Search results for: ecological landscape area

Authors: Bo Hu, Mui-Choo Jong, João Frias, Irina Chubarenko, Gabriel Enrique De-la-Torre, Prabhu Kolandhasamy, Md. Jaker Hossain, Elena Esiukova, Lei Su, Hua Deng, Huahong Shi

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Plastic debris in coastal environments undergoes a series of aging processes due to the diverse environmental conditions they are exposed to. Existing research to date lacks a thorough understanding of how these processes affect exposed and non-exposed sides of plastic fragments, leading to potentially biased conclusions on how degradation occurs. This study addresses this knowledge gap by examining surface aging characteristics on both sides (e.g., cracks, delaminations, pits, wrinkles and color residues) of 1573 plastic fragments collected from 15 coastal sites worldwide and conducting outdoor aging simulations. A clear contrast was observed between the two sides of the plastic fragments, where one of the sides often displayed more pronounced aging features. Three key indicators were introduced to quantify the aging characteristics of plastic fragments, with values ranging from 0.00 to 58.00 mm/mm2 (line density), 0.00 to 92.12% (surface loss) and 0.00 to 1.51 (texture index), respectively. Outdoor simulations revealed that sun-exposed sides of plastic sheets developed more cracks, pores, and bubbles, while the shaded sides remained smoother. The annual average solar radiation intensity of 4.47 kWh in the experimental area exacerbated the degradation of the sun-exposed side, as confirmed by a significant increase in carbonyl index, with PE rising from 0.50 to 1.70, PP from 0.18 to 1.10, and PVC from 0.45 to 1.57, indicating photoaging. These results highlight the uneven weathering patterns of plastic fragments on shorelines due to varying environmental stresses. In particular, the side facing the sun exhibited more pronounced signs of aging. Outdoor experiments confirmed that the fragments’ sun-exposed sides experienced significantly higher degrees of weathering compared to the shaded sides. This study demonstrated that the divergent weathering patterns on the two sides of beach plastic fragments were primarily driven by differences in light exposure, duration, and mechanical stress.

Keywords: plastic fragments, coastal environment, surface aging features, two-sided differences

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Authors: Akalework Mengesha

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The adoption of improved agricultural technologies has been connected with higher earnings and lower poverty, enhanced nutritional status, lower staple food prices, and increased employment opportunities for landless laborers. The adoption and extension of the technologies are vastly crucial in that it enables the countries to achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) of reducing extreme poverty and hunger. There are efforts which directed to the enlargement and provision of modern crop varieties in sub-Saharan Africa in the past 30 years. Nevertheless, by and large, the adoption and expansion of rates for improved technologies have insulated behind other regions. This research aims to assess social and economic barriers in the adoption and expansion of agricultural technologies by local communities living around a private agricultural farm in Woliatta Zone, Southern Ethiopia. The study has been carried out among rural households which are located in the three localities selected for the study in the Woliatta zone. Across sectional mixed method, the design was used to address the study objective. The qualitative method was employed (in-depth interview, key informant, and focus group discussion) involving a total of 42 in-depth informants, 17 key-informant interviews, 2 focus group discussions comprising of 10 individuals in each group through purposive sampling techniques. The survey method was mainly used in the study to examine the impact of attitudinal, demographic, and socioeconomic variables on farmers’ adoption of agricultural technologies for quantitative data. The finding of the study revealed that Amibara commercial farm has not made a resolute and well-organized effort to extend agricultural technology to the surrounding local community. A comprehensive agricultural technology transfer scheme hasn’t been put in place by the commercial farm ever since it commenced operating in the study area. Besides, there is an ongoing conflict of interest between the farm and the community, which has kept on widening through time, bounds to be irreversible.

Keywords: adoption, technology transfer, agriculture, barriers

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Authors: Monu Ojha, Rahul Rana, Satywati Sharma, Kavya Dashora

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The global production rate of plastics has increased enormously and global demand for polyethylene resins –High-density polyethylene (HDPE), Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is expected to rise drastically, with very high value. These get accumulated in the environment, posing a potential ecological threat as they are degrading at a very slow rate and remain in the environment indefinitely. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of commonly found soil microbes like Bacillus subtilus, Aspergillus niger, Pseudomonas fluroscence for their ability to biodegrade LDPE in the lab on solid and liquid media conditions as well as in presence of 1% salt in the soil. This study was conducted at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India from July to September where average temperature and RH (Relative Humidity) were 33 degrees Celcius and 80% respectively. It revealed that the weight loss of LDPE strip obtained from market of approximately 4x6 cm dimensions is more in liquid broth media than in solid agar media. The percentage weight loss by P. fluroscence, A. niger and B. subtilus observed after 80 days of incubation was 15.52, 9.24 and 8.99% respectively in broth media and 6.93, 2.18 and 4.76 % in agar media. The LDPE strips from same source and on the same were subjected to soil in presence of above microbes with 1% salt (NaCl: obtained from commercial table salt) with temperature and RH 33 degree Celcius and 80%. It was found that the rate of degradation increased in the soil than under lab conditions. The rate of weight loss of LDPE strips under same conditions given in lab was found to be 32.98, 15.01 and17.09 % by P. fluroscence, A. niger and B. subtilus respectively. The breaking strength was found to be 9.65N, 29N and 23.85 N for P. fluroscence, A. niger and B. subtilus respectively. SEM analysis conducted on Zeiss EVO 50 confirmed that surface of LDPE becomes physically weak after biological treatment. There was the increase in the surface roughness indicating Surface erosion of LDPE film. FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis of the degraded LDPE films showed stretching of aldehyde group at 3334.92 and 3228.84 cm-1,, C–C=C symmetric of aromatic ring at 1639.49 cm-1.There was also C=O stretching of aldehyde group at 1735.93 cm-1. N=O peak bend was also observed which corresponds to 1365.60 cm-1, C–O stretching of ether group at 1217.08 and 1078.21 cm-1.

Keywords: microbial degradation, LDPE, Aspergillus niger, Bacillus subtilus, Peudomonas fluroscence, common salt

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Authors: Khuram Nawaz Sadozai, Rizwan Ahmad, Munawar Raza Kazmi, Awais Habib

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Climate change and crop production are intrinsically associated with each other. Therefore, this research study is designed to assess the impact of climate change on pulses production in Southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province of Pakistan. Two pulses (i.e. chickpea and mung bean) were selected for this research study with respect to climate change. Climatic variables such as temperature, humidity and precipitation along with pulses production and area under cultivation of pulses were encompassed as the major variables of this study. Secondary data of climatic variables and crop variables for the period of thirty four years (1986-2020) were obtained from Pakistan Metrological Department and Agriculture Statistics of KP respectively. Panel data set of chickpea and mung bean crops was estimated separately. The analysis validate that both data sets were a balanced panel data. The Hausman specification test was run separately for both the panel data sets whose findings had suggested the fixed effect model can be deemed as an appropriate model for chickpea panel data, however random effect model was appropriate for estimation of the panel data of mung bean. Major findings confirm that maximum temperature is statistically significant for the chickpea yield. This implies if maximum temperature increases by 1 0C, it can enhance the chickpea yield by 0.0463 units. However, the impact of precipitation was reported insignificant. Furthermore, the humidity was statistically significant and has a positive association with chickpea yield. In case of mung bean the minimum temperature was significantly contributing in the yield of mung bean. This study concludes that temperature and humidity can significantly contribute to enhance the pulses yield. It is recommended that capacity building of pulses growers may be made to adapt the climate change strategies. Moreover, government may ensure the availability of climate change resistant varieties of pulses to encourage the pulses cultivation.

