Search results for: State government

Authors: Arkadiusz P. Wójcik, Tetsuya Sato, Shin-Ichiro Shima, Mateusz Malanowski

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Over the last decades, new technologies have significantly changed the way information is transmitted and stored. Renewable energy sources have become prevalent and affordable. Cooperation of the Information and Communication Technology industry and Renewable Energy industry makes it possible to create a next generation, decentralized power grid. In this context, the study seeks to identify the wider benefits to the local Japanese economy as a result of the development of a decentralised electricity market. Our general approach aims to integrate an economic analysis (monetary appraisal of costs and benefits to society) with externalities that are not quantifiable in monetary terms (e.g. social impact, environmental impact). The study also highlights opportunities and sets out recommendations for the citizens of the island and the local government. The simulation is the scientific basis for economic impact analysis. Various types of sources of energy have been taken into account: residential wind farm, residential wind turbine, solar farm, residential solar panels and private solar farms. Analysis of local geographic and economic conditions allowed creating a customized business model. Very often farmers on Awaji Island are using crop cycle. During each cycle, one part of the field is resting and replenishing nutrients. In the next year another part of the field is resting. Portable solar panels could be freely set up in this part of the field. At the end of the crop cycle, portable solar panels would be moved to the next resting part. Because of spacious area, for a single household 500 square meters of portable solar panels has been proposed and simulated. The devised simulation shows that the Rate of Return on Investment for solar panels, which are on the island, could reach up to 37.21%. Supposing that about 20% of households install solar panels they could produce 49.11% of the electric energy consumed by households on the island. The analysis shows that rest of the energy supply can be produced by currently existing one huge solar farm and two wind farms to meet 97.59% of demand on electricity for households on the island. Although there are more than 7,000 agricultural fields on the island, young people tend to avoid agricultural work and prefer to move from the island to big cities, live there in little mansions and work until late night. The business model proposed in this study could increase farmer’s monthly income by ¥200,000 - ¥300,000 (1,600 euro – 2,400 euro). Young people could work less and have a higher standard of living than in a city. Creation of a decentralized electricity market can unlock significant benefits in other industries (e.g. electric vehicles), providing a welcome boost to economic growth, jobs and quality of life.

Keywords: digital twin, Matlab, model-based systems engineering, simulink, smart grid, systems engineering

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Authors: Emily S. M. Chow

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The word ‘utopia’ was coined by Thomas More in Utopia (1516). Its Greek roots ‘ou’ means ‘not’ and ‘topos’ means ‘place.’ In other words, it literally refers to ‘no-place.’ However, the possibility of having an alternative and better future society has always been appealing. In fact, at the core of every utopianism is the search for a future alternative state with the anticipation of a better life. Nonetheless, the practicalities of such ideas have never ceased to be questioned. At times, building a utopia presents itself as a divisive act. In addition to the violence that must be employed to sweep away the old regime in order to make space for the new, all utopias carry within them the potential for bringing catastrophic consequences to human life. After all, every utopia seeks to remodel the individual in a very particular way for the benefit of the masses. In this sense, utopian thinking has the potential both to create and destroy the future. While writing during a traumatic transitional period in Zimbabwe’s history, Dambudzo Marechera witnessed an age of upheavals in which different parties battled for power over Zimbabwe. Being aware of the fact that all institutionalized narratives, be they originated from the governance of the UK, Ian Smith’s white minority regime or Zimbabwe’s revolutionary parties, revealed themselves to be nothing more than fiction, Marechera realized the impossibility of determining reality absolutely. As such, this thesis concerns the writing of the Zimbabwean maverick, Dambudzo Marechera. It argues that Marechera writes a unique vision of utopia. In short, for Marechera utopia is not a static entity but a moment of perpetual change. He rethinks utopia in the sense that he phrases it as an event that ceaselessly contests institutionalized and naturalized narratives of a post-colonial self and its relationship to society. Marechera writes towards a vision of an alternative future of the country. Yet, it is a vision that does not constitute a fully rounded sense of utopia. Being cautious about the world and the operation of power upon the people, rather than imposing his own utopian ideals, Marechera chooses to instead peeling away the narrative constitution of the self in relation to society in order to turn towards a truly radical utopian thinking that empowers the individual.

Keywords: African literature, Marechera, post-colonial literature, utopian studies

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Authors: Tajinder Pal Singh

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Teaching of mathematics to engineering students is an open ended problem in education. The main goal of mathematics learning for engineering students is the ability of applying a wide range of mathematical techniques and skills in their engineering classes and later in their professional work. Most of the undergraduate engineering students and faculties feels that no efforts and attempts are made to demonstrate the applicability of various topics of mathematics that are taught thus making mathematics unavoidable for some engineering faculty and their students. The lack of understanding of concepts in engineering mathematics may hinder the understanding of other concepts or even subjects. However, for most undergraduate engineering students, mathematics is one of the most difficult courses in their field of study. Most of the engineering students never understood mathematics or they never liked it because it was too abstract for them and they could never relate to it. A right balance of application and concept based teaching can only fulfill the objectives of teaching mathematics to engineering students. It will surely improve and enhance their problem solving and creative thinking skills. In this paper, some practical (informal) ways of making mathematics-teaching application based for the engineering students is discussed. An attempt is made to understand the present state of teaching mathematics in engineering colleges. The weaknesses and strengths of the current teaching approach are elaborated. Some of the causes of unpopularity of mathematics subject are analyzed and a few pragmatic suggestions have been made. Faculty in mathematics courses should spend more time discussing the applications as well as the conceptual underpinnings rather than focus solely on strategies and techniques to solve problems. They should also introduce more ‘word’ problems as these problems are commonly encountered in engineering courses. Overspecialization in engineering education should not occur at the expense of (or by diluting) mathematics and basic sciences. The role of engineering education is to provide the fundamental (basic) knowledge and to teach the students simple methodology of self-learning and self-development. All these issues would be better addressed if mathematics and engineering faculty join hands together to plan and design the learning experiences for the students who take their classes. When faculties stop competing against each other and start competing against the situation, they will perform better. Without creating any administrative hassles these suggestions can be used by any young inexperienced faculty of mathematics to inspire engineering students to learn engineering mathematics effectively.

