Search results for: Russian studies

Authors: Himanshi Allahabadi

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Plants have found a widespread use in medicine traditionally, including the treatment of cognitive disorders, especially, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. In terms of indigenous medicine, it has been found that many potential drugs can be isolated from plant products, including those for dementia. Plant product is widely distributed in plant kingdom and forms a major antioxidant source in the human diet, is Polyphenols. There are four important groups of polyphenols: phenolic acids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and lignans. Due to their high antioxidant capacity, interest in their study has greatly increased. There are several methods for discovering and characterizing active compounds isolated from plant sources, now available. The results obtained so far seem fulfilling, but additionally, mechanism of functioning of polyphenols at the molecular level, as well as their application in human health need to be researched upon. Also, even though the neuroprotective effects of flavonoids have been much talked about, much of the data in support of this statement has come from animal studies rather than human studies. This review is based on a multi-faceted study of medicinal plants, i.e. phytochemicals, with special focus on flavanones and their relevance in remedy of Parkinson's disease.

Keywords: dementia, parkinson's disease, flavanones, polyphenols, substantia nigra

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: Vladimir Messerle, Alfred Mosse, Alexandr Ustimenko, Oleg Lavrichshev

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Hygiene and sanitary study of typical medical-biological waste made in Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and other countries show that their risk to the environment is much higher than that of most chemical wastes. For example, toxicity of solid waste (SW) containing cytotoxic drugs and antibiotics is comparable to toxicity of radioactive waste of high and medium level activity. This report presents the results of the thermodynamic analysis of thermal processing of SW and experiments at the developed plasma unit for SW processing. Thermodynamic calculations showed that the maximum yield of the synthesis gas at plasma gasification of SW in air and steam mediums is achieved at a temperature of 1600K. At the air plasma gasification of SW high-calorific synthesis gas with a concentration of 82.4% (СO – 31.7%, H2 – 50.7%) can be obtained, and at the steam plasma gasification – with a concentration of 94.5% (СO – 33.6%, H2 – 60.9%). Specific heat of combustion of the synthesis gas produced by air gasification amounts to 14267 kJ/kg, while by steam gasification - 19414 kJ/kg. At the optimal temperature (1600 K), the specific power consumption for air gasification of SW constitutes 1.92 kWh/kg, while for steam gasification - 2.44 kWh/kg. Experimental study was carried out in a plasma reactor. This is device of periodic action. The arc plasma torch of 70 kW electric power is used for SW processing. Consumption of SW was 30 kg/h. Flow of plasma-forming air was 12 kg/h. Under the influence of air plasma flame weight average temperature in the chamber reaches 1800 K. Gaseous products are taken out of the reactor into the flue gas cooling unit, and the condensed products accumulate in the slag formation zone. The cooled gaseous products enter the gas purification unit, after which via gas sampling system is supplied to the analyzer. Ventilation system provides a negative pressure in the reactor up to 10 mm of water column. Condensed products of SW processing are removed from the reactor after its stopping. By the results of experiments on SW plasma gasification the reactor operating conditions were determined, the exhaust gas analysis was performed and the residual carbon content in the slag was determined. Gas analysis showed the following composition of the gas at the exit of gas purification unit, (vol.%): СO – 26.5, H2 – 44.6, N2–28.9. The total concentration of the syngas was 71.1%, which agreed well with the thermodynamic calculations. The discrepancy between experiment and calculation by the yield of the target syngas did not exceed 16%. Specific power consumption for SW gasification in the plasma reactor according to the results of experiments amounted to 2.25 kWh/kg of working substance. No harmful impurities were found in both gas and condensed products of SW plasma gasification. Comparison of experimental results and calculations showed good agreement. Acknowledgement—This work was supported by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Agreement on grant No. 14.607.21.0118, project RFMEF160715X0118).

Keywords: coal, efficiency, ignition, numerical modeling, plasma-fuel system, plasma generator

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Authors: Atom Mkhitaryan, Astghik Avetisyan

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We analyze the developments of doctoral education in Armenia since 1990 and the management process. Education and training of highly qualified personnel are increasingly seen as a fundamental platform that ensures the development of the state. Reforming the national institute for doctoral studies (aspirantura) is aimed at improving the quality of human resources in science, optimizing research topics in accordance with the priority areas of development of science and technology, increasing publication and innovative activities, bringing national science and research closer to the world level and achieving international recognition. We present a number of defended dissertations in Armenia during the last 30 years, the dynamics and the main trends of the development of the academic degree awarding system. We discuss the possible impact of reforming the system of training and certification of highly qualified personnel on the organization of third–level doctoral education (doctoral schools) and specialized / dissertation councils in Armenia. The results of the SWOT analysis of doctoral education and academic degree awarding processes in Armenia are shown. The article presents the main activities and projects aimed at using the advantages and strong points of the National Academy network in order to improve the quality of doctoral education and training. The paper explores the mechanisms of organizational, methodological and infrastructural support for research and innovation activities of doctoral students and young scientists. There are also suggested approaches to the organization of strong networking between research institutes and foreign universities for training and certification of highly qualified personnel. The authors define the role of ISEC in the management of doctoral studies and the establishment of a competitive third-level education for the sphere of research and development in Armenia.

