Search results for: Ballast Water Management

Authors: Marja A. Bernardo, Coreena A. Bueser, Cybele Lara R. Abad, Raul V. Destura

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Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is the most common opportunistic infection among people with HIV. Early consideration of PCP should be made even in patients whose HIV status is unknown as delay in treatment may be fatal. The use of absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) has been suggested as an alternative predictor of PCP especially in resource limited settings where PCR testing is costly or delayed. Objective: To determine whether the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) can be used as a screening tool to predict Pneumocystis pneumonia in patients with unknown HIV status admitted at a private tertiary hospital. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a private tertiary medical center. Inpatient medical records of patients aged 18 years old and above from January 2012 to May 2014, in whom a clinical diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia was made were reviewed for inclusion. Demographic data, clinical features, hospital course, PCP PCR and HIV results were recorded. Independent t-test and chi-square analysis was used to determine any statistical difference between PCP-positive and PCP-negative groups. Mann-Whitney U-test was used for comparison of hospital stay. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in baseline characteristics between PCP positive and negative groups. While both the percent lymphocyte count (0.14 ± 0.13 vs 0.21 ± 0.16) and ALC (1160 ± 528.67 vs 1493.70 ± 988.61) were lower for the PCP-positive group, only the percent lymphocyte count reached a statistically significant difference (p= 0.067 vs p= 0.042). Conclusion: A quick determination of the ALC may be useful as an additional parameter to help screen for and diagnose pneumocystis pneumonia. In our study, the ALC of patients with PCP appear to be lower than in patients without PCP. A low ALC (e.g. below 1200) may help with the decision regarding empiric treatment. However, it should be used in conjunction with the patient’s clinical presentation, as well as other diagnostic tests. Larger, prospective studies incorporating the ALC with other clinical predictors are necessary to optimally predict those who would benefit from empiric or expedited management for potential PCP.

Keywords: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, Absolute Lymphocyte Count, infection, PCP

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Authors: Ajay Kumar Pandey, Mayank Kumar

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White grub (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a major destructive pest in western Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. Beetles feed on apple, apricot, plum, walnut etc. during night while, second and third instar grubs feed on live roots of cultivated as well as non-cultivated crops. Collection and identification of scarab beetles through light trap was carried out at Crop Research Centre, Govind Ballab Pant University Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand) during 2018. Field trials were also conducted in 2018 to evaluate pre and post sown application of different insecticides against the white grub infesting soybean. The insecticides like Carbofuran 3 Granule (G) (750 g a.i./ha), Clothianidin 50 Water Dispersal Granule (WG) (120 g a.i./ha), Fipronil 0.3 G (50 g a.i./ha), Thiamethoxam 25 WG (80 g a.i./ha), Imidacloprid 70 WG (300 g a.i./ha), Chlorantraniliprole 0.4% G(100 g a.i./ha) and mixture of Fipronil 40% and Imidacloprid 40% WG (300 g a.i./ha) were applied at the time of sowing in pre sown experiment while same dosage of insecticides were applied in standing soybean crop during (first fortnight of July). Commutative plant mortality data were recorded after 20, 40, 60 days intervals and compared with untreated control. Total 23 species of white grub beetles recorded on the light trap and Holotrichia serrata Fabricious (Coleoptera: Melolonthinae) was found to be predominant species by recording 20.6% relative abundance out of the total light trap catch (i.e. 1316 beetles) followed by Phyllognathus sp. (14.6% relative abundance). H. rosettae and Heteronychus lioderus occupied third and fourth rank with 11.85% and 9.65% relative abundance, respectively. The emergence of beetles of predominant species started from 15th March, 2018. In April, average light trap catch was 382 white grub beetles, however, peak emergence of most of the white grub species was observed from June to July, 2018 i.e. 336 beetles in June followed by 303 beetles in the July. On the basis of the emergence pattern of white grub beetles, it may be concluded that the Peak Emergence Period (PEP) for the beetles of H. serrata was second fortnight of April for the total period of 15 days. In May, June and July relatively low population of H. serrata was observed. A decreasing trend in light trap catch was observed and went on till September during the study. No single beetle of H. serrata was observed on light trap from September onwards. The cumulative plant mortality data in both the experiments revealed that all the insecticidal treatments were significantly superior in protection-wise (6.49-16.82% cumulative plant mortality) over untreated control where highest plant mortality was 17.28 to 39.65% during study. The mixture of Fipronil 40% and Imidacloprid 40% WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha proved to be most effective having lowest plant mortality i.e. 9.29 and 10.94% in pre and post sown crop, followed by Clothianidin 50 WG (120 g a.i. per ha) where the plant mortality was 10.57 and 11.93% in pre and post sown treatments, respectively. Both treatments were found significantly at par among each other. Production-wise, all the insecticidal treatments were found statistically superior (15.00-24.66 q per ha grain yields) over untreated control where the grain yield was 8.25 & 9.13 q per ha. Treatment Fipronil 40% + Imidacloprid 40% WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha proved to be most effective and significantly superior over Imidacloprid 70WG applied at the rate of 300 g a.i. per ha.

Keywords: bio efficacy, insecticide, soybean, white grub

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Authors: Tomasz Balabanski, Anna Biedunkiewicz

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Research on basic bacteriological and physicochemical parameters conducted by state institutions (Provincial Sanitary and Epidemiological Station and District Sanitary and Epidemiological Station) are limited to bathing waters under constant sanitary and epidemiological supervision. Unfortunately, no routine or monitoring tests are carried out for the presence of microfungi. This also applies to beach sand used for recreational purposes. The purpose of the planned own research was to determine the diversity of the mycobiota present on supervised and unsupervised sandy beaches, on the shores of lakes, of municipal baths used for recreation. The research material consisted of microfungi isolated from April to October 2019 from sandy beaches of supervised and unsupervised lakes located within the administrative boundaries of the city of Olsztyn (North-Eastern Poland, Europe). Four lakes, out of the fifteen available (Tyrsko, Kortowskie, Skanda, and Ukiel), whose bathing waters are subjected to routine bacteriological tests, were selected for testing. To compare the diversity of the mycobiota composition on the surface and below the sand mixing layer, samples were taken from two depths (10 cm and 50 cm), using a soil auger. Micro-fungi from sand samples were obtained by surface inoculation on an RBC medium from the 1st dilution (1:10). After incubation at 25°C for 96-144 h, the average number of CFU/dm³ was counted. Morphologically differing yeast colonies were passaged into Sabouraud agar slants with gentamicin and incubated again. For detailed laboratory analyses, culture methods (macro- and micro-cultures) and identification methods recommended in diagnostic mycological laboratories were used. The conducted research allowed obtaining 140 yeast isolates. The total average population ranged from 1.37 × 10⁻² CFU/dm³ before the bathing season (April 2019), 1.64 × 10⁻³ CFU/dm³ in the season (May-September 2019), and 1.60 × 10⁻² CFU/dm³ after the end of the season (October 2019). More microfungi were obtained from the surface layer of sand (100 isolates) than from the deeper layer (40 isolates). Reported microfungi may circulate seasonally between individual elements of the lake ecosystem. From the sand/soil from the catchment area beaches, they can get into bathing waters, stopping periodically on the coastal phyllosphere. The sand of the beaches and the phyllosphere are a kind of filter for the water reservoir. The presence of microfungi with various pathogenicity potential in these places is of major epidemiological importance. Therefore, full monitoring of not only recreational waters but also sandy beaches should be treated as an element of constant control by appropriate supervisory institutions, allowing recreational areas for public use so that the use of these places does not involve the risk of infection. Acknowledgment: 'Development Program of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn', POWR.03.05.00-00-Z310/17, co-financed by the European Union under the European Social Fund from the Operational Program Knowledge Education Development. Tomasz Bałabański is a recipient of a scholarship from the Programme Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies in Biology and Biotechnology (POWR.03.05.00-00-Z310/17), which is funded by the 'European Social Fund'.

