Search results for: human body communication

Authors: Wahiba Boudraa, Farah Chettibbi, Meriem Aberkane, Fatma Djamaa, Moussa Houhamdi

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The intensity of human activities in regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea always has a strong long-term environmental impact resulting in coastal and marine degradation, as well as an aggravated risk of more serious damage. The available data on water quality show that most water resources in Algeria are polluted by uncontrolled discharges from municipal sewage and untreated industrial effluents. Annaba is a coastal town in Algeria; The Gulf of Annaba, responds to these changes as it receives the continental inputs and urban waste, industrial without prior treatment of a highly industrialized and urbanized city, subject to the same environmental problems that know the rest of the Algerian coast. In later year, the beaches of bacterial enumeration process waters showed relatively high levels of bacterial indicators of fecal contamination (group D streptococci, total and fecal coliforms), which reflect the risks to people attending these beaches. During the twelve months of our study, we isolated from three beaches in the city of Annaba (St. Cloud, El-Kettara, and Djenane El Bey) a number of pathogenic microorganisms considered, namely: Salmonella, Aeromonas, Citrobacter, Yersinia, Enterococcus, and E.coli. The microbial count revealed elevated levels of coliform bacteria, fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci quite high especially in urban beaches (St. Cloud and El-Kettara). They are widely popular during the summer by many vacationers. For the physico-chemical parameters, there exist some weak values which increase during the pluvial period, hivernal and festival saison. These values remain, nevertheless, weak to be able to cause an organic or metallic pollution.

Keywords: quality microbiology, pollution of water, fecal contamination, physico-chemistry, beaches of Annaba city, Algeria.

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Authors: Nwafia Ifeyinwa Nkeiruka, Nwafia Walter Chukwuma

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Since the early 1980’s fungi have emerged as major causes of human diseases, especially among immunocompromised. The most commonly isolated yeast is Candida albicans and constitutes the 4th most common nosocomial BSI in humans. It is progressive and cumulative and become more complex over time.It can even lead to leaky gut syndrome that causes food and environmental allergies. It is worthy of note that all the available data on oral Candida risk factors in humans were documented essentially using data from studies conducted in other areas, hence there is need for comparative and complementary information from the South eastern part of Nigeria. Method: 200 subjects of all age groups of both sexes were randomly examined,by swabbing their palatine mucosa and dorsal tongue with sterile cotton wool,then cultured into Sabouraud dextrose agar plates supplemented with antibiotics and incubated aerobically at 37 degree for 48 hrs. Identification of Candida albicans was done by germ tubes tests, chlamydospores production on cornmeal agar supplemented with 1% Tween 80.Sugar and nitrogen assimilation test using API 20C Auxanogram and potassium nitrate agar. Results: Out of 30 samples that were positive for candida, 15 (50%) were candida albicans. Using the anova test (P < 0.05) this variation is significant (P = 0016). followed by C. dublinensis 3 (13%), C. tropicalis 3 (10%), C. pseudotropicalis 3 (10%), C, glabrata 2 (7%), C. parapsilosis 2 (7%) and lastly C. krusei 1 (3%).However, 53% of the patients were female while 47% were male. Among the HIV positive isolates.67% were HIV isolates not on drugs while 33% positives isolates were on drugs and the percentages of candida species in these patients were as follows C. albicans were 45% followed by C. glabrata and C.tropicalis which were 17% each, C.parapsilosis, C.dubliensis and C.pseudotropicalis were all 8% each. Conclusion: Oral Candidiasis is a marker of systemic diseases and in some cases, it may be the first clinical presentation. There is need for more intensive clinical and laboratory monitoring and possible early intervention to prevent the reoccurrence and resistance to treatment.

Keywords: oral cavity, Candida species, oral Candidiasis, risk factors

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Authors: Edwin Onwuka, Segun Omidiora, Eugenia Abiodun-Eniaiyekan

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The Nigerian military is often the subject of active critical inquiries having played significant roles in Nigeria’s national development. However, the soldier is one of the most vilified characters in Nigeria’s imaginative literature, be it in poetry, drama or prose fiction. In the main, the characterization of soldiers is predictable because of their entrenched stereotype as oppressors, tyrants, bullies, rapists, despots, killers or at best law-breakers subject to no authority outside the military institution. In most novels, the soldier’s personality is associated with force and violence; still, few have defied the norm to portray soldiers that go against the grain of notoriety. Such novels have characterized the Nigerian soldier positively as a civil, thinking and human personality in relating to civil society. To a great extent, two major impetuses that influence literary representation of characters and institutions in African literature are ideology and commitment, and one necessarily impacts on the other in shaping the artistic vision of the writer. Using two war novels therefore as templates, this paper argues that the ideology that drives the Nigerian writer’s socio-cultural commitment to national development shapes their portrayal of the Nigerian soldier in imaginative literature. A major objective of this study, therefore, is to show through close textual analysis that the writers’ ideologies influence their perception and characterization of the Nigerian soldier in Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty and Festus Iyayi’s Heroes, two representative novels of both persuasions described above. New Historicism is the critical framework applied in this study and its conclusion is that the Nigerian writer’s characterization of the soldier is influenced by his ideological perception of the military in the policy against the backdrop of their past socio-political activities.

Keywords: commitment, ideology, national development, new historicism, Nigerian soldier

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Authors: Ergin Toros, Manar Aslan

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This study was planned as a descriptive study in order to learn the opinions of the students who are studying in nursing undergraduate program about their theoretical/practical lessons and departments. The education in the undergraduate nursing programs has great importance because it contains the knowledge and skills to prepare student nurses to the clinic in the future. In order to provide quality-nursing services in the future, the quality of nursing education should be measured, and opinions of student nurses about education should be taken. The research population was composed of students educated in a university with 1-4 years of theoretical and clinical education (N=550), and the sample was composed of 460 students that accepted to take part in the study. It was reached to 83.6% of target population. Data collected through a survey developed by the researchers. Survey consists of 48 questions about sociodemographic characteristics (9 questions), theoretical courses (9 questions), laboratory applications (7 questions), clinical education (14 questions) and services provided by the faculty (9 questions). It was determined that 83.3% of the nursing students found the nursing profession to be suitable for them, 53% of them selected nursing because of easy job opportunity, and 48.9% of them stayed in state dormitory. Regarding the theoretical courses, 84.6% of the students were determined to agree that the question ‘Course schedule is prepared before the course and published on the university web page.’ 28.7% of them were determined to do not agree that the question ‘Feedback is given to students about the assignments they prepare.’. It has been determined that 41,5% of the students agreed that ‘The time allocated to laboratory applications is sufficient.’ Students said that physical conditions in laboratory (41,5%), and the materials used are insufficient (44.6%), and ‘The number of students in the group is not appropriate for laboratory applications.’ (45.2%). 71.3% of the students think that the nurses view in the clinics the students as a tool to remove the workload, 40.7% of them reported that nurses in the clinic area did not help through the purposes of the course, 39.6% of them said that nurses' communication with students is not good. 37.8% of students stated that nurses did not provide orientation to students, 37.2% of them think that nurses are not role models for students. 53.7% of the students stated that the incentive and support for the student exchange program were insufficient., %48 of the students think that career planning services, %47.2 security services,%45.4 the advisor spent time with students are not enough. It has been determined that nursing students are most disturbed by the approach of the nurses in the clinical area within the undergraduate education program. The clinical area education which is considered as an integral part of nursing education is important and affect to student satisfaction.

