Search results for: extrinsic risk factors
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 14615

Search results for: extrinsic risk factors

1565 Study the Difference Between the Mohr-Coulomb and the Barton-Bandis Joint Constitutive Models: A Case Study from the Iron Open Pit Mine, Canada

Authors: Abbas Kamalibandpey, Alain Beland, Joseph Mukendi Kabuya

Abstract:

Since a rock mass is a discontinuum medium, its behaviour is governed by discontinuities such as faults, joint sets, lithologic contact, and bedding planes. Thus, rock slope stability analysis in jointed rock masses is largely dependent upon discontinuities constitutive equations. This paper studies the difference between the Mohr-Coulomb (MC) and the Barton-Bandis (BB) joint constitutive numerical models for lithological contacts and joint sets. For the rock in these models, generalized Hoek-Brown criteria have been considered. The joint roughness coefficient (JRC) and the joint wall compressive strength (JCS) are vital parameters in the BB model. The numerical models are applied to the rock slope stability analysis in the Mont-Wright (MW) mine. The Mont-Wright mine is owned and operated by ArcelorMittal Mining Canada (AMMC), one of the largest iron-ore open pit operations in Canada. In this regard, one of the high walls of the mine has been selected to undergo slope stability analysis with RS2D software, finite element method. Three piezometers have been installed in this zone to record pore water pressure and it is monitored by radar. In this zone, the AMP-IF and QRMS-IF contacts and very persistent and altered joint sets in IF control the rock slope behaviour. The height of the slope is more than 250 m and consists of different lithologies such as AMP, IF, GN, QRMS, and QR. To apply the B-B model, the joint sets and geological contacts have been scanned by Maptek, and their JRC has been calculated by different methods. The numerical studies reveal that the JRC of geological contacts, AMP-IF and QRMS-IF, and joint sets in IF had a significant influence on the safety factor. After evaluating the results of rock slope stability analysis and the radar data, the B-B constitutive equation for discontinuities has shown acceptable results to the real condition in the mine. It should be noted that the difference in safety factors in MC and BB joint constitutive models in some cases is more than 30%.

Keywords: barton-Bandis criterion, Hoek-brown and Mohr-Coulomb criteria, open pit, slope stability

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1564 Parametrical Analysis of Stain Removal Performance of a Washing Machine: A Case Study of Sebum

Authors: Ozcan B., Koca B., Tuzcuoglu E., Cavusoglu S., Efe A., Bayraktar S.

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A washing machine is mainly used for removing any types of dirt and stains and also eliminating malodorous substances from textile surfaces. Stains originate from various sources from the human body to environmental contamination. Therefore, there are various methods for removing them. They are roughly classified into four different groups: oily (greasy) stains, particulate stains, enzymatic stains and bleachable (oxidizable) stains. Oily stains on clothes surfaces are a common result of being in contact with organic substances of the human body (e.g. perspiration, skin shedding and sebum) or by being exposed to an oily environmental pollutant (e.g. oily foods). Studies showed that human sebum is major component of oily soil found on the garments, and if it is aged under the several environmental conditions, it can generate obstacle yellow stains on the textile surface. In this study, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the key factors affecting the cleaning performance (specifically sebum removal performance) of a washing machine. These parameters are mechanical agitation percentage of tumble, consumed water and total washing period. A full factorial design of the experiment is used to capture all the possible parametric interactions using Minitab 2021 statistical program. Tests are carried out with commercial liquid detergent and 2 different types of sebum-soiled cotton and cotton + polyester fabrics. Parametric results revealed that for both test samples, increasing the washing time and the mechanical agitation could lead to a much better removal result of sebum. However, for each sample, the water amount had different outcomes. Increasing the water amount decreases the performance of cotton + polyester fabrics, while it is favorable for cotton fabric. Besides this, it was also discovered that the type of textile can greatly affect the sebum removal performance. Results showed that cotton + polyester fabrics are much easier to clean compared to cotton fabric

Keywords: laundry, washing machine, low-temperature washing, cold wash, washing efficiency index, sustainability, cleaning performance, stain removal, oily soil, sebum, yellowing

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1563 Socio Economic Deprivation, Institutional Outlay and the Intent of Mobile Snatching and Street Assaults in Pakistan

Authors: Asad Salahuddin

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Crime rates seem to be severely augmenting over the past several years in Pakistan which has perpetuated concerns as to what, when and how this upsurge will be eradicated. State institutions are posed to be in utmost perplexity, given the enormity of worsening law and order situation, compelling government on the flip side to expend more resources in strengthening institutions to confront crime, whereas, the economy has been confronted with massive energy crisis, mass unemployment and considerable inflation which has rendered most of the people into articulate apprehension as to how to satisfy basic necessities. A framework to investigate the variability in the rising street crimes, as affected by social and institutional outcomes, has been established using a cross-sectional study. Questionnaire, entailing 7 sections incorporating numerous patterns of behavior and history of involvement in different crimes for potential street criminals was observed as data collection instrument. In order to specifically explicate the intent of street crimes on micro level, various motivational and de-motivational factors that stimulate people to resort to street crimes were scrutinized. Intent of mobile snatching and intent of street assault as potential dependent variables were examined using numerous variables that influence the occurrence and intent of these crimes using ordered probit along with ordered logit and tobit as competing models. Model Estimates asserts that intent of mobile snatching has been significantly enhanced owing to perceived judicial inefficiency and lower ability of police reforms to operate effectively, which signifies the inefficiency of institutions that are entitled to deliver justice and maintaining law and order respectively. Whereas, intent of street assaults, as an outcome, affirms that people with lack of self-stability and severe childhood punishments were more tempted to be involved in violent acts. Hence, it is imperative for government to render better resources in form of training, equipment and improved salaries to police and judiciary in order to enhance their abilities and potential to curb inflating crime.

Keywords: deprivation, street assault, self control, police reform

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1562 Effect of Strength Class of Concrete and Curing Conditions on Capillary Absorption of Self-Compacting and Conventional Concrete

Authors: Emine Ebru Demirci, Remzi Şahin

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The purpose of this study is to compare Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) and Conventional Concrete (CC), which are used in beams with dense reinforcement, in terms of their capillary absorption. During the comparison of SCC and CC, the effects of two different factors were also investigated: concrete strength class and curing condition. In the study, both SCC and CC were produced in three different concrete classes (C25, C50 and C70) and the other parameter (i.e curing condition) was determined as two levels: moisture and air curing. Beam dimensions were determined to be 200 x 250 x 3000 mm. Reinforcements of the beams were calculated and placed as 2ø12 for the top and 3ø12 for the bottom. Stirrups with dimension 8 mm were used as lateral rebar and stirrup distances were chosen as 10 cm in the confinement zone and 15 cm at the central zone. In this manner, densification of rebars in lateral cross-sections of beams and handling of SCC in real conditions were aimed. Concrete covers of the rebars were chosen to be equal in all directions as 25 mm. The capillary absorption measurements were performed on core samples taken from the beams. Core samples of ø8x16 cm were taken from the beginning (0-100 cm), middle (100-200 cm) and end (200-300 cm) region of the beams according to the casting direction of SCC. However core samples were taken from lateral surface of the beams. In the study, capillary absorption experiments were performed according to Turkish Standard TS EN 13057. It was observed that, for both curing environments and all strength classes of concrete, SCC’s had lower capillary absorption values than that of CC’s. The capillary absorption values of C25 class of SCC are 11% and 16% lower than that of C25 class of CC for air and moisture conditions, respectively. For C50 class, these decreases were 6% and 18%, while for C70 class, they were 16% and 9%, respectively. It was also detected that, for both SCC and CC, capillary absorption values of samples kept in moisture curing are significantly lower than that of samples stored in air curing. For CC’s; C25, C50 and C70 class moisture-cured samples were found to have 26%, 12% and 31% lower capillary absorption values, respectively, when compared to the air-cured ones. For SCC’s; these values were 30%, 23% and 24%, respectively. Apart from that, it was determined that capillary absorption values for both SCC and CC decrease with increasing strength class of concrete for both curing environments. It was found that, for air cured CC, C50 and C70 class of concretes had 39% and 63% lower capillary absorption values compared to the C25 class of concrete. For the same type of concrete samples cured in the moisture environment, these values were found to be 27% and 66%. It was found that for SCC samples, capillary absorption value of C50 and C70 concretes, which were kept in air curing, were 35% and 65% lower than that of C25, while for moisture-cured samples these values were 29% and 63%, respectively. When standard deviations of the capillary absorption values are compared for core samples obtained from the beginning, middle and end of the CC and SCC beams, it was found that, in all three strength classes of concrete, the variation is much smaller for SCC than CC. This demonstrated that SCC’s had more uniform character than CC’s.

