from the candidate species (S. serrata) at both qualitative and quantitative levels. Wild grown, average sized, intermolt male S. Serrata were gamma irradiated (^60C, 3.8kGy/ hour) at the dosage of 0.5kGy, 1.0kGy and 2.0kGy using gamma chamber. Total lipid extracted by Folch method, after methylation, were analyzed for the presence fatty acids adopting Gas Chromatograph equipped with flame ionization detector by comparing with the authentic FAME reference standards. The tissue from non-irradiated S. serrata showed the presence of 12 SFA, 6 MUFA, 8PUFA and 2 TF; PUFA includes medicinally important ω-3 FA such as C18:3, C20:5 and C22:6 and ω-6 FA such as γ- C18:3 and C20:2. Dose-dependent gamma irradiation reduced the number of detectable fatty acids (10, 8 and 8 SFA, 6, 6 and 5MUFA, 7, 7, and 6 PUFA and 1, 1, and 0 TF in 0.5kGy, 1.0kGy and 2kGy irradiated samples respectively). Major fatty acids detected in both irradiated and non-irradiated samples were as follows: SFA- C16:0, C18:0, C22:0 and C14:0; MUFA - C18:1 and C16:1and PUFA- C18:2, C20:5, C20:2 and C22:6. Irradiation doses ranging from 1-2kGy substantially reduced the ω-6 C18:3 and ω-3 C18:3. However, the omega fatty acids such as C20:5, C22:6 and C20:2 could survive even after 2kGy irradiation. Significantly, trans fat like C18:2T and C18:1T were completely disappeared upon 2kGy irradiation. From the overall observations made from the present study, it is suggested that irradiation dose up to 1kGy is optimum to maintain the fatty acid profile and eradicate the trans fat of the muscle derived from S. serrata.

Keywords: fatty acid profile, food preservation, gamma irradiation, scylla serrata

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Authors: Uliana N. Tumanova, Viacheslav M. Lyapin, Vladimir G. Bychenko, Alexandr I. Shchegolev, Gennady T. Sukhikh

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It is well known that the gas formed as a result of postmortem decomposition of tissues can be detected already 24-48 hours after death. In addition, the conditions of keeping and storage of the corpse (temperature and humidity of the environment) significantly determine the rate of occurrence and development of posthumous changes. The presence of sepsis is accompanied by faster postmortem decomposition and decay of the organs and tissues of the body. The presence of gas in the vessels and cavities can be revealed fully at postmortem CT. Radiologists must certainly report on the detection of intraorganic or intravascular gas, wich was detected at postmortem CT, to forensic experts or pathologists before the autopsy. This gas can not be detected during autopsy, but it can be very important for establishing a diagnosis. To explore the possibility of postmortem CT for the evaluation of gas accumulations in the newborns' vessels, who died from congenital sepsis. Researched of 44 newborns bodies (25 male and 19 female sex, at the age from 6 hours to 27 days) after 6 - 12 hours of death. The bodies were stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of +4°C in the supine position. Grouped 12 bodies of newborns that died from congenital sepsis. The control group consisted of 32 bodies of newborns that died without signs of sepsis. Postmortem CT examination was performed at the GEMINI TF TOF16 device, before the autopsy. The localizations of gas accumulations in the vessels were determined on the CT tomograms. The sepsis diagnosis was on the basis of clinical and laboratory data and autopsy results. Gases in the vessels were detected in 33.3% of cases in the group with sepsis, and in the control group - in 34.4%. A group with sepsis most often the gas localized in the heart and liver vessels - 50% each, of observations number with the detected gas in the vessels. In the heart cavities, aorta and mesenteric vessels - 25% each. In control most often gas was detected in the liver (63.6%) and abdominal cavity (54.5%) vessels. In 45.5% the gas localized in the cavities, and in 36.4% in the vessels of the heart. In the cerebral vessels and in the aorta gas was detected in 27.3% and 9.1%, respectively. Postmortem CT has high diagnostic capabilities to detect free gas in vessels. Postmortem changes in newborns that died from sepsis do not affect intravascular gas production within 6-12 hours. Radiation methods should be used as a supplement to the autopsy, including as a kind of ‘guide’, with the indication to the forensic medical expert of certain changes identified during CT studies, for better definition of pathological processes during the autopsy. Postmortem CT can be recommend as a first stage of autopsy.

