Search results for: body measurement

Authors: Huda Alyami

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The present study aims to measure the effectiveness of an "Interactive eBook" in order to develop skills of designing and employing webquests for female intern teachers. The study uses descriptive analytical methodology as well as quasi-experimental methodology. The sample of the study consists of (30) female intern teachers from the Department of Special Education (in the tracks of Gifted Education and Learning Difficulties), during the first semester of the academic year 2015, at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah city. The sample is divided into (15) female intern teachers for the experimental group, and (15) female intern teachers for the control group. A set of qualitative and quantitative tools have been prepared and verified for the study, embodied in: a list of the designing webquests' skills, a list of the employing webquests' skills, a webquests' knowledge achievement test, a product rating card, an observation card, and an interactive ebook. The study concludes the following results: 1. After pre-control, there are statistically significant differences, at the significance level of (α ≤ 0.05), between the mean scores of the experimental and the control groups in the post measurement of the webquests' knowledge achievement test, in favor of the experimental group. 2. There are statistically significant differences, at the significance level of (α ≤ 0.05), between the mean scores of experimental and control groups in the post measurement of the product rating card in favor of the experimental group. 3. There are statistically significant differences, at the significance level of (α ≤ 0.05), between the mean scores of experimental and control groups in the post measurement of the observation card for the experimental group. In the light of the previous findings, the study recommends the following: taking advantage of interactive ebooks when teaching all educational courses for various disciplines at the university level, creating educational participative platforms to share educational interactive ebooks for various disciplines at the local and regional levels. The study suggests conducting further qualitative studies on the effectiveness of interactive ebooks, in addition to conducting studies on the use of (Web 2.0) in webquests.

Keywords: interactive eBook, webquest, design, employing, develop skills

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Tibor Ajtai, Noémi Utry, Máté Pintér, Gábor Szabó, Zoltán Bozóki

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Beyond its climate and health related issues ambient light absorbing carbonaceous particulate matter (LAC) has also become a great scientific interest in terms of its regulations recently. It has been experimentally demonstrated in recent studies, that LAC is dominantly composed of traffic and wood burning aerosol particularly under wintertime urban conditions, when the photochemical and biological activities are negligible. Several methods have been introduced to quantitatively apportion aerosol fractions emitted by wood burning and traffic but most of them require costly and time consuming off-line chemical analysis. As opposed to chemical features, the microphysical properties of airborne particles such as optical absorption and size distribution can be easily measured on-line, with high accuracy and sensitivity, especially under highly polluted urban conditions. Recently a new method has been proposed for the apportionment of wood burning and traffic aerosols based on the spectral dependence of their absorption quantified by the Aerosol Angström Exponent (AAE). In this approach the absorption coefficient is deduced from transmission measurement on a filter accumulated aerosol sample and the conversion factor between the measured optical absorption and the corresponding mass concentration (the specific absorption cross section) are determined by on-site chemical analysis. The recently developed multi-wavelength photoacoustic instruments provide novel, in-situ approach towards the reliable and quantitative characterization of carbonaceous particulate matter. Therefore, it also opens up novel possibilities on the source apportionment through the measurement of light absorption. In this study, we demonstrate an in-situ spectral characterization method of the ambient carbon fraction based on light absorption and size distribution measurements using our state-of-the-art multi-wavelength photoacoustic instrument (4λ-PAS) and Single Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) The carbonaceous particulate selective source apportionment study was performed for ambient particulate matter in the city center of Szeged, Hungary where the dominance of traffic and wood burning aerosol has been experimentally demonstrated earlier. The proposed model is based on the parallel, in-situ measurement of optical absorption and size distribution. AAEff and AAEwb were deduced from the measured data using the defined correlation between the AOC(1064nm)/AOC(266nm) and N100/N20 ratios. σff(λ) and σwb(λ) were determined with the help of the independently measured temporal mass concentrations in the PM1 mode. Furthermore, the proposed optical source apportionment is based on the assumption that the light absorbing fraction of PM is exclusively related to traffic and wood burning. This assumption is indirectly confirmed here by the fact that the measured size distribution is composed of two unimodal size distributions identified to correspond to traffic and wood burning aerosols. The method offers the possibility of replacing laborious chemical analysis with simple in-situ measurement of aerosol size distribution data. The results by the proposed novel optical absorption based source apportionment method prove its applicability whenever measurements are performed at an urban site where traffic and wood burning are the dominant carbonaceous sources of emission.

Keywords: absorption, size distribution, source apportionment, wood burning, traffic aerosol

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Muhammad Sohail Sajid, Mahvish Maqbool, Hafiz Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Saqib, Haroon Ahmad

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Ticks are blood-sucking ectoparasite that causes a decrease in production and economic losses and affects mammals, reptiles, and birds. Hyalomma anatolicum is the main vector for CCHF transmission and Pakistan has faced several outbreaks of CCHF in the recent past. Ferritin (fer)is a highly conserved molecule that is ubiquitous in most tick tissues and responsible for iron metabolism and storage. It was hypothesized that the development of acaricidal resistance and residual effects of commercially used acaricides could be controlled by using alternative control methods, including RNA interference. The current study aimed to evaluate the fer silencing effects on tick feeding, average body weight, egg mass index, and mortality. Ticks, collected through the standard collection protocols were further subjected to RNA isolation using the Trizol method. Commercially available kit procedures were followed for cDNA and dsRNA synthesis. The soaking/Immersion method was used for dsRNA delivery. Our findings have shown a 27% reduction in body weight of fer silenced group and showed a significant association of fer and body weight. Silencing of fer had a significant effect on the engorgement percentage (P= 0.0007), oviposition (P=0.008), egg mass (P= 0.004) and hatching (P= 0.001). The soaking method was used for dsRNA delivery and 15°C was found to be an optimum temperature for inducing gene silencing in ticks as at this temperature, maximum survivability after immersion was attained. This study along with previous studies, described that iron toxicity due to the silencing of fer could play an important role in the control of ticks and fer can be used as a potent candidate for vaccine development.