Keywords: climate change, pulses productivity, agriculture, Pakistan

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Authors: Naima Bouslah, Leila Bounabi, Farid Ouazib, Nabila Haddadine

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Conventional release dosage forms are known to provide an immediate release of the drug. Controlling the rate of drug release from polymeric matrices is very important for a number of applications, particularly in the pharmaceutical area. Hydrogels are polymers in three-dimensional network arrangement, which can absorb and retain large amounts of water without dissolution. They have been frequently used to develop controlled released formulations for oral administration because they can extend the duration of drug release and thus reduce dose to be administrated improving patient compliance. Tramadol is an opioid pain medication used to treat moderate to moderately severe pain. When taken as an immediate-release oral formulation, the onset of pain relief usually occurs within about an hour. In the present work, we synthesized pH-responsive hydrogels of (hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid), (HEMA-AA) for control drug delivery of tramadol in the gastro-intestinal tractus. The hydrogels with different acrylic acid content, were synthesized by free radical polymerization and characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X ray diffraction analysis (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). FTIR spectroscopy has shown specific hydrogen bonding interactions between the carbonyl groups of the hydrogels and hydroxyl groups of tramadol. Both the XRD and DSC studies revealed that the introduction of tramadol in the hydrogel network induced the amorphization of the drug. The swelling behaviour, absorptive kinetics and the release kinetics of tramadol in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) and in simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.4) were also investigated. The hydrogels exhibited pH-responsive behavior in the swelling study. The (HEMA-AA) hydrogel swelling was much higher in pH =7.4 medium. The tramadol release was significantly increased when pH of the medium was changed from simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) to simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.4). Using suitable mathematical models, the apparent diffusional coefficients and the corresponding kinetic parameters have been calculated.

Keywords: biopolymres, drug delivery, hydrogels, tramadol

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Authors: Carie Cunningham, Krsiten Lynch

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Despite a viewer’s thought that they may be paying attention, many times they are missing out on their surrounds-- a phenomenon referred to as inattentional blindness. Inattention blindness refers to the failure of an individual to orient their attention to a particular item in their visual field. This well-defined in the psychology literature. Similarly, this phenomenon has been evaluated in media types in advertising. In advertising, not comprehending/remembering items in one’s field of vision is known as banner blindness. On the other hand, banner blindness is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals habitually see a banner in a specific area on a webpage, and thus condition themselves to ignore those habitual areas. Another reason that individuals avoid these habitual areas (usually on the top or sides of a webpage) is due to the lack of personal relevance or pertinent information to the viewer. Banner blindness, while a web-based concept, may also relate this inattention blindness. This paper is proposing an analysis of the true similarities and differences between these concepts bridging the two dimensions of thinking together. Forty participants participated in an eye-tracking and post-survey experiment to test attention and memory measures in both a banner blindness and inattention blindness condition. The two conditions were conducted between subjects semi-randomized order. Half of participants were told to search through the content ignoring the advertising banners; the other half of participants were first told to search through the content ignoring the distractor icon. These groups were switched after 5 trials and then 5 more trials were completed. In review of the literature, sustainability communication was found to have many inconsistencies with message production and viewer awareness. For the purpose of this study, we used advertising materials as stimuli. Results suggest that there are gaps between the two concepts and that more research should be done testing these effects in a real world setting versus an online environment. This contributes to theory by exploring the overlapping concepts—inattention blindness and banner blindness and providing the advertising industry with support that viewers can still fall victim to ignoring items in their field of view even if not consciously, which will impact message development.

Keywords: attention, banner blindness, eye movement, inattention blindness

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Authors: Sadeeq Launi

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NGOs, the world over, have been recognized as part of the institutions that complement government activities in providing services to the people, particularly in respect of human development. This study examined the role played by the NGOs in human development in Bauchi State, Nigeria, between 2004 and 2013. The emphasis was on reproductive health and access to education role of the selected NGOs. All the research questions, objectives and hypotheses were stated in line with these variables. The theoretical framework that guided the study was the participatory development approach. Being a survey research, data were generated from both primary and secondary sources with questionnaires and interviews as the instruments for generating the primary data. The population of the study was made up of the staff of the selected NGOs, beneficiaries, health staff and school teachers in Bauchi State. The sample drawn from these categories were 90, 107 and 148 units respectively. Stratified random and simple random sampling techniques were adopted for NGOs staff, and Health staff and school teachers data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively and hypotheses were tested using Pearson Chi-square test through SPSS computer statistical package. The study revealed that despite the challenges facing NGOs operations in the study area, NGOs rendered services in the areas of health and education This research recommends among others that, both government and people should be more cooperative to NGOs to enable them provide more efficient and effective services. Governments at all levels should be more dedicated to increasing accessibility and affordability of basic education and reproductive health care facilities and services in Bauchi state through committing more resources to the Health and Education sectors, this would support and facilitate the complementary role of NGOs in providing teaching facilities, drugs, and other reproductive health services in the States. More enlightenment campaigns should be carried out by governments to sensitize the public, particularly women on the need to embrace immunization programmes for their children and antenatal care services being provided by both the government and NGOs.

Keywords: access to education, human development, NGOs, reproductive health

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Authors: Vinay Kant Shankhdhar

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Purpose: Maxillary defects are three dimensional and require complex bone and soft tissue reconstruction. Maxillary reconstruction using fibula osteocutaneous flaps in situation requiring orbital floor, orbital wall, palatal defects, and external skin, all at the same time require special planning and multiple osteotomies. We tried to improvise our reconstruction using multiple osteotomies and skin paddle designs for fibula and Flexor Hallucis Longus Muscle. This study aims at discussing the planning and outcome in complex maxillary reconstructions using fibula flaps and soft tissue flaps with or without bone grafts. Material and Methods: From 2011 to 2017 a total of 129 Free fibula flaps were done, 67 required two or more struts, 164 Anterolateral Thigh Flaps, 11 Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery perforator flaps and 3 vertical rectus abdominis muscle flaps with iliac crest bone graft. The age range was 2 to 70 years. The reconstruction was evaluated based on the post-operative rehabilitation including orbital support (prevention of diplopia), oral diet, speech and cosmetic appearance. Results: The follow- up is from 5 years to 1 year. In this series, we observed that the common complications were the de-vascularisation of most distal segment of osteotomised fibula and native skin necrosis. Commonest area of breakdown is the medial canthal region. Plate exposure occurs most commonly at the pyriform sinus. There was extrusion of one non-vascularized bone graft. All these complications were noticed post-radiotherapy. Conclusions: The use of free fibula osteocutaneous flap gives very good results when only alveolar reconstruction is required. The reconstruction of orbital floor with extensive skin loss with post operative radiotherapy has maximum complication rate in long term follow up. A soft tissue flap with non vascularized bone graft may be the best option in such cases.

