Search results for: class design

Authors: H. Arceo, S. Rincon, C. Ben-Youssef, J. Rivera, A. Zepeda

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Biodiesel has emerged as a material with great potential as a renewable energy replacement to current petroleum-based diesel. Recently, biodiesel production is focused on the development of more efficient, sustainable process with lower costs of production. In this sense, a “green” approach to biodiesel production has stimulated the use of sustainable heterogeneous acid catalysts, that are better alternatives to conventional processes because of their simplicity and the simultaneous promotion of esterification and transesterification reactions from low-grade, highly-acidic and water containing oils without the formation of soap. The focus of this methodology is the development of new heterogeneous catalysts that under ordinary reaction conditions could reach yields similar to homogeneous catalysis. In recent years, metal organic frameworks (MOF) have attracted much interest for their potential as heterogeneous acid catalysts. They are crystalline porous solids formed by association of transition metal ions or metal–oxo clusters and polydentate organic ligands. This hybridization confers MOFs unique features such as high thermal stability, larger pore size, high specific area, high selectivity and recycling potential. Thus, MOF application could be a way to improve the biodiesel production processes. In this work, we evaluated the catalytic activity of MOF [(4,4-bipyridine)2(O₂CCH₃)2Zn]n (MOF Zn-I) for the synthesis of biodiesel from canola oil. The reaction conditions were optimized using the response surface methodology with a compound design central with 24. The variables studied were: Reaction temperature, amount of catalyst, molar ratio oil: MetOH and reaction time. The preparation MOF Zn-I was performed by mixing 5 mmol 4´4 dipyridine dissolved in 25 mL methanol with 10 mmol Zn(O₂CCH₃)₂ ∙ 2H₂O in 25 mL water. The crystals were obtained by slow evaporation of the solvents at 60°C for 18 h. The prepared catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). The prepared catalyst was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). Experiments were performed using commercially available canola oil in ace pressure tube under continuous stirring. The reaction was filtered and vacuum distilled to remove the catalyst and excess alcohol, after which it was centrifuged to separate the obtained biodiesel and glycerol. 1H NMR was used to calculate the process yield. GC-MS was used to quantify the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). The results of this study show that the acid catalyst MOF Zn-I could be used as catalyst for biodiesel production through heterogeneous transesterification of canola oil with FAME yield 82 %. The optimum operating condition for the catalytic reaction were of 142°C, 0.5% catalyst/oil weight ratio, 1:30 oil:MeOH molar ratio and 5 h reaction time.

Keywords: fatty acid methyl ester, heterogeneous acid catalyst, metal organic framework, transesterification

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Authors: Ahmed Mohammed Omer Alghamdi

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, a rapid, unexpected transition from face-to-face to virtual classroom (VC) teaching has involved several challenges and obstacles. However, there are also opportunities and thoughts that need to be examined and discussed. In addition, the entire world is witnessing that the teaching system and, more particularly, higher education institutes have been interrupted. To maintain the learning and teaching practices as usual, countries were forced to transition from traditional to virtual classes using various technology-based devices. In this regard, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no exception. Focusing on how the current situation has forced many higher education institutes to change to virtual classes may possibly provide a clear insight into adopted practices and implications. The main purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate how both Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students perceived the implementation of virtual classes as a key factor for useful language teaching and learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic period at a Saudi university. The impetus for the research was, therefore, the need to find ways of identifying the deficiencies in this application and to suggest possible solutions that might rectify those deficiencies. This study seeks to answer the following overarching research question: “How do Saudi EFL instructors and students perceive the use of virtual classes during the COVID-19 pandemic period in their language teaching and learning context?” The following sub-questions are also used to guide the design of the study to answer the main research question: (1) To what extent are virtual classes important intra-pandemic from Saudi EFL instructors’ and students’ perspectives? (2) How effective are virtual classes for fostering English language students’ achievement? (3) What are the challenges and obstacles that instructors and students may face during the implementation of virtual teaching? A mixed method approach was employed in this study; the questionnaire data collection represented the quantitative method approach for this study, whereas the transcripts of recorded interviews represented the qualitative method approach. The participants included EFL teachers (N = 4) and male and female EFL students (N = 36). Based on the findings of this study, various aspects from teachers' and students’ perspectives were examined to determine the use of the virtual classroom applications in terms of fulfilling the students’ English language learning needs. The major findings of the study revealed that the virtual classroom applications during the current pandemic situation encountered three major challenges, among which the existence of the following essential aspects, namely lack of technology and an internet connection, having a large number of students in a virtual classroom and lack of students’ and teachers’ interactions during the virtual classroom applications. Finally, the findings indicated that although Saudi EFL students and teachers view the virtual classrooms in a positive light during the pandemic period, they reported that for long and post-pandemic period, they preferred the traditional face-to-face teaching procedure.

Keywords: virtual classes, English as a foreign language, COVID-19, Internet, pandemic

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Authors: Aliyu Bello Mohammed

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Vital registration or registration of vital events is one of the three major sources of demographic data in Nigeria. The other two are the population census and sample survey. The former is judged to be an indispensable source of demographic data because, it provide information on vital statistics and population trends between two census periods. Various literacy works however depict the vital registration in Nigeria as incapable of providing accurate data for the country. The study has both theoretical and practical significances. The trends and pattern of vital registration has not received adequate research interest in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. This has created a gap in understanding the extent and consequence of the scourge in Africa sub-region. Practically, the study also captures the policy interventions of government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that would help enlighten the public on the importance of vital registration in Nigeria. Furthermore, feasible policy strategies that will enhance trends and pattern vital registration in the society would emanate from the study. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design and applied multi stage sampling techniques to sample 230 respondents from the general public in the study area. The first stage involved the splitting of the local government into wards. The second stage involves selecting streets, while the third stage was the households. In all, 6 wards were sampled for the study. The study utilized both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary sources of data used were the questionnaire, focus group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview (IDI) guides while the secondary sources of data were journals and books, newspapers and magazines. Twelve FGD sessions with 96 study participants and five IDI sessions with the heads of vital registration facilities were conducted. The quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics like tables, frequencies and percentages were employed in presenting and interpreting the data. Information from the qualitative data was transcribed and ordered in themes to ensure that outstanding points of the responses are noted. The following conclusions were drawn from the study: the available vital registration facilities are not adequate and were not evenly distributed in the study area; lack of awareness and knowledge of the existence and the importance of vital registration by majority of the people in the local government; distance to vital registration centres from their residents; most births in the area were not registered, and even among the few births that were registered, majority of them were registered after the limited period for registration. And the study reveals that socio-economic index, educational level and distance of facilities to residents are determinants of access to vital registration facility. The study concludes by discussing the need for a reliable and accurate vital registration system if Nigeria’s vision of becoming one of the top 20 economies in the world in 2020 would be realized.

Keywords: trends, patterns, vital, registration and assessment

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Authors: Yuki Matsumoto, Yuma Ishimoto

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with children has shown effective application to various problems such as anxiety and depression. Although there are barriers to access to mental health services including lack of professional services in communities and parental concerns about stigma, school has a significant role to address children’s health problems. Schools are regarded as a suitable arena for prevention and early intervention of mental health problems. In this line, CBT can be adaptable to school education and useful to enhance students’ social and emotional skills. However, Japanese school curriculum is rigorous so as to limit available time for implementation of CBT in schools. This paper describes Brief Cognitive Behavior Therapy (BCBT) with children in a Japanese school setting. The program has been developed in order to facilitate acceptability of CBT in schools and aimed to enhance students’ skills to manage anxiety and difficult behaviors. The present research used a single arm design in which 30 students aged 9-10 years old participated. The authors provided teachers a CBT training workshop (two hours) at two primary schools in Tokyo metropolitan area and recruited participants in the research. A homeroom teacher voluntarily delivered a 6-session BCBT program (15 minutes each) in classroom periods which is called as Kaerinokai, a meeting before leaving school. Students completed a questionnaire sheet at pre- and post-periods under the supervision of the teacher. The sheet included the Spence Child Anxiety Scale (SCAS), the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The teacher was asked for feedback after the completion. Significant positive changes were found in the total and five of six sub-scales of the SCAS and the total difficulty scale of the SDQ. However, no significant changes were seen in Physical Injury Fear sub-scale of the SCAS, in the DSRS or the Prosocial sub-scale of the SDQ. The effect sizes are mostly between small and medium. The teacher commented that the program was easy to use and found positive changes in classroom activities and personal relationships. This preliminary research showed the feasibility of the BCBT in a school setting. The results suggest that the BCBT offers effective treatment for reduction in anxiety and in difficult behaviors. There is a good prospect of the BCBT suggesting that BCBT may be easier to be delivered than CBT by Japanese teachers to promote child mental health. The study has limitations including no control group, small sample size, or a short teacher training. Future research should address these limitations.

