Search results for: individual readiness for change

Authors: Mumtaz Ahmed Sohag, Ishaq Ahmed Sohag

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Kebbi State, located in the Nort-West of Nigeria, is rich in water resources as the major rivers viz. Niger and Rima irrigate a vast majority of land. Besides, there is significant amount of groundwater, which farmers use for agriculture purpose. The groundwater is also a major source of agricultural and domestic water as wells are installed in almost all parts of the region. Although Kebbi State is rich in water, however, there are some pertinent issues which are hampering its agricultural productivity. The low lands (locally called Fadama), has spread out to a vast area. It is inundated every year during the rainy season which lasts from June to September every year. The farmers grow rice during the rainy season when water is standing. They cannot do further agricultural activity for almost two months due to high standing water. This has resulted in widespread waterlogging problem. Besides, the impact of climate change is resulting in rapid variation in river/stream flows. The information about water bodies regarding the availability of water for agricultural and other uses and the behavior of rivers at different flows is seldom available. Furthermore, sediment load (suspended and bedload) is not measured due to which land erosion cannot be countered effectively. This study, carried out in seven different irrigation regions of Kebbi state, found that diversion structures need to be constructed at some strategic locations for the supply of surface water to the farmers. The water table needs to be lowered through an effective drainage system. The monitoring of water bodies is crucial for sound data to help efficient regulation and management of water. Construction of embankments is necessary to control frequent floods in the rivers of Niger and Rima. Furthermore, farmers need capacity and awareness for participatory irrigation management.

Keywords: water bodies, floods, agriculture, waterlogging

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Authors: Amy Yee Kai Wan

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The arrival of a new baby to first-time parents is an exciting and joyous occasion, yet, the daunting task of raising the baby and the uncertainty of how it will affect the lives of the couple present a great challenge to them. This study examines the causes of conflicts and needs of the new parents through a qualitative research of five pairs of new parents in Hong Kong. Semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the changes babies brought to their marriages, sources of support they received and found important and assistance they felt would help with their transition to parenthood. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the commonalities and differences between the five couples’ subjective experiences. Narrative analysis was used to compare the experiences of two parents who are the under-functioning parent of the couple, to study the different strategies they employed in response to the over-functioning parent and to analyze how the marital relationships were affected. Four main themes emerged from the study: 1) Change and adjustment in marital relationship, 2) parents’ level of involvement, 3) support in childcaring, and 4) challenges faced by the parents. Results from the study indicated that father involvement in childcaring is an important element in mother’s marital satisfaction Father’s marital satisfaction is dependent upon the mother – her satisfaction with father involvement, which affects the mother’s marital satisfaction. Marital convergence and co-parenting alliance acted as moderators for marital satisfaction. Implications from the study include: i) offering programmes that improve couple relationship and enhance parenting efficacy in tandem to improve overall marital satisfaction, and ii) offering prenatal counselling services or provide education to new parents from prenatal to postnatal period that can help couples reduce discrepancies between expectations and realities of their marital relationship and parenting responsibilities after their baby is born.

Keywords: co-parenting alliance, father involvement, marital convergence, maternal gatekeeping, new parents, transition to parenthood

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Authors: Konrad Rejdak, Agnieszka Korchut, Sebastian Szklener, Urszula Skrobas, Justyna Gerlowska, Katarzyna Grabowska-Aleksandrowicz, Dorota Szczesniak-Stanczyk

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Introduction: Neurodegenerative diseases are frequently accompanied by loss and unwanted change in functional independence, social relationships, and economic circumstances. Currently, the achievements of social robots to date is being projected to improve multidimensional quality of life among people with cognitive impairment and others. Objectives: Identification of particular human needs in context of the changes occurring in course of neurodegenerative diseases. Methods: Based on the 110 surveys performed in Medical University of Lublin from medical staff, patients, and caregivers we made prioritization of the users' needs as: high, medium, and low. The issues included in the surveys concerned four aspects: user acceptance, functional requirements, design of the robotic assistant and preferred types of human-robot interaction. Results: We received completed questionnaires: 50 from medical staff, 30 from caregivers and 30 from potential users. Above 90% of the respondents from each of the three groups, accepted robotic assistant as a potential caregiver. High priority functional capability of assistive technology was to handle emergencies in a private home like recognizing life-threatening situations and reminding about medication intake. With reference to design of the robotic assistant, the majority of the respondent would like to have an anthropomorphic appearance with positive emotionally expressive face. The most important type of human-robot interaction was voice-operated system and by touchscreen. Conclusion: The results from our study might contribute to a better understanding of the system and users’ requirements for the development of a service robot intended to support patients with dementia.

Keywords: social robot, dementia, requirements, patients needs

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Authors: Mingxia Zhu, Matthew Tingchi Liu

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AI grows gradually in the market with its efficiency and accuracy, influencing people’s perceptions, attitude, and even consequential behaviors. Current study extends prior research by focusing on AI’s impact on consumers’ morality. First, study 1 tested individuals’ believes about AI and human’s moral perceptions and people’s attribution of moral worth to AI and human. Moral perception refers to a computational system an entity maintains to detect and identify moral violations, while moral worth here denotes whether individual regard an entity as worthy of moral treatment. To identify the effect of AI on consumers’ morality, two studies were employed. Study 1 is a within-subjects survey, while study 2 is an experimental study. In the study 1, one hundred and forty participants were recruited through online survey company in China (M_age = 27.31 years, SD = 7.12 years; 65% female). The participants were asked to assign moral perception and moral worth to AI and human. A paired samples t-test reveals that people generally regard that human has higher moral perception (M_Human = 6.03, SD = .86) than AI (M_AI = 2.79, SD = 1.19; t(139) = 27.07, p < .001; Cohen’s d = 1.41). In addition, another paired samples t-test results showed that people attributed higher moral worth to the human personnel (M_Human = 6.39, SD = .56) compared with AIs (M_AI = 5.43, SD = .85; t(139) = 12.96, p < .001; d = .88). In the next study, two hundred valid samples were recruited from survey company in China (M_age = 27.87 years, SD = 6.68 years; 55% female) and the participants were randomly assigned to two conditions (AI vs. human). After viewing the stimuli of human versus AI, participants are informed that one insurance company would determine the price purely based on their declaration. Therefore, their open-ended answers were coded into ethical, honest behavior and unethical, dishonest behavior according to the design of prior literature. A Chi-square analysis revealed that 64% of the participants would immorally lie towards AI insurance inspector while 42% of participants reported deliberately lower mileage facing with human inspector (χ^2 (1) = 9.71, p = .002). Similarly, the logistic regression results suggested that people would significantly more likely to report fraudulent answer when facing with AI (β = .89, odds ratio = 2.45, Wald = 9.56, p = .002). It is demonstrated that people would be more likely to behave unethically in front of non-human agents, such as AI agent, rather than human. The research findings shed light on new practical ethical issues in human-AI interaction and address the important role of human employees during the process of service delivery in the new era of AI.