Keywords: maxilla reconstruction, fibula maxilla, post cancer maxillary reconstruction

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Authors: J. Bouguebrine, L. Bouabsa

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The ground of study is localized in central Hoggar and contains the most important layers and Stanno-Wolframifére indices of the metallogenic province have tin and wolfram of Hoggar. These layers are always associate with post-orogenetic Panafrican magmatism (GMR) which was set up in the form of circumscribed granitic solid masses of relatively reduced size or in dykes of microgranites. The area studied are in Tounine, Aléméda, Hanana-hananére, Tim Amzi, El Karoussa. The geochemical data processing watch peralumineux character rich person out of Li-F and rare metals (MR). Pegmatites of the type stocksheider, formations of greisens and mineralization Sn-W accompany these granites. Mineralisation Sn-W, expressed particularly well in the seams of quartz and greinsen is spacialement and génitiquement dependent on the maguatism specific to white feldspar-topaz (GMR) (grained and microgrenu). the mineral paragenesis is primarily made up of wolframite and cassetérite. The minerals of gangue are represented by quartz, topaz, the micas containing lithia and the fluorite. A microthermometric study of fluid inclusions related to the granites end on white feldspar-topaz of Hanana, topaz of Hananére, the microgranite of Aléméda, and the seams of quartz D In Tounine (Tiftazouine) and of Tim Amzi; allows to characterize the fluids associated with these layers. It comes out from this study the abundance of aqueous inclusions and three types of fluids were given: -Hot and salted fluids rich in volatile elements particularly CO2; -follow-ups by aquo-carbonic fluids less hot and moderately salted with temperatures of homogenisations (HT) average respectively of 300°C and 180°C; -finally of the aqueous fluids very little salted (≤1%pds.éq.NaCl) and definitely colder. An estimate depths éteé made starting from the diagram of (Haas, 1971) in the system H2O-NaCl, the results are the following: • Inclusion aqueous (L and Lw): correspond to depths of about 50 à500m. • Inclusions aquo-carbonic (Lcw and Lwc): correspond to depths of L order of 600 with 1200m • Carbonic inclusion (Vcw): correspond to depths about 1400à1800m

Keywords: fluid inclusions microthermométrie, cassiterite wolframite, granites with rare metals, Central Hoggar

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Authors: Muhammad Adeel Arshad, Shaukat Ali Bhatti, Faiz-ul Hassan

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Manipulating microbial ecosystem in the rumen is considered as an important strategy to optimize production efficiency in ruminants. In the past, antibiotics and synthetic chemical compounds have been used for the manipulation of rumen fermentation. However, since the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics has been banned, efforts are being focused to search out safe alternative products. In tropics, crop residues and forage grazing are major dietary sources for ruminants. Poor digestibility and utilization of these feedstuffs by animals is a limiting factor to exploit the full potential of ruminants in this area. Hence, there is a need to enhance the utilization of these available feeding resources. One of the potential strategies in this regard is the use of direct-fed microbes. Bacteria and fungi are mostly used as direct-fed microbes to improve animal health and productivity. Commonly used bacterial species include lactic acid-producing and utilizing bacteria (Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Bifidobacterium, and Bacillus) and fungal species of yeast are Saccharomyces and Aspergillus. Direct-fed microbes modulate microbial balance in the gastrointestinal tract through the competitive exclusion of pathogenic species and favoring beneficial microbes. Improvement in weight gain and feed efficiency has been observed as a result of feeding direct-fed bacteria. The use of fungi as a direct-fed microbe may prevent excessive production of lactate and harmful oxygen in the rumen leading to better feed digestibility. However, the mechanistic mode of action for bacterial or fungal direct-fed microbes has not been established yet. Various reports have confirmed an increase in dry matter intake, milk yield, and milk contents in response to the administration of direct-fed microbes. However, the application of a direct-fed microbe has shown variable responses mainly attributed to dosages and strains of microbes. Nonetheless, it is concluded that the inclusion of direct-fed microbes may mediate the rumen ecosystem to manage lactic acid production and utilization in both clinical and sub-acute rumen acidosis.

Keywords: microbes, roughages, rumen, feed efficiency, production, fermentation

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Authors: Jonghyuk Yoon, Hyoungwoon Song

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Recently, there are lots of increasing interest in a smart farming that represents application of modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into agriculture since it provides a methodology to optimize production efficiencies by managing growing conditions of crops automatically. In order to obtain high performance and stability for smart greenhouse, it is important to identify the effect of various working parameters such as capacity of ventilation fan, vent opening area and etc. In the present study, a 3-dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation for single-span greenhouse was conducted using the commercial program, Ansys CFX 18.0. The numerical simulation for single-span greenhouse was implemented to figure out the internal thermal and flow characteristics. In order to numerically model solar radiation that spread over a wide range of wavelengths, the multiband model that discretizes the spectrum into finite bands of wavelength based on Wien’s law is applied to the simulation. In addition, absorption coefficient of vinyl varied with the wavelength bands is also applied based on Beer-Lambert Law. To validate the numerical method applied herein, the numerical results of the temperature at specific monitoring points were compared with the experimental data. The average error rates (12.2~14.2%) between them was shown and numerical results of temperature distribution are in good agreement with the experimental data. The results of the present study can be useful information for the design of various greenhouses. This work was supported by Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (IPET) through Advanced Production Technology Development Program, funded by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA)(315093-03).

Keywords: single-span greenhouse, CFD (computational fluid dynamics), solar radiation, multiband model, absorption coefficient

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Authors: Deniz Guven, Wil Ward, Jinming Duan, Li Bai

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Over the past two decades or so, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has been used to diagnose retina and optic nerve diseases. The retinal nerve fibre layer, for example, is a powerful diagnostic marker for detecting and staging glaucoma. With the advances in optical imaging hardware, the adoption of OCT is now commonplace in clinics. More and more OCT images are being generated, and for these OCT images to have clinical applicability, accurate automated OCT image segmentation software is needed. Oct image segmentation is still an active research area, as OCT images are inherently noisy, with the multiplicative speckling noise. Simple edge detection algorithms are unsuitable for detecting retinal layer boundaries in OCT images. Intensity fluctuation, motion artefact, and the presence of blood vessels also decrease further OCT image quality. In this paper, we introduce a new method for segmenting three-dimensional (3D) OCT images. This involves the use of a Kalman filter, which is commonly used in computer vision for object tracking. The Kalman filter is applied to the 3D OCT image volume to track the retinal layer boundaries through the slices within the volume and thus segmenting the 3D image. Specifically, after some pre-processing of the OCT images, points on the retinal layer boundaries in the first image are identified, and curve fitting is applied to them such that the layer boundaries can be represented by the coefficients of the curve equations. These coefficients then form the state space for the Kalman Filter. The filter then produces an optimal estimate of the current state of the system by updating its previous state using the measurements available in the form of a feedback control loop. The results show that the algorithm can be used to segment the retinal layers in OCT images. One of the limitations of the current algorithm is that the curve representation of the retinal layer boundary does not work well when the layer boundary is split into two, e.g., at the optic nerve, the layer boundary split into two. This maybe resolved by using a different approach to representing the boundaries, such as b-splines or level sets. The use of a Kalman filter shows promise to developing accurate and effective 3D OCT segmentation methods.

