Search results for: optimal stress location

Authors: Ana Violante, Jodie Maccarrone, Maria Fimiani

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In the United States, over 30 million people are hospitalized annually for conditions that require acute, 24-hour, supervised care. The experience of hospitalization can be traumatic, exposing the patient to loss of control, autonomy, and productivity. Furthermore, 40% of patients admitted to hospitals for general medical illness have a comorbid psychiatric diagnosis. Research suggests individuals admitted with psychiatric comorbidities experience poorer health outcomes, higher utilization rates and increased overall cost of care. Empirical work suggests hospital settings that include a consultation liaison (CL) service report reduced length of stay, lower costs per patient, improved medical staff and patient satisfaction and reduced readmission after 180 days. Despite the overall positive impact CL services can have on patient care, it is estimated that only 1% - 2.8% of hospital admits receive these services, and most research has been conducted by the field of psychiatry. Health psychologists could play an important role in increasing access to this valuable service, though the extent to which health psychologists participate in CL settings is not well known. Objective: Outline the preliminary findings from an empirical study to understand how many APPIC internship training programs offer adult consultation liaison rotations within inpatient hospital settings nationally, as well as describe the specific nature of these training experiences. Research Method/Design: Data was exported into Excel from the 2022-2023 APPIC Directory categorized as “health psychology” sites. It initially returned a total of 537 health training programs out 1518 total programs (35% of all APPIC programs). A full review included a quantitative and qualitative comprehensive review of the APPIC program summary, the site website, and program brochures. The quantitative review extracted the number of training positions; amount of stipend; location or state of program, patient, population, and rotation. The qualitative review examined the nature of the training experience. Results: 29 (5%) of all APPIC health psychology internship training programs (2%) respectively of all APPIC training internship programs offering internship CL training were identified. Of the 29 internship training programs, 16 were exclusively within a pediatric setting (55%), 11 were exclusively within an adult setting (38%), and two were a mix of pediatric and adult settings (7%). CL training sites were located to 19 states, offering a total of 153 positions nationally, with Florida containing the largest number of programs (4). Only six programs offered 12-month training opportunities while the rest offered CL as a major (6 month) to minor (3-4 month) rotation. The program’s stipend for CL training positions ranged from $25,000 to $62,400, with an average of $32,056. Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest CL training and services are currently limited. Training opportunities that do exist are mostly limited to minor, short rotations and governed by psychiatry. Health psychologists are well-positioned to better define the role of psychology in consultation liaison services and enhance and formalize existing training protocols. Future research should explore in more detail empirical outcomes of CL services that employ psychology and delineate the contributions of psychology from psychiatry and other disciplines within an inpatient hospital setting.

Keywords: consultation liaison, health psychology, hospital setting, training

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Authors: Sthephanie A. Colmenares, Fabio A. Rojas, Pablo A. Arbeláez, Johann F. Osma, Diana Narvaez

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The loss of functional tissue is a ubiquitous and expensive health care problem, with very limited treatment options for these patients. The golden standard for large bone damage is a cadaveric bone as an allograft with stainless steel support; however, this solution only applies to bones with simple morphologies (long bones), has a limited material supply and presents long term problems regarding mechanical strength, integration, differentiation and induction of native bone tissue. Therefore, the fabrication of a scaffold with biological, physical and chemical properties similar to the human bone with a fabrication method for morphology manipulation is the focus of this investigation. Towards this goal, an alginate and coral matrix was created using two production techniques; the coral was chosen because of its chemical composition and the alginate due to its compatibility and mechanical properties. In order to construct the coral alginate scaffold the following methodology was employed; cleaning of the coral, its pulverization, scaffold fabrication and finally the mechanical and biological characterization. The experimental design had: mill method and proportion of alginate and coral, as the two factors, with two and three levels each, using 5 replicates. The coral was cleaned with sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide in an ultrasonic bath. Then, it was milled with both a horizontal and a ball mill in order to evaluate the morphology of the particles obtained. After this, using a combination of alginate and coral powder and water as a binder, scaffolds of 1cm3 were printed with a SpectrumTM Z510 3D printer. This resulted in solid cubes that were resistant to small compression stress. Then, using a ESQUIM DP-143 silicon mold, constructs used for the mechanical and biological assays were made. An INSTRON 2267® was implemented for the compression tests; the density and porosity were calculated with an analytical balance and the biological tests were performed using cell cultures with VERO fibroblast, and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) as visualization tool. The Young’s moduli were dependent of the pulverization method, the proportion of coral and alginate and the interaction between these factors. The maximum value was 5,4MPa for the 50/50 proportion of alginate and horizontally milled coral. The biological assay showed more extracellular matrix in the scaffolds consisting of more alginate and less coral. The density and porosity were proportional to the amount of coral in the powder mix. These results showed that this composite has potential as a biomaterial, but its behavior is elastic with a small Young’s Modulus, which leads to the conclusion that the application may not be for long bones but for tissues similar to cartilage.

Keywords: alginate, biomaterial, bone engineering, coral, Porites asteroids, SEM

Procedia PDF Downloads 249

Authors: Dalila Chaid, Bennameur Fedilli, Mohammed Amine Bellelou

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The study focuses on the experience of lower-limb amputees, who face both physical and psychological challenges due to their disability. Chronic neuropathic pain and various types of limb pain are common in these patients. They often require orthopaedic interventions for issues such as dressings, infection, ulceration, and bone-related problems. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the most suitable anaesthetic technique for lower-limb amputees, which can provide them with the greatest comfort and prolonged analgesia. The study also aims to demonstrate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ultrasound-guided local regional anaesthesia (LRA) in this patient population. Methodology: The study is an observational analytical study conducted over a period of eight years, from 2010 to 2018. It includes a total of 955 cases of revisions performed on lower limb stumps. The parameters analyzed in this study include the effectiveness of the block and the use of sedation, the duration of the block, the post-operative visual analog scale (VAS) scores, and patient comfort. Findings: The study findings highlight the benefits of ultrasound-guided LRA in providing comfort by optimizing post-operative analgesia, which can contribute to psychological and bodily repair in lower-limb amputees. Additionally, the study emphasizes the use of alpha2 agonist adjuvants with sedative and analgesic properties, long-acting local anaesthetics, and larger volumes for better outcomes. Theoretical Importance: This study contributes to the existing knowledge by emphasizing the importance of choosing an appropriate anaesthetic technique for lower-limb amputees. It highlights the potential of ultrasound-guided LRA and the use of specific adjuvants and local anaesthetics in improving post-operative analgesia and overall patient outcomes. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Data for this study were collected through the analysis of medical records and relevant documentation related to the 955 cases included in the study. The effectiveness of the anaesthetic technique, duration of the block, post-operative pain scores, and patient comfort were analyzed using statistical methods. Question Addressed: The study addresses the question of which anaesthetic technique would be most suitable for lower-limb amputees to provide them with optimal comfort and prolonged analgesia. Conclusion: The study concludes that ultrasound-guided LRA, along with the use of alpha2 agonist adjuvants, long-acting local anaesthetics, and larger volumes, can be an effective approach in providing comfort and improving post-operative analgesia for lower-limb amputees. This technique can potentially contribute to the psychological and bodily repair of these patients. The findings of this study have implications for clinical practice in the management of lower-limb amputees, highlighting the importance of personalized anaesthetic approaches for better outcomes.

Keywords: neuropathic pain, ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve block, DN4 quiz, EMG

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: Adeline Meriaux, Claire Gaiani, Jennifer Burgain, Frantz Fournier, Lionel Muniglia, Jérémy Petit

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Spray-drying process is widely used for the production of dairy powders for food and pharmaceuticals industries. It involves the atomization of a liquid feed into fine droplets, which are subsequently dried through contact with a hot air flow. The resulting powders permit transportation cost reduction and shelf life increase but can also exhibit various interesting functionalities (flowability, solubility, protein modification or acid gelation), depending on operating conditions and milk composition. Indeed, particles porosity, surface composition, lactose crystallization, protein denaturation, protein association or crust formation may change. Links between spray-drying conditions and physicochemical and functional properties of powders were investigated by a design of experiment methodology and analyzed by principal component analysis. Quadratic models were developed, and multicriteria optimization was carried out by the use of genetic algorithm. At the time of abstract submission, verification spray-drying trials are ongoing. To perform experiments, milk from dairy farm was collected, skimmed, froze and spray-dried at different air pressure (between 1 and 3 bars) and outlet temperature (between 75 and 95 °C). Dry matter, minerals content and proteins content were determined by standard method. Solubility index, absorption index and hygroscopicity were determined by method found in literature. Particle size distribution were obtained by laser diffraction granulometry. Location of the powder color in the Cielab color space and water activity were characterized by a colorimeter and an aw-value meter, respectively. Flow properties were characterized with FT4 powder rheometer; in particular, compressibility and shearing test were performed. Air pressure and outlet temperature are key factors that directly impact the drying kinetics and powder characteristics during spray-drying process. It was shown that the air pressure affects the particle size distribution by impacting the size of droplet exiting the nozzle. Moreover, small particles lead to more cohesive powder and less saturated color of powders. Higher outlet temperature results in lower moisture level particles which are less sticky and can explain a spray-drying yield increase and the higher cohesiveness; it also leads to particle with low water activity because of the intense evaporation rate. However, it induces a high hygroscopicity, thus, powders tend to get wet rapidly if they are not well stored. On the other hand, high temperature provokes a decrease of native serum proteins, which is positively correlated to gelation properties (gel point and firmness). Partial denaturation of serum proteins can improve functional properties of powder. The control of air pressure and outlet temperature during the spray-drying process significantly affects the physicochemical and functional properties of powder. This study permitted to better understand the links between physicochemical and functional properties of powder to identify correlations between air pressure and outlet temperature. Therefore, mathematical models have been developed, and the use of genetic algorithm will allow the optimization of powder functionalities.

