Search results for: ground tests

Authors: Marielle Leijten, Catherine Meulemans, Sven De Maeyer, Luuk Van Waes

Abstract:

For the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a large variety of neuropsychological tests are available. In some of these tests, linguistic processing - both oral and written - is an important factor. Language disturbances might serve as a strong indicator for an underlying neurodegenerative disorder like AD. However, the current diagnostic instruments for language assessment mainly focus on product measures, such as text length or number of errors, ignoring the importance of the process that leads to written or spoken language production. In this study, it is our aim to describe and test differences between cognitive and impaired elderly on the basis of a selection of writing process variables (inter- and intrapersonal characteristics). These process variables are mainly related to pause times, because the number, length, and location of pauses have proven to be an important indicator of the cognitive complexity of a process. Method: Participants that were enrolled in our research were chosen on the basis of a number of basic criteria necessary to collect reliable writing process data. Furthermore, we opted to match the thirteen cognitively impaired patients (8 MCI and 5 AD) with thirteen cognitively healthy elderly. At the start of the experiment, participants were each given a number of tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination test (MMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the forward and backward digit span and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). Also, a questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic information (age, gender, eduction) of the subjects as well as more details on their level of computer literacy. The tests and questionnaire were followed by two typing tasks and two picture description tasks. For the typing tasks participants had to copy (type) characters, words and sentences from a screen, whereas the picture description tasks each consisted of an image they had to describe in a few sentences. Both the typing and the picture description tasks were logged with Inputlog, a keystroke logging tool that allows us to log and time stamp keystroke activity to reconstruct and describe text production processes. The main rationale behind keystroke logging is that writing fluency and flow reveal traces of the underlying cognitive processes. This explains the analytical focus on pause (length, number, distribution, location, etc.) and revision (number, type, operation, embeddedness, location, etc.) characteristics. As in speech, pause times are seen as indexical of cognitive effort. Results. Preliminary analysis already showed some promising results concerning pause times before, within and after words. For all variables, mixed effects models were used that included participants as a random effect and MMSE scores, GDS scores and word categories (such as determiners and nouns) as a fixed effect. For pause times before and after words cognitively impaired patients paused longer than healthy elderly. These variables did not show an interaction effect between the group participants (cognitively impaired or healthy elderly) belonged to and word categories. However, pause times within words did show an interaction effect, which indicates pause times within certain word categories differ significantly between patients and healthy elderly.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, keystroke logging, matching, writing process

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Ahmed Mantawy, James C. Anderson

Abstract:

Numerous cases of earthquakes (main-shocks) that were followed by aftershocks have been recorded in California. In 1992 a pair of strong earthquakes occurred within three hours of each other in Southern California. The first shock occurred near the community of Landers and was assigned a magnitude of 7.3 then the second shock occurred near the city of Big Bear about 20 miles west of the initial shock and was assigned a magnitude of 6.2. In the same year, a series of three earthquakes occurred over two days in the Cape-Mendocino area of Northern California. The main-shock was assigned a magnitude of 7.0 while the second and the third shocks were both assigned a value of 6.6. This paper investigates the effect of a main-shock accompanied with aftershocks of significant intensity on reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings to indicate nonlinear behavior using PERFORM-3D software. A 6-story building in San Bruno and a 20-story building in North Hollywood were selected for the study as both of them have RC moment resisting frame systems. The buildings are also instrumented at multiple floor levels as a part of the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP). Both buildings have recorded responses during past events such as Loma-Prieta and Northridge earthquakes which were used in verifying the response parameters of the numerical models in PERFORM-3D. The verification of the numerical models shows good agreement between the calculated and the recorded response values. Then, different scenarios of a main-shock followed by a series of aftershocks from real cases in California were applied to the building models in order to investigate the structural behavior of the moment-resisting frame system. The behavior was evaluated in terms of the lateral floor displacements, the ductility demands, and the inelastic behavior at critical locations. The analysis results showed that permanent displacements may have happened due to the plastic deformation during the main-shock that can lead to higher displacements during after-shocks. Also, the inelastic response at plastic hinges during the main-shock can change the hysteretic behavior during the aftershocks. Higher ductility demands can also occur when buildings are subjected to trains of ground motions compared to the case of individual ground motions. A general conclusion is that the occurrence of aftershocks following an earthquake can lead to increased damage within the elements of an RC frame buildings. Current code provisions for seismic design do not consider the probability of significant aftershocks when designing a new building in zones of high seismic activity.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, existing buildings, aftershocks, damage accumulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Bencherif Kada

Abstract:

In the forest management practice, landscape and Mediterranean forest are never posed as linked objects. But sustainable forestry requires the valorization of the forest landscape, and this aim involves assessing the spatial distribution of biodiversity by mapping forest landscaped units and subunits and by monitoring the environmental trends. This contribution aims to highlight, through object-oriented classifications, the landscaped biodiversity of the National Park of Tlemcen (Algeria). The methodology used is based on ground data and on the basic processing units of object-oriented classification, that are segments, so-called image-objects, representing a relatively homogenous units on the ground. The classification of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) imagery is performed on image objects and not on pixels. Advantages of object-oriented classification are to make full use of meaningful statistic and texture calculation, uncorrelated shape information (e.g., length-to-width ratio, direction, and area of an object, etc.), and topological features (neighbor, super-object, etc.), and the close relation between real-world objects and image objects. The results show that per object classification using the k-nearest neighbor’s method is more efficient than per pixel one. It permits to simplify of the content of the image while preserving spectrally and spatially homogeneous types of land covers such as Aleppo pine stands, cork oak groves, mixed groves of cork oak, holm oak, and zen oak, mixed groves of holm oak and thuja, water plan, dense and open shrub-lands of oaks, vegetable crops or orchard, herbaceous plants, and bare soils. Texture attributes seem to provide no useful information, while spatial attributes of shape and compactness seem to be performant for all the dominant features, such as pure stands of Aleppo pine and/or cork oak and bare soils. Landscaped sub-units are individualized while conserving the spatial information. Continuously dominant dense stands over a large area were formed into a single class, such as dense, fragmented stands with clear stands. Low shrublands formations and high wooded shrublands are well individualized but with some confusion with enclaves for the former. Overall, a visual evaluation of the classification shows that the classification reflects the actual spatial state of the study area at the landscape level.