Keywords: application based learning, conceptual learning, engineering mathematics, word problem

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Authors: Aritra Das, Tanmay Mahapatra, Prabir Maharana, Sridhar Srikantiah

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In the absence of adequate well-equipped neonatal-care facilities serving rural Bihar, India, the practice of essential home-based newborn-care remains critically important for reduction of neonatal and infant mortality, especially among pre-term and small-for-gestational-age (Low-birth-weight) newborns. To improve the child health parameters in Bihar, ‘Very-Low-Birth-Weight (vLBW) Tracking’ intervention is being conducted by CARE India, since 2015, targeting public facility-delivered newborns weighing ≤2000g at birth, to improve their identification and provision of immediate post-natal care. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, 200 public health facilities were randomly selected from all functional public-sector delivery points in Bihar and various outcomes were tracked among the neonates born there. Thus far, one pre-intervention (Feb-Apr’2015-born neonates) and three post-intervention (for Sep-Oct’2015, Sep-Oct’2016 and Sep-Oct’2017-born children) follow-up studies were conducted. In each round, interviews were conducted with the mothers/caregivers of successfully-tracked children to understand outcome, service-coverage and care-seeking during the neonatal period. Data from 171 matched facilities common across all rounds were analyzed using SAS-9.4. Identification of neonates with birth-weight ≤ 2000g improved from 2% at baseline to 3.3%-4% during post-intervention. All indicators pertaining to post-natal home-visits by frontline-workers (FLWs) improved. Significant improvements between baseline and post-intervention rounds were also noted regarding mothers being informed about ‘weak’ child – at the facility (R1 = 25 to R4 = 50%) and at home by FLW (R1 = 19%, to R4 = 30%). Practice of ‘Kangaroo-Mother-Care (KMC)’– an important component of essential newborn care – showed significant improvement in postintervention period compared to baseline in both facility (R1 = 15% to R4 = 31%) and home (R1 = 10% to R4=29%). Increasing trend was noted regarding detection and birth weight-recording of the extremely low-birth-weight newborns (< 1500 g) showed an increasing trend. Moreover, there was a downward trend in mortality across rounds, in each birth-weight strata (< 1500g, 1500-1799g and >= 1800g). After adjustment for the differential distribution of birth-weights, mortality was found to decline significantly from R1 (22.11%) to R4 (11.87%). Significantly declining trend was also observed for both early and late neonatal mortality and morbidities. Multiple regression analysis identified - birth during immediate post-intervention phase as well as that during the maintenance phase, birth weight > 1500g, children of low-parity mothers, receiving visit from FLW in the first week and/or receiving advice on extra care from FLW as predictors of survival during neonatal period among vLBW newborns. vLBW tracking was found to be a successful and sustainable intervention and has already been handed over to the Government.

Keywords: weak newborn tracking, very low birth weight babies, newborn care, community response

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Authors: Mina Shokry Hanna Saleh Tadros

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The centrality of the Petroleum Industry in the world energy is undoubted. The world economy almost runs and depends on petroleum. Petroleum industry is a multi-trillion industry; it turns otherwise poor and underdeveloped countries into wealthy nations and thrusts them at the center of international diplomacy. Although these developing nations lack the necessary technology to explore and exploit petroleum resources they are not without help as developed nations, represented by their multinational corporations are ready and willing to provide both the technical and managerial expertise necessary for the development of this natural resource. However, the exploration of these petroleum resources comes with, sometimes, grave, concomitant consequences. These consequences are especially pronounced with respect to the environment. From the British Petroleum Oil rig explosion and the resultant oil spillage and pollution in New Mexico, United States to the Mobil Oil spillage along Egyptian coast, the story and consequence is virtually the same. Egypt’s delta Region produces Nigeria’s petroleum which accounts for more than ninety-five percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Between 1999 and 2007, Egypt earned more than $400 billion from petroleum exports. Nevertheless, petroleum exploration and exploitation has devastated the Delta environment. From oil spillage which pollutes the rivers, farms and wetlands to gas flaring by the multi-national corporations; the consequences is similar-a region that has been devastated by petroleum exploitation. This paper thus seeks to examine the consequences and impact of petroleum pollution in the Egypt Delta with particular reference on the right of the people of Niger Delta to a healthy environment. The paper further seeks to examine the relevant international, regional instrument and Nigeria’s municipal laws that are meant to protect the result of the people of the Egypt Delta and their enforcement by the Nigerian State. It is quite worrisome that the Egypt Delta Region and its people have suffered and are still suffering grave violations of their right to a healthy environment as a result of petroleum exploitation in their region. The Egypt effort at best is half-hearted in its protection of the people’s right.

Keywords: crude oil, fire, floating roof tank, lightning protection systemenvironment, exploration, petroleum, pollutionDuvernay petroleum system, oil generation, oil-source correlation, Re-Os

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Authors: Fanny Guay

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Building resilience, sustainable buildings, urbanization, climate change, resilient cities, are just a few examples of where the focus of research has been in the last few years. It is obvious that there is a need to rethink how we are building our cities and how we are renovating our existing buildings. However, the question remaining is how can we assure that we are building sustainable yet resilient cities? There are many aspects one can touch upon when discussing resilience in cities, but after the event of Grenfell in June 2017, it has become clear that fire resilience must be a priority. We define resilience as a holistic approach including communities, society and systems, focusing not only on resisting the effects of a disaster, but also how it will cope and recover from it. Cities are an example of such a system, where components such as buildings have an important role to play. A building on fire will have an impact on the community, the economy, the environment, and so the entire system. Therefore, we believe that fire and resilience go hand in hand when we discuss building resilient cities. This article aims at discussing the current state of the concept of fire resilience and suggests actions to support the built of more fire resilient buildings. Using the case of Grenfell and the fire safety regulations in the UK, we will briefly compare the fire regulations in other European countries, more precisely France, Germany and Denmark, to underline the difference and make some suggestions to increase fire resilience via regulation. For this research, we will also include other types of resilience such as technological resilience, discussing the structure of buildings itself, as well as community resilience, considering the role of communities in building resilience. Our findings demonstrate that to increase fire resilience, amending existing regulations might be necessary, for example, how we performed reaction to fire tests and how we classify building products. However, as we are looking at national regulations, we are only able to make general suggestions for improvement. Another finding of this research is that the capacity of the community to recover and adapt after a fire is also an essential factor. Fundamentally, fire resilience, technological resilience and community resilience are closely connected. Building resilient cities is not only about sustainable buildings or energy efficiency; it is about assuring that all the aspects of resilience are included when building or renovating buildings. We must ask ourselves questions as: Who are the users of this building? Where is the building located? What are the components of the building, how was it designed and which construction products have been used? If we want to have resilient cities, we must answer these basic questions and assure that basic factors such as fire resilience are included in our assessment.

Keywords: buildings, cities, fire, resilience

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Authors: Shannon Hearney, Jeffrey Hoch

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While all cancers are costly to treat, pancreatic cancer is a notoriously costly and deadly form of cancer. Across the world there are a variety of treatment centers ranging from small clinics to large, high-volume hospitals as well as differing structures of payment and access. It has been noted that centers that treat a high volume of pancreatic cancer patients have higher quality of care, it is unclear if that care is cost-effective. In the US there is no clear consensus on the cost-effectiveness of high-volume centers for the surgical care of pancreatic cancer. Other European countries, like Finland and Italy have shown that high-volume centers have lower mortality rates and can have lower costs, there however, is still a gap in knowledge about these centers cost-effectiveness globally. This paper seeks to review the current literature in Europe and the US to gain a better understanding of the state of high-volume pancreatic surgical centers cost-effectiveness while considering the contextual differences in health system structure. A review of major reference databases such as Medline, Embase and PubMed will be conducted for cost-effectiveness studies on the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer at high-volume centers. Possible MeSH terms to be included, but not limited to, are: “pancreatic cancer”, “cost analysis”, “cost-effectiveness”, “economic evaluation”, “pancreatic neoplasms”, “surgical”, “Europe” “socialized medicine”, “privatized medicine”, “for-profit”, and “high-volume”. Studies must also have been available in the English language. This review will encompass European scientific literature, as well as those in the US. Based on our preliminary findings, we anticipate high-volume hospitals to provide better care at greater costs. We anticipate that high-volume hospitals may be cost-effective in different contexts depending on the national structure of a healthcare system. Countries with more centralized and socialized healthcare may yield results that are more cost-effective. High-volume centers may differ in their cost-effectiveness of the surgical care of pancreatic cancer internationally especially when comparing those in the United States to others throughout Europe.

