Search results for: single event upset
Commenced in January 2007
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Edition: International
Paper Count: 5733

Search results for: single event upset

4233 Investigating the Neural Heterogeneity of Developmental Dyscalculia

Authors: Fengjuan Wang, Azilawati Jamaludin

Abstract:

Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is defined as a particular learning difficulty with continuous challenges in learning requisite math skills that cannot be explained by intellectual disability or educational deprivation. Recent studies have increasingly recognized that DD is a heterogeneous, instead of monolithic, learning disorder with not only cognitive and behavioral deficits but so too neural dysfunction. In recent years, neuroimaging studies employed group comparison to explore the neural underpinnings of DD, which contradicted the heterogenous nature of DD and may obfuscate critical individual differences. This research aimed to investigate the neural heterogeneity of DD using case studies with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). A total of 54 aged 6-7 years old of children participated in this study, comprising two comprehensive cognitive assessments, an 8-minute resting state, and an 8-minute one-digit addition task. Nine children met the criteria of DD and scored at or below 85 (i.e., the 16th percentile) on the Mathematics or Math Fluency subtest of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Third Edition (WIAT-III) (both subtest scores were 90 and below). The remaining 45 children formed the typically developing (TD) group. Resting-state data and brain activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) were collected for comparison between each case and the TD group. Graph theory was used to analyze the brain network under the resting state. This theory represents the brain network as a set of nodes--brain regions—and edges—pairwise interactions across areas to reveal the architectural organizations of the nervous network. Next, a single-case methodology developed by Crawford et al. in 2010 was used to compare each case’s brain network indicators and brain activation against 45 TD children’s average data. Results showed that three out of the nine DD children displayed significant deviation from TD children’s brain indicators. Case 1 had inefficient nodal network properties. Case 2 showed inefficient brain network properties and weaker activation in the IFG and IPS areas. Case 3 displayed inefficient brain network properties with no differences in activation patterns. As a rise above, the present study was able to distill differences in architectural organizations and brain activation of DD vis-à-vis TD children using fNIRS and single-case methodology. Although DD is regarded as a heterogeneous learning difficulty, it is noted that all three cases showed lower nodal efficiency in the brain network, which may be one of the neural sources of DD. Importantly, although the current “brain norm” established for the 45 children is tentative, the results from this study provide insights not only for future work in “developmental brain norm” with reliable brain indicators but so too the viability of single-case methodology, which could be used to detect differential brain indicators of DD children for early detection and interventions.

Keywords: brain activation, brain network, case study, developmental dyscalculia, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, graph theory, neural heterogeneity

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4232 Spatial Differentiation of Elderly Care Facilities in Mountainous Cities: A Case Study of Chongqing

Authors: Xuan Zhao, Wen Jiang

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In this study, a web crawler was used to collect POI sample data from 38 districts and counties of Chongqing in 2022, and ArcGIS was combined to coordinate and projection conversion and realize data visualization. Nuclear density analysis and spatial correlation analysis were used to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of elderly care facilities in Chongqing, and K mean cluster analysis was carried out with GeoDa to study the spatial concentration degree of elderly care resources in 38 districts and counties. Finally, the driving force of spatial differentiation of elderly care facilities in various districts and counties of Chongqing is studied by using the method of geographic detector. The results show that: (1) in terms of spatial distribution structure, the distribution of elderly care facilities in Chongqing is unbalanced, showing a distribution pattern of ‘large dispersion and small agglomeration’ and the asymmetric pattern of ‘west dense and east sparse, north dense and south sparse’ is prominent. (2) In terms of the spatial matching between elderly care resources and the elderly population, there is a weak coordination between the input of elderly care resources and the distribution of the elderly population at the county level in Chongqing. (3) The analysis of the results of the geographical detector shows that the single factor influence is mainly the number of elderly population, public financial revenue and district and county GDP. The high single factor influence is mainly caused by the elderly population, public financial income, and district and county GDP. The influence of each influence factor on the spatial distribution of elderly care facilities is not simply superimposed but has a nonlinear enhancement effect or double factor enhancement. It is necessary to strengthen the synergistic effect of two factors and promote the synergistic effect of multiple factors.

Keywords: aging, elderly care facilities, spatial differentiation, geographical detector, driving force analysis, Mountain city

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4231 Represent Light and Shade of Old Beijing: Construction of Historical Picture Display Platform Based on Geographic Information System (GIS)

Authors: Li Niu, Jihong Liang, Lichao Liu, Huidi Chen

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With the drawing of ancient palace painter, the layout of Beijing famous architect and the lens under photographers, a series of pictures which described whether emperors or ordinary people, whether gardens or Hutongs, whether historical events or life scenarios has emerged into our society. These precious resources are scattered around and preserved in different places Such as organizations like archives and libraries, along with individuals. The research combined decentralized photographic resources with Geographic Information System (GIS), focusing on the figure, event, time and location of the pictures to map them with geographic information in webpage and to display them productively. In order to meet the demand of reality, we designed a metadata description proposal, which is referred to DC and VRA standards. Another essential procedure is to formulate a four-tier classification system to correspond with the metadata proposals. As for visualization, we used Photo Waterfall and Time Line to display our resources in front end. Last but not the least, leading the Web 2.0 trend, the research developed an artistic, friendly, expandable, universal and user involvement platform to show the historical and culture precipitation of Beijing.

Keywords: historical picture, geographic information system, display platform, four-tier classification system

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4230 Using Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers to Extract Topic-Independent Sentiment Features for Social Media Bot Detection

Authors: Maryam Heidari, James H. Jones Jr.

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Millions of online posts about different topics and products are shared on popular social media platforms. One use of this content is to provide crowd-sourced information about a specific topic, event or product. However, this use raises an important question: what percentage of information available through these services is trustworthy? In particular, might some of this information be generated by a machine, i.e., a bot, instead of a human? Bots can be, and often are, purposely designed to generate enough volume to skew an apparent trend or position on a topic, yet the consumer of such content cannot easily distinguish a bot post from a human post. In this paper, we introduce a model for social media bot detection which uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (Google Bert) for sentiment classification of tweets to identify topic-independent features. Our use of a Natural Language Processing approach to derive topic-independent features for our new bot detection model distinguishes this work from previous bot detection models. We achieve 94\% accuracy classifying the contents of data as generated by a bot or a human, where the most accurate prior work achieved accuracy of 92\%.

