Search results for: non-convex cost function

Authors: Natnael Debalklie Teshome

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The purpose of the study was to empirically investigate the impacts of export performance and its volatility on economic growth in the Ethiopian economy. To do so, time-series data of the sample period from 1974/75 – 2017/18 were collected from databases and annual reports of IMF, WB, NBE, MoFED, UNCTD, and EEA. The extended Cobb-Douglas production function of the neoclassical growth model framed under the endogenous growth theory was used to consider both the performance and instability aspects of export. First, the unit root test was conducted using ADF and PP tests, and data were found in stationery with a mix of I(0) and I(1). Then, the bound test and Wald test were employed, and results showed that there exists long-run co-integration among study variables. All the diagnostic test results also reveal that the model fulfills the criteria of the best-fitted model. Therefore, the ARDL model and VECM were applied to estimate the long-run and short-run parameters, while the Granger causality test was used to test the causality between study variables. The empirical findings of the study reveal that only export and coefficient of variation had significant positive and negative impacts on RGDP in the long run, respectively, while other variables were found to have an insignificant impact on the economic growth of Ethiopia. In the short run, except for gross capital formation and coefficients of variation, which have a highly significant positive impact, all other variables have a strongly significant negative impact on RGDP. This shows exports had a strong, significant impact in both the short-run and long-run periods. However, its positive and statistically significant impact is observed only in the long run. Similarly, there was a highly significant export fluctuation in both periods, while significant commodity concentration (CCI) was observed only in the short run. Moreover, the Granger causality test reveals that unidirectional causality running from export performance to RGDP exists in the long run and from both export and RGDP to CCI in the short run. Therefore, the export-led growth strategy should be sustained and strengthened. In addition, boosting the industrial sector is vital to bring structural transformation. Hence, the government has to give different incentive schemes and supportive measures to exporters to extract the spillover effects of exports. Greater emphasis on price-oriented diversification and specialization on major primary products that the country has a comparative advantage should also be given to reduce value-based instability in the export earnings of the country. The government should also strive to increase capital formation and human capital development via enhancing investments in technology and quality of education to accelerate the economic growth of the country.

Keywords: export, economic growth, export diversification, instability, co-integration, granger causality, Ethiopian economy

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Authors: Titir Bhattacharya, Tanika Chakraborty, Prabal K. De

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Maternal and child health continue to be a significant policy focus in developing countries, including India. An emerging model in health care is the creation of public and private partnerships. Since the construction of physical infrastructure is costly, governments at various levels have tried to implement social health insurance schemes where a trust calculates insurance premiums and medical payments. Typically, qualifying families get full subsidization of the premium and get access to private hospitals, in addition to low cost public hospitals, for their tertiary care needs. We analyze one such pioneering social insurance scheme in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). The Rajiv Aarogyasri program (RA) was introduced by the Government of AP on a pilot basis in 2007 and implemented in 2008. In this paper, we first examine the extent to which access to reproductive health care changed. For example, the RA scheme reimburses hospital deliveries leading us to expect an increase in institutional deliveries, particularly in private hospitals. Second, we expect an increase in institutional deliveries to also improve child health outcomes. Hence, we estimate if the program improved infant and child mortality. We use District Level Health Survey data to create annual birth cohorts from 2000-2015. Since AP was the only state in which such a state insurance program was implemented, the neighboring states constituted a plausible control group. Combined with the policy timing, and the year of birth, we employ a difference-indifference strategy to identify the effects of RA on the residents of AP. We perform several checks against threats to identification, including testing for pre-treatment trends between the treatment and control states. We find that the policy significantly lowered infant and child mortality in AP. We also find that deliveries in private hospitals increased, and government hospitals decreased, showing a substitution effect of the relative price change. Finally, as expected, out-of-pocket costs declined for the treatment group. However, we do not find any significant effects for usual preventive care such as vaccination, showing that benefits of insurance schemes targeted at the tertiary level may not trickle down to the primary care level.

Keywords: public health insurance, maternal and child health, public-private choice

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Authors: Izabela Kapsa

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Civic participation is an important aspect of democracy. The contemporary model of democracy is based on citizens' participation in political decision-making (deliberative democracy, participatory democracy). This participation takes many forms of activities like display of slogans and symbols, voting, social consultations, political demonstrations, membership in political parties or organizing civil disobedience. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 are characterized by great social, economic and political diversity. Civil society is also part of the process of democratization. Civil society, funded by the rule of law, civil rights, such as freedom of speech and association and private ownership, was to play a central role in the development of liberal democracy. Among the many interpretations of concepts, defining the concept of contemporary democracy, one can assume that the terms civil society and democracy, although different in meaning, nowadays overlap. In the post-communist countries, the process of shaping and maturing societies took place in the context of a struggle with a state governed by undemocratic power. State fraud or repudiation of the institution is a representative state, which in the past was the only way to manifest and defend its identity, but after the breakthrough became one of the main obstacles to the development of civil society. In Central and Eastern Europe, there are many obstacles to the development of civil society, for example, the elimination of economic poverty, the implementation of educational campaigns, consciousness-related obstacles, the formation of social capital and the deficit of social activity. Obviously, civil society does not only entail an electoral turnout but a broader participation in the decision-making process, which is impossible without direct and participative democratic institutions. This article considers such broad forms of civic participation and their characteristics in Central and Eastern Europe. The paper is attempts to analyze the functioning of electronic forms of civic participation in Central and Eastern European states. This is not accompanied by a referendum or a referendum initiative, and other forms of political participation, such as public consultations, participative budgets, or e-Government. However, this paper will broadly present electronic administration tools, the application of which results from both legal regulations and increasingly common practice in state and city management. In the comparative analysis, the experiences of post-communist bloc countries will be summed up to indicate the challenges and possible goals for further development of this form of citizen participation in the political process. The author argues that for to function efficiently and effectively, states need to involve their citizens in the political decision-making process, especially with the use of electronic tools.

Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe, e-participation, e-government, post-communism

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Authors: Angelis P. Barlampas

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Objective: The confusion of terms is a common practice in many situations of the everyday life. But, in some circumstances, such as in medicine, the precise meaning of a word curries a critical role for the health of the patient. Fahr disease and Fahr syndrome are often falsely used interchangeably, but they are two different conditions with different physical histories of different etiology and different medical management. A case of the seldom Fahr disease is presented, and a comparison with the more common Fahr syndrome follows. Materials and method: A 72 years old patient came to the emergency department, complaining of some kind of non specific medal disturbances, like anxiety, difficulty of concentrating, and tremor. The problems had a long course, but he had the impression of getting worse lately, so he decided to check them. Past history and laboratory tests were unremarkable. Then, a computed tomography examination was ordered. Results: The CT exam showed bilateral, hyperattenuating areas of heavy, dense calcium type deposits in basal ganglia, striatum, pallidum, thalami, the dentate nucleus, and the cerebral white matter of frontal, parietal and iniac lobes, as well as small areas of the pons. Taking into account the absence of any known preexisting illness and the fact that the emergency laboratory tests were without findings, a hypothesis of the rare Fahr disease was supposed. The suspicion was confirmed with further, more specific tests, which showed the lack of any other conditions which could probably share the same radiological image. Differentiating between Fahr disease and Fahr syndrome. Fahr disease: Primarily autosomal dominant Symmetrical and bilateral intracranial calcifications The patient is healthy until the middle age Absence of biochemical abnormalities. Family history consistent with autosomal dominant Fahr syndrome :Earlier between 30 to 40 years old. Symmetrical and bilateral intracranial calcifications Endocrinopathies: Idiopathic hypoparathyroidism, secondary hypoparathyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, pseudohypoparathyroidism ,pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, e.t.c The disease appears at any age There are abnormal laboratory or imaging findings. Conclusion: Fahr disease and Fahr syndrome are not the same illness, although this is not well known to the inexperienced doctors. As clinical radiologists, we have to inform our colleagues that a radiological image, along with the patient's history, probably implies a rare condition and not something more usual and prompt the investigation to the right route. In our case, a genetic test could be done earlier and reveal the problem, and thus avoiding unnecessary and specific tests which cost in time and are uncomfortable to the patient.