Keywords: cost-effectiveness analysis, economic evaluation, pancreatic cancer, scientific literature review

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Authors: Faride Hashemiannejad, Shima Oloomi

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Imagination is one of the important elements of creative thinking which as a skill needs attention by the educational system. Although most students learn reading, writing, and arithmetic skills well, they lack high level thinking skills like creative thinking. Therefore, in the information age and in the beginning of entry to knowledge-based society, the educational system needs to think over its goals and mission, and concentrate on creativity-based curriculum. From among curriculum elements-goals, content, method and evaluation “method” is a major domain whose reform can pave the way for fostering imagination and creativity. The purpose of this study was examining the relationship between creativity development and curriculum. Research questions were: (1) is there a relationship between the cognitive-emotional structure of the classroom and creativity development? (2) Is there a relationship between the environmental-social structure of the classroom and creativity development? (3) Is there a relationship between the thinking structure of the classroom and creativity development? (4) Is there a relationship between the physical structure of the classroom and creativity development? (5) Is there a relationship between the instructional structure of the classroom and creativity development? Method: This research is a applied research and the research method is Correlational research. Participants: The total number of participants in this study included 894 students from High school through 11th grade from seven schools of seven zones in Mashad city. Sampling Plan: Sampling was selected based on Random Multi State. Measurement: The dependent measure in this study was: (a) the Test of Creative Thinking, (b) The researcher-made questionnaire includes five fragments, cognitive, emotional structure, environmental social structure, thinking structure, physical structure, and instructional structure. The Results Show: There was significant relationship between the cognitive-emotional structure of the classroom and student’s creativity development (sig=0.139). There was significant relationship between the environmental-social structure of the classroom and student’s creativity development (sig=0.006). There was significant relationship between the thinking structure of the classroom and student’s creativity development (sig=0.004). There was not significant relationship between the physical structure of the classroom and student’s creativity development (sig=0.215). There was significant relationship between the instructional structure of the classroom and student’s creativity development (sig=0.003). These findings denote if students feel secure, calm and confident, they can experience creative learning. Also the quality of coping with students’ questions, imaginations and risks can influence on their creativity development.

Keywords: imagination, creativity, curriculum, bioinformatics, biomedicine

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Authors: Antonio M. Oliveira, Patricia Oliveira-Silva, Jose Matias Alves, Gary McPherson

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The music teaching is oriented towards offering formal music training. Due to its specificities, this vocational program starts at a very young age. Although provided by the State, the offer is limited to 6 schools throughout the country, which means that the vacancies for prospective students are very limited every year. It is therefore crucial that these vacancies be taken by especially motivated children grown within households that offer the ideal setting for success. Some of the instruments used to evaluate musical performance are highly sensitive to specific previous training, what represents a severe validity problem for testing children who have had restricted opportunities for formal training. Moreover, these practices may be unfair because, for instance, they may not reflect the candidates’ music aptitudes. Based on what constitutes a prerequisite for making an excellent music student, researchers in this field have long argued that motivation, task commitment, and parents’ support are as important as ability. Thus, the aim of this study is: (1) to prepare an inventory of admission requirements in Australia, Portugal and Ireland; (2) to examine whether the candidates to music conservatories and parents’ level of motivation, assessed at three evaluation points (i.e., admission, at the end of the first year, and at the end of the second year), correlates positively with the candidates’ progress in learning a musical instrument (i.e., whether motivation at the admission may predict student musicianship); (3) an adaptation of an existing instrument to assess the motivation (i.e., to adapt the items to the music setting, focusing on the motivation for playing a musical instrument). The inclusion criteria are: only children registered in the administrative services to be evaluated for entrance to the conservatory will be accepted for this study. The expected number of participants is fifty (5-6 years old) in all the three frequency schemes: integrated, articulated and supplementary. Revisiting musical admission procedures is of particular importance and relevance to musical education because this debate may bring guidance and assistance about the needed improvement to make the process of admission fairer and more transparent.

Keywords: music learning, music admission requirements, student’s motivation, parent’s motivation

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Natalie Rosales

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Based on an ethical vision which recognizes the vital role of human rights, shared values, social responsibility and justice, and environmental ethics, planning may be interpreted as a process aimed at reducing inequalities and overcoming marginality. Seen from this sustainability perspective, planning evaluation must utilize critical-evaluative and narrative receptive models which assist different stakeholders in their understanding of urban fabric while trigger reflexive processes that catalyze wider transformations. In this paper, this approach servers as a guide for the evaluation of Mexico´s urban planning systems, and postulates a framework to better integrate sustainability notions into planning evaluation. The paper is introduced by an overview of the current debate on evaluation in urban planning. The state of art presented includes: the different perspectives and paradigms of planning evaluation and their fundamentals and scope, which have focused on three main aspects; goal attainment (did planning instruments do what they were supposed to?); performance and effectiveness of planning (retrospective analysis of planning process and policy analysis assessment); and the effects of process-considering decision problems and contexts rather than the techniques and methods. As well as, methodological innovations and improvements in planning evaluation. This comprehensive literature review provides the background to support the authors’ proposal for a set of general principles to evaluate urban planning, grounded on a sustainability perspective. In the second part the description of the shortcomings of the approaches to evaluate urban planning in Mexico set the basis for highlighting the need of regulatory and instrumental– but also explorative- and collaborative approaches. As a response to the inability of these isolated methods to capture planning complexity and strengthen the usefulness of evaluation process to improve the coherence and internal consistency of the planning practice itself. In the third section the general proposal to evaluate planning is described in its main aspects. It presents an innovative methodology for establishing a more holistic and integrated assessment which considers the interdependence between values, levels, roles and methods, and incorporates different stakeholders in the evaluation process. By doing so, this piece of work sheds light on how to advance urban sustainability through the integration of evaluation methodologies into planning.

Keywords: urban planning, evaluation methodologies, urban sustainability, innovative approaches

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Authors: Andy Sand, Naama Massad – Ivanir, Nadav Nitzan, Elisa Valderrama, Alfred Wegenberger, Koranit Shlosman, Rotem Shemesh, Ester Segal

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Microbial spoilage of food products is of great concern in the food industry due to the direct impact on the shelf life of foods and the risk of foodborne illness. Therefore, food packaging may serve as a crucial contribution to keep the food fresh and suitable for consumption. Active packaging solutions that have the ability to inhibit the development of microorganism in food products attract a lot of interest, and many efforts have been made to engineer and assimilate such solutions on various food products. NanoPack is an EU-funded international project aiming to develop state-of-the-art antimicrobial packaging systems for perishable foods. The project is based on natural essential oils which possess significant antimicrobial activity against many bacteria, yeasts and molds. The essential oils are encapsulated in natural aluminosilicate clays, halloysite nanotubes (HNT's), that serves as a carrier for the volatile essential oils and enable their incorporation into polymer films. During the course of the project, several polyethylene films with diverse essential oils combinations were designed based on the characteristics of their target food products. The antimicrobial activity of the produced films was examined in vitro on a broad spectrum of microorganisms including gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, yeasts and molds. The films that showed promising in vitro results were successfully assimilated on in vivo active packaging of several food products such as cheese, bread, fruits and raw meat. The results of the in vivo analyses showed significant inhibition of the microbial spoilage, indicating the strong contribution of the NanoPack packaging solutions on the extension of shelf life and reduction of food waste caused by early spoilage throughout the supply chain.