Keywords: bot detection, natural language processing, neural network, social media

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4229 Application of Building Information Modelling In Analysing IGBC® Ratings (Sustainability Analyses)

Authors: Lokesh Harshe

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The building construction sector is using 36% of global energy consumption with 39% of CO₂ emission. Professionals in the Built Environment Sector have long been aware of the industry’s contribution towards CO₂ emissions and are now moving towards more sustainable practices. As a result of this, many organizations have introduced rating systems to address the issue of global warming in the construction sector by ranking construction projects based on sustainability parameters. The pre-construction phase of any building project is the most essential time to make decisions for addressing the sustainability aspects. Traditionally, it is very difficult to collect data from different stakeholders and bring it together to form a decision based on factual data to perform sustainability analyses in the pre-construction phase. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the solution where one single model is the result of the collaborative approach of BIM processes where all the information is shared, extracted, communicated, and stored on a single platform that everyone can access and make decisions based on real-time data. The focus of this research is on the Indian Green Rating System IGBC® with the objective of understanding IGBC® requirements and developing a framework to create the relationship between the rating processes and BIM. A Hypothetical (Architectural) model of a hostel building is developed using AutoCAD 2019 & Revit Arch. 2019, where the framework is applied to generate results on sustainability analysis using Green Building Studio (GBS) and Revit Add-ins. The results of any sustainability analysis are generated within a fraction of a minute, which is very quick in comparison with traditional sustainability analysis. This may save a considerable amount of time as well as cost. The future scope is to integrate Architectural, Structural, and MEP Models to perform accurate sustainability analyses with inputs from industry professionals working on real-life Green BIM projects.

Keywords: sustainability analyses, BIM, green rating systems, IGBC®, LEED

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4228 Effects of Different Thermal Processing Routes and Their Parameters on the Formation of Voids in PA6 Bonded Aluminum Joints

Authors: Muhammad Irfan, Guillermo Requena, Jan Haubrich

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Adhesively bonded aluminum joints are common in automotive and aircraft industries and are one of the enablers of lightweight construction to minimize the carbon emissions during transportation for a sustainable life. This study is focused on the effects of two thermal processing routes, i.e., by direct and induction heating, and their parameters on void formation in PA6 bonded aluminum EN-AW6082 joints. The joints were characterized microanalytically as well as by lap shear experiments. The aging resistance of the joints was studied by accelerated aging tests at 80°C hot water. It was found that the processing of single lap joints by direct heating in a convection oven causes the formation of a large number of voids in the bond line. The formation of voids in the convection oven was due to longer processing times and was independent of any surface pretreatments of the metal as well as the processing temperature. However, when processing at low temperatures, a large number of small-sized voids were observed under the optical microscope, and they were larger in size but reduced in numbers at higher temperatures. An induction heating process was developed, which not only successfully reduced or eliminated the voids in PA6 bonded joints but also reduced the processing times for joining significantly. Consistent with the trend in direct heating, longer processing times and higher temperatures in induction heating also led to an increased formation of voids in the bond line. Subsequent single lap shear tests revealed that the increasing void contents led to a 21% reduction in lap shear strengths (i.e., from ~47 MPa for induction heating to ~37 MPa for direct heating). Also, there was a 17% reduction in lap shear strengths when the consolidation temperature was raised from 220˚C to 300˚C during induction heating. However, below a certain threshold of void contents, there was no observable effect on the lap shear strengths as well as on hydrothermal aging resistance of the joints consolidated by the induction heating process.

Keywords: adhesive, aluminium, convection oven, induction heating, mechanical properties, nylon6 (PA6), pretreatment, void

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4227 Comparative Study of sLASER and PRESS Techniques in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Normal Brain

Authors: Shin Ku Kim, Yun Ah Oh, Eun Hee Seo, Chang Min Dae, Yun Jung Bae

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Objectives: The commonly used PRESS technique in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has a limitation of incomplete water suppression. The recently developed sLASER technique is known for its improved effectiveness in suppressing water signal. However, no prior study has compared both sequences in a normal human brain. In this study, we firstly aimed to compare the performances of both techniques in brain MRS. Materials and methods: From January 2023 to July 2023, thirty healthy participants (mean age 38 years, 17 male, 13 female) without underlying neurological diseases were enrolled in this study. All participants underwent single-voxel MRS using both PRESS and sLASER techniques on 3T MRI. Two regions-of-interest were allocated in the left medial thalamus and left parietal white matter (WM) by a single reader. The SpectroView Analysis (SW5, Philips, Netherlands) provided automatic measurements, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and peak_height of water, N-acetylaspartate (NAA)-water/Choline (Cho)-water/Creatine (Cr)-water ratios, and NAA-Cr/Cho-Cr ratios. The measurements from PRESS and sLASER techniques were compared using paired T-tests and Bland-Altman methods, and the variability was assessed using coefficients of variation (CV). Results: SNR and peak_heights of the water were significantly lower with sLASER compared to PRESS (left medial thalamus, sLASER SNR/peak_height 2092±475/328±85 vs. PRESS 2811±549/440±105); left parietal WM, 5422±1016/872±196 vs. 7152±1305/1150±278; all, P<0.001, respectively). Accordingly, NAA-water/Cho-water/Cr-water ratios and NAA-Cr/Cho-Cr ratios were significantly higher with sLASER than with PRESS (all, P< 0.001, respectively). The variabilities of NAA-water/Cho-water/Cr-water ratios and Cho-Cr ratio in the left medial thalamus were lower with sLASER than with PRESS (CV, sLASER vs. PRESS, 19.9 vs. 58.1/19.8 vs. 54.7/20.5 vs. 43.9 and 11.5 vs. 16.2) Conclusion: The sLASER technique demonstrated enhanced background water suppression, resulting in increased signals and reduced variability in brain metabolite measurements of MRS. Therefore, sLASER could offer a more precise and stable method for identifying brain metabolites.

Keywords: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Brain, sLASER, PRESS

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4226 Geometric Optimisation of Piezoelectric Fan Arrays for Low Energy Cooling