Keywords: self compacting concrete, reinforced concrete beam, capillary absorption, strength class, curing condition

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1561 Effect of the Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation Cultural Competence Education Strategy on Nursing Students' Transcultural Self-Efficacy Perceptions

Authors: Eda Ozkara San

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Nurse educators have been charged by several nursing organizations and accrediting bodies to provide innovative and evidence-based educational experiences, both didactic and clinical, to help students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide culturally competent nursing care to patients. Clinical simulation, which offers the opportunity for students to practice nursing skills in a risk-free, controlled environment and helps develop self-efficacy (confidence) within the nursing role. As one simulation method, the standardized patients (SPs) simulation helps educators to teach nursing students variety of skills in nursing, medicine, and other health professions. It can be a helpful tool for nurse educators to enhance cultural competence of nursing students. An alarming gap exists within the literature concerning the effectiveness of SP strategy to enhance cultural competence development of diverse student groups, who must work with patients from various backgrounds. This grant-supported, longitudinal, one-group, pretest and post-test educational intervention study aimed to examine the effect of the Diverse Standardized Patient Simulation (DSPS) cultural competence education strategy on students’ (n = 53) transcultural self-efficacy (TSE). The researcher-developed multidimensional DSPS strategy involved careful integration of transcultural nursing skills guided by the Cultural Competence and Confidence (CCC) model. As a carefully orchestrated teaching and learning strategy by specifically utilizing the SP pedagogy, the DSPS also followed international guidelines and standards for the design, implementation, evaluation, and SP training; and had content validity review. The DSPS strategy involved two simulation scenarios targeting underrepresented patient populations (Muslim immigrant woman with limited English proficiency and Irish-Italian American gay man with his partner (Puerto Rican) to be utilized in a second-semester, nine-credit, 15-week medical-surgical nursing course at an urban public US university. Five doctorally prepared content experts reviewed the DSPS strategy for content validity. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) score was calculated between .80-1.0 on the evaluation forms. Jeffreys’ Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool (TSET) was administered as a pretest and post-test to assess students’ changes in cognitive, practical, and affective dimensions of TSE. Results gained from this study support that the DSPS cultural competence education strategy assisted students to develop cultural competence and caused statistically significant changes (increase) in students’ TSE perceptions. Results also supported that all students, regardless of their background, benefit (and require) well designed cultural competence education strategies. The multidimensional DSPS strategy is found to be an effective way to foster nursing students’ cultural competence development. Step-by-step description of the DSPS provides an easy adaptation of this strategy with different student populations and settings.

Keywords: cultural competence development, the cultural competence and confidence model, CCC model, educational intervention, transcultural self-efficacy, TSE, transcultural self-efficacy tool, TSET

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1560 Improving a Stagnant River Reach Water Quality by Combining Jet Water Flow and Ultrasonic Irradiation

Authors: A. K. Tekile, I. L. Kim, J. Y. Lee

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Human activities put freshwater quality under risk, mainly due to expansion of agriculture and industries, damming, diversion and discharge of inadequately treated wastewaters. The rapid human population growth and climate change escalated the problem. External controlling actions on point and non-point pollution sources are long-term solution to manage water quality. To have a holistic approach, these mechanisms should be coupled with the in-water control strategies. The available in-lake or river methods are either costly or they have some adverse effect on the ecological system that the search for an alternative and effective solution with a reasonable balance is still going on. This study aimed at the physical and chemical water quality improvement in a stagnant Yeo-cheon River reach (Korea), which has recently shown sign of water quality problems such as scum formation and fish death. The river water quality was monitored, for the duration of three months by operating only water flow generator in the first two weeks and then ultrasonic irradiation device was coupled to the flow unit for the remaining duration of the experiment. In addition to assessing the water quality improvement, the correlation among the parameters was analyzed to explain the contribution of the ultra-sonication. Generally, the combined strategy showed localized improvement of water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen, Chlorophyll-a and dissolved reactive phosphate. At locations under limited influence of the system operation, chlorophyll-a was highly increased, but within 25 m of operation the low initial value was maintained. The inverse correlation coefficient between dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a decreased from 0.51 to 0.37 when ultrasonic irradiation unit was used with the flow, showing that ultrasonic treatment reduced chlorophyll-a concentration and it inhibited photosynthesis. The relationship between dissolved oxygen and reactive phosphate also indicated that influence of ultra-sonication was higher than flow on the reactive phosphate concentration. Even though flow increased turbidity by suspending sediments, ultrasonic waves canceled out the effect due to the agglomeration of suspended particles and the follow-up settling out. There has also been variation of interaction in the water column as the decrease of pH and dissolved oxygen from surface to the bottom played a role in phosphorus release into the water column. The variation of nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon concentrations showed mixed trend probably due to the complex chemical reactions subsequent to the operation. Besides, the intensive rainfall and strong wind around the end of the field trial had apparent impact on the result. The combined effect of water flow and ultrasonic irradiation was a cumulative water quality improvement and it maintained the dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a requirement of the river for healthy ecological interaction. However, the overall improvement of water quality is not guaranteed as effectiveness of ultrasonic technology requires long-term monitoring of water quality before, during and after treatment. Even though, the short duration of the study conducted here has limited nutrient pattern realization, the use of ultrasound at field scale to improve water quality is promising.

Keywords: stagnant, ultrasonic irradiation, water flow, water quality

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1559 The Impact of Resettlement Challenges in Seeking Employment on the Mental Health and Well-Being of African Refugee Youth in South Australia

Authors: Elvis Munyoka

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While the number of African refugees settling in Australia has significantly increased since the mid-1990s, the marginalisation and exclusion of young people from refugee backgrounds in employment remain a critical challenge. Unemployment or underemployment can negatively impact refugees in multiple areas, such as income, housing, life satisfaction, and social status. Higher rates of unemployment among refugees are linked in part to the intersection of pre-migration and daily challenges like trauma, racism, gender identity, and English language competency, all of which generate multiple employability disadvantages. However, the intersection of gender, race, social class, and age in impacting African refugee youth’s access to employment has received less attention. Using a qualitative case study approach, the paper will explore how gender, race, social class, and age influence African refugee youth graduates’ access to employment in South Australia. The intersectionality theory and capability approach to social justice is used to explore intersecting factors impacting African refugee youth’s access to employment in South Australia. Participants were 16 African refugee graduates aged 18-30 living in South Australia who took part in the study for one year. Based on the trends in the data, the results suggest that long-term unemployment and underemployment, coupled with ongoing racism and marginalisation, have the potential to make refugees more vulnerable to several mental disorders such as depression, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts. The analysis also reveals that resettlement challenges may limit refugees’ ability to recover from pre-migration trauma. The impact of resettlement challenges on refugee mental health highlights the need for comprehensive policy interventions to address the barriers refugees face in finding employment in resettlement communities. With African refugees constituting such an important part of Australian society, they should have equal access to meaningful employment, as decent work promotes good mental health, successful resettlement, hope, and self-sufficiency.