Keywords: food safety, food packaging, essential oils, nanotechnology

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Authors: Karina Lõbus, Silver Muld, Kadri Kööp, Mare Tupits

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Aim: The aim of the research is to describe the experiences and needs of fathers’ of children with cancer in coping with the child's disease. Background: Today, about 80% of children diagnosed with malignancy in developed countries survive. Despite the positive statistics, recovery is not always certain, treatment is often very intensive and long-term. Cancer is affecting an increasing number of the population, which is increasing the demand for quality care, but the nature of expected care is currently unclear. This topic is important for the development of professional practice, as nurses complain that their knowledge to deal with the relatives of a patient with a difficult diagnosis is limited and would therefore like additional information to deal with the situation. Design: Qualitative, empirical, descriptive research. Method: The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed by inductive content analysis method. Interviews were conducted during Autumn 2020. 4 subjects participated in the research. Results and Conclusions: The thesis revealed that fathers had different experiences and needs in dealing with the child's illness. Fathers' experiences of coping with child's diseases encompassed experiences with information, social relationships, healthcare, changes in personal health and experiences regarding the child. Regarding information, the respondents pointed out bad experiences with the availability of information and the ability to convey the necessary information. Experiences regarding social relationships included experiences with relatives and strangers. Regarding healthcare, fathers mentioned experiences related to the child's health and healthcare professionals. In regards to personal health, fathers pointed out negative changes in their mental and physical health. In relation to the child, the subjects revealed experiences regarding changed values, way of life and raising the child. According to the research, fathers’ needs in relation to dealing with child's cancer included material, social, and spiritual needs. In regard to material needs, fathers pointed out the need for state assistance and the needs related to the surrounding environment. The needs concerning social belonging involved needs for a driving force and involvement in the treatment process. Regarding spiritual needs, fathers expressed mixed feelings towards the need for outside and professional help.

Keywords: father, coping, cancer, child, experience, need

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Authors: Ferdinando Montemari, Antonio Vitale, Nicola Genito, Giovanni Cuciniello

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The introduction of tilt-rotor aircraft into the existing civilian air transportation system will provide beneficial effects due to tilt-rotor capability to combine the characteristics of a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft into one vehicle. The disposability of reliable tilt-rotor simulation models supports the development of such vehicle. Indeed, simulation models are required to design automatic control systems that increase safety, reduce pilot's workload and stress, and ensure the optimal aircraft configuration with respect to flight envelope limits, especially during the most critical flight phases such as conversion from helicopter to aircraft mode and vice versa. This article presents a process to build a simplified tilt-rotor simulation model, derived from the analysis of flight data. The model aims to reproduce the complex dynamics of tilt-rotor during the in-flight conversion phase. It uses a set of scheduled linear transfer functions to relate the autopilot reference inputs to the most relevant rigid body state variables. The model also computes information about the rotor flapping dynamics, which are useful to evaluate the aircraft control margin in terms of rotor collective and cyclic commands. The rotor flapping model is derived through a mixed theoretical-empirical approach, which includes physical analytical equations (applicable to helicopter configuration) and parametric corrective functions. The latter are introduced to best fit the actual rotor behavior and balance the differences existing between helicopter and tilt-rotor during flight. Time-domain system identification from flight data is exploited to optimize the model structure and to estimate the model parameters. The presented model-building process was applied to simulated flight data of the ERICA Tilt-Rotor, generated by using a high fidelity simulation model implemented in FlightLab environment. The validation of the obtained model was very satisfying, confirming the validity of the proposed approach.

Keywords: flapping dynamics, flight dynamics, system identification, tilt-rotor modeling and simulation

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Authors: Cassandra A. Skinner, Linda R. Chamberlain

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The nonprofit and public sectors are increasingly turning to Geographic Information Systems for data visualizations which can better inform programmatic and policy decisions. Additionally, the private and nonprofit sectors are turning to systems mapping to better understand the ecosystems within which they operate. This study explores the potential which combining these data visualization methods—a method which is called geographic systems mapping—to create an exhaustive and comprehensive understanding of a social problem’s ecosystem may have in social innovation efforts. Researchers with Grand Valley State University collaborated with Talent 2025 of West Michigan to conduct a mixed-methods research study to paint a comprehensive picture of the workforce development ecosystem in West Michigan. Using semi-structured interviewing, observation, secondary research, and quantitative analysis, data were compiled on workforce development organizations’ locations, programming, metrics for success, partnerships, funding sources, and service language. To best visualize and disseminate the data, a geographic system map was created which identifies programmatic, operational, and geographic gaps in workforce development services of West Michigan. By combining geographic and systems mapping methods, the geographic system map provides insight into the cross-sector relationships, collaboration, and competition which exists among and between workforce development organizations. These insights identify opportunities for and constraints around cross-sectoral social innovation in the West Michigan workforce development ecosystem. This paper will discuss the process utilized to prepare the geographic systems map, explain the results and outcomes, and demonstrate how geographic systems mapping illuminated the needs of the community and opportunities for social innovation. As complicated social problems like unemployment often require cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder solutions, there is potential for geographic systems mapping to be a tool which informs, enables, and inspires these solutions.

Keywords: cross-sector collaboration, data visualization, geographic systems mapping, social innovation, workforce development

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Authors: Maciej Sobczak, Julita Pietrzak, Tomasz Płoszaj, Agnieszka Robaszkiewicz

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Brg1, a member of SWI/SNF complex, plays a role in chromatin remodeling, therefore, regulates expression of many genes. Brg1 is an ATPase of SWI/SNF complex, thus its activity requires ATP. Through its bromodomain recognizes acetylated histone residues and evicts them, thus promoting transcriptionally active state of chromatin. One of the enzymes that is responsible for acetylation of histone residues is Ep300. It was previously shown in the literature that cooperation of Brg1 and Ep300 occurs at the promoter regions that have binding sites for E2F-family transcription factors as well as CpG islands. According to literature, approximately 20% of human cancer possess mutation in Brg1 or any other crucial SWI/SNF subunit. That phenomenon makes Brg1-Ep300 a very promising target for anti-cancer therapy. Therefore in our study, we investigated if physical interaction between Brg1 and Ep300 exists and what impact those two proteins have on key for breast cancer cells processes such as DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Bioinformatical analysis pointed out, that genes involved in cell proliferation and DNA damage repair are overexpressed in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, promoter regions of these genes are highly acetylated, which suggests high transcriptional activity of those sites. Notably, many of those gene possess within their promoters an E2F, Brg1 motives, as well as CpG islands and acetylated histones. Our data show that Brg1 physically interacts with Ep300, and together they regulate expression of genes involved in DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Upon inhibiting Brg1 or Ep300, expression of vital for cancer cell survival genes such as CDK2/4, BRCA1/2, PCNA, and XRCC1 is decreased in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells. Moreover, inhibition or silencing of either Brg1 or Ep300 leads to cell cycle arrest in G1. After inhibition of BRG1 or Ep300 on tested gene promoters, the repressor complex including Rb, HDAC1, and EZH2 is formed, which inhibits gene expression. These results highlight potentially significant target for targeted anticancer therapy to be introduced as a supportive therapy.

