Search results for: global optimization problems

Authors: Mercedes Bertotto, Marcelo Bello, Hector Goicoechea, Veronica Fusca

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The National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality (SENASA), controls honey to detect contamination by synthetic or natural chemical substances and establishes and controls the traceability of the product. The utility of near-infrared spectroscopy for the detection of adulteration of honey with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was investigated. First of all, a mixture of different authentic artisanal Argentinian honey was prepared to cover as much heterogeneity as possible. Then, mixtures were prepared by adding different concentrations of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to samples of the honey pool. 237 samples were used, 108 of them were authentic honey and 129 samples corresponded to honey adulterated with HFCS between 1 and 10%. They were stored unrefrigerated from time of production until scanning and were not filtered after receipt in the laboratory. Immediately prior to spectral collection, honey was incubated at 40°C overnight to dissolve any crystalline material, manually stirred to achieve homogeneity and adjusted to a standard solids content (70° Brix) with distilled water. Adulterant solutions were also adjusted to 70° Brix. Samples were measured by NIR spectroscopy in the range of 650 to 7000 cm⁻¹. The technique of specular reflectance was used, with a lens aperture range of 150 mm. Pretreatment of the spectra was performed by Standard Normal Variate (SNV). The ant colony optimization genetic algorithm sample selection (ACOGASS) graphical interface was used, using MATLAB version 5.3, to select the variables with the greatest discriminating power. The data set was divided into a validation set and a calibration set, using the Kennard-Stone (KS) algorithm. A combined method of Potential Functions (PF) was chosen together with Partial Least Square Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Different estimators of the predictive capacity of the model were compared, which were obtained using a decreasing number of groups, which implies more demanding validation conditions. The optimal number of latent variables was selected as the number associated with the minimum error and the smallest number of unassigned samples. Once the optimal number of latent variables was defined, we proceeded to apply the model to the training samples. With the calibrated model for the training samples, we proceeded to study the validation samples. The calibrated model that combines the potential function methods and PLSDA can be considered reliable and stable since its performance in future samples is expected to be comparable to that achieved for the training samples. By use of Potential Functions (PF) and Partial Least Square Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) classification, authentic honey and honey adulterated with HFCS could be identified with a correct classification rate of 97.9%. The results showed that NIR in combination with the PT and PLS-DS methods can be a simple, fast and low-cost technique for the detection of HFCS in honey with high sensitivity and power of discrimination.

Keywords: adulteration, multivariate analysis, potential functions, regression

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Authors: Mary A. Bisi-Johnson, Kehinde A. Adediran, Saheed A. Akinola, Hamzat A. Oyelade

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Some of the main problems man contends with are the quantity (source and amount) and quality of water in Nigeria. Scarcity leads to water being obtained from various sources and microbiological contaminations of the water may thus occur between the collection point and the point of usage. Thus, this study aims to assess the general and microbiological quality of domestic water sources and household stored water used within selected areas in Ile-Ife, South-Western part of Nigeria for microbial contaminants. Physicochemical and microbiological examination were carried out on 45 source and stored water samples collected from well and spring in three different local government areas i.e. Ife east, Ife-south, and Ife-north. Physicochemical analysis included pH value, temperature, total dissolved solid, dissolved oxygen, and biochemical oxygen demand. Microbiology involved most probable number analysis, total coliform, heterotrophic plate, faecal coliform, and streptococcus count. The result of the physicochemical analysis of samples showed anomalies compared to acceptable standards with the pH value of 7.20-8.60 for stored and 6.50-7.80 for source samples as the total dissolved solids (TDS of stored 20-70mg/L, source 352-691mg/L), dissolved oxygen (DO of stored 1.60-9.60mg/L, source 1.60-4.80mg/L), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD stored 0.80-3.60mg/L, source 0.60-5.40mg/L). General microbiological quality indicated that both stored and source samples with the exception of a sample were not within acceptable range as indicated by analysis of the MPN/100ml which ranges (stored 290-1100mg/L, source 9-1100mg/L). Apart from high counts, most samples did not meet the World Health Organization standard for drinking water with the presence of some pathogenic bacteria and fungi such as Salmonella and Aspergillus spp. To annul these constraints, standard treatment methods should be adopted to make water free from contaminants. This will help identify common and likely water related infection origin within the communities and thus help guide in terms of interventions required to prevent the general populace from such infections.

Keywords: domestic, microbiology, physicochemical, quality, water

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Authors: Jawaher Bakheet Almudarra

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An Educational Supervisor assists teachers to develop their competence and skills in teaching, solving educational problems, and to improve the teaching methods to suit the educational process. They evaluate their teachers and write reports based on their assessments. In 1957, the Saudi Ministry of Education instituted Educational Supervision to facilitate effective management of schools, however, there have been concerns that the Educational Supervision has not been effective in executing its mandate. Studies depicted that Educational supervision has not been effective because it has been marred by poor and autocratic leadership practices such as stringent inspection, commanding and judging. Therefore, there is need to consider some of the ways in which school outcomes can be enhanced through the improvement of Educational supervision practices. Emotional intelligence is a relatively new concept that can be integrated into the Saudi education system that is yet to be examined in-depth and embraced particularly in the realm of educational leadership. Its recognition and adoption may improve leadership practices among Educational supervisors. This study employed a qualitative interpretive approach that will focus on decoding, describing and interpreting the connection between emotional intelligence and leadership. The study also took into account the social constructions that include consciousness, language and shared meanings. The data collection took place in the Office of Educational Supervisors in Riyadh and involved 4 Educational supervisors and 20 teachers from both genders- male and female. The data collection process encompasses three methods namely; qualitative emotional intelligence self-assessment questionnaires, reflective semi-structured interviews, and open workshops. The questionnaires would explore whether the Educational supervisors understand the meaning of emotional intelligence and its significance in enhancing the quality of education system in Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, reflective semi-structured interviews were carried out with the Educational supervisors to explore the connection between their leadership styles and the way they conceptualise their emotionality. The open workshops will include discussions on emotional aspects of Educational supervisors’ practices and how Educational supervisors make use of the emotional intelligence discourse in their leadership and supervisory relationships.

Keywords: directors of educational supervision, emotional intelligence, educational leadership, education management

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Authors: Anita Chhatwal

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and investigate the scope of usage of Academic Social Networking Websites (ASNs) by the Science faculty members across universities of North India, viz. Panjab University, Punjabi University and University of Delhi, Delhi. Design/Methodology/Approach: The present study is based upon the primary data collected from 81 science faculty participants from three universities of North India. Questionnaire method was used as an instrument for survey. The study is descriptive and research-based to investigate the popular ASNs amongst the participants from three sample universities and the purpose for which they use them along with the problems they encounter while using ASNs. Findings: The findings of the study revealed that majority of the participants were using ASNs for their academic needs. It was observed that majority of the participants (78%) used ASNs to access scientific papers, while 73.8% of the participants used them to share their research publications. ResearchGate (60.5%) and Google Scholar (59.7%) were the top two most preferred and widely used ASNs by the participants. The critical analysis of the data shows that laptops (86.3%) emerged as major tools for accessing ASNs. Shortage of computers was found to be the chief obstacle in accessing ASNs by the participants. Results of the study demonstrate that 56.3% of participants suggested conduct of seminars and training as the most effective method to increase the awareness of ASNs. Research Limitations/Implications: The study in hand absorbed the 81 faculty (Assistant Professors) members from 15 Science teaching departments across three sample universities of North India. The findings of this study will help the Government of India to regulate and simultaneously make effort to develop and enhance ASNs usage among faculty, researchers, and students. The present study will add to the existing library and information science literature and will be advantageous for all the information professionals as well. Originality/Value: This study is original survey based on primary data investigate the usage of ASNs by the academia. This study will be useful for research scholars, academicians and students all over the world.

