Search results for: Lukas J. Evans

Authors: Sara Javanmardi, Sepehr Aziziz, Baharak Divband, Masoumeh Firouzamandi

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Post-operative adhesions are the most common cause of intestinal obstruction, female infertility and chronic abdominal pain. We developed a novel approach for preventing post-operative peritoneal adhesions using a biodegradable and thermosensitive curcumin hydrogel in rats. Thirteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned randomly into five groups of six animals each: In SHAM group, the cecum was exteriorized, gently manipulated and sent back into the abdomen. In CONTROL group, the surgical abrasion was performed with no further treatment. In Hydrogel group, surgical abrasion was performed with local application of blank hydrogel (1 mL). In Curcumin group, surgical abrasion was performed with local application of curcumin (1 mL). In CUR/HGEL group, surgical abrasion was performed with local application of curcumin hydrogel (1 mL). On day 10, adhesions were assessed using a standardized scale (Evans model), and samples were collected for the Real-time PCR. Real-time PCR was performed to determine mRNA levels of VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and GAPDH. The macroscopic adhesion intensity showed statistically significant differences between the CUR/HGEL and other groups (P=0.0005). The findings of the present study revealed there were statistically significant differences between the groups regarding adhesion band length and numbers (P<0.0001). The protein and mRNA expression of VCAM-1 and ICAM-1 in secal tissues were significantly down regulated due to curcumin-hydrogel application in CUR/HGEL compared to other groups (p<0.05). The thermosensitive hydrogel could reduce the severity and even prevent formation of intra-abdominal adhesion. Curcumin hydrogel could serve as a potential barrier agent to prevent post-operative peritoneal adhesion in rats.

Keywords: peritoneal adhesion, hydrogel, curcumijn, ICAM-1, VCAM-1

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Authors: Lukas Vierus, Thomas Schuster

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A general framework is examined for dynamic tensor field tomography within an inhomogeneous medium characterized by refraction and absorption, treated as an inverse source problem concerning the associated transport equation. Guided by Fermat’s principle, the Riemannian metric within the specified domain is determined by the medium's refractive index. While considerable literature exists on the inverse problem of reconstructing a tensor field from its longitudinal ray transform within a static Euclidean environment, limited inversion formulas and algorithms are available for general Riemannian metrics and time-varying tensor fields. It is established that tensor field tomography, akin to an inverse source problem for a transport equation, persists in dynamic scenarios. Framing dynamic tensor tomography as an inverse source problem embodies a comprehensive perspective within this domain. Ensuring well-defined forward mappings necessitates establishing existence and uniqueness for the underlying transport equations. However, the bilinear forms of the associated weak formulations fail to meet the coercivity condition. Consequently, recourse to viscosity solutions is taken, demonstrating their unique existence within suitable Sobolev spaces (in the static case) and Sobolev-Bochner spaces (in the dynamic case), under a specific assumption restricting variations in the refractive index. Notably, the adjoint problem can also be reformulated as a transport equation, with analogous results regarding uniqueness. Analytical solutions are expressed as integrals over geodesics, facilitating more efficient evaluation of forward and adjoint operators compared to solving partial differential equations. Certainly, here's the revised sentence in English: Numerical experiments are conducted using a Nesterov-accelerated Landweber method, encompassing various fields, absorption coefficients, and refractive indices, thereby illustrating the enhanced reconstruction achieved through this holistic modeling approach.

Keywords: attenuated refractive dynamic ray transform of tensor fields, geodesics, transport equation, viscosity solutions

Procedia PDF Downloads 31

Authors: Pavel Porubiak, Lukas Kudlacek

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Introduction Transplant tourism is a controversial method of obtaining an organ, and that goes all the more for a country such as China, where sources of evidence point out to the possibility of organs being harvested illegally. This research aimed at listing the individual countries these tourists come from, or which medical companies sell transplant related products in there, with China being used as an example. Materials and methods The methodology of scoping study was used for both parts of the research. The countries from which transplant tourists come to China were identified by a search through existing medical studies in the NCBI PubMed database, listed under the keyword ‘transplantation in China’. The search was not limited by any other criteria, but only the studies available for free – directly on PubMed or a linked source – were used. Other research studies on this topic were considered as well. The companies were identified through multiple methods. The first was an online search focused on medical companies and their products. The Bloomberg Service, used by stock brokers worldwide, was then used to identify the revenue of these companies in individual countries – if data were available – as well as their business presence in China. A search through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was done in the same way. Also a search on the Chinese internet was done, and to obtain more results, a second online search was done as well. The results and discussion The extensive search has identified 14 countries with transplant tourists to China. The search for a similar studies or reports resulted in finding additional six countries. The companies identified by our research also amounted to 20. Eight of them are sourcing China with organ preservation products – of which one is just trying to enter the Chinese market, six with immunosuppressive drugs, four with transplant diagnostics, one with medical robots which Chinese doctors use for transplantation as well, and another one trying to enter the Chinese market with a consumable-type product also related to transplantation. The conclusion The question of the ethicality of transplant tourism may be very pressing, since as the research shows, just the sheer amount of participating countries, sourcing transplant tourists to another one, amounts to 20. The identified companies are facing risks due to the nature of transplantation business in China, as officially executed prisoners are used as sources, and widely cited pieces of evidence point out to illegal organ harvesting. Similar risks and ethical questions are also relevant to the countries sourcing the transplant tourists to China.

Keywords: China, illegal organ harvesting, transplant tourism, organ harvesting technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Warinthorn Kiadtikornthaweeyot Evans, Nawattakorn Kaikaew

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The communication system between the ground station and the satellite is very important to guarantee contact between both sides. Thailand, led by Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), has received satellite images from other nation's satellites for a number of years. In 2008, Thailand Earth Observation Satellite (THEOS) was the first Earth observation satellite owned by Thailand. The mission was monitoring our country with affordable access to space-based Earth imagery. At this time, the control ground station was initially used to control the THEOS satellite by our Thai engineers. The Tele-commands were sent to the satellite according to requests from government and private sectors. Since then, GISTDA's engineers have gained their skill and experience to operate the satellite. Recently the desire to use satellite data is increasing rapidly due to space technology moving fast and giving us more benefits. It is essential to ensure that Thailand remains competitive in space technology. Thai Engineers have started to improve the performance of the control ground station in many different sections, also developing skills and knowledge in areas of satellite communication. Human resource skills are being enforced with development projects through capacity building. This paper focuses on the hands-on capacity building of GISTDA's engineers to develop a small automatic tracking antenna. The final achievement of the project is the first phase prototype of a small automatic tracking antenna to support the new technology of the satellites. There are two main subsystems that have been developed and tested; the tracking system and the monitoring and control software. The prototype first phase functions testing has been performed with Two Line Element (TLE) and the mission planning plan (MPP) file calculated from THEOS satellite by GISTDA.

