Search results for: matrix solid phase dispersive extraction

Authors: Meenakshi Barsaul Chauhan, Aastha Chauhan, Shilpa Hurmade, Rajeev Sen, Jyotsna Sen, Monika Dalal

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Introduction: Ovarian masses are common forms of neoplasm in women and represent 2/3rd of gynaecological malignancies. A pre-operative suggestion of malignancy can guide the gynecologist to refer women with suspected pelvic mass to a gynecological oncologist for appropriate therapy and optimized treatment, which can improve survival. In the younger age group preoperative differentiation into benign or malignant pathology can decide for conservative or radical surgery. Imaging modalities have a definite role in establishing the diagnosis. By using International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) classification with sonography, costly radiological methods like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) / computed tomography (CT) scan can be reduced, especially in developing countries like India. Thus, this study is being undertaken to evaluate the role of clinical methods and sonography for diagnosis of the nature of the ovarian tumor. Material And Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted on 40 patients presenting with ovarian masses, in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at a tertiary care center in northern India. Functional cysts were excluded. Ultrasonography and color Doppler were performed on all the cases.IOTA rules were applied, which take into account locularity, size, presence of solid components, acoustic shadow, dopper flow etc . Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) / computed tomography (CT) scans abdomen and pelvis were done in cases where sonography was inconclusive. In inoperable cases, Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was done. The histopathology report after surgery and cytology report after FNAC was correlated statistically with the pre-operative diagnosis made clinically and sonographically using IOTA rules. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive measures were analyzed by using mean and standard deviation and the Student t-test was applied and the proportion was analyzed by applying the chi-square test. Inferential measures were analyzed by sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value. Results: Provisional diagnosis of the benign tumor was made in 16(42.5%) and of the malignant tumor was made in 24(57.5%) patients on the basis of clinical findings. With IOTA simple rules on sonography, 15(37.5%) were found to be benign, while 23 (57.5%) were found to be malignant and findings were inconclusive in 2 patients (5%). FNAC/Histopathology reported that benign ovarian tumors were 14 (35%) and 26(65%) were malignant, which was taken as the gold standard. The clinical finding alone was found to have a sensitivity of 66.6% and a specificity of 90.9%. USG alone had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 80%. When clinical findings and IOTA simple rules of sonography were combined (excluding inconclusive masses), the sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 92.3%, respectively. While including inconclusive masses, sensitivity came out to be 91.6% and specificity was 89.2. Conclusion: IOTA's simple sonography rules are highly sensitive and specific in the prediction of ovarian malignancy and also easy to use and easily reproducible. Thus, combining clinical examination with USG will help in the better management of patients in terms of time, cost and better prognosis. This will also avoid the need for costlier modalities like CT, and MRI.

Keywords: benign, international ovarian tumor analysis classification, malignant, ovarian tumours, sonography

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Authors: Jun Byung Joon, Seo Seok Hyun, Lee Seo Young

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As carbon dioxide emissions increase due to rapid industrialization and reckless development, abnormal climates such as floods and droughts are occurring. In order to respond to such climate change, the use of existing fossil fuels is reduced, and the proportion of eco-friendly renewable energy is gradually increasing. Korea is an energy resource-poor country that depends on imports for 93% of its total energy. As the global energy supply chain instability experienced due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis increases, countries around the world are resetting energy policies to minimize energy dependence and strengthen security. Seawater thermal energy is a renewable energy that replaces the existing air heat energy. It uses the characteristic of having a higher specific heat than air to cool and heat main spaces of buildings to increase heat transfer efficiency and minimize power consumption to generate electricity using fossil fuels, and Carbon dioxide emissions can be minimized. In addition, the effect on the marine environment is very small by using only the temperature characteristics of seawater in a limited way. K-water carried out a demonstration project of supplying cooling and heating energy to spaces such as the central control room and presentation room in the management building by acquiring the heat source of seawater circulated through the power plant's waterway by using the characteristics of the tidal power plant. Compared to the East Sea and the South Sea, the main system was designed in consideration of the large tidal difference, small temperature difference, and low-temperature characteristics, and its performance was verified through operation during the demonstration period. In addition, facility improvements were made for major deficiencies to strengthen monitoring functions, provide user convenience, and improve facility soundness. To spread these achievements, the basic concept was to expand the seawater heating and cooling system with a scale of 200 USRT at the Tidal Culture Center. With the operational experience of the demonstration system, it will be possible to establish an optimal seawater heat cooling and heating system suitable for the characteristics of the west coast ocean. Through this, it is possible to reduce operating costs by KRW 33,31 million per year compared to air heat, and through industry-university-research joint research, it is possible to localize major equipment and materials and develop key element technologies to revitalize the seawater heat business and to advance into overseas markets. The government's efforts are needed to expand the seawater heating and cooling system. Seawater thermal energy utilizes only the thermal energy of infinite seawater. Seawater thermal energy has less impact on the environment than river water thermal energy, except for environmental pollution factors such as bottom dredging, excavation, and sand or stone extraction. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sense of speed in project promotion by innovatively simplifying unnecessary licensing/permission procedures. In addition, support should be provided to secure business feasibility by dramatically exempting the usage fee of public waters to actively encourage development in the private sector.

Keywords: seawater thermal energy, marine energy, tidal power plant, energy consumption

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Authors: Toufic Sarieddine

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The current debate on the hegemonic impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is of two opposing strands: Resilient and absolute US hegemony on the one hand and various models of multipolar hegemony such as bifurcation on the other. Bifurcation theories illustrate an unprecedented division of hegemonic functions between China and the US, whereby Beijing becomes the world’s economic hegemon, leaving Washington the world’s military hegemon and security guarantor. While consensus points to China being the main driver of unipolarity’s rupturing, the debate among bifurcationists is on the location of the first rupture. In this regard, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has seen increasing Chinese foreign direct investment in recent years while that to other regions has declined, ranking it second in 2018 as part of the financing for the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI). China has also become the top trade partner of 11 states in the MENA region, as well as its top source of machine imports, surpassing the US and achieving an overall trade surplus almost double that of Washington’s. These are among other features outlined in world-systems analysis (WSA) literature which correspond with the emergence of a new hegemon. WSA is further utilized to gauge other facets of China’s increasing involvement in MENA and assess whether bifurcation is unfolding therein. These features of hegemony include the adoption of China’s modi operandi, economic dominance in production, trade, and finance, military capacity, cultural hegemony in ideology, education, and language, and the promotion of a general interest around which to rally potential peripheries (MENA states in this case). China’s modi operandi has seen some adoption with regards to support against the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, oil bonds denominated in the yuan, and financial institutions such as the Shanghai Gold Exchange enjoying increasing Arab patronage. However, recent elections in Qatar, as well as liberal reforms in Saudi Arabia, demonstrate Washington’s stronger normative influence. Meanwhile, Washington’s economic dominance is challenged by China’s sizable machine exports, increasing overall imports, and widening trade surplus, but retains some clout via dominant arms and transport exports, as well as free-trade deals across the region. Militarily, Washington bests Beijing’s arms exports, has a dominant and well-established presence in the region, and successfully blocked Beijing’s attempt to penetrate through the UAE. Culturally, Beijing enjoys higher favorability in Arab public opinion, and its broadcast networks have found some resonance with Arab audiences. In education, the West remains MENA students’ preferred destination. Further, while Mandarin has become increasingly available in schools across MENA, its usage and availability still lag far behind English. Finally, Beijing’s general interest in infrastructure provision and prioritizing economic development over social justice and democracy provides an avenue for increased incorporation between Beijing and the MENA region. The overall analysis shows solid progress towards bifurcation in MENA.

Keywords: belt and road initiative, hegemony, Middle East and North Africa, world-systems analysis

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Authors: Eman Ghoneim

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The Arabian deserts include some of the driest areas on Earth. Yet, its landforms reserved a record of past wet climates. During humid phases, the desert was green and contained permanent rivers, inland deltas and lakes. Some of their water would have seeped and replenished the groundwater aquifers. When the wet periods came to an end, several thousand years ago, the entire region transformed into an extended band of desert and its original fluvial surface was totally covered by windblown sand. In this work, radar and thermal infrared images were used to reveal numerous hidden surface/subsurface features. Radar long wavelength has the unique ability to penetrate surface dry sands and uncover buried subsurface terrain. Thermal infrared also proven to be capable of spotting cooler moist areas particularly in hot dry surfaces. Integrating Radarsat images and GIS revealed several previously unknown paleoriver and lake basins in the region. One of these systems, known as the Kufrah, is the largest yet identified river basin in the Eastern Sahara. This river basin, which straddles the border between Egypt and Libya, flowed north parallel to the adjacent Nile River with an extensive drainage area of 235,500 km2 and massive valley width of 30 km in some parts. This river was most probably served as a spillway for an overflow from Megalake Chad to the Mediterranean Sea and, thus, may have acted as a natural water corridor used by human ancestors to migrate northward across the Sahara. The Gilf-Kebir is another large paleoriver system located just east of Kufrah and emanates from the Gilf Plateau in Egypt. Both river systems terminate with vast inland deltas at the southern margin of the Great Sand Sea. The trends of their distributary channels indicate that both rivers drained to a topographic depression that was periodically occupied by a massive lake. During dry climates, the lake dried up and roofed by sand deposits, which is today forming the Great Sand Sea. The enormity of the lake basin provides explanation as to why continuous extraction of groundwater in this area is possible. A similar lake basin, delimited by former shorelines, was detected by radar space data just across the border of Sudan. This lake, called the Northern Darfur Megalake, has a massive size of 30,750 km2. These former lakes and rivers could potentially hold vast reservoirs of groundwater, oil and natural gas at depth. Similar to radar data, thermal infrared images were proven to be useful in detecting potential locations of subsurface water accumulation in desert regions. Analysis of both Aster and daily MODIS thermal channels reveal several subsurface cool moist patches in the sandy desert of the Arabian Peninsula. Analysis indicated that such evaporative cooling anomalies were resulted from the subsurface transmission of the Monsoonal rainfall from the mountains to the adjacent plain. Drilling a number of wells in several locations proved the presence of productive water aquifers confirming the validity of the used data and the adopted approaches for water exploration in dry regions.

