Search results for: cross layer network topology

Authors: Dawit Hoyiso, Abinet Arega, Terefe Markos

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Background: - In spite of all the various programs and strategies to promote the use of research finding there is still gap between theory and practice. Difference in outcomes, health inequalities, and poorly performing health service continue to present a challenge to all nurses. A number of studies from various countries have reported that nurses’ experience of evidence-based practice is low. In Ethiopia there is an information gap on the extent of evidence based nursing practice and its associated factors. Objective: - the study aims to assess the implementation of evidence based nursing practice and associated factors among nurses in Jimma zone public hospitals. Method: - Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1-30/2015. A total of 333 sampled nurses for quantitative and 8 in-depth interview of key informants were involved in the study. Semi-structured questionnaire was adapted from funk’s BARRIER scale and Friedman’s test. Multivariable Linear regression was used to determine significance of association between dependent and independent variables. Pretest was done on 17 nurses of Bedele hospital. Ethical issue was secured. Result:-Of 333 distributed questionnaires 302 were completed, giving 90.6% response rate. Of 302 participants 245 were involved in EBP activities to different level (from seldom to often). About forty five(18.4%) of the respondents had implemented evidence based practice to low level (sometimes), one hundred three (42 %) of respondents had implemented evidence based practice to medium level and ninety seven (39.6 %) of respondents had implemented evidence based practice to high level(often). The first greatest perceived barrier was setting characteristic (mean score=26.60±7.08). Knowledge about research evidence was positively associated with implementation of evidence based nursing practice (β=0.76, P=0.008). Similarly, Place where the respondent graduated was positively associated with implementation of evidence based nursing practice (β=2.270, P=0.047). Also availability of information resources was positively associated with implementation of evidence based practice (β=0.67, P= 0.006). Conclusion: -Even though larger portion of nurses in this study were involved in evidence-based practice whereas small number of participants had implemented frequently. Evidence-based nursing practice was positively associated with knowledge of research, place where respondents graduated, and the availability of information resources. Organizational factors were found to be the greatest perceived barrier. Intervention programs on awareness creation, training, resource provision, and curriculum issues to improve implementation of evidence based nursing practice by stakeholders are recommended.

Keywords: evidence based practice, nursing practice, research utilization, Ethiopia

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Authors: Laura Hervai

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One of the most significant phenomena of the 2000s was the emergence of social media sites and web 2.0 that revolutionized communication processes. Social networking platforms have fundamentally changed social and political participation of the public, which require organisations in the public and non-profit sector not only to adapt to these new trends but also to actively engage their audiences. Opportunity for interaction, freer expression of opinion and the proliferation of user generated content are major changes brought by web 2.0 technologies. Furthermore, due to the wide penetration of mobile technologies, social media sites are capable of connecting underdeveloped regions to the global flow of information. Taking advantage of these characteristics, organisations have the opportunity to engage much wider audiences, exploit new ways to raise awareness or reach out to regions that are difficult to access. The early adopters of these new communication tools soon recognized the need of developing social media guidelines for their organisations as well as the increased workload that they require. While ten years ago communication officers could handle their organisation’s social media presence, today it is a separate profession. International organisations face several challenges related to their social media presence. Early adopters have contributed to the development of best practices among which the ethics of social media usage still remained problematic. Another challenge for international organisations is to adapt to country-specific social media trends while they have to comply with the requirements of their parent organisation as well. However in the 21st century social media presence can be crucial to the successful operation of international organisations, their importance is still not taken seriously enough. The measurement of the effects and influence of social networking on the organisations’ productivity is an unsolved problem thus further research should focus on this matter. Research methods included primary research of major IGOs’ and NGOs’ social media presence and guidelines along with secondary research of social media statistics and scientific articles in the topic.

Keywords: international organisations, non-profit sector, NGO, social media, social network

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Authors: Farahnaz Karami

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Routing is an important, challenging task in mobile ad hoc networks due to node mobility, lack of central control, unstable links, and limited resources. An ant colony has been found to be an attractive technique for routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). However, existing swarm intelligence based routing protocols find an optimal path by considering only one or two route selection metrics without considering correlations among such parameters making them unsuitable lonely for routing real time applications. Fuzzy logic combines multiple route selection parameters containing uncertain information or imprecise data in nature, but does not have multipath routing property naturally in order to provide load balancing. The objective of this paper is to design a routing algorithm using fuzzy logic and ant colony that can solve some of routing problems in mobile ad hoc networks, such as nodes energy consumption optimization to increase network lifetime, link failures rate reduction to increase packet delivery reliability and providing load balancing to optimize available bandwidth. In proposed algorithm, the path information will be given to fuzzy inference system by ants. Based on the available path information and considering the parameters required for quality of service (QoS), the fuzzy cost of each path is calculated and the optimal paths will be selected. NS2.35 simulation tools are used for simulation and the results are compared and evaluated with the newest QoS based algorithms in MANETs according to packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay and routing overhead ratio criterions. The simulation results show significant improvement in the performance of these networks in terms of decreasing end-to-end delay, and routing overhead ratio, and also increasing packet delivery ratio.

Keywords: mobile ad hoc networks, routing, quality of service, ant colony, fuzzy logic

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Sajee A. Gamage, Champa J. Wijesinghe, Patricia Burtner, Ananda R. Wickremasinghe

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Background: Teachers working in the context of special education have an enormous responsibility of enhancing performance skills of children in their classroom settings. Fine Motor Skills (FMS) are essential functional skills for children to gain independence in Activities of Daily Living. Children with Down Syndrome (DS) are predisposed to specific challenges due to deficits in FMS. This study is aimed to determine the teachers’ experience on improving FMS of children with DS in the context of special education of Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among all consenting eligible teachers (n=147) working in the context of special education in government schools of Southern Province of Sri Lanka. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on literature and expert opinion to assess teachers’ experience regarding deficits of FMS, limitations of classroom activity performance and barriers to improve FMS of children with DS. Results: Approximately 93% of the teachers were females with a mean age ( ± SD) of 43.1 ( ± 10.1) years. Thirty percent of the teachers had training in special educationand 83% had children with DS in their classrooms. Major deficits of FMS reported were deficits in grasping (n=116; 79%), in-hand manipulation (n=103; 70%) and bilateral hand use (n=99; 67.3%). Paperwork (n=70; 47.6%), painting (n=58; 39.5%), scissor work (n=50; 34.0%), pencil use for writing (n=45; 30.6%) and use of tools in the classroom (n=41; 27.9%) were identified as major classroom performance limitations of children with DS. Parental factors (n=67; 45.6%), disease specific characteristics (n=58; 39.5%) and classroom factors (n=36; 24.5%), were identified as major barriers to improve FMS in the classroom setting. Lack of resources and standard tools, social stigma and late school admission were also identified as barriers to FMS training. Eighty nine percent of the teachers informed that training fine motor activities in a special education classroom was more successful than work with normal classroom setting. Conclusion: Major areas of FMS deficits were grasping, in-hand manipulation and bilateral hand use; classroom performance limitations included paperwork, painting and scissor work of children with DS. Teachers recommended regular practice of fine motor activities according to individual need. Further research is required to design a culturally specific FMS assessment tool and intervention methods to improve FMS of children with DS in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: classroom activities, Down syndrome, experience, fine motor skills, special education, teachers