Keywords: optical coherence tomography, image segmentation, Kalman filter, object tracking

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Authors: Tanvi P. Medshinge, Prasad Vaidya, Monisha E. Royan

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In India, cooling loads in residential sector is a major contributor to its total energy consumption. Due to the increasing cooling need, the market penetration of air-conditioners is further expected to rise. Natural Ventilation (NV), however, possesses great potential to save significant energy consumption especially for residential buildings in moderate climates. As multifamily residential apartment buildings are designed by repetitive use of prototype designs, deriving individual NV based design prototype solutions for a combination of different wind incidence angles and orientations would provide significant opportunity to address the rise in cooling loads by residential sector. This paper presents the results of NV performance of a selected prototype apartment design with a cluster of four units in Pune, India, and an attempt to improve the NV performance through design modifications. The water table apparatus, a physical modelling tool, is used to study the flow patterns and simulate wind-induced NV performance. Quantification of NV performance is done by post processing images captured from video recordings in terms of percentage of area with good and poor access to ventilation. NV performance of the existing design for eight wind incidence angles showed that of the cluster of four units, the windward units showed good access to ventilation for all rooms, and the leeward units had lower access to ventilation with the bedrooms in the leeward units having the least access. The results showed improved performance in all the units for all wind incidence angles to more than 80% good access to ventilation. Some units showed an additional improvement to more than 90% good access to ventilation. This process of design and performance evaluation improved some individual units from 0% to 100% for good access to ventilation. The results demonstrate the ease of use and the power of the water table apparatus for performance-based design to simulate wind induced NV.  

Keywords: fluid dynamics, prototype design, natural ventilation, simulations, water table apparatus, wind incidence angles

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Authors: Xiaobin Liang, Wei Liang, Laibin Zhang, Xiaoyan Guo

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Pipelines pass through coal mined gobs inevitably in the mining area, the stability of which has great influence on the safety of pipelines. After extensive literature study and field research, it was found that there are a few risk assessment methods for coal mined gob pipelines, and there is a lack of data on the gob sites. Therefore, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is widely used based on expert opinions. However, the subjective opinions or lack of experience of individual experts may lead to inaccurate evaluation results. Hence the accuracy of the results needs to be further improved. This paper presents a comprehensive approach to achieve this purpose by combining bow-tie model and cloud inference. The specific evaluation process is as follows: First, a bow-tie model composed of a fault tree and an event tree is established to graphically illustrate the probability and consequence indicators of pipeline failure. Second, the interval estimation method can be scored in the form of intervals to improve the accuracy of the results, and the censored mean algorithm is used to remove the maximum and minimum values of the score to improve the stability of the results. The golden section method is used to determine the weight of the indicators and reduce the subjectivity of index weights. Third, the failure probability and failure consequence scores of the pipeline are converted into three numerical features by using cloud inference. The cloud inference can better describe the ambiguity and volatility of the results which can better describe the volatility of the risk level. Finally, the cloud drop graphs of failure probability and failure consequences can be expressed, which intuitively and accurately illustrate the ambiguity and randomness of the results. A case study of a coal mine gob pipeline carrying natural gas has been investigated to validate the utility of the proposed method. The evaluation results of this case show that the probability of failure of the pipeline is very low, the consequences of failure are more serious, which is consistent with the reality.

Keywords: bow-tie model, natural gas pipeline, coal mine gob, cloud inference

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Authors: Masoud Sheidai, Fahimeh Koohdar, Hashem Sharifi

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Juglans regia (L.) commonly known as Persian walnut of the genus Juglans L. (Juglandaceae) is one of the most important cultivated plant species due to its high-quality wood and edible nuts. The genetic diversity analysis is essential for conservation and management of tree species. Persian walnut is native from South-Eastern Europe to North-Western China through Tibet, Nepal, Northern India, Pakistan, and Iran. The species like Persian walnut, which has a wide range of geographical distribution, should harbor extensive genetic variability to adapt to environmental fluctuations they face. We aimed to study the population genetic structure of seven Persian walnut populations including three wild and four cultivated populations by using ISSR (Inter simple sequence repeats) and SRAP (Sequence related amplified polymorphism) molecular markers. We also aimed to compare the genetic variability revealed by ISSR neutral multilocus marker and rDNA ITS sequences. The studied populations differed in morphological features as the samples in each population were clustered together and were separate from the other populations. Three wild populations studied were placed close to each other. The mantel test after 5000 times permutation performed between geographical distance and morphological distance in Persian walnut populations produced significant correlation (r = 0.48, P = 0.002). Therefore, as the populations become farther apart, they become more divergent in morphological features. ISSR analysis produced 47 bands/ loci, while we obtained 15 SRAP bands. Gst and other differentiation statistics determined for these loci revealed that most of the ISSR and SRAP loci have very good discrimination power and can differentiate the studied populations. AMOVA performed for these loci produced a significant difference (< 0.05) supporting the above-said result. AMOVA produced significant genetic difference based on ISSR data among the studied populations (PhiPT = 0.52, P = 0.001). AMOVA revealed that 53% of the total variability is due to among population genetic difference, while 47% is due to within population genetic variability. The results showed that both multilocus molecular markers and ITS sequences can differentiate Persian walnut populations. The studied populations differed genetically and showed isolation by distance (IBD). ITS sequence based MP and Bayesian phylogenetic trees revealed that Iranian walnut cultivars form a distinct clade separated from the cultivars studied from elsewhere. Almost all clades obtained have high bootstrap value. The results indicated that a combination of multilpcus and sequencing molecular markers can be used in genetic differentiation of Persian walnut.