Keywords: academic social networks, awareness and usage, North India, scholarly communication, web 2.0

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Authors: Dhananjay W. Bansod, Santosh Phad

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Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) are major contributing factors to the disease burden in the world as well as in India. With a growing proportion of older persons in India gives rise to several challenges. With the advancement of age, elderly is exposed to various kinds of health problems more specifically NCDs. Therefore, an effort has been made to examine the prevalence of NCDs among older persons and its treatment-seeking behaviour, also it is tried to explore the association between the NCDs and its effect on the overall wellbeing of older persons. Data used from “Building Knowledge Base of Population Ageing Survey” conducted in 2011 in seven states of India. Six chronic diseases used (non-communicable diseases) namely Arthritis, Hypertension, Cataract, Diabetes, Asthma and Heart diseases to understand the issues related to NCDs. Also seen the effect of NCDs on the wellbeing of the elderly, the subjective well-being consists of nine questions from which SUBI score generated for mental health status, which ranges from 9 to 27. This Index indicates that lower the score better is the mental health status. Further, this index modified and generated three categories of Better (9-15), Average (16-20) and Worse (21-27). The reliability analysis is carried out with the coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) of the scale was 0.8884. The result shows that Orthopedic / musculoskeletal ailments involving arthritis, rheumatism and osteoarthritis are the most common type of ailment followed by hypertension. Two-thirds of the elderly reported suffering from at least one chronic ailment. Most chronic illness conditions received some form of treatment and mainly depend on public health facilities. Financial insecurity is the primary obstruction in seeking treatment for most of the chronic ailments which typically require a longer duration of medication and repeated medical consultations, both having significant economic implications. According to SUBI index, only 15 per cent of the elderly are in Better mental health status, and one-third of the elderly are with the worse score. Elderly with the ailments like Cataract, Asthma and Arthritis have worse mental health. It depicts that the burden of disease is more among the elderly and it is directly affecting the overall wellbeing of older persons.

Keywords: NCD, well-being, older person, India

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Authors: Ndagi Salihu

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Corporate governance mechanisms are the control measures for ensuring that all the interests groups are equally represented and management are working towards wealth creation in the interest of all. Therefore, there are many empirical studies during the last three decades on corporate governance and firm performance. However, little is known about the effects of family ownership on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance, especially in the developing economy like Nigeria. This limit our understanding of the unique governance dynamics of family ownership with regards firm performance. This study examined the impact of family ownership on the relationship between governance mechanisms and financial performance of publicly listed companies in Nigeria. The study adopted quantitative research methodology using correlational ex-post factor design and secondary data from annual reports and accounts of a sample of 23 listed companies for a period of 5 years (2014-2018). The explanatory variables are the board size, board composition, board financial expertise, and board audit committee attributes. Financial performance is proxy by Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). Multiple panel regression technique of data analysis was employed in the analysis, and the study found that family ownership has a significant positive effect on the relationships between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance of publicly listed firms in Nigeria. This finding is the same for both the ROA and ROE. However, the findings indicate that board size, board financial expertise, and board audit committee attributes have a significant positive impact on the ROA and ROE of the sample firms after the moderation. Moreover, board composition has significant positive effect on financial performance of the sample listed firms in terms of ROA and ROE. The study concludes that the use of family ownership in the control of firms in Nigeria could improve performance by reducing the opportunistic actions managers as well as agency problems. The study recommends that publicly listed companies in Nigeria should allow significant family ownership of equities and participation in management.

Keywords: profitability, board characteristics, agency theory, stakeholders

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Authors: JungYeon Park, Jooyong Park

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Brainstorming and discussion are widely used around the world as formal techniques of collaborative creative problem solving. This study investigated whether a web-based peer review system would improve collaborative creative problem solving. In order to assess the efficiency of using web-based peer review system before brainstorming and discussion, we conducted a between-group design study for two conditions (a web-based peer review system vs. face-to-face brainstorming only) using two different scenarios. One hundred and twenty participants were divided into teams of four and randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. The participants were given problems for them to solve. The participants in the experimental group first generated ideas independently for 20 minutes and wrote down their ideas. Afterwards, they reviewed the list of ideas of their peers and gave and received feedback for 10 minutes. These activities were performed on-line. The last activity was face-to-face brain-storming and discussion for 30 minutes. In contrast, the control group participated in brainstorming and discussion for 60 minutes. The quantity and the quality of ideas were measured as dependent variables of creative problem solving. Two evaluators rated the quantity and quality of the proposed ideas. Inter-rater agreement rate was good or strong. The results showed that both the average number of unique ideas and the average quality of ideas generated for the experimental condition were significantly higher than those for the control condition in both scenarios. The results of this study support the hypothesis that collaborative creative problem solving is enhanced when individuals write their thoughts individually and review ideas written by peers before face-to-face brainstorming and discussion. The present study provides preliminary evidence that a web-based peer review system can be instrumental in improving creative problem solving for teams. This system also offers an effective means to quantify the contribution of each member in collaborative team activity. We are planning to replicate these results in real-life situations.

Keywords: brainstorming, creative problem solving, peer-review, team efficiency

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Authors: Corina E. Niculaescu, Ivan Sangiorgi, Adrian R. Bell

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been life-changing in many aspects of people’s daily and social lives, but has it also changed attitudes towards investments? This paper explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail investors’ levels of investments in the U.S. during the first COVID-19 wave in summer 2020. This is an unprecedented health crisis, which could lead to changes in investment behavior, including irrational behavior in retail investors. As such, this study aims to inform policymakers of what happened to investment decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can protect retail investors during extreme events like a global health crisis. The study aims to answer two research questions. First, was the level of investments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, why? Second, how were investments affected by retail investors’ personal experience with COVID-19? The research analysis is based on primary survey data collected on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform from a representative sample of U.S. respondents. Responses were collected between the 15th of July and 28th of August 2020 from 1,148 U.S. retail investors who hold mutual fund investments and a savings account. The research explores whether being affected by COVID-19, change in the level of savings, and risk capacity can explain the change in the level of investments by using regression analysis. The dependent variable is changed in investments measured as decrease, no change, and increase. For this reason, the methodology used is ordered probit regression models. The results show that retail investors in the U.S. increased their investments during the first wave of COVID-19, which is unexpected as investors are usually more cautious in crisis times. Moreover, the study finds that those who were affected personally by COVID-19 (e.g., tested positive) were more likely to increase their investments, which is irrational behavior and contradicts expectations. An increase in the level of savings and risk capacity was also associated with increased investments. Overall, the findings show that having personal experience with a health crisis can have an impact on one’s investment decisions as well. Those findings are important for both retail investors and policymakers, especially now that online trading platforms have made trading easily accessible to everyone. There are risks and potential irrational behaviors associated with investment decisions during times of crisis, and it is important that retail investors are aware of them before making financial decisions.

