Search results for: human immunity

Authors: Davie G. Dave, Prisca H. Mugabe, Tonderai Mutibvu

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Globally, HWCs are on the rise. Such is the case with urban areas in Zimbabwe, yet little has been documented about it. This study was done to provide insights into the occurrence of human-wildlife conflicts in urban areas. The study was carried out in Harare, Bindura, Masvingo, Beitbridge, and Chiredzi to determine the cause, nature, extent, and frequency of occurrence of HWC, to determine the key wildlife species involved in conflicts and management practices done to combat wildlife conflicts in these areas. Several sampling techniques encompassing multi-stage sampling, stratified random, purposive, and simple random sampling were employed for placing residential areas into three strata according to population density, selecting residential areas, and selecting actual participants. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and key informant interviews. The results revealed that property destruction and crop damage were the most prevalent conflicts. Of the 15 animals that were cited, snakes, baboons, and monkeys were associated with the most conflicts. The occurrence of HWCs was mainly attributed to the increase in both animal and human populations. To curtail these HWCs, the local people mainly used non-lethal methods, whilst lethal methods were used by authorities for some of the reported cases. The majority of the conflicts were seasonal and less severe. There were growing concerns by respondents on the issues of wildlife conflicts, especially in those areas that had primates, such as Warren Park in Harare and Limpopo View in Beitbridge. There are HWCs hotspots in urban areas, and to ameliorate this, suggestions are that there is a need for a multi-action approach that includes general awareness campaigns on HWCs and land use planning that involves the creation of green spaces to ease wildlife management.

Keywords: human-wildlife conflicts, mitigation measures, residential areas, types of conflicts, urban areas

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Authors: Ashraf Aly

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The aim of this study is to examine the impact of 5G communication technology radiation on human health and airport safety. The term 5G refers to the fifth generation of wireless mobile technology. The 5G wireless technology will increase the number of high-frequency-powered base stations and other devices and browsing and download speeds, as well as improve the network connectivity and play a big part in improving the performance of integrated applications, such as self-driving cars, medical devices, and robotics. 4G was the latest embedded version of mobile networking technology called 4G, and 5G is the new version of wireless technology. 5G networks have more features than 4G networks, such as lower latency, higher capacity, and increased bandwidth compared to 4G. 5G network improvements over 4G will have big impacts on how people live, business, and work all over the world. But neither 4G nor 5G have been tested for safety and show harmful effects from this wireless radiation. This paper presents biological factors on the effects of 5G radiation on human health. 5G services use C-band radio frequencies; these frequencies are close to those used by radio altimeters, which represent important equipment for airport and aircraft safety. The aviation industry, telecommunications companies, and their regulators have been discussing and weighing these interference concerns for years.

Keywords: wireless communication, radiofrequency, Electromagnetic field, environmental issues

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Authors: Rana Bilal, Faiz-Ul-Hassan, Moazzam Jameel

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There is a dire need to replace high-cost protein with more economical protein to overcome animal protein shortage in developing nations especially countries like Pakistan. In conjunction with these efforts, the current study was planned to evaluate the effects of various dried distillery yeast sludge (DYS) levels on the immune level, egg quality, and performance of layers by replacing soybean meal. The study was designed with two hundred layers of Hy-Line variety. Distillery yeast sludge was dried and ground for 2 mm mesh size and after this proximate and mineral analysis was determined. Five isocaloric and isonitrogeneous feeds were given containing C (control), 5, 10, 15, 20% distillery yeast sludge by replacing soybean meal. The trial was performed in the completely randomized design with five treatments, 4 replicates and 10 hen per replicate. Results demonstrated that feed intake, egg production, feed conversion ratio decreased (P < 0.05) with the increased dietary DYS. However, statistically significant decrease (P < 0.05) was found in hens having DYS20 diet than control. Layers on Diets C, DYS5 and DYS10 exerted a higher immune level than DYS15 and DYS20 diets. Egg weight, eggshell weight, eggshell thickness, egg albumen height as well as haugh unit score were affected significantly by the increased level of DYS. In general, results of this study demonstrated that inclusion of DYS up to 10% showed no adverse effects on health and performance of layers.

Keywords: egg quality, immunity, layers, performance

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Authors: C. Jameke

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During the cognitivist era in cognitive psychology, a theory of internal rules and symbolic representations was posited as an account of human cognition. This type of cognitive architecture had its heyday during the 1970s and 80s, but it has now been largely abandoned in favour of subsymbolic architectures (e.g. connectionism), non-representational frameworks (e.g. dynamical systems theory), and statistical approaches such as Bayesian theory. In this presentation I describe this changing landscape of research, and comment on the increasing influence of neuroscience on cognitive psychology. I then briefly review a few recent developments in connectionism, and neurocomputation relevant to cognitive psychology, and critically discuss the assumption made by some researchers in these frameworks that higher-level aspects of human cognition are simply emergent properties of massively large distributed neural networks

Keywords: connectionism, emergentism, postocgnitivist, representations, subsymbolic archiitecture

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Authors: Ramesh Chinnasamy, Srishti Semalty, Vishnu S. Nair, Thirumurugan Vedagiri, Mahesh Ganeshan, Gautam Talukdar, Karthy Sivapushanam, Abhijit Das