Keywords: AI agent, consumer morality, ethical behavior, human-AI interaction

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Authors: Fernando Antonio Bacchim Neto, Allan Felipe Fattori Alves, Maria Eugênia Dela Rosa, Regina Moura, Diana Rodrigues De Pina

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Interventional Radiology is the radiology modality that provides the highest dose values to medical staff. Recent researches show that personal dosimeters may underestimate dose values in interventional physicians, especially in extremities (hands and feet) and eye lens. The aim of this work was to study radiation exposure levels of medical staff in different interventional radiology procedures and estimate the annual maximum numbers of procedures (AMN) that each physician could perform without exceed the annual limits of dose established by normative. For this purpose LiF:Mg,Ti (TLD-100) dosimeters were positioned in different body regions of the interventional physician (eye lens, thyroid, chest, gonads, hand and foot) above the radiological protection vests as lead apron and thyroid shield. Attenuation values for lead protection vests were based on international guidelines. Based on these data were chosen as 90% attenuation of the lead vests and 60% attenuation of the protective glasses. 25 procedures were evaluated: 10 diagnostics, 10 angioplasty, and 5-aneurysm treatment. The AMN of diagnostic procedures was 641 for the primary interventional radiologist and 930 for the assisting interventional radiologist. For the angioplasty procedures, the AMN for primary interventional radiologist was 445 and for assisting interventional radiologist was 1202. As for the procedures of aneurism treatment, the AMN for the primary interventional radiologist was 113 and for the assisting interventional radiologist were 215. All AMN were limited by the eye lens doses already considering the use of protective glasses. In all categories evaluated, the higher dose values are found in gonads and in the lower regions of professionals, both for the primary interventionist and for the assisting, but the eyes lens dose limits are smaller than these regions. Additional protections as mobile barriers, which can be positioned between the interventionist and the patient, can decrease the exposures in the eye lens, providing a greater protection for the medical staff. The alternation of professionals to perform each type of procedure can reduce the dose values received by them over a period. The analysis of dose profiles proposed in this work showed that personal dosimeters positioned in chest might underestimate dose values in other body parts of the interventional physician, especially in extremities and eye lens. As each body region of the interventionist is subject to different levels of exposure, dose distribution in each region provides a better approach to what actions are necessary to ensure the radiological protection of medical staff.

Keywords: interventional radiology, radiation protection, occupationally exposed individual, hemodynamic

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Authors: Adrián P. Gómez Mañas

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Autonomous vehicles have already transformed urban policies and cities. This is the main assumption of our research, which aims to understand how the representations of the possible arrival of autonomous vehicles already transform priorities or actions in transport and more largely, urban policies. This research is done within the framework of a Ph.D. doctorate directed by Professor Xavier Desjardins at the Sorbonne University of Paris. Our hypotheses are: (i) the perspectives, representations, and imaginaries on autonomous vehicles already affect the stakeholders of urban policies; (ii) the discourses on the opportunities or threats of autonomous vehicles reflect the current strategies of the stakeholders. Each stakeholder tries to integrate a discourse on autonomous vehicles that allows them to change as little as possible their current tactics and strategies. The objective is to eventually make a comparison between three different cases: Paris, United Arab Emirates, and Bogota. We chose those territories because their contexts are very different, but they all have important interests in mobility and innovation, and they all have started to reflect on the subject of self-driving mobility. The main methodology used is to interview actors of the metropolitan area (local officials, leading urban and transport planners, influent experts, and private companies). This work is supplemented with conferences, official documents, press articles, and websites. The objective is to understand: 1) What they know about autonomous vehicles and where does their knowledge come from; 2) What they expect from autonomous vehicles; 3) How their ideas about autonomous vehicles are transforming their action and strategy in managing daily mobility, investing in transport, designing public spaces and urban planning. We are going to present the research and some preliminary results; we will show that autonomous vehicles are often viewed by public authorities as a lever to reach something else. We will also present that speeches are very influenced by local context (political, geographical, economic, etc.), creating an interesting balance between global and local influences. We will analyze the differences and similarities between the three cases and will try to understand which are the causes.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, self-driving mobility, urban planning, urban mobility, transport, public policies

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Authors: Aleksandar M. Radojković, Jovana M. Ćirković, Sanja Z. Perać, Jelena N. Jovanović, Zorica M. Branković, Slobodan D. Milanović, Ivan Lj. Milenković, Jovan N. Dobrosavljević, Nemanja V. Simović, Vanja M. Tadić, Ana R. Žugić, Goran O. Branković

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In many parts of the world, various Phytophthora species pose a serious threat to forests and crops. With the rapidly growing international trade in plants and the ongoing impacts of climate change, the harmful effects of plant pathogens of the genus Phytophthora are increasing, damaging the biodiversity and sustainability of forest ecosystems. This genus is one of the most destructive plant pathogens, causing the majority of fine root (66%) and collar rot diseases (90%) of woody plant species worldwide. Eco-friendly biopesticides, based on plant-derived products, such as essential oils (EOs), are one of the promising solutions to this problem. In this study, among three different EOs investigated (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (A. Murr.) Parl., Thuja plicata Donn ex D.Don and Juniperus communis L.), western red cedar (Thuja plicata) essential oil almost completely inhibited the growth of three Phytophthora species (P. plurivora Jung and Burgess, P. quercina Jung, and P. ×cambivora (Petri) Buisman) during seven days of exposure for the EO concentrations of 0.1% and 0.5% (v/v). To prolong the inhibiting effect, Thuja plicata EO was encapsulated into a biopolymer matrix consisting of a chitosan-gelatin mixture to form a water-in-oil emulsion. This approach allowed the prolonged effect of the essential oil by its slow release from the biopolymer matrix and protection of the active components from atmospheric influences. Thus, it was demonstrated that encapsulated Thuja plicata EO consisting of sustainable bioproducts is efficient in controlling of Phytophthora species and can be considered a means of protection in natural and semi-natural ecosystems.

Keywords: emulsions, essential oils, phytophthora, thuja plicata

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Authors: E. Mattio

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The aim of this project is to study the Chinese presence in Ethiopia, following the path of the last salt caravans from Danakil to Tigray region. Official estimates of the number of Chinese in Africa vary widely; on the continent, there are increasingly diverse groups of Chinese migrants in terms of language, dialect, class, education, and employment. Based on this and on a very general state of the art, it was decided to increase the studies on this phenomenon, documenting the extraction of salt and following the sellers in the north of the country. The project is unique and allows you to admire a landscape that will soon change, due to the construction of infrastructure that is changing the dynamics of movement and sales. To carry out this study, interdisciplinary investigation methods were integrated, such as landscape archeology, historiographic research, participatory anthropology, geopolitics, and cultural anthropology and ethnology. There are two main objectives of the research. The first was an analysis of risk perceptions to predict what will happen to these populations and how the territory will be modified, trying to monitor the growth of infrastructure in the country and the effects it will have on the population. Thanks to the use of GIS, some roads created by Chinese companies that worked in the area have been georeferenced. The second point was to document the life and rituals of Ethiopian populations, in order not to lose the aspects of uniqueness that risk being lost. The local interviews have garnered impressions and criticisms from the local population to understand whether the Chinese presence is perceived as a threat or a solution. Among the most exclusive interviews, there are those made to Afar leaders in the Logya area and some Coptic representatives in the Wukro area. To make this project even more unique, the Coptic rituals of Gennà and Timkat have been documented, unique expressions of a millennial tradition. The aim was to understand whether the Maoist presence began to influence the religious rites and forms of belief present in the country.