Keywords: ticks, iron, ferritin, engorgement, oviposition, immersion, RNA interference

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Meskure Pak, Nihal Buyukuslu

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During Ramadan Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset. Transformation of the eating habits cause profound changes in body composition. This study was performed during Ramadan of June-July 2015 with the regular fasting healthy adults (15 women and 15 men). The participants who were not fasting the whole month, have chronic diseases, pregnant and lactated were excluded. All attendances were informed about study. Written informed consent was taken from the voluntary participants. The work was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey. A questionnaire was conducted to determine the nutritional status, demographic and anthropometric data at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of Ramadan. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 18.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for analyses. The mean ages of women and men were 34.4±9.45 and 28.9±10.55 years respectively. The BMI values (kg/m2) were slightly increased in men (26.5±3.9 to 26.2±3.7) and decreased in women (22.5±3.5 to 23.3±4.5). However the differences in BMI values between genders were not significant. Waist circumferences (WC) (cm) decreased in both women (80.2±14.6 to 79.4±17.7) and men (98.9±8.4 to 95.2±11.0) through the Ramadan. Fat percentages of women (27.0±71) increased in the middle of Ramadan (28.4±7.8) and decreased at the end of Ramadan (27.8±8.3). The fat percentages of men (21.5±6.3) were not affected in the middle of Ramadan (21.5±6.4) however decreased at the end of Ramadan (20.8±6.2). The total change in fat mass from beginning to end of Ramadan was higher in women than in men. The daily energy intake was higher in men than in women during Ramadan. In the middle of Ramadan energy intake (kcal) was reached to the highest level (2057.8±693.1) and at the end of Ramadan it decreased to the beginning level (1656.7±553.2) for men. However, daily energy intake of women slightly decreased from the beginning (1410.0±359.7) to the end (1409.2±366.7) of Ramadan. The comparison of energy intake between men and women was significant in the middle of Ramadan (p < 0.05). Water consumptions for both groups were increased in Ramadan fasting period. In comparison with the beginning of Ramadan, daily carbohydrate and fat consumptions increased and the consumption of protein decreased for men and for women at the end of Ramadan. The gender comparison resulted in a significant increase for protein and carbohydrate consumption of men in the middle of Ramadan (p < 0.05). In the first two weeks, the daily energy intake, the consumption of carbohydrates and fats seemed to increase for both men and women. However the later days of Ramadan daily fat consumption decreased to the level of beginning consumption levels which may indicate the nutritional adaptation period. In spite of the consumption of protein sources such as meat, poultry and egg increased, the decrease in the total amount of protein consumed in Ramadan may be due to a decrease in the consumption of milk and dairy products. In conclusion, the nutritional habits and preferred foods changed during Ramadan as a result affected the body composition.

Keywords: body composition, fasting, nutritional status, Ramadan

Procedia PDF Downloads 224

Authors: Xi Wang, Xiaoming Tao, Raymond C. H. So

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As one of the convenient and noninvasive sensing approaches, the automatic limb girth measurement has been applied to detect intention behind human motion from muscle deformation. The sensing validity has been elaborated by preliminary researches but still need more fundamental study, especially on kinetic contraction modes. Based on the novel fabric strain sensors, a soft and smart limb girth measurement system was developed by the authors’ group, which can measure the limb girth in-motion. Experiments were carried out on elbow isometric flexion and elbow isokinetic flexion (biceps’ isokinetic contractions) of 90°/s, 60°/s, and 120°/s for 10 subjects (2 canoeists and 8 ordinary people). After removal of natural circumferential increments due to elbow position, the joint torque is found not uniformly sensitive to the limb circumferential strains, but declining as elbow joint angle rises, regardless of the angular speed. Moreover, the maximum joint torque was found as an exponential function of the joint’s angular speed. This research highly contributes to the application of the automatic limb girth measuring during kinetic contractions, and it is useful to predict the contraction level of voluntary skeletal muscles.

Keywords: fabric strain sensor, muscle deformation, isokinetic contraction, joint torque, limb girth strain

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: H. Z. M. Chong, M. E. Y. Leong, G. L. Khor, S. C. Loke

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Vitamin D insufficiency is reported to be prevalent among women living in different altitudes including the equator where sunshine is available throughout the year. Multiple factors for vitamin D insufficiency include poor intake of vitamin D rich food and inadequate sun exposure, especially among women working indoor with a sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, Muslim women in Malaysia whose attire covers the entire body are likely to receive poor sun exposure. This research determined serum vitamin D status, vitamin D intake and sun exposure of women aged 20-45 years of different ethnicity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Blood samples were collected from 106 women for determination of serum 25(OH)D levels. Information about vitamin D intake and sun exposure were obtained by interviewing the subjects using pre-tested questionnaires. The overall mean serum 25(OH)D was found to be 29.9 ± 14 nmol/L. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was prevalent and highest among the Malay women. Less than ten percent of the subjects in this study met the sufficient vitamin D level recommendation of ≥50 nmol/L. Intake of vitamin D rich food such as oily fishes was poor across the different ethnicity. Other dietary sources of vitamin D in the diet were fortified bread and skim milk. On the other hand, the median sunlight exposure of the subjects was 3.9 hours per week. The Malay women reported to have the highest duration being exposed to the sun. Nevertheless, due to cultural clothing practices, these women had the least body surface area exposed to sunlight, resulting in the lowest calculated sun index score compared to the Chinese and the Indians. Low intake of vitamin D rich foods and sun exposure were negatively correlated with serum 25(OH)D level. In conclusion, intake of food sources rich in vitamin D and adequate body surface area exposed to the sun are essential to ensure healthy vitamin D level. Supplementation of vitamin D may be recommended to women whom unable to meet these recommendations.

Keywords: serum 25-OH, sun exposure, vitamin D food frequency, vitamin D deficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 266

Authors: Gopikrishnan, Bharathiraja, Boopalan, Jensin Joshua

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The Pitot static tube has proven their values and practicability in measuring velocity of fluids for many years. With the aim of extensive usage of such Pitot tube systems, one of the major enabling technologies is to use the design and fabricate a high sensitive pitot tube for the purpose of calibration of the subsonic wind tunnel. Calibration of wind tunnel is carried out by using different instruments to measure variety of parameters. Using too many instruments inside the tunnel may not only affect the fluid flow but also lead to drag or losses. So, it is essential to replace the different system with a single system that would give all the required information. This model of high sensitive Pitot tube has been designed to ease the calibration process. It minimizes the use of different instruments and this single system is capable of calibrating the wind tunnel test section. This Pitot static tube is completely digitalized and so that the velocity data`s can be collected directly from the instrument. Since the turbulence factors are dependent on velocity, the data’s that are collected from the pitot static tube are then processed and the level of turbulence in the fluid flow is calculated. It is also capable of measuring the pressure distribution inside the wind tunnel and the flow angularity of the fluid. Thus, the well-designed high sensitive Pitot static tube is utilized in calibrating the tunnel and also for the measurement of turbulence.

