Search results for: silhouette detection

Authors: Thidarat Duangyod, Chanida Palanuvej, Nijsiri Ruangrungsi

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Pentace burmanica Kurz., belonging to the Malvaceae family, is commonly used for anti-diarrhea in Thai traditional medicine. A method for quantification of (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin in P. burmanica stem bark from 12 different Thailand markets by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was investigated and validated. The analysis was performed by a Shimadzu DGU-20A3 HPLC equipped with a Shimadzu SPD-M20A photo diode array detector. The separation was accomplished with an Inersil ODS-3 column (5 µm x 4.6 x 250 mm) using 0.1% formic acid in water (A) and 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile (B) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 1 ml/min. The isocratic was set at 20% B for 15 min and the column temperature was maintained at 40 ºC. The detection was at the wavelength of 280 nm. Both (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin existed in the ethanolic extract of P. burmanica stem bark. The content of (-)-epicatechin was found as 59.74 ± 1.69 µg/mg of crude extract. In contrast, the quantitation of (+)-catechin content was omitted because of its small amount. The method was linear over a range of 5-200 µg/ml with good coefficients (r2 > 0.99) for (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin. Limit of detection values were found to be 4.80 µg/ml for (+)-catechin and 5.14 µg/ml for (-)-epicatechin. Limit of quantitation of (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin were of 14.54 µg/ml and 15.57 µg/ml respectively. Good repeatability and intermediate precision (%RSD < 3) were found in this study. The average recoveries of both (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin were obtained with good recovery in the range of 91.11 – 97.02% and 88.53 – 93.78%, respectively, with the %RSD less than 2. The peak purity indices of catechins were more than 0.99. The results suggested that HPLC method proved to be precise and accurate and the method can be conveniently used for (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin determination in ethanolic extract of P. burmanica stem bark. Moreover, the stem bark of P. burmanica was found to be a rich source of (-)-epicatechin.

Keywords: pentace burmanica, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, high performance liquid chromatography

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Authors: Ruttayaporn Ngasaman, Saowakon Indouang, Usa Chethanond

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Leptospirosis is a public health concern zoonosis in Thailand. Human and animals are often infected by contact with contaminated water. The infected animals play an important role in leptospira infection for both human and other hosts via urine. In humans, it can cause a wide range of symptoms, some of which may present mild flu-like symptoms including fever, vomiting, and jaundice. Without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death. The prevalence of leptospirosis in stray animals in Thailand is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate leptospira infection in stray animals including dogs and cats in Songkhla province, Thailand. Total of 434 blood samples were collected from 370 stray dogs and 64 stray cats during the population control program from 2014 to 2018. Screening test using latex agglutination for the detection of antibodies against Leptospira interrogans in serum samples shows 29.26% (127/434) positive. There were 120 positive samples of stray dogs and 7 positive samples of stray cats. Detection by polymerase chain reaction specific to LipL32 gene of Leptospira interrogans showed 1.61% (7/434) positive. Stray cats (5/64) show higher prevalence than stray dogs (2/370). Although active infection was low detected, but seroprevalence was high. This result indicated that stray animals were not active infection during sample collection but they use to get infected or in a latent period of infection. They may act as a reservoir for domestic animals and human in which stay in the same environment. In order to prevent and reduce the risk of leptospira infection in a human, stray animals should be done health checking, vaccination, and disease treatment.

Keywords: leptospirosis, stray animals, risk reduction, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Arpit K. Shrivastava, Nirmal K. Mohakud, Subrat Kumar, Priyadarshi S. Sahu

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Acute diarrhea is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among children less than five years of age. Multiple etiologies have been implicated for infectious gastroenteritis causing acute diarrhea. In our study fecal samples (n=165) were collected from children (<5 years) presenting with symptoms of acute diarrhea. Samples were screened for viral, bacterial, and parasitic etiologies such as Rotavirus, Adenovirus, Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (EPEC, EHEC, STEC, O157, O111), Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholera, Cryptosporidium spp., and Giardia spp. The overall results from our study showed that 57% of children below 5 years of age with acute diarrhea were positive for at least one infectious etiology. Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli was detected to be the major etiological agent (29.09%) followed by Rotavirus (24.24%), Shigella (21.21%), Adenovirus (5.45%), Cryptosporidium (2.42%), and Giardia (0.60%). Among the different DEC strains, EPEC was detected significantly higher in <2 years children in comparison to >2 years age group (p =0.001). Concurrent infections with two or more pathogens were observed in 47 of 160 (28.48%) cases with a predominant incidence particularly in <2-year-old children (66.66%) compared to children of 2 to 5 years age group. Co-infection of Rotavirus with Shigella was the most frequent combination, which was detected in 17.94% cases, followed by Rotavirus with EPEC (15.38%) and Shigella with STEC (12.82%). Detection of multiple infectious etiologies and diagnosis of the right causative agent(s) can immensely help in better management of acute childhood diarrhea. In future more studies focusing on the detection of cases with concurrent infections must be carried out, as we believe that the etiological agents might be complementing each other’s strategies of pathogenesis resulting in severe diarrhea.

Keywords: children, co-infection, infectious diarrhea, Odisha

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Authors: Adel M. Al-Shutairi, Ahmed H. Al-Zahrani

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Tea is a popular beverage drunk by millions of people throughout the globe. Tea has considerable health advantages, in-cluding antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, chemopreventive, and anticarcinogenic properties. As a result of environmental pollution (atmospheric deposition) and the production process, tealeaves may also include a variety of dangerous substances, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, graphene oxide reinforced chitosan/poly-nitroaniline polymer was prepared to develop a sensitive and reliable solid phase extraction method (SPE) for extraction of PAH7 in tea samples, followed by high-performance liquid chromatography- fluorescence detection. The prepared adsorbent was validated in terms of linearity, the limit of detection, the limit of quantification, recovery (%), accuracy (%), and precision (%) for the determination of the PAH7 (benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene and Benzo[g,h,i]perylene) in tea samples. The concentration was determined in two types of tea commercially available in Saudi Arabia, including black tea and green tea. The maximum mean of Σ7PAHs in black tea samples was 68.23 ± 0.02 ug kg-1 and 26.68 ± 0.01 ug kg-1 in green tea samples. The minimum mean of Σ7PAHs in black tea samples was 37.93 ± 0.01 ug kg-1 and 15.26 ± 0.01 ug kg-1 in green tea samples. The mean value of benzo[a]pyrene in black tea samples ranged from 6.85 to 12.17 ug kg-1, where two samples exceeded the standard level (10 ug kg-1) established by the European Union (UE), while in green tea ranged from 1.78 to 2.81 ug kg-1. Low levels of Σ7PAHs in green tea samples were detected in comparison with black tea samples.