Keywords: doctoral studies, academic degree, PhD, certification, highly qualified personnel, dissertation, research and development, innovation, networking, management of doctoral school

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Authors: Merab Mamuladze, Mixeil Lejava, Fadiko Abuselidze

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At present, where most of the soils of Georgia have a small contour, the demand for small-capacity technical means, in particular motoblocks, has increased. Motoblocks perform agricultural work for various purposes, where the work process is performed by the operator, who experiences various magnitudes of vibration, impact, noise, and in general, as a result of long-term work production, causes body damage, dynamic load, and respiratory diseases in people. In the scientific paper, the dependence on the vibration of different types of diesel fuel is investigated in the case of five different revolutions in the internal combustion engine. Studies have shown that fuel and engine speed are the only risk factors that contradict the ISO 5349-2(2004) international standard. The experience of four years of work studies showed that 10% of operators received various types of injuries as a result of working with motoblocks. Experiments also showed that the amount of vibration decreases when the number of revolutions of the engine increases, and in the case of using biodiesel fuel, the damage risk factor is 5-10%, and in the case of using conventional diesel, this indicator has gone up to 20%.

Keywords: engine, vibration, biodiesel, high risk factor, working conditions

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Authors: D. Anderlini, G. Wallis

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Background: The number of people experiencing stroke is steadily increasing due to changes in diet and lifestyle, to longer life expectancy resulting in older population, to higher survival rates as a consequence of improvements during the acute phase. This study considers what risk factors might contribute to delayed entry to hospital for treatment. Methods: We analyzed data from 2472 patients admitted to the Stroke Unit of the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital, Australia, between 2002 to 2011. Results: Previous studies have reported that factors which can contribute to delay include the patient’s age, the time of day, physical location, visit the GP instead of going to the emergency, means of transport, severity of symptoms and type of stroke. Contrary to findings of other studies, we found a strong correlation between side of lesion and delay in admission: patients with right hemisphere lesions had an average delay of 3.78 days, while patients with left hemisphere lesions had an average delay of 1.49 days. Damage to the right hemisphere generally ends in motor impairment in the non-dominant hand and no speech impediment. In contrast, left hemisphere lesions can result in deficit to; dominant hand function and aphasia which will be noticed even if their impact on performance is relatively minor. A finding which goes against many previous studies, is the fact that women get to the hospital much sooner than men, showing an average delay of 0.92 days in women vs. 3.36 days in men. Conclusion: Acute surgical-pharmacological therapies are most effective if applied immediately after stroke. Hence delays to admission can be crucial to the degree of recovery. The tendency of patients to overlook symptoms of right hemisphere lesion should be the target of information campaigns both for the general public and GPs. Why do men go to hospital so late? We don't know yet! Nevertheless an awareness plan specifically direct to male population should be on the agenda of Health Departments.

Keywords: gender, admission delay, stroke location, bioinformatics, biomedicine

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Authors: Mudiyati Rahmatunnisa

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This study is about the implementation of decentralization of education policy in today’s Indonesia’s reform era. The policy has made education as one of the basic public services that must be performed by the local governments. After more than a decade of implementing the policy, what have been achieved? Has the implementation of educational affairs in the region been able to improve the quality of education services in the region? What obstacles or challenges faced by the region in the implementation of the educational affairs? How does region overcome obstacles or challenges? In answering those strategic questions, this study will particularly investigate the implementation of educational affairs in the city and District of Cirebon, the two district level of governments in West Java Province. The two loci of study provide interesting insight, given the range of previous studies did not specifically investigate using a local perspective (city and district level). This study employs a qualitative research method through case studies. Operationally, this study is sustained by several data collection techniques, i.e. interviews, documentary method, and systematic observation. Needless to say, there have been many factors distorting the ideal construction of decentralization of education policy.

Keywords: decentralization, decentralization of education, policy implementation, public service

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Authors: Zahra Sokar, Sara Oufquir, Brahim Eddafali, Abderrahman Chait

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Fenugreek is one of the oldest plants used in traditional herbal medicine. Several studies have demonstrated the anticancer effects of seeds by inhibiting the proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis of various cancers. While there is plenty of research demonstrating the antineoplastic effects of dormant seeds, little is known about the potential of sprouts in fighting cancer. Therefore, we propose to study the chemoprotective effect of germinating fenugreek seeds on keratoacanthoma skin cancer induced by cutaneous exposure to DMA/Croton oil in mice. The results obtained show that oral administration of 250 and 500 mg/kg aqueous sprout seed extract reduces the incidence, rate, volume, and tumor weight in a very significant manner. Histological examination revealed that mice treated with 250 mg/kg showed strong inhibition of squamous cell carcinoma formation with thickening of the epithelial layer and mild acanthosis and hyperkeratosis. A dose of 500 mg/kg prevented invasion and the occurrence of hyperkeratosis. Fenugreek sprouts appear to be a promising natural product for preventing keratoacanthoma skin cancer. Nevertheless, further studies in the same field need to be developed to evaluate the antineoplastic potential of germinated seeds.

Keywords: anticancer, fenugreek, keratoacanthoma, sprouts

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Authors: Sergey Nikitenko, Vladimir Klishin, Yury Malakhov, Elena Goosen