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Babatope David Omoniyi, Fiona Lalor, Sinead Furey

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This ongoing project investigates the impact of Brexit on consumer perceptions of trust in the food industry. Brexit has significantly impacted the food industry, triggering a paradigm shift in the movement of food/agricultural produce, regulations, and cross-border collaborations between Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. In a world where the dynamics have shifted because of regulatory changes that impact trade and the free movement of foods and agricultural produce between these three countries, monitoring and controlling every stage of the food supply chain have become challenging, increasing the potential for food fraud and food safety incidents. As consumers play a pivotal role in shaping the market, understanding any shifts in trust post-Brexit enables them to navigate the market with confidence and awareness. This study aims to explore the complexities of consumer perceptions, focusing on trust as a cornerstone of consumer confidence in the post-Brexit food landscape. The objectives include comparing trust in official controls pre- and post-Brexit, determining consumer awareness of food fraud, and devising recommendations that reflect the evidence from this primary research regarding consumer trust in food authenticity post-Brexit. The research design follows an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, incorporating qualitative methods such as focus groups and structured interviews, along with quantitative research through a large-scale survey. Participants from UCD and Ulster University campuses, comprising academic and non-academic staff, students, and researchers, will provide insights into the impact of Brexit on consumer trust. Preliminary findings from focus groups and interviews highlight changes in labelling, reduced quantity and quality of foods in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, fewer food choices, and increased food prices since Brexit. The study aims to further investigate and quantify these impacts through a comprehensive large-scale survey involving participants from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The results will inform official controls and consumer-facing messaging contributing valuable insights to navigate the evolving post-Brexit food landscape.

Keywords: Brexit, consumer trust, food fraud, food authenticity, food safety, food industry

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Authors: Pratima Thapa

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Background: It is very critical to understand that awareness of family planning and proper utilization of contraceptives is an important indicator for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. It also plays an important role in promoting reproductive health of the women in an underdeveloped country like ours. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices of contraception among married women of reproductive age group in selected wards of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 209 married women of reproductive age. Simple random sampling was used to select the wards, population proportionate sampling for selecting the sample numbers from each wards and purposive sampling for selecting each sample. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to interpret the data considering p-value 0.05. Results: The mean ± SD age of the respondents was 30.01 ± 8.12 years. Majority 92.3% had ever heard of contraception. Popular known method was Inj. Depo (92.7%). Mass media (85.8%) was the major source of information. Mean percentage score of knowledge was 45.23%.less than half (45%) had adequate knowledge. Majority 90.4% had positive attitude. Only 64.6% were using contraceptives currently. Misbeliefs and fear of side effects were the main reason for not using contraceptives. Education, occupation, and total income of the family was associated with knowledge regarding contraceptives. Results for Binary Logistic Regression showed significant correlates of attitude with distance to the nearest health facility (OR=7.97, p<0.01), education (OR=0.24, p<0.05) and age group (0.03, p<0.01). Regarding practice, likelihood of being current user of contraceptives increased significantly by being literate (OR=5.97, p<0.01), having nuclear family (OR=4.96, p<0.01), living in less than 30 minute walk distance from nearest health facility (OR=3.34, p<0.05), women’s participation in decision making regarding household and fertility choices (OR=5.23, p<0.01) and husband’s support on using contraceptives (OR=9.05, p<0.01). Significant and positive correlation between knowledge-attitude, knowledge-practice and attitude-practice were observed. Conclusion: Results of the study indicates that there is need to increase awareness programs in order to intensify the knowledge and practices of contraception. The positive correlation indorses that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and hence good practice. Further, projects aiming to increase better counselling about contraceptives, its side effects and the positive effects that outweighs the negative aspects should be enrolled appropriately.

Keywords: attitude, contraceptives, knowledge, practice

Procedia PDF Downloads 269

Authors: Siba Soren, Purnendu Parhi

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Today, the world is facing a severe challenge due to depletion of traditional fossil fuels. Scientists across the globe are working for a solution that involves a dramatic shift to practical and environmentally sustainable energy sources. High-capacity energy systems, such as metal-air batteries, fuel cells, are highly desirable to meet the urgent requirement of sustainable energies. Among the fuel cells, Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are recognized as an ideal power source for mobile applications and have received considerable attention in recent past. In this advanced electrochemical energy conversion technologies, Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) is of utmost importance. However, the poor kinetics of cathodic ORR in DMFCs significantly hampers their possibilities of commercialization. The oxygen is reduced in alkaline medium either through a 4-electron (equation i) or a 2-electron (equation ii) reduction pathway at the cathode ((i) O₂ + 2H₂O + 4e⁻ → 4OH⁻, (ii) O₂ + H₂O + 2e⁻ → OH⁻ + HO₂⁻ ). Due to sluggish ORR kinetics the ability to control the reduction of molecular oxygen electrocatalytically is still limited. The electrocatalytic ORR starts with adsorption of O₂ on the electrode surface followed by O–O bond activation/cleavage and oxide removal. The reaction further involves transfer of 4 electrons and 4 protons. The sluggish kinetics of ORR, on the one hand, demands high loading of precious metal-containing catalysts (e.g., Pt), which unfavorably increases the cost of these electrochemical energy conversion devices. Therefore, synthesis of active electrocatalyst with an increase in ORR performance is need of the hour. In the recent literature, there are many reports on transition metal oxide (TMO) based ORR catalysts for their high activity TMOs are also having drawbacks like low electrical conductivity, which seriously affects the electron transfer process during ORR. It was found that 2D graphene layer is having high electrical conductivity, large surface area, and excellent chemical stability, appeared to be an ultimate choice as support material to enhance the catalytic performance of bare metal oxide. g-C₃N₄ is also another candidate that has been used by the researcher for improving the ORR performance of metal oxides. This material provides more active reaction sites than other N containing carbon materials. Rare earth oxide like CeO₂ is also a good candidate for studying the ORR activity as the metal oxide not only possess unique electronic properties but also possess catalytically active sites. Here we will discuss the ORR performance (in alkaline medium) of N-rGO/C₃N₄ supported nano Cerium Oxides hybrid synthesized by microwave assisted Solvothermal method. These materials exhibit superior electrochemical stability and methanol tolerance capability to that of commercial Pt/C.

Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction, electrocatalyst, cerium oxide, graphene

Procedia PDF Downloads 194

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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E-government has been adopted and used by many governments/countries around the world including Ghana to provide citizens and businesses with more accurate, real-time, and high quality services and information. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the Government of Ghana’s (GoG) adoption and implement of e-government and its usage by the Ministries, Departments and its agencies (MDAs) as well as other public sector institutions to deliver efficient public service to the general public i.e. citizens, business etc. Government implementation of e-government focused on facilitating effective delivery of government service to the public and ultimately to provide efficient government-wide electronic means of sharing information and knowledge through a network infrastructure developed to connect all major towns and cities, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other public sector organizations in Ghana. One aim for the Government of Ghana use of ICT in public administration is to improve productivity in government administration and service by facilitating the exchange of information to enable better interaction and coordination of work among MDAs, citizens and private businesses. The study was prepared using secondary sources of data from government policy documents, national and international published reports, journal articles, and web sources. This study indicates that through the e-government initiative, currently citizens and businesses can access and pay for services such as renewal of driving license, business registration, payment of taxes, acquisition of marriage and birth certificates as well as application for passport through the GoG electronic service (eservice) and electronic payment (epay) portal. Further, this study shows that there is an enormous commitment from GoG to adopt and implement e-government as a tool not only to transform the business of government but also to bring efficiency in public services delivered by the MDAs. To ascertain this, a further study need to be carried out to determine if the use of e-government has brought about the anticipated improvements and efficiency in service delivery of MDAs and other state institutions in Ghana.

Keywords: electronic government, electronic services, electronic pay, MDAs

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Authors: Bibin Sagaram, Ronith Stanly, S. S. Suneesh

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Due to the dwindling supply of fuel reserves, engineers and designers now focus on fuel efficient designs for the solution of any problem; the transportation industry is not new to this kind of approach. Though the aerodynamic benefits of the dimples on a Golf-ball are known, it has never been scientifically tested on how such a design philosophy can improve the fuel efficiency of a real-life vehicle by imparting better aerodynamic performance. The main purpose of the paper is to establish the aerodynamic benefits of the Golf-ball-Inspired Dimpled Design in improving the fuel efficiency of a Super-mileage vehicle, constructed by Team Go Viridis for ‘Shell Eco Marathon Asia 2015’, and to predict the extent to which the results can be held valid for a road car. The body design was modeled in Autodesk Inventor and the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out using Ansys Fluent software. The aerodynamic parameters of designs (with and without the Golf-ball-Inspired Dimples) have been studied and the results are experimentally validated against those obtained from wind tunnel tests carried out on a 1:10 scaled-down 3D printed model. Test drives of the Super-mileage vehicle were carried out, under various conditions, to compare the variation in fuel efficiency with and without the Golf-ball-Inspired design. Primary investigations reveal an aerodynamic advantage of 25% for the vehicle with the Golf Ball Inspired Dimpled Design as opposed to the normal design. Initial tests conducted by ‘Mythbusters’ on Discovery Network using a modified road car has shown positive results which has motivated us to conduct such a research work using a custom-built experimental Super-Mileage vehicle. The content of the paper becomes relevant to the present Automotive and Energy industry where improving the fuel efficiency is of the top most priority.

Keywords: aerodynamics, CFD, fuel efficiency, golf ball

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Bikis Muhammed, Sehra Sedigh Sarvestani, Ali R. Hurson, Lasanthi Gamage

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Vehicular traffic events have overly complex spatial correlations and temporal interdependencies and are also influenced by environmental events such as weather conditions. To capture these spatial and temporal interdependencies and make more realistic vehicular traffic predictions, graph neural networks (GNN) based traffic prediction models have been extensively utilized due to their capability of capturing non-Euclidean spatial correlation very effectively. However, most of the already existing GNN-based traffic prediction models have some limitations during learning complex and dynamic spatial and temporal patterns due to the following missing factors. First, most GNN-based traffic prediction models have used static distance or sometimes haversine distance mechanisms between spatially separated traffic observations to estimate spatial correlation. Secondly, most GNN-based traffic prediction models have not incorporated environmental events that have a major impact on the normal traffic states. Finally, most of the GNN-based models did not use an attention mechanism to focus on only important traffic observations. The objective of this paper is to study and make real-time vehicular traffic predictions while incorporating the effect of weather conditions. To fill the previously mentioned gaps, our prediction model uses a real-time driving distance between sensors to build a distance matrix or spatial adjacency matrix and capture spatial correlation. In addition, our prediction model considers the effect of six types of weather conditions and has an attention mechanism in both spatial and temporal data aggregation. Our prediction model efficiently captures the spatial and temporal correlation between traffic events, and it relies on the graph attention network (GAT) and Bidirectional bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) plus attention layers and is called GAT-BILSTMA.

Keywords: deep learning, real time prediction, GAT, Bi-LSTM, attention

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Authors: Elena Mugarza, Stephanie Glendinning, Ross Stirling, Colin Davies

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The effects of climate change and increased rainfall events on UK-based infrastructure are observable, with an increasing number being reported on in the national press. The fatal derailment at Stonehaven in 2020 prompted a wider review of Network Rail-owned earthworks assets. The event was indicated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) to be caused by mis-installed drainage on the adjacent cutting. The slope failure on Snake Pass (public highway A57) was reportedly caused by significant water ingress following numerous storm events and resulted in the road’s closure for several months. This problem is only projected to continue with greater intensity and more prolonged rainfall events forecasted in the future. Subsequently, this project is designed to evaluate effective drainage trench design within infrastructure embankments, considering the capillary barrier phenomenon that may govern their deterioration and resultant failure. Theoretically, the differential between grain sizes of the embankment clays and gravels, customarily used in drainage trenches, would have a limiting effect on infiltration. As such, it is anticipated that the inclusion of an additional material with an intermediate grain size should improve the hydraulic conductivity across the drainage boundary. Multiple drainage designs will be studied using instrumentation within the drain and surrounding clays. Data from the real-world installation at the BIONICS embankment will be collected and compared with laboratory and Finite Element (FE) simulations. This research aims to reduce the risk of infrastructure slope failures by improving the resilience of earthwork drainage and lessening the consequential impact on transportation networks.

Keywords: earthworks, slope drainage, transportation slopes, deterioration, capillary barriers, field study

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Durjoy Lahiri, Vishal Madhukar Sawale, Ashwani Bhat, Souvik Dubey, Gautam Das, Biman Kanti Roy, Suparna Chatterjee, Goutam Gangopadhyay

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Crossed aphasia has been an area of considerable interest for cognitive researchers as it offers a fascinating insight into cerebral lateralization for language function. We conducted an observational study in the stroke unit of a tertiary care neurology teaching hospital in eastern India on subjects with crossed aphasia over a period of four years. During the study period, we detected twelve cases of crossed aphasia in strongly right-handed patients, caused by ischemic stroke. The age, gender, vernacular language and educational status of the patients were noted. Aphasia type and severity were assessed using Bengali version of Western Aphasia Battery (validated). Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and angiography were used to evaluate the location and extent of the ischemic lesion in brain. Our series of 12 cases of crossed aphasia included 7 male and 5 female with mean age being 58.6 years. Eight patients were found to have Broca’s aphasia, 3 had trans-cortical motor aphasia and 1 patient suffered from global aphasia. Nine patients were having very severe aphasia and 3 suffered from mild aphasia. Mirror-image type of crossed aphasia was found in 3 patients, whereas 9 had anomalous variety. In our study crossed aphasia was found to be more frequent in males. Anomalous pattern was more common than mirror-image. Majority of the patients had motor-type aphasia and no patient was found to have pure comprehension deficit. We hypothesize that in Bengali-speaking right-handed population, lexical-semantic system of the language network remains loyal to the left hemisphere even if the phonological output system is anomalously located in the right hemisphere.