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Snakes form an integral component of ecological systems. Human population explosion and associated acceleration of habitat destruction and degradation, has led to a rapid increase in human-snake encounters. The study aims at understanding the level of awareness, knowledge, and attitude of the people towards human-snake negative interaction and role of awareness programmes in the Moyar river valley, Tamil Nadu. The study area is part of the Mudumalai and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves, which are significant wildlife corridors between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The data was collected using questionnaire covering 644 respondents spread across 18 villages between 2018 and 2019. The study revealed that 86.5% of respondents had strong negative perceptions towards snakes which were propelled by fear, superstitions, and threat of snakebite which was common and did not vary among different villages (F=4.48; p = <0.05) and age groups (X2 = 1.946; p = 0.962). Cobra 27.8% (n = 294) and rat snake 21.3% (n = 225) were the most sighted species and most snake encounter occurred during the monsoon season i.e., July 35.6 (n = 218), June 19.1% (n = 117) and August 18.4% (n = 113). At least 1 out of 5 respondents was reportedly bitten by snakes during their lifetime. The most common species of snakes that were the cause of snakebite were Saw scaled viper (32.6%, n = 42) followed by Cobra 17.1% (n = 22). About 21.3% (n = 137) people reported livestock loss due to pythons and other snakes 21.3% (n = 137). Most people, preferred medical treatment for snakebite (87.3%), whereas 12.7%, still believed in traditional methods. The majority (82.3%) used precautionary measure by keeping traditional items such as garlic, kerosene, and snake plant to avoid snakes. About 30% of the respondents expressed need for technical and monetary support from the forest department that could aid in reducing the human-snake conflict. It is concluded that the general perception in the study area is driven by fear and negative attitude towards snakes. Though snakes such as Cobra were widely worshiped in the region, there are still widespread myths and misconceptions that have led to the irrational killing of snakes. Awareness and innovative education programs rooted in the local context and language should be integrated at the village level, to minimize risk and the associated threat of snakebite among the people. Results from this study shall help policy makers to devise appropriate conservation measures to reduce human-snake conflicts in India.

Keywords: Envenomation, Health-Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Neglected Tropical Disease, Snakebite Mitigation, Traditional Practitioners

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Authors: Santosh Kumar Sharma, Imran Ahmed Khan

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Context: In the field of management education, it has been observed that students often have discrepancies between their career anchors and their chosen domain of specialization. This misalignment creates challenges for students during their summer internships and job placements in the corporate sector. The outcome is that some students opt to change their career track or even leave the management profession altogether. This situation poses a significant concern in terms of the overall human capital in the industry. However, there is a notable lack of substantial literature addressing this specific context. Therefore, this current study aims to contribute to the global discourse on management education and its impact on human resource management. Research Aim: The objective of this study is to analyze the deviation between career anchors and domain specialization in the context of management education in India. Methodology: This study adopts an exploratory approach. Data is collected from a substantial sample of post-graduate students who are currently pursuing management education from a renowned business school in India. The data collection process is followed by a descriptive analysis. Findings: The findings of this research contribute to the professional development of management students by highlighting the significance of aligning career anchors with their chosen domain of specialization. This alignment is crucial for enhancing human capital, which in turn impacts various factors within the Indian economy. Theoretical Importance: This study addresses the gap in the existing literature by exploring the relationship between career anchors and domain specialization in management education. By shedding light on this issue, it contributes to theoretical knowledge in the field and provides insights into the importance of career alignment within the management profession.

Keywords: management education, specialization, human resource management, India

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Authors: Ayobami Adeyemo, Michael Chimonyo, Munyaradzi Marufu

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Gastrointestinal nematode (GNT) infection significantly hinder sustainable and profitable sheep production on rangelands. While vitamin E and protein supplementation have individually proven to improve host immunity to parasitism in lambs, to our knowledge, there is no information on the interaction of dietary vitamin E and protein supplementation on lamb growth and GIN faecal egg counts in naturally infected lambs. Therefore, the current study investigated the interaction of dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation on faecal egg counts (FEC) and growth performance of lambs. Twenty four Dohne Merino lambs aged 12 months were allocated equally to each of four treatment combinations, with six lambs in each treatment group for a period of eight weeks. Treatment one lambs received dietary protein and vitamin E (PE), treatment two lambs received dietary protein and no vitamin E (PNE), treatment three received dietary vitamin E and no protein (NPE), and treatment four received no dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation (NPNE). The lambs were allowed to graze on Pennisetum clandestinum contaminated with a heavy load of nematodes. Dietary protein supplementation increased (P < 0.01) average daily gain (ADG) and body condition scores (BCS). Dietary vitamin E supplementation had no effect (P > 0.05) on ADG and BCS. There was no interaction (P > 0.05) between dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation on ADG and BCS. Combined supplementation of dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation significantly reduced (P < 0.01) faecal egg counts and larval counts, respectively. Also, dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation reduced GNT faecal egg counts over the exposure period. The current findings support the hypothesis that the interaction of dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation reduced faecal egg counts and larval counts in lambs. This necessitates future findings on the interaction of dietary protein and vitamin E supplementation on blood associated profiles.

Keywords: gastrointestinal nematodes, nematode eggs, Haemonchus, Trichostrongylus

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Authors: Nisar Alungal Chungath

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“No human being is illegal" has become a dictum strongly upheld in the context of global immigration and migration, highlighting the ethical and moral dimensions of how societies and governments treat individuals and communities who have crossed political borders or are living in a country without legal authorization. It seeks to shift the focus from categorizing human beings as illegal immigrants to recognizing their inherent human rights and the complexities of their circumstances. As a complex social phenomenon, law has been a crucial instrument in shaping, regulating and governing human societies and vice versa. The law has now become a humongous political project of the modern majoritarian regimes to democratically illegitimize and illegalize the unpopular sections and minorities. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of dialectics, the paper explores the philosophical underpinnings of the historical evolution and dynamic nature of modern law. The paper employs a phenomenological approach to analyze the dialectical relations between individuals, societies, and legal systems, aiming to shed light on the ethical and political implications of these interactions. By examining the historical essence of law, its relationship with social and cultural norms, and the role of power dynamics, this article argues for constantly maintaining the dialectics of law—the dynamic interplay between legal norms, social practices, cultural values, and historical contexts through a philosophical and phenomenological lens, in order to bridge the gap between universal principles and particular contexts. The paper will shed light to the dialectics of the law in the context of instances of the legal persecutions of the modern secular democracies such as Citizenship Amendment Act-2019, India.

