Search results for: carbon based nanomaterials

Authors: István János Molnár

Abstract:

Hungary has a legal system that is primarily based on statutory legislation, which means that statutes are the main source of law. However, in a surprising move, the Hungarian Parliament introduced a "limited" precedent system on 1 April 2020. This reform requires Hungarian courts to consider not only statutes but also the interpretation of those statutes in decisions made by the highest court in the country, the Curia. While judge-made customary law is not completely unfamiliar in Hungarian legal practice, the introduction of this new system presents several theoretical and practical challenges that may take time to resolve.

Keywords: civil procedure, hungary, judicial practice, precedent system, sources of law

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Ana Luiza Aranha

Abstract:

This paper contributes to the discussions that consider corruption as a challenge to the establishment of more democratically inclusive societies in Latin America. The paper advocates an intrinsic connection between democratic principles and corruption control – it is only possible to achieve just forms of democratic life if accountability institutions are able to control corruption, and therefore control the political exclusions that it brings. Departing from a non-trivial approach to corruption, and recognizing a gap in democratic theory when thinking about this phenomenon, corruption is understood as the breakdown of the democratic inclusive rule, whereby political decisions are made (and actions were taken) in spite of those potentially affected by them. Based on this idea, this paper proposes a new way of measuring corruption, moving away from usual aggregate measures – such as the Corruption Perception Index – and case studies of corruption scandals. The main argument sustains that corruption is intrinsically connected with the ability to be accountable and to provide public justification for the political conduct. The point advocated is that corruption involves a dimension of political exclusion. It generates a private benefit which is, from a democratic point of view, illegitimate, since it benefits some at the expense of the decisions made by the political community. Corruption is then a form of exclusion based on deception and opacity - for corruption, there is no plausible justification. Empirically, the paper uses the audit reports produced by the Brazilian anti-corruption agency (the CGU - Office of the Comptroller General) in its Inspections From Public Lotteries Program to exemplify how we can use this definition to separate corruption cases from mismanagement irregularities. On one side, there is poor management and inefficiencies, and, on the other, corruption, defined by the implausibility of public justifications – because the public officials would have to publicize illegitimate privileges and undue advantages. CGU reports provide the justifications given by the public officials for the irregularities found and also the acceptance or not by the control agency of these justifications. The analysis of this dialogue – between public officials and control agents – makes it possible to divide the irregularities on those that can be publicly justified versus those that cannot. In order to hold public officials accountable for their actions, making them responsible for the exclusions that they may cause (such as corruption), the accountability institutions fulfil an important role in reinforcing and empowering democracy and its basic inclusive condition.

Keywords: accountability, brazil, corruption, democracy

Procedia PDF Downloads 255

Authors: Luqman Shah

Abstract:

The myopic gender discrimination is now a well-documented and recognized fact. However, gender is only one facet of an individual’s multiple identities. The aim of this work is to investigate gender discrimination highlighted in print media in the subcontinent with a specific focus on Pakistan and India. In this study, an approach is adopted by using the James Paul Gee model for the identification of gender discrimination. As a matter of fact, gender discrimination is not consistent in its nature and intensity across global societies and varies as social, geographical, and cultural background change. The World has been changed enormously in every aspect of life, and there are also obvious changes towards gender discrimination, prejudices, and biases, but still, the world has a long way to go to recognize women as equal as men in every sphere of life. The history of the world is full of gender-based incidents and violence. Now the time came that this issue must be seriously addressed and to eradicate this evil, which will lead to harmonize society and consequently heading towards peace and prosperity. The study was carried out by a mixed model research method. The data was extracted from the contents of five Pakistani English newspapers out of a total of 23 daily English newspapers, and likewise, five Indian daily English newspapers out of 52 those were published 2018-2019. Two news stories from each of these newspapers, in total, twenty news stories were taken as sampling for this research. Content and semiotic analysis techniques were used to analyze through James Paul Gee's seven building tasks of language. The resources of renowned e-papers are utilized, and the highlighted cases in Pakistani newspapers of Indian gender-based stories and vice versa are scrutinized as per the requirement of this research paper. For analysis of the written stretches of discourse taken from e-papers and processing of data for the focused problem, James Paul Gee 'Seven Building Tasks of Language' is used. Tabulation of findings is carried to pinpoint the issue with certainty. Findings after processing the data showed that there is a gross human rights violation on the basis of gender discrimination. The print media needs a more realistic representation of what is what not what seems to be. The study recommends the equality and parity of genders.