Keywords: capacity building, small tracking antenna, automatic tracking system, project development procedure

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Kathryn Redmond, Mojdeh Asadollahi Pajouh, Grace Panther, Rick Evans, Stacey Kulesza, Jia Liang

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An on-going focus in engineering education research is on increasing the number of women in engineering. While the number of women participating in engineering project teams has increased over the past five years, the number of women enrolled in engineering colleges remains stagnant. Previous studies have explored why the number of women enrolled in engineering colleges remains small. In doing so, researchers focused primarily on negative experiences women encountered. Instead of looking at negative experiences, which can further deter women from entering the field, the aim of this study is to explore the personal and institutional factors that allow women to succeed and thrive in undergraduate engineering programs. There are two research questions addressed in this paper. The first is: what are the personal traits and characteristics that allow women to thrive in engineering? The other is: what are the institutional policies and culture, as well as micro-level behaviors on project teams, that influence the environment for women to thrive in engineering? Two women studying engineering at an R1 university were interviewed. Each woman was interviewed three times for a total of six interviews. The phenomenographic interviews focused on the lived experiences of the participants to better understand thriving in engineering. The first interview focused on the women’s personal life and background, the second on their learning journey and project team experiences, and the third focused on videos the women took through a method called Photovoice. Interviews were transcribed, and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted. Four themes were identified. Multiple coders were utilized to ensure trustworthiness and increase interrater reliability. Results indicate that thriving women have supportive families, experienced gender biases, and enjoy hands-on engineering and creating a final product. These traits and experiences may help inspire younger women to pursue engineering degrees and can help inform institutions as they make policy changes to support women. Additional women will be recruited from four different universities to further develop a theoretical framework to help inform institutions in how they can support women to thrive in engineering.

Keywords: diversity, inclusion, project teams, women in engineering

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Authors: Michael Scott Evans, Andrew Smith

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The feeling of fatigue at work could potentially have devastating consequences. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the well-established objective indicator of fatigue – the Fatigue Risk Index (FRI) calculator used by the rail industry is an effective indicator to the number of safety incidents, in which fatigue could have been a contributing factor. The study received ethics approval from Cardiff University’s Ethics Committee (EC.16.06.14.4547). A total of 901 safety incidents were recorded from a single British rail franchise between 1st June 2010 – 31st December 2016, into the Safety Management Information System (SMIS). The safety incident types identified that fatigue could have been a contributing factor were: Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD), Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) activation, Automatic Warning System (AWS) slow to cancel, failed to call, and station overrun. From the 901 recorded safety incidents, the scheduling system CrewPlan was used to extract the Fatigue Index (FI) score and Risk Index (RI) score of all train drivers on the day of the safety incident. Only the working rosters of 64.2% (N = 578) (550 men and 28 female) ranging in age from 24 – 65 years old (M = 47.13, SD = 7.30) were accessible for analyses. Analysis from all 578 train drivers who were involved in safety incidents revealed that 99.8% (N = 577) of Fatigue Index (FI) scores fell within or below the identified guideline threshold of 45 as well as 97.9% (N = 566) of Risk Index (RI) scores falling below the 1.6 threshold range. Their scores represent good practice within the rail industry. These findings seem to indicate that the current objective indicator, i.e. the FRI calculator used in this study by the British rail franchise was not an effective predictor of train driver’s FI scores and RI scores, as safety incidents in which fatigue could have been a contributing factor represented only 0.2% of FI scores and 2.1% of RI scores. Further research is needed to determine whether there are other contributing factors that could provide a better indication as to why there is such a significantly large proportion of train drivers who are involved in safety incidents, in which fatigue could have been a contributing factor have such low FI and RI scores.

Keywords: fatigue risk index calculator, objective indicator of fatigue, rail industry, safety incident

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Authors: Stefanie Ficht, Lukas Schübel, Magdalena Kleybolte, Markus Eblenkamp, Jana Steger, Dirk Wilhelm, Petra Mela

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Although 3D printing as transformative technology has become of increasing interest in the medical field and the demand for biodegradable polymers has developed to a considerable extent, there are only a few additively manufactured, biodegradable implants on the market. Additionally, the sterilization of such implants and its side effects on degradation have still not been sufficiently studied. Within this work, thermosensitive poly p-dioxanone (PPDO) samples were printed with fused filament fabrication (FFF) and investigated. Subsequently, H₂O₂ plasma and gamma radiation were used as low-temperature sterilization techniques and compared among each other and the control group (no sterilization). In order to assess the effect of different sterilization on the degradation behavior of PPDO, the samples were immersed in phosphate-buffered solution (PBS) over 28 days, and surface morphology, thermal properties, molecular weight, inherent viscosity, and mechanical properties were examined at regular time intervals. The study demonstrates that PPDO was printed with great success and that thermal properties, molecular weight (Mw), and inherent viscosity (IV) were not significantly affected by the printing process itself. H₂O₂ plasma sterilization did not significantly harm the thermosensitive polymer, while gamma radiation lowered IV and Mw statistically significantly compared to the control group (p < 0.001). During immersion in PBS, a decrease in Mw and mechanical strength occurred for all samples. However, gamma sterilized samples were affected to a much higher extent compared to the two other sample groups both in final values and timeline. This was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy showing no changes of surface morphology of (non-sterilized) control samples, first microcracks appearing on plasma sterilized samples after two weeks while being present on gamma sterilized samples already immediately after radiation to then further deteriorate over immersion duration. To conclude, we demonstrated that FFF and H₂O₂ plasma sterilization are well suited for processing thermosensitive, biodegradable polymers used for the development of innovative short-term medical applications.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, sterilization, biodegradable, thermosensitive, medical application

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Authors: Manal Elgallal, Louise Fletcher, Barbara Evans

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Water scarcity is a growing concern in many arid and semi-arid countries. The increase of water scarcity threatens economic development and sustainability of human livelihoods as well as environment especially in developing countries. Globally, agriculture is the largest water consumption sector, accounting for approximately 70% of all freshwater extraction. Growing competition between the agricultural and higher economic value in urban and industrial uses of high-quality freshwater supplies, especially in regions where water scarcity major problems, will increase the pressure on this precious resource. In this circumstance, wastewater may provide reliable source of water for agriculture and enable freshwater to be exchanged for more economically valuable purposes. Concern regarding the risks from microbial and toxic components to human health and environment quality is a serious obstacle for wastewater reuse particularly in agriculture. Although powerful approaches and tools for microbial risk assessment and management for safe use of wastewater are now available, few studies have attempted to provide any mechanism to quantitatively assess and manage the environmental risks resulting from reusing wastewater. In seeking pragmatic solutions to sustainable wastewater reuse, there remains a lack of research incorporating both health and environmental risk assessment and management with economic analysis in order to quantitatively combine cost, benefits and risks to rank alternative reuse options. This study seeks to enhance effective reuse of wastewater for irrigation in arid and semi-arid areas, the outcome of the study is an evaluation approach that can be used to assess different reuse strategies and to determine the suitable scale at which treatment alternatives and interventions are possible, feasible and cost effective in order to optimise the trade-offs between risks to protect public health and the environment and preserving the substantial benefits.

Keywords: environmental risks, management, life cycle costs, waste water irrigation

Procedia PDF Downloads 250

Authors: Amirul Adlan, Robert McCulloch, Scott Evans, Michael Parry, Jonathan Stevenson, Lee Jeys

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Background and Objectives: The gastrocnemius myofascial flap is used to manage soft-tissue defects over the anterior aspect of the knee in the context of a patient presenting with a sinus and periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) or extensor mechanism failure. The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, to evaluate the outcomes of gastrocnemius flaps performed by appropriately trained orthopaedic surgeons in the context of PJI and, secondly, to evaluate the infection-free survival of this patient group. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 30 patients who underwent gastrocnemius flap reconstruction during staged revision total knee arthroplasty for prosthetic joint infection (PJI). All flaps were performed by an orthopaedic surgeon with orthoplastics training. Patients had a mean age of 68.9 years (range 50–84) and were followed up for a mean of 50.4 months (range 2–128 months). A total of 29 patients (97 %) were categorized into Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) local extremity grade 3 (greater than two compromising factors), and 52 % of PJIs were polymicrobial. The primary outcome measure was flap failure, and the secondary outcome measure was a recurrent infection. Results: Flap survival was 100% with no failures or early returns to theatre for flap problems such as necrosis or haematoma. Overall infection-free survival during the study period was 48% (13 of 27 infected cases). Using limb salvage as the outcome, 77% (23 of 30 patients) retained the limb. Infection recurrence occurred in 48% (10 patients) in the type B3 cohort and 67% (4 patients) in the type C3 cohort (p = 0.65). Conclusion: The surgical technique for a gastrocnemius myofascial flap is reliable and reproducible when performed by appropriately trained orthopaedic surgeons, even in high-risk groups. However, the risks of recurrent infection and amputation remain high within our series due to poor host and extremity factors.