Keywords: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, CS, PNA and GO, black/green tea, solid phase extraction, Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Hsiao-Chuan Huang, King-Lung Kuo, Mei-Hsin Lo, Hsiao-Yun Chou, Yusen Lin

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The most robust and economical method for laboratory diagnosis of TB is to identify mycobacterial bacilli (AFB) under acid-fast staining despite its disadvantages of low sensitivity and labor-intensive. Though digital pathology becomes popular in medicine, an automated microscopic system for microbiology is still not available. A new AI-assisted automated microscopic system, consisting of a microscopic scanner and recognition program powered by big data and deep learning, may significantly increase the sensitivity of TB smear microscopy. Thus, the objective is to evaluate such an automatic system for the identification of AFB. A total of 5,930 smears was enrolled for this study. An intelligent microscope system (TB-Scan, Wellgen Medical, Taiwan) was used for microscopic image scanning and AFB detection. 272 AFB smears were used for transfer learning to increase the accuracy. Referee medical technicians were used as Gold Standard for result discrepancy. Results showed that, under a total of 1726 AFB smears, the automated system's accuracy, sensitivity and specificity were 95.6% (1,650/1,726), 87.7% (57/65), and 95.9% (1,593/1,661), respectively. Compared to culture, the sensitivity for human technicians was only 33.8% (38/142); however, the automated system can achieve 74.6% (106/142), which is significantly higher than human technicians, and this is the first of such an automated microscope system for TB smear testing in a controlled trial. This automated system could achieve higher TB smear sensitivity and laboratory efficiency and may complement molecular methods (eg. GeneXpert) to reduce the total cost for TB control. Furthermore, such an automated system is capable of remote access by the internet and can be deployed in the area with limited medical resources.

Keywords: TB smears, automated microscope, artificial intelligence, medical imaging

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Authors: Elizaveta S. Prokofyeva, Svetlana V. Maltseva, Roman D. Zaitsev

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Rapidly evolving modern data analysis technologies in healthcare play a large role in understanding the operation of the system and its characteristics. Nowadays, one of the key tasks in urban healthcare is to optimize the resource allocation. Thus, the application of data analysis in medical institutions to solve optimization problems determines the significance of this study. The purpose of this research was to establish the dependence between the indicators of the effectiveness of the medical institution and its resources. Hospital discharges by diagnosis; hospital days of in-patients and in-patient average length of stay were selected as the performance indicators and the demand of the medical facility. The hospital beds by type of care, medical technology (magnetic resonance tomography, gamma cameras, angiographic complexes and lithotripters) and physicians characterized the resource provision of medical institutions for the developed models. The data source for the research was an open database of the statistical service Eurostat. The choice of the source is due to the fact that the databases contain complete and open information necessary for research tasks in the field of public health. In addition, the statistical database has a user-friendly interface that allows you to quickly build analytical reports. The study provides information on 28 European for the period from 2007 to 2016. For all countries included in the study, with the most accurate and complete data for the period under review, predictive models were developed based on historical panel data. An attempt to improve the quality and the interpretation of the models was made by cluster analysis of the investigated set of countries. The main idea was to assess the similarity of the joint behavior of the variables throughout the time period under consideration to identify groups of similar countries and to construct the separate regression models for them. Therefore, the original time series were used as the objects of clustering. The hierarchical agglomerate algorithm k-medoids was used. The sampled objects were used as the centers of the clusters obtained, since determining the centroid when working with time series involves additional difficulties. The number of clusters used the silhouette coefficient. After the cluster analysis it was possible to significantly improve the predictive power of the models: for example, in the one of the clusters, MAPE error was only 0,82%, which makes it possible to conclude that this forecast is highly reliable in the short term. The obtained predicted values of the developed models have a relatively low level of error and can be used to make decisions on the resource provision of the hospital by medical personnel. The research displays the strong dependencies between the demand for the medical services and the modern medical equipment variable, which highlights the importance of the technological component for the successful development of the medical facility. Currently, data analysis has a huge potential, which allows to significantly improving health services. Medical institutions that are the first to introduce these technologies will certainly have a competitive advantage.

Keywords: data analysis, demand modeling, healthcare, medical facilities

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Authors: I. Schäfer, B. Kohn, M. Volkmann, E. Müller

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Introduction: Blood-feeding arthropods transmit parasitic, bacterial, or viral pathogens to domestic animals and wildlife. Vector-borne infections are gaining significance due to the increase of travel, import of domestic animals from abroad, and the changing climate in Europe. Aims of the study: The main objective of this retrospective study was to assess the prevalence of vector-borne infections in cats in which a ‘Feline Travel Profile’ had been conducted. Material and Methods: This retrospective study included test results from cats for which a ‘Feline Travel Profile’ established by LABOKLIN had been requested by veterinarians between April 2012 and December 2019. This profile contains direct detection methods via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Hepatozoon spp. and Dirofilaria spp. as well as indirect detection methods via immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) for Ehrlichia spp. and Leishmania spp. This profile was expanded to include an IFAT for Rickettsia spp. from July 2015 onwards. The prevalence of the different vector-borne infectious agents was calculated. Results: A total of 602 cats were tested using the ‘Feline Travel Profile’. Positive test results were as follows: Rickettsia spp. IFAT 54/442 (12.2%), Ehrlichia spp. IFAT 68/602 (11.3%), Leishmania spp. IFAT 21/602 (3.5%), Hepatozoon spp. PCR 51/595 (8.6%), and Dirofilaria spp. PCR 1/595 cats (0.2%). Co-infections with more than one pathogen could be detected in 22/602 cats. Conclusions: 170/602 cats (28.2%) were tested positive for at least one vector-borne pathogen. Infections with multiple pathogens could be detected in 3.7% of the cats. The data emphasizes the importance of considering vector-borne infections as potential differential diagnoses in cats.

Keywords: arthopod-transmitted infections, feline vector-borne infections, Germany, laboratory diagnostics

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Authors: Mirco Tarozzi, Giacomo Pignagnoli, Andrea Benedetti

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Structural systems are often subjected to degradation processes due to different kind of phenomena like unexpected loadings, ageing of the materials and fatigue cycles. This is true especially for bridges, in which their safety evaluation is crucial for the purpose of a design of planning maintenance. This paper discusses the experimental evaluation of the stiffness reduction from frequency changes due to uniform damage scenario. For this purpose, a 1:4 scaled bridge has been built in the laboratory of the University of Bologna. It is made of concrete and its cross section is composed by a slab linked to four beams. This concrete deck is 6 m long and 3 m wide, and its natural frequencies have been identified dynamically by exciting it with an impact hammer, a dropping weight, or by walking on it randomly. After that, a set of loading cycles has been applied to this bridge in order to produce a uniformly distributed crack pattern. During the loading phase, either cracking moment and yielding moment has been reached. In order to define the relationship between frequency variation and loss in stiffness, the identification of the natural frequencies of the bridge has been performed, before and after the occurrence of the damage, corresponding to each load step. The behavior of breathing cracks and its effect on the natural frequencies has been taken into account in the analytical calculations. By using a sort of exponential function given from the study of lot of experimental tests in the literature, it has been possible to predict the stiffness reduction through the frequency variation measurements. During the load test also crack opening and middle span vertical displacement has been monitored.

