Search results for: semantic changes over time

Authors: Ganeshkumar, Ashika, Valavan, Ramesh, Thangam, Chirayu

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MSCs are found in much higher concentration in the Wharton’s jelly compared to the umbilical cord blood, which is a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells. Umbilical cord tissue is collected at the time of birth; it is processed and stored in liquid nitrogen for future therapeutical purpose. The source of contamination might be either from vaginal tract of mother or from hospital environment or from personal handling during cord tissue sample collection. If the sample were contaminated, decontamination procedure will be done with 70% ethanol (1 minute) in order to avoid sample rejection. Ethanol is effective against a wide range of bacteria, protozoa and fungi and has low toxicity to humans. Among the 1954 samples taken for the study, 24 samples were found to be contaminated with microorganism. The organisms isolated from the positive samples were found to be E. coli, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas aueroginosa, Enterococcus fecalis, Acinetobacter bowmani, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterobacter cloacae, and Proteus mirabilis. Among these organisms 70% ethanol successfully eliminated E. coli, Enterococcus fecalis, Acinetobacter bowmani, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Proteus mirabilis. 70% ethanol was unsuccessful in eliminating Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas aueroginosa, and Enterobacter cloacae. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Pseudomonas aueroginosa have the ability to form biofilm that make them resistant to alcohol. Biofilm act as protective layer for bacteria and which protects them from host defense and antibiotic wash. Finally it was found 70% ethanol wash saved 58.3% cord tissue samples from rejection and it is ineffective against 41% of the samples. The contamination rate can be reduced by maintaining proper aseptic techniques during sample collection and processing.

Keywords: umblical cord tissue, decontamination, 70% ethanol effectiveness, contamination

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Sevgi Özlem Bulu, Arif Furkan Mendi, Tolga Erol, İzzet Gökhan Özbilgin

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The rapid progress of technology in today's competitive conditions has also accelerated companies' technology development activities. As a result, companies are paying more attention to R&D studies and are beginning to allocate a larger share to R&D projects. A more systematic, comprehensive, target-oriented implementation of R&D studies is crucial for the company to achieve successful results. As a consequence, Technology Roadmap (TRM) is gaining importance as a management tool. It has critical prospects for achieving medium and long term success as it contains decisions about past business, future plans, technological infrastructure. When studies on TRM are examined, projects to be placed on the roadmap are selected by many different methods. Generally preferred methods are based on multi-criteria decision making methods. Management of selected projects becomes an important point after the selection phase of the projects. At this stage, TRM are used. TRM can be created in many different ways so that each institution can prepare its own Technology Roadmap according to their strategic plan. Depending on the intended use, there can be TRM with different layers at different sizes. In the evaluation phase of the R&D projects and in the creation of the TRM, HAVELSAN, Turkey's largest defense company in the software field, carries out this process with great care and diligence. At the beginning, suggested R&D projects are evaluated by the Technology Management Board (TMB) of HAVELSAN in accordance with the company's resources, objectives, and targets. These projects are presented to the TMB periodically for evaluation within the framework of certain criteria by board members. After the necessary steps have been passed, the approved projects are added to the time-based TRM, which is composed of four layers as market, product, project and technology. The use of a four-layered roadmap provides a clearer understanding and visualization of company strategy and objectives. This study demonstrates the benefits of using TRM, four-layered Technology Roadmapping and the possibilities for the institutions in the defense industry.

Keywords: technology roadmap, research and development project, project selection, research development in defense industry

Procedia PDF Downloads 178

Authors: Young-Tae Lee, Hee-Chang Lim

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This paper presents the performance characteristics of Darrieus-type vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) with NACA airfoil blades. The performance of Darrieus-type VAWT can be characterized by torque and power. There are various parameters affecting the performance such as chord length, helical angle, pitch angle and rotor diameter. To estimate the optimum shape of Darrieustype wind turbine in accordance with various design parameters, we examined aerodynamic characteristics and separated flow occurring in the vicinity of blade, interaction between flow and blade, and torque and power characteristics derived from it. For flow analysis, flow variations were investigated based on the unsteady RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) equation. Sliding mesh algorithm was employed in order to consider rotational effect of blade. To obtain more realistic results we conducted experiment and numerical analysis at the same time for three-dimensional shape. In addition, several parameters (chord length, rotor diameter, pitch angle, and helical angle) were considered to find out optimum shape design and characteristics of interaction with ambient flow. Since the NACA airfoil used in this study showed significant changes in magnitude of lift and drag depending on an angle of attack, the rotor with low drag, long cord length and short diameter shows high power coefficient in low tip speed ratio (TSR) range. On the contrary, in high TSR range, drag becomes high. Hence, the short-chord and long-diameter rotor produces high power coefficient. When a pitch angle at which airfoil directs toward inside equals to -2° and helical angle equals to 0°, Darrieus-type VAWT generates maximum power.

Keywords: darrieus wind turbine, VAWT, NACA airfoil, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 371

Authors: Davaakhuu Vandannyam, Amarsaikhan Dashtseren, Oyungoo Badamdorj

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Background: Shift work and extended working hours are increasing in many industries and organization's in the world. Over a 24 hour period, the circadian clock regulates sleep/wake patterns, body temperature, hormone levels, digestion and many other functions. Depending on the time of day or night, the human body is programmed for periods of wakefulness and sleep, high and low body temperature, high and low digestive activity and so on. Shift work is highly prevalent in industrialized societies (>20%) but, when it includes night work, it has pronounced negative effects on sleep, subjective and physiological sleepiness, performance, accident risk, as well as on health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer. Method: In this cross-sectional field study, 634 shift work and day work nurses from a plant were involved, with participation rate of 100% (634 nurses). The general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and RLS, ESS, ISI, FSS were used to evaluate the level of insomnia, sleepiness, fatigue and restless legs syndrome, respectively. Results: As a result of research on some indicators of health risks caused from work shift, it was proven that prevalence of restless legs syndrome was at 5.5% and 25.9% are in risk of becoming sick, 42.3% are in fatigue, 3.5% in high stage of insomnia and 27.4% are sleepy on duty. Insomnia of nurses mainly affected from long-hour shift, dissatisfaction, workload, lose of focus and use of coffee. There is sleepiness lies in the workplace due to number of shifts, unsatisfactory performance and emergency calls between shifts. It has been determined that risk of sickness influenced by number of shifts in a month and long hour shift, dissatisfaction and use of coffee and divisions are causing restless legs syndrome. Conclusions: Among the nurses, it was found that the prevalence of insomnia is 31.6%, sleepiness 27.4%, fatigue 42.3%, restless legs syndrome 35% and stress 25.9%. These factors of shift work affecting health tend to go up as working hours increase and more common among shift work nurses.