Keywords: brief cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, mental health services in schools, teacher training workshop

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Authors: Regina Rekuviene, Vykintas Samaitis, Liudas Mažeika, Audrius Jankauskas, Virginija Jankauskaitė, Laura Gegeckienė, Abdolali Sadaghiani, Shaghayegh Saeidiharzand

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Icing brings significant damage to aviation and renewable energy installations. Air-conditioning, refrigeration, wind turbine blades, airplane and helicopter blades often suffer from icing phenomena, which cause severe energy losses and impair aerodynamic performance. The icing process is a complex phenomenon with many different causes and types. Icing mechanisms, distributions, and patterns are still relevant to research topics. The adhesion strength between ice and surfaces differs in different icing environments. This makes the task of anti-icing very challenging. The techniques for various icing environments must satisfy different demands and requirements (e.g., efficient, lightweight, low power consumption, low maintenance and manufacturing costs, reliable operation). It is noticeable that most methods are oriented toward a particular sector and adapting them to or suggesting them for other areas is quite problematic. These methods often use various technologies and have different specifications, sometimes with no clear indication of their efficiency. There are two major groups of anti-icing methods: passive and active. Active techniques have high efficiency but, at the same time, quite high energy consumption and require intervention in the structure’s design. It’s noticeable that vast majority of these methods require specific knowledge and personnel skills. The main effect of passive methods (ice-phobic, superhydrophobic surfaces) is to delay ice formation and growth or reduce the adhesion strength between the ice and the surface. These methods are time-consuming and depend on forecasting. They can be applied on small surfaces only for specific targets, and most are non-biodegradable (except for anti-freezing proteins). There is some quite promising information on ultrasonic ice mitigation methods that employ UGW (Ultrasonic Guided Wave). These methods are have the characteristics of low energy consumption, low cost, lightweight, and easy replacement and maintenance. However, fundamental knowledge of ultrasonic de-icing methodology is still limited. The objective of this work was to identify the ice formation processes and its progress by employing ultrasonic guided wave technique. Throughout this research, the universal set-up for acoustic measurement of ice formation in a real condition (temperature range from +240 C to -230 C) was developed. Ultrasonic measurements were performed by using high frequency 5 MHz transducers in a pitch-catch configuration. The selection of wave modes suitable for detection of ice formation phenomenon on copper metal surface was performed. Interaction between the selected wave modes and ice formation processes was investigated. It was found that selected wave modes are sensitive to temperature changes. It was demonstrated that proposed ultrasonic technique could be successfully used for the detection of ice layer formation on a metal surface.

Keywords: ice formation processes, ultrasonic GW, detection of ice formation, ultrasonic testing

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Authors: Ye Zhang, Chuanjun Liu

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In-service aircraft is exposed to different types of threaten, e.g. bird strike, ground vehicle impact, and run-way debris, or even lightning strike, etc. To satisfy the aircraft damage tolerance design requirements, the designer has to understand the threatening level for different types of the aircraft structures, either metallic or composite. Exposing to low-velocity impacts may produce very serious internal damages such as delaminations and matrix cracks without leaving visible mark onto the impacted surfaces for composite structures. This internal damage can cause significant reduction in the load carrying capacity of structures. The semi-probabilistic method provides a practical and proper approximation to establish the impact-threat based energy cut-off level for the damage tolerance evaluation of the aircraft components. Thus, the probabilistic distribution of impact threat and the realistic impact energy level cut-offs are the essential establishments required for the certification of aircraft composite structures. A new survey of impact threat to civil aircraft in-service has recently been carried out based on field records concerning around 500 civil aircrafts (mainly single aisles) and more than 4.8 million flight hours. In total 1,006 damages caused by low-velocity impact events had been screened out from more than 8,000 records including impact dents, scratches, corrosions, delaminations, cracks etc. The impact threat dependency on the location of the aircraft structures and structural configuration was analyzed. Although the survey was mainly focusing on the metallic structures, the resulting low-energy impact data are believed likely representative to general civil aircraft, since the service environments and the maintenance operations are independent of the materials of the structures. The probability of impact damage occurrence (Po) and impact energy exceedance (Pe) are the two key parameters for describing the statistic distribution of impact threat. With the impact damage events from the survey, Po can be estimated as 2.1x10-4 per flight hour. Concerning the calculation of Pe, a numerical model was developed using the commercial FEA software ABAQUS to backward estimate the impact energy based on the visible damage characteristics. The relationship between the visible dent depth and impact energy was established and validated by drop-weight impact experiments. Based on survey results, Pe was calculated and assumed having a log-linear relationship versus the impact energy. As the product of two aforementioned probabilities, Po and Pe, it is reasonable and conservative to assume Pa=PoxPe=10-5, which indicates that the low-velocity impact events are similarly likely as the Limit Load events. Combing Pa with two probabilities Po and Pe obtained based on the field survey, the cutoff level of realistic impact energy was estimated and valued as 34 J. In summary, a new survey was recently done on field records of civil aircraft to investigate the probabilistic distribution of impact threat. Based on the data, two probabilities, Po and Pe, were obtained. Considering a conservative assumption of Pa, the cutoff energy level for the realistic impact energy has been determined, which provides potential applicability in damage tolerance certification of future civil aircraft.

Keywords: composite structure, damage tolerance, impact threat, probabilistic

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Authors: J. Waita, S. Wamuhu, J. Makoyo, M. Rachel, T. Ngangari, W. Christine, M. Zipporah

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Contraceptive use is one of the key global strategies to alleviate maternal mortality. Global efforts through advocating for contraceptive uptake and service provision has led improved contraceptive prevalence. In Kenya maternal mortality rate has remained a challenged despites efforts by government and non-governmental organizations. Objective: To describe the uptake of contraceptives among women in Tunza Clinics, Kenya. Design and Methods: Ps Kenya through health care marketing fund is implementing a family planning program among its 350 Tunza fractional franchise facilities. Through private partnership, private owned facilities in low socio-economic areas are recruited and trained on contraceptive technology update. The providers are supported through facilitative supervision through a mobile based application Health Network Quality Improvement System (HNQIS) and interpersonal communication through 150 community based volunteers. The data analyzed in this paper was collected between January to July 2017 to show the uptake of modern Contraceptives among women in the Tunza franchise, method mix, age and distribution among the age bracket. Further analysis compares two different service delivery strategies; outreach and walk ins. Supportive supervision HNQIS scores was analyzed. Results: During the time period, a total of 132121 family planning clients were attended in 350 facilities. The average age of clients was 29.6 years. The average number of clients attended in the facilities per month was 18874. 73.7 %( n=132121) of the clients attended in the Tunza facilities were aged above 25 years while 22.1% 20-24 years and 4.2% 15-19 years. On contraceptive method mix, intra uterine device insertions clients contributed to 7.5%, implant insertions 15.3%, pills 11.2%, injections 62.7% while condoms and emergency pills had 2.7% and 0.6% respectively. Analysis of service delivery strategy indicated more than 79% of the clients were walk ins while 21% were attended to during outreaches. Uptake of long term contraceptive methods during outreaches was 73% of the clients while short term modern methods were 27%. Health Network Quality Improvement system assessment scores indicated 51% of the facilities scored over 90%, 25% scoring 80-89% while 21% scored below 80%. Conclusion: Preference for short term methods by women is possibly associated to cost as they are cheaper and easy to administer. When the cost of intra uterine device Implants is meant affordable during outreaches, the uptake is observed to increase. Making intra uterine device and implants affordable to women is a key strategy in increasing contraceptive prevalence hence averting maternal mortality.