Keywords: beach, microfungi, sand, yeasts

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Authors: María García-García, Esther Simancas-González, Said Balhadj, Carmen Silva-Robles, Driss Ferhane

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Cooperation between the territories on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar is an urgent reality. the south of Spain and northern Morocco share a common historical past and belong to a very similar geographical and ecological area. Economic, social and cultural relations make cooperation between the two countries’ (Spain and Morocco) a priority for the EU and both countries governments. Likewise, deepened changes happened in production systems and consumption patterns had seriously damaged and weakened the craftwork sector. The promotion of local crafts, and its economic value, and the cooperation with the north of Morocco has been an important issue for the Andalusian government in recent years. The main aim of this work is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Tangier - Tetuan region craftworks sector in order to develop accurate communication and promotion plans. From the knowledge of the real identity, the sector could be repositioned. Promotion and communication could be a spur to traditional sectors, such as crafts. Competitiveness requires "the culture of communication, the cooperation between different companies to build powerful territory brands and maintain the establishment confidence and effectiveness relationships among agencies and organizations". The lack of previous literature addressing how Tangier craftwork promote and communicate its value to their stakeholders, has conducted the study to an exploratory approach with a double dimension: internal, Tangier craftwork sector image, and external, Andalusia image of the sector in Tangier. Different interviews were conducted with Andalusian partners involved in the artisanal sector (9 master craftsmen and 3 institutions) and focus groups with 9 Tangiers craftsmen were developed. The result of these interviews and expert groups are reflected in a SWOT analysis which reveals a handcraft industry with a worrying wide-spread and undifferentiated identity and reluctance to innovation and new technologies.

Keywords: communication management, image, Moroccan crafts, Spain-Morocco cooperation

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Authors: Sunantha Teyarachakul

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We consider the worker-learning Newsvendor Model, under the case of lost-sales for unmet demand, with the research objective of proposing the cost-minimization order policy and lot size, scheduled to arrive at the beginning of the selling-period. In general, the New Vendor Model is used to find the optimal order quantity for the perishable items such as fashionable products or those with seasonal demand or short-life cycles. Technically, it is used when the product demand is stochastic and available for the single selling-season, and when there is only a one time opportunity for the vendor to purchase, with possibly of long ordering lead-times. Our work differs from the classical Newsvendor Model in that we incorporate the human factor (specifically worker learning) and its influence over the costs of processing units into the model. We describe this by using the well-known Wright’s Learning Curve. Most of the assumptions of the classical New Vendor Model are still maintained in our work, such as the constant per-unit cost of leftover and shortage, the zero initial inventory, as well as the continuous time. Our problem is challenging in the way that the best order quantity in the classical model, which is balancing the over-stocking and under-stocking costs, is no longer optimal. Specifically, when adding the cost-saving from worker learning to such expected total cost, the convexity of the cost function will likely not be maintained. This has called for a new way in determining the optimal order policy. In response to such challenges, we found a number of characteristics related to the expected cost function and its derivatives, which we then used in formulating the optimal ordering policy. Examples of such characteristics are; the optimal order quantity exists and is unique if the demand follows a Uniform Distribution; if the demand follows the Beta Distribution with some specific properties of its parameters, the second derivative of the expected cost function has at most two roots; and there exists the specific level of lot size that satisfies the first order condition. Our research results could be helpful for analysis of supply chain coordination and of the periodic review system for similar problems.

Keywords: inventory management, Newsvendor model, order policy, worker learning

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Authors: Dragan Zivotic, Mirjana Ilic, Aleksandra Perovic, Predrag Gavrilovic

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As with the provision of other services, the service quality perception is one of the key factors that the modern manager must pay attention to. Countries in which the state regulation is in transition also have specific features in providing fitness services. Identification of the dimensions in which the most significant different service quality perception between different types of fitness centers, enables managers to profile the offer according to the wishes and expectations of users. The aim of the paper was the comparison of the quality of services perception in the field of fitness in Serbia between three categories of fitness centers: the privately owned centers, the publicly owned centers, and the Public-private partnership centers. For this research 350 respondents of both genders (174 men and 176 women) were interviewed, aged between 18 and 68 years, being beneficiaries of fitness services for at least 1 year. Administered questionnaire with 100 items provided information about the 15 basic areas in which they expressed the service quality perception in the gym. The core sample was composed of 212 service users in private fitness centers, 69 service users in public fitness centers and 69 service users in the public-private partnership. Sub-samples were equal in representation of women and men, as well as by age and length of use of fitness services. The obtained results were subject of univariate analysis with the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric analysis of variance. Significant differences between the analyzed sub-samples were not found solely in the areas of rapid response and quality outcomes. In the multivariate model, the results were processed by backward stepwise discriminant analysis that extracted 3 areas that maximize the differences between sub-samples: material and technical basis, secondary facilities and coaches. By applying the classification function 93.87% of private centers services users, 62.32% of public centers services users and 85.51% of the public-private partnership centers users of services were correctly classified (total 86.00%). These results allow optimizing the allocation of the necessary resources in profiling offers of a fitness center in order to optimally adjust it to the user’s needs and expectations.

Keywords: fitness, quality perception, management, public ownership, private ownership, public-private partnership, discriminative analysis

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Authors: Zeynep Aksoy

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Since global mobility of capital, information and people increase more and more, intercultural communication and management become a growing study field of investigating various aspects of the interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Human mobility, caused by several intentions from tourism to forced migration, often put people in facing communication barriers, issues or sometimes conflicts. This reality naturally enforces education institutions to develop international policies and programs for students in order to improve their intercultural experiences along with the educative objectives. Study-abroad programs, particularly the student exchanges in higher education provide an environment for participants to encounter with cultural differences. Therefore, international exchange programs (i.e. Erasmus Student Mobility, Global Exchange Program) are accepted to bring opportunities for intergroup contact, which may lead students to obtain new perspectives about the host culture, either in positive or negative ways, and new intercultural communication skills. This study aims to explore the role of short-term study abroad experience on intercultural communication competence with a qualitative approach. It attempts to reveal a comparative analysis, which is derived from two field studies conducted in Izmir (Turkey) and in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) in 2015 and 2016. They were both organized in two phases as pre-and-posttest to gain an insight into the changes (if any) in students’ attitudes and knowledge regarding the host culture, and their further motivations towards cross-cultural interactions. With this aim, focus group sessions and in-depth interviews have been taken place with participants at the beginning of their stay and at the end of the semester. The sample covers students mainly from Erasmus program (20 students in Izmir and 14 students in Amsterdam), and few from Global Exchange Program (5 students in Amsterdam). Data obtained from both studies were thematically analyzed and essential themes were identified within the framework of intercultural communication competence.