Authors: Alastair Hales, Xi Jiang

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Numerical methods are used to evaluate the operation of confined face-to-face piezoelectric fan arrays as pitch, P, between the blades is varied. Both in-phase and counter-phase oscillation are considered. A piezoelectric fan consists of a fan blade, which is clamped at one end, and an extremely low powered actuator. This drives the blade tip’s oscillation at its first natural frequency. Sufficient blade tip speed, created by the high oscillation frequency and amplitude, is required to induce vortices and downstream volume flow in the surrounding air. A single piezoelectric fan may provide the ideal solution for low powered hot spot cooling in an electronic device, but is unable to induce sufficient downstream airflow to replace a conventional air mover, such as a convection fan, in power electronics. Piezoelectric fan arrays, which are assemblies including multiple fan blades usually in face-to-face orientation, must be developed to widen the field of feasible applications for the technology. The potential energy saving is significant, with a 50% power demand reduction compared to convection fans even in an unoptimised state. A numerical model of a typical piezoelectric fan blade is derived and validated against experimental data. Numerical error is found to be 5.4% and 9.8% using two data comparison methods. The model is used to explore the variation of pitch as a function of amplitude, A, for a confined two-blade piezoelectric fan array in face-to-face orientation, with the blades oscillating both in-phase and counter-phase. It has been reported that in-phase oscillation is optimal for generating maximum downstream velocity and flow rate in unconfined conditions, due at least in part to the beneficial coupling between the adjacent blades that leads to an increased oscillation amplitude. The present model demonstrates that confinement has a significant detrimental effect on in-phase oscillation. Even at low pitch, counter-phase oscillation produces enhanced downstream air velocities and flow rates. Downstream air velocity from counter-phase oscillation can be maximally enhanced, relative to that generated from a single blade, by 17.7% at P = 8A. Flow rate enhancement at the same pitch is found to be 18.6%. By comparison, in-phase oscillation at the same pitch outputs 23.9% and 24.8% reductions in peak downstream air velocity and flow rate, relative to that generated from a single blade. This optimal pitch, equivalent to those reported in the literature, suggests that counter-phase oscillation is less affected by confinement. The optimal pitch for generating bulk airflow from counter-phase oscillation is large, P > 16A, due to the small but significant downstream velocity across the span between adjacent blades. However, by considering design in a confined space, counterphase pitch should be minimised to maximise the bulk airflow generated from a certain cross-sectional area within a channel flow application. Quantitative values are found to deviate to a small degree as other geometric and operational parameters are varied, but the established relationships are maintained.

Keywords: piezoelectric fans, low energy cooling, power electronics, computational fluid dynamics

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4225 The Impact of Financial News and Press Freedom on Abnormal Returns around Earnings Announcements in Greater China

Authors: Yu-Chen Wei, Yang-Cheng Lu, I-Chi Lin

Abstract:

This study examines the impacts of news sentiment and press freedom on abnormal returns during the earnings announcement in greater China including the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Taiwan stock markets. The news sentiment ratio is calculated by using the content analysis of semantic orientation. The empirical results show that news released prior to the event date may decrease the cumulative abnormal returns prior to the earnings announcement regardless of whether it is released in China or Taiwan. By contrast, companies with optimistic financial news may increase the cumulative abnormal returns during the announcement date. Furthermore, the difference in terms of press freedom is considered in greater China to compare the impact of press freedom on abnormal returns. The findings show that, the freer the press is, the more negatively significant will be the impact of news on the abnormal returns, which means that the press freedom may decrease the ability of the news to impact the abnormal returns. The intuition is that investors may receive alternative news related to each company in the market with greater press freedom, which proves the efficiency of the market and reduces the possible excess returns.

Keywords: news, press freedom, Greater China, earnings announcement, abnormal returns

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4224 An Investigation on the Pulse Electrodeposition of Ni-TiO2/TiO2 Multilayer Structures

Authors: S. Mohajeri

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Electrocodeposition of Ni-TiO2 nanocomposite single layers and Ni-TiO2/TiO2 multilayers from Watts bath containing TiO2 sol was carried out on copper substrate. Pulse plating and pulse reverse plating techniques were applied to facilitate higher incorporations of TiO2 nanoparticles in Ni-TiO2 nanocomposite single layers, and the results revealed that by prolongation of the current-off durations and the anodic cycles, deposits containing 11.58 wt.% and 13.16 wt.% TiO2 were produced, respectively. Multilayer coatings which consisted of Ni-TiO2 and TiO2-rich layers were deposited by pulse potential deposition through limiting the nickel deposition by diffusion control mechanism. The TiO2-rich layers thickness and accordingly, the content of TiO2 reinforcement reached 104 nm and 18.47 wt.%, respectively in the optimum condition. The phase structure and surface morphology of the nanocomposite coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cross sectional morphology and line scans of the layers were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It was confirmed that the preferred orientations and the crystallite sizes of nickel matrix were influenced by the deposition technique parameters, and higher contents of codeposited TiO2 nanoparticles refined the microstructure. The corrosion behavior of the coatings in 1M NaCl and 0.5M H2SO4 electrolytes were compared by means of potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Increase of corrosion resistance and the passivation tendency were favored by TiO2 incorporation, while the degree of passivation declined as embedded particles disturbed the continuity of passive layer. The role of TiO2 incorporation on the improvement of mechanical properties including hardness, elasticity, scratch resistance and friction coefficient was investigated by the means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Hydrophilicity and wettability of the composite coatings were investigated under UV illumination, and the water contact angle of the multilayer was reduced to 7.23° after 1 hour of UV irradiation.

Keywords: electrodeposition, hydrophilicity, multilayer, pulse-plating

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4223 Synthesis and Characterization of Graphene Composites with Application for Sustainable Energy

Authors: Daniel F. Sava, Anton Ficai, Bogdan S. Vasile, Georgeta Voicu, Ecaterina Andronescu

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The energy crisis and environmental contamination are very serious problems, therefore searching for better and sustainable renewable energy is a must. It is predicted that the global energy demand will double until 2050. Solar water splitting and photocatalysis are considered as one of the solutions to these issues. The use of oxide semiconductors for solar water splitting and photocatalysis started in 1972 with the experiments of Fujishima and Honda on TiO2 electrodes. Since then, the evolution of nanoscience and characterization methods leads to a better control of size, shape and properties of materials. Although the past decade advancements are astonishing, for these applications the properties have to be controlled at a much finer level, allowing the control of charge-carrier lives, energy level positions, charge trapping centers, etc. Graphene has attracted a lot of attention, since its discovery in 2004, due to the excellent electrical, optical, mechanical and thermal properties that it possesses. These properties make it an ideal support for photocatalysts, thus graphene composites with oxide semiconductors are of great interest. We present in this work the synthesis and characterization of graphene-related materials and oxide semiconductors and their different composites. These materials can be used in constructing devices for different applications (batteries, water splitting devices, solar cells, etc), thus showing their application flexibility. The synthesized materials are different morphologies and sizes of TiO2, ZnO and Fe2O3 that are obtained through hydrothermal, sol-gel methods and graphene oxide which is synthesized through a modified Hummer method and reduced with different agents. Graphene oxide and the reduced form could also be used as a single material for transparent conductive films. The obtained single materials and composites were characterized through several methods: XRD, SEM, TEM, IR spectroscopy, RAMAN, XPS and BET adsorption/desorption isotherms. From the results, we see the variation of the properties with the variation of synthesis parameters, size and morphology of the particles.