Keywords: contraceptives, contraceptive uptake, low socio economic, supportive supervision

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Authors: Andreas Kohlhepp, Gerrit Schatte, Wieland Christoph, Spliethoff Hartmut

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In recent years the research of heat transfer phenomena of water and other working fluids near the critical point experiences a growing interest for power engineering applications. To match the highly volatile characteristics of renewable energies, conventional power plants need to shift towards flexible operation. This requires speeding up the load change dynamics of steam generators and their heating surfaces near the critical point. In dynamic load transients, both a high heat flux with an unfavorable ratio to the mass flux and a high difference in fluid and wall temperatures, may cause problems. It may lead to deteriorated heat transfer (at supercritical pressures), dry-out or departure from nucleate boiling (at subcritical pressures), all cases leading to an extensive rise of temperatures. For relevant technical applications, the heat transfer coefficients need to be predicted correctly in case of transient scenarios to prevent damage to the heated surfaces (membrane walls, tube bundles or fuel rods). In transient processes, the state of the art method of calculating the heat transfer coefficients is using a multitude of different steady-state correlations for the momentarily existing local parameters for each time step. This approach does not necessarily reflect the different cases that may lead to a significant variation of the heat transfer coefficients and shows gaps in the individual ranges of validity. An algorithm was implemented to calculate the transient behavior of steam generators during load changes. It is used to assess existing correlations for transient heat transfer calculations. It is also desirable to validate the calculation using experimental data. By the use of a new full-scale supercritical thermo-hydraulic test rig, experimental data is obtained to describe the transient phenomena under dynamic boundary conditions as mentioned above and to serve for validation of transient steam generator calculations. Aiming to improve correlations for the prediction of the onset of deteriorated heat transfer in both, stationary and transient cases the test rig was specially designed for this task. It is a closed loop design with a directly electrically heated evaporation tube, the total heating power of the evaporator tube and the preheater is 1MW. To allow a big range of parameters, including supercritical pressures, the maximum pressure rating is 380 bar. The measurements contain the most important extrinsic thermo-hydraulic parameters. Moreover, a high geometric resolution allows to accurately predict the local heat transfer coefficients and fluid enthalpies.

Keywords: departure from nucleate boiling, deteriorated heat transfer, dryout, supercritical working fluid, transient operation of steam generators

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Authors: Muna Shalan

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Climate change is a systemic challenge for cities, with its impacts not happening in isolation but rather intertwined, thus increasing hazards and the vulnerability of the exposed population. The increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, for example, is associated with multiple repercussions on the quality of life of city inhabitants, including health discomfort, a rise in mortality and morbidity, increasing energy demand for cooling, and shrinking of green areas due to drought. To address the multi-faceted impact of urbanisation-induced warming, municipalities and local governments are challenged with devising strategies and implementing effective response measures. Municipalities are recognising the importance of guiding urban concepts to drive climate action in the urban environment. An example is climate proofing, which refers to a process of mainstreaming climate change into development strategies and programs, i.e., urban planning is viewed through a climate change lens. There is a multitude of interconnected aspects that are critical to paving the path toward climate-proofing of urban areas and avoiding poor planning of layouts and spatial arrangements. Navigating these aspects through an analysis of the overarching practices governing municipal planning processes, which is the focus of this research, will highlight entry points to improve procedures, methods, and data availability for optimising planning processes and municipal actions. By employing a case study approach, the research investigates how municipalities in different contexts, namely in the city of Sahab in Jordan, Chililabombwe in Zambia, and the city of Dortmund in Germany, are integrating guiding urban concepts to shrink the deficit in adaptation and mitigation and achieve climate proofing goals in their respective local contexts. The analysis revealed municipal strategies and measures undertaken to optimize existing building and urban design regulations by introducing key performance indicators and improving in-house capacity. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that establishing or optimising interdepartmental communication frameworks or platforms is key to strengthening the steering structures governing local climate action. The most common challenge faced by municipalities is related to their role as a regulator and implementers, particularly in budget analysis and instruments for cost recovery of climate action measures. By leading organisational changes related to improving procedures and methods, municipalities can mitigate the various challenges that may emanate from uncoordinated planning and thus promote action against urbanisation-induced warming.

Keywords: urbanisation-induced warming, response measures, municipal planning processes, key performance indicators, interdepartmental communication frameworks, cost recovery

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Authors: Benjamin Castillo, Luis Pastenes, Fernando Cordova

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The pathogen growth in animal source foods is a common problem in the food industry, causing monetary losses due to the spoiling of products or food intoxication outbreaks in the community. In this sense, the quality of the product is reflected by the population of deteriorating agents present in it, which are mainly bacteria. The factors which are likely associated with freshness in animal source foods are temperature and processing, storage, and transport times. However, the level of deterioration of products depends, in turn, on the characteristics of the bacterial population, causing the decomposition or spoiling, such as pH level and toxins. Knowing the growth dynamics of the agents that are involved in product contamination allows the monitoring for more efficient processing. This means better quality and reasonable costs, along with a better estimation of necessary time and temperature intervals for transport and storage in order to preserve product quality. The objective of this project is to design a secondary model that allows measuring the impact on temperature bacterial growth and the competition for pH adequacy and release of bacteriocins in order to describe such phenomenon and, thus, estimate food product half-life with the least possible risk of deterioration or spoiling. In order to achieve this objective, the authors propose an analysis of a three-dimensional ordinary differential which includes; logistic bacterial growth extended by the inhibitory action of bacteriocins including the effect of the medium pH; change in the medium pH levels through an adaptation of the Luedeking-Piret kinetic model; Bacteriocin concentration modeled similarly to pH levels. These three dimensions are being influenced by the temperature at all times. Then, this differential system is expanded, taking into consideration the variable temperature and the concentration of pulsed bacteriocins, which represent characteristics inherent of the modeling, such as transport and storage, as well as the incorporation of substances that inhibit bacterial growth. The main results lead to the fact that temperature changes in an early stage of transport increased the bacterial population significantly more than if it had increased during the final stage. On the other hand, the incorporation of bacteriocins, as in other investigations, proved to be efficient in the short and medium-term since, although the population of bacteria decreased, once the bacteriocins were depleted or degraded over time, the bacteria eventually returned to their regular growth rate. The efficacy of the bacteriocins at low temperatures decreased slightly, which equates with the fact that their natural degradation rate also decreased. In summary, the implementation of the mathematical model allowed the simulation of a set of possible bacteria present in animal based products, along with their properties, in various transport and storage situations, which led us to state that for inhibiting bacterial growth, the optimum is complementary low constant temperatures and the initial use of bacteriocins.

Keywords: bacterial growth, bacteriocins, mathematical modelling, temperature

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Authors: J. T. Pitale, S. Ghassab, H. Ay, N. Berme

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Biomechanics researchers commonly use marker-based optical motion capture (MoCap) systems to extract human body kinematic data. These systems use cameras to detect passive or active markers placed on the subject. The cameras use triangulation methods to form images of the markers, which typically require each marker to be visible by at least two cameras simultaneously. Cameras in a conventional optical MoCap system are mounted at a distance from the subject, typically on walls, ceiling as well as fixed or adjustable frame structures. To accommodate for space constraints and as portable force measurement systems are getting popular, there is a need for smaller and smaller capture volumes. When the efficacy of a MoCap system is investigated, it is important to consider the tradeoff amongst the camera distance from subject, pixel density, and the field of view (FOV). If cameras are mounted relatively close to a subject, the area corresponding to each pixel reduces, thus increasing the image resolution. However, the cross section of the capture volume also decreases, causing reduction of the visible area. Due to this reduction, additional cameras may be required in such applications. On the other hand, mounting cameras relatively far from the subject increases the visible area but reduces the image quality. The goal of this study was to develop a quantitative methodology to investigate marker occlusions and optimize camera placement for a given capture volume and subject postures using three-dimension computer-aided design (CAD) tools. We modeled a 4.9m x 3.7m x 2.4m (LxWxH) MoCap volume and designed a mounting structure for cameras using SOLIDWORKS (Dassault Systems, MA, USA). The FOV was used to generate the capture volume for each camera placed on the structure. A human body model with configurable posture was placed at the center of the capture volume on CAD environment. We studied three postures; initial contact, mid-stance, and early swing. The human body CAD model was adjusted for each posture based on the range of joint angles. Markers were attached to the model to enable a full body capture. The cameras were placed around the capture volume at a maximum distance of 2.7m from the subject. We used the Camera View feature in SOLIDWORKS to generate images of the subject as seen by each camera and the number of markers visible to each camera was tabulated. The approach presented in this study provides a quantitative method to investigate the efficacy and efficiency of a MoCap camera setup. This approach enables optimization of a camera setup through adjusting the position and orientation of cameras on the CAD environment and quantifying marker visibility. It is also possible to compare different camera setup options on the same quantitative basis. The flexibility of the CAD environment enables accurate representation of the capture volume, including any objects that may cause obstructions between the subject and the cameras. With this approach, it is possible to compare different camera placement options to each other, as well as optimize a given camera setup based on quantitative results.