Keywords: African refugee youth, mental health, employment, resettlement, racism

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1558 Metabolic Variables and Associated Factors in Acute Pancreatitis Patients Correlates with Health-Related Quality of Life

Authors: Ravinder Singh, Pratima Syal

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Background: The rising prevalence and incidence of Acute Pancreatitis (AP) and its associated metabolic variables known as metabolic syndrome (MetS) are common medical conditions with catastrophic consequences and substantial treatment costs. The correlation between MetS and AP, as well as their impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is uncertain, and because there are so few published studies, further research is needed. As a result, we planned this study to determine the relationship between MetS components impact on HRQoL in AP patients. Patients and Methods: A prospective, observational study involving the recruitment of patients with AP with and without MetS was carried out in tertiary care hospital of North India. Patients were classified with AP if they were diagnosed with two or more components of the following criteria, abdominal pain, serum amylase and lipase levels two or more times normal, imaging trans-abdominal ultrasound, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance. The National Cholesterol Education Program–Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criterion was used to diagnose the MetS. The various socio-demographic variables were also taken into consideration for the calculation of statistical significance (P≤.05) in AP patients. Finally, the correlation between AP and MetS, along with their impact on HRQoL was assessed using Student's t test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and Short Form-36 (SF-36). Results: AP with MetS (n = 100) and AP without MetS (n = 100) patients were divided into two groups. Gender, Age, Educational Status, Tobacco use, Body Mass Index (B.M.I), and Waist Hip Ratio (W.H.R) were the socio-demographic parameters found to be statistically significant (P≤.05) in AP patients with MetS. Also, all the metabolic variables were also found to statistically significant (P≤.05) and found to be increased in patients with AP with MetS as compared to AP without MetS except HDL levels. Using the SF-36 form, a greater significant decline was observed in physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) in patients with AP with MetS as compared to patients without MetS (P≤.05). Furthermore, a negative association between all metabolic variables with the exception of HDL, and AP was found to be producing deterioration in PCS and MCS. Conclusion: The study demonstrated that patients with AP with MetS had a worse overall HRQOL than patients with AP without MetS due to number of socio-demographic and metabolic variables having direct correlation impacting physical and mental health of patients.

Keywords: metabolic disorers, QOL, cost effectiveness, pancreatitis

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1557 Determinants of Repeated Abortion among Women of Reproductive Age Attending Health Facilities in Northern Ethiopia: A Case-Control Study

Authors: Henok Yebyo Henok, Araya Abrha Araya, Alemayehu Bayray Alemayehu, Gelila Goba Gelila

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Background: Every year, an estimated 19–20 million unsafe abortions take place, almost all in developing countries, leading to 68,000 deaths and millions more injured many permanently. Many women throughout the world, experience more than one abortion in their lifetimes. Repeat abortion is an indicator of the larger problem of unintended pregnancy. This study aimed to identify determinants of repeat abortion in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Methods: Unmatched case-control study was conducted in hospitals in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia, from November 2014 to June 2015. The sample included 105 cases and 204 controls, recruited from among women seeking abortion care at public hospitals. Clients having two or more abortions (“repeat abortion”) were taken as cases, and those who had a total of one abortion were taken as controls (“single abortion”). Cases were selected consecutive based on proportional to size allocation while systematic sampling was employed for controls. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Binary and multiple variable logistic regression analyses were calculated with 95% CI. Results: Mean age of cases was 24 years (±6.85) and 22 years (±6.25) for controls. 79.0% of cases had their sexual debut in less than 18 years of age compared to 57% of controls. 42.2% of controls and 23.8% of cases cited rape as the reason for having an abortion. Study participants who did not understand their fertility cycle and when they were most likely to conceive after menstruation (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1-3.7), having a previous abortion using medication(AOR=3.3, CI: 1.83, 6.11), having multiple sexual partners in the preceding 12 months (AOR=4.4, CI: 2.39,8.45), perceiving that the abortion procedure is not painful (AOR=2.3, CI: 1.31,4.26), initiating sexual intercourse before the age of 18 years (AOR=2.7, CI: 1.49, 5.23) and disclosure to a third-party about terminating the pregnancy (AOR=2.1, CI: 1.2,3.83) were independent predictors of repeat abortion. Conclusion: This study identified several factors correlated with women having repeat abortions. It may be helpful for the Government of Ethiopia to encourage women to delay sexual debut and decrease their number of sexual partners, including by promoting discussion within families about sexuality, to decrease the occurrence of repeated abortion.

Keywords: abortion, Ethiopia, repeated abortion, single abortion

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1556 Sustainable Design Criteria for Beach Resorts to Enhance Physical Activity That Helps Improve Health and Well-being for Adults in Saudi Arabia

Authors: Noorh Albadi, Salha Khayyat

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People's moods and well-being are affected by their environment. The built environment impacts one's level of activity and health. In order to enhance users' physical health, sustainable design strategies have been developed for the physical environment to improve users' health. This study aimed to determine whether adult resorts in Saudi Arabia meet standards that ensure physical wellness to identify the needed requirements. It will be significant to the Ministry of Tourism, Sports, developers, and designers. Physical activity affects human health physically and mentally. In Saudi Arabia, the percentage of people who practiced sports in the Kingdom in 2019 was 20.04% - males and females older than 15. On the other hand, there is a lack of physical activity in Saudi Arabia; 90% of the Kingdom's population spends more than two hours sitting down without moving, which puts them at risk of contracting a non-communicable disease. The lack of physical activity and movement led to an increase in the rate of obesity among Saudis by 59% in 2020 and consequently could cause chronic diseases or death. The literature generally endorses that leading an active lifestyle improves physical health and affects mental health. Therefore, the United Nations has set 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. One of SDG3's targets is reducing mortality, which can be achieved by raising physical activity. In order to support sustainable design, many rating systems and strategies have been developed, such as WELL building, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, (LEED), Active design strategies, and RIPA plan of work. The survey was used to gather qualitative and quantitative information. It was designed based on the Active Design and WELL building theories targeting beach resorts visitors, professional and beginner athletes, and non-athletics to ask them about the beach resorts they visited in the Kingdom and whether they met the criteria of sports resorts and healthy and active design theories, in addition to gathering information about the preferences of physical activities in the Saudi society in terms of the type of activities that young people prefer, where they prefer to engage in and under any thermal and light conditions. The final section asks about the design of residential units in beach sports resorts, the data collected from 127 participants. Findings revealed that participants prefer outdoor activities in moderate weather and sunlight or the evening with moderate and sufficient lighting and that no beach sports resorts in the country are constructed to support sustainable design criteria for physical activity. Participants agreed that several measures that lessen tension at beach resorts and enhance movement and activity are needed by Saudi society. The study recommends designing resorts that meet the sustainable design criteria regarding physical activity in Saudi Arabia to increase physical activity to achieve psychological and physical benefits and avoid psychological and physical diseases related to physical inactivity.

Keywords: sustainable design, SDGs, active design strategies, well building, beach resort design

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1555 Recurrent Neural Networks for Classifying Outliers in Electronic Health Record Clinical Text

Authors: Duncan Wallace, M-Tahar Kechadi

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In recent years, Machine Learning (ML) approaches have been successfully applied to an analysis of patient symptom data in the context of disease diagnosis, at least where such data is well codified. However, much of the data present in Electronic Health Records (EHR) are unlikely to prove suitable for classic ML approaches. Furthermore, as scores of data are widely spread across both hospitals and individuals, a decentralized, computationally scalable methodology is a priority. The focus of this paper is to develop a method to predict outliers in an out-of-hours healthcare provision center (OOHC). In particular, our research is based upon the early identification of patients who have underlying conditions which will cause them to repeatedly require medical attention. OOHC act as an ad-hoc delivery of triage and treatment, where interactions occur without recourse to a full medical history of the patient in question. Medical histories, relating to patients contacting an OOHC, may reside in several distinct EHR systems in multiple hospitals or surgeries, which are unavailable to the OOHC in question. As such, although a local solution is optimal for this problem, it follows that the data under investigation is incomplete, heterogeneous, and comprised mostly of noisy textual notes compiled during routine OOHC activities. Through the use of Deep Learning methodologies, the aim of this paper is to provide the means to identify patient cases, upon initial contact, which are likely to relate to such outliers. To this end, we compare the performance of Long Short-Term Memory, Gated Recurrent Units, and combinations of both with Convolutional Neural Networks. A further aim of this paper is to elucidate the discovery of such outliers by examining the exact terms which provide a strong indication of positive and negative case entries. While free-text is the principal data extracted from EHRs for classification, EHRs also contain normalized features. Although the specific demographical features treated within our corpus are relatively limited in scope, we examine whether it is beneficial to include such features among the inputs to our neural network, or whether these features are more successfully exploited in conjunction with a different form of a classifier. In this section, we compare the performance of randomly generated regression trees and support vector machines and determine the extent to which our classification program can be improved upon by using either of these machine learning approaches in conjunction with the output of our Recurrent Neural Network application. The output of our neural network is also used to help determine the most significant lexemes present within the corpus for determining high-risk patients. By combining the confidence of our classification program in relation to lexemes within true positive and true negative cases, with an inverse document frequency of the lexemes related to these cases, we can determine what features act as the primary indicators of frequent-attender and non-frequent-attender cases, providing a human interpretable appreciation of how our program classifies cases.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, data-mining, machine learning, medical informatics