Keywords: pitot static tube, turbulence, wind tunnel, velocity

Procedia PDF Downloads 526

Authors: Marianne Simons, Sinan Kurt, Marjolein Stefens, Kai Karos, Johan Lataster

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As cultural diversity within older populations in European countries increases, the role of cultural background should be taken account of in aging studies. Bonding social capital (BSC), containing someone’s socio-emotional resources, is recognised as an important ingredient for wellbeing in old age and found to be associated with someone’s cultural background. The current study examined the association between BSC, loneliness and wellbeing in a sample including older Turkish migrants with a collectivistic cultural background and native Dutch older adults, both living in the Netherlands, characterised by an individualistic culture. A sample of 119 Turkish migrants (64.7% male; age 65-87, M(SD)=71.13(5.04) and 124 native Dutch adults (32.3% male, age 65-94, M(SD)= 71.9(5.32) filled out either an online or printed questionnaire measuring BSC, psychological, social and emotional well-being, loneliness and relevant demographic covariates. Regression analysis - including confounders age, gender, level of education, physical health and relationship - showed positive associations between BSC and respectively emotional, social and psychological well-being and a negative association with loneliness in both samples. Moderation analyses showed that these associations were significantly stronger for the Turkish older migrants than for their native peers. Measurement invariance analysis indicated partial metric invariance for the measurement of BSC and loneliness and non-invariance for wellbeing, calling for caution comparing means between samples. The results stress the importance of BSC for wellbeing of older migrants from collectivistic cultures living in individualistic countries. Previous research, shows a trend of older migrants displaying lower levels of BSC as well as associated variables, such as education, physical health, and financial income. This calls for more research of the interplay between demographic and psychosocial factors restraining mental wellbeing of older migrant populations. Measurement invariance analyses further emphasize the importance of taking cultural background into account in positive aging studies.

Keywords: positive aging, cultural background, wellbeing, social capital, loneliness

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Sebastian Töpfer, Marta Gilaberte Basset, Jorge Fuenzalida, Fabian Steinlechner, Juan P. Torres, Markus Gräfe

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This work introduces a combination of digital phase-shifting holography with a non-linear interferometer using undetected photons. Non-linear interferometers can be used in combination with a measurement scheme called quantum imaging with undetected photons, which allows for the separation of the wavelengths used for sampling an object and detecting it in the imaging sensor. This method recently faced increasing attention, as it allows to use of exotic wavelengths (e.g., mid-infrared, ultraviolet) for object interaction while at the same time keeping the detection in spectral areas with highly developed, comparable low-cost imaging sensors. The object information, including its transmission and phase influence, is recorded in the form of an interferometric pattern. To collect these, this work combines the method of quantum imaging with undetected photons with digital phase-shifting holography with a minimal sampling of the interference. With this, the quantum imaging scheme gets extended in its measurement capabilities and brings it one step closer to application. Quantum imaging with undetected photons uses correlated photons generated by spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a non-linear interferometer to create indistinguishable photon pairs, which leads to an effect called induced coherence without induced emission. Placing an object inside changes the interferometric pattern depending on the object’s properties. Digital phase-shifting holography records multiple images of the interference with determined phase shifts to reconstruct the complete interference shape, which can afterward be used to analyze the changes introduced by the object and conclude its properties. An extensive characterization of this method was done using a proof-of-principle setup. The measured spatial resolution, phase accuracy, and transmission accuracy are compared for different combinations of camera exposure times and the number of interference sampling steps. The current limits of this method are shown to allow further improvements. To summarize, this work presents an alternative holographic measurement method using non-linear interferometers in combination with quantum imaging to enable new ways of measuring and motivating continuing research.

Keywords: digital holography, quantum imaging, quantum holography, quantum metrology

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: L. Todorovska, E. Sivevska, B. Dejanova, J. Pluncevic, S. Petrovska, V. Antevska, S. Mancevska, I. Karadjozova

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Objective: The aim of this longitudinal study was to describe anthropometric and performance characteristics and to explore their differences between senior football (F) and basketball (B) players. Subjects and methods: 25 F (aged 23±2.5 y) and 25 B (aged 22±4.2 y) from Macedonian national teams and elite sport clubs were annually tested during 2 consecutive years. Full anthropometric profiles (stature, weight, five circumferences, four bone diameters, seven skin-folds and nine calculated parameters with standard formulas) were collected. Body composition was determined with InBody720 System. Physical capacity was tested with ergo metric test of Bruce (Custo med GmbH, Germany). Results: B were taller (p<0.001) and heavier (p<0.01), but leaner (p<0.001). F had higher percentage of muscle mass (p<0.01) and body fat (p< 0.001). F had higher VO2max (p<0.05) and lower hard rate (p<0.01). The differences in physical performance were not significant (p>0.05) within the groups during the 2-years period. Conclusions: These results suggest that there are distinct differences in anthropometric profile between Macedonian senior football and basketball players during the two competitive seasons.