Keywords: motion capture, cameras, biomechanics, gait analysis

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Authors: Hannah Bigelow, Marcus D. Gottlieb, Michelle Ogrodnik, Jeffrey, D. Graham, Barbara Fenesi

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders affecting approximately 6% of children worldwide. ADHD is characterized by a combination of persistent deficits including impaired inhibitory control, working memory and task-switching. Many children with ADHD also have comorbid mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. There are several treatment options to manage ADHD impairments, including drug and behavioural management therapy, but they all have drawbacks, such as worsening mood disturbances or being inaccessible to certain demographics. Both physical exercise and mindfulness meditation serve as alternative options to potentially help mitigate ADHD symptoms. Although there is extensive support for the benefits of long-term physical exercise or mindfulness meditation programs, there is insufficient research investigating how acute bouts (i.e., single, short bouts) can help children with ADHD. Thus, the current study aimed to understand how single, short bouts of exercise and mindfulness meditation impacts executive functioning and psycho-emotional well-being in children with ADHD, as well as to directly compare the efficacy of these two interventions. The study used a a pre- post-test, within-subjects design to assess the effects of a 10-minute bout of moderate intensity exercise versus a 10-minute bout of mindfulness meditation (versus 10 minutes of a reading control) on the executive functioning and psycho-emotional well-being of 16 children and youth with ADHD aged 10-14 (male=11; White=80%). Participants completed all three interventions: 10 minutes of exercise, 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation, and 10 minutes of reading (control). Executive functioning (inhibitory control, working memory, task-switching) and psycho-emotional well-being (mood, self-efficacy) were assessed before and after each intervention. Mindfulness meditation promoted executive functioning, while exercise enhanced positive mood and self-efficacy. Critically, this work demonstrates that a single, short bout of mindfulness meditation session can promote inhibitory control among children with ADHD. This is especially important for children with ADHD as inhibitory control deficits are among the most pervasive challenges that they face. Furthermore, the current study provides preliminary evidence for the benefit of acute exercise for promoting positive mood and general self-efficacy for children and youth with ADHD. These results may increase the accessibility of acute exercise for children with ADHD, providing guardians and teachers a feasible option to incorporate just 10 minutes of exercise to assist children emotionally. In summary, this research supports the use of acute exercise and mindfulness meditation on varying aspects of executive functioning and psycho-emotional well-being in children and youth with ADHD. This work offers important insight into how behavioural interventions could be personalized according to a child’s needs.

Keywords: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), acute exercise, mindfulness meditation, executive functioning, psycho-emotional well-being

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Authors: Vijaya Kumar, Vidayasagar Pagilla, Abraham Joshua, Rakshith Kedambadi, Prasanna Mithra

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Background: Post stroke rehabilitation are aimed to accelerate for optimal sensorimotor recovery, functional gain and to reduce long-term dependency. Intensive physical therapy interventions can enhance this recovery as experience-dependent neural plastic changes either directly act at cortical neural networks or at distal peripheral level (muscular components). Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES), a traditional bottom-up approach, mirror therapy (MT), a relatively new top down approach have found to be an effective adjuvant treatment methods for lower extremity motor and functional recovery in stroke rehabilitation. However there is a scarcity of evidence to compare their therapeutic gain in stroke recovery.Aim: To compare the efficacy of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and mirror therapy (MT) in very early phase of post stroke rehabilitation addressed to lower extremity motor recovery and balance. Design: observer blinded Randomized Clinical Trial. Setting: Neurorehabilitation Unit, Department of Physical Therapy, Tertiary Care Hospitals. Subjects: 32 acute stroke subjects with first episode of unilateral stroke with hemiparesis, referred for rehabilitation (onset < 3 weeks), Brunnstorm lower extremity recovery stages ≥3 and MMSE score more than 24 were randomized into two group [Group A-NMES and Group B-MT]. Interventions: Both the groups received eclectic approach to remediate lower extremity recovery which includes treatment components of Roods, Bobath and Motor learning approaches for 30 minutes a day for 6 days. Following which Group A (N=16) received 30 minutes of surface NMES training for six major paretic muscle groups (gluteus maximus and medius,quadriceps, hamstrings, tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius). Group B (N=16) was administered with 30 minutes of mirror therapy sessions to facilitate lower extremity motor recovery. Outcome measures: Lower extremity motor recovery, balance and activities of daily life (ADLs) were measured by Fugyl Meyer Assessment (FMA-LE), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Barthel Index (BI) before and after intervention. Results: Pre Post analysis of either group across the time revealed statistically significant improvement (p < 0.001) for all the outcome variables for the either group. All parameters of NMES had greater change scores compared to MT group as follows: FMA-LE (25.12±3.01 vs. 23.31±2.38), BBS (35.12±4.61 vs. 34.68±5.42) and BI (40.00±10.32 vs. 37.18±7.73). Between the groups comparison of pre post values showed no significance with FMA-LE (p=0.09), BBS (p=0.80) and BI (p=0.39) respectively. Conclusion: Though either groups had significant improvement (pre to post intervention), none of them were superior to other in lower extremity motor recovery and balance among acute stroke subjects. We conclude that eclectic approach is an effective treatment irrespective of NMES or MT as an adjunct.

Keywords: balance, motor recovery, mirror therapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, stroke

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Authors: Masoume Pourmohamadreza-Tajrishi, Parviz Azadfallah

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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involve myriad aberrant perceptual, cognitive, linguistic, and social behaviors. The term spectrum emphasizes that the disabilities associated with ASD fall on a continuum from relatively mild to severe. People with ASD may display stereotyped behaviors such as twirling, spinning objects, flapping the hands, and rocking. The individuals with ASD exhibit communication problems due to repetitive/restricted behaviors. Children with ASD who lack the motivation to learn, who do not enjoy physical challenges, or whose sensory perception results in confusing or unpleasant feedback from movement may not become sufficiently motivated to practice motor activities. As a result, they may show both a delay in developing certain motor skills. Additionally, attention is an important component of learning. As far as children with ASD have problems in joint attention, many education-based programs are needed to consider some aspects of attention and motor activities development for students with ASD. These programs focus on the basic movement skills that are crucial for the future development of the more complex skills needed in games, dance, sports, gymnastics, active play, and recreational physical activities. The purpose of the present research was to determine the effectiveness of therapeutic exercise on motor skills and attention of male students with ASD. This was an experimental study with a control group. The population consisted of 8-10 year-old male students with ASD and 30 subjects were selected randomly from an available center suitable for the children with ASD. They were evaluated by the Basic Motor Ability Test (BMAT) and Persian version of computerized Stroop color-word test and randomly assigned to an experimental and control group (15 students in per group). The experimental group participated in 16 therapeutic exercise sessions and received therapeutic exercise program (twice a week; each lasting for 45 minutes) designed based on the Spark motor program while the control group did not. All subjects were evaluated by BMAT and Stroop color-word test after the last session again. The collected data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The results of MANCOVA showed that experimental and control groups had a significant difference in motor skills and at least one of the components of attention (correct responses, incorrect responses, no responses, the reaction time of congruent words and reaction time of incongruent words in the Stroop test). The findings showed that the therapeutic exercise had a significant effect on motor skills and all components of attention in students with ASD. We can conclude that the therapeutic exercise led to promote the motor skills and attention of students with ASD, so it is necessary to design or plan such programs for ASD students to prevent their communication or academic problems.

Keywords: Attention, autism spectrum disorder, motor skills, therapeutic exercise

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Deborah Weidner, Melissa Morgera

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The model of care delivery in the Behavioral Health Network (BHN) is integrated across all five regions of Hartford Healthcare and thus spans the entirety of the state of Connecticut, with care provided in seven inpatient settings and over 30 ambulatory outpatient locations. While safety has been a core priority of the BHN in alignment with High Reliability practices, safety initiatives have historically been facilitated locally in each region or within each entity, with interventions implemented locally as opposed to throughout the network. To address this, the BHN introduced a network wide Safety Huddle during 2022. Launched in January, the BHN Safety Huddle brought together internal stakeholders, including medical and administrative leaders, along with executive institute leadership, quality, and risk management. By bringing leaders together and introducing a network-wide safety huddle into the way we work, the benefit has been an increase in awareness of safety events occurring in behavioral health areas as well as increased systemization of countermeasures to prevent future events. One significant discussion topic presented in huddles has pertained to environmental design and patient access to potentially dangerous items, addressing some of the most relevant factors resulting in harm to patients in inpatient and emergency settings for behavioral health patients. The safety huddle has improved visibility of potential environmental safety risks through the generation of over 15 safety alerts cascaded throughout the BHN and also spurred a rapid improvement project focused on standardization of patient belonging searches to reduce patient access to potentially dangerous items on inpatient units. Safety events pertaining to potentially dangerous items decreased by 31% as a result of standardized interventions implemented across the network and as a result of increased awareness. A second positive outcome originating from the BHN Safety Huddle was implementation of a recommendation to increase the emergency Narcan®(naloxone) supply on hand in ambulatory settings of the BHN after incidents involving accidental overdose resulted in higher doses of naloxone administration. By increasing the emergency supply of naloxone on hand in all ambulatory and residential settings, colleagues are better prepared to respond in an emergency situation should a patient experience an overdose while on site. Lastly, discussions in safety huddle spurred a new initiative within the BHN to improve responsiveness to assaultive incidents through a consultation service. This consult service, aligned with one of the network’s improvement priorities to reduce harm events related to assaultive incidents, was borne out of discussion in huddle in which it was identified that additional interventions may be needed in providing clinical care to patients who are experiencing multiple and/ or frequent safety events.