Keywords: gastrocnemius flap, limb salvage, revision arthroplasty, outcomes

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Authors: Amirul Adlan, Motaz AlAqeel, Scott Evans, Vaiyapuri sumathi, Mark Davies, Rajesh Botchu

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Background & Objectives: Osteoid osteoma (OO) is a benign tumor of the bone commonly found in childhood and adolescence, causing bone pain, especially during the night. CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is currently the mainstay treatment for OO. There is currently no literature reporting the outcomes of OO following RFA based on the histological presence of a nidus seen on a biopsy taken at the time of RFA. The primary aim of this study was to compare the clinical outcomes of OO between the group of patients with the presence of nidus on biopsy samples from RFA with those without nidus. Secondly, we aimed to examine other factors that may affect the outcomes of OO, reflecting our experience as a tertiary orthopedic oncology center. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 88 consecutive patients diagnosed with osteoid osteoma treated with RFA between November 2005 and March 2015, consisting of 63 males (72%) and 25 females (28%). Sixty-six patients (75%) had nidus present in their biopsy samples. Patients’ mean age was 17.6 years (4-53). The median duration of follow-up was 12.5 months (6-20.8). Lesions were located in the appendicular skeleton in seventy-nine patients (90%), while nine patients (10%) had an OO in the axial skeleton. Outcomes assessed were based on patients’ pain alleviation (partial, complete, or no pain improvement) and the need for further interventions. Results: Pain improvement in the patient group with nidus in the histology sample was significantly better than in the group without nidus (OR 7.4, CI 1.35-41.4, p=0.021). The patient group with nidus on biopsy demonstrated less likelihood of having a repeat procedure compared to the group without nidus(OR 0.092, CI 0.016-0.542, p=0.008). Our study showed significantly better outcomes in pain improvement in appendicular lesions compared to the axially located lesions (p = 0.005). Patients with spinal lesions tend to have relatively poor pain relief than those with appendicular or pelvic lesions (p=0.007). Conclusions: Patients with nidus on histology had better pain alleviation compared to patients without nidus. The histological presence of nidus significantly reduces the chance of repeat interventions. The pain alleviation of osteoid osteoma following RFA is better in patients with appendicular lesions than spinal or axially located lesions.

Keywords: osteoid osteoma, benign tumour, radiofrequency ablation, oncology

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Authors: Lukas Reznak, Maria Reznakova

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Recession of an economy has a profound negative effect on all involved stakeholders. It follows that timely prediction of recessions has been of utmost interest both in the theoretical research and in practical macroeconomic modelling. Current mainstream of recession prediction is based on standard OLS models of continuous GDP using macroeconomic data. This approach is not suitable for two reasons: the standard continuous models are proving to be obsolete and the macroeconomic data are unreliable, often revised many years retroactively. The aim of the paper is to explore a different branch of recession forecasting research theory and verify the findings on real data of the Czech Republic and Germany. In the paper, the authors present a family of discrete choice probit models with parameters estimated by the method of maximum likelihood. In the basic form, the probits model a univariate series of recessions and expansions in the economic cycle for a given country. The majority of the paper deals with more complex model structures, namely dynamic and bivariate extensions. The dynamic structure models the autoregressive nature of recessions, taking into consideration previous economic activity to predict the development in subsequent periods. Bivariate extensions utilize information from a foreign economy by incorporating correlation of error terms and thus modelling the dependencies of the two countries. Bivariate models predict a bivariate time series of economic states in both economies and thus enhance the predictive performance. A vital enabler of timely and successful recession forecasting are reliable and readily available data. Leading indicators, namely the yield curve and the stock market indices, represent an ideal data base, as the pieces of information is available in advance and do not undergo any retroactive revisions. As importantly, the combination of yield curve and stock market indices reflect a range of macroeconomic and financial market investors’ trends which influence the economic cycle. These theoretical approaches are applied on real data of Czech Republic and Germany. Two models for each country were identified – each for in-sample and out-of-sample predictive purposes. All four followed a bivariate structure, while three contained a dynamic component.

Keywords: bivariate probit, leading indicators, recession forecasting, Czech Republic, Germany

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Eric A. Morris, Xia Liu, Yee Ka Wong, Greg J. Evans, Jeff R. Brook

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Air quality monitoring stations tend to be widely distributed and are often located far from major roadways, thus, determining where, when, and which traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) have the greatest impact on public health becomes a matter of extrapolation. Compact, multipollutant sensor systems are an effective solution as they enable several TRAPs to be monitored in a geospatially dense network, thus filling in the gaps between conventional monitoring stations. This work describes two applications of one such system named AirSENCE for gathering actionable air quality data relevant to smart city infrastructures. In the first application, four AirSENCE devices were co-located with traffic monitors around the perimeter of a city block in Oshawa, Ontario. This study, which coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 and subsequent lockdown measures, demonstrated a direct relationship between decreased traffic volumes and TRAP concentrations. Conversely, road construction was observed to cause elevated TRAP levels while reducing traffic volumes, illustrating that conventional smart city sensors such as traffic counters provide inadequate data for inferring air quality conditions. The second application used two AirSENCE sensors on opposite sides of a major 2-way commuter road in Toronto. Clear correlations of TRAP concentrations with wind direction were observed, which shows that impacted areas are not necessarily static and may exhibit high day-to-day variability in air quality conditions despite consistent traffic volumes. Both of these applications provide compelling evidence favouring the inclusion of air quality sensors in current and future smart city infrastructure planning. Such sensors provide direct measurements that are useful for public health alerting as well as decision-making for projects involving traffic mitigation, heavy construction, and urban renewal efforts.

Keywords: distributed sensor network, continuous ambient air quality monitoring, Smart city sensors, Internet of Things, traffic-related air pollutants

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Authors: Nathaniel Evans, Jessica Boersma, Kenneth Kass

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With technology and STEM fields growing every day, there is a significant projected shortfall in qualified cybersecurity workers. As such, it is essential to develop a cybersecurity curriculum that builds skills and cultivates interest in cybersecurity early on. With new jobs being created every day and an already significant gap in the job market, it is vital that educators are pro-active in introducing a cybersecurity curriculum where students are able to learn new skills and engage in an age-appropriate cyber curriculum. Within this growing world of cybersecurity, students should engage in age-appropriate technology and cybersecurity curriculum, starting with elementary school (k-5), extending through high school, and ultimately into college. Such practice will provide students with the confidence, skills, and, ultimately, the opportunity to work in the burgeoning information security field. This paper examines educational methods, pedagogical practices, current cybersecurity curricula, and other educational resources and conducts analysis for false assumptions and developmental appropriateness. It also examines and identifies common mistakes with current cyber curriculum and lessons and discuss strategies for improvement. Throughout the lessons that were reviewed, many common mistakes continued to pop up. These mistakes included age appropriateness, technology resources that were available, and consistency of student’s skill levels. Many of these lessons were written for the wrong grade levels. The ones written for the elementary level all had activities that assumed that every student in the class could read at grade level and also had background knowledge of the cyber activity at hand, which is not always the case. Another major mistake was that these lessons assumed that all schools had any kind of technology resource available to them. Some schools are 1:1, and others are only allotted three computers in their classroom where the students have to share. While coming up with a cyber-curriculum, it has to be kept in mind that not all schools are the same, not every classroom is the same. There are many students who are not reading at their grade level or have not had exposure to the digital world. We need to start slow and ease children into the cyber world. Once they have a better understanding, it will be easier to move forward with these lessons and get the students engaged. With a better understanding of common mistakes that are being made, a more robust curriculum and lessons can be created that no only spark a student’s interest in this much-needed career field but encourage learning while keeping our students safe from cyber-attacks.