Keywords: forest, oaks, remote sensing, diversity, shrublands

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Authors: S. Dias, A. Tadeu, J. Antonio, F. Pedro, C. Serra

Abstract:

The goal of the present work is to experimentally evaluate the feasibility of using vibration isolators made of expanded cork agglomerate. Even though this material, also known as insulation cork board (ICB), has mainly been studied for thermal and acoustic insulation purposes, it has strong potential for use in vibration isolation. However, the adequate design of expanded cork blocks vibration isolators will depend on several factors, such as excitation frequency, static load conditions and intrinsic dynamic behavior of the material. In this study, transmissibility tests for different static and dynamic loading conditions were performed in order to characterize the material. Since the material’s physical properties can influence the vibro-isolation performance of the blocks (in terms of density and thickness), this study covered four mass density ranges and four block thicknesses. A total of 72 expanded cork agglomerate specimens were tested. The test apparatus comprises a vibration exciter connected to an excitation mass that holds the test specimen. The test specimens under characterization were loaded successively with steel plates in order to obtain results for different masses. An accelerometer was placed at the top of these masses and at the base of the excitation mass. The test was performed for a defined frequency range, and the amplitude registered by the accelerometers was recorded in time domain. For each of the signals (signal 1- vibration of the excitation mass, signal 2- vibration of the loading mass) a fast Fourier transform (FFT) was applied in order to obtain the frequency domain response. For each of the frequency domain signals, the maximum amplitude reached was registered. The ratio between the amplitude (acceleration) of signal 2 and the amplitude of signal 1, allows the calculation of the transmissibility for each frequency. Repeating this procedure allowed us to plot a transmissibility curve for a certain frequency range. A number of transmissibility experiments were performed to assess the influence of changing the mass density and thickness of the expanded cork blocks and the experimental conditions (static load and frequency of excitation). The experimental transmissibility tests performed in this study showed that expanded cork agglomerate blocks are a good option for mitigating vibrations. It was concluded that specimens with lower mass density and larger thickness lead to better performance, with higher vibration isolation and a larger range of isolated frequencies. In conclusion, the study of the performance of expanded cork agglomerate blocks presented herein will allow for a more efficient application of expanded cork vibration isolators. This is particularly relevant since this material is a more sustainable alternative to other commonly used non-environmentally friendly products, such as rubber.

Keywords: expanded cork agglomerate, insulation cork board, transmissibility tests, sustainable materials, vibration isolators

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Authors: Recep Kesli, Huseyin Bilgin, Yasar Unlu, Gokhan Gungor

Abstract:

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare diagnostic values of two different molecular-based tests (GenoType® HelicoDR ve Seeplex® H. pylori-ClaR- ACE Detection) in detection presence of the H. pylori from gastric biopsy specimens. In addition to this also was aimed to determine resistance ratios of H. pylori strains against to clarytromycine and quinolone isolated from gastric biopsy material cultures by using both the genotypic (GenoType® HelicoDR, Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection) and phenotypic (gradient strip, E-test) methods. Material and methods: A total of 266 patients who admitted to Konya Education and Research Hospital Department of Gastroenterology with dyspeptic complaints, between January 2011-June 2013, were included in the study. Microbiological and histopathological examinations of biopsy specimens taken from antrum and corpus regions were performed. The presence of H. pylori in all the biopsy samples was investigated by five differnt dignostic methods together: culture (C) (Portagerm pylori-PORT PYL, Pylori agar-PYL, GENbox microaer, bioMerieux, France), histology (H) (Giemsa, Hematoxylin and Eosin staining), rapid urease test (RUT) (CLOtest, Cimberly-Clark, USA), and two different molecular tests; GenoType® HelicoDR, Hain, Germany, based on DNA strip assay, and Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection, Seegene, South Korea, based on multiplex PCR. Antimicrobial resistance of H. pylori isolates against clarithromycin and levofloxacin was determined by GenoType® HelicoDR, Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection, and gradient strip (E-test, bioMerieux, France) methods. Culture positivity alone or positivities of both histology and RUT together was accepted as the gold standard for H. pylori positivity. Sensitivity and specificity rates of two molecular methods used in the study were calculated by taking the two gold standards previously mentioned. Results: A total of 266 patients between 16-83 years old who 144 (54.1 %) were female, 122 (45.9 %) were male were included in the study. 144 patients were found as culture positive, and 157 were H and RUT were positive together. 179 patients were found as positive with GenoType® HelicoDR and Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection together. Sensitivity and specificity rates of studied five different methods were found as follows: C were 80.9 % and 84.4 %, H + RUT were 88.2 % and 75.4 %, GenoType® HelicoDR were 100 % and 71.3 %, and Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection were, 100 % and 71.3 %. A strong correlation was found between C and H+RUT, C and GenoType® HelicoDR, and C and Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection (r:0.644 and p:0.000, r:0.757 and p:0.000, r:0.757 and p:0.000, respectively). Of all the isolated 144 H. pylori strains 24 (16.6 %) were detected as resistant to claritromycine, and 18 (12.5 %) were levofloxacin. Genotypic claritromycine resistance was detected only in 15 cases with GenoType® HelicoDR, and 6 cases with Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection. Conclusion: In our study, it was concluded that; GenoType® HelicoDR and Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection was found as the most sensitive diagnostic methods when comparing all the investigated other ones (C, H, and RUT).

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, GenoType® HelicoDR, Seeplex ® H. pylori -ClaR- ACE Detection, antimicrobial resistance

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Kien Vu, Jien Min Soh, Mohamed Jahangir Abubacker, Piyawut Pattamanon, Soojin Lee, Suvro Banerjee

Abstract:

Recent advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), in particular Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise to disrupt multiple industries at scale. However, LLMs also present unique challenges, notably, these so-called "hallucination" which is the generation of outputs that are not grounded in the input data that hinders its adoption into production. Common practice to mitigate hallucination problem is utilizing Retrieval Agmented Generation (RAG) system to ground LLMs'response to ground truth. RAG converts the grounding documents into embeddings, retrieve the relevant parts with vector similarity between user's query and documents, then generates a response that is not only based on its pre-trained knowledge but also on the specific information from the retrieved documents. However, the RAG system is not suitable for tabular data and subsequent data analysis tasks due to multiple reasons such as information loss, data format, and retrieval mechanism. In this study, we have explored a novel methodology that combines planning-and-execution and code generation agents to enhance LLMs' data analysis capabilities. The approach enables LLMs to autonomously dissect a complex analytical task into simpler sub-tasks and requirements, then convert them into executable segments of code. In the final step, it generates the complete response from output of the executed code. When deployed beta version on DataSense, the property insight tool of PropertyGuru, the approach yielded promising results, as it was able to provide market insights and data visualization needs with high accuracy and extensive coverage by abstracting the complexities for real-estate agents and developers from non-programming background. In essence, the methodology not only refines the analytical process but also serves as a strategic tool for real estate professionals, aiding in market understanding and enhancement without the need for programming skills. The implication extends beyond immediate analytics, paving the way for a new era in the real estate industry characterized by efficiency and advanced data utilization.