Keywords: shiftwork, insomnia, sleepiness, restless

Procedia PDF Downloads 252

Authors: Maria L. G. Lourenço, Keylla H. N. P. Pereira, Viviane Y. Hibaru, Fabiana F. Souza, Joao C. P. Ferreira, Simone B. Chiacchio, Luiz H. A. Machado

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In veterinary medicine, the standard procedure during a caesarian section is clamping the umbilical cord immediately after birth. In human neonates, when the umbilical cord is kept intact after birth, blood continues to flow from the cord to the newborn, but this procedure may prove to be difficult in dogs due to the shorter umbilical cord and the number of newborns in the litter. However, a possible detachment of the placenta while keeping the umbilical cord intact may make the residual blood to flow to the neonate. This study compared the effects on neonatal vitality between clamping and no clamping the umbilical cord of dogs born through cesarean section, assessing them through Apgar and reflex scores. Fifty puppies delivered from 16 bitches were randomly allocated to receive clamping of the umbilical cord immediately (n=25) or to not receive the clamping until breathing (n=25). The neonates were assessed during the first five min of life and once again 10 min after the first assessment. The differences observed between the two moments were significant (p < 0.01) for both the Apgar and reflex scores. The differences observed between the groups (clamped vs. not clamped) were not significant for the Apgar score in the 1st moment (p=0.1), but the 2nd moment was significantly (p < 0.01) in the group not clamped, as well as significant (p < 0.05) for the reflex score in the 1st moment and 2nd moment (p < 0.05), revealing higher neonatal vitality in the not clamped group. The differences observed between the moments (1st vs. 2nd) of each group as significant (p < 0.01), revealing higher neonatal vitality in the 2nd moments. In the no clamping group, after removing the neonates together with the umbilical cord and the placenta, we observed that the umbilical cords were full of blood at the time of birth and later became whitish and collapsed, demonstrating the blood transfer. The results suggest that keeping the umbilical cord intact for at least three minutes after the onset breathing is not detrimental and may contribute to increase neonate vitality in puppies delivered by cesarean section.

Keywords: puppy vitality, newborn dog, cesarean section, Apgar score

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Anik Sarminingsih, Krishna V. Pradana

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The failure of flood control system can be caused by various factors, such as not considering the uncertainty of designed flood causing the capacity of the flood control system is exceeded. The presence of the uncertainty factor is recognized as a serious issue in hydrological studies. Uncertainty in hydrological analysis is influenced by many factors, starting from reading water elevation data, rainfall data, selection of method of analysis, etc. In hydrological modeling selection of models and parameters corresponding to the watershed conditions should be evaluated by the hydraulic model in the river as a drainage channel. River cross-section capacity is the first defense in knowing the reliability of the flood control system. Reliability of river capacity describes the potential magnitude of flood risk. Case study in this research is Wulan River in Central Java. This river occurring flood almost every year despite some efforts to control floods such as levee, floodway and diversion. The flood-affected areas include several sub-districts, mainly in Kabupaten Kudus and Kabupaten Demak. First step is analyze the frequency of discharge observation from Klambu weir which have time series data from 1951-2013. Frequency analysis is performed using several distribution frequency models such as Gumbel distribution, Normal, Normal Log, Pearson Type III and Log Pearson. The result of the model based on standard deviation overlaps, so the maximum flood discharge from the lower return periods may be worth more than the average discharge for larger return periods. The next step is to perform a hydraulic analysis to evaluate the reliability of river capacity based on the flood discharge resulted from several methods. The selection of the design flood discharge of flood control system is the result of the method closest to bankfull capacity of the river.

Keywords: design flood, hydrological model, reliability, uncertainty, Wulan river

Procedia PDF Downloads 293

Authors: Verena M. Moock, Darien E. Arce Chávez, Mariana M. Espejel González, Leopoldo Ruíz-Huerta, Crescencio García-Segundo

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Uncertainty analysis in industrial computed tomography is commonly related to metrological trace tools, which offer precision measurements of external part features. Unfortunately, there is no such reference tool for internal measurements to profit from the unique imaging potential of X-rays. Uncertainty approximations for computed tomography are still based on general aspects of the industrial machine and do not adapt to acquisition parameters or part characteristics. The present study investigates the impact of the acquisition time on the dimensional uncertainty measuring a stainless steel cylinder with a circular tomography scan. The authors develop the figure difference method for X-ray radiography to evaluate the volumetric differences introduced within the projected absorption maps of the metal workpiece. The dimensional uncertainty is dominantly influenced by photon energy dissipated as heat causing the thermal expansion of the metal, as monitored by an infrared camera within the industrial tomograph. With the proposed methodology, we are able to show evolving temperature differences throughout the tomography acquisition. This is an early study showing that the number of projections in computer tomography induces dimensional error due to energy absorption. The error magnitude would depend on the thermal properties of the sample and the acquisition parameters by placing apparent non-uniform unwanted volumetric expansion. We introduce infrared imaging for the experimental display of metrological uncertainty in a particular metal part of symmetric geometry. We assess that the current results are of fundamental value to reach the balance between the number of projections and uncertainty tolerance when performing analysis with X-ray dimensional exploration in precision measurements with industrial tomography.

Keywords: computed tomography, digital metrology, infrared imaging, thermal expansion

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: I-Yun Cheng, Min-Yu Chiang, Shwu-Jen Chang, San-Yuan Chen