Keywords: fahr disease, fahr syndrome, CT, brain calcifications

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Authors: Lucie Mrackova, Helena Kisvetrova

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Spirituality is an integral part of human life. In a secular environment, spiritual needs are often overlooked, especially in acute nursing care. Spiritual needs assessment for patients (SNAP), which also exists in the Czech version (SNAP-CZ), can be used for objective evaluation. The aim of this study was to measure the psychometric properties of SNAP-CZ and to find correlations between SNAP-CZ and sociodemographic and clinical variables. A cross-sectional study with tools assessing spiritual needs (SNAP-CZ), anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI), depression (Beck Depression Inventory; BDI), pain (Visual Analogue Scale; VAS), self-sufficiency (Barthel Index; BI); cognitive function (Montreal Cognitive Test; MoCa) and selected socio-demographic data was performed. The psychometric properties of SNAP-CZ were tested using factor analysis, reliability and validity tests, and correlations between the questionnaire and sociodemographic data and clinical variables. Internal consistency was established with Cronbach’s alfa for the overall score, respective domains, and individual items. Reliability was assessed by test-retest by Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Data for correlation analysis were processed according to Pearson's correlation coefficient. The study included 172 trauma patients (the mean age = 40.6 ± 12.1 years) who experienced polytrauma or severe monotrauma. There were a total of 106 (61.6%) male subjects, 140 (81.4%) respondents identified themselves as non-believers. The full-scale Cronbach's alpha was 0.907. The test-retest showed the reliability of the individual domains in the range of 0.924 to 0.960 ICC. Factor analysis resulted in a three-factor solution (psychosocial needs (alfa = 0.788), spiritual needs (alfa = 0.886) and religious needs (alfa = 0.841)). Correlation analysis using Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that the domain of psychosocial needs significantly correlated only with gender (r = 0.178, p = 0.020). Males had a statistically significant lower average value in this domain (mean = 12.5) compared to females (mean = 13.8). The domain of spiritual needs significantly correlated with gender (r = 0.199, p = 0.009), social status (r = 0.156, p = 0.043), faith (r = -0.250, p = 0.001), anxiety (r = 0.194, p = 0.011) and depression (r = 0.155, p = 0.044). The domain of religious needs significantly correlated with age (r = 0,208, p = 0,007), education (r = -0,161, p = 0,035), faith (r = -0,575, p < 0,0001) and depression (r = 0,179, p = 0,019). Overall, the whole SNAP scale significantly correlated with gender (r = 0.219, p = 0.004), social status (r = 0.175, p = 0.023), faith (r = -0.334, p <0.0001), anxiety (r = 0.177, p = 0.022) and depression (r = 0.173, p = 0.025). The results of this study corroborate the reliability of the SNAP-CZ and support its future use in the nursing care of trauma patients in a secular society. Acknowledgment: The study was supported by grant nr. IGA_FZV_2020_003.

Keywords: acute nursing care, assessment of spiritual needs, patient, psychometric validation, spirituality

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Authors: Jing-Yang Chung, Chi-Wei Liao, Jing Li, Bor Kae Chang, Cheng-Yu Wang

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Chemical hydride ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) draws attentions to hydrogen energy researches for its high theoretical gravimetrical capacity (19.6 wt%). Nevertheless, the elevated AB decomposition temperatures (Td) and unwanted byproducts are main hurdles in practical application. It was reported that the byproducts and Td can be reduced with nanoconfinement technique, in which AB molecules are confined in porous materials, such as porous carbon, zeolite, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), etc. Although nanoconfinement empirically shows effectiveness on hydrogen generation temperature reduction in AB, the theoretical mechanism is debatable. Low Td was reported in AB@IRMOF-1 (Zn4O(BDC)3, BDC = benzenedicarboxylate), where Zn atoms form closed metal clusters secondary building unit (SBU) with no exposed active sites. Other than nanosized hydride, it was also observed that catalyst addition facilitates AB decomposition in the composite of Li-catalyzed carbon CMK-3, MOF JUC-32-Y with exposed Y3+, etc. It is believed that nanosized AB is critical for lowering Td, while active sites eliminate byproducts. Nonetheless, some researchers claimed that it is the catalytic sites that are the critical factor to reduce Td, instead of the hydride size. The group physically ground AB with ZIF-8 (zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, (Zn(2-methylimidazolate)2)), and found similar reduced Td phenomenon, even though AB molecules were not ‘confined’ or forming nanoparticles by physical hand grinding. It shows the catalytic reaction, not nanoconfinement, leads to AB dehydrogenation promotion. In this research, we explored the possible criteria of hydrogen production temperature from nanoconfined AB in MOFs with different pore sizes and active sites. MOFs with metal SBU such as Zn (IRMOF), Zr (UiO), and Al (MIL-53), accompanying with various organic ligands (BDC and BPDC; BPDC = biphenyldicarboxylate) were modified with AB. Excess MOFs were used for AB size constrained in micropores estimated by revisiting Horvath-Kawazoe model. AB dissolved in methanol was added to MOFs crystalline with MOF pore volume to AB ratio 4:1, and the slurry was dried under vacuum to collect AB@MOF powders. With TPD-MS (temperature programmed desorption with mass spectroscopy), we observed Td was reduced with smaller MOF pores. For example, it was reduced from 100°C to 64°C when MOF micropore ~1 nm, while ~90°C with pore size up to 5 nm. The behavior of Td as a function of AB crystalline radius obeys thermodynamics when the Gibbs free energy of AB decomposition is zero, and no obvious correlation with metal type was observed. In conclusion, we discovered Td of AB is proportional to the reciprocal of MOF pore size, possibly stronger than the effect of active sites.

Keywords: ammonia borane, chemical hydride, metal-organic framework, nanoconfinement

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Authors: Armando Cartenì

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Within the design of sustainable transportation engineering, the problem of reducing particulate matter (PM) concentrations in railways metro system was not much discussed. It is well known that PM levels in railways metro system are mainly produced by mechanical friction at the rail-wheel-brake interactions and by the PM re-suspension caused by the turbulence generated by the train passage, which causes dangerous problems for passenger health. Starting from these considerations, the aim of this research was twofold: i) to investigate the particulate matter concentrations in a ‘traditional’ railways metro system; ii) to investigate the particulate matter concentrations of a ‘high quality’ metro system equipped with design devices useful for reducing PM concentrations: platform screen doors, rubber-tyred and an advanced ventilation system. Two measurement surveys were performed: one in the ‘traditional’ metro system of Naples (Italy) and onother in the ‘high quality’ rubber-tyred metro system of Turin (Italy). Experimental results regarding the ‘traditional’ metro system of Naples, show that the average PM10 concentrations measured in the underground station platforms are very high and range between 172 and 262 µg/m3 whilst the average PM2,5 concentrations range between 45 and 60 µg/m3, with dangerous problems for passenger health. By contrast the measurements results regarding the ‘high quality’ metro system of Turin show that: i) the average PM10 (PM2.5) concentrations measured in the underground station platform is 22.7 µg/m3 (16.0 µg/m3) with a standard deviation of 9.6 µg/m3 (7.6 µg/m3); ii) the indoor concentrations (both for PM10 and for PM2.5) are statistically lower from those measured in outdoors (with a ratio equal to 0.9-0.8), meaning that the indoor air quality is greater than those in urban ambient; iii) that PM concentrations in underground stations are correlated to the trains passage; iv) the inside trains concentrations (both for PM10 and for PM2.5) are statistically lower from those measured at station platform (with a ratio equal to 0.7-0.8), meaning that inside trains the use of air conditioning system could promote a greater circulation that clean the air. The comparison among the two case studies allow to conclude that the metro system designed with PM reduction devices allow to reduce PM concentration up to 11 times against a ‘traditional’ one. From these results, it is possible to conclude that PM concentrations measured in a ‘high quality’ metro system are significantly lower than the ones measured in a ‘traditional’ railway metro systems. This result allows possessing the bases for the design of useful devices for retrofitting metro systems all around the world.