Keywords: nursing education, student, clinical area, opinion

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Authors: Sharda Kumari, Saiman Shetty

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Autonomous trucking is just one of the numerous significant shifts impacting fleet management services. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of vehicle automation that have been adopted internationally, including by the United States Department of Transportation. On public highways in the United States, organizations are testing driverless vehicles with at least Level 4 automation which indicates that a human is present in the vehicle and can disable automation, which is usually done while the trucks are not engaged in highway driving. However, completely driverless vehicles are presently being tested in the state of California. While autonomous trucking can increase safety, decrease trucking costs, provide solutions to trucker shortages, and improve efficiencies, logistics, too, requires advancements to keep up with trucking innovations. Given that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automated procedures enable people to do their duties in other sectors with fewer resources, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be applied to the autonomous trucking business to provide the same level of efficiency. In a society witnessing significant digital disruptions, fleet management is likewise being transformed by technology. Utilizing strategic alliances to enhance core services is an effective technique for capitalizing on innovations and delivering enhanced services. Utilizing analytics on CRM systems improves cost control of fuel strategy, fleet maintenance, driver behavior, route planning, road safety compliance, and capacity utilization. Integration of autonomous trucks with automated fleet management, yard/terminal management, and customer service is possible, thus having significant power to redraw the lines between the public and private spheres in autonomous trucking logistics.

Keywords: autonomous vehicles, customer relationship management, customer experience, autonomous trucking, digital transformation

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Authors: Nilanthi Ratnayake, Wen-Ling Liu

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Prior research indicates an increasing gap between the skills and capabilities of graduates in the contemporary workplace across the globe. The challenge of addressing this issue primarily lies on the hands of higher education institutes/universities. In particular, surveys of UK employers and retailers found that soft skills including communication, numeracy, teamwork, confidence, analytical ability, digital/IT skills, business sense, language, and social skills are highly valued by graduate employers, and in achieving this, there are various assessed and non-assessed learning exercises have already been embedded into the university curriculum. To this end, this research study aims to explore the reflections of postgraduate student participation in a live commercial project (i.e. designing an advertising campaign for open days, summer school etc.) implemented with the intention of offering a transformative experience by deploying this project. Qualitative research methodology has been followed in this study, collecting data from three types of target audiences; students, academics and employers via a series of personal interviews and focus group discussions. Recorded data were transcribed, entered into NVIVO, and analysed using meaning condensation and content analysis. Students reported that they had a very positive impact towards improving self-efficacy, especially in relation to soft skills and confidence in seeking employment opportunities. In addition, this project has reduced cultural barriers for international students in general communications. Academic staff and potential employers who attended on the presentation day expressed their gratitude for offering a lifelong experience for students, and indeed believed that these type of projects contribute significantly to enhance skills and capabilities of students to cater the demands of employers. In essence, key findings demonstrate that an integration of knowledge-based skills into a live commercial project facilitate individuals to make the transition from education to employment in terms of skills, abilities and work behaviours more effectively in comparison to some other activities/assuagements that are currently in place in higher education institutions/universities.

Keywords: soft skills, commercially live project, higher education, student participation

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Authors: Ramish, Farhan Khalique Awan

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Kinematic redundancy within the manipulators presents extended dexterity and manipulability to the manipulators. Redundant serial robotic manipulators are very popular in industries due to its competencies to keep away from singularities during normal operation and fault tolerance because of failure of one or more joints. Such fault tolerant manipulators are extraordinarily beneficial in applications where human interference for repair and overhaul is both impossible or tough; like in case of robotic arms for space programs, nuclear applications and so on. The design of this sort of fault tolerant serial 3 DoF manipulator is presented in this paper. This work was the extension of the author’s previous work of designing the simple 3R serial manipulator. This work is the realization of the previous design with optimizing the link lengths for incorporating the feature of fault tolerance. Various measures have been followed by the researchers to quantify the fault tolerance of such redundant manipulators. The fault tolerance in this work has been described in terms of the worst-case measure of relative manipulability that is, in fact, a local measure of optimization that works properly for certain configuration of the manipulators. An optimum fault tolerant Jacobian matrix has been determined first based on prescribed null space properties after which the link parameters have been described to meet the given Jacobian matrix. A solid model of the manipulator was then developed to realize the mathematically rigorous design. Further work was executed on determining the dynamic properties of the fault tolerant design and simulations of the movement for various trajectories have been carried out to evaluate the joint torques. The mathematical model of the system was derived via the Euler-Lagrange approach after which the same has been tested using the RoboAnalyzer© software. The results have been quite in agreement. From the CAD model and dynamic simulation data, the manipulator was fabricated in the workshop and Advanced Machining lab of NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Keywords: fault tolerant, Graham matrix, Jacobian, kinematics, Lagrange-Euler

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Authors: Amanda Aliende da Matta