Keywords: anthropometry, basketball players, football players, Macedonia

Procedia PDF Downloads 489

Authors: O. Hakim, K. Hart, P. McCabe, J. Berry, L. E. Rhodes, N. Spyrou, A. Alfuraih, S. Lanham-New

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It is known that skin pigmentation reduces the penetration of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and thus photosynthesis of 25(OH)D. However, the ethnic differences in 25(OH)D production remain to be fully elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the differences in vitamin D production between Asian and Caucasian postmenopausal women, in response to a defined, controlled UVB exposure. Seventeen women; nine white Caucasian (skin phototype II and III), eight South Asian women (skin phototype IV and V) participated in the study, acting as their controls. Three blood samples were taken for measurement of 25(OH)D during the run-in period (nine days, no sunbed exposure) after which all subjects underwent an identical UVR exposure protocol irrespective of skin colour (nine days, three sunbed sessions: 6, 8 and 8 minutes respectively with approximately 80% of body surface exposed). Skin tone was measured four times during the study. Both groups showed a gradual increase in 25(OH)D with final levels significantly higher than baseline (p<0.01). 25(OH)D concentration mean from a baseline of 43.58±19.65 to 57.80±17.11 nmol/l among Caucasian and from 27.03±23.92 to 44.73±17.74 nmol/l among Asian women. The baseline status of vitamin D was classified as deficient among the Asian women and insufficient among the Caucasian women. The percentage increase in vitamin D3 among Caucasians was 39.86% (21.02) and 207.78% (286.02) in Asian subjects respectively. This greater response to UVR exposure reflects the lower baseline levels of the Asian subjects. The mixed linear model analysis identified a significant effect of duration of UVR exposure on the production of 25(OH)D. However, the model shows no significant effect of ethnicity and skin tone on the production of 25(OH)D. These novel findings indicate that people of Asian ethnicity have the full capability to produce a similar amount of vitamin D compared to the Caucasian group; initial vitamin D concentration influences the amount of UVB needed to reach equal serum concentrations.

Keywords: ethnicity, Caucasian, South Asian, vitamin D, ultraviolet radiation, UVR

Procedia PDF Downloads 534

Authors: Radwa R. El-Saadany , Medhat Abu Zeid, Tarek Omar, Marwa S. Maqsoud

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Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by attention deficit, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Neurofeedback (NF) is one of the neurotherapy treatments that cause brain wave changes. Method: The current pseudo-experimental study with a pre–post-test design was conducted on a population of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).The sample size comprised of (30) children selected by random sampling method and assigned to two therapeutic groups: First therapeutic group received a neurofeedback program. Based on QEEG, it reached (10) children. The second therapeutic group received an organization skills training program, it reached (10) and the control group that did not receive programs, it reached (10) children. Results: There are significant differences between pre- and post-assessments among therapeutic groups in reducing the three core symptoms of ADHD in favor of post measurement. There are no significant differences between post-assessment and follow up measurement of the therapeutic groups.

Keywords: QEEG-based neurofeedback therapy program, organizational skills training program, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Zhuang Hou, Xiaolei Cao

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The general public and medical professionals recognized the importance of accurately measuring and storing blood oxygen levels and heart rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for accurate contactless devices was motivated by the need for cross-infection reduction and the shortage of conventional oximeters, partially due to the global supply chain issue. This paper evaluated a contactless mini program HealthyPai’s heart rate (HR) and oxygen saturation (SpO2) measurements compared with other wearable devices. In the HR study of 185 samples (81 in the laboratory environment, 104 in the real-life environment), the mean absolute error (MAE) ± standard deviation was 1.4827 ± 1.7452 in the lab, 6.9231 ± 5.6426 in the real-life setting. In the SpO2 study of 24 samples, the MAE ± standard deviation of the measurement was 1.0375 ± 0.7745. Our results validated that HealthyPai utilizing the Integrated Image Deep Learning Solution (IIDLS) framework, can accurately measure HR and SpO2, providing the test quality at least comparable to other FDA-approved wearable devices in the market and surpassing the consumer-grade and research-grade wearable standards.

Keywords: remote photoplethysmography, heart rate, oxygen saturation, contactless measurement, mini program

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Behnam Shakerian, Negin Razavi

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The pathogenesis of coronary artery disease is multifactorial. The epicardial fat pad is a localized fat depot lying between the myocardium and the visceral layer of the pericardium. The mechanisms through which epicardial fat pad can cause atherosclerosis are complex. The epicardial fat pad can surround the coronary arteries and contributes to the development and progression of coronary artery disease. Methods: we selected 50 patients who underwent coronary artery angiography for the evaluation of coronary artery disease that results were positive for coronary artery disease. All patients underwent an echocardiographic examination after coronary angiography to measure epicardial fat pad thickness. The epicardial fat pad was defined as an echo-free space between the myocardium's outer wall and the pericardium's visceral layer. Results: The epicardial fat pad was measured on the right ventricle apex in 46 patients. Sixty- five percent of the studied patients were male. The most common vessel with stenosis was the left anterior descending artery. A significant correlation was observed between epicardial fat pad thickness and the severity of coronary artery disease. Discussions: The epicardial fat pad provides a horizon on the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. It directly contributes to the development and progression of coronary artery disease by causing inflammation and endothelial damage. Further investigations are needed to determine whether medical treatment can reduce the mass of epicardial fat pad and can help to improve atherosclerosis. Conclusion: The epicardial fat pad measurement could be used as an indicator of coronary arteries’ atherosclerosis. Therefore, thickness measurement of the epicardial fat pad in the clinical practice could be of assistance in identifying patients at risk and if required, undergoing supplementary diagnosis with coronary angiography.

Keywords: epicardial, fat pad, coronary artery disease, echocardiography

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Ishrat Jahan Saifi, Sheelu Shafiq Siddiqi, M. R. Ajmal

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Glycation of protein is very important as well as a harmful process, which may lead to develop DM in human body. Human Serum Albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in blood and it is highly prone to glycation by the reducing sugars. 2-¬deoxy d-¬Ribose (dRib) is a highly reactive reducing sugar which is produced in cells as a product of the enzyme thymidine phosphorylase. It is generated during the degradation of DNA in human body. It may cause glycation in HSA rapidly and is involved in the development of DM. In present study, we did in¬vitro glycation of HSA with different concentrations of 2-¬deoxy d-¬ribose and found that dRib glycated HSA rapidly within 4h incubation at 37◦C. UV¬ Spectroscopy, Fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Circular Dichroism (CD) technique have been done to determine the structural changes in HSA upon glycation. Results of this study suggested that dRib is the potential glycating agent and it causes alteration in protein structure and biophysical properties which may lead to development and progression of Diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: 2-deoxy D-ribose, human serum albumin, glycation, diabetes mellitus

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Authors: Alex Elentukh

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The paper is based on data collected from final exams administered during five years of teaching the graduate course in software engineering. The visualization instrument with four distinct personas has been used to improve the effectiveness of each class. The study offers a plethora of clues toward students' behavioral preferences. Diversity among students (professional background, physical proximity) is too significant to assume a single face of a learner. This is particularly true for a body of online graduate students in computer science. Conclusions of the study (each learner is unique, and each class is unique) are extrapolated to demystify the notion of an 'average software engineer.' An immediate direction for an educator is to ensure a course applies to a wide audience of very different individuals. On the other hand, a student should be clear about his/her abilities and preferences - to follow the most effective learning path.