Keywords: brg1, ep300, breast cancer, epigenetics

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Authors: Ahmed Aljudaya, Derek Ingham, Lin Ma, Kevin Hughes, Mohammed Pourkashanian

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Researchers, power companies, and state politicians have given concentrated solar power (CSP) much attention due to its capacity to generate large amounts of electricity whereas overcoming the intermittent nature of solar resources. The Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) is a well-known CSP technology type for being inexpensive, having a low land use factor, and suffering from low optical efficiency. The LFR was considered a cost-effective alternative option to the Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) because of its simplistic design, and this often outweighs its lower efficiency. The LFR has been found to be a promising option for directly producing steam to a thermal cycle in order to generate low-cost electricity, but also it has been shown to be promising for indirect steam generation. The purpose of this important analysis is to compare the annual performance of the Direct Steam Generation (DSG) and Indirect Steam Generation (ISG) of LFR power plants using molten salt and other different Heat Transfer Fluids (HTF) to investigate their technical and economic effects. A 50 MWe solar-only system is examined as a case study for both steam production methods in extreme weather conditions. In addition, a parametric analysis is carried out to determine the optimal solar field size that provides the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) while achieving the highest technical performance. As a result of optimizing the optimum solar field size, the solar multiple (SM) is found to be between 1.2 – 1.5 in order to achieve as low as 9 Cent/KWh for the direct steam generation of the linear Fresnel reflector. In addition, the power plant is capable of producing around 141 GWh annually and up to 36% of the capacity factor, whereas the ISG produces less energy at a higher cost. The optimization results show that the DSG’s performance overcomes the ISG in producing around 3% more annual energy, 2% lower LCOE, and 28% less capital cost.

Keywords: concentrated solar power, levelized cost of electricity, linear Fresnel reflectors, steam generation

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Authors: Nicole M. Martino

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Reinforced concrete bridge deck condition assessments primarily use visual inspection methods, where an inspector looks for and records locations of cracks, potholes, efflorescence and other signs of probable deterioration. Sounding is another technique used to diagnose the condition of a bridge deck, however this method listens for damage within the subsurface as the surface is struck with a hammer or chain. Even though extensive procedures are in place for using these inspection techniques, neither one provides the inspector with a comprehensive understanding of the internal condition of a bridge deck – the location where damage originates from.  In order to make accurate estimates of repair locations and quantities, in addition to allocating the necessary funding, a total understanding of the deck’s deteriorated state is key. The research presented in this paper collected infrared thermography and ground penetrating radar data from reinforced concrete bridge decks without an asphalt overlay. These decks were of various ages and their condition varied from brand new, to in need of replacement. The goals of this work were to first verify that these nondestructive evaluation methods could identify similar areas of healthy and damaged concrete, and then to see if combining the results of both methods would provide a higher confidence than if the condition assessment was completed using only one method. The results from each method were presented as plan view color contour plots. The results from one of the decks assessed as a part of this research, including these plan view plots, are presented in this paper. Furthermore, in order to answer the interest of transportation agencies throughout the United States, this research developed a step-by-step guide which demonstrates how to collect and assess a bridge deck using these nondestructive evaluation methods. This guide addresses setup procedures on the deck during the day of data collection, system setups and settings for different bridge decks, data post-processing for each method, and data visualization and quantification.

Keywords: bridge deck deterioration, ground penetrating radar, infrared thermography, NDT of bridge decks

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Authors: Lai Peng, Cristina Pintucci, Dries Seuntjens, José Carvajal-Arroyo, Siegfried Vlaeminck

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Economic incentives drive the implementation of short-cut nitrogen removal processes such as nitritation/denitritation (Nit/DNit) to manage nitrogen in waste streams devoid of biodegradable organic carbon. However, as any biological nitrogen removal process, the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) could be emitted from Nit/DNit. Challenges remain in understanding the fundamental mechanisms and development of engineered mitigation strategies for N2O production. To provide answers, this work focuses on manure as a model, the biggest wasted nitrogen mass flow through our economies. A sequencing batch reactor (SBR; 4.5 L) was used treating the centrate (centrifuge supernatant; 2.0 ± 0.11 g N/L of ammonium) from an anaerobic digester processing mainly pig manure, supplemented with a co-substrate. Glycerin was used as external carbon source, a by-product of vegetable oil. Out-selection of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) was targeted using a combination of low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels (down to 0.5 mg O2/L), high temperature (35ºC) and relatively high free ammonia (FA) (initially 10 mg NH3-N/L). After reaching steady state, the process was able to remove 100% of ammonium with minimum nitrite and nitrate in the effluent, at a reasonably high nitrogen loading rate (0.4 g N/L/d). Substantial N2O emissions (over 15% of the nitrogen loading) were observed at the baseline operational condition, which were even increased under nitrite accumulation and a low organic carbon to nitrogen ratio. Yet, higher DO (~2.2 mg O2/L) lowered aerobic N2O emissions and weakened the dependency of N2O on nitrite concentration, suggesting a shift of N2O production pathway at elevated DO levels. Limiting the greenhouse gas emissions (environmental protection) from such a system could be substantially minimized by increasing the external carbon dosage (a cost factor), but also through the implementation of an intermittent aeration and feeding strategy. Promising steps forward have been presented in this abstract, yet at the conference the insights of ongoing experiments will also be shared.

Keywords: mitigation, nitrous oxide, nitritation/denitritation, pig manure

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Authors: Shahin A. Abdel-Naby, James P. Colgan, Michael S. Pindzola

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A time-dependent close-coupling method is developed to calculate a total, double and triple autoionization rates for hollow atomic ions of four-electron systems. This work was motivated by recent observations of the four-electron Auger process in near K-edge photoionization of C+ ions. The time-dependent close-coupled equations are solved using lattice techniques to obtain a discrete representation of radial wave functions and all operators on a four-dimensional grid with uniform spacing. Initial excited states are obtained by relaxation of the Schrodinger equation in imaginary time using a Schmidt orthogonalization method involving interior subshells. The radial wave function grids are partitioned over the cores on a massively parallel computer, which is essential due to the large memory requirements needed to store the coupled-wave functions and the long run times needed to reach the convergence of the ionization process. Total, double, and triple autoionization rates are obtained by the propagation of the time-dependent close-coupled equations in real-time using integration over bound and continuum single-particle states. These states are generated by matrix diagonalization of one-electron Hamiltonians. The total autoionization rates for each L excited state is found to be slightly above the single autoionization rate for the excited configuration using configuration-average distorted-wave theory. As expected, we find the double and triple autoionization rates to be much smaller than the total autoionization rates. Future work can be extended to study electron-impact triple ionization of atoms or ions. The work was supported in part by grants from the American University of Sharjah and the US Department of Energy. Computational work was carried out at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in Berkeley, California, USA.

