Search results for: artificial potential function
1675 Arc Interruption Design for DC High Current/Low SC Fuses via Simulation
Authors: Ali Kadivar, Kaveh Niayesh
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This report summarizes a simulation-based approach to estimate the current interruption behavior of a fuse element utilized in a DC network protecting battery banks under different stresses. Due to internal resistance of the battries, the short circuit current in very close to the nominal current, and it makes the fuse designation tricky. The base configuration considered in this report consists of five fuse units in parallel. The simulations are performed using a multi-physics software package, COMSOL® 5.6, and the necessary material parameters have been calculated using two other software packages.The first phase of the simulation starts with the heating of the fuse elements resulted from the current flow through the fusing element. In this phase, the heat transfer between the metallic strip and the adjacent materials results in melting and evaporation of the filler and housing before the aluminum strip is evaporated and the current flow in the evaporated strip is cut-off, or an arc is eventually initiated. The initiated arc starts to expand, so the entire metallic strip is ablated, and a long arc of around 20 mm is created within the first 3 milliseconds after arc initiation (v_elongation = 6.6 m/s. The final stage of the simulation is related to the arc simulation and its interaction with the external circuitry. Because of the strong ablation of the filler material and venting of the arc caused by the melting and evaporation of the filler and housing before an arc initiates, the arc is assumed to burn in almost pure ablated material. To be able to precisely model this arc, one more step related to the derivation of the transport coefficients of the plasma in ablated urethane was necessary. The results indicate that an arc current interruption, in this case, will not be achieved within the first tens of milliseconds. In a further study, considering two series elements, the arc was interrupted within few milliseconds. A very important aspect in this context is the potential impact of many broken strips parallel to the one where the arc occurs. The generated arcing voltage is also applied to the other broken strips connected in parallel with arcing path. As the gap between the other strips is very small, a large voltage of a few hundred volts generated during the current interruption may eventually lead to a breakdown of another gap. As two arcs in parallel are not stable, one of the arcs will extinguish, and the total current will be carried by one single arc again. This process may be repeated several times if the generated voltage is very large. The ultimate result would be that the current interruption may be delayed.Keywords: DC network, high current / low SC fuses, FEM simulation, paralle fuses
Procedia PDF Downloads 601674 Developing a Decision-Making Tool for Prioritizing Green Building Initiatives
Authors: Tayyab Ahmad, Gerard Healey
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Sustainability in built environment sector is subject to many development constraints. Building projects are developed under different requirements of deliverables which makes each project unique. For an owner organization, i.e., a higher-education institution, involved in a significant building stock, it is important to prioritize some of the sustainability initiatives over the others in order to align the sustainable building development with organizational goals. The point-based green building rating tools i.e. Green Star, LEED, BREEAM are becoming increasingly popular and are well-acknowledged worldwide for verifying a sustainable development. It is imperative to synthesize a multi-criteria decision-making tool that can capitalize on the point-based methodology of rating systems while customizing the sustainable development of building projects according to the individual requirements and constraints of the client organization. A multi-criteria decision-making tool for the University of Melbourne is developed that builds on the action-learning and experience of implementing Green Buildings at the University of Melbourne. The tool evaluates the different sustainable building initiatives based on the framework of Green Star rating tool of Green Building Council of Australia. For each different sustainability initiative the decision-making tool makes an assessment based on at least five performance criteria including the ease with which a sustainability initiative can be achieved and the potential of a sustainability initiative to enhance project objectives, reduce life-cycle costs, enhance University’s reputation, and increase the confidence in quality construction. The use of a weighted aggregation mathematical model in the proposed tool can have a considerable role in the decision-making process of a Green Building project by indexing the Green Building initiatives in terms of organizational priorities. The index value of each initiative will be based on its alignment with some of the key performance criteria. The usefulness of the decision-making tool is validated by conducting structured interviews with some of the key stakeholders involved in the development of sustainable building projects at the University of Melbourne. The proposed tool is realized to help a client organization in deciding that within limited resources which sustainability initiatives and practices are more important to be pursued than others.Keywords: higher education institution, multi-criteria decision-making tool, organizational values, prioritizing sustainability initiatives, weighted aggregation model
Procedia PDF Downloads 2231673 Campaigns of Youth Empowerment and Unemployment In Development Discourses: In the Case of Ethiopia
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In today’s high decrement figure of the global economy, nations are facing many economic, social and political challenges; universally, there is high distress of food and other survival insecurity. Further, as a result of conflict, natural disasters, and leadership influences, youths are existentially less empowered and unemployed, especially in developing countries. With this situation to handle well challenges, it’s important to search, investigate and deliberate about youth, unemployment, empowerment and possible management fashions, as youths have the potential to carry and fight such battles. The method adopted is a qualitative analysis of secondary data sources in youth empowerment, unemployment and development as an inclusive framework. Youth unemployment is a major development headache for most African countries. In Ethiopia, following weak youth empowerment, youth unemployment has increased from time to time, and quality education and organization linkage matter as an important constraint. As a management challenge, although accessibility of quality education for Ethiopian youths is an important constraint, the country's youths are fortified deceptively and harassed in a vicious political challenge in their struggle to fetch social and economic changes in the country. Further, thousands of youths are inactivated, criminalized and lost their lives and this makes youths hopeless anger in their lives and pushes them further to be exposed for addictions, prostitution, violence, and illegitimate migrations. This youth challenge wasn’t only destined for African countries; rather, indeed, it was a global burden and headed as a global agenda. As a resolution, the construction of a healthy education system can create independent youths who acquire success and accelerate development. Developing countries should ensue development in the cultivation of empowerment tools through long and short-term education, implementing policy in action, diminishing wide-ranging gaps of (religion, ethnicity & region), and take high youth population as an opportunity and empower them. Further managing and empowering youths to be involved in decision-making, giving political weight and building a network of organizations to easily access job opportunities are important suggestions to save youths in work, for both increasing their income and the country's food security balance.Keywords: development, Ethiopia, management, unemployment, youth empowerment
Procedia PDF Downloads 501672 Overview of Environmental and Economic Theories of the Impact of Dams in Different Regions
Authors: Ariadne Katsouras, Andrea Chareunsy
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The number of large hydroelectric dams in the world has increased from almost 6,000 in the 1950s to over 45,000 in 2000. Dams are often built to increase the economic development of a country. This can occur in several ways. Large dams take many years to build so the construction process employs many people for a long time and that increased production and income can flow on into other sectors of the economy. Additionally, the provision of electricity can help raise people’s living standards and if the electricity is sold to another country then the money can be used to provide other public goods for the residents of the country that own the dam. Dams are also built to control flooding and provide irrigation water. Most dams are of these types. This paper will give an overview of the environmental and economic theories of the impact of dams in different regions of the world. There is a difference in the degree of environmental and economic impacts due to the varying climates and varying social and political factors of the regions. Production of greenhouse gases from the dam’s reservoir, for instance, tends to be higher in tropical areas as opposed to Nordic environments. However, there are also common impacts due to construction of the dam itself, such as, flooding of land for the creation of the reservoir and displacement of local populations. Economically, the local population tends to benefit least from the construction of the dam. Additionally, if a foreign company owns the dam or the government subsidises the cost of electricity to businesses, then the funds from electricity production do not benefit the residents of the country the dam is built in. So, in the end, the dams can benefit a country economically, but the varying factors related to its construction and how these are dealt with, determine the level of benefit, if any, of the dam. Some of the theories or practices used to evaluate the potential value of a dam include cost-benefit analysis, environmental impacts assessments and regressions. Systems analysis is also a useful method. While these theories have value, there are also possible shortcomings. Cost-benefit analysis converts all the costs and benefits to dollar values, which can be problematic. Environmental impact assessments, likewise, can be incomplete, especially if the assessment does not include feedback effects, that is, they only consider the initial impact. Finally, regression analysis is dependent on the available data and again would not necessarily include feedbacks. Systems analysis is a method that can allow more complex modelling of the environment and the economic system. It would allow a clearer picture to emerge of the impacts and can include a long time frame.Keywords: comparison, economics, environment, hydroelectric dams
