Search results for: at risk students

Authors: Matthew Yeager, Christopher Willy, John Bischoff

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The conceptualization and design phases of a system lifecycle consume a significant amount of the lifecycle budget in the form of direct tasking and capital, as well as the implicit costs associated with unforeseeable design errors that are only realized during downstream phases. Ad hoc or iterative approaches to generating system requirements oftentimes fail to consider the full array of feasible systems or product designs for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to: initial conceptualization that oftentimes incorporates a priori or legacy features; the inability to capture, communicate and accommodate stakeholder preferences; inadequate technical designs and/or feasibility studies; and locally-, but not globally-, optimized subsystems and components. These design pitfalls can beget unanticipated developmental or system alterations with added costs, risks and support activities, heightening the risk for suboptimal system performance, premature obsolescence or forgone development. Supported by rapid advances in learning algorithms and hardware technology, sensors and sensor systems have become commonplace in both commercial and industrial products. The evolving array of hardware components (i.e. sensors, CPUs, modular / auxiliary access, etc…) as well as recognition, data fusion and communication protocols have all become increasingly complex and critical for design engineers during both concpetualization and implementation. This work seeks to develop and utilize a non-deterministic approach for sensor system design within the multi-attribute tradespace exploration (MATE) paradigm, a technique that incorporates decision theory into model-based techniques in order to explore complex design environments and discover better system designs. Developed to address the inherent design constraints in complex aerospace systems, MATE techniques enable project engineers to examine all viable system designs, assess attribute utility and system performance, and better align with stakeholder requirements. Whereas such previous work has been focused on aerospace systems and conducted in a deterministic fashion, this study addresses a wider array of system design elements by incorporating both traditional tradespace elements (e.g. hardware components) as well as popular multi-sensor data fusion models and techniques. Furthermore, statistical performance features to this model-based MATE approach will enable non-deterministic techniques for various commercial systems that range in application, complexity and system behavior, demonstrating a significant utility within the realm of formal systems decision-making.

Keywords: multi-attribute tradespace exploration, data fusion, sensors, systems engineering, system design

Procedia PDF Downloads 163

Authors: T. Arkle, D. Pournaras, S. Lam, B. Kumar

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Introduction: Fundoplication is widely recognised as the best surgical option for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) in the general population. However, there is controversy surrounding the use of conventional fundoplication in obese patients. Whilst the intra-operative failure of fundoplication, including wrap disruption, is reportedly higher in obese individuals, the more significant issue surrounds symptom recurrence post-surgery. Could a bariatric procedure be considered in obese patients for weight management, to treat the GORD, and to also reduce the risk of recurrence? Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a widely performed bariatric procedure, has been shown to be highly successful both in controlling GORD symptoms and in weight management in obese patients. Furthermore, NICE has published clear guidelines on eligibility for bariatric surgery, with the main criteria being type 3 obesity or type 2 obesity with the presence of significant co-morbidities that would improve with weight loss. This study aims to identify the proportion of patients who undergo conventional fundoplication for GORD and/or hiatus hernia, which would have been eligible for bariatric surgery referral according to NICE guidelines. Methods: All patients who underwent fundoplication procedures for GORD and/or hiatus hernia repair at a single NHS foundation trust over a 10-year period will be identified using the Trust’s health records database. Pre-operative patient records will be used to find BMI and the presence of significant co-morbidities at the time of consideration for surgery. This information will be compared to NICE guidelines to determine potential eligibility for the bariatric surgical referral at the time of initial surgical intervention. Results: A total of 321 patients underwent fundoplication procedures between January 2011 and December 2020; 133 (41.4%) had available data for BMI or to allow BMI to be estimated. Of those 133, 40 patients (30%) had a BMI greater than 30kg/m², and 7 (5.3%) had BMI >35kg/m². One patient (0.75%) had a BMI >40 and would therefore be automatically eligible according to NICE guidelines. 4 further patients had significant co-morbidities, such as hypertension and osteoarthritis, which likely be improved by weight management surgery and therefore also indicated eligibility for referral. Overall, 3.75% (5/133) of patients undergoing conventional fundoplication procedures would have been eligible for bariatric surgical referral, these patients were all female, and the average age was 60.4 years. Conclusions: Based on this Trust’s experience, around 4% of obese patients undergoing fundoplication would have been eligible for bariatric surgical intervention. Based on current evidence, in class 2/3 obese patients, there is likely to have been a notable proportion with recurrent disease, potentially requiring further intervention. These patient’s may have benefitted more through undergoing bariatric surgery, for example a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, addressing both their obesity and GORD. Use of patient written notes to obtain BMI data for the 188 patients with missing BMI data and further analysis to determine outcomes following fundoplication in all patients, assessing for incidence of recurrent disease, will be undertaken to strengthen conclusions.

Keywords: bariatric surgery, GORD, Nissen fundoplication, nice guidelines

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Authors: Sami Alanazi

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Teamwork practices have been recognized as a significant strategy to improve patient safety, quality of care, and staff and patient satisfaction in healthcare settings, particularly within the emergency department (ED). The EDs depend heavily on teams of interdisciplinary healthcare staff to carry out their operational goals and core business of providing care to the serious illness and injured. The ED is also recognized as a high-risk area in relation to service demand and the potential for human error. Few studies have considered the perceptions and experiences of the ED staff (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administration staff) about the practice of teamwork, especially in Saudi Arabia (SA), and no studies have been conducted to explore the practices of teamwork in the EDs. Aim: To explore the practices of teamwork from the perspectives and experiences of staff (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administration staff) when interacting with each other in the admission areas in the ED of a public hospital in the Northern Border region of SA. Method: A qualitative case study design was utilized, drawing on two methods for the data collection, comprising of semi-structured interviews (n=22) with physicians (6), nurses (10), allied health professionals (3), and administrative members (3) working in the ED of a hospital in the Northern Border region of SA. The second method is non-participant direct observation. All data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings: The main themes that emerged from the analysis were as follows: the meaningful of teamwork, reasons of teamwork, the ED environmental factors, the organizational factors, the value of communication, leadership, teamwork skills in the ED, team members' behaviors, multicultural teamwork, and patients and families behaviors theme. Discussion: Working in the ED environment played a major role in affecting work performance as well as team dynamics. However, Communication, time management, fast-paced performance, multitasking, motivation, leadership, and stress management were highlighted by the participants as fundamental skills that have a major impact on team members and patients in the ED. It was found that the behaviors of the team members impacted the team dynamics as well as ED health services. Behaviors such as disputes among team members, conflict, cooperation, uncooperative members, neglect, and emotions of the members. Besides that, the behaviors of the patients and their accompanies had a direct impact on the team and the quality of the services. In addition, the differences in the cultures have separated the team members and created undesirable gaps such the gender segregation, national origin discrimination, and similarity and different in interests. Conclusion: Effective teamwork, in the context of the emergency department, was recognized as an essential element to obtain the quality of care as well as improve staff satisfaction.

Keywords: teamwork, barrier, facilitator, emergencydepartment

Procedia PDF Downloads 114

Authors: Carine Platat, Fatima Qshadi, Ghofran Kayed, Nour Hussein, Amjad Jarrar, Habiba Ali

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Nowadays, smartphones are very popular. They are offering a variety of easy-to-use and free applications among which step counters and fitness tests. The number of users is huge making of such applications a potentially efficient new strategy to encourage people to become more active. Nonetheless, data on their reliability and validity are very scarce and when available, they are often negative and contradictory. Besides, weight status, which is likely to introduce a bias in the physical activity assessment, was not often considered. Hence, the use of these applications as motivational tool, assessment tool and in research is questionable. PACER is one of the free step counters application. Even though it is one of the best rated free application by users, it has never been tested for reliability and validity. Prior any use of PACER, this remains to be investigated. The objective of this work is to investigate the reliability and validity of the smartphone application PACER in measuring the number of steps and in assessing the cardiorespiratory fitness by the 6 minutes walking test. 20 overweight or obese students (10 male and 10 female) were recruited at the United Arab Emirate University, aged between 18 and 25 years old. Reliability and validity were tested in real life conditions and in controlled conditions by using a treadmill. Test-retest experiments were done with PACER on 2 days separated by a week in real life conditions (24 hours each time) and in controlled conditions (30 minutes on treadmill, 3km/h). Validity was tested against the pedometer OMRON in the same conditions. During treadmill test, video was recorded and steps numbers were compared between PACER, pedometer and video. The validity of PACER in estimating the cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) as part of the 6 minutes walking test (6MWT) was studied against the 20m shuttle running test. Reliability was studied by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and by Bland-Altman plots. Validity was studied by calculating Spearman correlation coefficient (rho) and Bland-Altman plots. PACER reliability was good in both male and female in real life conditions (p≤10-3) but only in female in controlled conditions (p=0.01). PACER was valid against OMRON pedometer in male and female in real life conditions (rho=0.94, p≤10-3 ; rho=0.64, p=0.01, in male and female respectively). In controlled conditions, PACER was not valid against pedometer. But, PACER was valid against video in female (rho=0.72, p≤10-3). PACER was valid against the shuttle run test in male and female (rho-=0.66, p=0.01 ; rho=0.51, p=0.04) to estimate VO2max. This study provides data on the reliability and viability of PACER in overweight or obese male and female young adults. Globally, PACER was shown as reliable and valid in real life conditions in overweight or obese male and female to count steps and assess fitness. This supports the use of PACER to assess and promote physical activity in clinical follow-up and community interventions.