Keywords: radarsat, SRTM, MODIS, thermal infrared, near-surface water, ancient rivers, desert, Sahara, Arabian peninsula

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Authors: Paola Leon, Hugo Garcia, Adan Leon, Samuel Munoz

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The enhanced oil recovery by steam injection was considered a process that only generated physical recovery mechanisms. However, there is evidence of the occurrence of a series of chemical reactions, which are called aquathermolysis, which generates hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, methane, and lower molecular weight hydrocarbons. These reactions can be favored by the addition of a catalyst during steam injection; in this way, it is possible to generate the original oil in situ upgrading through the production increase of molecules of lower molecular weight. This additional effect could increase the oil recovery factor and reduce costs in transport and refining stages. Therefore, this research has focused on the experimental evaluation of the catalytic aquathermolysis on a Colombian heavy oil with 12,8°API. The effects of three different catalysts, reaction time, and temperature were evaluated in a batch microreactor. The changes in the Colombian heavy oil were quantified through nuclear magnetic resonance 1H-NMR. The relaxation times interpretation and the absorption intensity allowed to identify the distribution of the functional groups in the base oil and upgraded oils. Additionally, the average number of aliphatic carbons in alkyl chains, the number of substituted rings, and the aromaticity factor were established as average structural parameters in order to simplify the samples' compositional analysis. The first experimental stage proved that each catalyst develops a different reaction mechanism. The aromaticity factor has an increasing order of the salts used: Mo > Fe > Ni. However, the upgraded oil obtained with iron naphthenate tends to form a higher content of mono-aromatic and lower content of poly-aromatic compounds. On the other hand, the results obtained from the second phase of experiments suggest that the upgraded oils have a smaller difference in the length of alkyl chains in the range of 240º to 270°C. This parameter has lower values at 300°C, which indicates that the alkylation or cleavage reactions of alkyl chains govern at higher reaction temperatures. The presence of condensation reactions is supported by the behavior of the aromaticity factor and the bridge carbons production between aromatic rings (RCH₂). Finally, it is observed that there is a greater dispersion in the aliphatic hydrogens, which indicates that the alkyl chains have a greater reactivity compared to the aromatic structures.

Keywords: catalyst, upgrading, aquathermolysis, steam

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Authors: Chung-Ming Lo, Chung-Chien Lee

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In many countries, the lifetime prevalence of shoulder pain is up to 70%. In America, the health care system spends 7 billion per year about the healthy issues of shoulder pain. With respect to the origin, up to 70% of shoulder pain is attributed to rotator cuff lesions This study proposed a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to assist radiologists classifying rotator cuff lesions with less operator dependence. Quantitative features were extracted from the shoulder ultrasound images acquired using an ALOKA alpha-6 US scanner (Hitachi-Aloka Medical, Tokyo, Japan) with linear array probe (scan width: 36mm) ranging from 5 to 13 MHz. During examination, the postures of the examined patients are standard sitting position and are followed by the regular routine. After acquisition, the shoulder US images were drawn out from the scanner and stored as 8-bit images with pixel value ranging from 0 to 255. Upon the sonographic appearance, the boundary of each lesion was delineated by a physician to indicate the specific pattern for analysis. The three lesion categories for classification were composed of 20 cases of tendon inflammation, 18 cases of calcific tendonitis, and 18 cases of supraspinatus tear. For each lesion, second-order statistics were quantified in the feature extraction. The second-order statistics were the texture features describing the correlations between adjacent pixels in a lesion. Because echogenicity patterns were expressed via grey-scale. The grey-scale co-occurrence matrixes with four angles of adjacent pixels were used. The texture metrics included the mean and standard deviation of energy, entropy, correlation, inverse different moment, inertia, cluster shade, cluster prominence, and Haralick correlation. Then, the quantitative features were combined in a multinomial logistic regression classifier to generate a prediction model of rotator cuff lesions. Multinomial logistic regression classifier is widely used in the classification of more than two categories such as the three lesion types used in this study. In the classifier, backward elimination was used to select a feature subset which is the most relevant. They were selected from the trained classifier with the lowest error rate. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance of the classifier. Each case was left out of the total cases and used to test the trained result by the remaining cases. According to the physician’s assessment, the performance of the proposed CAD system was shown by the accuracy. As a result, the proposed system achieved an accuracy of 86%. A CAD system based on the statistical texture features to interpret echogenicity values in shoulder musculoskeletal ultrasound was established to generate a prediction model for rotator cuff lesions. Clinically, it is difficult to distinguish some kinds of rotator cuff lesions, especially partial-thickness tear of rotator cuff. The shoulder orthopaedic surgeon and musculoskeletal radiologist reported greater diagnostic test accuracy than general radiologist or ultrasonographers based on the available literature. Consequently, the proposed CAD system which was developed according to the experiment of the shoulder orthopaedic surgeon can provide reliable suggestions to general radiologists or ultrasonographers. More quantitative features related to the specific patterns of different lesion types would be investigated in the further study to improve the prediction.

Keywords: shoulder ultrasound, rotator cuff lesions, texture, computer-aided diagnosis

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Authors: Cátia Gonçalves, Teresa Nunes, Inês Pina, Ana Vicente, C. Alves, Felix Charvet, Daniel Neves, A. Matos

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The production of charcoal relies on rudimentary technologies using traditional brick kilns. Charcoal is produced under pyrolysis conditions: breaking down the chemical structure of biomass under high temperature in the absence of air. The amount of the pyrolysis products (charcoal, pyroligneous extract, and flue gas) depends on various parameters, including temperature, time, pressure, kiln design, and wood characteristics like the moisture content. This activity is recognized for its inefficiency and high pollution levels, but it is poorly characterized. This activity is widely distributed and is a vital economic activity in certain regions of Portugal, playing a relevant role in the management of woody residues. The location of the units establishes the biomass used for charcoal production. The Portalegre district, in the Alto Alentejo region (Portugal), is a good example, essentially with rural characteristics, with a predominant farming, agricultural, and forestry profile, and with a significant charcoal production activity. In this district, a recent inventory identifies almost 50 charcoal production units, equivalent to more than 450 kilns, of which 80% appear to be in operation. A field campaign was designed with the objective of determining the composition of the emissions released during a charcoal production cycle. A total of 30 samples of particulate matter and 20 gas samples in Tedlar bags were collected. Particulate and gas samplings were performed in parallel, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, alternating the inlet heads (PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅), in the particulate sampler. The gas and particulate samples were collected in the plume as close as the emission chimney point. The biomass (dry basis) used in the carbonization process was a mixture of cork oak (77 wt.%), holm oak (7 wt.%), stumps (11 wt.%), and charred wood (5 wt.%) from previous carbonization processes. A cylindrical batch kiln (80 m³) with 4.5 m diameter and 5 m of height was used in this study. The composition of the gases was determined by gas chromatography, while the particulate samples (PM₁₀, PM₂.₅) were subjected to different analytical techniques (thermo-optical transmission technique, ion chromatography, HPAE-PAD, and GC-MS after solvent extraction) after prior gravimetric determination, to study their organic and inorganic constituents. The charcoal production cycle presents widely varying operating conditions, which will be reflected in the composition of gases and particles produced and emitted throughout the process. The concentration of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ in the plume was calculated, ranging between 0.003 and 0.293 g m⁻³, and 0.004 and 0.292 g m⁻³, respectively. Total carbon, inorganic ions, and sugars account, in average, for PM10 and PM₂.₅, 65 % and 56 %, 2.8 % and 2.3 %, 1.27 %, and 1.21 %, respectively. The organic fraction studied until now includes more than 30 aliphatic compounds and 20 PAHs. The emission factors of particulate matter to produce charcoal in the traditional kiln were 33 g/kg (wooddb) and 27 g/kg (wooddb) for PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅, respectively. With the data obtained in this study, it is possible to fill the lack of information about the environmental impact of the traditional charcoal production in Portugal. Acknowledgment: Authors thanks to FCT – Portuguese Science Foundation, I.P. and to Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal for financial support within the scope of the project CHARCLEAN (PCIF/GVB/0179/2017) and CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020).