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1554 The Impact of National Social Intervention Programme (NSIP) on Poverty Alleviation and Insecurity in Nigeria (2016 – 2023)

Authors: Opeyemi Awau Adepoju

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The task of nation-building for Nigeria, like other developing nations, has continued to be riddled with audacious challenges that kept threatening to consume the state itself. Among the destabilizing factors that are sometimes mutually reinforcing are poverty and insecurity. Nigeria has been bedeviled with poverty since the onset of the 1980s when the country metamorphosed from an agricultural to an oil-based economy coupled with unbridled political corruption and wasteful management of resources by successive governments. The crippling poverty started manifesting in the scourge of criminalities and a general state of insecurity. Poverty gradually becomes the breeder of insecurity and threats to human life in Nigeria. Interestingly, successive governments tended to recognize the destructive tendencies of poverty and took several interventionist initiatives towards abating or slowing down the spate of poverty so as to reverse the trend of insecurity, but none of those initiatives can be adjudged good or enduring legacies. The emergence of the Buhari administration in 2015 provided a new opportunity to tackle poverty and, in turn, insecurity that had permeated every aspect of national life before that year’s presidential elections. Expectedly, the government took ambitious steps through its innovative ideas of intervention through its National Social Intervention Programmes (NSIP). Therefore, this paper is an assessment of the Buhari administration’s initiatives in poverty eradication in Nigeria as one of its strategies to fight insecurity, and the paper adopted a qualitative approach. The theoretical arguments put up by this paper are with respect to the connection between poverty and insecurity sourced from the theory of Relative Deprivation. The paper found that the Buhari administration has done better than any government since 1999 in inventing a social intervention program and that the poverty of the people has been addressed to a notable extent. However, the problem of politicization of intervention programs has continued to be the practice under the administration, and if this is not abated, the post-Buhari era may as well be like the eras before it. The paper recommends legislation that can make poverty ameliorating programs permanent, at least for some years to come, so as to avoid the usual policy summersault at every instance of political transition, which has limited the sustainability of public policies and indeed hindered nation-building efforts in Nigeria.

Keywords: insecurity, poverty alleviation, public policies, social intervention

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1553 Evaluation of a Remanufacturing for Lithium Ion Batteries from Electric Cars

Authors: Achim Kampker, Heiner H. Heimes, Mathias Ordung, Christoph Lienemann, Ansgar Hollah, Nemanja Sarovic

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Electric cars with their fast innovation cycles and their disruptive character offer a high degree of freedom regarding innovative design for remanufacturing. Remanufacturing increases not only the resource but also the economic efficiency by a prolonged product life time. The reduced power train wear of electric cars combined with high manufacturing costs for batteries allow new business models and even second life applications. Modular and intermountable designed battery packs enable the replacement of defective or outdated battery cells, allow additional cost savings and a prolongation of life time. This paper discusses opportunities for future remanufacturing value chains of electric cars and their battery components and how to address their potentials with elaborate designs. Based on a brief overview of implemented remanufacturing structures in different industries, opportunities of transferability are evaluated. In addition to an analysis of current and upcoming challenges, promising perspectives for a sustainable electric car circular economy enabled by design for remanufacturing are deduced. Two mathematical models describe the feasibility of pursuing a circular economy of lithium ion batteries and evaluate remanufacturing in terms of sustainability and economic efficiency. Taking into consideration not only labor and material cost but also capital costs for equipment and factory facilities to support the remanufacturing process, cost benefit analysis prognosticate that a remanufacturing battery can be produced more cost-efficiently. The ecological benefits were calculated on a broad database from different research projects which focus on the recycling, the second use and the assembly of lithium ion batteries. The results of this calculations show a significant improvement by remanufacturing in all relevant factors especially in the consumption of resources and greenhouse warming potential. Exemplarily suitable design guidelines for future remanufacturing lithium ion batteries, which consider modularity, interfaces and disassembly, are used to illustrate the findings. For one guideline, potential cost improvements were calculated and upcoming challenges are pointed out.

Keywords: circular economy, electric mobility, lithium ion batteries, remanufacturing

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1552 Australian Football Supporters Engagement Patterns; Manchester United vs a-League

Authors: Trevor R. Higgins, Ben Lopez

Abstract:

Australian football fans have a tendency to indulge in foreign football clubs, often assigning a greater value to foreign clubs, in preference to the Australian National football competition; the A-League. There currently exists a gap in the knowledge available in relation to football fans in Australia, their engagement with foreign football teams and the impact that this may have with their engagement with A-League. The purpose of this study was to compare the engagement of the members of the Manchester United Supporters Club - Australia (MUSC-Aus) with Manchester United and the A-League. An online survey was implemented to gather the relevant data from members of the MUSC-Aus. Results from completed surveys were collected, and analyzed in relation to engagement levels with Manchester United and the A-League. Members of MUSC-Aus who responded to the survey were predominantly male (94%) and born in Australia (46%), England (25%), Ireland (7%), were greatly influenced in their choice of Manchester United by family (43%) and team history (16%), whereas location was the overwhelming influence in supporting the A-League (88%). Importantly, there was a reduced level of engagement in the A-League on two accounts. Firstly, only 64% of MUSC-Aus engaged with the A-League, reporting perceptions of low standard as the major reason (50%). Secondly, MUSC-Aus members who engaged in the A-League reported reduced engagement in the A-League, identified through spending patterns. MUSC-Aus members’ expenditure on Manchester United engagement was 400% greater than expenditure on A-League engagement. Furthermore, additional survey responses indicated that the level of commitment towards the A-League overall was less than Manchester United. The greatest impact on fan engagement in the A-League by MUSC-Aus can be attributed to several primary factors; family support, team history and perceptions to on-field performance and quality of players. Currently, there is little that can be done in regards to enhancing family and history as the A-League is still in its infancy. Therefore, perceptions of on-field performances and player quality should be addressed. Introducing short-term international marquee contracts to A-League rosters, across the entire competition, may provide the platform to raise the perception of the A-League player quality with minimal impact on local player development. In addition, a national marketing campaign promoting the success of A-League clubs in the ACL, as well as promoting the skill on display in the A-League may address the negative association with the standard of the A-League competition.

Keywords: engagement, football, perceptions of performance, team

Procedia PDF Downloads 272
1551 The Moderating Role of the Employees' Green Lifestyle to the Effect of Green Human Resource Management Practices to Job Performance: A Structural Equation Model (SEM)

Authors: Lorraine Joyce Chua, Sheena Fatima Ragas, Flora Mae Tantay, Carolyn Marie Sunio

Abstract:

The Philippines is one of the countries most affected by weather-related disasters. The occurrence of natural disasters in this country increases due to environmental degradation making environment preservation a growing trend in the society including the corporate world. Most organizations implemented green practices in order to lower expenses unaware that some of these practices were already a part of a new trend in human resource management known as Green Human Resource Management (GHRM). GHRM is when business organizations implement HR policies programs processes and techniques that bring environmental impact and sustainability practices on the organization. In relation to this, the study hypothesizes that implementing GHRM practices in the workplace will spillover to an employees lifestyle and such lifestyle may moderate the impact of GHRM practices to his job performance. Private industries located in the Philippines National Capital Region (NCR) were purposively selected for the purpose of this study. They must be ISO14001 certified or are currently aiming for such certification. The employee respondents were randomly selected and were asked to answer a reliable and valid researcher-made questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) supported the hypothesis that GHRM practices may spillover to employees lifestyle stimulating such individual to start a green lifestyle which moderates the impact of GHRM to his job performance. It can also be implied that GHRM practices help shape employees to become environmentally aware and responsible which may help them in preserving the environment. The findings of this study may encourage Human Resource practitioners to implement GHRM practices in the workplace in order to take part in sustaining the environment while maintaining or improving employees job performance and keeping them motivated. This study can serve as a basis for future research regarding the importance of strengthening the GHRM implementation here in the Philippines. Future studies may focus more on the impact of GHRM to other factors, such as job loyalty and job satisfaction of the employees belonging to specific industries which would greatly contribute to the GHRM community in the Philippines.