Keywords: dairy powders, spray-drying, powders functionalities, design of experiment

Procedia PDF Downloads 56

Authors: D. Pogliana, A. Maso, N. Milani, D. Panzin, S. Rivaroli, J. Konin

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This case aims to identify the role of movement quality during the final stage of return to sport (RTS) in a male amateur football player 13 years old after passing the acute phase of the bilateral Osgood-Schlatter disease (OSD). The patient, after a year from passing the acute phase of OSD with the abstention of physical activity, reports bilateral anterior knee pain at the beginning of the football sport activity. Interventions: After the orthopedist check, who recommended physiotherapy sessions for the correction of motor patterns and the isometric reinforcement of the muscles of the quadriceps, the rehabilitation intervention was developed in 7 weeks through 14 sessions of neuro-motor training (NMT) with a frequency of two weekly sessions and six sessions of muscle-strengthening with a frequency of one weekly session. The sessions of NMT were carried out through free body exercises (or with overloads) with visual bio-feedback with the help of two cameras (one with anterior vision and one with lateral vision of the subject) and a big touch screen. The aim of these sessions of NMT was to modify the dysfunctional motor patterns evaluated by the 2D motion analysis test. The test was carried out at the beginning and at the end of the rehabilitation course and included five movements: single-leg squat (SLS), drop jump (DJ), single-leg hop (SLH), lateral shuffle (LS), and change of direction (COD). Each of these movements was evaluated through the video analysis of dynamic valgus knee, pelvic tilt, trunk control, shock absorption, and motor strategy. A free image analysis software (Kinovea) was then used to calculate scores. Results: Baseline assessment of the subject showed a total score of 59% on the right limb and 64% on the left limb (considering an optimal score above 85%) with large deficits in shock absorption capabilities, the presence of dynamic valgus knee, and dysfunctional motor strategies defined “quadriceps dominant.” After six weeks of training, the subject achieved a total score of 80% on the right limb and 86% on the left limb, with significant improvements in shock absorption capabilities, the presence of dynamic knee valgus, and the employment of more hip-oriented motor strategies on both lower limbs. The improvements shown in dynamic knee valgus, greater hip-oriented motor strategies, and improved shock absorption identified through six weeks of the NMT program can help a teenager amateur football player to manage the anterior knee pain during sports activity. In conclusion, NMT was a good choice to help a 13 years old male amateur football player to return to performance without pain after OSD and can also be used with all this type of athletes of the other teams' sports.

Keywords: movement analysis, neuro-motor training, knee pain, movement strategies

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Authors: Zakir Hossain, Saddam Hossain

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A nutritionally balanced diet and selection of appropriate species are important criteria in aquaculture. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and beta glucan-containing diets on growth performance, feed utilization, maturation, immunity, early embryonic and larval development of endangered Pabdah catfish, Ompok pabda. In this study, squid extracted lipids and mushroom powder were used as the source of PUFAs and beta-glucan, respectively, and formulated two isonitrogenous diets such as a basal or control (CON) diet and a treated (PBG) diet with maintaining 30% protein levels. During the study period, similar physicochemical conditions of water such as temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) were 26.5±2 °C, 7.4±0.2, and 6.7±0.5 ppm, respectively, in each cistern. The results showed that final mean body weight, final mean length gain, food conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), food conversion efficiency (%), hepato somatic index (HSI), kidney index (KI), and viscerosomatic index (VSI) were significantly (P<0.01 and P<0.05) higher in fish fed the PBG diet than that of fish fed the CON diet. The length-weight relationship and relative condition factor (K) of O. pabda were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the PBG diet. The gonadosomatic index (GSI), sperm viability, blood serum calcium ion concentrations (Ca²⁺), and vitellogenin level were significantly (P<0.05) higher in fish fed the PBG diet than that of fish fed the CON diet; which was used to the indication of fish maturation. During the spawning season, lipid granules and normal morphological structure were observed in the treated fish liver, whereas fewer lipid granules of liver were observed in the control group. Based on the immunity and stress resistance-related parameters such as hematological indices, antioxidant activity, lysozyme level, respiratory burst activity, blood reactive oxygen species (ROS), complement activity (ACH50 assay), specific IgM, brain AChE, plasma PGOT, and PGPT enzyme activity were significantly (P<0.01 and P<0.05) higher in fish fed the PBG diet than that of fish fed the CON diet. The fecundity, fertilization rate (92.23±2.69%), hatching rate (87.43±2.17 %), and survival (76.62±0.82%) of offspring were significantly higher (P˂0.05) in the PBG diet than in control. Consequently, early embryonic and larval development was better in PBG treated group than in control. Therefore, the present study showed that the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and beta-glucan enriched experimental diet were more effective and achieved better growth, feed utilization, maturation, immunity, and spawning performances of O. pabda.

Keywords: lipids, beta-glucan, fish maturity, fish immunity

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Sophie-Bo Heinkel, Andrea Rechenburg, Thomas Kistemann

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The current status of wellbeing and life satisfaction of subsistence farmers in a wetland in Uganda and the contributing role of place attachment has been assessed. The aim of this study is to shed light on environmental factors supporting wellbeing in a wetland setting. Furthermore, it has been assessed, how the emotional bonding to the wetland as ‘place’ influences the peoples’ wellbeing and life satisfaction. The results shed light on the human-environment-relationship. A survey was carried out in three communities in urban and rural areas in a wetland basin in Uganda. A sample (n=235) provided information about the attachment to the wetland, the participants’ relation to the place of their residence and their emotional wellbeing. The Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) was assessed as well as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (RSE). Furthermore, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was applied as well as the Place Attachment Inventory (PAI), which consists of the two intertwined dimensions of place identity and place dependence. Beside this, binary indicators as ‘feeling save’ and ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘enjoying to live at the place of residence’ have been assessed. A bivariate correlation analysis revealed a high interconnectivity between all metric scales. Especially, the subscale ‘place identity’ showed significances with all other scales. A cluster analysis revealed three groups, which differed in the perception of place-related indicators and their attachment to the wetland as well as the status of wellbeing. First, a cluster whose majority is dissatisfied with their lives, but mainly had a good status of emotional well-being. This group does not feel attached to the wetland and lives in a town. Comparably less persons of this group feel safe and comfortable at their place of residence. In the second cluster, persons feel highly attached to the wetland and identify with it. This group was characterized by the high number of persons preferring their current place of residence and do not consider moving. All persons feel well and satisfied with their lives. The third group of persons is mainly living in rural areas and feels highly attached to the wetland. They are satisfied with their lives, but only a small minority is in a good emotional state of wellbeing. The emotional attachment to a place influences life satisfaction and, indirectly, the emotional wellbeing. In the present study it could be shown that subsistence farmers are attached to the wetland, as it is the source of their livelihood. While those living in areas with a good infrastructure are less dependent on the wetland and, therefore, less attached to. This feeling also was mirrored in the perception of a place as being safe and comfortable. The identification with a place is crucial for the feeling of being at “home”. Subsistence farmers feel attached to the ecosystem, but they also might be exposed to environmental and social stressors influencing their short-term emotional wellbeing. The provision of place identity is an ecosystem service provided by wetlands, which supports the status of wellbeing in human beings.

Keywords: mental health, positive environments, quality of life, wellbeing

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: C. Deangeli, P. Obentaku Obenebot, O. Omwanghe

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The study focuses on the analysis of wellbore instability in rock masses affected by weakness planes. The occurrence of failure in such a type of rocks can occur in the rock matrix and/ or along the weakness planes, in relation to the mud weight gradient. In this case the simple Kirsch solution coupled with a failure criterion cannot supply a suitable scenario for borehole instabilities. Two different numerical approaches have been used in order to investigate the onset of local failure at the wall of a borehole. For each type of approach the influence of the inclination of weakness planes has been investigates, by considering joint sets at 0°, 35° and 90° to the horizontal. The first set of models have been carried out with FLAC 2D (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) by considering the rock material as a continuous medium, with a Mohr Coulomb criterion for the rock matrix and using the ubiquitous joint model for accounting for the presence of the weakness planes. In this model yield may occur in either the solid or along the weak plane, or both, depending on the stress state, the orientation of the weak plane and the material properties of the solid and weak plane. The second set of models have been performed with PFC2D (Particle Flow code). This code is based on the Discrete Element Method and considers the rock material as an assembly of grains bonded by cement-like materials, and pore spaces. The presence of weakness planes is simulated by the degradation of the bonds between grains along given directions. In general the results of the two approaches are in agreement. However the discrete approach seems to capture more complex phenomena related to local failure in the form of grain detachment at wall of the borehole. In fact the presence of weakness planes in the discontinuous medium leads to local instability along the weak planes also in conditions not predicted from the continuous solution. In general slip failure locations and directions do not follow the conventional wellbore breakout direction but depend upon the internal friction angle and the orientation of the bedding planes. When weakness plane is at 0° and 90° the behaviour are similar to that of a continuous rock material, but borehole instability is more severe when weakness planes are inclined at an angle between 0° and 90° to the horizontal. In conclusion, the results of the numerical simulations show that the prediction of local failure at the wall of the wellbore cannot disregard the presence of weakness planes and consequently the higher mud weight required for stability for any specific inclination of the joints. Despite the discrete approach can simulate smaller areas because of the large number of particles required for the generation of the rock material, however it seems to investigate more correctly the occurrence of failure at the miscroscale and eventually the propagation of the failed zone to a large portion of rock around the wellbore.