Keywords: China, Ethiopia, GIS, risk perceptions

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Authors: Gary Young, David Zepeda, Gilbert Nyaga

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This study investigated whether vertical integration of hospitals and physicians is associated with better care for patients with cardiac conditions. A dramatic change in the U.S. hospital industry is the integration of hospital and physicians through hospital acquisition of physician practices. Yet, there is little evidence regarding whether this form of vertical integration leads to better operational performance of hospitals. The study was conducted as an observational investigation based on a pooled, cross-sectional database. The study sample comprised over hospitals in the State of California. The time frame for the study was 2010 to 2012. The key performance measure was hospitals’ degree of compliance with performance criteria set out by the federal government for managing patients with cardiac conditions. These criteria relate to the types of clinical tests and medications that hospitals should follow for cardiac patients but hospital compliance requires the cooperation of a hospital’s physicians. Data for this measure was obtained from a federal website that presents performance scores for U.S. hospitals. The key independent variable was the percentage of cardiologists that a hospital employs (versus cardiologists who are affiliated but not employed by the hospital). Data for this measure was obtained from the State of California which requires hospitals to report financial and operation data each year including numbers of employed physicians. Other characteristics of hospitals (e.g., information technology for cardiac care, volume of cardiac patients) were also evaluated as possible complements or substitutes for physician employment by hospitals. Additional sources of data included the American Hospital Association and the U.S. Census. Empirical models were estimated with generalized estimating equations (GEE). Findings suggest that physician employment is positively associated with better hospital performance for cardiac care. However, findings also suggest that information technology is a substitute for physician employment.

Keywords: physician employment, hospitals, verical integration, cardiac care

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Authors: Abdul Ghani Khan

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This paper focuses on the Buddhist rock carvings in the Diamer-Basha reservoir area, Gilgit-Baltistan, which is perhaps the largest rock art province of the world. The study region has thousands of rock carvings, particularly of the stupa carvings, engraved by artists, devotees or pilgrims, merchants have left their marks in the landscape or for the propagation of Buddhism. The Pak-German Archaeological Mission prepared, documented, and published the extensive catalogues of these carvings. Though, to date, very little systematic or statistically driven analysis was undertaken for in-depth understandings of the Buddhist rock carving tradition of the study region. This paper had made an attempt to examine stupa carvings and their constituent parts from the five selected sites, namely Oshibat, Shing Nala, Gichi Nala, Dadam Das, and Chilas Bridge. The statistical analyses and classification of the stupa carvings and their chronological contexts were carried out with the help of modern scientific tools such as STATA, FileMaker Pro, and MapSource softwares. The study had found that the tradition of stupa carvings on the surfaces of the rocks at the five selected sites continued for around 900 years, from the 1st century BCE to 8th century CE. There is a variation within the chronological settings of each of selected sites, possibly impacted by their utilization within particular landscapes, such as political (for example, change in political administrations or warfare) landscapes and geographical (for example, shifting of routes). The longer existence of the stupa carvings' tradition at these specific locations also indicates their central position on the trade and communication routes, and these were possibly also linked with religious ideologies within their particular times. The analyses of the different architectural elements of stupa carvings in the study area show that this tradition had structural similarities and differences in temporal and spatial contexts.

Keywords: rock carvings, stupa, stupa carvings, Buddhism, Pak-German archaeological mission

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Authors: Pichaya Poonlarp, Danai Boonyakiat, C. Chuamuangphan, M. Chanta

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Current consumers’ behavior trends have changed towards more health awareness, the well-being of society and interest of nature and environment. The Royal Project Foundation is, therefore, well aware of organic agriculture. The project only focused on using natural products and utilizing its highland biological merits to increase resistance to diseases and insects for the produce grown. The project also brought in basic knowledge from a variety of available research information, including, but not limited to, improvement of soil fertility and a control of plant insects with biological methods in order to lay a foundation in developing and promoting farmers to grow quality produce with a high health safety. This will finally lead to sustainability for future highland agriculture and a decrease of chemical use on the highland area which is a source of natural watershed. However, there are still shortcomings of the postharvest management in term of quality and losses, such as bruising, rottenness, wilting and yellowish leaves. These losses negatively affect the maintenance and a shelf life of organic vegetables. Therefore, it is important that a research study of the appropriate and effective postharvest management is conducted for an individual organic vegetable to minimize product loss and find root causes of postharvest losses which would contribute to future postharvest management best practices. This can be achieved through surveys and data collection from postharvest processes in order to conduct analysis for causes of postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum. Consequently, postharvest losses reduction strategies of organic vegetables can be achieved. In this study, postharvest losses of organic pak choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were determined at each stage of the supply chain starting from the field after harvesting, at the Development Center packinghouse, at Chiang Mai packinghouse, at Bangkok packing house and at the Royal Project retail shop in Chiang Mai. The results showed that postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were 86.05, 89.05 and 59.03 percent, respectively. The main factors contributing to losses of organic vegetables were due to mechanical damage and underutilized parts and/or short of minimum quality standard. Good practices had been developed after causes of losses were identified. Appropriate postharvest handling and management, for example, temperature control, hygienic cleaning, and reducing the duration of the supply chain, postharvest losses of all organic vegetables should be able to remarkably reduced postharvest losses in the supply chain.