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is among the most challenging joint diseases, and as far as we know, there is currently no exact and effective cure for it because it has low self-repair ability due to lack of blood vessels and low cell density in articular cartilage. So far, there have been several methods developed to treat cartilage disorder. The most common method is to treat the high molecular weight of hyaluronic acid (HA) injection, but it will degrade after a period of time, so the patients need to inject HA repeatedly. In recent years, self-healing hydrogel has drawn considerable attention because it can recover its initial mechanical properties after damaged and further increase the lifetime of the hydrogel. Here, we aim to develop a self-healable composite hydrogel combined with magnetic microspheres to trigger glutathione(GSH) release for promoting cartilage repair. We use HA-cyclodextrin (CD) as host polymer and poly(acrylic acid)-ferrocene (pAA-Fc) as guest polymer to form the self-healable HA-pAA hydrogel by host and guest interaction where various graft amount of pAA-Fc (pAA:Fc= 1:2, 1:1.5, 1:1, 2:1, 4:1) was conducted to develop different mechanical strength hydrogel. The rheology analysis showed that the 4:1 of pAA-Fc has higher mechanical strength than other formulations. On the other hand, iron oxide nanoparticle, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) were used to synthesize porous magnetic microspheres via double emulsification water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) to increase GSH loading which acted as a reductant to control the hydrogel crosslink density and promote hydrogel self-healing. The results show that the porous magnetic microspheres can be loaded with 70% of GSH and sustained release about 50% of GSH after 24 hours. More importantly, the HA-pAA composite hydrogel can self-heal rapidly within 24 hours when suffering external force destruction by releasing GSH from the magnetic microspheres. Therefore, the developed the HA-pAA composite hydrogel combined with GSH-loaded magnetic microspheres can be in-vivo guided to damaged OA surface for inducing the cartilage repair by controlling the crosslinking of self-healing hydrogel via GSH release.

Keywords: articular cartilage, magnetic microsphere, osteoarthritis, self-healing hydrogel

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Nino KItoshvili

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The family is an integral part of society, which plays a major role in the socialization and the formation of a person as a full member of society. The marital conflict even harms family members and finds a different effect on each member of the family, especially on children. There is a significant difference in the behavior of adolescents in conflict and non-conflict families. In times of marital conflict, adolescent psycho-social well-being is significantly dependent on socio-cultural mediating variables such as; Family income; Parenting style; The functioning of the family, and the existence of psycho-social support. In a family with low economic performance, low psychosocial harassment, family dysfunction, and bad parenting style, marital conflict significantly increases the risk of deteriorating adolescent psycho-social well-being. At this time, to support the well-being of the child, a special role is played by improving the marital relationship, which must be supported by state and community services. There are very few family studies in this field in Georgia, the therapeutic direction of the family is at an early stage, and there are no family-supporting psycho-social programs. This increases the chances of adolescent psycho-social well-being deteriorating amd socialization problems. The study will examine the mediating variables of marital conflict and adolescent psycho-social well-being and will attempt to determine their mediating and moderating role. Research suggests that an increase in the rate of marital conflict is associated with a decrease in child well-being. The well-being of children in conflict families is lower than that of children in non-conflict families and depends on the variables of mediating variables. Quantitative research will be conducted to study this phenomenon through a questionnaire developed and standardized in the research process. The study will be attended by families living in Georgia - spouses (married) and their adolescent children. By analyzing the data obtained from the research, we will be able to determine in which cases the intensity of the relationship between the marital conflict and the well-being of the adolescent increases or decreases; To conclude the mediating and moderating role of mediating variables and also to make relevant recommendations to reduce the negative impact on the psycho-social well-being of a child of marital conflict.

Keywords: adolescent, mediation, moderation, conflict, couple, well-being

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Preet Gill, Danus Ravindran

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These The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in widespread implications for medical specialist training programs worldwide, including radiology. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Australian and New Zealand radiology trainee experience and well-being, as well as to compare the Australasian experience with that reported by other countries. An anonymised electronic online questionnaire was disseminated to all training members of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists who were radiology trainees during the 2020 – 2022 clinical years. Trainees were questioned about their experience from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australasia (March 2020) to the time of survey completion. Participation was voluntary. Questions assessed the impact of the pandemic across multiple domains, including workload (inpatient/outpatient & individual modality volume), teaching, supervision, external learning opportunities, redeployment and trainee wellbeing. Survey responses were collated and compared with other peer reviewed publications. Answer options were primarily in categorical format (nominal and ordinal subtypes, as appropriate). An opportunity to provide free text answers to a minority of questions was provided. While our results mirror that of other countries, which demonstrated reduced case exposure and increased remote teaching and supervision, responses showed variation in the methods utilised by training sites during the height of the pandemic. A significant number of trainees were affected by examination cancellations/postponements and had subspecialty training rotations postponed. The majority of trainees felt that the pandemic had a negative effect on their training. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on radiology trainees across Australia and New Zealand. The present study has highlighted the extent of these effects, with most aspects of training impacted. Opportunities exist to utilise this information to create robust workplace strategies to mitigate these negative effects should the need arise in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19, radiology, training, pandemic

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: Patrick Oehler, Nicholas Folger

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Following a new public management approach, Germany has widely reformed its higher education system around the turn of the millennium. Aimed at preparing the country’s publicly funded universities and applied science colleges for a century of glory, the reforms led to the introduction of rigid performance measurement and management practices, which disrupted the inert system on all levels. Yet, many of the new policies met significant resistance, and some of them had to be reversed over time. Ever since Germany has struggled to find a balance between its pre- and its post-millennial approach to performance measurement and management. This contribution combines insights of a joint research project, which was created and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with the aim to better understand the effects of its performance measurement and management policies, including those the ministry had implemented over the previous decades. The research project combines researchers from 17 German research institutions who employed a wide range of theories from various disciplines and very diverse research methods to explain performance measurement and management and their consequences on the behavior of various stakeholders in higher education systems. In these projects, performance measurement and management have been researched from three angles—education, research, and third mission. The collaborative project differentiated functional and dysfunctional elements of common performance measurement and management practices, and identified key problems with these practices, such as (1) oversimplification of performance indicators, (2) ‘overmeasurement’ of performance in general, (3) excessive use of quantitative indicators, and (4), a myopic focus on research-focused indicators and a negligence of measures targeting education and third mission. To address these issues, the collaborative project developed alternative approaches to performance measurement and management, including suggestions for qualitative performance measures, improved supervision, review, and evaluations methods, and recommendations how to better balance education, research, and third mission. The authors would like to share the rich findings of the joint research project with an international audience and discuss their implications for alternative higher education systems.

