Search results for: European economic area

Authors: David Polcari, Samuel C. Perry, Loredano Pollegioni, Matthias Geissler, Janine Mauzeroll

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ᴅ-serine acts as an endogenous co-agonist for N-methyl-ᴅ-aspartate receptors in neuronal synapses. This makes it a key component in the development and function of a healthy brain, especially given its role in several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Despite such clear research motivations, the primary site and mechanism of ᴅ-serine release is still currently unclear. For this reason, we are developing a biosensor for the detection of ᴅ-serine utilizing a microelectrode in combination with a ᴅ-amino acid oxidase enzyme, which produces stoichiometric quantities of hydrogen peroxide in response to ᴅ-serine. For the fabrication of a biosensor with good selectivity, we use a permselective poly(meta-phenylenediamine) film to ensure only the target molecule is reacted, according to the size exclusion principle. In this work, we investigated the effect of the electrodeposition conditions used on the biosensor’s response time and selectivity. Careful optimization of the fabrication process allowed for enhanced biosensor response time. This allowed for the real time sensing of ᴅ-serine in a bulk solution, and also provided in means to map the efflux of ᴅ-serine in real time. This was done using scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) with the optimized biosensor to measure localized release of ᴅ-serine from an agar filled glass capillary sealed in an epoxy puck, which acted as a model system. The SECM area scan simultaneously provided information regarding the rate of ᴅ-serine flux from the model substrate, as well as the size of the substrate itself. This SECM methodology, which provides high spatial and temporal resolution, could be useful to investigate the primary site and mechanism of ᴅ-serine release in other biological samples.

Keywords: ᴅ-serine, enzymatic biosensor, microelectrode, scanning electrochemical microscopy

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Agata Krawczyk-Ozog, Mateusz K. Holda, Mateusz Koziej, Danuta Sorysz, Zbigniew Siudak, Wieslawa Klimek-Piotrowska, Dariusz Dudek

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Introduction: Rapid development of the surgical and less-invasive percutaneous mitral valve repair procedures greatly increase the interest of the mitral valve anatomy. The aim of this study was to characterize morphological variability of the mitral valve leaflets and to provide the size of their particular parts. Materials and Methods: In the study, we included 200 autopsied human hearts from Caucasian individuals (25% females) with mean age 47.5 (±17.9) without any valvular diseases. The morphology of the mitral valve was evaluated. The intercommissural and aorto-mural diameters of the mitral annulus were measured. All leaflets and their scallops were identified. The base and the height of the posteromedial commissure (PM-C), anterolateral commissure (AL-C), anterior leaflet (AL) and posterior leaflet (PL) with their scallops were measured. Results: The intercommissural diameter was 28.0±4.8 mm, the aorto-mural diameter 19.7±4.8 mm, circumference of the mitral annulus 89.9±12.6 mm and the area of the mitral valve 485.4±171.4 mm2. Classical mitral valves (AL+AL-C+PL(P1,P2,P3)+PM-C) were found in 141 (70.5%) specimens. In classical type, the mean AL base and height were 30.8±4.9 mm and 20.6±4.2 mm, while mean PL base and height 45.1±8.2 mm 12.9±2.8 mm respectively. The mean ratio of the AL base to PL base was 0.7±0.2. Variations in PL were found in 55 (27.5%) and in AL in 5 (2.5%) hearts. The most common variations were: valve with one accessory scallop (AcS) between P3 and PM-C (7%); AcS between P1 and AL-C (4%); connections of P2 and P3 scallops (4%); connections of P1 and P2 scallops (3%); AcS in AL (2.5%). All AcS were smaller than the main PL scallops. The mean intertrigonal distance was 21.9±3.8 mm. Conclusions: In all cases, the mitral valve is built by two main leaflets with possible variants in secondary to leaflets scallops (29.5%). The variations are largely associated with PL and are mostly related to the presence of AcS. Anatomically the AL is not divided into scallops, and it occupies 34.5% of the mitral annulus circumference. Understanding the anatomy of the mitral valve leaflets helps to planning and performing mitral valve repair procedures.

Keywords: accessory scallop, commissure, connected scallops, human heart, mitral leaflets, mitral valve

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Anamika A. Sharma, Arezou Ahmadi R. A., Narendra B. Parihar, Manjusha Sajith

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Introduction: Hemodialysis is the most effective therapeutic technique for patient with ESRD second to renal transplantation. However it is a lifelong therapy which requires frequent hospital, or dialysis centers visits mainly twice and thrice weekly, thus considerably changes the normal way of patient’s living. So this study aimed to Assess Health-Related Quality of life in End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Undergoing Twice and Thrice weekly Hemodialysis. Method: A prospective observational, cross-sectional study was carried out from September 2016 to April 2017 in end-stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis. Socio-demographic and clinical details of patients were obtained from the medical records. WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used to Access Health-Related Quality Of Life. Quality of Life scores of Twice weekly and Thrice weekly hemodialysis was analyzed by Kruskal Wallis Test. Results: Majority of respondents were male (72.55%), married (89.31%), employed (58.02%), belong to middle class (71.00%) and resides in rural area (58.78%). The mean ages in the patient undergoing twice weekly and thrice weekly hemodialysis were 51.89 ± 15.64 years and 51.33 ± 15.70 years respectively. Average Quality of Life scores observed in twice weekly and thrice weekly hemodialysis was 52.07 ± 13.30 (p=0.0037) and 52.87 ± 13.47 (p=0.0004) respectively. The hemoglobin of thrice weekly dialysis patients (10.28 gm/dL) was high as compared to twice weekly dialysis (9.23 gm/dL). Patients undergoing thrice weekly dialysis had improved serum urea, serum creatinine values (95.85 mg/dL, 8.32 mg/dL) as compared to twice weekly hemodialysis ( 104.94 mg/dL, 8.68 mg/dL). Conclusion: Our study concluded that there was no significant difference between overall Health-Related Quality Of Life in twice weekly and thrice weekly hemodialysis. Frequent hemodialysis was associated with improved control of hypertension, serum urea, serum creatinine levels.