Keywords: phenomenology, dialectic, modern law, politics, resistance, margins

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Authors: Rajpal Kaur, Pooja Choudhary

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Biometrics, which refers to identifying an individual based on his or her physiological or behavioral characteristics, has the capabilities to the reliably distinguish between an authorized person and an imposter. The Signature recognition systems can categorized as offline (static) and online (dynamic). This paper presents Surf Feature based recognition of offline signatures system that is trained with low-resolution scanned signature images. The signature of a person is an important biometric attribute of a human being which can be used to authenticate human identity. However the signatures of human can be handled as an image and recognized using computer vision and HMM techniques. With modern computers, there is need to develop fast algorithms for signature recognition. There are multiple techniques are defined to signature recognition with a lot of scope of research. In this paper, (static signature) off-line signature recognition & verification using surf feature with HMM is proposed, where the signature is captured and presented to the user in an image format. Signatures are verified depended on parameters extracted from the signature using various image processing techniques. The Off-line Signature Verification and Recognition is implemented using Mat lab platform. This work has been analyzed or tested and found suitable for its purpose or result. The proposed method performs better than the other recently proposed methods.

Keywords: offline signature verification, offline signature recognition, signatures, SURF features, HMM

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Authors: Zainab Olabisi Tairu

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The human species is facing some of the most challenging issues encountered as civilization and development occurs. The most salient factors threatening all species globally are habitats loss and degradation, overexploitation, competition with unwanted invasive species, pollution, global climate and various individual lifestyles of indigenous species. In order to avoid or minimize the effect of our actions on the environment and to balance employee work life with their private life, Green Human Resource is important and must be practiced in every organization including Higher Learning Institutions. This study addressed Green HRM from an institutional perspective, University systems are involved in numerous and complex social, educational and extra-curricular activities. The University community must be challenged to rethink and re-construct their environmental policies and practices in order to contribute to sustainable development. Many institutions only look at sustainability from the technology improvement aspect and waste management. People are the principal actors for sustainability development at the institutional level. The aim of the study is to explore the concept of Green Human Resource Management at a case site. Divine Word University (DWU) an Institution of Higher Education that embraced the ‘Printing & Paper use Policy’, also commonly referred to as the ‘paperless policy’, the use of solar as an alternative source of energy, water conservation and improvement in internet technology (IT) with the aim of becoming a green institution in effort to help save the environment. This study used Participatory Action Research as the Overarching methodological framework and Egg of sustainability and Wellbeing as the theoretical perspective in analyzing the data, engaging Case study strategy and a mixed method design at DWU. Focus group interview were conducted with three departments at the University, semi-structure interviews with the senior managers, survey questionnaire administered to students and staff with a sample size of 176 participants, in addition, policy documents were also exploited as extra source of data. Waste management including e-waste appeared to be one of the main concerns at DWU. A vast majority of DWU staff and students expressed the need for their institution to do more on sustainability education. The findings revealed that members of the community are not fully integrated like the Egg of sustainability and wellbeing in order to achieve sustainable development goal. The concept of Green Human Resource Management in Universities lies with the idea that Universities must bear profound responsibilities to manage its stakeholders in an environmental friendly way. Human resource management can help local institutions to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production, consumption as well as the end product in order to combat or at least reduce human Induced which produce or aggravate it.

Keywords: sustainability, environmental management, higher education institutions, green human resource management

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Authors: Sadaf Ilyas

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Recombinant cytokines have been employed successfully as potential therapeutic agent. Some cytokine therapies are already used as a part of clinical practice, ranging from early exploratory trials to well established therapies that have already received approval. Interleukin 15 is a pleiotropic cytokine having multiple roles in peripheral innate and adaptive immune cell function. It regulates the activation, proliferation and maturation of NK cells, T-cells, monocytes/macrophages and granulocytes, and the interactions between them thus acting as a bridge between innate and adaptive immune responses. Unraveling the biology of IL-15 has revealed some interesting surprises that may point toward some of the first therapeutic applications for this cytokine. In this study, the human interleukin 15 gene was isolated, amplified and ligated to a TA vector which was then transfected to a bacterial host, E. coli Top10F’. The sequence of cloned gene was confirmed and it showed 100% homology with the reported sequence. The confirmed gene was then subcloned in pET Expression system to study the IPTG induced expression of IL-15 gene. Positive expression was obtained for number of clones that showed 15 kd band of IL-15 in SDS-PAGE analysis, indicating the successful strain development that can be studied further to assess the potential therapeutic intervention of this cytokine in relevance to human diseases.

Keywords: Interleukin 15, pET expression system, immune therapy, protein purification

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Authors: Rajeev Jain, Nimisha Jadon, Kshiti Singh

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Titanium oxide nanoparticles and 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium bis (trifluoromethane- sulfonyl) imide modified glassy carbon electrode (TiO2/IL/GCE) has been fabricated for electrochemical sensing of flunarizine dihydrochloride (FRH). The electrochemical properties and morphology of the prepared nanocomposite were studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The response of the electrochemical sensor was found to be proportional to the concentrations of FRH in the range from 0.5 µg mL-1 to 16 µg mL-1. The detection limit obtained was 0.03 µg mL-1. The proposed method was also applied to the determination of FRH in pharmaceutical formulation and human serum with good recoveries.