Keywords: GHRM practices, Green Human Resource Management, Green Lifestyle, ISO14001, job performance, Philippines

Procedia PDF Downloads 255
1550 Microfiber Release During Laundry Under Different Rinsing Parameters

Authors: Fulya Asena Uluç, Ehsan Tuzcuoğlu, Songül Bayraktar, Burak Koca, Alper Gürarslan

Abstract:

Microplastics are contaminants that are widely distributed in the environment with a detrimental ecological effect. Besides this, recent research has proved the existence of microplastics in human blood and organs. Microplastics in the environment can be divided into two main categories: primary and secondary microplastics. Primary microplastics are plastics that are released into the environment as microscopic particles. On the other hand, secondary microplastics are the smaller particles that are shed as a result of the consumption of synthetic materials in textile products as well as other products. Textiles are the main source of microplastic contamination in aquatic ecosystems. Laundry of synthetic textiles (34.8%) accounts for an average annual discharge of 3.2 million tons of primary microplastics into the environment. Recently, microfiber shedding from laundry research has gained traction. However, no comprehensive study was conducted from the standpoint of rinsing parameters during laundry to analyze microfiber shedding. The purpose of the present study is to quantify microfiber shedding from fabric under different rinsing conditions and determine the effective rinsing parameters on microfiber release in a laundry environment. In this regard, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the key factors affecting the microfiber release from a front-load washing machine. These parameters are the amount of water used during the rinsing step and the spinning speed at the end of the washing cycle. Minitab statistical program is used to create a design of the experiment (DOE) and analyze the experimental results. Tests are repeated twice and besides the controlled parameters, other washing parameters are kept constant in the washing algorithm. At the end of each cycle, released microfibers are collected via a custom-made filtration system and weighted with precision balance. The results showed that by increasing the water amount during the rinsing step, the amount of microplastic released from the washing machine increased drastically. Also, the parametric study revealed that increasing the spinning speed results in an increase in the microfiber release from textiles.

Keywords: front load, laundry, microfiber, microfiber release, microfiber shedding, microplastic, pollution, rinsing parameters, sustainability, washing parameters, washing machine

Procedia PDF Downloads 84
1549 A Proposal for Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia According to the Orientation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

Authors: Ali Taher Othman Ali

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to provide a draft proposal for the professional development of mathematics teachers in accordance with the orientation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics which is known by the abbreviation STEM, as a modern and contemporary orientation in the teaching and learning of mathematics and in order to achieve the objective of the research, the researcher used the theoretical descriptive method through the induction of the literature of education and the previous studies and experiments related to the topic. The researcher concluded by providing the proposal according to five basic axes, the first axe: professional development as a system, and its requirements include: development of educational systems, and allocate sufficient budgets to support the requirements of teaching STEM, identifying mechanisms for incentives and rewards for teachers attending professional development programs based on STEM; the second: development of in-depth knowledge content and its requirements include: basic sciences content development for STEM, linking the scientific understanding of teachers with real-world issues and problems, to provide the necessary resources to expand teachers' knowledge in this area; the third: the necessary pedagogical skills of teachers in the field of STEM, and its requirements include: identification of the required training and development needs and the mechanism of determining these needs, the types of professional development programs and the mechanism of designing it, the mechanisms and places of execution, evaluation and follow-up; the fourth: professional development strategies and mechanisms in the field of STEM, and its requirements include: using a variety of strategies to enable teachers to design and transfer effective educational experiences which reflect their scientific mastery in the fields of STEM, provide learning opportunities, and developing the skills of procedural research to generate new knowledge about the STEM; the fifth: to support professional development in the area of STEM, and its requirements include: support leadership within the school, provide a clear and appropriate opportunities for professional development for teachers within the school through professional learning communities, building partnerships between the Ministry of education and the local and international community institutions. The proposal includes other factors that should be considered when implementing professional development programs for mathematics teachers in the field of STEM.

Keywords: professional development, mathematics teachers, the orientation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

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1548 Sports Racism in Australia: A Fifty Year Study of Bigotry and the Culture of Silence, from Mexico City to Melbourne

Authors: Tasneem Chopra

Abstract:

The 1968 Summer Olympics will forever be remembered for the silent protest against racism exhibited by American athletes Tommy Smith and John Carlos. Also standing on the medal podium was Australian Peter Norman, whose silent solidarity as a white sportsman completes the powerful, evocative image of that night in Mexico City. In the 50 years since Norman’s stance of solidarity with his American counterparts, Australian sports has traveled a wide arc of racism narratives, with athletes still experiencing episodes of bigotry, both on the pitch and elsewhere. Aboriginal athletes, like tennis champion Yvonne Goolagong, have endured the plaudits of appreciation for their achievements on both the national and international stage, while simultaneously being subject to both prejudice and even questions as to their right to represent their country as full, acceptable citizens. Racism in Australia is directed toward Australian athletes of colour as well as foreign sportspeople who visit the country. The complex, mutating nature of racism in Australia is also informed by the culture of silence, where fellow athletes stand mute in light of their colleagues’ experience with bigotry. This paper analyses the phenomenon of sports racism in Australia over the past fifty years, culminating in the most recent showdown between Heretier Lumumba, former Collingwood football player, and his public allegations of racism experienced by team mates over his 10 year career. It shall examine the treatment and mistreatment of athletes because of their race and will further assess how such public perceptions both shape Australian culture or are themselves a manifestation of preexisting pathologies of bigotry. Further, it will examine the efficacy of anti-racism initiatives in responding to this hate. This paper will analyse the growing influence of corporate and media entities in crafting the economics of Australian sports and assess the role of such factors in creating the narrative of racism in the nation, both as a sociological reality as well as a marker of national identity. Finally, this paper will examine the political, social and economic forces that contribute to the culture of silence in Australian society in defying racism.

Keywords: aboriginal, Australia, corporations, silence

Procedia PDF Downloads 165
1547 Connectomic Correlates of Cerebral Microhemorrhages in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Victims with Neural and Cognitive Deficits

Authors: Kenneth A. Rostowsky, Alexander S. Maher, Nahian F. Chowdhury, Andrei Irimia

Abstract:

The clinical significance of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) due to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remains unclear. Here we use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and connectomic analysis to investigate the statistical association between mTBI-related CMBs, post-TBI changes to the human connectome and neurological/cognitive deficits. This study was undertaken in agreement with US federal law (45 CFR 46) and was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Southern California (USC). Two groups, one consisting of 26 (13 females) mTBI victims and another comprising 26 (13 females) healthy control (HC) volunteers were recruited through IRB-approved procedures. The acute Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score was available for each mTBI victim (mean µ = 13.2; standard deviation σ = 0.4). Each HC volunteer was assigned a GCS of 15 to indicate the absence of head trauma at the time of enrollment in our study. Volunteers in the HC and mTBI groups were matched according to their sex and age (HC: µ = 67.2 years, σ = 5.62 years; mTBI: µ = 66.8 years, σ = 5.93 years). MRI [including T1- and T2-weighted volumes, gradient recalled echo (GRE)/susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI)] and gradient echo (GE) DWI volumes were acquired using the same MRI scanner type (Trio TIM, Siemens Corp.). Skull-stripping and eddy current correction were implemented. DWI volumes were processed in TrackVis (http://trackvis.org) and 3D Slicer (http://www.slicer.org). Tensors were fit to DWI data to perform DTI, and tractography streamlines were then reconstructed using deterministic tractography. A voxel classifier was used to identify image features as CMB candidates using Microbleed Anatomic Rating Scale (MARS) guidelines. For each peri-lesional DTI streamline bundle, the null hypothesis was formulated as the statement that there was no neurological or cognitive deficit associated with between-scan differences in the mean FA of DTI streamlines within each bundle. The statistical significance of each hypothesis test was calculated at the α = 0.05 level, subject to the family-wise error rate (FWER) correction for multiple comparisons. Results: In HC volunteers, the along-track analysis failed to identify statistically significant differences in the mean FA of DTI streamline bundles. In the mTBI group, significant differences in the mean FA of peri-lesional streamline bundles were found in 21 out of 26 volunteers. In those volunteers where significant differences had been found, these differences were associated with an average of ~47% of all identified CMBs (σ = 21%). In 12 out of the 21 volunteers exhibiting significant FA changes, cognitive functions (memory acquisition and retrieval, top-down control of attention, planning, judgment, cognitive aspects of decision-making) were found to have deteriorated over the six months following injury (r = -0.32, p < 0.001). Our preliminary results suggest that acute post-TBI CMBs may be associated with cognitive decline in some mTBI patients. Future research should attempt to identify mTBI patients at high risk for cognitive sequelae.