Keywords: COVID-19, financial decision-making, health crisis retail investors, survey

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Authors: Wesley Too, Christine Chesiror

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Hypertension is a public health challenge that globally, with the World Health Organization estimating that by 2025, more than 1.5 billion people would have been diagnosed with it. Kenya’s prevalence of hypertension is estimated at 24.6 percent; however, 55% of the affected have uncontrolled blood pressure, which is worst in some parts of the country with different lifestyle: nomads and migratory communities. Kenyan pastoralists comprise 20% of the nation's population and are constantly on the move for search of water, pasture for their herd, and desertification have driven nomadic populations to the brink, given their unique and dynamic challenges. Nomads face myriad of challenges and barriers towards the management of their health care problems. Nomadic area is predominantly rural, with a low population density and a nomadic population. Health care access and quality are further hampered by poor telecommunications, infrastructure, and security. In Kenya, nomadic communities experience the worst health outcomes, disproportionate health disparities, and inequalities due to unresponsive, culturally sensitive health care system to nomad’s lifestyle and their health care needs. Marsabit covering a surface area of 66,923.1 km2, is the second largest county in Kenya, constituting about 2.3 million people of North-Eastern region, with only 2.3 percent and 1.9 percent of Kenya's total number of doctors and nurses in the country. In Kenya, there are scanty research on hypertension managementin this region and, at best, non-existent study on hypertension among nomads-migratory communities of Northern Kenya. Therefore, the purpose seeks to determine the prevalence of hypertension among nomads and document nomads' practices regarding early detections, management, and levels of control of hypertension in one of the Counties in Kenya with high- hypertensive case load per year. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from multiple sites and health facilities. A total of 260 participants were enrolled into the study. The study is currently ongoing. It is anticipated that by September, we will have initial findings & recommendations to share for conference

Keywords: pastoralists, hypertension, health, kenya

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Authors: Carmel Sofer, Dan Vilenchik, Ron Dotsch, Galia Avidan

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Studies investigating emotional facial expressions typically reveal consensus among observes regarding the meaning of basic expressions, whose number ranges between 6 to 15 emotional states. Given this limited number of discrete expressions, how is it that the human vocabulary of emotional states is so rich? The present study argues that perceivers use sequences of these discrete expressions as the basis for a much richer vocabulary of emotional states. Such mechanisms, in which a relatively small number of basic components is expanded to a much larger number of possible combinations of meanings, exist in other human communications modalities, such as spoken language and music. In these modalities, letters and notes, which serve as basic components of spoken language and music respectively, are temporally linked, resulting in the richness of expressions. In the current study, in each trial participants were presented with sequences of two images containing facial expression in different combinations sampled out of the eight static basic expressions (total 64; 8X8). In each trial, using single word participants were required to judge the 'state of mind' portrayed by the person whose face was presented. Utilizing word embedding methods (Global Vectors for Word Representation), employed in the field of Natural Language Processing, and relying on machine learning computational methods, it was found that the perceived meanings of the sequences of facial expressions were a weighted average of the single expressions comprising them, resulting in 22 new emotional states, in addition to the eight, classic basic expressions. An interaction between the first and the second expression in each sequence indicated that every single facial expression modulated the effect of the other facial expression thus leading to a different interpretation ascribed to the sequence as a whole. These findings suggest that the vocabulary of emotional states conveyed by facial expressions is not restricted to the (small) number of discrete facial expressions. Rather, the vocabulary is rich, as it results from combinations of these expressions. In addition, present research suggests that using word embedding in social perception studies, can be a powerful, accurate and efficient tool, to capture explicit and implicit perceptions and intentions. Acknowledgment: The study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Defense in Israel to GA and CS. CS is also supported by the ABC initiative in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Keywords: Glove, face perception, facial expression perception. , facial expression production, machine learning, word embedding, word2vec

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Authors: A. G. Back

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In the context of global climate change, extreme weather events are increasingly intense and frequent, challenging the adaptability of urban space. In this sense, urban planning is a relevant instrument for addressing, in a systemic manner, various sectoral policies capable of linking the urban agenda to the reduction of social and environmental risks. The Master Plan of the Municipality of Sao Paulo, 2014, presents innovations capable of promoting the transition to sustainability in the urban space. Among such innovations, the following stand out: i) promotion of density in the axes of mass transport involving mixture of commercial, residential, services, and leisure uses (principles related to the compact city); ii) vulnerabilities reduction based on housing policies, including regular sources of funds for social housing and land reservation in urbanized areas; iii) reserve of green areas in the city to create parks and environmental regulations for new buildings focused on reducing the effects of heat island and improving urban drainage. However, long-term implementation involves distributive conflicts and may change in different political, economic, and social contexts over time. Thus, the central objective of this paper is to identify which factors limit or support the implementation of these policies. That is, to map the challenges and interests of converging and/or divergent urban actors in the sustainable urban development agenda and what resources they mobilize to support or limit these actions in the city of Sao Paulo. Recent proposals to amend the urban zoning law undermine the implementation of the Master Plan guidelines. In this context, three interest groups with different views of the city come into dispute: the real estate market, upper middle class neighborhood associations ('not in my backyard' movements), and social housing rights movements. This paper surveys the different interests and visions of these groups taking into account their convergences, or not, with the principles of sustainable urban development. This approach seeks to fill a gap in the international literature on the causes that underpin or hinder the continued implementation of policies aimed at the transition to urban sustainability in the medium and long term.

Keywords: adaptation, ecosystem-based adaptation, interest groups, urban planning, urban transition to sustainability

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Authors: Laura Villamizar, David Wright, Claudia Baena, Marie Foxwell, Maureen O'Callaghan

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Leguminous crops can be self-sufficient for their nitrogen requirements when their roots are nodulated with an effective Rhizobium strain and for this reason seed or soil inoculation is practiced worldwide to ensure nodulation and nitrogen fixation in grain and forage legumes. The most widely used method of applying commercially available inoculants is using peat cultures which are coated onto seeds prior to sowing. In general, rhizobia survive well in peat, but some species die rapidly after inoculation onto seeds. The development of improved formulation methodology is essential to achieve extended persistence of rhizobia on seeds, and improved efficacy. Formulations could be solid or liquid. Most popular solid formulations or delivery systems are: wettable powders (WP), water dispersible granules (WG), and granules (DG). Liquid formulation generally are: suspension concentrates (SC) or emulsifiable concentrates (EC). In New Zealand, R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii strain TA1 has been used as a commercial inoculant for white clover over wide areas for many years. Seeds inoculation is carried out by mixing the seeds with inoculated peat, some adherents and lime, but rhizobial populations on stored seeds decline over several weeks due to a number of factors including desiccation and antibacterial compounds produced by the seeds. In order to develop a more stable and suitable delivery system to incorporate rhizobia in pastures, two strains of R. leguminosarum (TA1 and CC275e) and several formulations and processes were explored (peat granules, self-sticky peat for seed coating, emulsions and a powder containing spray dried microcapsules). Emulsions prepared with fresh broth of strain TA1 were very unstable under storage and after seed inoculation. Formulations where inoculated peat was used as the active ingredient were significantly more stable than those prepared with fresh broth. The strain CC275e was more tolerant to stress conditions generated during formulation and seed storage. Peat granules and peat inoculated seeds using strain CC275e maintained an acceptable loading of 108 CFU/g of granules or 105 CFU/g of seeds respectively, during six months of storage at room temperature. Strain CC275e inoculated on peat was also microencapsulated with a natural biopolymer by spray drying and after optimizing operational conditions, microparticles containing 107 CFU/g and a mean particle size between 10 and 30 micrometers were obtained. Survival of rhizobia during storage of the microcapsules is being assessed. The development of a stable product depends on selecting an active ingredient (microorganism), robust enough to tolerate some adverse conditions generated during formulation, storage, and commercialization and after its use in the field. However, the design and development of an adequate formulation, using compatible ingredients, optimization of the formulation process and selecting the appropriate delivery system, is possibly the best tool to overcome the poor survival of rhizobia and provide farmers with better quality inoculants to use.