Keywords: postharvest losses, organic vegetables, handling improvement, shelf life, supply chain

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Authors: Elmira Ghanbari, Jan Van Esch, Stephen J. Picken, Sahil Aggarwal

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Low-molecular-weight organogelators form gels by self-assembly into the crystalline network which immobilizes the organic solvent. For single bisamide organogelator systems, the effect of the molecular structure on the molecular interaction and their self-assembly behavior has been explored. The spatial arrangement of bisamide molecules in the gel-state is driven by a combination of hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals interactions. The hydrogen-bonding pattern between the amide groups of bisamide molecules is regulated by the number of methylene spacers; the even number of methylene spacers between two amide groups, in even-spaced bisamides, leads to the antiparallel position of amide groups within a molecule. An even-spaced bisamide molecule with antiparallel amide groups can make two pairs of hydrogen bonding with the molecules on the same plane. The odd-spaced bisamide with a parallel directionality of amide groups can form four independent hydrogen bonds with four other bisamide molecules on different planes. The arrangement of bisamide molecules in the crystalline state and the interaction of these molecules depends on the molecular structure, particularly the parity of the spacer length between the amide groups in the bisamide molecule. In this study, the directionality of amide groups has been exploited as a structural characteristic to affect the arrangement of molecules in the crystalline state and produce different binary bisamide gelators with different degrees of crystallinities. Single odd- and even-spaced single bisamides were synthesized and blended to produce binary bisamide organogelators to be characterized in order to understand the effect of the different directionality of amide groups on the molecular interaction in the crystalline state. The pattern of molecular interactions between these blended molecules, mixing or phase separation, has been monitored via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and crystallography techniques; X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The formation of lamellar structures for odd- and even-spaced bisamide gelators was confirmed by using SAXS and XRD techniques. DSC results have shown that binary bisamide organogelators with different parity of methylene spacers (odd-even binary blends) have a higher tendency for phase separation compared to the binary bisamides with the same parity (odd-odd or even-even binary blends). Phase separation in binary odd-even bisamides was confirmed by the presence of individual (100) reflections of odd and even lamellar structures. The structural characteristic of bisamide organogelators, the parity of spacer length in binary systems, is a promising tool to control the arrangement of molecules and their crystalline structure.

Keywords: binary bisamide organogelators, crystalline structure, phase separation, self-assembly behavior

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Authors: Ali Obaid Alyami

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In Saudi Arabia, the pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been affecting administrative contracts in many different ways. Lots of planned projects were stopped temporarily or implemented partially. Many contractors have suffered financial struggles and the absence of manpower. These administrative contracts are governed by Government Tenders and Procurement Law (GTPL) which was issued by a royal decree in 2019. This law addresses some challenges that could be stumbling blocks in the way of implementing a contract. One significant challenge is emergency circumstances that occur during the implementation of an administrative contract. The law provides some solutions for this disruption, but these solutions may not compensate for the whole damages that contractors suffer. This study will use the doctrinal methodology to analyze the rules of law and their application to the research problem. Most importantly, the issue that arises in this research is the possibility of governmental entities’ consideration, in administrative contracts, of the pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19) as an emergency circumstance. This study points out the conditions for applying the theory of emergency circumstances on administrative contracts in addition to the definition of the theory and analyzing its elements. The other significant question is the limits on governmental entities to make a change in an administrative contract to achieve contractual rebalancing. GPTL and its implementing regulation set the conditions and limits of contractual rebalancing. However, this study finds that although GTPL provides rules for contractual rebalancing, there are some other mechanisms that contractors may take to fully compensate for the damages. For instance, when the loss cannot be minimized by GTPL, contractors might file lawsuits before the administrative judiciary. The study concludes that GTPL is a very comprehensive law system that stipulates specific rules for contractual rebalance and treats the emergency circumstances that obstruct the performance of administrative contracts.

Keywords: administrative contracts, emergency circumstances, balance of contract, administrative judiciary, government tenders, procurement law

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Authors: M. Sakthivel, A. Devaki, D. Balasubramanyam, P. Kumarasamy, A. Raja, R. Anilkumar, H. Gopi

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The New Zealand White breed of rabbit is one of the most commonly used, well adapted exotic breeds in India. Earlier studies were limited only to analyze the environmental factors affecting the growth and reproductive performance. In the present study, the population of the New Zealand White rabbits in a closed herd was evaluated for its genetic structure. Data on pedigree information (n=2508) for 18 years (1995-2012) were utilized for the study. Pedigree analysis and the estimates of population genetic parameters based on gene origin probabilities were performed using the software program ENDOG (version 4.8). The analysis revealed that the mean values of generation interval, coefficients of inbreeding and equivalent inbreeding were 1.489 years, 13.233 percent and 17.585 percent, respectively. The proportion of population inbred was 100 percent. The estimated mean values of average relatedness and the individual increase in inbreeding were 22.727 and 3.004 percent, respectively. The percent increase in inbreeding over generations was 1.94, 3.06 and 3.98 estimated through maximum generations, equivalent generations, and complete generations, respectively. The number of ancestors contributing the most of 50% genes (fₐ₅₀) to the gene pool of reference population was 4 which might have led to the reduction in genetic variability and increased amount of inbreeding. The extent of genetic bottleneck assessed by calculating the effective number of founders (fₑ) and the effective number of ancestors (fₐ), as expressed by the fₑ/fₐ ratio was 1.1 which is indicative of the absence of stringent bottlenecks. Up to 5th generation, 71.29 percent pedigree was complete reflecting the well-maintained pedigree records. The maximum known generations were 15 with an average of 7.9 and the average equivalent generations traced were 5.6 indicating of a fairly good depth in pedigree. The realized effective population size was 14.93 which is very critical, and with the increasing trend of inbreeding, the situation has been assessed to be worse in future. The proportion of animals with the genetic conservation index (GCI) greater than 9 was 39.10 percent which can be used as a scale to use such animals with higher GCI to maintain balanced contribution from the founders. From the study, it was evident that the herd was completely inbred with very high inbreeding coefficient and the effective population size was critical. Recommendations were made to reduce the probability of deleterious effects of inbreeding and to improve the genetic variability in the herd. The present study can help in carrying out similar studies to meet the demand for animal protein in developing countries.

Keywords: effective population size, genetic structure, pedigree analysis, rabbit genetics

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Authors: Sumeyra Sevim, Gulsum Gizem Topal, Mercan Merve Tengilimoglu-Metin, Banu Sancak, Mevlude Kizil

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Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) represents mutagenic, carcinogenic, hepatotoxic and immunosuppressive properties, and shows adverse effect on human health. Recently the use of probiotics are focused on AFM1 detoxification because of the fact that probiotic strains have a binding ability to AFM1. Moreover, inulin is a prebiotic to improve the ability of probiotic bacteria. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate the effect of inulin on AFM1 binding ability of some probiotic bacteria. Yoghurt samples were manufactured by using skim milk powder artificially contaminated with AFM1 at concentration 100 pg/ml. Different samples were prepared for the study as: first sample consists of yoghurt starter bacteria (L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus), the second sample consists of starter and L. plantarum, starter and B. bifidum ATCC were added to the third sample, starter and B. animalis ATCC 27672 were added to the forth sample, and the fifth sample is a binary culture consisted of starter and B. bifidum and B. animalis. Moreover, the same work groups were prepared with inulin (4%). The samples were incubated at 42°C for 4 hours, then stored for three different time interval (1,5 and 10 days). The toxin was measured by the ELISA. When inulin was added to work groups, there was significant change on AFM1 binding ability at least one sample in all groups except the one with L. plantarum (p<0.05). The highest levels of AFM1 binding ability (68.7%) in samples with inulin were found in the group which B. bifidum was added, whereas the lowest levels of AFM1 binding ability (44.4%) in samples with inulin was found in the fifth sample. The most impressive effect of inulin was found on B.bifidum. In this study, it was obtained that there was a significant effect of storage on AFM1 binding ability in the all groups with inulin except the one with L. plantarum (p<0.05). Consequently, results show that AFM1 detoxification by probiotics have a potential application to reduce toxin concentrations in yoghurt. Besides, inulin has different effects on AFM1 binding ability of each probiotic bacteria strain.