Keywords: continuous- discontinuous, numerical modelling, weakness planes wellbore, FLAC 2D

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Authors: Charles Masulani Mwale

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Background: It is argued that 85% of children with the disability live in resource-poor countries where there are few available disability services. A majority of these children, including their parents, suffer a lot as a result of the disability and its associated stigmatization, leading to a marginalized life. These parents also experience more stress and mental health problems such as depression, compared with families of normal developing children. There is little research from Africa addressing these issues especially among parents of intellectually disabled children. WHO encourages research on the impact that child with a disability have on their family and appropriate training and support to the families so that they can promote the child’s development and well-being. This study investigated the parenting experiences, mechanisms of coping with these challenges and psychosocial needs while caring for children with intellectual disabilities in both rural and urban settings of Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Methods: This is part of a larger Mixed-methods study aimed at developing a contextualized psychosocial intervention for parents of intellectually disabled children. 16 focus group discussions and four in-depth interviews were conducted with parents in catchments areas for St John of God and Children of Blessings in Mzuzu and Lilongwe cities respectively. Ethical clearance was obtained from COMREC. Data were stored in NVivo software for easy retrieval and management. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Note-taking was performed during all the observations. Data triangulation from the interviews, note taking and the observations were done for validation and reliability. Results: Caring for intellectually disabled children comes with a number of challenges. Parents experience stigma and discrimination; fear for the child’s future; have self-blame and guilt; get coerced by neighbors to kill the disabled child; and fear violence by and to the child. Their needs include respite relief, improved access to disability services, education on disability management and financial support. For their emotional stability, parents cope by sharing with others and turning to God while other use poor coping mechanisms like alcohol use. Discussion and Recommendation: Apart from neighbors’ coercion to eliminate the child life, the findings of this study are similar to those done in other countries like Kenya and Pakistan. It is recommended that parents get educated on disability, its causes, and management to array fears of unknown. Community education is also crucial to promote community inclusiveness and correct prevailing myths associated with disability. Disability institutions ought to intensify individual as well as group counseling services to these parents. Further studies need to be done to design culturally appropriate and specific psychosocial interventions for the parents to promote their psychological resilience.

Keywords: psychological distress, intellectual disability, psychosocial interventions, mental health, psychological resilience, children

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Authors: Sajana Suwal, Ganesh R. Nhemafuki

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Evaluation of ground response under earthquake shaking is crucial in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Damage due to seismic excitation is mainly correlated to local geological and geotechnical conditions. It is evident from the past earthquakes (e.g. 1906 San Francisco, USA, 1923 Kanto, Japan) that the local geology has strong influence on amplitude and duration of ground motions. Since then significant studies has been conducted on ground motion amplification revealing the importance of influence of local geology on ground. Observations from the damaging earthquakes (e.g. Nigata and San Francisco, 1964; Irpinia, 1980; Mexico, 1985; Kobe, 1995; L’Aquila, 2009) divulged that non-uniform damage pattern, particularly in soft fluvio-lacustrine deposit is due to the local amplification of seismic ground motion. Non-uniform damage patterns are also observed in Kathmandu Valley during 1934 Bihar Nepal earthquake and recent 2015 Gorkha earthquake seemingly due to the modification of earthquake ground motion parameters. In this study, site effects resulting from amplification of soft soil in Kathmandu are presented. A large amount of subsoil data was collected and used for defining the appropriate subsoil model for the Kathamandu valley. A comparative study of one-dimensional total-stress equivalent linear and non-linear site response is performed using four strong ground motions for six sites of Kathmandu valley. In general, one-dimensional (1D) site-response analysis involves the excitation of a soil profile using the horizontal component and calculating the response at individual soil layers. In the present study, both equivalent linear and non-linear site response analyses were conducted using the computer program DEEPSOIL. The results show that there is no significant deviation between equivalent linear and non-linear site response models until the maximum strain reaches to 0.06-0.1%. Overall, it is clearly observed from the results that non-linear site response model perform better as compared to equivalent linear model. However, the significant deviation between two models is resulted from other influencing factors such as assumptions made in 1D site response, lack of accurate values of shear wave velocity and nonlinear properties of the soil deposit. The results are also presented in terms of amplification factors which are predicted to be around four times more in case of non-linear analysis as compared to equivalent linear analysis. Hence, the nonlinear behavior of soil prevails the urgent need of study of dynamic characteristics of the soft soil deposit that can specifically represent the site-specific design spectra for the Kathmandu valley for building resilient structures from future damaging earthquakes.

Keywords: deep soil, equivalent linear analysis, non-linear analysis, site response

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Authors: Sergio A. Navarro Tuch, Martin Rogelio Bustamante Bello, Leopoldo Julian Lechuga Lopez

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In recent years, Mexico’s population has seen a rise of different physiological and mental negative states. Two main consequences of this problematic are deficient work performance and high levels of stress generating and important impact on a person’s physical, mental and emotional health. Several approaches, such as the use of audiovisual stimulus to induce emotions and modify a person’s emotional state, can be applied in an effort to decreases these negative effects. With the use of different non-invasive physiological sensors such as EEG, luminosity and face recognition we gather information of the subject’s current emotional state. In a controlled environment, a subject is shown a series of selected images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in order to induce a specific set of emotions and obtain information from the sensors. The raw data obtained is statistically analyzed in order to filter only the specific groups of information that relate to a subject’s emotions and current values of the physical variables in the controlled environment such as, luminosity, RGB light color, temperature, oxygen level and noise. Finally, a neural network based control algorithm is given the data obtained in order to feedback the system and automate the modification of the environment variables and audiovisual content shown in an effort that these changes can positively alter the subject’s emotional state. During the research, it was found that the light color was directly related to the type of impact generated by the audiovisual content on the subject’s emotional state. Red illumination increased the impact of violent images and green illumination along with relaxing images decreased the subject’s levels of anxiety. Specific differences between men and women were found as to which type of images generated a greater impact in either gender. The population sample was mainly constituted by college students whose data analysis showed a decreased sensibility to violence towards humans. Despite the early stage of the control algorithm, the results obtained from the population sample give us a better insight into the possibilities of emotional domotics and the applications that can be created towards the improvement of performance in people’s lives. The objective of this research is to create a positive impact with the application of technology to everyday activities; nonetheless, an ethical problem arises since this can also be applied to control a person’s emotions and shift their decision making.

Keywords: data analysis, emotional domotics, performance improvement, neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Jennifer De Paola

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Objectives: The literature is saturated with figures and hard data on happiness and its rates, causes and effects at a large scale, whereas very little is known about the way specific groups of people within societies understand and talk about happiness in their everyday life. The present study contributes to fill this gap in the happiness research by analyzing social representations of happiness among young women through the theoretical frame provided by Moscovici’s Social Representation Theory. Methods: Participants were (N= 351) female students (16-18 year olds) from Finnish, Swedish and English speaking high schools in the Helsinki region, Finland. Main source of data collection were word associations using the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and word associations using as stimulus the term that in the participants’ opinion represents the opposite of happiness. The allowed number of associations was five per stimulus word (10 associations per participant). In total, the 351 participants produced 6973 associations with the two stimulus words given: 3500 (50,19%) associations with ‘happiness’ and 3473 (49,81%) associations with ‘opposite of happiness’. The associations produced were analyzed qualitatively to identify associations with similar meaning and then coded combining similar associations in larger categories. Results: In total, 33 categories were identified respectively for the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and for the stimulus word ‘opposite of happiness’. In general terms, the 33 categories identified for ‘happiness’ included associations regarding relationships with key people considered important, such as ‘family’, abstract concepts such as meaningful life, success and moral values as well as more mundane and hedonic elements like food, pleasure and fun. Similarly, the 33 categories emerged for ‘opposite of happiness’ included relationship problems and arguments, negative feelings such as sadness, depression, stress as well as more concrete issues such as financial problems. Participants were also asked to rate their own level of happiness on a scale from 1 to 10. Results indicated the mean of the self-rated level of happiness was 7,93 (the range varied from 1 to 10; SD = 1, 50). Participants’ responses were further divided into three different groups according to the self-rated level of happiness: group 1 (level 10-9), group 2 (level 8-6), and group 3 (level 5 and lower) in order to investigate the way the categories mentioned above were distributed among the different groups. Preliminary results show that the category ‘family’ is associated with higher level of happiness, whereas its presence gradually decreases among the participants with a lower level of happiness. Moreover, the category ‘depression’ seems to be mainly present among participants in group 3, whereas the category ‘sadness’ is mainly present among participants with higher level of happiness. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study indicates the prevalent ways of thinking about happiness and its opposite among young female students, suggesting that representations varied to some extent depending on the happiness level of the participants. This study contributes to bringing new knowledge as it considers happiness as a holistic state, thus going beyond the literature that so far has too often viewed happiness as a mere unidimensional spectrum.