Keywords: gender discrimination, print media, Paul Gee model, subcontinent

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Christian Louis Kühner, Florian Pfeffel, Valentin Nickolai

Abstract:

Taking care of children, dependents, or pets can be a difficult and time-consuming task. Especially for part- and full-time employees, it can feel exhausting and overwhelming to meet these obligations besides working a job. Thus, working mostly at home and not having to drive to the company can save valuable time and stress. This study aims to show the influence that the working model has on the job satisfaction of employees with care responsibilities in comparison to employees who do not have such obligations. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the three work models, “work from home”, “working remotely”, and a hybrid model, have been analyzed based on 13 influencing constructs on job satisfaction. These 13 factors have been further summarized into three groups “classic influencing factors”, “influencing factors changed by remote working”, and “new remote working influencing factors”. Based on the influencing factors on job satisfaction, an online survey was conducted with n = 684 employees from the service sector. Here, Cronbach’s alpha of the individual constructs was shown to be suitable. Furthermore, the construct validity of the constructs was confirmed by face validity, content validity, convergent validity (AVE > 0.5: CR > 0.7), and discriminant validity. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the model fit for the investigated sample (CMIN/DF: 2.567; CFI: 0.927; RMSEA: 0.048). The SEM-analysis has shown that the most significant influencing factor on job satisfaction is “identification with the work” with β = 0.540, followed by “Appreciation” (β = 0.151), “Compensation” (β = 0.124), “Work-Life-Balance” (β = 0.116), and “Communication and Exchange of Information” (β = 0.105). While the significance of each factor can vary depending on the work model, the SEM-analysis shows that the identification with the work is the most significant factor in all three work models and, in the case of the traditional office work model, it is the only significant influencing factor. The study shows that among the employees with care responsibilities, the higher the proportion of working from home in comparison to working from the office, the more satisfied the employees are with their job. Since the work models that meet the requirements of comprehensive care led to higher job satisfaction amongst employees with such obligations, adapting as a company to such private obligations by employees can be crucial to sustained success. Conversely, the satisfaction level of the working model where employees work at the office is higher for workers without caregiving responsibilities.

Keywords: care responsibilities, home office, job satisfaction, structural equation modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Hossein Rassi, Marjan Moradi Fard, Samaneh Niko

Abstract:

Human papillomavirus type 16 and 18 are closely associated with the development of human cervical carcinoma, which is one of the most common causes of cancer death in women worldwide. At present, HPV type 18 accounts for about 34 % of all HPV infections in Iran and the most promising vaccine against HPV infection is based on the L1 major capsid protein. The L1 protein of HPV18 has the capacity to self-assemble into capsomers or virus-like particles (VLPs) that are non-infectious, highly immunogenic and allowing their use in vaccine production. The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is an efficient and inexpensive expression system used to produce high levels of heterologous proteins. In this study we expressed HPV18 L1 VLPs in P. pastoris. The gene encoding the major capsid protein L1 of the high-risk HPV type 18 was isolated from Iranian patient by PCR and inserted into pTG19-T vector to obtain the recombinant expression vector pTG19-HPV18-L1. Then, the pTG19-HPV18-L1 was transformed into E. coli strain DH5α and the recombinant protein HPV18 L1 was expressed under IPTG induction in soluble form. The HPV18 L1 gene was excised from recombinant plasmid with XhoI and EcoRI enzymes and ligated into the yeast expression vector pPICZα linearized with the same enzymes, and transformed into P. pastoris. Induction and expression of HPV18 L1 protein was demonstrated by BMGY/BMMY and RT PCR. The parameters for induced cultivation for strain in P. pastoris KM71 with HPV16L1 were investigated in shaking flask cultures. After induced cultivation BMMY (pH 7.0) medium supplemented with methanol to a final concentration of 1.0% every 24 h at 37 degrees C for 96 h, the recombinant produced 78.6 mg/L of L1 protein. This work offers the possibility for the production of prophylactic vaccine for cervical carcinoma by P. pastoris for HPV-18 L1 gene. The VLP-based HPV vaccines can prevent persistent HPV18 infections and cervical cancer in Iran. The HPV-18 L1 gene was expressed successfully in E.coli, which provides necessary basis for preparing HPV-18 L1 vaccine in human. Also, HPV type 6 L1 proteins expressed in Pichia pastoris will facilitate the HPV vaccine development and structure-function study.

Keywords: Pichia pastoris, L1 virus-like particles, human papillomavirus type 18, biotechnology

Procedia PDF Downloads 401

Authors: Chechen Liao, Yi-Jen Huang, Yu-Ting Lu

Abstract:

This study explores and complements digital aspects. In this study, we construct a research model based on the theory of reasoned action and extend it with the advantages and disadvantages of intangibility (convenience, perceived risk), some characteristics of digital products (price, variety, trialability), and factors related to entertainment (perceived playfulness) to predict what consumers really consider when they buy digital music. Eight hypotheses were tested and supported. Finally, we prove that the theory of reasoned action is still valid in the field of digital products.