Keywords: performance measurement, performance management, new public management, performance evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Ana Londral, Burcu Demiray, Marcus Cheetham

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Speech recording is a methodology used in many different studies related to cognitive and behaviour research. Modern advances in digital equipment brought the possibility of continuously recording hours of speech in naturalistic environments and building rich sets of sound files. Speech analysis can then extract from these files multiple features for different scopes of research in Language and Communication. However, tools for analysing a large set of sound files and automatically extract relevant features from these files are often inaccessible to researchers that are not familiar with programming languages. Manual analysis is a common alternative, with a high time and efficiency cost. In the analysis of long sound files, the first step is the voice segmentation, i.e. to detect and label segments containing speech. We present a comprehensive methodology aiming to support researchers on voice segmentation, as the first step for data analysis of a big set of sound files. Praat, an open source software, is suggested as a tool to run a voice detection algorithm, label segments and files and extract other quantitative features on a structure of folders containing a large number of sound files. We present the validation of our methodology with a set of 5000 sound files that were collected in the daily life of a group of voluntary participants with age over 65. A smartphone device was used to collect sound using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR): an app programmed to record 30-second sound samples that were randomly distributed throughout the day. Results demonstrated that automatic segmentation and labelling of files containing speech segments was 74% faster when compared to a manual analysis performed with two independent coders. Furthermore, the methodology presented allows manual adjustments of voiced segments with visualisation of the sound signal and the automatic extraction of quantitative information on speech. In conclusion, we propose a comprehensive methodology for voice segmentation, to be used by researchers that have to work with large sets of sound files and are not familiar with programming tools.

Keywords: automatic speech analysis, behavior analysis, naturalistic environments, voice segmentation

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Sadhana Sharma, Neha Sharma, Hardik Khandelwal, Arti Sharma

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Background: It is widely acknowledged globally that parents must advocate for their children's drug and substance abuse prevention. However, many parents find it difficult to advocate due to systemic and logistical barriers. Alternatives to introducing advocacy, awareness, and support for the prevention of drug and substance abuse to children could occur in schools. However, little research has been conducted on the development of advocates for substance abuse in school settings. Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based addiction prevention and control created as part of the Rajasthan Addiction Prevention Project (a partnership between state-community initiative). Methods: We conducted an evaluation in this study to determine the impact of a RAPP on a primary outcome (substance abuse knowledge) and other outcomes (family–school partnership, empowerment, and support). Specifically, between September-December 2022, two schools participated in the intervention group (advocacy training), and two schools participated in the control group (waiting list). The RAPP designed specialised 2-hrs training to equip teachers-parents with the knowledge and skills necessary to advocate for their own children and those of other families. All participants were required to complete a pre- and post-survey. Results: The intervention group established school advocates in schools where trained parents volunteered to lead support groups for high-risk children. Compared to the participants in the wait list control group, those in the intervention group demonstrated greater education knowledge, P = 0.002, and self-mastery, P = 0.04, and decreased family–school partnership quality, P = 0.002.Conclusions: The experimental evaluation of school-based advocacy programme revealed positive effects on substance abuse that persist over time. The approach wa s deemed feasible and acceptable by both parents and the school.

Keywords: prevention, school based, addiction, advocacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: B. Hammouti, H. Oudda, A. Benabdellah, A. Benayada, A. Aouniti

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Corrosion behaviour of carbon steel was studied in various concentrated HClO4 solutions. To explain the acid attack in relation of H+ activity, new sensor was realised: two carbon paste electrodes (CPE) were constructed by incorporating ferrocene (Fc) and orthoquinone into the carbon paste matrix and crossed by weak current to stabilize potential difference. The potentiometric method at imposed weak current between these two electrodes permits the in situ determination of both concentration and acidity level of various concentrated HClO4 solutions. The different factors affecting the potential at imposed current as current intensity, temperature and H+ ion concentration are studied. The potentials measured between ferrocene and chloranil electrodes are directly linked to the acid concentration. The acidity Ri(H) function defined represents the determination of the H+ activity and constitutes the extend of pH is concentrated acid solutions. Ri(H) has been determined and compared to Strehlow Ro(H), Janata HGF and Hammett Ho functions. The collected data permit to give a scale of strength of mineral concentrated acids at a given concentration. Ri(H) is numerically equal to the thermodynamic Ro(H), but deviated from Hammett functions based on indicator determination. The CPE electrode with inserted ferrocene in presence of ferricinium (Fc+) ion in concentrated HClO4 at various concentrations is realized without junction potential and may plays the role of a practical reference electrode (FRE) in concentrated acids. Fc+ was easily prepared in biphasic medium HClO4-acid by the quantitative oxidation of ferrocene by the ortho-chloranil (oQ). Potential of FRE is stable with time. The variation of equilibrium potential of the interface Fc/ Fc+ at various concentrations of Fc+ (10-4 - 2 10-2 M) obeyed to the Nernst equation with a slope 0.059 Volt per decade. Corrosion rates obtained by weight loss and electrochemical techniques were then easily linked to acidity level.

Keywords: ferrocene, strehlow, concentrated acid, corrosion, Generalised pH, sensor carbon paste electrode

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: Saloni Khanderia

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The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA), was concluded at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996. The ITA is considered to be one of the biggest tariff-cutting deals because it eliminates all customs-related duties on the exportation of specific categories of information technology products to the territory of any other signatory to the Agreement. Over time, innovations in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector mandated the consideration of expanding the list of products covered by the ITA, which took place in the form of ITA-II negotiations during the WTO’s Nairobi Ministerial Conference. India, which was an original Member of the ITA-I, however, decided to opt-out of the negotiations to expand the list of products covered by the agreement. Instead, it preferred to give priority to its national policy initiative, namely the ‘Make-in-India’ programme [the MiI programme], which embarks upon fostering the domestic production of, inter alia, the ICT sector. India claims to have abstained from the ITA-II negotiations by stating that the zero-tariff regime created by the ITA-I debilitated its electronics-manufacturing sectors and on the contrary resulted in an over-reliance on imported electronic inputs. The author undertakes doctrinal research to examine India’s decision to opt-out of ITA-II negotiations, against the backdrop of the MiI Programme, which endeavours to improve productivity across-the-board. This paper accordingly scrutinises the tariff-cutting strategies of India to weigh the better alternative for India. Apropos, it examines whether initiatives like the MiI programme could plausibly resuscitate the ailing domestic electronics-manufacturing sector. The author opines that the country’s present decision to opt-out of ITA-II negotiations should be perceived as a welcome step. Thus, market-oriented reforms such as the MiI Programme, which focuses on indigenous innovation to improve domestic manufacturing in the ICT sector, should instead, in the present circumstances gain priority. Consequently, the MiI Programme would aid in moulding the country’s current tariff policy in a manner that will concurrently assist the promotion and sustenance of domestic manufacturing in the IT sector.