Keywords: air quality, pollutant emission, quality in public transport, underground railway, external cost reduction, transportation planning

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Authors: Sophio Kobauri, Temur Kantaria, Nina Kulikova, David Tugushi, Ramaz Katsarava

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The elaboration of effective drug delivery vehicles is still topical nowadays since targeted drug delivery is one of the most important challenges of the modern nanomedicine. The last decade has witnessed enormous research focused on synthetic cationic polymers (CPs) due to their flexible properties, in particular as non-viral gene delivery systems, facile synthesis, robustness, not oncogenic and proven gene delivery efficiency. However, the toxicity is still an obstacle to the application in pharmacotherapy. For overcoming the problem, creation of new cationic compounds including the polymeric nano-size particles – nano-containers (NCs) loading with different pharmaceuticals and biologicals is still relevant. In this regard, a variety of NCs-based drug delivery systems have been developed. We have found that amino acid-based biodegradable polymers called as pseudo-proteins (PPs), which can be cleared from the body after the fulfillment of their function are highly suitable for designing pharmaceutical NCs. Among them, one of the most promising are NCs made of biodegradable Cationic PPs (CPPs). For preparing new cationic NCs (CNCs), we used CPPs composed of positively charged amino acid L-arginine (R). The CNCs were fabricated by two approaches using: (1) R-based homo-CPPs; (2) Blends of R-based CPPs with regular (neutral) PPs. According to the first approach NCs we prepared from CPPs 8R3 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,3-propanediol) and 8R6 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from these CPPs were 72-101 nm in size with zeta potential within +30 ÷ +35 mV at a concentration 6 mg/mL. According to the second approach, CPPs 8R6 was blended in organic phase with neutral PPs 8L6 (composed of leucine, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from the blends were 130-140 nm in size with zeta potential within +20 ÷ +28 mV depending on 8R6/8L6 ratio. The stability studies of fabricated NCs showed that no substantial change of the particle size and distribution and no big particles’ formation is observed after three months storage. In vitro biocompatibility study of the obtained NPs with four different stable cell lines: A549 (human), U-937 (human), RAW264.7 (murine), Hepa 1-6 (murine) showed both type cathionic NCs are biocompatible. The obtained data allow concluding that the obtained CNCs are promising for the application as biodegradable drug delivery vehicles. This work was supported by the joint grant from the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine and Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia #6298 'New biodegradable cationic polymers composed of arginine and spermine-versatile biomaterials for various biomedical applications'.

Keywords: biodegradable polymers, cationic pseudo-proteins, nano-containers, drug delivery vehicles

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Authors: Fatemeh Elmi, Zahra Etemadifar

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Improvement of soil mechanical properties is crucial before its use in construction, as the low mechanical strength and unstable structure of soil in many parts of the world can lead to the destruction of engineering infrastructure, resulting in financial and human losses. Although, conventional methods, such as chemical injection, are often utilized to enhance soil strength and stiffness, they are generally expensive, require heavy machinery, and cause significant environmental effects due to chemical usage, and also disrupt urban infrastructure. Moreover, they are not suitable for treating large volume of soil. Recently, an alternative method to improve various soil properties, including strength, hardness, and permeability, has received much attention: the application of biological methods. One of the most widely used is biocementation, which is based on the microbial precipitation of calcium carbonte crystalls using ureolytic bacteria However, there are still limitations to its large-scale use that need to be resolved before it can be commercialized. These issues have not received enough attention in prior research. One limitation of MICP (microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation) is that microorganisms cannot operate effectively in harsh and variable environments, unlike the controlled conditions of a laboratory. Another limitation of applying this technique on a large scale is the high cost of producing a substantial amount of bacterial culture and reagents required for soil treatment. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate soil improvement using the biocementation activity of poly-extremophile, calcium carbonate crystal- producing bacterial strain, Bhargavaea cecembensis N1, in whey as an inexpensive medium. This strain was isolated and molecularly identified from sandy soils in our previous research, and its 16S rRNA gene sequences was deposited in the NCBI Gene Bank with an accession number MK420385. This strain exhibited a high level of urease activity (8.16 U/ml) and produced a large amount of calcium carbonate (4.1 mg/ ml). It was able to improve the soil by increasing the compressive strength up to 205 kPa and reducing permeability by 36%, with 20% of the improvement attributable of calcium carbonate production. This was achieved using this strain in a whey culture medium. This strain can be an eco-friendly and economical alternative to conventional methods in soil stabilization, and other MICP related applications.

Keywords: biocementation, Bhargavaea cecembensis, soil improvement, whey culture medium

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Authors: Dan Geneau, Mary Claire Geneau, Seth Lenetsky, Ming -Chang Tsai, Marc Klimstra

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Introduction— Horizontal force-velocity profiling (HFVP) involves modeling an athletes linear sprint kinematics to estimate valuable maximum force and velocity metrics. This approach to performance modeling has been used in field-based team sports and has recently been introduced to ice-hockey as a forward skating performance assessment. While preliminary data has been collected on ice, distance constraints of the on-ice test restrict the ability of the athletes to reach their maximal velocity which result in limits of the model to effectively estimate athlete performance. This is especially true of more elite athletes. This report explores whether athletes on-ice are able to reach a velocity plateau similar to what has been seen in overground trials. Fourteen male Major Junior ice-hockey players (BW= 83.87 +/- 7.30 kg, height = 188 ± 3.4cm cm, age = 18 ± 1.2 years n = 14) were recruited. For on-ice sprints, participants completed a standardized warm-up consisting of skating and dynamic stretching and a progression of three skating efforts from 50% to 95%. Following the warm-up, participants completed three on ice 45m sprints, with three minutes of rest in between each trial. For overground sprints, participants completed a similar dynamic warm-up to that of on-ice trials. Following the warm-up participants completed three 40m overground sprint trials. For each trial (on-ice and overground), radar was used to collect instantaneous velocity (Stalker ATS II, Texas, USA) aimed at the participant’s waist. Sprint velocities were modelled using custom Python (version 3.2) script using a mono-exponential function, similar to previous work. To determine if on-ice tirals were achieving a maximum velocity (plateau), minimum acceleration values of the modeled data at the end of the sprint were compared (using paired t-test) between on-ice and overground trials. Significant differences (P<0.001) between overground and on-ice minimum accelerations were observed. It was found that on-ice trials consistently reported higher final acceleration values, indicating a maximum maintained velocity (plateau) had not been reached. Based on these preliminary findings, it is suggested that reliable HFVP metrics cannot yet be collected from all ice-hockey populations using current methods. Elite male populations were not able to achieve a velocity plateau similar to what has been seen in overground trials, indicating the absence of a maximum velocity measure. With current velocity and acceleration modeling techniques, including a dependency of a velocity plateau, these results indicate the potential for error in on-ice HFVP measures. Therefore, these findings suggest that a greater on-ice sprint distance may be required or the need for other velocity modeling techniques, where maximal velocity is not required for a complete profile.   

Keywords: ice-hockey, sprint, skating, power

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Authors: Maris Eugênia Dela Rosa, Ana Luiza Menegatti Pavan, Marcela De Oliveira, Diana Rodrigues De Pina, Luis Carlos Vulcano

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In medical veterinary as well as in human medicine, radiological study is essential for a safe diagnosis in clinical practice. Thus, the quality of radiographic image is crucial. In last year’s there has been an increasing substitution of image acquisition screen-film systems for computed radiology equipment (CR) without technical charts adequacy. Furthermore, to carry out a radiographic examination in veterinary patient is required human assistance for restraint this, which can compromise image quality by generating dose increasing to the animal, for Occupationally Exposed and also the increased cost to the institution. The image optimization procedure and construction of radiographic techniques are performed with the use of homogeneous phantoms. In this study, we sought to develop a homogeneous phantom of canine chest to be applied to the optimization of these images for the CR system. In carrying out the simulator was created a database with retrospectives chest images of computed tomography (CT) of the Veterinary Hospital of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science - UNESP (FMVZ / Botucatu). Images were divided into four groups according to the animal weight employing classification by sizes proposed by Hoskins & Goldston. The thickness of biological tissues were quantified in a 80 animals, separated in groups of 20 animals according to their weights: (S) Small - equal to or less than 9.0 kg, (M) Medium - between 9.0 and 23.0 kg, (L) Large – between 23.1 and 40.0kg and (G) Giant – over 40.1 kg. Mean weight for group (S) was 6.5±2.0 kg, (M) 15.0±5.0 kg, (L) 32.0±5.5 kg and (G) 50.0 ±12.0 kg. An algorithm was developed in Matlab in order to classify and quantify biological tissues present in CT images and convert them in simulator materials. To classify tissues presents, the membership functions were created from the retrospective CT scans according to the type of tissue (adipose, muscle, bone trabecular or cortical and lung tissue). After conversion of the biologic tissue thickness in equivalent material thicknesses (acrylic simulating soft tissues, bone tissues simulated by aluminum and air to the lung) were obtained four different homogeneous phantoms, with (S) 5 cm of acrylic, 0,14 cm of aluminum and 1,8 cm of air; (M) 8,7 cm of acrylic, 0,2 cm of aluminum and 2,4 cm of air; (L) 10,6 cm of acrylic, 0,27 cm of aluminum and 3,1 cm of air and (G) 14,8 cm of acrylic, 0,33 cm of aluminum and 3,8 cm of air. The developed canine homogeneous phantom is a practical tool, which will be employed in future, works to optimize veterinary X-ray procedures.