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In different fields, there are people who have something that stands out. In the educational world, for example, it is clear when some teachers have something: they are the best teachers, but this is not directly attributed to their disciplines, methodologies, etc. It is that they have something that captivates, inspires, and motivates. But we also find this something in other contexts. In this thesis, the interest is in something that some marginalized people, such as Ab (fictitious name), have. Ab was born in a rural community and saw the lifestyle of his family change drastically as a consequence of structural changes in his village. The community became impoverished, and together with a group of teenagers, he decided to migrate to Spain in search of opportunities. His best friend drowned during the crossing. After arriving, he lived in indecent conditions and felt unsafe. He now suffers from anxiety and frequently faints from it. Yet, he’s linked to Joves x la pau (a Christian project, although he is a Muslim), distributing food for people who live on the streets every Thursday afternoon. When he asked about what happens on cold and rainy days, he explained simply: "if it rains, I distribute the food, and immediately I get home, take a bath, and sleep warm under my roof. That is when we most have to go." This something he has will be called caring. And one of the general objectives of the thesis is to discover what are the meaning structures of this caring what is the lived experience of this caring. In this communication, preliminary results of an Applied Hermeneutic Phenomenology (AHP) study on the lived experience of caring as a vulnerable person are presented. The research means to answer what is the lived experience of caring as a vulnerable person. That is, to describe and explain what it is like to caregive for a vulnerable person, what it is, essentially, to caregive for a vulnerable person, what makes the lived experience of caregiving for a vulnerable person different from any other. In order to investigate the meaning of the phenomenon of caregiving as a vulnerable person, as already stated, the method used will be Applied Hermeneutic Phenomenology (AHP). We base ourselves, initially, on the proposal of Raquel Ayala-Carabajo and Max Van Manen. As Van Manen (1990) explains, AHP is a method that works essentially through fieldwork, with the collection of data on lived experience (experiential material). It is a phenomenology of practice. We here present the provisional themes we found: caregiving as a vulnerable person is seeing yourself in the other, identifying with the care-receiver; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is putting the other’s need before oneself’s; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is temporarily overcoming your weaknesses to make yourself strong for the other; Caregiving as a vulnerable person is going beyond the conventional approach; and Caregiving as a vulnerable person is taking responsibility even if it’s not yours.

Keywords: applied hermeneutic phenomenology, care ethics, hermeneutics, phenomenology

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Authors: Ilknur Kahriman, Hacer Kobya Bulut, Birsel C. Demirbag

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Introduction and Aim: One of the most challenging aspects of being parents of a child diagnosed with cancer is to balance their normal family life with the child's health needs and treatment requirements. Cancer covers an important part of family life and gets ahead of other matters. Families mostly feel that everything has changed in their lives with the cancer diagnosis and are obliged to make a number of adjustments in their lives. Their normal family life suddenly begins to include treatments, hospital appointments and hospitalizations. This study is a descriptive research conducted to determine the changes in the lives of families who had a child with cancer. Methods: This study was carried out with 65 families having children diagnosed with cancer in 0-17 age group at outpatient pediatric oncology clinic and polyclinic of a university hospital in Trabzon. Data were collected through survey method from August to November, 2015. In the analysis of the data, numbers, percentage and chi-square test were used. Findings: It was found out that the average age of mothers was 35.33 years, most of them were primary school graduates (44.6%) and housewives (89.2%) and the average age of fathers was 39.30 years, most of them were high school graduates (29.2%) and self-employed (43.8% ). The majority of their children were boys and their average age was 7.74 years and 77% had Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) diagnosis. 87.5% of the mothers who had a child with cancer had increased fears in their lives, 84.4% had increased workload at home, 82.8% had more stressful life and 82.8% felt themselves physically tired. The mothers indicated that their healthy children could not do the social activities they had used to do before (56.5%), they no longer fed their healthy children with the food they loved eating so that the sick child did not aspire (52.3%) and their healthy children were more furious than before (53.2%). As for the fathers, the fundamental change they had was increased workload at home (82.3%), had more stressful life (80.6%) and could no longer allocate time to the activities they had been interested in and done before (77.8%). There was not a significant difference between the sick children gender and the changes in their parents lives. The communication between the mothers and their healthy children were determined to be positively affected in the families in which the sick child's disease duration was under 12 months (X2 = 6.452, p = 0.011). Conclusion: This study showed that parents having a child with cancer had more workload at home, had more stressful lives, could not allocate time to social activities, had increased fears, felt themselves tired and their healthy children became more furious and their social activities reduced.

Keywords: child, cancer, changes in lives, family

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Authors: Oluyomi Stephen Adeyemi, Kentaro Kato

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Toxoplasma gondii is the etiological agent of toxoplasmosis, a common parasitic disease capable of infecting a range of hosts, including nearly one-third of the human population. Current treatment options for toxoplasmosis patients are limited. In consequence, toxoplasmosis represents a large global burden that is further enhanced by the shortcomings of the current therapeutic options. These factors underscore the need for better anti-T. gondii agents and/or new treatment approach. In the present study, we sought to find out whether preparing and capping nanoparticles (NPs) in amino acids, would enhance specificity toward the parasite versus the host cell. The selection of amino acids was premised on the fact that T. gondii is auxotrophic for some amino acids. The amino acid-nanoparticles (amino-NPs) were synthesized, purified and characterized following established protocols. Next, we tested to determine the anti-T. gondii activity of the amino-NPs using in vitro experimental model of infection. Overall, our data show evidence that supports enhanced and excellent selective action against the parasite versus the host cells by amino-NPs. The findings are promising and provide additional support that warrants exploring the prospects of NPs as alternative anti-parasite agents. In addition, the anti-parasite action by amino-NPs indicates that nutritional requirement of parasite may represent a viable target in the development of better alternative anti-parasite agents. Furthermore, data suggest the anti-parasite mechanism of the amino-NPs involves multiple cellular processes including the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), modulation of hypoxia-inducing factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) as well as the activation of kynurenine pathway. Taken together, findings highlight further, the prospects of NPs as alternative source of anti-parasite agents.

Keywords: drug discovery, infectious diseases, mode of action, nanomedicine

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Authors: Jin Liang, James H. Liu, Ti-Jun Xiao

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It is known that there exist many physical phenomena where abrupt or impulsive changes occur either in the system dynamics, for example, ad-hoc network, or in the input forces containing impacts, for example, the bombardment of space antenna by micrometeorites. There are many other examples such as ultra high-speed optical signals over communication networks, the collision of particles, inventory control, government decisions, interest changes, changes in stock price, etc. These are impulsive phenomena. Hence, as a combination of the traditional initial value problems and the short-term perturbations whose duration can be negligible in comparison with the duration of the process, the systems with impulsive conditions (i.e., impulsive systems) are more realistic models for describing the impulsive phenomenon. Such a situation is also suitable for the delay systems, which include some of the past states of the system. So far, there have been a lot of research results in the study of impulsive systems with delay both in finite and infinite dimensional spaces. In this paper, we investigate the periodicity of solutions to the nonautonomous impulsive evolution equations with infinite delay in Banach spaces, where the coefficient operators (possibly unbounded) in the linear part depend on the time, which are impulsive systems in infinite dimensional spaces and come from the optimal control theory. It was indicated that the study of periodic solutions for these impulsive evolution equations with infinite delay was challenging because the fixed point theorems requiring some compactness conditions are not applicable to them due to the impulsive condition and the infinite delay. We are happy to report that after detailed analysis, we are able to combine the techniques developed in our previous papers, and some new ideas in this paper, to attack these impulsive evolution equations and derive periodic solutions. More specifically, by virtue of the related transition operator family (evolution family), we present a Poincaré operator given by the nonautonomous impulsive evolution system with infinite delay, and then show that the operator is a condensing operator with respect to Kuratowski's measure of non-compactness in a phase space by using an Amann's lemma. Finally, we derive periodic solutions from bounded solutions in view of the Sadovskii fixed point theorem. We also present a relationship between the boundedness and the periodicity of the solutions of the nonautonomous impulsive evolution system. The new results obtained here extend some earlier results in this area for evolution equations without impulsive conditions or without infinite delay.