Keywords: brick kilns, charcoal, emission factors, PAHs, total carbon

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Authors: Irene Carmagnola, Valeria Chiono, Sandra Pacharra, Jochen Salber, Sean McMahon, Chris Lovell, Pooja Basnett, Barbara Lukasiewicz, Ipsita Roy, Xiang Zhang, Gianluca Ciardelli

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Thrombosis and restenosis after stenting procedure can be prevented by promoting fast stent wall endothelialisation. It is well known that surface functionalisation with antifouling molecules combining with extracellular matrix proteins is a promising strategy to design biomimetic surfaces able to promote fast endothelialization. In particular, REDV has gained much attention for the ability to enhance rapid endothelialization due to its specific affinity with endothelial cells (ECs). In this work, a two-step plasma treatment was performed to polymerize a thin layer of acrylic acid, used to subsequently graft PEGylated-REDV and polyethylene glycol (PEG) at different molar ratio with the aim to selectively promote endothelial cell adhesion avoiding platelet activation. PEGylate-REDV was provided by Biomatik and it is formed by 6 PEG monomer repetitions (Chempep Inc.), with an NH2 terminal group. PEG polymers were purchased from Chempep Inc. with two different chain lengths: m-PEG6-NH2 (295.4 Da) with 6 monomer repetitions and m-PEG12-NH2 (559.7 Da) with 12 monomer repetitions. Plasma activation was obtained by operating at 50W power, 5 min of treatment and at an Ar flow rate of 20 sccm. Pure acrylic acid (99%, AAc) vapors were diluted in Ar (flow = 20 sccm) and polymerized by a pulsed plasma discharge applying a discharge RF power of 200 W, a duty cycle of 10% (on time = 10 ms, off time = 90 ms) for 10 min. After plasma treatment, samples were dipped into an 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3- ethylcarbodiimide (EDC)/N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) solution (ratio 4:1, pH 5.5) for 1 h at 4°C and subsequently dipped in PEGylate-REDV and PEGylate-REDV:PEG solutions at different molar ratio (100 μg/mL in PBS) for 20 h at room temperature. Surface modification was characterized through physico-chemical analyses and in vitro cell tests. PEGylated-REDV peptide and PEG were successfully bound to the carboxylic groups that are formed on the polymer surface after plasma reaction. FTIR-ATR spectroscopy, X -ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurement gave a clear indication of the presence of the grafted molecules. The use of PEG as a spacer allowed for an increase in wettability of the surface, and the effect was more evident by increasing the amount of PEG. Endothelial cells adhered and spread well on the surfaces functionalized with the REDV sequence. In conclusion, a selective coating able to promote a new endothelial cell layer on polymeric stent surface was developed. In particular, a thin AAc film was polymerised on the polymeric surface in order to expose –COOH groups, and PEGylate-REDV and PEG were successful grafted on the polymeric substrates. The REDV peptide demonstrated to encourage cell adhesion with a consequent, expected improvement of the hemocompatibility of these polymeric surfaces in vivo. Acknowledgements— This work was funded by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme under grant agreement number 604251- ReBioStent (Reinforced Bioresorbable Biomaterials for Therapeutic Drug Eluting Stents). The authors thank all the ReBioStent partners for their support in this work.

Keywords: endothelialisation, plasma treatment, stent, surface functionalisation

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Authors: Nirmal Kundu, Chandan Bhar, Visveswaran Pandurangan

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Technology is the most valued possession for a country or an organization. The economic development depends not on stock of technology but on the capabilities how the technology is being exploited. The technology transfer is the best way how the developing countries have an access to state-of- the-art technology. Traditional technology transfer is a unidirectional phenomenon where technology is transferred from developed to developing countries. But now there is a change of wind. There is a general agreement that global shift of economic power is under way from west to east. As China and India are making the transition from users to producers, and producers to innovators, this has increasing important implications on economy, technology and policy of global trade. As a result, Reverse technology transfer has become a phenomenon and field of study in technology management. The term “Reverse Technology Transfer” is not well defined. Initially the concept of Reverse technology transfer was associated with the phenomenon of “Brain drain” from developing to developed countries. In the second phase, Reverse Technology Transfer was associated with the transfer of knowledge and technology from subsidiaries to multinationals. Finally, time has come now to extend the concept of reverse technology transfer to two different organizations or countries related or unrelated by traditional technology transfer but the transfer or has essentially received the technology through traditional mode of technology transfer. The objective of this paper is to study; 1) the present status of Reverse technology transfer, 2) the factors which are the enablers and barriers of Reverse technology transfer and 3) how the reverse technology transfer strategy can be integrated in the technology policy of a country which will give the countries an economic boost. The research methodology used in this study is a combination of literature review, case studies and key informant interviews. The literature review includes both published as well as unpublished sources of literature. In case study, attempt has been made to study the records of reverse technology transfer that have been occurred in developing countries. In case of key informant interviews, informal telephonic discussions have been carried out with the key executives of the organizations (industry, university and research institutions) who are actively engaged in the process of technology transfer- traditional as well as reverse. Reverse technology transfer is possible only by creating technological capabilities. Following four important enablers coupled with government active and aggressive action can help to build technology base to reach to the goal of Reverse technology transfer 1) Imitation to innovation, 2) Reverse engineering, 3) Collaborative R & D approach, and 4) Preventing reverse brain drain. The barriers that come in the way are the mindset of over dependence, over subordination and parent–child attitude (not adult attitude). Exploitation of these enablers and overcoming the barriers of reverse technology transfer, the developing countries like India and China can prove that going “reverse” is the best way to move forward and again establish themselves as leader of the future world.

Keywords: barriers of reverse technology transfer, enablers of reverse technology transfer, knowledge transfer, reverse technology transfer, technology transfer

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Authors: Xiao-Dong Wang, Wei-Mon Yan

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The flow field design in the bipolar plates affects the performance of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. This work adopted a combined optimization procedure, including a simplified conjugate-gradient method and a completely three-dimensional, two-phase, non-isothermal fuel cell model, to look for optimal flow field design for a single serpentine fuel cell of size 9×9 mm with five channels. For the direct solution, the two-fluid method was adopted to incorporate the heat effects using energy equations for entire cells. The model assumes that the system is steady; the inlet reactants are ideal gases; the flow is laminar; and the porous layers such as the diffusion layer, catalyst layer and PEM are isotropic. The model includes continuity, momentum and species equations for gaseous species, liquid water transport equations in the channels, gas diffusion layers, and catalyst layers, water transport equation in the membrane, electron and proton transport equations. The Bulter-Volumer equation was used to describe electrochemical reactions in the catalyst layers. The cell output power density Pcell is maximized subjected to an optimal set of channel heights, H1-H5, and channel widths, W2-W5. The basic case with all channel heights and widths set at 1 mm yields a Pcell=7260 Wm-2. The optimal design displays a tapered characteristic for channels 1, 3 and 4, and a diverging characteristic in height for channels 2 and 5, producing a Pcell=8894 Wm-2, about 22.5% increment. The reduced channel heights of channels 2-4 significantly increase the sub-rib convection and widths for effectively removing liquid water and oxygen transport in gas diffusion layer. The final diverging channel minimizes the leakage of fuel to outlet via sub-rib convection from channel 4 to channel 5. Near-optimal design without huge loss in cell performance but is easily manufactured is tested. The use of a straight, final channel of 0.1 mm height has led to 7.37% power loss, while the design with all channel widths to be 1 mm with optimal channel heights obtained above yields only 1.68% loss of current density. The presence of a final, diverging channel has greater impact on cell performance than the fine adjustment of channel width at the simulation conditions set herein studied.