Keywords: aflatoxin M1, inulin, probiotics, storage

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Authors: Cheryl Teelucksingh

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Toronto is in the midst of an urban development and infrastructure boom. Population growth and concerns about urban sprawl and carbon emissions have led to pressure on the municipal and the provincial governments to re-think urban development. Toronto’s approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation has positioning of the emerging green economy as part of the solution. However, the emerging green economy many not benefit all Torontonians in terms of jobs, improved infrastructure, and enhanced quality of life. Community benefits agreements (CBAs) are comprehensive, negotiated commitments, in which founders and builders of major infrastructure projects formally agree to work with community interest groups based in the community where the development is taking place, toward mutually beneficial environmental and labor market outcomes. When community groups are equitably represented in the process, they stand not only to benefit from the jobs created from the project itself, but also from the longer-term community benefits related to the quality of the completed work, including advocating for communities’ environmental needs. It is believed that green employment initiatives in Toronto should give greater consideration to best practices learned from community benefits agreements. Drawing on the findings of a funded qualitative study in Toronto (Canada), “The Green Gap: Toward Inclusivity in Toronto’s Green Economy” (2013-2016), this paper examines the emergent CBA in Toronto in relation to the development of a light rail transit project. Theoretical and empirical consideration will be given to the research gaps around CBAs, the role of various stakeholders, and discuss the potential for CBAs to gain traction in the Toronto’s urban development context. The narratives of various stakeholders across Toronto’s green economy will be interwoven with a discussion of the CBA model in Toronto and other jurisdictions.

Keywords: green economy in Toronto, equity, community benefits agreements, environmental justice, community sustainability

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Authors: Liliana Villavicencio, Yohn Garcia, Pallavi Singh, Luis Fernando Cruz, Wilfrido Moreno

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Psychophysiological adaptive automation is a concept that combines human physiological data and computer algorithms to create personalized interfaces and experiences for users. This approach aims to enhance human learning by adapting to individual needs and preferences and optimizing the interaction between humans and machines. According to neurosciences, the working memory demand during the student learning process is modified when the student is learning a new subject or topic, managing and/or fulfilling a specific task goal. A sudden increase in working memory demand modifies the level of students’ attention, engagement, and cognitive load. The proposed psychophysiological adaptive automation system will adapt the task requirements to optimize cognitive load, the process output variable, by monitoring the student's brain activity. Cognitive load changes according to the student’s previous knowledge, the type of task, the difficulty level of the task, and the overall psychophysiological state of the student. Scaling the measured cognitive load as low, medium, or high; the system will assign a task difficulty level to the next task according to the ratio between the previous-task difficulty level and student stress. For instance, if a student becomes stressed or overwhelmed during a particular task, the system detects this through signal measurements such as brain waves, heart rate variability, or any other psychophysiological variables analyzed to adjust the task difficulty level. The control of engagement and stress are considered internal variables for the hypermedia system which selects between three different types of instructional material. This work assesses the feasibility of a fuzzy controller to track a student's physiological responses and adjust the learning content and pace accordingly. Using an industrial automation approach, the proposed fuzzy logic controller is based on linguistic rules that complement the instrumentation of the system to monitor and control the delivery of instructional material to the students. From the test results, it can be proved that the implemented fuzzy controller can satisfactorily regulate the delivery of academic content based on the working memory demand without compromising students’ health. This work has a potential application in the instructional design of virtual reality environments for training and education.

Keywords: fuzzy logic controller, hypermedia control system, personalized education, psychophysiological adaptive automation

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Authors: S. Daneshi, G. Shahcheraghi, F. Ghaffarinejad

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Back ground: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people around the world during the aging process. Knee joint proprioception sense decrease with OA and Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) surgery may affect them. We investigated two parameters of proprioception sense (the joint position sense and kinesthesia) and standing balance in affected limbs before and after TKA, in patient with Knee OA. Methods and Materials: In this Analytic study, 10 patients who were candidate for TKA during two months in Dena Hospital of Shiraz, selected for further analysis. All of cases were female in range of 55-70 years old. Participants assessed before and two weeks after TKA using three instruments: electrogoniometer and continuous passive motion (CPM) to assess Knee joint position sense and kinesthesia in 20 and 45 degrees; and chronometer to assess duration of standing balance on affected leg with open and closed eyes. Results: To examine differences between before and after of TKA scorings Willcoxon Signed Rank and Mann-Whitney was performed which indicated no significant differences between knee joint position sense and kinesthesia in 20 and 45 degrees (P>0.05) and no significant differences between Standing Balance in a patient with knee OA before and after TKA (P>0.05). Conclusion: The study indicates that, OA can affect proprioception sense and standing balance but TKA doesn’t have any effect on these parameters. Intra articular structures such as cruciate ligaments and mines are responsible for proprioception sense in normal knee joint. Since in severe knee OA the number of mechanoreceptors in these intra articular structures decrease and their function reduce more than normal knee joint, so the anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) become defected, thus after TKA surgery which this ligament is removed no significant change was found in proprioception sense. As a result of involving proprioception sense, muscles strength and the function of vestibular system in balance, standing balance did not show significant difference before and after TKA.

Keywords: knee joint, proprioception sense, standing balance, rehabilitation sciences

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Authors: Euripides Antoniades

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In 1821, the Greek Revolution movement, under the political influence that arose from the French revolution, and the corresponding movements in Italy, Germany and America, demanded the liberation of the nation and the establishment of an independent national state. Published topics in the British press regarding the Greek Revolution, focused on: a)the right of the Greeks to claim their freedom from Turkish domination in order to establish an independent state based on the principle of national autonomy, b)criticism regarding Turkish rule as illegal and the power of the Ottoman Sultan as arbitrary, c)the recognition of the Greek identity and its distinction from the Turkish one and d)the endorsement Greeks as the descendants of ancient Greeks. The London Times is a print publication that presents, in chronological or thematic order, the news, opinions or announcements about the most important events that have occurred in a place during a specified period of time. A combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was applied. An attempt was made to record Greek Revolution references along with the usage of specific words and expressions that contribute to the representation of the historical events and their exposure to the reading public. Key finds of this research reveal that a)there was a frequency of passionate daily articles concerning the events in Greece, their length, and context in The Times of London, b)he British public opinion was influenced by this particular newspaper and c) he newspaper published various news about the revolution by adopting the role of animator of the Greek struggle. In fact, this type of news was the main substance of the The London Times’ structure, establishing a positive image about the Greek Revolution contributing to the European diplomatic development. These factors offered a change in the attitude of the British and Russians respectively assuming a positive approach towards Greece.