Keywords: hollow atoms, autoionization, auger rates, time-dependent close-coupling method

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Authors: Percy Galvez, Anatoly Petukhin, Paul Somerville, Ken Miyakoshi, Kojiro Irikura, Daniel Peter

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Physics-based dynamic rupture modelling is necessary for estimating parameters such as rupture velocity and slip rate function that are important for ground motion simulation, but poorly resolved by observations, e.g. by seismic source inversion. In order to generate a large number of physically self-consistent rupture models, whose rupture process is consistent with the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of past earthquakes, we use multicycle simulations under the heterogeneous rate-and-state (RS) friction law for a 45deg dip-slip fault. We performed a parametrization study by fully dynamic rupture modeling, and then, a set of spontaneous source models was generated in a large magnitude range (Mw > 7.0). In order to validate rupture models, we compare the source scaling relations vs. seismic moment Mo for the modeled rupture area S, as well as average slip Dave and the slip asperity area Sa, with similar scaling relations from the source inversions. Ground motions were also computed from our models. Their peak ground velocities (PGV) agree well with the GMPE values. We obtained good agreement of the permanent surface offset values with empirical relations. From the heterogeneous rupture models, we analyzed parameters, which are critical for ground motion simulations, i.e. distributions of slip, slip rate, rupture initiation points, rupture velocities, and source time functions. We studied cross-correlations between them and with the friction weakening distance Dc value, the only initial heterogeneity parameter in our modeling. The main findings are: (1) high slip-rate areas coincide with or are located on an outer edge of the large slip areas, (2) ruptures have a tendency to initiate in small Dc areas, and (3) high slip-rate areas correlate with areas of small Dc, large rupture velocity and short rise-time.

Keywords: earthquake dynamics, strong ground motion prediction, seismic engineering, source characterization

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Authors: Gu Sihao

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The coordinated development of "ecology-production-life" in cities has been highly concerned by the country, and the transformation development and sustainable development of resource-based cities have become a hot research topic at present. As an important part of China's resource-based cities, coal resource-based cities have the characteristics of large number and wide distribution. However, due to the adjustment of national energy structure and the gradual exhaustion of urban coal resources, the development vitality of coal resource-based cities is gradually reduced. In many studies, the deterioration of ecological environment in coal resource-based cities has become the main problem restricting their urban transformation and sustainable development due to the "emphasis on economy and neglect of ecology". Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Central Government has been deepening territorial space planning and development. On the premise of optimizing territorial space development pattern, it has completed the demarcation of ecological protection red lines, carried out ecological zoning and ecosystem evaluation, which have become an important basis and scientific guarantee for ecological modernization and ecological civilization construction. Grasp the regional multiple ecosystem services is the precondition of the ecosystem management, and the relationship between the multiple ecosystem services study, ecosystem services cluster can identify the interactions between multiple ecosystem services, and on the basis of the characteristics of the clusters on regional ecological function zoning, to better Social-Ecological system management. Based on this cognition, this study optimizes the spatial function zoning of Gujiao, a coal resource-based city, in order to provide a new theoretical basis for its sustainable development. This study is based on the detailed analysis of characteristics and utilization of Gujiao city land space, using SOFM neural networks to identify local ecosystem service clusters, according to the cluster scope and function of ecological function zoning of space partition balance and coordination between different ecosystem services strength, establish a relationship between clusters and land use, and adjust the functions of territorial space within each zone. Then, according to the characteristics of coal resources city and national spatial function zoning characteristics, as the driving factors of land change, by cellular automata simulation program, such as simulation under different restoration strategy situation of urban future development trend, and provides relevant theories and technical methods for the "third-line" demarcations of Gujiao's territorial space planning, optimizes territorial space functions, and puts forward targeted strategies for the promotion of regional ecosystem services, providing theoretical support for the improvement of human well-being and sustainable development of resource-based cities.

Keywords: coal resource-based city, territorial spatial planning, ecosystem service cluster, gmop model, geosos-FLUS model, functional zoning optimization and upgrading

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Authors: Iyabode A. Kehinde, Joshua O. Oyekanmi, Jumoke T. Abimbola, Olajumoke E. Ayanda

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African yam bean (AYB), (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) is a leguminous crop that provides nutritionally rich seeds, tubers and leaves for human consumption. AYB potentials as an important food security crop is yet to be realized and thus classified as underutilized crop. Underutilization of the crop has been partly associated with scarce information on the incidence and characterization of fungal endophytes infecting vascular parts of AYB. Accurate and robust detection of these endophytic fungi is essential for diagnosis, modeling, surveillance and protection of germplasm (seed) health. This work aimed at isolating and identifying fungal endophytes associated with leaves, stems and roots of AYB in Ogun State, Nigeria. This study investigated both cultural and molecular properties of endophytic fungi in AYB for its characterization and diversity. Fungal endophytes were isolated and culturally identified. DNA extraction, PCR amplification using ITS primers and analyses of nucleotide sequences of ribosomal DNA fragments were conducted on selected isolates. BLAST analysis was conducted on consensus nucleotide sequences of 28 out of 30 isolates and results showed similar homology with genera of Rhizopus, Cunninghamella, Fusarium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, Diaporthe, Nigrospora, Purpureocillium, Corynespora, Magnaporthe, Macrophomina, Curvularia, Acrocalymma, Talaromyces and Simplicillium. Slight similarity was found with endophytes associated with soybean. Phylogenetic analysis by maximum likelihood method showed high diversity among the general. These organisms have high economic importance in crop improvement. For an instance, Purpureocillium lilacinum showed high potential in control of root rot caused by nematodes in tomatoes. Though some can be pathogens, but many of the fungal endophytes have beneficial attributes to plant in host health, uptake of nutrients, disease suppression, and host immunity.

Keywords: molecular characterization, African Yam Bean, fungal endophyte, plant parts

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Authors: Manushi Srivastava

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Introduction: Doctor’s role, and relation with respect to patient care is at the core of medical ethics. The rapid pace of medical advances along with increasing consumer awareness about their rights and hike in cost of effective health care demand a robust, transparent and patient-friendly medical care system. However, doctors’ role performance is still in the frame of activity-passivity model of Doctor-Patient Relationship (DPR) where doctors act as parent and use to instruct their patients, without their consensus that is not going to help in the 21st century. Thus the current situation is a new challenge for traditional doctor-patient relationship after the introduction of Consumer Protection Act (CPA) in medical profession and the same is evidenced by increasing cases of medical litigation. To strengthen this system of medical services, the doctor plays a vital role, and the same should be reviewed in the present context. Objective: To understand the opinion of consultants regarding medical negligence and effect of Consumer Protection Act in terms of current practices of patient care. Method: This is a cross-sectional study in which both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied. Total 69 consultants were selected from multi-specialty hospitals of densely populated Varanasi city catering a population of about 1.8 million. Two-stage sampling was used for selection of respondents. At the first stage, selection of major wards (Medicine, Surgery, Ophthalmology, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, and Paediatrics) was carried out, which are more susceptible to medical negligence. At the second stage, selection of consultants from the respective wards was carried out. In-depth Interviews were conducted with the help of semi-structured schedule. Two case studies of medical negligence were also carried out as part of the qualitative study. Analysis: Data were analyzed with the help of SPSS software (21.0 trial version). Semi-structured research tool was used to know consultant’s opinion about the pattern of medical negligence cases, litigations and claims made by patient community and inclusion of government medical services in CPA. Statistical analysis was done to describe data, and non-parametric test was used to observe the association between the variables. Analysis of Verbatim was used in case-study. Findings and Conclusion: Majority (92.8%) of consultants felt changes in the behaviour of community (patient) after implementation of CPA, as it had increased awareness about their rights. Less than half of the consultants opined that Medical Negligence is an Unintentional act of doctors and generally occurs due to communication gap and behavioural problem between doctor and patients. Experienced consultants ( > 10 years) pointed out that unethical practice by doctors and mal-intention of patient to harass doctors were additional reasons of Medical Negligence. In-depth interview revealed that now patients’ community expects more transparency and hence they demand cafeteria approach in diagnosis and management of cases. Thus as study results, we propose ‘Agreement Model’ of DPR to re-ensure ethical practice in medical profession.