Keywords: K.3.2 computer and information science education, learner profiling, adaptive learning, software engineering

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Authors: Suyeon Kwon, Ik Joong Kang, Wang Bingjie

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Chitosan is a polymer that is usually produced from N-deacetylation of chitin. It is emerging as a promising biocompatible polymer that is harmless to humans. For the reason that many merits such as good adsorptive, biodegradability, many researches are being done on the chitosan for drug delivery system. Drug delivery system (DDS) has been developed for the control of drug. It makes the drug can be delivered effectively and safely into the targeted human body. The drug used in this work is hydrocortisone that is used in Rheumatism, skin diseases, allergy treatment. In this work, hydrocortisone was used to make allergic rhinitis medicine. Our study focuses on drug delivery through the nasal mucosa by using hydrocortisone impregnated chitosan nanoshells. This study has performed an investigation in order to establish the optimal conditions, changing concentration, quantity of hydrocortisone. DLS, SEM, TEM, FT-IR, UV spectrum were used to analyze the manufactured chitosan-hydrocortisone silver nanoshell and silver nanoshell, whose function as drug carriers. This study has performed an investigation on new drug carriers and delivery routes for hydrocortisone. Various methods of manufacturing chitosan-hydrocortisone nanoshells were attempted in order to establish the optimal condition. As a result, the average size of chitosan-hydrocortisone silver nanoshell is about 80 nm. So, chitosan-hydrocortisone silver nanoshell is suitable as drug carriers because optimal size of drug carrier in human body is less than 120 nm. UV spectrum of Chitosan-hydrocortisone silver nanoshell shows the characteristic peak of silver nanoshell at 420 nm. Likewise, the average size of chitosan-hydrocortisone silver nanoshell is about 100nm. It is also suitable for drug carrier in human body. Also, multi-layered silver shell over chitosan nanoshells induced the red-shift of absorption peak and increased the intensity of absorption peak. The resultant chitosan–silver nanocomposites (or nanoshells) exhibited the absorption peak around 430nm attributed to silvershell formation. i.e. the absorption peak was red-shifted by ca. 40 nm in reference to 390 nm of silver nanoshells.

Keywords: chitosan, drug delivery, hydrocortisone, rhinitis, nanoshell

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Authors: Chairul Fajar, Muhammad Nur Hidayat, Muksalmina

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The issue of Over Dimension Over Loading (ODOL) in Indonesia remains a significant challenge, causing traffic accidents, disrupting traffic flow, accelerating road damage, and potentially leading to bridge collapses. Klaten Regency, located on the slopes of Mount Merapi along the Woro River in Kemalang District, has potential Class C excavation materials such as sand and stone. Data from the Klaten Regency Transportation Department indicates that ODOL violations account for 72%, while non-violating vehicles make up only 28%. ODOL involves modifying factory-standard vehicles beyond the limits specified in the Type Test Registration Certificate (SRUT) to save costs and travel time. This study aims to develop a prototype ‘Sabrang’ monitoring system based on Arduino Mega to control and monitor ODOL freight transportation in the mining of Class C excavation materials in Klaten Regency. The prototype is designed to automatically measure the dimensions and weight of objects using a microcontroller. The data analysis techniques used in this study include the Normality Test and Paired T-Test, comparing sensor measurement results on scaled objects. The study results indicate differences in measurement validation under room temperature and ambient temperature conditions. Measurements at room temperature showed that the majority of H0 was accepted, meaning there was no significant difference in measurements when the prototype tool was used. Conversely, measurements at ambient temperature showed that the majority of H0 was rejected, indicating a significant difference in measurements when the prototype tool was used. In conclusion, the ‘Sabrang’ monitoring system prototype is effective for controlling ODOL, although measurement results are influenced by temperature conditions. This study is expected to assist in the monitoring and control of ODOL, thereby enhancing traffic safety and road infrastructure.

Keywords: over dimension over loading, prototype, microcontroller, Arduino, normality test, paired t-test

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Authors: Jacques Cuenca, Claudio Colangeli, Agnieszka Mroz, Karl Janssens, Gunther Riexinger, Antonio D'Antuono, Giuseppe Pandarese, Milena Martarelli, Gian Marco Revel, Carlos Barcena Martin

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This study presents an on-site acoustic inspection methodology for quality and performance evaluation of building components. The work focuses on global and detailed sound source localisation, by successively performing acoustic beamforming and sound intensity measurements. A portable experimental setup is developed, consisting of an omnidirectional broadband acoustic source and a microphone array and sound intensity probe. Three main acoustic indicators are of interest, namely the sound pressure distribution on the surface of components such as walls, windows and junctions, the three-dimensional sound intensity field in the vicinity of junctions, and the sound transmission loss of partitions. The measurement data is post-processed and converted into a three-dimensional numerical model of the acoustic indicators with the help of the simultaneously acquired geolocation information. The three-dimensional acoustic indicators are then integrated into an augmented reality platform superimposing them onto a real-time visualisation of the spatial environment. The methodology thus enables a measurement-supported inspection process of buildings and the correction of errors during construction and refurbishment. Two experimental validation cases are shown. The first consists of a laboratory measurement on a full-scale mockup of a room, featuring a prefabricated panel. The latter is installed with controlled defects such as lack of insulation and joint sealing material. It is demonstrated that the combined acoustic and augmented reality tool is capable of identifying acoustic leakages from the building defects and assist in correcting them. The second validation case is performed on a prefabricated room at a near-completion stage in the factory. With the help of the measurements and visualisation tools, the homogeneity of the partition installation is evaluated and leakages from junctions and doors are identified. Furthermore, the integration of acoustic indicators together with thermal and geometrical indicators via the augmented reality platform is shown.