Keywords: smartphone application, pacer, reliability, validity, steps, fitness, physical activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Hakimullah Hakim, Chiharu Toyofuku, Mari Ota, Mayuko Suzuki, Miyuki Komura, Masashi Yamada, Md. Shahin Alam, Natthanan Sangsriratanakul, Dany Shoham, Kazuaki Takehara

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Disinfectants and their application are essential part of infection control strategies and enhancement of biosecurity at farms, worldwide. Alkaline agents are well known for their strong and long term antimicrobial capacities and most frequently are applied at farms for control and prevention of biological hazards. However, inadequate information regarding such materials’ capacities to inactivate pathogens and their improper applications fail farmers to achieve the mentioned goal. Thus, this requires attention to further evaluate their efficacies, under different conditions and in different ways. Here in this study we evaluated bactericidal efficacies of food additive grade of calcium hydroxide (FdCa(OH)2) powder derived from natural calcium carbonates obtained from limestone (Fine Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), and bioceramic powder (BCX) derived from chicken feces at pH 13 (NMG environmental development Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), for their efficacies to inactivate bacteria in feces. [Materials & Methods] Chicken feces were inoculated by 100 µl Escherichia coli and Salmonella Infantis in falcon tubes, individually, then FdCa(OH)2 or BCX powders were individually added to make final concentration of 0, 5, 10, 20 and 30% (w/w) in total weight of 0.5g, followed by properly mixing and incubating at room temperature for certain periods of time, in a dark place. Afterwards, 10 ml 1M Tris-HCl (pH 7.2) was added onto them to reduce their pH, in order to stop powders’ activities and to harvest the remained viable bacteria, whereas using normal medium or dW2 to recover bacteria increases the mixture pH, and as a result bacteria would be inactivated soon; therefore, the latter practice brings about incorrect and misleading results. Samples were then inoculated on DHL agar plates in order to calculate colony forming units (CFU)/ml of viable bacteria. [Results and Discussion] FdCa(OH)2 powder at 10% and 5% required 3 hr and 6 hr exposure times, respectively, while BCX powder at 20% concentrations required 6 hr exposure time to kill the mentioned bacteria in feces down to lower than detectable level (≤ 3.6 log10 CFU/ml). This study confirmed capacities of FdCa(OH)2 and BCX powders to inactivate bacteria in feces, and both materials are environment friendly materials, with no risk to human or animal’s health. This finding helps farmers to properly apply alkaline agents in appropriate concentrations and exposure times in their farms, in order to prevent and control infectious diseases outbreaks and to enhance biosecurity. Finally, this finding may help farmers to implement better strategies for infections control in their livestock farms.

Keywords: bacterial inactivation, bioceramic, biosecurity at livestock farms, chicken feces

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Authors: Marta Kwiatkowska, Paweł Jarosiewicz, Bożena Bukowska

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Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethylglycine) is a non-selected broad spectrum ingredient in the herbicide (Roundup) used for over 35 years for the protection of agricultural and horticultural crops. Glyphosate was believed to be environmentally friendly but recently, a large body of evidence has revealed that glyphosate can negatively affect on environment and humans. It has been found that glyphosate is present in the soil and groundwater. It can also enter human body which results in its occurrence in blood in low concentrations of 73.6 ± 28.2 ng/ml. Research conducted for potential genotoxicity and cytotoxicity can be an important element in determining the toxic effect of glyphosate. Due to regulation of European Parliament 1107/2009 it is important to assess genotoxicity and cytotoxicity not only for the parent substance but also its impurities, which are formed at different stages of production of major substance – glyphosate. Moreover verifying, which of these compounds are more toxic is required. Understanding of the molecular pathways of action is extremely important in the context of the environmental risk assessment. In 2002, the European Union has decided that glyphosate is not genotoxic. Unfortunately, recently performed studies around the world achieved results which contest decision taken by the committee of the European Union. World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2015 has decided to change the classification of glyphosate to category 2A, which means that the compound is considered to "probably carcinogenic to humans". This category relates to compounds for which there is limited evidence of carcinogenicity to humans and sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity on experimental animals. That is why we have investigated genotoxicity and cytotoxicity effects of the most commonly used pesticide: glyphosate and its impurities: N-(phosphonomethyl)iminodiacetic acid (PMIDA) and bis-(phosphonomethyl)amine on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), mostly lymphocytes. DNA damage (analysis of DNA strand-breaks) using the single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) and ATP level were assessed. Cells were incubated with glyphosate and its impurities: PMIDA and bis-(phosphonomethyl)amine at concentrations from 0.01 to 10 mM for 24 hours. Evaluating genotoxicity using the comet assay showed a concentration-dependent increase in DNA damage for all compounds studied. ATP level was decreased to zero as a result of using the highest concentration of two investigated impurities, like bis-(phosphonomethyl)amine and PMIDA. Changes were observed using the highest concentration at which a person can be exposed as a result of acute intoxication. Our survey leads to a conclusion that the investigated compounds exhibited genotoxic and cytotoxic potential but only in high concentrations, to which people are not exposed environmentally. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre (Contract-2013/11/N/NZ7/00371), MSc Marta Kwiatkowska, project manager.

Keywords: cell viability, DNA damage, glyphosate, impurities, peripheral blood mononuclear cells

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Authors: Rafael Santos, Clara Pimenta Do Vale, Barbara Bogoni, Poul Henning Kirkegaard

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In the last decades, the relevance of hand drawing has decreased in the scope of architectural education. However, some schools continue to recognize its decisive role, not only in the architectural design teaching, but in the whole of architectural training. With this paper it is intended to present the results of a research developed on the following problem: the practise of hand drawing as a premier form of representation in architectural design teaching. The research had as its object the educational model of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) and was led by three main objectives: to identify the circumstance that promoted hand drawing as a form of representation in FAUP's model; to characterize the types of hand drawing and their role in that model; to determine the particularities of hand drawing as a premier form of representation in architectural design teaching. Methodologically, the research was conducted according to a qualitative embedded single-case study design. The object – i.e., the educational model – was approached in FAUP case considering its Context and three embedded unities of analysis: the educational Purposes, Principles and Practices. In order to guide the procedures of data collection and analysis, a Matrix for the Characterization (MCC) was developed. As a methodological tool, the MCC allowed to relate the three embedded unities of analysis with the three main sources of evidence where the object manifests itself: the professors, expressing how the model is Assumed; the architectural design classes, expressing how the model is Achieved; and the students, expressing how the model is Acquired. The main research methods used were the naturalistic and participatory observation, in-person-interview and documentary and bibliographic review. The results reveal that the educational model of FAUP – following the model of the former Porto School – was largely due to the methodological foundations created with the hand drawing teaching-learning processes. In the absence of a culture of explicit theoretical elaboration or systematic research, hand drawing was the support for the continuity of the school, an expression of a unified thought about what should be the reflection and practice of architecture. As a form of representation, hand drawing plays a transversal role in the entire educational model, since its purposes are not limited to the conception of architectural design – it is also a means for perception, analysis and synthesis. Regarding the architectural design teaching, there seems to be an understanding of three complementary dimensions of didactics: the instrumental, methodological and propositional dimension. At FAUP, hand drawing is recognized as the common denominator among these dimensions, according to the idea of "globality of drawing". It is expected that the knowledge base developed in this research may have three main contributions: to contribute to the maintenance and valorisation of FAUP’s model; through the precise description of the methodological procedures, to contribute by transferability to similar studies; through the critical and objective framework of the problem underlying the hand drawing in architectural design teaching, to contribute to the broader discussion concerning the contemporary challenges on architectural education.