Keywords: traumatic brain injury, magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, connectomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 163
1546 Automatic Identification of Pectoral Muscle

Authors: Ana L. M. Pavan, Guilherme Giacomini, Allan F. F. Alves, Marcela De Oliveira, Fernando A. B. Neto, Maria E. D. Rosa, Andre P. Trindade, Diana R. De Pina

Abstract:

Mammography is a worldwide image modality used to diagnose breast cancer, even in asymptomatic women. Due to its large availability, mammograms can be used to measure breast density and to predict cancer development. Women with increased mammographic density have a four- to sixfold increase in their risk of developing breast cancer. Therefore, studies have been made to accurately quantify mammographic breast density. In clinical routine, radiologists perform image evaluations through BIRADS (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System) assessment. However, this method has inter and intraindividual variability. An automatic objective method to measure breast density could relieve radiologist’s workload by providing a first aid opinion. However, pectoral muscle is a high density tissue, with similar characteristics of fibroglandular tissues. It is consequently hard to automatically quantify mammographic breast density. Therefore, a pre-processing is needed to segment the pectoral muscle which may erroneously be quantified as fibroglandular tissue. The aim of this work was to develop an automatic algorithm to segment and extract pectoral muscle in digital mammograms. The database consisted of thirty medio-lateral oblique incidence digital mammography from São Paulo Medical School. This study was developed with ethical approval from the authors’ institutions and national review panels under protocol number 3720-2010. An algorithm was developed, in Matlab® platform, for the pre-processing of images. The algorithm uses image processing tools to automatically segment and extract the pectoral muscle of mammograms. Firstly, it was applied thresholding technique to remove non-biological information from image. Then, the Hough transform is applied, to find the limit of the pectoral muscle, followed by active contour method. Seed of active contour is applied in the limit of pectoral muscle found by Hough transform. An experienced radiologist also manually performed the pectoral muscle segmentation. Both methods, manual and automatic, were compared using the Jaccard index and Bland-Altman statistics. The comparison between manual and the developed automatic method presented a Jaccard similarity coefficient greater than 90% for all analyzed images, showing the efficiency and accuracy of segmentation of the proposed method. The Bland-Altman statistics compared both methods in relation to area (mm²) of segmented pectoral muscle. The statistic showed data within the 95% confidence interval, enhancing the accuracy of segmentation compared to the manual method. Thus, the method proved to be accurate and robust, segmenting rapidly and freely from intra and inter-observer variability. It is concluded that the proposed method may be used reliably to segment pectoral muscle in digital mammography in clinical routine. The segmentation of the pectoral muscle is very important for further quantifications of fibroglandular tissue volume present in the breast.

Keywords: active contour, fibroglandular tissue, hough transform, pectoral muscle

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1545 Down Regulation of Smad-2 Transcription and TGF-B1 Signaling in Nano Sized Titanium Dioxide-Induced Liver Injury in Mice by Potent Antioxidants

Authors: Maha Z. Rizk, Sami A. Fattah, Heba M. Darwish, Sanaa A. Ali, Mai O. Kadry

Abstract:

Although it is known that nano-TiO2 and other nanoparticles can induce liver toxicity, the mechanisms and the molecular pathogenesis are still unclear. The present study investigated some biochemical indices of nano-sized Titanium dioxide (TiO2 NPS) toxicity in mice liver and the ameliorative efficacy of individual and combined doses of idebenone, carnosine and vitamin E. Nano-anatase TiO2 (21 nm) was administered as a total oral dose of 2.2 gm/Kg daily for 2 weeks followed by the afore-mentioned antioxidants daily either individually or in combination for 1month. TiO2-NPS induced a significant elevation in serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and hepatic oxidative stress biomarkers [lipid peroxides (LP), and nitric oxide levels (NOX), while it significantly reduced glutathione reductase (GR), reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione peroxidase(GPX) levels. Moreover the quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that nano-anatase TiO2 can significantly alter the mRNA and protein expressions of the fibrotic factors TGF-B1, VEGFand Smad-2. Histopathological examination of hepatic tissue reinforced the previous biochemical results. Our results also implied that inflammatory responses and liver injury may be involved in nano-anatase TiO2-induced liver toxicity Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and Interleukin -6 (IL-6) and increased the percent of DNA damage which was assessed by COMET assay in addition to the apoptotic marker Caspase-3. Moreover mRNA gene expression observed by RT-PCR showed a significant overexpression in nuclear factor relation -2 (Nrf2), nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-Kβ) and the apoptotic factor (bax), and a significant down regulation in the antiapoptotic factor (bcl2) level. In conclusion idebenone, carnosine and vitamin E ameliorated the deviated previously mentioned parameters with variable degrees with the most pronounced role in alleviating the hazardous effect of TiO2 NPS toxicity following the combination regimen.

Keywords: Nano-anatase TiO2, TGF-B1, SMAD-2

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1544 Ethanol Precipitation and Characterization of L-Asparaginase from Aspergillus oryzae

Authors: L. L. Tundisi, A. Pessoa Jr., E. B. Tambourgi, E. Silveira, P. G. Mazzola

Abstract:

L-asparaginase (L-ASNase) is the gold standard treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia that mainly affects pediatric patients; treatment increases survival from 20% to 90%. The characterization of other L-Asparaginases, apart from the most used from Escherichia coli and Erwinia chrysanthemi, has been reported, but the choice of the most appropriate is still under debate. This choice should be based on its pharmacokinetics, immune hypersensitivity, doses, prices, pharmacodynamics. The main factors influencing the antileukemic activity of ASNase are enzymatic activity, Km, glutaminase activity, clearance of the enzyme and development of resistance. However, most of the commercialized enzyme present an intrinsic glutaminase activity, which is responsible for some side effects. In this study, glutaminase free asparaginase produced from Aspergillus oryzae was precipitated in different percentages of ethanol (0–80%), until optimum ethanol concentration of 60% (w/w) was found. Following, precipitation of crude L-ASNase was performed in a single step, using 60% (w/w) ethanol, under constant agitation and temperature. It presented activity of 135.45 U/mg and after gel filtration chromatography with Sephadex G-the enzymatic activity was 322.02 U/mg. The apparent molecular mass of the purified L-ASNase fraction was estimated by 10% SDS-PAGE. Proteins were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250. The molar mass range was from 10 kDa to 250 kDa. L-ASNase from Aspergillus oryzae was characterized aiming possible therapeutic use. Four different buffers (phosphate-citrate buffer pH 2.6 to 5.8; phosphate buffer pH 5.8 to 7.4; Tris - HCl pH 7.4 to 9.0; and carbonate buffer pH 9.8 to 10.6) were used to measure the optimum pH for L-ASNase activity. The optimum temperature for enzyme activity was measured at optimal pH conditions (Tris-HCl and phosphate buffer, pH 7.4) at different temperatures ranging from 5 to 55°C. All activities were calculated by quantifying the free ammonia, using the Nessler reagent. The kinetic parameters calculation, e.g. Michaelis-Menten constant (Km), maximum velocity (Vmax) and Hills coefficient (n), were performed by incubating the enzyme in different concentrations of the substrate at optimum conditions of pH and fitted on Hill’s equation. This glutaminase free asparaginase showed a low Km (3.39 mM and 3.81 mM) and enzymatic activity of 135.45 U/mg after precipitation with ethanol. After gel filtration chromatography it rose to 322.02 U/mg. Optimum activity was found between pH 5.8 - 9.0, best activity results with phosphate buffer pH 7.4 and Tris-HCl pH 7.4 and showed activity from 5°C to 55°C. These results indicate that L-ASNase from A. oryzae has the potential for human use.

