Search results for: global location-domination number

Authors: Sophie-Bo Heinkel, Andrea Rechenburg, Thomas Kistemann

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The current status of wellbeing and life satisfaction of subsistence farmers in a wetland in Uganda and the contributing role of place attachment has been assessed. The aim of this study is to shed light on environmental factors supporting wellbeing in a wetland setting. Furthermore, it has been assessed, how the emotional bonding to the wetland as ‘place’ influences the peoples’ wellbeing and life satisfaction. The results shed light on the human-environment-relationship. A survey was carried out in three communities in urban and rural areas in a wetland basin in Uganda. A sample (n=235) provided information about the attachment to the wetland, the participants’ relation to the place of their residence and their emotional wellbeing. The Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) was assessed as well as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (RSE). Furthermore, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was applied as well as the Place Attachment Inventory (PAI), which consists of the two intertwined dimensions of place identity and place dependence. Beside this, binary indicators as ‘feeling save’ and ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘enjoying to live at the place of residence’ have been assessed. A bivariate correlation analysis revealed a high interconnectivity between all metric scales. Especially, the subscale ‘place identity’ showed significances with all other scales. A cluster analysis revealed three groups, which differed in the perception of place-related indicators and their attachment to the wetland as well as the status of wellbeing. First, a cluster whose majority is dissatisfied with their lives, but mainly had a good status of emotional well-being. This group does not feel attached to the wetland and lives in a town. Comparably less persons of this group feel safe and comfortable at their place of residence. In the second cluster, persons feel highly attached to the wetland and identify with it. This group was characterized by the high number of persons preferring their current place of residence and do not consider moving. All persons feel well and satisfied with their lives. The third group of persons is mainly living in rural areas and feels highly attached to the wetland. They are satisfied with their lives, but only a small minority is in a good emotional state of wellbeing. The emotional attachment to a place influences life satisfaction and, indirectly, the emotional wellbeing. In the present study it could be shown that subsistence farmers are attached to the wetland, as it is the source of their livelihood. While those living in areas with a good infrastructure are less dependent on the wetland and, therefore, less attached to. This feeling also was mirrored in the perception of a place as being safe and comfortable. The identification with a place is crucial for the feeling of being at “home”. Subsistence farmers feel attached to the ecosystem, but they also might be exposed to environmental and social stressors influencing their short-term emotional wellbeing. The provision of place identity is an ecosystem service provided by wetlands, which supports the status of wellbeing in human beings.

Keywords: mental health, positive environments, quality of life, wellbeing

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Authors: C. Deangeli, P. Obentaku Obenebot, O. Omwanghe

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The study focuses on the analysis of wellbore instability in rock masses affected by weakness planes. The occurrence of failure in such a type of rocks can occur in the rock matrix and/ or along the weakness planes, in relation to the mud weight gradient. In this case the simple Kirsch solution coupled with a failure criterion cannot supply a suitable scenario for borehole instabilities. Two different numerical approaches have been used in order to investigate the onset of local failure at the wall of a borehole. For each type of approach the influence of the inclination of weakness planes has been investigates, by considering joint sets at 0°, 35° and 90° to the horizontal. The first set of models have been carried out with FLAC 2D (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) by considering the rock material as a continuous medium, with a Mohr Coulomb criterion for the rock matrix and using the ubiquitous joint model for accounting for the presence of the weakness planes. In this model yield may occur in either the solid or along the weak plane, or both, depending on the stress state, the orientation of the weak plane and the material properties of the solid and weak plane. The second set of models have been performed with PFC2D (Particle Flow code). This code is based on the Discrete Element Method and considers the rock material as an assembly of grains bonded by cement-like materials, and pore spaces. The presence of weakness planes is simulated by the degradation of the bonds between grains along given directions. In general the results of the two approaches are in agreement. However the discrete approach seems to capture more complex phenomena related to local failure in the form of grain detachment at wall of the borehole. In fact the presence of weakness planes in the discontinuous medium leads to local instability along the weak planes also in conditions not predicted from the continuous solution. In general slip failure locations and directions do not follow the conventional wellbore breakout direction but depend upon the internal friction angle and the orientation of the bedding planes. When weakness plane is at 0° and 90° the behaviour are similar to that of a continuous rock material, but borehole instability is more severe when weakness planes are inclined at an angle between 0° and 90° to the horizontal. In conclusion, the results of the numerical simulations show that the prediction of local failure at the wall of the wellbore cannot disregard the presence of weakness planes and consequently the higher mud weight required for stability for any specific inclination of the joints. Despite the discrete approach can simulate smaller areas because of the large number of particles required for the generation of the rock material, however it seems to investigate more correctly the occurrence of failure at the miscroscale and eventually the propagation of the failed zone to a large portion of rock around the wellbore.

Keywords: continuous- discontinuous, numerical modelling, weakness planes wellbore, FLAC 2D

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Authors: Charles Masulani Mwale

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Background: It is argued that 85% of children with the disability live in resource-poor countries where there are few available disability services. A majority of these children, including their parents, suffer a lot as a result of the disability and its associated stigmatization, leading to a marginalized life. These parents also experience more stress and mental health problems such as depression, compared with families of normal developing children. There is little research from Africa addressing these issues especially among parents of intellectually disabled children. WHO encourages research on the impact that child with a disability have on their family and appropriate training and support to the families so that they can promote the child’s development and well-being. This study investigated the parenting experiences, mechanisms of coping with these challenges and psychosocial needs while caring for children with intellectual disabilities in both rural and urban settings of Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Methods: This is part of a larger Mixed-methods study aimed at developing a contextualized psychosocial intervention for parents of intellectually disabled children. 16 focus group discussions and four in-depth interviews were conducted with parents in catchments areas for St John of God and Children of Blessings in Mzuzu and Lilongwe cities respectively. Ethical clearance was obtained from COMREC. Data were stored in NVivo software for easy retrieval and management. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and translated into English. Note-taking was performed during all the observations. Data triangulation from the interviews, note taking and the observations were done for validation and reliability. Results: Caring for intellectually disabled children comes with a number of challenges. Parents experience stigma and discrimination; fear for the child’s future; have self-blame and guilt; get coerced by neighbors to kill the disabled child; and fear violence by and to the child. Their needs include respite relief, improved access to disability services, education on disability management and financial support. For their emotional stability, parents cope by sharing with others and turning to God while other use poor coping mechanisms like alcohol use. Discussion and Recommendation: Apart from neighbors’ coercion to eliminate the child life, the findings of this study are similar to those done in other countries like Kenya and Pakistan. It is recommended that parents get educated on disability, its causes, and management to array fears of unknown. Community education is also crucial to promote community inclusiveness and correct prevailing myths associated with disability. Disability institutions ought to intensify individual as well as group counseling services to these parents. Further studies need to be done to design culturally appropriate and specific psychosocial interventions for the parents to promote their psychological resilience.

Keywords: psychological distress, intellectual disability, psychosocial interventions, mental health, psychological resilience, children

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Authors: A. Marais

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A challenging aspect of teaching cello to novice adult learners is finding adequate lesson material and applying relevant teaching methodologies. It could play a crucial role in adult learners' decision to commence or stop taking music lessons. This study contributes to the theory and practises of continuing education. This study is important to lifelong learning, especially with the focus on adult teaching and learning and the difficulties concerning these themes. The research problem identified for this study is we are not aware of adults' life stories; thus, cello lesson material is not always relevant for adult's specific needs for motivation and goals for starting cello lessons. In my experience, an adult does not necessarily want to play children songs when they learn a new instrument. They want material and lessons fitted to adult learners. Adults also learn differently from younger beginners. Adults ask questions such as how and why, while children more readily accept what is being taught. This research creates awareness of adults' musical needs and learning methods. If every adult shares their own story for commencing and continuing with cello lessons, material should be created, revised, or adapted for more individually appropriate lessons. A number of studies show that adults taking music lessons experience a decrease in feelings of loneliness and isolation. It gives adults a sense of wellbeing and can help improve immune systems. The purpose of this research study will be to discover the life stories of adult amateur cellists. At this stage in the research, the life stories of amateur cellists can generally be defined as personal reflections of their motivations for and experiences of commencing and continuing with individual lessons. The findings of this study will contribute to the development of cello lesson material for adult beginners based on their stories. This research could also encourage adults to commence with music lessons and could, in that way, contribute to their quality of life. Music learners become aware of deep spiritual, emotional, and social values incorporated or experienced through musical learning. This will be a qualitative study with a narrative approach making use of oral history. The chosen method will encapsulate the stories of amateur individual adults starting and continuing with cello lessons. The narrative method entails experiences as expressed in lived and told stories of individuals. Oral history is used as part of the narrative method and entails gathering of personal reflections of events and their cause and effects from an individual or several individuals. These findings from this study will contribute to adult amateur cellists' motivations to continue with music lessons and inspire others to commence. The inspiring life stories of the amateur cellists would provide insight into finding and creating new cello lesson material and enhance existing teaching methodologies for adult amateur cellists.