Keywords: formulation, Rhizobium leguminosarum, storage stability, white clover

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Authors: Marie Sams, Kate Barnett-Richards, Jacqui Speculand, Gemma Tombs

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Business education in the United Kingdom has seen a number of improvements over the years in moving from delivering traditional chalk and talk lectures to using digital technologies and inviting guest lectures from industry to deliver sessions for students. Engaging topical industry talks to enhance course delivery is generally seen as a positive aspect of enhancing curriculum, however it is acknowledged that perhaps there are better ways in which industry can contribute to the quality of business programmes. Additionally, there is a consensus amongst UK industry managers that a bigger involvement in designing and inputting into business curriculum will have a greater impact on the quality of business ready graduates. Funded by the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University in the UK, a project (SOPI - Student Online Projects with Industry) was initiated to enable students to work in project teams to respond and engage with real problems and challenges faced by five managers in various industries including retail, events and manufacturing. Over a semester, approximately 200 students were given the opportunity to develop their management, facilitation, problem solving and reflective skills, whilst having some exposure to real challenges in industry with a focus on supply chain and project management. Face to face seminars were re-designed to enable students to work on live issues in a competitive environment, and were guided to consider the theoretical aspects of their module delivery to underpin the solutions that they were generating. Dialogue between student groups and managers took place using Google+ community; an online social media tool which enables private discussions to take place and can be accessed on mobile devices. Results of the project will be shared in how this development has added value to students experience and understanding of the two subject areas. Student reflections will be analysed and evaluated to assess how the project has contributed to their perception of how the theoretical nature of these two business subjects are applied in practical situations.

Keywords: business, education, industry, projects

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Authors: Amirul Adlan, Robert McCulloch, Scott Evans, Michael Parry, Jonathan Stevenson, Lee Jeys

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Background and Objectives: The gastrocnemius myofascial flap is used to manage soft-tissue defects over the anterior aspect of the knee in the context of a patient presenting with a sinus and periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) or extensor mechanism failure. The aim of this study was twofold: firstly, to evaluate the outcomes of gastrocnemius flaps performed by appropriately trained orthopaedic surgeons in the context of PJI and, secondly, to evaluate the infection-free survival of this patient group. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 30 patients who underwent gastrocnemius flap reconstruction during staged revision total knee arthroplasty for prosthetic joint infection (PJI). All flaps were performed by an orthopaedic surgeon with orthoplastics training. Patients had a mean age of 68.9 years (range 50–84) and were followed up for a mean of 50.4 months (range 2–128 months). A total of 29 patients (97 %) were categorized into Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) local extremity grade 3 (greater than two compromising factors), and 52 % of PJIs were polymicrobial. The primary outcome measure was flap failure, and the secondary outcome measure was a recurrent infection. Results: Flap survival was 100% with no failures or early returns to theatre for flap problems such as necrosis or haematoma. Overall infection-free survival during the study period was 48% (13 of 27 infected cases). Using limb salvage as the outcome, 77% (23 of 30 patients) retained the limb. Infection recurrence occurred in 48% (10 patients) in the type B3 cohort and 67% (4 patients) in the type C3 cohort (p = 0.65). Conclusion: The surgical technique for a gastrocnemius myofascial flap is reliable and reproducible when performed by appropriately trained orthopaedic surgeons, even in high-risk groups. However, the risks of recurrent infection and amputation remain high within our series due to poor host and extremity factors.

Keywords: gastrocnemius flap, limb salvage, revision arthroplasty, outcomes

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Authors: Lucero Gonzalez, Salvador Alfaro

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are considered as the compounds with higher abundance among the greenhouse gases (CO2, NOx, SOx, CxHx, etc.), due to its higher concentration, this two gases have a greater impact in the environment pollution and provokes global warming. So, recovery, disposal and subsequent reuse, are of great interest, especially from the ecological and health perspective. By one hand, porous inorganic materials are good candidates to capture gases, because these type of materials are higher stability from the point view of thermal, chemical and mechanical under adsorption gas processes. By another hand, during the design and the synthetic preparation of the porous materials is possible add other intrinsic properties (physicochemical and structural) by adding chemical compounds as dopants or using structured directed agents or surfactants to improve the porous structure, the above features allow to have alternative materials for separation, capture and storage of greenhouse gases. In this work, ordered mesoporous materials base silica were prepared using Surfynol as surfactant. The surfactant micelles are commonly used as self-assembly templates for the development of new structure porous silica’s, adding a variety of textures and structures. By another hand, the Surfynol is a commercial surfactant, is non-ionic, for that is necessary determine its critical micelles concentration (cmc) by the pyrene I1/I3 ratio method, before to prepare silica particles. One time known the CMC, a precursor gel was prepared via sol-gel process at room temperature using TEOS as silica precursor, NH4OH as catalyst, Surfynol as template and H2O as solvent. Then, the gel precursor was treatment hydrothermally in a Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave with a volume of 100 mL and kept at 100 ºC for 24 h under static conditions in a convection oven. After that, the porous silica particles obtained were impregnated with lithium to improve the CO2 adsorption capacity. Then the silica particles were characterized physicochemical, morphology and structurally, by XRD, FTIR, BET and SEM techniques. The thermal stability and the CO2 adsorption capacity was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). According the results, we found that the Surfynol is a good candidate to prepare silica particles with an ordered structure. Also the TGA analysis shown that the particles has a good thermal stability in the range of 250 °C and 800 °C. The best materials had, the capacity to adsorbing 70 and 90 mg per gram of silica particles and its CO2 adsorption capacity depends on the way to thermal pretreatment of the porous silica before of the adsorption experiments and of the concentration of surfactant used during the synthesis of silica particles. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by SIP-IPN through project SIP-20161862.