Procedia PDF Downloads 1901671 Detailed Analysis of Multi-Mode Optical Fiber Infrastructures for Data Centers
Authors: Matej Komanec, Jan Bohata, Stanislav Zvanovec, Tomas Nemecek, Jan Broucek, Josef Beran
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With the exponential growth of social networks, video streaming and increasing demands on data rates, the number of newly built data centers rises proportionately. The data centers, however, have to adjust to the rapidly increased amount of data that has to be processed. For this purpose, multi-mode (MM) fiber based infrastructures are often employed. It stems from the fact, the connections in data centers are typically realized within a short distance, and the application of MM fibers and components considerably reduces costs. On the other hand, the usage of MM components brings specific requirements for installation service conditions. Moreover, it has to be taken into account that MM fiber components have a higher production tolerance for parameters like core and cladding diameters, eccentricity, etc. Due to the high demands for the reliability of data center components, the determination of properly excited optical field inside the MM fiber core belongs to the key parameters while designing such an MM optical system architecture. Appropriately excited mode field of the MM fiber provides optimal power budget in connections, leads to the decrease of insertion losses (IL) and achieves effective modal bandwidth (EMB). The main parameter, in this case, is the encircled flux (EF), which should be properly defined for variable optical sources and consequent different mode-field distribution. In this paper, we present detailed investigation and measurements of the mode field distribution for short MM links purposed in particular for data centers with the emphasis on reliability and safety. These measurements are essential for large MM network design. The various scenarios, containing different fibers and connectors, were tested in terms of IL and mode-field distribution to reveal potential challenges. Furthermore, we focused on estimation of particular defects and errors, which can realistically occur like eccentricity, connector shifting or dust, were simulated and measured, and their dependence to EF statistics and functionality of data center infrastructure was evaluated. The experimental tests were performed at two wavelengths, commonly used in MM networks, of 850 nm and 1310 nm to verify EF statistics. Finally, we provide recommendations for data center systems and networks, using OM3 and OM4 MM fiber connections.Keywords: optical fiber, multi-mode, data centers, encircled flux
Procedia PDF Downloads 3721670 Evaluation of the Physico-Chemical and Microbial Properties of the Compost Leachate (CL) to Assess Its Role in the Bioremediation of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Authors: Omaima A. Sharaf, Tarek A. Moussa, Said M. Badr El-Din, H. Moawad
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Background: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pose great environmental and human health concerns for their widespread occurrence, persistence, and carcinogenic properties. PAHs releases due to anthropogenic activities to the wider environment have led to higher concentrations of these contaminants than would be expected from natural processes alone. This may result in a wide range of environmental problems that can accumulate in agricultural ecosystems, which threatened to become a negative impact on sustainable agricultural development. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the physico-chemical, and microbial properties of the compost leachate (CL) to assess its role as nutrient and microbial source (biostimulation/bioaugmentation) for developing a cost-effective bioremediation technology for PAHs contaminated sites. Material and Methods: PAHs-degrading bacteria were isolated from CL that was collected from a composting site located in central Scotland, UK. Isolation was carried out by enrichment using phenanthrene (PHR), pyrene (PYR) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) as the sole source of carbon and energy. The isolates were characterized using a variety of phenotypic and molecular properties. Six different isolates were identified based on the difference in morphological and biochemical tests. The efficiency of these isolates in PAHs utilization was assessed. Further analysis was performed to define taxonomical status and phylogenic relation between the most potent PAHs-utilizing bacterial strains and other standard strains, using molecular approach by partial 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. Results indicated that the 16S rDNA sequence analysis confirmed the results of biochemical identification, as both of biochemical and molecular identification of the isolates assigned them to Bacillus licheniformis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Alcaligenes faecalis, Serratia marcescens, Enterobacter cloacae and Providenicia which were identified as the prominent PAHs-utilizers isolated from CL. Conclusion: This study indicates that the CL samples contain a diverse population of PAHs-degrading bacteria and the use of CL may have a potential for bioremediation of PAHs contaminated sites.Keywords: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, physico-chemical analyses, compost leachate, microbial and biochemical analyses, phylogenic relations, 16S rDNA sequence analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 2601669 Nondestructive Prediction and Classification of Gel Strength in Ethanol-Treated Kudzu Starch Gels Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Authors: John-Nelson Ekumah, Selorm Yao-Say Solomon Adade, Mingming Zhong, Yufan Sun, Qiufang Liang, Muhammad Safiullah Virk, Xorlali Nunekpeku, Nana Adwoa Nkuma Johnson, Bridget Ama Kwadzokpui, Xiaofeng Ren
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Enhancing starch gel strength and stability is crucial. However, traditional gel property assessment methods are destructive, time-consuming, and resource-intensive. Thus, understanding ethanol treatment effects on kudzu starch gel strength and developing a rapid, nondestructive gel strength assessment method is essential for optimizing the treatment process and ensuring product quality consistency. This study investigated the effects of different ethanol concentrations on the microstructure of kudzu starch gels using a comprehensive microstructural analysis. We also developed a nondestructive method for predicting gel strength and classifying treatment levels using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, and advanced data analytics. Scanning electron microscopy revealed progressive network densification and pore collapse with increasing ethanol concentration, correlating with enhanced mechanical properties. NIR spectroscopy, combined with various variable selection methods (CARS, GA, and UVE) and modeling algorithms (PLS, SVM, and ELM), was employed to develop predictive models for gel strength. The UVE-SVM model demonstrated exceptional performance, with the highest R² values (Rc = 0.9786, Rp = 0.9688) and lowest error rates (RMSEC = 6.1340, RMSEP = 6.0283). Pattern recognition algorithms (PCA, LDA, and KNN) successfully classified gels based on ethanol treatment levels, achieving near-perfect accuracy. This integrated approach provided a multiscale perspective on ethanol-induced starch gel modification, from molecular interactions to macroscopic properties. Our findings demonstrate the potential of NIR spectroscopy, coupled with advanced data analysis, as a powerful tool for rapid, nondestructive quality assessment in starch gel production. This study contributes significantly to the understanding of starch modification processes and opens new avenues for research and industrial applications in food science, pharmaceuticals, and biomaterials.Keywords: kudzu starch gel, near-infrared spectroscopy, gel strength prediction, support vector machine, pattern recognition algorithms, ethanol treatment
Procedia PDF Downloads 241668 Choice Analysis of Ground Access to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport Using Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis (ACBC)
Authors: Carolina Silva Ansélmo
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Airports are demand-generating poles that affect the flow of traffic around them. The airport access system must be fast, convenient, and adequately planned, considering its potential users. An airport with good ground access conditions can provide the user with a more satisfactory access experience. When several transport options are available, service providers must understand users' preferences and the expected quality of service. The present study focuses on airport access in a comparative scenario between bus, private vehicle, subway, taxi and urban mobility transport applications to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport. The objectives are (i) to identify the factors that influence the choice, (ii) to measure Willingness to Pay (WTP), and (iii) to estimate the market share for each modal. The applied method was Adaptive Choice-based Conjoint Analysis (ACBC) technique using Sawtooth Software. Conjoint analysis, rooted in Utility Theory, is a survey technique that quantifies the customer's perceived utility when choosing alternatives. Assessing user preferences provides insights into their priorities for product or service attributes. An additional advantage of conjoint analysis is its requirement for a smaller sample size compared to other methods. Furthermore, ACBC provides valuable insights into consumers' preferences, willingness to pay, and market dynamics, aiding strategic decision-making to provide a better customer experience, pricing, and market segmentation. In the present research, the ACBC questionnaire had the following variables: (i) access time to the boarding point, (ii) comfort in the vehicle, (iii) number of travelers together, (iv) price, (v) supply power, and (vi) type of vehicle. The case study questionnaire reached 213 valid responses considering the scenario of access from the São Paulo city center to São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport. As a result, the price and the number of travelers are the most relevant attributes for the sample when choosing airport access. The market share of the selection is mainly urban mobility transport applications, followed by buses, private vehicles, taxis and subways.Keywords: adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis, ground access to airport, market share, willingness to pay