Keywords: congenital sepsis, gas, newborn, postmortem CT

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Authors: A. Priyanka, Sunil Kumar Kainoor, Parinitha Nayaka

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Introduction: Ever since the ancient times, rape and other sexual offences are considered to be heinous crimes. Rape is not just another word in the dictionary, but it is the most barbaric act of violence committed with sex being the weapon. Rape is among the highest forms of crime experienced by women and children in all sectors of the society. In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in ratio of rape in India. The burden of such crimes on the society is very huge. The venereal diseases are the worst consequence along with unwanted pregnancies. Aims and Objectives: To determine the socio-demographic profile of the survivors of sexual offences reported to Dept. of Forensic Medicine of a South Indian medical college. Material methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine of Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India. Only survivors of sexual offences cases were included in the study group. Examination of all survivors was carried out by doctors of the said Department. Study period is one year six months, January 2015 to June 2016. Results/ case history: In total 140 cases of sexual offences were examined during study period of which the total survivors accounted to 62.85% i.e. 88 cases. Of the 88 survivors, 61 (69.31%) were registered under POCSO Act. The most affected age group of victims was 10-18 years in 59 (67%) cases. 61% were in acquaintance with the assailants, 18% were classmates/ friends, 13% of accused were Family members/ Relatives, 8% were strangers. 85% of the survivors were hailing from rural setup, while 15% were from urban. 60.65% of the survivors were students, 37.7% were doing Coolie/ Agricultural works. Conclusion: Delay in reporting of cases resulted in loss of vital physical evidences as no concrete report could be generated from the forensic lab after examination of specimens thus there should be coordination among doctors, forensic experts and investigating agency. It is worth mentioning that though a large number of cases of sexual offences are reported as rape many among them are consented acts and hence definite evidence of forceful sexual intercourse is lagging.

Keywords: consensual sex, India, POCSO Act- 2012, India, pregnancy, rape, sexual offence

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Authors: Sitti Rahmawati

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Payment system of cataract surgery implemented by professional attendant of doctor and nurse has been increasing, through health insurance program and this has become one of the factors that affects a lot of government in the budget establishment. This system has been implemented in purpose of quality and expenditure control, i.e., controlling health overpayment to obtain benefit (moral hazard) by the user of insurance or health service provider. The increasing health cost becomes the main issue that hampers the society to receive required health service in cash payment-system. One of the efforts that should be taken by the government in health payment is by securing health insurance through society's health insurance. The objective of the study is to learn the capability of a patient to pay cataract eye operation for the elders. Method of study sample population in this study was patients who obtain health insurance board card for the society that was started in the first of tri-semester (January-March) 2015 and claimed in Indonesian software-Case Based Group as a purposive sampling of 40 patients. Results of the study show that total unit cost analysis of surgery service unit was obtained $75 for unit cost without AFC and salary of nurse and doctor. The operation tariff that has been implemented today at Anutapura hospitals in eye department is tariff without AFC and the salary of the employee is $80. The operation tariff of the unit cost calculation with double distribution model at $65. Conclusion, the calculation result of actual unit cost that is much greater causes incentive distribution system provided to an ophthalmologist at $37 and nurse at $20 for one operation. The surgery service tariff is still low; consequently, the hospital receives low revenue and the quality of health insurance in eye operation department is relatively low. In purpose of increasing the service quality, it requires adequately high cost to equip medical equipment and increase the number of professional health attendant in serving patients in cataract eye operation at hospital.

Keywords: economic evaluation, cataract operation, health attendant, health insurance system

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Authors: Tarek Elnimr, Reda Morsy, Assem El Fert, Aziza Ismail

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Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis, cirrhosis or liver cancer. Disease caused by the hepatitis virus, the virus can cause hepatitis infection, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness. A growing body of evidence indicates that many trace elements play important roles in a number of carcinogenic processes that proceed with various mechanisms. To examine the status of trace elements during the development of hepatic carcinoma, we determined the iron, copper, zinc and selenium levels in some biological samples of patients at different stages of viral hepatic disease. We observed significant changes in the iron, copper, zinc and selenium levels in the biological samples of patients hepatocellular carcinoma, relative to those of healthy controls. The mean hair, nail, RBC, serum and whole blood copper levels in patients with hepatitis virus were significantly higher than that of the control group. In contrast the mean iron, zinc, and selenium levels in patients having hepatitis virus were significantly lower than those of the control group. On the basis of this study, we identified the impact of natural supplements to improve the treatment of viral liver damage, using the level of some trace elements such as, iron, copper, zinc and selenium, which might serve as biomarkers for increases survival and reduces disease progression. Most of the elements revealed diverse and random distribution in the samples of the donor groups. The correlation study pointed out significant disparities in the mutual relationships among the trace elements in the patients and controls. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis of the element data manifested diverse apportionment of the selected elements in the scalp hair, nail and blood components of the patients compared with the healthy counterparts.

Keywords: hepatitis, hair, nail, blood components, trace element, nutrition therapy, multivariate analysis, correlation, ICP-MS

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Authors: Reda A. Elkhyat, Mahmoud Nasr, Amel A. Tammam, Mohamed A. Ghazy