Keywords: CO2 adsorption, lithium as dopant, porous silica, surfynol as surfactant, thermogravimetric analysis

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Authors: Wang Shuai, Su Rong, K. J.Tseng, V. Viswanathan, S. Ramakrishna

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The More-Electric-Aircraft concept in aircraft industry levies an increasing demand on the embedded starter/generators (ESG). The high-speed and high-temperature environment within an engine poses great challenges to the operation of such machines. In view of such challenges, squirrel cage induction machines (SCIM) have shown advantages due to its simple rotor structure, absence of temperature-sensitive components as well as low torque ripples etc. The tight operation constraints arising from typical ESG applications together with the detailed operation principles of SCIMs have been exploited to derive the mathematical interpretation of the ESG-SCIM design process. The resultant non-linear mathematical treatment yielded unique solution to the SCIM design problem for each configuration of pole pair number p, slots/pole/phase q and conductors/slot zq, easily implemented via loop patterns. It was also found that not all configurations led to feasible solutions and corresponding observations have been elaborated. The developed mathematical procedures also proved an effective framework for optimization among electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical aspects by allocating corresponding degree-of-freedom variables. Detailed 3D FEM analysis has been conducted to validate the resultant machine performance against design specifications. To obtain higher power ratings, electrical machines often have to increase the slot areas for accommodating more windings. Since the available space for embedding such machines inside an engine is usually short in length, axial air gap arrangement appears more appealing compared to its radial gap counterpart. The aforementioned approach has been adopted in case studies of designing series of AFIMs and RFIMs respectively with increasing power ratings. Following observations have been obtained. Under the strict rotor diameter limitation AFIM extended axially for the increased slot areas while RFIM expanded radially with the same axial length. Beyond certain power ratings AFIM led to long cylinder geometry while RFIM topology resulted in the desired short disk shape. Besides the different dimension growth patterns, AFIMs and RFIMs also exhibited dissimilar performance degradations regarding power factor, torque ripples as well as rated slip along with increased power ratings. Parametric response curves were plotted to better illustrate the above influences from increased power ratings. The case studies may provide a basic guideline that could assist potential users in making decisions between AFIM and RFIM for relevant applications.

Keywords: axial flux induction machine, electrical starter/generator, finite element analysis, squirrel cage induction machine

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Authors: Dragos Dragomir-Stanciu, Leon Marsh

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Background As a response to the gaps identified in recent research in the provision of residential care to address co-occurring health needs, including mental health problems and complexities Gamble Aware has facilitated the possibility to provide a new service which would extend the NGTS provision of residential rehabilitation for gambling disorder with complex and co-morbid presentation. Gordon Moody, together with Adferiad have been successful in securing the tender for this service and this presentation aims to introduce FOLD, the resulting model of treatment developed for the delivery of the service. Setting As a partnership, we have come together to coproduce a model which allows us to share our clinical and industry knowledge and build on our reputations as trusted treatment providers. The presentation will outline our expertise share in development of a unified approach to recovery-oriented models of care, clinical governance, risk assessment and management and aftercare and continuous recovery. We will also introduce our innovative specialist referral portal which will offer referring partners the ability to include the service user in planning their own recovery journey. Outcomes Our collaboration has resulted in the development of the FOLD model which includes three agile and flexible treatment packages aimed at offering the most enhanced and comprehensive treatment in UK, to date, for those most affected by gambling harm. The paper will offer insight into each treatment package and all recovery model stages involved, as well as into the partnership work with NGST providers, local mental health and social care providers and lived experience organisation that will enable us to offer support to more 100 people a year who would otherwise get “lost in the system”. Conclusion FOLD offers a great opportunity to develop, implement and evaluate a new, much needed, whole-person and whole-system approach to counter gambling related harms.

Keywords: gambling treatment, partnership working, integrated care pathways, NGTS, complex needs

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Authors: Nebiyou Masebo

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The severities of land degradation in southern Ethiopia has been increasing due to high population density, replacement of an age-old agroforestry (AF) based agricultural system with monocropping. The consequences of these activities combined with climate change have been impaired soil biota, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil glomalin, soil aggregation and aggregate stability. The AF systems could curb these problems due it is an ecologically and economically sustainable. This study was aimed to determine the effect of agroforestry practices (AFPs) on soil glomalin, soil aggregate stability (SAS), and aggregate association with SOC. Soil samples (from two depth level: 0-30 & 30-60 cm) and woody species were collected from homegarden based agroforestry practice (HAFP), cropland based agroforestry practice (ClAFP), woodlot based agroforestry practice (WlAFP) and trees on soil and water conservation based agroforestry practice (TSWAFP) using systematic sampling. In this study, both easily extractable glomalin related soil protein (EEGRSP) and total glomalin related soil protein (TGRSP) were significantly (p<0.05) higher in HAFP compared to others, with decreasing order HAFP>WlAFP>TSWAFP>ClAFP at upper surface but in subsurface in decreasing order: WlAFP>HAFP>TSWAFP>ClAFP. On the other hand, the macroaggregate fraction of AFPs ranged from 22.64-36.51% where the lowest was in ClAFP, while the highest was in HAFP, moreover, the order for subsurface was also the same but SAS decreased with the increasing of soil depths. The micro-aggregate fraction ranged from 15.9–24.56%, where the lowest was in HAFP, but the highest was in ClAFP. Besides, the association of OC with both macro-and micro-aggregates was greatest in HAFP and followed by WlAFP. The findings also showed that both glomalin and SAS were significantly high with woody species diversity and richness. Thus, AFP with good management practice can play role on maintenance of biodiversity, glomalin content and other soil quality parameters with future implications for a stable ecosystem.

Keywords: agroforestry, soil aggregate stability, glomalin, aggregate-associated carbon, HAFP, ClAFP, WlAFP, TSWAFP.

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Authors: Carmen Silvia Gabriel, Dsniele Bernardi da Costa, Andrea Bernardes, Sabrina Elias Mikael, Daniele da Silva Ramos

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The goal of this quantitative study is to investigate patient safety culture from the perspective of professional from the hospital nursing team.It was conducted in two Brazilian hospitals,.The sample included 282 nurses Data collection occurred in 2013, through the questionnaire Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.Based on the assessment of the dimensions is stressed that, in the dimension teamwork across hospital units, 69.4% of professionals agree that when a lot of work needs to be done quickly, they work together as a team; about the dimension supervisor/ manager expectations and actions promoting safety, 70.2% agree that their supervisor overlooks patient safety problems.Related to organizational learning and continuous improvement, 56.5% agree that there is evaluation of the effectiveness of the changes after its implementation.On hospital management support for patient safety, 52.8% refer that the actions of hospital management show that patient safety is a top priority.On the overall perception of patient safety, 57.2% disagree that patient safety is never compromised due to higher amount of work to be completed.In what refers to feedback and communication about error, 57.7% refer that always and usually receive such information. Relative to communication openness, 42.9% said they never or rarely feel free to question the decisions / actions of their superiors.On frequency of event reporting, 64.7% said often and always notify events with no damages to patients..About teamwork across hospital units is noted similarity between the percentages of agreement and disagreement, as on the item there is a good cooperation among hospital units that need to work together, that indicates 41.4% and 40.5% respectively.Related to adequacy of professionals, 77.8 % disagree on the existence of sufficient amount of employees to do the job, 52.4% agree that shift changes are problematic for patients. On nonpunitive response to errors, 71.7% indicate that when an event is reported it seems that the focus is on the person.On the patient safety grade of the institution, 41.6 % classified it as very good. it is concluded that there are positive points in the safety culture, and some weaknesses as a punitive culture and impaired patient safety due to work overload .