Keywords: Erasmus student mobility, intercultural communication competence, student exchange, short-term study abroad

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Authors: Gunilla Dahlgren, Per Liv, Fredrik Öhberg, Lisbeth Slunga Järvholm, Mikael Forsman, Börje Rehn

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Background: Accuracy of risk assessment tools in hand-repetitive work is important. This can support precision in the risk management process and for a sustainable working life for women and men equally. Musculoskeletal disorders, MSDs, from the hand, wrist, and forearm, are common in the working population. Women report a higher prevalence of MSDs in these regions. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare if women and men who performed the identical hand-intensive work task were rated equally using the Hand Activity Threshold Limit Value® (HA-TLV) when self-rated and observer-rated. Method: Fifty-six workers from eight companies participated, with various intensities in hand-repetitive work tasks. In total, 18 unique identical hand-intensive work tasks were executed in 28 pairs of a woman and a man. Hand activity and force levels were assessed. Each worker executed the work task for 15 minutes, which was also video recorded. Data was collected on workers who self-rated directly after the execution of the work task. Also, experienced observers performed ratings from videos of the same work tasks. For comparing means between women and men, paired samples t-tests were used. Results: The main results showed that there was no difference in self-ratings of hand activity level and force by women and men who executed the same work task. Further, there was no difference between observer ratings of hand activity level. However, the observer force ratings of women and men differed significantly (p=0.01). Conclusion: Hand activity and force levels are rated equally in women and men when self-rated, also by observers for hand activity. However, it is an observandum that observer force rating is rated higher for women and lower for men. This indicates the need of comparing force ratings with technical measures.

Keywords: gender, equity, sex differences, repetitive strain injury, cumulative trauma disorders, upper extremity, exposure assessment, workload, health risk assessment, observation, psychophysics

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Authors: Ahmed Stifi, Sascha Gentes

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The contract in its simplest definition is an agreement involving parties with a number of documents which may be as little as a marriage contract involving two parties or as big as a contract of construction and operation of a nuclear power plant involving companies and stakeholders with hundreds or even thousands of documents. All parties in the construction industry, not only the contract experts, agree that the success of a project is linked primarily to the form of contract regulating the relationship between stakeholders of the project. Therefore it is essential for the construction industry to study, analyze and improve its contracts forms continuously. However, it should be mentioned that different contract forms are developed to suit the construction evolution in term of its machinery, materials and construction process. There exist some similarities in some clauses and variations in many of these forms depending upon the type of project, the kind of clients and more importantly the laws and regulations governing the transaction in the country where the project is carried out. This paper will discuss the most important forms of construction contracts starting from national level, intended to the contract form in Germany and moving on to the international level introducing FIDIC contracts and its different forms, some newly developed contracts forms namely the integrated form of agreement, the new engineering contract and the project alliance agreement. The result of the study shows that many of the contract’s paragraphs are similar and the main difference comes in the approach of the relationship between the parties. Is it based on co-operation and mutual trust, or in some cases a load of responsibility for a particular party which increases the problems and disputes that affects the success of the project negatively. Thus we can say that the form of the contract, that plays an essential role in the approach of the project management, which is ultimately the key factor for the success of the project. So we advise to use a form of contract, which enhance the mutual trust between the project parties, contribute to support the cooperation between them, distribute responsibility and risks on an equitable basis and build on the principle “win-win". In additional to the conventional role of the contract it should integrate all parties into one team to achieve the target value of the project.

Keywords: contract, FIDIC, integrated form of agreement, new engineering contract, project alliance agreemen

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Authors: Jovana Petrovic, Biljana Pajin, Ivana Loncarevic, Aleksandar Fistes, Antun Jozinivic, Durdica Ackar, Drago Subaric

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Recovery of food wastes and their conversion to economically viable products will play a vital role for the management strategies in the years to come. Apple pomace may be considered as wastes, but they contain considerable amounts of high value reusable materials. Apple pomace, the by-product of apple juice and cider production, is a good source of fibre, particularly insoluble one. The remaining apple pulp contains 12% dry residue, which is half dietary fibre. Another remarkable aspect is its richness in polyphenols, components with antioxidant activity. Apple pomace could be an interesting alternative source for fibre and polyphenols in extruded corn meals. The extruded corn meals with the addition of finely ground apple pomace were prepared (the ratio of corn meal: apple pomace was 85:15 and 70:30). Characterization of the extrudates in terms of determining the chemical composition and colour was performed. The color of samples was measured by MINOLTA Chroma Meter CR-400 (Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan) using D 65 lighting, a 2º standard observer angle and an 8-mm aperture in the measuring head. The following CIELab color coordinates were determined: L* – lightness, a* – redness to greenness and b* – yellowness to blueness. Protein content decreased significantly from 7.91% to 5.19% with increase in pomace from 0% to 30%, while total fibre content increase from 3.39% to 16.62%. The apple pomace addition produced extrudates with a significantly lower L* value and significantly higher a* value. This study has been fully supported by the Provincial Secretariat for High Education and Scientific Research of the Government of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, project 142-451-2483/2017 and the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Project no. 31014).

Keywords: apple pomace, chemical composition, colour, extruded corn snack products, food waste recovery

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Authors: Tanveer Ahmed Choudhury

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Background: Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world, with high population density and high rates of poverty and illiteracy. 80% of the country is on low-lying floodplains, leaving the country one of the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change: sea level rise, cyclones and storms, salinity intrusion, rising temperatures and heavy monsoon downpours. Such climatic events already limit Economic Development in the country. Although Bangladesh has had little responsibility in contributing to global climatic change, it is vulnerable to both its direct and indirect impacts. Real threats include reduced agricultural production, worsening food security, increased incidence of flooding and drought, spreading disease and an increased risk of conflict over scarce land and water resources. Currently, 8.3 million Bangladeshis live in cyclone high risk areas. However, by 2050 this is expected to grow to 20.3 million people, if proper adaptive actions are not taken. Under a high emissions scenario, an additional 7.6 million people will be exposed to very high salinity by 2050 compared to current levels. It is also projected that, an average of 7.2 million people will be affected by flooding due to sea level rise every year between 2070-2100 and If global emissions decrease rapidly and adaptation interventions are taken, the population affected by flooding could be limited to only about 14,000 people. To combat the climate change adverse effects, Bangladesh government has initiated many adaptive measures specially in infrastructure and renewable energy sector. Government is investing huge money and initiated many projects which have been proved very success full. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some successful measures initiated by Bangladesh government in its effort to make the country a Climate Resilient. Methodology: Review of operation plan and activities of different relevant Ministries of Bangladesh government. Result: The following initiative projects, programs and activities are considered as best practices for Climate Change adaptation successes for Bangladesh: 1. The Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL); 2. Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit (CCHPU); 3. The Climate Change Trust Fund (CCTF); 4. Community Climate Change Project (CCCP); 5. Health, Population, Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP, 2011-2016)- "Climate Change and Environmental Issues"; 6. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh and WHO Collaboration; - National Adaptation Plan. -"Building adaptation to climate change in health in least developed countries through resilient WASH". 7. COP-21 “Climate and health country profile -2015 Bangladesh. Conclusion: Due to a vast coastline, low-lying land and abundance of rivers, Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change. Having extensive experience with facing natural disasters, Bangladesh has developed a successful adaptation program, which led to a significant reduction in casualties from extreme weather events. In a low income country setting, Bangladesh had successfully adapted various projects and initiatives to combat future Climate Change challenges.