Keywords: end stage renal disease, health related quality of life, twice weekly hemodialysis, thrice weekly hemodialysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Edward Poluyi, Eghosa Morgan, Charles Poluyi, Chibuikem Ikwuegbuenyi, Grace Imaguezegie

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Background: Current epidemiological studies have examined the associations between moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their risks of developing neurodegenerative diseases. Concussion, also known as mild TBI (mTBI), is however quite distinct from moderate or severe TBIs. Only few studies in this burgeoning area have examined concussion—especially repetitive episodes—and neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, no definite relationship has been established between them. Objectives : This review will discuss the available literature linking concussion and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Materials and Methods: Given the complexity of this subject, a realistic review methodology was selected which includes clarifying the scope and developing a theoretical framework, developing a search strategy, selection and appraisal, data extraction, and synthesis. A detailed literature matrix was set out in order to get relevant and recent findings on this topic. Results: Presently, there is no objective clinical test for the diagnosis of concussion because the features are less obvious on physical examination. Absence of an objective test in diagnosing concussion sometimes leads to skepticism when confirming the presence or absence of concussion. Intriguingly, several possible explanations have been proposed in the pathological mechanisms that lead to the development of some neurodegenerative disorders (such as ALS and AD) and concussion but the two major events are deposition of tau proteins (abnormal microtubule proteins) and neuroinflammation, which ranges from glutamate excitotoxicity pathways and inflammatory pathways (which leads to a rise in the metabolic demands of microglia cells and neurons), to mitochondrial function via the oxidative pathways.

Keywords: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, mild traumatic brain injury, neurodegeneration

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Authors: Abosede Omowumi Babatunde

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While the Niger Delta region satisfies the global thirst for oil, the inhabitants have not been adequately compensated for the use of their ancestral land. Besides, the ruthless exploitation and destruction of the natural environment upon which the inhabitants of the Niger Delta depend for their livelihood and sustenance by the activities of oil multinationals, pose major threats to food security in the region and by implication, Nigeria in general, Africa, and the world, given the present global emphasis on food security. This paper examines the effect of oil exploitation on household food security, identify key gaps in measures put in place to address the changes to livelihoods and food security and explore what should be done to improve the local people access to sufficient, safe and culturally acceptable food in the Niger Delta. Data is derived through interviews with key informants and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted with respondents in the local communities in the Niger Delta states of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers as well as relevant extant studies. The threat to food security is one important aspect of the human security challenges in the Niger Delta which has received limited scholarly attention. In addition, successive Nigerian governments have not meaningfully addressed the negative impacts of oil-induced environmental degradation on traditional livelihoods given the significant linkages between environmental sustainability, livelihood security, and food security. The destructive impact of oil pollution on the farmlands, crops, economic trees, creeks, lakes, and fishing equipment is so devastating that the people can no longer engage in productive farming and fishing. Also important is the limited access to modern agricultural methods for fishing and subsistence farming as fishing and farming are done using mostly crude implements and traditional methods. It is imperative and urgent to take stock of the negative implications of the activities of oil multinationals for environmental and livelihood sustainability, and household food security in the Niger Delta.

Keywords: challenges, food security, Nigeria's Niger delta, oil

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Authors: Niharul Alam

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The development of energy efficient, economic and eco-friendly synthetic protocols for metal nanoparticles (NPs) with tailor-made structural properties and biocompatibility is a highly cherished goal for researchers working in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this context, green chemistry is highly relevant and the 12 principles of Green Chemistry can be explored to develop such synthetic protocols which are practically implementable. One of the most promising green chemical synthetic methods which can serve the purpose is biogenic synthetic protocol, which utilizes non-toxic multifunctional reactants derived from natural, biological sources ranging from unicellular organisms to higher plants that are often characterized as “medicinal plants”. Over the past few years, a plethora of medicinal plants have been explored as the source of this kind of multifunctional green chemical agents. In this presentation, we focus on the syntheses of stable monometallic Au and Ag NPs and also bimetallic Au/Ag alloy NPs with highly efficient catalytic property using aqueous extract of leaves of Indian Curry leaf plat (Murraya koenigii Spreng.; Fam. Rutaceae) as green multifunctional agents which is extensively used in Indian traditional medicine and cuisine. We have also studied the interaction between the synthesized metal NPs and surface-adsorbed fluorescent moieties, quercetin and quercetin glycoside which are its chemical constituents. This helped us to understand the surface property of the metal NPs synthesized by this plant based biogenic route and to predict a plausible mechanistic pathway which may help in fine-tuning green chemical methods for the controlled synthesis of various metal NPs in future. We observed that simple experimental parameters e.g. pH and temperature of the reaction medium, concentration of multifunctional agent and precursor metal ions play important role in the biogenic synthesis of Au NPs with finely tuned structures.

Keywords: green multifunctional agent, metal nanoparticles, biogenic synthesis

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Authors: M. Bazrafshan, M. B. de Rooij, D. J. Schipper

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Frictional hysteresis is the phenomenon in which mechanical contacts are subject to small (compared to contact area) oscillating tangential displacements. In the presence of adhesion at the interface, the contact repulsive force increases leading to a higher static friction force and pre-sliding displacement. This paper proposes a boundary element model (BEM) for the adhesive frictional hysteresis contact at the interface of two contacting bodies of arbitrary geometries. In this model, adhesion is represented by means of a Dugdale approximation of the total work of adhesion at local areas with a very small gap between the two bodies. The frictional contact is divided into sticking and slipping regions in order to take into account the transition from stick to slip (pre-sliding regime). In the pre-sliding regime, the stick and slip regions are defined based on the local values of shear stress and normal pressure. In the studied cases, a fixed normal force is applied to the interface and the friction force varies in such a way to start gross sliding in one direction reciprocally. For the first case, the problem is solved at the smooth interface between a ball and a flat for different values of work of adhesion. It is shown that as the work of adhesion increases, both static friction and pre-sliding distance increase due to the increase in the contact repulsive force. For the second case, the rough interface between a glass ball against a silicon wafer and a DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) coating is considered. The work of adhesion is assumed to be identical for both interfaces. As adhesion depends on the interface roughness, the corresponding contact repulsive force is different for these interfaces. For the smoother interface, a larger contact repulsive force and consequently, a larger static friction force and pre-sliding distance are observed.