Keywords: concrete bridge, damage detection, dynamic test, frequency shifts, operational modal analysis

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Authors: Huong M. T. Nguyen, Hoa A. P. Nguyen, Mai P. T. Nguyen, Ngoc D. Ngo, Van T. Ta, Hai T. Le, Chi V. Phan

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Wilson’s disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of the copper metabolism, which is caused by a mutation in the copper-transporting P-type ATPase (ATP7B). The mechanism of this disease is the failure of hepatic excretion of copper to bile, and leads to copper deposits in the liver and other organs. The ATP7B gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 13 (13q14.3). This study aimed to investigate the gene mutation in the Vietnamese patients with WD, and make a presymptomatic diagnosis for their familial members. Forty-three WD patients and their 65 siblings were identified as having ATP7B gene mutations. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples; 21 exons and exon-intron boundaries of the ATP7B gene were analyzed by direct sequencing. We recognized four mutations ([R723=; H724Tfs*34], V1042Cfs*79, D1027H, and IVS6+3A>G) in the sum of 20 detectable mutations, accounting for 87.2% of the total. Mutation S105* was determined to have a high rate (32.6%) in this study. The hotspot regions of ATP7B were found at exons 2, 16, and 8, and intron 14, in 39.6 %, 11.6 %, 9.3%, and 7 % of patients, respectively. Among nine homozygote/compound heterozygote siblings of the patients with WD, three individuals were determined as asymptomatic by screening mutations of the probands. They would begin treatment after diagnosis. In conclusion, 20 different mutations were detected in 43 WD patients. Of this number, four novel mutations were explored, including [R723=; H724Tfs*34], V1042Cfs*79, D1027H, and IVS6+3A>G. The mutation S105* is the most prevalent and has been considered as a biomarker that can be used in a rapid detection assay for diagnosis of WD patients. Exons 2, 8, and 16, and intron 14 should be screened initially for WD patients in Vietnam. Based on risk profile for WD, genetic testing for presymptomatic patients is also useful in diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: ATP7B gene, mutation detection, presymptomatic diagnosis, Vietnamese Wilson’s disease

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Authors: Keita Nishio, Takashi Kaburagi, Yosuke Kurihara

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Recent advances in medical technology have served to enhance average life expectancy. However, the total time for which the patients are prescribed complete bedrest has also increased. With patients being required to maintain a constant lying posture- also called bedsore- development of a system to detect patient roll-over becomes imperative. For this purpose, extant studies have proposed the use of cameras, and favorable results have been reported. Continuous on-camera monitoring, however, tends to violate patient privacy. We have proposed unconstrained bio-signal measurement system that could detect body-motion during sleep and does not violate patient’s privacy. Therefore, in this study, we propose a roll-over detection method by the date obtained from the bi-signal measurement system. Signals recorded by the sensor were assumed to comprise respiration, pulse, body motion, and noise components. Compared the body-motion and respiration, pulse component, the body-motion, during roll-over, generate large vibration. Thus, analysis of the body-motion component facilitates detection of the roll-over tendency. The large vibration associated with the roll-over motion has a great effect on the Root Mean Square (RMS) value of time series of the body motion component calculated during short 10 s segments. After calculation, the RMS value during each segment was compared to a threshold value set in advance. If RMS value in any segment exceeded the threshold, corresponding data were considered to indicate occurrence of a roll-over. In order to validate the proposed method, we conducted experiment. A bi-directional microphone was adopted as a high-sensitivity pressure sensor and was placed between the mattress and bedframe. Recorded signals passed through an analog Band-pass Filter (BPF) operating over the 0.16-16 Hz bandwidth. BPF allowed the respiration, pulse, and body-motion to pass whilst removing the noise component. Output from BPF was A/D converted with the sampling frequency 100Hz, and the measurement time was 480 seconds. The number of subjects and data corresponded to 5 and 10, respectively. Subjects laid on a mattress in the supine position. During data measurement, subjects—upon the investigator's instruction—were asked to roll over into four different positions—supine to left lateral, left lateral to prone, prone to right lateral, and right lateral to supine. Recorded data was divided into 48 segments with 10 s intervals, and the corresponding RMS value for each segment was calculated. The system was evaluated by the accuracy between the investigator’s instruction and the detected segment. As the result, an accuracy of 100% was achieved. While reviewing the time series of recorded data, segments indicating roll-over tendencies were observed to demonstrate a large amplitude. However, clear differences between decubitus and the roll-over motion could not be confirmed. Extant researches possessed a disadvantage in terms of patient privacy. The proposed study, however, demonstrates more precise detection of patient roll-over tendencies without violating their privacy. As a future prospect, decubitus estimation before and after roll-over could be attempted. Since in this paper, we could not confirm the clear differences between decubitus and the roll-over motion, future studies could be based on utilization of the respiration and pulse components.

Keywords: bedsore, high-sensitivity pressure sensor, roll-over, unconstrained bio-signal measurement

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Authors: Moez Elsaadani, Noel Durand, Brice Sorli, Didier Montet

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Governments and international instances are trying to improve the food safety system to prevent, reduce or avoid the increase of food borne diseases. This food risk is one of the major concerns for the humanity. The contamination by mycotoxins is a threat to the health and life of humans and animals. One of the most common mycotoxin contaminating feed and foodstuffs is Ochratoxin A (OTA), which is a secondary metabolite, produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium strains. OTA has a chronic toxic effect and proved to be mutagenic, nephrotoxic, teratogenic, immunosuppressive, and carcinogenic. On the other side, because of their high stability, specificity, affinity, and their easy chemical synthesis, aptamer based methods are applied to OTA biosensing as alternative to traditional analytical technique. In this work, five aptamers have been tested to confirm qualitatively and quantitatively their binding with OTA. In the same time, three different analytical methods were tested and compared based on their ability to detect and quantify the OTA. The best protocol that was established to quantify free OTA from linked OTA involved an ultrafiltration method in green coffee solution with. OTA was quantified by HPLC-FLD to calculate the binding percentage of all five aptamers. One aptamer (The most effective with 87% binding with OTA) has been selected to be our biorecognition element to study its electrical response (variation of electrical properties) in the presence of OTA in order to be able to make a pairing with a radio frequency identification (RFID). This device, which is characterized by its low cost, speed, and a simple wireless information transmission, will implement the knowledge on the mycotoxins molecular sensors (aptamers), an electronic device that will link the information, the quantification and make it available to operators.

Keywords: aptamer, aptasensor, detection, Ochratoxin A

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Authors: Nasim Hashemi, Abbas Sheikhtaheri

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Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies to provide health care services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities to people at these remote areas. Teleophthalmology is a branch of telemedicine that delivers eye care through digital medical equipment and telecommunications technology. Thus, teleophthalmology can overcome geographical barriers and improve quality, access, and affordability of eye health care services. Since teleophthalmology has been widespread applied in recent years, the aim of this study was to determine the different applications of teleophthalmology in the world. To this end, three bibliographic databases (Medline, ScienceDirect, Scopus) were comprehensively searched with these keywords: eye care, eye health care, primary eye care, diagnosis, detection, and screening of different eye diseases in conjunction with telemedicine, telehealth, teleophthalmology, e-services, and information technology. All types of papers were included in the study with no time restriction. We conducted the search strategies until 2015. Finally 70 articles were surveyed. We classified the results based on the’type of eye problems covered’ and ‘the type of telemedicine services’. Based on the review, from the ‘perspective of health care levels’, there are three level for eye health care as primary, secondary and tertiary eye care. From the ‘perspective of eye care services’, the main application of teleophthalmology in primary eye care was related to the diagnosis of different eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, strabismus and aged related macular degeneration. The main application of teleophthalmology in secondary and tertiary eye care was related to the screening of eye problems i.e. diabetic retinopathy, astigmatism, glaucoma screening. Teleconsultation between health care providers and ophthalmologists and also education and training sessions for patients were other types of teleophthalmology in world. Real time, store–forward and hybrid methods were the main forms of the communication from the perspective of ‘teleophthalmology mode’ which is used based on IT infrastructure between sending and receiving centers. In aspect of specialists, early detection of serious aged-related ophthalmic disease in population, screening of eye disease processes, consultation in an emergency cases and comprehensive eye examination were the most important benefits of teleophthalmology. Cost-effectiveness of teleophthalmology projects resulted from reducing transportation and accommodation cost, access to affordable eye care services and receiving specialist opinions were also the main advantages of teleophthalmology for patients. Teleophthalmology brings valuable secondary and tertiary care to remote areas. So, applying teleophthalmology for detection, treatment and screening purposes and expanding its use in new applications such as eye surgery will be a key tool to promote public health and integrating eye care to primary health care.