Keywords: female, happiness, social representations, unhappiness

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Authors: Xuechun Kan, Dongdong Li, Fan Li, Peidang Liu

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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most malignant subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis, and radiotherapy is one of the main treatment methods. However, due to the obvious resistance of tumor cells to radiotherapy, high dose of ionizing radiation is required during radiotherapy, which causes serious damage to normal tissues near the tumor. Therefore, how to improve radiotherapy resistance and enhance the specific killing of tumor cells by radiation is a hot issue that needs to be solved in clinic. Recent studies have shown that silver-based nanoparticles have strong radiosensitization, and silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) also provide a broad prospect for tumor targeted radiosensitization therapy due to their ultra-small size, low toxicity or non-toxicity, self-fluorescence and strong photostability. Aptamer 5TR1 is a 25-base oligonucleotide aptamer that can specifically bind to mucin-1 highly expressed on the membrane surface of TNBC 4T1 cells, and can be used as a highly efficient tumor targeting molecule. In this study, AgNCs were synthesized by DNA template based on 5TR1 aptamer (NC-T5-5TR1), and its role as a targeted radiosensitizer in TNBC radiotherapy was investigated. The optimal DNA template was first screened by fluorescence emission spectroscopy, and NC-T5-5TR1 was prepared. NC-T5-5TR1 was characterized by transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. The inhibitory effect of NC-T5-5TR1 on cell activity was evaluated using the MTT method. Laser confocal microscopy was employed to observe NC-T5-5TR1 targeting 4T1 cells and verify its self-fluorescence characteristics. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 by 4T1 cells was observed by dark-field imaging, and the uptake peak was evaluated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The radiation sensitization effect of NC-T5-5TR1 was evaluated through cell cloning and in vivo anti-tumor experiments. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining flow cytometry was utilized to detect the impact of nanomaterials combined with radiotherapy on apoptosis. The results demonstrated that the particle size of NC-T5-5TR1 is about 2 nm, and the UV-visible absorption spectrum detection verifies the successful construction of NC-T5-5TR1, and it shows good dispersion. NC-T5-5TR1 significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and effectively targeted and fluoresced within 4T1 cells. The uptake of NC-T5-5TR1 reached its peak at 3 h in the tumor area. Compared with AgNCs without aptamer modification, NC-T5-5TR1 exhibited superior radiation sensitization, and combined radiotherapy significantly inhibited the activity of 4T1 cells and tumor growth in 4T1-bearing mice. The apoptosis level of NC-T5-5TR1 combined with radiation was significantly increased. These findings provide important theoretical and experimental support for NC-T5-5TR1 as a radiation sensitizer for TNBC.

Keywords: 5TR1 aptamer, silver nanoclusters, radio sensitization, triple-negative breast cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: Rituparna Pal, Faiz Ahmed

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Neighbourhood energy efficiency is a newly emerged term to address the quality of urban strata of built environment in terms of various covariates of sustainability. The concept of sustainability paradigm in developed nations has encouraged the policymakers for developing urban scale cities to envision plans under the aegis of urban scale sustainability. The concept of neighbourhood energy efficiency is realized a lot lately just when the cities, towns and other areas comprising this massive global urban strata have started facing a strong blow from climate change, energy crisis, cost hike and an alarming shortfall in the justice which the urban areas required. So this step of urban sustainability can be easily referred more as a ‘Retrofit Action’ which is to cover up the already affected urban structure. So even if we start energy efficiency for existing cities and urban areas the initial layer remains, for which a complete model of urban sustainability still lacks definition. Urban sustainability is a broadly spoken off word with end number of parameters and policies through which the loop can be met. Out of which neighbourhood energy efficiency can be an integral part where the concept and index of neighbourhood scale indicators, block level indicators and building physics parameters can be understood, analyzed and concluded to help emerge guidelines for urban scale sustainability. The future of neighbourhood energy efficiency not only lies in energy efficiency but also important parameters like quality of life, access to green, access to daylight, outdoor comfort, natural ventilation etc. So apart from designing less energy-hungry buildings, it is required to create a built environment which will create less stress on buildings to consume more energy. A lot of literary analysis has been done in the Western countries prominently in Spain, Paris and also Hong Kong, leaving a distinct gap in the Indian scenario in exploring the sustainability at the urban strata. The site for the study has been selected in the upcoming capital city of Amaravati which can be replicated with similar neighbourhood typologies in the area. The paper suggests a methodical intent to quantify energy and sustainability indices in detail taking by involving several macro, meso and micro level covariates and parameters. Several iterations have been made both at macro and micro level and have been subjected to simulation, computation and mathematical models and finally to comparative analysis. Parameters at all levels are analyzed to suggest the best case scenarios which in turn is extrapolated to the macro level finally coming out with a proposal model for energy efficient neighbourhood and worked out guidelines with significance and correlations derived.

Keywords: energy quantification, macro scale parameters, meso scale parameters, micro scale parameters

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Jonathan Sahu, Jill Aylott

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Individuals with Autism, Intellectual and Developmental disabilities (AIDD) are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, hampered not only by their own limitations to understand and interact with the wider society, but also societal limitations in perception and understanding. Communication to express their needs and wishes is fundamental to enable such individuals to live and prosper in society. This research project was designed as an organisational case study, in a large secondary health care hospital within the National Health Service (NHS), to assess the quality of care provided to people with AIDD and to review the role of advocacy to reduce health inequalities in these individuals. Methods: The research methodology adopted was as an “insider researcher”. Data collection included both quantitative and qualitative data i.e. a mixed method approach. A semi-structured interview schedule was designed and used to obtain qualitative and quantitative primary data from a wide range of interdisciplinary frontline health care workers to assess their understanding and awareness of systems, processes and evidence based practice to offer a quality service to people with AIDD. Secondary data were obtained from sources within the organisation, in keeping with “Case Study” as a primary method, and organisational performance data were then compared against national benchmarking standards. Further data sources were accessed to help evaluate the effectiveness of different types of advocacy that were present in the organisation. This was gauged by measures of user and carer experience in the form of retrospective survey analysis, incidents and complaints. Results: Secondary data demonstrate near compliance of the Organisation with the current national benchmarking standard (Monitor Compliance Framework). However, primary data demonstrate poor knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, poor knowledge of organisational systems, processes and evidence based practice applied for people with AIDD. In addition there was poor knowledge and awareness of frontline health care workers of advocacy and advocacy schemes for this group. Conclusions: A significant amount of work needs to be undertaken to improve the quality of care delivered to individuals with AIDD. An operational strategy promoting the widespread dissemination of information may not be the best approach to deliver quality care and optimal patient experience and patient advocacy. In addition, a more robust set of standards, with appropriate metrics, needs to be developed to assess organisational performance which will stand the test of professional and public scrutiny.

Keywords: advocacy, autism, health inequalities, intellectual developmental disabilities, quality of care

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Galit Shiff, Yael Gilad

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The need to retrofit old buildings lies in the fact that buildings are responsible for the main energy use and CO₂ emission. Existing old structures are more dominant in their effect than new energy-efficient buildings. Nevertheless not every case of urban renewal that aims to replace old buildings with new neighbourhoods necessarily has a financial or sustainable justification. Façade design plays a vital role in the building's energy performance and the unit's comfort conditions. A retrofit façade residential methodology and feasibility applicative study has been carried out for the past four years, with two projects already fully renovated. The intention of this study is to serve as a case study for limited budget façade retrofit in Mediterranean climate urban areas. The two case study buildings are set in Israel. However, they are set in different local climatic conditions. One is in 'Sderot' in the south of the country, and one is in' Migdal Hahemek' in the north of the country. The building typology is similar. The budget of the projects is around $14,000 per unit and includes interventions at the buildings' envelope while tenants are living in. Extensive research and analysis of the existing conditions have been done. The building's components, materials and envelope sections were mapped, examined and compared to relevant updated standards. Solar radiation simulations for the buildings in their surroundings during winter and summer days were done. The energy rate of each unit, as well as the building as a whole, was calculated according to the Israeli Energy Code. The buildings’ facades were documented with the use of a thermal camera during different hours of the day. This information was superimposed with data about the electricity use and the thermal comfort that was collected from the residential units. Later in the process, similar tools were further used in order to compare the effectiveness of different design options and to evaluate the chosen solutions. Both projects showed that the most problematic units were the ones below the roof and the ones on top of the elevated entrance floor (pilotis). Old buildings tend to have poor insulation on those two horizontal surfaces which require treatment. Different radiation levels and wall sections in the two projects influenced the design strategies: In the southern project, there was an extreme difference in solar radiations levels between the main façade and the back elevation. Eventually, it was decided to invest in insulating the main south-west façade and the side façades, leaving the back north-east façade almost untouched. Lower levels of radiation in the northern project led to a different tactic: a combination of basic insulation on all façades, together with intense treatment on areas with problematic thermal behavior. While poor execution of construction details and bad installation of windows in the northern project required replacing them all, in the southern project it was found that it is more essential to shade the windows than replace them. Although the buildings and the construction typology was chosen for this study are similar, the research shows that there are large differences due to the location in different climatic zones and variation in local conditions. Therefore, in order to reach a systematic and cost-effective method of work, a more extensive catalogue database is needed. Such a catalogue will enable public housing companies in the Mediterranean climate to promote massive projects of renovating existing old buildings, drawing on minimal analysis and planning processes.