Keywords: boundary element model, frictional hysteresis, adhesion, roughness, pre-sliding

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: J. U. Santhosh Kumar, V. Krishna, Sebin Sebastian, G. S. Seethapathy, G. Ravikanth, R. Uma Shaanker

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Food is one of the basic needs of human beings. It requires the normal function of the body part and a healthy growth. Recently, food adulteration increases day by day to increase the quantity and make more benefit. Animal source foods can provide a variety of micronutrients that are difficult to obtain in adequate quantities from plant source foods alone. Particularly in the meat industry, products from animals are susceptible targets for fraudulent labeling due to the economic profit that results from selling cheaper meat as meat from more profitable and desirable species. This work presents an overview of the main PCR-based techniques applied to date to verify the authenticity of beef meat and meat products from beef species. We were analyzed 25 market beef samples in South India. We examined PCR methods based on the sequence of the cytochrome b gene for source species identification. We found all sample were sold as beef meat as Bos Taurus. However, interestingly Male meats are more valuable high price compare to female meat, due to this reason most of the markets samples are susceptible. We were used sex determination gene of cattle like TSPY(Y-encoded, testis-specific protein TSPY is a Y-specific gene). TSPY homologs exist in several mammalian species, including humans, horses, and cattle. This gene is Y coded testis protein genes, which only amplify the male. We used multiple PCR products form species-specific “fingerprints” on gel electrophoresis, which may be useful for meat authentication. Amplicons were obtained only by the Cattle -specific PCR. We found 13 market meat samples sold as female beef samples. These results suggest that the species-specific PCR methods established in this study would be useful for simple and easy detection of adulteration of meat products.

Keywords: authentication, meat products, species-specific, TSPY

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Authors: Lican Guzmán, José Manuel Lattus, Mariana Cervetto, Mauricio Calderón

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Today the estimation of effects produced by climate change in high Andean wetland environments is confronted by big challenges. This study provides a way to an analysis by remote sensing how some Ambiental aspects have evolved on the Maricunga salt flat in the last 30 years, divided into the summer and winter seasons, and if global warming is conditioning these changes. The first step to achieve this goal was the recompilation of geological, hydrological, and morphometric antecedents to ensure an adequate contextualization of its environmental parameters. After this, software processing and analysis of Landsat 5,7 and 8 satellite imagery was required to get the vegetation, water, surface temperature, and soil moisture indexes (NDVI, NDWI, LST, and SMI) in order to see how their spatial-temporal conditions have evolved in the area of study during recent decades. Results show a tendency of regular increase in surface temperature and disponibility of water during both seasons but with slight drought periods during summer. Soil moisture factor behaves as a constant during the dry season and with a tendency to increase during wintertime. Vegetation analysis shows an areal and quality increase of its surface sustained through time that is consistent with the increase of water supply and temperature in the basin mentioned before. Roughly, the effects of climate change can be described as positive for the Maricunga salt flat; however, the lack of exact correlation in dates of the imagery available to remote sensing analysis could be a factor for misleading in the interpretation of results.

Keywords: global warming, geology, SIG, Atacama Desert, Salar de Maricunga, environmental geology, NDVI, SMI, LST, NDWI, Landsat

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Authors: Azadeh Razzagh Shoar, Hassan Sadeghi Naeini

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There is little doubt that concepts such as space and place have become more common considering that human beings have grown more apart and more than having contact with each other, they are in contact with objects, spaces, and places. Cafés, as a third place which is neither home nor workplace, have attracted these authors’ interests, who are industrial and interior designers. There has been much research on providing suitable cafés, customer behavior, and criteria for spatial sense. However, little research has been carried out on consumerism, desire for variety, and their relationship with changing places, and specifically cafes in term of interior design. In fact, customer’s sense of place has mostly been overlooked. In this case study, authors conducted to challenge the desire for variety and consumerism as well as investigating the addictive factors in cafés. From the designers’ point of view and by collecting data through observing and interviewing café managers, this study investigates and analyzes the customers in two cafes located in a commercial building in northern Tehran (a part of city with above average economic conditions). Since these two cafés are at the same level in terms of interior and spatial design, the question is raised as to why customers patronize the newly built café despite their loyalty to the older café. This study aims to investigate and find the criteria based on the sense of space (café) in a consumerist society, a world where consumption is a myth. Going to cafés in a larger scale than a product can show a selection and finally who you are, where you go, which brand of coffee you prefer, and what time of the day you would like to have your coffee. The results show that since people spend time in cafés more than any other third place, the interaction they have with their environment is more than anything else, and they are consumers of time and place more than coffee or any other product. Also, if there is a sense of consumerism and variety, it is mostly for the place rather than coffee and other products. To satisfy this sense, individuals go to a new place (the new café). It can be easily observed that this sense overshadows the sense of efficiency, design, facilities and all important factor for a café.

Keywords: place, cafe, consumerist society, consumerism, desire for variety

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Authors: Rahmi Aksoy

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The western part of Konya consists of an area of block faulted basin and ranges. Present day topography is characterized by alternating elongate mountains and depressions trending east-west. A number of depressions occur in the region. One of the large depressions is the E-W trending Kızılören-Küçükmuhsine (KK basin) basin bounded on both sides by normal faults and located on the west of the Konya city. The basin is about 5-12 km wide and 40 km long. Ranges north and south of the basin are composed of undifferentiated low grade metamorphic rocks of Silurian-Cretaceous age and smaller bodies of ophiolites of probable Cretaceous age. The basin fill consists of the upper Miocene-lower Pliocene fluvial, lacustrine, alluvial sediments and volcanic rocks. The younger and undeformed Plio-Quaternary basin fill unconformably overlies the older basin fill and is composed predominantly of conglomerate, mudstone, silt, clay and recent basin floor deposits. The paleostress data on the striated fault planes in the basin indicates NW-SE extension and associated with an NE-SW compression. The eastern end of the KK basin is cut and terraced by the active Konya fault zone. The Konya fault zone is NE trending, east dipping normal fault forming the western boundary of the Konya depression. The Konya depression consists mainly of Plio-Quaternary alluvial complex and recent basin floor sediments. The structural data gathered from the Konya fault zone support normal faulting with a small amount of dextral strike-slip tensional tectonic regime that shaped under the WNW-ESE extensional stress regime.