Keywords: applications, telehealth, telemedicine, teleophthalmology

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Authors: Yuta Nakano, Kozo Kajiwara, Atsushi Hori, Takeshi Fujita

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In association with the wave of electric vehicles (EV), low energy consumption systems have become more and more important. One of the key technologies to realize low energy consumption is a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), or we can call it an event sensor, neuromorphic vision sensor and so on. This sensor has several features, such as high temporal resolution, which can achieve 1 Mframe/s, and a high dynamic range (120 DB). However, the point that can contribute to low energy consumption the most is its sparsity; to be more specific, this sensor only captures the pixels that have intensity change. In other words, there is no signal in the area that does not have any intensity change. That is to say, this sensor is more energy efficient than conventional sensors such as RGB cameras because we can remove redundant data. On the other side of the advantages, it is difficult to handle the data because the data format is completely different from RGB image; for example, acquired signals are asynchronous and sparse, and each signal is composed of x-y coordinate, polarity (two values: +1 or -1) and time stamp, it does not include intensity such as RGB values. Therefore, as we cannot use existing algorithms straightforwardly, we have to design a new processing algorithm to cope with DVS data. In order to solve difficulties caused by data format differences, most of the prior arts make a frame data and feed it to deep learning such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for object detection and recognition purposes. However, even though we can feed the data, it is still difficult to achieve good performance due to a lack of intensity information. Although polarity is often used as intensity instead of RGB pixel value, it is apparent that polarity information is not rich enough. Considering this context, we proposed to use the timestamp information as a data representation that is fed to deep learning. Concretely, at first, we also make frame data divided by a certain time period, then give intensity value in response to the timestamp in each frame; for example, a high value is given on a recent signal. We expected that this data representation could capture the features, especially of moving objects, because timestamp represents the movement direction and speed. By using this proposal method, we made our own dataset by DVS fixed on a parked car to develop an application for a surveillance system that can detect persons around the car. We think DVS is one of the ideal sensors for surveillance purposes because this sensor can run for a long time with low energy consumption in a NOT dynamic situation. For comparison purposes, we reproduced state of the art method as a benchmark, which makes frames the same as us and feeds polarity information to CNN. Then, we measured the object detection performances of the benchmark and ours on the same dataset. As a result, our method achieved a maximum of 7 points greater than the benchmark in the F1 score.

Keywords: event camera, dynamic vision sensor, deep learning, data representation, object recognition, low energy consumption

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Authors: F. M. Pisano, M. Ciminello

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Aerospace, mechanical, and civil engineering infrastructures can take advantages from damage detection and identification strategies in terms of maintenance cost reduction and operational life improvements, as well for safety scopes. The challenge is to detect so called “barely visible impact damage” (BVID), due to low/medium energy impacts, that can progressively compromise the structure integrity. The occurrence of any local change in material properties, that can degrade the structure performance, is to be monitored using so called Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems, in charge of comparing the structure states before and after damage occurs. SHM seeks for any "anomalous" response collected by means of sensor networks and then analyzed using appropriate algorithms. Independently of the specific analysis approach adopted for structural damage detection and localization, textual reports, tables and graphs describing possible outlier coordinates and damage severity are usually provided as artifacts to be elaborated for information extraction about the current health conditions of the structure under investigation. Visual Analytics can support the processing of monitored measurements offering data navigation and exploration tools leveraging the native human capabilities of understanding images faster than texts and tables. Herein, a SHM system enrichment by integration of a Visual Analytics component is investigated. Analytical dashboards have been created by combining worksheets, so that a useful Visual Analytics tool is provided to structural analysts for exploring the structure health conditions examined by a Principal Component Analysis based algorithm.

Keywords: interactive dashboards, optical fibers, structural health monitoring, visual analytics

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Authors: Samah Jawad Jabari

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Water is the most important and valuable resource not only for human life but also for all living things on the planet. The water supply utilities should fulfill the water requirement quantitatively and qualitatively. Drinking water systems are exposed to both natural (hurricanes and flood) and manmade hazards (risks) that are common in Palestine. Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is a manmade risk which remains a major concern in Palestine, as the NRW levels are estimated to be at a high level. In this research, Hebron city water distribution network was taken as a case study to estimate and audit the NRW levels. The research also investigated the state of the existing water distribution system in the study area by investigating the water losses and obtained more information on NRW prevention and management practices. Data and information have been collected from the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and Hebron Municipality (HM) archive. In addition to that, a questionnaire has been designed and administered by the researcher in order to collect the necessary data for water auditing. The questionnaire also assessed the views of stakeholder in PWA and HM (staff) on the current status of the NRW in the Hebron water distribution system. The important result obtained by this research shows that NRW in Hebron city was high and in excess of 30%. The main factors that contribute to NRW were the inaccuracies in billing volumes, unauthorized consumption, and the method of estimating consumptions through faulty meters. Policy for NRW reduction is available in Palestine; however, it is clear that the number of qualified staff available to carry out the activities related to leak detection is low, and that there is a lack of appropriate technologies to reduce water losses and undertake sufficient system maintenance, which needs to be improved to enhance the performance of the network and decrease the level of NRW losses.

Keywords: non-revenue water, water auditing, leak detection, water meters

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Authors: Sung-Hyeon Park, Jin-Wook Jang, Hak-Sung Kim

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In recent years, Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) imaging method has been received considerable interest as a promising non-destructive technique for detection of internal defects. In comparison to other non-destructive techniques such as x-ray inspection method, scanning acoustic tomograph (SAT) and microwave inspection method, THz-TDS imaging method has many advantages: First, it can measure the exact thickness and location of defects. Second, it doesn’t require the liquid couplant while it is very crucial to deliver that power of ultrasonic wave in SAT method. Third, it didn’t damage to materials and be harmful to human bodies while x-ray inspection method does. Finally, it exhibits better spatial resolution than microwave inspection method. However, this technology couldn’t be applied to IC package because THz radiation can penetrate through a wide variety of materials including polymers and ceramics except of metals. Therefore, it is difficult to detect the defects in IC package which are composed of not only epoxy and semiconductor materials but also various metals such as copper, aluminum and gold. In this work, we proposed a special method for detecting the void in the IC package using THz-TDS imaging system. The IC package specimens for this study are prepared by Packaging Engineering Team in Samsung Electronics. Our THz-TDS imaging system has a special reflection mode called pitch-catch mode which can change the incidence angle in the reflection mode from 10 o to 70 o while the others have transmission and the normal reflection mode or the reflection mode fixed at certain angle. Therefore, to find the voids in the IC package, we investigated the appropriate angle as changing the incidence angle of THz wave emitter and detector. As the results, the voids in the IC packages were successfully detected using our THz-TDS imaging system.