Keywords: large language model, reasoning, planning and execution, code generation, natural language processing, prompt engineering, data analysis, real estate, data sense, PropertyGuru

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Authors: Farzaneh Badinlou, Reza Kormi-Nouri, Monika Knopf

Abstract:

Enacted tasks are typically remembered better than when the same task materials are only verbally encoded, a robust finding referred to as the enactment effect. It has been assumed that enactment effect is independent of object presence but the size of enactment effect can be increased by providing objects at study phase in adults. To clarify the issues in children, free recall and cued recall performance of action phrases with or without using real objects were compared in 410 school-aged children from four age groups (8, 10, 12 and 14 years old). In this study, subjects were instructed to learn a series of action phrases under three encoding conditions, participants listened to verbal action phrases (VTs), performed the phrases (SPTs: subject-performed tasks), and observed the experimenter perform the phrases (EPTs: experimenter-performed tasks). Then, free recall and cued recall memory tests were administrated. The results revealed that the real object compared with imaginary objects improved recall performance in SPTs and EPTs, but more so in VTs. It was also found that the object presence was not necessary for the occurrence of the enactment effect but it was changed the size of enactment effect in all age groups. The size of enactment effect was more pronounced for imaginary objects than the real object in both free recall and cued recall memory tests in children. It was discussed that SPTs and EPTs deferentially facilitate item-specific and relation information processing and providing the objects can moderate the processing underlying the encoding conditions.

Keywords: action memory, enactment effect, item-specific processing, object, relational processing, school-aged children

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: Bencherif Kada

Abstract:

In forest management practice, landscape and Mediterranean forest are never posed as linked objects. But sustainable forestry requires the valorization of the forest landscape and this aim involves assessing the spatial distribution of biodiversity by mapping forest landscaped units and subunits and by monitoring the environmental trends. This contribution aims to highlight, through object-oriented classifications, the landscaped biodiversity of the National Park of Tlemcen (Algeria). The methodology used is based on ground data and on the basic processing units of object-oriented classification that are segments, so-called image-objects, representing a relatively homogenous units on the ground. The classification of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) imagery is performed on image objects, and not on pixels. Advantages of object-oriented classification are to make full use of meaningful statistic and texture calculation, uncorrelated shape information (e.g., length-to-width ratio, direction and area of an object, etc.) and topological features (neighbor, super-object, etc.), and the close relation between real-world objects and image objects. The results show that per object classification using the k-nearest neighbor’s method is more efficient than per pixel one. It permits to simplify the content of the image while preserving spectrally and spatially homogeneous types of land covers such as Aleppo pine stands, cork oak groves, mixed groves of cork oak, holm oak and zen oak, mixed groves of holm oak and thuja, water plan, dense and open shrub-lands of oaks, vegetable crops or orchard, herbaceous plants and bare soils. Texture attributes seem to provide no useful information while spatial attributes of shape, compactness seem to be performant for all the dominant features, such as pure stands of Aleppo pine and/or cork oak and bare soils. Landscaped sub-units are individualized while conserving the spatial information. Continuously dominant dense stands over a large area were formed into a single class, such as dense, fragmented stands with clear stands. Low shrublands formations and high wooded shrublands are well individualized but with some confusion with enclaves for the former. Overall, a visual evaluation of the classification shows that the classification reflects the actual spatial state of the study area at the landscape level.

Keywords: forest, oaks, remote sensing, biodiversity, shrublands

Procedia PDF Downloads 30

Authors: Mohammad Tahsin Karimi Nezhad, Zaynab Shadbahr, Ali Gholami

Abstract:

In recent years many attempts have been made to assess groundwater contamination by nitrates worldwide. The assessment of spatial and temporal variations of physico-chemical parameters of water is necessary to mange water quality. The objectives of the study were to evaluate spatial variability and temporal changes of hydrochemical factors by water sampling from 24 wells in the Shoush City suburb. The analysis was conducted for the whole area and for different land use and geological classes. In addition, nitrate concentration variability with descriptive parameters such as sampling depth, dissolved oxygen, and on ground nitrogen loadings was also investigated The results showed that nitrate concentrations did not exceed the standard limit (50 mg/l). EC of water samples, ranged from 900 to 1200 µs/cm, TDS from 775 to 830 mg/l and pH from 5.6 to 9.

Keywords: groundwater, GIS, water quality, Iran

Procedia PDF Downloads 431

Authors: Joanne DiFrancisco-Donoghue, Seth E. Jenny, Peter C. Douris, Sophia Ahmad, Kyle Yuen, Hillary Gan, Kenney Abraham, Amber Sousa

Abstract:

Background: Guidelines for the maintenance of health of esports players and the cognitive changes that accompany competitive gaming are understudied. Executive functioning is an important cognitive skill for an esports player. The relationship between executive functions and physical exercise has been well established. However, the effects of prolonged sitting regardless of physical activity level have not been established. Prolonged uninterrupted sitting reduces cerebral blood flow. Reduced cerebral blood flow is associated with lower cognitive function and fatigue. This decrease in cerebral blood flow has been shown to be offset by frequent and short walking breaks. These short breaks can be as little as 2 minutes at the 30-minute mark and 6 minutes following 60 minutes of prolonged sitting. The rationale is the increase in blood flow and the positive effects this has on metabolic responses. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate executive function changes following 6-minute bouts of walking and complete rest mid-session, compared to no break, during prolonged gameplay in competitive first-person shooter (FPS) esports players. Methods: This study was conducted virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic and was approved by the New York Institute of Technology IRB. Twelve competitive FPS participants signed written consent to participate in this randomized pilot study. All participants held a gold ranking or higher. Participants were asked to play for 2 hours on three separate days. Outcome measures to test executive function included the Color Stroop and the Tower of London tests which were administered online each day prior to gaming and at the completion of gaming. All participants completed the tests prior to testing for familiarization. One day of testing consisted of a 6-minute walk break after 60-75 minutes of play. The Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was recorded. The participant continued to play for another 60-75 minutes and completed the tests again. Another day the participants repeated the same methods replacing the 6-minute walk with lying down and resting for 6 minutes. On the last day, the participant played continuously with no break for 2 hours and repeated the outcome tests pre and post-play. A Latin square was used to randomize the treatment order. Results: Using descriptive statistics, the largest change in mean reaction time incorrect congruent pre to post play was seen following the 6-minute walk (662.0 (609.6) ms pre to 602.8 (539.2) ms post), followed by the 6-minute rest group (681.7(618.1) ms pre to 666.3 (607.9) ms post), and with minimal change in the continuous group (594.0(534.1) ms pre to 589.6(552.9) ms post). The mean solution time was fastest in the resting condition (7774.6(6302.8)ms), followed by the walk condition (7929.4 (5992.8)ms), with the continuous condition being slowest (9337.3(7228.7)ms). the continuous group 9337.3(7228.7) ms; 7929.4 (5992.8 ) ms 774.6(6302.8) ms. Conclusion: Short walking breaks improve blood flow and reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism during prolonged sitting. This pilot study demonstrated that a low intensity 6 -minute walk break, following 60 minutes of play, may also improve executive function in FPS gamers.

Keywords: executive function, FPS, physical activity, prolonged sitting

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Hiromi Kawai

Abstract:

This study investigates the nature of EFL older children’s L2 perceptive and productive abilities using classroom data, in order to find a pedagogical solution to the teaching of L2 sounds at an early stage of learning in a formal school setting. It is still inconclusive whether older children with only EFL formal school instruction at the initial stage of L2 learning are able to attain native-like perception and production in English within the very limited amount of exposure to the target language available. Based on the notion of the lack of study of EFL Japanese children’s acquisition of English segments, the researcher uses a model of L1 speech processing which was developed for investigating L1 English children’s speech and literacy difficulties using a psycholinguistic framework. The model is composed of input channel, output channel, and lexical representation, and examines how a child receives information from spoken or written language, remembers and stores it within the lexical representations and how the child selects and produces spoken or written words. Concerning language universality and language specificity in the language acquisitional process, the aim of finding any sound errors in L1 English children seemed to conform to the author’s intention to find abilities of English sounds in older Japanese children at the novice level of English in an EFL setting. 104 students in Grade 5 (between the ages of 10 and 11 years old) of an elementary school in Tokyo participated in this study. Four tests to measure their perceptive ability and three oral repetition tests to measure their productive ability were conducted with/without reference to lexical representation. All the test items were analyzed to calculate item facility (IF) indices, and correlational analyses and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to examine the relationship between the receptive ability and the productive ability. IF analysis showed that (1) the participants were better at perceiving a segment than producing a segment, (2) they had difficulty in auditory discrimination of paired consonants when one of them does not exist in the Japanese inventory, (3) they had difficulty in both perceiving and producing English vowels, and (4) their L1 loan word knowledge had an influence on their ability to perceive and produce L2 sounds. The result of the Multiple Regression Modeling showed that the two production tests could predict the participants’ auditory ability of real words in English. The result of SEM showed that the hypothesis that perceptive ability affects productive ability was supported. Based on these findings, the author discusses the possible explicit method of teaching English segments to EFL older children in a formal school setting.

Keywords: EFL older children, english segments, perception, production, speech processing system

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Authors: Sumit Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Chandan Deep Singh

Abstract:

This paper presents modeling and simulation of flexible robot in an underwater environment. The underwater environment completely contrasts with ground or space environment. The robot in an underwater situation is subjected to various dynamic forces like buoyancy forces, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces. The underwater robot is modeled as Rayleigh beam. The developed model further allows estimating the deflection of tip in two directions. The complete dynamics of the underwater robot is analyzed, which is the main focus of this investigation. The control of robot trajectory is not discussed in this paper. Simulation is performed using Symbol Shakti software.

Keywords: bond graph modeling, dynamics. modeling, rayleigh beam, underwater robot

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Authors: Gitanjali Pagare, Hansa Devi, S. P. Sanyal

Abstract:

Full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method has been employed within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and local spin density approximation (LSDA) as the exchange correlation potential to investigate elastic properties of LaX (X = Cd and Hg) in their B2-type (CsCl) crystal structure. The calculated ground state properties such as lattice constant (a0), bulk modulus (B) and pressure derivative of bulk modulus (B') agree well with the available experimental results. The second order elastic constants (C11, C12 and C44) have been calculated. The ductility or brittleness of these intermetallic compounds is predicted by using Pugh’s rule B/GH and Cauchy’s pressure (C12-C44). The calculated results indicate that LaHg is the ductile whereas LaCd is brittle in nature.

Keywords: ductility/brittleness, elastic constants, equation of states, FP-LAPW method, intermetallics

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Authors: Febrian Tegar Wicaksana, Niqmatul Kurniati, Surya Nandika

Abstract:

Indonesia is one of the countries that have great number of disaster occurrence and threat because it is located in not only between three tectonic plates such as Eurasia plates, Indo-Australia plates and Pacific plates, but also in the Ring of Fire path, like earthquake, Tsunami, volcanic eruption and many more. Recently, research shows that there are potential areas that will be devastated by Tsunami in southern coast of Java. Tsunami is a series of waves in a body of water caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean. When the waves enter shallow water, they may rise to several feet or, in rare cases, tens of feet, striking the coast with devastating force. The parameter for reference such as magnitude, the depth of epicentre, distance between epicentres with land, the depth of every points, when reached the shore and the growth of waves. Interaction between parameters will bring the big variance of Tsunami wave. Based on that, we can formulate preparation that needed for disaster mitigation strategies. The mitigation strategies will take the important role in an effort to reduce the number of victims and damage in the area. It will reduce the number of victim and casualties. Reducing is directed to the most difficult mobilization casualties in the tsunami disaster area like old people, sick people and disabilities people. Until now, the method that used for rescuing people from Tsunami is basic horizontal evacuation. This evacuation system is not optimal because it needs so long time and it cannot be used by people with disabilities. The writers propose to create a vertical evacuation model with an escape bunker system. This bunker system is chosen because the downward vertical evacuation is considered more efficient and faster. Especially in coastal areas without any highlands surround it. The downward evacuation system is better than upward evacuation because it can avoid the risk of erosion at the ground around the structure which can affect the building. The structure of the bunker and the evacuation process while, and even after, disaster are the main priority to be considered. The power of bunker has quake’s resistance, the durability from water stream, variety of interaction to the ground, and waterproof design. When the situation is back to normal, victim and casualties can go into the safer place. The bunker will be located near the hospital and public places, and will have wide entrance supported by large slide in it so it will ease the disabilities people. The technology of the escape bunker system is expected to reduce the number of victims who have low mobility in the Tsunami.