Procedia PDF Downloads 681667 Assessment of Genetic Variability of Potato Genotypes for Proline Under Salt Stress Conditions
Authors: Elchin Hajiyev, Afet Memmedova Dadash, Sabina Hajiyeva, Aynur Karimova, Ramiz Aliyev
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Although potatoes have a wide distribution range, the yield potential of varieties varies greatly depending on the region. Our country is made up of agricultural regions with very different environmental characteristics.In this case, we cannot expect the introduced varieties to show the same adaptation to the different conditions of our country. For this reason, in our country, varieties with high general adaptability should be used, rather than varieties with special adaptability in certain areas. Soil salinization has become a global problem.Increased salinity has a serious impact on food security by reducing plant productivity. Plants have protective mechanisms of adaptation to salt stress, such as the synthesis of physiologically active substances, resistance to antioxidant stress and oxidation of membrane lipids. One of these substances is free proline. Our study revealed genetic variation in proline accumulation among samples exposed to stress factors.Changes in proline content under stress conditions were studied in 50 samples. There was wide variation across all treatments.The amount of proline varied between 7.2–37.7 μM/g under salinity conditions.The lowest rate was in the SF33 genotype (1.5 times more than the control (2.5 μM/g)).The highest level of proline under the influence of salt stress was in the SF45 genotype (7.25 times higher than the control (32.5 μM/g)). Our studies have found that the protective system reacts differently to the influence of stress factors. According to the results obtained on the amount of proline, adaptation mechanisms must be more actively activated to maintain metabolism and ensure viability in sensitive forms under the influence of stress factors. At high doses of the salt stressor, a tenfold increase in proline compared to the control indicates significant damage to the plant organism as a result of stress.To prevent damage to the body, the antioxidant system needs to quickly mobilize and work at full capacity in adverse conditions. An increase in the dose of the stress factor salt in our study caused a greater increase in the amount of free proline in plant tissues. Considering the functions of proline as an osmoprotector and antioxidant, it was found that increasing its amount is aimed at protecting the plant from the acute effects of stressors.Keywords: genetic variability, potato, genotypes, proline, stress
Procedia PDF Downloads 371666 Production of Bio-Composites from Cocoa Pod Husk for Use in Packaging Materials
Authors: L. Kanoksak, N. Sukanya, L. Napatsorn, T. Siriporn
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A growing population and demand for packaging are driving up the usage of natural resources as raw materials in the pulp and paper industry. Long-term effects of environmental is disrupting people's way of life all across the planet. Finding pulp sources to replace wood pulp is therefore necessary. To produce wood pulp, various other potential plants or plant parts can be employed as substitute raw materials. For example, pulp and paper were made from agricultural residue that mainly included pulp can be used in place of wood. In this study, cocoa pod husks were an agricultural residue of the cocoa and chocolate industries. To develop composite materials to replace wood pulp in packaging materials. The paper was coated with polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PBAT). By selecting and cleaning fresh cocoa pod husks, the size was reduced. And the cocoa pod husks were dried. The morphology and elemental composition of cocoa pod husks were studied. To evaluate the mechanical and physical properties, dried cocoa husks were extracted using the soda-pulping process. After selecting the best formulations, paper with a PBAT bioplastic coating was produced on a paper-forming machine Physical and mechanical properties were studied. By using the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope/Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (FESEM/EDS) technique, the structure of dried cocoa pod husks showed the main components of cocoa pod husks. The appearance of porous has not been found. The fibers were firmly bound for use as a raw material for pulp manufacturing. Dry cocoa pod husks contain the major elements carbon (C) and oxygen (O). Magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) were minor elements that were found in very small levels. After that cocoa pod husks were removed from the soda-pulping process. It found that the SAQ5 formula produced pulp yield, moisture content, and water drainage. To achieve the basis weight by TAPPI T205 sp-02 standard, cocoa pod husk pulp and modified starch were mixed. The paper was coated with bioplastic PBAT. It was produced using bioplastic resin from the blown film extrusion technique. It showed the contact angle, dispersion component and polar component. It is an effective hydrophobic material for rigid packaging applications.Keywords: cocoa pod husks, agricultural residue, composite material, rigid packaging
Procedia PDF Downloads 691665 A Comparative Study of Optimization Techniques and Models to Forecasting Dengue Fever
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Dengue is a serious public health issue that causes significant annual economic and welfare burdens on nations. However, enhanced optimization techniques and quantitative modeling approaches can predict the incidence of dengue. By advocating for a data-driven approach, public health officials can make informed decisions, thereby improving the overall effectiveness of sudden disease outbreak control efforts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are two of the U.S. Federal Government agencies from which this study uses environmental data. Based on environmental data that describe changes in temperature, precipitation, vegetation, and other factors known to affect dengue incidence, many predictive models are constructed that use different machine learning methods to estimate weekly dengue cases. The first step involves preparing the data, which includes handling outliers and missing values to make sure the data is prepared for subsequent processing and the creation of an accurate forecasting model. In the second phase, multiple feature selection procedures are applied using various machine learning models and optimization techniques. During the third phase of the research, machine learning models like the Huber Regressor, Support Vector Machine, Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR), and Support Vector Regressor (SVR) are compared with several optimization techniques for feature selection, such as Harmony Search and Genetic Algorithm. In the fourth stage, the model's performance is evaluated using Mean Square Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) as assistance. Selecting an optimization strategy with the least number of errors, lowest price, biggest productivity, or maximum potential results is the goal. In a variety of industries, including engineering, science, management, mathematics, finance, and medicine, optimization is widely employed. An effective optimization method based on harmony search and an integrated genetic algorithm is introduced for input feature selection, and it shows an important improvement in the model's predictive accuracy. The predictive models with Huber Regressor as the foundation perform the best for optimization and also prediction.Keywords: deep learning model, dengue fever, prediction, optimization
Procedia PDF Downloads 531664 Towards End-To-End Disease Prediction from Raw Metagenomic Data
Authors: Maxence Queyrel, Edi Prifti, Alexandre Templier, Jean-Daniel Zucker
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Analysis of the human microbiome using metagenomic sequencing data has demonstrated high ability in discriminating various human diseases. Raw metagenomic sequencing data require multiple complex and computationally heavy bioinformatics steps prior to data analysis. Such data contain millions of short sequences read from the fragmented DNA sequences and stored as fastq files. Conventional processing pipelines consist in multiple steps including quality control, filtering, alignment of sequences against genomic catalogs (genes, species, taxonomic levels, functional pathways, etc.). These pipelines are complex to use, time consuming and rely on a large number of parameters that often provide variability and impact the estimation of the microbiome elements. Training Deep Neural Networks directly from raw sequencing data is a promising approach to bypass some of the challenges associated with mainstream bioinformatics pipelines. Most of these methods use the concept of word and sentence embeddings that create a meaningful and numerical representation of DNA sequences, while extracting features and reducing the dimensionality of the data. In this paper we present an end-to-end approach that classifies patients into disease groups directly from raw metagenomic reads: metagenome2vec. This approach is composed of four steps (i) generating a vocabulary of k-mers and learning their numerical embeddings; (ii) learning DNA sequence (read) embeddings; (iii) identifying the genome from which the sequence is most likely to come and (iv) training a multiple instance learning classifier which predicts the phenotype based on the vector representation of the raw data. An attention mechanism is applied in the network so that the model can be interpreted, assigning a weight to the influence of the prediction for each genome. Using two public real-life data-sets as well a simulated one, we demonstrated that this original approach reaches high performance, comparable with the state-of-the-art methods applied directly on processed data though mainstream bioinformatics workflows. These results are encouraging for this proof of concept work. We believe that with further dedication, the DNN models have the potential to surpass mainstream bioinformatics workflows in disease classification tasks.Keywords: deep learning, disease prediction, end-to-end machine learning, metagenomics, multiple instance learning, precision medicine