Keywords: radiation protection, phantom, veterinary radiology, computed radiography

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Authors: J. D. García Espinel, Paula Pérez Sánchez, Carlos Egea Ruiz, Carlos Lardín Mifsut, Andrés López-Aranguren Oliver

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This paper shortly describes three main actuations over a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) for reducing its energy consumption: Optimization of the biological reactor in the aeration stage by including new control algorithms and introducing new efficient equipment, the installation of an innovative hybrid system with zero Grid injection (formed by 100kW of PV energy and 5 kW of mini-wind energy generation) and an intelligent management system for load consumption and energy generation control in the most optimum way. This project called RENEWAT, involved in the European Commission call LIFE 2013, has the main objective of reducing the energy consumptions through different actions on the processes which take place in a WWTP and introducing renewable energies on these treatment plants, with the purpose of promoting the usage of treated waste water for irrigation and decreasing the C02 gas emissions. WWTP is always required before waste water can be reused for irrigation or discharged in water bodies. However, the energetic demand of the treatment process is high enough for making the price of treated water to exceed the one for drinkable water. This makes any policy very difficult to encourage the re-use of treated water, with a great impact on the water cycle, particularly in those areas suffering hydric stress or deficiency. The cost of treating waste water involves another climate-change related burden: the energy necessary for the process is obtained mainly from the electric network, which is, in most of the cases in Europe, energy obtained from the burning of fossil fuels. The innovative part of this project is based on the implementation, adaptation and integration of solutions for this problem, together with a new concept of the integration of energy input and operative energy demand. Moreover, there is an important qualitative jump between the technologies used and the alleged technologies to use in the project which give it an innovative character, due to the fact that there are no similar previous experiences of a WWTP including an intelligent discrimination of energy sources, integrating renewable ones (PV and Wind) and the grid.

Keywords: aeration system, biological reactor, CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, hybrid systems, LIFE 2013 call, process optimization, renewable energy sources, wasted water treatment plants

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Authors: Shyamani Hettiarachchi, Gopi Kitnasamy

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Background: The potentially high level of physical need and dependency experienced by children with cerebral palsy could affect the quality of life (QOL) of the child, the caregiver and his/her family. Poor QOL in children with cerebral palsy is associated with the parent-child relationship, limited opportunities for social participation, limited access to healthcare services, psychological well-being and the child's physical functioning. Given that children experiencing disabilities have little access to remedial support with an inequitable service across districts in Sri Lanka, and given the impact of culture and societal stigma, there may be differing viewpoints across respondents. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Tamil version of the Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life for Children (CPQOL-Child) Questionnaire. Design: An instrument development and validation study. Methods: Forward and backward translations of the CPQOL-Child were undertaken by a team comprised of a physiotherapist, speech and language therapist and two linguists for the primary caregiver form and the child self-report form. As part of a pilot phase, the Tamil version of the CPQOL was completed by 45 primary caregivers with children with cerebral palsy and 15 children with cerebral palsy (GMFCS level 3-4). In addition, the primary caregivers commented on the process of filling in the questionnaire. The psychometric properties of test-retest reliability, internal consistency and construct validity were undertaken. Results: The test-retest reliability and internal consistency were high. A significant association (p < 0.001) was found between limited motor skills and poor QOL. The Cronbach's alpha for the whole questionnaire was at 0.95.Similarities and divergences were found between the two groups of respondents. The child respondents identified limited motor skills as associated with physical well-being and autonomy. Akin to this, the primary caregivers associated the severity of motor function with limitations of physical well-being and autonomy. The trend observed was that QOL was not related to the level of impairment but connected to environmental factors by the child respondents. In addition to this, the main concern among primary caregivers about the child's future and on the child's lack of independence was not fully captured by the QOL questionnaire employed. Conclusions: Although the initial results of the CPQOL questionnaire show high test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the instrument, it does not fully reflect the socio-cultural realities and primary concerns of the caregivers. The current findings highlight the need to take child and caregiver perceptions of QOL into account in clinical practice and research. It strongly indicates the need for culture-specific measures of QOL.

Keywords: cerebral palsy, CPQOL, culture, quality of life

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Authors: Tatsuya Yamazaki, Kazuya Miyakawa, Tomohiko Sugiyama, Toshitaka Iwatani

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The introduction of sensor technologies into agriculture is a necessary step to realize Precision Agriculture. Although sensing methodologies themselves have been prevailing owing to miniaturization and reduction in costs of sensors, there are some difficulties to analyze and understand the sensing data. Targeting at pears ’Le Lectier’, which is particular to Niigata in Japan, cultivation environmental data have been collected at pear fields by eight sorts of sensors: field temperature, field humidity, rain gauge, soil water potential, soil temperature, soil moisture, inner-bag temperature, and inner-bag humidity sensors. With regard to the inner-bag temperature and humidity sensors, they are used to measure the environment inside the fruit bag used for pre-harvest bagging of pears. In this experiment, three kinds of fruit bags were used for the pre-harvest bagging. After over 100 days continuous measurement, volumes of sensing data have been collected. Firstly, correlation analysis among sensing data measured by respective sensors reveals that one sensor can replace another sensor so that more efficient and cost-saving sensing systems can be proposed to pear farmers. Secondly, differences in characteristic and performance of the three kinds of fruit bags are clarified by the measurement results by the inner-bag environmental sensing. It is found that characteristic and performance of the inner-bags significantly differ from each other by statistical analysis. Lastly, a relational model between the sensing data and the pear outlook quality is established by use of Structural Equation Model (SEM). Here, the pear outlook quality is related with existence of stain, blob, scratch, and so on caused by physiological impair or diseases. Conceptually SEM is a combination of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. By using SEM, a model is constructed to connect independent and dependent variables. The proposed SEM model relates the measured sensing data and the pear outlook quality determined on the basis of farmer judgement. In particularly, it is found that the inner-bag humidity variable relatively affects the pear outlook quality. Therefore, inner-bag humidity sensing might help the farmers to control the pear outlook quality. These results are supported by a large quantity of inner-bag humidity data measured over the years 2014, 2015, and 2016. The experimental and analytical results in this research contribute to spreading Precision Agriculture technologies among the farmers growing ’Le Lectier’.