Keywords: escape bunker, tsunami, vertical evacuation, mitigation, disaster management

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Authors: Pechpailin Kortnoi, Tanitnun Paprad

Abstract:

Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by impaired neuromuscular transmission due to antibodies against nicotinic receptors, leading to muscle weakness, ptosis, and respiratory issues. The incidence of MG has risen globally, emphasizing the need for effective diagnostics. Objective: This study evaluates the validity of a combined bedside test (the ice pack test and fatigability test) for diagnosing juvenile myasthenia gravis (JMG) in pediatric patients with ptosis. Methods: This cross-sectional study, conducted from January 2012 to May 2024 at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thailand, included pediatric patients (1 month to 18 years) with ptosis undergoing ice pack and fatigability tests. Data included demographics, clinical findings, and test results. Diagnostic efficacy was assessed using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, NPV, Fagan Nomogram, Kappa Statistics, and McNemar’s Chi-Square. Results: Of 43 identified patients, 32 were included, with 47% male and a mean age of 7 years. The combined bedside test had high sensitivity (92.8%) and accuracy (87.5%) but moderate specificity (50%). It significantly outperformed the ice pack test (P = 0.0005), which showed low sensitivity (42.8%) and accuracy (43.8%). The fatigability test had 82% sensitivity and 92% PPV. Confirmatory tests (AChR-Ab, MuSK-Ab, neostigmine, repetitive nerve stimulation) supported most diagnoses. Conclusions: The combined bedside test, with high sensitivity (92.8%) and accuracy (87.5%), is an effective screening tool for juvenile myasthenia gravis, outperforming the ice pack test. Integrating it into clinical practice may improve diagnosis and enable timely treatment. The fatigability test (82% sensitivity) is also useful as an adjunct screening tool.

Keywords: myasthenia gravis, the fatigability test, the ice pack test, the combined bedside test

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Authors: M. Abdallah

Abstract:

Urban development requires deep excavations near buildings and other structures. Deep excavation has become more a necessity for better utilization of space as the population of the world has dramatically increased. In Lebanon, some urban areas are very crowded and lack spaces for new buildings and underground projects, which makes the usage of underground space indispensable. In this paper, a numerical modeling is performed using the finite element method to study the deep excavation-diaphragm wall soil-structure interaction in the case of nonlinear soil behavior. The study is focused on a comparison of the results obtained using different support systems. Furthermore, a parametric study is performed according to the remoteness of the structure.

Keywords: deep excavation, ground anchors, interaction soil-structure, struts

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Authors: Yin-Chen Liu, Chih-Chun Wu, Mei-He Shih

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In this technology society, using ICT(Information and communications technology) to contact each other is very common. Interpersonal ICT communication maintains social support. Therefore, the study investigated the ICT communication between undergraduates and their parents, and gender differences were also detected. The sample size was 1,209 undergraduates, including 624(51.6%) males, 584(48.3%) females, and 1 gender unidentified. In the sample, 91.8% of the sample used phones to contact their fathers and 93.8% of them use phones to contact their mothers. 78.5% and 87.6% of the sample utilized LINE to contact their fathers and mothers respectively. As for Facebook, only 13.4% and 16.5% of the sample would use to contact their fathers and mothers respectively. Aforementioned results implied that the undergraduates nowadays use phone and LINE to contact their parents more common than Facebook. According to results from Pearson correlations, the more undergraduates refused to add their fathers as their Facebook friends, the more they refused to add their mothers as Facebook friends. The possible reasons for it could be that to distinguish different social network such as family and friends. Another possible reason could be avoiding parents’ controlling. It could be why the kids prefer to use phone and LINE to Facebook when contacting their parents. Result from Pearson correlations showed that the more undergraduates actively contact their fathers, the more they actively contact their mothers. On the other hand, the more their fathers actively contact them, the more their mothers actively contact them. Based on the results, this study encourages both parents and undergraduates to contact each other, for any contact between any two family members is associated with contact between other two family members. Obviously, the contact between family members is bidirectional. Future research might want to investigate if this bidirectional contact is associated with the family relation. For gender differences, results from the independent t-tests showed that compared to sons, daughters actively contacted their parents more. Maybe it is because parents keep saying that it is dangerous out there for their daughters, so they build up the habit for their daughters to contact them more. Results from paired sample t-tests showed that the undergraduates agreed that talking to mother on the phone had more satisfaction, felt more intimacy and supported than fathers.

Keywords: family ICT communication, parent-child ICT communication, FACEBOOK and LINE, gender differences

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Authors: J. I. Corcoles, J. D. Moya-Rico, A. Molina, J. F. Belmonte, J. A. Almendros-Ibanez