Keywords: impulsive, nonautonomous evolution equation, optimal control, periodic solution

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Authors: N. Umasuthan, S. D. N. K. Bathige, W. S. Thulasitha, I. Whang, J. Lee

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The MyD88 is an evolutionarily conserved host-expressed adaptor protein that is essential for proper TLR/ IL1R immune-response signaling. A previously identified complete cDNA (1626 bp) of OfMyD88 comprised an ORF of 867 bp encoding a protein of 288 amino acids (32.9 kDa). The gDNA (3761 bp) of OfMyD88 revealed a quinquepartite genome organization composed of 5 exons (with the sizes of 310, 132, 178, 92 and 155 bp) separated by 4 introns. All the introns displayed splice signals consistent with the consensus GT/AG rule. A bipartite domain structure with two domains namely death domain (24-103) coded by 1st exon, and TIR domain (151-288) coded by last 3 exons were identified through in silico analysis. Moreover, homology modeling of these two domains revealed a similar quaternary folding nature between human and rock bream homologs. A comprehensive comparison of vertebrate MyD88 genes showed that they possess a 5-exonic structure. In this structure, the last three exons were strongly conserved, and this suggests that a rigid structure has been maintained during vertebrate evolution. A cluster of TATA box-like sequences were found 0.25 kb upstream of cDNA starting position. In addition, putative 5'-flanking region of OfMyD88 was predicted to have TFBS implicated with TLR signaling, including copies of NFB1, APRF/ STAT3, Sp1, IRF1 and 2 and Stat1/2. Using qPCR technique, a ubiquitous mRNA expression was detected in liver and blood. Furthermore, a significantly up-regulated transcriptional expression of OfMyD88 was detected in head kidney (12-24 h; >2-fold), spleen (6 h; 1.5-fold), liver (3 h; 1.9-fold) and intestine (24 h; ~2-fold) post-Fla challenge. These data suggest a crucial role for MyD88 in antibacterial immunity of teleosts.

Keywords: MyD88, innate immunity, flagellin, genomic analysis

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Authors: Alejandra Betancur Sánchez, Carmen Elena Zapata Sánchez, Juan Bautista López Ortiz

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Adverse effects and increased air pollution has raised concerns about regulatory policies and has fostered the development of new air quality standards; this is due to the complexity of the composition and the poorly understood reactions in the atmospheric environment. Toxic compounds act as environmental agents having various effects, from irritation to death of cells and tissues. A toxic agent is defined an adverse response in a biological system. There is a particular class that produces some kind of alteration in the genetic material or associated components, so they are recognized as genotoxic agents. Within cells, they interact directly or indirectly with DNA, causing mutations or interfere with some enzymatic repair processes or in the genesis or polymerization of proteinaceous material involved in chromosome segregation. An air pollutant may cause or contribute to increased mortality or serious illness and even pose a potential danger to human health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect on the viability and the genotoxic potential on the cell lines CHO-K1 and Jurkat and peripheral blood of particulate matter PM T lymphocytes 2.5 obtained from filters collected three monitoring stations network air quality Aburrá Valley. Tests, reduction of MTT, trypan blue, NRU, comet assay, sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and chromosomal aberrations allowed evidence reduction in cell viability in cell lines CHO-K1 and Jurkat and damage to the DNA from cell line CHOK1, however, no significant effects were observed in the number of SCEs and chromosomal aberrations. The results suggest that PM2.5 material has genotoxic potential and can induce cancer development, as has been suggested in other studies.

Keywords: PM2.5, cell line Jurkat, cell line CHO-K1, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity

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Authors: Faisal A. Salih

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Vinpocetine (Vin) is an ethyl ester of apovincamic acid and is a semisynthetic derivative of vincamine, an alkaloid from plants of the genus Periwinkle (plant) vinca minor. It was found that this compound stimulates cerebral metabolism: it increases the uptake of glucose and oxygen, as well as the consumption of these substances by the brain tissue. Vinpocetine enhances the flow of blood in the brain and has a vasodilating, antihypertensive, and antiplatelet effect. Vinpocetine seems to improve the human ability to acquire new memories and restore memories that have been lost. This drug has been clinically used for the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders such as stroke and dementia memory disorders, as well as in ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology. It has no side effects, and no toxicity has been reported when using vinpocetine for a long time. For the quantitative determination of Vin in dosage forms, the HPLC methods are generally used. A promising alternative is potentiometry with Vin- selective electrode, which does not require expensive equipment and materials. Another advantage of the potentiometric method is that the pills and solutions for injections can be used directly without separation from matrix components, which reduces both analysis time and cost. In this study, it was found that the choice of a good plasticizer an electrode with the following membrane composition: PVC (32.8 wt.%), ortho-nitrophenyl octyl ether (66.6 wt.%), tetrakis-4-chlorophenyl borate (0.6 wt.%) exhibits excellent analytical performance: lower detection limit (LDL) 1.2•10⁻⁷ M, linear response range (LRR) 1∙10⁻³–3.9∙10⁻⁶ M, the slope of the electrode function 56.2±0.2 mV/decade). Vin masses per average tablet weight determined by direct potentiometry (DP) and potentiometric titration (PT) methods for the two different sets of 10 tablets were (100.35±0.2–100.36±0.1) mg for two sets of blister packs. The mass fraction of Vin in individual tablets, determined using DP, was (9.87 ± 0.02–10.16 ±0.02) mg, while the RSD was (0.13–0.35%). The procedure has very good reproducibility, and excellent compliance with the declared amounts was observed.