Procedia PDF Downloads 1191663 Effect of Cutting Tools and Working Conditions on the Machinability of Ti-6Al-4V Using Vegetable Oil-Based Cutting Fluids
Authors: S. Gariani, I. Shyha
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Cutting titanium alloys are usually accompanied with low productivity, poor surface quality, short tool life and high machining costs. This is due to the excessive generation of heat at the cutting zone and difficulties in heat dissipation due to relatively low heat conductivity of this metal. The cooling applications in machining processes are crucial as many operations cannot be performed efficiently without cooling. Improving machinability, increasing productivity, enhancing surface integrity and part accuracy are the main advantages of cutting fluids. Conventional fluids such as mineral oil-based, synthetic and semi-synthetic are the most common cutting fluids in the machining industry. Although, these cutting fluids are beneficial in the industries, they pose a great threat to human health and ecosystem. Vegetable oils (VOs) are being investigated as a potential source of environmentally favourable lubricants, due to a combination of biodegradability, good lubricous properties, low toxicity, high flash points, low volatility, high viscosity indices and thermal stability. Fatty acids of vegetable oils are known to provide thick, strong, and durable lubricant films. These strong lubricating films give the vegetable oil base stock a greater capability to absorb pressure and high load carrying capacity. This paper details preliminary experimental results when turning Ti-6Al-4V. The impact of various VO-based cutting fluids, cutting tool materials, working conditions was investigated. The full factorial experimental design was employed involving 24 tests to evaluate the influence of process variables on average surface roughness (Ra), tool wear and chip formation. In general, Ra varied between 0.5 and 1.56 µm and Vasco1000 cutting fluid presented comparable performance with other fluids in terms of surface roughness while uncoated coarse grain WC carbide tool achieved lower flank wear at all cutting speeds. On the other hand, all tools tips were subjected to uniform flank wear during whole cutting trails. Additionally, formed chip thickness ranged between 0.1 and 0.14 mm with a noticeable decrease in chip size when higher cutting speed was used.Keywords: cutting fluids, turning, Ti-6Al-4V, vegetable oils, working conditions
Procedia PDF Downloads 2661662 Strategic Analysis of Energy and Impact Assessment of Microalgae Based Biodiesel and Biogas Production in Outdoor Raceway Pond: A Life Cycle Perspective
Authors: T. Sarat Chandra, M. Maneesh Kumar, S. N. Mudliar, V. S. Chauhan, S. Mukherji, R. Sarada
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The life cycle assessment (LCA) of biodiesel production from freshwater microalgae Scenedesmus dimorphus cultivated in open raceway pond is performed. Various scenarios for biodiesel production were simulated using primary and secondary data. The parameters varied in the modelled scenarios were related to biomass productivity, mode of culture mixing and type of energy source. The process steps included algae cultivation in open raceway ponds, harvesting by chemical flocculation, dewatering by mechanical drying option (MDO) followed by extraction, reaction and purification. Anaerobic digestion of defatted algal biomass (DAB) for biogas generation is considered as a co-product allocation and the energy derived from DAB was thereby used in the upstream of the process. The scenarios were analysed for energy demand, emissions and environmental impacts within the boundary conditions grounded on "cradle to gate" inventory. Across all the Scenarios, cultivation via raceway pond was observed to be energy intensive process. The mode of culture mixing and biomass productivity determined the energy requirements of the cultivation step. Emissions to Freshwater were found to be maximum contributing to 93-97% of total emissions in all the scenarios. Global warming potential (GWP) was the found to be major environmental impact accounting to about 99% of total environmental impacts in all the modelled scenarios. It was noticed that overall emissions and impacts were directly related to energy demand and an inverse relationship was observed with biomass productivity. The geographic location of an energy source affected the environmental impact of a given process. The integration of defatted algal remnants derived electricity with the cultivation system resulted in a 2% reduction in overall energy demand. Direct biogas generation from microalgae post harvesting is also analysed. Energy surplus was observed after using part of the energy in upstream for biomass production. Results suggest biogas production from microalgae post harvesting as an environmentally viable and sustainable option compared to biodiesel production.Keywords: biomass productivity, energy demand, energy source, Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), microalgae, open raceway pond
Procedia PDF Downloads 2831661 Flood Mapping Using Height above the Nearest Drainage Model: A Case Study in Fredericton, NB, Canada
Authors: Morteza Esfandiari, Shabnam Jabari, Heather MacGrath, David Coleman
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Flood is a severe issue in different places in the world as well as the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. The downtown area of Fredericton is close to the Saint John River, which is susceptible to flood around May every year. Recently, the frequency of flooding seems to be increased, especially after the fact that the downtown area and surrounding urban/agricultural lands got flooded in two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. In order to have an explicit vision of flood span and damage to affected areas, it is necessary to use either flood inundation modelling or satellite data. Due to contingent availability and weather dependency of optical satellites, and limited existing data for the high cost of hydrodynamic models, it is not always feasible to rely on these sources of data to generate quality flood maps after or during the catastrophe. Height Above the Nearest Drainage (HAND), a state-of-the-art topo-hydrological index, normalizes the height of a basin based on the relative elevation along with the stream network and specifies the gravitational or the relative drainage potential of an area. HAND is a relative height difference between the stream network and each cell on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The stream layer is provided through a multi-step, time-consuming process which does not always result in an optimal representation of the river centerline depending on the topographic complexity of that region. HAND is used in numerous case studies with quite acceptable and sometimes unexpected results because of natural and human-made features on the surface of the earth. Some of these features might cause a disturbance in the generated model, and consequently, the model might not be able to predict the flow simulation accurately. We propose to include a previously existing stream layer generated by the province of New Brunswick and benefit from culvert maps to improve the water flow simulation and accordingly the accuracy of HAND model. By considering these parameters in our processing, we were able to increase the accuracy of the model from nearly 74% to almost 92%. The improved model can be used for generating highly accurate flood maps, which is necessary for future urban planning and flood damage estimation without any need for satellite imagery or hydrodynamic computations.Keywords: HAND, DTM, rapid floodplain, simplified conceptual models
Procedia PDF Downloads 1421660 Reasons and Complexities around Using Alcohol and Other Drugs among Aboriginal People Experiencing Homelessness
Authors: Mandy Wilson, Emma Vieira, Jocelyn Jones, Alice V. Brown, Lindey Andrews, Louise Southalan, Jackie Oakley, Dorothy Bagshaw, Patrick Egan, Laura Dent, Duc Dau, Lucy Spanswick
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Alcohol and drug dependency are pertinent issues for those experiencing homelessness. This includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Australia’s traditional owners, living in Perth, Western Australia (WA). Societal narratives around the drivers behind drug and alcohol dependency in Aboriginal communities, particularly those experiencing homelessness, have been biased and unchanging, with little regard for complexity. This can include the idea that Aboriginal people have ‘chosen’ to use alcohol or other drugs without consideration for intergenerational trauma and the trauma of homelessness that may influence their choices. These narratives have flow-on impacts on policies and services that directly impact Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness. In 2021, we commenced a project which aimed to listen to and elevate the voices of 70-90 Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness in Perth. The project is community-driven, led by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation in partnership with a university research institute. A community-ownership group of Aboriginal Elders endorsed the project’s methods, chosen to ensure their suitability for the Aboriginal community. In this paper, we detail these methods, including semi-structured interviews influenced by an Aboriginal yarning approach – an important style of conversation for Aboriginal people which follows cultural protocols; and photovoice – supporting people to share their stories through photography. Through these engagements, we detail the reasons Aboriginal people in Perth shared for using alcohol or other drugs while experiencing homelessness. These included supporting their survival on the streets, managing their mental health, and coping while on the journey to finding support. We also detail why they sought to discontinue alcohol and other drug use, including wanting to reconnect with family and changing priorities. Finally, we share how Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness have said they are impacted by their family’s alcohol and other drug use, including feeling uncomfortable living with a family who is drug and alcohol-dependent and having to care for grandchildren despite their own homelessness. These findings provide a richer understanding of alcohol and drug use for Aboriginal people experiencing homelessness in Perth, shedding light on potential changes to targeted policy and service approaches.Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, alcohol and other drugs, homelessness, community-led research