Keywords: central Anatolia, fault kinematics, Kızılören-Küçükmuhsine basin, Konya fault zone, neotectonics

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Authors: Laxuman Thakuri

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Community-based forest management is often glorified as one of the best forest management alternatives in the developing countries like Nepal. It is also believed that the transfer of forest management authorities to local communities is decisive to take efficient decisions, maximize the forest benefits and improve the people’s livelihood. The community forestry of Nepal also aims to maximize the forest benefits; share them among the user households and improve their livelihood. However, how the local communities fix the price of forest products and local pricing made by the forest user groups affects to equitable forest benefits-sharing among the user households and their livelihood improvement objectives, the answer is largely silent among the researchers and policy-makers alike. This study examines local pricing system of forest products in the lowland community forestry and its effects on equitable benefit-sharing and livelihood improvement objectives. The study discovered that forest user groups fixed the price of forest products based on three criteria: i) costs incur in harvesting, ii) office operation costs, and iii) livelihood improvement costs through community development and income generating activities. Since user households have heterogeneous socio-economic conditions, the forest user groups have been applied low pricing strategy even for high-value forest products that the access of socio-economically worse-off households can be increased. However, the results of forest products distribution showed that as a result of low pricing strategy the access of socio-economically better-off households has been increasing at higher rate than worse-off and an inequality situation has been created. Similarly, the low pricing strategy is also found defective to livelihood improvement objectives. The study suggests for revising the forest products pricing system in community forest management and reforming the community forestry policy as well.

Keywords: community forestry, forest products pricing, equitable benefit-sharing, livelihood improvement, Nepal

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Authors: M. Sundaram, H. R. Sanath Kumar, A. Ramprakash

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Energy saving is a key sustainability focus area for the Indian telecom industry today. This is especially true in rural India where energy consumption contributes to 70 % of the total network operating cost. In urban areas, the energy cost for network operation ranges between 15-30 %. This expenditure on energy as a result of the lack of grid power availability highlights a potential barrier to telecom industry growth. As a result of this, telecom tower companies switch to diesel generators, making them the second largest consumer of diesel in India, consuming over 2.5 billion litres per annum. The growing cost of energy due to increasing diesel prices and concerns over rising greenhouse emissions have caused these companies to look at other renewable energy options. Even the TRAI (Telecom Regulation Authority of India) has issued a number of guidelines to implement Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the telecom towers as part of its ‘Implementation of Green Technologies in Telecom Sector’ initiative. Our proposal suggests the implementation of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) based ‘optimisation controller’ that can not only efficiently utilize the energy from RETs but also help to conserve the power used in the telecom towers. When there are multiple RETs available to supply energy, this controller will pick the optimum amount of energy from each RET based on the availability and feasibility at that point of time, reducing the dependence on diesel generators. For effective maintenance of the towers, we are planing to implement a SCADA based monitoring system along with the ‘optimization controller’.

Keywords: operation costs, consumption of fuel and carbon footprint, implementation of a programmable logic controller (PLC) based ‘optimisation controller’, efficient SCADA based monitoring system

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Authors: Kumiko Inagaki

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In recent, years, Japanese universities have begun to face a dilemma: more than half of all high school graduates go on to attend an institution of higher learning, overwhelming Japanese universities accustomed to small student bodies. These universities have been forced to embrace qualitative changes to accommodate the increased number and diversity of students who enter their establishments, students who differ in their motivations for learning, their levels of eagerness to learn, and their perspectives on the future. One of these changes is an increase in awareness among Japanese educators of the importance of active learning, which deepens students’ understanding of course material through a range of activities, including writing, speaking, thinking, and presenting, in addition to conventional “passive learning” methods such as listening to a one-way lecture. 　The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the teaching method adapted to improve active learning. A teaching method designed to promote active learning was implemented in a social science course at one of the most popular universities in Japan. A questionnaire using a five-point response format was given to students in 2,305 courses throughout the university to evaluate the effectiveness of the method based on the following measures: ① the ratio of students who were motivated to attend the classes, ② the rate at which students learned new information, and ③ the teaching method adopted in the classes. The results of this study show that the percentage of students who attended the active learning course eagerly, and the rate of new knowledge acquired through the course, both exceeded the average for the university, the department, and the subject area of social science. In addition, there are strong correlations between teaching method and student motivation and between teaching method and knowledge acquisition rate. These results indicate that the active learning teaching method was effectively implemented and that it may improve student eagerness to attend class and motivation to learn.

Keywords: active learning, Japanese university, teaching method, university education

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Authors: Maxim Glushenkov, Alexander Kronberg

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Isobaric expansion (IE) process is an alternative to conventional gas/vapor expansion accompanied by a pressure decrease typical of all state-of-the-art heat engines. The elimination of the expansion stage accompanied by useful work means that the most critical and expensive parts of ORC systems (turbine, screw expander, etc.) are also eliminated. In many cases, IE heat engines can be more efficient than conventional expansion machines. In addition, IE machines have a very simple, reliable, and inexpensive design. They can also perform all the known operations of existing heat engines and provide usable energy in a very convenient hydraulic or pneumatic form. This paper reports measurement made with the engine operating as a heat-to-shaft-power or electricity converter and a comparison of the experimental results to a thermodynamic model. Experiments were carried out at heat source temperature in the range 30–85 °C and heat sink temperature around 20 °C; refrigerant R134a was used as the engine working fluid. The pressure difference generated by the engine varied from 2.5 bar at the heat source temperature 40 °C to 23 bar at the heat source temperature 85 °C. Using a differential piston, the generated pressure was quadrupled to pump hydraulic oil through a hydraulic motor that generates shaft power and is connected to an alternator. At the frequency of about 0.5 Hz, the engine operates with useful powers up to 1 kW and an oil pumping flowrate of 7 L/min. Depending on the temperature of the heat source, the obtained efficiency was 3.5 – 6 %. This efficiency looks very high, considering such a low temperature difference (10 – 65 °C) and low power (< 1 kW). The engine’s observed performance is in good agreement with the predictions of the model. The results are very promising, showing that the engine is a simple and low-cost alternative to ORC plants and other known energy conversion systems, especially at low temperatures (< 100 °C) and low power range (< 500 kW) where other known technologies are not economic. Thus low-grade solar, geothermal energy, biomass combustion, and waste heat with a temperature above 30 °C can be involved into various energy conversion processes.