Keywords: facade, low budget, residential, retrofit

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Ines Oliveira, Ana Reis

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Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) is a cold solid-state welding process, accomplished by the electromagnetically driven, high-speed and low-angle impact between two metallic surfaces. It has the same working principle of Explosive Welding (EXW), i.e. is based on the collision of two parts at high impact speed, in this case, propelled by electromagnetic force. Under proper conditions, i.e., flyer velocity and collision point angle, a permanent metallurgical bond can be achieved between widely dissimilar metals. MPW has been considered a promising alternative to the conventional welding processes and advantageous when compared to other impact processes. Nevertheless, MPW current applications are mostly academic. Despite the existing knowledge, the lack of consensus regarding several aspects of the process calls for further investigation. As a result, the mechanical resistance, morphology and structure of the weld interface in MPW of Al/Cu dissimilar pair were investigated. The effect of process parameters, namely gap, standoff distance and energy, were studied. It was shown that welding only takes place if the process parameters are within an optimal range. Additionally, the formation of intermetallic phases cannot be completely avoided in the weld of Al/Cu dissimilar pair by MPW. Depending on the process parameters, the intermetallic compounds can appear as continuous layer or small pockets. The thickness and the composition of the intermetallic layer depend on the processing parameters. Different intermetallic phases can be identified, meaning that different temperature-time regimes can occur during the process. It is also found that lower pulse energies are preferred. The relationship between energy increase and melting is possibly related to multiple sources of heating. Higher values of pulse energy are associated with higher induced currents in the part, meaning that more Joule heating will be generated. In addition, more energy means higher flyer velocity, the air existing in the gap between the parts to be welded is expelled, and this aerodynamic drag (fluid friction) is proportional to the square of the velocity, further contributing to the generation of heat. As the kinetic energy also increases with the square of velocity, the dissipation of this energy through plastic work and jet generation will also contribute to an increase in temperature. To reduce intermetallic phases, porosity, and melt pockets, pulse energy should be minimized. The bond formation is affected not only by the gap, standoff distance, and energy but also by the mandrel’s surface conditions. No correlation was clearly identified between surface roughness/scratch orientation and joint strength. Nevertheless, the aspect of the interface (thickness of the intermetallic layer, porosity, presence of macro/microcracks) is clearly affected by the surface topology. Welding was not established on oil contaminated surfaces, meaning that the jet action is not enough to completely clean the surface.

Keywords: bonding mechanisms, impact welding, intermetallic compounds, magnetic pulse welding, wave formation

Procedia PDF Downloads 202

Authors: Joao Victor Borges Dos Santos, Thomas Richard, Yevhen Kovalyshen

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Down-the-hole (DTH) percussive drilling is an excavation method that is widely used in the mining industry due to its high efficiency in fragmenting hard rock formations. A DTH hammer system consists of a fluid driven (air or water) piston and a drill bit; the reciprocating movement of the piston transmits its kinetic energy to the drill bit by means of stress waves that propagate through the drill bit towards the rock formation. In the literature of percussive drilling, the existence of an optimum drilling state (Sweet Spot) is reported in some laboratory and field experimental studies. An optimum rate of penetration is achieved for a specific range of axial thrust (or weight-on-bit) beyond which the rate of penetration decreases. Several authors advance different explanations as possible root causes to the occurrence of the Sweet Spot, but a universal explanation or consensus does not exist yet. The experimental investigation in this work was initiated with drilling experiments conducted at a mining site. A full-scale drilling rig (equipped with a DTH hammer system) was instrumented with high precision sensors sampled at a very high sampling rate (kHz). Data was collected while two boreholes were being excavated, an in depth analysis of the recorded data confirmed that an optimum performance can be achieved for specific ranges of input thrust (weight-on-bit). The high sampling rate allowed to identify the bit penetration at each single impact (of the piston on the drill bit) as well as the impact frequency. These measurements provide a direct method to identify when the hammer does not fire, and drilling occurs without percussion, and the bit propagate the borehole by shearing the rock. The second stage of the experimental investigation was conducted in a laboratory environment with a custom-built equipment dubbed Woody. Woody allows the drilling of shallow holes few centimetres deep by successive discrete impacts from a piston. After each individual impact, the bit angular position is incremented by a fixed amount, the piston is moved back to its initial position at the top of the barrel, and the air pressure and thrust are set back to their pre-set values. The goal is to explore whether the observed optimum drilling state stems from the interaction between the drill bit and the rock (during impact) or governed by the overall system dynamics (between impacts). The experiments were conducted on samples of Calca Red, with a drill bit of 74 millimetres (outside diameter) and with weight-on-bit ranging from 0.3 kN to 3.7 kN. Results show that under the same piston impact energy and constant angular displacement of 15 degrees between impact, the average drill bit rate of penetration is independent of the weight-on-bit, which suggests that the sweet spot is not caused by intrinsic properties of the bit-rock interface.

Keywords: optimum drilling state, experimental investigation, field experiments, laboratory experiments, down-the-hole percussive drilling

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Mustafa Cam, Nedim Ongun, Ufuk Kutluana

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Introduction: Restless LegsSyndrome (RLS) is a common, under-recognized disorder disrupts sleep and diminishes quality of life (1). The most common conditions highly associated with RLS include renalfailure, iron and folic acid deficiency, peripheral neuropathy, pregnancy, celiacdisease, Crohn’sdiseaseandrarelymalignancy (2).Despite a clear relation between low peripheral iron and increased prevalence and severity of RLS, the prevalence and clinical significance of RLS in iron-deficientanemic populations is unknown (2). We report here a case of RLS due to iron deficiency in the setting of neuroendocrinetumor. Report of Case: A 35 year-old man was referred to our clinic with general weakness, weight loss (10 kg in 2 months)and 2-month history of uncomfortable sensations in his legs with urge to move, partially relieved by movement. The symptoms were presented very day, worsening in the evening; the discomfort forced the patient to getup and walk around at night. RLS was severe, with a score of 22 at the International RLS ratingscale. The patient had no past medical history. The patient underwent a complete set of blood analyses and the following ab normal values were found (normal limitswithinbrackets): hemoglobin 9.9 g/dl (14-18), MCV 70 fL (80-94), ferritin 3,5 ng/mL (13-150). Brain and spinemagnetic resonance imaging was normal. The patient consultated with gastroenterology clinic and gastointestinal systemendoscopy was performed for theetiology of the iron deficiency anemia. After the gastricbiopsy, results allowed us to reach the diagnosis of neuroen docrine tumor and the patient referred to oncology clinic. Discussion: The first important consideration from this case report is that the patient was referred to our clinic because of his severe RLS symptoms dramatically reducing his quality of life. However, our clinical study clearly demonstrated that RLS was not the primary disease. Considering the information available for this patient, we believe that the most likely possibility is that RLS was secondary to iron deficiency, a very well-known and established cause of RLS in theliterature (3,4). Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare epithelial neoplasms with neuroendocrine differentiation that most commonly originate in the lungs and gastrointestinal tract (5). NETs vary widely in their clinical presentation; symptoms are often nonspecific and can be mistaken for those of other more common conditions (6). 50% of patients with reported disease stage have either regional or distant metastases at diagnosis (7). Accurate and earlier NET diagnosis is the first step in shortening the time to optimal care and improved outcomes for patients (8). The most important message from this case report is that RLS symptoms can sometimes be thesign of a life-threatening condition. Conclusion: Careful and complete collection of clinical and laboratory data should be carried out in RLS patients. Inparticular, if RLS onset coincides with weight loss and iron deficieny anemia, gastricendos copy should be performed. It is known about that malignancy is a rare etiology in RLS patients and to our knowledge; it is the first case with neuro endocrine tumor presenting with RLS.