Keywords: composites, graphene, hydrothermal, renewable energy

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4222 The Preparation and Effectiveness of Picture Book for Increasing Knowledge about Divorce

Authors: Denia Prameswari

Abstract:

The impacts of divorce are not only felt by parents but also by children. Preschool children are the most distressed while facing parental divorce. The negative impacts of divorce on children can be minimized when children had pervious knowledge about the event. One of the method to give knowledge about divorce to children is through picture book. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, researchers have not found picture books for preschoolers about divorce. This study aims to test the effectiveness of picture book in increasing knowledge of preschool children about divorce. Formulation of picture books in this study is based on three sources of information: (1) the study of literature, (2) analysis of picture books, and (3) need assessment. This picture book that have been prepared, then used to test its effectiveness for increasing knowledge of preschool children about divorce. The test was conducted using pre and post test on 5 participants. The statistical method used in this study is paired sample t-test. The purposive sampling method was used to select the participants. The participants for this study are preschool children with parents that is undergoing divorce proceedings. The result shows that picture books in this study significantly increase preschool children's knowledge about divorce. As an additional result, parents find it easier to explain divorce to their children using the picture book from this study. For further study, researcher can make another picture book about divorce for children at different age or to face another challenging situation in life.

Keywords: divorce, parent, picture book, preschool children

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4221 Comparison and Effectiveness of Cranial Electrical Stimulation Treatment, Brain Training and Their Combination on Language and Verbal Fluency of Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Single Subject Design

Authors: Firoozeh Ghazanfari, Kourosh Amraei, Parisa Poorabadi

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Mild cognitive impairment is one of the neurocognitive disorders that go beyond age-related decline in cognitive functions, but in fact, it is not so severe which affects daily activities. This study aimed to investigate and compare the effectiveness of treatment with cranial electrical stimulation, brain training and their double combination on the language and verbal fluency of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment. This is a single-subject method with comparative intervention designs. Four patients with a definitive diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment by a psychiatrist were selected via purposive and convenience sampling method. Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Scale (2017) was used to assess language and verbal fluency. Two groups were formed with different order of cranial electrical stimulation treatment, brain training by pencil and paper method and their double combination, and two patients were randomly replaced in each group. The arrangement of the first group included cranial electrical stimulation, brain training, double combination and the second group included double combination, cranial electrical stimulation and brain training, respectively. Treatment plan included: A1, B, A2, C, A3, D, A4, where electrical stimulation treatment was given in ten 30-minutes sessions (5 mA and frequency of 0.5-500 Hz) and brain training in ten 30-minutes sessions. Each baseline lasted four weeks. Patients in first group who first received cranial electrical stimulation treatment showed a higher percentage of improvement in the language and verbal fluency subscale of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination in comparison to patients of the second group. Based on the results, it seems that cranial electrical stimulation with its effect on neurotransmitters and brain blood flow, especially in the brain stem, may prepare the brain at the neurochemical and molecular level for a better effectiveness of brain training at the behavioral level, and the selective treatment of electrical stimulation solitude in the first place may be more effective than combining it with paper-pencil brain training.

Keywords: cranial electrical stimulation, treatment, brain training, verbal fluency, cognitive impairment

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4220 Ethnicism and Nigeria's National Development Crisis

Authors: A. E. Agbogu

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While scholars have predicted that identity politics (or what is euphemistically referred to as ethnic politics in Nigeria) were a dying phenomenon in other parts of the world, in Nigeria, it has remained the basis of political activity and has indeed become not only the unwritten law of all calculations in the political firmament of the country but also the ultimo ratio. We intend in the paper that follows to explore the reason for this unhealthy development. The paper seeks to offer explanations for the paradoxical reality of the upsurge of ethnic politics in Nigeria when in fact, the phenomenon is apparently on a downward spiral elsewhere in the world, particularly in countries that are at par with Nigeria in terms of national development. The paper is descriptive and qualitative and has relied on available data for its source of materials. Among other things, the paper locates identity politics as a tool in the hands of a national elite that has not transcended the limitations imposes by the shackles of the parsonian particularistic polar attributes which have tended to fixate their weltanschauung or world view on attachments that are unpardonably primordial. In the event, ethnicity becomes a veritable instrument not only for cheap sectional mobilization but also a means for seeking access to the so-called national cake. It is recommended that a way out of this socio-politico malady is the creation of a political arrangement that conduces to the gravitational tendency which will lead to the transfer of loyalties away from the extant ethno-nationalities to the centre.

Keywords: ethnicism, development, crisis, identity politics

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4219 4-Channel CWDM Optical Transceiver Applying Silicon Photonics Ge-Photodiode and MZ-Modulator

Authors: Do-Won Kim, Andy Eu Jin Lim, Raja Muthusamy Kumarasamy, Vishal Vinayak, Jacky Wang Yu-Shun, Jason Liow Tsung Yang, Patrick Lo Guo Qiang

Abstract:

In this study, we demonstrate 4-channel coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) optical transceiver based on silicon photonics integrated circuits (PIC) of waveguide Ge-photodiode (Ge-PD) and Mach Zehnder (MZ)-modulator. 4-channel arrayed PICs of Ge-PD and MZ-modulator are verified to operate at 25 Gbps/ch achieving 4x25 Gbps of total data rate. 4 bare dies of single-channel commercial electronics ICs (EICs) of trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) for Ge-PD and driver IC for MZ-modulator are packaged with PIC on printed circuit board (PCB) in a chip-on-board (COB) manner. Each single-channel EIC is electrically connected to the one channel of 4-channel PICs by wire bonds to trace. The PICs have 4-channel multiplexer for MZ-modulator and 4-channel demultiplexer for Ge-PD. The 4-channel multiplexer/demultiplexer have echelle gratings for4 CWDM optic signals of which center wavelengths are 1511, 1531, 1553, and 1573 nm. Its insertion loss is around 4dB with over 15dB of extinction ratio.The dimension of 4-channel Ge-PD is 3.6x1.4x0.3mm, and its responsivity is 1A/W with dark current of less than 20 nA.Its measured 3dB bandwidth is around 20GHz. The dimension of the 4-channel MZ-modulator is 3.6x4.8x0.3mm, and its 3dB bandwidth is around 11Ghz at -2V of reverse biasing voltage. It has 2.4V•cmbyVπVL of 6V for π shift to 4 mm length modulator.5x5um of Inversed tapered mode size converter with less than 2dB of coupling loss is used for the coupling of the lensed fiber which has 5um of mode field diameter.The PCB for COB packaging and signal transmission is designed to have 6 layers in the hybrid layer structure. 0.25 mm-thick Rogers Duroid RT5880 is used as the first core dielectric layer for high-speed performance over 25 Gbps. It has 0.017 mm-thick of copper layers and its dielectric constant is 2.2and dissipation factor is 0.0009 at 10 GHz. The dimension of both single ended and differential microstrip transmission lines are calculated using full-wave electromagnetic (EM) field simulator HFSS which RF industry is using most. It showed 3dB bandwidth at around 15GHz in S-parameter measurement using network analyzer. The wire bond length for transmission line and ground connection from EIC is done to have less than 300 µm to minimize the parasitic effect to the system.Single layered capacitors (SLC) of 100pF and 1000pF are connected as close as possible to the EICs for stabilizing the DC biasing voltage by decoupling. Its signal transmission performance is under measurement at 25Gbps achieving 100Gbps by 4chx25Gbps. This work can be applied for the active optical cable (AOC) and quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) for high-speed optical interconnections. Its demands are quite large in data centers targeting 100 Gbps, 400 Gbps, and 1 Tbps. As the demands of high-speed AOC and QSFP for the application to intra/inter data centers increase, this silicon photonics based high-speed 4 channel CWDM scheme can have advantages not only in data throughput but also cost effectiveness since it reduces fiber cost dramatically through WDM.