Keywords: climate, change, success, Bangladesh

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Authors: Djeddi Khaled, Houssou Hind, Miloudi Abdelatif, Rabah Siham

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Camels play a vital role as multipurpose animals, providing milk meat and serving as a means of transportation. They serve as a financial reserve for pastoralists and hold significant cultural and social value. Camel milk, known for its exceptional nutritional properties, is considered a valuable substitute for human milk. However, udder infections, particularly mastitis, pose significant challenges to camel farming. Clinical and subclinical mastitis can lead to substantial economic losses. Mastitis, especially the subclinical form, is a persistent and prevalent condition affecting milk hygiene and quality in dairy camels. This review offers insights into the prevalence and risk factors associated with subclinical mastitis in camels. The prevalence of subclinical mastitis in dairy camels was found to range from 9.28% to 87.78%. Major pathogens responsible for camel mastitis include Staphylococcus aureus, Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Escherichia coli, Micrococcus spp, Pasteurella haemolytica and Corynebacterium spp. The study outlines key risk factors contributing to camel mastitis, emphasizing factors such as severe tick infestation, age, stage of lactation, parity, body condition score, skin lesion on the teats or udders, anti-suckling devices, previous history of the udder, conformation of the udder, breed, unhygienic milking practices, production system, amongst others have been reported to be important in the prevalence of subclinical mastitis. This comprehensive overview provides valuable insights into the multifaceted aspects of camel mastitis, encompassing prevalent bacterial pathogens and diverse risk factors. The findings underscore the importance of holistic management practices, emphasizing hygiene, health monitoring, and targeted interventions to ensure the well-being and productivity of camels in various agro-pastoral contexts.

Keywords: bacterial pathogens, camel, mastitis, risk factors

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Authors: Hala Alioua, Alberic Tellier

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This paper is designed to spotlight the research on corporate strategic planning, by emphasizing the role of middle manager of SBU’s and related issues such as the context of vision change. Previous research on strategic vision has been focused principally at the SME, with relatively limited consideration given to the role of middle managers SBU’s in the context of change. This project of research has been done by using a single case study. We formulated through our immersion for 2.5 years on the ground and by a qualitative method and abduction approach. This entity that we analyze is a subsidiary of multinational companies headquartered in Germany, specialized in manufacturing automotive equipment. The "Delta Company" is a French manufacturing plant that has undergone numerous changes over the past three years. The two major strategic changes that have a significant impact on the Delta plant are the strengths of its core business through « lead plant strategy» in 2011 and the implementation of a new strategic vision in 2014. These consecutive changes impact the purpose of the mission of the middle managers. The plant managers ask the following questions: How the middle managers make sense of the corporate strategic planning imposed by the parent company? How they appropriate the new vision and decline it into actions on the ground? We chose the individual interview technique through open-ended questions as the source of data collection. We first of all carried out an exploratory approach by interviewing 8 members of the Management committee’s decision and 19 heads of services. The first findings and results show that exist a divergence of opinion and interpretations of the corporate strategic planning among organization members and there are difficulties to make sense and interpretations of the signals of the environment. The lead plant strategy enables new projects which insure the workload of Delta Company. Nevertheless, it creates a tension and stress among the middle managers because its provoke lack of resources to the detriment of their main jobs as manufacturer plant. The middle managers does not have a clear vision and they are wondering if the new strategic vision means more autonomy and less support from the group.

Keywords: change, middle managers, vision, sensemaking

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Authors: Nagendra P. Luitel, Mark J. D. Jordans

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Globally, there is a significant gap between the number of individuals in need of mental health care and those who actually receive treatment. The evidence is accumulating that mental health services can be delivered effectively by primary health care workers through community-based programs and task-sharing approaches. Changing the role of specialist mental health workers from service delivery to building clinical capacity of the primary health care (PHC) workers could help in reducing treatment gap in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). We developed a comprehensive mental health care plan in 2012 and evaluated its feasibility and effectiveness over the past three years. Initially, a mixed method formative study was conducted for the development of mental health care plan (MHCP). Routine monitoring and evaluation data, including client flow and reports of satisfaction, were obtained from beneficiaries (n=135) during the pilot-testing phase. Repeated community survey (N=2040); facility detection survey (N=4704) and the cohort study (N=576) were conducted for evaluation of the MHCP. The resulting MHCP consists of twelve packages divided over the community, health facility, and healthcare organization platforms. Detection of mental health problems increased significantly after introducing MHCP. Service implementation data support the real-life applicability of the MHCP, with reasonable treatment uptake. Currently, MHCP has been implemented in the entire Chitwan district where over 1400 people (438 people with depression, 406 people with psychosis, 181 people with epilepsy, 360 people with alcohol use disorder and 51 others) have received mental health services from trained health workers. Key barriers were identified and addressed, namely dissatisfaction with privacy, perceived burden among health workers, high drop-out rates and continue the supply of medicines. The results indicated that involvement of PHC workers in detection and management of mental health problems is an effective strategy to minimize treatment gap on mental health care in Nepal.

Keywords: mental health, Nepal, primary care, treatment gap

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Authors: Kishor Chandra Kandpal, Amit Kumar

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The Indian Himalaya region harbours approximately 1748 plants of medicinal importance, and as per International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the 112 plant species among these are threatened and endangered. To ease the pressure on these plants, the government of India is encouraging its in-situ cultivation. The Saussurea costus, Valeriana jatamansi, and Picrorhiza kurroa have also been prioritized for large scale cultivation owing to their market demand, conservation value and medicinal properties. These species are found from 1000 m to 4000 m elevation ranges in the Indian Himalaya. Identification of these plants in the field requires taxonomic skills, which is one of the major bottleneck in the conservation and management of these plants. In recent years, Hyperspectral remote sensing techniques have been precisely used for the discrimination of plant species with the help of their unique spectral signatures. In this background, a spectral library of the above 03 medicinal plants was prepared by collecting the spectral data using a handheld spectroradiometer (325 to 1075 nm) from farmer’s fields of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of Indian Himalaya. The Random forest (RF) model was implied on the spectral data for the classification of the medicinal plants. The 80:20 standard split ratio was followed for training and validation of the RF model, which resulted in training accuracy of 84.39 % (kappa coefficient = 0.72) and testing accuracy of 85.29 % (kappa coefficient = 0.77). This RF classifier has identified green (555 to 598 nm), red (605 nm), and near-infrared (725 to 840 nm) wavelength regions suitable for the discrimination of these species. The findings of this study have provided a technique for rapid and onsite identification of the above medicinal plants in the field. This will also be a key input for the classification of hyperspectral remote sensing images for mapping of these species in farmer’s field on a regional scale. This is a pioneer study in the Indian Himalaya region for medicinal plants in which the applicability of hyperspectral remote sensing has been explored.