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One of the most common heat exchangers technology in engineering processes is the use of double-pipe heat exchangers (DPHx), mainly in the food industry. To improve the heat transfer performance, several passive geometrical devices can be used, such as the wall corrugation of tubes, which increases the wet perimeter maintaining a constant cross-section area, increasing consequently the convective surface area. It contributes to enhance heat transfer in forced convection, promoting secondary recirculating flows. One of the most extended tools to analyse heat exchangers' efficiency is the use of computational fluid dynamic techniques (CFD), a complementary activity to the experimental studies as well as a previous step for the design of heat exchangers. In this study, a double pipe heat exchanger behaviour with two different inner tubes, smooth and spirally corrugated tube, have been analysed. Hence, experimental analysis and steady 3-D numerical simulations using the commercial code ANSYS Workbench v. 17.0 are carried out to analyse the influence of geometrical parameters for spirally corrugated tubes at turbulent flow. To validate the numerical results, an experimental setup has been used. To heat up or cool down the cold fluid as it passes through the heat exchanger, the installation includes heating and cooling loops served by an electric boiler with a heating capacity of 72 kW and a chiller, with a cooling capacity of 48 kW. Two tests have been carried out for the smooth tube and for the corrugated one. In all the tests, the hot fluid has a constant flowrate of 50 l/min and inlet temperature of 59.5°C. For the cold fluid, the flowrate range from 25 l/min (Test 1) and 30 l/min (Test 2) with an inlet temperature of 22.1°C. The heat exchanger is made of stainless steel, with an external diameter of 35 mm and wall thickness of 1.5 mm. Both inner tubes have an external diameter of 24 mm and 1 mm thickness of stainless steel with a length of 2.8 m. The corrugated tube has a corrugation height (H) of 1.1 mm and helical pitch (P) of 25 mm. It is characterized using three non-dimensional parameters, the ratio of the corrugation shape and the diameter (H/D), the helical pitch (P/D) and the severity index (SI = H²/P x D). The results showed good agreement between the numerical and the experimental results. Hence, the lowest differences were shown for the fluid temperatures. In all the analysed tests and for both analysed tubes, the temperature obtained numerically was slightly higher than the experimental results, with values ranged between 0.1% and 0.7%. Regarding the pressure drop, the maximum differences between the values obtained numerically, and the experimental values were close to 16%. Based on the experimental and the numerical results, for the corrugated tube, it can be highlighted that the temperature difference between the inlet and the outlet of the cold fluid is 42%, higher than the smooth tube.

Keywords: corrugated tube, heat exchanger, heat transfer, numerical simulation

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Authors: M. R. S. Nasuha, K. Azman, H. Azhan, S. A. Senawi, A . Mardhiah

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Sm3+ doped borotellurite glasses of the system (70-x) TeO2-20B2O3-10ZnO-xSm2O3 (where x = 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mol%) have been prepared using melt-quenching method. Their physical properties such as density, molar volume and oxygen packing density as well as the optical measurements by mean of their absorption and emission characteristic have been carried out at room temperature using UV/VIS and photoluminescence spectrophotometer. The result of physical properties is found to vary with respect to Sm3+ ions content. Meanwhile, three strong absorption peaks are observed and are well resolved in the ultraviolet and visible regions due to transitions between the ground state and various excited state of Sm3+ ions. Thus, the photoluminescence spectra exhibit four emission bands from the initial state, which correspond to the 4G5/2 → 6H5/2, 4G5/2 → 6H7/2, 4G5/2 → 6H9/2 and 4G5/2 → 6H11/2 fluorescence transitions at 562 nm, 599 nm, 645 nm, and 706 nm, respectively.

Keywords: absorption, borotellurite, emission, optical, physical

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Authors: Aiman Mazhar Qureshi, Ahmed Rachid

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Extreme heat events are emerging human environmental health concerns in dense urban areas due to anthropogenic activities. High spatial and temporal resolution heat maps are important for urban heat adaptation and mitigation, helping to indicate hotspots that are required for the attention of city planners. The Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) is the important approach used by decision-makers and urban planners to identify heat-vulnerable communities and areas that require heat stress mitigation strategies. Amiens is a medium-sized French city, where the average temperature has been increasing since the year 2000 by +1°C. Extreme heat events are recorded in the month of July for the last three consecutive years, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Poor air quality, especially ground-level ozone, has been observed mainly during the same hot period. In this study, we evaluated the HVI in Amiens during extreme heat days recorded last three years (2018,2019,2020). The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique is used for fine-scale vulnerability mapping. The main data we considered for this study to develop the HVI model are (a) socio-economic and demographic data; (b) Air pollution; (c) Land use and cover; (d) Elderly heat-illness; (e) socially vulnerable; (f) Remote sensing data (Land surface temperature (LST), mean elevation, NDVI and NDWI). The output maps identified the hot zones through comprehensive GIS analysis. The resultant map shows that high HVI exists in three typical areas: (1) where the population density is quite high and the vegetation cover is small (2) the artificial surfaces (built-in areas) (3) industrial zones that release thermal energy and ground-level ozone while those with low HVI are located in natural landscapes such as rivers and grasslands. The study also illustrates the system theory with a causal diagram after data analysis where anthropogenic activities and air pollution appear in correspondence with extreme heat events in the city. Our suggested index can be a useful tool to guide urban planners and municipalities, decision-makers and public health professionals in targeting areas at high risk of extreme heat and air pollution for future interventions adaptation and mitigation measures.

Keywords: heat vulnerability index, heat mapping, heat health-illness, remote sensing, urban heat mitigation

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Zbigniew Wochynski, Justyna Skrzynska, Robert Jedrys, Zdzislaw Kobos

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The aim of the study is to determine the types of motor skills and their impact on achieving results while undergoing Aviation Synthetic Efficiency Test (ASET). The study involved 59 cadets, 21 years-old on average, who are studying on first year for a pilot. The average weight of the respondents is 73.8 kg. The subjects were divided into two groups by weight: up to 73.8 kg -group A (n-30) and above 73,8kg -group B (n-29). All subjects underwent the following tests: running at 40m, 100m, 1000m, 2000m, pull-ups, ASET. In both groups, the cadets were divided into two motor skills types taking into advance 40 m running, pull-ups, 2000 meters running and then subjected to do ASET. There has been shown statistically significant increase in group B in body height, weight and BMI with p <0.0003, p <0.0001, p <0.0001 compared to group A. The results indicate that the dominant motor type in all subjects is the endurance-strength model, which reached the speed V = 1,42m/s in overcoming ASET. This is confirmed by the correlation between 2000m and pull-ups r = 0.37 (p <0.05). In group A, the results indicate that the dominant type of motor is a high-speed-endurance model (26.6%), which reached speed V = 1,42m/s in overcoming ASET. In Group B, there was type of motor speed-strength (20.6%), which reached speed of V = 1.45m/s in overcoming ASET. This confirms the correlation between ASET and pull-ups r = 0.56 (p <0.005). Examined cadets who were having one dominant characteristic achieved worse results is ASET. The best results from all examined cadets in overcoming ASET had the type of motor endurance-strength, in group A endurance-speed model and in group B type of speed-strength

Keywords: ASET, Aviation Synthetic Efficiency Test, motor skills, physical tests, pilot-cadets

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Authors: Osholana Tobi Stephen, Rotimi Emmanuel Sadiku, Bilainu Oboirien.o

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Fluidized bed combustion (FBC) is a clean coal technology used in the combustion of low-grade coals for power generation. The production of large solid wastes such as bottom ashes from this process is a problem. The bottom ash contains some toxic elements which can leach out soils and contaminate surface and ground water; for this reason, they can neither be disposed in landfills nor lagoons anymore. The production of geopolymers from bottom ash for structural and concrete applications is an option for their disposal. In this study, the waste bottom ash obtained from the combustion of three low grade South African coals in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor was used to produce geopolymers. The geopolymers were cured in a household microwave. The results showed that the microwave curing enhanced the reactivity and strength of the geopolymers.