Keywords: isobaric expansion, low-grade heat, heat engine, renewable energy, waste heat recovery

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Authors: M. T. Islam, S. H. Shakif, R. Hasan, S. H. Kobi

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Investigation of rainfall trends is crucial considering climate change, food security, and the economy of a particular region. This research aims to study seasonal and annual precipitation trends and their abrupt changes over time in the south-central climatic zone of Bangladesh using monthly time series data of 50 years (1970-2019). A trend-free pre-whitening method has been employed to make necessary adjustments for autocorrelations in the rainfall data. Trends in rainfall and their intensity have been observed using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Theil-Sen estimator. Significant changes and fluctuation points in the data series have been detected using the sequential Mann-Kendall test at the 95% confidence limit. The study findings show that most of the rainfall stations in the study area have a decreasing precipitation pattern throughout all seasons. The maximum decline in the rainfall intensity has been found for the Tangail station (-8.24 mm/year) during monsoon. Madaripur and Chandpur stations have shown slight positive trends in post-monsoon rainfall. In terms of annual precipitation, a negative rainfall pattern has been identified in each station, with a maximum decrement (-) of 14.48 mm/year at Chandpur. However, all the trends are statistically non-significant within the 95% confidence interval, and their monotonic association with time ranges from very weak to weak. From the sequential Mann-Kendall test, the year of changing points for annual and seasonal downward precipitation trends occur mostly after the 90s for Dhaka and Barishal stations. For Chandpur, the fluctuation points arrive after the mid-70s in most cases.

Keywords: trend analysis, Mann-Kendall test, Theil-Sen estimator, sequential Mann-Kendall test, rainfall trend

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Authors: Saba Amreen Syeda, Summaiah Asim, Syeda, Hafsa, Essam Quraishi

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Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) is a relatively uncommon type of lymphoma that comprises approximately 7 percent of non hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL), Classic MCL presents mostly in lymph nodes and occasionally in extranodal sites. About 26 % of MCL is present primarily in the Gastrointestinal tract. While both the upper GI tract and the lower GI tract could be involved, it is rare to present with concurrent upper and lower GI involvement with MCL. We present the case of a 51-year-old Asian Indian male that presented to our clinic with complaints of chronic diarrhea for the last one year, progressively worsening over the past three months. The Patient also reported black stool as well as bright red blood per rectum. Patient reported severe fatigue on minimal exertion. On a physical exam, the patient was noted to have matted lymphadenopathy in the neck. Patient was noted to be anemic with a hemoglobin to be 8 g/dl. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy was performed. EGD showed a large 4 cm ulcer in the gastric antrum with thick heaped up edges. There was bleeding on contact. Colonoscopy showed a large 35 mm multilobulated polyp in the ascending colon, which was biopsied. The patient was also noted to have nodular proctitis in the mid rectum. This was localized and extended to about 5 cm. This area was biopsied as well. Biopsies from the stomach, colon, as well as the rectum, returned with findings of mantle cell lymphoma on pathology. Lymphoid cells in the biopsy were stained strongly positive for CD 20, cyclin D1, and CD 5. There was the absence of stain for CD 3 and CD 10. The IHC stain for CD 23 was negative. Biopsies from neck LAD were obtained and were also positive for MCL. The patient was referred to oncology for staging and treatment.

Keywords: mantle cell lymphoma, GI bleed, diarrhea, gastric ulcer, colon polyp

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Authors: Kevin Montanez, Patricia Garcia

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The confinement and restrictions adopted to avoid an exponential spread of the COVID-19 have negatively impacted the Peruvian economy. In this context, Industries offering essential products could continue operating, but they have to follow safety protocols and implement strategies to ensure employee health. In view of the increasing internet access and mobile phone ownership, “Alerta Temprana”, a mobile app, was developed to self-report COVID-19 symptoms in the work context. In this study, the usability of the mobile app “Alerta Temprana” was evaluated from the perspective of health monitors and workers. In addition to reporting the metrics related to the usability of the application, the utility of the system is also evaluated from the monitors' perspective. In this descriptive study, the participants used the mobile app for two months. Afterwards, System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire was answered by the workers and monitors. A Usefulness questionnaire with open questions was also used for the monitors. The data related to the use of the application was collected during one month. Furthermore, descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were used. The workers rated the application as good (70.39). In the case of the monitors, usability was excellent (83.0). The most important feature for the monitors were the emails generated by the application. The average interaction per user was 30 seconds and a total of 6172 self-reports were sent. Finally, a statistically significant association was found between the acceptability scale and the work area. The results of this study suggest that Alerta Temprana has the potential to be used for surveillance and health monitoring in any context of face-to-face modality. Participants reported a high degree of ease of use. However, from the perspective of workers, SUS cannot diagnose usability issues and we suggest we use another standard usability questionnaire to improve "Alerta Temprana" for future use.

Keywords: public health in informatics, mobile app, usability, self-report

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Authors: K. Bhojnadh, M. Fiddler, D. Cheshire

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An investigation into the Kutta effect on the trailing edge of a subsonic aerofoil was conducted which led to an analysis using Ansys Fluent to determine the effect of flow separation over a NACA 0012 aerofoil. This aerofoil was subjected to oscillations to create an unsteady flow over the aerofoil, therefore, creating turbulence, with unsteady aerodynamics playing a key role to determine the flow regimes when the aerofoil is subjected to different angles of attack along with varying Reynolds numbers. Many theories were evolved to determine the flow parameters of a 2-D aerofoil in these unsteady conditions because they behave unpredictably at the trailing edge when subjected to a different angle of attack. The shear area observed in the boundary layer at the trailing edge tends towards an unsteady turbulent flow even at small angles of attack, creating drag as the flow separates, reducing the aerodynamic performance of aerofoil. In this paper, research was conducted to determine the effect of Kutta circulation over the aerofoil and the effect of that circulation in reducing the effect of pressure and boundary layer distribution over the aerofoil. The effect of circulation is observed by using Ansys Fluent by using varying flow parameters and differential schemes to observe the flow behaviour on the aerofoil. Initially, steady flow analysis was conducted on the aerofoil to determine the effect of circulation, and it was noticed that the effect of circulation could only be properly observed when the aerofoil is subjected to oscillations. Therefore, that was modelled by using Ansys user-defined functions, which define the motion of the aerofoil by creating a dynamic mesh on the aerofoil. Initial results were observed, and further development of the dynamic mesh functions in Ansys is taking place. This research will determine the overall basic principles of unsteady flow aerodynamics applied to the investigation of Kutta related circulation, and gives an indication regarding the generation of vortices which is discussed further in this paper.