Keywords: himalaya, hyperspectral remote sensing, machine learning; medicinal plants, random forests

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Authors: Mikaela Kutrolli, Noah S. Pereira, Vanessa Scanlon, Mohamadmahdi Samandari, Ali Tamayol

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Bone tissue engineering has drawn significant attention and various biomaterials have been tested. Polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL) offer excellent biocompatibility, reasonable mechanical properties, and biodegradability. However, PCL scaffolds suffer a critical drawback: a lack of micro/mesoporosity, affecting cell attachment, tissue integration, and mineralization. It also results in a slow degradation rate. While 3D-printing has addressed the issue of macroporosity through CAD-guided fabrication, PCL scaffolds still exhibit poor smaller-scale porosity. To overcome this, we generated composites of PCL, hydroxyapatite (HA), and powdered sucrose (PS). The latter serves as a sacrificial material to generate porous particles after sucrose dissolution. Additionally, we have incorporated dexamethasone (DEX) to boost the PCL osteogenic properties. The resulting scaffolds maintain controlled macroporosity from the lattice print structure but also develop micro/mesoporosity within PCL fibers when exposed to aqueous environments. The study involved mixing PS into solvent-dissolved PCL in different weight ratios of PS to PCL (70:30, 50:50, and 30:70 wt%). The resulting composite was used for 3D printing of scaffolds at room temperature. Printability was optimized by adjusting pressure, speed, and layer height through filament collapse and fusion test. Enzymatic degradation, porogen leaching, and DEX release profiles were characterized. Physical properties were assessed using wettability, SEM, and micro-CT to quantify the porosity (percentage, pore size, and interconnectivity). Raman spectroscopy was used to verify the absence of sugar after leaching. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated via compression testing before and after porogen leaching. Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) behavior in the printed scaffolds was studied by assessing viability, metabolic activity, osteo-differentiation, and mineralization. The scaffolds with a 70% sugar concentration exhibited superior printability and reached the highest porosity of 80%, but performed poorly during mechanical testing. A 50% PS concentration demonstrated a 70% porosity, with an average pore size of 25 µm, favoring cell attachment. No trace of sucrose was found in Raman after leaching the sugar for 8 hours. Water contact angle results show improved hydrophilicity as the sugar concentration increased, making the scaffolds more conductive to cell adhesion. The behavior of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) showed positive viability and proliferation results with an increasing trend of mineralization and osteo-differentiation as the sucrose concentration increased. The addition of HA and DEX also promoted mineralization and osteo-differentiation in the cultures. The integration of PS as porogen at a concentration of 50%wt within PCL scaffolds presents a promising approach to address the poor cell attachment and tissue integration issues of PCL in bone tissue engineering. The method allows for the fabrication of scaffolds with tunable porosity and mechanical properties, suitable for various applications. The addition of HA and DEX further enhanced the scaffolds. Future studies will apply the scaffolds in an in-vivo model to thoroughly investigate their performance.

Keywords: bone, PCL, 3D printing, tissue engineering

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Authors: Maria Monica D. Espinosa

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This study aimed to identify and examine the characteristics of an effective leader in a Hospital institution from the perspectives of military nurse-managers. The researcher extracted the different facets of leadership from the stories of six nurse- managers from a military hospital. The stories which are in pre-reflective stage convey an unbiased perspective from which clinical leadership may be defined. Using Phenomenology as a method of Research, the lived experiences of the military nurse-managers served as empirical data which were reflected upon until the formulation of insights. The information from the co-researchers became gallows from which the characteristics of effective leadership in the clinical area were drawn. These insights were synthesized through layers of reflection that resulted to the knowledge about clinical leadership. The reflections are the following, (a) Clinical leaders develop their skills through experiences and hardwork; (b) Clinical leaders are devoted; (c) Clinical leaders are focused; (d) Clinical leaders are good in interpersonal relationship; (e) Clinical leaders are mentors; (f) Clinical leaders seek affirmation and recognition; and (g) Clinical leaders are responsible and dependable. The common themes that emerged from the nurse manager’s stories showed that clinical leadership maybe attained if leaders possessed the following traits, (a) The gift to establish a steadfast and firm management; (b) The proficiency to guide and encourage others towards the achievement of their goals and objectives; (c) The ability to instigate participative and collaborative work among his/her subordinates and (d) The aptitude and skill to address the institutional concerns in their unit. In the future, Clinical leaders should continually adapt an evaluation program on how they can relate socially with their subordinates, the result of which can be used as a basis in developing strategies on relationship enhancement. Moreover, they should empower the nurses by allowing them to voice out their opinions and concerns regarding assignments, role expectations, and workload issues to improve and strengthen the relationships among nurses. Lastly, they can incorporate a collaborative strategy to promote professional socialization attitudes of nurse managers who work with staff nurses to improve the quality of their proficiencies and enhance a positive clinical environment.

Keywords: clinical leadership, experiences, implications, military nurse - managers, phenomenology

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Authors: Majid Aldalbahi

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In 2009, over 3.4 billion people in the world resided in urban areas as a result of rapid urban growth. This figure is estimated to increase to 6.5 billion by 2050. This urban growth phenomenon has raised challenges for many countries in both the developing and developed worlds. Urban growth is a complicated process involving the spatiotemporal changes of all socio-economic and physical components at different scales. The socio-economic components of urban growth are related to urban population growth and economic growth, while physical components of urban growth and economic growth are related to spatial expansion, land cover change and land use change which are the focus of this research. The interactions between these components are complex and no-linear. Several factors and forces cause these complex interactions including transportation and communication, internal and international migrations, public policies, high natural growth rates of urban populations and public policies. Urban growth has positive and negative consequences. The positive effects relates to planned and orderly urban growth, while negative effects relate to unplanned and scattered growth, which is called sprawl. Although urban growth is considered as necessary for sustainable urbanization, uncontrolled and rapid growth cause various problems including consumption of precious rural land resources at urban fringe, landscape alteration, traffic congestion, infrastructure pressure, and neighborhood conflicts. Traditional urban planning approaches in fast growing cities cannot accommodate the negative consequences of rapid urban growth. Microsimulation programme, and modelling techniques are effective means to provide new urban development, management and planning methods and approaches. This paper aims to use these techniques to understand and analyse the complex interactions for the case study of Riyadh city, a fast growing city in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: policy implications, urban planning, traffic congestion, urban growth, Suadi Arabia, Riyadh

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Authors: Pahirangan Sivapatham, Barbara Esser, Andreas Grimmel