Keywords: bottom ash, coal, fluidized bed combustion (FBC) geopolymer, compressive strength

Procedia PDF Downloads 315

Authors: Boriana Karamanova, Svetlana Veleva, Luybomir Soserov, Ana Arenillas, Francesco Lufrano, Antonia Stoyanova

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Supercapacitors have received a lot of research attention and are promising energy storage devices due to their high power and long cycle life. In order to developed an advanced device with significant capacity for storing charge and cheap carbon materials, efforts must focus not only on improving synthesis by controlling the morphology and pore size but also on improving electrode-electrolyte compatibility of the resulting systems. The present study examines the relationship between the surface chemistry of two activated carbon xerogels, the electrolyte type, and the electrochemical properties of supercapacitors. Activated carbon xerogels were prepared by varying the initial pH of the resorcinol-formaldehyde aqueous solution. The materials produced are physicochemical characterized by DTA/TGA, porous characterization, and SEM analysis. The carbon xerogel based electrodes were prepared by spreading over glass plate a slurry containing the carbon gel, graphite, and poly vinylidene difluoride (PVDF) binder. The layer formed was dried consecutively at different temperatures and then detached by water. After, the layer was dried again to improve its mechanical stability. The developed electrode materials and the Aquivion® E87-05S membrane (Solvay Specialty Polymers), socked in Na2SO4 as a polymer electrolyte, were used to assembly the solid-state supercapacitor. Symmetric supercapacitor cells composed by same electrodes and 1 M KOH electrolytes are also assembled and tested for comparison. The supercapacitor performances are verified by different electrochemical methods - cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and long-term durability tests in neutral and alkaline electrolytes. Specific capacitances, energy, and power density, energy efficiencies, and durability were compared into studied supercapacitors. Ex-situ physicochemical analyses on the synthesized materials have also been performed, which provide information about chemical and structural changes in the electrode morphology during charge / discharge durability tests. They are discussed on the basis of electrode-electrolyte interaction. The obtained correlations could be of significance in order to design sustainable solid-state supercapacitors with high power and energy density. Acknowledgement: This research is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria under the National Program "European Scientific Networks" (Agreement D01-286 / 07.10.2020, D01-78/30.03.2021). Authors gratefully acknowledge.

Keywords: carbon xerogel, electrochemical tests, neutral and alkaline electrolytes, supercapacitors

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Authors: Alaa Al Hawari, Mohammad Khader, Tarek Zayed, Osama Moselhi

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In this paper, an effective non-destructive, non-invasive approach for leak detection was proposed. The process relies on analyzing thermal images collected by an IR viewer device that captures thermo-grams. In this study a statistical analysis of the collected thermal images of the ground surface along the expected leak location followed by a visual inspection of the thermo-grams was performed in order to locate the leak. In order to verify the applicability of the proposed approach the predicted leak location from the developed approach was compared with the real leak location. The results showed that the expected leak location was successfully identified with an accuracy of more than 95%.

Keywords: thermography, leakage, water pipelines, thermograms

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: Ju-Chun Chien

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The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion proposed that the role of health services should shift the focus from cure to prevention. Nowadays, besides having physical examinations, people could also conduct genetic tests to provide important information for diagnosing, treating, and/or preventing illnesses. However, because of the incompletion of the Chinese Genetic Database, people in Taiwan were still unfamiliar with genetic testing. The purposes of the present study were to: (1) Figure out people’s attitudes towards genetic testing. (2) Examine factors that influence people’s intention to pursue genetic testing by means of the Health Belief Model (HBM). A pilot study was conducted on 249 Taiwanese in 2017 to test the feasibility of the self-developed instrument. The reliability and construct validity of scores on the self-developed questionnaire revealed that this HBM-based questionnaire with 40 items was a well-developed instrument. A total of 542 participants were recruited and the valid participants were 535 (99%) between the ages of 20 and 86. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, two-way contingency table analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used in this study. The main results were that only 32 participants (6%) had already undergone genetic testing; moreover, their attitude towards genetic testing was more positive than those who did not have the experience. Compared with people who never underwent genetic tests, those who had gone for genetic testing had higher self-efficacy, greater intention to pursue genetic testing, had academic majors in health-related fields, had chronic and genetic diseases, possessed Catastrophic Illness Cards, and all of them had heard about genetic testing. The variables that best predicted people’s intention to pursue genetic testing were cues to action, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits (the three variables all correlated with one another positively at high magnitudes). To sum up, the HBM could be effective in designing and identifying the needs and priorities of the target population to pursue genetic testing.

Keywords: genetic testing, knowledge of GT, people in Taiwan, the health belief model

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Authors: Fangyuan Shao, Wei Liu, Deli Gao

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With the increasing speed of oil and gas exploration, development and production at home and abroad, the demand for drilling speed up technology is becoming more and more critical to reduce the development cost. Highly efficient and personalized PDC bit is important equipment in the bottom hole assembly (BHA). Therefore, improving the rock-breaking efficiency of PDC bits will help reduce drilling time and drilling cost. Advances in PDC bit technology have resulted in a leapfrogging improvement in the rate of penetration (ROP) of PDC bits over roller cone bits in soft to medium-hard formations. Recently, with the development of PDC technology, the diameter of the PDC tooth can be further expanded. The maximum diameter of the PDC cutter used in this paper is 22 mm. According to the theoretical calculation, under the same depth of cut (DOC), the 22mm-PDC cutter increases the exposure of the cutter, and the increase of PDC cutter diameter helps to increase the cutting area of the PDC cutter. In order to evaluate the cutting performance of the 22 mm-PDC cutter and the existing commonly used cutters, the 16 mm, 19 mm and 22 mm PDC cutter was selected put on a vertical turret lathe (VTL) in the laboratory for cutting tests under different DOCs. The DOCs were 0.5mm, 1.0 mm, 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm, 2.5 mm and 3 mm, respectively. The rock sample used in the experiment was limestone. Results of laboratory tests have shown the new 22 mm-PDC cutter technology greatly improved cutting efficiency. On the one hand, as the DOC increases, the mechanical specific energy (MSE) of all cutters decreases, which means that the cutting efficiency increases. On the other hand, under the same DOC condition, the larger the cutter diameter is, the larger the working area of the cutter is, which leads to higher the cutting efficiency. In view of the high performance of the 22 mm-PDC cutters, which was applied to carry out full-scale bit field experiments. The result shows that the bit with 22mm-PDC cutters achieves a breakthrough improvement of ROP than that with conventional 16mm and 19mm cutters in offset well drilling.