Keywords: electronics-manufacturing sector, information technology agreement, make in india programme, world trade organisation

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Authors: Johannes Matiasek

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Introduction and Aims: Octenidine is a common antiseptic agent in the area of surgical interventions because of its antimicrobial efficacy and outstanding biocompatibility index. We investigate the direct postoperative application of octenilin® on typical procedures in the field of plastic surgery in a prospective, randomized controlled intervention study. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of a direct postoperative application of an octenidine-containing wound gel on wound healing and scarring after abdominoplasty. Material and Methods: In this study, we enrolled 33 patients who underwent abdominoplasty because of medical indications (e.g. Cutis laxa abdominis). To ensure an intraindividual comparison, each patient received both dressings (study-group: octenilin® wound gel; control-group: Omnistrip® dry plaster) immediately after surgery. We evaluate wound-healing tendency, pain during dressing changes and scar formation after two weeks, three, six and twelve months. Regarding scar-evaluation skin-elasticity, sebum on the skin, transepidermal waterloss, skin hydration, melanin content and erythema level were determined with special probes. Furthermore the Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS) and pain level during dressing change are determined. Results: At the time of surgery the mean patient’s age was 44.1 years. On average 5.6 dressing changes were necessary. Wound healing disorders occurred more often in the control-group. In the control-group (dry plaster Omnistrip®) patients reported significantly more pain and superficial skin injuries during dressing changes occurred. Objective scar-evaluation after 3, 6 and 12 months resulted in a significant higher skin-elasticity and significant lower transepidermal water loss in the octenilin® group which is confirmed in the VSS. Conclusion: The immediate postoperative application of the octenidine-containing hydrogel octenilin® after abdominoplasty results in favoured scar formation compared to our actual standard therapy. Less hypertrophic scar formation was observed in the study-group.

Keywords: abdominoplasty, octenidine, scarring, wound healing

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Authors: Sedigheh Kalantari, Yaping Huang

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The historic area of cities has experienced different phases of transformation. The beginning of the twentieth century, modernism, and modern development changed the integrated pattern of change and the historic urban quarter were regarded as subject comprehensive redevelopment. In this respect, historic area of Iranian cities have not been safe from these changes and affected by widespread evolutions; in particular after Islamic Revolution eras (1978) cities have traveled through an evolution in conservation and development policies and practices. Moreover, moving toward a specific approach and specific attention paid to the regeneration of the historical urban centers in Iran has started since the 1990s. This reveals the great importance attached to the historical centers of cities. This paper is an approach to examine an experience on urban regeneration in Iran through a case study. The study relies on multiple source of evidence. The use of multiple sources of evidence can help substantially improve the validity and reliability of the research. The empirical core of this research, therefore, rests in the process of urban revitalization of the old square in Isfahan. Isfahan is one of the oldest city of Persia. The historic area of city encompasses a large number of valuable buildings and monuments. One of the cultural and historical region of Isfahan is Atiq Square (Old Square). It has been the backbone node of the city that in course of time has being ignored more and more and transformed negatively. The complex had suffered from insufficiencies especially with respect to social and spatial aspects. Therefore, reorganization of that complex as the main and most important urban center of Isfahan became an inevitable issue; So this paper except from reminding the value of such historic-cultural heritage and review of its transformation, focused on an experience of urban revitalization project in this heritage site. The outcome of this research shows that situated in different socio-economic political and historical contexts and in face of different urban regeneration issues, Iran have displayed significant differences in the way of urban regeneration.

Keywords: historic area, Iran, urban regeneration, revitalization

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Marie Fouet, Olivier Maire, Cécile Masse, Hugues Blanchet, Salomé Coignard, Nicolas Lavesque, Guillaume Bernard

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Exacerbated by global change, extreme climatic events such as atmospheric and marine heat waves may interact with the spread of non-indigenous species and their associated impacts on marine ecosystems. Since the 1970’s, the introduction of non-indigenous species due to oyster exchanges has been numerous. Among them, the Asian date mussel Arcuatula senhousia has colonized a large number of ecosystems worldwide (e.g., California, New Zealand, Italy). In these places, A.senhousia led to important habitat modifications in the benthic compartment through physical, biological, and biogeochemical effects associated with the development of dense mussel populations. In Arcachon Bay (France), a coastal lagoon of the French Atlantic and hotspot of oyster farming, abundances of A. senhousia recently increased, following a lag time of ca. 20 years since the first record of the species in 2002. Here, we addressed the potential effects of the interaction between A. senhousia invasion and heatwave intensity on ecosystem functioning within an intertidal mudflat. More precisely, two realistic intensities (“High” and “Severe”) of combined marine and atmospheric heatwaves have been simulated in an experimental tidal mesocosm system onto which naturally varying densities of A. senhousia and associated benthic communities were exposed in sediment cores collected in situ. Following a six-day exposure, community-scale responses were assessed by measuring benthic metabolism (oxygen and nutrient fluxes) in each core. Results show that besides significantly enhanced benthic metabolism with increasing heatwave intensity, mussel density clearly mediated the magnitude of the community-scale response, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding the interactive effects of environmental stressors co-occurring with non-indigenous species and their dependencies for a better assessment of their impacts.

Keywords: arcuatula senhousia, benthic habitat, ecosystem functioning, heatwaves, metabolism

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Eriselda Simoni, Leonard Simoni, Endri Paparisto, Laureta Flaga, Silvana Bara, Edit Xhajanka, Arjan Harxhi

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Background: Some pathologies are encountered more often in HIV/ AIDS, such as those with bacterial, fungal, viral, and neoplastic causes, but what has been more noticeable in recent years is the increased and more aggressive manifestation of periodontal disease and oral caries. Our purpose is to investigate the correlation between the HIV/AIDS stage and CD4 level with oral health, dentition, and periodontal status. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study that included 35 patients newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and underwent an oral examination at the University Dental Clinic in Tirana, Albania, in the period April - July 2024. This study evaluated the basic demographic, laboratory characteristics, oral hygiene, and the presence of oral lesions. The dentition status was assessed with the values DT (decay teeth), FT (filled teeth), and MT (missing teeth) presented as DMFT. The periodontal status was evaluated through a periodontal probe measuring CPI (community periodontal index) and LOA (loss of attachment) as recommended by the WHO Oral Health Assessment Form 2013. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to evaluate the relationship between levels of CD4+ and DMF, CD4+ and CPI, and CD4+ and LOA. The P value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: 80% of patients included were males with a mean age of 35.8 years. 8.6% of patients were categorized as HIV stage I, 28.6% as stage II, and 62.8% as HIV stage III/AIDS. The mean level value of CD4+ was 266.2 cells/mm3 and the rapport CD4+/ WBC (White Blood Cells) was 15.7%. Most patients (57.2%) used toothbrushes less than 1 time a day. An important negative correlation was found between CD4+ and dentition and periodontal status. A lower level of CD4+ was correlated with a higher DMFT, CPI, and LOA, respectively coefficient (r) for CD4/DMFT = -0.52, p =0.01, (r) for CD4/CPI= - 0.38, p=0.024 and (r) for CD4/LOA= - 0.37, p=0.029. Conclusions: In our study, it was documented that patients with HIV/AIDS had worse oral health, an important negative correlation between CD4+ and dentition and periodontal status. A lower level of CD4+ was correlated with a worse dentition status (higher DMFT), and poor periodontal health (higher CPI and LOA). The monitoring and treatment of oral pathologies can be important in early HIV/AIDS diagnoses and treatment.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, oral health, dentition, periodontal