Keywords: assumptions, cybersecurity, k-12, teacher

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Paul Essel, Eric T. Glover, Gustav Gbeddy, Yaw Adjei-Kyereme, Abdallah M. A. Dawood, Evans M. Ameho, Emmanuel A. Aberikae

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Radioactive materials mainly in the form of Sealed Radioactive Sources are being used in various sectors (medicine, agriculture, industry, research, and teaching) for the socio-economic development of Ghana. The use of these beneficial radioactive materials has resulted in an inventory of Disused Sealed Radioactive Sources (DSRS) in storage. Most of the DSRS are legacy/historic sources which cannot be returned to their manufacturer or country of origin. Though small in volume, DSRS can be intensively radioactive and create a significant safety and security liability. They need to be managed in a safe and secure manner in accordance with the fundamental safety objective. The Radioactive Waste Management Center (RWMC) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) is currently storing a significant volume of DSRS. The initial activities of the DSRS range from 7.4E+5 Bq to 6.85E+14 Bq. If not managed properly, such DSRS can represent a potential hazard to human health and the environment. Storage is an important interim step, especially for DSRS containing very short-lived radionuclides, which can decay to exemption levels within a few years. Long-term storage, however, is considered an unsustainable option for DSRS with long half-lives hence the need for a disposal facility. The GAEC intends to use the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Borehole Disposal System (BDS) to provide a safe, secure, and cost-effective disposal option to dispose of its DSRS in storage. The proposed site for implementation of the BDS is on the GAEC premises at Kwabenya. The site has been characterized to gain a general understanding in terms of its regional setting, its past evolution and likely future natural evolution over the assessment time frame. Due to the long half-lives of some of the radionuclides to be disposed of (Ra-226 with half-life of 1600 years), the engineered barriers of the system must be robust to contain these radionuclides for this long period before they decay to harmless levels. There is the need to assess the safety related functions of the engineered barriers of this disposal system.

Keywords: radionuclides, disposal, radioactive waste, engineered barrier

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Authors: Chen Wang, Jared Evans, Yan Asmann

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With the quick evolvement of next-generation sequencing techniques, whole-exome or exome-panel data have become a cost-effective way for detection of small exonic mutations, but there has been a growing desire to accurately detect copy number variations (CNVs) as well. In order to address this research and clinical needs, we developed a sequencing coverage pattern-based method not only for copy number detections, data integrity checks, CNV calling, and visualization reports. The developed methodologies include complete automation to increase usability, genome content-coverage bias correction, CNV segmentation, data quality reports, and publication quality images. Automatic identification and removal of poor quality outlier samples were made automatically. Multiple experimental batches were routinely detected and further reduced for a clean subset of samples before analysis. Algorithm improvements were also made to improve somatic CNV detection as well as germline CNV detection in trio family. Additionally, a set of utilities was included to facilitate users for producing CNV plots in focused genes of interest. We demonstrate the somatic CNV enhancements by accurately detecting CNVs in whole exome-wide data from the cancer genome atlas cancer samples and a lymphoma case study with paired tumor and normal samples. We also showed our efficient reuses of existing exome sequencing data, for improved germline CNV calling in a family of the trio from the phase-III study of 1000 Genome to detect CNVs with various modes of inheritance. The performance of the developed method is evaluated by comparing CNV calling results with results from other orthogonal copy number platforms. Through our case studies, reuses of exome sequencing data for calling CNVs have several noticeable functionalities, including a better quality control for exome sequencing data, improved joint analysis with single nucleotide variant calls, and novel genomic discovery of under-utilized existing whole exome and custom exome panel data.

Keywords: bioinformatics, computational genetics, copy number variations, data reuse, exome sequencing, next generation sequencing

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Authors: Michael Rudolph, Evans Muchesa, Katiya Yassim, Venkatesha Prasad

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Input-intensive production systems characterise industrial agriculture as an unsustainable means to address food and nutrition security and sustainable livelihoods. There is extensive empirical evidence that supports the diversification and reorientation of industrial agriculture and that incorporates ecological practices viewed as essential for achieving balanced and productive farming systems. An agroecological farming system is a viable alternative approach that can improve food production, especially for the most vulnerable communities and households. Furthermore, substantial proof and supporting evidence show that such a system holds the key to increasing dietary diversity at the local level and reducing the multiple health and environmental risks stemming from industrial agriculture. This paper, therefore, aims to demonstrate the benefits of the agroecology food system through an evidenced-based approach that shows how the broader agricultural network structures can play a meaningful role, particularly for impoverished households in today’s reality. The methodology is centered on a structured literature review that analyses urban agriculture, agroecology, and food insecurity. Notably, ground-truthing, practical experiences, and field observation of agroecological farming were deployed. This paper places particular emphasis on the practical application of the agroecological approach in urban and peri-urban settings. Several evaluation reports on local and provincial initiatives clearly show that very few households engage in food gardens and urban agriculture. These households do not make use of their backyards or nearby open spaces for a number of reasons, such as stringent city by-laws, restricted access to land, little or no knowledge of innovative or alternative farming practices, and a general lack of interest. Furthermore, limited resources such as water and energy and lack of capacity building and training implementation are additional constraints that are hampering small scale food gardens and farms in other settings. The Agroecology systems approach is viewed as one of the key solutions to tackling these problems.

Keywords: agroecology, water-energy-food nexus, sutainable development goals, social, environmental and economc impact

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Authors: Aneta Maćczak, Bożena Bukowska, Jaromir Michałowicz

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Bisphenols are one of the most widely used chemical compounds worldwide. They are used in the manufacturing of polycarbonates, epoxy resins and thermal paper which are applied in plastic containers, bottles, cans, newspapers, receipt and other products. Among these compounds, bisphenol A (BPA) is produced in the highest amounts. There are concerns about endocrine impact of BPA and its other toxic effects including hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity on human organism. Moreover, BPA is supposed to increase the incidence the obesity, diabetes and heart disease. For this reason the use of BPA in the production of plastic infant feeding bottles and some other consumers products has been restricted in the European Union and the United States. Nowadays, BPA analogues like bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol S (BPS) have been developed as alternative compounds. The replacement of BPA with other bisphenols contributed to the increase of the exposure of human population to these substances. Toxicological studies have mainly focused on BPA. In opposite, a small number of studies concerning toxic effects of BPA analogues have been realized, which makes impossible to state whether those substituents are safe for human health. Up to now, the mechanism of bisphenols action on the erythrocytes has not been elucidated. That is why, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of BPA and its selected analogues such as BPF and BPS on the activity of antioxidant enzymes, i.e. catalase (EC 1.11.1.6.), glutathione peroxidase (E.C.1.11.1.9) and superoxide dismutase (EC.1.15.1.1) in human erythrocytes. Red blood cells in respect to their function (transport of oxygen) and very well developed enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidative system, are useful cellular model to assess changes in redox balance. Erythrocytes were incubated with BPA, BPF and BPS in the concentration ranging from 0.5 to 100 µg/ml for 24 h. The activity of catalase was determined by the method of Aebi (1984). The activity of glutathione peroxidase was measured according to the method described by Rice-Evans et al. (1991), while the activity of superoxide dismutase (EC.1.15.1.1) was determined by the method of Misra and Fridovich (1972). The results showed that BPA and BPF caused changes in the antioxidative enzymes activities. BPA decreased the activity of examined enzymes in the concentration of 100 µg/ml. We also noted that BPF decreased the activity of catalase (5-100 µg/ml), glutathione peroxidase (50-100 µg/ml) and superoxide dismutase (25-100 µg/ml), while BPS did not cause statistically significant changes in investigated parameters. The obtained results suggest that BPA and BPF disrupt redox balance in human erythrocytes but the observed changes may occur in human organism only during occupational or subacute exposure to these substances.