Keywords: precision agriculture, pre-harvest bagging, sensor fusion, structural equation model

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Authors: W. Mohammed Saeed, A. J. Mcbain, S. M. Cruickshank, C. A. O’Neill

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In the gut, probiotics have been shown to protect epithelial cells from pathogenic bacteria through a number of mechanisms: 1-Increasing epithelial barrier function, 2-Modulation of the immune response especially innate immune response, 3-Inhibition of pathogen adherence and down regulation of virulence factors. Since probiotics have positive impacts on the gut, their potential effects on other body tissues, such as skin have begun to be investigated. The purpose of this project is to characterize the potential of probiotic bacteria lysate as therapeutic agent for preventing or reducing the S. aureus infection. Normal human primary keratinocytes (KCs) were exposed to S. aureus (106/ml) in the presence or absence of L. rhamnosus GG lysate (extracted from 108cfu/ml). The viability of the KCs was measured after 24 hours using a trypan blue exclusion assay. When KCs were treated with S aureus alone, only 25% of the KCs remained viable at 24 hours post infection. However, in the presence of L. rhamnosus GG lysate the viability of pathogen infected KCs increased to 58% (p=0.008, n=3). Furthermore, when KCs co-exposed, pre- exposed or post-exposed to L. rhamnosus GG lysate, the viability of the KCs increased to ≈60%, the L. rhamnosus GG lysate was afforded equal protection in different conditions. These data suggests that two possible separate mechanisms are involved in the protective effects of L. rhamnosus GG such as reducing S. aureus growth, or inhibiting of pathogenic adhesion. Interestingly, a lysate of L rhamnosus GG provided significant reduction in S. aureus growth and adhesion of S. aureus that being viable following 24 hours incubation with S aureus. Therefore, a series of Liquid Chromatography (RP-LC) methods were adopted to partially purify the lysate in combination with functional assays to elucidate in which fractions the efficacious molecules were contained. In addition, the Mass Spectrometry-based protein sequencing was used to identify putative proteins in the fractions. The data presented from purification process demonstrated that L. rhamnosus GG lysate has the potential to protect keratinocytes from the toxic effects of the skin pathogen, S. aureus. Three potential mechanisms were identified: inhibition of pathogen growth; competitive exclusion; and displacement of the pathogen from keratinocyte binding sites. In this study, ‘moonlight’ proteins were identified in the current study’s MS/MS data for L. rhamnosus GG lysate, which could elucidate the ability of lysate in the competitive exclusion and displacement of S. aureus from keratinocyte binding sites. Taken together, it can be speculated that L. rhamnosus GG lysate utilizes different mechanisms to protect keratinocytes from S. aureus toxicity. The present study indicates that the proteinaceous substances are involved in anti-adhesion activity. This is achieved by displacing the pathogen and preventing the severity of pathogen infection and the moonlight proteins might be involved in inhibiting the adhesion of pathogens.

Keywords: lysate, fractions, adhesion, L. rhamnosus GG, S. aureus toxicity

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Authors: Atheer Al-Nuaimi, Harry Evdorides

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Every day many people die or get disabled or injured on roads around the world, which necessitates more specific treatments for transportation safety issues. International road assessment program (iRAP) model is one of the comprehensive road safety models which accounting for many factors that affect road safety in a cost-effective way in low and middle income countries. In iRAP model road safety has been divided into five star ratings from 1 star (the lowest level) to 5 star (the highest level). These star ratings are based on star rating score which is calculated by iRAP methodology depending on road attributes, traffic volumes and operating speeds. The outcome of iRAP methodology are the treatments that can be used to improve road safety and reduce fatalities and serious injuries (FSI) numbers. These countermeasures can be used separately as a single countermeasure or mix as multiple countermeasures for a location. There is general agreement that the adequacy of a countermeasure is liable to consistent losses when it is utilized as a part of mix with different countermeasures. That is, accident diminishment appraisals of individual countermeasures cannot be easily added together. The iRAP model philosophy makes utilization of a multiple countermeasure adjustment factors to predict diminishments in the effectiveness of road safety countermeasures when more than one countermeasure is chosen. A multiple countermeasure correction factors are figured for every 100-meter segment and for every accident type. However, restrictions of this methodology incorporate a presumable over-estimation in the predicted crash reduction. This study aims to adjust this correction factor by developing new models to calculate the effect of using multiple countermeasures on the number of fatalities for a location or an entire road. Regression models have been used to establish relationships between crash frequencies and the factors that affect their rates. Multiple linear regression, negative binomial regression, and Poisson regression techniques were used to develop models that can address the effectiveness of using multiple countermeasures. Analyses are conducted using The R Project for Statistical Computing showed that a model developed by negative binomial regression technique could give more reliable results of the predicted number of fatalities after the implementation of road safety multiple countermeasures than the results from iRAP model. The results also showed that the negative binomial regression approach gives more precise results in comparison with multiple linear and Poisson regression techniques because of the overdispersion and standard error issues.

Keywords: international road assessment program, negative binomial, road multiple countermeasures, road safety

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Authors: Catherine Begin, Jeanne Berthod, Manon Truchon

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In Quebec, there are more than 8,000 community organizations throughout the province, representing more than 72,000 jobs. Working in a community setting involves several particularities (e.g., contact with the suffering of users, feelings of powerlessness, institutional pressure, unstable funding, etc.), which can put workers at risk of fatigue, burnout, and psychological distress. A 2007 study shows that 52% of community workers surveyed have a high psychological distress index. The Ricochet project, founded in 2019, is an initiative aimed at providing various care and services to community workers in the Quebec City region, with a global health approach. Within this program, mindful self-compassion training (MSC) is offered at a low cost. MSC is one of the effective strategies proposed in the literature to help prevent and reduce burnout. Self-compassion is the recognition that suffering, failure, and inadequacies are inherent in the human experience and that everyone, including oneself, deserves compassion. MSC training targets several behavioral, cognitive, and emotional learnings (e.g., motivating oneself with caring, better managing difficult emotions, promoting resilience, etc.). A mixed-method evaluation was conducted with the participants in order to explore the effects of the training on community workers in the Quebec City region. The participants were community workers (management or caregiver). 15 participants completed satisfaction and perceived impact surveys, and 30 participated in structured interviews. Quantitative results showed that participants were generally completely satisfied or satisfied with the training (94%) and perceived that the training allowed them to develop new strategies for dealing with stress (87%). Participants perceived effects on their mood (93%), their contact with others (80%), and their stress level (67%). Some of the barriers raised were scheduling constraints, length of training, and guilt about taking time for oneself. The qualitative results show that individuals experienced long-term benefits, as they were able to apply the tools they received during the training in their daily lives. Some barriers were noted, such as difficulty in getting away from work or problems with the employer, which prevented enrollment. Overall, the results of this evaluation support the use of MSC (mindful self-compassion) training among community workers. Future research could support this evaluation by using a rigorous design and developing innovative ways to overcome the barriers raised.

Keywords: mindful self-compassion, community workers, work stres, burnout, wellbeing at work

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Authors: Sunghun Jung, Wonkook Kim

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Due to the difficulty of the utilization of satellite and an aircraft, conventional ocean color remote sensing has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to obtain images of desired places at desired times. These disadvantages make it difficult to capture the anomalies such as the occurrence of the red tide which requires immediate observation. It is also difficult to understand the phenomena such as the resuspension-precipitation process of suspended solids and the spread of low-salinity water originating in the coastal areas. For the remote sensing reflectance of seawater, above-water radiometers (AWR) have been used either by carrying portable AWRs on a ship or installing those at fixed observation points on the Ieodo ocean research station, Socheongcho base, and etc. In particular, however, it requires the high cost to measure the remote reflectance in various seawater environments at various times and it is even not possible to measure it at the desired frequency in the desired sea area at the desired time. Also, in case of the stationary observation, it is advantageous that observation data is continuously obtained, but there is the disadvantage that data of various sea areas cannot be obtained. It is possible to instantly capture various marine phenomena occurring on the coast using the unmanned aerial system (UAS) including vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) since it could move and hover at the one location and acquire data of the desired form at a high resolution. To remotely estimate seawater constituents, it is necessary to install an ultra-spectral sensor. Also, to calculate reflected light from the surface of the sea in consideration of the sun’s incident light, a total of three sensors need to be installed on the UAV. The remote sensing reflectance of seawater is the most basic optical property for remotely estimating color components in seawater and we could remotely estimate the chlorophyll concentration, the suspended solids concentration, and the dissolved organic amount. Estimating seawater physics from the remote sensing reflectance requires the algorithm development using the accumulation data of seawater reflectivity under various seawater and atmospheric conditions. The UAS with three AWRs is developed for the remote reflection sensing on the surface of the sea. Throughout the paper, we explain the details of each UAS component, system operation scenarios, and simulation and experiment results. The UAS consists of a UAV, a solar tracker, a transmitter, a ground control station (GCS), three AWRs, and two gimbals.