Keywords: optimization, flow field design, simplified conjugate-gradient method, serpentine flow field, sub-rib convection

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Authors: Yuanyuan Liu, Yuanqing Wang, Di Li

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions mitigation from road construction activities is one of the potential pathways to deal with climate change due to its higher use of materials, machinery energy consumption, and high quantity of vehicle and equipment fuels for transportation and on-site construction activities. Aiming to assess the environmental impact of the road infrastructure construction activities and to identify hotspots of emissions sources, this study developed a life-cycle CO2 emissions assessment framework covering three stages of material production, to-site and on-site transportation under the guidance of the principle of LCA ISO14040. Then streamlined inventory analysis on sub-processes of each stage was conducted based on the budget files from cases of highway projects in China. The calculation results were normalized into functional unit represented as ton per km per lane. Then a comparison between the amount of emissions from each stage, and sub-process was made to identify the major contributor in the whole highway lifecycle. In addition, the calculating results were used to be compared with results in other countries for understanding the level of CO2 emissions associated with Chinese road infrastructure in the world. The results showed that materials production stage produces the most of the CO2 emissions (for more than 80%), and the production of cement and steel accounts for large quantities of carbon emissions. Life cycle CO2 emissions of fuel and electric energy associated with to-site and on-site transportation vehicle and equipment are a minor component of total life cycle CO2 emissions from highway project construction activities. Bridges and tunnels are dominant large carbon contributor compared to the road segments. The life cycle CO2 emissions of road segment in highway project in China are slightly higher than the estimation results of highways in European countries and USA, about 1500 ton per km per lane. In particularly, the life cycle CO2 emissions of road pavement in majority cities all over the world are about 500 ton per km per lane. However, there is obvious difference between the cities when the estimation on life cycle CO2 emissions of highway projects included bridge and tunnel. The findings of the study could offer decision makers a more comprehensive reference to understand the contribution of road infrastructure to climate change, especially understand the contribution from road infrastructure construction activities in China. In addition, the identified hotspots of emissions sources provide the insights of how to reduce road carbon emissions for development of sustainable transportation.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions, construction activities, highway, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Meenakshi Pappu

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The terms like liveability, Sustainable Development Goals and pandemic have been widely analysed in proving sustainable cities and community living in growing urban areas by 2030. The pandemic has made us all ruminate about how we look into different fast-growing cities which vary in geographical location, climatic zones, terrains, land use and varying cultural backgrounds & traditions belong to the mother soil. India has taken up huge steps to move towards achieving UN-SDGs. Smart city missions have played a vital role in moving towards SDG. Visakhapatnam city is the executive capital in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Located on the Eastern Ghats in South India, it is surrounded by a mountain range on three sides and the Indian Ocean on one side. This unique geographical location and fast urbanization in the last two decades, has put up immense pressure on the natural environment and recourses. It's observed that a lot of investigation to address the existing and proposed land-use, spatial, natural resources, air quality, environmental challenges, and a range of socio-economic, economic challenges were identified during the assessment phase. The citizen concerns with quality and quantity of access to water, sewerage, energy, transportation (public & private) and safety for the public were found out through surveying. Urban infrastructure plays a major part in city building. These cities are occupied by people who come for a better living. This paper aims to provide off-center way of approach to citizens-oriented community habits by addressing SDG 11: Sustainable cities & community by enkindling a characteristic framework of amalgamating 1.eco-design principal, 2. three factors of liveability and 3. a local traditional planning solution. Aiming towards a sustainable development utilized with the focus on the quality of the life and experience of the people who live in urban areas integrating life with soil & water. Building strong social agenda that includes affordable housing for all levels of households, secure and place for good quality public realm for the local people with activity in green corridor, open meeting space & adding recreational places for advantage..

Keywords: livability, eco-design, smart city mission, sustainable

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Authors: O. Eso, M. Mohammadi, J. Darkwa, J. Calautit

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Residential buildings are responsible for 22% of the global end-use energy demand and 17% of global CO₂ emissions. Tropical climates particularly present higher latent heat gains, leading to more cooling loads. However, the cooling processes are all based on conventional mechanical air conditioning systems which are energy and carbon intensive technologies. Passive cooling systems have in the past been considered as alternative technologies for minimizing energy consumption in buildings. Nevertheless, replacing mechanical cooling systems with passive ones will require a careful assessment of the passive cooling system heat transfer to determine if suitable to outperform their conventional counterparts. This is because internal heat gains, indoor-outdoor heat transfer, and heat transfer through envelope affects the performance of passive cooling systems. While many studies have investigated sensible heat transfer in passive cooling systems, not many studies have focused on their latent heat transfer capabilities. Furthermore, combining heat prevention, heat modulation and heat dissipation to passively cool indoor spaces in the tropical climates is critical to achieve thermal comfort. Since passive cooling systems use only one of these three approaches at a time, integrating more than one passive cooling system for effective indoor latent heat removal while still saving energy is studied. This study is a systematic review of recently published peer review journals on integrated passive cooling systems for tropical residential buildings. The missing links in the experimental and numerical studies with regards to latent heat reduction interventions are presented. Energy simulation studies of integrated passive cooling systems in tropical residential buildings are also discussed. The review has shown that comfortable indoor environment is attainable when two or more passive cooling systems are integrated in tropical residential buildings. Improvement occurs in the heat transfer rate and cooling performance of the passive cooling systems when thermal energy storage systems like phase change materials are included. Integrating passive cooling systems in tropical residential buildings can reduce energy consumption by 6-87% while achieving up to 17.55% reduction in indoor heat flux. The review has highlighted a lack of numerical studies regarding passive cooling system performance in tropical savannah climates. In addition, detailed studies are required to establish suitable latent heat transfer rate in passive cooling ventilation devices under this climate category. This should be considered in subsequent studies. The conclusions and outcomes of this study will help researchers understand the overall energy performance of integrated passive cooling systems in tropical climates and help them identify and design suitable climate specific options for residential buildings.

Keywords: energy savings, latent heat, passive cooling systems, residential buildings, tropical residential buildings

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: H. M. Alfrihidi, H.A. Albarakaty

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Flattening filter-free (FFF) photon beam radiotherapy has increased in the last decade, which is enabled by advancements in treatment planning systems and radiation delivery techniques like multi-leave collimators. FFF beams have higher dose rates, which reduces treatment time. On the other hand, FFF beams have a higher surface dose, which is due to the loss of beam hardening effect caused by the presence of the flatting filter (FF). The possibility of improving FFF beam quality using filters from low-z materials such as steel and aluminium (Al) was investigated using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The attenuation coefficient of low-z materials for low-energy photons is higher than that of high-energy photons, which leads to the hardening of the FFF beam and, consequently, a reduction in the surface dose. BEAMnrc user code, based on Electron Gamma Shower (EGSnrc) MC code, is used to simulate the beam of a 6 MV True-Beam linac. A phase-space (phosphor) file provided by Varian Medical Systems was used as a radiation source in the simulation. This phosphor file was scored just above the jaws at 27.88 cm from the target. The linac from the jaw downward was constructed, and radiation passing was simulated and scored at 100 cm from the target. To study the effect of low-z filters, steel and Al filters with a thickness of 1 cm were added below the jaws, and the phosphor file was scored at 100 cm from the target. For comparison, the FF beam was simulated using a similar setup. (BEAM Data Processor (BEAMdp) is used to analyse the energy spectrum in the phosphorus files. Then, the dose distribution resulting from these beams was simulated in a homogeneous water phantom using DOSXYZnrc. The dose profile was evaluated according to the surface dose, the lateral dose distribution, and the percentage depth dose (PDD). The energy spectra of the beams show that the FFF beam is softer than the FF beam. The energy peaks for the FFF and FF beams are 0.525 MeV and 1.52 MeV, respectively. The FFF beam's energy peak becomes 1.1 MeV using a steel filter, while the Al filter does not affect the peak position. Steel and Al's filters reduced the surface dose by 5% and 1.7%, respectively. The dose at a depth of 10 cm (D10) rises by around 2% and 0.5% due to using a steel and Al filter, respectively. On the other hand, steel and Al filters reduce the dose rate of the FFF beam by 34% and 14%, respectively. However, their effect on the dose rate is less than that of the tungsten FF, which reduces the dose rate by about 60%. In conclusion, filters from low-z material decrease the surface dose and increase the D10 dose, allowing for a high-dose delivery to deep tumors with a low skin dose. Although using these filters affects the dose rate, this effect is much lower than the effect of the FF.

Keywords: flattening filter free, monte carlo, radiotherapy, surface dose

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Lucille Alonso, Florent Renard

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The characterizations of urban heat island (UHI) and their interactions with climate change and urban climates are the main research and public health issue, due to the increasing urbanization of the population. These solutions require a better knowledge of the UHI and micro-climate in urban areas, by combining measurements and modelling. This study is part of this topic by evaluating microclimatic conditions in dense urban areas in the Lyon Metropolitan Area (France) using a combination of data traditionally used such as topography, but also from LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) data, Landsat 8 satellite observation and Sentinel and ground measurements by bike. These bicycle-dependent weather data collections are used to build the database of the variable to be modelled, the air temperature, over Lyon’s hyper-center. This study aims to model the air temperature, measured during 6 mobile campaigns in Lyon in clear weather, using multiple linear regressions based on 33 explanatory variables. They are of various categories such as meteorological parameters from remote sensing, topographic variables, vegetation indices, the presence of water, humidity, bare soil, buildings, radiation, urban morphology or proximity and density to various land uses (water surfaces, vegetation, bare soil, etc.). The acquisition sources are multiple and come from the Landsat 8 and Sentinel satellites, LiDAR points, and cartographic products downloaded from an open data platform in Greater Lyon. Regarding the presence of low, medium, and high vegetation, the presence of buildings and ground, several buffers close to these factors were tested (5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500m). The buffers with the best linear correlations with air temperature for ground are 5m around the measurement points, for low and medium vegetation, and for building 50m and for high vegetation is 100m. The explanatory model of the dependent variable is obtained by multiple linear regression of the remaining explanatory variables (Pearson correlation matrix with a |r| < 0.7 and VIF with < 5) by integrating a stepwise sorting algorithm. Moreover, holdout cross-validation is performed, due to its ability to detect over-fitting of multiple regression, although multiple regression provides internal validation and randomization (80% training, 20% testing). Multiple linear regression explained, on average, 72% of the variance for the study days, with an average RMSE of only 0.20°C. The impact on the model of surface temperature in the estimation of air temperature is the most important variable. Other variables are recurrent such as distance to subway stations, distance to water areas, NDVI, digital elevation model, sky view factor, average vegetation density, or building density. Changing urban morphology influences the city's thermal patterns. The thermal atmosphere in dense urban areas can only be analysed on a microscale to be able to consider the local impact of trees, streets, and buildings. There is currently no network of fixed weather stations sufficiently deployed in central Lyon and most major urban areas. Therefore, it is necessary to use mobile measurements, followed by modelling to characterize the city's multiple thermal environments.