Keywords: aphasia, crossed, lateralization, language function, vascular

Procedia PDF Downloads 192

Authors: Abbas Raza Ali

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Big Data technology is gradually becoming a dire need of large enterprises. These enterprises are generating massively large amount of off-line and streaming data in both structured and unstructured formats on daily basis. It is a challenging task to effectively extract useful insights from the large scale datasets, even though sometimes it becomes a technology constraint to manage transactional data history of more than a few months. This paper presents a framework to efficiently manage massively large and complex datasets. The framework has been tested on a communication service provider producing massively large complex streaming data in binary format. The communication industry is bound by the regulators to manage history of their subscribers’ call records where every action of a subscriber generates a record. Also, managing and analyzing transactional data allows service providers to better understand their customers’ behavior, for example, deep packet inspection requires transactional internet usage data to explain internet usage behaviour of the subscribers. However, current relational database systems limit service providers to only maintain history at semantic level which is aggregated at subscriber level. The framework addresses these challenges by leveraging Big Data technology which optimally manages and allows deep analysis of complex datasets. The framework has been applied to offload existing Intelligent Network Mediation and relational Data Warehouse of the service provider on Big Data. The service provider has 50+ million subscriber-base with yearly growth of 7-10%. The end-to-end process takes not more than 10 minutes which involves binary to ASCII decoding of call detail records, stitching of all the interrogations against a call (transformations) and aggregations of all the call records of a subscriber.

Keywords: big data, communication service providers, enterprise data warehouse, stream computing, Telco IN Mediation

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Marta Fernández Batalla, José María Santamaría García, Maria Lourdes Jiménez Rodríguez, Roberto Barchino Plata, Adriana Cercas Duque, Enrique Monsalvo San Macario

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Background: Primary Care Nursing is taking more autonomy in clinical decisions. One of the most frequent therapies to solve is related to the problems of maintaining a sufficient supply of food. Nursing diagnoses related to food are addressed by the nurse-family and community as the first responsible. Objectives and interventions are set according to each patient. To improve the goal setting and the treatment of these care problems, a technological tool is developed to help nurses. Objective: To evaluate the computational tool developed to support the clinical decision in feeding problems. Material and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out at the Meco Health Center, Madrid, Spain. The study population consisted of four specialist nurses in primary care. These nurses tested the tool on 30 people with ‘need for nutritional therapy’. Subsequently, the usability of the tool and the satisfaction of the professional were sought. Results: A simple and convenient computational tool is designed for use. It has 3 main entrance fields: age, size, sex. The tool returns the following information: BMI (Body Mass Index) and caloric consumed by the person. The next step is the caloric calculation depending on the activity. It is possible to propose a goal of BMI or weight to achieve. With this, the amount of calories to be consumed is proposed. After using the tool, it was determined that the tool calculated the BMI and calories correctly (in 100% of clinical cases). satisfaction on nutritional assessment was ‘satisfactory’ or ‘very satisfactory’, linked to the speed of operations. As a point of improvement, the options of ‘stress factor’ linked to weekly physical activity. Conclusion: Based on the results, it is clear that the computational tools of decision support are useful in the clinic. Nurses are not only consumers of computational tools, but can develop their own tools. These technological solutions improve the effectiveness of nutrition assessment and intervention. We are currently working on improvements such as the calculation of protein percentages as a function of protein percentages as a function of stress parameters.

Keywords: feeding behavior health, nutrition therapy, primary care nursing, technology assessment

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Authors: Noah Odion, Honest Jimu, Blessing Atinuke Afuape

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Introduction: Motor control and gait abnormalities are commonly observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), affecting their mobility and coordination. Understanding the underlying neurological and biomechanical factors is essential for designing effective interventions. This study focuses on developing microchip-integrated wearable devices to capture real-time movement data from individuals with autism. By applying computational models to the collected data, we aim to analyze motor control patterns and gait abnormalities, bridging a crucial knowledge gap in autism-related motor dysfunction. Methods: We designed microchip-enabled wearable devices capable of capturing precise kinematic data, including joint angles, acceleration, and velocity during movement. A cross-sectional study was conducted on individuals with ASD and a control group to collect comparative data. Computational modelling was applied using machine learning algorithms to analyse motor control patterns, focusing on gait variability, balance, and coordination. Finite element models were also used to simulate muscle and joint dynamics. The study employed descriptive and analytical methods to interpret the motor data. Results: The wearable devices effectively captured detailed movement data, revealing significant gait variability in the ASD group. For example, gait cycle time was 25% longer, and stride length was reduced by 15% compared to the control group. Motor control analysis showed a 30% reduction in balance stability in individuals with autism. Computational models successfully predicted movement irregularities and helped identify motor control deficits, particularly in the lower limbs. Conclusions: The integration of microchip-based wearable devices with computational models offers a powerful tool for diagnosing and treating motor control deficits in autism. These results have significant implications for patient care, providing objective data to guide personalized therapeutic interventions. The findings also contribute to the broader field of neuroscience by improving our understanding of the motor dysfunctions associated with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Keywords: motor control, gait abnormalities, autism, wearable devices, microchips, computational modeling, kinematic analysis, neurodevelopmental disorders

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Authors: Lu-Chiu Huang, Pei-Pei Chen, Li-Chin Yu, Chiao-Wen Kuo, Tsui-Tao Liu, Rung-Chuang Feng