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In times of limited public funds and, in particular, an increased social, environmental awareness, as well as the limited availability of construction materials, sustainable and resource-saving pavement management system, is becoming more and more important. Therefore, the knowledge about the condition of the structural substances, particularly bearing capacity and its consideration while planning the maintenance measures of the subordinate network, i.e., state and municipal roads unavoidable. According to the experience, the recommended ride speed of the Traffic Speed Deflectometer (TSD) shall be higher than 40 km/h. Holding of this speed on the intra-urban roads is nearly not possible because of intersections and traffic lights as well as the speed limit. A sufficient background of experience for the evaluation of bearing capacity measurements with TSD in the range of lower speeds is not available yet. The aim of this study is to determine the possible lowest ride speed of the TSD while the bearing capacity measurement on the intra-urban roads. The manufacturer of the TSD used in this study states that the measurements can be conducted at a ride speed of higher than 5 km/h. It is well known that with decreasing ride speed, the viscous fractions in the response of the asphalt pavement increase. This must be taken into account when evaluating the bearing capacity data. In the scope of this study, several measurements were carried out at different speeds between 10 km/h and 60 km/h on the selected intra-urban roads with Pavement-Scanner of the University of Wuppertal, which is equipped with TSD. Pavement-Scanner is able to continuously determine the deflections of asphalt roads in flowing traffic at speeds of up to 80 km/h. The raw data is then aggregated to 10 m mean values so that, as a rule, a bearing capacity characteristic value can be determined for each 10 m road section. By means of analysing of obtained test results, the quality and validity of the determined data rate subject to the riding speed of TSD have been determined. Moreover, the data and pictures of the additional measuring systems of Pavement-Scanners such as High-Speed Road Monitor, Ground Penetration Radar and front cameras can be used to determine and eliminate irregularities in the pavement, which could influence the bearing capacity.

Keywords: bearing capacity measurement, traffic speed deflectometer, inter-urban roads, Pavement-Scanner, structural substance

Procedia PDF Downloads 238

Authors: A. A. Md. Ryhan Uddin, Swarup Das, Rajesh Barua, Joheb Hasan, Rashedul Islam

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Background: The herbicide has toxicological importance because some of them are associated with high mortality rates due to respiratory failure. Organophosphate poisoning (OPC) & Paraquat self-poisoning is a major clinical and public health problems in low and middle-income countries across much of South Asia. Paraquat was not used as a common suicidal agent previously in Bangladesh. We report a case of 15 years old female admitted to the ER with a history of nausea & vomiting after ingestion of an unknown substance in a suicidal attempt, later identified as mixed poisoning- OPC & Paraquat. She was initially asymptomatic but later developed renal shutdown & lung injuries as well as pneumothorax, referred to as Daisley Barton Syndrome. Objective: This case report aims to alert spontaneous pneumothorax in mixed poisoning on uncommon forms of presentation. Pneumothorax in a patient with paraquat poisoning is a less unusual but underdiagnosed finding. It has a high index of early mortality. Case history: The patient's attendant complained about nausea followed by vomiting, which was nonprojectile & contains undigested food materials first, then gastric juice later. After a few hours, she also complains of urinary retention. Her family members treated her with some home remedies for her initial symptoms, but all attempts failed. After admission, the patient was initially asymptomatic. Through repeated history taking, her attendant showed a bottle of OPC in liquid form, which they suspected that she may have ingested some of the liquid from that bottle accidentally or attempted Suicide. So, management started for OPC poisoning. She responded well initially, but on 4th day of admission, the patient's condition became deteriorating. After the workout with the family member, 2nd bottle of Pesticide was discovered, which was Paraquat. Conclusion: Physicians should be aware of the symptoms of mixed poisoning and the timely use of urine dithionate testing for early detection and treatment. Pneumothorax is an early predictor of mortality in patients with paraquat poisoning.

Keywords: pneumothorax, suicide, dithionate, OPC, herbicide

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Authors: César Coelho, Nikolai Wiegand

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The advancement of nanosatellite technology has opened new avenues for cost-effective and faster space missions. The NanoSat MO Framework (NMF) from the European Space Agency (ESA) provides a modular and simpler approach to the development of flight software and operations of small satellites. This paper presents a methodology using the NMF together with Docker for simulating constellations of satellites. By leveraging Docker containers, the software environment of individual satellites can be easily replicated within a simulated constellation. This containerized approach allows for rapid deployment, isolation, and management of satellite instances, facilitating comprehensive testing and development in a controlled setting. By integrating the NMF lightweight simulator in the container, a comprehensive simulation environment was achieved. A significant advantage of using Docker containers is their inherent scalability, enabling the simulation of hundreds or even thousands of satellites with minimal overhead. Docker's lightweight nature ensures efficient resource utilization, allowing for deployment on a single host or across a cluster of hosts. This capability is crucial for large-scale simulations, such as in the case of mega-constellations, where multiple traditional virtual machines would be impractical due to their higher resource demands. This ability for easy horizontal scaling based on the number of simulated satellites provides tremendous flexibility to different mission scenarios. Our results demonstrate that leveraging Docker containers with the NanoSat MO Framework provides a highly efficient and scalable solution for simulating satellite constellations, offering not only significant benefits in terms of resource utilization and operational flexibility but also enabling testing and validation of ground software for constellations. The findings underscore the importance of taking advantage of already existing technologies in computer science to create new solutions for future satellite constellations in space.

Keywords: containerization, docker containers, NanoSat MO framework, satellite constellation simulation, scalability, small satellites

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: M. Naveed Yasin, Robert Brooke, Andrew Chan, Geoffrey I. N. Waterhouse, Drew Evans, Darren Svirskis, Ilva D. Rupenthal

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Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is a robust conducting polymer (CP) exhibiting high conductivity and environmental stability. It can be synthesized by either chemical, electrochemical or vapour phase polymerization (VPP). Dexamethasone sodium phosphate (dexP) is an anionic drug molecule which has previously been loaded onto PEDOT as a dopant via electrochemical polymerisation; however this technique requires conductive surfaces from which polymerization is initiated. On the other hand, VPP produces highly organized biocompatible CP structures while polymerization can be achieved onto a range of surfaces with a relatively straight forward scale-up process. Following VPP of PEDOT, dexP can be loaded and subsequently released via ion-exchange. This study aimed at preparing and characterising both non-porous and porous VPP PEDOT structures including examining drug loading and release via ion-exchange. Porous PEDOT structures were prepared by first depositing a sacrificial polystyrene (PS) colloidal template on a substrate, heat curing this deposition and then spin coating it with the oxidant solution (iron tosylate) at 1500 rpm for 20 sec. VPP of both porous and non-porous PEDOT was achieved by exposing to monomer vapours in a vacuum oven at 40 mbar and 40 °C for 3 hrs. Non-porous structures were prepared similarly on the same substrate but without any sacrificial template. Surface morphology, compositions and behaviour were then characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) respectively. Drug loading was achieved by 50 CV cycles in a 0.1 M dexP aqueous solution. For drug release, each sample was exposed to 20 mL of phosphate buffer saline (PBS) placed in a water bath operating at 37 °C and 100 rpm. Film was stimulated (continuous pulse of ± 1 V at 0.5 Hz for 17 mins) while immersed into PBS. Samples were collected at 1, 2, 6, 23, 24, 26 and 27 hrs and were analysed for dexP by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC Agilent 1200 series). AFM and SEM revealed the honey comb nature of prepared porous structures. XPS data showed the elemental composition of the dexP loaded film surface, which related well with that of PEDOT and also showed that one dexP molecule was present per almost three EDOT monomer units. The reproducible electroactive nature was shown by several cycles of reduction and oxidation via CV. Drug release revealed success in drug loading via ion-exchange, with stimulated porous and non-porous structures exhibiting a proof of concept burst release upon application of an electrical stimulus. A similar drug release pattern was observed for porous and non-porous structures without any significant statistical difference, possibly due to the thin nature of these structures. To our knowledge, this is the first report to explore the potential of VPP prepared PEDOT for stimuli-responsive drug delivery via ion-exchange. The produced porous structures were ordered and highly porous as indicated by AFM and SEM. These porous structures exhibited good electroactivity as shown by CV. Future work will investigate porous structures as nano-reservoirs to increase drug loading while sealing these structures to minimize spontaneous drug leakage.