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Transition to renewable energy sources (solar, wind, bioenergy, etc.) and launching of alternative energy generation has weakened the role of coal as a source of energy. The Paris Agreement and assumption of obligations by many nations to orderly reduce CO₂ emissions by means of technological modernization and climate change adaptation has abridged coal demand yet more. This paper aims to assess current resilience of the coal industry to stress and to define prospects for coal production optimization using high technologies pursuant to global challenges and requirements of energy transition. Our research is based on the resilience concept adapted to the coal industry. It is proposed to divide the coal sector into segments depending on the prevailing value chains (VC). Four representative models of VC are identified in the coal sector. The most promising lines of upgrading VC in the coal industry include: •Elongation of VC owing to introduction of clean technologies of coal conversion and utilization; •Creation of parallel VC by means of waste management; •Branching of VC (conversion of a company’s VC into a production network). The upgrade effectiveness is governed in many ways by applicability of advanced coal processing technologies, usability of waste, expandability of production, entrance to non-rival markets and localization of new segments of VC in receiving regions. It is also important that upgrade of VC by means of formation of agile high-tech inter-industry production networks within the framework of operating surface and underground mines can reduce social, economic and ecological risks associated with closure of coal mines. Such promising route of VC upgrade is application of methanotrophic bacteria to produce protein to be used as feed-stuff in fish, poultry and cattle breeding, or in production of ferments, lipoids, sterols, antioxidants, pigments and polysaccharides. Closed mines can use recovered methane as a clean energy source. There exist methods of methane utilization from uncontrollable sources, including preliminary treatment and recovery of methane from air-and-methane mixture, or decomposition of methane to hydrogen and acetylene. Separated hydrogen is used in hydrogen fuel cells to generate power to feed the process of methane utilization and to supply external consumers. Despite the recent paradigm of carbon-free energy generation, it is possible to preserve the coal mining industry using the differentiated approach to upgrade of value chains based on flexible technologies with regard to specificity of mining companies.

Keywords: resilience, resilience concept, resilience indicator, resilience in the Russian coal industry, value chains

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Authors: Usman Ghani

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Feedback is a vital element for improving student learning in a simulation-based training as it guides and refines learning through scaffolding. A number of studies in literature have shown that students’ learning is enhanced when feedback is provided with personalized tutoring that offers specific guidance and adapts feedback to the learner in a one-to-one environment. Thus, emulating these adaptive aspects of human tutoring in simulation provides an effective methodology to train individuals. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the effectiveness of automating different types of feedback techniques such as Knowledge-of-Correct-Response (KCR) and Answer-Until- Correct (AUC) in software simulation for learning basic information technology concepts. For the purpose of comparison, techniques like simulation with zero or no-feedback (NFB) and traditional hands-on (HON) learning environments are also examined. The paper presents the summary of findings based on quantitative analyses which reveal that the simulation based instructional strategies are at least as effective as hands-on teaching methodologies for the purpose of learning of IT concepts. The paper also compares the results of the study with the earlier studies and recommends strategies for using feedback mechanism to improve students’ learning in designing and simulation-based IT training.

Keywords: simulation, feedback, training, hands-on, labs

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Authors: Olalekan Olaluwoye, Joanne Williams, Elizabeth Hoban, Sonia Brockington

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Cases of sexual violence against men have been reported in at least twenty-five conflict situations in history. However, there is a paucity of academic literature and minimal media, policy and legal discussions on sexual violence against men. Most studies and discussions remain locked in the ‘male perpetrators, female victims’ paradigm. Male victims continue to suffer the consequences of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings in silence. A rigorous narrative systematic review of the literature revealed few studies on the subject and those that exist have a narrow focus on rape as the only form of sexual violence despite the existence of other forms of sexual violence that have equally devastating effects. This paper argues that while research and discussions on sexual violence against women should continue, it is time to conduct rigorous mixed methods research to understand the experiences of men and boys survivors of sexual violence. There is a need to study sexual violence more broadly, without limiting it to rape, and to understand the determinants and health implications of sexual violence perpetrated on men. The paper concludes by proposing a research approach that gives voice to the experiences of male survivors of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings.

Keywords: conflict, male survivors, post-conflict settings, sexual violence

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Authors: Prami Sengupta, Randall A. Cantrell, Tracy Johns

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A typical US household consumes more energy than households in other countries and is directly responsible for a considerable proportion of the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases. This makes U.S. household a vital target group for energy conservation studies. Positive household behavior is central to residential energy conservation. However, for individuals to conserve energy they must not only know how to conserve energy but be also willing to do so. That is, a positive attitude towards residential conservation and an intention to conserve energy are two of the most important psychological determinants for energy conservation behavior. Most social science studies, to date, have studied the relationships between attitude, intention, and behavior by building upon socio-psychological theories of behavior. However, these frameworks, including the widely used Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory, lack a spatial component. That is, these studies fail to capture the impact of the geographical locations of homeowners’ residences on their residential energy consumption and conservation practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore geospatial relationships between homeowners’ residential energy conservation-attitudes, conservation-intentions, and consumption behavior. The study analyzes residential conservation-attitudes and conservation-intentions of homeowners across 63 counties in Florida and compares it with quantifiable measures of residential energy consumption. Empirical findings revealed that the spatial distribution of high and/or low values of homeowners’ mean-score values of conservation-attitudes and conservation-intentions are more spatially clustered than would be expected if the underlying spatial processes were random. On the contrary, the spatial distribution of high and/or low values of households’ carbon footprints was found to be more spatially dispersed than assumed if the underlying spatial process were random. The study also examined the influence of potential spatial variables, such as urban or rural setting and presence of educational institutions and/or extension program, on the conservation-attitudes, intentions, and behaviors of homeowners.