Keywords: Greece, revolution, press, the london times, great britain, mass media

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Authors: Kaddour Fellague Mohammed

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The world has seen in recent years, significant developments affected various aspects of life and influenced the different types of institutions, thus was born a new world is a world of globalization, which dominated the scientific revolution and the tremendous technological developments, and that contributed to the re-formation of human resources in contemporary organizations, and made patterns new regulatory and at the same time raised and strongly values and new ideas, the organizations have become more flexible, and faster response to consumer and environmental conditions, and exceeded the problem of time and place in the framework of communication and human interaction and use of advanced information technology and adoption mainly mechanism in running its operations , focused on performance and based strategic thinking and approach in order to achieve its strategic goals high degrees of superiority and excellence, this new reality created an increasing need for a new type of human resources, quality aims to renew and aspire to be a strategic player in managing the organization and drafting of various strategies, think globally and act locally, to accommodate local variables in the international markets, which began organizations tend to strongly as well as the ability to work under different cultures. Human resources management of the most important management functions to focus on the human element, which is considered the most valuable resource of the Department and the most influential in productivity at all, that the management and development of human resources Tattabra a cornerstone in the majority of organizations which aims to strengthen the organizational capacity, and enable companies to attract and rehabilitation of the necessary competencies and are able to keep up with current and future challenges, human resources can contribute to and strongly in achieving the objectives and profit organization, and even expand more than contribute to the creation of new jobs to alleviate unemployment and achieve full operation, administration and human resources mean short optimal use of the human element is available and expected, where he was the efficiency and capabilities, and experience of this human element, and his enthusiasm for the work stop the efficiency and success in reaching their goals, so interested administration scientists developed the principles and foundations that help to make the most of each individual benefit in the organization through human resources management, these foundations start of the planning and selection, training and incentives and evaluation, which is not separate from each other, but are integrated with each other as a system systemic order to reach the efficient functioning of the human resources management and has been the organization as a whole in the context of development sustainable.

Keywords: configuration, training, development, human resources, operating

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Authors: Yebeen Ji, Jimin Yun, Kwonhoo Kim

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Magnesium alloys were limited for industrial applications due to having a limited slip system and high plastic anisotropy. It has been known that specific textures were formed during processing (rolling, etc.), and These textures cause poor formability. To solve these problems, many researchers have studied controlling texture by adding rare-earth elements. However, the high cost limits their use; therefore, alternatives are needed to replace them. Although Pb addition doesn’t directly improve magnesium properties, it has been known to suppress the diffusion of other alloying elements and reduce grain boundary energy. These characteristics are similar to the additions of rare-earth elements, and a similar texture behavior is expected as well. However, there is insufficient research on this. Therefore, this study investigates the behavior of texture and microstructure development after adding Pb to magnesium. This study compared and analyzed AZ61 alloy and Mg-15wt%Pb alloy to determine the effect of adding solute elements. The alloy was hot rolled and annealed to form a single phase and initial texture. Afterward, the specimen was set to contraction and elongate parallel to the rolling surface and the rolling direction and then subjected to high-temperature plane strain compression under the conditions of 723K and 0.05/s. Microstructural analysis and texture measurements were performed by SEM-EBSD. The peak stress in the true strain-stress curve after compression was higher in AZ61, but the shape of the flow curve was similar for both alloys. For both alloys, continuous dynamic recrystallization was confirmed to occur during the compression process. The basal texture developed parallel to the compressed surface, and the pole density was lower in the Mg-15wt%Pb alloy. It is confirmed that this change in behavior is because the orientation distribution of recrystallized grains has a more random orientation compared to the parent grains when Pb is added.

Keywords: Mg, texture, Pb, DRX

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Authors: Neeti Rustagi, Naveen Dutt, Arvind Sinha, Mahaveer S. Rhodha, Pankaja R. Raghav

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Background: Pre-hospital trauma care services are in developing stage in fast-urbanizing cities of India including Jodhpur. Training of health professionals in providing necessary pre-hospital trauma care is an essential step in decreasing accident related morbidity and mortality. The current study explores the response of a medical graduate toward helping an accident victim in a pre-hospital setting before patient can be transferred to definitive trauma facility. Methodology: This study examines the perceived competence in predicting response to an accident victim by medical graduates in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Participants completed measures of attitude, normative influence and perceived behavior control toward providing pre-hospital care to an accident victim. Likert scale was used to measure the participant responses. Preliminary and descriptive analysis were used using SPSS 21.0. Internal consistency of the responses received was measured using Cronbach’s alpha. Results: Almost all medical graduates agreed that road accidents are common in their area (male: 92%; female: 78%). More male medical graduates (28%) reported helping an accident victim as compared to female physicians (9%) in the previous three months. Majority of study participants (96%) reported that providing immediate care to an accident victim is essential to save the life of an individual. Experience of helping an accident victim was considered unpleasant by the majority of female participants (70%) as compared to male participants (36%). A large number of participants believed that their friends (80%) and colleagues (96%) would appreciate them helping an accident victim in a pre-hospital setting. A large number of participants also believed that they possess the necessary skills and competencies (80%) towards helping a roadside accident victim in the pre-hospital care environment. Perceived competence of helping a roadside accident victim until they are transferred to a health facility was reported by less than half of the participants (male: 56%; female: 43%). Conclusion: Medical graduates have necessary attitude, competencies, and intention of helping a roadside accident victim. The societal response towards helping a road side accident victim is also supportive. In spite of positive determinants, a large proportion of medical graduates have perceived lack of competence in helping a roadside accident victim. This is essential to explore further as providing pre-hospital care to a roadside accident victim is an essential step in establishing the continuum of care to an accident victim especially in countries where pre-hospital services are in developing phase.

Keywords: prehospital care, perceived behavior, perceived competence, medical graduates

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Authors: Qiong Tian, Lifeng Zhang, Demei Yu, Ajit D. Kelkar

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Low specific weight and high strength is the basic requirement for aerospace materials. Fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composites are attractive materials for this purpose. Boron nitride nanoparticles (BNNPs) have good radiation shielding capacity, which is very important to aerospace materials. Herein a processing route for an advanced hybrid composite material is demonstrated by introducing dispersed BNNPs in standard prepreg manufacturing. The hybrid materials contain three parts: E-fiberglass, an aerospace-grade epoxy resin system, and BNNPs. A vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) was utilized in this processing. Two BNNP functionalization approaches are presented in this study: (a) covalent functionalization with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH-550); (b) non-covalent functionalization with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The functionalized BNNPs were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that BN powder was successfully functionalized via the covalent and non-covalent approaches without any crystal structure change and big agglomerate particles were broken into platelet-like nanoparticles (BNNPs) after functionalization. Compared to pristine BN powder, surface modified BNNPs could result in significant improvement in mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and compressive strength and modulus. CTAB functionalized BNNPs (CTAB-BNNPs) showed higher tensile and flexural strength but lower compressive strength than KH-550 functionalized BNNPs (KH550-BNNPs). These reinforcements are mainly attributed to good BNNPs dispersion and interfacial adhesion between epoxy matrix and BNNPs. This study reveals the potential in improving mechanical properties of BNNPs-containing composites laminates through surface functionalization of BNNPs.