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Purpose: People put increasing emphasis on demands of medical quality and protecting their interests. Patients' or family's dissatisfaction with medical care may easily lead to medical dispute. Physician-family communication plays an essential role in medical care. A sound communication cannot only strengthen patients' belief in the medical team but make patient have definite insight into treatment course of the disease. A family meeting provides an effective platform for communication between clinical staff, patients and family. Decisions and consensuses formed in family meetings can promote patients' or family's satisfaction with medical care. Clinical staff's attitudes toward family meeting may determine behavioral intentions to hold family meeting. This study aims to explore clinical staff's difficulties in holding family meeting and evaluate how their attitudes and behavior influence the effect of family meetings. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. It was conducted at a regional teaching hospital in Taipei city. The research team developed its own structural questionnaires, whose expert validity was checked by the nursing experts. Participants filled in the questionnaires online. Data were collected by convenience sampling. A total of 568 participants were invited. They included doctors, nurses, social workers, and so on. Results: 1) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s attitudes to family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.898). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It indicated that clinical staff had positive attitudes toward family meetings, 2) The average score of ‘clinical staff’s behavior to family meetings’ was 5.61 (SD=0.937). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. It meant clinical staff tended to have positive behavior at the family meeting, and 3) The average score of ‘Difficulty in conducting family meetings’ was 5.15 (SD=0.897). It fell between ‘somewhat agree’ and ‘mostly agree’ on the 7-point likert scale. The higher the score was, the less difficulty the clinical staff felt. It demonstrated clinical staff felt less difficulty in conducting family meetings. Clinical staff's identification with family meetings brought favored effects. Persistent and active promotion for family meetings can bring patients and family more benefits. Implications for practice: Understanding clinical staff's difficulty in participating family meeting and exploring their attitudes or behavior toward physician-family communication are helpful to develop modes of interaction. Consequently, quality and satisfaction of physician-family communication can be increased.

Keywords: clinical staff, communication, family meeting, physician-family

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Mengestie Mulugeta Belay, Serebe Abay Gebrie, Biruk Lambbiso Wamisho, Amare Worku

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Background: Low back pain (LBP) related to nursing profession, is a very common public health problem throughout the world. Various risk factors have been implicated in the etiology and LBP is assumed to be of multi-factorial origin as individual, work-related and psychosocial factors can contribute to its development. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and to identify risk factors of LBP among nurses working in Addis Ababa City Public Hospitals, Ethiopia, in the year 2015. Settings: Addis Ababa University, Black-Lion (‘Tikur Anbessa’) Hospital-BLH, is the country’s highest tertiary level referral and teaching Hospital. The three departments in connection with this study: Radiology, Pathology and Orthopedics, run undergraduate and residency programs and receive referred patients from all over the country. Methods: A cross-sectional study with internal comparison was conducted throughout the period October-December, 2015. Sample was chosen by simple random sampling technique by taken the lists of nurses from human resource departments as a sampling frame. A well-structured, pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantifiable information. The questionnaire included socio-demographic, back pain features, consequences of back pain, work-related and psychosocial factors. The collected data was entered into EpiInfo version 3.5.4 and was analyzed by SPSS. A probability level of 0.05 or less and 95% confidence level was used to indicate statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from all respected administrative bodies, Hospitals and study participants. Results: The study included 395 nurses and gave a response rate of 91.9%. The mean age was 30.6 (±8.4) years. Majority of the respondents were female (285, 72.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=181, 45.8% (95% CI (40.8%- 50.6%))) were complained low back pain. There was statistical significant association between low back pain and working shift, physical activities at work; sleep disturbance and felt little pleasure by doing things. Conclusion: A high prevalence of low back pain was found among nurses working in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Recognition and preventive measures like providing resting periods should be taken to reduce the risk of low back pain in nurses working in Public hospitals.

Keywords: low back pain, risk factors, nurses, public hospitals

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Authors: Michael Ayomoh, Adriaan Roux, Oyindamola Omotuyi

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This paper presents an efficient robot navigation model in a multi-target domain amidst static and dynamic workspace obstacles. The problem is that of developing an optimal algorithm to minimize the total travel time of a robot as it visits all target points within its task domain amidst unknown workspace obstacles and finally return to its initial position. In solving this problem, a classical algorithm was first developed to compute the optimal number of paths to be travelled by the robot amidst the network of paths. The principle of shortest distance between robot and targets was used to compute the target point visitation order amidst workspace obstacles. Algorithm premised on the standard polar coordinate system was developed to determine the length of obstacles encountered by the robot hence giving room for a geometrical estimation of the total surface area occupied by the obstacle especially when classified as a relevant obstacle i.e. obstacle that lies in between a robot and its potential visitation point. A stochastic model was developed and used to estimate the likelihood of a dynamic obstacle bumping into the robot’s navigation path and finally, the navigation/obstacle avoidance algorithm was hinged on the hybrid virtual force field (HVFF) method. Significant modelling constraints herein include the choice of navigation path to selected target points, the possible presence of static obstacles along a desired navigation path and the likelihood of encountering a dynamic obstacle along the robot’s path and the chances of it remaining at this position as a static obstacle hence resulting in a case of re-routing after routing. The proposed algorithm demonstrated a high potential for optimal solution in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Keywords: multi-target, mobile robot, optimal path, static obstacles, dynamic obstacles

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Authors: Isabelle Snyder

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Microgrid protection presents challenges to conventional protection techniques due to the low induced fault current. Protection relays present in microgrid applications require a combination of settings groups to adjust based on the architecture of the microgrid in islanded and grid-connected mode. In a radial system where the microgrid is at the other end of the feeder, directional elements can be used to identify the direction of the fault current and switch settings groups accordingly (grid connected or microgrid connected). However, with multiple microgrid connections, this concept becomes more challenging, and the direction of the current alone is not sufficient to identify the source of the fault current contribution. ORNL has previously developed adaptive relaying schemes through other DOE-funded research projects that will be evaluated and used as a baseline for this research. The four protection techniques in this study are the following: (1) Adaptive Current only Protection System (ACPS), Intentional (2) Unbalanced Control for Protection Control (IUCPC), (3) Adaptive Protection System with Communication Controller (APSCC) (4) Adaptive Model-Driven Protective Relay (AMDPR). The first two methods focus on identifying the islanded mode without communication by monitoring the current sequence component generated by the system (ACPS) or induced with inverter control during islanded mode (IUCPC) to identify the islanding condition without communication at the relay to adjust the settings. These two methods are used as a backup to the APSCC, which relies on a communication network to communicate the islanded configuration to the system components. The fourth method relies on a short circuit model inside the relay that is used in conjunction with communication to adjust the system configuration and computes the fault current and adjusts the settings accordingly.

Keywords: adaptive relaying, microgrid protection, sequence components, islanding detection, communication controlled protection, integrated short circuit model

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Authors: M. S. Jouini, A. Al-Sumaiti, M. Tembely, K. Rahimov

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Characterizing rock properties of carbonate reservoirs is highly challenging because of rock heterogeneities revealed at several length scales. In the last two decades, the Digital Rock Physics (DRP) approach was implemented successfully in sandstone rocks reservoirs in order to understand rock properties behaviour at the pore scale. This approach uses 3D X-ray Microtomography images to characterize pore network and also simulate rock properties from these images. Even though, DRP is able to predict realistic rock properties results in sandstone reservoirs it is still suffering from a lack of clear workflow in carbonate rocks. The main challenge is the integration of properties simulated at different scales in order to obtain the effective rock property of core plugs. In this paper, we propose several approaches to characterize absolute permeability in some carbonate core plugs samples using multi-scale numerical simulation workflow. In this study, we propose a procedure to simulate porosity and absolute permeability of a carbonate rock sample using textures of Micro-Computed Tomography images. First, we discretize X-Ray Micro-CT image into a regular grid. Then, we use a textural parametric model to classify each cell of the grid using supervised classification. The main parameters are first and second order statistics such as mean, variance, range and autocorrelations computed from sub-bands obtained after wavelet decomposition. Furthermore, we fill permeability property in each cell using two strategies based on numerical simulation values obtained locally on subsets. Finally, we simulate numerically the effective permeability using Darcy’s law simulator. Results obtained for studied carbonate sample shows good agreement with the experimental property.