Keywords: active optical cable(AOC), 4-channel coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM), communication system, data center, ge-photodiode, Mach Zehnder (MZ) modulator, optical interconnections, optical transceiver, photonics integrated circuits (PIC), quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP), silicon photonics

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4218 Single and Combined Effects of Diclofenac and Ibuprofen on Daphnia Magna and Some Phytoplankton Species

Authors: Ramatu I. Sha’aba, Mathias A. Chia, Abdullahi B. Alhassan, Yisa A. Gana, Ibrahim M. Gadzama

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Globally, Diclofenac (DLC) and Ibuprofen (IBU) are the most prescribed drugs due to their antipyretic and analgesic properties. They are, however, highly toxic at elevated doses, with the involvement of an already described oxidative stress pathway. As a result, there is rising concern about the ecological fate of analgesics on non-target organisms such as Daphnia magna and Phytoplankton species. Phytoplankton is a crucial component of the aquatic ecosystem that serves as the primary producer at the base of the food chain. However, the increasing presence and levels of micropollutants such as these analgesics can disrupt their community structure, dynamics, and ecosystem functions. This study presents a comprehensive series of the physiology, antioxidant response, immobilization, and risk assessment of Diclofenac and Ibuprofen’s effects on Daphnia magna and the Phytoplankton community using a laboratory approach. The effect of DLC and IBU at 27.16 µg/L and 20.89 µg/L, respectively, for a single exposure and 22.39 µg/L for combined exposure of DLC and IBU for the experimental setup. The antioxidant response increased with increasing levels of stress. The highest stressor to the organism was 1000 µg/L of DLC and 10,000 µg/L of IBU. Peroxidase and glutathione -S-transferase activity was higher for Diclofenac + Ibuprofen. The study showed 60% and 70% immobilization of the organism at 1000 g L-1 of DLC and IBU. The two drugs and their combinations adversely impacted Phytoplankton biomass with increased exposure time. However, combining the drugs resulted in more significant adverse effects on physiological and pigment content parameters. The risk assessment calculation for the risk quotient and toxic unit of the analgesic reveals from this study was RQ Diclofenac = 8.41, TU Diclofenac = 3.68, and RQ Ibuprofen = 718.05 and TU Ibuprofen = 487.70. Hence, these findings demonstrate that the current exposure concentrations of Diclofenac and Ibuprofen can immobilize D. magna. This study shows the dangers of multiple drugs in the aquatic environment because their combinations could have additive effects on the structure and functions of Phytoplankton and are capable of immobilizing D. magna.

Keywords: algae, analgesic drug, daphnia magna, toxicity

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4217 Modelling Causal Effects from Complex Longitudinal Data via Point Effects of Treatments

Authors: Xiaoqin Wang, Li Yin

Abstract:

Background and purpose: In many practices, one estimates causal effects arising from a complex stochastic process, where a sequence of treatments are assigned to influence a certain outcome of interest, and there exist time-dependent covariates between treatments. When covariates are plentiful and/or continuous, statistical modeling is needed to reduce the huge dimensionality of the problem and allow for the estimation of causal effects. Recently, Wang and Yin (Annals of statistics, 2020) derived a new general formula, which expresses these causal effects in terms of the point effects of treatments in single-point causal inference. As a result, it is possible to conduct the modeling via point effects. The purpose of the work is to study the modeling of these causal effects via point effects. Challenges and solutions: The time-dependent covariates often have influences from earlier treatments as well as on subsequent treatments. Consequently, the standard parameters – i.e., the mean of the outcome given all treatments and covariates-- are essentially all different (null paradox). Furthermore, the dimension of the parameters is huge (curse of dimensionality). Therefore, it can be difficult to conduct the modeling in terms of standard parameters. Instead of standard parameters, we have use point effects of treatments to develop likelihood-based parametric approach to the modeling of these causal effects and are able to model the causal effects of a sequence of treatments by modeling a small number of point effects of individual treatment Achievements: We are able to conduct the modeling of the causal effects from a sequence of treatments in the familiar framework of single-point causal inference. The simulation shows that our method achieves not only an unbiased estimate for the causal effect but also the nominal level of type I error and a low level of type II error for the hypothesis testing. We have applied this method to a longitudinal study of COVID-19 mortality among Scandinavian countries and found that the Swedish approach performed far worse than the other countries' approach for COVID-19 mortality and the poor performance was largely due to its early measure during the initial period of the pandemic.

Keywords: causal effect, point effect, statistical modelling, sequential causal inference

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4216 Physical Characterization of Indoor Dust Particles Using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

Authors: Fatima S. Mohammed, Derrick Crump

Abstract:

Harmattan, a dusty weather condition characterized by thick smog-like suspended particles and dust storm are the peculiar events that happen during ¾ of the year in the Sahelian regions including Damaturu Town, Nigeria), resulting in heavy dust deposits especially indoors. The inhabitants of the Damaturu community are always inflicted with different ailments; respiratory tract infections, asthma, gastrointestinal infections and different ailments associated with the dusty nature of the immediate environment. This brought the need to investigate the nature of the settled indoor dust. Vacuum cleaner bag dust was collected from indoor of some Nigerian and UK homes, as well as outdoors including during seasonal dusty weather event (Harmattan and Storm dust). The dust was sieved, and the (150 µm size) particles were examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The physical characterization of the settled dust samples has revealed the various shapes and sizes, and elemental composition of the dust samples is indicating that some of the dust fractions were the respirable fractions and also the dust contained PM10 to PM 2.5 fractions with possible health effects. The elemental compositions were indicative of the diverse nature of the dust particle sources, which showed dust as a complex matrix.