Keywords: digital music, digital product, theory of reasoned action

Procedia PDF Downloads 430

Authors: Chrysi K. Nikoloutsou, Gianna Th. Siapati

Abstract:

The pandemic limitations have altered architectural education as the discourse shifted towards virtual studios and blended learning. In addition, lockdown conditions and remote working have affected habitation. Adaptability is now a key factor. The architectural studio needs to adjust to these new terms both in education and in inhabitation. This paper will investigate the operation of an architectural studio in relation to how one experiences their house due to the pandemic, based on a literature review and qualitative research methods (interviews & workshops with students). Zenetos’ prophetic ideas of ‘Electronic Urbanism’ and ‘tele-activities’ are now more present than ever.

Keywords: architectural education, pandemic, residential design, studio pedagogy

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Febri Ramadhan

Abstract:

Water medium is a vital necessity for the survival of fish. Fish can survive inside/outside of water medium within a certain time. By knowing the level of survival fish at outside of water medium, a person can transport the fish to a place with more efficiently. Transport of live fish from one place to another can be done with wet and dry media system. In this experiment the treatment-given the observed differences in fish species. This experiment aimed to test the degree of resilience of fish out of water media. Based on the ANOVA table is obtained, it can be concluded that the type of fish affects the level of resilience of fish outside the water (Fhit> Ftab).

Keywords: fish, transport, retention rate, fish resiliance

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Mohd Maniruzzaman, Md. Monjurul Alam, Md. Hafezur Rahaman, Anika Amir Mohona

Abstract:

The consumption of water by various industries is increasing day by day, and the wastewaters from them are increasing as well. These wastewaters consist of various kinds of color, dissolved solids, toxic heavy metals, residual chlorine, and other non-degradable organic materials. If these wastewaters are exposed directly to the environment, it will be hazardous for the environment and personal health. So, it is very necessary to treat these wastewaters before exposing into the environment. In this research, we have demonstrated the successful processing and utilization of fully bio-based cellulose micro crystal (CMC) composite for the removal of heavy metals, dyes, and salinity from industrial wastewaters. Banana rachis micro-cellulose were prepared by acid hydrolysis (H₂SO₄) of banana (Musa acuminata L.) rachis fiber, and Bijoypur raw clay were treated by organic solvent tri-ethyl amine. Composites were prepared with varying different composition of banana rachis nano-cellulose and modified Bijoypur (north-east part in Bangladesh) clay. After the successful characterization of cellulose micro crystal (CMC) and modified clay, our targeted filter was fabricated with different composition of cellulose micro crystal and clay in the locally fabricated packing column with 7.5 cm as thickness of composites fraction. Waste-water was collected from local small textile industries containing basic yellow 2 as dye, lead (II) nitrate [Pb(NO₃)₂] and chromium (III) nitrate [Cr(NO₃)₃] as heavy metals and saline water was collected from Khulna to test the efficiency of banana rachis cellulose micro crystal-clay composite for removing the above impurities. The filtering efficiency of wastewater purification was characterized by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (X-RD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Finally, our all characterizations data are shown with very high expected results for in industrial application of our fabricated filter.

Keywords: banana rachis, bio-based filter, cellulose micro crystal-clay composite, wastewaters, synthetic dyes, heavy metal, water salinity

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Mohammed Arif, Abdessalam Kifouche

Abstract:

Optical character recognition (OCR) has a main role in the present time. It's capable to solve many serious problems and simplify human activities. The OCR yields to 70's, since many solutions has been proposed, but unfortunately, it was supportive to nothing but Latin languages. This work proposes a system of recognition of an off-line Arabic handwriting. This system is based on a structural segmentation method and uses support vector machines (SVM) in the classification phase. We have presented a state of art of the characters segmentation methods, after that a view of the OCR area, also we will address the normalization problems we went through. After a comparison between the Arabic handwritten characters & the segmentation methods, we had introduced a contribution through a segmentation algorithm.

Keywords: OCR, segmentation, Arabic characters, PAW, post-processing, SVM

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: N. Zerzouri, N. Benalia, N. Bensiali

Abstract:

This work is devoted to an analysis of the operation of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) integrated with a wind system. The power transfer between the stator and the network is carried out by acting on the rotor via a bidirectional signal converter. The analysis is devoted to the study of a fault in the converter due to an interruption of the control of a semiconductor. Simulation results obtained by the MATLAB/Simulink software illustrate the quality of the power generated at the default.

Keywords: doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), wind energy, PWM inverter, modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 310

Authors: Mohab Magdy Mostafa Mohamed

Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to introduce a vertical handover (VHO) algorithm between wireless LANs (WLANs) and LTE mobile networks. The proposed algorithm is based on the fuzzy control theory and takes into consideration power level, subscriber velocity, and target cell load instead of only power level in traditional algorithms. Simulation results show that network performance in terms of number of handovers and handover occurrence distance is improved.