Keywords: adult, amateur, cello, education, learning, music, stories

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Authors: Anne M. Denton, Rahul Gomes, David W. Franzen

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High-resolution elevation data are becoming increasingly available, but typical approaches for computing topographic features, like slope and curvature, still assume small sliding windows, for example, of size 3x3. That means that the digital elevation model (DEM) has to be resampled to the scale of the landform features that are of interest. Any higher resolution is lost in this resampling. When the topographic features are computed through regression that is performed at the resolution of the original data, the accuracy can be much higher, and the reported result can be adjusted to the length scale that is relevant locally. Slope and variance are calculated for overlapping windows, meaning that one regression result is computed per raster point. The number of window centers per area is the same for the output as for the original DEM. Slope and variance are computed by performing regression on the points in the surrounding window. Such an approach is computationally feasible because of the additive nature of regression parameters and variance. Any doubling of window size in each direction only takes a single pass over the data, corresponding to a logarithmic scaling of the resulting algorithm as a function of the window size. Slope and variance are stored for each aggregation step, allowing the reported slope to be selected to minimize variance. The approach thereby adjusts the effective window size to the landform features that are characteristic to the area within the DEM. Starting with a window size of 2x2, each iteration aggregates 2x2 non-overlapping windows from the previous iteration. Regression results are stored for each iteration, and the slope at minimal variance is reported in the final result. As such, the reported slope is adjusted to the length scale that is characteristic of the landform locally. The length scale itself and the variance at that length scale are also visualized to aid in interpreting the results for slope. The relevant length scale is taken to be half of the window size of the window over which the minimum variance was achieved. The resulting process was evaluated for 1-meter DEM data and for artificial data that was constructed to have defined length scales and added noise. A comparison with ESRI ArcMap was performed and showed the potential of the proposed algorithm. The resolution of the resulting output is much higher and the slope and aspect much less affected by noise. Additionally, the algorithm adjusts to the scale of interest within the region of the image. These benefits are gained without additional computational cost in comparison with resampling the DEM and computing the slope over 3x3 images in ESRI ArcMap for each resolution. In summary, the proposed approach extracts slope and aspect of DEMs at the lengths scales that are characteristic locally. The result is of higher resolution and less affected by noise than existing techniques.

Keywords: high resolution digital elevation models, multi-scale analysis, slope calculation, window-based regression

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Authors: Leto Leandra, Guaitini Caterina, Agosti Anna, Del Vecchio Lorenzo, Guarrasi Valeria, Cirlini Martina, Chiancone Benedetta

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To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to investigate the in vitro germination response of Rhus coriaria L., and its sprout chemical characterization. Rhus coriaria L., a species belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, is commonly called "sumac" and is cultivated, in different countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions, to produce a spice with a sour taste, obtained from its dried and ground fruits. Moreover, since ancient times, many beneficial properties have been attributed to this plant that has been used, in the traditional medicine of several Asian countries, against various diseases, including liver and intestinal pathologies, ulcers and various inflammatory states. In the recent past, sumac was cultivated in the Southern regions of Italy to treat leather, but its cultivation was abandoned, and currently, sumac plants grow spontaneously in marginal areas. Recently, in Italy, the interest in this species has been growing again, thanks to its numerous properties; thus, it becomes imperative to deepen the knowledge of this plant. In this study, in order to set up an efficient in vitro seed germination protocol, sumac seeds collected from spontaneous plants grown in Sicily, an island in the South of Italy, were, firstly, subjected to different treatments, scarification (mechanical, physical and chemical), cold stratification and imbibition, to break their physical and physiological dormancy, then, treated seeds were in vitro cultured on media with different gibberellic acid (GA3) concentrations. Results showed that, without any treatment, only 5% of in vitro sown seeds germinated, while the germination percentage increased up to 19% after the mechanical scarification. A further significative improvement of germination percentages was recorded after the physical scarification, with (40.5%) or without (36.5%) 8 weeks of cold stratification, especially when seeds were sown on gibberellin enriched cultured media. Vitro-derived sumac sprouts, at different developmental stages, were chemically characterized, in terms of polyphenol and tannin content, as well as for their antioxidant activity, to evaluate this matrix as a potential novel food or as a source of bioactive compounds. Results evidenced how more developed sumac sprouts and, above all, their leaves are a wealthy source of polyphenols (78.4 GAE/g SS) and tannins (21.9 mg GAE/g SS), with marked antioxidant activity. The outcomes of this study will be of support the nursery sector and sumac growers in obtaining a higher number of plants in a shorter time; moreover, the sprout chemical characterization will contribute to the process of considering this matrix as a new source of bioactive compounds and tannins to be used in food and non-food sectors.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, germination pre-treatments, rhus coriaria l., tissue culture

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Authors: Leto Leandra, Guaitini Caterina, Agosti Anna, Del Vecchio Lorenzo, Guarrasi Valeria, Cirlini Martina, Chiancone Benedetta

Abstract:

To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to investigate the in vitro germination response of Rhus coriaria L. and its sprout chemical characterization. Rhus coriaria L., a species belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, is commonly called "sumac” and is cultivated, in different countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East regions, to produce a spice with a sour taste, obtained from its dried and ground fruits. Moreover, since ancient times, many beneficial properties have been attributed to this plant that has been used, in the traditional medicine of several Asian countries, against various diseases, including liver and intestinal pathologies, ulcers, and various inflammatory states. In the recent past, sumac was cultivated in the Southern regions of Italy to treat leather, but its cultivation was abandoned, and currently, sumac plants grow spontaneously in marginal areas. Recently, in Italy, the interest in this species has been growing again, thanks to its numerous properties; thus, it becomes imperative to deepen the knowledge of this plant. In this study, in order to set up an efficient in vitro seed germination protocol, sumac seeds collected from spontaneous plants grown in Sicily, an island in the South of Italy, were, firstly, subjected to different treatments, scarification (mechanical, physical and chemical), cold stratification and imbibition, to break their physical and physiological dormancy, then, treated seeds were in vitro cultured on media with different gibberellic acid (GA3) concentrations. Results showed that, without any treatment, only 5% of in vitro sown seeds germinated, while the germination percentage increased up to 19% after the mechanical scarification. A further significative improvement of germination percentages was recorded after the physical scarification, with (40.5%) or without (36.5%) 8 weeks of cold stratification, especially when seeds were sown on gibberellin enriched cultured media. Vitro-derived sumac sprouts, at different developmental stages, were chemically characterized, in terms of polyphenol and tannin content, as well as for their antioxidant activity, to evaluate this matrix as a potential novel food or as a source of bioactive compounds. Results evidenced how more developed sumac sprouts and, above all, their leaves are a wealthy source of polyphenols (78.4 GAE/g SS) and tannins (21.9 mg GAE/g SS), with marked antioxidant activity. The outcomes of this study will be of support the nursery sector and sumac growers in obtaining a higher number of plants in a shorter time; moreover, the sprout chemical characterization will contribute to the process of considering this matrix as a new source of bioactive compounds and tannins to be used in food and non-food sectors.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, germination pre-treatments, rhus coriaria l., tissue culture

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Aya Al Masri, Naima Oubenali, Safoin Aktaou, Thibault Julien, Malorie Martin, Fouad Maaloul

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Introduction: The increased number of performed 'Computed Tomography (CT)' examinations raise public concerns regarding associated stochastic risk to patients. In its Publication 102, the ‘International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)’ emphasized the importance of managing patient dose, particularly from repeated or multiple examinations. We developed a Dose Archiving and Communication System that gives multiple dose indexes (organ dose, effective dose, and skin-dose mapping) for patients undergoing radiological imaging exams. The aim of this study is to compare the organ dose values given by our software for patients undergoing CT exams with those of another software named "VirtualDose". Materials and methods: Our software uses Monte Carlo simulations to calculate organ doses for patients undergoing computed tomography examinations. The general calculation principle consists to simulate: (1) the scanner machine with all its technical specifications and associated irradiation cases (kVp, field collimation, mAs, pitch ...) (2) detailed geometric and compositional information of dozens of well identified organs of computational hybrid phantoms that contain the necessary anatomical data. The mass as well as the elemental composition of the tissues and organs that constitute our phantoms correspond to the recommendations of the international organizations (namely the ICRP and the ICRU). Their body dimensions correspond to reference data developed in the United States. Simulated data was verified by clinical measurement. To perform the comparison, 270 adult patients and 150 pediatric patients were used, whose data corresponds to exams carried out in France hospital centers. The comparison dataset of adult patients includes adult males and females for three different scanner machines and three different acquisition protocols (Head, Chest, and Chest-Abdomen-Pelvis). The comparison sample of pediatric patients includes the exams of thirty patients for each of the following age groups: new born, 1-2 years, 3-7 years, 8-12 years, and 13-16 years. The comparison for pediatric patients were performed on the “Head” protocol. The percentage of the dose difference were calculated for organs receiving a significant dose according to the acquisition protocol (80% of the maximal dose). Results: Adult patients: for organs that are completely covered by the scan range, the maximum percentage of dose difference between the two software is 27 %. However, there are three organs situated at the edges of the scan range that show a slightly higher dose difference. Pediatric patients: the percentage of dose difference between the two software does not exceed 30%. These dose differences may be due to the use of two different generations of hybrid phantoms by the two software. Conclusion: This study shows that our software provides a reliable dosimetric information for patients undergoing Computed Tomography exams.