Keywords: above-water radiometers (AWR), ground control station (GCS), unmanned aerial system (UAS), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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The photocurrent generations are influencing ultra-high efficiency solar cells based on self-assembled quantum dot (QD) nanostructures. Nanocrystal quantum dots (QD) provide a great enhancement toward solar cell efficiencies through the use of quantum confinement to tune absorbance across the solar spectrum enabled multi-exciton generation. Based on theoretical predictions, QDs have potential to improve systems efficiency in approximate regular electrons excitation intensity greater than 50%. In solar cell devices, an intermediate band formed by the electron levels in quantum dot systems. The spatial architecture is exploring how can solar cell integrate and produce not only high open circuit voltage (> 1.7 eV) but also large short-circuit currents due to the efficient absorption of sub-bandgap photons. In the proposed QD system, the structure allows barrier material to absorb wavelengths below 700 nm while multi-photon processes in the used quantum dots to absorb wavelengths up to 2 µm. The assembly of the electronic model is flexible to demonstrate the atoms and molecules structure and material properties to tune control energy bandgap of the barrier quantum dot to their respective optimum values. In terms of energy virtual conversion, the efficiency and cost of the electronic structure are unified outperform a pair of multi-junction solar cell that obtained in the rigorous test to quantify the errors. The milestone toward achieving the claimed high-efficiency solar cell device is controlling the edge causes of energy bandgap between the barrier material and quantum dot systems according to the media design limits. Despite this remarkable potential for high photocurrent generation, the achievable open-circuit voltage (Voc) is fundamentally limited due to non-radiative recombination processes in QD solar cells. The orientation of voltage recovery system is compared theoretically with experimental Voc variation in mediation upper–limit obtained one diode modeling form at the cells with different bandgap (Eg) as classified in the proposed spatial architecture. The opportunity for improvement Voc is valued approximately greater than 1V by using smaller QDs through QD solar cell recovery systems as confined to other micro and nano operations states.

Keywords: nanotechnology, photovoltaic solar cell, quantum systems, renewable energy, environmental modeling

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Authors: Samuel Munaf, Kevin Swingler, Franz Brülisauer, Anthony O’Hare, George Gunn, Aaron Reeves

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Background: Avian influenza, more commonly known as Bird flu, is a viral zoonotic respiratory disease stemming from various species of poultry, including pets and migratory birds. Researchers have purported that the accessibility of health information online, in addition to the low-cost data collection methods the internet provides, has revolutionized the methods in which epidemiological and disease surveillance data is utilized. This paper examines the feasibility of using internet data sources, such as Twitter and livestock forums, for the early detection of the avian flu outbreak, through the use of text mining algorithms and social network analysis. Methods: Social media mining was conducted on Twitter between the period of 01/01/2021 to 31/12/2021 via the Twitter API in Python. The results were filtered firstly by hashtags (#avianflu, #birdflu), word occurrences (avian flu, bird flu, H5N1), and then refined further by location to include only those results from within the UK. Analysis was conducted on this text in a time-series manner to determine keyword frequencies and topic modeling to uncover insights in the text prior to a confirmed outbreak. Further analysis was performed by examining clinical signs (e.g., swollen head, blue comb, dullness) within the time series prior to the confirmed avian flu outbreak by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Results: The increased search results in Google and avian flu-related tweets showed a correlation in time with the confirmed cases. Topic modeling uncovered clusters of word occurrences relating to livestock biosecurity, disposal of dead birds, and prevention measures. Conclusions: Text mining social media data can prove to be useful in relation to analysing discussed topics for epidemiological surveillance purposes, especially given the lack of applied research in the veterinary domain. The small sample size of tweets for certain weekly time periods makes it difficult to provide statistically plausible results, in addition to a great amount of textual noise in the data.

Keywords: veterinary epidemiology, disease surveillance, infodemiology, infoveillance, avian influenza, social media

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Authors: Palak Patel

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Mumbai is one of the largest cities of the country with a population of 12.44 million over 437 Sq.km, and it is known as financial hub of India. In early 20th century, with the expansion of industrialization and growth of port, a huge demand for housing was created. In response to this, government enacted rent controls. Over a period of time, due to rent controls, the existing rental housing stock has deteriorated. Therefore, in last 25 years, government has been focusing on redevelopment of these rental buildings, also called ‘Cessed buildings’, in order to provide better standard of living to the tenants and also, to supply new housing units in the market. In India, developers are the main players in the housing market as they are the supplier of maximum dwelling units in the market. Hence, government attempts are inclined toward facilitating developers for the cessed building redevelopment projects by incentivizing them through making special provisions in the development control regulations. This research focuses on the entire process of redevelopment by the developers and issues faced by the related stakeholders in the same to reduce the stress on housing. It also highlights the loopholes in the current system and inefficient functioning of the process. The research was carried out by interviewing various developers, tenants and landlords in the island city who have already gone through redevelopment. From the case studies, it is very evident that redevelopment is undoubtedly a huge profit making business. In some cases, developers make profit of almost double the amount of the investment. But yet, satisfactory results are not seen on ground. It clearly indicates that there are some issues faced by developers which have not been addressed. Some of these issues include cumbersome legal procedures, negotiations with landlords and tenants, congestion and narrow roads, small size of the plots, informal practicing of ‘Pagdi system’ and financial viability of the project. This research recommends the up gradation of the existing cessed buildings by sharing the repairing and maintenance cost between landlords and tenants and also, income levels of tenants can be traced and housing vouchers or incentives can be provided to those who actual need it so that landlord does not have to subsidize the tenants. For redevelopment, the current interventions are generalized in nature as it does not take on ground issues into the consideration. There is need to identify local issues and give area specific solutions. And also, government should play a role of mediator to ensure all the stakeholders are satisfied and project gets completed on time.

Keywords: cessed buildings, developers, government’s interventions, redevelopment, rent controls, tenants

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Kurniawan Adha, Wan Ismail Wan Yusoff, Luluan Almanna Lubis

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Preventing hazardous events during oil and gas operation is an important contribution of accurate pore pressure data. The availability of pore pressure data also contribute in reducing the operation cost. Suggested methods in pore pressure estimation were mostly complex by the many assumptions and hypothesis used. Basic properties which may have significant impact on estimation model are somehow being neglected. To date, most of pore pressure determinations are estimated by data model analysis and rarely include laboratory analysis, stratigraphy study or core check measurement. Basically, this study developed a model that might be applied to investigate the changes of pore pressure and effective stress due to hydrocarbon production. In general, this paper focused velocity model effect of pore pressure and effective stress changes due to hydrocarbon production with illustrated by changes in saturation. The core samples from Miri field from Sarawak Malaysia ware used in this study, where the formation consists of sandstone reservoir. The study area is divided into sixteen (16) layers and encompassed six facies (A-F) from the outcrop that is used for stratigraphy sequence model. The experimental work was firstly involving data collection through field study and developing stratigraphy sequence model based on outcrop study. Porosity and permeability measurements were then performed after samples were cut into 1.5 inch diameter core samples. Next, velocity was analyzed using SONIC OYO and AutoLab 500. Three (3) scenarios of saturation were also conducted to exhibit the production history of the samples used. Results from this study show the alterations of velocity for different saturation with different actions of effective stress and pore pressure. It was observed that sample with water saturation has the highest velocity while dry sample has the lowest value. In comparison with oil to samples with oil saturation, water saturated sample still leads with the highest value since water has higher fluid density than oil. Furthermore, water saturated sample exhibits velocity derived parameters, such as poisson’s ratio and P-wave velocity over S-wave velocity (Vp/Vs) The result shows that pore pressure value ware reduced due to the decreasing of fluid content. The decreasing of pore pressure result may soften the elastic mineral frame and have tendency to possess high velocity. The alteration of pore pressure by the changes in fluid content or saturation resulted in alteration of velocity value that has proportionate trend with the effective stress.