Keywords: architectural design teaching, architectural education, forms of representation, hand drawing

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Authors: Adeiza Matthew, Oluwadamilola Abubakar

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Wood energy, also known as wood fuel, is a renewable energy source that is derived from woody biomass, which is organic matter that is harvested from forests, woodlands, and other lands. Woody biomass includes trees, branches, twigs, and other woody debris that can be used as fuel. Wood energy can be classified based on its sources, such as trees outside forests, residues from wood harvesting and conversion, and energy plantations. There are several policy frameworks that support the use of wood energy, including participatory forest management and agroforestry. These policies aim to promote the sustainable use of woody biomass as a source of energy while also protecting forests and wildlife habitats. There are several options for using wood as a fuel, including central heating systems, pellet-based systems, wood chip-based systems, log boilers, fireplaces, and stoves. Each of these options has its own benefits and drawbacks, and the most appropriate option will depend on factors such as the availability of woody biomass, the heating needs of the household or facility, and the local climate. In order to use wood as a fuel, it must be harvested and stored properly. Hardwood or softwood can be used as fuel, and the heating value of firewood depends on the species of tree and the degree of moisture content. Proper harvesting and storage of wood can help to minimize environmental impacts and improve wildlife habitats. The use of wood energy has several environmental impacts, including the release of greenhouse gases during combustion and the potential for air pollution from combustion by-products. However, wood energy can also have positive environmental impacts, such as the sequestration of carbon in trees and the reduction of reliance on fossil fuels. The regulation and legislation of wood energy vary by country and region, and there is an ongoing debate about the potential use of wood energy in renewable energy technologies. Wood energy is a renewable energy source that can be used to generate electricity, heat, and transportation fuels. Woody biomass is abundant and widely available, making it a potentially significant source of energy for many countries. The use of wood energy can create local economic and employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas. Wood energy can be used to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Properly managed forests can provide a sustained supply of woody biomass for energy, helping to reduce the risk of deforestation and habitat loss. Wood energy can be produced using a variety of technologies, including direct combustion, co-firing with fossil fuels, and the production of biofuels. The environmental impacts of wood energy can be minimized through the use of best practices in harvesting, transportation, and processing. Wood energy is regulated and legislated at the national and international levels, and there are various standards and certification systems in place to promote sustainable practices. Wood energy has the potential to play a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the achievement of climate change mitigation goals.

Keywords: biomass, timber, charcoal, firewood

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: Tiera Tanksley, Amanda M. McLeroy

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The advent of technology and social media has ushered in a new era of communication, providing platforms for news dissemination and cause advocacy. However, this digital landscape has also exposed a distressing phenomenon termed "Black death," or trauma porn. This paper delves into the profound effects of repeated exposure to traumatic content on Black youth via social media, exploring the psychological impacts and potential reinforcing of stereotypes. Employing Critical Race Technology Theory (CRTT), the study sheds light on algorithmic anti-blackness and its influence on Black youth's lives and educational experiences. Through ethnographic content analysis, the research investigates common manifestations of Black death encountered online by Black adolescents. Findings unveil distressing viral videos, traumatic images, racial slurs, and hate speech, perpetuating stereotypes. However, amidst the distress, the study identifies narratives of activism and social justice on social media platforms, empowering Black youth to engage in positive change. Coping mechanisms and community support emerge as significant factors in navigating the digital landscape. The study underscores the need for comprehensive interventions and policies informed by evidence-based research. By addressing algorithmic anti-blackness and promoting digital resilience, the paper advocates for a more empathetic and inclusive online environment. Understanding coping mechanisms and community support becomes imperative for fostering mental well-being among Black adolescents navigating social media. In education, the implications are substantial. Acknowledging the impact of Black death content, educators play a pivotal role in promoting media literacy and digital resilience. Creating inclusive and safe online spaces, educators can mitigate negative effects and encourage open discussions about traumatic content. The application of CRTT in educational technology emphasizes dismantling systemic biases and promoting equity. In conclusion, this study calls for educators to be cognizant of the impact of Black death content on social media. By prioritizing media literacy, fostering digital resilience, and advocating for unbiased technologies, educators contribute to an inclusive and just educational environment for all students, irrespective of their race or background. Addressing challenges related to Black death content proactively ensures the well-being and mental health of Black adolescents, fostering an empathetic and inclusive digital space.

Keywords: algorithmic anti-Blackness, digital resilience, media literacy, traumatic content

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Anishur Rahman, Maria Areias, Diogo Simões, Ana Figeuiredo, Filipa Figueiredo, João Nunes

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The circular economy (CE) has gained increased awareness among academics, businesses, and decision-makers as it stimulates resource circularity in the production and consumption systems. A large epistemological study has explored the principles of CE, but scant attention eagerly focused on analysing how CE is evaluated, consented to, and enforced using economic metabolism data and business intelligent framework. Economic metabolism involves the ongoing exchange of materials and energy within and across socio-economic systems and requires the assessment of vast amounts of data to provide quantitative analysis related to effective resource management. Limited concern, the present work has focused on the regional flows pilot region from Portugal. By addressing this gap, this study aims to promote eco-innovation and sustainability in the regions of Intermunicipal Communities Região de Coimbra, Viseu Dão Lafões and Beiras e Serra da Estrela, using this data to find precise synergies in terms of material flows and give companies a competitive advantage in form of valuable waste destinations, access to new resources and new markets, cost reduction and risk sharing benefits. In our work, emphasis on applying artificial intelligence (AI) and, more specifically, on implementing state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms is placed, contributing to construction a business intelligent approach. With the emergence of new approaches generally highlighted under the sub-heading of AI and machine learning (ML), the methods for statistical analysis of complex and uncertain production systems are facing significant changes. Therefore, various definitions of AI and its differences from traditional statistics are presented, and furthermore, ML is introduced to identify its place in data science and the differences in topics such as big data analytics and in production problems that using AI and ML are identified. A lifecycle-based approach is then taken to analyse the use of different methods in each phase to identify the most useful technologies and unifying attributes of AI in manufacturing. Most of macroeconomic metabolisms models are mainly direct to contexts of large metropolis, neglecting rural territories, so within this project, a dynamic decision support model coupled with artificial intelligence tools and information platforms will be developed, focused on the reality of these transition zones between the rural and urban. Thus, a real decision support tool is under development, which will surpass the scientific developments carried out to date and will allow to overcome imitations related to the availability and reliability of data.

Keywords: circular economy, artificial intelligence, economic metabolisms, machine learning

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Authors: Jazim Sohail, Filipe Teixeira-Dias

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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) within non-helmeted contact sports is a growing concern due to the serious risk of potential injury. Extensive research is being conducted looking into head kinematics in non-helmeted contact sports utilizing instrumented mouthguards that allow researchers to record accelerations and velocities of the head during and after an impact. This does not, however, allow the location of the impact on the head, and its magnitude and orientation, to be determined. This research proposes and validates two methods to quantify impact locations from instrumented mouthguard kinematic data, one using rigid body dynamics, the other utilizing machine learning. The rigid body dynamics technique focuses on establishing and matching moments from Euler’s and torque equations in order to find the impact location on the head. The methodology is validated with impact data collected from a lab test with the dummy head fitted with an instrumented mouthguard. Additionally, a Hybrid III Dummy head finite element model was utilized to create synthetic kinematic data sets for impacts from varying locations to validate the impact location algorithm. The algorithm calculates accurate impact locations; however, it will require preprocessing of live data, which is currently being done by cross-referencing data timestamps to video footage. The machine learning technique focuses on eliminating the preprocessing aspect by establishing trends within time-series signals from instrumented mouthguards to determine the impact location on the head. An unsupervised learning technique is used to cluster together impacts within similar regions from an entire time-series signal. The kinematic signals established from mouthguards are converted to the frequency domain before using a clustering algorithm to cluster together similar signals within a time series that may span the length of a game. Impacts are clustered within predetermined location bins. The same Hybrid III Dummy finite element model is used to create impacts that closely replicate on-field impacts in order to create synthetic time-series datasets consisting of impacts in varying locations. These time-series data sets are used to validate the machine learning technique. The rigid body dynamics technique provides a good method to establish accurate impact location of impact signals that have already been labeled as true impacts and filtered out of the entire time series. However, the machine learning technique provides a method that can be implemented with long time series signal data but will provide impact location within predetermined regions on the head. Additionally, the machine learning technique can be used to eliminate false impacts captured by sensors saving additional time for data scientists using instrumented mouthguard kinematic data as validating true impacts with video footage would not be required.