Keywords: neurology, neuroendocrine tumor, restless legs syndrome, sleep

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Sergey Nikitenko, Vladimir Klishin, Yury Malakhov, Elena Goosen

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Transition to renewable energy sources (solar, wind, bioenergy, etc.) and launching of alternative energy generation has weakened the role of coal as a source of energy. The Paris Agreement and assumption of obligations by many nations to orderly reduce CO₂ emissions by means of technological modernization and climate change adaptation has abridged coal demand yet more. This paper aims to assess current resilience of the coal industry to stress and to define prospects for coal production optimization using high technologies pursuant to global challenges and requirements of energy transition. Our research is based on the resilience concept adapted to the coal industry. It is proposed to divide the coal sector into segments depending on the prevailing value chains (VC). Four representative models of VC are identified in the coal sector. The most promising lines of upgrading VC in the coal industry include: •Elongation of VC owing to introduction of clean technologies of coal conversion and utilization; •Creation of parallel VC by means of waste management; •Branching of VC (conversion of a company’s VC into a production network). The upgrade effectiveness is governed in many ways by applicability of advanced coal processing technologies, usability of waste, expandability of production, entrance to non-rival markets and localization of new segments of VC in receiving regions. It is also important that upgrade of VC by means of formation of agile high-tech inter-industry production networks within the framework of operating surface and underground mines can reduce social, economic and ecological risks associated with closure of coal mines. Such promising route of VC upgrade is application of methanotrophic bacteria to produce protein to be used as feed-stuff in fish, poultry and cattle breeding, or in production of ferments, lipoids, sterols, antioxidants, pigments and polysaccharides. Closed mines can use recovered methane as a clean energy source. There exist methods of methane utilization from uncontrollable sources, including preliminary treatment and recovery of methane from air-and-methane mixture, or decomposition of methane to hydrogen and acetylene. Separated hydrogen is used in hydrogen fuel cells to generate power to feed the process of methane utilization and to supply external consumers. Despite the recent paradigm of carbon-free energy generation, it is possible to preserve the coal mining industry using the differentiated approach to upgrade of value chains based on flexible technologies with regard to specificity of mining companies.

Keywords: resilience, resilience concept, resilience indicator, resilience in the Russian coal industry, value chains

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: C. Mazilu, D. P. Georgescu, A. Apostu, R. Deju

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Cement mortars and concretes are some of the most used construction materials in the world, global cement production being expected to grow to approx. 5 billion tons, until 2030. But, cement is an energy intensive material, the cement industry being responsible for cca. 7% of the world's CO2 emissions. Also, natural aggregates represent non-renewable resources, exhaustible, which must be used efficiently. A way to reduce the negative impact on the environment is the use of additional hydraulically active materials, as a partial substitute for cement in mortars and concretes and/or the use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) for the recovery of construction waste, according to EU Directive 2018/851. One of the most effective active hydraulic admixtures is microsilica and more recently, with the technological development on a nanometric scale, nanosilica. Studies carried out in recent years have shown that the introduction of SiO2 nanoparticles into cement matrix improves the properties, even compared to microsilica. This is due to the very small size of the nanosilica particles (<100nm) and the very large specific surface, which helps to accelerate cement hydration and acts as a nucleating agent to generate even more calcium hydrosilicate which densifies and compacts the structure. The cementitious compositions containing recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) present, in generally, inferior properties compared to those obtained with natural aggregates. Depending on the degree of replacement of natural aggregate, decreases the workability of mortars and concretes with RAC, decrease mechanical resistances and increase drying shrinkage; all being determined, in particular, by the presence to the old mortar attached to the original aggregate from the RAC, which makes its porosity high and the mixture of components to require more water for preparation. The present study aims to use micro and nanosilica for increase the performance of some mortars and concretes obtained with RCA. The research focused on two types of cementitious systems: a special mortar composition used for encapsulating Low Level radioactive Waste (LLW); a composition of structural concrete, class C30/37, with the combination of exposure classes XC4+XF1 and settlement class S4. The mortar was made with 100% recycled aggregate, 0-5 mm sort and in the case of concrete, 30% recycled aggregate was used for 4-8 and 8-16 sorts, according to EN 206, Annex E. The recycled aggregate was obtained from a specially made concrete for this study, which after 28 days was crushed with the help of a Retsch jaw crusher and further separated by sieving on granulometric sorters. The partial replacement of cement was done progressively, in the case of the mortar composition, with microsilica (3, 6, 9, 12, 15% wt.), nanosilica (0.75, 1.5, 2.25% wt.), respectively mixtures of micro and nanosilica. The optimal combination of silica, from the point of view of mechanical resistance, was later used also in the case of the concrete composition. For the chosen cementitious compositions, the influence of micro and/or nanosilica on the properties in the fresh state (workability, rheological characteristics) and hardened state (mechanical resistance, water absorption, freeze-thaw resistance, etc.) is highlighted.

Keywords: cement, recycled concrete aggregates, micro/nanosilica, durability

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Pei-Jyun Hsieh, Cheng-Hsuan Li, Bor-Chen Kuo

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For hyperspectral image classification, feature reduction is an important pre-processing for avoiding the Hughes phenomena due to the difficulty for collecting training samples. Hence, lots of researches developed feature selection methods such as F-score, HSIC (Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion), and etc., to improve hyperspectral image classification. However, most of them only consider the class separability in the original space, i.e., a linear class separability. In this study, we proposed a nonlinear class separability measure based on kernel trick for selecting an appropriate feature subset. The proposed nonlinear class separability was formed by a generalized RBF kernel with different bandwidths with respect to different features. Moreover, it considered the within-class separability and the between-class separability. A genetic algorithm was applied to tune these bandwidths such that the smallest with-class separability and the largest between-class separability simultaneously. This indicates the corresponding feature space is more suitable for classification. In addition, the corresponding nonlinear classification boundary can separate classes very well. These optimal bandwidths also show the importance of bands for hyperspectral image classification. The reciprocals of these bandwidths can be viewed as weights of bands. The smaller bandwidth, the larger weight of the band, and the more importance for classification. Hence, the descending order of the reciprocals of the bands gives an order for selecting the appropriate feature subsets. In the experiments, three hyperspectral image data sets, the Indian Pine Site data set, the PAVIA data set, and the Salinas A data set, were used to demonstrate the selected feature subsets by the proposed nonlinear feature selection method are more appropriate for hyperspectral image classification. Only ten percent of samples were randomly selected to form the training dataset. All non-background samples were used to form the testing dataset. The support vector machine was applied to classify these testing samples based on selected feature subsets. According to the experiments on the Indian Pine Site data set with 220 bands, the highest accuracies by applying the proposed method, F-score, and HSIC are 0.8795, 0.8795, and 0.87404, respectively. However, the proposed method selects 158 features. F-score and HSIC select 168 features and 217 features, respectively. Moreover, the classification accuracies increase dramatically only using first few features. The classification accuracies with respect to feature subsets of 10 features, 20 features, 50 features, and 110 features are 0.69587, 0.7348, 0.79217, and 0.84164, respectively. Furthermore, only using half selected features (110 features) of the proposed method, the corresponding classification accuracy (0.84168) is approximate to the highest classification accuracy, 0.8795. For other two hyperspectral image data sets, the PAVIA data set and Salinas A data set, we can obtain the similar results. These results illustrate our proposed method can efficiently find feature subsets to improve hyperspectral image classification. One can apply the proposed method to determine the suitable feature subset first according to specific purposes. Then researchers can only use the corresponding sensors to obtain the hyperspectral image and classify the samples. This can not only improve the classification performance but also reduce the cost for obtaining hyperspectral images.

Keywords: hyperspectral image classification, nonlinear feature selection, kernel trick, support vector machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 255

Authors: E. K. Mendez, N. A. Salazar, C. E. Orrego

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There is undoubted proof that increasing the intake of fruit lessens the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and probable evidence that lowers the risk of cancer. Proper fruit drying is an excellent alternative to make their shelf-life longer, commercialization easier, and ready-to-eat healthy products or ingredients. The conventional way of drying is by hot air forced convection. However, this process step often requires a very long residence time; furthermore, it is highly energy consuming and detrimental to the product quality. Nowadays, power ultrasound (US) technic has been considered as an emerging and promising technology for industrial food processing. Most of published works dealing with drying food assisted by US have studied the effect of ultrasonic pre-treatment prior to air-drying on food and the airborne US conditions during dehydration. In this work a new approach was tested taking in to account drying time and two quality parameters of mango slices dehydrated by convection assisted by 20 KHz power US applied directly using a holed plate as product support and sound transmitting surface. During the drying of mango (Mangifera indica L.) slices (ca. 6.5 g, 0.006 m height and 0.040 m diameter), their weight was recorded every hour until final moisture content (10.0±1.0 % wet basis) was reached. After previous tests, optimization of three drying parameters - frequencies (2, 5 and 8 minutes each half-hour), air temperature (50-55-60⁰C) and power (45-70-95W)- was attempted by using a Box–Behnken design under the response surface methodology for the optimal drying time, color parameters and rehydration rate of dried samples. Assays involved 17 experiments, including a quintuplicate of the central point. Dried samples with and without US application were packed in individual high barrier plastic bags under vacuum, and then stored in the dark at 8⁰C until their analysis. All drying assays and sample analysis were performed in triplicate. US drying experimental data were fitted with nine models, among which the Verna model resulted in the best fit with R2 > 0.9999 and reduced χ2 ≤ 0.000001. Significant reductions in drying time were observed for the assays that used lower frequency and high US power. At 55⁰C, 95 watts and 2 min/30 min of sonication, 10% moisture content was reached in 211 min, as compared with 320 min for the same test without the use of US (blank). Rehydration rates (RR), defined as the ratio of rehydrated sample weight to that of dry sample and measured, was also larger than those of blanks and, in general, the higher the US power, the greater the RR. The direct contact and intermittent US treatment of mango slices used in this work improve drying rates and dried fruit rehydration ability. This technique can thus be used to reduce energy processing costs and the greenhouse gas emissions of fruit dehydration.