Keywords: adult and pediatric patients, computed tomography, organ dose calculation, software comparison

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Pazandeh, Monir Doudi, Sona Rostampour Yasouri

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—Results The prudent administration of antibiotics aims to avoid the side effects and the microbes' resistance to antibiotics. An approach developing methods of local administration of antibiotics is especially required for localized infections caused by bacterial colonization of medical devices or implant materials. Among the wide variety of materials used as drug delivery systems, bioactive glasses (BG) have large utilization in regenerative medicine . firstly, the production of bioactive glass/nickel oxide/tin dioxide nanocomposite using sol-gel method, and then, the controlled release of imipenem from the double metal oxide/bioactive glass nanocomposite, and finally, the investigation of the antibacterial property of the nanocomposite. against a number of implant-related infectious agents. In this study, BG/SnO2 and BG/NiO single systema with different metal oxide present and BG/NiO/SnO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by sol-gel as drug carriers for tetracycline and imepinem. These two antibiotics were widely used for osteomyelitis because of its favorable penetration and bactericidal effect on all the probable osteomyelitis pathogens. The antibacterial activity of synthesized samples were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa as bacteria model using disk diffusion method. The BG modification using metal oxides results to antibacterial property of samples containing metal oxide with highest efficiency for nancomposite. bioactivity of all samples was assessed by determining the surface morphology, structural and composition changes using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FTIR and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, respectively, after soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 28 days. The hydroxyapatite formation was clearly observed as a bioactivity measurement. Then, BG nanocomposite sample was loaded using two antibiotics, separately and their release profiles were studied. The BG nancomposite sample was shown the slow and continuous drug releasing for a period of 72 hours which is desirable for a drug delivery system. The loaded antibiotic nanocomposite sample retaining antibacterial property and showing inactivation effect against bacteria under test. The modified bioactive glass forming hydroxyapatite with controlled release drug and effective against bacterial infections can be introduced as scaffolds for bone implants after clinical trials for biomedical applications . Considering the formation of biofilm by infectious bacteria after sticking on the surfaces of implants, medical devices, etc. Also, considering the complications of traditional methods, solving the problems caused by the above-mentioned microorganisms in technical and biomedical industries was one of the necessities of this research.

Keywords: antibacterial, bioglass, drug delivery system, sol- gel

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Authors: C. Villamizar, M. Serrato

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In the pursuit of athletic performance, the role of physical training which is determined by a number of charges or taxes on physiological stress and musculoskeletal systems of the human body generated by the intensity and duration is fundamental. Given the physical demands of these activities both training and competitive must take into account the optimal relationship with a straining process recovery post favoring the process of overcompensation which aims to facilitate the return and rising energy potential and protein synthesis also of different tissues. Allowing muscle function returns to baseline or pre-exercise states. If this recovery process is not performed or is not allowed in a proper way, will result in an increased state of fatigue. Active recovery, is one of the strategies implemented in the sport for a return to pre-exercise physiological states. However, there are some adverse assumptions regarding the negative effects, as is the possibility of increasing the degradation of muscle glycogen and thus delaying the synthesis thereof. For them, it is necessary to investigate what would be the effects generated application made at different times after the effort. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of active recovery post effort made at three different times: immediately, at 12 and 24 hours on biochemical markers creatine kinase in youth soccer player’s categories. A randomized controlled trial with allocation to three groups was performed: A. active recovery immediately after the effort; B. active recovery performed at 12 hours after the effort; C. active recovery made at 24 hours after the effort. This study included 27 subjects belonging to a Colombian soccer team of the second division. Vital signs, weight, height, BMI, the percentage of muscle mass, fat mass percentage, personal medical history, and family were valued. The velocity, explosive force and Creatin Kinase (CK) in blood were tested before and after interventions. SAFT 90 protocol (Soccer Field specific Aerobic Test) was applied to participants for generating fatigue. CK samples were taken one hour before the application of the fatigue test, one hour after the fatigue protocol and 48 of the initial CK sample. Mean age was 18.5 ± 1.1 years old. Improvements in jumping and speed recovery the 3 groups (p < 0.05), but no statistically significant differences between groups was observed after recuperation. In all participants, there was a significant increment of CK when applied SAFT 90 in all the groups (median 103.1-111.1). The CK measurement after 48 hours reflects a recovery in all groups, however the group C, a decline below baseline levels of -55.5 (-96.3 /-20.4) which is a significant find. Other research has shown that CK does not return quickly to their baseline, but our study shows that active recovery favors the clearance of CK and also to perform recovery 24 hours after the effort generates higher clearance of this biomarker.

Keywords: active recuperation, creatine phosphokinase, post training, young soccer players

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Authors: Susanna Graziano, Lydia Krstic Ward

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The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the steps of using multimedia and collaborative platforms in project-based learning. The presentation will demonstrate the stages of the learning project with various components of independent and collaborative learning, where students research the topic, share information, prepare a survey, use social media (Facebook, Instagram, WhasApp) and collaborative platforms (wikispaces.com and Google docs) to collect, analyze and process data, then produce reports and logos to be displayed as a final product. At the beginning of the presentation participants will answer a questionnaire about project based learning and share their experience on using social media, real–world project work and collaborative learning. Using a PPP, the presentation will walk participants through the steps of a completed project where tertiary education students are involved in putting together a multimedia campaign for safe driving in Kuwait. The research component of the project entails taking a holistic view on the problem of the high death rate in traffic accidents. The final goal of the project is to lead students to raise public awareness about the importance of safe driving. The project steps involve using the social media and collaborative platforms for collecting data and sharing the required materials to be used in the final product – a display of written reports, slogans and videos, as well as oral presentations. The same structure can be used to organize a multimedia campaign focusing on other issues, whilst scaffolding on students’ ability to brainstorm, retrieve information, organize it and engage in collaborative/ cooperative learning whilst being immersed in content-based learning as well as in authentic tasks. More specifically, the project we carried out at Box Hill College was a real-world one and involved a multimedia Campaign for Safe Driving since reckless driving is one of the major problems in the country. The idea for the whole project started by a presentation given by a board member of the Kuwaiti Society for Traffic Safety who was invited to college and spoke about: • Driving laws in the country, • What causes car accidents, • Driving safety tips. The principal goal of this project was to let students consider problems of traffic in Kuwait from different points of view. They also had to address the number and causes of accidents, evaluate the effectiveness of the local traffic law in order to send a warning about the importance of safe driving and, finally, suggest ways of its improvement. Benefits included: • Engagement, • Autonomy, • Motivation, • Content knowledge, • Language mastery, • Enhanced critical thinking, • Increased metacognitive awareness, • Improved social skills, • Authentic experience.

Keywords: social media, online learning platforms, collaborative platforms, project based learning

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Authors: Jennifer De Paola

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Objectives: The literature is saturated with figures and hard data on happiness and its rates, causes and effects at a large scale, whereas very little is known about the way specific groups of people within societies understand and talk about happiness in their everyday life. The present study contributes to fill this gap in the happiness research by analyzing social representations of happiness among young women through the theoretical frame provided by Moscovici’s Social Representation Theory. Methods: Participants were (N= 351) female students (16-18 year olds) from Finnish, Swedish and English speaking high schools in the Helsinki region, Finland. Main source of data collection were word associations using the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and word associations using as stimulus the term that in the participants’ opinion represents the opposite of happiness. The allowed number of associations was five per stimulus word (10 associations per participant). In total, the 351 participants produced 6973 associations with the two stimulus words given: 3500 (50,19%) associations with ‘happiness’ and 3473 (49,81%) associations with ‘opposite of happiness’. The associations produced were analyzed qualitatively to identify associations with similar meaning and then coded combining similar associations in larger categories. Results: In total, 33 categories were identified respectively for the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and for the stimulus word ‘opposite of happiness’. In general terms, the 33 categories identified for ‘happiness’ included associations regarding relationships with key people considered important, such as ‘family’, abstract concepts such as meaningful life, success and moral values as well as more mundane and hedonic elements like food, pleasure and fun. Similarly, the 33 categories emerged for ‘opposite of happiness’ included relationship problems and arguments, negative feelings such as sadness, depression, stress as well as more concrete issues such as financial problems. Participants were also asked to rate their own level of happiness on a scale from 1 to 10. Results indicated the mean of the self-rated level of happiness was 7,93 (the range varied from 1 to 10; SD = 1, 50). Participants’ responses were further divided into three different groups according to the self-rated level of happiness: group 1 (level 10-9), group 2 (level 8-6), and group 3 (level 5 and lower) in order to investigate the way the categories mentioned above were distributed among the different groups. Preliminary results show that the category ‘family’ is associated with higher level of happiness, whereas its presence gradually decreases among the participants with a lower level of happiness. Moreover, the category ‘depression’ seems to be mainly present among participants in group 3, whereas the category ‘sadness’ is mainly present among participants with higher level of happiness. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study indicates the prevalent ways of thinking about happiness and its opposite among young female students, suggesting that representations varied to some extent depending on the happiness level of the participants. This study contributes to bringing new knowledge as it considers happiness as a holistic state, thus going beyond the literature that so far has too often viewed happiness as a mere unidimensional spectrum.