Keywords: boron nitride, epoxy, functionalization, prepreg, composite

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Authors: Manohar Salla, Mark S. Butler, Ruby Pelingon, Geraldine Kaeslin, Daniel E. Croker, Janet C. Reid, Jong Min Baek, Paul V. Bernhardt, Elizabeth M. J. Gillam, Matthew A. Cooper, Avril A. B. Robertson

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MCC950 is a potent and selective inhibitor of the NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome that shows early promise for treatment of inflammatory diseases. The identification of major metabolites of lead molecule is an important step during drug development process. It provides an information about the metabolically labile sites in the molecule and thereby helping medicinal chemists to design metabolically stable molecules. To identify major metabolites of MCC950, the compound was incubated with human liver microsomes and subsequent analysis by (+)- and (−)-QTOF-ESI-MS/MS revealed a major metabolite formed due to hydroxylation on 1,2,3,5,6,7-hexahydro-s-indacene moiety of MCC950. This major metabolite can lose two water molecules and three possible regioisomers were synthesized. Co-elution of major metabolite with each of the synthesized compounds using HPLC-ESI-SRM-MS/MS revealed the structure of the metabolite (±) N-((1-hydroxy-1,2,3,5,6,7-hexahydro-s-indacen-4-yl)carbamoyl)-4-(2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)furan-2-sulfonamide. Subsequent synthesis of individual enantiomers and coelution in HPLC-ESI-SRM-MS/MS using a chiral column revealed the metabolite was R-(+)- N-((1-hydroxy-1,2,3,5,6,7-hexahydro-s-indacen-4-yl)carbamoyl)-4-(2-hydroxypropan-2-yl)furan-2-sulfonamide. To study the possible cytochrome P450 enzyme(s) responsible for the formation of major metabolite, MCC950 was incubated with a panel of cytochrome P450 enzymes. The result indicated that CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C18, CYP2C19, CYP2J2 and CYP3A4 are most likely responsible for the formation of the major metabolite. The biological activity of the major metabolite and the other synthesized regioisomers was also investigated by screening for for NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitory activity and cytotoxicity. The major metabolite had 170-fold less inhibitory activity (IC50-1238 nM) than MCC950 (IC50-7.5 nM). Interestingly, one regioisomer had shown nanomolar inhibitory activity (IC50-232 nM). However, no evidence of cytotoxicity was observed with any of these synthesized compounds when tested in human embryonic kidney 293 cells (HEK293) and human liver hepatocellular carcinoma G2 cells (HepG2). These key findings give an insight into the SAR of the hexahydroindacene moiety of MCC950 and reveal a metabolic soft spot which could be blocked by chemical modification.

Keywords: Cytochrome P450, inflammasome, MCC950, metabolite, microsome, NLRP3

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Authors: Ateeqa Aslam, Hans J. Nauwynck

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Porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV) is a betacoronavirus that has been studied in the past as a cause of vomiting and wasting disease (VWD) in young piglets (<3 weeks). Nowadays, the virus is still circulating on most farms in Belgium, but there are no descriptions anymore of VWD. Therefore, we are interested in differences between the old and new strains. We compared the replication kinetics of the old well-studied strain VW572 (1972) and the recent isolate P412 (2020) in a susceptible continuous cell line (RPD cells) and in primary porcine respiratory epithelial cells (PoRECs). The RPD cell line was inoculated with each PHEV strain at an m.o.i. of 1 the supernatant was collected, and the cells were fixed at different time points post-inoculation. The supernatant was titrated (extracellular virus titer), and the infected cells were revealed by immunofluorescence staining and quantitated by fluorescence microscopy. We found that VW572 replicated better in the RPD cell line at earlier time points when compared to P412. Porcine respiratory epithelial cells (PoREC) were isolated, grown at air-liquid interphase in transwells and inoculated with both strains of PHEV at a virus titer of 106.6TCID50 per 200 µl either at the apical side or at the basal side of the cells. At different time points after inoculation, the transwells were fixed and stained for infected cells. VW572 preferentially infected the epithelial cells via the basolateral side of porcine nasal epithelial cells, whereas P412 preferred the apical side. These findings suggest that there has been an evolution of PHEV in its interaction with the respiratory epithelial cells. In the future, more virus strains will be enclosed and the tropism of the strains for different neuronal cell types will be examined for the change in virus neurotropism.

Keywords: porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus (PHEV), primary porcine respiratory epithelial cells (PoRECs), virus tropism, vomiting and wasting disease (VWD)

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Authors: Ioannis Souris

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In this paper, we would like to present how we taught German through playwriting and analyze the usefulness of this method for teaching languages and cultivating a sense of political agency in students and teachers alike. Last academic year, we worked at the German Saturday School in Greenwich, London. This school offers Saturday German lessons to children whose parents are German, living in London. The lessons are two hours long, and the children’s level of German varies according to how often or how much German is spoken at home or how often the families visit Germany (as well as other factors which will be discussed in more detail in the paper). The directors of the school provide teachers with learning material and course books, but they strongly encourage individual input on lesson structure and methods of teaching German. The class we taught consisted of six eight-to-nine-year-olds. Midway into the academic year, we ran out of teaching material, and we, therefore, decided to write a play. In the paper, we would like to explore the process we followed in creating or writing this play and how this encouraged the children to collaborate and exercise their skills in writing, storytelling, speaking, and opinion-sharing. We want to examine the impact this project had on the children who wrote and performed the play, the wider community of the Saturday school, and the development of our language teaching practice. We found, for instance, that some students, who were quiet or shy, became very open and outspoken in the process of writing and performing the play. They took the initiative and led the process, putting us, their teachers, in the role of simple observers or facilitators. When we showed the play in front of the school, the other children and teachers, as audience members, also became part of the process as they commented on the plot, language, and characters and gave feedback on further development. In the paper, we will discuss how this teaching project fits into recent developments in the research of creativity and the teaching of languages and how engagement with creative approaches to teaching has the potential to question and subvert traditional notions of ‘lesson’, ‘teacher’, and ‘student’. From the moment a questioning of norms takes place, we inadvertently raise questions about politics, agency, and resistance. We will conclude the paper with a definition of what we mean by ‘political agency’ within the context of our teaching project and education, in general, and why inspiring creativity and imagination within teaching can be considered a political act. Finally, our aim in this paper will be to propose the possibility of analyzing teaching languages through creativity and political agency theories.