Keywords: flunarizine dihydrochloride, ionic liquid, nanoparticles, voltammetry, human serum

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Authors: Shabnam Abdi, Behzad Toosi

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Background: Melanoma is the most lethal type of malignant skin cancer in humans and dogs since it spreads rapidly throughout the body. Despite significant advances in treatment, cancer at an advanced stage has a poor prognosis. Hence, more effective treatments are needed to enhance outcomes with fewer side effects. Erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular receptors are the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases and are divided into two subfamilies, EphA and EphB, both of which play a significant role in disease, especially cancer. Due to their association with proliferation and invasion in many aggressive types of cancer, Eph receptor tyrosine kinases (Eph RTKs) are promising cancer therapy molecules. Because these receptors have not been studied in canine melanoma, we investigated how EphA2 influences survival and tumorigenicity of melanoma cells. Methods: Expression of EphA2 protein in canine melanoma cell lines and human melanoma cell line was evaluated by Western blot. Melanoma cells were transduced with lentiviral particles encoding Eph-targeting shRNAs or non-silencing shRNAs (control) for silencing the expression of EphA2 receptor, and silencing was confirmed by Western blotting and immunofluorescence. The effect of siRNA treatment on cellular proliferation, colony formation, tumorsphere assay, invasion was analyzed by Resazurin assay Matrigel invasion assay, respectively. Results: Expression of EphA2 was detected in canine and human melanoma cell lines. Moreover, stably silencing EphA2 by specific shRNAs significantly and consistently decreased the expression of EphA2 protein in both human and canine melanoma cells. Proliferation, colony formation, tumorsphere and invasion of melanoma cells were significantly decreased in EphA2 siRNA-treated cells compared to control. Conclusion: Our data provide the first functional evidence that the EphA2 receptor plays a critical role in the malignant cellular behavior of melanoma in both human and dogs.

Keywords: ephA2, targeting, melanoma, human, canine

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Authors: Dong-Gyu Leem, Ji-Sun Shin, Sang Yoon Choi, Kyung-Tae Lee

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In this study, we focused on the anti-proliferative effects of panaxydol, a C17 polyacetylenic compound derived from Panax ginseng roots, against various human cancer cells. We treated with panaxydol to various cancer cells and panaxydol treatment was found to significantly inhibit the proliferation of human lung cancer cells (A549) and human pancreatic cancer cells (AsPC-1 and MIA PaCa-2), of which AsPC-1 cells were most sensitive to its treatment. DNA flow cytometric analysis indicated that panaxydol blocked cell cycle progression at the G1 phase in A549 cells, which accompanied by a parallel reduction of protein expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 2, CDK4, CDK6, cyclin D1 and cyclin E. CDK inhibitors (CDKIs), such as p21CIP1/WAF1 and p27KIP1, were gradually upregulated after panaxydol treatment at the protein levels. Furthermore, panaxydol induced the activation of p53 in A549 cells. In addition, panaxydol also induced apoptosis of AsPC-1 and MIA PaCa-2 cells, as shown by accumulation of subG1 and apoptotic cell populations. Panaxydol triggered the activation of caspase-3, -8, -9 and the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Reduction of mitochondrial transmembrane potential by panaxydol was determined by staining with dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide. Furthermore, panaxydol suppressed the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins, XIAP and Bcl-2, and increased the levels of proapoptotic proteins, Bax and Bad. In addition, panaxydol inhibited the activation of Akt and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and activated the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPK). Our results suggest that panaxydol is an anti-tumor compound that causes p53-mediated cell cycle arrest and apoptosis via mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in various cancer cells.

Keywords: apoptosis, cancer, G1 arrest, panaxydol

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Authors: Mohammad Hashemi, John Herbert

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Quantifying and measuring Quality of Experience (QoE) are important and difficult concerns in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Quality of Service (QoS) and the actual User Interface (UI) of the application are both important contributors to the QoE of a user. This paper describes a framework that measures accurately the way a user uses the UI in order to model users' behaviours and profiles. It monitors the use of the mouse and use of UI elements with accurate time measurement. It does this in real-time and does so unobtrusively and efficiently allowing the user to work as normal with the application. This real-time accurate measurement of the user's interaction provides valuable data and insight into the use of the UI, and is also the basis for analysis of the user's QoE.

Keywords: user modelling, user interface experience, quality of experience, user experience, human and computer interaction

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Authors: Khenenou Tarek, Benzaoui Hassina, Melizi Mohamed

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The diagnosis requires a background of current knowledge in the field and also complementary means in which the laboratory occupies the central place for a better investigation. A correct diagnosis allows to establish the most appropriate treatment as soon as possible and avoids both the economic losses associated with mortality and growth retardation often observed in poultry furthermore it may reduce the high cost of treatment. Epedemiologic survey, hematologic and histopathologic study’s are three aspects of diagnosis heavily used in both human and veterinary pathology and the advanced researches in human medicine would be exploited to be applied in veterinary medicine with given modification .Whereas, the diagnostic methods in the east of Algeria are limited to the clinical signs and necropsy finding. Therefore, the diagnosis is based simply on the success or the failure of the therapeutic methods (therapeutic diagnosis).

Keywords: chicken, diagnosis, hematology, histopathology

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Authors: Mohammadamin Abbasnejad

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The analysis of expression and facial Action Units (AUs) detection are very important tasks in fields of computer vision and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) due to the wide range of applications in human life. Many works have been done during the past few years which has their own advantages and disadvantages. In this work, we present a new model based on Gaussian Conditional Random Field. We solve our objective problem using ADMM and we show how well the proposed model works. We train and test our work on two facial expression datasets, CK+, and RU-FACS. Experimental evaluation shows that our proposed approach outperform state of the art expression recognition.