Keywords: head impacts, impact location, instrumented mouthguard, machine learning, mTBI

Procedia PDF Downloads 198

Authors: Nutcha Taneepanichskul, Helen C. Hailes, Mark Miodownik

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Plastic waste has emerged as a critical global environmental challenge, primarily driven by the prevalent use of conventional plastics derived from petrochemical refining and manufacturing processes in modern packaging. While these plastics serve vital functions, their persistence in the environment post-disposal poses significant threats to ecosystems. Addressing this issue necessitates approaches, one of which involves the development of biodegradable plastics designed to degrade under controlled conditions, such as industrial composting facilities. It is imperative to note that compostable plastics are engineered for degradation within specific environments and are not suited for uncontrolled settings, including natural landscapes and aquatic ecosystems. The full benefits of compostable packaging are realized when subjected to industrial composting, preventing environmental contamination and waste stream pollution. Therefore, effective sorting technologies are essential to enhance composting rates for these materials and diminish the risk of contaminating recycling streams. In this study, it leverage hyperspectral imaging technology (HSI) coupled with advanced machine learning algorithms to accurately identify various types of plastics, encompassing conventional variants like Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polypropylene (PP), Low density polyethylene (LDPE), High density polyethylene (HDPE) and biodegradable alternatives such as Polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), Polylactic acid (PLA), and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). The dataset is partitioned into three subsets: a training dataset comprising uncontaminated conventional and biodegradable plastics, a validation dataset encompassing contaminated plastics of both types, and a testing dataset featuring real-world packaging items in both pristine and contaminated states. Five distinct machine learning algorithms, namely Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Logistic Regression, and Decision Tree Algorithm, were developed and evaluated for their classification performance. Remarkably, the Logistic Regression and CNN model exhibited the most promising outcomes, achieving a perfect accuracy rate of 100% for the training and validation datasets. Notably, the testing dataset yielded an accuracy exceeding 80%. The successful implementation of this sorting technology within recycling and composting facilities holds the potential to significantly elevate recycling and composting rates. As a result, the envisioned circular economy for plastics can be established, thereby offering a viable solution to mitigate plastic pollution.

Keywords: biodegradable plastics, sorting technology, hyperspectral imaging technology, machine learning algorithms

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Authors: Luphumlo Ncanywa, Paul Watts

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Malaria is a disease that kills approximately one million people annually. Children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa lost their lives due to malaria. Malaria continues to be one of the major causes of death, especially in poor countries in Africa. Decrease the burden of malaria and save lives is very essential. There is a major concern about malaria parasites being able to develop resistance towards antimalarial drugs. People are still dying due to lack of medicine affordability in less well-off countries in the world. If more people could receive treatment by reducing the cost of drugs, the number of deaths in Africa could be massively reduced. There is a shortage of pharmaceutical manufacturing capability within many of the countries in Africa. However one has to question how Africa would actually manufacture drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients or medicines developed within these research programs. It is quite likely that such manufacturing would be outsourced overseas, hence increasing the cost of production and potentially limiting the full benefit of the original research. As a result the last few years has seen major interest in developing more effective and cheaper technology for manufacturing generic pharmaceutical products. Micro-reactor technology (MRT) is an emerging technique that enables those working in research and development to rapidly screen reactions utilizing continuous flow, leading to the identification of reaction conditions that are suitable for usage at a production level. This emerging technique will be used to develop antimalarial drugs. It is this system flexibility that has the potential to reduce both the time was taken and risk associated with transferring reaction methodology from research to production. Using an approach referred to as scale-out or numbering up, a reaction is first optimized within the laboratory using a single micro-reactor, and in order to increase production volume, the number of reactors employed is simply increased. The overall aim of this research project is to develop and optimize synthetic process of antimalarial drugs in the continuous processing. This will provide a step change in pharmaceutical manufacturing technology that will increase the availability and affordability of antimalarial drugs on a worldwide scale, with a particular emphasis on Africa in the first instance. The research will determine the best chemistry and technology to define the lowest cost manufacturing route to pharmaceutical products. We are currently developing a method to synthesize Lumefantrine in continuous flow using batch process as bench mark. Lumefantrine is a dichlorobenzylidine derivative effective for the treatment of various types of malaria. Lumefantrine is an antimalarial drug used with artemether for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. The results obtained when synthesizing Lumefantrine in a batch process are transferred into a continuous flow process in order to develop an even better and reproducible process. Therefore, development of an appropriate synthetic route for Lumefantrine is significant in pharmaceutical industry. Consequently, if better (and cheaper) manufacturing routes to antimalarial drugs could be developed and implemented where needed, it is far more likely to enable antimalarial drugs to be available to those in need.

Keywords: antimalarial, flow, lumefantrine, synthesis

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Authors: Gyan Kashyap, Shri Kant Singh

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Improved mental health can be articulated as a good physical health and quality of life. Mental health plays an important role in survival of any one’s life. In today’s time people living with stress in life due to their personal matters, health problems, unemployment, work environment, living environment, substance use, life style and many more important reasons. Many studies confirmed that the significant proportion of mental health people increasing in India. This study is focused on mental well-being of male leather tannery workers in Kanpur city, India. Environment at work place as well as living environment plays an important health risk factors among leather tannery workers. Leather tannery workers are more susceptible to many chemicals and physical hazards, just because they are liable to be affected by their exposure to lots of hazardous materials and processes during tanning work in very hazardous work environment. The aim of this study to determine the level of mental health disorder and quality of life among male leather tannery and non-tannery workers in Kanpur city, India. This study utilized the primary data from the cross- sectional household study which was conducted from January to June, 2015 on tannery and non-tannery workers as a part of PhD program from the Jajmau area of Kanpur city, India. The sample of 286 tannery and 295 non-tannery workers has been collected from the study area. We have collected information from the workers of age group 15-70 those who were working at the time of survey for at least one year. This study utilized the general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) and work related stress scale to test the mental wellbeing of male tannery and non-tannery workers. By using GHQ-12 and work related stress scale, Polychoric factor analysis method has been used for best threshold and scoring. Some of important question like ‘How would you rate your overall quality of life’ on Likert scale to measure the quality of life, their earnings, education, family size, living condition, household assets, media exposure, health expenditure, treatment seeking behavior and food habits etc. Results from the study revealed that around one third of tannery workers had severe mental health problems then non-tannery workers. Mental health problem shown the statistically significant association with wealth quintile, 56 percent tannery workers had severe mental health problem those belong to medium wealth quintile. And 42 percent tannery workers had moderate mental health problem among those from the low wealth quintile. Work related stress scale found the statistically significant results for tannery workers. Large proportion of tannery and non-tannery workers reported they are unable to meet their basic needs from their earnings and living in worst condition. Important result from the study, tannery workers who were involved in beam house work in tannery (58%) had severe mental health problem. This study found the statistically significant association with tannery work and mental health problem among tannery workers.

Keywords: GHQ-12, mental well-being, factor analysis, quality of life, tannery workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: Mattias Bergstrom

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Significance of the Study: This research will provide new insights into the risks with digital embedded infrastructure. Through this research, we will analyze each risk and its potential negation strategies, especially for AI and autonomous automation. Moreover, the analysis that is presented in this paper will convey valuable information for future research that can create more stable, secure, and efficient autonomous systems. To learn and understand the risks, a large IoT system was envisioned, and risks with hardware, tampering, and cyberattacks were collected, researched, and evaluated to create a comprehensive understanding of the potential risks. Potential solutions have then been evaluated on an open source IoT hardware setup. This list shows the identified passive and active risks evaluated in the research. Passive Risks: (1) Hardware failures- Critical Systems relying on high rate data and data quality are growing; SCADA systems for infrastructure are good examples of such systems. (2) Hardware delivers erroneous data- Sensors break, and when they do so, they don’t always go silent; they can keep going, just that the data they deliver is garbage, and if that data is not filtered out, it becomes disruptive noise in the system. (3) Bad Hardware injection- Erroneous generated sensor data can be pumped into a system by malicious actors with the intent to create disruptive noise in critical systems. (4) Data gravity- The weight of the data collected will affect Data-Mobility. (5) Cost inhibitors- Running services that need huge centralized computing is cost inhibiting. Large complex AI can be extremely expensive to run. Active Risks: Denial of Service- It is one of the most simple attacks, where an attacker just overloads the system with bogus requests so that valid requests disappear in the noise. Malware- Malware can be anything from simple viruses to complex botnets created with specific goals, where the creator is stealing computer power and bandwidth from you to attack someone else. Ransomware- It is a kind of malware, but it is so different in its implementation that it is worth its own mention. The goal with these pieces of software is to encrypt your system so that it can only be unlocked with a key that is held for ransom. DNS spoofing- By spoofing DNS calls, valid requests and data dumps can be sent to bad destinations, where the data can be extracted for extortion or to corrupt and re-inject into a running system creating a data echo noise loop. After testing multiple potential solutions. We found that the most prominent solution to these risks was to use a Peer 2 Peer consensus algorithm over a blockchain to validate the data and behavior of the devices (sensors, storage, and computing) in the system. By the devices autonomously policing themselves for deviant behavior, all risks listed above can be negated. In conclusion, an Internet middleware that provides these features would be an easy and secure solution to any future autonomous IoT deployments. As it provides separation from the open Internet, at the same time, it is accessible over the blockchain keys.