Keywords: genetic diversity, population, molecular markers, genetic difference

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Authors: Nidhi Sharotri, Dhiraj Sud

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Water pollution by pesticides constitutes a serious ecological problem due to their potential toxicity and bioaccumulation. The widespread use of pesticides in industry and agriculture along with their resistance to natural decomposition, biodegradation, chemical and photochemical degradation under typical environmental conditions has resulted in the emergence of these chemicals and their transformed products in natural water. Among AOP’s, heterogeneous photocatalysis using TiO2 as photocatalyst appears as the most emerging destructive technology for mineralization of the pollutant in aquatic streams. Among the various semiconductors (TiO2, ZnO, CdS, FeTiO3, MnTiO3, SrTiO2 and SnO2), TiO2 has proven to be the most efficient photocatalyst for environmental applications due to its biological and chemical inertness, high photo reactivity, non-toxicity, and photo stability. Semiconductor photocatalysts are characterized by an electronic band structure in which valence band and conduction band are separated by a band gap, i.e. a region of forbidden energy. Semiconductor based photocatalysts produces e-/h+ pairs which have been employed for degradation of organic pollutants. The present paper focuses on modification of TiO2 photocatalyst in order to shift its absorption edge towards longer wavelength to make it active under natural light. Semiconductor TiO2 photocatalysts was prepared by doping with anion (N), cation (Mn) and double doped (Mn, N) using greener approach. Titanium isopropoxide is used as titania precursor and ethanedithiol, hydroxyl amine hydrochloride, manganous chloride as sulphur, nitrogen and manganese precursors respectively. Synthesized doped TiO2 nanomaterials are characterized for surface morphology (SEM, TEM), crystallinity (XRD) and optical properties (absorption spectra and band gap). EPR data confirms the substitutional incorporation of Mn2+ in TiO2 lattice. The doping influences the phase transformation of rutile and anatase phase crystal and thereby the absorption spectrum changes were observed. The effect of variation of reaction parameters such as solvent, reaction time and calcination temperature on the yield, surface morphology and optical properties was also investigated. The TEM studies show the particle size of nanomaterials varies from 10-50 nm. The calculated band gap of nanomaterials varies from 2.30-2.60 eV. The photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant organophosphate pesticide (Quinalphos) has been investigated by studying the changes in UV absorption spectrum and the promising results were obtained under visible light. The complete mineralization of quinalphos has occurred as no intermediates were recorded after 8 hrs of degradation confirmed from the HPLC studies.

Keywords: quinalphos, doped-TiO2, mineralization, EPR

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Authors: Lan Luo, Jingjing Huang, Huafang Li

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Introduction: Distressing low sexual desire is common in China, while the lack of reliable and valid instruments to evaluate symptoms of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) impedes related research and clinical services. Aim: This study aimed to validate the reliability and validity of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Desire/Arousal/Orgasm (FSDS-DAO) in Chinese female HSDD patients. Methods: We administered FSFI and FSDS-DAO in a convenient sample of Chinese adult women. Participants were diagnosed by a psychiatrist according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Results: We had a valid analysis sample of 279 Chinese women, of which 107 were HSDD patients. The Cronbach's α of FSFI and FSDS-DAO were 0.947 and 0.956, respectively, and the intraclass correlation coefficients of which were 0.86 and 0.89, respectively (the interval was 13-15 days). The correlation coefficient between the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS) and FSFI (or FSDS-DAO) did not exceed 0.4; the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0. 83 when combined FSFI-d (the desire domain of FSFI) and FSDS-DAO to diagnose HSDD, which was significantly different from that of using these scales individually. FSFI-d of less than 2.7 (1.2-6) and FSDS-DAO of no less than 15 (0-60) (Sensitivity 65%, Specificity 83%), or FSFI-d of no more than 3.0 (1.2-6) and FSDS-DAO of no less than 14 (0-60) (Sensitivity 74%, Specificity 77%) can be used as cutoff scores in clinical research or outpatient screening. Clinical implications: FSFI (including FSFI-d) and FSDS-DAO are suitable for the screening and evaluation of Chinese female HSDD patients of childbearing age. Strengths and limitations: Strengths include a thorough validation of FSFI and FSDS-DAO and the exploration of the cutoff score combing FSFI-d and FSDS-DAO. Limitations include a small convenience sample and the requirement of being sexually active for HSDD patients. Conclusion: FSFI (including FSFI-d) and FSDS-DAO have good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity in Chinese female HSDD patients of childbearing age.

Keywords: sexual desire, sexual distress, hypoactive sexual desire disorder, scale

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Authors: Constantinos Adamides, Petros Petrikkos

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In the era of growing hybrid threats, small states find themselves in need to re-evaluate existing foreign and defense policies. The pressure to establishing or maintain a status of a reliable partner in the community in which they belong to, vis-à-vis their multilateral relations with other organisations and entities, small states may need to shift their policies in the field to accommodate security needs that are not only pertinent to their security, but also to that of the organisations (bloc) in which they interact. Unlike potential shortcomings in a small state’s mainstream security and defence framework where the threat would be limited to the state itself, in more contemporary times with dominating hybrid threats, the small states’ security shortcomings may also become a security problem for the bloc in which these states belong to. An indicative example is small states like Cyprus and Malta, which belong and 'interact' in the European Union. As a result, the nature of hybrid threats can be utilised to hurt bigger states in a bloc by exploiting the small states’ vulnerabilities and security gaps. Inevitably, both the defensive and foreign policy collaborations of small states with bigger states have been and are constantly re-evaluated to tackle and prevent such problems. In essence, the goal of this ‘re-evaluation’ aims to achieve a twofold goal: The first is the small states’ quest to appear as a reliable partner within the bloc, while the second is to avoid being the weakest security link in the bloc’s defence against hybrid threats. Indeed, the hybrid arena is a security area where they can excel in the bloc, despite the potential and expected conventional military deficiencies. This new environment prompts us to think security from the perspective of small states differently and in relation to their role as members or big organisations. The paper focuses on the case of Cyprus following its accession to the European Union and examines how a country that has had a very focused security orientation –not least due to its ongoing security problems– altered its foreign and defence policies within the European Union to ensure compliance with the rest of the bloc, while at the same time maximizing its role as a security player. Specifically, it examines the methods through which the country shifted its policies as well as the challenges and opportunities that emerged from these security shifts.

Keywords: Cyprus, defence, foreign policy, hybrid threats, ontological security, small states

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Authors: Amanina Iymia Jeffree, Reena Thriumani, Mohammad Iqbal Omar, Ammar Zakaria, Yumi Zuhanis Has-Yun Hashim, Ali Yeon Md Shakaff

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Metabolite profiling is a strategy to be approached in the pattern recognition method focused on three types of cancer cell line that driving the most to death specifically lung, breast, and colon cancer. The purpose of this study was to discriminate the VOCs pattern among cancerous and control group based on metabolite profiling. The sampling was executed utilizing the cell culture technique. All culture flasks were incubated till 72 hours and data collection started after 24 hours. Every running sample took 24 minutes to be completed accordingly. The comparative metabolite patterns were identified by the implementation of headspace-solid phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME) sampling coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). The optimizations of the main experimental variables such as oven temperature and time were evaluated by response surface methodology (RSM) to get the optimal condition. Volatiles were acknowledged through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) mass spectral database and retention time libraries. To improve the reliability of significance, it is of crucial importance to eliminate background noise which data from 3rd minutes to 17th minutes were selected for statistical analysis. Targeted metabolites, of which were annotated as known compounds with the peak area greater than 0.5 percent were highlighted and subsequently treated statistically. Volatiles produced contain hundreds to thousands of compounds; therefore, it will be optimized by chemometric analysis, such as principal component analysis (PCA) as a preliminary analysis before subjected to a pattern classifier for identification of VOC samples. The volatile organic compound profiling has shown to be significantly distinguished among cancerous and control group based on metabolite profiling.