Keywords: quality, safety, behavioral health, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 83

Authors: Shin Woo Kim, Eui Ju Lee

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The recent development of biofuel production technology facilitates the use of bioethanol and biodiesel on automobile. Bioethanol, especially, can be used as a fuel for gasoline vehicles because the addition of ethanol has been known to increase octane number and reduce soot emissions. However, the wide application of biofuel has been still limited because of lack of detailed combustion properties such as auto-ignition temperature and pollutant emissions such as NOx and soot, which has been concerned mainly on the vehicle fire safety and environmental safety. In this study, the combustion characteristics of gasoline/ethanol fuel were investigated both numerically and experimentally. For auto-ignition temperature and NOx emission, the numerical simulation was performed on the well-stirred reactor (WSR) to simulate the homogeneous gasoline engine and to clarify the effect of ethanol addition in the gasoline fuel. Also, the response surface method (RSM) was introduced as a design of experiment (DOE), which enables the various combustion properties to be predicted and optimized systematically with respect to three independent variables, i.e., ethanol mole fraction, equivalence ratio and residence time. The results of stoichiometric gasoline surrogate show that the auto-ignition temperature increases but NOx yields decrease with increasing ethanol mole fraction. This implies that the bioethanol added gasoline is an eco-friendly fuel on engine running condition. However, unburned hydrocarbon is increased dramatically with increasing ethanol content, which results from the incomplete combustion and hence needs to adjust combustion itself rather than an after-treatment system. RSM results analyzed with three independent variables predict the auto-ignition temperature accurately. However, NOx emission had a big difference between the calculated values and the predicted values using conventional RSM because NOx emission varies very steeply and hence the obtained second order polynomial cannot follow the rates. To relax the increasing rate of dependent variable, NOx emission is taken as common logarithms and worked again with RSM. NOx emission predicted through logarithm transformation is in a fairly good agreement with the experimental results. For more tangible understanding of gasoline/ethanol fuel on pollutant emissions, experimental measurements of combustion products were performed in gasoline/ethanol pool fires, which is widely used as a fire source of laboratory scale experiments. Three measurement methods were introduced to clarify the pollutant emissions, i.e., various gas concentrations including NOx, gravimetric soot filter sampling for elements analysis and pyrolysis, thermophoretic soot sampling with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Soot yield by gravimetric sampling was decreased dramatically as ethanol was added, but NOx emission was almost comparable regardless of ethanol mole fraction. The morphology of the soot particle was investigated to address the degree of soot maturing. The incipient soot such as a liquid like PAHs was observed clearly on the soot of higher ethanol containing gasoline, and the soot might be matured under the undiluted gasoline fuel.

Keywords: gasoline/ethanol fuel, NOx, pool fire, soot, well-stirred reactor (WSR)

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Michael Amankwaa Adu

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Effective communication in the classroom plays a vital role in ensuring successful teaching and learning. In particular, the types of language and speech acts teachers use shape classroom interactions and influence student engagement. This study aims to analyze the speech acts employed by a Career Technology teacher in a junior high school. While much research has focused on speech acts in language classrooms, less attention has been given to how these acts operate in non-language subject areas like technical education. The study explores how different types of speech acts—directives, assertives, expressives, and commissives—are used during three classroom encounters: lesson introduction, content delivery, and classroom management. This research seeks to fill the gap in understanding how teachers of non-language subjects use speech acts to manage classroom dynamics and facilitate learning. The study employs a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was collected through direct classroom observation and audio recordings of a one-hour Career Technology lesson. The transcriptions of the lesson were analyzed using John Searle’s taxonomy of speech acts, classifying the teacher’s utterances into directives, assertives, expressives, and commissives. Results show that directives were the most frequently used speech act, accounting for 59.3% of the teacher's utterances. These speech acts were essential in guiding student behavior, giving instructions, and maintaining classroom control. Assertives made up 20.4% of the speech acts, primarily used for stating facts and reinforcing content. Expressives, at 14.2%, expressed emotions such as approval or frustration, helping to manage the emotional atmosphere of the classroom. Commissives were the least used, representing 6.2% of the speech acts, often used to set expectations or outline future actions. No declarations were observed during the lesson. The findings of this study reveal the critical role that speech acts play in managing classroom behavior and delivering content in technical subjects. Directives were crucial for ensuring students followed instructions and completed tasks, while assertives helped in reinforcing lesson objectives. Expressives contributed to motivating or disciplining students, and commissives, though less frequent, helped set clear expectations for students’ future actions. The absence of declarations suggests that the teacher prioritized guiding students over making formal pronouncements. These insights can inform teaching strategies across various subject areas, demonstrating that a diverse use of speech acts can create a balanced and interactive learning environment. This study contributes to the growing field of pragmatics in education and offers practical recommendations for educators, particularly in non-language classrooms, on how to utilize speech acts to enhance both classroom management and student engagement.

Keywords: classroom interaction, pragmatics, speech acts, teacher communication, career technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 22

Authors: Richard Okyere Boadu, Godwin Adzakpah, Nathan Kumasenu Mensah, Kwame Adu Okyere Boadu, Jonathan Kissi, Christiana Dziyaba, Rosemary Bermaa Abrefa

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Information and communication technology (ICT) has significantly advanced global healthcare, with electronic health (e-Health) applications improving health records and delivery. These innovations, including electronic health records, strengthen healthcare systems. The study investigates healthcare professionals' perceptions of health information applications and their associated factors in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana's health facilities. Methods: We used a descriptive cross-sectional study design to collect data from 632 healthcare professionals (HCPs), in the three purposively selected health facilities in the Cape Coast municipality of Ghana in July 2022. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check the normality of dependent variables. Descriptive statistics were used to report means with corresponding standard deviations for continuous variables. Proportions were also reported for categorical variables. Bivariate regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors influencing the Benefits of Information Technology (BoIT); Barriers to Information Technology Use (BITU); and Motives of Information Technology Use (MoITU) in healthcare delivery. Stata SE version 15 was used for the analysis. A p-value of less than 0.05 served as the basis for considering a statistically significant accepting hypothesis. Results: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) generally perceived moderate benefits (Mean score (M)=5.67) from information technology (IT) in healthcare. However, they slightly agreed that barriers like insufficient computers (M=5.11), frequent system downtime (M=5.09), low system performance (M=5.04), and inadequate staff training (M=4.88) hindered IT utilization. Respondents slightly agreed that training (M=5.56), technical support (M=5.46), and changes in work procedures (M=5.10) motivated their IT use. Bivariate regression analysis revealed significant influences of education, working experience, healthcare profession, and IT training on attitudes towards IT utilization in healthcare delivery (BoIT, BITU, and MoITU). Additionally, the age of healthcare providers, education, and working experience significantly influenced BITU. Ultimately, age, education, working experience, healthcare profession, and IT training significantly influenced MoITU in healthcare delivery. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals acknowledge moderate benefits of IT in healthcare but encounter barriers like inadequate resources and training. Motives for IT use include staff training and support. Bivariate regression analysis shows education, working experience, profession, and IT training significantly influence attitudes toward IT adoption. Targeted interventions and policies can enhance IT utilization in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana.