Keywords: quality of health care, health services evaluation, safety culture, patient safety, nursing team

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Authors: Genziana Lay

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A wide majority of older children and adolescents who enter the juvenile court system present with an array of problematic symptoms and behaviors including anxiety, depression, aggressive acting out, detachment, and substance abuse. Attachment theory offers a framework for understanding normative and pathological functioning, which during development is influenced by emotional, social and cognitive elements. There is clear evidence that children and adolescents with the highest risk of developing adaptation problems present an insecure attachment profile. Most offending minors have experienced dysfunctional family relationships as well as social and/or economic deprivation. Their maladaptive attachment develops not only through their relationship with caregivers but with the environment at large. Activation of their faulty attachment system leads them to feel emotionally overwhelmed and engage in destructive behaviors and decision-making. A psycho-social intervention with this population conceptualized as attachment therapy is a multi-faceted, practical approach that has shown excellent results in terms of increased psychological well-being and drastically reduced rates of re-offense/ destructive behavior. Through several; components including psychotherapy, monitoring, volunteering, meditation and socialization, the program focuses on seven dimensions: self-efficacy, responsibility, empathy/reparation, autonomy/security, containment/structure, insight building, and relational health. This paper presents the program and illustrates how the framework of attachment theory practically applied to psycho-social intervention has great therapeutic and social reparation potential. Preliminary evidence drawn from the Sassari Juvenile Court is very promising; this paper will illustrate these results and propose an even more comprehensive, applicable approach to psycho-social reparative intervention that leads to greater psychological health and reduced recidivism in the child and adolescent population.

Keywords: attachment, child, adolescent, crime, juvenile, psychosocial

Procedia PDF Downloads 169

Authors: María-Luisa Pinto-Salamanca, Wilson-Javier Pérez-Holguín

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Reconstruction of contact forces is a fundamental technique for analyzing the properties of a touched object and is essential for regulating the grip force in slip control loops. This is based on the processing of the distribution, intensity, and direction of the forces during the capture of the sensors. Currently, efficient hardware alternatives have been used more frequently in different fields of application, allowing the implementation of computationally complex algorithms, as is the case with tactile signal processing. The use of hardware for smart tactile sensing systems is a research area that promises to improve the processing time and portability requirements of applications such as artificial skin and robotics, among others. The literature review shows that hardware implementations are present today in almost all stages of smart tactile detection systems except in the force reconstruction process, a stage in which they have been less applied. This work presents a hardware implementation of a model-driven reported in the literature for the contact force reconstruction of flat and rigid tactile sensor arrays from normal stress data. From the analysis of a software implementation of such a model, this implementation proposes the parallelization of tasks that facilitate the execution of matrix operations and a two-dimensional optimization function to obtain a vector force by each taxel in the array. This work seeks to take advantage of the parallel hardware characteristics of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGAs, and the possibility of applying appropriate techniques for algorithms parallelization using as a guide the rules of generalization, efficiency, and scalability in the tactile decoding process and considering the low latency, low power consumption, and real-time execution as the main parameters of design. The results show a maximum estimation error of 32% in the tangential forces and 22% in the normal forces with respect to the simulation by the Finite Element Modeling (FEM) technique of Hertzian and non-Hertzian contact events, over sensor arrays of 10×10 taxels of different sizes. The hardware implementation was carried out on an MPSoC XCZU9EG-2FFVB1156 platform of Xilinx® that allows the reconstruction of force vectors following a scalable approach, from the information captured by means of tactile sensor arrays composed of up to 48 × 48 taxels that use various transduction technologies. The proposed implementation demonstrates a reduction in estimation time of x / 180 compared to software implementations. Despite the relatively high values of the estimation errors, the information provided by this implementation on the tangential and normal tractions and the triaxial reconstruction of forces allows to adequately reconstruct the tactile properties of the touched object, which are similar to those obtained in the software implementation and in the two FEM simulations taken as reference. Although errors could be reduced, the proposed implementation is useful for decoding contact forces for portable tactile sensing systems, thus helping to expand electronic skin applications in robotic and biomedical contexts.

Keywords: contact forces reconstruction, forces estimation, tactile sensor array, hardware implementation

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Authors: O. E. Akinyemi, P. O. Alege, O. O. Ajayi, L. A. Amaghionyediwe, A. A. Ogundipe

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Nigeria as an oil-producing developing country in Africa is one of the many countries that had been subsidizing consumption of fossil fuel. Despite the numerous advantage of this policy ranging from increased energy access, fostering economic and industrial development, protecting the poor households from oil price shocks, political considerations, among others; they have been found to impose economic cost, wasteful, inefficient, create price distortions discourage investment in the energy sector and contribute to environmental pollution. These negative consequences coupled with the fact that the policy had not been very successful at achieving some of its stated objectives, led to a number of organisations and countries such as the Group of 7 (G7), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Energy Agency (IEA), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others call for global effort towards reforming fossil fuel subsidies. This call became necessary in view of seeking ways to harmonise certain existing policies which may by design hamper current effort at tackling environmental concerns such as climate change. This is in addition to driving a green growth strategy and low carbon development in achieving sustainable development. The energy sector is identified to play a vital role. This study thus investigates the prospects of using fuel subsidy reform as a viable tool in driving an economy that de-emphasizes carbon growth in Nigeria. The method used is the Johansen and Engle-Granger two-step Co-integration procedure in order to investigate the existence or otherwise of a long-run equilibrium relationship for the period 1971 to 2011. Its theoretical framework is rooted in the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis. In developing three case scenarios (case of subsidy payment, no subsidy payment and effective subsidy), findings from the study supported evidence of a long run sustainable equilibrium model. Also, estimation results reflected that the first and the second scenario do not significantly influence the indicator of environmental quality. The implication of this is that in reforming fuel subsidy to drive environmental quality for an economy like Nigeria, strong and effective regulatory framework (measure that was interacted with fuel subsidy to yield effective subsidy) is essential.

Keywords: environmental quality, fuel subsidy, green growth, low carbon growth strategy

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Authors: Rosemond Mbii

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Menstruation is a critical topic. However normal menstruation is, it has become a determinant in the education of young women today. The research focuses on Breaking the silence and accessing menstrual hygiene management's challenges and experiences among rural schoolgirls in Ghana. The study's goal was to examine the menstrual hygiene practices of female students. Participants described their menstrual hygiene practices, their problems, and how they coped with their menstrual symptoms. The research used a qualitative technique through group interviews, personal interviews, and open-ended questionnaires since it is easier to understand a phenomenon from the subject's viewpoint. Sen's capacities approach and Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) were used to analyze the data. Menstruation was known to girls even before their menarche. A mother or grandmother, friends, and teachers were the primary sources of menstrual knowledge. The study also found that most girls use sanitary products made of fabrics, pads, and cotton during menstruation. Among the difficulties the girls faced, the study found were emotional upset, physical discomfort (cramps in the stomach, fatigue), embarrassment, and inadequate sanitation hygiene facilities. The girls wore many garments to avoid leaks; checked their skirts continuously, went to the bathroom with their friends to act as spics while they changed; sat differently on the chairs, and took medicine to reduce period discomfort. Introduction of a health care teacher who supplies sanitary products and medications to girls during school time. Euphemisms as a form of communication amongst girls were all coping mechanisms girls and the school developed. Another finding was that some girls continued to go to school even while having their periods, while others did not. Discomfort and menstruation cramps hampered class participation. In addition, the study revealed insufficient sanitation and hygiene for females to change sanitary products in private and manage menstrual hygiene comfortably.