Procedia PDF Downloads 1191659 Sustainable Production of Algae through Nutrient Recovery in the Biofuel Conversion Process
Authors: Bagnoud-Velásquez Mariluz, Damergi Eya, Grandjean Dominique, Frédéric Vogel, Ludwig Christian
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The sustainability of algae to biofuel processes is seriously affected by the energy intensive production of fertilizers. Large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are required for a large-scale production resulting in many cases in a negative impact of the limited mineral resources. In order to meet the algal bioenergy opportunity it appears crucial the promotion of processes applying a nutrient recovery and/or making use of renewable sources including waste. Hydrothermal (HT) conversion is a promising and suitable technology for microalgae to generate biofuels. Besides the fact that water is used as a “green” reactant and solvent and that no biomass drying is required, the technology offers a great potential for nutrient recycling. This study evaluated the possibility to treat the water HT effluent by the growth of microalgae while producing renewable algal biomass. As already demonstrated in previous works by the authors, the HT aqueous product besides having N, P and other important nutrients, presents a small fraction of organic compounds rarely studied. Therefore, extracted heteroaromatic compounds in the HT effluent were the target of the present research; they were profiled using GC-MS and LC-MS-MS. The results indicate the presence of cyclic amides, piperazinediones, amines and their derivatives. The most prominent nitrogenous organic compounds (NOC’s) in the extracts were carefully examined by their effect on microalgae, namely 2-pyrrolidinone and β-phenylethylamine (β-PEA). These two substances were prepared at three different concentrations (10, 50 and 150 ppm). This toxicity bioassay used three different microalgae strains: Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus vacuolatus. The confirmed IC50 was for all cases ca. 75ppm. Experimental conditions were set up for the growth of microalgae in the aqueous phase by adjusting the nitrogen concentration (the key nutrient for algae) to fit that one established for a known commercial medium. The values of specific NOC’s were lowered at concentrations of 8.5 mg/L 2-pyrrolidinone; 1mg/L δ-valerolactam and 0.5 mg/L β-PEA. The growth with the diluted HT solution was kept constant with no inhibition evidence. An additional ongoing test is addressing the possibility to apply an integrated water cleanup step making use of the existent hydrothermal catalytic facility.Keywords: hydrothermal process, microalgae, nitrogenous organic compounds, nutrient recovery, renewable biomass
Procedia PDF Downloads 4011658 Elevating Healthcare Social Work: Implementing and Evaluating the (Introduction, Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan, Summary) Documentation Model
Authors: Shir Daphna-Tekoah, Nurit Eitan-Gutman, Uri Balla
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Background: Systemic documentation is essential in social work practice. Collaboration between an institution of higher education and social work health care services enabled adaptation of the medical documentation model of SOAP in the field of social work, by creating the ISOAPS model (Introduction, Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan, Summary) model. Aims: The article describes the ISOAPS model and its implementation in the field of social work, as a tool for standardization of documentation and the enhancement of multidisciplinary collaboration. Methods: We examined the changes in standardization using a mixed methods study, both before and after implementation of the model. A review of social workers’ documentation was carried out by medical staff and social workers in the Clalit Healthcare Services, the largest provider of public and semi-private health services in Israel. After implementation of the model, semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken. Main findings: The percentage of reviewers who evaluated their documentation as correct increased from 46%, prior to implementation, to 61% after implementation. After implementation, 81% of the social workers noted that their documentation had become standardized. The training process prepared them for the change in documentation and most of them (83%) started using the model on a regular basis. The qualitative data indicate that the use of the ISOAPS model creates uniform documentation, improves standards and is important to teach social work students. Conclusions: The ISOAPS model standardizes documentation and promotes communication between social workers and medical staffs. Implications for practice: In the intricate realm of healthcare, efficient documentation systems are pivotal to ensuring coherent interdisciplinary communication and patient care. The ISOAPS model emerges as a quintessential instrument, meticulously tailored to the nuances of social work documentation. While it extends its utility across the broad spectrum of social work, its specificity is most pronounced in the medical domain. This model not only exemplifies rigorous academic and professional standards but also serves as a testament to the potential of contextualized documentation systems in elevating the overall stature of social work within healthcare. Such a strategic documentation tool can not only streamline the intricate processes inherent in medical social work but also underscore the indispensable role that social workers play in the broader healthcare ecosystem.Keywords: ISOAPS, professional documentation, medial social-work, social work
Procedia PDF Downloads 641657 Assessing Organizational Resilience Capacity to Flooding: Index Development and Application to Greek Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises
Authors: Antonis Skouloudis, Konstantinos Evangelinos, Walter Leal-Filho, Panagiotis Vouros, Ioannis Nikolaou
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Organizational resilience capacity to extreme weather events (EWEs) has sparked a growth in scholarly attention over the past decade as an essential aspect in business continuity management, with supporting evidence for this claim to suggest that it retains a key role in successful responses to adverse situations, crises and shocks. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more vulnerable to face floods compared to their larger counterparts, so they are disproportionately affected by such extreme weather events. The limited resources at their disposal, the lack of time and skills all conduce to inadequate preparedness to challenges posed by floods. SMEs tend to plan in the short-term, reacting to circumstances as they arise and focussing on their very survival. Likewise, they share less formalised structures and codified policies while they are most usually owner-managed, resulting in a command-and-control management culture. Such characteristics result in them having limited opportunities to recover from flooding and quickly turnaround their operation from a loss making to a profit making one. Scholars frame the capacity of business entities to be resilient upon an EWE disturbance (such as flash floods) as the rate of recovery and restoration of organizational performance to pre-disturbance conditions, the amount of disturbance (i.e. threshold level) a business can absorb before losing structural and/or functional components that will alter or cease operation, as well as the extent to which the organization maintains its function (i.e. impact resistance) before performance levels are driven to zero. Nevertheless, while it seems to be accepted as an essential trait of firms effectively transcending uncertain conditions, research deconstructing the enabling conditions and/or inhibitory factors of SMEs resilience capacity to natural hazards is still sparse, fragmentary and mostly fuelled by anecdotal evidence or normative assumptions. Focusing on the individual level of analysis, i.e. the individual enterprise and its endeavours to succeed, the emergent picture from this relatively new research strand delineates the specification of variables, conceptual relationships or dynamic boundaries of resilience capacity components in an attempt to provide prescriptions for policy-making as well as business management. This study will present the development of a flood resilience capacity index (FRCI) and its application to Greek SMEs. The proposed composite indicator pertains to cognitive, behavioral/managerial and contextual factors that influence an enterprise’s ability to shape effective responses to meet flood challenges. Through the proposed indicator-based approach, an analytical framework is set forth that will help standardize such assessments with the overarching aim of reducing the vulnerability of SMEs to flooding. This will be achieved by identifying major internal and external attributes explaining resilience capacity which is particularly important given the limited resources these enterprises have and that they tend to be primary sources of vulnerabilities in supply chain networks, generating Single Points of Failure (SPOF).Keywords: Floods, Small & Medium-Sized enterprises, organizational resilience capacity, index development