Keywords: indoor dust, Harmattan dust, SEM, health effects

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4215 Digitalization of Functional Safety - Increasing Productivity while Reducing Risks

Authors: Michael Scott, Phil Jarrell

Abstract:

Digitalization seems to be everywhere these days. So if one was to digitalize Functional Safety, what would that require: • Ability to directly use data from intelligent P&IDs / process design in a PHA / LOPA • Ability to directly use data from intelligent P&IDs in the SIS Design to support SIL Verification Calculations, SRS, C&Es, Functional Test Plans • Ability to create Unit Operation / SIF Libraries to radically reduce engineering manhours while ensuring consistency and improving quality of SIS designs • Ability to link data directly from a PHA / LOPA to SIS Designs • Ability to leverage reliability models and SRS details from SIS Designs to automatically program the Safety PLC • Ability to leverage SIS Test Plans to automatically create Safety PLC application logic Test Plans for a virtual FAT • Ability to tie real-time data from Process Historians / CMMS to assumptions in the PHA / LOPA and SIS Designs to generate leading indicators on protection layer health • Ability to flag SIS bad actors for proactive corrective actions prior to a near miss or loss of containment event What if I told you all of this was available today? This paper will highlight how the digital revolution has revolutionized the way Safety Instrumented Systems are designed, configured, operated and maintained.

Keywords: IEC 61511, safety instrumented systems, functional safety, digitalization, IIoT

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4214 Pitch Processing in Autistic Mandarin-Speaking Children with Hypersensitivityand Hypo-Sensitivity: An Event-Related Potential Study

Authors: Kaiying Lai, Suiping Wang, Luodi Yu, Yang Zhang, Pengmin Qin

Abstract:

Abnormalities in auditory processing are one of the most commonly reported sensory processing impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Tonal language speaker with autism has enhanced neural sensitivity to pitch changes in pure tone. However, not all children with ASD exhibit the same performance in pitch processing due to different auditory sensitivity. The current study aimed to examine auditory change detection in ASD with different auditory sensitivity. K-means clustering method was adopted to classify ASD participants into two groups according to the auditory processing scores of the Sensory Profile, 11 autism with hypersensitivity (mean age = 11.36 ; SD = 1.46) and 18 with hypo-sensitivity (mean age = 10.64; SD = 1.89) participated in a passive auditory oddball paradigm designed for eliciting mismatch negativity (MMN) under the pure tone condition. Results revealed that compared to hypersensitive autism, the children with hypo-sensitivity showed smaller MMN responses to pure tone stimuli. These results suggest that ASD with auditory hypersensitivity and hypo-sensitivity performed differently in processing pure tone, so neural responses to pure tone hold promise for predicting the auditory sensitivity of ASD and targeted treatment in children with ASD.

Keywords: ASD, sensory profile, pitch processing, mismatch negativity, MMN

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4213 Epileptic Seizure Onset Detection via Energy and Neural Synchronization Decision Fusion

Authors: Marwa Qaraqe, Muhammad Ismail, Erchin Serpedin

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel architecture for a patient-specific epileptic seizure onset detector using scalp electroencephalography (EEG). The proposed architecture is based on the decision fusion calculated from energy and neural synchronization related features. Specifically, one level of the detector calculates the condition number (CN) of an EEG matrix to evaluate the amount of neural synchronization present within the EEG channels. On a parallel level, the detector evaluates the energy contained in four EEG frequency subbands. The information is then fed into two independent (parallel) classification units based on support vector machines to determine the onset of a seizure event. The decisions from the two classifiers are then combined together according to two fusion techniques to determine a global decision. Experimental results demonstrate that the detector based on the AND fusion technique outperforms existing detectors with a sensitivity of 100%, detection latency of 3 seconds, while it achieves a 2:76 false alarm rate per hour. The OR fusion technique achieves a sensitivity of 100%, and significantly improves delay latency (0:17 seconds), yet it achieves 12 false alarms per hour.

Keywords: epilepsy, EEG, seizure onset, electroencephalography, neuron, detection

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4212 Census and Mapping of Oil Palms Over Satellite Dataset Using Deep Learning Model

Authors: Gholba Niranjan Dilip, Anil Kumar

Abstract:

Conduct of accurate reliable mapping of oil palm plantations and census of individual palm trees is a huge challenge. This study addresses this challenge and developed an optimized solution implemented deep learning techniques on remote sensing data. The oil palm is a very important tropical crop. To improve its productivity and land management, it is imperative to have accurate census over large areas. Since, manual census is costly and prone to approximations, a methodology for automated census using panchromatic images from Cartosat-2, SkySat and World View-3 satellites is demonstrated. It is selected two different study sites in Indonesia. The customized set of training data and ground-truth data are created for this study from Cartosat-2 images. The pre-trained model of Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) Lite MobileNet V2 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) from the TensorFlow Object Detection API is subjected to transfer learning on this customized dataset. The SSD model is able to generate the bounding boxes for each oil palm and also do the counting of palms with good accuracy on the panchromatic images. The detection yielded an F-Score of 83.16 % on seven different images. The detections are buffered and dissolved to generate polygons demarcating the boundaries of the oil palm plantations. This provided the area under the plantations and also gave maps of their location, thereby completing the automated census, with a fairly high accuracy (≈100%). The trained CNN was found competent enough to detect oil palm crowns from images obtained from multiple satellite sensors and of varying temporal vintage. It helped to estimate the increase in oil palm plantations from 2014 to 2021 in the study area. The study proved that high-resolution panchromatic satellite image can successfully be used to undertake census of oil palm plantations using CNNs.

Keywords: object detection, oil palm tree census, panchromatic images, single shot multibox detector

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4211 Residential Satisfaction and Public Perception of Socialized Housing Projects in Davao City, Philippines

Authors: Micah Amor P. Yares

Abstract:

Aside from the provision of adequate housing, the Philippine government faces the challenge of ensuring that the housing units provided conform to the Filipino’s ambition to self as manifested by owning a small house on a big lot. The study aimed to explore the levels of satisfaction of end-users and the public perception towards socialized housing in Davao City, Philippines. The residential satisfaction survey includes three types of respondents, which are end-users of single-detached, duplex and rowhouse socialized housing units. Respondents were asked to rate their level of satisfaction and perception to the following housing components: Dwelling Unit; Public Facilities; Social Environment; Neighborhood Facilities; Management Systems; and Acquisition and Financing. The data were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis to determine if variables can be grouped together, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis to measure if the model fits the construct. In determining which component affects the level of perception and satisfaction, a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was employed. Lastly, an Individual Samples T-Test was performed to compare the levels of satisfaction and perception among respondents. Results revealed that residents of socialized housing were highly satisfied with their living conditions despite concerns on management systems, public and neighborhood facilities. Residents' satisfaction is primarily influenced by the Social Environment, Acquisition and Financing, and the Dwelling Unit. However, a significant difference in residential satisfaction level was observed among different types of housing with rowhouse residents recording the lowest satisfaction level compared to single-detached and duplex units. Moreover, the general public perceived Socialized housing as moderately satisfactory having the same determinant as the end-users aside from the Public Facilities. This study recommends revisiting the current Socialized Housing policies by considering the feedback from the end-users based on their lived experience and the public according to their perception.