Keywords: Gaussian Conditional Random Field, ADMM, convergence, gradient descent

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Authors: Michael Augustus Akagbor

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Same-sex relationships have always existed in Ghana. In coastal towns such as James Town in the heart of the country’s capital, persons who were sexually different and attracted to members of their own sex were able to live their lives openly as queer persons without any fear for their lives. Since 2006, this idyllic existence has been under attack, with LGBTQ+ communities suffering violence and discrimination. This paper highlights the lived experiences of the LGBTIQ+ community in Ghana against the backdrop of the anti-gay bill - The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 (now renamed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2021), currently before Parliament, introduced by eight members of Parliament as a Private Members’ Bill, and its implications for the LGBTQ+ community. The paper makes recommendations to key stakeholders on strategies to counter the cultural and religious arguments/strategies and activism of the anti-LGBTQ+ movement in Ghana. It relied on secondary data from a variety of sources, including the Bill before Parliament, media reports, and baseline surveys and studies conducted by LGBTQ organizations and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Ghana and elsewhere.

Keywords: sexual rights, promotion, family values, lgbtq+, ghana, discrimination

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Authors: N. Y. H. Konagano

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Riverside population of Brazilian amazon suffers drinking water scarcity, seeking alternative water resources such as well and rivers, ordinary polluted. Although Amazon Region holds high annual river inflow and enough available of underground water, human activities have compromised the conservation of water resources. In addition, decentralized rural households make difficult to access of potable water. Main objective is to analyze quantitatively the potential of rainwater harvesting to human consumption at Marupaúba community, located in northeast of Amazon region, Brazil. Methods such as historical rainfall data series of municipality of Tomé-Açu at Pará state were obtained from Hydrological Information System of National Water Agency (ANA). Besides, Rippl method was used to calculate, mainly, volume of the reservoir based on difference of water demand and volume available through rainwater using as references two houses (CA I and CA II) as model of rainwater catchment and supply. Results presented that, from years 1984 to 2017, average annual precipitation was 2.607 mm, average maximum precipitation peak was 474 mm on March and average minimum peak on September was 44 mm. All months, of a year, surplus volume of water have presented in relation to demand, considering catchment area (CA) I = 134.4m² and demand volume =0.72 m³/month; and, CA II = 81.84 m² and demand volume = 0.48 m³/month. Based on results, it is concluded that it is feasible to use rainwater for the supply of the rural community Marupaúba, since the access of drinking water is a human right and the lack of this resource compromises health and daily life of human beings.

Keywords: Amazon Region, rainwater harvesting, rainwater resource, rural community

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Authors: F. Ruiz-Fuster

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Arnold’s redefinition of human motives can sustain a psychology of education which emphasizes the beauty of knowledge and the exercise of intellectual functions. Thus, education instead of focusing on skills and learning by doing would be centered on ‘the widest reaches of the human spirit’. One way to attain it is by developing children’s inherent interest. Arnold takes into account the fact that the desire to know is the inherent interest which leads students to explore and learn. She also emphasizes the need of exercising human functions as thinking, judging and reasoning. According to Arnold, the influence of psychological theories of motivation in education has derived in considering that all learning and school tasks should derive from children’s needs and impulses. The desire to know and the curiosity have not been considered as basic and active as any instinctive drive or basic need, so there has been an attempt to justify and understand how biological drives guide student’s learning. However, understanding motives and motivation not as a drive, an instinct or an impulse guided by our basic needs, but as a want that leads to action can help to understand, from a psychological perspective, how teachers can motivate students to learn, strengthening their desire and interest to reason and discover the whole new world of knowledge.

Keywords: academic motivation, interests, desire to know, educational psychology, intellectual functions

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Authors: Louise Reyntjens

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In response to Islamic-inspired terrorism and the growing trend of foreign fighters, European governments are increasingly relying on the deprivation of citizenship as a security tool. This development fits within a broader securitization of immigration, where the terrorist threat is perceived as emanating from abroad. As a result, immigration law became more and more ‘securitized’. The European migration crisis has reinforced this trend. This research evaluates the deprivation of citizenship from a human rights perspective. For this, the author selected four European countries for a comparative study: Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden. All these countries face similar social and security issues, vitalizing (the debate on) deprivation of citizenship as a counterterrorism tool. Yet, they adopt a very different approach on this: The United Kingdom positions itself on the repressive side of the spectrum. Sweden on the other hand, also ‘securitized’ its immigration policy after the recent terrorist hit in Stockholm but remains on the tolerant side of the spectrum. Belgium and France are situated in between. This contribution evaluates the deprivation of citizenship in Belgium. Belgian law has provided the possibility to strip someone of their Belgian citizenship since 1919. However, the provision long remained a dead letter. The 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris sparked a series of legislative changes, elevating the deprivation measure to a key security tool in Belgian law. Yet, the measure raises profound human rights issues. Firstly, it infringes the right to private and family life. As provided by Article 8 (2) European Court of Human Right (ECHR), this right can be limited if necessary for national security and public safety. Serious questions can however be raised about the necessity for the national security of depriving an individual of its citizenship. Behavior giving rise to this measure will generally be governed by criminal law. From a security perspective, criminal detention will thus already provide in removing the individual from society. Moreover, simply stripping an individual of its citizenship and deporting them constitutes a failure of criminal law’s responsibility to prosecute criminal behavior. Deprivation of citizenship is also discriminatory, because it differentiates, without a legitimate reason, between those liable to deprivation and those who are not. It thereby installs a secondary class of citizens, violating the European Court of Human Right’s principle that no distinction can be tolerated between children on the basis of the status of their parents. If followed by expulsion, deprivation also seriously jeopardizes the right to life and prohibition of torture. This contribution explores the human rights consequences of citizenship deprivation as a security tool in Belgium. It also offers a critical view on its efficacy for protecting national security.