Keywords: antioxidant enzymes, bisphenol A, bisphenol a analogues, human erythrocytes

Procedia PDF Downloads 457

Authors: Maria Reznakova, Michala Strnadova, Lukas Reznak

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The global financial crisis that erupted in 2008 is associated mainly with the debt crisis. It quickly spread globally through financial markets, international banks and trade links, and affected many economic sectors. Measured by the index of the year-on-year change in GDP and industrial production, the consequences of the global financial crisis manifested themselves with some delay also in the Czech economy. This can be considered a result of the overwhelming export orientation of Czech industrial enterprises. These events offer an important opportunity to study how financial and macroeconomic instability affects corporate performance. Corporate performance factors have long been given considerable attention. It is therefore reasonable to ask whether the findings published in the past are also valid in the times of economic instability and subsequent recession. The decisive factor in effective corporate performance measurement is the existence of an appropriate system of indicators that are able to assess progress in achieving corporate goals. Performance measures may be based on non-financial as well as on financial information. In this paper, financial indicators are used in combination with other characteristics, such as the firm size and ownership structure. Financial performance is evaluated based on traditional performance indicators, namely, return on equity and return on assets, supplemented with indebtedness and current liquidity indices. As investments are a very important factor in corporate performance, their trends and importance were also investigated by looking at the ratio of investments to previous year’s sales and the rate of reinvested earnings. In addition to traditional financial performance indicators, the Economic Value Added was also used. Data used in the research were obtained from a questionnaire survey administered in industrial enterprises in the Czech Republic and from AMADEUS (Analyse Major Database from European Sources), from which accounting data of companies were obtained. Respondents were members of the companies’ senior management. Research results unequivocally confirmed that corporate performance dropped significantly in the 2010-2012 period, which can be considered a result of the global financial crisis and a subsequent economic recession. It was reflected mainly in the decreasing values of profitability indicators and the Economic Value Added. Although the total year-on-year indebtedness declined, intercompany indebtedness increased. This can be considered a result of impeded access of companies to bank loans due to the credit crunch. Comparison of the results obtained with the conclusions of previous research on a similar topic showed that the assumption that firms under foreign control achieved higher performance during the period investigated was not confirmed.

Keywords: corporate performance, foreign control, intercompany indebtedness, ratio of investment

Procedia PDF Downloads 318

Authors: Bylhah Mugotitsa, Jim Todd, Agnes Kiragga, Jay Greenfield, Evans Omondi, Lukoye Atwoli, Reinpeter Momanyi

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The INSPIRE network aims to build an open, ethical, sustainable, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data science platform, particularly for longitudinal mental health (MH) data. While studies have been done at the clinical and population level, there still exists limitations in data and research in LMICs, which pose a risk of underrepresentation of mental disorders. It is vital to examine the existing longitudinal MH data, focusing on how FAIR datasets are. This landscape analysis aimed to provide both overall level of evidence of availability of longitudinal datasets and degree of consistency in longitudinal studies conducted. Utilizing prompters proved instrumental in streamlining the analysis process, facilitating access, crafting code snippets, categorization, and analysis of extensive data repositories related to depression, anxiety, and psychosis in Africa. While leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we filtered through over 18,000 scientific papers spanning from 1970 to 2023. This AI-driven approach enabled the identification of 228 longitudinal research papers meeting inclusion criteria. Quality assurance revealed 10% incorrectly identified articles and 2 duplicates, underscoring the prevalence of longitudinal MH research in South Africa, focusing on depression. From the analysis, evaluating data and metadata adherence to FAIR principles remains crucial for enhancing accessibility and quality of MH research in Africa. While AI has the potential to enhance research processes, challenges such as privacy concerns and data security risks must be addressed. Ethical and equity considerations in data sharing and reuse are also vital. There’s need for collaborative efforts across disciplinary and national boundaries to improve the Findability and Accessibility of data. Current efforts should also focus on creating integrated data resources and tools to improve Interoperability and Reusability of MH data. Practical steps for researchers include careful study planning, data preservation, machine-actionable metadata, and promoting data reuse to advance science and improve equity. Metrics and recognition should be established to incentivize adherence to FAIR principles in MH research

Keywords: longitudinal mental health research, data sharing, fair data principles, Africa, landscape analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: K. V. Ramanaiah, R. Jagan, N. N. Murthy

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Trinuclear oxo-centered carboxylate-bridged iron complexes, [Fe3(µ3-O)(µ2-O2CR)L¬3]+/0 (where R = alkyl or aryl; L = H2O, ROH, Py, solvent) have attracted tremendous attention because of their interesting structural and magnetic properties, exhibit mixed-valent trapped and de-trapped states, and have bioinorganic relevance. The presence of a trinuclear iron binding center has been implicated in the formation of both bacterial and human iron storage protein, Ft. They are used as precursors for the synthesis of models for the active-site structures of non-heme proteins, hemerythrin (Hr), methane monooxygenase (MMO) and polyiron storage protein, ferritin (Ft). Used as important building blocks for the design and synthesis of supramolecules this can exhibit single molecular magnetism (SMM). Such studies have often employed simple and compact carboxylate ligands and the use of bulky carboxylates is scarce. In the present study, we employed two different type of sterically hindered carboxylates and synthesized a series of novel oxo-centered, carboxylate-bridged triiron complexes of general formula [Fe3(O)(O2CCPh3)6L3]X (L = H2O, 1; py, 2; 4-NMe2py, 3; X = ClO4; L = CH3CN, 4; X = FeCl4) and [Fe3(O)(O2C-anth)6L3]X (L = H2O, 5; X = ClO4; L = CH3OH, 6; X = Cl). Along with complex [Fe(OMe)2(O2CCPh3)]10, 7 was prepared by the self-assemble of anhydrous FeCl3, sodium triphenylacetate and sodium methoxide at ratio of 1:1:2 in CH3OH. The Electronic absorption spectra of these complexes 1-6, in CH2Cl2 display weak bands at near FTIR region (970-1135 nm, ε > 15M-1cm-1). For complex 7, one broad band centered at ~670nm and also an additional intense charge transfer (L→M or O→M) bands between 300 to 550nm observed for all the complexes. Paramagnetic 1H NMR is introduced as a good probe for the characterization of trinuclear oxo - cantered iron compounds in solution when the L ligand coordinated to iron varies as: H2O, py, 4-NMe2py, and CH3OH. The solution state magnetic moment values calculated by using Evans method for all the complexes and also solid state magnetic moment value of complex, 7 was calculated by VSM method, which is comparable with solution state value. These all magnetic moment values indicate there is a spin exchange process through oxo and carboxylate bridges in between two irons (d5). The ESI-mass data complement the data obtained from single crystal X-ray structure. Further purity of the compounds was confirmed by elemental analysis. Finally, structural determination of complexes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were unambiguously conformed by single crystal x-ray studies.