Keywords: IoT, security, infrastructure, SCADA, blockchain, AI

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Thayalan Nall, Harry Poulos

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Piling is the most widely used foundation method for heavy structures in poor soil conditions. The geotechnical engineer can choose among a variety of piling methods, but in most cases, driving piles by impact hammer is the most cost-effective alternative. Under unfavourable conditions, driving piles can cause environmental problems, such as noise, ground movements and vibrations, with the risk of ground disturbance leading to potential damage to proposed structures. In one of the project sites in which the authors were involved, three offshore container terminals, namely CT1, CT2 and CT3, were constructed over thick compressible marine mud. The seabed was around 6m deep and the soft clay thickness within the project site varied between 9m and 20m. CT2 and CT3 were connected together and rectangular in shape and were 2600mx800m in size. CT1 was 400m x 800m in size and was located on south opposite of CT2 towards its eastern end. CT1 was constructed first and due to time and environmental limitations, it was supported on a “forest” of large diameter driven piles. CT2 and CT3 are now under construction and are being carried out using a traditional dredging and reclamation approach with ground improvement by surcharging with vertical drains. A few months after the installation of the CT1 piles, a 2600m long sand bund to 2m above mean sea level was constructed along the southern perimeter of CT2 and CT3 to contain the dredged mud that was expected to be pumped. The sand bund was constructed by sand spraying and pumping using a dredging vessel. About 2000m length of the sand bund in the west section was constructed without any major stability issues or any noticeable distress. However, as the sand bund approached the section parallel to CT1, it underwent a series of deep seated failures leading the displaced soft clay materials to heave above the standing water level. The crest of the sand bund was about 100m away from the last row of piles. There were no plausible geological reasons to conclude that the marine mud only across the CT1 region was weaker than over the rest of the site. Hence it was suspected that the pile driving by impact hammer may have caused ground movements and vibrations, leading to generation of excess pore pressures and cyclic softening of the marine mud. This paper investigates the probable cause of failure by reviewing: (1) All ground investigation data within the region; (2) Soil displacement caused by pile driving, using theories similar to spherical cavity expansion; (3) Transfer of stresses and vibrations through the entire system, including vibrations transmitted from the hammer to the pile, and the dynamic properties of the soil; and (4) Generation of excess pore pressure due to ground vibration and resulting cyclic softening. The evidence suggests that the problems encountered at the site were primarily caused by the “side effects” of the pile driving operations.

Keywords: pile driving, ground vibration, excess pore pressure, cyclic softening

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Stehr Melanie

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The availability of apposite information is essential for the decision-making process of organizational buyers. Due to the constraints of the Covid-19 crisis, information channels that emphasize face-to-face contact (e.g. sales visits, trade shows) have been unavailable, and usage of digitally-driven information channels (e.g. videoconferencing, platforms) has skyrocketed. This paper explores the question in which areas the pandemic induced shift in the use of information channels could be sustainable and in which areas it is a temporary phenomenon. While information and buying behavior in B2C purchases has been regularly studied in the last decade, the last fundamental model of organizational buying behavior in B2B was introduced by Johnston and Lewin (1996) in times before the advent of the internet. Subsequently, research efforts in B2B marketing shifted from organizational buyers and their decision and information behavior to the business relationships between sellers and buyers. This study builds on the extensive literature on situational factors influencing organizational buying and information behavior and uses the economics of information theory as a theoretical framework. The research focuses on the German woodworking industry, which before the Covid-19 crisis was characterized by a rather low level of digitization of information channels. By focusing on an industry with traditional communication structures, a shift in information behavior induced by an exogenous shock is considered a ripe research setting. The study is exploratory in nature. The primary data source is 40 in-depth interviews based on the repertory-grid method. Thus, 120 typical buying situations in the woodworking industry and the information and channels relevant to them are identified. The results are combined into clusters, each of which shows similar information behavior in the procurement process. In the next step, the clusters are analyzed in terms of the post and pre-Covid-19 crisis’ behavior identifying stable and dynamic information behavior aspects. Initial results show that, for example, clusters representing search goods with low risk and complexity suggest a sustainable rise in the use of digitally-driven information channels. However, in clusters containing trust goods with high significance and novelty, an increased return to face-to-face information channels can be expected after the Covid-19 crisis. The results are interesting from both a scientific and a practical point of view. This study is one of the first to apply the economics of information theory to organizational buyers and their decision and information behavior in the digital information age. Especially the focus on the dynamic aspects of information behavior after an exogenous shock might contribute new impulses to theoretical debates related to the economics of information theory. For practitioners - especially suppliers’ marketing managers and intermediaries such as publishers or trade show organizers from the woodworking industry - the study shows wide-ranging starting points for a future-oriented segmentation of their marketing program by highlighting the dynamic and stable preferences of elaborated clusters in the choice of their information channels.

Keywords: B2B buying process, crisis, economics of information theory, information channel

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, Oluwatoyosi Abikoye

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Gender-Based Violence has persistently been an enduring epidemic rooted in various homes and cultures worldwide throughout history. Despite numerous multifaceted approaches aiming to eliminate gender disparity by empowering girls with independent, survival, or entrepreneurial skills, positive transformation efforts for boys are often neglected. This gap, particularly in West Africa, hinders the reshaping of generational perceptions of men's roles in eradicating all forms of violence against women, creating an imbalance in providing holistic, sustainable solutions in our society. In response to this, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency established the Kings Club initiative in 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria, aligning with UN SDG 5 on 'gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.' This initiative aims to debunk sociocultural misconceptions, educate on sexual and Gender Violence issues, and promote positive masculinity among schoolboys. The objective is to foster a balance in the behavioral and attitudinal mindsets of young boys, contributing to the success of an equitable society for all in the eradication of gender disparity. The ongoing project demonstrates an annual 89% success rate in behavioral and attitudinal mindset shifts among schoolboys by employing qualitative assessments of participants aged 10–17. The paper uses data from 161 secondary school students drawn from 15 schools in Lagos State Education District 6, exposed to modules on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health, Masculinity, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Anger Management, and transitioning from boy to man in a 6-week program, with observations and feedback analyses. The paper evaluates changes in attitudes, behaviors, and gender role perceptions among the boys who are now pioneers of the Kings' Club in their respective schools, serving as positive influencers among their peers in schools and at home. The paper's findings provide a nuanced understanding of cultural dynamics shaping male masculinity in West Africa and offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of innovative interventions to end all forms of violence against women. In conclusion, by intentionally reshaping young boys alongside girls, who represent the future, we stand a chance to create culturally sensitive societal norms that bridge the gap of gender inequity and end all forms of violence against women. The paper posits that its outcomes hold research significance, providing targeted interventions in male masculinity in patriarchal societies.

Keywords: cultural dynamics, gender equality, gender-based violence, positive masculinity

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: M. Marín-Ferrer, M. A. Hernández, T. Tollefsen, S. Vanzo, E. Nweke, P. V. Tognoli, M. De Cort

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Under the terms of Article 36 of the Euratom Treaty, European Union Member States (MSs) shall periodically communicate to the European Commission (EC) information on environmental radioactivity levels. Compilations of the information received have been published by the EC as a series of reports beginning in the early 1960s. The environmental radioactivity results received from the MSs have been introduced into the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring database (REMdb) of the Institute for Transuranium Elements of the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) sited in Ispra (Italy) as part of its Directorate General for Energy (DG ENER) support programme. The REMdb brings to the scientific community dealing with environmental radioactivity topics endless of research opportunities to exploit the near 200 millions of records received from MSs containing information of radioactivity levels in milk, water, air and mixed diet. The REM action was created shortly after Chernobyl crisis to support the EC in its responsibilities in providing qualified information to the European Parliament and the MSs on the levels of radioactive contamination of the various compartments of the environment (air, water, soil). Hence, the main line of REM’s activities concerns the improvement of procedures for the collection of environmental radioactivity concentrations for routine and emergency conditions, as well as making this information available to the general public. In this way, REM ensures the availability of tools for the inter-communication and access of users from the Member States and the other European countries to this information. Specific attention is given to further integrate the new MSs with the existing information exchange systems and to assist Candidate Countries in fulfilling these obligations in view of their membership of the EU. Article 36 of the EURATOM treaty requires the competent authorities of each MS to provide regularly the environmental radioactivity monitoring data resulting from their Article 35 obligations to the EC in order to keep EC informed on the levels of radioactivity in the environment (air, water, milk and mixed diet) which could affect population. The REMdb has mainly two objectives: to keep a historical record of the radiological accidents for further scientific study, and to collect the environmental radioactivity data gathered through the national environmental monitoring programs of the MSs to prepare the comprehensive annual monitoring reports (MR). The JRC continues his activity of collecting, assembling, analyzing and providing this information to public and MSs even during emergency situations. In addition, there is a growing concern with the general public about the radioactivity levels in the terrestrial and marine environment, as well about the potential risk of future nuclear accidents. To this context, a clear and transparent communication with the public is needed. EURDEP (European Radiological Data Exchange Platform) is both a standard format for radiological data and a network for the exchange of automatic monitoring data. The latest release of the format is version 2.0, which is in use since the beginning of 2002.