Keywords: ultrasonic assisted drying, fruit drying, mango slices, contact ultrasonic drying

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Ieva Jokubauskaite, Alvyra Slepetiene, Danute Karcauskiene, Inga Liaudanskiene, Kristina Amaleviciute

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Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the key soil quality and ecological stability indicator, therefore, carbon accumulation in stable forms not only supports and increases the organic matter content in the soil, but also has a positive effect on the quality of soil and the whole ecosystem. Soil liming is one of the most common ways to improve the carbon sequestration in the soil. Determination of the optimum intensity and combinations of liming in order to ensure the optimal carbon quantitative and qualitative parameters is one of the most important tasks of this work. The field experiments were carried out at the Vezaiciai Branch of Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (LRCAF) during the 2011–2013 period. The effect of liming with different intensity (at a rate 0.5 every 7 years and 2.0 every 3-4 years) was investigated in the topsoil of acid moraine loam Bathygleyic Dystric Glossic Retisol. Chemical analyses were carried out at the Chemical Research Laboratory of Institute of Agriculture, LRCAF. Soil samples for chemical analyses were taken from the topsoil after harvesting. SOC was determined by the Tyurin method modified by Nikitin, measuring with spectrometer Cary 50 (VARIAN) at 590 nm wavelength using glucose standards. SOC fractional composition was determined by Ponomareva and Plotnikova version of classical Tyurin method. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was analyzed using an ion chromatograph SKALAR in water extract at soil-water ratio 1:5. Spectral properties (E4/E6 ratio) of humic acids were determined by measuring the absorbance of humic and fulvic acids solutions at 465 and 665 nm. Our study showed a negative statistically significant effect of periodical liming (at 0.5 and 2.0 liming rates) on SOC content in the soil. The content of SOC was 1.45% in the unlimed treatment, while in periodically limed at 2.0 liming rate every 3–4 years it was approximately by 0.18 percentage points lower. It was revealed that liming significantly decreased the DOC concentration in the soil. The lowest concentration of DOC (0.156 g kg-1) was established in the most intensively limed (2.0 liming rate every 3–4 years) treatment. Soil liming exerted an increase of all humic acids and fulvic acid bounded with calcium fractions content in the topsoil. Soil liming resulted in the accumulation of valuable humic acids. Due to the applied liming, the HR/FR ratio, indicating the quality of humus increased to 1.08 compared with that in unlimed soil (0.81). Intensive soil liming promoted the formation of humic acids in which groups of carboxylic and phenolic compounds predominated. These humic acids are characterized by a higher degree of condensation of aromatic compounds and in this way determine the intensive organic matter humification processes in the soil. The results of this research provide us with the clear information on the characteristics of SOC change, which could be very useful to guide the climate policy and sustainable soil management.

Keywords: acid soil, carbon sequestration, long–term liming, soil organic carbon

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Authors: Nadia Noor, Farida Faisal

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Horizontal hostility has been identified as a special type of workplace violence and refers to the aggressive behavior inflicted by women towards other women due to gender issues or towards minority group members due to minority issues. Many women, while they want eagerly to succeed and invest invigorated efforts to achieve success, harbor negative feelings for other women to succeed in their career. This phenomenon has been known as Horizontal Violence, Horizontal Hostility, Lateral Violence, Indirect Aggression, or The Tall Poppy Syndrome in Australian culture. Tall Poppy is referred to as a visibly successful individual who attracts envy or hostility due to distinctive characteristics. Therefore, horizontal hostility provides theoretical foundation to examine fierce competition among females than males for their limited access to top level management positions. In Pakistan, gender discrimination persists due to male dominance in the society and women do not enjoy basic equality rights in all aspects of life. They are oppressed at social and organizational level. As Government has been trying to enhance women participation through providing more employment opportunities, provision of peaceful workplace is mandatory that will enable aspiring females to achieve objectives of career success. This research study will help to understand antecedents, dimensions and outcomes of horizontal hostility that hinder career success of competitive females. The present paper is a review paper and various forms of horizontal hostility have been discussed in detail. Different psychological and organizational level drivers of horizontal hostility have been explored through literature. Psychological drivers include oppression, lack of empowerment, learned helplessness and low self-esteem. Organizational level drivers include sticky floor, glass ceiling, toxic work environment and leadership role. Horizontal hostility among working women results in psychological and physical outcomes including stress, low motivation, poor job performance and intention to leave. The study recommends provision of healthy and peaceful work environment that will enable competent women to achieve objectives of career success. In this regard, concrete actions and effective steps are required to promote gender equality at social and organizational level. The need is to ensure the enforcement of legal frameworks by government agencies in order to provide healthy working environment to women by reducing harassment and violence against them. Organizations must eradicate drivers of horizontal hostility and provide women peaceful work environment. In order to develop coping skills, training and mentoring must be provided to them.

Keywords: gender discrimination, glass ceiling, horizontal hostility, oppression

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Authors: Stefano Zaninotto, Geoffrey Farrugia, Johan Debattista, Jason Gauci

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The need to reduce fuel and noise during taxi operations in the airports with a scenario of constantly increasing air traffic has resulted in an effort by the aerospace industry to move towards electric taxiing. In fact, this is one of the problems that is currently being addressed by SESAR JU and two main solutions are being proposed. With the first solution, electric motors are installed in the main (or nose) landing gear of the aircraft. With the second solution, manned or unmanned electric tow trucks are used to tow aircraft from the gate to the runway (or vice-versa). The presence of the tow trucks results in an increase in vehicle traffic inside the airport. Therefore, it is important to design the system in a way that the workload of Air Traffic Control (ATC) is not increased and the system assists ATC in managing all ground operations. The aim of this work is to develop an electric taxiing system, based on the use of autonomous tow trucks, which optimizes aircraft ground operations while keeping ATC in the loop. This system will consist of two components: an optimization tool and a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The optimization tool will be responsible for determining the optimal path for arriving and departing aircraft; allocating a tow truck to each taxiing aircraft; detecting conflicts between aircraft and/or tow trucks; and proposing solutions to resolve any conflicts. There are two main optimization strategies proposed in the literature. With centralized optimization, a central authority coordinates and makes the decision for all ground movements, in order to find a global optimum. With the second strategy, called decentralized optimization or multi-agent system, the decision authority is distributed among several agents. These agents could be the aircraft, the tow trucks, and taxiway or runway intersections. This approach finds local optima; however, it scales better with the number of ground movements and is more robust to external disturbances (such as taxi delays or unscheduled events). The strategy proposed in this work is a hybrid system combining aspects of these two approaches. The GUI will provide information on the movement and status of each aircraft and tow truck, and alert ATC about any impending conflicts. It will also enable ATC to give taxi clearances and to modify the routes proposed by the system. The complete system will be tested via computer simulation of various taxi scenarios at multiple airports, including Malta International Airport, a major international airport, and a fictitious airport. These tests will involve actual Air Traffic Controllers in order to evaluate the GUI and assess the impact of the system on ATC workload and situation awareness. It is expected that the proposed system will increase the efficiency of taxi operations while reducing their environmental impact. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the system will facilitate various controller tasks and improve ATC situation awareness.

Keywords: air traffic control, electric taxiing, autonomous tow trucks, graphical user interface, ground operations, multi-agent, route optimization

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Authors: Sara Camino, Fernando Vega, Mercedes Cano, Benito Navarrete, José A. Camino