Keywords: doctors, communication, consumer protection act (CPA), medical error

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Authors: Ismahane Emma Karima Bessi

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Military sociology is largely avoided. Discussing the military as a societal phenomenon and the social dimensions of war and peace is now considered a disgraceful and neglected province of social science that has a major impact on global populations. The first official press war began with William Howard Russell in the mid-19th century. The media are crucial to war and peace. Even Gaius Julius Caesar, with his "commentarii bello gallico", was a media tool to influence his warfare. Napoleon Bonaparte also knew how important the press was for his actions. This shows how important history is for crisis and war journalism. The one-sided media coverage that every country is confronted with ultimately prevents people from having a certain interest in the truth and from gross knowledge gaps in order to get an accurate picture of reality. There is a need to examine the relationship between the military, war, and the media to look at the modality in which the media is involved in military conflicts, in this case, as an adjunct, i.e., war because of the media. These are promoted or initiated by the following factors: photos intended for the visual manipulation of the population, the pressure from politicians and parties who are urging and exerting their influence on the global media to share the same pattern of opinion, and, most importantly, the media profiting from the war by listening to popular reactions and passing them on promoting with new visuals. These influence political elections. The media occupies a huge and ubiquitous part of the population. These have the ability to make a country that is in constant crisis and war mode appear in a brilliant light of peace. An article or photograph taken by one journalist has a tremendous impact as it can control the minds of millions of people. Most wars currently have state-political reasons. The parties, therefore, want to have their (potential) voters on their side, who are inflated by the media. The military is loathed or loved. Thinking must be created that a well-trained military in the instances of natural sciences, history, and sociology can save or protect the lives of many people. Theoretical methods for this are defined and evaluated in more detail in this paper.

Keywords: war, history, military, science, journalism, crisis

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Authors: Prateek Singh, Dilshad Ahmad

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Growing demand for high-quality steel products has inspired researchers to investigate the unit operations involved in the manufacturing of these products (slabs, rods, sheets, etc.). One such operation is tundish operation, in which a vessel (tundish) acts as a buffer of molten steel for the solidification operation in mold. It is observed that tundish also plays a crucial role in the quality and cleanliness of the steel produced, besides merely acting as a reservoir for the mold. It facilitates removal of dissolved oxygen (inclusions) from the molten steel thus improving its cleanliness. Inclusion removal can be enhanced by increasing the residence time of molten steel in the tundish by incorporation of flow modifiers like dams, weirs, turbo-pad, etc. These flow modifiers also help in reducing the dead or short circuit zones within the tundish which is significant for maintaining thermal and chemical homogeneity of molten steel. Thus, it becomes important to analyze the flow of molten steel in the tundish for different configuration of flow modifiers. In the present work, effect of varying positions and heights/depths of dam and weir on the dead volume in tundish is studied. Steady state thermal and flow profiles of molten steel within the tundish are obtained using OpenFOAM. Subsequently, Residence Time Distribution analysis is performed to obtain the percentage of dead volume in the tundish. Design of Experiment method is then used to configure different tundish geometries for varying positions and heights/depths of dam and weir, and dead volume for each tundish design is obtained. A second-degree polynomial with two-term interactions of independent variables to predict the dead volume in the tundish with positions and heights/depths of dam and weir as variables are computed using Multiple Linear Regression model. This polynomial is then used in an optimization framework to obtain the optimal tundish geometry for minimizing dead volume using Sequential Quadratic Programming optimization.

Keywords: design of experiments, multiple linear regression, OpenFOAM, residence time distribution, sequential quadratic programming optimization, steel, tundish

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: D. F. Zeynalov, T. V. Kartseva, O. V. Sorokin

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Currently, approaches to assess cardiointervalography are based on the calculation of data variance intervals RR. However, they do not allow the evaluation of features related to a period of the cardiac cycle, so how electromechanical phenomena during cardiac subphase are characterized by differently directed changes. Therefore, we have proposed a method of subphase analysis of the cardiac cycle, developed in the department of hominal physiology Novosibirsk State Medical University to identify the features of the dispersion subphase of the cardiac cycle. In the present paper we have examined the 5-minute intervals cardiointervalography (CIG) to isolate RR-, QT-, ST-ranges in healthy children and children with acute respiratory diseases (ARD) in comparison. It is known that primary school-aged children suffer at ARD 5-7 times per year. Consequently, it is one of the most relevant problems in pediatrics. It is known that the spectral indices and indices of temporal analysis of heart rate variability are highly sensitive to the degree of intoxication during immunological process. We believe that the use of subphase analysis of heart rate will allow more thoroughly evaluate responsiveness of the child organism during the course of ARD. The study involved 60 primary school-aged children (30 boys and 30 girls). In order to assess heart rhythm regulation, the record CIG was used on the "VNS-Micro" device of Neurosoft Company (Ivanovo) for 5 minutes in the supine position and 5 minutes during active orthostatic test. Subphase analysis of variance QT-interval and ST-segment was performed on the "KardioBOS" software Biokvant Company (Novosibirsk). In assessing the CIG in the supine position and in during orthostasis of children with acute respiratory diseases only RR-intervals are observed typical trend of general biological reactions through pressosensitive compensation mechanisms to lower blood pressure, but compared with healthy children the severity of the changes is different, of sick children are more pronounced indicators of heart rate regulation. But analysis CIG RR-intervals and analysis subphase ST-segment have yielded conflicting trends, which may be explained by the different nature of the intra- and extracardiac influences on regulatory mechanisms that implement the various phases of the cardiac cycle.

Keywords: acute respiratory diseases, cardiointervalography, subphase analysis, cardiac cycle

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Authors: Mohamed Khalifa Zayet, Salma Belal Eiid, Mushira Mohamed Dahaba

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Introduction: Malignant tumors may not be easily detected by traditional radiographic techniques especially in an anatomically complex area like maxillofacial region. At the same time, the advent of biological functional MRI was a significant footstep in the diagnostic imaging field. Objective: The purpose of this study was to define the malignant metabolic profile of maxillofacial lesions using diffusion MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, as adjunctive aids for diagnosing of such lesions. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-one patients with twenty-two lesions were enrolled in this study. Both morphological and functional MRI scans were performed, where T1, T2 weighted images, diffusion-weighted MRI with four apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were constructed for analysis, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy with qualitative and semi-quantitative analyses of choline and lactate peaks were applied. Then, all patients underwent incisional or excisional biopsies within two weeks from MR scans. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that not all the parameters had the same diagnostic performance, where lactate had the highest areas under the curve (AUC) of 0.9 and choline was the lowest with insignificant diagnostic value. The best cut-off value suggested for lactate was 0.125, where any lesion above this value is supposed to be malignant with 90 % sensitivity and 83.3 % specificity. Despite that ADC maps had comparable AUCs still, the statistical measure that had the final say was the interpretation of likelihood ratio. As expected, lactate again showed the best combination of positive and negative likelihood ratios, whereas for the maps, ADC map with 500 and 1000 b-values showed the best realistic combination of likelihood ratios, however, with lower sensitivity and specificity than lactate. Conclusion: Diffusion weighted imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy are state-of-art in the diagnostic arena and they manifested themselves as key players in the differentiation process of orofacial tumors. The complete biological profile of malignancy can be decoded as low ADC values, high choline and/or high lactate, whereas that of benign entities can be translated as high ADC values, low choline and no lactate.