Keywords: decanuclear, paramagnetic NMR, trinuclear, uv-visible

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Sneha Shankar, Orlando Buendia, Will Evans

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Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is a rare, genetic, and multisystemic condition. Underdiagnosis is common, leading to chronic pulmonary and hepatic complications, increased resource utilization, and additional costs to the healthcare system. Currently, there is limited evidence of the direct medical costs of AATD diagnosis in the UK. This study explores the economic impact of AATD patients during the 3 years before diagnosis and to identify the major cost drivers using primary and secondary care electronic health record (EHR) data. The 3 years before diagnosis time period was chosen based on the ability of our tool to identify patients earlier. The AATD algorithm was created using published disease criteria and applied to 148 known AATD patients’ EHR found in a primary care database of 936,148 patients (413,674 Biobank and 501,188 in a single primary care locality). Among 148 patients, 9 patients were flagged earlier by the tool and, on average, could save 3 (1-6) years per patient. We analysed 101 of the 148 AATD patients’ primary care journey and 20 patients’ Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data, all of whom had at least 3 years of clinical history in their records before diagnosis. The codes related to laboratory tests, clinical visits, referrals, hospitalization days, day case, and inpatient admissions attributable to AATD were examined in this 3-year period before diagnosis. The average cost per patient was calculated, and the direct medical costs were modelled based on the mean prevalence of 100 AATD patients in a 500,000 population. A deterministic sensitivity analysis (DSA) of 20% was performed to determine the major cost drivers. Cost data was obtained from the NHS National tariff 2020/21, National Schedule of NHS Costs 2018/19, PSSRU 2018/19, and private care tariff. The total direct medical cost of one hundred AATD patients three years before diagnosis in primary and secondary care in the UK was £3,556,489, with an average direct cost per patient of £35,565. A vast majority of this total direct cost (95%) was associated with inpatient admissions (£3,378,229). The DSA determined that the costs associated with tier-2 laboratory tests and inpatient admissions were the greatest contributors to direct costs in primary and secondary care, respectively. This retrospective study shows the role of EHRs in calculating direct medical costs and the potential benefit of new technologies for the early identification of patients with AATD to reduce the economic burden in primary and secondary care in the UK.

Keywords: alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, costs, digital health, early diagnosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Andreas Hirseland, Lukas Kerschbaumer

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In Germany, during the past years there constantly are about one million long term unemployed who did not benefit from the prospering labor market while most short term unemployed did. Instead, they are continuously dependent on welfare and sometimes precarious short-term employment, experiencing work poverty. Long term unemployment thus turns into a main obstacle to regular employment, especially if accompanied by other impediments such as low level education (school/vocational), poor health (especially chronical illness), advanced age (older than fifty), immigrant status, motherhood or engagement in care for other relatives. Almost two thirds of all welfare recipients have multiple impediments which hinder a successful transition from welfare back to sustainable and sufficient employment. Hiring them is often considered as an investment too risky for employers. Therefore formal application schemes based on formal qualification certificates and vocational biographies might reduce employers’ risks but at the same time are not helpful for long-term unemployed and welfare recipients. The panel survey ‘Labor market and social security’ (PASS; ~15,000 respondents in ~10,000 households), carried out by the Institute of Employment Research (the research institute of the German Federal Labor Agency), shows that their chance to get back to work tends to fall to nil. Only 66 cases of such unlikely transitions could be observed. In a sequential explanatory mixed-method study, the very scarce ‘success stories’ of unlikely transitions from long term unemployment to work were explored by qualitative inquiry – in-depth interviews with a focus on biography accompanied by qualitative network techniques in order to get a more detailed insight of relevant actors involved in the processes which promote the transition from being a welfare recipient to work. There is strong evidence that sustainable transitions are influenced by biographical resources like habits of network use, a set of informal skills and particularly a resilient way of dealing with obstacles, combined with contextual factors rather than by job-placement procedures promoted by Job-Centers according to activation rules or by following formal paths of application. On the employer’s side small and medium-sized enterprises are often found to give job opportunities to a wider variety of applicants, often based on a slow but steadily increasing relationship leading to employment. According to these results it is possible to show and discuss some limitations of (German) activation policies targeting welfare dependency and long-term unemployment. Based on these findings, indications for more supportive small scale measures in the field of labor-market policies are suggested to help long-term unemployed with multiple impediments to overcome their situation.

Keywords: against-all-odds, economic sociology, long-term unemployment, mixed-methods

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Maria Reznakova, Michala Strnadova, Lukas Reznak

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Successful achievement of strategic goals requires an effective performance management system, i.e. determining the appropriate indicators measuring the rate of goal achievement. Assuming that the goal of the owners is to grow the assets they invested in, it is vital to identify the key performance indicators, which contribute to value creation. These indicators are known as value drivers. Based on the undertaken literature search, a value driver is defined as any factor that affects the value of an enterprise. The important factors are then monitored by both financial and non-financial indicators. Financial performance indicators are most useful in strategic management, since they indicate whether a company's strategy implementation and execution are contributing to bottom line improvement. Non-financial indicators are mainly used for short-term decisions. The identification of value drivers, however, is problematic for companies which are not publicly traded. Therefore financial ratios continue to be used to measure the performance of companies, despite their considerable criticism. The main drawback of such indicators is the fact that they are calculated based on accounting data, while accounting rules may differ considerably across different environments. For successful enterprise performance management it is vital to avoid factors that may reduce (or even destroy) its value. Among the known factors reducing the enterprise value are the lack of capital, lack of strategic management system and poor quality of production. In order to gain further insight into the topic, the paper presents results of the research identifying factors that adversely affect the performance of mechanical engineering enterprises in the Czech Republic. The research methodology focuses on both the qualitative and the quantitative aspect of the topic. The qualitative data were obtained from a questionnaire survey of the enterprises senior management, while the quantitative financial data were obtained from the Analysis Major Database for European Sources (AMADEUS). The questionnaire prompted managers to list factors which negatively affect business performance of their enterprises. The range of potential factors was based on a secondary research – analysis of previously undertaken questionnaire surveys and research of studies published in the scientific literature. The results of the survey were evaluated both in general, by average scores, and by detailed sub-analyses of additional criteria. These include the company specific characteristics, such as its size and ownership structure. The evaluation also included a comparison of the managers’ opinions and the performance of their enterprises – measured by return on equity and return on assets ratios. The comparisons were tested by a series of non-parametric tests of statistical significance. The results of the analyses show that the factors most detrimental to the enterprise performance include the incompetence of responsible employees and the disregard to the customers‘ requirements.