Keywords: vinpocetine, potentiometry, ion selective electrode, pharmaceutical analysis

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Authors: Victoria H. Hamilton

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Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS) is when a person experiences pseudohallucinations that fill in visual information from any type of sight loss. CBS arises from an epiphenomenal process, with the physical actions of sight resulting in the mental formations of images. These pseudohallucinations—referred to as visions by the CBS community—manifest in a wide range of forms, from complex scenes to simple geometric shapes. To share these unique visual experiences, a remote co-creation website was created where CBS participants communicated their lived experiences. This created a reflexive process, and we worked to produce true representations of these interesting and little-known phenomena. Digital reconstruction of the visions is utilised as it echoes the vivid, experiential movie-like nature of what is being perceived. This paper critically analyses co-creation as a method for making digital assets. The implications of the participants' vision impairments and the application of ethical safeguards are examined in this context. Important to note, this research is of a medical syndrome for a non-medical, practice-based design. CBS research to date is primarily conducted by the ophthalmic, neurological, and psychiatric fields and approached with the primary concerns of these specialties. This research contributes a distinct approach incorporating practice-based digital design, autoethnography, and phenomenology. Autoethnography and phenomenology combine as a foundation, with the first bringing understanding and insights, balanced by the second philosophical, bigger picture, and established approach. With further refining, it is anticipated that the research may be applied to other conditions. Conditions where articulating internal experiences proves challenging and the use of digital methods could aid communication. Both the research and CBS communities will benefit from the insights regarding the relationship between cognitive perceptions and the vision process. This research combines the digital visualising of visions with interest in the link between metaphor, embodied cognition, and image. The argument for a link between CBS visions and metaphor may appear evident due to the cross-category mapping of images that is necessary for comprehension. They both are— CBS visions and metaphors—the experience of picturing images, often with lateral connections and imaginative associations.

Keywords: Charles Bonnet Syndrome, digital design, visual hallucinations, visual perception

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Authors: Jacob Bogart, Adaobi Egboka

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Nigeria signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2010, which was heralded as a much-needed step towards protecting the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs). However, even with such progress, incarcerated PWDs have been left behind. The current legal framework in Nigeria does not consider the particular challenges PWDs face in prison nor make provisions to address them, despite the need for such reforms. Indeed, given the closed and restricted nature of prisons, and the violence that results from overcrowding, lack of supervision, and poor facilities, prisoners with disabilities often face significant challenges while incarcerated. While every prisoner is affected by these issues, PWDs are disproportionately harmed by them due to the nature of their disability. A study of four prisons in Lagos State, Nigeria was carried out by interviewing prisoners with disabilities, prison officials, advocates, and academics. The study found that for prisoners with physical disabilities, inaccessible prison facilities and a lack of mobility, hearing, or seeing assistance can often cause them to be dependent on the mercy of the other inmates for assistance in performing such basic functions as using the restroom, going to church, or washing themselves. Prison officials do not assist these PWDs or provide them with aids, such as crutches or a cane. Relatedly, prisoners with psychosocial disabilities (mental health conditions) often are not removed to health care facilities, despite a law to that effect, and are left to languish in prisons without the mental health care treatment they need. This presentation argues that reforms addressing the rights of PWDs must consider and make provisions for prisoners with disabilities, such as ensuring that prison facilities are accessible, providing PWDs with mobility, seeing or hearing aids as needed, and conducting mental health screenings for persons awaiting trial immediately upon entering the prison. These reforms, among others, are necessary first steps toward realizing the rights of prisoners with disabilities in Nigeria.

Keywords: disability rights, human rights, Lagos, Nigeria, prisoners with disabilities

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Authors: Waqqas-ur-Rehman Butt, Martin Servin, Marion Pause

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In recent years, object detection has gained much attention and very encouraging research area in the field of computer vision. The robust object boundaries detection in an image is demanded in numerous applications of human computer interaction and automated surveillance systems. Many methods and approaches have been developed for automatic object detection in various fields, such as automotive, quality control management and environmental services. Inappropriately, to the best of our knowledge, object detection under illumination with shadow consideration has not been well solved yet. Furthermore, this problem is also one of the major hurdles to keeping an object detection method from the practical applications. This paper presents an approach to automatic object detection in images under non-standardized environmental conditions. A key challenge is how to detect the object, particularly under uneven illumination conditions. Image capturing conditions the algorithms need to consider a variety of possible environmental factors as the colour information, lightening and shadows varies from image to image. Existing methods mostly failed to produce the appropriate result due to variation in colour information, lightening effects, threshold specifications, histogram dependencies and colour ranges. To overcome these limitations we propose an object detection algorithm, with pre-processing methods, to reduce the interference caused by shadow and illumination effects without fixed parameters. We use the Y CrCb colour model without any specific colour ranges and predefined threshold values. The segmented object regions are further classified using morphological operations (Erosion and Dilation) and contours. Proposed approach applied on a large image data set acquired under various environmental conditions for wood stack detection. Experiments show the promising result of the proposed approach in comparison with existing methods.

Keywords: image processing, illumination equalization, shadow filtering, object detection

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Authors: Sirajo Abubakar, Ismail Ahmad Abir, Muhammad Sabiu Bala, Muhammad Mustapha Adejo, Aravind Shanmugaveloo

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Over the years, land subsidence has been a serious threat mostly to urban areas. Land subsidence is the sudden sinking or gradual downward settling of the ground’s surface with little or no horizontal motion. In most areas, land subsidence is a slow process that covers a large area; therefore, it is sometimes left unnoticed. South of Johor is the area of interest for this project because it is going through rapid urbanization. The objective of this research is to evaluate and identify potential deformations in the south of Johor using integrated remote sensing and 2D resistivity methods. Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) which is a remote sensing technique has the potential to map coherent displacements at centimeter to millimeter resolutions. Persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) stacking technique was applied to Sentinel-1 data to detect the earth deformation in the study area. A dipole-dipole configuration resistivity profiling was conducted in three areas to determine the subsurface features in that area. This subsurface features interpreted were then correlated with the remote sensing technique to predict the possible causes of subsidence and uplifts in the south of Johor. Based on the results obtained, West Johor Bahru (0.63mm/year) and Ulu Tiram (1.61mm/year) are going through uplift due to possible geological uplift. On the other end, East Johor Bahru (-0.26mm/year) and Senai (-1.16mm/year) undergo subsidence due to possible fracture and granitic boulders loading. Land subsidence must be taken seriously as it can cause serious damages to infrastructures and human life. Monitoring land subsidence and taking preventive actions must be done to prevent any disasters.