Keywords: acoustic inspection, prefabricated building components, augmented reality, sound source localization

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Madhav Pant, Khem N. Poudel

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Wireless power transfer is continuously becoming more powerful and compact in medical implantable devices and the wide range of applications. A rectenna is designed for wireless power transfer technique that can be applied to medical implant devices. The experiment is performed using ANSYS HFSS, a full wave electromagnetic simulation. The dipole antenna combinations operating at 2.4 GHz are used for wireless power transfer and the maximum DC voltage reception by the implant considering International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) regulation. The power receiving dipole antenna is placed inside the cylindrical geometry having the similar properties of the human body at the frequency of 2.4 GHz. Our design can provide the power at the depth of 5 mm skin and 5mm of bone for the implant. The voltage doubler/quadrupler rectifier in ANSYS Simplorer is used to calculate the exact DC current utilized by implant inside the human body. The qualitative design and analysis of this wireless power transfer method could also be used for other biomedical implants systems such as cardiac pacemaker, insulin pump, and retinal implants.

Keywords: dipole antenna, medical implants, wireless power transfer, rectifier

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Authors: Mian Huang, Chi Ma, Junyu Lin, William Lu

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Introduction: Bone health attracts more attention recently and an intelligent question and answer (QA) chatbot for osteoporosis is helpful for science popularization. With Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) technology developing, we build an osteoporosis corpus dataset and then fine-tune LLaMA, a famous open-source GPT foundation large language model(LLM), on our self-constructed osteoporosis corpus. Evaluated by clinical orthopedic experts, our fine-tuned model outperforms vanilla LLaMA on osteoporosis QA task in Chinese. Three-dimensional quantitative computed tomography (QCT) measured bone mineral density (BMD) is considered as more accurate than DXA for BMD measurement in recent years. We develop an automatic Phantom-less QCT(PL-QCT) that is more efficient for BMD measurement since no need of an external phantom for calibration. Combined with LLM on osteoporosis, our PL-QCT provides efficient and accurate BMD measurement for our chatbot users. Material and Methods: We build an osteoporosis corpus containing about 30,000 Chinese literatures whose titles are related to osteoporosis. The whole process is done automatically, including crawling literatures in .pdf format, localizing text/figure/table region by layout segmentation algorithm and recognizing text by OCR algorithm. We train our model by continuous pre-training with Low-rank Adaptation (LoRA, rank=10) technology to adapt LLaMA-7B model to osteoporosis domain, whose basic principle is to mask the next word in the text and make the model predict that word. The loss function is defined as cross-entropy between the predicted and ground-truth word. Experiment is implemented on single NVIDIA A800 GPU for 15 days. Our automatic PL-QCT BMD measurement adopt AI-associated region-of-interest (ROI) generation algorithm for localizing vertebrae-parallel cylinder in cancellous bone. Due to no phantom for BMD calibration, we calculate ROI BMD by CT-BMD of personal muscle and fat. Results & Discussion: Clinical orthopaedic experts are invited to design 5 osteoporosis questions in Chinese, evaluating performance of vanilla LLaMA and our fine-tuned model. Our model outperforms LLaMA on over 80% of these questions, understanding ‘Expert Consensus on Osteoporosis’, ‘QCT for osteoporosis diagnosis’ and ‘Effect of age on osteoporosis’. Detailed results are shown in appendix. Future work may be done by training a larger LLM on the whole orthopaedics with more high-quality domain data, or a multi-modal GPT combining and understanding X-ray and medical text for orthopaedic computer-aided-diagnosis. However, GPT model gives unexpected outputs sometimes, such as repetitive text or seemingly normal but wrong answer (called ‘hallucination’). Even though GPT give correct answers, it cannot be considered as valid clinical diagnoses instead of clinical doctors. The PL-QCT BMD system provided by Bone’s QCT(Bone’s Technology(Shenzhen) Limited) achieves 0.1448mg/cm2(spine) and 0.0002 mg/cm2(hip) mean absolute error(MAE) and linear correlation coefficient R2=0.9970(spine) and R2=0.9991(hip)(compared to QCT-Pro(Mindways)) on 155 patients in three-center clinical trial in Guangzhou, China. Conclusion: This study builds a Chinese osteoporosis corpus and develops a fine-tuned and domain-adapted LLM as well as a PL-QCT BMD measurement system. Our fine-tuned GPT model shows better capability than LLaMA model on most testing questions on osteoporosis. Combined with our PL-QCT BMD system, we are looking forward to providing science popularization and early morning screening for potential osteoporotic patients.

Keywords: GPT, phantom-less QCT, large language model, osteoporosis

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Authors: Shrikant V. Sangludkar, Dilip I. Sangotra, Sachin T. Bagde, Abhijeet A. Khandagale

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The paper discloses a controlled tracked humanoid robot moving platform. A driving and driven wheel are controlled by a control module to drive a robot body to move according to data signals of a monitoring module, in addition, remote transmission can be achieved, and a certain remote control function can be realized. A power management module circuit board looks after in used for providing electric drive for moving of the robot body and distribution of separate power source to be used in internal of robot system. An external port circuit board is arranged, the tracked robot moving platform can be used immediately for any data acquisition. The moving platform is simple and compact in structure, strong in adaptation performance, stable in operation and suitable for being operated in severe environments. Meanwhile, a layered modular installation structure is adopted, and therefore the moving platform is convenient to assemble and disassemble.

Keywords: moving platform, humanoid robot, embedded controlled drive, mobile robot, museum robots, self-localization, obstacle avoidance, communication

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Authors: Arwin Malabanan, Carl Chester Ragudo, Jerome Tadiosa, John Dee Mangoba, Eric Augustus Tingatinga, Romeo Eliezer Longalong

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Concrete hollow blocks (CHB) are the most commonly used masonry block for walls in residential houses, school buildings and public buildings in the Philippines. During the recent 2013 Bohol earthquake (Mw 7.2), it has been proven that CHB walls are very vulnerable to severe external action like strong ground motion. In this paper, a numerical model of CHB structures is proposed, and seismic behavior of CHB houses is presented. In modeling, the Rigid Body Spring-Discrete Element method (RBS-DEM)) is used wherein masonry blocks are discretized into rigid elements and connected by nonlinear springs at preselected contact points. The shear and normal stiffness of springs are derived from the material properties of CHB unit incorporating the grout and mortar fillings through the volumetric transformation of the dimension using material ratio. Numerical models of reinforced and unreinforced walls are first subjected to linearly-increasing in plane loading to observe the different failure mechanisms. These wall models are then assembled to form typical model masonry houses and then subjected to the El Centro and Pacoima earthquake records. Numerical simulations show that the elastic, failure and collapse behavior of the model houses agree well with shaking table tests results. The effectiveness of the method in replicating failure patterns will serve as a basis for the improvement of the design and provides a good basis of strengthening the structure.