Procedia PDF Downloads 1841656 In vivo Antidiabetic and in vitro Antioxidant Activity of Myrica salicifolia Hochst. ex A. Rich. (Myricaceae) Root Extract in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mice
Authors: Yohannes Kelifa, Gomathi Periasamy, Aman Karim
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Introduction: Diabetes mellitus has become a major public health and economical problem across the globe. Modern antidiabetic drugs have a number of limitations, and scientific investigation of traditional herbal remedies used for diabetes may provide novel leads for the development of new antidiabetic drugs that can be used as alternative or complementary to available antidiabetic allopathic medications. Though Myrica salicifolia Hochst. ex A. Rich. is used for the management of diabetes in Ethiopian traditional medicine, there was no previous scientific evidence about its antidiabetic effect to the authors’ knowledge. This study was undertaken to evaluate the antidiabetic activity the root extracts of Myrica salicifolia in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Methods: Experimental diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (150 mg/kg) in male mice. Diabetic mice were treated with oral doses of M. salicifolia root extracts at 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg, and its fractions (chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous) at a dose of 400 mg/kg daily for 15 days. Fasting blood glucose level (BGL) was measured at 0, 5th,10th, and 15th day. The free radical scavenging activity of the crude extract was determined using in vitro by DPPH assay. The statistical significance was assessed by one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. Results were considered significant when p < 0.05. Results: Daily administration of the M. salicifolia 80% methanol root extracts (at three different doses (200, 400 and 600 mg/kg) significantly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001) reduced fasting BGL compared with diabetic control. The aqueous and butanol fractions at a dose of 400 mg/kg resulted in maximum reduction of fasting BGL by 42.39%, and 52.13%, respectively at the 15th day in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Free radical scavenging activity of the 80% methanol extract of M. salicifolia was comparable to ascorbic acid. The IC50 values of the crude extract and ascorbic acid (a reference compound) were found to be 4.54 μg/ml and 4.39 μg/ml, respectively. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that the methanolic extracts of M. salicifolia root and its fractions (n-butanol and aqueous) exhibit a significant antihyperglycemic activity in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Furthermore, the result of the present study indicates that M. salicifolia root extract is a potential source of natural antioxidants.Keywords: antidiabetic, diabetes mellitus, DPPH, mice, Myrica salicifolia, streptozotocin
Procedia PDF Downloads 1881655 Cyber Bullying, Online Risks and Parental Mediation: A Comparison between Adolescent Reports and Parent Perceptions in South Africa
Authors: Masa Popovac, Philip Fine
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have altered our social environments, and young people in particular have immersed themselves in the digital age. Despite countless benefits, younger ICT users are being exposed to various online risks such as contact with strangers, viewing of risky content, sending or receiving sexually themed images or comments (i.e. ‘sexting’) as well as cyber bullying. Parents may not be fully aware of the online spaces their children inhabit and often struggle to implement effective mediation strategies. This quantitative study explored (i) three types of online risks (contact risks, content risks and conduct risks), (ii) cyber bullying victimization and perpetration, and (iii) parental mediation among a sample of 689 South African adolescents aged between 12-17 years. Survey data was also collected for 227 of their parents relating to their perceptions of their child’s online experiences. A comparison between adolescent behaviors and parental perceptions was examined on the three variables in the study. Findings reveal various online risk taking behaviors. In terms of contact risks, 56% of adolescents reported having contact with at least one online stranger, with many meeting these strangers in person. Content risks included exposure to harmful information such as websites promoting extreme diets or self-harm as well as inappropriate content: 84% of adolescents had seen violent content and 75% had seen sexual content online. Almost 60% of adolescents engaged in conduct risks such as sexting. Eight online victimization behaviors were examined in the study and 79% of adolescents had at least one of these negative experiences, with a third (34%) defining this experience as cyber bullying. A strong connection between victimization and perpetration was found, with 63% of adolescents being both a victim and perpetrator. Very little parental mediation of ICT use was reported. Inferential statistics revealed that parents consistently underestimated their child’s online risk taking behaviors as well as their cyber bullying victimization and perpetration. Parents also overestimated mediation strategies in the home. The generational gap in the knowledge and use of ICTs is a barrier to effective parental mediation and online safety, since many negative online experiences by adolescents go undetected and can continue for extended periods of time thereby exacerbating the potential psychological and emotional distress. The study highlights the importance of including parents in online safety efforts.Keywords: cyber bullying, online risk behaviors, parental mediation, South Africa
Procedia PDF Downloads 4751654 Wastewater Treatment in the Abrasives Industry via Fenton and Photo-Fenton Oxidation Processes: A Case Study from Peru
Authors: Hernan Arturo Blas López, Gustavo Henndel Lopes, Antonio Carlos Silva Costa Teixeira, Carmen Elena Flores Barreda, Patricia Araujo Pantoja
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Phenols are toxic for life and the environment and may come from many sources. Uncured phenolic monomers present in phenolic resins used as binders in grinding wheels and emery paper can contaminate industrial wastewaters in abrasives manufacture plants. Furthermore, vestiges of resol and novolacs resins generated by wear and tear of abrasives are also possible sources of water contamination by phenolics in these facilities. Fortunately, advanced oxidation by dark Fenton and photo-Fenton techniques are capable of oxidizing phenols and their degradation products up to their mineralization into H₂O and CO₂. The maximal allowable concentrations for phenols in Peruvian waterbodies is very low, such that insufficiently treated effluents from the abrasives industry are a potential environmental noncompliance. The current case study highlights findings obtained during the lab-scale application of Fenton’s and photo-assisted Fenton’s chemistries to real industrial wastewater samples from an abrasives manufacture plant in Peru. The goal was to reduce the phenolic content and sample toxicity. For this purpose, two independent variables-reaction time and effect of ultraviolet radiation–were studied as for their impacts on the concentration of total phenols, total organic carbon (TOC), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). In this study, diluted samples (1 L) of the industrial effluent were treated with Fenton’s reagent (H₂O₂ and Fe²⁺ from FeSO₄.H₂O) during 10 min in a photochemical batch reactor (Alphatec RFS-500, Brazil) at pH 2.92. In the case of photo-Fenton tests with ultraviolet lamps of 9 W, UV-A, UV-B and UV-C lamps were evaluated. All process conditions achieved 100% of phenols degraded within 5 minutes. TOC, BOD and COD decreased by 49%, 52% and 86% respectively (all processes together). However, Fenton treatment was not capable of reducing BOD, COD and TOC below a certain value even after 10 minutes, contrarily to photo-Fenton. It was also possible to conclude that the processes here studied degrade other compounds in addition to phenols, what is an advantage. In all cases, elevated effluent dilution factors and high amounts of oxidant agent impact negatively the overall economy of the processes here investigated.Keywords: fenton oxidation, wastewater treatment, phenols, abrasives industry
Procedia PDF Downloads 3081653 Relevance of Dosing Time for Everolimus Toxicity in Respect to the Circadian P-Glycoprotein Expression in Mdr1a::Luc Mice
Authors: Narin Ozturk, Xiao-Mei Li, Sylvie Giachetti, Francis Levi, Alper Okyar
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P-glycoprotein (P-gp, MDR1, ABCB1) is a transmembrane protein acting as an ATP-dependent efflux pump and functions as a biological barrier by extruding drugs and xenobiotics out of cells in healthy tissues especially in intestines, liver and brain as well as in tumor cells. The circadian timing system controls a variety of biological functions in mammals including xenobiotic metabolism and detoxification, proliferation and cell cycle events, and may affect pharmacokinetics, toxicity and efficacy of drugs. Selective mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitor everolimus is an immunosuppressant and anticancer drug that is active against many cancers, and its pharmacokinetics depend on P-gp. The aim of this study was to investigate the dosing time-dependent toxicity of everolimus with respect to the intestinal P-gp expression rhythms in mdr1a::Luc mice using Real Time-Biolumicorder (RT-BIO) System. Mdr1a::Luc male mice were synchronized with 12 h of Light and 12 h of Dark (LD12:12, with Zeitgeber Time 0 – ZT0 – corresponding Light onset). After 1-week baseline recordings, everolimus (5 mg/kg/day x 14 days) was administered orally at ZT1-resting period- and ZT13-activity period- to mdr1a::Luc mice singly housed in an innovative monitoring device, Real Time-Biolumicorder units which let us monitor real-time and long-term gene expression in freely moving mice. D-luciferin (1.5 mg/mL) was dissolved in drinking water. Mouse intestinal mdr1a::Luc oscillation profile reflecting P-gp gene expression and locomotor activity pattern were recorded every minute with the photomultiplier tube and infrared sensor respectively. General behavior and clinical signs were monitored, and body weight was measured every