Keywords: vertical handover, fuzzy control theory, power level, speed, target cell load

Procedia PDF Downloads 341

Authors: Ketan Tamirisa, Kathleen P. Tebb

Abstract:

In the U.S., annually, there are over 1 million pregnancies in teenagers and most (85%) are unintended. The need for proactive prevention measures is imperative to support adolescents with their pregnancy prevention and family planning goals. To date, there is limited research examining the extent to which support from a sexual partner(s) influences contraceptive use. To address this gap, this study assessed the relationship between sexually active adolescents, sex-assigned birth as female, and their perceived support from their sexual partner(s) about their contraceptive use in the last three months. Baseline data from sexually active adolescent females, between 13-19 years who were not currently using a long-acting contraceptive device, were recruited from 32 school-based health centers (SBHCs) in seven states in the U.S. as part of a larger study to evaluate Health-E You/ Salud iTuTM, a web-based contraceptive decision support tool. Fisher’s exact test assessed the cross-sectional association between perceived sexual partner support of contraceptive use in the past three months (felt no support, felt little support, and felt a lot of support), and current use of non-barrier contraception. A total of 91 sexually active adolescent females were eligible and completed the baseline survey. The mean age was 16.7 and nearly half (49.3%) were Hispanic/Latina. Most (85.9%) indicated it was very important to avoid becoming pregnant. A total of 60 participants (65.9%) reported use of non-barrier contraception. Of these, most used birth control pills (n=26), followed by Depo-Provera injection (n=12), patch (n=1), and ring (n=1). Most of the participants (80.2%) indicated that they perceived a lot of support from their partners and 19.8% reported no or little support. Among those reporting a lot of support, 69.9% (51/73) reported current use of non-barrier contraception compared to 50% (9/18) who felt no/little support and reported contraceptive use. This difference approached but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.096). Results from this preliminary data indicate that many adolescents who are coming in for care at SBHCs are at risk of unintended pregnancy. Many participants also reported a lot of support from their sexual partner(s) to use contraception. While the associations only approached significance, this is likely due to the small sample size. This and future research can better understand this association to inform interventions aimed at sexual partners to strengthen education and social support, increase healthcare accessibility, and ultimately reduce rates of unintended pregnancy.

Keywords: adolescents, contraception, pregnancy, SBHCs, sexual partners

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: K. Szymkowska, K. Mojsiewicz- Pieńkowska

Abstract:

Siloxanes are a common ingredients in medicinal products used on the skin, as well as cosmetics. It is widely believed that the silicones are not capable of overcoming the skin barrier. The aim of the study was to verify the possibility of penetration and permeation of linear siloxanes through human skin and determine depth penetration limit of these compounds. Based on the results it was found that human skin is not a barrier for linear siloxanes. PDMS 50 cSt was not identified in the dermis suggests that this molecular size of silicones (3780Da) is safe when it is used in the skin formulations.

Keywords: linear siloxanes, methyl siloxanes, skin penetration, skin permeation

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Qiao-Yu Warren Cai

Abstract:

Due to the rise of big data, building corpora and using them to analyze ChineseL2 learners’ language output has become a trend. Various empirical research has been conducted using Chinese corpora built by different academic institutes. However, most of the research analyzed the data in the Chinese corpora usingcorpus-based qualitative content analysis with descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics can be used to make summations about the subjects or samples that research has actually measured to describe the numerical data, but the collected data cannot be generalized to the population. Comte, a Frenchpositivist, has argued since the 19th century that human beings’ knowledge, whether the discipline is humanistic and social science or natural science, should be verified in a scientific way to construct a universal theory to explain the truth and human beings behaviors. Inferential statistics, able to make judgments of the probability of a difference observed between groups being dependable or caused by chance (Free Geography Notes, 2015)and to infer from the subjects or examples what the population might think or behave, is just the right method to support Comte’s argument in the field of TCSOL. Also, inferential statistics is a core of quantitative research, but little research has been conducted by combing corpora with inferential statistics. Little research analyzes the differences in Chinese L2 learners’ language corpus output errors by using theOne-way ANOVA so that the findings of previous research are limited to inferring the population's Chinese errors according to the given samples’ Chinese corpora. To fill this knowledge gap in the professional development of Taiwanese TCSOL, the present study aims to utilize the One-way ANOVA to analyze corpus output errors of Chinese L2 learners from America, Myanmar, and Singapore. The results show that no significant difference exists in ‘shì (是) sentence’ and word order errors, but compared with Americans and Singaporeans, it is significantly easier for Myanmar to have ‘sentence blends.’ Based on the above results, the present study provides an instructional approach and contributes to further exploration of how Chinese L2 learners can have (and use) learning strategies to lower errors.