Keywords: pore pressure, effective stress, production, miri formation

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Authors: Maria Inês Pinho

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Recent literature on issues of Cultural Management (also called Strategic Management for cultural organizations) systematically seeks for models that allow such equipment to adapt to the constant change that occurs in contemporary societies. In the last decade, the world, and in particular Europe has experienced a serious financial problem that has triggered defensive mechanisms, both in the direction of promoting the balance of public accounts and in the sense of the anonymous loss of the democratic and cultural values of each nation. If in the first case emerged the Troika that led to strong cuts in funding for Culture, deeply affecting those organizations; in the second case, the commonplace citizen is seen fighting for the non-closure of cultural equipment. Despite this, the cultural manager argues that there is no single formula capable of solving the need to adapt to change. In another way, it is up to this agent to know the existing scientific models and to adapt them in the best way to the reality of the institution he coordinates. These actions, as a rule, are concerned with the best performance vis-à-vis external audiences or with the financial sustainability of cultural organizations. They forget, therefore, that all this mechanics cannot function without its internal public, without its Human Resources. The employees of the cultural organization must then have an entrepreneurial posture - must be intrapreneurial. This paper intends to break this form of action and lead the cultural manager to understand that his role should be in the sense of creating value for society, through a good organizational performance. This is only possible with a posture of strategic entrepreneurship. In other words, with a link between: Cultural Management, Cultural Entrepreneurship and Cultural Intrapreneurship. In order to prove this assumption, the case study methodology was used with the symbol of the European Capital of Culture (Casa da Música) as well as qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative techniques included the procedure of in-depth interviews to managers, founders and patrons and focus groups to public with and without experience in managing cultural facilities. The quantitative techniques involved the application of a questionnaire to middle management and employees of Casa da Música. After the triangulation of the data, it was proved that contemporary management of cultural organizations must implement among its practices, the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship and its variables. Also, the topics which characterize the Cultural Intrapreneurship notion (job satisfaction, the quality in organizational performance, the leadership and the employee engagement and autonomy) emerged. The findings show then that to be sustainable, a cultural organization should meet the concerns of both external and internal forum. In other words, it should have an attitude of citizenship to the communities, visible on a social responsibility and a participatory management, only possible with the implementation of the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship and its variable of Cultural Intrapreneurship.

Keywords: cultural entrepreneurship, cultural intrapreneurship, cultural organizations, strategic management

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Authors: Sumanta Daw, Gopal Chandra Saha

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The present study was conducted to explore the basic pulmonary functions which may generally vary according to the bio-physical characteristics including age, height, body weight, and environment etc. of the sports performers. Regular and specific training exercises also change the characteristics of an athlete’s prowess and produce a positive effect on the physiological functioning, mostly upon cardio-pulmonary efficiency and thereby improving the body mechanism. The objective of the present study was to compare the differences in cardio-respiratory functions between aquatics and track and field performers. As cardio-respiratory functions are influenced by pulse rate and blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), so both of the factors were also taken into consideration. The component selected under cardio-respiratory functions for the present study were i) FEVI/FVC ratio (forced expiratory volume divided by forced vital capacity ratio, i.e. the number represents the percentage of lung capacity to exhale in one second) ii) FVC1 (this is the amount of air which can force out of lungs in one second) and iii) FVC (forced vital capacity is the greatest total amount of air forcefully breathe out after breathing in as deeply as possible). All the three selected components of the cardio-respiratory efficiency were measured by spirometry method. Pulse rate was determined manually. The radial artery which is located on the thumb side of our wrist was used to assess the pulse rate. Blood pressure was assessed by sphygmomanometer. All the data were taken in the resting condition. 36subjects were selected for the present study out of which 18were water polo players and rest were sprinters. The age group of the subjects was considered between 18 to 23 years. In this study the obtained data inform of digital score were treated statistically to get result and draw conclusions. The Mean and Standard Deviation (SD) were used as descriptive statistics and the significant difference between the two subject groups was assessed with the help of statistical ‘t’-test. It was found from the study that all the three components i.e. FEVI/FVC ratio (p-value 0.0148 < 0.01), FVC1 (p-value 0.0010 < 0.01) and FVC (p-value 0.0067 < 0.01) differ significantly as water polo players proved to be better in terms of cardio-respiratory functions than sprinters. Thus study clearly suggests that the exercise training as well as the medium of practice arena associated with water polo players has played an important role to determine better cardio respiratory efficiency than track and field athletes. The outcome of the present study revealed that the lung function in land-based activities may not provide much impact than that of in water activities.

Keywords: cardio-respiratory efficiency, spirometry, water polo players, sprinters

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Authors: Yakup Ulusu, Numan Eczacıoğlu, İsa Gökçe, Helen Waller, Jeremy H. Lakey

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Besides having the appropriate amino acid sequence to perform the function of proteins, it is important to have correct conformation after this sequence to process. To consist of this conformation depends on the amino acid sequence at the primary structure, hydrophobic interaction, chaperones and enzymes in charge of folding etc. Misfolded proteins are not functional and tend to be aggregated. Cysteine originating disulfide cross-links make stable this conformation of functional proteins. When two of the cysteine amino acids come side by side, disulfide bond is established that forms a cystine bridge. Due to this feature cysteine plays an important role on the formation of three-dimensional structure of many proteins. There are two cysteine amino acids (C44, C69) in the Tol-A-III protein. Unlike protein disulfide bonds from within his own, any non-specific cystine bridge causes a change in the three dimensional structure of the protein. Proteins can be expressed in various host cells as directly or fusion (chimeric). As a result of overproduction of the recombinant proteins, aggregation of insoluble proteins in the host cell can occur by forming a crystal structure called inclusion body. In general fusion proteins are produced for provide affinity tags to make proteins more soluble and production of some toxic proteins via fusion protein expression system like pTolT. Proteins can be modified by using a site-directed mutagenesis. By this way, creation of non-specific disulfide crosslinks can be prevented at fusion protein expression system via the present cysteine replaced by another amino acid such as serine, glycine or etc. To do this, we need; a DNA molecule that contains the gene that encodes for the target protein, required primers for mutation to be designed according to site directed mutagenesis reaction. This study was aimed to be replaced cysteine encoding codon TGT with serine encoding codon AGT. For this sense and reverse primers designed (given below) and used site-directed mutagenesis reaction. Several new copy of the template plasmid DNA has been formed with above mentioned mutagenic primers via polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR product consists of both the master template DNA (wild type) and the new DNA sequences containing mutations. Dpn-l endonuclease restriction enzyme which is specific for methylated DNA and cuts them to the elimination of the master template DNA. E. coli cells obtained after transformation were incubated LB medium with antibiotic. After purification of plasmid DNA from E. coli, the presence of the mutation was determined by DNA sequence analysis. Developed this new plasmid is called PtolT-δ.

Keywords: site directed mutagenesis, Escherichia coli, pTolT, protein expression

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Authors: Celine Davis

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The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, which has detrimental respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological effects impacting over one million lives in the United States. New researches has emerged indicating long-term neurologic consequences in those who survive COVID-19 infections, including more than seven million Americans and another 27 million people worldwide. These consequences include attentional deficits, memory impairments, executive function deficits and aphasia-like symptoms which fall within the purview of speech-language pathology. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. The NHIS is one of the most significant sources of health-related data in the country and has been conducted since 1957. The longitudinal nature of the study allows for analysis of trends in various variables over the years, which can be essential for understanding societal changes and making treatment recommendations. This current study will utilize NHIS data from 2020-2022 which contained interview questions specifically related to COVID-19. Adult cases of individuals between the ages of 18-50 diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States during 2020-2022 will be identified using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Multiple regression analysis of self-reported data confirming COVID-19 infection status and challenges with concentration, communication, and memory will be performed. Latent class analysis will be utilized to identify subgroups in the population to indicate whether certain demographic groups have higher susceptibility to cognitive-linguistic deficits associated with COVID-19. Completion of this study will reveal whether there is an association between confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and heightened incidence of cognitive deficits and subsequent implications, if any, on activities of daily living. This study is distinct in its aim to utilize national survey data to explore the relationship between confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and the prevalence of cognitive-communication deficits with a secondary focus on resulting activity limitations. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this will be the first large-scale epidemiological study investigating the associations between cognitive-linguistic deficits, COVID-19 and implications on activities of daily living in the United States population. These findings will highlight the need for targeted interventions and support services to address the cognitive-communication needs of individuals recovering from COVID-19, thereby enhancing their overall well-being and functional outcomes.