day as an index of toxicity. Drug-induced body weight change was expressed relative to body weight on the initial treatment day. Statistical significance of differences between groups was validated with ANOVA. Circadian rhythms were validated with Cosinor Analysis. Everolimus toxicity changed as a function of drug timing, which was least following dosing at ZT13, near the onset of the activity span in male mice. Mean body weight loss was nearly twice as large in mice treated with 5 mg/kg everolimus at ZT1 as compared to ZT13 (8.9% vs. 5.4%; ANOVA, p < 0.001). Based on the body weight loss and clinical signs upon everolimus treatment, tolerability for the drug was best following dosing at ZT13. Both rest-activity and mdr1a::Luc expression displayed stable 24-h periodic rhythms before everolimus and in both vehicle-treated controls. Real-time bioluminescence pattern of mdr1a revealed a circadian rhythm with a 24-h period with an acrophase at ZT16 (Cosinor, p < 0.001). Mdr1a expression remained rhythmic in everolimus-treated mice, whereas down-regulation was observed in P-gp expression in 2 of 4 mice. The study identified the circadian pattern of intestinal P-gp expression with an unprecedented precision. The circadian timing depending on the P-gp expression rhythms may play a crucial role in the tolerability/toxicity of everolimus. The circadian changes in mdr1a genes deserve further studies regarding their relevance for in vitro and in vivo chronotolerance of mdr1a-transported anticancer drugs. Chronotherapy with P-gp-effluxed anticancer drugs could then be applied according to their rhythmic patterns in host and tumor to jointly maximize treatment efficacy and minimize toxicity.Keywords: circadian rhythm, chronotoxicity, everolimus, mdr1a::Luc mice, p-glycoprotein
Procedia PDF Downloads 3391652 Integrated Coastal Management for the Sustainable Development of Coastal Cities: The Case of El-Mina, Tripoli, Lebanon
Authors: G. Ghamrawi, Y. Abunnasr, M. Fawaz, S. Yazigi
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Coastal cities are constantly exposed to environmental degradation and economic regression fueled by rapid and uncontrolled urban growth as well as continuous resource depletion. This is the case of the City of Mina in Tripoli (Lebanon), where lack of awareness to preserve social, ecological, and historical assets, coupled with the increasing development pressures, are threatening the socioeconomic status of the city residents, the quality of life and accessibility to the coast. To address these challenges, a holistic coastal urban design and planning approach was developed to analyze the environmental, political, legal, and socioeconomic context of the city. This approach aims to investigate the potential of balancing urban development with the protection and enhancement of cultural, ecological, and environmental assets under an integrated coastal zone management approach (ICZM). The analysis of Mina's different sectors adopted several tools that include direct field observation, interviews with stakeholders, analysis of available data, historical maps, and previously proposed projects. The findings from the analysis were mapped and graphically represented, allowing the recognition of character zones that become the design intervention units. Consequently, the thesis proposes an urban, city-scale intervention that identifies 6 different character zones (the historical fishing port, Abdul Wahab island, the abandoned Port Said, Hammam el Makloub, the sand beach, and the new developable area) and proposes context-specific design interventions that capitalize on the main characteristics of each zone. Moreover, the intervention builds on the institutional framework of ICZM as well as other studies previously conducted for the coast and adopts nature-based solutions with hybrid systems for providing better environmental design solutions for developing the coast. This enables the realization of an all-inclusive, well-connected shoreline with easy and free access towards the sea; a developed shoreline with an active local economy, and an improved urban environment.Keywords: blue green infrastructure, coastal cities, hybrid solutions, integrated coastal zone management, sustainable development, urban planning
Procedia PDF Downloads 1441651 Detection and Identification of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Using Infra-Red-Microscopy and Advanced Multivariate Analysis
Authors: Uraib Sharaha, Ahmad Salman, Eladio Rodriguez-Diaz, Elad Shufan, Klaris Riesenberg, Irving J. Bigio, Mahmoud Huleihel
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Antimicrobial drugs have an important role in controlling illness associated with infectious diseases in animals and humans. However, the increasing resistance of bacteria to a broad spectrum of commonly used antibiotics has become a global health-care problem. Rapid determination of antimicrobial susceptibility of a clinical isolate is often crucial for the optimal antimicrobial therapy of infected patients and in many cases can save lives. The conventional methods for susceptibility testing like disk diffusion are time-consuming and other method including E-test, genotyping are relatively expensive. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy is rapid, safe, and low cost method that was widely and successfully used in different studies for the identification of various biological samples including bacteria. The new modern infrared (IR) spectrometers with high spectral resolution enable measuring unprecedented biochemical information from cells at the molecular level. Moreover, the development of new bioinformatics analyses combined with IR spectroscopy becomes a powerful technique, which enables the detection of structural changes associated with resistivity. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the potential of the FTIR microscopy in tandem with machine learning algorithms for rapid and reliable identification of bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics in time span of few minutes. The bacterial samples, which were identified at the species level by MALDI-TOF and examined for their susceptibility by the routine assay (micro-diffusion discs), are obtained from the bacteriology laboratories in Soroka University Medical Center (SUMC). These samples were examined by FTIR microscopy and analyzed by advanced statistical methods. Our results, based on 550 E.coli samples, were promising and showed that by using infrared spectroscopic technique together with multivariate analysis, it is possible to classify the tested bacteria into sensitive and resistant with success rate higher than 85% for eight different antibiotics. Based on these preliminary results, it is worthwhile to continue developing the FTIR microscopy technique as a rapid and reliable method for identification antibiotic susceptibility.Keywords: antibiotics, E. coli, FTIR, multivariate analysis, susceptibility
Procedia PDF Downloads 2551650 Analyzing the Risk Based Approach in General Data Protection Regulation: Basic Challenges Connected with Adapting the Regulation
Authors: Natalia Kalinowska
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The adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation, (GDPR) finished the four-year work of the European Commission in this area in the European Union. Considering far-reaching changes, which will be applied by GDPR, the European legislator envisaged two-year transitional period. Member states and companies have to prepare for a new regulation until 25 of May 2018. The idea, which becomes a new look at an attitude to data protection in the European Union is risk-based approach. So far, as a result of implementation of Directive 95/46/WE, in many European countries (including Poland) there have been adopted very particular regulations, specifying technical and organisational security measures e.g. Polish implementing rules indicate even how long password should be. According to the new approach from May 2018, controllers and processors will be obliged to apply security measures adequate to level of risk associated with specific data processing. The risk in GDPR should be interpreted as the likelihood of a breach of the rights and freedoms of the data subject. According to Recital 76, the likelihood and severity of the risk to the rights and freedoms of the data subject should be determined by reference to the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing. GDPR does not indicate security measures which should be applied – in recitals there are only examples such as anonymization or encryption. It depends on a controller’s decision what type of security measures controller considered as sufficient and he will be responsible if these measures are not sufficient or if his identification of risk level is incorrect. Data protection regulation indicates few levels of risk. Recital 76 indicates risk and high risk, but some lawyers think, that there is one more category – low risk/now risk. Low risk/now risk data processing is a situation when it is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. GDPR mentions types of data processing when a controller does not have to evaluate level of risk because it has been classified as „high risk” processing e.g. processing on a large scale of special categories of data, processing with using new technologies. The methodology will include analysis of legal regulations e.g. GDPR, the Polish Act on the Protection of personal data. Moreover: ICO Guidelines and articles concerning risk based approach in GDPR. The main conclusion is that an appropriate risk assessment is a key to keeping data safe and avoiding financial penalties. On the one hand, this approach seems to be more equitable, not only for controllers or processors but also for data subjects, but on the other hand, it increases controllers’ uncertainties in the assessment which could have a direct impact on incorrect data protection and potential responsibility for infringement of regulation.Keywords: general data protection regulation, personal data protection, privacy protection, risk based approach
Procedia PDF Downloads 2491649 Unlocking Health Insights: Studying Data for Better Care
Authors: Valentina Marutyan