Keywords: conservation-attitude, conservation-intention, geospatial analysis, residential energy consumption, spatial autocorrelation

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Authors: Kamellia Reshadi, Pranav Ragji, Theodoros Soldatos

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Recent advancements in cloud computing and storage, along with rapid progress in artificial intelligence (AI), have transformed approaches to developing efficient, scalable applications. However, integrating AI with cloud computing poses challenges as these fields are often disjointed, and many advancements remain difficult to access, obscured in complex documentation or scattered across research reports. For this reason, we share experiences from prototype projects combining these technologies. Specifically, we focus on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) functionalities and describe vision and speech activities applied to labeling, subtitling, and urban traffic flow tasks. We describe challenges, pricing, architecture, and other key features, considering the goal of real-time performance. We hope our demonstrations provide not only essential guidelines for using these functionalities but also enable more similar approaches.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, cloud computing, real-time applications, case studies, knowledge management, research and development, text labeling, video annotation, urban traffic analysis, public safety, prototyping, Google Cloud Platform

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Authors: Bela Lebedeva

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Characteristics of the Web as a channel of information dissemination - accessibility and openness, interactivity and multimedia news - become wider and cover the audience quickly, positively affecting the perception of content, but blur out the understanding of the journalistic work. As a result audience and advertisers continue migrating to the Internet. Moreover, online targeting allows monetizing not only the audience (as customarily given to traditional media) but also the content and traffic more accurately. While the users identify themselves with the qualitative characteristics of the new market, its actors are formed. Conflict of interests is laid in the base of the economy of their relations, the problem of traffic tax as an example. Meanwhile, content monetization actualizes fiscal interest of the state too. The balance of supply and demand is often violated due to the political risks, particularly in terms of state capitalism, populism and authoritarian methods of governance such social institutions as the media. A unique example of access to journalistic material, limited by monetization of content is a television channel Dozhd' (Rain) in Russian web space. Its liberal-minded audience has a better possibility for discussion. However, the channel could have been much more successful in terms of unlimited free speech. Avoiding state pressure and censorship its management has decided to save at least online performance and monetizing all of the content for the core audience. The study Methodology was primarily based on the analysis of journalistic content, on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the audience. Reconstructing main events and relationships of actors on the market for the last six years researcher has reached some conclusions. First, under the condition of content monetization the capitalization of its quality will always strive to quality characteristics of user, thereby identifying him. Vice versa, the user's demand generates high-quality journalism. The second conclusion follows the previous one. The growth of technology, information noise, new political challenges, the economy volatility and the cultural paradigm change – all these factors form the content paying model for an individual user. This model defines him as a beneficiary of specific knowledge and indicates the constant balance of supply and demand other conditions being equal. As a result, a new economic quality of information is created. This feature is an indicator of the market as a self-regulated system. Monetized information quality is less popular than that of the Public Broadcasting Service, but this audience is able to make decisions. These very users keep the niche sectors which have more potential of technology development, including the content monetization ways. The third point of the study allows develop it in the discourse of media space liberalization. This cultural phenomenon may open opportunities for the development of social and economic relations architecture both locally and regionally.

Keywords: content monetization, state capitalism, media liberalization, media economy, information quality

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Authors: John Morales, Armando Guzman

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Protection relay algorithms play a crucial role in Electric Power System stability, where, it is clear that lightning strokes produce the mayor percentage of faults and outages of Transmission Lines (TLs) and Distribution Feeders (DFs). In this context, it is imperative to develop novel protection relay algorithms. However, in order to get this aim, Electric Power Systems (EPS) network have to be simulated as real as possible, especially the lightning phenomena, and EPS elements that affect their behavior like direct and indirect lightning, insulator string, overhead line, soil ionization and other. However, researchers have proposed new protection relay algorithms considering common faults, which are not produced by lightning strokes, omitting these imperative phenomena for the transmission line protection relays behavior. Based on the above said, this paper presents the possibilities of using the Alternative Transient Program ATP-Draw for the modeling and simulation of some models to make lightning stroke studies, especially for protection relays, which are developed through Transient Analysis of Control Systems (TACS) and MODELS language corresponding to the ATP-Draw.

Keywords: back-flashover, faults, flashover, lightning stroke, modeling of lightning, outages, protection relays

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Authors: Skiker Kaoutar, Mounir Maouene

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Neuroimaging studies have shown that animal and tool concepts rely on distinct networks of brain areas. Animal concepts depend predominantly on temporal areas while tool concepts rely on fronto-temporo-parietal areas. However, the origin of this neurofunctional distinction for processing animal and tool concepts remains still unclear. Here, we address this question from a network perspective suggesting that the neural distinction between animals and tools might reflect the differences in their structural semantic networks. We build semantic networks for animal and tool concepts derived from McRae and colleagues’s behavioral study conducted on a large number of participants. These two networks are thus analyzed through a large number of graph theoretical measures for small-worldness: centrality, clustering coefficient, average shortest path length, as well as resistance to random and targeted attacks. The results indicate that both animal and tool networks have small-world properties. More importantly, the animal network is more vulnerable to targeted attacks compared to the tool network a result that correlates with brain lesions studies.

Keywords: animals, tools, network, semantics, small-worls, resilience to damage

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Authors: Yiğit Gürler, İbrahim Şimşek, Müge Savaştaer, Ayberk Karakuş, Alper Taşdemirci

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316L steel is frequently used in the industry due to its easy formability and accessibility in sheet metal forming processes. Numerical and experimental studies are frequently encountered in the literature to examine the mechanical behavior of 316L stainless steel during the forming process. 316L stainless steel is the most common material used in the production of plate heat exchangers and plate heat exchangers are produced by plastic deformation of the stainless steel. The motivation in this study is to determine the appropriate material model during the simulation of the sheet metal forming process. For this reason, two different material models were examined and Ls-Dyna material cards were created using material test data. These are MAT133_BARLAT_YLD2000 and MAT093_SIMPLIFIED_JOHNSON_COOK. In order to compare results of the tensile test & hydraulic bulge test performed both numerically and experimentally. The obtained results were evaluated comparatively and the most suitable material model was selected for the forming simulation. In future studies, this material model will be used in the numerical modeling of the sheet metal forming process.