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Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a unique group of emerging contaminants continuously introduced into the aquatic ecosystem at concentrations capable of inducing adverse effects on humans and aquatic organisms, even at trace levels ranging from ppt to ppm. Amongst the common pharmaceutical emerging pollutants detected in several aquatic environments, acetaminophen has been recognized for its high toxicity. Once released into the aquatic environment, acetaminophen could be degraded by the microbial community and adsorption/ uptake by the plants. Although many studies have investigated the hazard risks of acetaminophen pollutants on aquatic animals, the number of studies demonstrating its removal efficiency and effects on the aquatic plant still needs to be expanded. In this context, this study aims to apply the aquatic plant-based phytoremediation system to eliminate this emerging contaminant from domestic wastewater. The phytoremediation experiment was performed in a hydroponic system containing Eichhornia crassipes and operated under the natural environment at 25°C to 30°C. This system was subjected to synthetic domestic wastewater with the maximum initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 390 mg/L and three different acetaminophen concentrations of 25, 50, and 200 mg/L. After 17 d of operation, the phytoremediation system achieved removal efficiencies of about 100% and 85.6±4.2% for acetaminophen and COD, respectively.Moreover, the Eichhornia crassipes could withstand the toxicity associated with increasing the acetaminophen concentrations from 25 to 200 mg/L. This high treatment performance could be assigned to the well-adaptation of the water hyacinth to the phytoremediation factors. Moreover, it has been proposed that this phytoremediation system could be largely supported by phytodegradation and plant uptaking mechanisms; however, detecting the generated intermediates, metabolites, and degradation products are still under investigation. Applying this free-floating plant in wastewater treatment and reducing emerging contaminants would meet the targets of SDGs 3, 6, and. 14. The cost-benefit analysis was performed for the phytoremediation system. The phytoremediation system is financially viable as the net profit was 2921 US $/ y with a payback period of nine years.

Keywords: domestic wastewater, emerging pollutants, hydrophyte Eichhornia crassipes, paracetamol removal efficiency, sustainable development goals (SDGs)

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Authors: Kayode Oshinubi, Brice Kammegne, Jacques Demongeot

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The use of mathematical tools like Partial Differential Equations and Ordinary Differential Equations have become very important to predict the evolution of a viral disease in a population in order to take preventive and curative measures. In December 2019, a novel variety of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China causing a severe and potentially fatal respiratory syndrome, i.e., COVID-19. Since then, it has become a pandemic declared by World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 which has spread around the globe. A reaction-diffusion system is a mathematical model that describes the evolution of a phenomenon subjected to two processes: a reaction process in which different substances are transformed, and a diffusion process that causes a distribution in space. This article provides a mathematical study of the Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Recovered, and Vaccinated population model of the COVID-19 pandemic by the bias of reaction-diffusion equations. Both local and global asymptotic stability conditions for disease-free and endemic equilibria are determined using the Lyapunov function are considered and the endemic equilibrium point exists and is stable if it satisfies Routh–Hurwitz criteria. Also, adequate conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the solution of the model have been proved. We showed the spatial distribution of the model compartments when the basic reproduction rate $\mathcal{R}_0 < 1$ and $\mathcal{R}_0 > 1$ and sensitivity analysis is performed in order to determine the most sensitive parameters in the proposed model. We demonstrate the model's effectiveness by performing numerical simulations. We investigate the impact of vaccination and the significance of spatial distribution parameters in the spread of COVID-19. The findings indicate that reducing contact with an infected person and increasing the proportion of susceptible people who receive high-efficacy vaccination will lessen the burden of COVID-19 in the population. To the public health policymakers, we offered a better understanding of the COVID-19 management.

Keywords: COVID-19, SEIRV epidemic model, reaction-diffusion equation, basic reproduction number, vaccination, spatial distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: N. G. I. Aroshana, S. Edirisooriya

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Construction of highway is the most emerging development tendency in Sri Lanka. With these development activities, there are a lot of environmental and social issues started. Landscape fragmentation is one of the main issues that highly effect to the environment by the construction of expressways. Sri Lankan expressway system getting effort to treat fragmented landscape by using highway crossing structures. This paper designates, a highway post construction landscape study on the effectiveness of the landscape connectivity structures to restore connectivity. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), least cost path tool has been used in the selected two plots; 25km alone the expressway to identify animal crossing paths. Animal accident data use as measure for determining the most contributed plot for landscape connectivity. Number of patches, Mean patch size, Class area use as a parameter to determine the most effective land use class to reestablish the landscape connectivity. The findings of the research express scrub, grass and marsh were the most positively affected land use typologies for increase the landscape connectivity. It represents the growth increased by 8% within the 12 years of time. From the least cost analysis within the plot one, 28.5% of total animal crossing structures are within the high resistance land use classes. Southern expressway used reinforced compressed earth technologies for construction. It has been controlled the growth of the climax community. According to all findings, it could assume that involvement of the landscape crossing structures contributes to re-establish connectivity, but it is not enough to restore the majority of disturbance performed by the expressway. Connectivity measures used within the study can use as a tool for re-evaluate future involvement of highway crossing structures. Proper placement of the highway crossing structures leads to increase the rate of connectivity. The study recommends that monitoring the all stages (preconstruction, construction and post construction) of the project and preliminary design, and the involvement of the research applied connectivity assessment strategies helps to overcome the complication regarding the re-establishment of landscape connectivity using the highway crossing structures that facilitate the growth of flora and fauna.

Keywords: landscape fragmentation, least cost path, land use analysis, landscape connectivity structures

Procedia PDF Downloads 150