Keywords: terahertz, non-destructive technique, void, IC package

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Authors: Béla Kovács, Éva Bódi, Farzaneh Garousi, Szilvia Várallyay, Áron Soós, Xénia Vágó, Dávid Andrási

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In agriculture for analysis of elements in different food and food raw materials, moreover environmental samples generally flame atomic absorption spectrometers (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometers (GF-AAS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometers (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers (ICP-MS) are routinely applied. An inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) is capable for analysis of 70-80 elements in multielemental mode, from 1-5 cm3 volume of a sample, moreover the detection limits of elements are in µg/kg-ng/kg (ppb-ppt) concentration range. All the analytical instruments have different physical and chemical interfering effects analysing the above types of samples. The smaller the concentration of an analyte and the larger the concentration of the matrix the larger the interfering effects. Nowadays there is very important to analyse growingly smaller concentrations of elements. From the above analytical instruments generally the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer is capable of analysing the smallest concentration of elements. The applied ICP-MS instrument has Collision Cell Technology (CCT) also. Using CCT mode certain elements have better (smaller) detection limits with 1-3 magnitudes comparing to a normal ICP-MS analytical method. The CCT mode has better detection limits mainly for analysis of selenium, arsenic, germanium, vanadium and chromium. To elaborate an analytical method for trace elements with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer the most important interfering effects (problems) were evaluated: 1) Physical interferences; 2) Spectral interferences (elemental and molecular isobaric); 3) Effect of easily ionisable elements; 4) Memory interferences. Analysing food and food raw materials, moreover environmental samples an other (new) interfering effect emerged in ICP-MS, namely the effect of various matrixes having different evaporation and nebulization effectiveness, moreover having different quantity of carbon content of food and food raw materials, moreover environmental samples. In our research work the effect of different water-soluble compounds furthermore the effect of various quantity of carbon content (as sample matrix) were examined on changes of intensity of the applied elements. So finally we could find “opportunities” to decrease or eliminate the error of the analyses of applied elements (Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ge, As, Se, Mo, Cd, Sn, Sb, Te, Hg, Pb, Bi). To analyse these elements in the above samples, the most appropriate inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer is a quadrupole instrument applying a collision cell technique (CCT). The extent of interfering effect of carbon content depends on the type of compounds. The carbon content significantly affects the measured concentration (intensities) of the above elements, which can be corrected using different internal standards.

Keywords: elements, environmental and food samples, ICP-MS, interference effects

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Authors: Jaco Oosthuizen, Nerina C. Van Der Merwe

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The National Health Laboratory Services in Bloemfontien has been the diagnostic testing facility for 1830 patients for familial breast cancer since 1997. From the cohort, 540 were comprehensively screened using High-Resolution Melting Analysis or Next Generation Sequencing for the presence of point mutations and/or indels. Approximately 90% of these patients stil remain undiagnosed as they are BRCA1/2 negative. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification was initially added to screen for copy number variation detection, but with the introduction of next generation sequencing in 2017, was substituted and is currently used as a confirmation assay. The aim was to investigate the viability of utilizing internationally designed copy number variation detection assays based on mostly European/Caucasian genomic data for use within a South African context. The multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification technique is based on the hybridization and subsequent ligation of multiple probes to a targeted exon. The ligated probes are amplified using conventional polymerase chain reaction, followed by fragment analysis by means of capillary electrophoresis. The experimental design of the assay was performed according to the guidelines of MRC-Holland. For BRCA1 (P002-D1) and BRCA2 (P045-B3), both multiplex assays were validated, and results were confirmed using a secondary probe set for each gene. The next generation sequencing technique is based on target amplification via multiplex polymerase chain reaction, where after the amplicons are sequenced parallel on a semiconductor chip. Amplified read counts are visualized as relative copy numbers to determine the median of the absolute values of all pairwise differences. Various experimental parameters such as DNA quality, quantity, and signal intensity or read depth were verified using positive and negative patients previously tested internationally. DNA quality and quantity proved to be the critical factors during the verification of both assays. The quantity influenced the relative copy number frequency directly whereas the quality of the DNA and its salt concentration influenced denaturation consistency in both assays. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification produced false positives due to ligation failure when ligation was inhibited due to a variant present within the ligation site. Next generation sequencing produced false positives due to read dropout when primer sequences did not meet optimal multiplex binding kinetics due to population variants in the primer binding site. The analytical sensitivity and specificity for the South African population have been proven. Verification resulted in repeatable reactions with regards to the detection of relative copy number differences. Both multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and next generation sequencing multiplex panels need to be optimized to accommodate South African polymorphisms present within the genetically diverse ethnic groups to reduce the false copy number variation positive rate and increase performance efficiency.

Keywords: familial breast cancer, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, next generation sequencing, South Africa

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Authors: Lok Bahadur Shrestha, Narayan Raj Bhattarai, Basudha Khanal

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Introduction: Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the normal commensal of human skin and mucous membranes. The study was carried out to study the prevalence of CoNS among clinical isolates, to characterize them up to species level and to compare the three conventional methods for detection of biofilm formation. Objectives: to characterize the clinically significant coagulase-negative staphylococci up to species level, to compare the three phenotypic methods for the detection of biofilm formation and to study the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates. Methods: CoNS isolates were obtained from various clinical samples during the period of 1 year. Characterization up to species level was done using biochemical test and study of biofilm formation was done by tube adherence, congo red agar, and tissue culture plate method. Results: Among 71 CoNS isolates, seven species were identified. S. epidermidis was the most common species followed by S. saprophyticus, S. haemolyticus. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of CoNS documented resistance of 90% to ampicillin. Resistance to cefoxitin and ceftriaxone was observed in 55% of the isolates. We detected biofilm formation in 71.8% of isolates. The sensitivity of tube adherence method was 82% while that of congo red agar method was 78%. Conclusion: Among 71 CoNS isolated, S. epidermidis was the most common isolates followed by S. saprophyticus and S. haemolyticus. Biofilm formation was detected in 71.8% of the isolates. All of the methods were effective at detecting biofilm-producing CoNS strains. Biofilm former strains are more resistant to antibiotics as compared to biofilm non-formers.