Keywords: environmental radioactivity, Euratom, monitoring report, REMdb

Procedia PDF Downloads 408

Authors: O. R. Razanakoto, L. Temple

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Living in a least developed country, the Malagasy society has a weak capacity to internalize progress, including health concerns. Since the arrival in the fifteenth century of Arabic script, called Sorabe, that was mainly dedicated to the aristocracy, until the colonial era beginning at the end of the nineteenth century and that has popularized the current usual script of the occidental civilization, the upcoming manuscripts that deal with apparent scientific or at least academic issue have been slowly established. So that, the Malagasy communities’ way of life is not well documented yet to allow a precise understanding of the major concerns, reason, and purpose of the existence of the farmers that compose them. A question arises, according to literature, how does Malagasy community that is dominated by agrarian society conceive the conservation of its wellbeing? This study aims to emphasize the scope and the limits of the « One Health » concept or of the Health Integrated Approach (HIA) that evolves at global scale, with regard to the specific context of local Malagasy smallholder farms. It is expected to identify how this society represents linked risks and the mechanisms between human health, animal health, plant health, and ecosystem health within the last 100 years. To do so, the framework to conduct systematic review for agricultural research has been deployed to access available literature. This task has been coupled with the reading of articles that are not indexed by online scientific search engine but that mention part of a history of agriculture and of farmers in Madagascar. This literature review has informed the interactions between human illnesses and those affecting animals and plants (breeded or wild) with any unexpected event (ecological or economic) that has modified the equilibrium of the ecosystem, or that has disturbed the livelihoods of agrarian communities. Besides, drivers that may either accentuate or attenuate the devasting effects of these illnesses and changes were revealed. The study has established that the reasons of human worries are not only physiological. Among the factors that regulate global health, food system and contemporary medicine have helped to the improvement of life expectancy from 55 to 63 years in Madagascar during the last 50 years. However, threats to global health are still occurring. New human or animal illnesses and livestock / plant pathology or enemies may also appear, whereas ancient illnesses that are supposed to have disappeared may be back. This study has highlighted how much important are the risks associated to the impact of unmanaged externalities that weaken community’s life. Many risks, and also solutions, come from abroad and have long term effects even though those happen as punctual event. Thus, a constructivist strategy is suggested to the « One Health » global concept throughout the record of local facts. This approach should facilitate the exploration of methodological pathways and the identification of relevant indicators for research related to HIA.

Keywords: agrarian system, health integrated approach, history, madagascar, resilience, risk

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Ebenezer Joseph

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Chess is a useful tool to enhance general and specific cognitive functioning in children. The present study aims to assess the impact of chess on cognitive in children and to measure the differential impact of socio-demographic factors like age and gender of the child on the effectiveness of the chess intervention.This research study used an experimental design to study the impact of the Training in Chess on the intelligence of children. The Pre-test Post-test Control Group Design was utilized. The research design involved two groups of children: an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group consisted of children who participated in the one-year Chess Training Intervention, while the control group participated in extra-curricular activities in school. The main independent variable was training in chess. Other independent variables were gender and age of the child. The dependent variable was the cognitive functioning of the child (as measured by IQ, working memory index, processing speed index, perceptual reasoning index, verbal comprehension index, numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, social intelligence, language, conceptual thinking, memory, visual motor and creativity). The sample consisted of 200 children studying in Government and Private schools. Random sampling was utilized. The sample included both boys and girls falling in the age range 6 to 16 years. The experimental group consisted of 100 children (50 from Government schools and 50 from Private schools) with an equal representation of boys and girls. The control group similarly consisted of 100 children. The dependent variables were assessed using Binet-Kamat Test of Intelligence, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - IV (India) and Wallach Kogan Creativity Test. The training methodology comprised Winning Moves Chess Learning Program - Episodes 1–22, lectures with the demonstration board, on-the-board playing and training, chess exercise through workbooks (Chess school 1A, Chess school 2, and tactics) and working with chess software. Further students games were mapped using chess software and the brain patterns of the child were understood. They were taught the ideas behind chess openings and exposure to classical games were also given. The children participated in mock as well as regular tournaments. Preliminary analysis carried out using independent t tests with 50 children indicates that chess training has led to significant increases in the intelligent quotient. Children in the experimental group have shown significant increases in composite scores like working memory and perceptual reasoning. Chess training has significantly enhanced the total creativity scores, line drawing and pattern meaning subscale scores. Systematically learning chess as part of school activities appears to have a broad spectrum of positive outcomes.

Keywords: chess, intelligence, creativity, children

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Mojtaba Eshraghi Arani

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Concluding the contract for carriage of cargo with the shipper (through bill of lading or charterparty), the carrier must transport the cargo from loading port to the port of discharge and deliver it to the consignee. Unless otherwise agreed in the contract, the carrier must avoid from any deviation, transfer of cargo to another vessel or unreasonable stoppage of carriage in-transit. However, the vessel might break down in-transit for any reason and becomes unable to continue its voyage to the port of discharge. This is a frequent incident in the carriage of goods by sea which leads to important dispute between the carrier/owner and the shipper/charterer (hereinafter called “cargo interests”). It is a generally accepted rule that in such event, the carrier/owner must repair the vessel after which it will continue its voyage to the destination port. The dispute will arise in the case that temporary repair of the vessel cannot be done in the short or reasonable term. There are two options for the contract parties in such a case: First, the carrier/owner is entitled to repair the vessel while having the cargo onboard or discharged in the port of refugee, and the cargo interests must wait till the breakdown is rectified at any time, whenever. Second, the carrier/owner will be responsible to charter another vessel and transfer the entirety of cargo to the substitute vessel. In fact, the main question revolves around the duty of carrier/owner to perform transfer of cargo to another vessel. Such operation which is called “trans-shipment” or “transhipment” (in terms of the oil industry it is usually called “ship-to-ship” or “STS”) needs to be done carefully and with due diligence. In fact, the transshipment operation for various cargoes might be different as each cargo requires its own suitable equipment for transfer to another vessel, so this operation is often costly. Moreover, there is a considerable risk of collision between two vessels in particular in bulk carriers. Bulk cargo is also exposed to the shortage and partial loss in the process of transshipment especially during bad weather. Concerning tankers which carry oil and petrochemical products, transshipment, is most probably followed by sea pollution. On the grounds of the above consequences, the owners are afraid of being held responsible for such operation and are reluctant to perform in the relevant disputes. The main argument raised by them is that no regulation has recognized such duty upon their shoulders so any such operation must be done under the auspices of the cargo interests and all costs must be reimbursed by themselves. Unfortunately, not only the international conventions including Hague rules, Hague-Visby Rules, Hamburg rules and Rotterdam rules but also most domestic laws are silent in this regard. The doctrine has yet to analyse the issue and no legal researches was found out in this regard. A qualitative method with the concept of interpretation of data collection has been used in this paper. The source of the data is the analysis of regulations and cases. It is argued in this article that the paramount rule in the maritime law is “the accomplishment of the voyage” by the carrier/owner in view of which, if the voyage can only be finished by transshipment, then the carrier/owner will be responsible to carry out this operation. The duty of carrier/owner to apply “due diligence” will strengthen this reasoning. Any and all costs and expenses will also be on the account pf the owner/carrier, unless the incident is attributable to any cause arising from the cargo interests’ negligence.

Keywords: cargo, STS, transshipment, vessel, voyage

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Authors: Bassma A. Abdelhaleem, Mamdouh A. Abdulrhman, Nagwa I. Mohamed

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Malnutrition in children is an increasing problem worldwide which may result in both short and long-term irreversible negative health outcomes. Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) affects more than 18 million children each year, mostly living in low-income settings. SAM contributes to 45% of all deaths in children less than five years of age. Honey is a natural sweetener, containing mainly monosaccharides (up to 80%), disaccharides (3–5%), water (17–20%), and a wide range of minor constituents such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, and phytochemicals, mainly phenolic acids, and flavonoids. Honey has been used in many cultures around the world due to its known nutritional and medicinal benefits including the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Despite its use since ancient times yet little is known about its potential benefits for malnourished children. Honey has the potential to be an affordable solution for malnourished low-income children as it is nutrient-dense and calorie dense food, easily absorbed, highly palatable, enhances appetite, and boosts immunity. This study assessed the effect of clover honey supplementation on the anthropometric measurements and lipid profile of malnourished infants and children. A prospective interventional clinical trial was conducted between November 2019 to November 2020, on 40 malnourished infants and children divided into two groups: Group A (20 children; 11 males and 9 females) received honey in a dose of 1.75ml/kg/dose, twice weekly for 12 weeks and Group B (20 children; 6 males and 14 females) received placebo. Written informed consent was obtained for parents/guardians. Patients were recruited from the Pediatric Nutrition Clinic at Ain Shams University. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, body mass index, head circumference, and mid-arm circumference) and fasting serum cholesterol levels were measured at baseline and after 3 months. The 3-month honey consumption had a statistically highly significant effect on increasing weight, height, and body mass index and lowering fasting serum cholesterol levels in primary malnourished infants and children. Weight, height, body mass index, and fasting serum cholesterol level before honey consumption were (9.49 ± 2.03, 81.45 ± 8.31, 14.24 ± 2.15, 178.00 ± 20.91) and after 3 months of honey consumption were (10.91 ± 2.11, 84.80 ± 8.23, 15.07 ± 2.05, 162.45 ± 19.73) respectively with P-value < 0.01. Our results showed a significant desirable effect of honey consumption on changes in nutritional status based on weight, height, and body mass index, and has a favourable effect on lowering fasting serum cholesterol levels. These results propose the use of honey as an affordable solution to improve malnutrition, particularly in low-income countries. However, further research needs to weigh benefits against potential harms including the risk of botulinum toxin that is historically associated with honey consumption in early childhood.