Keywords: 316L, mechanical characterization, metal forming, Ls-Dyna

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Authors: O. Kahraman, M. S. Alatas, O. B. Citil

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In determination of values of feeds which, are used in ruminant nutrition, different methods are used like in vivo, in vitro, in situ or in sacco. Generally, the most reliable results are taken from the in vivo studies. But because of the disadvantages like being hard, laborious and expensive, time consuming, being hard to keep the experiment conditions under control and too much samples are needed, the in vitro techniques are more preferred. The most widely used in vitro techniques are two-staged digestion technique and gas production technique. In vitro gas production technique is based on the measurement of the CO2 which is released as a result of microbial fermentation of the feeds. In this review, the factors affecting the results obtained from in vitro gas production technique (Hohenheim Feed Test) were discussed. Some factors must be taken into consideration when interpreting the findings obtained in these studies and also comparing the findings reported by different researchers for the same feeds. These factors were discussed in 3 groups: factors related to animal, factors related to feeds and factors related with differences in the application of method. These factors and their effects on the results were explained. Also it can be concluded that the use of in vitro gas production technique in feed evaluation routinely can be contributed to the comprehensive feed evaluation, but standardization is needed in this technique to attain more reliable results.

Keywords: In vitro, gas production technique, Hohenheim feed test, standardization

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Authors: A. H. Hendry, H. S. Mogindol

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There is an increasing worldwide demand on the field of interaction with wildlife tourism. Studies pertaining to the service quality within the sphere of interaction with wildlife tourism are plentiful. However, studies on service quality in wildlife attractions, especially on semi-captured wildlife tourism are still limited. The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre (SORC) in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia is one good example of a semi-captured wildlife attraction and a renowned attraction in Sabah. This study presents a gap analysis by measuring the perception and expectation of service quality at SORC through the use of a modified SERVQUAL, referred to as WILSERV. A survey questionnaire was devised and administered to 190 visitors who visited SORC. The study revealed that all the means of the six dimensions for perceived perceptions were lower than the expectations. The highest gap was from the dimension of reliability (-0.21), followed by tangible (-0.17), responsiveness (-0.11), assurance, (-0.11), empathy (-0.11) and wild-tangible (-0.05). Similarly, the study also showed that all six dimensions for perceived perceptions means were lower than the expectations for both local and foreign visitors.

Keywords: importance performance analysis, service quality, WIL-SERV, wildlife tourism

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Authors: Derick Shi-Chen Ou, Liang-Yu Chen

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Background: Acupuncture, a potential alternative, and complementary therapy revealed insufficient evidence in depression treatment. The efficacy of acupuncture treatment was still uncertainty. To evaluate the effect of acupuncture in treating depression, the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were examined. Methods: RCTs of the acupuncture therapy in treating major depression were searched from MEDLINE from 2007 to 2017. Keywords used for searching strategy included acupuncture, acupoint, and major depressive disorder. Results: Among the nine RCTs, four studies demonstrated great improvement in acupuncture treatment and five studies revealed the effectiveness of acupuncture intervention in medication. General trends suggest that acupuncture treatment is as effective as antidepressants with minimal side effects. Conclusion: Despite the promising results from the RCTs, there are still a variety of limitations, including small sample size, imprecise enrollment criteria, difficulties with blinding, randomization, short duration of study and lack of longitudinal follow-up. Therefore, the evidence that acupuncture as an alternative therapy for depression is inconclusive. More rigorously designed RCTs should be conducted in the future.

Keywords: acupuncture, major depressive disorders, randomized clinical trials, antidepressants

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Authors: Scott A. Abbott

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This paper examines the increase in the occurrence of natural disasters worldwide and the need to support vulnerable communities in post-disaster recovery. Preparation and implementation of post-disaster recovery projects need to be improved to allow communities to recover infrastructure, housing, economically and socially following a catastrophe. With the continual rise in catastrophic events worldwide due to climate change, impacts on construction resources affect the ability for post-disaster recovery to be undertaken. This research focuses on case studies of catastrophic events in Queensland, Australia, to contribute to the body of knowledge and gain valuable insights on lessons learned from past events and how they have been managed. The aim of this research is to adopt qualitative data using semi-structured interviews from participants predominantly from the insurance sector to understand barriers that have previously and currently exist in post-disaster recovery. Existing literature was reviewed to reveal gaps in knowledge that needed to be tested. Qualitative data was collected and summarised from field research with the results analysed and discussed. Barriers that impacted post-disaster recovery included time, cost, and resource capability and capacity. Causal themes that impacted time and cost were identified as decision making, pre-planning, and preparedness, as well as effective communication across stakeholders. The research study applied a qualitative approach to the existing literature and case studies across Queensland, Australia, to identify existing and new barriers that impact post-disaster recovery. It was recommended to implement effective procurement strategies to assist in cost control; implement pre-planning and preparedness strategies across funder, contractor, and local governments; more effective and timely decision making to reduce time and cost impacts.