Keywords: public perception, residential satisfaction, rowhouse, socialized housing

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4210 Prevalence of Pretreatment Drug HIV-1 Mutations in Moscow, Russia

Authors: Daria Zabolotnaya, Svetlana Degtyareva, Veronika Kanestri, Danila Konnov

Abstract:

An adequate choice of the initial antiretroviral treatment determines the treatment efficacy. In the clinical guidelines in Russia non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are still considered to be an option for first-line treatment while pretreatment drug resistance (PDR) testing is not routinely performed. We conducted a cohort retrospective study in HIV-positive treatment naïve patients of the H-clinic (Moscow, Russia) who performed PDR testing from July 2017 to November 2021. All the information was obtained from the medical records anonymously. We analyzed the mutations in reverse transcriptase and protease genes. RT-sequences were obtained by AmpliSens HIV-Resist-Seq kit. Drug resistance was defined using the HIVdb Program v. 8.9-1. PDR was estimated using the Stanford algorithm. Descriptive statistics were performed in Excel (Microsoft Office, 2019). A total of 261 HIV-1 infected patients were enrolled in the study including 197 (75.5%) male and 64 (24.5%) female. The mean age was 34.6±8.3 years. The median CD4 count – 521 cells/µl (IQR 367-687 cells/µl). Data on risk factors of HIV-infection were scarce. The total quantity of strains containing mutations in the reverse transcriptase gene was 75 (28.7%). From these 5 (1.9%) mutations were associated with PDR to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and 30 (11.5%) – with PDR to NNRTIs. The number of strains with mutations in protease gene was 43 (16.5%), from these only 3 (1.1%) mutations were associated with resistance to protease inhibitors. For NNRTIs the most prevalent PDR mutations were E138A, V106I. Most of the HIV variants exhibited a single PDR mutation, 2 were found in 3 samples. Most of HIV variants with PDR mutation displayed a single drug class resistance mutation. 2/37 (5.4%) strains had both NRTIs and NNRTIs mutations. There were no strains identified with PDR mutations to all three drug classes. Though earlier data demonstrated a lower level of PDR in HIV treatment naïve population in Russia and our cohort can be not fully representative as it is taken from the private clinic, it reflects the trend of increasing PDR especially to NNRTIs. Therefore, we consider either pretreatment testing or giving the priority to other drugs as first-line treatment necessary.

Keywords: HIV, resistance, mutations, treatment

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4209 Assessment of Causes of Building Collapse in Nigeria

Authors: Olufemi Oyedele

Abstract:

Building collapse (BC) in Nigeria is becoming a regular occurrence, each recording great casualties in the number of lives and materials lost. Building collapse is a situation where building which has been completed and occupied, completed but not occupied or under construction, collapses on its own due to action or inaction of man or due to natural event like earthquake, storm, flooding, tsunami or wildfire. It is different from building demolition. There are various causes of building collapse and each case requires expert judgment to decide the cause of its collapse. Rate of building collapse is a reflection of the level of organization and control of building activities and degree of sophistication of the construction professionals in a country. This study explored the use of case study by examining the causes of six (6) collapsed buildings (CB) across Nigeria. Samples of materials from the sites of the collapsed buildings were taken for testing and analysis, while critical observations were made at the sites to note the conditions of the ground (building base). The study found out that majority of the building collapses in Nigeria were due to poor workmanship, sub-standard building materials, followed by bad building base and poor design. The National Building Code 2006 is not effective due to lack of enforcement and the Physical Development Departments of states and Federal Capital Territory are just mere agents of corruption allowing all types of construction without building approvals.

Keywords: building collapse, concrete tests, differential settlement, integrity test, quality control

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4208 Seismic Stratigraphy of the First Deposits of the Kribi-Campo Offshore Sub-basin (Gulf of Guinea): Pre-cretaceous Early Marine Incursion and Source Rocks Modeling

Authors: Mike-Franck Mienlam Essi, Joseph Quentin Yene Atangana, Mbida Yem

Abstract:

The Kribi-Campo sub-basin belongs to the southern domain of the Cameroon Atlantic Margin in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the African homologous segment of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, located at the northeast side of the Brazil margin. The onset of the seafloor spreading period in the Southwest African Margin in general and the study area particularly remains controversial. Various studies locate this event during the Cretaceous times (Early Aptian to Late Albian), while others suggested that this event occurred during Pre-Cretaceous period (Palaeozoic or Jurassic). This work analyses 02 Cameroon Span seismic lines to re-examine the Early marine incursion period of the study area for a better understanding of the margin evolution. The methodology of analysis in this study is based on the delineation of the first seismic sequence, using the reflector’s terminations tracking and the analysis of its internal reflections associated to the external configuration of the package. The results obtained indicate from the bottom upwards that the first deposits overlie a first seismic horizon (H1) associated to “onlap” terminations at its top and underlie a second horizon which shows “Downlap” terminations at its top (H2). The external configuration of this package features a prograded fill pattern, and it is observed within the depocenter area with discontinuous reflections that pinch out against the basement. From east to west, this sequence shows two seismic facies (SF1 and SF2). SF1 has parallel to subparallel reflections, characterized by high amplitude, and SF2 shows parallel and stratified reflections, characterized by low amplitude. The distribution of these seismic facies reveals a lateral facies variation observed. According to the fundamentals works on seismic stratigraphy and the literature review of the geological context of the study area, particularly, the stratigraphical natures of the identified horizons and seismic facies have been highlighted. The seismic horizons H1 and H2 correspond to Top basement and “Downlap Surface,” respectively. SF1 indicates continental sediments (Sands/Sandstone) and SF2 marine deposits (shales, clays). Then, the prograding configuration observed suggests a marine regression. The correlation of these results with the lithochronostratigraphic chart of Sergipe-Alagoas Basin reveals that the first marine deposits through the study area are dated from Pre-Cretaceous times (Palaeozoic or Jurassic). The first deposits onto the basement represents the end of a cycle of sedimentation. The hypothesis of Mike.F. Mienlam Essi is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Joseph.Q. Yene Atangana is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Mbida Yem is with the Earth Sciences Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Yaoundé I, P.O. BOX 812 CAMEROON (e-mail: [email protected]). Cretaceous seafloor spreading through the study area is the onset of another cycle of sedimentation. Furthermore, the presence of marine sediments into the first deposits implies that this package could contain marine source rocks. The spatial tracking of these deposits reveals that they could be found in some onshore parts of the Kribi-Campo area or even in the northern side.