Keywords: MHM (menstrual hygiene management), rural area, sanitation, menstruation, water, schoolgirl, rural area, sanitation, menstruation, water

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Authors: Sara Khamseh, Kambiz Javanruee, Hamid Khorsand

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Plenty of metallic materials are used for biomedical applications like hip joints and screws. Besides, it is reported that metal platforms such as stainless steel show significant deterioration because of wear and friction. The surface of metal substrates has been coated with a variety of multicomponent coatings to prevail these problems. The carbon-based multicomponent coatings such as metal-added amorphous carbon and diamond coatings are crucially important because of their remarkable tribological performance and chemical stability. In the current study, H-D contained Nb: (a-C) multicomponent coatings (H-D: hexagonal diamond, a-C: amorphous carbon) coated on A 304 steel substrates using an unbalanced magnetron (UBM) sputtering system. The effects of Nb and H-D content and ID/IG ratio on microstructure, mechanical and tribological characteristics of (Nb: H-D: a-C) composite coatings were investigated. The results of Raman spectroscopy represented that a-C phase with a Graphite-like structure (GLC with high value of sp2 carbon bonding) is formed, and its domain size increased with increasing Nb content of the coatings. Moreover, the Nb played a catalyst for the formation of the H-D phase. The nanoindentation hardness value of the coatings ranged between ~17 to ~35 GPa and (Nb: H-D: a-C) composite coatings with more H-D content represented higher hardness and plasticity index. It seems that the existence of extra-hard H-D particles straightly increased hardness. The tribological performance of the coatings was evaluated using the pin-on-disc method under the wet environment of SBF (Simulated Body Fluid). The COF value of the (Nb: H-D: a-C) coatings decreased with an increasing ID/IG ratio. The lower coefficient of friction is a result of the lamelliform array of graphitic domains. Also, the wear rate of the coatings decreased with increasing H-D content of the coatings. Based on the literature, a-C coatings with high hardness and H3/E2 ratio represent lower wear rates and better tribological performance. According to the nanoindentation analysis, hardness and H3/E2 ratio of (Nb: H-D: a-C) multicomponent coatings increased with increasing H-D content, which in turn decreased the wear rate of the coatings. The mechanical and tribological potency of (Nb: H-D: a-C) composite coatings on A 304 steel substrates paved the way for the development of innovative advanced coatings to ameliorate the performance of A 304 steel for biomedical applications.

Keywords: COF, mechanical properties, (Nb: H-D: a-C) coatings, wear rate

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Authors: Najeh Lakhoua

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Introduction: Scientific developments and techniques for the systemic approach generate several names to the systemic approach: systems analysis, systems analysis, structural analysis. The main purpose of these reflections is to find a multi-disciplinary approach which organizes knowledge, creates universal language design and controls complex sets. In fact, system analysis is structured sequentially by steps: the observation of the system by various observers in various aspects, the analysis of interactions and regulatory chains, the modeling that takes into account the evolution of the system, the simulation and the real tests in order to obtain the consensus. Thus the system approach allows two types of analysis according to the structure and the function of the system. The purpose of this paper is to present an application of system analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) components in order to represent the architecture of this system. Method: There are various analysis methods which are proposed, in the literature, in to carry out actions of global analysis and different points of view as SADT method (Structured Analysis and Design Technique), Petri Network. The methodology adopted in order to contribute to the system analysis of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has been proposed in this paper and it is based on the use of SADT. In fact, we present a functional analysis based on the SADT method of UAV components Body, power supply and platform, computing, sensors, actuators, software, loop principles, flight controls and communications). Results: In this part, we present the application of SADT method for the functional analysis of the UAV components. This SADT model will be composed exclusively of actigrams. It starts with the main function ‘To analysis of the UAV components’. Then, this function is broken into sub-functions and this process is developed until the last decomposition level has been reached (levels A1, A2, A3 and A4). Recall that SADT techniques are semi-formal; however, for the same subject, different correct models can be built without having to know with certitude which model is the good or, at least, the best. In fact, this kind of model allows users a sufficient freedom in its construction and so the subjective factor introduces a supplementary dimension for its validation. That is why the validation step on the whole necessitates the confrontation of different points of views. Conclusion: In this paper, we presented an application of system analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle components. In fact, this application of system analysis is based on SADT method (Structured Analysis Design Technique). This functional analysis proved the useful use of SADT method and its ability of describing complex dynamic systems.

Keywords: system analysis, unmanned aerial vehicle, functional analysis, architecture

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Giancarlo La Marca, Engy Shokry, Fabio Villanelli

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Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, with an estimated prevalence of 50 million people worldwide. Twenty five percent of the epilepsy population is represented in children under the age of 15 years. For antiepileptic drugs (AED), there is a poor correlation between plasma concentration and dose especially in children. This was attributed to greater pharmacokinetic variability than adults. Hence, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is recommended in controlling toxicity while drug exposure is maintained. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a first-line AED and the drug of first choice in trigeminal neuralgia. CBZ is metabolised in the liver into carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide (CBZE), its major metabolite which is equipotent. This develops the need for an assay able to monitor the levels of both CBZ and CBZE. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of CBZ and CBZE in dried blood spots (DBS). DBS technique overcomes many logistical problems, ethical issues and technical challenges faced by classical plasma sampling. LC-MS/MS has been regarded as superior technique over immunoassays and HPLC/UV methods owing to its better specificity and sensitivity, lack of interference or matrix effects. Our method combines advantages of DBS technique and LC-MS/MS in clinical practice. The extraction process was done using methanol-water-formic acid (80:20:0.1, v/v/v). The chromatographic elution was achieved by using a linear gradient with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-water-0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.50 mL/min. The method was linear over the range 1-40 mg/L and 0.25-20 mg/L for CBZ and CBZE respectively. The limit of quantification was 1.00 mg/L and 0.25 mg/L for CBZ and CBZE, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day assay precisions were found to be less than 6.5% and 11.8%. An evaluation of DBS technique was performed, including effect of extraction solvent, spot homogeneity and stability in DBS. Results from a comparison with the plasma assay are also presented. The novelty of the present work lies in being the first to quantify CBZ and its metabolite from only one 3.2 mm DBS disc finger-prick sample (3.3-3.4 µl blood) by LC-MS/MS in a 10 min. chromatographic run.