Keywords: female, happiness, social representations, unhappiness

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Authors: Abdirahman Barre, Abdihamid Salad Hassan, Iftin Abdi Mohamud, Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud, Ahmed Adan Mohamed, Mukhtaar Mohamed Idow

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Pasteurellosis (Hemorrhagic septicemia) is a common respiratory disease of camel that is an acutely fatal disease caused by Pasteurella multocida type A or several serotypes of Mannheimia hemolytic, which also affect other animals. The disease had shown to spread between animals, across herds and to humans. Meaning that the disease is Zoonosis. The study aimed at establishment of sero-prevalence of Pasteurellosis in some selected Districts of camel rearing in the Benadir Region. It was a cross-sectional study, where the study population was purposively chosen to consist of animals taken within three sub-Districts of Benadir Region, namely Sub-District (Daynile Township), Sub-District (Yaaqshid) Sub-District (kaxda). This was because they normally handle many camels in a day, thus making it easy for the investigator to access the required number conveniently; it was also assumed that data collected from these for-slaughter camels was representative of the situation in the sub-District/county. A total of one hundred and sixty camels were tested using four serological tests: Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT),) and Complex Fixation Test (CFT). The serological tests were purposively chosen to increase the chances of picking positive cases and also to compare their sensitivities with respect to camel serum since they were originally meant for use on bovine serum. Blood samples (15 ml) were collected for serum harvesting from the jugular veins of the animals as they were waiting to be examined. Rose Bengal plate test and CFT were run at a laboratory within the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Horsed, 21 October campus; serum samples having been transported in a cool box. On average, out of an overall total of 300 serum samples tested, 180 samples were selected as sample procedures and were given eleven (11) positive results, amounting to a prevalence of 6.67%. For the three Districts, respective prevalence (averaged from the two (2) serological tests run) were: 7% (3/50) for Yaqshiid; 8% (3/60) for Deyniile and 10% (3/70) for Kaxda. When sensitivities of the two (2) serological tests were compared, there was no significant difference between them with respect to the picking of positive cases (p=0.05). The study has demonstrated presence of Pasterolosis in camels in Benadir Region and the authors are recommending the usage of RBPT and CFT as screening tests, since they are cheap, quick, and easy to carry out. Any of the other three involving tests can then be used if one wants to establish respective titers. Therefore, further detailed investigation needs to be conducted so as to understand specific etiological agents causing pasteurollosis in camel and can be instituted to optimize the benefit obtained from the camel sector.

Keywords: hemorrhagic septicemia, camel, prevalence, Benadir region, Somalia

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Authors: Gunta Resevica, Nikita Zrelovs, Ivars Silamikelis, Ieva Kalnciema, Helvijs Niedra, Gunārs Lācis, Toms Bartulsons, Inga Moročko-Bičevska, Arturs Stalažs, Kristīne Drevinska, Andris Zeltins, Ina Balke

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Newly discovered viruses provide novel knowledge for basic phytovirus research, serve as tools for biotechnology and can be helpful in identification of epidemic outbreaks. Blackcurrant-associated rhabdovirus (BCaRV) have been discovered in USA germplasm collection samples from Russia and France. As it was reported in one accession originating from France it is unclear whether the material was already infected when it entered in the USA or it became infected while in collection in the USA. Due to that BCaRV was definite as non-EU viruses. According to ICTV classification BCaRV is representative of Blackcurrant betanucleorhabdovirus specie in genus Betanucleorhabdovirus (family Rhabdoviridae). Nevertheless, BCaRV impact on the host, transmission mechanisms and vectors are still unknown. In RNA-seq data pool from Ribes plants resistance gene study by high throughput sequencing (HTS) we observed differences between sample group gene transcript heat maps. Additional analysis of the whole data pool (total 393660492 of 150 bp long read pairs) by rnaSPAdes v 3.13.1 resulted into 14424 bases long contig with an average coverage of 684x with shared 99.5% identity to the previously reported first complete genome of BCaRV (MF543022.1) using EMBOSS Needle. This finding proved BCaRV presence in EU and indicated that it might be relevant pathogen. In this study leaf tissue from twelve asymptomatic blackcurrant cv. Mara Eglite plants (negatively tested for blackcurrant reversion virus (BRV)) from Dobele, Latvia (56°36'31.9"N, 23°18'13.6"E) was collected and used for total RNA isolation with RNeasy Plant Mini Kit with minor modifications, followed by plant rRNA removal by a RiboMinus Plant Kit for RNA-Seq. HTS libraries were prepared using MGI Easy RNA Directional Library Prep Set for 16 reactions to obtain 150 bp pair-end reads. Libraries were pooled, circularized and cleaned and sequenced on DNBSEQ-G400 using PE150 flow cell. Additionally, all samples were tested by RT-PCR, and amplicons were directly sequenced by Sanger-based method. The contig representing the genome of BCaRV isolate Mara Eglite was deposited at European Nucleotide Archive under accession number OU015520. Those findings indicate a second evidence on the presence of this particular virus in the EU and further research on BCaRV prevalence in Ribes from other geographical areas should be performed. As there are no information on BCaRV impact on the host this should be investigated, regarding the fact that mixed infections with BRV and nucleorhabdoviruses are reported.

Keywords: BCaRV, Betanucleorhabdovirus, Ribes, RNA-seq

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Authors: G. C. Santini, C. Potrich, L. Lunelli, L. Vanzetti, S. Marasso, M. Cocuzza, C. Pederzolli

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The relevance of circulating miRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers for several pathologies is nowadays undoubtedly clear, as they have been found to have both diagnostic and prognostic value able to add fundamental information to patients’ clinical picture. The availability of these data, however, relies on a time-consuming process spanning from the sample collection and processing to the data analysis. In light of this, strategies which are able to ease this procedure are in high demand and considerable effort have been made in developing Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices able to speed up and standardise the bench work. In this context, a very promising polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based microdevice which integrates the processing of the biological sample, i.e. purification of extracellular miRNAs, and reverse transcription was previously developed in our lab. In this study, we aimed at the improvement of the miRNA extraction performances of this micro device by increasing the ability of its surface to absorb extracellular miRNAs from biological samples. For this purpose, we focused on the modulation of two properties of the material: roughness and charge. PDMS surface roughness was modulated by casting with several templates (terminated with silicon oxide coated by a thin anti-adhesion aluminum layer), followed by a panel of curing conditions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to estimate changes at the nanometric scale. To introduce modifications in surface charge we functionalized PDMS with different mixes of positively charged 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilanes (APTMS) and neutral poly(ethylene glycol) silane (PEG). The surface chemical composition was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the number of exposed primary amines was quantified with the reagent sulfosuccinimidyl-4-o-(4,4-dimethoxytrityl) butyrate (s-SDTB). As our final end point, the adsorption rate of all these different conditions was assessed by fluorescence microscopy by incubating a synthetic fluorescently-labeled miRNA. Our preliminary analysis identified casting on thermally grown silicon oxide, followed by a curing step at 85°C for 1 hour, as the most efficient technique to obtain a PDMS surface roughness in the nanometric scaleable to trap miRNA. In addition, functionalisation with 0.1% APTMS and 0.9% PEG was found to be a necessary step to significantly increase the amount of microRNA adsorbed on the surface, therefore, available for further steps as on-chip reverse transcription. These findings show a substantial improvement in the extraction efficiency of our PDMS microdevice, ultimately leading to an important step forward in the development of an innovative, easy-to-use and integrated system for the direct purification of less abundant circulating microRNAs.