Keywords: business value, financial ratios, performance measurement, value drivers

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Caterina Grandi, Lukas Lochner, Marco Padovan, Mirco Rizzi, Paola Sperinde, Fabio Vittadello, Luisa Cavada

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Background: In recent years, the use of Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) has achieved worldwide popularity. With the increased public interest in CAMs, attention to it within Health Care Schools and Colleges has also improved. Studies generally assess the knowledge and attitudes regarding CAMs in medical and nursing students. The current study focused on the knowledge, attitudes and practice of CAM in healthcare students. Aim: To assess the knowledge and attitudes regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in healthcare students in South Tyrol, a region in Northern Italy. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 361 students. Self-administered questionnaire was adapted and modified by the researchers from several questionnaires. The instrument consisted of three sections: 1) demographical characteristics (gender, place of residence and year of study); 2) general attitudes towards CAM, evaluated through 11 items using a Likert scale (agree, partly agree, partly disagree, disagree); 3) knowledge and use about any particular CAM practices (acupuncture, aromatherapy, creative therapies, diet/nutritional therapies, phytotherapy/herbal therapies, compresses, massage therapy, Ayurvedic therapy, Tibetan medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy, pet therapy, reflexology, therapeutic touch, chiropractic/osteopathy). Results: The sample consisted of 63 males and 297 females, 58% living in villages. 151 students (42%) were in the first year, 99 (27%) in the second and 106 (30%) in the third. Both men and women agreed with statements about the utility and benefits of CAMs. Women were significantly more likely than men to agree that the CAM practices should be included in the curriculum (p < 0.004), that the health professionals should be able to advice their patients about commonly used CAM methods (p < 0.002) and that the clinical care should integrate CAM practices (p < 0.04). Students in the second year showed the highest mean score for the statement 'CAM includes ideas and methods from which conventional medicine could benefit' (p = 0.049), highlighting a positive attitude, while students in the third year achieved the lowest mean score for the negative statement 'The results of CAM are in most cases due to a placebo effect'. Regarding this statement, participants living in villages disagreed significantly than students living in the city (p < 0.001). Females appeared to be significantly more familiar with homeopathy (p < 0.002), aromatherapy (p < 0.033), creative therapies (p < 0.001) and herbal therapies (p<0.002) than males. Moreover, women were likely to use CAM more frequently than men, particularly to solve psychological problems (p < 0.004). In addition, women perceived the benefit significantly more positive than men (p < 0.001). Students in the second year revealed to use the CAM mostly to improve the quality of life (p < 0.023), while students in the third year used CAMs particularly for chronic diseases (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Results from this study suggested that female students show more positive attitudes on CAM than male students. Moreover, the prevalence of CAM use and its perceived benefits differ between males and females, so that women are more willing to use CAM practices.

Keywords: attitude, CAM, complementary and alternative medicine, healthcare students, knowledge

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Devika Nair, Sean Bellairs, Ken Evans

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Flow and erosion modeling provides an avenue for simulating the fine suspended sediment in surface water systems like streams and creeks. Fine suspended sediment is highly mobile, and many contaminants that may have been released by any sort of catchment disturbance attach themselves to these sediments. Therefore, a knowledge of fine suspended sediment transport is important in assessing contaminant transport. The CAESAR-Lisflood Landform Evolution Model, which includes a hydrologic model (TOPMODEL) and a hydraulic model (Lisflood), is being used to assess the sediment movement in tropical streams on account of a disturbance in the catchment of the creek and to determine the dynamics of sediment quantity in the creek through the years by simulating the model for future years. The accuracy of future simulations depends on the calibration and validation of the model to the past and present events. Calibration and validation of the model involve finding a combination of parameters of the model, which, when applied and simulated, gives model outputs similar to those observed for the real site scenario for corresponding input data. Calibrating the sediment output of the CAESAR-Lisflood model at the catchment level and using it for studying the equilibrium conditions of the landform is an area yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of the study was to calibrate the CAESAR-Lisflood model and then validate it so that it could be run for future simulations to study how the landform evolves over time. To achieve this, the model was run for a rainfall event with a set of parameters, plus discharge and sediment data for the input point of the catchment, to analyze how similar the model output would behave when compared with the discharge and sediment data for the output point of the catchment. The model parameters were then adjusted until the model closely approximated the real site values of the catchment. It was then validated by running the model for a different set of events and checking that the model gave similar results to the real site values. The outcomes demonstrated that while the model can be calibrated to a greater extent for hydrology (discharge output) throughout the year, the sediment output calibration may be slightly improved by having the ability to change parameters to take into account the seasonal vegetation growth during the start and end of the wet season. This study is important to assess hydrology and sediment movement in seasonal biomes. The understanding of sediment-associated metal dispersion processes in rivers can be used in a practical way to help river basin managers more effectively control and remediate catchments affected by present and historical metal mining.

Keywords: erosion modelling, fine suspended sediments, hydrology, surface water systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: Aidan N. Smallwood, Celestine R. Weegenaar, Jack N. Evans

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The intensive care unit (ICU) is a particularly resource heavy environment, in terms of staff, drugs and equipment required. Whilst many areas of the hospital are attempting to cut down on plastic use and minimise their impact on the environment, this has proven challenging within the confines of intensive care. Concurrently, as globalization has progressed over recent decades, there has been a tendency towards centralised manufacturing with international distribution networks for products, often covering large distances. In this study, we have modelled the standard consumption of plastic single-use items over the course of the first 24-hours of an average individual patient’s stay in a 12 bed ICU in the United Kingdom (UK). We have identified the country of manufacture and calculated the minimum possible distance travelled by each item from factory to patient. We have assumed direct transport via the shortest possible straight line from country of origin to the UK and have not accounted for transport within either country. Assuming an intubated patient with invasive haemodynamic monitoring and central venous access, there are a total of 52 distincts, largely plastic, disposable products which would reasonably be required in the first 24-hours after admission. Each product type has only been counted once to account for multiple items being shipped as one package. Travel distances from origin were summed to give the total distance combined for all 52 products. The minimum possible total distance travelled from country of origin to the UK for all types of product was 273,353 km, equivalent to 6.82 circumnavigations of the globe, or 71% of the way to the moon. The mean distance travelled was 5,256 km, approximately the distance from London to Mecca. With individual packaging for each item, the total weight of consumed products was 4.121 kg. The CO2 produced shipping these items by air freight would equate to 30.1 kg, however doing the same by sea would produce 0.2 kg CO2. Extrapolating these results to the 211,932 UK annual ICU admissions (2018-2019), even with the underestimates of distance and weight of our assumptions, air freight would account for 6586 tons CO2 emitted annually, approximately 130 times that of sea freight. Given the drive towards cost saving within the UK health service, and the decline of the local manufacturing industry, buying from intercontinental manufacturers is inevitable However, transporting all consumables by sea where feasible would be environmentally beneficial, as well as being less costly than air freight. At present, the NHS supply chain purchases from medical device companies, and there is no freely available information as to the transport mode used to deliver the product to the UK. This must be made available to purchasers in order to give a fuller picture of life cycle impact and allow for informed decision making in this regard.

Keywords: CO2, intensive care, plastic, transport

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: Phillipa Evans, Christopher Trotter

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Aims: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a practice skills framework implemented in three youth detention centres in Juvenile Justice in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The study is supported by a grant from and Australian Research Council and NSW Juvenile Justice. Recent years have seen a number of incidents in youth detention centres in Australia and other places. These have led to inquiries and reviews with some suggesting that detention centres often do not even meet basic human rights and do little in terms of providing opportunities for rehabilitation of residents. While there is an increasing body of research suggesting that community based supervision can be effective in reducing recidivism if appropriate skills are used by supervisors, there has been less work considering worker skills in youth detention settings. The research that has been done, however, suggest that teaching interpersonal skills to youth officers may be effective in enhancing the rehabilitation culture of centres. Positive outcomes have been seen in a UK detention centre for example, from teaching staff to do five-minute problem-solving interventions. The aim of this project is to examine the effectiveness of training and coaching youth detention staff in three NSW detention centres in interpersonal practice skills. Effectiveness is defined in terms of reductions in the frequency of critical incidents and improvements in the well-being of staff and young people. The research is important as the results may lead to the development of more humane and rehabilitative experiences for young people. Method: The study involves training staff in core effective practice skills and supporting staff in the use of those skills through supervision and de-briefing. The core effective practice skills include role clarification, pro-social modelling, brief problem solving, and relationship skills. The training also addresses some of the background to criminal behaviour including trauma. Data regarding critical incidents and well-being before and after the program implementation are being collected. This involves interviews with staff and young people, the completion of well-being scales, and examination of departmental records regarding critical incidents. In addition to the before and after comparison a matched control group which is not offered the intervention is also being used. The study includes more than 400 young people and 100 youth officers across 6 centres including the control sites. Data collection includes interviews with workers and young people, critical incident data such as assaults, use of lock ups and confinement and school attendance. Data collection also includes analysing video-tapes of centre activities for changes in the use of staff skills. Results: The project is currently underway with ongoing training and supervision. Early results will be available for the conference.