Keywords: CoNS, congo red agar, bloodstream infections, foreign body-related infections, tissue culture plate

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Authors: Jiangbo Li, Wenqian Huang

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Early detection of fungal infection in citrus fruit is one of the major problems in the postharvest commercialization process. The automatic and nondestructive detection of infected fruits is still a challenge for the citrus industry. At present, the visual inspection of rotten citrus fruits is commonly performed by workers through the ultraviolet induction fluorescence technology or manual sorting in citrus packinghouses to remove fruit subject with fungal infection. However, the former entails a number of problems because exposing people to this kind of lighting is potentially hazardous to human health, and the latter is very inefficient. Orange is used as a research object. This study would focus on this problem and proposed an effective method based on Vis-NIR hyperspectral imaging in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm with a spectroscopic resolution of 2.8 nm. In this work, three normalization approaches are applied prior to analysis to reduce the effect of sample curvature on spectral profiles, and it is found that mean normalization was the most effective pretreatment for decreasing spectral variability due to curvature. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to a dataset composing of average spectra from decayed and normal tissue to reduce the dimensionality of data and observe the ability of Vis-NIR hyper-spectra to discriminate data from two classes. In this case, it was observed that normal and decayed spectra were separable along the resultant first principal component (PC1) axis. Subsequently, five wavelengths (band) centered at 577, 702, 751, 808, and 923 nm were selected as the characteristic wavelengths by analyzing the loadings of PC1. A multispectral combination image was generated based on five selected characteristic wavelength images. Based on the obtained multispectral combination image, the intensity slicing pseudocolor image processing method is used to generate a 2-D visual classification image that would enhance the contrast between normal and decayed tissue. Finally, an image segmentation algorithm for detection of decayed fruit was developed based on the pseudocolor image coupled with a simple thresholding method. For the investigated 238 independent set samples including infected fruits infected by Penicillium digitatum and normal fruits, the total success rate is 100% and 97.5%, respectively, and, the proposed algorithm also used to identify the orange infected by penicillium italicum with a 100% identification accuracy, indicating that the proposed multispectral algorithm here is an effective method and it is potential to be applied in citrus industry.

Keywords: citrus fruit, early rotten, fungal infection, hyperspectral imaging

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Authors: Joulié Aurélien, Isabelle Desjardins, Elsa Jourdain, Sophie Pradier, Dufour Philippe, Elodie Rousset, Agnès Leblond

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Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It may infect a broad range of host species, including horses. Although the role of horses in C. burnetii infections remains unknown, their use as sentinel species may be interesting to better assess the human risk exposure. Thus, we aimed to assess the C. burnetii horse exposition in a French endemic area by describing the antibody dynamics detected in serum; investigating the pathogen circulation in the horse environment, and exploring potential links with unexplained syndromes. Blood samples were collected in 2015 and 2016 on 338 and 294 horses, respectively and analyzed by ELISA. Ticks collected on horses were identified, and C. burnetii DNA detection was performed by qPCR targeting the IS1111 gene. Blood sample analyses revealed a significant increase of the seroprevalence in horses between both years, from 11% [7.67; 14.43] to 25% [20.06; 29.94]. On 36 seropositive horses in 2015 and 73 in 2016, 5 and four respectively showed clinical signs compatible with a C. burnetii infection (i.e., chronic fever or respiratory disorders, unfitness and unexplained weight loss). DNA was detected in almost 40% of ticks (n=59/148 in 2015 and n=103/305 in 2016) and exceptionally in dust samples (n=2/46 in 2015 and n=1/14 in 2016) every year. The C. burnetti detection in both the serum and the environment of horses confirm their exposure to the bacterium. Therefore, consideration should be given to target a relevant sentinel species to better assess the Q fever surveillance depending on the epidemiological context.

Keywords: ELISA, Q fever, qPCR, syndromic surveillance

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Authors: Mehmet Akif Bütüner, İlhan Koşalay

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Hydroelectric power plants (HEPPs) are renewable energy power plants with the highest installed power in the world. While the control systems operating in these power plants ensure that the system operates at the desired operating point, it is also responsible for stopping the relevant unit safely in case of any malfunction. While these control systems are expected not to miss signals that require stopping, on the other hand, it is desired not to cause unnecessary stops. In traditional control systems including modern systems with SCADA infrastructure, alarm conditions to create warnings or trip conditions to put relevant unit out of service automatically are usually generated with predefined limits regardless of different operating conditions. This approach results in alarm/trip conditions to be less likely to detect minimal changes which may result in serious malfunction scenarios in near future. With the methods proposed in this research, routine behavior of the oil circulation of hydraulic governor of a HEPP will be modeled with machine learning methods using historical data obtained from SCADA system. Using the created model and recently gathered data from control system, oil pressure of hydraulic accumulators will be estimated. Comparison of this estimation with the measurements made and recorded instantly by the SCADA system will help to foresee failure before becoming worse and determine remaining useful life. By using model outputs, maintenance works will be made more planned, so that undesired stops are prevented, and in case of any malfunction, the system will be stopped or several alarms are triggered before the problem grows.

Keywords: hydroelectric, governor, anomaly detection, machine learning, regression

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Authors: S. Trafela, X. Xua, K. Zuzek Rozmana

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In this study, we used an accurate and precise method to measure the electrochemically active surface areas (Aecsa) of nickel electrodes. Calculated Aecsa is really important for the evaluation of an electro-catalyst’s activity in electrochemical reaction of different organic compounds. The method involves the electrochemical formation of Ni(OH)₂ and NiOOH in the presence of adsorbed oxalate in alkaline media. The studies were carried out using cyclic voltammetry with polycrystalline nickel as a reference material and electrodeposited nickel nanowires, homogeneous and heterogeneous nickel films. From cyclic voltammograms, the charge (Q) values for the formation of Ni(OH)₂ and NiOOH surface oxides were calculated under various conditions. At sufficiently fast potential scan rates (200 mV s⁻¹), the adsorbed oxalate limits the growth of the surface hydroxides to a monolayer. Although the Ni(OH)₂/NiOOH oxidation peak overlaps with the oxygen evolution reaction, in the reverse scan, the NiOOH/ Ni(OH)₂ reduction peak is well-separated from other electrochemical processes and can be easily integrated. The values of these integrals were used to correlate experimentally measured charge density with an electrochemically active surface layer. The Aecsa of the nickel nanowires, homogeneous and heterogeneous nickel films were calculated to be Aecsa-NiNWs = 4.2066 ± 0.0472 cm², Aecsa-homNi = 1.7175 ± 0.0503 cm² and Aecsa-hetNi = 2.1862 ± 0.0154 cm². These valuable results were expanded and used in electrochemical studies of formaldehyde oxidation. As mentioned nickel nanowires, heterogeneous and homogeneous nickel films were used as simple and efficient sensor for formaldehyde detection. For this purpose, electrodeposited nickel electrodes were modified in 0.1 mol L⁻¹ solution of KOH in order to expect electrochemical activity towards formaldehyde. The investigation of the electrochemical behavior of formaldehyde oxidation in 0.1 mol L⁻¹ NaOH solution at the surface of modified nickel nanowires, homogeneous and heterogeneous nickel films were carried out by means of electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetric and chronoamperometric methods. From investigations of effect of different formaldehyde concentrations (from 0.001 to 0.1 mol L⁻¹) on electrochemical signal - current we provided catalysis mechanism of formaldehyde oxidation, detection limit and sensitivity of nickel electrodes. The results indicated that nickel electrodes participate directly in the electrocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde. In the overall reaction, formaldehyde in alkaline aqueous solution exists predominantly in form of CH₂(OH)O⁻, which is oxidized to CH₂(O)O⁻. Taking into account the determined (Aecsa) values we have been able to calculate the sensitivities: 7 mA mol L⁻¹ cm⁻² for nickel nanowires, 3.5 mA mol L⁻¹ cm⁻² for heterogeneous nickel film and 2 mA mol L⁻¹ cm⁻² for heterogeneous nickel film. The detection limit was 0.2 mM for nickel nanowires, 0.5 mM for porous Ni film and 0.8 mM for homogeneous Ni film. All of these results make nickel electrodes capable for further applications.