Keywords: circulating miRNAs, diagnostics, Lab-on-a-chip, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)

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Authors: Anabel Moriña

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In recent years, advances have been made in disability policy at Spanish universities, especially in terms of creating more inclusive learning environments. Nevertheless, while efforts to foster inclusion at the tertiary level -and the growing number of students with disabilities at university- are clear signs of progress, serious barriers to full participation in learning still exist. The research shows that university responses to diversity tend to be reactive, not proactive; as a result, higher education (HE) environments can be especially disabling. It has been demonstrated that the performance of students with disabilities is closely linked to the good will of university faculty and staff. Lectures are key players when it comes to helping or hindering students throughout the teaching/learning process. This paper presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? The general aim is to analyse-by listen to the students themselves-lecturers barriers and support identified as affecting academic performance and overall perception of the higher education (HE) experience. Biographical-narrative methodology was employed. This research analysed the results differentiating by fields of knowledge. The research was conducted in two phases: discussion groups along with individual oral/written interviews were set up with 44 students with disabilities and mini life histories were completed for 16 students who participated in the first stage. The study group consisted of students with disabilities enrolled during three academic years. The results of this paper noted that participating students identified many more barriers than bridges when speaking about the role lecturers play in their learning experience. Findings are grouped into several categories: Faculty attitudes when “dealing with” students with disabilities, teaching methodologies, curricular adaptations, and faculty training in working with students. Faculty does not always display appropriate attitudes towards students with disabilities. Study participants speak of them turning their backs on their problems-or behaving in an awkward manner. In many cases, it seems lecturers feel that curricular adaptations of any kind are a form of favouritism. Positive attitudes, however, often depend almost entirely on the good will of faculty and-although well received by students-are hard to come by. As the participants themselves suggest, this study confirms that good teaching practices not only benefit students with disabilities but the student body as a whole. In this sense, inclusive curricula provide new opportunities for all students. A general coincidence has been the lack of training on behalf of lecturers to adequately attend disabled students, and the need to cover this shortage. This can become a primary barrier and is more often due to deficient faculty training than to inappropriate attitudes on the part of lecturers. In conclusion, based on this research we can conclude that more barriers than bridges exist. That said, students do report receiving a good deal of support from their lecturers-although almost exclusively in a spirit of good will; when lecturers do help, however, it tends to have a very positive impact on students' academic performance.

Keywords: barriers, disability, higher education, lecturers

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Authors: Fruzsina Luca Kézér, Viktor Jurkovich, Ottó Szenci, János Tőzsér, Levente Kovács

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Positive interaction between people and animals could have a favorable effect on the welfare and production by reducing stress levels. However, to the repeated contact with humans (e.g. farm staff, veterinarians or herdsmen), animals may respond with escape behavior or avoidance, which both have negative effects on the ease of handling, welfare and may lead to the expression of aggressive behaviors. Rough or aversive handling can impair health and the function of the cardiac autonomic activity due to fear and stress, which also can be determined by certain parameters of heart rate variability (HRV). Although the essential relationships between fear from humans and basal tone of the autonomic nervous system were described by the authors previously, several questions remained unclear in terms of the associations between different coping strategies (behavioral syndromes) of the animals and physiological responsiveness to humans. The main goal of this study was to find out whether human behavior and emotions to the animals have an impact on cardiac function and behavior of animals with different coping styles in response situations. Therefore, in the present study, special (fear, approaching, restraint, novel arena, novel object) tests were performed on healthy, 2-year old heifers (n = 104) differing in coping styles [reactive (passive) vs. proactive (active) coping]. Animals were categorized as reactive or proactive based on the following tests: 1) aggressive behavior at the feeding bunk, 2) avoidance from an approaching person, 3) immobility, and 4) daily activity (number of posture changes). Heart rate, the high frequency (HF) component of HRV as a measure of vagal activity and the ratio between the low frequency (LF) and HF components (LF/HF ratio) as a parameter of sympathetic nervous system activity were calculated for all individual during lying posture (baseline) and for response situations in novel object, novel arena, and unfamiliar person tests (both for 5 min), respectively. The differences between baseline and response were compared between groups. Higher sympathetic (higher heart rates and LF/HF ratios) and lower parasympathetic activity (lower HF) was found for proactive animals in response situations than for reactive (passive) animals either during the novel object, the novel arena and the unfamiliar person test. It suggests that animals with different behavioral traits differ in their immediate autonomic adaptation to novelty and people. Based on our preliminary results, it seems, that the analysis of HRV can help to understand the physiological manifestation of responsiveness to novelty and human presence in dairy cattle with different behavioral syndromes.

Keywords: behavioral syndromes, human-cattle interaction, novel arena test, physiological responsiveness, proactive coping, reactive coping

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Authors: Eva Masson, Andrea Kübler

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Anxiety disorders (AD) are the most prevalent psychological disorders. However, far from most affected individuals are diagnosed and receive treatment. This gap is probably due to the diagnosis criteria, relying on symptoms (according to the DSM-5 definition) with no objective biomarker. Approach-avoidance conflict tasks are one common approach to simulate such disorders in a lab setting, with most of the paradigms focusing on the relationships between behavior and neurophysiology. Approach-avoidance conflict tasks typically place participants in a situation where they have to make a decision that leads to both positive and negative outcomes, thereby sending conflicting signals that trigger the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). Furthermore, behavioral validation of such paradigms adds credibility to the tasks – with overt conflict behavior, it is safer to assume that the task actually induced a conflict. Some of those tasks have linked asymmetrical frontal brain activity to induced conflicts and the BIS. However, there is currently no consensus for the direction of the frontal activation. The authors present here a modified version of the T-Maze paradigm, a motivational conflict desktop task, in which behavior is recorded simultaneously to the recording of high-density EEG (HD-EEG). Methods: In this within-subject design, HD-EEG and behavior of 35 healthy participants was recorded. EEG data was collected with a 128 channels sponge-based system. The motivational conflict desktop task consisted of three blocks of repeated trials. Each block was designed to record a slightly different behavioral pattern, to increase the chances of eliciting conflict. This variety of behavioral patterns was however similar enough to allow comparison of the number of trials categorized as ‘overt conflict’ between the blocks. Results: Overt conflict behavior was exhibited in all blocks, but always for under 10% of the trials, in average, in each block. However, changing the order of the paradigms successfully introduced a ‘reset’ of the conflict process, therefore providing more trials for analysis. As for the EEG correlates, the authors expect a different pattern for trials categorized as conflict, compared to the other ones. More specifically, we expect an elevated alpha frequency power in the left frontal electrodes at around 200ms post-cueing, compared to the right one (relative higher right frontal activity), followed by an inversion around 600ms later. Conclusion: With this comprehensive approach of a psychological mechanism, new evidence would be brought to the frontal asymmetry discussion, and its relationship with the BIS. Furthermore, with the present task focusing on a very particular type of motivational approach-avoidance conflict, it would open the door to further variations of the paradigm to introduce different kinds of conflicts involved in AD. Even though its application as a potential biomarker sounds difficult, because of the individual reliability of both the task and peak frequency in the alpha range, we hope to open the discussion for task robustness for neuromodulation and neurofeedback future applications.

Keywords: anxiety, approach-avoidance conflict, behavioral inhibition system, EEG

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Authors: Maha Atout, Pippa Hemingway, Jane Seymour

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A preliminary systematic review shows that health professionals experience a tension when communicating with the parents and family members of children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. On the one hand, they want to promote open and honest communication, while on the other, they are apprehensive about fostering an unrealistic sense of hope. Defining the boundaries between information that might offer reasonable hope versus that which results in false reassurance is challenging. Some healthcare providers worry that instilling a false sense of hope could motivate parents to seek continued aggressive treatment for their child, which in turn might cause the patient further unnecessary suffering. To date, there has been a lack of research in the Middle East regarding how healthcare providers do or should communicate bad news; in particular, the issue of hope in the field of paediatric palliative care has not been researched thoroughly. This study aims to explore, from the perspective of patients’ mothers, physicians, and nurses, the experience of communicating and receiving bad news in the care of children with palliative care needs. Data were collected using a collective qualitative case study approach across three paediatric units in a Jordanian hospital. Two data collection methods were employed: participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The overall number of cases was 15, with a total of 56 interviews with mothers (n=24), physicians (n=12), and nurses (n=20) completed, as well as 197 observational hours logged. The findings demonstrate that mothers wanted their doctors to provide them with hopeful information about the future progression of their child’s illness. Although some mothers asked their doctors to provide them with honest information regarding the condition of their child, they still considered a sense of hope to be essential for coping with caring for their child. According to mothers, hope was critical to treatment as it helped them to stay committed to the treatment and protected them to some extent from the extreme emotional suffering that would occur if they lost hope. The health professionals agreed with the mothers on the importance of hope, so long as it was congruent with the stage and severity of each patient’s disease. The findings of this study conclude that while parents typically insist on knowing all relevant information when their child is diagnosed with a severe illness, they considered hope to be an essential part of life, and they found it very difficult to handle suffering without any glimmer of it. This study finds that using negative terms has extremely adverse effects on the parents’ emotions. Hence, although the mothers asked the doctors to be as honest as they could, they still wanted the physicians to provide them with a positive message by communicating this information in a sensitive manner including hope.