Keywords: construction recovery, cost, disaster recovery, resources, time

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Authors: O’Day Luke

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Purpose: To validate virtual non-contrast reconstructions generated from dual-layer spectral computed tomography (DL-CT) data as an alternative for the acquisition of a dedicated true non-contrast dataset during multiphase contrast studies. Material and methods: Thirty-three patients underwent a routine multiphase clinical CT examination, using Dual-Layer Spectral CT, from March to August 2021. True non-contrast (TNC) and virtual non-contrast (VNC) datasets, generated from both portal venous and arterial phase imaging were evaluated. For every patient in both true and virtual non-contrast datasets, a region-of-interest (ROI) was defined in aorta, liver, fluid (i.e. gallbladder, urinary bladder), kidney, muscle, fat and spongious bone, resulting in 693 ROIs. Differences in attenuation for VNC and TNV images were compared, both separately and combined. Consistency between VNC reconstructions obtained from the arterial and portal venous phase was evaluated. Results: Comparison of CT density (HU) on the VNC and TNC images showed a high correlation. The mean difference between TNC and VNC images (excluding bone results) was 5.5 ± 9.1 HU and > 90% of all comparisons showed a difference of less than 15 HU. For all tissues but spongious bone, the mean absolute difference between TNC and VNC images was below 10 HU. VNC images derived from the arterial and the portal venous phase showed a good correlation in most tissue types. The aortic attenuation was somewhat dependent however on which dataset was used for reconstruction. Bone evaluation with VNC datasets continues to be a problem, as spectral CT algorithms are currently poor in differentiating bone and iodine. Conclusion: Given the increasing availability of DL-CT and proven accuracy of virtual non-contrast processing, VNC is a promising tool for generating additional data during routine contrast-enhanced studies. This study shows the utility of virtual non-contrast scans as an alternative for true non-contrast studies during multiphase CT, with potential for dose reduction, without loss of diagnostic information.

Keywords: dual-layer spectral computed tomography, virtual non-contrast, true non-contrast, clinical comparison

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Authors: Juan F. Muñoz-Rosas, Rosa M. García-Fernández, Encarnación Álvarez-Verdejo, Pablo J. Moya-Fernández

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Poverty measurement is a very important topic in many studies in social sciences. One of the most important indicators when measuring poverty is the low income proportion. This indicator gives the proportion of people of a population classified as poor. This indicator is generally unknown, and for this reason, it is estimated by using survey data, which are obtained by official surveys carried out by many statistical agencies such as Eurostat. The main feature of the mentioned survey data is the fact that they contain several variables. The variable used to estimate the low income proportion is called as the variable of interest. The survey data may contain several additional variables, also named as the auxiliary variables, related to the variable of interest, and if this is the situation, they could be used to improve the estimation of the low income proportion. In this paper, we use Monte Carlo simulation studies to analyze numerically the performance of estimators based on several auxiliary variables. In this simulation study, we considered real data sets obtained from the 2011 European Union Survey on Income and Living Condition. Results derived from this study indicate that the estimators based on auxiliary variables are more accurate than the naive estimator.

Keywords: inclusion probability, poverty, poverty line, survey sampling

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Authors: Frederic Fovet

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Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now over two decades. Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible implementation of inclusion in the everyday classroom. While there is debate around the various forms inclusion can take (UDL, differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace inclusion both as a goal and a practice. This paper investigates teachers’ degree of awareness around the Social Model of Disability. It argues that teachers often lack basic awareness of disability studies, more particularly of the Social Model of Disability, and that this has a direct impact on their capacity to conceptualize and embrace inclusion. The paper draws from the researcher’s experience as a graduate instructor with in-service teachers, as well as from his experience as a consultant working with schools and school boards. The methodology chosen here is phenomenology, and it draws on tools such as auto-ethnography. The paper opens a discussion around the reform and transformation of pre-service teacher training. It argues that disability studies should be integrated into teacher training as it plays a key role in having teachers develop a theoretical understanding of disability as a social construct.

Keywords: disability, K-12, inclusion, social model, in-service teachers

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Authors: Jussi Horelli, Salla Niittymäki

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In this acceleratingly developing world, it will be crucial for our students to not only to adapt to continuous change, but to be the driving force of it. This raises the question of how can the educational processes motivate and encourage the students to learn the perhaps most important skill there for their further work career: the ability to learn and absorb more by themselves. In engineering education, the learning contents and methods have traditionally been very substance oriented and teacher-centered. In Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK), the pedagogical model has been completely renewed during the past few years. Terms like phenomenon or skills-based learning and collaborative teaching are things which have not very often been related to engineering education, but are now the foundation of HAMK’s pedagogical model in all disciplines, even in engineering studies. In this paper, a new flexible way of executing engineering studies will be introduced. The paper will summarize three years’ experiences and observations of a process where traditional teacher-centric mechanical engineering teaching was converted into a model where teachers work collaboratively in teams supporting the students’ learning processes.

Keywords: team teaching, collaborative learning, engineering education, new pedagogy

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Authors: Rudy Djamaluddin, Arbain Tata, Rita Irmawaty

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The study conducted a simulation of the effect of sea water to the bonding capacity of GFRP sheet on the concrete beams using a simulation tank. As it well known that, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) has been applied to many purposes for civil engineering structures not only for new structures but also for strengthening of the deteriorated structures. The FRP has advantages such as its corrosion resistance, as well as high tensile strength, to weight ratio. Glass composed FRP (GFRP) sheet is most commonly used due to its relatively lower cost compared to the other FRP materials. GFRP sheet is applied externally by bonding it on the concrete surface. Many studies have been done to investigate the bonding of GFRP sheet. However, it is still very rarely studies on the effect of sea water to the bonding capacity of GFRP sheet on the strengthened beams due to flexural loadings. This is important to be clarified for the wider application of GFRP sheet especially on the flexural structure that directly contact to the sea environment. To achieve the objective of the study, a series of concrete beams strengthened with GFRP sheet on extreme tension surface were prepared. The beams then were stored on the sea water tank for six months. Results indicated the bonding capacity decreased after six months exposed to the sea water.