Keywords: biopharmaceuticals, bioprocessing, bioproducts, biotechnology, enzyme activity, ethanol precipitation

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1543 Association Between Renewable Energy and Community Forest User Group of Siranchowk Rural Municipality, Nepal

Authors: Prem Bahadur Giri, Mathinee Yucharoen

Abstract:

Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) have been the core stone of forest management efforts in Nepal. Due to the lack of a smooth transition into the local governance structure in 2017, policy instruments have not been effectively cascaded to the local level, creating ambiguity and inconsistency in forest governance. Descriptive mixed-method research was performed with community users and stakeholders of Tarpakha community forest, Siranchowk Rural Municipality, to understand the role of the political economy in CFUG management. A household survey was conducted among 100 households (who also are existing members of the Tarpakha CFUG) to understand and document their energy consumption preferences and practices. Likewise, ten key informant interviews and five focus group discussions with the municipality and forest management officials were also conducted to have a wider overview of the factors and political, socio-economic, and religious contexts behind the utilization of renewable energy for sustainable development. Findings from our study suggest only 3% of households use biogas as the main source of energy. The rest of the households mention liquid petroleum gas (LPG), electricity and firewood as major sources of energy for domestic purposes. Community members highlighted the difficulty in accessing firewood due to strict regulations from the CFUG, lack of cattle and manpower to rear cattle to produce cow dung (for biogas), lack of technical expertise at the community level for the operation and maintenance of solar energy, among others as challenges of resource. Likewise, key informants have mentioned policy loopholes at both the federal and local levels, especially with regard to the promotion of alternative or renewable energy, as there are no clear mandates and provisions to regulate the renewable energy industry. The study recommends doing an in-depth study on the feasibility of renewable energy sources, especially in the context of CFUGs, where biodiversity conservation aspects need to be equally taken into consideration while thinking of the promotion and expansion of renewable energy sources.

Keywords: community forest, renewable energy, sustainable development, Nepal

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1542 Using Business Simulations and Game-Based Learning for Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation Training

Authors: Carin Chuang, Kuan-Chou Chen

Abstract:

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an integrated information system that supports the seamless integration of all the business processes of a company. Implementing an ERP system can increase efficiencies and decrease the costs while helping improve productivity. Many organizations including large, medium and small-sized companies have already adopted an ERP system for decades. Although ERP system can bring competitive advantages to organizations, the lack of proper training approach in ERP implementation is still a major concern. Organizations understand the importance of ERP training to adequately prepare managers and users. The low return on investment, however, for the ERP training makes the training difficult for knowledgeable workers to transfer what is learned in training to the jobs at workplace. Inadequate and inefficient ERP training limits the value realization and success of an ERP system. That is the need to call for a profound change and innovation for ERP training in both workplace at industry and the Information Systems (IS) education in academia. The innovated ERP training approach can improve the users’ knowledge in business processes and hands-on skills in mastering ERP system. It also can be instructed as educational material for IS students in universities. The purpose of the study is to examine the use of ERP simulation games via the ERPsim system to train the IS students in learning ERP implementation. The ERPsim is the business simulation game developed by ERPsim Lab at HEC Montréal, and the game is a real-life SAP (Systems Applications and Products) ERP system. The training uses the ERPsim system as the tool for the Internet-based simulation games and is designed as online student competitions during the class. The competitions involve student teams with the facilitation of instructor and put the students’ business skills to the test via intensive simulation games on a real-world SAP ERP system. The teams run the full business cycle of a manufacturing company while interacting with suppliers, vendors, and customers through sending and receiving orders, delivering products and completing the entire cash-to-cash cycle. To learn a range of business skills, student needs to adopt individual business role and make business decisions around the products and business processes. Based on the training experiences learned from rounds of business simulations, the findings show that learners have reduced risk in making mistakes that help learners build self-confidence in problem-solving. In addition, the learners’ reflections from their mistakes can speculate the root causes of the problems and further improve the efficiency of the training. ERP instructors teaching with the innovative approach report significant improvements in student evaluation, learner motivation, attendance, engagement as well as increased learner technology competency. The findings of the study can provide ERP instructors with guidelines to create an effective learning environment and can be transferred to a variety of other educational fields in which trainers are migrating towards a more active learning approach.

Keywords: business simulations, ERP implementation training, ERPsim, game-based learning, instructional strategy, training innovation

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1541 Dietary Exposure Assessment of Potentially Toxic Trace Elements in Fruits and Vegetables Grown in Akhtala, Armenia

Authors: Davit Pipoyan, Meline Beglaryan, Nicolò Merendino

Abstract:

Mining industry is one of the priority sectors of Armenian economy. Along with the solution of some socio-economic development, it brings about numerous environmental problems, especially toxic element pollution, which largely influences the safety of agricultural products. In addition, accumulation of toxic elements in agricultural products, mainly in edible parts of plants represents a direct pathway for their penetration into the human food chain. In Armenia, the share of plant origin food in overall diet is significantly high, so estimation of dietary intakes of toxic trace elements via consumption of selected fruits and vegetables are of great importance for observing the underlying health risks. Therefore, the present study was aimed to assess dietary exposure of potentially toxic trace elements through the intake of locally grown fruits and vegetables in Akhtala community (Armenia), where not only mining industry is developed, but also cultivation of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, this investigation represents one of the very first attempts to estimate human dietary exposure of potentially toxic trace elements in the study area. Samples of some commonly grown fruits and vegetables (fig, cornel, raspberry, grape, apple, plum, maize, bean, potato, cucumber, onion, greens) were randomly collected from several home gardens located near mining areas in Akhtala community. The concentration of Cu, Mo, Ni, Cr, Pb, Zn, Hg, As and Cd in samples were determined by using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Precision and accuracy of analyses were guaranteed by repeated analysis of samples against NIST Standard Reference Materials. For a diet study, individual-based approach was used, so the consumption of selected fruits and vegetables was investigated through food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Combining concentration data with contamination data, the estimated daily intakes (EDI) and cumulative daily intakes were assessed and compared with health-based guidance values (HBGVs). According to the determined concentrations of the studied trace elements in fruits and vegetables, it can be stressed that some trace elements (Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) among the majority of samples exceeded maximum allowable limits set by international organizations. Meanwhile, others (Cr, Hg, As, Cd, Mo) either did not exceed these limits or still do not have established allowable limits. The obtained results indicated that only for Cu the EDI values exceeded dietary reference intake (0.01 mg/kg/Bw/day) for some investigated fruits and vegetables in decreasing order of potato > grape > bean > raspberry > fig > greens. In contrast to this, for combined consumption of selected fruits and vegetables estimated cumulative daily intakes exceeded reference doses in the following sequence: Zn > Cu > Ni > Mo > Pb. It may be concluded that habitual and combined consumption of the above mentioned fruits and vegetables can pose a health risk to the local population. Hence, further detailed studies are needed for the overall assessment of potential health implications taking into consideration adverse health effects posed by more than one toxic trace element.

Keywords: daily intake, dietary exposure, fruits, trace elements, vegetables

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1540 Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery: Experimental Insights into Low Salinity Polymer in Sandstone Reservoirs

Authors: Intisar, Khalifa, Salim, Al Busaidi

Abstract:

Recently, the synergic combination of low salinity water flooding with polymer flooding has been a subject of paramount interest for the oil industry. Numerous studies have investigated the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery using low salinity polymer flooding (LSPF). However, there is no clear conclusion that can explain the incremental oil recovery, determine the main factors controlling the oil recovery process, and define the relative contribution of rock/fluids or fluid/fluid interactions to extra oil recovery. Therefore, this study aims to perform a systematic investigation of the interactions between oil, polymer, low salinity and sandstone rock surface from pore to core scale during LSPF. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymer, Boise outcrop, a crude oil sample and reservoir cores from an Omani oil field, and brine at two different salinities were used in the study. Several experimental measurements including static bulk measurements of polymer solutions prepared with brines of high and low salinities, single phase displacement experiments, along with rheological, total organic carbon and ion chromatography measurements to analyze ion exchange reactions, polymer adsorption, and viscosity loss were used. In addition, two-phase experiments were performed to demonstrate the oil recovery efficiency of LSPF. The results revealed that the incremental oil recovery from LSPF was attributed to the combination of the reduction in the water-oil mobility ratio, an increase in the repulsion forces between crude oil/brine/rock interfaces and an increase in pH of the aqueous solution. In addition, lowering the salinity of the make-up brine resulted in a larger conformation (expansion) of the polymer molecules, which in turn resulted in less adsorption and a greater in-situ viscosity without any negative impact on injectivity. This plays a positive role in the oil displacement process. Moreover, the loss of viscosity in the effluent of polymer solutions was lower in low-salinity than in high-salinity brine, indicating that an increase in cations concentration (mainly driven by Ca2+ ions) has stronger effect on the viscosity of high-salinity polymer solution compared with low-salinity polymer.