Keywords: interferometric synthetic aperture radar, persistent scatter, minimum spanning tree, resistivity, subsidence

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Authors: Anoosh Eghdami

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Background and aim: Conventional anticancer drugs display significant shortcomings which limit their use in cancer therapy. For this reason, important progress has been achieved in the field of nanotechnology to solve these problems and offer a promising and effective alternative for cancer treatment. Tumor markers may also be measured periodically during cancer therapy. Tumor markers may also be measured after treatment has ended to check for recurrence the return of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nano drug delivery in induced breast cancer with DMBA by using CA15-3 tumor marker. Material and method: the rats were divided into five groups. The first group (control n=15) were fed only sesame oil as a gavage. In the second group n=15,10 mg DMBA was dissolved in 5ml of sesame oil and were fed as a gavage. In addition to DMBA treatment as the second group, in the 3,4and 5 groups after cancer creation, respectively affected by alpha interferon (α-IFN),alpha interferon conjugated with single walled carbon nano tube (α-IFN-SWNT) and encapsulated in poly lactic poly glycolic acid (α-IFN-PLGA). Tumor marker was measured in recent three groups. Results: The ANOVA test was used to determine the differences among the groups. Cancer inducing in rats (group 2) caused a significant increase in blood levels of CA15-3 (P<0.05). Administration of α-IFN, α-IFN –SWNT and α-IFN-PLGA in 3 groups of cancerous rats caused a significant decrease in blood levels of CA15-3 only the group that treated with α-IFN-PLGA (p<0.05). Conclusion: the results of this study indicate that nano drugs more effective than traditional drug in cancer treatment, although further work is needed to elucidate the safety and side effect of these compound in human.

Keywords: breast cancer, nano drug, tumor markers, CA15-3, α-IFN-PLGA, -IFN –SWNT

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Authors: Pilly Kagosi, Cherestino Balama

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Beekeeping plays major role in improving biodiversity, increasing household income, and crop production through pollination. Tobacco farming is also the main source of household income for smallholder farmers. In Kigoma, production of Tobacco has increased and is perceived to threaten honey quality. The study explored the perception of the community on quality of honey in tobacco and non tobacco growing areas. The study was conducted in Kigoma Region, Tanzania. District and Villages were purposively sampled based on large numbers of people dealing with beekeeping activities and tobacco farming. Socioeconomic data were collected and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis. The perception of stakeholders on honey quality was analysed using Likert scale. Majority of the respondents agreed that tobacco farming greatly affects honey quality because honey from beehives near tobacco farms test bitter and sometimes irritating, which was associated with nicotine content and agrochemicals applied to tobacco crops. Though they cannot differentiate honey bitterness from agrochemicals and bee fodders. Furthermore, it was revealed that chemicals applied to tobacco and vegetables have negative effect on the bees and honey quality. Respondents believe that setting bee hives near tobacco farms might contaminate honey and therefore affect its quality. Beekeepers are not aware of the nicotine content from other bee fodders like miombo of which do not have any effect on human beings. Actually, tobacco farming does not affect beekeeping activities in issue of quality when farmers follow proper management of tobacco flowers and proper handling of honey. Though, big challenge in tobacco farming is chemically applied to the crops and harvest bee fodders for curing tobacco. The study recommends training to community on proper management of tobacco and proper handling of bee products.

Keywords: community, honey, perceptions, tobacco

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Authors: Synthia A. Sari

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The transparent nomination and selection process is the first step to obtaining qualified members of board. It is believed as the representative (agent) of the owners, members of the board must consist of competent and professional people. However, the development of transparent and ideal nomination and selection process in Indonesian State-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been based on relatively little research. Considering the relative importance attached by boards to conduct their roles in their principal’s interest in a variety of governance tasks in state-owned enterprises, the primary aim of this paper is to shed light on the extent of nomination and selection process impact performance of the board in implementing good corporate governance in Indonesian SOEs. The exploratory nature of this study led to the adoption of a qualitative research methodology which uses semi-structured interviews and publically available documents to collect a range of data pertaining board nomination and selection and the work of boards. Interviews were conducted with four informants from three Indonesian SOEs and Ministry of SOEs. Findings in this study demonstrate unclear job description and expectations board members as a result of unclear functions of the board in Indonesian SOEs make transparent and accountable nomination and selection process hard to conduct. This situation is vulnerable to the influences from political interest and that even the process itself can degenerate into situations of political interference. In the end, it leads to choosing the wrong person for membership of the board. This study makes a significant contribution to several fields; the human resource management, corporate governance, and Southeast studies by addressing the basic research gaps of board selection process issues in Indonesian SOEs. The gap is addressed by providing a more coherent framework for effective nomination and selection system which reflects more clearly the real experiences of those actually involved at board level.

Keywords: board selection and nomination process, Indonesian stated-owned enterprises, good corporate governance, political influence

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Authors: Mateus Silva Mendonça, Wender Pereira de Oliveira, Gabriel Heleno de Paula Araújo, Hiago Tenório Teixeira Santana Rocha, Augusto César Teixeira Malaquias, José Guilherme Coelho Baeta

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The stricter legislation and the greater demand of the population regard to gas emissions and their effects on the environment as well as on human health make the automotive industry reinforce research focused on reducing levels of contamination. This reduction can be achieved through the implementation of improvements in internal combustion engines in such a way that they promote the reduction of both specific fuel consumption and air pollutant emissions. These improvements can be obtained through numerical simulation, which is a technique that works together with experimental tests. The aim of this paper is to build, with support of the GT-Suite software, a one-dimensional model of a single-cylinder research engine to analyze the impact of the variation of swirl and tumble coefficients on the performance and on the air pollutant emissions of an engine. Initially, the discharge coefficient is calculated through the software Converge CFD 3D, given that it is an input parameter in GT-Power. Mesh sensitivity tests are made in 3D geometry built for this purpose, using the mass flow rate in the valve as a reference. In the one-dimensional simulation is adopted the non-predictive combustion model called Three Pressure Analysis (TPA) is, and then data such as mass trapped in cylinder, heat release rate, and accumulated released energy are calculated, aiming that the validation can be performed by comparing these data with those obtained experimentally. Finally, the swirl and tumble coefficients are introduced in their corresponding objects so that their influences can be observed when compared to the results obtained previously.