Keywords: Belgium, counterterrorism strategies, deprivation of citizenship, human rights, immigration law

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Authors: Yujie Yuan, Yiyang Fan, Hong Fan

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Objective: The RNA methylation recognition protein Aly/REF export factor (ALYREF) is considered one type of “reader” protein acting as a recognition protein of m5C, has been reported involved in several biological progresses including cancer initiation and progression. 5-methylcytosine (m5C) is a conserved and prevalent RNA modification in all species, as accumulating evidence suggests its role in the promotion of tumorigenesis. It has been claimed that ALYREF mediates nuclear export of mRNA with m5C modification and regulates biological effects of cancer cells. However, the systematical regulatory pathways of ALYREF in cancer tissues have not been clarified, yet. Methods: The expression level of ALYREF in pan-cancer and their normal tissues was compared through the data acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The University of Alabama at Birmingham Cancer data analysis Portal UALCAN was used to analyze the relationship between ALYREF and clinical pathological features. The relationship between the expression level of ALYREF and prognosis of pan-cancer, and the correlation genes of ALYREF were figured out by using Gene Expression Correlation Analysis database GEPIA. Immune related genes were obtained from TISIDB (an integrated repository portal for tumor-immune system interactions). Immune-related research was conducted by using Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues using Expression data (ESTIMATE) and TIMER. Results: Based on the data acquired from TCGA, ALYREF has an obviously higher-level expression in various types of cancers compared with relevant normal tissues excluding thyroid carcinoma and kidney chromophobe. The immunohistochemical images on The Human Protein Atlas showed that ALYREF can be detected in cytoplasm, membrane, but mainly located in nuclear. In addition, a higher expression level of ALYREF in tumor tissue generates a poor prognosis in majority of cancers. According to the above results, cancers with a higher expression level of ALYREF compared with normal tissues and a significant correlation between ALYREF and prognosis were selected for further analysis. By using TISIDB, we found that portion of ALYREF co-expression genes (such as BIRC5, H2AFZ, CCDC137, TK1, and PPM1G) with high Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) were involved in anti-tumor immunity or affect resistance or sensitivity to T cell-mediated killing. Furthermore, based on the results acquired from GEPIA, there was significant correlation between ALYREF and PD-L1. It was exposed that there is a negative correlation between the expression level of ALYREF and ESTIMATE score. Conclusion: The present study indicated that ALYREF plays a vital and universal role in cancer initiation and progression of pan-cancer through regulating mitotic progression, DNA synthesis and metabolic process, and RNA processing. The correlation between ALYREF and PD-L1 implied ALYREF may affect the therapeutic effect of immunotherapy of tumor. More evidence revealed that ALYREF may play an important role in tumor immunomodulation. The correlation between ALYREF and immune cell infiltration level indicated that ALYREF can be a potential therapeutic target. Exploring the regulatory mechanism of ALYREF in tumor tissues may expose the reason for poor efficacy of immunotherapy and offer more directions of tumor treatment.

Keywords: ALYREF, pan-cancer, immunotherapy, PD-L1

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Authors: Christoph Opperer

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Space syntax is a theory and method for analyzing the spatial layout of buildings and urban environments to understand how they can influence patterns of human movement, social interaction, and behavior. While direct visibility is a key factor in space syntax research, important visual information such as light, color, texture, etc., are typically not considered, even though psychological studies have shown a strong correlation to the human perceptual experience within physical space – with light and color, for example, playing a crucial role in shaping the perception of spaciousness. Furthermore, these surface properties are often the visual features that are most salient and responsible for drawing attention to certain elements within the environment. This paper explores the potential of integrating these factors into general space syntax methods and visibility-based analysis of space, particularly for architectural spatial layouts. To this end, we use a combination of geometric (isovist) and topological (visibility graph) approaches together with image-based methods, allowing a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between spatial geometry, visual aesthetics, and human experience. Custom-coded ray-tracing techniques are employed to generate spherical panorama images, encoding three-dimensional spatial data in the form of two-dimensional images. These images are then processed through computer vision algorithms to generate saliency-maps, which serve as a visual representation of areas most likely to attract human attention based on their visual properties. The maps are subsequently used to weight the vertices of isovists and the visibility graph, placing greater emphasis on areas with high saliency. Compared to traditional methods, our weighted visibility analysis introduces an additional layer of information density by assigning different weights or importance levels to various aspects within the field of view. This extends general space syntax measures to provide a more nuanced understanding of visibility patterns that better reflect the dynamics of human attention and perception. Furthermore, by drawing parallels to traditional isovist and VGA analysis, our weighted approach emphasizes a crucial distinction, which has been pointed out by Ervin and Steinitz: the difference between what is possible to see and what is likely to be seen. Therefore, this paper emphasizes the importance of including surface properties in visibility-based analysis to gain deeper insights into how people interact with their surroundings and to establish a stronger connection with human attention and perception.

Keywords: space syntax, visibility analysis, isovist, visibility graph, visual features, human perception, saliency detection, raytracing, spherical images

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Authors: Muhammad Fiaz Qamar, Ahmad Faraz, Muhammad Arfan Zaman, Kazim Ali, Waleed Akram

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Babesiosis is reflected as the most important disease of cattle that are transmitted by arthropods. In Pakistan, its prevalence is up to 29% in the cattle and buffalo population in different regions. Cattle show a long lasting and durable immunity by giving an infection of B.bovis, B. bigemina, or Babesiadivergens. this is used in cattle to immunize them in a few countries as anti-babesiosis vaccine. Development of frozen vaccine allows for complete testing after production of each batch, However, once thawed, its reduced its shelf life, frozen vaccines are more difficult to transport as well as expensive to produce as compared to chilled vaccine. The contamination of blood derived vaccine has the potential risk that makes pre-production and post-production quality control necessary. For the trail master seed production of whole blood frozen bivalent Babesia(Babesiabovis and Babesiabigemina), 100 blood samples of Babesial positive suspected cattle was taken and processed for separation microscopic detection and rectification by PCR. Vaccine passages were done to reduce the parasitaemiasis in live calves. After 8 passages, parasitemia of Babesia reduced from 80% to 15%. Infected donor calf’s blood was taken by jugular cannulation by using preservative free lithium heparin as an anticoagulant (5 International Units IU heparin/ml blood). In lab, parasite containing blood was mixed in equal volumes with 3 M glycerol in PBS supplemented with 5 mM glucose (final concentration of glycerol 1.5 M) at 37°C. The mixture was then equilibrized at 37°C for 30 minutes and were dispensed in required containers (e.g., 5 ml cryovials).