Keywords: air temperature, LIDAR, multiple linear regression, surface temperature, urban heat island

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Natasha Gabriella, Josef-Peter Schöggl, Alfred Posch

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Being a mature industry, pulp and paper industry (PPI) possess strength points coming from its existing infrastructure, technology know-how, and abundant availability of biomass. However, the declining trend of the wood-based products sales sends a clear signal to the industry to transform its business model in order to increase its profitability. With the emerging global attention on bio-based economy and circular economy, coupled with the low price of fossil feedstock, the PPI starts to integrate biorefinery as a value-added business model to keep the industry’s competitiveness. Nonetheless, biorefinery as an innovation exposes the PPI with some barriers, of which the uncertainty of the promising product becomes one of the major hurdles. This study aims to assess factors that affect the diffusion and development of forest biorefinery in the PPI, including drivers, barriers, advantages, disadvantages, as well as the most promising bio-based products of forest biorefinery. The study examines the identified factors according to the layer of business environment, being the macro-environment, industry, and strategic group level. Besides, an overview of future state of the identified factors is elaborated as to map necessary improvements for implementing forest biorefinery. A two-phase Delphi method is used to collect the empirical data for the study, comprising of an online-based survey and interviews. Delphi method is an effective communication tools to elicit ideas from a group of experts to further reach a consensus of forecasting future trends. Collaborating a total of 50 experts in the panel, the study reveals that influential factors are found in every layers of business of the PPI. The politic dimension is apparent to have a significant influence for tackling the economy barrier while reinforcing the environmental and social benefits in the macro-environment. In the industry level, the biomass availability appears to be a strength point of the PPI while the knowledge gap on technology and market seem to be barriers. Consequently, cooperation with academia and the chemical industry has to be improved. Human resources issue is indicated as one important premise behind the preceding barrier, along with the indication of the PPI’s resistance towards biorefinery implementation as an innovation. Further, cellulose-based products are acknowledged for near-term product development whereas lignin-based products are emphasized to gain importance in the long-term future.

Keywords: forest biorefinery, pulp and paper, bio-based product, Delphi method

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Alex Konrad

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In 2017, about 4.5 million Muslims live in Germany. They can practice their faith openly, mostly in well-equipped community centers. At the same time, right-wing politicians and media allege that all Muslims tend to be radical and undemocratic. Both perspectives are rooted in an interacting development since the 1970s. German authorities closed the 'King Fahd Academy' international school in Bonn in summer 2017 because they accused the school administration of attracting Islamists. Only 30 years ago, German authorities and labor unions directed their requests for pastoral care of the Muslim communities in Germany to the Turkish and Saudi administrations. This study shows the leading and misleading tracks of Muslim life and its perception in Germany from a historical point of view. Most of the Muslims came as so-called 'Gastarbeiter' (migrant workers) from Turkey and Morocco to West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s. Until the late 1970s, German society recognized them as workforce solely and ignored their religious needs broadly. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 caused widespread hysteria about Islamic radicalization. Likewise, it shifted the German perception of migrant workers in Germany. For the first time, the majority society saw them as religious people. Media and self-proclaimed 'experts' on Islam suspected Muslims in Germany of subversive and undemocratic belief. On the upside, they obtained the opportunity to be heard by German society and authorities. In the ensuing decades, Muslims and Islamophiles fought a discursive struggle against right-wing politicians, 'experts' and media with monolithic views. In the 1990s, Muslims achieved to establish a solid infrastructure of Islamic community center throughout Germany. Their religious life became present and contributed to diversifying the common monolithic images of Muslims as insane fundamentalists in Germany. However, the media and many 'experts' promoted the fundamentalist narrative, which gained more and more acceptance in German society at the same time. This study uses archival sources from German authorities, Islamic communities, together with local and national media to get a close approach to the contemporary historical debates. In addition, contributions by Muslims and Islamophiles in Germany, for example in magazines, event reports, and internal communication, revealing their quotidian struggle for more acceptance are being used as sources. The inclusion of widely publicized books, documentaries and newspaper articles about Islam as a menace to Europe conduces to a balanced analysis of the contemporary debates and views. Theoretically, the study applies the Third Space approach. Muslims in Germany fight the othering by the German majority society. It was their chief purpose not to be marginalized in both spatial meanings, discursively and physically. Therefore, they established realities of life as hybrids in Germany. This study reconstructs the development of the perception of Muslims in Germany. It claims that self-proclaimed experts and politicians with monolithic views maintained the hegemonic discursive positions and coined the German images of Muslims. Nevertheless, Muslims in Germany accomplished that Muslim presence in Germany’s everyday life became an integral part of society and the public sphere. This is how Muslims hybridized religious spaces in Germany.

Keywords: experts, fundamentalism, Germany, hybridization, Islamophobia, migrant workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Rajan Goyal, S. Lamba, S. Annapoorni

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The indirect exchange coupled system consists of two ferromagnetic layers separated by non-magnetic spacer layer. The type of exchange coupling may be either ferro or anti-ferro depending on the thickness of the spacer layer. In the present work, the strength of exchange coupling in FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt has been investigated by varying the thickness of the spacer layer Al₂O₃. The FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt trilayer structure is fabricated on Si <100> single crystal substrate using sputtering technique. The thickness of FePt and Fe₃Pt is fixed at 60 nm and 2 nm respectively. The thickness of spacer layer Al₂O₃ was varied from 0 to 16 nm. The normalized hysteresis loops recorded at room temperature both in the in-plane and out of plane configuration reveals that the orientation of easy axis lies along the plane of the film. It is observed that the hysteresis loop for ts=0 nm does not exhibit any knee around H=0 indicating that the hard FePt layer and soft Fe₃Pt layer are strongly exchange coupled. However, the insertion of Al₂O₃ spacer layer of thickness ts = 0.7 nm results in appearance of a minor knee around H=0 suggesting the weakening of exchange coupling between FePt and Fe₃Pt. The disappearance of knee in hysteresis loop with further increase in thickness of the spacer layer up to 8 nm predicts the co-existence of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange interaction between FePt and Fe₃Pt. In addition to this, the out of plane hysteresis loop also shows an asymmetry around H=0. The exchange field Hex = (Hc↑-HC↓)/2, where Hc↑ and Hc↓ are the coercivity estimated from lower and upper branch of hysteresis loop, increases from ~ 150 Oe to ~ 700 Oe respectively. This behavior may be attributed to the uncompensated moments in the hard FePt layer and soft Fe₃Pt layer at the interface. A better insight into the variation in indirect exchange coupling has been investigated using recoil curves. It is observed that the almost closed recoil curves are obtained for ts= 0 nm up to a reverse field of ~ 5 kOe. On the other hand, the appearance of appreciable open recoil curves at lower reverse field ~ 4 kOe for ts = 0.7 nm indicates that uncoupled soft phase undergoes irreversible magnetization reversal at lower reverse field suggesting the weakening of exchange coupling. The openness of recoil curves decreases with increase in thickness of the spacer layer up to 8 nm. This behavior may be attributed to the competition between FM and AFM exchange interactions. The FM exchange coupling between FePt and Fe₃Pt due to porous nature of Al₂O₃ decreases much slower than the weak AFM coupling due to interaction between Fe ions of FePt and Fe₃Pt via O ions of Al₂O₃. The hysteresis loop has been simulated using Monte Carlo based on Metropolis algorithm to investigate the variation in strength of exchange coupling in FePt/Al₂O₃/Fe₃Pt trilayer system.