Keywords: 1D simulation, single-cylinder research engine, swirl coefficient, three pressure analysis, tumble coefficient

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Authors: Beatriz Lafuente Alcázar, Yash Wani, Amit J. Nimunkar

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Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, and around 80% of sudden cardiac deaths are due to arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats. The majority of these pathologies are revealed by either short-term or long-term alterations in the electrocardiogram (ECG) morphology. The ECG is the main diagnostic tool in cardiology. It is a non-invasive, pain free procedure that measures the heart’s electrical activity and that allows the detecting of abnormal rhythms and underlying conditions. A cardiologist can diagnose a wide range of pathologies based on ECG’s form alterations, but the human interpretation is subjective and it is contingent to error. Moreover, ECG records can be quite prolonged in time, which can further complicate visual diagnosis, and deeply retard disease detection. In this context, deep learning methods have risen as a promising strategy to extract relevant features and eliminate individual subjectivity in ECG analysis. They facilitate the computation of large sets of data and can provide early and precise diagnoses. Therefore, the cardiology field is one of the areas that can most benefit from the implementation of deep learning algorithms. In the present study, a deep learning algorithm is trained following a novel approach, using a combination of different databases as the training set. The goal of the algorithm is to achieve the detection of R-peaks in ECG signals. Its performance is further evaluated in ECG signals with different origins and features to test the model’s ability to generalize its outcomes. Performance of the model for detection of R-peaks for clean and noisy ECGs is presented. The model is able to detect R-peaks in the presence of various types of noise, and when presented with data, it has not been trained. It is expected that this approach will increase the effectiveness and capacity of cardiologists to detect divergences in the normal cardiac activity of their patients.

Keywords: arrhythmia, deep learning, electrocardiogram, machine learning, R-peaks

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Authors: Benhammadi Hocine, Fehdi Chemseddine, Chaffai Hicham

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The study site is the plateau Cheria, a city in south eastern Algeria (Tebessa) thanks to its structure perched syncline is the region of Tebessa a real water tower. Special rates provided by some boreholes and wells around the city Cheria have long been led to believe that the reserves were virtually limitless. The investigations carried out in this region have located karstified limestone areas at depth of 100 meters of the carbonate formation. During the last two decades a rainfall deficit has increased the effect of drought has caused an increase in flow from this aquifer. The effect on water resources is a significant and progressive reduction of the static level of the karst aquifer. The qualitative aspect has also been marked by degradation. This climate variability marked by the decade of drought (1990/2000) has had the effect on the local population, a forced change of their activity primarily agricultural. Abandoning agro pastoral mode due to prolonged drought, populations chose agriculture maraichère consumer a lot of water, this increasing the depletion of water resources. This change in activity was accompanied by a rural exodus to urban areas. The result has led to an increase in population in the urban areas, this has resulted in an increase in water demand and an increase in emissions (waste water). Uncontrolled discharges contribute to pollute a little more groundwater. The second consequence is type Geotechnical, it is the appearance of sinkholes, results of the alternating periods of drought and violent floods. Sinkholes are a real concern for the management and urban development. An interdisciplinary contribution (geology, hydrology, climatology and management) is essential to reduce or avoid impacts in different sectors.

Keywords: aquifer, carbonate formation, drought, exodus, resources, chéria, Algéria

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Authors: A. O. Oluwajobi, O. A. Falusi, N. A. Zubbair, T. Owoeye, F. Ladejobi, M. C. Dangana, A. Abubakar

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The technology of mobile telephony has positively enhanced human life and reports on the bio safety of the radiation from their antennae have been contradictory, leading to serious litigations and violent protests by residents in several parts of the world. The crave for more information, as requested by WHO in order to resolve this issue, formed the basis for this study on the effect of the radiation from 900 MHz GSM antenna on the DNA of Hibiscus sabdariffa. Seeds of H. sabdariffa were raised in pots placed in three replicates at 100, 200, 300 and 400 metres from the GSM antennae in three selected test locations and a control where there was no GSM signal. Temperature (˚C) and the relative humidity (%) of study sites were measured for the period of study (24 weeks). Fresh young leaves were harvested from each plant at two, eight and twenty-four weeks after sowing and the DNA extracts were subjected to RAPD-PCR analyses. There were no significant differences between the weather conditions (temperature and relative humidity) in all the study locations. However, significant differences were observed in the intensities of radiations between the control (less than 0.02 V/m) and the test (0.40-1.01 V/m) locations. Data obtained showed that DNA of samples exposed to rays from GSM antenna had various levels of distortions, estimated at 91.67%. Distortions occurred in 58.33% of the samples between 2-8 weeks of exposure while 33.33% of the samples were distorted between 8-24 weeks exposure. Approximately 8.33% of the samples did not show distortions in DNA while 33.33% of the samples had their DNA damaged twice, both at 8 and at 24 weeks of exposure. The study showed that radiation from the 900 MHz GSM antenna is potent enough to cause distortions to DNA of H. sabdariffa even within 2-8 weeks of exposure. DNA damage was also independent of the distance from the antenna. These observations would qualify emissions from GSM mast as environmental hazard to the existence of plant biodiversities and all life forms in general. These results will trigger efforts to prevent further erosion of plant genetic resources which have been threatening food security and also the risks posed to living organisms, thereby making our environment very safe for our existence while we still continue to enjoy the benefits of the GSM technology.

Keywords: damage, DNA, GSM antenna, radiation

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Authors: Atinder Pal Kaur

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A central characteristic of people is their apparent movement from one station to other for their sustenance. Human migration has become one of the most challenging issues faced by the world today. Migration represents an important dimension in world-wide setting; and remittances received by families constitute a major agent in integrating societies in the all over the world, both economically and socially. This paper is an attempt to explore the impact of male migration and remittances upon the family system. This paper brings out how the women play the role of head of the household and take all the economic decisions, but still faces discrimination in the family, that bring loneliness and emotional breakdown on their personal front. For the purpose of this study, data was collected using 30 interviews and 10 case studies in the Doaba region of Punjab. The respondents were classified into two age groups 20-35 years and above 40 years aged women whose husbands migrated abroad. The findings of this study revealed that even though the women were taking some of the economic decisions, but in majority of the cases the patriarchal structure still existed and power remained in the hands of their husbands or in-laws. It was found that women of different age groups reported differently in terms of authority that they have regarding remittances and its consequences in their emotional well-being. The distinction related to their participation in public and private spheres still exists and public spheres are mostly dominated by male members of the family. It can be concluded that freedom of women to take decision on their own is still restricted and they are subjugated to follow their husband or in-law’s opinion in matters related to both public and private spheres. However, old age group women enjoyed more independence and freedom to take decision in comparison to young age women. Loneliness and depression were more common in the young age respondent’s group than in old age women.