Keywords: distribution, babesia, primer sequences, PCV

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Authors: Maria Elisabete da Costa Ferreira

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Violent crimes, such as terrorism, organized crime and homicides, are increasing all around the World. This fact calls for the necessity to reflect upon the effectiveness of the deterrence offered by the criminal sanctions set today. The severity of the penalties depends on the social, cultural and even religious background of the State in question. In some States, such as Portugal, the common citizen finds the sentences too soft on the perpetrator and too long to be obtained. On the other hand, in 2023, several States still apply the death penalty, among which the USA, China, and most Middle Eastern countries. As for life in prison without the possibility of parole, the number of countries accepting this possibility in their criminal law is much higher, including England and Wales, the Netherlands, Moldova, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey, Russia, and Serbia. This research aims to demonstrate that both the death penalty and life in prison penalty violate the principles of human dignity and social rehabilitation of the perpetrator and propose alternative penalties that can effectively protect society from crime. The research utilizes three main methodologies: the historical method, the comparative method, and the critical method. The historical method is employed to investigate the evolution of criminal penalties over time. The comparative method is used to compare the practices of different states regarding the death penalty and life in prison penalty. Finally, the critical method is applied to analyze and evaluate the shortcomings of these penalties. From a theoretical point of view, there have been drawn several theories throughout the years to support the idea that perpetrators of crimes should be punished. Today, one of the most commonly accepted theories sustains that the penalty will only be legitimate when necessary to protect society from the perpetrator and to rehabilitate him into society. Foremost, the choice of the penalty and the form of its execution should be guided by the principle of human dignity. The death penalty and life in prison penalty fail to achieve the goal of rehabilitation and disregard the human dignity principle. The right to life is a fundamental right declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and stated in most Constitutions in the World. In conclusion, the research demonstrates that the death penalty and life in prison penalty are in violation of the principles of human dignity and social rehabilitation. These penalties fail to achieve their intended goals and disregard fundamental human rights. Although it may sound tempting to some States to rethink the current system of instated penalties to the admission of these penalties, it is imperative to take the inverse road because the protection of society must be achieved with respect to the perpetrator's fundamental rights, so, alternative penalties must be enforced. Society's belief in its citizen's ability to change must be reinforced, and, ultimately, the belief in Humankind. The findings of this research contribute to the discussion on the use of these penalties and aim to contribute to their decreasing usage in society.

Keywords: death penalty, life in prison penalty, human dignity, rehabilitation

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Authors: Jalaluddin Abdul Malek, Mohd Asruladlyi Ibrahim, Zurinah Tahir

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This paper is to reveal developments in the areas of urban technology in Malaysia. Developments occur intend to add value intelligent city development to the ubiquitous city (U-city) or smart city. The phenomenon of change is called the development of post intelligent cities. U-City development discourse is seen from the perspective of the philosophy of the virtuous city organized by al-Farabi. The prosperity and perfection of a city is mainly caused by human personality factors, as well as its relationship with material and technological aspects of the city. The question is, to what extent to which human factors are taken into account in the concept of U-City as an added value to the intelligent city concept to realize the prosperity and perfection of the city? Previously, the intelligent city concept was developed based on global change and ICT movement, while the U-city added value to the development of intelligent cities and focused more on the development of information and communications technology (ICT). Value added is defined as the use of fiber optic technology that is wired to the use of wireless technology, such as wireless broadband. In this discourse, the debate on the concept of U-City is to the symbiosis between the U-City and the importance of local human e-participation (U-Society) for prosperity. In the context of virtuous city philosophy, it supports the thought of symbiosis so the concept of U-City can achieve sustainability, prosperity and perfection of the city.

Keywords: smart city, ubiquitous city, u-society, e-participation, prosperity

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Authors: Katarína Koňariková, Georgios A. Perdikaris, Lucia Andrezálová, Zdeňka Ďuračková, Lucia Laubertová, Helena Gbelcová, Ingrid Žitňanová