Keywords: cognition, COVID-19, language, limitations, memory, NHIS

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Authors: Ohud Adnan Saffar

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This study aims to know the effect of using universal design for learning (UDL) to improve the quality of vocational programme with intellectual disabilities (SID) and the challenges facing this method from the teachers' point of view. The significance of the study: There are comparatively few published studies on UDL in emerging nations. Therefore, this study will encourage the researchers to consider a new approaches teaching. Development of this study will contribute significant information on the cognitively disabled community on a universal scope. In order to collect and evaluate the data and for the verification of the results, this study has been used the mixed research method, by using two groups comparison method. To answer the study questions, we were used the questionnaire, lists of observations, open questions, and pre and post-test. Thus, the study explored the advantages and drawbacks, and know about the impact of using the UDL method on integrating SID with students non-special education needs in the same classroom. Those aims were realized by developing a workshop to explain the three principles of the UDL and train (16) teachers in how to apply this method to teach (12) students non-special education needs and the (12) SID in the same classroom, then take their opinion by using the questionnaire and questions. Finally, this research will explore the effects of the UDL on the teaching of professional photography skills for the SID in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this goal, the research method was a comparison of the performance of the SID using the UDL method with that of female students with the same challenges applying other strategies by teachers in control and experiment groups, we used the observation lists, pre and post-test. Initial results: It is clear from the previous response to the participants that most of the answers confirmed that the use of UDL achieves the principle of inclusion between the SID and students non-special education needs by 93.8%. In addition, the results show that the majority of the sampled people see that the most important advantages of using UDL in teaching are creating an interactive environment with using new and various teaching methods, with a percentage of 56.2%. Following this result, the UDL is useful for integrating students with general education, with a percentage of 31.2%. Moreover, the finding indicates to improve understanding through using the new technology and exchanging the primitive ways of teaching with the new ones, with a percentage of 25%. The result shows the percentages of the sampled people's opinions about the financial obstacles, and it concluded that the majority see that the cost is high and there is no computer maintenance available, with 50%. There are no smart devices in schools to help in implementing and applying for the program, with a percentage of 43.8%.

Keywords: universal design for learning, intellectual disabilities, vocational programme, the challenges facing this method

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Authors: Umut Yıldız, Berkin Kurtuluş, Yunus Emre Muslubaş

Abstract:

Thrust vectoring, especially in military aviation, is a concept that sees much use to improve maneuverability in already agile aircraft. As this concept is fairly new and cost intensive to design and test, computational methods are useful in easing the preliminary design process. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be utilized in many forms to simulate nozzle flow, and there exist various CFD studies in both 2D mechanical and 3D injection based thrust vectoring, and yet, 3D mechanical thrust vectoring analyses, at this point in time, are lacking variety. Additionally, the freely available test data is constrained to limited pitch angles and geometries. In this study, based on a test case provided by NASA, both steady and unsteady 3D CFD simulations are conducted to examine the aerodynamic performance of a mechanical thrust vectoring nozzle model and to validate the utilized numerical model. Steady analyses are performed to verify the flow characteristics of the nozzle at pitch angles of 0, 10 and 20 degrees, and the results are compared with experimental data. It is observed that the pressure data obtained on the inner surface of the nozzle at each specified pitch angle and under different flow conditions with pressure ratios of 1.5, 2 and 4, as well as at azimuthal angle of 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180 degrees exhibited a high level of agreement with the corresponding experimental results. To validate the CFD model, the insights from the steady analyses are utilized, followed by unsteady analyses covering a wide range of pitch angles from 0 to 20 degrees. Throughout the simulations, a mesh morphing method using a carefully calculated mathematical shape deformation model that simulates the vectored nozzle shape exactly at each point of its travel is employed to dynamically alter the divergent part of the nozzle over time within this pitch angle range. The mesh morphing based vectored nozzle shapes were compared with the drawings provided by NASA, ensuring a complete match was achieved. This computational approach allowed for the creation of a comprehensive database of results without the need to generate separate solution domains. The database contains results at every 0.01° increment of nozzle pitch angle. The unsteady analyses, generated using the morphing method, are found to be in excellent agreement with experimental data, further confirming the accuracy of the CFD model.

Keywords: thrust vectoring, computational fluid dynamics, 3d mesh morphing, mathematical shape deformation model

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Authors: Tshegofatso Galekgathege

Abstract:

Poor water quality is of great concern to human health as it can cause disease outbreaks. A standard practice today, in developed countries, is that people should be provided with safe-reliable drinking water, as safe drinking water is recognized as a basic human right and a cost effective measure of reducing diseases. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to a safe water supply and as a result, the majority are forced to use polluted surface or groundwater. It is widely accepted that our water supply systems are susceptible to the intentional or accidental contamination .Water quality degradation may occur anywhere in the path that water takes from the water source to the consumer. Chlorine is believed to be an effective tool in disinfecting water, but its concentration may decrease with time due to consumption by chemical reactions. This shows that we are at the risk of being infected by waterborne diseases if chlorine in water falls below the required level of 0.2-1mg/liter which should be maintained in water and some contaminants enter into the water distribution system. It is believed that the lack of adequate sanitation also contributes to the contamination of water globally. This study therefore, assesses drinking water contamination from the source to the consumer by identifying the point vulnerable to contamination from the source to the consumer in the study area .To identify the point vulnerable to contamination, water was sampled monthly from boreholes, water treatment plant, water distribution system (WDS), service reservoirs and consumer taps from all the twenty (20) villages of Palapye region. Sampled water was then taken to the laboratory for testing and analysis of microbiological and chemical parameters. Water quality analysis were then compared with Botswana drinking water quality standards (BOS32:2009) to see if they comply. Major sources of water contamination identified during site visits were the livestock which were found drinking stagnant water from leaking pipes in 90 percent of the villages. Soils structure around the area was negatively affected because of livestock movement even vegetation in the area. In conclusion microbiological parameters of water in the study area do not comply with drinking water standards, some microbiological parameters in water indicated that livestock do not only affect land degradation but also the quality of water. Chlorine has been applied to water over some years but it is not effective enough thus preventative measures have to be developed, to prevent contaminants from reaching water. Remember: Prevention is better than cure.

Keywords: land degradation, leaking systems, livestock, water contamination

Procedia PDF Downloads 339

Authors: Komala Arsi, Ann M. Donoghue, Dan J. Donoghue

Abstract:

Methionine is an essential dietary amino acid necessary to promote growth and health of poultry. Synthetic methionine is commonly used as a supplement in conventional poultry diets and is temporarily allowed in organic poultry feed for lack of natural and organically approved sources of methionine. It has been a challenge to find a natural, sustainable and cost-effective source for methionine which reiterates the pressing need to explore potential alternatives of methionine for organic poultry production. Fish have high concentrations of methionine, but wild-caught fish are expensive and adversely impact wild fish populations. Asian carp (AC) is an invasive species and its utilization has the potential to be used as a natural methionine source. However, to our best knowledge, there is no proven technology to utilize this fish as a methionine source. In this study, we co-extruded Asian carp and soybean meal to form a dry-extruded, methionine-rich AC meal. In order to formulate rations with the novel extruded carp meal, the product was tested on cecectomized roosters for its amino acid digestibility and total metabolizable energy (TMEn). Excreta was collected and the gross energy, protein content of the feces was determined to calculate Total Metabolizable Energy (TME). The methionine content, digestibility and TME values were greater for the extruded AC meal than control diets. Carp meal was subsequently tested as a methionine source in feeds formulated for broilers, and production performance (body weight gain and feed conversion ratio) was assessed in comparison with broilers fed standard commercial diets supplemented with synthetic methionine. In this study, broiler chickens were fed either a control diet with synthetic methionine or a treatment diet with extruded AC meal (8 replicates/treatment; n=30 birds/replicate) from day 1 to 42 days of age. At the end of the trial, data for body weights, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Fisher LSD test for multiple comparisons. Results revealed that birds on AC diet had body weight gains and feed intake comparable to diets containing synthetic methionine (P > 0.05). Results from the study suggest that invasive AC-derived fish meal could potentially be an effective and inexpensive source of sustainable natural methionine for organic poultry farmers.

Keywords: Asian carp, methionine, organic, poultry

Procedia PDF Downloads 139