Keywords: concrete hollow blocks, discrete element method, earthquake, rigid body spring model

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Authors: Rosanna Tramutoli

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Studies on several languages have demonstrated how different emotions are categorized in various linguistic constructions. It exists in several writings on the codification of emotions in Western African languages. A recent study on the semantic description of Swahili body terminology has demonstrated that body part terms, such as moyo (heart), uso (face) and jicho (eye) are involved in several metaphorical expressions describing emotions. However, so far hardly anything has been written on the linguistic description of emotions in Swahili. Thus, this study describes how emotional concepts, such as ‘love’ and ‘anger’ are codified in Swahili, in order to highlight common semantic and syntactic patterns, etymological sources and metaphorical expressions. The research seeks to answer a number of questions, such as which are the Swahili terms for ‘emotions’? Is there a distinction between ‘emotions’ and ‘feelings’? Which emotional lexical items have Bantu origin and which come from Arabic? Which metaphorical expressions/cognitive schemas are used to codify emotions? (e.g. kumpanda mtu kichwani, lit. ‘to climb on somebody’s head’, to make somebody feel angry, kushuka moyo, lit. ‘to be down the heart’, to feel discouraged, kumpa mtu moyo lit. ‘to give someone heart’, to encourage someone). Which body terms are involved as ‘containers/locus of emotions’? For instance, it has been shown that moyo (‘heart’) occurs as container of ‘love’ (e.g. kumtia mtu moyoni, lit. ‘to put somebody in the heart’, to love somebody very much) and ‘kindness’ (moyo wake ulijaa hisani, ‘his heart was filled with kindness’). The study also takes into account the syntactic patterns used to code emotions. For instance, when does the experiencer occur in subject position? (e.g. nina furaha, nimefurahi, ‘I am happy’) and when in object position (e.g. Huruma iliniingia moyoni, lit. ‘Pity entered me inside my heart’, ‘I felt pity’)? Data have been collected mostly through the analysis of Swahili digital corpora, containing different kinds of Swahili texts (e.g. novels, drama, political essays).

Keywords: emotions, cognitive linguistics, metaphors, Swahili

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Authors: João Madureira, Ricardo Lagido, Inês Sousa, Fraunhofer Portugal

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Surf is an increasingly popular sport and its performance evaluation is often qualitative. This work aims at using a smartphone to collect and analyze the GPS and inertial sensors data in order to obtain quantitative metrics of the surfing performance. Two approaches are compared for detection of wave rides, computing the number of waves rode in a surfing session, the starting time of each wave and its duration. The first approach is based on computing the velocity from the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal and finding the velocity thresholds that allow identifying the start and end of each wave ride. The second approach adds information from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) of the smartphone, to the velocity thresholds obtained from the GPS unit, to determine the start and end of each wave ride. The two methods were evaluated using GPS and IMU data from two surfing sessions and validated with similar metrics extracted from video data collected from the beach. The second method, combining GPS and IMU data, was found to be more accurate in determining the number of waves, start time and duration. This paper shows that it is feasible to use smartphones for quantification of performance metrics during surfing. In particular, detection of the waves rode and their duration can be accurately determined using the smartphone GPS and IMU.

Keywords: inertial measurement unit (IMU), global positioning system (GPS), smartphone, surfing performance

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Authors: D. Henninger, A. Zopey, T. Ihde, C. Mehring

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The dynamic performance of a 4-way solenoid operated hydraulic spool valve has been analyzed by means of a one-dimensional modeling approach capturing flow, magnetic and fluid forces, valve inertia forces, fluid compressibility, and damping. Increased model accuracy was achieved by analyzing the detailed three-dimensional electromagnetic behavior of the solenoids and flow behavior through the spool valve body for a set of relevant operating conditions, thereby allowing the accurate mapping of flow and magnetic forces on the moving valve body, in lieu of representing the respective forces by lower-order models or by means of simplistic textbook correlations. The resulting high-fidelity one-dimensional model provided the basis for specific and timely design modification eliminating experimentally observed valve oscillations.

Keywords: dynamic performance model, high-fidelity model, 1D-3D decoupled analysis, solenoid-operated hydraulic servo valve, CFD and electromagnetic FEA

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Authors: Joanna Bajerska, Agata Chmurzyńska, Agata Muzsik, Patrycja Krzyżanowska, Klaudia Łochocka, Jarosław Walkowiak

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The Mediterranean diet (MED) is regarded as beneficial in the therapy of central obesity-associated metabolic abnormalities. However, in the traditional diet of the Central European countries, food items with positive nutritional profiles (rye bread, oats, buckwheat, herrings, linseed and rapeseed oil, berries, apples, plums, root vegetables etc.) are also used. We hypothesized that the Central European Diet (CED) may be comparatively effective in reducing symptoms of central obesity as MED. We tested the health effects of the CED, which is an environmentally friendly regional diet and the traditional MED diet in a group of postmenopausal centrally obese women. A total 58 with a mean age of 60 y (50-70y), body mass index (in kg/m(2)) of 33.4 (22.6-47.3), and waist circumference of 105 cm (87.5-137 cm) were randomly assigned to receive either the diet based on food items commonly used in Central Europe (the CED group; n = 29) or the Mediterranean diet (the MED group; n = 29) for 15 weeks. Body mass and body composition were measured with a Bod Pod (Cosmed, Italy). A non-elastic flexible measuring tape was used to measure waist circumference. Additionally, blood pressure, plasma lipid and glucose levels were assessed with the use of a biochemical analyzer. A total of 50 subjects [86% (CED 83%; MED 90%)] completed the intervention. A high dietary compliance for both described diets was achieved. The mean (±SEM) weight and waist circumference changes were -7.4 ± 0.7 kg; -8.3 ± 0.7 cm and -8.1 ± 0.5 kg; -7.1 ± 0.6 cm for the CED and MED groups, respectively. Moreover, there were no differences between the effectiveness of the diets used in terms of the influence on fat mass, blood pressure, and biochemical parameters. The preliminary data suggest that both described diets may be successfully used for improving central obesity-associated metabolic abnormalities. The project was financed by the National Science Centre awarded based on the number of decision DEC-013/09/B/NZ9/02365