Keywords: gender discrimination, migration, patriarchal structure, remittances

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Authors: Jayotpaul Chaudhuri, Lutz Goedeke, Torsten Hallenga, Peter Ehrhard

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Purification of gases from aerosols or airborne particles via filters is widely applied in the industry and in our daily lives. This separation especially in the micron and submicron size range is a necessary step to protect the environment and human health. Fibrous filters are often employed due to their low cost and high efficiency. For designing any filter the two most important performance parameters are capture efficiency and pressure drop. Since the capture efficiency is directly proportional to the pressure drop which leads to higher operating costs, a detailed investigation of the separation mechanism is required to optimize the filter designing, i.e., to have a high capture efficiency with a lower pressure drop. Therefore a two-dimensional flow simulation around a single fiber using Ansys CFX and Matlab is used to get insight into the separation process. Instead of simulating a solid fiber, the present Ansys CFX model uses a fictitious domain approach for the fiber by implementing a momentum loss model. This approach has been chosen to avoid creating a new mesh for different fiber sizes, thereby saving time and effort for re-meshing. In a first step, only the flow of the continuous fluid around the fiber is simulated in Ansys CFX and the flow field data is extracted and imported into Matlab and the particle trajectory is calculated in a Matlab routine. This calculation is a Lagrangian, one way coupled approach for particles with all relevant forces acting on it. The key parameters for the simulation in both Ansys CFX and Matlab are the porosity ε, the diameter ratio of particle and fiber D, the fluid Reynolds number Re, the Reynolds particle number Rep, the Stokes number St, the Froude number Fr and the density ratio of fluid and particle ρf/ρp. The simulation results were then compared to the single fiber theory from the literature.

Keywords: BBO-equation, capture efficiency, CFX, Matlab, fibrous filter, particle trajectory

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Authors: Tatiana Ivushkina

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The paper is aimed at studying the use of literary words of foreign origin in modern fiction from a sociolinguistic point of view, which presupposes establishing correlation between this category of words in a speech portrayal or narrative and a social status of the speaker, verifying that it bears social implications and serves as a social marker or index of socially privileged identity in the British literature of the 21-st century. To this end, there were selected literary words of foreign origin in context (60 contexts) and subjected to careful examination. The study is carried out on two novels by Jeffrey Archer – Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less and A Prisoner of Birth – who, being a graduate from Oxford, represents socially privileged classes himself and gives a wide depiction of characters with different social backgrounds and statuses. The analysis of the novels enabled us to categorize the selected words into four relevant groups. The first represented by terms (commodity, debenture, recuperation, syringe, luminescence, umpire, etc.) serves to unambiguously indicate education, occupation, a field of knowledge in which a character is involved or a situation of communication. The second group is formed of words used in conjunction with their Germanic counterparts (perspiration – sweat, padre – priest, convivial – friendly) to contrast social position of the characters: literary words serving as social indices of upper class speakers whereas their synonyms of Germanic origin characterize middle or lower class speech portrayals. The third class of words comprises socially marked words (verbs, nouns, and adjectives), or U-words (the term first coined by Allan Ross and Nancy Mitford), the status acquired in the course of social history development (elegant, excellent, sophistication, authoritative, preposterous, etc.). The fourth includes words used in a humorous or ironic meaning to convey the narrator’s attitude to the characters or situation itself (ministrations, histrionic, etc.). Words of this group are perceived as 'alien', stylistically distant as they create incongruity between style and subject matter. Social implication of the selected words is enhanced by French words and phrases often accompanying them.

Keywords: British literature of the XXI century, literary words of foreign origin, social context, social meaning

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Authors: Ghada Esheba, Ebtisam Aljerayan, Afnan Al-Ghamdi, Atheer Alsharif, Hanan alzahrani

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Background: Primary ovarian neoplasms comprise a heterogeneous group of tumors of three main subtypes: surface epithelial, germ cell, and sex cord-stromal. The wide morphological variation within and between these groups can result in diagnostic difficulties. Gonadal sex cord-stromal tumors (SCST) represent one of the most heterogeneous categories of human neoplasms, because they may contain various combinations of different gonadal sex cord and stromal element. Aim: The aim of this work is to highlight the clinicopathological characteristics of SCST and to assess the value of alpha-inhibin and calretinin in the distinction between SCST and their mimics. Material and methods: This study was carried out on 100 cases using full tissue sections; 70 cases were SCST and 30 cases were histological mimics of SCST. The cases were studied using immunohistochemically using alpha-inhibin. In addition, an ovarian tissue microarray containing 170 benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms was also studied immunohistochemically for calretinin expression. The ovarian microarray included 14 SCST, 59 ovarian serous borderline tumors, 17 mucinous borderline tumors, 10 mucinous adenocarcinomas, 32 endometrioid adenocarcinomas, 34 clear cell carcinomas, and 4 germ cell tumors. Results: 99% of SCST examined using full tissue sections exhibited positive cytoplasmic staining for inhibin. On the contrary, only 7% of the histological mimics (P value < 0.0001). 86% of SCST in the tissue microarray were positive for calretinin with nuclear and/or cytoplasmic staining compared to only 7% of the other tumor types (P value < 0.0001). Conclusions: SCST have characteristic clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features and their recognition is crucial for proper diagnosis and treatment. Alpha-inhibin and calretinin are of great help in the diagnosis of sex cord-stromal tumors.

Keywords: calretinin, granulosa cell tumor, inhibin, sex cord-stromal tumors

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Authors: Tomokazu Nagata, Jawid Ahmad Baktash

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The goal of this paper is to explore the use of formal methods for Electronic Identity Card System. Nowadays, one of the core research directions in a constantly growing distributed environment is the improvement of the communication process. The responsibility for proper verification becomes crucial. Formal methods can play an essential role in the development and testing of systems. The thesis presents two different methodologies for assessing correctness. Our first approach employs abstract interpretation techniques for creating a trace based model for Electronic Identity Card System. The model was used for building a semi decidable procedure for verifying the system model. We also developed the code for the eID System and can cover three parts login to system sending of Acknowledgment from user side, receiving of all information from server side and log out from system. The new concepts of impasse and spawned sessions that we introduced led our research to original statements about the intruder’s knowledge and eID system coding with respect to secrecy. Furthermore, we demonstrated that there is a bound on the number of sessions needed for the analysis of System.Electronic identity (eID) cards promise to supply a universal, nation-wide mechanism for user authentication. Most European countries have started to deploy eID for government and private sector applications. Are government-issued electronic ID cards the proper way to authenticate users of online services? We use the eID project as a showcase to discuss eID from an application perspective. The new eID card has interesting design features, it is contact-less, it aims to protect people’s privacy to the extent possible, and it supports cryptographically strong mutual authentication between users and services. Privacy features include support for pseudonymous authentication and per service controlled access to individual data items. The article discusses key concepts, the eID infrastructure, observed and expected problems, and open questions. The core technology seems ready for prime time and government projects deploy it to the masses. But application issues may hamper eID adoption for online applications.

Keywords: eID, event-B, Pro-B, formal method, message passing

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