Keywords: in vitro cancer cell line, metabolite profiling, pattern recognition, volatile organic compounds

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Authors: Bibiana Betancur-Corredor, Juan Carlos Loaiza, Manfred Denich, Christian Borgemeister

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Alluvial gold mining generates a vast amount of deposits that cover the natural soil and negatively impacts riverbeds and valleys, causing loss of livelihood opportunities for farmers of these regions. In Colombia, more than 79,000 ha are affected by alluvial gold mining, therefore developing strategies to return this land to productivity is of crucial importance for the country. A novel restoration strategy has been created by a mining company, where the land is restored through the establishment of agroforestry systems, in which agricultural crops and livestock are combined to complement reforestation in the area. The purpose of this study is to capture the knowledge of farmers who perform agroforestry in areas with deposits created by alluvial gold mining activities. Semi structured interviews were conducted with farmers with regard to the following: indicators of soil fertility, management practices, soil heterogeneity, pest outbreaks and weeds. In order to compare the perceptions of soil fertility of farmers with physicochemical properties of soils, the farmers were asked to identify spots within their farms that have exhibited good and poor yields. Soil samples were collected in order to correlate farmer’s perceptions with soil physicochemical properties. The findings suggest that the main challenge that farmers face is the identification of fertile soil for crop establishment. They identify the fertile soil through visually analyzing soil color and compaction as well as the use of spontaneous growth of specific plants as indicator of soil fertility. For less fertile areas, nitrogen fixing plants are used as green manure to restore soil fertility for crop establishment. The findings of this study imply that if gold mining is followed by reclamation practices that involve the successful establishment of productive farmlands, agricultural productivity of these lands might improve, increasing food security of the affected communities.

Keywords: agroforestry, knowledge, mining, restoration

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Authors: Chien-Song Chyang

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For a fluidized-bed combustion system, excess air ratio (EAR) and superficial velocity are major operating parameters affecting combustion behaviors, and these 2 factors are dependent variables since both fluidizing gas and combustion-supporting agent are air. EAR will change when superficial velocity alters, so that the effect of superficial velocity and/or EAR on combustion behaviors cannot be examined under a specific condition. When stage combustion is executed, one can discuss the effect of EAR under a certain specific superficial velocity, but the flow rate of secondary air and EAR are dependent. In order to investigate the effect of excess air ratio on the combustion behavior of a fluidized combustion system, the flue gas recirculation was adapted by the author in 2007. We can maintain a fixed flow rate of primary gas or secondary gas and change excess oxygen as an independent variable by adjusting the recirculated flue gas appropriately. In another word, we can investigate the effect of excess oxygen on the combustion behavior at a certain primary gas flow, or at a certain hydrodynamics conditions. This technique can be used at a lower turndown ratio to maintain the residual oxygen in the flue gas at a certain value. All the experiments were conducted in a pilot scale fluidized bed combustor. The fluidized bed combustor can be divided into four parts, i.e., windbox, distributor, combustion chamber, and freeboard. The combustion chamber with a cross-section of 0.8 m × 0.4 m was constructed of 6 mm carbon steel lined with 150 mm refractory to reduce heat loss. Above the combustion chamber, the freeboard is 0.64 m in inner diameter. A total of 27 tuyeres with orifices of 5 and 3 mm inside diameters mounted on a 6 mm stainless-steel plate were used as the gas distributor with an open-area-ratio of 0.52%. The Primary gas and secondary gas were fixed at 3 Nm3/min and 1 Nm3/min respectively. The bed temperature was controlled by three heat transfer tubes inserted into the bubbling bed zone. The experimental data shows that bed temperature, CO and NO emissions increase with the stoichiometric oxygen of the primary gas. NO emissions decrease with the stoichiometric oxygen of the primary. Compared with part of primary air substituted with nitrogen, a lower NO emission can be obtained while flue gas recirculation applies as part of primary air.

Keywords: fluidized bed combustion, flue gas circulation, NO emission, recycle

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Authors: Anupriya Sharma, Sapna Narula

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Over the past decade, sustainability has gone mainstream as more people are worried about environment-related issues than ever before. These issues are of even more concern for industries which leave a significant impact on the environment. Following these ecological issues, corporates are beginning to comprehend the impact on their business. Many such initiatives have been made to address these emerging issues in the consumer-driven textile industry. Demand from customers, local communities, government regulations, etc. are considered some of the major factors affecting environmental decision-making. Research also shows that motivations to go green are inevitably determined by the way top managers perceive environmental issues as managers personal values and ethical commitment act as a motivating factor towards corporate social responsibility. Little empirical research has been conducted to examine the relationship between top managers’ personal environmental attitudes and corporate environmental behaviors for the textile industry in the Indian context. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the current state of environmental management in textile industry and whether the attitude of textile firms’ top managers is significantly related to firm’s response to environmental issues and their perceived benefits of environmental management. To achieve the aforesaid objectives of the study, authors used structured questionnaire based on literature review. The questionnaire consisted of six sections with a total length of eight pages. The first section was based on background information on the position of the respondents in the organization, annual turnover, year of firm’s establishment and so on. The other five sections of the questionnaire were based upon (drivers, attitude, and awareness, sustainable business practices, barriers to implementation and benefits achieved). To test the questionnaire, a pretest was conducted with the professionals working in corporate sustainability and had knowledge about the textile industry and was then mailed to various stakeholders involved in textile production thereby covering firms top manufacturing officers, EHS managers, textile engineers, HR personnel and R&D managers. The results of the study showed that most of the textile firms were implementing some type of environmental management practice, even though the magnitude of firm’s involvement in environmental management practices varied. The results also show that textile firms with a higher level of involvement in environmental management were more involved in the process driven technical environmental practices. It also identified that firm’s top managers environmental attitudes were correlated with perceived advantages of environmental management as textile firm’s top managers are the ones who possess managerial discretion on formulating and deciding business policies such as environmental initiatives.