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Introduction: The continuous demand for new anti-cancer drugs has stimulated chemotherapeutic research based on the use of essential metalloelements with the aim to develop potential drugs with lower toxicity and higher antiproliferative activity against tumors. Copper(II) and its complexes play an important role as suitable species for antiproliferative tests. Objectives: The central objective of the current study was to investigate the potential in vitro anti-proliferative effects of N-salicylidene-L-glutamato copper (II) complexes and molecular mechanism of apoptosis induced by tested complexes. In our project we tested N-salicylidene-L-glutamato copper (II) complexes ZK1 - [Cu(N-salicylidene-L-glutamato)(H2O)2].H2O; MK0 - ([Cu2(N-sal-D,L-glu)2(isoquinoline)2].2H2O); MK1 - [Cu(N-salicylidene-5-methyl-L-glutamato)(H2O)].H2O; MK3 - transbis(ethanol)tetrakis(imidazol)Cu(II)(2+)bis(N-salicylidene-D,L-glutamato-N,O)-KO:KO´-(imidazol); MK5 - [Cu(N-salicylidene-D,L- glutamato)(2-methylimidazol] at concentration range 0.001-100 µmol/L against human colon carcinoma cell line HT-29 and human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. Methods: Viability was assessed by direct counting of 0.4% trypan blue dye-excluding cells after 24, 48 and 72 hour cultivations with or without copper complex and by MTT assay. To analyze the type of cell death and its mechanism induced by our copper complex we used different methods. To distinguish apoptosis from necrosis we used electrophoretic analysis, to study the activity of caspases 8 and 9 – luminometric analysis and caspase activity 3 colorimetric assay. Results: The observed anti-proliferative effect of the copper complexes appeared to be dose-, time- and cell line- dependent. Human colon carcinoma cells HT-29 appeared to be more sensitive to the complex MK0 ([Cu2(N-sal-D,L-glu)2(isoquinoline)2].2H2O) than to ZK1 ([Cu(N-salicylidene-L-glutamato)(H2O)2].H2O) and MK1 ([Cu(N-salicylidene-5-methyl-L-glutamato)(H2O)].H2O)). Human colon carcinoma cells HT-29 appeared to be more sensitive to the complex than human breast carcinoma cells MCF-7. IC50 decreased with time of incubation (24, 48 and 72h) for HT-29, but increased for MCF-7. By electrophoresis we found apoptotic cell death induced by our copper complexes in HT-29 at concentrations 1, 10, 50 and 100 µmol/L after 48h (ZK1) and 72h (MK0, MK1) and in MCF-7 we did not find apoptosis. We also studied molecular mechanism of apoptosis in HT-29 induced by copper complexes. We found active caspase 9 in HT-29 after ZK1 ([Cu(N-salicylidene-L-glutamato)(H2O)2].H2O) and MK1 ([Cu(N-salicylidene-5-methyl-L-glutamato)(H2O)].H2O)) influence and active caspase 8 after MK0 ([Cu2(N-sal-D,L-glu)2(isoquinoline)2].2H2O) influence. Conclusion: Our copper complexes showed cytotoxic activities against human colon carcinoma cells HT-29 and breast cancer cell line MCF-7 in vitro. Apoptosis was activated by mitochondrial pathway (intrinsic pathway) in case of ZK1 [Cu(N-salicylidene-L-glutamato)(H2O)2].H2O; MK1 [Cu(N-salicylidene-5-methyl-L-glutamato)(H2O)].H2O; MK3 - transbis(ethanol)tetrakis(imidazol)Cu(II)(2+)bis(N-salicylidene-D,L-glutamato-N,O)-KO:KO´-(imidazol) and MK5 - [Cu(N-salicylidene-D,L- glutamato)(2-methylimidazol] copper complexes and by death receptors (extrinsic pathway) in case of MK0 [Cu2(N-sal-D,L-glu)2(isoquinoline)2].2H2O copper complex in HT-29.

Keywords: apoptosis, copper complex, cancer, carcinoma cell line

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Authors: Seyedeh Mandan Kazzazi, Elena Kranioti

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In the field of human osteology, sex estimation is an important step in developing biological profile. There are a number of methods that can be used to estimate the sex of human remains varying from visual assessments to metric analysis of sexually dimorphic traits. Teeth are one of the most durable physical elements in human body that can be used for this purpose. The present study investigated the utility of cervical measurements for sex estimation through discriminant analysis. The permanent molar teeth of 75 skeletons (28 females and 52 males) from Hasanlu site in North-western Iran were studied. Cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements were taken from both maxillary and mandibular first and second molars. Discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy of each diameter in assessing sex. The results showed that males had statistically larger teeth than females for maxillary and mandibular molars and both measurements (P < 0.05). The range of classification rate was from (75.7% to 85.5%) for the original and cross-validated data. The most dimorphic teeth were maxillary and mandibular second molars providing 85.5% and 83.3% correct classification rate respectively. The data generated from the present study suggested that cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements of the molar teeth can be useful and reliable for sex estimation in Iranian archaeological populations.

Keywords: cervical measurements, Hasanlu, premolars, sex estimation

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Authors: Magdy Al Shourbagi

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Diabetes mellitus is the commonest cause of neuropathy. The common pattern is a distal symmetrical sensory polyneuropathy, associated with autonomic disturbances. Less often, Diabetes mellitus is responsible for a focal or multifocal neuropathy. Common causes for non-healing of diabetic foot are the infection and ischemia. Diabetes mellitus is associated with a defective cellular and humoral immunity. Particularly, decreased phagocytosis, decreased chemotaxis, impaired bacterial killing and abnormal lymphocytic function resulting in a reduced inflammatory reaction and defective wound healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is defined by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society as a treatment in which a patient intermittently breathes 100% oxygen and the treatment chamber is pressurized to a pressure greater than sea level (1 atmosphere absolute). The pressure increase may be applied in mono-place (single person) or multi-place chambers. Multi-place chambers are pressurized with air, with oxygen given via face mask or endotracheal tube; while mono-place chambers are pressurized with oxygen. Oxygen gas plays an important role in the physiology of wound healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can raise tissue oxygen tensions to levels where wound healing can be expected. HBOT increases the killing ability of leucocytes also it is lethal for certain anaerobic bacteria and inhibits toxin formation in many other anaerobes. Multiple anecdotal reports and studies in HBO therapy in diabetic patients report that HBO can be an effective adjunct therapy in the management of diabetic foot wounds and is associated with better functional outcomes.

Keywords: hyperbari oxygen therapy, diabetic foot, neuropathy, multiplace chambers

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Authors: Bernasconi Matteo, Grothkopp Mark, Friedli Thomas

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The objective of this paper is to examine the relationships between technical and social lean bundles as well as operational performance in the context of the pharmaceutical industry. We investigate the direct and mediating effects of the lean bundles total productive maintenance (TPM), total quality management (TQM), Just-In-Time (JIT), and human resource management (HRM) on operational performance. Our analysis relies on 113 manufacturing facilities from the St.Gallen OPEX benchmarking database. The results show that HRM has a positive indirect effect on operational performance mediated by the technical lean bundles.

Keywords: human resource management, operational performance, pharmaceutical industry, technical lean practices

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