Keywords: multiscale modeling, permeability, texture, micro-tomography images

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Authors: Mohammed Abu Shquier

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This paper introduces a word segmentation method using the novel BP-LSTM-CRF architecture for processing semantic output training. The objective of web morphological analysis tools is to link a formal morpho-syntactic description to a lemma, along with morpho-syntactic information, a vocalized form, a vocalized analysis with morpho-syntactic information, and a list of paradigms. A key objective is to continuously enhance the proposed system through an inductive learning approach that considers semantic influences. The system is currently under construction and development based on data-driven learning. To evaluate the tool, an experiment on homograph analysis was conducted. The tool also encompasses the assumption of deep binary segmentation hypotheses, the arbitrary choice of trigram or n-gram continuation probabilities, language limitations, and morphology for both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA), which provide justification for updating this system. Most Arabic word analysis systems are based on the phonotactic morpho-syntactic analysis of a word transmitted using lexical rules, which are mainly used in MENA language technology tools, without taking into account contextual or semantic morphological implications. Therefore, it is necessary to have an automatic analysis tool taking into account the word sense and not only the morpho-syntactic category. Moreover, they are also based on statistical/stochastic models. These stochastic models, such as HMMs, have shown their effectiveness in different NLP applications: part-of-speech tagging, machine translation, speech recognition, etc. As an extension, we focus on language modeling using Recurrent Neural Network (RNN); given that morphological analysis coverage was very low in dialectal Arabic, it is significantly important to investigate deeply how the dialect data influence the accuracy of these approaches by developing dialectal morphological processing tools to show that dialectal variability can support to improve analysis.

Keywords: NLP, DL, ML, analyser, MSA, RNN, CNN

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Authors: Dinara Ikramova, Karin A. Hing, Simon C. F. Rawlinson

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Silicate-substituted hydroxyapatite (SiHA) has been shown to enhance bone regeneration in vivo compared with phase pure stoichiometric hydroxyapatite. Evidence suggests that substrate chemistry dependent formation of a permissive protein layer on the surface of synthetic bone graft substitute materials is key for bioactivity and cell attachment. However, little information is available on whether the substrate chemistry may affect cell migration and recruitment. The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSCs) exhibit a chemotactic response to SiHA porous granules and if it can be linked to either the ion exchange or protein sequestering and enrichment on the surface of the material. 150mg of SiHA granules with 80% total porosity and 20% strut porosity were incubated in 1ml of either Serum Free Media (SFM) or 10% Serum Containing Media (SCM) under static cell culture conditions (37°C, 5% CO2) in absence of cells. Protein sequestering and exchange of calcium, phosphate and silicate ions were analysed at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 24 hours with n=12 per time point. Migration of hMSCs in the presence of 150mg of SiHA granules was assessed over 24 hours using a modified transwell migration system in either SFM or SCM (n=6) with 30% serum containing media acting as a positive control. At 24 hours protein sequestering and ionic exchange were analysed, and the number of cells was quantified using a high throughput confocal microscope (IN Cell Analyser 6000). In acellular condition, both calcium and phosphate ion concentrations in media showed a decrease at 24 hours which was greater in SFM than in SCM. This suggests possible formation and precipitation of a bone like apatite on the surface of SiHA. Reduction in this activity observed in SCM indicates that the presence of serum proteins is interfering with the ion exchange at the material and media interface. Adsorbed protein levels showed fluctuation over time followed by sharp decrease at 24 hours, suggesting a possible protein rearrangement on the surface of the material. The ion analysis performed on SFM and SCM after 24-hour incubation with cells in the presence of granules showed a greater reduction in phosphate concentration in both SFM and SCM compared to phosphate levels in acellular condition. Silicate concentration in SCM increased from 1.6mM (absence of cells) to 5.1mM (presence of cells). This indicates that the cells are promoting the uptake of phosphate and release of silicate ions. No significant change was seen in levels of adsorbed proteins in the presence and absence of cells. Further analysis is required to determine whether the species of these proteins change over time. The analysis of cell migration after 24-hour incubation showed more cells migrating towards the granules, 12.7% in SFM and 8.3% in SCM, than in positive control, 4.5% in SFM and 3.6% in SCM respectively. These results suggest that SiHA has a chemotactic activity independent of serum proteins. A property which has not previously been demonstrated for a synthetic bone graft material.

Keywords: cell migration, hMSCs, SiHA, transwell migration system

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Authors: Sandra Maria Cerqueira Da Silva

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In Brazil, women are the majority of the country's population. They have advanced in terms of years of education and professional training. However, this has not prevented the differences in the labor market from being sustained, particularly the wage gap and inequalities concerning the access to command positions and promotions, i.e., in the gender relations and treatment. One of the conditions which constitute a barrier to career advancement is the necessary support chain to support women when they are in the labor market. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to demonstrate, describe, and criticize some of the current conformations of support chains and how these compete to promote the phenomenon known as glass ceiling in the country. However, this support may come even from inside a woman's own home, with a fairer division of household activities between men and women. Such behavior can free an entire network of women within the same family. In addition, it can serve as pressure to structure better conditions for women as a whole, improving the living conditions of the poor population. This can occur through programs and projects for qualification and retraining of adult women. In answer to the question that guides this study, it is concluded that a family support system is critical to the success of women in management positions. To meet this demand, one of the ways could be the development of specific gender policies by the public authorities, in accordance with the emerging global economic policies, in order to provide and structure the necessary support. This would respond to feminist manifestations - which should go on pointing needs – although the legislative assembly should also propose ideas to change this picture. This is a qualitative research, with a poststructuralist approach, featuring a cutout corpus of three interviews carried out with women holding leadership positions in the academia. Questions related to this very discussion are many. New studies could address points as the promotion of qualification and expansion of skills of women in subaltern condition. There is also need to investigate possible support systems, considering the inequalities and local economic conditions.