Procedia PDF Downloads 29

Authors: Neera Kapoor

Abstract:

Background: Knockdown Resistance (KDR) is one of the mechanisms of insecticide resistance in insects caused by the reduced target site sensitivity i.e. voltage gated sodium channel (VGSC) rendering it less sensitive to the toxic effects of DDT and pyrethroids. In this study, we evaluated insecticide susceptibility and its underlying KDR mechanism in eight Ae. aegypti and five Ae. albopictus field populations. Methodology: Field population was collected from four different geographical regions of India covering 18 districts of ten states. For genotyping of twelve KDR alleles in Ae. aegypti field populations, three PCR based assays were used; with DNA sequencing; ASPCR; PCR-RFLP. Genomic DNA was isolated, and three partial domains (II, III, and IV) of VGSC were amplified and sequenced. Results: Molecular screening for common KDR mutations, revealed the presence of five mutations viz. S989P, V1016G, T1520I, F1534C/L. Two novel mutations were observed, first at T1520 (ACC) residue where a C > T substitution at the second position of codon results in amino acid change to Isoleucine (ATC). Second mutation was an alternative point mutation at F1534 (TTC) residue where a substitution of T > C at the first position of codon results in an amino acid change to Leucine (CTC). ASPCRs were not accurate, so three PCR-RFLP assays were developed for genotyping of five KDR alleles in Ae. aegypti; viz. T1520I, F1534C/L. Representative samples of all genotypes (n=200) were sequenced to validate the newly developed PCR based assays for Ae. aegypti. Genotyping results showed that 989P is linked to 1016G and novel mutation 1520I was always found with 1534C allele. Conclusion: Present study confirmed the presence of DDT and pyrethroid resistance among Ae. aegypti populations in India and for the first time reported KDR mutations in this species from India including two novel mutations. Results of present study lead us to infer that, at least five KDR mutations (S989P, V1016G, T1530I, F1534C, and F1534L) can be seen as a potential marker for DDT/pyrethroid resistance.

Keywords: F1534C, F1534L, S989P, T1530I, V1016G

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: William Ceurvels, Dong-Di Zhang

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The true nature of the mechanism by which the pharmaceuticals of the Shang-Han Lun act has been a topic of debate since Wuji Cheng published the first commentary during the Northern Song. Subsequent commentaries employed a number of methodologies in their analysis of pharmaceutical mechanisms, but no commentator was able to garner universal acceptance. During the Qing Dynasty, the proliferation and development of Neo-Confucian scholarship produced a new generation of scholars possessed of rigorous and inventive research methods, one of whom was the famed materia medica scholar, Run-an Zou. Run-an Zou and his successor Zhou Yan advocated analyzing the mechanism of Treatise pharmaceuticals based upon the understanding of those pharmaceuticals during the time period in which the Treatise was written and thereby focused on the Han Dynasty materia medica tract Shen-nong Ben-cao Jing (The Divine Husbandman’s Herbal Foundation Canon). Zou Run-an’s commentary, Ben-jing Shu-zheng won nearly universal praise among materia medica scholars for its scholastic rigor and innovative research methods. However, because Ben-jing Shu-zheng only focuses on individual herbs, as opposed to formulas, its value in analyzing the Shang-Han Lun has limitations. The purpose of this study is to combine Zou Run-an’s single-pharmaceutical commentaries to generate theoretical full formula analyses to gain a fuller picture of Zou’s understanding of the healing mechanism of Shang-Han Lun formulas. Commentaries were gathered from Ben-jing Shu-zheng and Zhou Yan’s Ben-cao Si-bian Lun and combined to produce theoretical full formula model mechanisms of Treatise formulas. Through this study, a new picture of the mechanistic basis of Shang-han formulas emerges, which is based on qi-xue changes as opposed to organ or meridian theory. The author hopes that this modest research study will be of service to scholars of the Shang-han and clinical doctors alike in their pursuit of the true pharmacomechanisms of this great Han dynasty tome.

Keywords: Materia medica, Shang-han Lun, Shen-nong Ben-cao Jing, neo-Confucian scholarship

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Jian-Heng Wu, Bor-Shen Lin

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The temperature-salinity relationship is one of the most important characteristics used for identifying water masses in marine research. Temperature-salinity characteristics, however, may change dynamically with respect to the geographic location and is quite sensitive to the depth at the same location. When depth is taken into consideration, however, it is not easy to compare the characteristics of different water masses efficiently for a wide range of areas of the ocean. In this paper, the Gaussian mixture model was proposed to analyze the temperature-salinity-depth characteristics of water masses, based on which comparison between water masses may be conducted. Gaussian mixture model could model the distribution of a random vector and is formulated as the weighting sum for a set of multivariate normal distributions. The temperature-salinity-depth data for different locations are first used to train a set of Gaussian mixture models individually. The distance between two Gaussian mixture models can then be defined as the weighting sum of pairwise Bhattacharyya distances among the Gaussian distributions. Consequently, the distance between two water masses may be measured fast, which allows the automatic and efficient comparison of the water masses for a wide range area. The proposed approach not only can approximate the distribution of temperature, salinity, and depth directly without the prior knowledge for assuming the regression family, but may restrict the complexity by controlling the number of mixtures when the amounts of samples are unevenly distributed. In addition, it is critical for knowledge discovery in marine research to represent, manage and share the temperature-salinity-depth characteristics flexibly and responsively. The proposed approach has been applied to a real-time visualization system of ocean data, which may facilitate the comparison of water masses by aggregating the data without degrading the discriminating capabilities. This system provides an interface for querying geographic locations with similar temperature-salinity-depth characteristics interactively and for tracking specific patterns of water masses, such as the Kuroshio near Taiwan or those in the South China Sea.