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies should play a relevant role towards low-carbon systems in the European Union by 2030. Partial oxy-combustion emerges as a promising CCS approach to mitigate anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. Its advantages respect to other CCS technologies rely on the production of a higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas than these provided by conventional air-firing processes. The presence of more CO₂ in the flue gas increases the driving force in the separation process and hence it might lead to further reductions of the energy requirements of the overall CO₂ capture process. A higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas should enhance the CO₂ capture by chemical absorption in solvent kinetic and CO₂ cyclic capacity. They have impact on the performance of the overall CO₂ absorption process by reducing the solvent flow-rate required for a specific CO₂ removal efficiency. Lower solvent flow-rates decreases the reboiler duty during the regeneration stage and also reduces the equipment size and pumping costs. Moreover, R&D activities in this field are focused on novel solvents and blends that provide lower CO₂ absorption enthalpies and therefore lower energy penalties associated to the solvent regeneration. In this respect, sterically hindered amines are considered potential solvents for CO₂ capture. They provide a low energy requirement during the regeneration process due to its molecular structure. However, its absorption kinetics are slow and they must be promoted by blending with faster solvents such as monoethanolamine (MEA) and piperazine (PZ). In this work, the kinetic behavior of two sterically hindered amines were studied under partial oxy-combustion conditions and compared with MEA. A lab-scale semi-batch reactor was used. The CO₂ composition of the synthetic flue gas varied from 15%v/v – conventional coal combustion – to 60%v/v – maximum CO₂ concentration allowable for an optimal partial oxy-combustion operation. Firstly, 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) showed a hybrid behavior with fast kinetics and a low enthalpy of CO₂ absorption. The second solvent was Isophrondiamine (IF), which has a steric hindrance in one of the amino groups. Its free amino group increases its cyclic capacity. In general, the presence of higher CO₂ concentration in the flue gas accelerated the CO₂ absorption phenomena, producing higher CO₂ absorption rates. In addition, the evolution of the CO2 loading also exhibited higher values in the experiments using higher CO₂ concentrated flue gas. The steric hindrance causes a hybrid behavior in this solvent, between both fast and slow kinetic solvents. The kinetics rates observed in all the experiments carried out using AMP were higher than MEA, but lower than the IF. The kinetic enhancement experienced by AMP at a high CO2 concentration is slightly over 60%, instead of 70% – 80% for IF. AMP also improved its CO₂ absorption capacity by 24.7%, from 15%v/v to 60%v/v, almost double the improvements achieved by MEA. In IF experiments, the CO₂ loading increased around 10% from 15%v/v to 60%v/v CO₂ and it changed from 1.10 to 1.34 mole CO₂ per mole solvent, more than 20% of increase. This hybrid kinetic behavior makes AMP and IF promising solvents for partial oxy–combustion applications.

Keywords: absorption, carbon capture, partial oxy-combustion, solvent

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Authors: Elena Maria Scalisi

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Currently, photodegradation by nanoparticles (NPs) is a common solution for wastewater treatment. Nanoparticles are efficient for removing organic and inorganic pollutants, heavy metals from wastewater and killing microorganisms through environmentally friendly. In this context, the major representative of photocatalytic technology for industrial wastewater treatment are TiO₂ nanoparticles (TiO₂-NPs). TiO₂-NPs have a strong catalytic activity that depends to their physicochemical properties. Thanks to their small size (between 1-100 nm), nanoparticles occupy less volume, then their surface area increases. The increase in the surface-to-volume ratio results in the increase of the particle surface energy, which improve their reactivity potential. However, these unique properties represent risks to the ecosystems and organisms when unintentionally TiO₂-NPs are release into the environment and absorbed by living organisms. Several studies confirm that there is a high level of interest concerning the safety of TiO₂-NPs in the aquatic environment, furthermore, ecotoxicological tools are useful to correctly evaluate their toxicity. In the current study, we aimed to characterize potential toxic effects of TiO₂-NP suspension to zebrafish during embryo-larval stages to evaluate parameters such as survival rates, malformation, hatching, the overall length of the larvae heartbeat, and biochemical biomarkers that reflect the acute toxicity and sublethal effects of TiO₂-NPs. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂-NPs at 1mg/L, 2mg/L, and 4mg/L) from fertilization to the free swimming stage (144hpf). Every day, we recorded the toxicological endpoints, moreover, immunohistochemical analysis has been performed at the end of the exposure. In particular, we have evaluate the expression of the following biomarkers: Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70), Poly ADP-Ribose Polymerase-1 (PARP-1), Metallothioneins (MTs). Our results have shown that hatch ability, survival, and malformation rate were not affected by TiO₂ NPs at these exposure levels. However, TiO₂-NPs caused an increase of heartbeat and reduction of body length; at the same time, TiO₂-NPs have inducted the production of ROS and the expression of oxidative stress biomarkers HSP70 and PARP-1. Hight positivity for PARP-1 at all concentration tested was observed. As regards MT, positivity was found in the expression of this biomarker in the whole body of the embryo, with the exception of the end of the tail. Metallothioneins (MT) are biomarkers widely used in environmental monitoring programs for aquatic creatures. At the light of our results i.e. no death until the end of the experiment (144hpf), no malformation and expression of the biomarkers mentioned, it is evident that zebrafish larvae with their natural detoxification pathways are able to resist the presence of toxic substances and then they can tolerate the presence of metal concentrations. However, an excessive oxidative state can compromise cell function, therefore the uncontrolled release of nanoparticles into the environment is severe and must be constantly monitored.

Keywords: nanoparticles, embryo zebrafish, HSP70, PARP-1

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Authors: Vaidehi Raipat

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A city is an expression of coexistence between its users and built environment. The way in which its spaces are animated signify the quality of this coexistence. Urban sustainability is the ability of a city to respond efficiently towards its people, culture, environment, visual image, history, visions and identity. The quality of built environment determines the quality of our lifestyles, but poor ability of the built environment to adapt and sustain itself through the changes leads to degradation of cities. Ranchi was created in November 2000, as the capital of the newly formed state Jharkhand, located on eastern side of India. Before this Ranchi was known as summer capital of Bihar and was a little larger than a town in terms of development. But since then it has been vigorously expanding in size, infrastructure as well as population. This sudden expansion has created a stress on existing built environment. The large forest covers, agricultural land, diverse culture and pleasant climatic conditions have degraded and decreased to a large extent. Narrow roads and old buildings are unable to bear the load of the changing requirements, fast improving technology and growing population. The built environment has hence been rendered unsustainable and unadaptable through fastidious changes of present era. Some of the common hazards that can be easily spotted in the built environment are half-finished built forms, pedestrians and vehicles moving on the same part of the road. Unpaved areas on street edges. Over-sized, bright and randomly placed hoardings. Negligible trees or green spaces. The old buildings have been poorly maintained and the new ones are being constructed over them. Roads are too narrow to cater to the increasing traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular. The streets have a large variety of activities taking place on them, but haphazardly. Trees are being cut down for road widening and new constructions. There is no space for greenery in the commercial as well as old residential areas. The old infrastructure is deteriorating because of poor maintenance and the economic limitations. Pseudo understanding of functionality as well as aesthetics drive the new infrastructure. It is hence necessary to evaluate the extent of sustainability of existing built environment of the city and create or regenerate the existing built environment into a more sustainable and adaptable one. For this purpose, research titled “Sustainability of the Built Environment of Ranchi District” has been carried out. In this research the condition of the built environment of Ranchi are explored so as to figure out the problems and shortcomings existing in the city and provide for design strategies that can make the existing built-environment sustainable. The built environment of Ranchi that include its outdoor spaces like streets, parks, other open areas, its built forms as well as its users, has been analyzed in terms of various urban design parameters. Based on which strategies have been suggested to make the city environmentally, socially, culturally and economically sustainable.

Keywords: adaptable, built-environment, sustainability, urban

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Authors: Uraib Sharaha, Ahmad Salman, Eladio Rodriguez-Diaz, Elad Shufan, Klaris Riesenberg, Irving J. Bigio, Mahmoud Huleihel

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Antimicrobial drugs have played an indispensable role in controlling illness and death associated with infectious diseases in animals and humans. However, the increasing resistance of bacteria to a broad spectrum of commonly used antibiotics has become a global healthcare problem. Many antibiotics had lost their effectiveness since the beginning of the antibiotic era because many bacteria have adapted defenses against these antibiotics. Rapid determination of antimicrobial susceptibility of a clinical isolate is often crucial for the optimal antimicrobial therapy of infected patients and in many cases can save lives. The conventional methods for susceptibility testing require the isolation of the pathogen from a clinical specimen by culturing on the appropriate media (this culturing stage lasts 24 h-first culturing). Then, chosen colonies are grown on media containing antibiotic(s), using micro-diffusion discs (second culturing time is also 24 h) in order to determine its bacterial susceptibility. Other methods, genotyping methods, E-test and automated methods were also developed for testing antimicrobial susceptibility. Most of these methods are expensive and time-consuming. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy is rapid, safe, effective and low cost method that was widely and successfully used in different studies for the identification of various biological samples including bacteria; nonetheless, its true potential in routine clinical diagnosis has not yet been established. The new modern infrared (IR) spectrometers with high spectral resolution enable measuring unprecedented biochemical information from cells at the molecular level. Moreover, the development of new bioinformatics analyses combined with IR spectroscopy becomes a powerful technique, which enables the detection of structural changes associated with resistivity. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the potential of the FTIR microscopy in tandem with machine learning algorithms for rapid and reliable identification of bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics in time span of few minutes. The UTI E.coli bacterial samples, which were identified at the species level by MALDI-TOF and examined for their susceptibility by the routine assay (micro-diffusion discs), are obtained from the bacteriology laboratories in Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC). These samples were examined by FTIR microscopy and analyzed by advanced statistical methods. Our results, based on 700 E.coli samples, were promising and showed that by using infrared spectroscopic technique together with multivariate analysis, it is possible to classify the tested bacteria into sensitive and resistant with success rate higher than 90% for eight different antibiotics. Based on these preliminary results, it is worthwhile to continue developing the FTIR microscopy technique as a rapid and reliable method for identification antibiotic susceptibility.

Keywords: antibiotics, E.coli, FTIR, multivariate analysis, susceptibility, UTI

Procedia PDF Downloads 164