Keywords: health information application, utilization of information application, information technology use, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Jacqueline A. G. Sachett, Cláudia S. Nogueira, Diana C. P. Lima, Jessica T. S. Oliveira, Guilherme K. M. Salazar, Lílian K. Aguiar

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The Polo Amazon Telehealth offers several tools for professionals working in Primary Health Care as a second formative opinion, teleconsulting and training between the different areas, whether medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, among others. These activities have a monthly schedule of free access to the municipalities of Amazonas registered. With this premise, and in partnership with the University of the State of Amazonas (UEA), is promoting the practice of the triad; teaching-research-extension in order to collaborate with the enrichment and acquisition of knowledge through educational practices carried out through teleconferences. Therefore, nursing is to join efforts and inserts as a collaborator of this project running, contributing to the education and training of these professionals who are part of the health system in full Amazon. The aim of this study is to report the experience of academic of Amazonas State University nursing course, about the experience in the extension project underway in Polo Telemedicine Amazon. This was a descriptive study, the experience report type, about the experience of nursing academic UEA, by extension 'Telenursing: teleconsulting and second formative opinion for FHS professionals in the state of Amazonas' project, held in Polo Telemedicine Amazon, through an agreement with the UEA and funded by the Foundation of Amazonas Research from July / 2012 to July / 2016. Initially developed active search of members of the Family Health Strategy professionals, in order to provide training and training teams to use the virtual clinic, as well as the virtual environment is the focus of this tool design. The election period was an aggravating factor for the implementation of teleconsulting proposal, due to change of managers in each municipality, requiring the stoppage until they assume their positions. From this definition, we established the need for new training. The first video conference took place on 03.14.2013 for learning and training in the use of Virtual Learning Environment and Virtual Clinic, with the participation of municipalities of Novo Aripuanã, São Paulo de Olivença and Manacapuru. During the whole project was carried out literature about what is being done and produced at the national level about the subject. By the time the telenursing project has received twenty-five (25) consultancy requests. The consultants sent by nursing professionals, all have been answered to date. Faced with the lived experience, particularly in video conferencing, face to cause difficulties issues, such as the fluctuation in the number of participants in activities, difficulty of participants to reconcile the opening hours of the units with the schedule of video conferencing, transmission difficulties and changes schedule. It was concluded that the establishment of connection between the Telehealth points is one of the main factors for the implementation of Telenursing and that this feature is still new for nursing. However, effective training and updating, may provide to these professional category subsidies to quality health care in the Amazon.

Keywords: Amazon, teleconsulting, telehealth, telenursing

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Authors: Yana Posmitnaya, Galina Rudnitskaya, Tatyana Lukashenko, Anton Bukatin, Anatoly Evstrapov

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An important area of biological and medical research is the study of genetic mutations and polymorphisms that can alter gene function and cause inherited diseases and other diseases. The following methods to analyse DNA fragments are used: capillary electrophoresis and electrophoresis on microfluidic chip (MFC), mass spectrometry with electrophoresis on MFC, hybridization assay on microarray. Electrophoresis on MFC allows to analyse small volumes of samples with high speed and throughput. A soft lithography in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was chosen for operative fabrication of MFCs. A master-form from silicon and photoresist SU-8 2025 (MicroChem Corp.) was created for the formation of micro-sized structures in PDMS. A universal topology which combines T-injector and simple cross was selected for the electrophoretic separation of the sample. Glass K8 and PDMS Sylgard® 184 (Dow Corning Corp.) were used for fabrication of MFCs. Electroosmotic flow (EOF) plays an important role in the electrophoretic separation of the sample. Therefore, the estimate of the quantity of EOF and the ways of its regulation are of interest for the development of the new methods of the electrophoretic separation of biomolecules. The following methods of surface modification were chosen to change EOF: high-frequency (13.56 MHz) plasma treatment in oxygen and argon at low pressure (1 mbar); 1% aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol; 3% aqueous solution of Kolliphor® P 188 (Sigma-Aldrich Corp.). The electroosmotic mobility was evaluated by the method of Huang X. et al., wherein the borate buffer was used. The influence of physical and chemical methods of treatment on the wetting properties of the PDMS surface was controlled by the sessile drop method. The most effective way of surface modification of MFCs, from the standpoint of obtaining the smallest value of the contact angle and the smallest value of the EOF, was the processing with aqueous solution of Kolliphor® P 188. This method of modification has been selected for the treatment of channels of MFCs, which are used for the separation of mixture of oligonucleotides fluorescently labeled with the length of chain with 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 nucleotides. Electrophoresis was performed on the device MFAS-01 (IAI RAS, Russia) at the separation voltage of 1500 V. 6% solution of polydimethylacrylamide with the addition of 7M carbamide was used as the separation medium. The separation time of components of the mixture was determined from electropherograms. The time for untreated MFC was ~275 s, and for the ones treated with solution of Kolliphor® P 188 – ~ 220 s. Research of physical-chemical methods of surface modification of MFCs allowed to choose the most effective way for reducing EOF – the modification with aqueous solution of Kolliphor® P 188. In this case, the separation time of the mixture of oligonucleotides decreased about 20%. The further optimization of method of modification of channels of MFCs will allow decreasing the separation time of sample and increasing the throughput of analysis.

Keywords: electrophoresis, microfluidic chip, modification, nucleic acid, polydimethylsiloxane, soft lithography

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: László L. Lippai

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In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions. 

Keywords: health promotion, mental health promotion, mental state questionnaire, psychological well-being

Procedia PDF Downloads 295

Authors: Alessandro Evangelista, Vito M. Manghisi, Michele Gattullo, Enricoandrea Laviola

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In this work, we propose a custom visualization technique for Out-Of-View-Objects in Virtual and Augmented Reality applications using Head Mounted Displays. In the last two decades, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies experienced a remarkable growth of applications for navigation, interaction, and collaboration in different types of environments, real or virtual. Both environments can be potentially very complex, as they can include many virtual objects located in different places. Given the natural limitation of the human Field of View (about 210° horizontal and 150° vertical), humans cannot perceive objects outside this angular range. Moreover, despite recent technological advances in AR e VR Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs), these devices still suffer from a limited Field of View, especially regarding Optical See-Through displays, thus greatly amplifying the challenge of visualizing out-of-view objects. This problem is not negligible when the user needs to be aware of the number and the position of the out-of-view objects in the environment. For instance, during a maintenance operation on a construction site where virtual objects serve to improve the dangers' awareness. Providing such information can enhance the comprehension of the scene, enable fast navigation and focused search, and improve users' safety. In our research, we investigated how to represent out-of-view-objects in HMD User Interfaces (UI). Inspired by commercial video games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare, we designed a customized Compass. By exploiting the Unity 3D graphics engine, we implemented our custom solution that can be used both in AR and VR environments. The Compass Bar consists of a graduated bar (in degrees) at the top center of the UI. The values of the bar range from -180 (far left) to +180 (far right), the zero is placed in front of the user. Two vertical lines on the bar show the amplitude of the user's field of view. Every virtual object within the scene is represented onto the compass bar as a specific color-coded proxy icon (a circular ring with a colored dot at its center). To provide the user with information about the distance, we implemented a specific algorithm that increases the size of the inner dot as the user approaches the virtual object (i.e., when the user reaches the object, the dot fills the ring). This visualization technique for out-of-view objects has some advantages. It allows users to be quickly aware of the number and the position of the virtual objects in the environment. For instance, if the compass bar displays the proxy icon at about +90, users will immediately know that the virtual object is to their right and so on. Furthermore, by having qualitative information about the distance, users can optimize their speed, thus gaining effectiveness in their work. Given the small size and position of the Compass Bar, our solution also helps lessening the occlusion problem thus increasing user acceptance and engagement. As soon as the lockdown measures will allow, we will carry out user-tests comparing this solution with other state-of-the-art existing ones such as 3D Radar, SidebARs and EyeSee360.

Keywords: augmented reality, situation awareness, virtual reality, visualization design

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Sami Alanazi

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Teamwork practices have been recognized as a significant strategy to improve patient safety, quality of care, and staff and patient satisfaction in healthcare settings, particularly within the emergency department (ED). The EDs depend heavily on teams of interdisciplinary healthcare staff to carry out their operational goals and core business of providing care to the serious illness and injured. The ED is also recognized as a high-risk area in relation to service demand and the potential for human error. Few studies have considered the perceptions and experiences of the ED staff (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administration staff) about the practice of teamwork, especially in Saudi Arabia (SA), and no studies have been conducted to explore the practices of teamwork in the EDs. Aim: To explore the practices of teamwork from the perspectives and experiences of staff (physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and administration staff) when interacting with each other in the admission areas in the ED of a public hospital in the Northern Border region of SA. Method: A qualitative case study design was utilized, drawing on two methods for the data collection, comprising of semi-structured interviews (n=22) with physicians (6), nurses (10), allied health professionals (3), and administrative members (3) working in the ED of a hospital in the Northern Border region of SA. The second method is non-participant direct observation. All data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings: The main themes that emerged from the analysis were as follows: the meaningful of teamwork, reasons of teamwork, the ED environmental factors, the organizational factors, the value of communication, leadership, teamwork skills in the ED, team members' behaviors, multicultural teamwork, and patients and families behaviors theme. Discussion: Working in the ED environment played a major role in affecting work performance as well as team dynamics. However, Communication, time management, fast-paced performance, multitasking, motivation, leadership, and stress management were highlighted by the participants as fundamental skills that have a major impact on team members and patients in the ED. It was found that the behaviors of the team members impacted the team dynamics as well as ED health services. Behaviors such as disputes among team members, conflict, cooperation, uncooperative members, neglect, and emotions of the members. Besides that, the behaviors of the patients and their accompanies had a direct impact on the team and the quality of the services. In addition, the differences in the cultures have separated the team members and created undesirable gaps such the gender segregation, national origin discrimination, and similarity and different in interests. Conclusion: Effective teamwork, in the context of the emergency department, was recognized as an essential element to obtain the quality of care as well as improve staff satisfaction.