Keywords: health professionals, children, communication, hope, information, mothers, palliative care

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Authors: Tiffany Hollis

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Childhood trauma is well documented in mental health research, yet has received little attention in urban schools. Child trauma affects brain development and impacts cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning. When educators understand that some of the behaviors that appear to be aggressive in nature might be the result of a hidden diagnosis of trauma, learning can take place, and the child can thrive in the classroom setting. Traumatized children, however, do not fit neatly into any single ‘box.’ Although many children enter school each day carrying with them the experience of exposure to violence in the home, the symptoms of their trauma can be multifaceted and complex, requiring individualized therapeutic attention. The purpose of this study was to examine how prepared educators are to address the unique challenges facing children who experience trauma. Given the vast number of traumatized children in our society, it is evident that our education system must investigate ways to create an optimal learning environment that accounts for trauma, addresses its impact on cognitive and behavioral development, and facilitates mental and emotional health and well-being. The researcher describes the knowledge, attitudes, dispositions, and skills relating to trauma-informed knowledge of induction level teachers in a diverse middle school. The data for this study were collected through interviews with teachers, who are in the induction phase (the first three years of their teaching career). The study findings paint a clear picture of how ill-prepared educators are to address the needs of students who have experienced trauma and the implications for the development of a professional development workshop or series of workshops that train teachers how to recognize and address and respond to the needs of students. The study shows how teachers often lack skills to meet the needs of students who have experienced trauma. Traumatized children regularly carry a heavy weight on their shoulders. Children who have experienced trauma may feel that the world is filled with unresponsive, threatening adults, and peers. Despite this, supportive interventions can provide traumatized children with places to go that are safe, stimulating, and even fun. Schools offer an environment that potentially meets these requirements by creating safe spaces where students can feel at ease and have fun while also learning via stimulating educational activities. This study highlights the lack of preparedness of educators to address the academic, behavioral, and cognitive needs of students who have experienced trauma. These findings provide implications for the creation of a professional development workshop that addresses how to recognize and address the needs of students who have experienced some type of trauma. They also provide implications for future research with a focus on specific interventions that enable the creation of optimal learning environments where students who have experienced trauma and all students can succeed, regardless of their life experiences.

Keywords: educator preparation, induction educators, professional development, trauma-informed

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Authors: Liudmila Shabalinskaya, Victor Golovanov, Liudmila Milinis, Sergey Loponos, Alexander Maslov, D. O. Frolov

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The work is devoted to the rapid laboratory diagnosis of the condition of aircraft friction units, based on the application of the nondestructive testing method by analyzing the parameters of wear particles, or tribodiagnostics. The most important task of tribodiagnostics is to develop recommendations for the selection of more advanced designs, materials and lubricants based on data on wear processes for increasing the life and ensuring the safety of the operation of machines and mechanisms. The object of tribodiagnostics in this work are the tooth gears of the central drive and the gearboxes of the gas turbine engine of the civil aviation PS-90A type, in which rolling friction and sliding friction with slip occur. The main criterion for evaluating the technical state of lubricated friction units of a gas turbine engine is the intensity and rate of wear of the friction surfaces of the friction unit parts. When the engine is running, oil samples are taken and the state of the friction surfaces is evaluated according to the parameters of the wear particles contained in the oil sample, which carry important and detailed information about the wear processes in the engine transmission units. The parameters carrying this information include the concentration of wear particles and metals in the oil, the dispersion composition, the shape, the size ratio and the number of particles, the state of their surfaces, the presence in the oil of various mechanical impurities of non-metallic origin. Such a morphological analysis of wear particles has been introduced into the order of monitoring the status and diagnostics of various aircraft engines, including a gas turbine engine, since the type of wear characteristic of the central drive and the drive box is surface fatigue wear and the beginning of its development, accompanied by the formation of microcracks, leads to the formation of spherical, up to 10 μm in size, and in the aftermath of flocculent particles measuring 20-200 μm in size. Tribodiagnostics using the morphological analysis of wear particles includes the following techniques: ferrography, filtering, and computer analysis of the classification and counting of wear particles. Based on the analysis of several series of oil samples taken from the drive box of the engine during their operating time, a study was carried out of the processes of wear kinetics. Based on the results of the study and comparing the series of criteria for tribodiagnostics, wear state ratings and statistics of the results of morphological analysis, norms for the normal operating regime were developed. The study allowed to develop levels of wear state for friction surfaces of gearing and a 10-point rating system for estimating the likelihood of the occurrence of an increased wear mode and, accordingly, prevention of engine failures in flight.

Keywords: aviation, box of drives, morphological analysis, tribodiagnostics, tribology, ferrography, filtering, wear particle

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Authors: Swapnil Kumar Singh

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Gamma-ray bursts (GRB's), short and intense pulses of low-energy γ rays, have fascinated astronomers and astrophysicists since their unexpected discovery in the late sixties. GRB'sare accompanied by long-lasting afterglows, and they are associated with core-collapse supernovae. The detection of delayed emission in X-ray, optical, and radio wavelength, or "afterglow," following a γ-ray burst can be described as the emission of a relativistic shell decelerating upon collision with the interstellar medium. While it is fair to say that there is strong diversity amongst the afterglow population, probably reflecting diversity in the energy, luminosity, shock efficiency, baryon loading, progenitor properties, circumstellar medium, and more, the afterglows of GRBs do appear more similar than the bursts themselves, and it is possible to identify common features within afterglows that lead to some canonical expectations. After an initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived "afterglow" is usually emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave, and radio). It is a slowly fading emission at longer wavelengths created by collisions between the burst ejecta and interstellar gas. In X-ray wavelengths, the GRB afterglow fades quickly at first, then transitions to a less-steep drop-off (it does other stuff after that, but we'll ignore that for now). During these early phases, the X-ray afterglow has a spectrum that looks like a power law: flux F∝ E^β, where E is energy and beta is some number called the spectral index. This kind of spectrum is characteristic of synchrotron emission, which is produced when charged particles spiral around magnetic field lines at close to the speed of light. In addition to the outgoing forward shock that ploughs into the interstellar medium, there is also a so-called reverse shock, which propagates backward through the ejecta. In many ways," reverse" shock can be misleading; this shock is still moving outward from the restframe of the star at relativistic velocity but is ploughing backward through the ejecta in their frame and is slowing the expansion. This reverse shock can be dynamically important, as it can carry comparable energy to the forward shock. The early phases of the GRB afterglow still provide a good description even if the GRB is highly collimated since the individual emitting regions of the outflow are not in causal contact at large angles and so behave as though they are expanding isotropically. The majority of afterglows, at times typically observed, fall in the slow cooling regime, and the cooling break lies between the optical and the X-ray. Numerous observations support this broad picture for afterglows in the spectral energy distribution of the afterglow of the very bright GRB. The bluer light (optical and X-ray) appears to follow a typical synchrotron forward shock expectation (note that the apparent features in the X-ray and optical spectrum are due to the presence of dust within the host galaxy). We need more research in GRB and Particle Physics in order to unfold the mysteries of afterglow.

Keywords: GRB, synchrotron, X-ray, isotropic energy

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Authors: M. Tammaro, S. Manzo, J. Rimauro, A. Salluzzo, S. Schiavo

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The solar photovoltaic (PV) modules are considered to have a negligible environmental impact compared to the fossil energy. Therefore also the waste management and the corresponding potential environmental hazard needs to be considered. The case of the photovoltaic panel is unique because the time lag from the manufacturing to the decommissioning as waste usually takes 25-30 years. Then the environmental hazard associated with end life of PV panels has been largely related to their metal contents. The principal concern regards the presence of heavy metals as Cd in thin film (TF) modules or Pb and Cr in crystalline silicon (c-Si) panels. At the end of life of PV panels, these dangerous substances could be released in the environment, if special requirements for their disposal are not adopted. Nevertheless, in literature, only a few experimental study about metal emissions from silicon crystalline/thin film panels and the corresponding environmental effect are present. As part of a study funded by the Italian national consortium for the waste collection and recycling (COBAT), the present work was aimed to analyze experimentally the potential release into the environment of hazardous elements, particularly metals, from PV waste. In this paper, for the first time, eighteen releasable metals a large number of photovoltaic panels, by c-Si and TF, manufactured in the last 30 years, together with the environmental effects by a battery of ecotoxicological tests, were investigated. Leaching tests are conducted on the crushed samples of PV module. The test is conducted according to Italian and European Standard procedure for hazard assessment of the granular waste and of the sludge. The sample material is shaken for 24 hours in HDPE bottles with an overhead mixer Rotax 6.8 VELP at indoor temperature and using pure water (18 MΩ resistivity) as leaching solution. The liquid-to-solid ratio was 10 (L/S=10, i.e. 10 liters of water per kg of solid). The ecotoxicological tests were performed in the subsequent 24 hours. A battery of toxicity test with bacteria (Vibrio fisheri), algae (Pseudochirneriella subcapitata) and crustacea (Daphnia magna) was carried out on PV panel leachates obtained as previously described and immediately stored in dark and at 4°C until testing (in the next 24 hours). For understand the actual pollution load, a comparison with the current European and Italian benchmark limits was performed. The trend of leachable metal amount from panels in relation to manufacturing years was then highlighted in order to assess the environmental sustainability of PV technology over time. The experimental results were very heterogeneous and show that the photovoltaic panels could represent an environmental hazard. The experimental results showed that the amounts of some hazardous metals (Pb, Cr, Cd, Ni), for c-Si and TF, exceed the law limits and they are a clear indication of the potential environmental risk of photovoltaic panels "as a waste" without a proper management.