Keywords: Chinese corpus, error analysis, one-way analysis of variance, Chinese L2 learners, Americans, myanmar, Singaporeans

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: Samia Moulebhar, Chahrazed Bendenia, Souhila Bendenia, Hanaa Merad-dib, Sarra Merabet, Sid Ahmed Khantar, Baghdad Hadri

Abstract:

The photovoltaic solar field is today experiencing exponential advancement with the exploitation of new technological sectors of nanoparticles, namely the field of solar cells based on organic polymer materials. These cells are flexible, easy to process and low cost. This work includes a presentation of the conjugated polymer materials used in the design of photovoltaic technology devices while determining their properties and then the models used for the modeling of thin film photovoltaic cells heterojunction.

Keywords: photovoltaic, cells, nanoparticles, organic

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Erin Lynne Plettenberg, Jeremy Vickery

Abstract:

In an access-control situation, the role of a user determines whether a data request is appropriate. This paper combines vetted web mining and logic modeling to build a lightweight system for determining the role of a health care provider based only on their prior authorized requests. The model identifies provider roles with 100% recall from very little data. This shows the value of vetted web mining in AI systems, and suggests the impact of the ICD classification on medical practice.

Keywords: electronic medical records, information extraction, logic modeling, ontology, vetted web mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Donato Vese

Abstract:

According to the common interpretation, in a legal system, public powers are established by law. Exceptions are admitted in an emergency or particular relationship with public power. However, we currently agree that law allows public administration a margin of decision, even in the case of non-discretionary acts. Hence, the administrative decision not exclusively established by law becomes the rule in the ordinary state of things, non-only in state of exception. This paper aims to analyze and discuss different ideas on discretionary power on the Rule of Law and Rechtsstaat. Observing the legal literature in Europe and Nord and South America, discretionary power can be described as follow: it could be considered a margin that law accords to the executive power for political decisions or a choice between different interpretations of vague legal previsions. In essence, this explanation admits for the executive a decision not established by law or anyhow not exclusively established by law. This means that the discretionary power of public administration integrates the law. However, integrating law does not mean to decide according to the law, but it means to integrate law with a decision involving public power. Consequently, discretionary power is essentially free will. In this perspective, also the Rule of Law and the Rechtsstaat are notions explained differently. Recently, we can observe how the European notion of Rechtsstaat is founded on the formal validity of the law; therefore, for this notion, public authority’s decisions not regulated by law represent a problem. Thus, different systems of law integration have been proposed in legal literature, such as values, democracy, reasonableness, and so on. This paper aims to verify how, looking at those integration clauses from a logical viewpoint, integration based on the recourse to the legal system itself does not resolve the problem. The aforementioned integration clauses are legal rules that require hard work to explain the correct meaning of the law; in particular, they introduce dangerous criteria in favor of the political majority. A different notion of public power can be proposed. This notion includes two main features: (a) sovereignty belongs to persons and not the state, and (b) fundamental rights are not grounded but recognized by Constitutions. Hence, public power is a system based on fundamental rights. According to this approach, it can also be defined as the notion of public interest as concrete maximization of fundamental rights enjoyments. Like this, integration of the law, vague or subject to several interpretations, must be done by referring to the system of fundamental individual rights. We can think, for instance, to fundamental rights that are right in an objective view but not legal because not established by law.

Keywords: administrative discretion, free will, fundamental rights, public power, sovereignty

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Taieb Kherafa Noureddine

Abstract:

The paper presents a new approach regarding the management in sports that is based on the principles of reengineering. Applying that modern and pure management system, called reengineering, in sports activity, we hope to get better and better results, in order to increase both the health state and the performances of trained athletes. The paper also presents the similarities between BPR (Business Process Reengineering) and sports managements, as well as the proposed solution for a proper implementation of such model of management. The five components of the basic BPR model are presented, together with their features for sports management.

Keywords: business process reengineering, great sports events, sports management, training activities

Procedia PDF Downloads 486

Authors: Babak Forouraghi

Abstract:

A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations of previous approaches, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with attention mechanism. In a previous work on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: transformers, generative ai, gene expression design, classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Sherif O. Zain Elabideen, Ahmed A. Helal, Ibrahim F. El-Arabawy

Abstract:

Due to the drastic increase of the wind turbines installed capacity; the grid codes are increasing the restrictions aiming to treat the wind turbines like other conventional sources sooner. In this paper, an intensive review has been presented for different techniques used to add low voltage ride through capability to Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) wind turbine. A system model with 1.5 MW DFIG wind turbine is constructed and simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK to explore the effectiveness of the reviewed techniques.