Keywords: attitude and awareness, Environmental management, sustainability, textile industry

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Authors: S. M. C. Kelly, M. Goulden

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Introduction: Chronic Pancreatitis is an increasing problem worldwide. Pain is the main symptom and the main reason for hospital readmission following diagnosis, despite the use of strong analgesics including opioids. Ketamine infusions reduce pain in complex regional pain syndrome and other neuropathic pain conditions. Our centre has trialed the use of ketamine infusions in patients with chronic pancreatitis. We have evaluated this service to assess whether ketamine reduces emergency department admissions and analgesia requirements. Methods: This study collected retrospective data from 2010 in all patients who received a ketamine infusion for chronic pain secondary to a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. The day-case ketamine infusions were initiated in theatre by an anaesthetist, with standard monitoring and the assistance of an anaesthetic practitioner. A bolus dose of 0.5milligrams/kilogram was given in theatre. The infusion of 0.5 milligrams/kilogram per hour was then administered over a 6 hour period in the theatre recovery area. A study proforma detailed the medical history, analgesic use and admissions to hospital. Patients received a telephone follow up consultation. Results: Over the last eight years, a total of 30 patients have received intravenous ketamine infusions, with a total of 92 ketamine infusions being administered. 53% of the patients were male with the average age of 47. A total of 27 patients participated with the telephone consultation. A third of patients reported a reduction in hospital admissions with pain following the ketamine infusion. Analgesia requirements were reduced by an average of 48.3% (range 0-100%) for an average duration of 69.6 days (range 0-180 days.) Discussion: This service evaluation illustrates that ketamine infusions can reduce analgesic requirements and the number of hospital admissions in patients with chronic pancreatitis. In the light of increasing pressures on Emergency departments and the increasing evidence of the dangers of long-term opioid use, this is clearly a useful finding. We are now performing a prospective study to assess the long-term effectiveness of ketamine infusions in reducing analgesia requirements and improving patient’s quality of life.

Keywords: acute-on-chronic pain, intravenous analgesia infusion, ketamine, pancreatitis

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Authors: Rupa Jeena, Pankaj Chetry, Pradeep Sarin

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The study of fundamental particles and the forces governing them has always remained an attractive field of theoretical study to pursue. With the advancement and development of new technologies and instruments, it is possible now to perform particle physics experiments on a large scale for the validation of theoretical predictions. These experiments are generally carried out in a highly intense beam environment. This, in turn, requires the development of a detector prototype possessing properties like radiation tolerance, thermal stability, and fast timing response. Semiconductors like Silicon, Germanium, Diamond, and Gallium Nitride (GaN) have been widely used for particle detection applications. Silicon and germanium being narrow bandgap semiconductors, require pre-cooling to suppress the effect of noise by thermally generated intrinsic charge carriers. The application of diamond in large-scale experiments is rare owing to its high cost of fabrication, while GaN is one of the most extensively explored potential candidates. But we are aiming to introduce another wide bandgap semiconductor in this active area of research by considering all the requirements. We have made an attempt by utilizing the wide bandgap of rutile Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and other properties to use it for particle detection purposes. The thermal evaporation-oxidation (in PID furnace) technique is used for the deposition of the film, and the Metal Semiconductor Metal (MSM) electrical contacts are made using Titanium+Gold (Ti+Au) (20/80nm). The characterization comprising X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Ultraviolet (UV)-Visible spectroscopy, and Laser Raman Spectroscopy (LRS) has been performed on the film to get detailed information about surface morphology. On the other hand, electrical characterizations like Current Voltage (IV) measurement in dark and light and test with laser are performed to have a better understanding of the working of the detector prototype. All these preliminary tests of the detector will be presented.

Keywords: particle detector, rutile titanium dioxide, thermal evaporation, wide bandgap semiconductors

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Authors: Ali Jibran

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China was considered as a revisionist state by the countries of East Asia during Maoist era; but China’s role changed from a revisionist state to a constructive member of East Asian Community in post-Maoist era. This research will mainly investigate the two phenomena: what were reasons of behavioral change of China in East Asia and what role has China played to promote regionalism in East Asia since Open Door Policy of Deng Xiaoping. To understand these two phenomena, this study applies the international relations theory of Uneven and Combined Development (U&CD). The central finding of this study is that ‘whip of external necessity’ posed by the Western dominance during the Chinese ‘century of ignominy’ resulted in a Maoist regime in China in 1948 which was hostile to its neighbors due to ideological tensions. Maoist regime in China could not solve the challenges posed by the ‘international’; therefore after Mao’s death, a new economic approach was introduced in China to deal with the challenges postured by the ‘international’. Due to Deng Xiaoping’s 'Open Door Policy' era, China used its ‘privilege of historic backwardness’ and witnessed unprecedented economic growth. As the societies are multiple and exist in real time, therefore interaction among societies is pertinent. Export oriented domestic policy pushed China to concentrate less on class struggle and improve its relations with its neighbors in East Asia. As China soon become a global hub of trade after market oriented reforms, therefore friendly relations with the states of East Asia was pertinent. This study will investigate Chinese role in regionalism in East Asia in three area: Chinese role in promoting regionalism in East Asia, China’s role in economic integration in East Asia and China’s role in combatting terrorism in East Asia. This study will be divided in two section. The first section will deal with the transformation in Chinese behavior in East Asia in post Maoist era, and the second section will analyze China’s role in East Asia by looking at Chinese role in institutional mechanism, economic integration and combatting terrorism in East Asia.

Keywords: East Asia, regionalism, institutionlism, economic integration

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Authors: Antonio Montes, Antonio Cozar, Clara Pereyra, Diego Valor, Enrique Martinez de la Ossa

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Tissues and organs can be damaged because of traumatism, congenital illnesses, or cancer and the traditional therapeutic alternatives, such as surgery, cannot usually completely repair the damaged tissues. Tissue engineering allows regeneration of the patient's tissues, reducing the problems caused by the traditional methods. Scaffolds, polymeric structures with interconnected porosity, can be promoted the proliferation and adhesion of the patient’s cells in the damaged area. Furthermore, by means of impregnation of the scaffold with beneficial active substances, tissue regeneration can be induced through a drug delivery process. The objective of the work is the fabrication of a PVA scaffold coated with Gallic Acid and polypyrrole through a one-step foaming and impregnation process using the SSI technique (Supercritical Solvent Impregnation). In this technique, supercritical CO₂ penetrates into the polymer chains producing the plasticization of the polymer. In the depressurization step a CO₂ cellular nucleation and growing to take place to an interconnected porous structure of the polymer. The foaming process using supercritical CO₂ as solvent and expansion agent presents advantages compared to the traditional scaffolds’ fabrication methods, such as the polymer’s high solubility in the solvent or the possibility of carrying out the process at a low temperature, avoiding the inactivation of the active substance. In this sense, the supercritical CO₂ avoids the use of organic solvents and reduces the solvent residues in the final product. Moreover, this process does not require long processing time that could cause the stratification of substance inside the scaffold reducing the therapeutic efficiency of the formulation. An experimental design has been carried out to optimize the SSI technique operating conditions, as well as a study of the morphological characteristics of the scaffold for its use in tissue engineerings, such as porosity, conductivity or the release profiles of the active substance. It has been proved that the obtained scaffolds are partially porous, conductors of electricity and are able to release Gallic Acid in the long term.