Keywords: indirect exchange coupling, MH loop, Monte Carlo simulation, recoil curve

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: K. X. Cheng, A. L. Goh, K. T. Ooi

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The effectiveness of microchannels in enhancing heat transfer has been demonstrated in the semiconductor industry. In order to tap the microscale heat transfer effects into macro geometries, overcoming the cost and technological constraints, microscale passages were created in macro geometries machined using conventional fabrication methods. A cylindrical insert was placed within a pipe, and geometrical profiles were created on the outer surface of the insert to enhance heat transfer under steady-state single-phase liquid flow conditions. However, while heat transfer coefficient values of above 10 kW/m2·K were achieved, the heat transfer enhancement was accompanied by undesirable pressure drop increment. Therefore, this study aims to address the high pressure drop issue using Constructal theory, a universal design law for both animate and inanimate systems. Two designs based on Constructal theory were developed to study the effectiveness of Constructal features in reducing the pressure drop increment as compared to parallel channels, which are commonly found in microchannel fabrication. The hydrodynamic and heat transfer performance for the Tree insert and Constructal fin (Cfin) insert were studied using experimental methods, and the underlying mechanisms were substantiated by numerical results. In technical terms, the objective is to achieve at least comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, if not higher increment in the former parameter. Results show that the Tree insert improved the heat transfer performance by more than 16 percent at low flow rates, as compared to the Tree-parallel insert. However, the heat transfer enhancement reduced to less than 5 percent at high Reynolds numbers. On the other hand, the pressure drop increment stayed almost constant at 20 percent. This suggests that the Tree insert has better heat transfer performance in the low Reynolds number region. More importantly, the Cfin insert displayed improved heat transfer performance along with favourable hydrodynamic performance, as compared to Cfinparallel insert, at all flow rates in this study. At 2 L/min, the enhancement of heat transfer was more than 30 percent, with 20 percent pressure drop increment, as compared to Cfin-parallel insert. Furthermore, comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop was observed at 8 L/min. In other words, the Cfin insert successfully achieved the objective of this study. Analysis of the results suggests that bifurcation of flows is effective in reducing the increment in pressure drop relative to heat transfer enhancement. Optimising the geometries of the Constructal fins is therefore the potential future study in achieving a bigger stride in energy efficiency at much lower costs.

Keywords: constructal theory, enhanced heat transfer, microchannel, pressure drop

Procedia PDF Downloads 312

Authors: Y. I. Tretyakova, S. G. Shulkina, T. Y. Kravtsova, A. A. Antipova, N. Y. Kolomeets

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The research aimed to assess the functional significance of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) gene polymorphism at the -308G/A (rs1800629) region and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) gene polymorphism at the -634G/C (rs 2010963) region in the development of ulcerative colitis (UC), focusing on patients from the Perm region, Russia. We examined 70 UC patients and 50 healthy donors during the active phase of the disease. Our focus was on TNF-α and VEGF concentration in the blood serum, as well as TNF-α and VEGFA gene polymorphisms at the -308G/А and -634G/C regions, respectively. We found that TNF-α and VEGF levels were significantly higher in patients with severe UC and high endoscopic activity compared to those with milder forms of the disease and low endoscopic activity. These tests could serve as additional non-invasive markers for assessing mucosal damage in the large intestine of UC patients. The frequency of allele variations in the TNF-α gene -308G/A (rs1800629) revealed a significantly higher occurrence of the unfavorable homozygote AA in UC patients compared to donors. Additionally, the major allele G and the allele pair GG were more frequent in patients with mild to moderate disease and 1-2 degree of endoscopic activity than in those with severe UC and 3-4 degree of endoscopic activity (χ2=14.19; p=0.000). We also observed a mutant allele A and the unfavorable homozygote AA associated with severe progressive UC. The occurrence of the mutant allele increased the risk of severe UC by 5 times (OR 5.03; CI 12.07-12.21). We did not find any significant differences in the frequency of the CC homozygote (χ2=1.02; p=0.6; OR=1.32) and the mutant allele C of the VEGFA gene -634G/C (rs 2010963) (χ2=0.01; p=0.913; OR=0.97) between groups of UC patients and healthy individuals. However, we detected that the mutant allele C and the unfavorable homozygote CC of the VEGFA gene were associated with more severe endoscopic changes in the colonic mucosa of UC patients (χ2=25,76; р=0,000; OR=0,15). The presence of the mutant allele increased the risk of severe UC by 6 times (OR 6,78; CI 3,13–14,7). We found a direct correlation between TNF-α and VEGFA gene polymorphisms, increased production of the same factors, disease severity, and endoscopic activity (р=0.000). Therefore, the presence of the mutant allele A and homozygote AA of the TNF-α gene at the -308G/A region and the mutant allele C and homozygote CC of the VEGFA gene at the -634G/C region are associated with risks related to an unfavorable clinical course of UC, frequent recurrences, and rapid progression. These findings should be considered when making prognoses regarding the clinical course of the disease and selecting treatment strategies. The presence of the homozygote AA in the TNF-α gene (rs1800629) is considered a sign of genetic predisposition to UC.

Keywords: gene polymorphism, TNF-α, ulcerative colitis, VEGF

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Khodzhaberdi Allaberdiev

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Aromaticity, one of the most important concepts in organic chemistry, has attracted considerable interest from both experimentalists and theoreticians. The geometry optimization of p-substituted o-(N-dialkyl)aminomethylphenols, o-DEAMPH XC₆ H₅CH ₂Y (X=p-OCH₃, CH₃, H, F, Cl, Br, COCH₃, COOCH₃, CHO, CN and NO₂, Y=o-N (C₂H₅)₂, o-DEAMPHs have been performed in the gas phase using the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level. Aromaticities of the considered molecules were investigated using different indices included geometrical (HOMA and Bird), electronic (FLU, PDI and SA) magnetic (NICS(0), NICS(1) and NICS(1)zz indices. The linear dependencies were obtained between some aromaticity indices. The best correlation is observed between the Bird and PDI indices (R² =0.9240). However, not all types of indices or even different indices within the same type correlate well among each other. Surprisingly, for studied molecules in which geometrical and electronic cannot correctly give the aromaticity of ring, the magnetism based index successfully predicts the aromaticity of systems. 1H NMR spectra of compounds were obtained at B3LYP/6–311+G(d,p) level using the GIAO method. Excellent linear correlation (R²= 0.9996) between values the chemical shift of hydrogen atom obtained experimentally of 1H NMR and calculated using B3LYP/6–311+G(d,p) demonstrates a good assignment of the experimental values chemical shift to the calculated structures of o-DEAMPH. It is found that the best linear correlation with the Hammett substituent constants is observed for the NICS(1)zz index in comparison with the other indices: NICS(1)zz =-21.5552+1,1070 σp- (R²=0.9394). The presence intramolecular hydrogen bond in the studied molecules also revealed changes the aromatic character of substituted o-DEAMPHs. The HOMA index predicted for R=NO2 the reduction in the π-electron delocalization of 3.4% was about double that observed for p-nitrophenol. The influence intramolecular H-bonding on aromaticity of benzene ring in the ground state (S0) are described by equations between NICS(1)zz and H-bond energies: experimental, Eₑₓₚ, predicted IR spectroscopical, Eν and topological, EQTAIM with correlation coefficients R² =0.9666, R² =0.9028 and R² =0.8864, respectively. The NICS(1)zz index also correlates with usual descriptors of the hydrogen bond, while the other indices do not give any meaningful results. The influence of the intramolecular H-bonding formation on the aromaticity of some substituted o-DEAMPHs is criteria to consider the multidimensional character of aromaticity. The linear relationships as well as revealed between NICS(1)zz and both pyramidality nitrogen atom, ΣN(C₂H₅)₂ and dihedral angle, φ CAr – CAr -CCH₂ –N, to characterizing out-of-plane properties.These results demonstrated the nonplanar structure of o-DEAMPHs. Finally, when considering dependencies of NICS(1)zz, were excluded data for R=H, because the NICS(1) and NICS(1)zz values are the most negative for unsubstituted DEAMPH, indicating its highest aromaticity; that was not the case for NICS(0) index.

Keywords: aminomethylphenols, DFT, aromaticity, correlations

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Marine Shavlakadze

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Hydroponic greenhouses systems (production of the artificial substrate without soil) are becoming popular in the world. Mostly the system is used to grow vegetables and berries. Different countries are taking action to participate in the development of hydroponic technology and solutions such as EU members, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Scandinavian countries, etc. Many vegetables and berries are grown by hydroponics in Europe. As a result of our research, we have obtained material containing manganese and nitrogen. It became possible to produce this fertilizer by means of one-stage thermal processing, using industrial waste containing manganese (ores and sludges) and mineral substance (ammonium nitrate) that exist in Georgia. The received material is usable as a micro-fertilizer with economic efficiency. It became possible to turn practically water-insoluble manganese dioxide substance into the soluble condition from industrial waste in an indirect way. The ability to use the material as a fertilizer is predetermined by its chemical and phase composition, as the amount of the active component of the material in relation to manganese is 30%. At the same time, the active component elements presented non-ballast sustained action compounds. The studies implemented in Poland and in Georgia by us have shown that the manganese-containing micro-fertilizer- Mn(NO₃)₂ can provide the plant with nitrate nitrogen, which is a form that can be used for plants, providing the economy and simplicity of the application of fertilizers. Given the fact that the application of the manganese-containing micro-fertilizers significantly increases the productivity and improves the quality of the big number of agricultural products, it is necessary to mention that it is recommended to introduce the manganese containing fertilizers into the following cultures: sugar beet, corn, potato, vegetables, vine grape, fruit, berries, and other cultures. Also, as a result of the study, it was established that the material obtained is the predominant fertilizer for vegetable cultures in the soil. Based on the positive results of the research, we consider it expedient to conduct research in hydroponic systems, which will enable us to provide plants the required amount of manganese; we also introduce nitrogen in solution and regulate the solution of pH, which is one of the main problems in hydroponic production. The findings of our research will be used in hydroponic greenhouse farms to increase the fertility of vegetable crops and, consequently, to get bountiful and high-quality harvests, which will promote the development of hydroponic greenhouses in Georgia as well as abroad.