Keywords: carbamazepine, carbamazepine-10, 11-epoxide, dried blood spots, LC-MS/MS, therapeutic drug monitoring

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Authors: Brigita Mieziene, Arunas Emeljanovas, Vida Cesnaitiene, Ingunn Fjortoft, Lise Kjonniksen

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Background. Health-related physical fitness refers to the favorable health status, i.e. ability to perform daily activities with vigor, as well as capacities that are associated with a low risk for development of chronic diseases and premature death. However, in school-aged children it is constantly declining, while some aspects of fitness declined as much as 50 percent during the last two decades, which prognosticates increasingly earlier onset of health problems, decreasing the quality of life of the population and financial burden for the society. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to indicate nationally representative age- and gender-specific reference values of anthropometric measures, musculoskeletal, motor and cardiorespiratory fitness in Lithuanian primary school children from 6 to 10 years. Methods. The study included 3556 students in total, from 73 randomly selected schools. Ethics approval for research by the Kaunas Regional Ethics Committee (No. BE-2-42) was obtained. Physical fitness was measured by the 9-item test battery, developed by Fjørtoft and colleagues. Height and weight were measured and body mass index calculated. Smoothed centile charts were derived using the LMS method. Results. The numerical age- and gender-specific percentile values (3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentile) for anthropometric measures, musculoskeletal, motor and cardiorespiratory fitness were provided. The equivalent smoothed LMS curves were performed. The study indicated 12.5 percent of overweight and 5 percent of obese children in accordance with international gender and age specific norms of body mass index. This data could be used in clinical and educational settings in order to identify the level of individual physical fitness within its different components.

Keywords: fitness, overweight, primary school children, reference values, smoothed percentile curves

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Authors: Eusèbe Gnonlonfoun, Xavier Framboisier, Michel Fick, Emmanuel Rondags

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Pathogenic fungi represent a generic problem for cereals, including barley, as they can produce a number of thermostable toxic metabolites such as mycotoxins that contaminate plants and food products, leading to serious health issues for humans and animals and causing significant losses in global food production. In addition, mycotoxins represent a significant technological concern for the malting and brewing industries, as they may affect the quality and safety of raw materials (barley and malt) and final products (beer). Moreover, this situation is worsening due to the highly variable climatic conditions that favor microbial development and the societal desire to reduce the use of phytosanitary products, including fungicides. In this complex environmental, regulatory and economic context for the French barley-malt-beer industry, this project aims to develop an innovative biocontrol process by using technological bacteria, isolated from infection-resistant barley cultures, that are able to reduce the development of spoilage fungi and the associated mycotoxin production. The experimental approach consists of i) coculturing bacterial and pathogenic fungal strains in solid and liquid media to access the growth kinetics of these microorganisms and to evaluate the impact of these bacteria on fungal growth and mycotoxin production; then ii) the results will be used to carry out a micro-malting process in order to develop the aforementioned process, and iii) the technological and sanitary properties of the generated barley malts will finally be evaluated in order to validate the biocontrol process developed. The process is expected to make it possible to guarantee, with controlled costs, an irreproachable hygienic and technological quality of the malt, despite the increasingly complex and variable conditions for barley production. Thus, the results will not only make it possible to maintain the dominant world position of the French barley-malt chain but will also allow it to conquer emerging markets, mainly in Africa and Asia. The use of this process will also contribute to the reduction of the use of phytosanitary products in the field for barley production while reducing the level of contamination of malting plant effluents. Its environmental impact would therefore be significant, especially considering that barley is the fourth most-produced cereal in the world.

Keywords: barley, pathogenic fungi, mycotoxins, malting, bacterial biocontrol

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Vivek Mahadev, Manoj Kumar, Neelu Mathur, Brahm Dutt Pandey

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Perimeter guarding and protection of critical installations require prompt intrusion detection and assessment to take effective countermeasures. Currently, visual and electronic surveillance are the primary methods used for perimeter guarding. These methods can be costly and complicated, requiring careful planning according to the location and terrain. Moreover, these methods often struggle to detect stealthy and camouflaged insurgents. The object of the present work is to devise a surveillance technique using seismic sensors that overcomes the limitations of existing systems. The aim is to improve intrusion detection, assessment, and characterization by utilizing seismic sensors. Most of the similar systems have only two types of intrusion detection capability viz., human or vehicle. In our work we could even categorize further to identify types of intrusion activity such as walking, running, group walking, fence jumping, tunnel digging and vehicular movements. A virtual fence of 60 meters at GCNEP, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, India, was created by installing four underground geophones at a distance of 15 meters each. The signals received from these geophones are then processed to find unique seismic signatures called features. Various feature optimization and selection methodologies, such as LightGBM, Boruta, Random Forest, Logistics, Recursive Feature Elimination, Chi-2 and Pearson Ratio were used to identify the best features for training the machine learning models. The trained models were developed using algorithms such as supervised support vector machine (SVM) classifier, kNN, Decision Tree, Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes, and Artificial Neural Networks. These models were then used to predict the category of events, employing weighted ensemble voting to analyze and combine their results. The models were trained with 1940 training events and results were evaluated with 831 test events. It was observed that using the weighted ensemble voting increased the efficiency of predictions. In this study we successfully developed and deployed the virtual fence using geophones. Since these sensors are passive, do not radiate any energy and are installed underground, it is impossible for intruders to locate and nullify them. Their flexibility, quick and easy installation, low costs, hidden deployment and unattended surveillance make such systems especially suitable for critical installations and remote facilities with difficult terrain. This work demonstrates the potential of utilizing seismic sensors for creating better perimeter guarding and protection systems using multiple machine learning models in weighted ensemble voting. In this study the virtual fence achieved an intruder detection efficiency of over 97%.

Keywords: geophone, seismic perimeter surveillance, machine learning, weighted ensemble method

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Authors: D. Signore, M. Ferraiuolo, P. Caramuta, O. Petrella, C. Toscano

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The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a newly developed optical technique that is spreading in all engineering sectors because it allows the non-destructive estimation of the entire surface deformation without any contact with the component under analysis. These characteristics make the DIC very appealing in all the cases the global deformation state is to be known without using strain gages, which are the most used measuring device. The DIC is applicable to any material subjected to distortion caused by either thermal or mechanical load, allowing to obtain high-definition mapping of displacements and deformations. That is why in the civil and the transportation industry, DIC is very useful for studying the behavior of metallic materials as well as of composite materials. DIC is also used in the medical field for the characterization of the local strain field of the vascular tissues surface subjected to uniaxial tensile loading. DIC can be carried out in the two dimension mode (2D DIC) if a single camera is used or in a three dimension mode (3D DIC) if two cameras are involved. Each point of the test surface framed by the cameras can be associated with a specific pixel of the image, and the coordinates of each point are calculated knowing the relative distance between the two cameras together with their orientation. In both arrangements, when a component is subjected to a load, several images related to different deformation states can be are acquired through the cameras. A specific software analyzes the images via the mutual correlation between the reference image (obtained without any applied load) and those acquired during the deformation giving the relative displacements. In this paper, a metrological characterization of the digital image correlation is performed on aluminum and composite targets both in static and dynamic loading conditions by comparison between DIC and strain gauges measures. In the static test, interesting results have been obtained thanks to an excellent agreement between the two measuring techniques. In addition, the deformation detected by the DIC is compliant with the result of a FEM simulation. In the dynamic test, the DIC was able to follow with a good accuracy the periodic deformation of the specimen giving results coherent with the ones given by FEM simulation. In both situations, it was seen that the DIC measurement accuracy depends on several parameters such as the optical focusing, the parameters chosen to perform the mutual correlation between the images and, finally, the reference points on image to be analyzed. In the future, the influence of these parameters will be studied, and a method to increase the accuracy of the measurements will be developed in accordance with the requirements of the industries especially of the aerospace one.

Keywords: accuracy, deformation, image correlation, mechanical analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 307