Keywords: water mass, Gaussian mixture model, data visualization, system framework

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Esengül Elibol, Arzu Kader Harmancı Seren

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Individuals' reasons to choose a profession, profession image perceptions and future plans related to that profession affect their success in their future work lives. For nursing profession, this situation at the same time is important in terms of the health and safety of patients. The purpose of this study is to determine why medical vocational high school students in İstanbul choose nursing profession, their nursing image perceptions and future plans related to the profession. Descriptive and cross-sectional design are used. The study was carried out in four medical vocational high school in İstanbul. All third and fourth grade students who are attending to nursing programs and voluntary for participation were included in the study. In collecting data, two questionnaires that aim to learn about socio-demographic characteristics, profession choice reasons and future plans of nursing students and ‘Nursing Image Scale’ were used. Scale consisted of 28 items including individuals' opinions on nursing profession image and three sub-categories ‘General View,’ ‘Communication,’ and ‘Vocational-Educational Qualities.’ Analyzing profession choice reasons and future plans of participants, it is determined that majority chose nursing for easily finding a job (46.9%) and that majority had a dream profession other than nursing (65.8%). Analyzing nursing image perception of participants, it is determined that average of general view sub-category total scores was 9.75±2.27, average of communication sub-category total scores was8.68±2.86, and average of vocational-educational qualities sub-category total score was 21.18±3.96. In the perception score averages, meaningful differences were found according to independent variables. In conclusion, it was determined that majority of the participant students chose nursing for easily finding a job, perceived profession image negatively, and had a dream profession other than nursing.

Keywords: nursing image, medical vocational health school, perception, profession, student nurse

Procedia PDF Downloads 273

Authors: Asmamaw Yehun, Tsegaye Gogie, Martin Vermeer, Addisu Hunegnaw

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The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based radio positioning system, which is capable of providing continuous position, velocity, and time information to users anywhere on or near the surface of the Earth. The main objective of this work was to estimate the integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) using ground GPS and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Radio Occultation (RO) to study spatial-temporal variability. For LEO-GPS RO, we used Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) datasets. We estimated the daily and monthly mean of IPWV using six selected ground-based GPS stations over a period of range from 2012 to 2016 (i.e. five-years period). The main perspective for selecting the range period from 2012 to 2016 is that, continuous data were available during these periods at all Ethiopian GPS stations. We studied temporal, seasonal, diurnal, and vertical variations of precipitable water vapour using GPS observables extracted from the precise geodetic GAMIT-GLOBK software package. Finally, we determined the cross-correlation of our GPS-derived IPWV values with those of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-40 Interim reanalysis and of the second generation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) model ensemble Forecast System Reforecast (GEFS/R) for validation and static comparison. There are higher values of the IPWV range from 30 to 37.5 millimetres (mm) in Gambela and Southern Regions of Ethiopia. Some parts of Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia regions had low IPWV ranges from 8.62 to 15.27 mm. The correlation coefficient between GPS-derived IPWV with ECMWF and GEFS/R exceeds 90%. We conclude that there are highly temporal, seasonal, diurnal, and vertical variations of precipitable water vapour in the study area.

Keywords: GNSS, radio occultation, atmosphere, precipitable water vapour

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Kaushik Sathupadi, Sandesh Achar

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Pervasive computing is a growing research field that aims to acknowledge human physical life routines (HPLR) based on body-worn sensors such as MEMS sensors-based technologies. The use of these technologies for human activity recognition is progressively increasing. On the other hand, personalizing human life routines using numerous machine-learning techniques has always been an intriguing topic. In contrast, various methods have demonstrated the ability to recognize basic movement patterns. However, it still needs to be improved to anticipate the dynamics of human living patterns. This study introduces state-of-the-art techniques for recognizing static and dy-namic patterns and forecasting those challenging activities from multi-fused sensors. Further-more, numerous MEMS signals are extracted from one self-annotated IM-WSHA dataset and two benchmarked datasets. First, we acquired raw data is filtered with z-normalization and denoiser methods. Then, we adopted statistical, local binary pattern, auto-regressive model, and intrinsic time scale decomposition major features for feature extraction from different domains. Next, the acquired features are optimized using maximum relevance and minimum redundancy (mRMR). Finally, the artificial neural network is applied to analyze the whole system's performance. As a result, we attained a 90.27% recognition rate for the self-annotated dataset, while the HARTH and KU-HAR achieved 83% on nine living activities and 90.94% on 18 static and dynamic routines. Thus, the proposed HPLR system outperformed other state-of-the-art systems when evaluated with other methods in the literature.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, gait analysis, local binary pattern (LBP), statistical features, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), maximum relevance and minimum re-dundancy (MRMR)

Procedia PDF Downloads 19

Authors: Surya Prakash Gajagouni, Akram Alfantazi, Imad Barsoum

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Austenitic stainless steels are widely recognized for their exceptional corrosion resistance and mechanical properties, rendering them indispensable materials across various industries from construction to biomedical applications. However, in chloride and high temperature atmosphere it to further enhance their surface properties, anodization has emerged as a promising surface treatment technique. Anodization modifies the surface of stainless steels by creating a protective oxide layer, improving corrosion resistance and imparting additional functional characteristics. This paper explores the structural and corrosion characteristics of anodized austenitic stainless steels (AISI 304) using a two-step anodic technique. We utilized a perchloric acid-based electrolyte followed by an ammonium fluoride-based electrolyte. This sequential approach aimed to cultivate deeper and intricately self-ordered nanopore oxide arrays on a substrate made of 304 stainless steel. Electron Microscopic (SEM and TEM) images revealed nanoporous layered structures with increased length and crack development correlating with higher voltage and anodization time. Surface composition and chemical oxidation state of surface-treated SS were determined using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques, revealing a surface layer rich in Ni and suppressed Cr, resulting in a thin film composed of Ni and Fe oxide compared to untreated SS. Electrochemical studies demonstrated enhanced corrosion resistance in a strong alkaline medium compared to untreated SS. Understanding the intricate relationship between the structural features of anodized stainless steels and their corrosion resistance is crucial for optimizing the performance of these materials in diverse applications. This study aims to contribute to the advancement of surface engineering strategies for enhancing the durability and functionality of austenitic stainless steels in aggressive environments.