Keywords: electrochemically active surface areas, nickel electrodes, formaldehyde, electrocatalytic oxidation

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Authors: Taslim Khan, Ray Hua Horng, Rajendra Singh

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This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the design, fabrication, and performance evaluation of a solar-blind Schottky photodetector based on ZnGa₂O₄ grown via MOCVD, utilizing Ni/Au as the Schottky electrode. ZnGa₂O₄, with its wide bandgap of 5.2 eV, is well-suited for high-performance solar-blind photodetection applications. The photodetector demonstrates an impressive responsivity of 280 A/W, indicating its exceptional sensitivity within the solar-blind ultraviolet band. One of the device's notable attributes is its high rejection ratio of 10⁵, which effectively filters out unwanted background signals, enhancing its reliability in various environments. The photodetector also boasts a photodetector responsivity contrast ratio (PDCR) of 10⁷, showcasing its ability to detect even minor changes in incident UV light. Additionally, the device features an outstanding detective of 10¹⁸ Jones, underscoring its capability to precisely detect faint UV signals. It exhibits a fast response time of 80 ms and an ON/OFF ratio of 10⁵, making it suitable for real-time UV sensing applications. The noise-equivalent power (NEP) of 10^-17 W/Hz further highlights its efficiency in detecting low-intensity UV signals. The photodetector also achieves a high forward-to-backward current rejection ratio of 10⁶, ensuring high selectivity. Furthermore, the device maintains an extremely low dark current of approximately 0.1 pA. These findings position the ZnGa₂O₄-based Schottky photodetector as a leading candidate for solar-blind UV detection applications. It offers a compelling combination of sensitivity, selectivity, and operational efficiency, making it a highly promising tool for environments requiring precise and reliable UV detection.

Keywords: wideband gap, solar blind photodetector, MOCVD, zinc gallate

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Authors: Ahmed M. Debela, Mayreli Ortiz , Ciara K. O´Sullivan

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The completion of the human genome Project (HGP) has paved the way for mapping the diversity in the overall genome sequence which helps to understand the genetic causes of inherited diseases and susceptibility to drugs or environmental toxins. Arrayed primer extension (APEX) is a microarray based minisequencing strategy for screening disease causing mutations. It is derived from Sanger DNA sequencing and uses fluorescently dideoxynucleotides (ddNTPs) for termination of a growing DNA strand from a primer with its 3´- end designed immediately upstream of a site where single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) occurs. The use of DNA polymerase offers a very high accuracy and specificity to APEX which in turn happens to be a method of choice for multiplex SNP detection. Coupling the high specificity of this method with the high sensitivity, low cost and compatibility for miniaturization of electrochemical techniques would offer an excellent platform for detection of mutation as well as sequencing of DNA templates. We are developing an electrochemical APEX for the analysis of SNPs found in the MYH7 gene for group of cardiomyopathy patients. ddNTPs were labeled with four different redox active compounds with four distinct potentials. Thiolated oligonucleotide probes were immobilised on gold and glassy carbon substrates which are followed by hybridisation with complementary target DNA just adjacent to the base to be extended by polymerase. Electrochemical interrogation was performed after the incorporation of the redox labelled dedioxynucleotide. The work involved the synthesis and characterisation of the redox labelled ddNTPs, optimisation and characterisation of surface functionalisation strategies and the nucleotide incorporation assays.

Keywords: array based primer extension, labelled ddNTPs, electrochemical, mutations

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Authors: Neha Batra Bali, Monika Tomar, Vinay Gupta

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A reagentless biosensor for detection of urea based on ZnO-CuO composite thin film is presented in following work. Biosensors have immense potential for varied applications ranging from environmental to clinical testing, health care, and cell analysis. Immense growth in the field of biosensors is due to the huge requirement in today’s world to develop techniques which are both cost effective and accurate for prevention of disease manifestation. The human body comprises of numerous biomolecules which in their optimum levels are essential for functioning. However mismanaged levels of these biomolecules result in major health issues. Urea is one of the key biomolecules of interest. Its estimation is of paramount significance not only for healthcare sector but also from environmental perspectives. If level of urea in human blood/serum is abnormal, i.e., above or below physiological range (15-40mg/dl)), it may lead to diseases like renal failure, hepatic failure, nephritic syndrome, cachexia, urinary tract obstruction, dehydration, shock, burns and gastrointestinal, etc. Various metal nanoparticles, conducting polymer, metal oxide thin films, etc. have been exploited to act as matrix to immobilize urease to fabricate urea biosensor. Amongst them, Zinc Oxide (ZnO), a semiconductor metal oxide with a wide band gap is of immense interest as an efficient matrix in biosensors by virtue of its natural abundance, biocompatibility, good electron communication feature and high isoelectric point (9.5). In spite of being such an attractive candidate, ZnO does not possess a redox couple of its own which necessitates the use of electroactive mediators for electron transfer between the enzyme and the electrode, thereby causing hindrance in realization of integrated and implantable biosensor. In the present work, an effort has been made to fabricate a matrix based on ZnO-CuO composite prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique in order to incorporate redox properties in ZnO matrix and to utilize the same for reagentless biosensing applications. The prepared bioelectrode Urs/(ZnO-CuO)/ITO/glass exhibits high sensitivity (70µAmM⁻¹cm⁻²) for detection of urea (5-200 mg/dl) with high stability (shelf life ˃ 10 weeks) and good selectivity (interference ˂ 4%). The enhanced sensing response obtained for composite matrix is attributed to the efficient electron exchange between ZnO-CuO matrix and immobilized enzymes, and subsequently fast transfer of generated electrons to the electrode via matrix. The response is encouraging for fabricating reagentless urea biosensor based on ZnO-CuO matrix.

Keywords: biosensor, reagentless, urea, ZnO-CuO composite

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Authors: Authors: A. Lakhal, M. Bahalou, A. Khattabi

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Introduction: Tuberculosis is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases. In Morocco, a total of 30,636 cases of Tuberculosis, all forms combined, were reported in 2015, representing an incidence of 89 cases per 100,000 population. The number of deaths from tuberculosis (TB) was 656 cases. In the prefecture of Meknes, its incidence remains high compared to the national level. The objective of this work is to describe the epidemiological profile of tuberculosis in the prefecture of Meknes. Methods: It is a descriptive analysis of TB cases reported between 2016 and 2020 at the regional diagnostic center of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases. We performed analysis by using Microsoft Excel and EpiInfo 7. Results: Epidemiological data from 2016 to 2020 report a total of 4100 new cases of all forms of tuberculosis, with an average of 820 new cases per year. The median age is 32 years. There is a clear male predominance, on average 58% of cases are male and 42% female. The incidence rate of bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis per 100,000 inhabitants has increased from 35 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016 to 39.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020. The confirmation rate for pulmonary tuberculosis decreased from 84% in 2016 to 75% in 2020. Pulmonary involvement predominates by an average of 46%, followed by lymph node involvement 29%and pleural involvement by an average of 10%. Digestive, osteoarticular, genitourinary, and meningeal involvement occurs in 8% of cases. Primary tuberculosis infection occurs in an average of 0.5% of cases. The proportion of HIV-TB co-infections was 2.8 in 2020. Conclusion: The incidence of tuberculosis in Meknes remains high compared to the national level. Thus, it is imperative to reinforce the earlier detection; improve the contact tracing, detection methods of cases for their confirmation and treatment, and to reduce the proportion of the lost to follow up as well.