Keywords: photovoltaic panel, environment, ecotoxicity, metals emission

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Authors: Indujeeva Keerthila Peiris

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The secular view of mindfulness has some connotation to the original meaning of mindfulness mentioned in the Theravada Buddhist texts (Pāli Canon), but there is a substantial difference in the meaning of the two. Secular Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBI) focus on stilling the mind, which may provide short-term benefits and help individuals to deal with physical pain, grief, and distress. However, as with many popular educational innovations, the foundational values of mindfulness strategies have been distorted and subverted in a number of instances in which ‘McMindfulness’ programmes have been implemented with a view to reducing mindfulness mediation as a self-help technique that is easily misappropriated for the exclusive pursuit of corporate objectives, employee pacification, and commercial profit. The intention of this paper is not to critique the misappropriations of mindfulness. Instead, to go back to the root source and bring insights from the Buddhist Pāli Canon and its associated teachings on mindfulness in its own terms. In the Buddha’s discourses, as preserved in the Pāli Canon, there is nothing more significant than the understanding and practice of ‘Satipatthãna’. The Satipatthāna Sutta , the ‘Discourse on the Establishment of Mindfulness,’ opens with a proclamation highlighting both the purpose of this training and its methodology. The right practice of mindfulness is the gateway to understanding the Buddha’s teaching. However, although this concept is widely discussed among the Dhamma practitioners, it is the least understood one of them all. The purpose of this paper is to understand deeper meaning of mindfulness as it was originally intended by the Teacher. The natural state of mind is that it wanders. It wanders into the past, the present, and the future. One’s ability to hold attention to a mind object (emotion, thought, feeling, sensation, sense impression) called ‘concentration’. The intentional concentration process does not lead to wisdom. However, the development of wisdom starts when the mind is calm, concentrated, and unified. The practice of insight contemplation aims at gaining a direct understanding of the real nature of phenomena. According to the Buddha’s teaching, there are three basic facts of all existence: 1) impermanence (anicca in Pāli) ; 2) fabrication (also commonly known as suffering, unsatisfactoriness, sankhara or dukka in Pāli); 3) not-self (insubstantiality or impersonality, annatta in Pāli ). The entire Buddhist doctrine is based on these three facts. The problem is our ignorance covers reality. It is not that a person sees the emptiness of them or that we try to see the emptiness of our experience by conceptually thinking that they are empty. It is an experiential outcome that happens when the cause-and- effect overrides the self-view (sakkaya dhitti), and ignorance is known as ignorance and eradicated once and for all. Therefore, the right view (samma dhitti) is the starting point of the path, not ethical conduct (sila) or samadhi (jhana). In order to develop the right view, we need to first listen to the correct Dhamma and possess Yoniso manasikara (right comprehension) to know the five aggregates as five aggregates.

Keywords: mindfulness, spirituality, buddhism, pali canon

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Authors: M. K. Sheikh, Y. M. Laghari., P. K. Lashari., N. T. Narejo

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The Indus River is one of the longest important rivers of the world in Asia that flows southward through Pakistan, merges into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh Province, and forms the Indus Delta. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food. In fish, healthy nutriments are present which are not found in any other meat source because it have a huge quantity of omega- 3 fatty acids, which are very essential for the human body. Ichthyologic surveys were conducted to explore the diversity of freshwater fishes, distribution, abundance and current status of the fishes at different spatial scale of the downstream, Indus River. Total eight stations were selected namely Railo Miyan (RM), Karokho (Kk), Khanpur (Kp), Mullakatiyar (Mk), Wasi Malook Shah (WMS), Branch Morie (BM), Sujawal (Sj) and Jangseer (JS). The study was carried in the period of January 2016 to December 2019 to identify River and biodiversity threats and to suggest recommendations for conservation. The data were analysed by different population diversity index. Altogether, 124 species were recorded belonging to 12 Orders and 43 Families from the downstream of Indus River. Among 124 species, 29% belong to high commercial value and 35% were trash fishes. 31% of fishes were identified as marine/estuarine origin (migratory) and 05% were exotic fish species. Perciformes is the most predominated order, contributing to 41% of families. Among 43 families, the family Cyprinidae was the richest family from all localities of downstream, represented by 24% of fish species demonstrating a significant dominance in the number of species. A significant difference was observed for species abundance in between all sites, the maximum abundance species were found at first location RM having 115 species and minimum observed at the last station JS 56 genera. In the recorded Ichthyofauna, seven groups were found according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature status (IUCN), where a high species ratio was collected, in Least Concern (LC) having 94 species, 11 were found as not evaluated (NE), whereas 8 was identified as near threatened (NT), 1 was recorded as critically endangered (CR), 11 were collected as data deficient (DD), and while 8 was observed as vulnerable (VU) and 3 endangered (EN) species. Different diversity index has been used extensively in environmental studies to estimate the species richness and abundance of ecosystems outputs of their wellness; a positive environment (biodiversity rich) with species at RM had an environmental wellness and biodiversity levels of 4.566% while a negative control environment (biodiversity poor) on last station JS had an environmental wellness and biodiversity levels of 3.931%. The status of fish biodiversity and river has been found under serious threat. Due to the lower diversity of fishes, it became not only venerable for fish but also risky for fishermen. Necessary steps are recommended to protect the biodiversity by conducting further conservative research in this area.

Keywords: ichthyofaunal biodiversity, threatened species, diversity index, Indus River downstream

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Authors: Klaus Peter Scherer, Daniel Knöll, Constantin Rieder

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Problem and Purpose: Intelligent systems are available and helpful to support the human being decision process, especially when complex surgical eye interventions are necessary and must be performed. Normally, such a decision support system consists of a knowledge-based module, which is responsible for the real assistance power, given by an explanation and logical reasoning processes. The interview based acquisition and generation of the complex knowledge itself is very crucial, because there are different correlations between the complex parameters. So, in this project (semi)automated self-learning methods are researched and developed for an enhancement of the quality of such a decision support system. Methods: For ophthalmic data sets of real patients in a hospital, advanced data mining procedures seem to be very helpful. Especially subgroup analysis methods are developed, extended and used to analyze and find out the correlations and conditional dependencies between the structured patient data. After finding causal dependencies, a ranking must be performed for the generation of rule-based representations. For this, anonymous patient data are transformed into a special machine language format. The imported data are used as input for algorithms of conditioned probability methods to calculate the parameter distributions concerning a special given goal parameter. Results: In the field of knowledge discovery advanced methods and applications could be performed to produce operation and patient related correlations. So, new knowledge was generated by finding causal relations between the operational equipment, the medical instances and patient specific history by a dependency ranking process. After transformation in association rules logically based representations were available for the clinical experts to evaluate the new knowledge. The structured data sets take account of about 80 parameters as special characteristic features per patient. For different extended patient groups (100, 300, 500), as well one target value as well multi-target values were set for the subgroup analysis. So the newly generated hypotheses could be interpreted regarding the dependency or independency of patient number. Conclusions: The aim and the advantage of such a semi-automatically self-learning process are the extensions of the knowledge base by finding new parameter correlations. The discovered knowledge is transformed into association rules and serves as rule-based representation of the knowledge in the knowledge base. Even more, than one goal parameter of interest can be considered by the semi-automated learning process. With ranking procedures, the most strong premises and also conjunctive associated conditions can be found to conclude the interested goal parameter. So the knowledge, hidden in structured tables or lists can be extracted as rule-based representation. This is a real assistance power for the communication with the clinical experts.