Keywords: clinical trial, dyslipidemia, honey, malnutrition

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Authors: Ripudaman S. Minhas, Pardeep K. Benipal, Aisha K. Yousafzai

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Background: Children of refugee or asylum-seeking background have multiple, complex needs (e.g. trauma, mental health concerns, separation, relocation, poverty, etc.) that places them at an increased risk for developing learning problems. Families encounter challenges accessing support during resettlement, preventing children from achieving their full developmental potential. There are very few studies in literature that examine the unique parenting challenges refugee families’ face. Providing appropriate support services and educational resources that address these distinctive concerns of refugee parents, will alleviate these challenges allowing for a better developmental outcome for children. Objective: To identify the characteristics of effective parenting interventions that address the unique needs of refugee families. Methods: English-language articles published from 1997 onwards were included if they described or evaluated programmes or interventions for parents of refugee or asylum-seeking background, globally. Data were extracted and analyzed according to Arksey and O’Malley’s descriptive analysis model for scoping reviews. Results: Seven studies met criteria and were included, primarily studying families settled in high-income countries. Refugee parents identified parenting to be a major concern, citing they experienced: alienation/unwelcoming services, language barriers, and lack of familiarity with school and early years services. Services that focused on building the resilience of parents, parent education, or provided services in the family’s native language, and offered families safe spaces to promote parent-child interactions were most successful. Home-visit and family-centered programs showed particular success, minimizing barriers such as transportation and inflexible work schedules, while allowing caregivers to receive feedback from facilitators. The vast majority of studies evaluated programs implementing existing curricula and frameworks. Interventions were designed in a prescriptive manner, without direct participation by family members and not directly addressing accessibility barriers. The studies also did not employ evaluation measures of parenting practices or the caregiving environment, or child development outcomes, primarily focusing on parental perceptions. Conclusion: There is scarce literature describing parenting interventions for refugee families. Successful interventions focused on building parenting resilience and capacity in their native language. To date, there are no studies that employ a participatory approach to program design to tailor content or accessibility, and few that employ parenting, developmental, behavioural, or environmental outcome measures.

Keywords: asylum-seekers, developmental pediatrics, parenting interventions, refugee families

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Nurgul A. Abenova, Gaukhar S. Dilmagambetova, Lazzat M. Zhamaliyeva

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Professionalism is a core competency that all medical students must achieve throughout their studies. Clinical knowledge, good communication skills and an understanding of ethics form the basis of professionalism. Patients, medical societies and accrediting organizations expect future specialists to be professionals in their field, which in turn leads to the best clinical results. Currently, there are no studies devoted to the study of medical professionalism in the Republic of Kazakhstan. As a result, medical education in the Kazakhstani system has a limited perception of the concept of professionalism compared to many Western medical schools. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of medical professionalism among residents and teachers of family medicine at the West Kazakhstan Marat Ospanov Medical University. А qualitative research method was used based on the content analysis methodology. A focus group discussion was held with 60 residents and 12 family medicine teachers to gather participants' views and experiences in the field of medical professionalism. The received information was processed using the MAXQDA-2020 software package. Respondents were selected for the study based on their age, gender, and educational level. The results of the conducted survey confirmed the respondents’ acknowledgment of the basic attributes of professionalism, such as medical knowledge and skills (more than 40% of the answers), personal and moral qualities of the doctor (more than 25% of the answers), respect for the interests of the patient (15% of the answers), the relationship between the doctor and the patient and among professionals themselves (15% of responses). Another important discovery of the survey was that residents are five times more likely to define the relationship between a doctor and a patient in a model “respect for the interests of the patient” in comparison with teachers of family medicine, who primarily reported responsibility and collegiality to be the basis for the development of professionalism and traditionally view doctor-patient relationship to be formed on the basis of paternalism defined by a high degree of control over patients. This significant difference demonstrates a rift among specialists in the field of family medicine, which causes a lot of problems. For example, nowadays, professional family doctors regularly face burnout problem due to many reasons and factors that force them to abandon their jobs. In addition to that, elements of professionalism such as reflective skills, time management and feedback collection were presented to the least extent (less than 1%) by both groups, which differs from the perception of the Western medical school and is a significant issue that needs to be solved. The qualitative nature of our study provides a detailed understanding of medical professionalism in the context of the Central Asian healthcare system, revealing many aspects that are inferior to the Western medical school counterparts and provides a solution, which is to teach the attributes and skills required for medical professionalism at all stages of medical education of family doctors.

Keywords: family medicine, family doctors, medical professionalism, medical education

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Yildiz Stella Dak, Jale Tezcan

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Ground motion models that relate a strong motion parameter of interest to a set of predictive seismological variables describing the earthquake source, the propagation path of the seismic wave, and the local site conditions constitute a critical component of seismic hazard analyses. When a sufficient number of strong motion records are available, ground motion relations are developed using statistical analysis of the recorded ground motion data. In regions lacking a sufficient number of recordings, a synthetic database is developed using stochastic, theoretical or hybrid approaches. Regardless of the manner the database was developed, ground motion relations are developed using regression analysis. Development of a ground motion relation is a challenging process which inevitably requires the modeler to make subjective decisions regarding the inclusion criteria of the recordings, the functional form of the model and the set of seismological variables to be included in the model. Because these decisions are critically important to the validity and the applicability of the model, there is a continuous interest on procedures that will facilitate the development of ground motion models. This paper proposes the use of the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) in selecting the set predictive seismological variables to be used in developing a ground motion relation. The LASSO can be described as a penalized regression technique with a built-in capability of variable selection. Similar to the ridge regression, the LASSO is based on the idea of shrinking the regression coefficients to reduce the variance of the model. Unlike ridge regression, where the coefficients are shrunk but never set equal to zero, the LASSO sets some of the coefficients exactly to zero, effectively performing variable selection. Given a set of candidate input variables and the output variable of interest, LASSO allows ranking the input variables in terms of their relative importance, thereby facilitating the selection of the set of variables to be included in the model. Because the risk of overfitting increases as the ratio of the number of predictors to the number of recordings increases, selection of a compact set of variables is important in cases where a small number of recordings are available. In addition, identification of a small set of variables can improve the interpretability of the resulting model, especially when there is a large number of candidate predictors. A practical application of the proposed approach is presented, using more than 600 recordings from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) database, where the effect of a set of seismological predictors on the 5% damped maximum direction spectral acceleration is investigated. The set of candidate predictors considered are Magnitude, Rrup, Vs30. Using LASSO, the relative importance of the candidate predictors has been ranked. Regression models with increasing levels of complexity were constructed using one, two, three, and four best predictors, and the models’ ability to explain the observed variance in the target variable have been compared. The bias-variance trade-off in the context of model selection is discussed.