Keywords: polymer, heavy oil, low salinity, COBR interactions

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1539 Personal Development of School-Children on Lessons Physical Culture

Authors: Rogaleva Liudmila, Malkin Valery

Abstract:

Physical culture lessons are considered not only to be a means of physical development of students, but a matter of their personal development. Physical culture lessons can enable to develop such qualities of students as activity and initiation, readiness to cooperate, self-confidence, ability to define and reach targets, readiness to overcome difficulties and assess their abilities (and disadvantages) properly in any precise situation as well to be responsible for their own decision. The solution of this problem is possible under the circumstance if the students aware themselves as the subject of the activity that are able to develop their possibilities. The research was aimed to learn the matters that enable female teenagers of senior forms to become strong personalities attending physical culture lessons. There were two stages of the research. At the first stage we define the interests and demands of the girls. According the results of research we changed the programme of physical culture lessons. We took into consideration values of youth subculture: youth music, preferences to sport-dancing physical activities, demand of self-determination, revealing their individualities, needs of cooperative work. At the second stage we worked out motivating technology of course. This technology was aimed to create sush conditions under which students could show themselves as the subjects of activity and self-development. The active participation sport-dance festivals during 2-3 years creates the conditions for their self-realization. 78% students of the experimental groups considered their main motives to were: the interest, developing of their abilities, the satisfaction of the achievements of targets. Control groups 67% of the students claimed the success school good marks. The girls said that due to festivals they became self-confident (94%), responsible (86%), ability to cooperate (73%), aspiration for reaching the target (68%), self-exactingness (57 %). The main factors that provide successful performance were called: efforts to reach the target (87%), mutual support and mutual understanding (77%). The research on values showed that in the experimental groups we can find increase of importance of such values as: social initiative (active life) 83%, friends (75%), self-control (73%), effectiveness in deeds (58%).

Keywords: physical culture, subject, personal development, self-determination

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1538 Thermal Perception by Older People in Open Spaces in Madrid: Relationships between Weather Parameters and Personal Characteristics

Authors: María Teresa Baquero, Ester Higueras

Abstract:

One of the challenges facing 21st century cities, is their adaptation to the phenomenon of an ageing population. International policies have been developed, such as the "Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities". These cities must recognize the diversity of the elderly population, and facilitate an active, healthy, satisfied aging and promote inclusion. In order to promote active and healthy aging, older people should be encouraged to engage in physical activity, sunbathe, socialize and enjoy the public open spaces in the city. Some studies recognize thermal comfort as one of the factors that most influence the use of public open spaces. However, although some studies have shown vulnerability to thermal extremes and environmental conditions in older people, there is little research on thermal comfort for older adults, because it is usually analyzed based on the characteristics of the ¨average young person¨ without considering the physiological, physical and psychological differences that characterize the elderly. This study analyzes the relationship between the microclimate parameters as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and sky view factor (SVF) with the personal thermal perception of older adults in three public spaces in Madrid, through a mixed methodology that combines weather measurements with interviews, made during the year 2018. Statistical test like Chi-square, Spearman, and analysis of variance were used to analyze the relationship between preference votes and thermal sensation votes with environmental and personal parameters. The results show that there is a significant correlation between thermal sensation and thermal preference with the measured air temperature, age, level of clothing, the color of clothing, season, time of the day and kind of space while no influence of gender or other environmental variables was detected. These data would contribute to the design of comfortable public spaces that improve the welfare of the elderly contributing to "active and healthy aging" as one of the 21st century challenges cities face.

Keywords: healthy ageing, older adults, outdoor public space, thermal perception

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1537 Focus Group Study Exploring Researchers Perspective on Open Science Policy

Authors: E. T. Svahn

Abstract:

Knowledge about the factors that influence the exchange between research and society is of the utmost importance for developing collaboration between different actors, especially in future science policy development and the creation of support structures for researchers. Among other things, how researchers look at the surrounding open science policy environment and what conditions and attitudes they have for interacting with it. This paper examines the Finnish researchers' attitudes towards open science policies in 2020. Open science is an integrated part of researchers' daily lives and supports not only the effectiveness of research outputs but also the quality of research. Open science policy in ideal situation is seen as a supporting structure that enables the exchange between research and society, but in other situation, it can end up being red tape generating obstacles and hindering possibilities of making science in an efficient way. Results of this study were carried out through focus group interviews. This qualitative research method was selected because it aims to understand the phenomenon under study. In addition, focus group interviews produce diverse and rich material that would not be available with other research methods. Focus group interviews have well-established applications in social science, especially in understanding the perspectives and experiences of research subjects. In this study, focus groups were used in studying the mindset and actions of researchers. Each group's size was between 4-10 people, and the aim was to bring out different perspectives on the subject. The interviewer enabled the presentation of different perceptions and opinions, and the focus group interviews were recorded and written as text. The material was analysed using grounded theory method. The results are presented as thematic areas, theoretical model, and as direct quotations. Attitudes towards open science policy can vary greatly depending on the research area. This study shows that the open science policy demands in medicine, technology, and natural sciences compared to social sciences, educational sciences, and the humanities, varies somewhat. The variation in attitudes between different research areas can thus be largely explained by the fact that the research output and ethical code vary significantly between certain subjects. This study aims to increase understanding of the nuances to what extent open science policies should be tailored for different disciplines and research areas.

Keywords: focus group interview, grounded theory, open science policy, science policy

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1536 Evaluation of Existence of Antithyroid Antibodies, Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase and Anti-Thyroglobulin in Patients with Hepatitis C Viral Infections

Authors: Junaid Mahmood Alam, Sana Anwar, Sarah Sughra Asghar

Abstract:

Chronic hepatitis or Hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection has been identified as one of the factors that could elicit autoimmune disease resulting in the development of auto-antibodies. Furthermore, HCV is implicated in contravening of forbearance to antigens, therefore, inciting auto-reactivity. In this regard, several near and past studies noted the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and production of anti-thyroid antibodies (ATAb) such as anti-thyroid peroxidase (AntiTPO) and anti-thyroglobulin (AntiTG) in patients with HCV. Likewise, one of the etiologies of augmentation of thyroid disease is basically interferon therapy for HCV infections, for which a number of autoimmune diseases have been noted including Grave’s disease, Hishimoto thyroiditis. A prospectively case-control study was therefore carried out at department of clinical biochemistry lab services and chemical pathology in collaboration with department of clinical microbiology, at Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi Pakistan for the period January 2015 to December 2017. Two control groups were inducted for comparison purpose, control group 1 = without HCV infection and with thyroid disorders (n = 20), control group 2 = with HCV infection and without thyroid disorders (n = 20), whereas HCV infected were n = 40 where more than half were noted to be positive for either of HCV IgG and Ag. In HCV group, patients with existing sub-clinical hypothyroidism and clinical hyperthyroidism were less than 5%. Analysis showed the presence of AntiTG in 12 HCV patients (30%), AntiTPO in 15 (37.5%) and both AntiTG and antiTPO in 10 patients (25%). Only 3 patients were found with the history of anti-thyroid auto-antibodies (7.5%) and one with parents and relatives with auto-immune disorders (2.5%). Patients that remained untreated were 12 (30%), under treatment 18 (45%) and with complete-course of treatment 10 (25%). As per review of the literature, meta-analysis of evident data and cross-sectional studies of selective cohorts (as studied in presented research), thyroid connection is designated as one of the most recurrent endocrine ailment associated with chronic HCV infection. Moreover, it also represents an extrahepatic disease in the continuum of HCV syndrome. In conclusion, HCV patients were more likely to encompass thyroid disorders especially related to development of either of ATAb or both antiTG and AntiTPO.

Keywords: Hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection, anti-thyroid antibodies, anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies, anti-thyroglobulin antibodies

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