Keywords: an expert system, knowledge-based support, ophthalmic decision support, self-learning methods

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Authors: Dalicia Bouallouche, Jean-Baptiste Vioix, Stéphane Millot, Eric Busvelle

Abstract:

When researchers or logistics software developers deal with vehicle routing optimization, they mainly focus on minimizing the total travelled distance or the total time spent in the tours by the trucks, and maximizing the number of visited customers. They assume that the upstream real data given to carry the optimization of a transporter tours is free from errors, like customers’ real constraints, customers’ addresses and their GPS-coordinates. However, in real transporter situations, upstream data is often of bad quality because of address geocoding errors and the irrelevance of received addresses from the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In fact, geocoders are not exempt from errors and could give impertinent GPS-coordinates. Also, even with a good geocoding, an inaccurate address can lead to a bad geocoding. For instance, when the geocoder has trouble with geocoding an address, it returns those of the center of the city. As well, an obvious geocoding issue is that the mappings used by the geocoders are not regularly updated. Thus, new buildings could not exist on maps until the next update. Even so, trying to optimize tours with impertinent customers GPS-coordinates, which are the most important and basic input data to take into account for solving a vehicle routing problem, is not really useful and will lead to a bad and incoherent solution tours because the locations of the customers used for the optimization are very different from their real positions. Our work is supported by a logistics software editor Tedies and a transport company Upsilon. We work with Upsilon's truck routes data to carry our experiments. In fact, these trucks are equipped with TOMTOM GPSs that continuously save their tours data (positions, speeds, tachograph-information, etc.). We, then, retrieve these data to extract the real truck routes to work with. The aim of this work is to use the experience of the driver and the feedback of the real truck tours to validate GPS-coordinates of well geocoded addresses, and bring a correction to the badly geocoded addresses. Thereby, when a vehicle makes its tour, for each visited customer, the vehicle might have trouble with finding this customer’s address at most once. In other words, the vehicle would be wrong at most once for each customer’s address. Our method significantly improves the quality of the geocoding. Hence, we achieve to automatically correct an average of 70% of GPS-coordinates of a tour addresses. The rest of the GPS-coordinates are corrected in a manual way by giving the user indications to help him to correct them. This study shows the importance of taking into account the feedback of the trucks to gradually correct address geocoding errors. Indeed, the accuracy of customer’s address and its GPS-coordinates play a major role in tours optimization. Unfortunately, address writing errors are very frequent. This feedback is naturally and usually taken into account by transporters (by asking drivers, calling customers…), to learn about their tours and bring corrections to the upcoming tours. Hence, we develop a method to do a big part of that automatically.

Keywords: driver experience feedback, geocoding correction, real truck tours

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Authors: Gaurav Kumar Mishra, Sanjeeva Nayaka, Dalip Kumar Upreti

Abstract:

Our nature exhibited presence of a number of unique plants which can be used as indicator of environmental condition of particular place. Lichens are unique plant which has an ability to absorb not only organic, inorganic and metaloties but also absorb radioactive nuclide substances present in the environment. In the present study pyrenocarpous lichens will used as indicator of good forest health in a particular place. The Pyrenocarpous lichens are simple crust forming with black dot like perithecia have few characters for their taxonomical segregation as compared to their foliose and fruticose brethrean. The thallus colour and nature, presence and absence of hypothallus are only few characters of thallus are used to segregate the pyrenocarpous taxa. The fruiting bodies of pyrenolichens i.e. ascocarps are perithecia. The perithecia and the contents found within them posses many important criteria for the segregation of pyrenocarpous lichen taxa. The ascocarp morphology, ascocarp arrangement, the perithecial wall, ascocarp shape and colour, ostiole shape and position, ostiole colour, ascocarp anatomy including type of paraphyses, asci shape and size, ascospores septation, ascospores wall and periphyses are the valuable charcters used for segregation of different pyrenocarpous lichen taxa. India is represented by the occurrence of the 350 species of 44 genera and eleven families. Among the different genera Pyrenula is dominant with 82 species followed by the Porina with 70 species. Recently, systematic of the pyrenocarpous lichens have been revised by American and European lichenologists using phylogenetic methods. Still the taxonomy of pyrenocarpous lichens is in flux and information generated after the completion of this study will play vital role in settlement of the taxonomy of this peculiar group of lichens worldwide. The Indian Himalayan region exhibit rich diversity of pyrenocarpous lichens in India. The western Himalayan region has luxuriance of pyrenocarpous lichens due to its unique topography and climate condition. However, the eastern Himalayan region has rich diversity of pyrenocarpous lichens due to its warmer and moist climate condition. The rich moist and warmer climate in eastern Himalayan region supports forest with dominance of evergreen tree vegetation. The pyrenocarpous lichens communities are good indicator of young and regenerated forest type. The rich diversity of lichens clearly indicates that moist of the forest within the eastern Himalayan region has good health of forest. Due to fast pace of urbanization and other developmental activities will defiantly have adverse effects on the diversity and distribution of pyrenocarpous lichens in different forest type and the present distribution pattern will act as baseline data for carried out future biomonitoring studies in the area.

Keywords: lichen diversity, indicator species, environmental factors, pyrenocarpous

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Wang, Kai-Chun Lee, Min-Hung Wang, Yu-Ren Chen, Hung-Sheng Lin, Sen-Shan Fan

Abstract:

Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) was launched in 1995. It is an important social welfare policy in Taiwan. Regardless of the diversified social and economic status, universal coverage of NHI was assured. In order to regain better self-care performance, stroke people received in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation. Though NHI limited the rehabilitation frequency to one per day, the cost of rehabilitation still increased rapidly. Through the intensive rehabilitation during the post-stroke rehabilitation golden period, stroke patients might decrease their disability and shorten the rehabilitation period. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. This study was started from 2014/03/01. The stroke patients who were admitted to our hospital or medical center were indicated to the study. The neurologists would check his modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Only patients with their mRS score between 2 and 4 were included to the study. Patients with unclear consciousness, unstable medical condition, unclear stroke onset date and no willing for 3 weeks in-patient intensive rehabilitation were excluded. After the physiatrist’s systemic evaluation, the subjects received intensive rehabilitation programs. The frequency of rehabilitation was thrice per day. Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech/swallowing therapy were included in the programs for the needs of the stroke patients. Activity daily life performance (Barthel Index) and functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale) were used to measure the training effect. During 3/1 to 5/31, thirteen subjects (five male and eight female) were included. Seven subjects were aged below 60. Three subjects were aged over 70. Most of the subjects (seven subjects) received intensive post-stroke rehabilitation for three weeks. Three subjects drop out from the programs and went back home respectively after receiving only 7, 10, and 13 days rehabilitation. Among these 13 subjects, nine of them got improvement in activity daily life performance (Barthel Index score). Ten of them got improvement in functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale). The intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation did help stroke patients promote their health in our study. Not only their functional performance improved, but also their self-confidence improved. Furthermore, their family also got better health status. Stroke rehabilitation under per diem payment was noted in long-term care institution in developed countries. Over 95% populations in Taiwan were supported under the Taiwan's National Health Insurance system, but there was no national long-term care insurance system. Most of the stroke patients in Taiwan live with his family and continue their rehabilitation programs from out-patient department. This pilot study revealed the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. The number of the subjects and the study period were limited. Thus, further study will be needed.

Keywords: rehabilitation, post-acute stroke, per diem payment, NHI

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Authors: Aguasanta Miguel Sarmiento, José Miguel Dávila, María Luisa de la Torre

Abstract:

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is an acidic leachate with high levels of metals and sulphates in solution, which seriously affects the durability and strength of metallic materials used in the construction of structural and mechanical components. This paper presents the results of the evolution over time of the reduction in tensile strength and defects in AISI 304 stainless steel in contact with acid mine drainage. For this purpose, a total of 30 bars with a diameter of 8 mm and a length of 14 cm were placed transversely in the course of a stream contaminated by AMD from the sulphide mines of the Iberian Pyritic Belt (SW Spain). This stream has average pH values of 2.6, a potential of 660 mV, and average concentrations of 12 g/L of sulphates, 1.2 g/L of Fe, 191 mg/L of Zn, etc. Every two months of exposure, 6 stainless steel bars were extracted from the acid stream. They were subjected to surface roughness analysis carried out with the help of Mitutoyo Surftest SJ-210 surface roughness tester. The analysis was carried out at three different points on 5 specimens from each series. The average reading of each parameter is calculated in order to ensure the accuracy of the measurements and the surface coverage. Arithmetic mean roughness value (Ra), mean roughness depth (Rz), and root mean square roughness (Rq) were measured. Five specimens from each series were statically tensile tested using universal equipment (Servosis ME 403 of 200kN). The specimens were clamped at their ends with two grips for cylindrical sections, and the tensile force was applied at a constant speed of 0.5 kN/s, according to the requirements of standard UNE-EN ISO 6892-1: 2020. To determine the modulus of elasticity, limits close to 15% and 55% of the maximum load were used, depending on the course of each test. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) was used to observe corrosion products and defects generated by exposure to AMD. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) was used to analyse the chemical composition of the corrosion products formed. For this purpose, small pieces were cut from the resulting specimens, cleaned, and embedded in epoxy resin. The results show that after only 5 months of exposure of AISI 304 stainless steel to the mining environment, the surface roughness increases significantly, with average depths almost 6 times greater than the initial one. Cracks are observed on the surface of the material, which increases in size with the time of exposure. A large number of grains with a composition of more than 57% Pb and 16% Sn can be observed inside these cracks. Tensile tests show a reduction in the resistance of this material after only two months of exposure. The results show the serious problems that would result from the use of this material for the use of mechanical components in a sulphide mining environment, not only because of the significant reduction in the lifetime of such components, but also because of the implications for human safety.

Keywords: acid mine drainage, corrosion, mechanical properties, stainless steel

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