Keywords: hydroponics, micro-fertilizers, manganese-containing materials, industrial wastes

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Anjali Uday, Yuting Wang, Andres Alfonso Pena Olare

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The Discrete Element Method is a promising approach to modeling microscopic behaviors of granular materials. The quality of the simulations however depends on the model parameters utilized. The present study focuses on calibration and validation of the discrete element parameters for Cuxhaven sand based on the experimental data from triaxial and oedometer tests. A sensitivity analysis was conducted during the sample preparation stage and the shear stage of the triaxial tests. The influence of parameters like rolling resistance, inter-particle friction coefficient, confining pressure and effective modulus were investigated on the void ratio of the sample generated. During the shear stage, the effect of parameters like inter-particle friction coefficient, effective modulus, rolling resistance friction coefficient and normal-to-shear stiffness ratio are examined. The calibration of the parameters is carried out such that the simulations reproduce the macro mechanical characteristics like dilation angle, peak stress, and stiffness. The above-mentioned calibrated parameters are then validated by simulating an oedometer test on the sand. The oedometer test results are in good agreement with experiments, which proves the suitability of the calibrated parameters. In the next step, the calibrated and validated model parameters are applied to forecast the micromechanical behavior including the evolution of contact force chains, buckling of columns of particles, observation of non-coaxiality, and sample inhomogeneity during a simple shear test. The evolution of contact force chains vividly shows the distribution, and alignment of strong contact forces. The changes in coordination number are in good agreement with the volumetric strain exhibited during the simple shear test. The vertical inhomogeneity of void ratios is documented throughout the shearing phase, which shows looser structures in the top and bottom layers. Buckling of columns is not observed due to the small rolling resistance coefficient adopted for simulations. The non-coaxiality of principal stress and strain rate is also well captured. Thus the micromechanical behaviors are well described using the calibrated and validated material parameters.

Keywords: discrete element model, parameter calibration, triaxial test, oedometer test, simple shear test

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Stefan K. Behfar

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The rapid growth of the Ethereum network has brought forth the urgent need for scalable analysis methods to handle the increasing volume of blockchain data. In this research, we propose efficient methodologies for making Ethereum network analysis scalable. Our approach leverages a combination of graph-based data representation, probabilistic sampling, and parallel processing techniques to achieve unprecedented scalability while preserving critical network insights. Data Representation: We develop a graph-based data representation that captures the underlying structure of the Ethereum network. Each block transaction is represented as a node in the graph, while the edges signify temporal relationships. This representation ensures efficient querying and traversal of the blockchain data. Probabilistic Sampling: To cope with the vastness of the Ethereum blockchain, we introduce a probabilistic sampling technique. This method strategically selects a representative subset of transactions and blocks, allowing for concise yet statistically significant analysis. The sampling approach maintains the integrity of the network properties while significantly reducing the computational burden. Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs): We incorporate GCNs to process the graph-based data representation efficiently. The GCN architecture enables the extraction of complex spatial and temporal patterns from the sampled data. This combination of graph representation and GCNs facilitates parallel processing and scalable analysis. Distributed Computing: To further enhance scalability, we adopt distributed computing frameworks such as Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark. By distributing computation across multiple nodes, we achieve a significant reduction in processing time and enhanced memory utilization. Our methodology harnesses the power of parallelism, making it well-suited for large-scale Ethereum network analysis. Evaluation and Results: We extensively evaluate our methodology on real-world Ethereum datasets covering diverse time periods and transaction volumes. The results demonstrate its superior scalability, outperforming traditional analysis methods. Our approach successfully handles the ever-growing Ethereum data, empowering researchers and developers with actionable insights from the blockchain. Case Studies: We apply our methodology to real-world Ethereum use cases, including detecting transaction patterns, analyzing smart contract interactions, and predicting network congestion. The results showcase the accuracy and efficiency of our approach, emphasizing its practical applicability in real-world scenarios. Security and Robustness: To ensure the reliability of our methodology, we conduct thorough security and robustness evaluations. Our approach demonstrates high resilience against adversarial attacks and perturbations, reaffirming its suitability for security-critical blockchain applications. Conclusion: By integrating graph-based data representation, GCNs, probabilistic sampling, and distributed computing, we achieve network scalability without compromising analytical precision. This approach addresses the pressing challenges posed by the expanding Ethereum network, opening new avenues for research and enabling real-time insights into decentralized ecosystems. Our work contributes to the development of scalable blockchain analytics, laying the foundation for sustainable growth and advancement in the domain of blockchain research and application.

Keywords: Ethereum, scalable network, GCN, probabilistic sampling, distributed computing

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Chandu Rathnayake, Isuri Anuradha

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Early detection and accurate diagnosis of lung diseases play a crucial role in improving patient prognosis. However, conventional diagnostic methods heavily rely on subjective symptom assessments and medical imaging, often causing delays in diagnosis and treatment. To overcome this challenge, we propose a novel lung disease prediction system that integrates patient symptoms and X-ray images to provide a comprehensive and reliable diagnosis.In this project, develop a mobile application specifically designed for detecting lung diseases. Our application leverages both patient symptoms and X-ray images to facilitate diagnosis. By combining these two sources of information, our application delivers a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of the patient's condition, minimizing the risk of misdiagnosis. Our primary aim is to create a user-friendly and accessible tool, particularly important given the current circumstances where many patients face limitations in visiting healthcare facilities. To achieve this, we employ several state-of-the-art algorithms. Firstly, the Decision Tree algorithm is utilized for efficient symptom-based classification. It analyzes patient symptoms and creates a tree-like model to predict the presence of specific lung diseases. Secondly, we employ the Random Forest algorithm, which enhances predictive power by aggregating multiple decision trees. This ensemble technique improves the accuracy and robustness of the diagnosis. Furthermore, we incorporate a deep learning model using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with the RestNet50 pre-trained model. CNNs are well-suited for image analysis and feature extraction. By training CNN on a large dataset of X-ray images, it learns to identify patterns and features indicative of lung diseases. The RestNet50 architecture, known for its excellent performance in image recognition tasks, enhances the efficiency and accuracy of our deep learning model. By combining the outputs of the decision tree-based algorithms and the deep learning model, our mobile application generates a comprehensive lung disease prediction. The application provides users with an intuitive interface to input their symptoms and upload X-ray images for analysis. The prediction generated by the system offers valuable insights into the likelihood of various lung diseases, enabling individuals to take appropriate actions and seek timely medical attention. Our proposed mobile application has significant potential to address the rising prevalence of lung diseases, particularly among young individuals with smoking addictions. By providing a quick and user-friendly approach to assessing lung health, our application empowers individuals to monitor their well-being conveniently. This solution also offers immense value in the context of limited access to healthcare facilities, enabling timely detection and intervention. In conclusion, our research presents a comprehensive lung disease prediction system that combines patient symptoms and X-ray images using advanced algorithms. By developing a mobile application, we provide an accessible tool for individuals to assess their lung health conveniently. This solution has the potential to make a significant impact on the early detection and management of lung diseases, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers.

Keywords: CNN, random forest, decision tree, machine learning, deep learning

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Authors: Marie-Josee Lavallee

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Adorno’s reputation as an abstract and pessimistic thinker who indulged in a critic of capitalist society and culture without bothering himself with opening prospects for change, and who has no interest in political activism, recently begun to be questioned. This paper, which has a twofold objective, will push revisionist readings a step further by putting forward the thesis that revolutionary praxis has been an enduring concern for Adorno, surfacing throughout his entire work. On the other hand, it will hold that his understanding of the relationships between theory and praxis, which will be explained by referring to Ernst Bloch’s distinction between the warm and cold currents of Marxism, can help to interpret the paralysis of revolutionary practice in our own time under a new light. Philosophy and its tasks have been an enduring topic of Adorno’s work from the 1930s to Negativ Dialektik. The writings in which he develops these ideas stand among his most obscure and abstract so that their strong ties to the political have remained mainly overlooked. Adorno’s undertaking of criticizing and ‘redeeming’ philosophy and metaphysics is inseparable from a care for retrieving the capacity to act in the world and to change it. Philosophical problems are immanent to sociological problems, and vice versa, he underlines in his Metaphysik. Begriff and Problem. The issue of truth cannot be severed from the contingent context of a given idea. As a critical undertaking extracting its contents from reality, which is what philosophy should be from Adorno's perspective, the latter has the potential to fully reveal the reification of the individual and consciousness resulting from capitalist economic and cultural domination, thus opening the way to resistance and revolutionary change. While this project, according to his usual method, is sketched mainly in negative terms, it also exhibits positive contours which depict a socialist society. Only in the latter could human suffering end, and mutilated individuals experiment with reconciliation in an authentic way. That Adorno’s continuous plea for philosophy’s self-critic and renewal hides an enduring concern for revolutionary praxis emerges clearly from a careful philosophical analysis of his writings on philosophy and a selection of his sociological work, coupled with references to his correspondences. This study points to the necessity of a serious re-evaluation of Adorno’s relationship to the political, which will impact on the interpretation of his whole oeuvre, is much needed. In the second place, Adorno's dialectical conception of theory and praxis is enlightening for our own time, since it suggests that we are experiencing a phase of creative latency rather an insurmountable impasse.