Keywords: tuberculosis, epidemiological profile, meknes, morocco

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Authors: Naci Büyükkaracığan

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Hydroclimatic observation values ​​are used in the planning of the project of water resources. Climate variables are the first of the values ​​used in planning projects. At the same time, the climate system is a complex and interactive system involving the atmosphere, land surfaces, snow and bubbles, the oceans and other water structures. The amount and distribution of precipitation, which is an important climate parameter, is a limiting environmental factor for dispersed living things. Trend analysis is applied to the detection of the presence of a pattern or trend in the data set. Many trends work in different parts of the world are usually made for the determination of climate change. The detection and attribution of past trends and variability in climatic variables is essential for explaining potential future alteration resulting from anthropogenic activities. Parametric and non-parametric tests are used for determining the trends in climatic variables. In this study, trend tests were applied to annual total precipitation data obtained in period of 1972 and 2012, in the Konya Basin. Non-parametric trend tests, (Sen’s T, Spearman’s Rho, Mann-Kendal, Sen’s T trend, Wald-Wolfowitz) and parametric test (mean square) were applied to annual total precipitations of 15 stations for trend analysis. The linear slopes (change per unit time) of trends are calculated by using a non-parametric estimator developed by Sen. The beginning of trends is determined by using the Mann-Kendall rank correlation test. In addition, homogeneities in precipitation trends are tested by using a method developed by Van Belle and Hughes. As a result of tests, negative linear slopes were found in annual total precipitations in Konya.

Keywords: trend analysis, precipitation, hydroclimatology, Konya

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Authors: Malla Vijayeta, Y. Vijaya Kumar, N. Ramakrishna Raju, K. Satyanarayana

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Global AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industry has been coined as one of the most resistive domains in embracing technology. Although this digital era has been inundated with software tools like CAD, STADD, CANDY, Microsoft Project, Primavera etc. the key stakeholders have been working in siloes and processes remain fragmented. Unlike the yesteryears’ simpler project delivery methods, the current projects are of fast-track, complex, risky, multidisciplinary, stakeholder’s influential, statutorily regulative etc. pose extensive bottlenecks in preventing timely completion of projects. At this juncture, a paradigm shift surfaced in construction industry, and Building Information Modeling, aka BIM, has been a panacea to bolster the multidisciplinary teams’ cooperative and collaborative work leading to productive, sustainable and leaner project outcome. Building information modeling has been integrative, stakeholder engaging and centralized approach in providing a common platform of communication. A common misconception that BIM can be used for building/high rise projects in Indian Construction Industry, while this paper discusses of the implementation of BIM processes/methodologies in water and waste water industry. It elucidates about BIM 4D planning and constructability reviews of a Sewage Treatment Plant in India. Conventional construction planning and logistics management involves a blend of experience coupled with imagination. Even though the excerpts or judgments or lessons learnt gained from veterans might be predictive and helpful, but the uncertainty factor persists. This paper shall delve about the case study of real time implementation of BIM 4D planning protocols for one of the Sewage Treatment Plant of Dravyavati River Rejuvenation Project in India and develops a Time Liner to identify logistics planning and clash detection. With this BIM processes, we shall find that there will be significant reduction of duplication of tasks and reworks. Also another benefit achieved will be better visualization and workarounds during conception stage and enables for early involvement of the stakeholders in the Project Life cycle of Sewage Treatment Plant construction. Moreover, we have also taken an opinion poll of the benefits accrued utilizing BIM processes versus traditional paper based communication like 2D and 3D CAD tools. Thus this paper concludes with BIM framework for Sewage Treatment Plant construction which will achieve optimal construction co-ordination advantages like 4D construction sequencing, interference checking, clash detection checking and resolutions by primary engagement of all key stakeholders thereby identifying potential risks and subsequent creation of risk response strategies. However, certain hiccups like hesitancy in adoption of BIM technology by naïve users and availability of proficient BIM trainers in India poses a phenomenal impediment. Hence the nurture of BIM processes from conception, construction and till commissioning, operation and maintenance along with deconstruction of a project’s life cycle is highly essential for Indian Construction Industry in this digital era.

Keywords: integrated BIM workflow, 4D planning with BIM, building information modeling, clash detection and visualization, constructability reviews, project life cycle

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Authors: Dace Grauda, Inta Belogrudova, Alexei Katashev, Linda Lancere, Isaak Rashal

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The goal of study was the elaboration of easy applicable flow cytometry method for detection of influence of abiotic stress factors on plants, which could be useful for detection of environmental stresses in urban areas. The lime tree Tillia vulgaris H. is a popular tree species used for urban landscaping in Europe and is one of the main species of street greenery in Riga, Latvia. Tree decline and low vitality has observed in the central part of Riga. For this reason lime trees were select as a model object for the investigation. During the period of end of June and beginning of July 12 samples from different urban environment locations as well as plant material from a greenhouse were collected. BD FACSJazz® cell sorter (BD Biosciences, USA) with flow cytometer function was used to test viability of plant cells. The method was based on changes of relative fluorescence intensity of cells in blue laser (488 nm) after influence of stress factors. SpheroTM rainbow calibration particles (3.0–3.4 μm, BD Biosciences, USA) in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were used for calibration of flow cytometer. BD PharmingenTM PBS (BD Biosciences, USA) was used for flow cytometry assays. The mean fluorescence intensity information from the purified cell suspension samples was recorded. Preliminary, multiple gate sizes and shapes were tested to find one with the lowest CV. It was found that low CV can be obtained if only the densest part of plant cells forward scatter/side scatter profile is analysed because in this case plant cells are most similar in size and shape. The young pollen cells in one nucleus stage were found as the best for detection of influence of abiotic stress. For experiments only fresh plant material was used– the buds of Tillia vulgaris with diameter 2 mm. For the cell suspension (in vitro culture) establishment modified protocol of microspore culture was applied. The cells were suspended in the MS (Murashige and Skoog) medium. For imitation of dust of urban area SiO2 nanoparticles with concentration 0.001 g/ml were dissolved in distilled water. Into 10 ml of cell suspension 1 ml of SiO2 nanoparticles suspension was added, then cells were incubated in speed shaking regime for 1 and 3 hours. As a stress factor the irradiation of cells for 20 min by UV was used (Hamamatsu light source L9566-02A, L10852 lamp, A10014-50-0110), maximum relative intensity (100%) at 365 nm and at ~310 nm (75%). Before UV irradiation the suspension of cells were placed onto a thin layer on a filter paper disk (diameter 45 mm) in a Petri dish with solid MS media. Cells without treatment were used as a control. Experiments were performed at room temperature (23-25 °C). Using flow cytometer BS FACS Software cells plot was created to determine the densest part, which was later gated using oval-shaped gate. Gate included from 95 to 99% of all cells. To determine relative fluorescence of cells logarithmic fluorescence scale in arbitrary fluorescence units were used. 3x103 gated cells were analysed from the each sample. The significant differences were found among relative fluorescence of cells from different trees after treatment with SiO2 nanoparticles and UV irradiation in comparison with the control.

Keywords: flow cytometry, fluorescence, SiO2 nanoparticles, UV irradiation

Procedia PDF Downloads 412