Keywords: GFRP sheet, sea water, concrete beams, bonding

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Authors: Adeline Stals

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The transformation of architectural design practices has been underway for almost forty years due to the development and democratization of computer technology. New and more efficient tools are constantly being proposed to architects, amplifying a technological wave that sometimes stimulates them, sometimes overwhelms them, depending essentially on their digital culture and the context (socio-economic, structural, organizational) in which they work on a daily basis. Our focus is on VR, AR, and MR technologies dedicated to architecture. The commercialization of affordable headsets like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive or more low-tech like the Google CardBoard, makes it more accessible to benefit from these technologies. In that regard, researchers report the growing interest of these tools for architects, given the new perspectives they open up in terms of workflow, representation, collaboration, and client’s involvement. However, studies rarely mention the consequences of the sample studied on results. Our research provides an overview of VR, AR, and MR researches among a corpus of papers selected from conferences and journals. A closer look at the sample of these research projects highlights the necessity to take into consideration the context of studies in order to develop tools truly dedicated to the real practices of specific architect profiles. This literature review formalizes milestones for future challenges to address. The methodology applied is based on a systematic review of two sources of publications. The first one is the Cumincad database, which regroups publications from conferences exclusively about digital in architecture. Additionally, the second part of the corpus is based on journal publications. Journals have been selected considering their ranking on Scimago. Among the journals in the predefined category ‘architecture’ and in Quartile 1 for 2018 (last update when consulted), we have retained the ones related to the architectural design process: Design Studies, CoDesign, Architectural Science Review, Frontiers of Architectural Research and Archnet-IJAR. Beside those journals, IJAC, not classified in the ‘architecture’ category, is selected by the author for its adequacy with architecture and computing. For all requests, the search terms were ‘virtual reality’, ‘augmented reality’, and ‘mixed reality’ in title and/or keywords for papers published between 2015 and 2019 (included). This frame time is defined considering the fast evolution of these technologies in the past few years. Accordingly, the systematic review covers 202 publications. The literature review on studies about XR technologies establishes the state of the art of the current situation. It highlights that studies are mostly based on experimental contexts with controlled conditions (pedagogical, e.g.) or on practices established in large architectural offices of international renown. However, few studies focus on the strategies and practices developed by offices of smaller size, which represent the largest part of the market. Indeed, a European survey studying the architectural profession in Europe in 2018 reveals that 99% of offices are composed of less than ten people, and 71% of only one person. The study also showed that the number of medium-sized offices is continuously decreasing in favour of smaller structures. In doing so, a frontier seems to remain between the worlds of research and practice, especially for the majority of small architectural practices having a modest use of technology. This paper constitutes a reference for the next step of the research and for further worldwide researches by facilitating their contextualization.

Keywords: architectural design, literature review, SME, XR technologies

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Authors: Isabel Carrero, Raquel Redondo, Carmen Valor

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An unclosed issue in sustainable consumption (SC) literature is the relationship between SC and well-being. This paper seeks to address three limitations in past research. First, well-being has been measured as a single-faceted construct. However, other authors have defended the need to broaden the well-being construct since it goes beyond the emotional experiences and life satisfaction. By examining the relationship between SC and the multifaceted construct of psychological well-being, past contradictory results may be reconciled. To illustrate, past studies have shown that sustainable consumers experience negative emotions when they become aware of the harm that human beings inflict on the planet but they realize they have limited power to solving the problem or when they find limited alternatives or useful information to make sustainable decisions. Thus, these experiences may negatively affect the dimension of well-being 'environmental mastery'. However, as past studies have demonstrated that sustainable consumers feel meaningful, their assessment of the dimension 'purpose in life' would be positive. Thus, we need to understand how SC impinge on the different facets of psychological well-being, in order to better understand the relationship between SC and well-being. Another limitation of past research is that most studies failed to distinguish among different pro-environmental actions under SC (i.e., boycotting, buycotting) among others. For instance, activists have been found to experience higher levels of well-being and sense of meaning than less committed sustainable consumers but also burnt-out and social rejection, which should affect negatively the dimension of 'positive relations'. Finally, the influence of gender has been overlooked in the literature of SC and well-being when it has been identified consistently as a moderator variable in SC. Therefore, this study aims to (1) investigate the effect of SC on the six facets of psychological well-being, (2) distinguish between conventional SC behaviors vs. activism to examine whether these behaviors influence psychological well-being differently (3) and test gender as a moderator variable. It does so by surveying 861 individuals. This paper contributes to existing literature by showing that the relationship between well-being and SC is more intricate than it has been presented in previous literature, as it depends on the facet, the type of behavior carried out and gender.

Keywords: activism, gender, psychological well-being, structural equation modelling, sustainable consumption

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Authors: Kairat Kurakbayev, Dina Gungor, Adil Ashirbekov, Assel Kambatyrova