Keywords: gender and labor market, glass ceiling, post-structuralism, support chain

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Authors: Yi-Chun Huang, Kuan-Yun Chen, Chuang-Hung Lin

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Urban Green Belt and Blue is a part of the city landscape, it is an important constituent element of the urban environment and appearance. The Hsinchu East Gate Moat is situated in the center of the city, which not only has a wealth of historical and cultural resources, but also combines the Green Belt and the Blue Belt qualities at the same time. The Moat runs more than a thousand meters through the vital Green Belt and the Blue Belt in downtown, and each section is presented in different qualities of moat from south to north. The water area and the green belt of surroundings are presented linear and banded spread. The water body and the rich diverse river banks form an urban green belt of rich layers. The watercourse with green belt design lets users have connections with blue belts in different ways; therefore, the integration of Hsinchu East Gate and moat have become one of the unique urban landscapes in Taiwan. The study is based on the fact-finding case of Hsinchu East Gate Moat where situated in northern Taiwan, to research the impact between the SVF variation of the city and spatial sequence of Urban Green Belt and Blue landscape and visual analysis by constituent cross-section, and then comparing the influence of different leaf area index – the variable ecological factors to the degree of enclosure. We proceed to survey the landscape design of open space, to measure existing structural features of the plant canopy which contain the height of plants and branches, the crown diameter, breast-height diameter through access to diagram of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and on-the-spot actual measurement. The north and south districts of blue green belt areas are divided 20 meters into a unit from East Gate Roundabout as the epicenter, and to set up a survey points to measure the SVF above the survey points; then we proceed to quantitative analysis from the data to calculate open landscape degree of enclosure. The results can be reference for the composition of future river landscape and the practical operation for dynamic space planning of blue and green belt landscape.

Keywords: sky view factor, degree of enclosure, spatial sequence, leaf area indices

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Authors: Leng Jian-Wei, Wang Lai-Jun, Li Ye

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In order to measure and analyze the transportation situation within the counties of Shaanxi province over a certain period of time and to promote the province's future transportation planning and development, this paper proposes a reasonable layout plan and compares model rationality. The study uses entropy weight method to measure the transportation advantages of 107 counties in Shaanxi province from three dimensions: road network density, trunk line influence and location advantage in 2013 and 2021, and applies spatial autocorrelation analysis method to analyze the spatial layout and development trend of county-level transportation, and conducts ordinary least square (OLS)regression on transportation impact factors and other influencing factors. The paper also compares the regression fitting degree of the Geographically weighted regression(GWR) model and the OLS model. The results show that spatially, the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province generally show a decreasing trend from the Weihe Plain to the surrounding areas and mainly exhibit high-high clustering phenomenon. Temporally, transportation advantages show an overall upward trend, and the phenomenon of spatial imbalance gradually decreases. People's travel demands have changed to some extent, and the demand for rapid transportation has increased overall. The GWR model regression fitting degree of transportation advantages is 0.74, which is higher than the OLS regression model's fitting degree of 0.64. Based on the evolution of transportation advantages, it is predicted that this trend will continue for a period of time in the future. To improve the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province increasing the layout of rapid transportation can effectively enhance the transportation advantages of Shaanxi province. When analyzing spatial heterogeneity, geographic factors should be considered to establish a more reliable model

Keywords: traffic dominance, GWR model, spatial autocorrelation analysis, temporal and spatial evolution

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Authors: Poornima Gupta, Sadaf Siraj

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The study examined the organizational causes of organizational stress in women executives and entrepreneurs in India. This was done so that mediation strategies could be developed to combat the organizational stress experienced by them, in order to retain the female employees as well as attract quality talent. The data for this research was collected through the self- administered survey, from the women executives across various industries working at different levels in management. The research design of the study was descriptive and cross-sectional. It was carried out through a self-administered questionnaire filled in by the women executives and entrepreneurs in the NCR region. Multistage sampling involving stratified random sampling was employed. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed out of which 450 were returned and after cleaning the data 404 were fit to be considered for analyses. The overall findings of the study suggested that there were various job-related factors that induce stress. Fourteen factors were identified which were a major cause of stress among the working women by applying Factor analysis. The study also assessed the demographic factors which influence the stress in women executives across various industries. The findings show that the women, no doubt, were stressed by organizational factors. The mean stress score was 153 (out of a possible score of 196) indicating high stress. There appeared to be an inverse relationship between the marital status, age, education, work experience, and stress. Married women were less stressed compared to single women employees. Similarly, female employees 29 years or younger experienced more stress at work. Women having education up to 12th standard or less were more stressed compared to graduates and post graduates. Women who had spent more than two years in the same organization perceived more stress compared to their counterparts. Family size and income, interestingly, had no significant impact on stress. The study also established that the level of stress experienced by women across industries differs considerably. Banking sector emerged as the industry where the women experienced the most stress followed by Entrepreneurs, Medical, BPO, Advertising, Government, Academics, and Manufacturing, in that order. The results contribute to the better understanding of the personal and economic factors surrounding job stress and working women. It concludes that the organizations need to be sensitive to the women’s needs. Organizations are traditionally designed around men with the rules made by the men for the men. Involvement of women in top positions, decision making, would make them feel more useful and less stressed. The invisible glass ceiling causes more stress than realized among women. Less distinction between the men and women colleagues in terms of giving responsibilities, involvement in decision making, framing policies, etc. would go a long way to reduce stress in women.

Keywords: women, stress, gender in management, women in management

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Authors: Alexandra Emmanuelle Membangbi, Jacky Njiki Bikoï, Esther Del-florence Moni Ndedi, Marie Joseph Nkodo Mindimi, Donatien Serge Mbaga, Elsa Nguiffo Makue, André Chris Mikangue Mbongue, Martha Mesembe, George Ikomey Mondinde, Eric Walter Perfura-yone, Sara Honorine Riwom Essama

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top lethal infectious diseases worldwide. In recent years, interferon-γ (INF-γ) release assays (IGRAs) have been established as routine tests for diagnosing TB infection. However, produced INF-γ assessment failed to distinguish active TB (ATB) from latent TB infection (LTBI), especially in TB epidemic areas. In addition to IFN-γ, interleukin-2 (IL-2), another cytokine secreted by activated T cells, is also involved in immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The aim of the study was to assess the capacity of IFN-γ and IL2 to evaluate the therapeutic response of patients on anti-tuberculosis treatment. Material and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in the Pneumonology Departments of the Jamot Hospital in Yaoundé between May and August 2021. After signed the informed consent, the sociodemographic data, as well as 5 mL of blood, were collected in the crook of the elbow of each participant. Sixty-one subjects were selected (n= 61) and divided into 4 groups as followed: group 1: resistant tuberculosis (n=13), group 2: active tuberculosis (n=19), group 3 cured tuberculosis (n=16), and group 4: presumed healthy persons (n=13). The cytokines of interest were determined using an indirect Enzyme-linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) according to the manufacturer's recommendations. P-values < 0.05 were interpreted as statistically significant. All statistical calculations were performed using SPSS version 22.0 Results: The results showed that men were more 14/61 infected (31,8%) with a high presence in active and resistant TB groups. The mean age was 41.3±13.1 years with a 95% CI = [38.2-44.7], the age group with the highest infection rate was ranged between 31 and 40 years. The IL-2 and INF-γ means were respectively 327.6±160.6 pg/mL and 26.6±13.0 pg/mL in active tuberculosis patients, 251.1±30.9 pg/mL and 21.4±9.2 pg/mL in patients with resistant tuberculosis, while it was 149.3±93.3 pg/mL and 17.9±9.4 pg/mL in cured patients, 15.1±8.4 pg/mL and 5.3±2.6 pg/mL in participants presumed healthy (p <0.0001). Significant differences in IFN-γ and IL-2 rates were observed between the different groups. Conclusion: Monitoring the serum levels of INF-γ and IL-2 would be useful to evaluate the therapeutic response of anti-tuberculosis patients, particularly in the both cytokines association case, that could improve the accuracy of routine examinations.