Keywords: ground motion modeling, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, penalized regression, variable selection

Procedia PDF Downloads 309

Authors: Suang K. Lau, Ismail Goolam, Rafid Al-Asady

Abstract:

Background: The majority of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are not suitable for curative treatment, in the form of surgical resection or transplantation, due to tumour extent and underlying liver dysfunction. In these non-resectable cases, a variety of non-surgical therapies are available, including microwave ablation (MWA), which has shown increasing popularity due to its low morbidity, low reported complication rate, and the ability to perform multiple ablations simultaneously. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of MWA as a viable treatment option in the management of HCC and hepatic metastatic disease, by assessing its efficacy and complication rate at a tertiary hospital situated in Westmead (Australia). Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed evaluating patients that underwent MWA between 1/1/2017–31/12/2018 at Westmead Hospital, NSW, Australia. Outcome measures, including residual disease, recurrence rates, as well as major and minor complication rates, were retrospectively analysed over a 12-months period following MWA treatment. Excluded patients included those whose lesions were treated on the basis of residual or recurrent disease from previous treatment, which occurred prior to the study window (11 patients) and those who were lost to follow up (2 patients). Results: Following treatment of 106 new hepatic lesions, the complete response rate (CR) was 86% (91/106) at 12 months follow up. 10 patients had the residual disease at post-treatment follow up imaging, corresponding to an incomplete response (ICR) rate of 9.4% (10/106). The local recurrence rate (LRR) was 4.6% (5/106) with follow-up period up to 12 months. The minor complication rate was 9.4% (10/106) including asymptomatic pneumothorax (n=2), asymptomatic pleural effusions (n=2), right lower lobe pneumonia (n=3), pain requiring admission (n=1), hypotension (n=1), cellulitis (n=1) and intraparenchymal hematoma (n=1). There was 1 major complication reported, with pleuro-peritoneal fistula causing recurrent large pleural effusion necessitating repeated thoracocentesis (n=1). There was no statistically significant association between tumour size, location or ablation factors, and risk of recurrence or residual disease. A subset analysis identified 6 segment VIII lesions, which were treated via a trans-pleural approach. This cohort demonstrated an overall complication rate of 33% (2/6), including 1 minor complication of asymptomatic pneumothorax and 1 major complication of pleuro-peritoneal fistula. Conclusions: Microwave ablation therapy is an effective and safe treatment option in cases of non-resectable hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases, with good local tumour control and low complication rates. A trans-pleural approach for high segment VIII lesions is associated with a higher complication rate and warrants greater caution.

Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, liver metastases, microwave ablation, trans-pleural approach

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Authors: María Luisa Gonzalez-SanJose, Javier Garcia-Lomillo, Raquel Del Pino, Miriam Ortega-Heras, Maria Dolores Rivero-Perez, Pilar Muñiz-Rodriguez

Abstract:

One of the most preoccupant problems related to the diet of the occidental societies is the high salt intake. In Spain, salt intake is almost twice as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). A lot of negative health effects of high sodium intake have been described being the hypertension, cardiovascular and coronary diseases ones of the most important. Due to this fact, government and other institutions are working on the gradual reduction of this consumption. Intake of meat products have been described as the main processed products that bring salt to the diet, followed by snacks and savory crackers. However, fortunately, the food industry has also raised awareness of this problem and is working intensely, and in recent years attempts to reduce the salt content in processed products, and is developing special lines with low sodium content. It is important to consider that processed food are the main source of sodium in occidental countries. One of the possible strategies to reduce the salt content in food is to find substitutes that can emulate their taste properties without adding much sodium or products that mask or substitute salty sensations with other flavors and aromas. In this sense, multiple products have been proposed and used until now. Potassium salts produce similar salty sensations without bring sodium, however their intake should be also limited, by healthy reasons. Furthermore, some potassium salts shows some better notes. Other alternatives are the use of flavor enhancers, spices, aromatic herbs, sea-plant derivate products, etc. The wine pomace is rich in potassium salts, content organic acid and other flavored substances, therefore it could be an interesting raw material to obtain derived products that could be useful as alternative ‘seasonings’. Considering previous comments, the main aim of this study was to evaluate the possible use of a natural seasoning, made from red wine pomace, in two different foods, crackers and burgers. The seasoning was made in the pilot plant of food technology of the University of Burgos, where the studied crackers and patties were also made. Different members of the University, students, docent and administrative personal, taste the products, and a trained panel evaluated salty intensity. The seasoning in addition to potassium contain significant levels of dietary fiber and phenolic compounds, which also makes it interesting as a functional ingredient. Both burgers and crackers made with the seasoning showed better taste that those without salt. Obviously, they showed lower sodium content than normal formulation, and were richer in potassium, antioxidant and fiber. Then, they showed lower values of the relation Na/K. All these facts are correlated with more ‘healthy’ products especially to that people with hypertension and other coronary dysfunctions.

Keywords: healthy foods, low salt, seasoning, wine pomace

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: A. T. Al-Isawi, P. E. F. Collins

Abstract:

The behaviour of structures exposed to fire after an earthquake is not a new area of engineering research, but there remain a number of areas where further work is required. Such areas relate to the way in which seismic excitation is applied to a structure, taking into account the effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) and the method of analysis, in addition to identifying the excitation load properties. The selection of earthquake data input for use in nonlinear analysis and the method of analysis are still challenging issues. Thus, realistic artificial ground motion input data must be developed to certify that site properties parameters adequately describe the effects of the nonlinear inelastic behaviour of the system and that the characteristics of these parameters are coherent with the characteristics of the target parameters. Conversely, ignoring the significance of some attributes, such as frequency content, soil site properties and earthquake parameters may lead to misleading results, due to the misinterpretation of required input data and the incorrect synthesise of analysis hypothesis. This paper presents a study of the post-earthquake fire (PEF) performance of a multi-storey steel-framed building resting on soft clay, taking into account the effects of the nonlinear inelastic behaviour of the structure and soil, and the soil-structure interaction (SSI). Structures subjected to an earthquake may experience various levels of damage; the geometrical damage, which indicates the change in the initial structure’s geometry due to the residual deformation as a result of plastic behaviour, and the mechanical damage which identifies the degradation of the mechanical properties of the structural elements involved in the plastic range of deformation. Consequently, the structure presumably experiences partial structural damage but is then exposed to fire under its new residual material properties, which may result in building failure caused by a decrease in fire resistance. This scenario would be more complicated if SSI was also considered. Indeed, most earthquake design codes ignore the probability of PEF as well as the effect that SSI has on the behaviour of structures, in order to simplify the analysis procedure. Therefore, the design of structures based on existing codes which neglect the importance of PEF and SSI can create a significant risk of structural failure. In order to examine the criteria for the behaviour of a structure under PEF conditions, a two-dimensional nonlinear elasto-plastic model is developed using ABAQUS software; the effects of SSI are included. Both geometrical and mechanical damages have been taken into account after the earthquake analysis step. For comparison, an identical model is also created, which does not include the effects of soil-structure interaction. It is shown that damage to structural elements is underestimated if SSI is not included in the analysis, and the maximum percentage reduction in fire resistance is detected in the case when SSI is included in the scenario. The results are validated using the literature.

Keywords: Abaqus Software, Finite Element Analysis, post-earthquake fire, seismic analysis, soil-structure interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Tamir Michal

Abstract:

The subject of Bedouin dispersion has accompanied the State of Israel from the day of its establishment. From a legal point of view, this subject has offered a launchpad for creative judicial decisions. Thus, for example, the first court decision in Israel to recognize affirmative action (Avitan), dealt with a petition submitted by a Jew appealing the refusal of the State to recognize the Petitioner’s entitlement to the long-term lease of a plot designated for Bedouins. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, holding that there existed a public interest in assisting Bedouin to establish permanent urban settlements, an interest which justifies giving them preference by selling them plots at subsidized prices. In another case (The Forum for Coexistence in the Negev) the Supreme Court extended equitable relief for the purpose of constructing a bridge, even though the construction infringed the Law, in order to allow the children of dispersed Bedouin to reach school. Against this background, the recent verdict, delivered during the Protective Edge military campaign, which dismissed a petition aimed at forcing the State to spread out Protective Structures in Bedouin villages in the Negev against the risk of being hit from missiles launched from Gaza (Abu Afash) is disappointing. Even if, in arguendo, no selective discrimination was involved in the State’s decision not to provide such protection, the decision, and its affirmation by the Court, is problematic when examined through the prism of the Theory of Recognition. The article analyses the issue by tools of theory of Recognition, according to which people develop their identities through mutual relations of recognition in different fields. In the social context, the path to recognition is cognitive respect, which is provided by means of legal rights. By seeing other participants in Society as bearers of rights and obligations, the individual develops an understanding of his legal condition as reflected in the attitude to others. Consequently, even if the Court’s decision may be justified on strict legal grounds, the fact that Jewish settlements were protected during the military operation, whereas Bedouin villages were not, is a setback in the struggle to make the Bedouin citizens with equal rights in Israeli society. As the Court held, ‘Beyond their protective function, the Migunit [Protective Structures] may make a moral and psychological contribution that should not be undervalued’. This contribution is one that the Bedouin did not receive in the Abu Afash verdict. The basic thesis is that the Court’s verdict analyzed above clearly demonstrates that the reliance on classical liberal instruments (e.g., equality) cannot secure full appreciation of all aspects of Bedouin life, and hence it can in fact prejudice them. Therefore, elements of the recognition theory should be added, in order to find the channel for cognitive dignity, thereby advancing the Bedouins’ ability to perceive themselves as equal human beings in the Israeli society.

Keywords: bedouin dispersion, cognitive respect, recognition theory, sustainable development

Procedia PDF Downloads 331