Keywords: circulation, flow seperation, turbulence modelling, vortices

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Authors: Djehich Mohamed Yousri

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As a result of the destruction and devastation left by the two world wars, the international community worked to establish a global organization based on a contractual basis, in which the Security Council was entrusted with the task of working to maintain international peace and security, and to achieve this, the United Nations Charter assigned the latter a wide authority to adapt everything It would threaten international peace and security, although the examiner of the Charter of the United Nations does not find the slightest definition of the concept of international peace and security, although these two principles are among the basic principles that the Charter stipulated the necessity of achieving, and perhaps this was also what was in the opposite case for them. And by that, we mean cases of a threat to peace, a breach of it, or an act of aggression. These terms were not dealt with in the Charter in explanation and detail, leaving ample room for the Security Council to assess each of these cases separately, and perhaps this is due to the fact that the framers of the Charter intended to set a flexible standard. It does not restrict the authority of the Security Council to carry out the adjustment process on the one hand and, on the other hand, to allow and enable the Security Council to keep pace with new developments and threats to which international peace and security are exposed. There is no doubt that the concept of international peace and security has undergone significant changes during the 70-year period that followed the establishment of the international organization. After the threat to peace and security focused - in the first stage - on cases of war or the threat of war, what distinguishes the post- The new world order is the emergence of other challenges and threats that find their source in economic, social, humanitarian, and environmental instability. Perhaps this is what the member states of the Security Council indicated during the preparation of the Peace Agenda. The expansion of the concept of peace and security is what paved the way for some permanent states to use the Security Council to legitimize and implement their decisions and take the council as a tool to implement their foreign policy and punish states instead of maintaining international peace and security, which prompted some states and jurisprudence to call for the establishment of oversight of the decisions of the Council Security on the one hand, and amending the UN Charter to make it more expressive of the aspirations of the international community, referring to the obstacles that prevent this amendment.

Keywords: peace, security, united nations charter, security council, united nations organization

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Authors: D. Calogine, O. Chau, S. Dotti, O. Ramiarinjanahary, P. Rasoavonjy, F. Tovondahiniriko

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Mafate is a natural circus in the north-western part of Reunion Island, without an electrical grid and road network. A micro-grid concept is being experimented in this area, composed of a photovoltaic production combined with electrochemical batteries, in order to meet the local population for self-consumption of electricity demands. This work develops a discrete model as well as a stochastic model in order to reach an optimal equilibrium between production and consumptions for a cluster of houses. The management of the energy power leads to a large linearized programming system, where the time interval of interest is 24 hours The experimental data are solar production, storage energy, and the parameters of the different electrical devices and batteries. The unknown variables to evaluate are the consumptions of the various electrical services, the energy drawn from and stored in the batteries, and the inhabitants’ planning wishes. The objective is to fit the solar production to the electrical consumption of the inhabitants, with an optimal use of the energies in the batteries by satisfying as widely as possible the users' planning requirements. In the discrete model, the different parameters and solutions of the linear programming system are deterministic scalars. Whereas in the stochastic approach, the data parameters and the linear programming solutions become random variables, then the distributions of which could be imposed or established by estimation from samples of real observations or from samples of optimal discrete equilibrium solutions.

Keywords: photovoltaic production, power consumption, battery storage resources, random variables, stochastic modeling, estimations of probability distributions, mixed integer linear programming, smart micro-grid, self-consumption of electricity.

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Authors: Dona Ghosh, Zakir Husain

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In India, the increase in share of aged has generated many social and economic issues, of which health concerns is a major challenge that society must confront in coming years. Self-reported health (SRH) is a popular health measure in this regard but has been questioned in recent years due to its heavy dependence on the socioeconomic status. So, the validity of SRH, as a measure of health status during old age, is needed to be verified. This paper emphasizes on the self-reported health and related inconsistent responses among elderly in India. The objective of the study is bifurcated into two parts: firstly, to identify the socioeconomic determinants of subjective health status and its change over time; and secondly, to analyse the role of the socioeconomic components in providing inconsistent responses regarding the health status of elderly. Inconsistency in response can rise in two ways: positive response bias (if an individual has a health problem but reports his/her health as good) and negative response bias (if bad health is reported even if there is no health problem). However, in the present study, we focus only on the negative response bias of elderly individuals. To measure the inconsistencies in responses, self-reported health is compared with two types of physical health conditions – existence of chronicle ailment and physical immobility. Using NSS dataset of 60th and 71st rounds, the study found that subjective health has worsened over time in both rural and urban areas. Findings suggest that inconsistency in responses, related to chronic ailment, vary across social classes, living environments, geographical regions, age groups and education levels. On the contrary, variation in inconsistent responses regarding physical mobility is quite rare and difficult to explain by socioeconomic characteristics because most of the indicators are found to be insignificant in this regard. The findings indicate that in case of chronicle ailment, inconsistency between objective and subjective health status largely depends on socioeconomic conditions but the importance of such factors disappears for physical immobility.

Keywords: India, aging, self-reported health, inconsistent responses

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Authors: Emily Rabe, Stephanie Candelaria, Rachel Malone, Olivia Lenz, Greg Newbloom

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Electrodialysis (ED) is a well-developed technology for ion removal in a variety of applications. However, many industries generate harsh wastewater streams that are incompatible with traditional ion exchange membranes. Membrion® has developed novel ceramic-based ion exchange membranes (IEMs) offering several advantages over traditional polymer membranes: high performance in low pH, chemical resistance to oxidizers, and a rigid structure that minimizes swelling. These membranes are synthesized with our patented silane-based sol-gel techniques. The pore size, shape, and network structure are engineered through a molecular self-assembly process where thermodynamic driving forces are used to direct where and how pores form. Either cationic or anionic groups can be added within the membrane nanopore structure to create cation- and anion-exchange membranes. The ceramic IEMs are produced on a roll-to-roll manufacturing line with low-temperature processing. Membrane performance testing is conducted using in-house permselectivity, area-specific resistance, and ED stack testing setups. Ceramic-based IEMs show comparable performance to traditional IEMs and offer some unique advantages. Long exposure to highly acidic solutions has a negligible impact on ED performance. Additionally, we have observed stable performance in the presence of strong oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide. This stability is expected, as the ceramic backbone of these materials is already in a fully oxidized state. This data suggests ceramic membranes, made using sol-gel chemistry, could be an ideal solution for acidic and/or oxidizing wastewater streams from processes such as semiconductor manufacturing and mining.