Keywords: antibiotic therapy, interferon gamma, interleukin 2, tuberculosis

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Authors: Mark A. S. Laidlaw, Howard W. Mielke

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In California between the late 1920’s and 1986 the lead concentrations in urban soils and dust climbed rapidly following the deposition of greater than 387,000 tonnes of lead emitted from gasoline. Previous research indicates that when children are lead exposed around 90% of the lead is retained in their bones and teeth due to the substitution of lead for calcium. Lead in children’s bones has been shown to accumulate over time and is highest in inner-city urban areas, lower in suburban areas and lowest in rural areas. It is also known that women’s bones demineralize during pregnancy due to the foetus's high demand for calcium. Lead accumulates in women’s bones during childhood and the accumulated lead is subsequently released during pregnancy – a lagged response. This results in calcium plus lead to enter the blood stream and cross the placenta to expose the foetus with lead. In 1970 in the United States, the average age of a first‐time mother was about 21. In 2008, the average age was 25.1. In this study, it is demonstrated that in California there is a forward lagged relationship between the accumulated emissions of lead from vehicle fuel additives and later autism prevalence trends between the 1990’s and current time period. Regression analysis between a 24 year forward lag of accumulated lead emissions and autism prevalence trends in California are associated strongly (R2=0.95, p=0.00000000127). It is hypothesized that autism in genetically susceptible children may stem from vehicle fuel lead emission exposures of their mothers during childhood and that the release of stored lead during subsequent pregnancy resulted in lead exposure of foetuses during a critical developmental period. It is furthermore hypothesized that the 24 years forward lag between lead exposures has occurred because that is time period is the average length for women to enter childbearing age. To test the hypothesis that lead in mothers bones is associated with autism, it is hypothesized that retrospective case-control studies would show an association between the lead in mother’s bones and autism. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the forward lagged relationship between accumulated historical vehicle fuel lead emissions (or air lead concentrations) and autism prevalence trends will be similar in cities at the national and international scale. If further epidemiological studies indicate a strong relationship between accumulated vehicle fuel lead emissions (or accumulated air lead concentrations) and lead in mother’s bones and autism rates, then urban areas may require extensive soil intervention to prevent the development of autism in children.

Keywords: autism, bones, lead, gasoline, petrol, prevalence

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Authors: Turban Kar, Maitree Bhattacharyya

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Curcumin, a dietary antioxidant has been identified as a wonder molecule to possess therapeutic properties protecting the cellular macromolecules from oxidative damage. In our experimental study, we have explored the effectiveness of curcumin in protecting the structural paradigm of Human Serum Albumin (HSA) when exposed to gamma irradiation. HSA, being an important transport protein of the circulatory system, is involved in binding of variety of metabolites, drugs, dyes and fatty acids due to the presence of hydrophobic pockets inside the structure. HSA is also actively involved in the transportation of drugs and metabolites to their targets, because of its long half-life and regulation of osmotic blood pressure. Gamma rays, in its increasing concentration, results in structural alteration of the protein and superoxide radical generation. Curcumin, on the other hand, mitigates the damage, which has been evidenced in the following experiments. Our study explores the possibility for protection by curcumin during the molecular and conformational changes of HSA when exposed to gamma irradiation. We used a combination of spectroscopic methods to probe the conformational ensemble of the irradiated HSA and finally evaluated the extent of restoration by curcumin. SDS - PAGE indicated the formation of cross linked aggregates as a consequence of increasing exposure of gamma radiation. CD and FTIR spectroscopy inferred significant decrease in alpha helix content of HSA from 57% to 15% with increasing radiation doses. Steady state and time resolved fluorescence studies complemented the spectroscopic measurements when lifetime decay was significantly reduced from 6.35 ns to 0.37 ns. Hydrophobic and bityrosine study showed the effectiveness of curcumin for protection against radiation induced free radical generation. Moreover, bityrosine and hydrophobic profiling of gamma irradiated HSA in presence and absence of curcumin provided light on the formation of ROS species generation and the protective (magical) role of curcumin. The molecular mechanism of curcumin protection to HSA from gamma irradiation is yet unknown, though a possible explanation has been proposed in this work using Thioflavin T assay. It was elucidated, that when HSA is irradiated at low dose of gamma radiation in presence of curcumin, it is capable of retaining the native characteristic properties to a greater extent indicating stabilization of molecular structure. Thus, curcumin may be utilized as a therapeutic strategy to protect cellular proteins.

Keywords: Bityrosine content, conformational change, curcumin, gamma radiation, human serum albumin

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Authors: Yuki Hara

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Healthy assets are recognized as important for all people in the world through experiencing COVID-19. Each part of life and work is important to be changed against the preceding wide-spreading of COVID-19. Furthermore, it is necessary to innovate the whole structure of a city upon the sum of the parts. This study aims at creating a comprehensive strategy from a small practice of making healthier lives with collaborating local actors for a city. This paper employs action research as the research framework. The core practice is the 'Ken’iku Festival' at Ken’iku Festival Committee. The field locates the urban-rural fringe in the northwest part of Fujisawa city, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. The data is collected through the author's practices for three years from the observations and interviews at meetings and discussions among stakeholders, texts in municipal reports, books, and movies, 3 questionnaires for customers and stakeholders at the Ken’iku Festival. These data are analysed by qualitative methods. The results show that couples in their 40s with children and couples or friends over the 70s are at the heart of promoting healthy lifestyles. In contrast, 40% of the visitors at the festival are the people who have no idea or no interest in healthier actions, which the committee has to suggest healthy activities through more pleasing services. The committee could organize staff and local actors as the core parties involved through gradually expanding its tasks relating to the local practices. This private sectoral activity from health promotion is covering a part of the whole-city planning of Fujisawa municipality by including many people over organisations into one community. This paper concludes from local practice networking through the festival that a comprehensive strategy for a healthy city is both a practical approach easily applied to each partner and one of the holistic services.

Keywords: communal practice network, healthy cities, health & development, health promotion, with and after COVID-19

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