Keywords: diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, malignant tumors, maxillofacial

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Authors: Tamara Roma, Emma Capulli

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Pregnancy and fertility, in other words, reproduction, has become, in the last half of the century, increasingly and globally controlled, medicalized, and regulated. The reflection proposed starts from the consequences of the inscription of reproduction into the neoliberal economic paradigm. The new biotechnologies developments have raised a new patriarchal justification for State’s control of uterus bodies and a new construction of knowledge about reproductive health. Moral discussion and juridification remove reproduction and non-reproduction from their personal and intimate context and frame them under words like “duties”, “rights”, “family planning”, “demography”, and “population policy”, reinvent them as “States business” and ultimately help to re/confirm a specific construct of fertility, motherhood, and family. Moreover, the interaction between the neoliberal economy and medical biotechnologies brought about a new formulation of the connection between feminine generative potential and value production. The widespread and contemporary debates on Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR), surrogacy and abortion suggest the need for a “feminist/queer global bioethical discourse” capable of inserting itself into the official bioethical debate characterized by the traditional dichotomy of laic bioethics/Catholic bioethics. The contribution moves from a feminist bioethics perspective on reproductive technologies to introduce a feminist/queer global bioethics point of view on reproductive health. The comparison between reproduction and non-reproduction debates is useful to analyze and demonstrate how restrictive legislations, dichotomic bioethical discussion and medical control confirm and strengthens gender injustice in reproductive life. In fact, MAR, surrogacy, and abortion restrictions stem from a shared social and legal paradigm that depends on traditional gender roles revealing how the stratification of reproduction is based on multiple discrimination along the lines of gender, race, and class. In conclusion, the perspective of feminist/queer global bioethics tries to read the concept of universal reproductive justice, introducing an original point of view on reproductive health access.

Keywords: queer bioethics, reproductive health, reproductive justice, reproductive technologies

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Authors: Jens Hagman, Jenny Janhager Stier, Ellen Olausson, Anne Y. Faxer, Ana Magazinius

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Sweden has the second highest electric vehicle (plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicle) sales per capita in Europe but in relation to sales of internal combustion engine electric vehicles sales are still minuscular (< 4%). Much research effort has been placed on various technical and user focused barriers and enablers for adoption of electric vehicles. Less effort has been placed on investigating the retail (dealership-customer) sales process of vehicles in general and electric vehicles in particular. Arguably, no one ought to be better informed about needs and desires of potential electric vehicle buyers than car salesmen, originating from their daily encounters with customers at the dealership. The aim of this paper is to explore the conditions of selling electric vehicle from a car salesmen’s perspective. This includes identifying barriers and enablers for electric vehicle sales originating from internal (dealership and brand) and external (customer, government) sources. In this interview study five car brands (manufacturers) that sell both electric and internal combustion engine vehicles have been investigated. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews have been conducted (three per brand, in rural and urban settings and at different dealerships). Initial analysis reveals several barriers and enablers, experienced by car salesmen, which influence electric vehicle sales. Examples of as reported by car salesmen identified barriers are: -Electric vehicles earn car salesmen less commission on average compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. -It takes more time to sell and deliver an electric vehicle than an internal combustion engine vehicle. -Current leasing contracts entails relatively low second-hand value estimations for electric vehicles and thus a high leasing fee, which negatively affects the attractiveness of electric vehicles for private consumers in particular. -High purchasing price discourages many consumers from considering electric vehicles. -The education and knowledge level of electric vehicles differs between car salesmen, which could affect their self-confidence in meeting well prepared and question prone electric vehicle buyers. Examples of identified enablers are: -Company car tax regulation promotes sales of electric vehicles; in particular, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are sold extensively to companies (up to 95 % of sales). -Low operating cost of electric vehicles such as fuel and service is an advantage when understood by consumers. -The drive performance of electric vehicles (quick, silent and fun to drive) is attractive to consumers. -Environmental aspects are considered important for certain consumer groups. -Fast technological improvements, such as increased range are opening up a wider market for electric vehicles. -For one of the brands; attractive private lease campaigns have proved effective to promote sales. This paper gives insights of an important but often overlooked aspect for the diffusion of electric vehicles (and durable products in general); the interaction between car salesmen and customers at the critical acquiring moment. Extracted through interviews with multiple car salesmen. The results illuminate untapped potential for sellers (salesmen, dealerships and brands) to mitigating sales barriers and strengthening sales enablers and thus becoming a more important actor in the electric vehicle diffusion process.

Keywords: customer barriers, electric vehicle promotion, sales of electric vehicles, interviews with car salesmen

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Authors: Arif Budiman

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Any organization or company that wishes to achieve vision, mission, and goals of the organization is required to implement a performance management system or known as the Performance Management System (PMS) in every part of the whole organization. PMS is a tool to help visualize the direction and work program of the organization to achieve the goal. The challenge is PMS should not stop merely as a visualization tool to achieve the vision and mission of the organization, but PMS should also be able to create a high-performance culture that is inherent in each individual of the organization. Establishment of a culture within an organization requires the support of top leaders and also requires a system or governance that encourages every individual in the organization to be involved in any work program of the organization. Keywords of creating a high-performance culture are the formation of communication pattern involving the whole individual, either vertically or horizontally, and performed consistently and persistently by all individuals in each line of the organization. PT Pertamina (Persero) as the state-owned national energy company holds a system to internalize the culture of high performance through a system called Performance Management System Cycle (PMS Cycle). This system has 7 stages of the cycle, those are: (1) defining vision, mission and strategic plan of the company, (2) defining key performance indicator of each line and the individual (‘expectation setting conversation’), (3) defining performance target and performance agreement, (4) monitoring performance on a monthly regular basis (‘pulse check’), (5) implementing performance dialogue between leaders and staffs periodically every 3 months (‘performance dialogue’), (6) defining rewards and consequences based on the achievement of the performance of each line and the individual, and (7) calculating the final performance value achieved by each line and individual from one period of the current year. Perform PMS is a continual communication running throughout the year, that is why any three performance discussion that should be performed, include expectation setting conversations, pulse check and performance dialogue. In addition, another significant point and necessary undertaken to complete the assessment of individual performance assessment is soft competencies through 360-degree assessment by leaders, staffs, and peers.

Keywords: 360-degree assessment, expectation setting conversation, performance management system cycle, performance dialogue, pulse check

Procedia PDF Downloads 426