Keywords: custody, practice skills, training, youth workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Ali A Alshraifeen, Josie Evans, Kathleen Stoddart

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End-stage renal disease (ESRD) introduces physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual challenges into patients’ lives. Spirituality has been found to contribute to improved health outcomes, mainly in the areas of quality of life (QOL) and well-being. No studies exist to explore the influence of spirituality on the health outcomes and general well-being in patients with end-stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis (HD) treatment in Scotland. This study was conducted to explore spirituality in the daily lives of among these patients and how it may influence their QOL and general well-being. The study employed a qualitative method. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with a sample of 21 patients. A thematic approach using Framework Analysis informed the qualitative data analysis. Participants were recruited from 11 dialysis units across four Health Boards in Scotland. The participants were regular patients attending the dialysis units three times per week. Four main themes emerged from the qualitative interviews: ‘Emotional and Psychological Turmoil’, ‘Life is Restricted’, ‘Spirituality’ and ‘Other Coping Strategies’. The findings suggest that patients’ QOL might be affected because of the physical challenges such as unremitting fatigue, disease unpredictability and being tied down to a dialysis machine, or the emotional and psychological challenges imposed by the disease into their lives such as wholesale changes, dialysis as a forced choice and having a sense of indebtedness. The findings also revealed that spirituality was an important coping strategy for the majority of participants who took part in the qualitative component (n=16). Different meanings of spirituality were identified including connection with God or Supernatural Being, connection with the self, others and nature/environment. Spirituality encouraged participants to accept their disease and offered them a sense of protection, instilled hope in them and helped them to maintain a positive attitude to carry on with their daily lives, which may have had a positive influence on their health outcomes and general well-being. The findings also revealed that humor was another coping strategy that helped to diffuse stress and anxiety for some participants and encouraged them to carry on with their lives. The findings from this study provide a significant contribution to a very limited body of work. The study contributes to our understanding of spirituality and how people receiving dialysis treatment use it to manage their daily lives. Spirituality is of particular interest due to its connection with health outcomes in patients with chronic illnesses. The link between spirituality and many chronic illnesses has gained some recognition, yet the identification of its influence on the health outcomes and well-being in patients with ESRD is still evolving. There is a need to understand patients’ experiences and examine the factors that influence their QOL and well-being to ensure that the services available are adequately tailored to them. Hence, further research is required to obtain a better understanding of the influence of spirituality on the health outcomes and general well-being of patients with ESRD.

Keywords: end-stage renal disease, general well-being, quality of life, spirituality

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Authors: Evans V. Mauda, Stefan H. Foord, Thinandavha C. Munyai

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The greatest threat to biodiversity is a loss of habitat through landscape fragmentation and attrition. Land use changes are therefore among the most immediate drivers of species diversity. Urbanization and agriculture are the main drivers of habitat loss and transformation in the Savanna biomes of South Africa. Agricultural expansion and the intensification in particular, take place at the expense of biodiversity and will probably be the primary driver of biodiversity loss in this century. Arthropods show measurable behavioural responses to changing land mosaics at the smallest scale and heterogeneous environments are therefore predicted to support more complex and diverse biological assemblages. Ants are premier soil turners, channelers of energy and dominate insect fauna, while spiders are a mega-diverse group that can regulate other invertebrate populations. This study aims to quantify the response of these two taxa in a rural-urban mosaic of a rapidly developing communal area. The study took place in and around two villages in the north-eastern corner of South Africa. Two replicates for each of the dominant land use categories, viz. urban settlements, dryland cultivation and cattle rangelands, were set out in each of the villages and sampled during the dry and wet seasons for a total of 2 villages × 3 land use categories × 2 seasons = 24 assemblages. Local scale variables measured included vertical and horizontal habitat structure as well as structural and chemical composition of the soil. Ant richness was not affected by land use but local scale variables such as vertical vegetation structure (+) and leaf litter cover (+), although vegetation complexity at lower levels was negatively associated with ant richness. However, ant richness was largely shaped by regional and temporal processes invoking the importance of dispersal and historical processes. Spider species richness was mostly affected by land use and local conditions highlighting their landscape elements. Spider richness did not vary much between villages and across seasons and seems to be less dependent on context or history. There was a considerable amount of variation in spider richness that was not explained and this could be related to factors which were not measured in this study such as temperature and competition. For both ant and spider assemblages the constrained ordination explained 18 % of variation in these taxa. Three environmental variables (leaf litter cover, active carbon and rock cover) were important in explaining ant assemblage structure, while two (sand and leaf litter cover) were important for spider assemblage structure. This study highlights the importance of disturbance (land use activities) and leaf litter with the associated effects on ant and spider assemblages across the study area.

Keywords: ants, assemblages, biosphere, diversity, land use, spiders, urbanization

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Authors: Angela Evans, Gabriel Gijon-Nogueron, Alfonso Martinez-Nova

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Background The health sector, whose mission is protecting health, also contributes to the climate crisis, the greatest health threat of the 21st century. The carbon footprint from healthcare exceeds 5% of emissions globally, surpassing 7% in the USA and Australia. Global recognition has led to the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the World Health Organization's Climate Change Action Plan. It is agreed that the majority of health impacts stem from energy and resource consumption, as well as the production of greenhouse gases in the environment and deforestation. Many professional medical associations and healthcare providers advocate for their members to take the lead in environmental sustainability. Objectives To avail and expand ‘Green Podiatry’ via the three pillars of: Exercise ; Evidence ; Everyday changes; to highlight the benefits of physical activity and exercise for both human health and planet health. Walking and running are beneficial for health, provide low carbon transport, and have evidence-based health benefits. Podiatrists are key healthcare professionals in the physical activity space and can influence and guide their patients to increase physical activity and avert the many non-communicable diseases that are decimating public health, eg diabetes, arthritis, depression, cancer, obesity. Methods Publications, conference presentations, and pilot projects pertinent to ‘Green Podiatry’ have been activated since 2021, and a survey of podiatrist’s knowledge and awareness has been undertaken.The survey assessed attitudes towards environmental sustainability in work environment. The questions addressed commuting habits, hours of physical exercise per week, and attitudes in the clinic, such as prescribing unnecessary treatments or emphasizing sports as primary treatment. Results Teaching and Learning modules have been developed for podiatric medicine students and graduates globally. These will be availed. A pilot foot orthoses recycling project has been undertaken and will be reported, in addition to established footwear recycling. The preliminary survey found almost 90% of respondents had no knowledge of green podiatry or footwear recycling. Only 30% prescribe sports/exercise as the primary treatment for patients, and 45% do not to prescribe unnecessary treatments. Conclusions Podiatrists are in a good position to lead in the crucial area of healthcare and climate change implications. Sufficient education of podiatrists is essential for the profession to beneficially promote health and physical activity, which is beneficial for the health of all peoples and all communities.

Keywords: climate change, gait, green, healthcare, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 77