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Healthcare data mining is a rapidly developing field at the intersection of technology and medicine that has the potential to change our understanding and approach to providing healthcare. Healthcare and data mining is the process of examining huge amounts of data to extract useful information that can be applied in order to improve patient care, treatment effectiveness, and overall healthcare delivery. This field looks for patterns, trends, and correlations in a variety of healthcare datasets, such as electronic health records (EHRs), medical imaging, patient demographics, and treatment histories. To accomplish this, it uses advanced analytical approaches. Predictive analysis using historical patient data is a major area of interest in healthcare data mining. This enables doctors to get involved early to prevent problems or improve results for patients. It also assists in early disease detection and customized treatment planning for every person. Doctors can customize a patient's care by looking at their medical history, genetic profile, current and previous therapies. In this way, treatments can be more effective and have fewer negative consequences. Moreover, helping patients, it improves the efficiency of hospitals. It helps them determine the number of beds or doctors they require in regard to the number of patients they expect. In this project are used models like logistic regression, random forests, and neural networks for predicting diseases and analyzing medical images. Patients were helped by algorithms such as k-means, and connections between treatments and patient responses were identified by association rule mining. Time series techniques helped in resource management by predicting patient admissions. These methods improved healthcare decision-making and personalized treatment. Also, healthcare data mining must deal with difficulties such as bad data quality, privacy challenges, managing large and complicated datasets, ensuring the reliability of models, managing biases, limited data sharing, and regulatory compliance. Finally, secret code of data mining in healthcare helps medical professionals and hospitals make better decisions, treat patients more efficiently, and work more efficiently. It ultimately comes down to using data to improve treatment, make better choices, and simplify hospital operations for all patients.Keywords: data mining, healthcare, big data, large amounts of data
Procedia PDF Downloads 661648 The Acquisition of /r/ By Setswana-Learning Children
Authors: Keneilwe Matlhaku
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Crosslinguistic studies (theoretical and clinical) have shown delays and significant misarticulation in the acquisition of the rhotics. This article provides a detailed analysis of the early development of the rhotic phoneme, an apical trill /r/, by monolingual Setswana (Tswana S30) children of age ranges between 1 and 4 years. The data display the following trends: (1) late acquisition of /r/; (2) a wide range of substitution patterns involving this phoneme (i.e., gliding, coronal stopping, affrication, deletion, lateralization, as well as, substitution to a dental and uvular fricative). The primary focus of the article is on the potential origins of these variations of /r/, even within the same language. Our data comprises naturalistic longitudinal audio recordings of 6 children (2 males and 4 females) whose speech was recorded in their homes over a period of 4 months with no or only minimal disruptions in their daily environments. Phon software (Rose et al. 2013; Rose & MacWhinney 2014) was used to carry out the orthographic and phonetic transcriptions of the children’s data. Phon also enabled the generation of the children’s phonological inventories for comparison with adult target IPA forms. We explain the children’s patterns through current models of phonological emergence (MacWhinney 2015) as well as McAllister Byun, Inkelas & Rose (2016); Rose et al., (2022), which highlight the perceptual and articulatory factors influencing the development of sounds and sound classes. We highlight how the substitution patterns observed in the data can be captured through a consideration of the auditory properties of the target speech sounds, combined with an understanding of the types of articulatory gestures involved in the production of these sounds. These considerations, in turn, highlight some of the most central aspects of the challenges faced by the child toward learning these auditory-articulatory mappings. We provide a cross-linguistic survey of the acquisition of rhotic consonants in a sample of related and unrelated languages in which we show that the variability and volatility in the substitution patterns of /r/ is also brought about by the properties of the children’s ambient languages. Beyond theoretical issues, this article sets an initial foundation for developing speech-language pathology materials and services for Setswana learning children, an emerging area of public service in Botswana.Keywords: rhotic, apical trill, Phon, phonological emergence, auditory, articulatory, mapping
Procedia PDF Downloads 241647 Athlete Coping: Personality Dimensions of Recovery from Injury
Authors: Randall E. Osborne, Seth A. Doty
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As participation in organized sports increases, so does the risk of sustaining an athletic injury. These unfortunate injuries result in missed time from practice and, inevitably, the field of competition. Recovery time plays a pivotal role in the overall rehabilitation of the athlete. With time and rehabilitation, an athlete’s physical injury can be properly treated. However, there seem to be few measures assessing psychological recovery from injury. Although an athlete has been cleared to return to play, there may still be lingering doubt about their injury. Overall, there is a vast difference between being physically cleared to play and being psychologically ready to return to play. Certain personality traits might serve as predictors of an individual’s rate of psychological recovery from an injury. The purpose of this research study is to explore the correlations between athletes’ personality and their recovery from an athletic injury, specifically, examining how locus of control has been utilized through other studies and can be beneficial to the current study. Additionally, this section will examine the link between hardiness and coping strategies. In the current study, mental toughness is being tested, but it is important to determine the link between these two concepts. Hardiness and coping strategies are closely related and can play a major role in an athlete’s mental toughness. It is important to examine competitive trait anxiety to illustrate perceived anxiety during athletic competition. The Big 5 and Social Support will also be examined in conjunction with recovery from athletic injury. Athletic injury is a devastating and common occurrence that can happen in any sport. Injured athletes often require resources and treatment to be able to return to the field of play. Athletes become more involved with physical and mental treatment as the length of recovery time increases. It is very reasonable to assume that personality traits would be predictive of athlete recovery from injury. The current study investigated the potential relationship between personality traits and recovery time; more specifically, the personality traits of locus of control, hardiness, social support, competitive trait anxiety, and the “Big 5” personality traits. Results indicated that athletes with a higher internal locus of control tend to report being physically ready to return to play and “ready” to return to play faster than those with an external locus of control. Additionally, Openness to Experience (among the Big 5 personality dimensions) was also related to the speed of return to play.Keywords: athlete, injury, personality, readiness to play, recovery
Procedia PDF Downloads 1341646 The Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking Discuss the Ethical Considerations and Responsibilities of Documentary Filmmakers When Portraying Real-life Events and Subjects
Authors: Batatunde Kolawole
Abstract:
Documentary filmmaking stands as a distinctive medium within the cinematic realm, commanding a unique responsibility the portrayal of real-life events and subjects. This research delves into the profound ethical considerations and responsibilities that documentary filmmakers shoulder as they embark on the quest to unveil truth and weave compelling narratives. In the exploration, they embark on a comprehensive review of ethical frameworks and real-world case studies, illuminating the intricate web of challenges that documentarians confront. These challenges encompass an array of ethical intricacies, from securing informed consent to safeguarding privacy, maintaining unwavering objectivity, and sidestepping the snares of narrative manipulation when crafting stories from reality. Furthermore, they dissect the contemporary ethical terrain, acknowledging the emergence of novel dilemmas in the digital age, such as deepfakes and digital alterations. Through a meticulous analysis of ethical quandaries faced by distinguished documentary filmmakers and their strategies for ethical navigation, this study offers invaluable insights into the evolving role of documentaries in molding public discourse. They underscore the indispensable significance of transparency, integrity, and an indomitable commitment to encapsulating the intricacies of reality within the realm of ethical documentary filmmaking. In a world increasingly reliant on visual narratives, an understanding of the subtle ethical dimensions of documentary filmmaking holds relevance not only for those behind the camera but also for the diverse audiences who engage with and interpret the realities unveiled on screen. This research stands as a rigorous examination of the moral compass that steers this potent form of cinematic expression. It emphasizes the capacity of ethical documentary filmmaking to enlighten, challenge, and inspire, all while unwaveringly upholding the core principles of truthfulness and respect for the human subjects under scrutiny. Through this holistic analysis, they illuminate the enduring significance of upholding ethical integrity while uncovering the truths that shape our world. Ethical documentary filmmaking, as exemplified by "Rape" and countless other powerful narratives, serves as a testament to the enduring potential of cinema to inform, challenge, and drive meaningful societal discourse.Keywords: filmmaking, documentary, human right, film
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