Keywords: innovation in language teaching and learning, language acquisition and learning, language curriculum development, language education

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Authors: Irfan Khan

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Both the analytical methods used to understand the phenomena of peacebuilding and the ensuing viewpoints on achieving and sustaining "sustainable peace" are broad and diverse. This new field of study draws from sociology, anthropology, political theory, and political economy, psychology, international relations, and more recently, the development sciences to examine the wide range of 'conflicts' it describes. This paper emphasizes the significance of investigating the causes of juvenile disputes. It explains how police corruption encourages youth crime and why it's so important to address this issue head-on. It also examines the historical foundations and external pressures that have increased religious extremism and sectarian strife in Pakistan. The primary argument is that peace is not only a desirable 'goal' in itself but also that it may be a means to achieve political stability and long-term prosperity. Strategies for constructing peace may take many shapes, each tailored to the specifics of a given conflict, its scope, and the individuals involved. By drawing on some existing literature and applying it to the situation in Pakistan, this article proposes a viewpoint that centers on the participation of young people in the peacebuilding process. Due to their enhanced susceptibility and penchant for demanding change, young people are more likely to get involved in a conflict when economic failure and unemployment are present. The piece also emphasizes the marginalization young people experience as a result of their absence from decision-making processes and the political system. The article claims that Pakistan's rapidly growing young population presents a significant chance for a long-term "demographic dividend" in the form of improvements in peacebuilding processes. This benefit will only materialize if serious steps are taken to increase young people's voice and agency in political decision-making.

Keywords: peacebuilding, youth-led initiatives, empowerment, conflict & violence, religious extremism, political involvement, decision-making

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Authors: Markus Nordlund, Arkadiusz K. Kuczaj

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Philip Morris International (PMI) is developing a range of novel tobacco products with the potential to reduce individual risk and population harm in comparison to smoking cigarettes. One of these products is the Tobacco Heating System 2.2 (THS 2.2), (named as the Electrically Heated Tobacco System (EHTS) in this paper), already commercialized in a number of countries (e.g., Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal and Romania). During use, the patented EHTS heats a specifically designed tobacco product (Electrically Heated Tobacco Product (EHTP)) when inserted into a Holder (heating device). The EHTP contains tobacco material in the form of a porous plug that undergoes a controlled heating process to release chemical compounds into vapors, from which an aerosol is formed during cooling. The aim of this work was to investigate the aerosol formation characteristics for realistic operating conditions of the EHTS as well as for relevant gas mixture compositions measured in the EHTP aerosol consisting mostly of water, glycerol and nicotine, but also other compounds at much lower concentrations. The nucleation process taking place in the EHTP during use when operated in the Holder has therefore been modeled numerically using an extended Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) for multicomponent gas mixtures. Results from the performed simulations demonstrate that aerosol droplets are formed only in the presence of an aerosol former being mainly glycerol. Minor compounds in the gas mixture were not able to reach a supersaturated state alone and therefore could not generate aerosol droplets from the multicomponent gas mixture at the operating conditions simulated. For the analytically characterized aerosol composition and estimated operating conditions of the EHTS and EHTP, glycerol was shown to be the main aerosol former triggering the nucleation process in the EHTP. This implies that according to the CNT, an aerosol former, such as glycerol needs to be present in the gas mixture for an aerosol to form under the tested operating conditions. To assess if these conclusions are sensitive to the initial amount of the minor compounds and to include and represent the total mass of the aerosol collected during the analytical aerosol characterization, simulations were carried out with initial masses of the minor compounds increased by as much as a factor of 500. Despite this extreme condition, no aerosol droplets were generated when glycerol, nicotine and water were treated as inert species and therefore not actively contributing to the nucleation process. This implies that according to the CNT, an aerosol cannot be generated without the help of an aerosol former, from the multicomponent gas mixtures at the compositions and operating conditions estimated for the EHTP, even if all minor compounds are released or generated in a single puff.

Keywords: aerosol, classical nucleation theory (CNT), electrically heated tobacco product (EHTP), electrically heated tobacco system (EHTS), modeling, multicomponent, nucleation

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Authors: Susan Diamond

Abstract:

Machine Learning workloads have traditionally been run in high-performance computing (HPC) environments, where users log in to dedicated machines and utilize the attached GPUs to run training jobs on huge datasets. Training of large neural network models is very resource intensive, and even after exploiting parallelism and accelerators such as GPUs, a single training job can still take days. Consequently, the cost of hardware is a barrier to entry. Even when upfront cost is not a concern, the lead time to set up such an HPC environment takes months from acquiring hardware to set up the hardware with the right set of firmware, software installed and configured. Furthermore, scalability is hard to achieve in a rigid traditional lab environment. Therefore, it is slow to react to the dynamic change in the artificial intelligent industry. Watson Deep Learning as a service, a cloud-based deep learning platform that mitigates the long lead time and high upfront investment in hardware. It enables robust and scalable sharing of resources among the teams in an organization. It is designed for on-demand cloud environments. Providing a similar user experience in a multi-tenant cloud environment comes with its own unique challenges regarding fault tolerance, performance, and security. Watson Deep Learning as a service tackles these challenges and present a deep learning stack for the cloud environments in a secure, scalable and fault-tolerant manner. It supports a wide range of deep-learning frameworks such as Tensorflow, PyTorch, Caffe, Torch, Theano, and MXNet etc. These frameworks reduce the effort and skillset required to design, train, and use deep learning models. Deep Learning as a service is used at IBM by AI researchers in areas including machine translation, computer vision, and healthcare. 

Keywords: deep learning, machine learning, cognitive computing, model training

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Alireza Taghdiri, Sara Ghanbarzade Ghomi

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Existing buildings are permanently subjected to change, continuously renovated and repaired in their long service life. Old buildings are destroyed and their material and components are recycled or reused for constructing new ones. In this process, the importance of sustainability principles for building construction is obviously known and great significance must be attached to the consumption of resources, resulting effects on the environment and economic costs. Utilization strategies for extending buildings service life and delay in destroying have a positive effect on environment protection. In addition, simpler alterability or expandability of buildings’ structures and reducing energy and natural resources consumption have benefits for users, producers and the environment. To solve these problems, by applying theories of open building, structural components of some conventional building systems have been analyzed and then, a new geometry adaptive building system is developed which can transform and support different imposed loads. In order to achieve this goal, various research methods and tools such as professional and scientific literatures review, comparative analysis, case study and computer simulation were applied and data interpretation was implemented using descriptive statistics and logical arguments. Therefore, hypothesis and proposed strategies were evaluated and an adaptable and reusable 2-dimensional building system was presented which can respond appropriately to dwellers and end-users needs and provide reusability of structural components of building system in new construction or function. Investigations showed that this incremental building system can be successfully applied in achieving the architectural design objectives and by small modifications on components and joints, it is easy to obtain different and adaptable load-optimized component alternatives for flexible spaces.

Keywords: adaptability, durability, open building, service life, structural building system

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