Keywords: polycrystalline diamond compact, 22 mm-PDC cutters, cutting efficiency, mechanical specific energy

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Authors: Glenda B. Minguito, Jenith L. Banluta

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One of the critical aspects of humanitarian operations is the distribution of relief goods to the affected community. The common assumption is that relief goods are prepositioned during disasters which are not applicable in developing countries like the Philippines. During disasters, the on-the-ground government agencies and responders have to procure, sort, weigh and pack the relief goods. There is a need to review the relief goods preparation as it seriously affects the delivery of necessary aid for human survival. This study also identifies the ideal location of the assembly hub to minimize the distance to the affected community. This paper reveals that location and resources are dependent on the type of disasters encountered at the local level. The Center-of-Gravity method and Multiple Activity Chart were applied in the analysis.

Keywords: humanitarian supply chain, location decision, resource allocation, local level

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Hasan Izhar Khan, Naiqiang Zhang, Hong Xu, Zhongliang Zhu, Dongfang Jiang

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Inconel 625 is a nickel-based alloy having outstanding corrosion resistance and developed for use at service temperatures ranging from cryogenic to 980°C. It got a wide range of applications in nuclear, petrochemical, chemical, marine, aeronautical, and aerospace industries. Currently, it is one of the candidate materials to be used as a structural material in ultra-supercritical (USC) power plants. In the high-temperature corrosive medium environment, metallic materials are susceptible to corrosion fatigue (CF). CF is an interaction between cyclic stress and corrosive medium environment that acts on a susceptible material and results in initiation and propagation of cracks. For the application of Inconel 625 as a structural material in USC power plants, CF behavior must be evaluated in steam and supercritical water (SCW) environment. Fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) curves obtained from CF experiments are required to predict residual life of metallic materials used in power plants. In this study, FCGR tests of Inconel 625 were obtained by using compact tension specimen at 550-650 °C in steam (8 MPa) and SCW (25 MPa). The dissolved oxygen level was kept constant at 8000 ppb for the test conducted in steam and SCW. The tests were performed under sine wave loading waveform, 1 Hz loading frequency, stress ratio of 0.6 and maximum stress intensity factor of 32 MPa√m. Crack growth rate (CGR) was detected by using direct current potential drop technique. Results showed that CGR increased with an increase in temperature in the tested environmental conditions. The mechanism concerning the influence of temperature on FCGR are further discussed.

Keywords: corrosion fatigue, crack growth rate, nickel-based alloy, temperature

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Heru Syah Putra, Aji Tri Pamungkas Nurcahyo, Chuang-Jan Chang

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MOIL-SDK method refers to the spatial angle that forms a view with a different perspective from the Fisheye image. Visual Odometry forms a trusted application for extending projects by tracking using image sequences. A real-time, precise, and persistent approach that is able to contribute to the work when taking datasets and generate ground truth as a reference for the estimates of each image using the FAST Algorithm method in finding Keypoints that are evaluated during the tracking process with the 5-point Algorithm with RANSAC, as well as produce accurate estimates the camera trajectory for each rotational, translational movement on the X, Y, and Z axes.

Keywords: MOIL-SDK, intel realsense T265, Fisheye image, monocular visual odometry

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Benyam Zenebe, Tesfaye Sisay, Gurja Belay, Workabeba Abebe

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Background: The prevalence and antibiogram of pathogenic E. coli strains, which cause diarrhea vary from region to region, and even within countries in the same geographical area. In Ethiopia, diagnostic approaches to E. coli induced diarrhea in children less than five years of age are not standardized. The aim of this study was to determine the involvement of pathogenic E. coli strains in child diarrhea and determine the antibiograms of the isolates in children less than 5 years of age with diarrhea at Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences TikurAnbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: A purposive study that included 98 diarrheic children less than five years of age was conducted at Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences, TikurAnbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to detect pathogenic E. coli biotypes. Stool culture was used to identify presumptive E. coliisolates. Presumptive isolates were confirmed by biochemical tests, and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed on confirmed E. coli isolates by the disk diffusion method. DNA was extracted from confirmed isolates by a heating method and subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction or the presence of virulence genes. Amplified PCR products were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Data were collected on child demographics and clinical conditions using administered questionnaires. The prevalence of E. coli strains from the total diarrheic children, and the prevalence of pathogenic strains from total E. coli isolates along with their susceptibility profiles; the distribution of pathogenic E.coli biotypes among different age groups and between the sexes were determined by using descriptive statistics. Result: Out of 98 stool specimens collected from diarrheic children less than 5 years of age, 75 presumptive E. coli isolates were identified by culture; further confirmation by biochemical tests showed that only 56 of the isolates were E. coli; 29 of the isolates were found in male children and 27 of them in female children. Out of the 58 isolates of E. coli, 25 pathotypes belonging to different classes of pathogenic strains: STEC, EPEC, EHEC, EAEC were detected by using the PCR technique. Pathogenic E. coli exhibited high rates of antibiotic resistance to many of the antibiotics tested. Moreover, they exhibited multiple drug resistance. Conclusion: This study found that the isolation rate of E. coli and the involvement of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic E. coli in diarrheic children is prominent, and hence focus should be given on the diagnosis and antimicrobial sensitivity testing of pathogenic E. coli at Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences TikurAnbessa Specialized Hospital. Among antibiotics tested, Cefotitan could be a drug of choice to treat E. coli.

Keywords: antibiotic susceptibility profile, children, diarrhea, E. coli, pathogenic

Procedia PDF Downloads 234