Keywords: DFIG, grid side converters, low voltage ride through, wind turbine

Procedia PDF Downloads 417

Authors: Karina Peron, Ricardo Ghelman, Monica Taminato, Katia R. Oliveira, Debora C. A. Rodrigues, Juliana R. C. Mumme, Olga K. M. Sunakozaua, Georg Seifert, Vicente O. Filho

Abstract:

The nurse is the most available health professional for the interventions of support in the integrative approach in hospital environment, therefore a professional group key to changes in the model of care. The central components in the performance of anthroposophic nursing procedures are direct physical contact, promotion of proper rhythm, thermal regulation and the construction of a calm and empathic atmosphere, safe for patients and their caregivers. The procedures of anthroposophic external therapies (AET), basically composed of the application of compresses and the use of natural products, provide an opportunity to intensify the therapeutic results through an innovative, complementary and integrative model in the university hospital. The objective of this work is to report the implementation of a program of nursing techniques (AET) through a partnership between the Pediatric Oncology Sector of the Department of Pediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo and Charite University of Berlin, with lecturers from Berlin's Integrative Hospital Havelhöhe and Witten-Herdecke Integrative Hospital, both in Germany. Intensive training activities of the Hospital's nursing staff and a survey on AET needs were developed based on the most prevalent complaints in pediatric oncology patients in the three environments of the Hospital of Pediatric Oncology: Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Intensive Care Unit and Division of Internal Patients. We obtained the approval of the clinical protocol of external anthroposophic therapies for nursing care by the Ethics Committee and the Academic Council of the Hospital. With this project, we highlight the key AET needs that will be part of the standard program of pediatric oncology care with appropriate scientific support. The results of the prevalent symptoms were: vomiting, nausea, pain, difficulty in starting sleep, constipation, cold extremities, mood disorder and psychomotor agitation. This project was the pioneer within the Integrative Pediatrics Program, as an innovative concept of Medicine and Integrative Health presented at scientific meetings.

Keywords: integrative health care, integrative nursing, pediatric nursing, pediatric oncology

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: Lien Gysens, Bert Vanmechelen, Maarten Haspeslagh, Piet Maes, Ann Martens

Abstract:

Bovine papillomavirus (BPV) types 1 and 2 play a central role in the etiology of the most common neoplasm in horses, the equine sarcoid. The unknown mechanism behind the unique variety in a clinical presentation on the one hand and the host-dependent clinical outcome of BPV-1 infection, on the other hand, indicate the involvement of additional factors. Earlier studies have reported the potential functional significance of intratypic sequence variants, along with the existence of sarcoid-sourced BPV variants. Therefore, intratypic sequence variation seems to be an important emerging viral factor. This study aimed to give a broad insight in sarcoid-sourced BPV variation and explore its potential association with disease presentation. In order to do this, a nanopore sequencing approach was successfully optimized for screening a wide spectrum of clinical samples. Specimens of each tumour were initially screened for BPV-1/-2 by quantitative real-time PCR. A custom-designed primer set was used on BPV-positive samples to amplify the complete viral genome in two multiplex PCR reactions, resulting in a set of overlapping amplicons. For phylogenetic analysis, separate alignments were made of all available complete genome sequences for BPV-1/-2. The resulting alignments were used to infer Bayesian phylogenetic trees. We found substantial genetic variation among sarcoid-derived BPV-1, although this variation could not be linked to disease severity. Several of the BPV-1 genomes had multiple major deletions. Remarkably, the majority of the cluster within the region coding for late viral genes. Together with the extensiveness (up to 603 nucleotides) of the described deletions, this suggests an altered function of L1/L2 in disease pathogenesis. By generating a significant amount of complete-length BPV genomes, we succeeded in introducing next-generation sequencing into veterinary research focusing on the equine sarcoid, thus facilitating the first report of both nanopore-based sequencing of complete sarcoid-sourced BPV-1/-2 and the simultaneous nanopore sequencing of multiple complete genomes originating from a single clinical sample.

Keywords: Bovine papillomavirus, equine sarcoid, horse, nanopore sequencing, phylogenetic analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: C. Recommandé, J. C. Blind, A. Clavel, R. Gourichon, V. Le Gal

Abstract:

Simulations are developed in this paper with usual DSGE model equations. The model is based on simplified version of Smets-Wouters equations in use at European Central Bank which implies 10 macro-economic variables: consumption, investment, wages, inflation, capital stock, interest rates, production, capital accumulation, labour and credit rate, and allows take into consideration the banking system. Throughout the simulations, this model will be used to evaluate the impact of rate shocks recounting the actions of the European Central Bank during 2008.

Keywords: CC-LM, Central Bank, DSGE, liquidity shock, non-standard intervention

Procedia PDF Downloads 454

Authors: Susan Dodd

Abstract:

This presentation details the methodology for teachers to identify and support a population of students who have historically been overlooked in regards to their educational needs. The twice exceptional (2e) student is a learner who is considered gifted and also has a learning disability, as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Many of these students remain underserved throughout their educational careers because their exceptionalities may mask each other, resulting in a special population of students who are not achieving to their fullest potential. There are three common scenarios that may make the identification of a 2e student challenging. First, the student may have been identified as gifted, and her disability may go unnoticed. She could also be considered an under-achiever, or she may be able to compensate for her disability under the school works becomes more challenging. In the second scenario, the student may be identified as having a learning disability and is only receiving remedial services where his giftedness will not be highlighted. His overall IQ scores may be misleading because they were impacted by his learning disability. In the third scenario, the student is able to compensate for her ability well enough to maintain average scores, and she goes undetected as both gifted and learning disabled. Research in the area identifies the complexity involved in identifying 2e students, and how multiple forms of assessment are required. It is important for teachers to be aware of the common characteristics exhibited by many 2e students, so these learners can be identified and appropriately served. Once 2e students have been identified, teachers are then challenged to meet the varying needs of these exceptional learners. Strength-based teaching entails simultaneously providing gifted instruction as well as individualized accommodations for those students. Research in this field has yielded strategies that have proven helpful for teaching 2e students, as well as other students who may be struggling academically. Differentiated instruction, while necessary in all classrooms, is especially important for 2e students, as is encouragement for academic success. Teachers who take the time to really know their students will have a better understanding of each student’s strengths and areas for growth, and therefore tailor instruction to extend the intellectual capacities for optimal achievement. Teachers should also understand that some learning activities can prove very frustrating to students, and these activities can be modified based on individual student needs. Because 2e students can often become discouraged by their learning challenges, it is especially important for teachers to assist students in recognizing their own strengths and maintaining motivation for learning. Although research on the needs of 2e students has spanned across two decades, this population remains underserved in many educational institutions. Teacher awareness of the identification of and the support strategies for 2e students is critical for their success.

Keywords: gifted, learning disability, special needs, twice exceptional

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Reem Alshiha, Tanzila Saba

Abstract:

Physical rehabilitation is the process of helping people to recover and be able to go back to their former activities that have been delayed due to external factors such as car accidents, old age and victims of strokes (chronic diseases and accidents, and those related to sport activities).The cost of hiring a personal nurse or driving the patient to and from the hospital could be costly and time-consuming. Also, there are other factors to take into account such as forgetfulness, boredom and lack of motivation. In order to solve this dilemma, some experts came up with rehabilitation software to be used with Microsoft Kinect to help the patients and their families for in-home rehabilitation. In home rehabilitation software is becoming more and more popular, since it is more convenient for all parties affiliated with the patient. In contrast to the other costly market-based systems that have no portability, Microsoft’s Kinect is a portable motion sensor that reads body movements and interprets it. New software development has made rehabilitation games available to be used at home for the convenience of the patient. The game will benefit its users (rehabilitation patients) in saving time and money. There are many software's that are used with the Kinect for rehabilitation, but the software that is chosen in this research is Kinectotherapy. Kinectotherapy software is used for rehabilitation patients in Riyadh clinics to test its acceptance by patients and their physicians. In this study, we used Kinect because it was affordable, portable and easy to access in contrast to expensive market-based motion sensors. This paper explores the importance of in-home rehabilitation by using Kinect with Kinectotherapy software. The software targets both upper and lower limbs, but in this research, the main focus is on upper-limb functionality. However, the in-home rehabilitation is applicable to be used by all patients with motor disability, since the patient must have some self-reliance. The targeted subjects are patients with minor motor impairment that are somewhat independent in their mobility. The presented work is the first to consider the implementation of in-home rehabilitation with real-time feedback to the patient and physician. This research proposes the implementation of in-home rehabilitation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The findings show that most of the patients are interested and motivated in using the in-home rehabilitation system in the future. The main value of the software application is due to these factors: improve patient engagement through stimulating rehabilitation, be a low cost rehabilitation tool and reduce the need for expensive one-to-one clinical contact. Rehabilitation is a crucial treatment that can improve the quality of life and confidence of the patient as well as their self-esteem.

Keywords: x-box, rehabilitation, physical therapy, rehabilitation software, kinect

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Solanki Ravirajsinh, Kudo Kuniaki, Sharma Ankit, Devi Sherine, Kuboshima Misaki, Tachi Shuntaro

Abstract:

In software development life cycles, the absence of scalable CI/CD significantly impacts organizations, leading to increased overall maintenance costs, prolonged release delivery times, heightened manual efforts, and difficulties in meeting tight deadlines. Implementing CI/CD with standard serverless technologies using cloud services overcomes all the above-mentioned issues and helps organizations improve efficiency and faster delivery without the need to manage server maintenance and capacity. By integrating scalable CI/CD with scalable automation testing, productivity, quality, and agility are enhanced while reducing the need for repetitive work and manual efforts. Implementing scalable CI/CD for development using cloud services like ECS (Container Management Service), AWS Fargate, ECR (to store Docker images with all dependencies), Serverless Computing (serverless virtual machines), Cloud Log (for monitoring errors and logs), Security Groups (for inside/outside access to the application), Docker Containerization (Docker-based images and container techniques), Jenkins (CI/CD build management tool), and code management tools (GitHub, Bitbucket, AWS CodeCommit) can efficiently handle the demands of diverse development environments and are capable of accommodating dynamic workloads, increasing efficiency for faster delivery with good quality. CI/CD pipelines encourage collaboration among development, operations, and quality assurance teams by providing a centralized platform for automated testing, deployment, and monitoring. Scalable CI/CD streamlines the development process by automatically fetching the latest code from the repository every time the process starts, building the application based on the branches, testing the application using a scalable automation testing framework, and deploying the builds. Developers can focus more on writing code and less on managing infrastructure as it scales based on the need. Serverless CI/CD eliminates the need to manage and maintain traditional CI/CD infrastructure, such as servers and build agents, reducing operational overhead and allowing teams to allocate resources more efficiently. Scalable CI/CD adjusts the application's scale according to usage, thereby alleviating concerns about scalability, maintenance costs, and resource needs. Creating scalable automation testing using cloud services (ECR, ECS Fargate, Docker, EFS, Serverless Computing) helps organizations run more than 500 test cases in parallel, aiding in the detection of race conditions, performance issues, and reducing execution time. Scalable CI/CD offers flexibility, dynamically adjusting to varying workloads and demands, allowing teams to scale resources up or down as needed. It optimizes costs by only paying for the resources as they are used and increases reliability. Scalable CI/CD pipelines employ automated testing and validation processes to detect and prevent errors early in the development cycle.

Keywords: achieve parallel execution, cloud services, scalable automation testing, scalable continuous integration and deployment

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: Iván Castelló, Georgiana Stoica, Emilio Palomares, Fernando Bravo

Abstract:

We present herein two colour encoded silica nanospheres (2nanoSi) for the fluorescence quantitative ratiometric determination of trypsin in humans. The system proved to be a faster (minutes) method, with two times higher sensitivity than the state-of-the-art biomarkers based sensors for cystic fibrosis (CF), allowing the quantification of trypsin concentrations in a wide range (0-350 mg/L). Furthermore, as trypsin is directly related to the development of cystic fibrosis, different human genotypes, i.e. healthy homozygotic (> 80 mg/L), CF homozygotic (< 50 mg/L), and heterozygotic (> 50 mg/L), respectively, can be determined using our 2nanoSi nanospheres.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis, trypsin, quantum dots, biomarker, homozygote, heterozygote

Procedia PDF Downloads 476

Authors: D. Artamonov, A. Tsibulnikova, I. Samusev, V. Bryukhanov, A. Kozhevnikov

Abstract:

The synthesis and luminescent properties of Yb₂O₃, Nd₂O₃@Bi₂O₃ complex with upconversion generation are discussed in this work. The obtained samples were measured in the visible region of the spectrum under excitation with a wavelength of 980 nm. The studies showed that the obtained complexes have a high degree of stability and intense luminescence in the wavelength range of 400-750 nm. Consideration of the time dependence of the intensity of the upconversion luminescence allowed us to conclude that the enhancement of the intensity occurs in the time interval from 5 to 30 min, followed by the appearance of a stationary mode.

Keywords: lasers, luminescence, upconversion photonics, rare earth metals

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Omneya Messallam, Sara S. Fouad

Abstract:

The Modernist Movement initially flourished in France, Holland, Germany and the Soviet Union. Many architects and designers were inspired and followed its principles. Two of its most important architects (Gerrit Rietveld and Ludwig Mies van de Rohe) were introduced in this paper. Each did not follow the other’s principles and had their own particular rules; however, they shared the same features of the Modernist International Style, such as Anti-historicism, Abstraction, Technology, Function and Internationalism/ Universality. Key Modernist principles translated into high expectations, which sometimes did not meet the inhabitants’ aspirations of living comfortably; consequently, leading to a conflict and misunderstanding between the designer and their clients’ needs. Therefore, historical case studies (the Schroder and the Farnsworth houses) involving two Modernist pioneer architects have been chosen. This paper is an attempt to explore some of the influential factors affecting buildings design such as: needs, gender, and question concerning commonalities between both designers and their clients. The three aspects and two designers explored here have been chosen because they have been influenced the researchers to understand the impact of those factors on the design process, building’s performance, and the dweller’s satisfaction. This is a descriptive/ analytical research based on two historical comparative case studies that involve several steps such as: key evaluation questions (KEQs), observations, document analysis, etc. The methodology is based on data collation and finding validations. The research aims to state a manifest to regulate the relation between architects and their clients to reach the optimum building performance and functional interior design that suits their clients’ needs, reflects the architects’ character, and the school they belong to. At the end, through the investigation in this paper, the different needs between both the designers and the clients have been seen not only in the building itself but also it could convert the inhabitant’s life in various ways. Moreover, a successful relationship between the architect and their clients could play a significant role in the success of projects. In contrast, not every good design or celebrated building could end up with a successful relationship between the designer and their client or full-fill the inhabitant’s aspirations.

Keywords: architect’s character, building’s performance, commonalities, client’s character, gender, modernist movement, needs

Procedia PDF Downloads 142