Keywords: ion exchange, membrane, silane chemistry, nanostructure, wastewater

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Authors: Hamed K. Esfahani, Bithin Datta

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Transport of reactive chemical contaminant species in groundwater aquifers is a complex and highly non-linear physical and geochemical process especially for real life scenarios. Simulating this transport process involves solving complex nonlinear equations and generally requires huge computational time for a given aquifer study area. Development of optimal remediation strategies in aquifers may require repeated solution of such complex numerical simulation models. To overcome this computational limitation and improve the computational feasibility of large number of repeated simulations, Genetic Programming based trained surrogate models are developed to approximately simulate such complex transport processes. Transport process of acid mine drainage, a hazardous pollutant is first simulated using a numerical simulated model: HYDROGEOCHEM 5.0 for a contaminated aquifer in a historic mine site. Simulation model solution results for an illustrative contaminated aquifer site is then approximated by training and testing a Genetic Programming (GP) based surrogate model. Performance evaluation of the ensemble GP models as surrogate models for the reactive species transport in groundwater demonstrates the feasibility of its use and the associated computational advantages. The results show the efficiency and feasibility of using ensemble GP surrogate models as approximate simulators of complex hydrogeologic and geochemical processes in a contaminated groundwater aquifer incorporating uncertainties in historic mine site.

Keywords: geochemical transport simulation, acid mine drainage, surrogate models, ensemble genetic programming, contaminated aquifers, mine sites

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Authors: Annika Kjallman Alm, Ove Hellzen, Malin Rising-Holmstrom

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Worldwide, the number of people who are living with dementia is increasing because of an aging population, which leads to increased financial and social costs, including reduced quality of life for people with dementia and their care partners. Most people who have dementia reside in the community. Aging in place could be described as having the health and social supports and services you need to live safely and independently in your home or your society for as long as you wish and are able. People with dementia are not different than people without dementia where they want to remain at home, if possible, with a sense of familiarity and engagement in typical everyday activities. So how do persons with dementia or cognitive decline see their possibilities to be socially involved and experience support? The aim of this study was to explore persons with cognitive decline's sense of involvement and support living in the ordinary dwelling. The study was approved by the Ethical Review Authority in Sweden prior to the interviews. Interviews were conducted with 20 persons living at home, either alone or in a relationship. The persons had perceived cognitive decline; some were under investigation or already had a diagnose of early dementia. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyze, and report patterns within the data. Researchers extracted three main themes through participants’ interviews: a) Importance of social involvement with family and friends. b) Hindrances for social involvement. c) Struggling mentally with a new life situation. Results found that going to activity centers, staying involved, and meeting friends and family enhanced the sense of involvement and support. There were also hindrances to a sense of involvement and support as they struggled with the diagnose and the changes in daily life, such as physical problems, mental problems, or economic issues. The mental struggle of accepting the cognitive decline and the changes in daily life it brought was also an issue for some of the participants. A multidimensional support should be provided by the community to enable persons with cognitive decline to stay involved in family and community in the comfort of their own homes.

Keywords: aging in place, cognitive decline, dementia, sense of involvement

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Authors: Lawong Damian Bernsah

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Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are most predominant among the poor and rural populations and are endemic in 149 countries. These diseases are the most prevalent and responsible for infecting 1.4 billion people worldwide. There are 17 neglected tropical diseases recognized by WHO that constitute the fourth largest disease health and economic burden of all communicable diseases. Five of these 17 diseases are considered for the cost analysis of this paper: lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, trachoma, schistosomiasis, and soil transmitted helminth infections. WHO has proposed a roadmap for eradication and elimination by 2020 and treatments have been donated through the London Declaration by pharmaceutical manufacturers. The paper estimates the cost of NTD control programme and elimination for each NTD disease and total in Nigeria. This is necessary as it forms the bases upon which programme budget and expenditure could be based. Again, given the opportunity cost the resources for NTD face it is necessary to estimate the cost so as to provide bases for comparison. Cost of NTDs control and elimination programme is estimated using the population at risk for each NTD diseases and for the total. The population at risk is gotten from the national master plan for the 2015 - 2020, while the cost per person was gotten for similar studies conducted in similar settings and ranges from US$0.1 to US$0.5 for Mass Administration of Medicine (MAM) and between US$1 to US$1.5 for each NTD disease. The combined cost for all the NTDs was estimated to be US$634.88 million for the period 2015-2020 and US$1.9 billion for each NTD disease for the same period. For the purpose of sensitivity analysis and for robustness of the analysis the cost per person was varied and all were still high. Given that health expenditure for Nigeria (% of GDP) averages 3.5% for the period 1995-2014, it is very clear that efforts have to be made to improve allocation to the health sector in general which is hoped could trickle to NTDs control and elimination. Thus, the government and the donor partners would need to step-up budgetary allocation and also to be aware of the costs of NTD control and elimination programme since they have alternative uses. Key Words: Neglected Tropical Disease, Cost Analysis, NTD Programme Control and Elimination, Cost per Person

Keywords: Neglected Tropical Disease, Cost Analysis, Neglected Tropical Disease Programme Control and Elimination, Cost per Person

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Authors: N. Hachemi, I. Benmehdi, O. Hasnaoui