Keywords: teamwork, barrier, facilitator, emergencydepartment

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: John Zanetich

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Due to their positive associations with student learning and retention, certain undergraduate opportunities are designated ‘high-impact.’ High-Impact Practices (HIPs) such as, learning communities, community based projects, research, internships, study abroad and culminating senior experience, share several traits bin common: they demand considerable time and effort, learning occurs outside of the classroom, and they require meaningful interactions between faculty and students, they encourage collaboration with diverse others, and they provide frequent and substantive feedback. As a result of experiential learning in these practices, participation in these practices can be life changing. High impact learning helps individuals locate tacit knowledge, and build mental models that support the accumulation of knowledge. On-going learning from experience and knowledge conversion provides the individual with a way to implicitly organize knowledge and share knowledge over a lifetime. Knowledge conversion is a knowledge management component which focuses on the explication of the tacit knowledge that exists in the minds of students and that knowledge which is embedded in the process and relationships of the classroom educational experience. Knowledge conversion is required when working with tacit knowledge and the demand for a learner to align deeply held beliefs with the cognitive dissonance created by new information. Knowledge conversion and tacit knowledge result from the fact that an individual's way of knowing, that is, their core belief structure, is considered generalized and tacit instead of explicit and specific. As a phenomenon, tacit knowledge is not readily available to the learner for explicit description unless evoked by an external source. The development of knowledge–related capabilities such as Aggressive Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK) can be used in experiential educational programs to enhance knowledge, foster behavioral change, improve decision making, and overall performance. ADTK allows the student in HIPs to use their existing knowledge in a way that allows them to evaluate and make any necessary modifications to their core construct of reality in order to amalgamate new information. Based on the Lewin/Schein Change Theory, the learner will reach for tacit knowledge as a stabilizing mechanism when they are challenged by new information that puts them slightly off balance. As in word association drills, the important concept is the first thought. The reactionary outpouring to an experience is the programmed or tacit memory and knowledge of their core belief structure. ADTK is a way to help teachers design their own methods and activities to unfreeze, create new learning, and then refreeze the core constructs upon which future learning in a subject area is built. This paper will explore the use of ADTK as a technique for knowledge conversion in the classroom in general and in HIP programs specifically. It will focus on knowledge conversion in curriculum development and propose the use of one-time educational experiences, multi-session experiences and sequential program experiences focusing on tacit knowledge in educational programs.

Keywords: tacit knowledge, knowledge management, college programs, experiential learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Qi Wang

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With the expansion of trial-centered principles, the importance of witness examination in Korean criminal proceedings has been increasingly emphasized. However, several practical challenges have emerged in courtroom examinations, including concerns about witnesses’ memory deterioration due to prolonged trial periods, the possibility of inaccurate testimony due to courtroom anxiety and tension, risks of testimony retraction, and witnesses’ refusal to appear. These issues have led to a decline in the effective utilization of witness testimony. This study analyzes the deposition system, which is widely used in the U.S. evidence discovery process, and examines its potential implementation within the Korean criminal procedure framework. Furthermore, it explores the scope of application, procedural design, and measures to prevent potential abuse if the system were to be adopted. Under the adversarial litigation structure that has evolved through several amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act, the deposition system, although conducted pre-trial, serves as a preliminary procedure to facilitate efficient and effective witness examination during trial. This system not only aligns with the goal of discovering substantive truth but also upholds the practical ideals of trial-centered principles while promoting judicial economy. Furthermore, with the legal foundation established by Article 266 of the Criminal Procedure Act and related provisions, this study concludes that the implementation of the deposition system is both feasible and appropriate for the Korean criminal justice system. The specific functions of depositions include providing case-related information to refresh witnesses’ memory as a preliminary to courtroom examination, pre-reviewing existing statement documents to enhance trial efficiency, and conducting preliminary examinations on key issues and anticipated questions. The subsequent courtroom witness examination focuses on verifying testimony through public and cross-examination, identifying and analyzing contradictions in testimony, and conducting double verification of testimony credibility under judicial supervision. Regarding operational aspects, both prosecution and defense may request depositions, subject to court approval. The deposition process involves video or audio recording, complete documentation by court reporters, and the preparation of transcripts, with copies provided to all parties and the original included in court records. The admissibility of deposition transcripts is recognized under Article 311 of the Criminal Procedure Act. Given prosecutors’ advantageous position in evidence collection, which may lead to indifference or avoidance of depositions, the study emphasizes the need to reinforce prosecutors’ public interest status and objective duties. Additionally, it recommends strengthening pre-employment ethics education and post-violation disciplinary measures for prosecutors.

Keywords: witness examination, deposition system, Korean criminal procedure, evidence discovery, trial-centered principle

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Authors: Bhojan Dhakal, Naba Raj Devkota, Chet Raj Upreti, Maheshwar Sapkota

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A study was conducted to find out the production potential, nutrient composition, and the variability of the most commonly available fodder trees along with the varying altitude to help optimize the dry matter requirement during winter lean period. The study was carried out from March to June, 2012 in Lho and Prok Village Development Committee of Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA), located in Gorkha district of Nepal. The other objective of the research was to learn the impact of climate change on livestock production linking it with feed availability. The study was conducted in two parts: social and biological. Accordingly, a households (HHs) survey was conducted to collect primary data from 70 HHs, focusing on the perception of respondents on impacts of climatic variability on the feeding management. The next part consisted of understanding yield potential and nutrient composition of the four most commonly available fodder trees (M. azedirach, M. alba, F. roxburghii, F. nemoralis), within two altitudes range: (1500-2000 masl and 2000-2500 masl) by using a RCB design in 2*4 factorial combination of treatments, each replicated four times. Results revealed that majority of the farmers perceived the change in climatic phenomenon more severely within the past five years. Farmers were using different adaptation technologies such as collection of forage from jungle, reducing unproductive animals, fodder trees utilization, and crop by product feeding at feed scarcity period. Ranking of the different fodder trees on the basis of indigenous knowledge and experiences revealed that F. roxburghii was the best-preferred fodder tree species (index value 0.72) in terms overall preferability whereas M. azedirach had highest growth and productivity (index value 0.77), F. roxburghii had highest adoptability (index value 0.69) and palatability (index value 0.69) as well. Similarly, fresh yield and dry matter yield of the each fodder trees was significant (P < 0.01) between the altitude and within species. Fodder trees yield analysis revealed that the highest dry matter (DM) yield (28 kg/tree) was obtained for F. roxburghii but that remained statistically similar (P > 0.05) to the other treatment. On the other hand, most of the parameters: ether extract (EE), acid detergent lignin (ADL), acid detergent fibre (ADF), cell wall digestibility (CWD), relative digestibility (RD), digestible nutrient (TDN), and Calcium (Ca) among the treatments were highly significant (P < 0.01). This indicates the scope of introducing productive and nutritive fodder trees species even at the high altitude to help reduce fodder scarcity problem during winter. The finding also revealed the scope of promoting all available local fodder trees species as crude protein content of these species were similar.