Keywords: austenitic stainless steel, anodization, nanoporous oxides, marine corrosion

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Vishal Pareek, Shubham Gupta, Sushil Chandra Jain

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With increasing high-speed computation demand the power consumption, heat dissipation and chip size issues are posing challenges for logic design with conventional technologies. Recovery of bit loss and bit errors is other issues that require reversibility and fault tolerance in the computation. The reversible computing is emerging as an alternative to conventional technologies to overcome the above problems and helpful in a diverse area such as low-power design, nanotechnology, quantum computing. Bit loss issue can be solved through unique input-output mapping which require reversibility and bit error issue require the capability of fault tolerance in design. In order to incorporate reversibility a number of combinational reversible logic based circuits have been developed. However, very few sequential reversible circuits have been reported in the literature. To make the circuit fault tolerant, a number of fault model and test approaches have been proposed for reversible logic. In this paper, we have attempted to incorporate fault tolerance in sequential reversible building blocks such as D flip-flop, T flip-flop, JK flip-flop, R-S flip-flop, Master-Slave D flip-flop, and double edge triggered D flip-flop by making them parity preserving. The importance of this proposed work lies in the fact that it provides the design of reversible sequential circuits completely testable for any stuck-at fault and single bit fault. In our opinion our design of reversible building blocks is superior to existing designs in term of quantum cost, hardware complexity, constant input, garbage output, number of gates and design of online testable D flip-flop have been proposed for the first time. We hope our work can be extended for building complex reversible sequential circuits.

Keywords: parity preserving gate, quantum computing, fault tolerance, flip-flop, sequential reversible logic

Procedia PDF Downloads 544

Authors: M. Shivakumar, S. R. Somashekhar, C. V. Raju

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Secondary salinization of agricultural lands in any command areas of the world is the major issue in the recent past. Currently, it is estimated that the 954 mh of saline and alkaline soil is present in the world. Thousands of hectares of land, getting added every year. Argentina, Bangladesh and Australia are most affected countries. In India, out of 142.80 million hectare (mh) cropped area, 56 mh is irrigated area. Of which, more than 9 mh (about 16.%) of land is found to be alkaline/saline. Due to continuous utilization of same land for same agricultural activities, excessive usage of fertilizers and water, most of the soils have become alkaline, saline or water logged. These lands are low productive and at times totally unfit for agricultural activities. These soils may or may not posses good physical condition, but plants may suffer from its inability to absorb water from salty solution. Plants suffer from dehydration and loose water to the soil, shrink, resulting death of plant. This process is called plasmolysis. It is the fact that soil is an independent, organic body of nature that acquires properties in accordance with forces which act upon it. Aquaculture is one of the solutions to utilize such problematic soils for food production. When the impoundments are constructed in an area 10-15% of the affected areas, the excess water along with the salts gets into impoundments and management of salt is easier in water than in the soil. Due to high organic input in aquaculture such as feed, manure and continuous deposition of fecal matter, pH of the soil gets reduced and over the period of time such soils can be put back into the original activity. Under National Agricultural Development Program (NADP), the project was implemented in 258 villages of Mandya District, Karnataka State, India and found that these lands can be effectively utilized for fish culture and increase the proteinacious food production by many folds while conserving the soils. The findings of the research can be adopted and up scaled in any country.

Keywords: saline and alkaline soils, Aquaculture, Problematic soils, Reclamation

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Ali Bayram, Remzi Yiğiter

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Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. At present, diagnosis of AD is rather late in the disease. Therefore, we attempted to find peripheral biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AD. Herein, we conducted a study to investigate the unc-51 like autophagy activating kinase-1 (ULK1) mRNA expression levels in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with Alzheimer's disease. Method: To determine whether ULK1 gene expression are altered in AD patients, we measured their gene expression in human peripheral blood cell in 50 patients with AD and 50 age and gender matched healthy controls by quantitative real-time PCR technique. Results: We found that both ULK1 gene expression in peripheral blood cell were significantly decreased in patients with AD as compared with controls (p <0.05). Lower levels of ULK1 gene expression were significantly associated with the increased risk for AD. Conclusions: Serine/threonine-protein kinase involved in autophagy in response to starvation. Acts upstream of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase PIK3C3 to regulate the formation of autophagophores, the precursors of autophagosomes. Part of regulatory feedback loops in autophagy: acts both as a downstream effector and negative regulator of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) via interaction with RPTOR. Activated via phosphorylation by AMPK and also acts as a regulator of AMPK by mediating phosphorylation of AMPK subunits PRKAA1, PRKAB2, and PRKAG1, leading to negatively regulate AMPK activity. May phosphorylate ATG13/KIAA0652 and RPTOR; however such data need additional evidences. Plays a role early in neuronal differentiation and is required for granule cell axon formation. Alzheimer is the most common neurodegenerative disease. Our results provide useful information that the ULK1 gene expression is decreased in the neurodegeneration and AD patients with, indicating their possible systemic involvement in AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s sisease, ULK1, mRNA expression, RT-PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Ejaz Ashraf, Raheel Babar, Muhammad Yaseen, Hafiz Khurram Shurjeel, Nosheen Fatima

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Main purpose of this study was to assess adoption level of farmers for quinoa cultivation after they had been taught through training and visit extension approach. At this time of the 21^st century, population structure, climate change, food requirements and eating habits of people are changing rapidly. In this scenario, farmers must play their key role in sustainable crop development and production through adoption of new crops that may also be helpful to overcome the issue of food insecurity as well as reducing poverty in rural areas. Its cultivation in Pakistan is at the early stages and there is a need to raise awareness among farmers to grow quinoa crops. In the middle of the 2015, a training and visit extension approach was used to raise awareness and convince farmers to grow quinoa in the area. During training and visit extension program, 80 farmers were randomly selected for the training of quinoa cultivation. Later on, these farmers trained 60 more farmers living into their neighborhood. After six months, a survey was conducted with all 140 farmers to assess the impact of the training and visit program on adoption level of respondents for the quinoa crop. The survey instrument was developed with the help of literature review and other experts of the crop. Validity and reliability of the instrument were checked before complete data collection. The data were analyzed by using SPSS. Multiple regression analysis was used for interpretation of the results from the survey, which indicated that factors like information/ training, change in agronomic and plant protection practices play a key role in the adoption of quinoa cultivation by respondents. In addition, the model explains more than 50% of variation in the adoption level of respondents. It is concluded that farmers need timely information for improved knowledge of agronomic and plant protection practices to adopt cultivation of the quinoa crop in the area.

Keywords: farmers, quinoa, adoption, contact, training and visit

Procedia PDF Downloads 355