Keywords: PEDOT for ion-exchange drug delivery, stimuli-responsive drug delivery, template based porous PEDOT structures, vapour phase polymerization of PEDOT

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Authors: Natacha Jesus-Silva, Carla S. Pereira, Natercia Durao, Maria Das Dores Formosinho, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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Any assessment process, by its very nature, raises a wide range of doubts, uncertainties, and insecurities of all kinds. The evaluation process should be ethically irreproachable, treating each and every one of the evaluated according to a conduct that ensures that the process is fair, contributing to all recognize and feel well with the processes and results of the evaluation. This is a very important starting point and implies that positive and constructive conceptions and attitudes are developed regarding the evaluation of teaching performance, where students' responsibility is desired. It is not uncommon to find teachers feeling threatened at various levels, in particular as regards their autonomy and their professional dignity. Evaluation must be useful in that it should enable decisions to be taken to improve teacher performance, the quality of teaching or the learning climate of the school. This study is part of a research project whose main objective is to identify, select, evaluate and synthesize the available evidence on Quality Indicators in Higher Education. In this work, the 01 parameters resulting from pedagogical surveys in a Portuguese higher education institution in the north of the country will be presented, surveys for the 2015/2016 school year, presented to 1751 students, in a total of 11 degrees and 18 master's degrees. It has analyzed the evaluation made by students with respect to the performance of a group of 68 teachers working full time. This paper presents the lessons learned in the last three academic years, allowing for the identification of the effects on the following areas: teaching strategies and methodologies, capacity of systematization, learning climate, creation of conditions for active student participation. This paper describes the procedures resulting from the descriptive analysis (frequency analysis, descriptive measures and association measures) and inferential analysis (ANOVA one-way, MANOVA one-way, MANOVA two-way and correlation analysis).

Keywords: teaching performance, higher education, students responsibility, indicators of teaching management

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Authors: Devendra Gupta, S. P. Ambesh, P. K Singh

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Introduction: Minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting (MICABG) is a less invasive method of performing surgical revascularization. Minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) provides many anesthetic challenges including one lung ventilation (OLV), managing myocardial ischemia, and pain. We present an early and midterm result of the use of this technique with OLV. Method: We enrolled 62 patients for analysis operated between 2008 and 2012. Patients were anesthetized and left endobronchial tube was placed. During the procedure left lung was isolated and one lung ventilation was maintained through right lung. Operation was performed utilizing off pump technique of coronary artery bypass grafting through a minimal invasive incision. Left internal mammary artery graft was done for single vessel disease and radial artery was utilized for other grafts if required. Postoperative ventilation was done with single lumen endotracheal tube. Median follow-up is 2.5 years (6 months to 4 years). Results: Median age was 58.5 years (41-77) and all were male. Single vessel disease was present in 36, double vessel in 24 and triple vessel disease in 2 patients. All the patients had normal left ventricular size and function. In 2 cases difficulty were encounter in placement of endobronchial tube. In 1 case cuff of endobronchial tube was ruptured during intubation. High airway pressure was developed on OLV in 1 case and surgery was accomplished with two lung anesthesia with low tidal volume. Mean postoperative ventilation time was 14.4 hour (11-22). There was no perioperative and 30 day mortality. Conversion to median sternotomy to complete the operation was done in 3.23% (2 out of 62 patients). One patient had acute myocardial infarction postoperatively and there were no deaths during follow-up. Conclusion: MICABG is a safe and effective method of revascularization with OLV in low risk candidates for coronary artery bypass grafting.

Keywords: MIDCABG, one lung ventilation, coronary artery bypass grafting, endobronchial tube

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Authors: Samuel Quick

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The purpose of this paper is to examine future urban street design in the context of developing technologies, evolving street typologies, and projected transportation trends. The goal was to envision a future urban street in the year 2060 that addresses the advent and implementation of autonomous vehicles, the promotion of new street typologies, and the projection of current transportation trends. Using a hierarchy of functional needs for urban streets, the future street was designed and evaluated based on the functions the street provides to the surrounding community. The site chosen for the future street design is an eight-block section of West North Avenue in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Three different conceptual designs were initially completed and evaluated leading to a master plan for West North Avenue as well as street designs for connecting streets that represent different existing street types. Final designs were compared with the existing street design and evaluated with the adapted ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ theory. The review of the literature and the results from this paper indicate that urban streets will have to become increasingly multi-functional to meet the competing needs of the environment and community. Future streets will have to accommodate multimodal transit which will include mass transit, walking, and biking. Furthermore, a comprehensive implementation of green infrastructure within the urban street will provide access to nature for urban communities and essential stormwater management. With these developments, the future of an urban street will move closer to a greenway typology. Findings from this study indicate that urban street design will have to be policy-driven to promote and implement autonomous bus-rapid-transit in order to conserve street space for other functions. With this conservation of space, urban streets can then provide more functions to the surrounding community, taking a holistic approach to urban street design.

Keywords: autonomous vehicle, greenway, green infrastructure, multi-modality, street typology

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Farheen Tabassum, Shoab Ahmed Khan

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The brutality of attacks on networks and decisive infrastructures are on the climb over recent years and appears to continue to do so. Distributed Denial of service attack is the most prevalent and easy attack on the availability of a service due to the easy availability of large botnet computers at cheap price and the general lack of protection against these attacks. Application layer DDoS attack is DDoS attack that is targeted on wed server, application server or database server. These types of attacks are much more sophisticated and challenging as they get around most conventional network security devices because attack traffic often impersonate normal traffic and cannot be recognized by network layer anomalies. Conventional techniques of single-hosted security systems are becoming gradually less effective in the face of such complicated and synchronized multi-front attacks. In order to protect from such attacks and intrusion, corporation among all network devices is essential. To overcome this issue, a collaborative intrusion detection system (CIDS) is proposed in which multiple network devices share valuable information to identify attacks, as a single device might not be capable to sense any malevolent action on its own. So it helps us to take decision after analyzing the information collected from different sources. This novel attack detection technique helps to detect seemingly benign packets that target the availability of the critical infrastructure, and the proposed solution methodology shall enable the incident response teams to detect and react to DDoS attacks at the earliest stage to ensure that the uptime of the service remain unaffected. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed collaborative detection approach is much more effective and efficient than the previous approaches.