Keywords: central european diet, central obesity, Mediterranean diet, metabolic abnormalities

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Authors: Sylwia Sumińska, Łukasz Kapica, Grzegorz Szczepański

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Introduction: Cognitive skills are a crucial part of everyday functioning. Cognitive skills include perception, attention, language, memory, executive functions, and higher cognitive skills. With the aging of societies, there is an increasing percentage of people whose cognitive skills decline. Cognitive skills affect work performance. The appropriate diagnosis of a worker’s cognitive skills reduces the risk of errors and accidents at work which is also important for senior workers. The study aimed to prepare new cognitive tests for adults aged 20-60 and assess the psychometric properties of the tests. The project responds to the need for reliable and accurate methods of assessing cognitive performance. Computer tests were developed to assess psychomotor performance, attention, and working memory. Method: Two hundred eighty people aged 20-60 will participate in the study in 4 age groups. Inclusion criteria for the study were: no subjective cognitive impairment, no history of severe head injuries, chronic diseases, psychiatric and neurological diseases. The research will be conducted from February - to June 2022. Cognitive tests: 1) Measurement of psychomotor performance: Reaction time, Reaction time with selective attention component; 2) Measurement of sustained attention: Visual search (dots), Visual search (numbers); 3) Measurement of working memory: Remembering words, Remembering letters. To assess the validity and the reliability subjects will perform the Vienna Test System, i.e., “Reaction Test” (reaction time), “Signal Detection” (sustained attention), “Corsi Block-Tapping Test” (working memory), and Perception and Attention Test (TUS), Colour Trails Test (CTT), Digit Span – subtest from The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Eighty people will be invited to a session after three months aimed to assess the consistency over time. Results: Due to ongoing research, the detailed results from 280 people will be shown at the conference separately in each age group. The results of correlation analysis with the Vienna Test System will be demonstrated as well.

Keywords: aging, attention, cognitive skills, cognitive tests, psychomotor performance, working memory

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Authors: G. Berhane, F. Kebede

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A feeding trial was conducted to enhance the utilization of locally produced full-fat soybean by the broiler industry. The study had three phases such as starter (1-14d), grower (15–28d), and finisher (29–49d) phases. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used in the starter phase with three treatments (commercial soybean meal (SBM) was replaced by raw full-fat soybean (RFSB) at 0, 10, or 20%), and each was replicated eight times. A total of 408 unsexed one-day-old Cobb-500 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to replicates. A 2 x 3 factorial arrangement was used in both second (grower) and third (finisher) phase trials, which had six experimental diets. These six treatments were formed by dividing the original three diets (containing 0, 10, or 20% of RFSB into two and then by pelleting anyone from each respective group and leaving the other as mash. Every treatment had four replications and 17 birds in each. Chemical compositions of feed ingredients were analyzed, and data on the initial body weight of chicks, feed offered, feed leftover, body weight (BW) of chickens, and mortality were collected. At the end of the experiment, two birds (one male and one female) per replicate were randomly selected and humanly slaughtered. Weights of dressed, eviscerated, cut parts of the carcass and visceral organs were weighed and recorded. Results indicated that feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), BW, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of broilers were not significantly affected (P=0.05) by supplementation of a leveled RFSB on diets at starter, grower, and finisher phases. The FI at the finisher stage was also significantly (P=0.05) influenced by the feed forms. However, weights of dressed, eviscerated, cut parts of the carcass and visceral organs were not significantly (P=0.05) affected by both RFSB supplementation, up to 20%, and feed forms. It is concluded that commercial SBM can be replaced by locally produced RFSB up to 20% without pelleting the diets.

Keywords: broilers, carcass characteristics, raw full-fat soybean, weight gain

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Authors: Neşe Alkan

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Purpose: The point that applied/clinical psychology, which is the practice and research discipline of the mental health field, has reached today can be summarized as the necessity of handling the psychological well-being of people from multiple perspectives and the goal of moving it to a higher level. Clients' subjective assessment of their own condition and wellbeing is an integral part of evidence-based interventions. There is a need for tools through which clients can evaluate the effectiveness of the psychotherapy/intervention performed with them and their contribution to the wellbeing and wellbeing of this process in a valid and reliable manner. The aim of this research is to meet this need, to test the reliability and validity of the index in Turkish, and explore its usability in the practices of both researchers and psychotherapists. Method: A total of 213 adults aged between 18-54, 69.5% working and 29.5% university students, were included in the study. Along with their demographic information, the participants were administered a set of scales: wellbeing, life satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, shopping addiction, and loneliness, namely via an online platform. The construct validity of the wellbeing scale was tested with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent and discriminant validity were tested with two-way full and partial correlation analyses and, measurement invariance was tested with one-way analysis of variance. Results: Factor analyzes showed that the scale consisted of six dimensions as it is in its original structure. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be Cronbach α = .82. Two-way correlation analyzes revealed that the wellbeing scale total score was positively correlated with general life satisfaction (r = .62) and spiritual satisfaction (r = .29), as expected. It was negatively correlated with loneliness (r = -.51) and shopping addiction (r = -.15). While the scale score did not vary by gender, previous illness, or nicotine addiction, it was found that the total wellbeing scale scores of the participants who had used antidepressant medication during the past year were lower than those who did not use antidepressant medication (F(1,204) = 7.713, p = .005). Conclusion: It has been concluded that the 12-item wellbeing scale consisting of six dimensions can be used in research and health sciences practices as a valid and reliable measurement tool. Further research which examines the reliability and validity of the scale in different widely used languages such as Spanish and Chinese is recommended.

Keywords: wellbeing, intervention effectiveness, reliability and validity, effectiveness

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