Keywords: fodder trees, yield potential, climate change, nutrient composition

Procedia PDF Downloads 312

Authors: Zakhile Somlata

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In the context of international linguistic and cultural diversity, all languages can be used for all purposes. Africa in general and South Africa, in particular, is not an exception to multilingual and multicultural society. The multilingual and multicultural nature of South African society has a direct bearing to the heterogeneity of South African Universities in general. Universities as the centers of research, innovation, and transformation of the entire society should be at the forefront in leading multilingualism. The universities in South Africa had been using English and to a certain extent Afrikaans as the only academic languages during colonialism and apartheid regime. The democratic breakthrough of 1994 brought linguistic relief in South Africa. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa recognizes 11 official languages that should enjoy parity of esteem for the realization of multilingualism. The elevation of the nine previously marginalized indigenous African languages as academic languages in higher education is central to multilingualism. It is high time that Afrocentric model instead of Eurocentric model should be the one which underpins education system in South Africa at all levels. Almost all South African universities have their language policies that seek to promote access and success of students through multilingualism, but the main dilemma is the implementation of language policies. This study is significant to respond to two objectives: (i) To evaluate how selected institutions use language policies for accessibility and success of students. (ii) To study how selected universities integrate African languages for both academic and administrative purposes. This paper reflects the language policy practices in one selected University of Technology (UoT) in South Africa. The UoT has its own language policy which depicts linguistic diversity of the institution and its commitment to promote multilingualism. Translanguaging pedagogy which accommodates minority languages' usage in the teaching and learning process plays a pivotal role in promoting multilingualism. This research paper employs mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative research) approach. Qualitative data has been collected from the key informants (insiders and experts), while quantitative data has been collected from a cohort of third-year students. A mixed methods approach with its convergent parallel design allows the data to be collected separately, analysed separately but with the comparison of the results. Language development initiatives have been discussed within the framework of language policy and policy implementation strategies. Theoretically, this paper is rooted in language as a problem, language as a right and language as a resource. The findings demonstrate that despite being a multilingual institution, there is a perpetuation of marginalization of African languages to be used as academic languages. Findings further display the hegemony of English. The promotion of status quo compromises the promotion of multilingualism, Africanization of Higher Education and intellectualization of indigenous African languages in South Africa under a democratic dispensation.

Keywords: afro-centric model, hegemony of English, language as a resource, translanguaging pedagogy

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Authors: W. Staiano, S. Marcora

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Introduction: It has been proposed that acute negative effect of mental fatigue (MF) could potentially become a training stimulus for the brain (Brain endurance training (BET)) to adapt and improve its ability to attenuate MF states during sport competitions. Purpose: The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of 6 weeks of BET on cognitive and cycling tests in a group of well-trained subjects. We hypothesised that combination of BET and standard physical training (SPT) would increase cognitive capacity and cycling performance by reducing rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and increase resilience to fatigue more than SPT alone. Methods: In a randomized controlled trial design, 26 well trained participants, after a familiarization session, cycled to exhaustion (TTE) at 80% peak power output (PPO) and, after 90 min rest, at 65% PPO, before and after random allocation to a 6 week BET or active placebo control. Cognitive performance was measured using 30 min of STROOP coloured task performed before cycling performance. During the training, BET group performed a series of cognitive tasks for a total of 30 sessions (5 sessions per week) with duration increasing from 30 to 60 min per session. Placebo engaged in a breathing relaxation training. Both groups were monitored for physical training and were naïve to the purpose of the study. Physiological and perceptual parameters of heart rate, lactate (LA) and RPE were recorded during cycling performances, while subjective workload (NASA TLX scale) was measured during the training. Results: Group (BET vs. Placebo) x Test (Pre-test vs. Post-test) mixed model ANOVA’s revealed significant interaction for performance at 80% PPO (p = .038) or 65% PPO (p = .011). In both tests, groups improved their TTE performance; however, BET group improved significantly more compared to placebo. No significant differences were found for heart rate during the TTE cycling tests. LA did not change significantly at rest in both groups. However, at completion of 65% TTE, it was significantly higher (p = 0.043) in the placebo condition compared to BET. RPE measured at ISO-time in BET was significantly lower (80% PPO, p = 0.041; 65% PPO p= 0.021) compared to placebo. Cognitive results in the STROOP task showed that reaction time in both groups decreased at post-test. However, BET decreased significantly (p = 0.01) more compared to placebo despite no differences accuracy. During training sessions, participants in the BET showed, through NASA TLX questionnaires, constantly significantly higher (p < 0.01) mental demand rates compared to placebo. No significant differences were found for physical demand. Conclusion: The results of this study provide evidences that combining BET and SPT seems to be more effective than SPT alone in increasing cognitive and cycling performance in well trained endurance participants. The cognitive overload produced during the 6-week training of BET can induce a reduction in perception of effort at a specific power, and thus improving cycling performance. Moreover, it provides evidence that including neurocognitive interventions will benefit athletes by increasing their mental resilience, without affecting their physical training load and routine.

Keywords: cognitive training, perception of effort, endurance performance, neuro-performance

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Authors: Keping Zuo, Jia Yin Chia, Gideon Praveen Kumar Vijayakumar, Foad Kabinejadian, Fangsen Cui, Pei Ho, Hwa Liang Leo

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Carotid artery is the major vessel supplying blood to the brain. Carotid artery stenosis is one of the three major causes of stroke and the stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and the first leading cause of disability in most developed countries. Although there is an increasing interest in carotid artery stenting for treatment of cervical carotid artery bifurcation therosclerotic disease, currently available bare metal stents cannot provide an adequate protection against the detachment of the plaque fragments over diseased carotid artery, which could result in the formation of micro-emboli and subsequent stroke. Our research group has recently developed a novel preferential covered-stent for carotid artery aims to prevent friable fragments of atherosclerotic plaques from flowing into the cerebral circulation, and yet retaining the ability to preserve the flow of the external carotid artery. The preliminary animal studies have demonstrated the potential of this novel covered-stent design for the treatment of carotid therosclerotic stenosis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the biomechanical property of PU membrane of different concentration configurations in order to refine the stent coating technique and enhance the clinical performance of our novel carotid covered stent. Results from this study also provide necessary material property information crucial for accurate simulation analysis for our stents. Method: Medical grade Polyurethane (ChronoFlex AR) was used to prepare PU membrane specimens. Different PU membrane configurations were subjected to uniaxial test: 22%, 16%, and 11% PU solution were made by mixing the original solution with proper amount of the Dimethylacetamide (DMAC). The specimens were then immersed in physiological saline solution for 24 hours before test. All specimens were moistened with saline solution before mounting and subsequent uniaxial testing. The specimens were preconditioned by loading the PU membrane sample to a peak stress of 5.5 Mpa for 10 consecutive cycles at a rate of 50 mm/min. The specimens were then stretched to failure at the same loading rate. Result: The results showed that the stress-strain response curves of all PU membrane samples exhibited nonlinear characteristic. For the ultimate failure stress, 22% PU membrane was significantly higher than 16% (p<0.05). In general, our preliminary results showed that lower concentration PU membrane is stiffer than the higher concentration one. From the perspective of mechanical properties, 22% PU membrane is a better choice for the covered stent. Interestingly, the hyperelastic Ogden model is able to accurately capture the nonlinear, isotropic stress-strain behavior of PU membrane with R2 of 0.9977 ± 0.00172. This result will be useful for future biomechanical analysis of our stent designs and will play an important role for computational modeling of our covered stent fatigue study.

Keywords: carotid artery, covered stent, nonlinear, hyperelastic, stress, strain

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Authors: Yiea Funk Te, Daniel Mueller, Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy of many countries. When the overall world economy is considered, SMEs represent 95% of all businesses in the world, accounting for 66% of the total employment. Existing studies show that the current business environment is characterized as highly turbulent and strongly influenced by modern information and communication technologies, thus forcing SMEs to experience more severe challenges in maintaining their existence and expanding their business. To support SMEs at improving their competitiveness, researchers recently turned their focus on applying data mining techniques to build risk and growth prediction models. However, data used to assess risk and growth indicators is primarily obtained via questionnaires, which is very laborious and time-consuming, or is provided by financial institutes, thus highly sensitive to privacy issues. Recently, web mining (WM) has emerged as a new approach towards obtaining valuable insights in the business world. WM enables automatic and large scale collection and analysis of potentially valuable data from various online platforms, including companies’ websites. While WM methods have been frequently studied to anticipate growth of sales volume for e-commerce platforms, their application for assessment of SME risk and growth indicators is still scarce. Considering that a vast proportion of SMEs own a website, WM bears a great potential in revealing valuable information hidden in SME websites, which can further be used to understand SME risk and growth indicators, as well as to enhance current SME risk and growth prediction models. This study aims at developing an automated system to collect business-relevant data from the Web and predict future growth trends of SMEs by means of WM and data mining techniques. The envisioned system should serve as an 'early recognition system' for future growth opportunities. In an initial step, we examine how structured and semi-structured Web data in governmental or SME websites can be used to explain the success of SMEs. WM methods are applied to extract Web data in a form of additional input features for the growth prediction model. The data on SMEs provided by a large Swiss insurance company is used as ground truth data (i.e. growth-labeled data) to train the growth prediction model. Different machine learning classification algorithms such as the Support Vector Machine, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network are applied and compared, with the goal to optimize the prediction performance. The results are compared to those from previous studies, in order to assess the contribution of growth indicators retrieved from the Web for increasing the predictive power of the model.

Keywords: data mining, SME growth, success factors, web mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 269