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The air like water is an essential element for living beings. Each day, a man breathes about 20m3 of air. It originally consists of a set of gas whose presence and concentrations correspond to the needs of life. This study focuses on air pollution by smoke and dust emitted from the chimney of the cement works of Beni Saf, pathological and their impact on the environment. Dust of the cement plant are harmless to permissible levels for living organisms, but the two combined phenomena namely the release of dust and aridity of the climate, which severely marked area of Beni Saf; have contributed adverse effects in on human health and the degradation of vegetation cover and species especially weakened by environmental stress. The most visible impact is certainly the deposition of dust on the surrounding areas of the cement factory, and seriously affecting the aesthetics of the landscape. Health problems are more important inside and outside the factory. Among the diseases notable caused by the cement works are: deafness, heart disease, asthma and mental. The dust of the cement works is mainly composed of fine particles of limestone, clay, free lime, silicates and also loaded of the gases such as carbon dioxide gas CO2. The accumulation of this gas in the atmosphere is directly involved in the phenomenon of increasing of greenhouse effect. Some gases, for example, are directly toxic. They can change the climate, changing precipitation types and become a greater source of stress by drought, etc. The environment also suffers from air pollution indirectly; it is more precisely the acid rain. They are produced by the combustion of non-metals in air. Acid rain has consequences for contaminating the soil, weakening the flora, fauna and acidifies lakes. Finally, the pollution problems are multiple and specific dust. It can worsen and change, it has reached epidemic proportions quantitatively and qualitatively disturbing and unpredictable.

Keywords: atmospheric pollution, cement, dust, environment

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Authors: Shuyu Zhang

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The waterfront historical district, as a type of historical districts on the verge of waters such as the sea, lake, and river, have a relatively special urban form. In the past preservation and renewal of traditional historic districts, there have been many discussions on the land range, and the waterfront and marginal spaces are easily overlooked. However, the waterfront space of the historic districts, as a cultural landscape heritage combining historical buildings and landscape elements, has strong ecological and sustainable values. At the same time, Suzhou and Venice, as sister water cities in history, have more waterfront spaces that can be compared in urban form and other levels. Therefore, this paper focuses on the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, establishes quantitative evaluation indicators for environmental perception, makes analogies, and promotes the renewal and activation of the entire historical district by improving the spatial quality and vitality of the waterfront area. First, this paper uses multi-source data for analysis, such as Baidu Maps and Google Maps API to crawl the street view of the waterfront historic districts, uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the proportion of cultural landscape elements such as green viewing rate in the street view pictures, and uses space syntax software to make quantitative selectivity analysis, so as to establish environmental perception evaluation indicators for the waterfront historic districts. Finally, by comparing and summarizing the waterfront historic districts in Venice and Suzhou, it reveals their similarities and differences, characteristics and conclusions, and hopes to provide a reference for the heritage preservation and renewal of other waterfront historic districts.

Keywords: waterfront historical district, cultural landscape, perception, multi-source Data

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Authors: Juan A. G. Carrio, Prasad Talluri, Sergio G. Echeverrigaray, Antonio H. Castro Neto

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Hydrogen as a fuel and environmentally pleasant energy carrier is part of this transition towards low-carbon systems. The extensive deployment of hydrogen production, purification and transport infrastructures still represents significant challenges. Independent of the production process, the hydrogen generally is mixed with light hydrocarbons and other undesirable gases that need to be removed to obtain H₂ with the required purity for end applications. In this context, membranes are one of the simplest, most attractive, sustainable, and performant technologies enabling hydrogen separation and purification. They demonstrate high separation efficiencies and low energy consumption levels in operation, which is a significant leap compared to current energy-intensive options technologies. The unique characteristics of 2D laminates have given rise to a diversity of research on their potential applications in separation systems. Specifically, it is already known in the scientific literature that graphene oxide-based membranes present the highest reported selectivity of H₂ over other gases. This work explores the potential of a new type of 2D materials-based membranes in separating H₂ from CO₂ and CH₄. We have developed nanostructured composites based on 2D materials that have been applied in the fabrication of membranes to maximise H₂ selectivity and permeability, for different gas mixtures, by adjusting the membranes' characteristics. Our proprietary technology does not depend on specific porous substrates, which allows its integration in diverse separation modules with different geometries and configurations, looking to address the technical performance required for industrial applications and economic viability. The tuning and precise control of the processing parameters allowed us to control the thicknesses of the membranes below 100 nanometres to provide high permeabilities. Our results for the selectivity of new nanostructured 2D materials-based membranes are in the range of the performance reported in the available literature around 2D materials (such as graphene oxide) applied to hydrogen purification, which validates their use as one of the most promising next-generation hydrogen separation and purification solutions.

Keywords: membranes, 2D materials, hydrogen purification, nanocomposites

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Authors: Ayesha Ali, Emilia Lindquist, Arif Jalal, Hannah Yusuf, Kayan Cheung, Rowan Eastabrook

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It is currently estimated that over a third of deaths in children under five in Tanzania are caused by acute respiratory infections (ARIs). However, despite being one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality across the developing world, its risk factors are poorly understood. Therefore, a systematic review of the literature published between 2015 and 2020 was conducted, focusing on risk factors for ARI in Tanzanian children under the age of five. 2015 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) for Tanzania was analysed to supplement these findings with national data. 2224 papers were retrieved from two databases and were analysed by three independent reviewers. Thirteen papers were eligible for inclusion, covering a wide range of risk factors among which comorbidities (n=6), malnutrition (n=5), lack of parental education (n=4), poor socio-economic status (n=3), and delay in seeking healthcare (n=3) were the most cited risk factors. The risk factors with the highest reported risk ratios/odds ratios were lack of parental education (RR=11.5-14.5), followed by enrolment in school (RR=4.4), delay in seeking healthcare (RR=3.8) and cooking indoors (aOR =1.8-RR=5.5). The DHS data provided local context to these risk factors. For instance, the number of children experiencing symptoms of ARI in both urban and rural areas ranged between 4.5-5% in the two weeks prior to the survey. However, 79% of symptomatic children in Zanzibar received antibiotics for treatment compared to just 34% of those in the Southern Highlands. As demonstrated by both the systematic review and the DHS analysis, risk factors for ARI are predominantly socially determined, with Tanzania’s poorer rural children possessing the highest risk for ARI and more adverse health outcomes. Therefore, the burden of ARIs in Tanzanian children may be alleviated through the provision of appropriate treatment and parental education in rural areas.

Keywords: acute respiratory infection, child, health education, morbidity, mortality, pneumonia, Tanzania

Procedia PDF Downloads 173