Keywords: scaffold, foaming, supercritical, PVA, polypyrrole, gallic acid

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Authors: Maryam Farzaneh, Seyyedeh Nafiseh Hassani, Hossein Baharvand

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Objective: Chicken gonadal tissue has a two population such primordial germ cells (PGCs) and stromal cells (somatic cells). PGCs and embryonic germ cells (EGCs) that is a pluripotent type of PGCs in long-term culture are suitable sources for the production of chicken pluripotent stem cell lines, transgenic birds, vaccine and recombinant protein production. In general, the effect of growth factors such bFGF and mouse LIF on derivation of PGCs in vitro are important and in this study we could see the unique effect of small molecules such PD032 and SB43 as a chemical, in comparison to growth factors. Materials and Methods: After incubation of fertilized chicken egg up to 6 days and isolation of primary gonadal tissues and culture of mixed cells like PGCs and stromal cells. PGCs proliferate in the present of fetal calf serum (FCS) and small molecules and in another group bFGF, that these factors are important for PGCs culture and derivation. Somatic cells produce a multilayer feeder under the PGCs in primary culture and PGCs make a small cluster under these cells. Results: In present of small molecules and high volume of FCS (15%), the present of EGCs as a pluripotent stem cells were clear four weeks, that they had a positive immune-staining and periodic acid-Schiff staining (PAS), but in present of growth factors like bFGF without any chemicals, the present of PGCs were clear but after 7 until 10 days, there were disappear. Conclusion: Until now we have seen many researches about derivation and maintenance of chicken PGCs, in the hope of understanding the mechanisms that occur during germline development and production of a therapeutic product by transgenic birds. There are still many unknowns in this area and this project will try to have efficient conditions for identification of suitable culture medium for long-term culture of PGCs in vitro without serum and feeder cells.

Keywords: chicken gonadal primordial germ cells, pluripotent stem cells, growth factors, small molecules, transgenic birds

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Authors: Medhanie Gebremedhin Gebru, Alex Schechter

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Dimethyl ether (DME) possesses several advantages over other small organic molecules such as methanol, ethanol, and ammonia in terms of providing higher energy density, being less toxic, and having lower Nafion membrane crossover. However, the absence of an active and stable catalyst has been the bottleneck that hindered the commercialization of direct DME fuel cells. A Vulcan XC72 carbon-supported ternary metal catalyst, Pt₃Pd₃Sn₂/C is reported to have yielded the highest specific power density (90 mW mg-¹PGM) as compared to other catalysts tested fordirect DME fuel cell (DDMEFC). However, the micropores and sulfur groups present in Vulcan XC72 hinder the fuel utilization by causing Pt agglomeration and sulfur poisoning. Vulcan XC72 having a high carbon sp³ hybridization content, is also prone to corrosion. Therefore, carbon supports such as multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT), black pearl 2000 (BP2000), and their cold N2 plasma-treated counterpartswere tested to further enhance the activity of the catalyst, and the outputs with these carbons were compared with the originally used support. Detailed characterization of the pristine and carbon supports was conducted. Electrochemical measurements in three-electrode cells and laboratory prototype fuel cells were conducted.Pt₃Pd₃Sn₂/BP2000 exhibited excellent performance in terms of electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), peak current density (jp), and DME oxidation charge (Qoxi). The effect of the plasma activation on the activity improvement was observed only in the case of MWCNT while having little or no effect on the other carbons. A Pt₃Pd₃Sn₂ supported on the optimized mixture of carbons containing 75% plasma-activated MWCNT and 25% BP2000 (Pt₃Pd₃Sn₂/75M25B) provided the highest reported power density of 117 mW mg-1PGM using an anode loading of1.55 mgPGMcm⁻².

Keywords: DME, DDMEFC, ternary metal catalyst, carbon support, plasma activation

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Authors: Urianni Merlin, Đeni Zuliani Blašković

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Inspired by the Reggio Pedagogy approach that explores light from physical, mathematical, artistic, and natural perspectives, emphasizes the value of visual tools in light exploring that opens up a wide area of experiential discovery and knowledge, especially if used in kindergartens with children. While there is some literature evidence of visual tool usage for light exploring in kindergartens in the Republic of Slovenia, in the Republic of Croatia there are few researches, and those published are focused at shadow exploring, exploring of physical characteristics and teatrical play of light and shadow. The objectives of this research are to assess how much visual tools are used for light exploring by preschool teachers from geographical Istria kindergartens as part of the activities offered to children and if the usage of the visual tool for light exploring it’s different regarding the work environment (Slovenian and Croatian Istria kindergartens; city vs. village kindergartens; preschool teachers age and length of service). One hundred one preschool teachers from Croatian Istria Region and 70 preschool teachers from Slovenian Istria Region responded to a self-made questionnaire regarding visual tool usage habits in their work. As predicted, results show significant differences in visual tool usage regarding preschool teachers' work environment, length of service, and age. Preschool teachers from Slovenian Istria that work in kindergartens located in the city that have from 15 to 19 years of service and are more than 30 years of age use significantly more visual tools for light exploring. The results highlight the differences in visual tools usage for light exploring in the small Istria peninsula that can be attributed to different University art curricula in Slovenia and Croatia or lifelong education offered in Slovenia that is more open to Italian reggio pedagogy influence and are further used by older preschool teachers with more service experience. Considering the small number of researches, this research significantly contributes to science and motivates preschool teachers and scientists to implement the use of light tools in the preschool and university curriculum, especially in Croatia.

Keywords: activities with light, light exploring, preschool children, visual tools

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Authors: Niloofar Yousefi, Marie Alaghband, Ivan Garibay

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With the increase of credit card usage, the volume of credit card misuse also has significantly increased, which may cause appreciable financial losses for both credit card holders and financial organizations issuing credit cards. As a result, financial organizations are working hard on developing and deploying credit card fraud detection methods, in order to adapt to ever-evolving, increasingly sophisticated defrauding strategies and identifying illicit transactions as quickly as possible to protect themselves and their customers. Compounding on the complex nature of such adverse strategies, credit card fraudulent activities are rare events compared to the number of legitimate transactions. Hence, the challenge to develop fraud detection that are accurate and efficient is substantially intensified and, as a consequence, credit card fraud detection has lately become a very active area of research. In this work, we provide a survey of current techniques most relevant to the problem of credit card fraud detection. We carry out our survey in two main parts. In the first part, we focus on studies utilizing classical machine learning models, which mostly employ traditional transnational features to make fraud predictions. These models typically rely on some static physical characteristics, such as what the user knows (knowledge-based method), or what he/she has access to (object-based method). In the second part of our survey, we review more advanced techniques of user authentication, which use behavioral biometrics to identify an individual based on his/her unique behavior while he/she is interacting with his/her electronic devices. These approaches rely on how people behave (instead of what they do), which cannot be easily forged. By providing an overview of current approaches and the results reported in the literature, this survey aims to drive the future research agenda for the community in order to develop more accurate, reliable and scalable models of credit card fraud detection.

Keywords: Credit Card Fraud Detection, User Authentication, Behavioral Biometrics, Machine Learning, Literature Survey

Procedia PDF Downloads 119