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Kazakhstan, a post-Soviet economy located in the Central Asia, is making great efforts to internationalize its national system of education. The country is very ambitious in making the national economy internationally competitive and education has become one of the main pillars of the nation’s strategic development plan for 2030. This paper discusses the role of professional teacher development in upgrading the secondary education curriculum with the introduction of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in grades 10-11 grades. Having Kazakh as the state language and Russian as the official language, English bears a status of foreign language in the country. The development of trilingual education is very high on the agenda of the Ministry of Education and Science. It is planned that by 2019 STEM-related subjects – Biology, Chemistry, Computing and Physics – will be taught in EMI. Introducing English-medium education appears to be a very drastic reform and the teaching cadre is the key driver here. At the same time, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the teaching profession is still struggling to become attractive in the eyes of the local youth. Moreover, the quality of Kazakhstan’s secondary education is put in question by OECD national review reports. The paper presents a case study of the nation-wide professional development programme arranged for 5 010 school teachers so that they could be able to teach their content subjects in English starting from 2019 onwards. The study is based on the mixed methods research involving the data derived from the surveys and semi-structured interviews held with the programme participants, i.e. school teachers. The findings of the study imply the significance of the school teachers’ attitudes towards the top-down reform of trilingual education. The qualitative research data reveal the teachers’ beliefs about advantages and disadvantages of having their content subjects (e.g. Biology or Chemistry) taught in EMI. The study highlights teachers’ concerns about their professional readiness to implement the top-down reform of English-medium education and discusses possible risks of academic underperforming on the part of students whose English language proficiency is not advanced. This paper argues that for the effective implementation of the English-medium education in secondary schools, the state should adopt a comprehensive approach to upgrading the national academic system where teachers’ attitudes and beliefs play the key role in making the trilingual education policy effective. The study presents lessons for other national academic systems considering to transfer its secondary education to English as a medium of instruction.

Keywords: teacher education, teachers' beliefs, trilingual education, case study

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Authors: Pooja Kumari, Anandkumar Tengli

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Aurora kinase enzyme, a protein on overexpression, leads to metastasis and is extremely important for women’s health in terms of prevention or treatment. While creating a targeted technique, the aim of the work is to design purine molecules that inhibit in aurora kinase enzyme and helps to suppress breast cancer. Purine molecules attached to an amino acid in DNA block protein synthesis or halt the replication and metastasis caused by the aurora kinase enzyme. Various protein related to the overexpression of aurora protein was docked with purine molecule using Biovia Drug Discovery, the perpetual software. Various parameters like X-ray crystallographic structure, presence of ligand, Ramachandran plot, resolution, etc., were taken into consideration for selecting the target protein. A higher negative binding scored molecule has been taken for simulation studies. According to the available research and computational analyses, purine compounds may be powerful enough to demonstrate a greater affinity for the aurora target. Despite being clinically effective now, purines were originally meant to fight breast cancer by inhibiting the aurora kinase enzyme. In in-silico studies, it is observed that purine compounds have a moderate to high potency compared to other molecules, and our research into the literature revealed that purine molecules have a lower risk of side effects. The research involves the design, synthesis, and identification of active purine molecules against breast cancer. Purines are structurally similar to the normal metabolites of adenine and guanine; hence interfere/compete with protein synthesis and suppress the abnormal proliferation of cells/tissues. As a result, purine target metastasis cells and stop the growth of kinase; purine derivatives bind with DNA and aurora protein which may stop the growth of protein or inhibits replication and stop metastasis of overexpressed aurora kinase enzyme.

Keywords: aurora kinases, in silico studies, medicinal chemistry, combination therapies, chronic cancer, clinical translation

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Authors: Kseniya Gladun

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Tactile stimulation of a dorsal side of the wrist can have a strong impact on our attitude toward physical objects such as pleasant and unpleasant impact. This study explored different aspects of tactile perception to investigate atypical touch sensitivity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study included 40 children with ASD and 40 healthy children aged 5 to 9 years. We recorded rsEEG (sampling rate of 250 Hz) during 20 min using EEG amplifier “Encephalan” (Medicom MTD, Taganrog, Russian Federation) with 19 AgCl electrodes placed according to the International 10–20 System. The electrodes placed on the left, and right mastoids served as joint references under unipolar montage. The registration of EEG v19 assignments was carried out: frontal (Fp1-Fp2; F3-F4), temporal anterior (T3-T4), temporal posterior (T5-T6), parietal (P3-P4), occipital (O1-O2). Subjects were passively touched by 4 types of tactile stimuli on the left wrist. Our stimuli were presented with a velocity of about 3–5 cm per sec. The stimuli materials and procedure were chosen for being the most "pleasant," "rough," "prickly" and "recognizable". Type of tactile stimulation: Soft cosmetic brush - "pleasant" , Rough shoe brush - "rough", Wartenberg pin wheel roller - "prickly", and the cognitive tactile stimulation included letters by finger (most of the patient’s name ) "recognizable". To designate the moments of the stimuli onset-offset, we marked the moment when the moment of the touch began and ended; the stimulation was manual, and synchronization was not precise enough for event-related measures. EEG epochs were cleaned from eye movements by ICA-based algorithm in EEGLAB plugin for MatLab 7.11.0 (Mathwork Inc.). Muscle artifacts were cut out by manual data inspection. The response to tactile stimuli was significantly different in the group of children with ASD and healthy children, which was also depended on type of tactile stimuli and the severity of ASD. Amplitude of Alpha rhythm increased in parietal region to response for only pleasant stimulus, for another type of stimulus ("rough," "thorny", "recognizable") distinction of amplitude was not observed. Correlation dimension D2 was higher in healthy children compared to children with ASD (main effect ANOVA). In ASD group D2 was lower for pleasant and unpleasant compared to the background in the right parietal area. Hilbert transform changes in the frequency of the theta rhythm found only for a rough tactile stimulation compared with healthy participants only in the right parietal area. Children with autism spectrum disorders and healthy children were responded to tactile stimulation differently with specific frequency distribution alpha and theta band in the right parietal area. Thus, our data supports the hypothesis that rsEEG may serve as a sensitive index of altered neural activity caused by ASD. Children with autism have difficulty in distinguishing the emotional stimuli ("pleasant," "rough," "prickly" and "recognizable").

Keywords: autism, tactile stimulation, Hilbert transform, pediatric electroencephalography

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