Keywords: Frankfurt school, philosophy and revolution, revolutionary praxis, Theodor W. Adorno

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Authors: Lassi Lehto, Jaakko Kahkonen, Juha Oksanen, Tapani Sarjakoski

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The use of raster-formatted data sets in geospatial analysis is increasing rapidly. At the same time, geographic data are being introduced into disciplines outside the traditional domain of geoinformatics, like climate change, intelligent transport, and immigration studies. These developments call for better methods to deliver raster geodata in an efficient and easy-to-use manner. Data cube technologies have traditionally been used in the geospatial domain for managing Earth Observation data sets that have strict requirements for effective handling of time series. The same approach and methodologies can also be applied in managing other types of geospatial data sets. A cloud service-based geodata cube, called GeoCubes Finland, has been developed to support online delivery and analysis of most important geospatial data sets with national coverage. The main target group of the service is the academic research institutes in the country. The most significant aspects of the GeoCubes data repository include the use of multiple resolution levels, cloud-optimized file structure, and a customized, flexible content access API. Input data sets are pre-processed while being ingested into the repository to bring them into a harmonized form in aspects like georeferencing, sampling resolutions, spatial subdivision, and value encoding. All the resolution levels are created using an appropriate generalization method, selected depending on the nature of the source data set. Multiple pre-processed resolutions enable new kinds of online analysis approaches to be introduced. Analysis processes based on interactive visual exploration can be effectively carried out, as the level of resolution most close to the visual scale can always be used. In the same way, statistical analysis can be carried out on resolution levels that best reflect the scale of the phenomenon being studied. Access times remain close to constant, independent of the scale applied in the application. The cloud service-based approach, applied in the GeoCubes Finland repository, enables analysis operations to be performed on the server platform, thus making high-performance computing facilities easily accessible. The developed GeoCubes API supports this kind of approach for online analysis. The use of cloud-optimized file structures in data storage enables the fast extraction of subareas. The access API allows for the use of vector-formatted administrative areas and user-defined polygons as definitions of subareas for data retrieval. Administrative areas of the country in four levels are available readily from the GeoCubes platform. In addition to direct delivery of raster data, the service also supports the so-called virtual file format, in which only a small text file is first downloaded. The text file contains links to the raster content on the service platform. The actual raster data is downloaded on demand, from the spatial area and resolution level required in each stage of the application. By the geodata cube approach, pre-harmonized geospatial data sets are made accessible to new categories of inexperienced users in an easy-to-use manner. At the same time, the multiresolution nature of the GeoCubes repository facilitates expert users to introduce new kinds of interactive online analysis operations.

Keywords: cloud service, geodata cube, multiresolution, raster geodata

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Ousmane Sarr

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The Senegalese coasts have high productivity of fishery resources due to the frequency of intense up-welling system that occurs along its coast, caused by the maritime trade winds making its waters nutrients rich. Fishing plays a primordial role in Senegal's socioeconomic plans and food security. However, a global diagnosis of the Senegalese maritime fishing sector has highlighted the challenges this sector encounters. Among these concerns, some significant stocks, a priority target for artisanal fishing, need further assessment. If no efforts are made in this direction, most stock will be overexploited or even in decline. It is in this context that this research was initiated. This investigation aimed to apply a multi-modal approach (LBB, Catch-only-based CMSY model and its most recent version (CMSY++); JABBA, and JABBA-Select) to assess the stock of Atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda (Bloch, 1793) in the Senegalese Exclusive Economic Zone (SEEZ). Available catch, effort, and size data from Atlantic bonito over 15 years (2004-2018) were used to calculate the nominal and standardized CPUE, size-frequency distribution, and length at retentions (50 % and 95 % selectivity) of the species. These relevant results were employed as input parameters for stock assessment models mentioned above to define the stock status of this species in this region of the Atlantic Ocean. The LBB model indicated an Atlantic bonito healthy stock status with B/BMSY values ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 and B/B0 values varying from 0.47 to 0.61 of the main scenarios performed (BON_AFG_CL, BON_GN_Length, and BON_PS_Length). The results estimated by LBB are consistent with those obtained by CMSY. The CMSY model results demonstrate that the SEEZ Atlantic bonito stock is in a sound condition in the final year of the main scenarios analyzed (BON, BON-bt, BON-GN-bt, and BON-PS-bt) with sustainable relative stock biomass (B2018/BMSY = 1.13 to 1.3) and fishing pressure levels (F2018/FMSY= 0.52 to 1.43). The B/BMSY and F/FMSY results for the JABBA model ranged between 2.01 to 2.14 and 0.47 to 0.33, respectively. In contrast, The estimated B/BMSY and F/FMSY for JABBA-Select ranged from 1.91 to 1.92 and 0.52 to 0.54. The Kobe plots results of the base case scenarios ranged from 75% to 89% probability in the green area, indicating sustainable fishing pressure and an Atlantic bonito healthy stock size capable of producing high yields close to the MSY. Based on the stock assessment results, this study highlighted scientific advice for temporary management measures. This study suggests an improvement of the selectivity parameters of longlines and purse seines and a temporary prohibition of the use of sleeping nets in the fishery for the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ based on the results of the length-base models. Although these actions are temporary, they can be essential to reduce or avoid intense pressure on the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ. However, it is necessary to establish harvest control rules to provide coherent and solid scientific information that leads to appropriate decision-making for rational and sustainable exploitation of Atlantic bonito in the SEEZ and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Keywords: multi-model approach, stock assessment, atlantic bonito, SEEZ

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Authors: Jiri Nepereny, Vladimir Vrzal

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Staphylococcus intermedius/pseudintermedius bacteria are commonly found on the skin of healthy dogs and can cause pruritic skin diseases under certain circumstances (trauma, allergy, immunodeficiency, ectoparasitosis, endocrinological diseases, glucocorticoid therapy, etc.). These can develop into complicated superficial or deep pyoderma, which represent a large group of problematic skin diseases in dogs. These are predominantly inflammations of a secondary nature, associated with the occurrence of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus spp. A major problem is increased itching, which greatly complicates the healing process. The aim of this work is to verify the efficacy of the developed preparation Bacteriophage SI (Staphylococcus intermedius). The tested preparation contains a lysate of bacterial cells of S. intermedius host culture including culture medium and live virions of specific phage. Sodium Merthiolate is added as a preservative in a safe concentration. Validation of the efficacy of the product was demonstrated by monitoring the therapeutic effect after application to indicated cases from clinical practice. The indication for inclusion of the patient into the trial was an adequate history and clinical examination accompanied by sample collection for bacteriological examination and isolation of the specific causative agent. Isolate identification was performed by API BioMérieux identification system (API ID 32 STAPH) and rep-PCR typing. The suitability of therapy for a specific case was confirmed by in vitro testing of the lytic ability of the bacteriophage to lyse the specific isolate = formation of specific plaques on the culture isolate on the surface of the solid culture medium. So far, a total of 32 dogs of different sexes, ages and breed affiliations with different symptoms of staphylococcal dermatitis have been included in the testing. Their previous therapy consisted of more or less successful systemic or local application of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The presence of S. intermedius/pseudintermedius has been demonstrated in 26 cases. The isolates were identified as a S. pseudintermedius, in all cases. Contaminant bacterial microflora was always present in the examined samples. The test product was applied subcutaneously in gradually increasing doses over a period of 1 month. After improvement in health status, maintenance therapy was followed by application of the product once a week for 3 months. Adverse effects associated with the administration of the product (swelling at the site of application) occurred in only 2 cases. In all cases, there was a significant reduction in clinical signs (healing of skin lesions and reduction of inflammation) after therapy and an improvement in the well-being of the treated animals. A major problem in the treatment of pyoderma is the frequent resistance of the causative agents to antibiotics, especially the increasing frequency of multidrug-resistant and methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) strains. Specific phagolysate using for the therapy of these diseases could solve this problem and to some extent replace or reduce the use of antibiotics, whose frequent and widespread application often leads to the emergence of resistance. The advantage of the therapeutic use of bacteriophages is their bactericidal effect, high specificity and safety. This work was supported by Project FV40213 from Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic.

Keywords: bacteriophage, pyoderma, staphylococcus spp, therapy

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

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

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

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 116