Keywords: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS), Collaborative Intrusion Detection System (CIDS), Slowloris, OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management tool), OSSEC HIDS

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Authors: Rahul Paul, Peter Mctaggart, Luke Skinner

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Maintaining public safety and network reliability are the core objectives of all electricity distributors globally. For many electricity distributors, managing vegetation clearances from their above ground assets (poles and conductors) is the most important and costly risk mitigation control employed to meet these objectives. Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) is widely used by utilities as a cost-effective method to inspect their spatially-distributed assets at scale, often captured using high powered LiDAR scanners attached to fixed wing or rotary aircraft. The resulting 3D point cloud model is used by these utilities to perform engineering grade measurements that guide the prioritisation of vegetation cutting programs. Advances in computer vision and machine-learning approaches are increasingly applied to increase automation and reduce inspection costs and time; however, real-world LiDAR capture variables (e.g., aircraft speed and height) create complexity, noise, and missing data, reducing the effectiveness of these approaches. This paper proposes a method for identifying each conductor from LiDAR data via clustering methods that can precisely reconstruct conductors in complex real-world configurations in the presence of high levels of noise. It proposes 3D catenary models for individual clusters fitted to the captured LiDAR data points using a least square method. An iterative learning process is used to identify potential conductor models between pole pairs. The proposed method identifies the optimum parameters of the catenary function and then fits the LiDAR points to reconstruct the conductors.

Keywords: point cloud, LİDAR data, machine learning, computer vision, catenary curve, vegetation management, utility industry

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Authors: Péricles Maia Andrade, Temístocles Damasceno Silva, Hector Luiz Rodrigues Munaro

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The school physical education is going through several changes over the years, and diversification of its content from specific interests is one of the reasons for these changes, soon, the formality in education do not have to stay out, but needs to open up the possibilities offered by the world, so the Mountain Bike, an adventure sport, offers several opportunities for intervention Its application in the school allows diverse interventions in front of the psychomotor development, besides opening possibilities for other contents, respecting the previous experiences of the students in their common environment. The choice of theme was due to affinity with the practice and experience of the Mountain Bike at different levels. Both competitive as recreational, professional standard and amateur, focus as principle the bases of the Cycling, coupled with the inclusion in the Centre for Studies in Management of Sport and Leisure and of the Southwest Bahia State University and the preview of the modality's potential to help the children’s psychomotor development. The goal of this research was to demonstrate like a pilot project the effects of the Mountain Bike as psychomotor instrument in physical education at one of the psychomotor valences, Balance, evaluating Immobility, Static Balance and Dynamic Balance. The methodology used Fonseca’s Psychomotor Battery in 10 students (n=10) of a brazilian public primary’s school, with ages between 9 and 11 years old to use the Mountain Biking contents. The balance’s skills dichotomized in Regular and Good. Regarding the variable Immobility, in the initial test, regardless of gender, 70% (n = 7) were considered Regular. After four months of activity, the Good profile, which had only 30% (n = 3) of the sample, evolved to 60% (n = 6). As in Static and Dynamic Balance there was an increase of 30% (n = 3) and 50% (n = 5) respectively for Good. Between genders, female evolution was better for Good in Immobility and in Static Equilibrium. Already the male evolution was better observed in the Dynamic Equilibrium, with 66.7% (n = 4) for Good. Respecting the particularities of the motor development, an indication of the positive effects of the MTB for the evolution in the balance perceived, necessitating studies with greater sampling.

Keywords: psychomotricity, balance, mountain biking, education

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Authors: Ali Arazeem Abdullahi, Mariam Seedat-Khan, Bamidele S. Akanni

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Background: Like the rest of the world, cancer of the breast is a life-threatening disease to Nigerian women. The utilization of mammography is however very poor among the general population. Whereas, there strong indications that women who engage in the regular screening of breast cancer using mammography are more likely to have a lower risk of developing and dying from advanced breast cancer compared to unscreened women. This study examined knowledge of breast cancer and utilization of mammography among undergraduate female students at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Health Belief Model (HBM) was deployed to guide the conduct of the study. Method: Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 292 undergraduate female students from the faculties of Social and Management Sciences of the University. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The study found that apart from high knowledge of breast cancer and mammography, perceived threat, perceived susceptibility and perceived seriousness of breast cancer were equally high. However, the uptake of mammography was very poor largely due to perceived barriers including being single and young and poor history of breast cancer in families (cues to action). The test of hypotheses showed that there is a weak relationship of about 6.8% between knowledge of breast cancer and utilization of mammography (p-value= 0.244) at 0.05 level of significance. However, 64.4% of the respondents were willing to utilize mammography in the future if the opportunity arises. While the study found a significant statistical relationship between the perceived benefits of mammography and its utilization among the respondents, no significant statistical association was found between the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and the uptake of mammography. Recommendations: Findings highlight the need for health education interventions to promote breast cancer screening and the utilization mammography, while addressing barriers to the uptake of mammography among female undergraduate students of the University of Ilorin and Nigeria in general.

Keywords: cancer of the breast, mammography, female undergraduate students, health belief model, University of Ilorin

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Authors: Ahmed Elhussein, Hossam El-Zomor, Adel Alieldin, Mahmoud A. Afifi, Abdullah Elhusseiny, Hala Taha, Amal Refaat, Soha Ahmed, Mohamed S. Zagloul

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Background: A majority of children with retinoblastoma (60%) have a disease in one eye only (unilateral disease). This is a retrospective study to evaluate two different treatment modalities in those patients for saving their lives and vision. Methods: Four hundred and four patients were diagnosed with unilateral intraocular retinoblastoma at Children’s Cancer, Hospital Egypt (CCHE) through the period of July/2007 until December/2017. Management strategies included primary enucleation versus ocular salvage treatment. Results: Patients presented with mean age 24.5 months with range (1.2-154.3 months). According to the international retinoblastoma classification, Group D (n=172, 42%) was the most common, followed by group E (n=142, 35%), group C (n=63, 16%), and group B (n=27, 7%). All patients were alive at the end of the study except four patients who died, with 5-years overall survival 98.3% [CI, (96.5-100%)]. Patients presented with advanced disease and poor visual prognosis (n=241, 59.6%) underwent primary enucleation with 6 cycles adjuvant chemotherapy if they had high-risk features in the enucleated eye; only four patients out of 241 ended-up either with extraocular metastasis (n=3) or death (n=1). While systemic chemotherapy and focal therapy were the primary treatment for those who presented with favorable disease status and good visual prognosis (n=163, 40.4%); seventy-seven patients of them (47%) ended up with a pre-defined event (enucleation, EBRT, off protocol chemotherapy or 2ry malignancy). Ocular survival for patients received primary chemotherapy + focal therapy was [50.9% (CI, 43.5-59.6%)] at 3 years and [46.9% (CI,39.3-56%)] at 5 years. Comparison between upfront enucleation and primary chemotherapy for occurrence of extraocular metastasis revealed that there was no statistical difference between them except in group D (p value). While for occurrence of death, no statistical difference in all classification groups. Conclusion: In retinoblastoma, primary chemotherapy is a reasonable option and has a good probability for ocular salvage without increasing the risk of metastasis in comparison to upfront enucleation except in group D.

Keywords: CCHE, chemotherapy, enucleation, retinoblastoma

Procedia PDF Downloads 155