Keywords: cameroon span seismic, early marine incursion, kribi-campo sub-basin, pre-cretaceous period, sergipe-alagoas basin

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4207 Empirical Green’s Function Technique for Accelerogram Synthesis: The Problem of the Use for Marine Seismic Hazard Assessment

Authors: Artem A. Krylov

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Instrumental seismological researches in water areas are complicated and expensive, that leads to the lack of strong motion records in most offshore regions. In the same time the number of offshore industrial infrastructure objects, such as oil rigs, subsea pipelines, is constantly increasing. The empirical Green’s function technique proved to be very effective for accelerograms synthesis under the conditions of poorly described seismic wave propagation medium. But the selection of suitable small earthquake record in offshore regions as an empirical Green’s function is a problem because of short seafloor instrumental seismological investigation results usually with weak micro-earthquakes recordings. An approach based on moving average smoothing in the frequency domain is presented for preliminary processing of weak micro-earthquake records before using it as empirical Green’s function. The method results in significant waveform correction for modeled event. The case study for 2009 L’Aquila earthquake was used to demonstrate the suitability of the method. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (project № 18-35-00474 mol_a).

Keywords: accelerogram synthesis, empirical Green's function, marine seismology, microearthquakes

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4206 Endoscopic Pituitary Surgery: Learning Curve and Nasal Quality of Life

Authors: Martin Dupuy, Solange Grunenwald, Pierre-Louis Colombo, Laurence Mahieu, Pomone Richard, Philippe Bartoli

Abstract:

Endonasal endoscopic trans-sphenoidal surgery for pituitary tumours has become a mainstay of treatment over the last two decades. Although it is generally accepted that there is no significant difference between endoscopic versus microscopic approach for surgical outcomes (endocrine and ophthalmologic status), nasal morbidity seems to the benefit of endoscopic procedures. Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery needs an operative learning curve to achieve surgeon’s efficiency. This learning curve is now well known for surgical outcomes and complications rate, however, few data are available for nasal morbidity. The aim of our series is to document operative experience and nasal quality of life after (NQOL) endoscopic trans-sphenoidal surgery. The prospective pituitary surgical cohort consisted of 525 consecutives patients referred to our Skull Base Diseases Department. Endoscopic procedures were performed by a single neurosurgeon using an uninostril approach. NQOL was evaluated using the Sino-Nasal Test (SNOT-22), the Anterior Base Nasal Inventory (ASBNI) and the Skull Base Inventory Score (SBIS). Data were collected before surgery during hospital stay and 3 months after the surgery. The seventy first patients were compared to the latest 70 patients. There was no significant difference between comparison score before versus after surgery for SNOT-22, ASBNI and SBIS during the single surgeon’s learning curve. Our series demonstrates that in our institution there is no statistically significant learning curve for NQOL after uninostril endoscopic pituitary surgery. A careful progression through sinonasal structures with very limited mucosal incision is associated with minimal morbidity and preserves nasal function. Conservative and minimal invasive approach could be achieved early during learning curve.

Keywords: pituitary surgery, quality of life, minimal invasive surgery, learning curve, pituitary tumours, skull base surgery, endoscopic surgery

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4205 Evaluation of Promoter Hypermethylation in Tissue and Blood of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients and Association with Survival

Authors: Ashraf Ali, Kriti Upadhyay, Puja Sohal, Anant Mohan, Randeep Guleria

Abstract:

Background: Gene silencing by aberrant promoter hypermethylation is common in lung cancer and is an initiating event in its development. Aim: To evaluate the gene promoter hypermethylation frequency in serum and tissue of lung cancer patients. Method: 95 newly diagnosed untreated advance stage lung cancer patients and 50 cancer free matched controls were studied. Bisulfite modification of tissue and serum DNA was done; modified DNA was used as a template for methylation-specific PCR analysis. Survival was assessed for one year. Results: Of 95 patients, 82% were non-small cell lung cancer (34% squamous cell carcinoma, 34% non-small cell lung cancer and 14% adenocarcinoma) and 18% were small cell lung cancer. Biopsy revealed that tissue of 89% and 75% of lung cancer patients and 85% and 52% of controls had promoter hypermethylated for MGMT (p=0.35) and p16(p<0.001) gene, respectively. In serum, 33% and 49% of lung cancer patients and 28% and 43% controls were positive for MGMT and p16 gene. No significant correlation was found between survival and clinico-pathological parameters. Conclusion: High gene promoter methylation frequency of p16 gene in tissue biopsy may be linked with early stages of carcinogenesis. Appropriate follow-up is required for confirmation of this finding.

Keywords: lung cancer, MS- PCR, methylation, molecular biology

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4204 Effect of Out-Of-Plane Deformation on Relaxation Method of Stress Concentration in a Plate

Authors: Shingo Murakami, Shinichi Enoki

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In structures, stress concentration is a factor of fatigue fracture. Basically, the stress concentration is a phenomenon that should be avoided. However, it is difficult to avoid the stress concentration. Therefore, relaxation of the stress concentration is important. The stress concentration arises from notches and circular holes. There is a relaxation method that a composite patch covers a notch and a circular hole. This relaxation method is used to repair aerial wings, but it is not systematized. Composites are more expensive than single materials. Accordingly, we propose the relaxation method that a single material patch covers a notch and a circular hole, and aim to systematize this relaxation method. We performed FEA (Finite Element Analysis) about an object by using a three-dimensional FEA model. The object was that a patch adheres to a plate with a circular hole. And, a uniaxial tensile load acts on the patched plate with a circular hole. In the three-dimensional FEA model, it is not easy to model the adhesion layer. Basically, the yield stress of the adhesive is smaller than that of adherents. Accordingly, the adhesion layer gets to plastic deformation earlier than the adherents under the yield stress of adherents. Therefore, we propose the three-dimensional FEA model which is applied a nonlinear elastic region to the adhesion layer. The nonlinear elastic region was calculated by a bilinear approximation. We compared the analysis results with the tensile test results to confirm whether the analysis model has usefulness. As a result, the analysis results agreed with the tensile test results. And, we confirmed that the analysis model has usefulness. As a result that the three-dimensional FEA model was used to the analysis, it was confirmed that an out-of-plane deformation occurred to the patched plate with a circular hole. The out-of-plane deformation causes stress increase of the patched plate with a circular hole. Therefore, we investigate that the out-of-plane deformation affects relaxation of the stress concentration in the plate with a circular hole on this relaxation method. As a result, it was confirmed that the out-of-plane deformation inhibits relaxation of the stress concentration on the plate with a circular hole.

Keywords: stress concentration, patch, out-of-plane deformation, Finite Element Analysis

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