Search results for: reduced order macro models

Authors: Phil P. Wagner

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There is an overwhelming amount of athlete-centric information available for sport practitioners in this era of tech and big data, but protocols in athletic rehabilitation remain arbitrary. It is a common assumption that the rate at which tissue heals amongst individuals is the same; yielding protocols that are entirely time-based. Progressing athletes through rehab programs that lack individualization can potentially expose athletes to stimuli they are not prepared for or unnecessarily lengthen their recovery period. A 7-year aggregated and anonymous database was used to develop reliable and valid assessments to measure athletic resilience. Each assessment utilizes force plate technology with proprietary protocols and analysis to provide key thresholds for injury risk and recovery. Using a T score to analyze movement qualities, much like the Z score used for bone density from a Dexa scan, specific prescriptions are provided to mitigate the athlete’s inherent injury risk. In addition to obliging to surgical clearance, practitioners must put in place a clearance protocol guided by standardized assessments and achievement in strength thresholds. In order to truly hold individuals accountable (practitioners, athletic trainers, performance coaches, etc.), success in improving pre-defined key performance indicators must be frequently assessed and analyzed.

Keywords: analytics, athlete rehabilitation, athlete resilience, injury prediction, injury prevention

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Walid El Kamash

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Sand columns (or granular piles) can be employed as soil strengthening for flexible constructions such as road embankments, oil storage tanks in addition to multistory structures. The challenge of embedding the sand columns in soft soil is that the surrounding soft soil cannot avail the enough confinement stress in order to keep the form of the sand column. Therefore, the sand columns which were installed in such soil will lose their ability to perform needed load-bearing capacity. The encasement, besides increasing the strength and stiffness of the sand column, prevents the lateral squeezing of sands when the column is installed even in extremely soft soils, thus enabling quicker and more economical installation. This paper investigates the improvement in load capacity of the sand column by encasement through a comprehensive parametric study using the 3-D finite difference analysis for the soft clay of soil in Egypt. Moreover, the study was extended to include a comparison study between encased sand column and Deep Mixed columns (DM). The study showed that confining the sand by geosynthetic resulted in an increment of shear strength. That result paid the attention to use encased sand stone rather than deep mixed columns due to relative high permeability of the first material.

Keywords: encased sand column, Deep mixed column, numerical analysis, improving soft soil

Procedia PDF Downloads 371

Authors: Salima Bijapuri, Shweta Bhatbolan, Sejalben Patel

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Ergonomics concerns the fitting of the environment and the equipment to the worker. Ergonomic principles can be employed in different dimensions of the industrial sector. Participation of all the stakeholders is the key to the formulation of a multifaceted and comprehensive approach to lessen the burden of occupational hazards. Taking responsibility for one’s own work activities by acquiring sufficient knowledge and potential to influence the practices and outcomes is the basis of participatory ergonomics and even hastens the process to identify workplace hazards. The study was aimed to check how participatory ergonomics can be effective in the management of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Method: A mega kitchen was identified in a twin city of Karnataka, India. Consent was taken, and the screening of workers was done using observation methods. Kitchen work was structured to include different tasks, which included preparation, cooking, distributing, and serving food, packing food to be delivered to schools, dishwashing, cleaning and maintenance of kitchen and equipment, and receiving and storing raw material. Total 100 workers attended the education session on participatory ergonomics and its role in implementing the correct ergonomic practices, thus preventing WRMSDs. Demographic details and baseline data on related musculoskeletal pain and discomfort were collected using the Nordic pain questionnaire and VAS score pre- and post-study. Monthly visits were made, and the education sessions were reiterated on each visit, thus reminding, correcting, and problem-solving of each worker. After 9 months with a total of 4 such education session, the post education data was collected. The software SPSS 20 was used to analyse the collected data. Results: The majority of them (78%), depending on the availability and feasibility, participated in the intervention workshops were arranged four times. The average age of the participants was 39 years. The percentage of female participants was 79.49%, and 20.51% of participants comprised of males. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) showed that knee pain was the most commonly reported complaint (62%) from the last 12 months with a mean VAS of 6.27, followed by low back pain. Post intervention, the mean VAS Score was reduced significantly to 2.38. The comparison of pre-post scores was made using Wilcoxon matched pairs test. Upon enquiring, it was found that, the participants learned the importance of applying ergonomics at their workplace which inturn was beneficial for them to handle any problems arising at their workplace on their own with self confidence. Conclusion: The participatory ergonomics proved effective with workers of mega kitchen, and it is a feasible and practical approach. The advantage of the given study area was that it had a sophisticated and ergonomically designed workstation; thus it was the lack of education and practical knowledge to use these stations was of utmost need. There was a significant reduction in VAS scores with the implementation of changes in the working style, and the knowledge of ergonomics helped to decrease physical load and improve musculoskeletal health.

Keywords: ergonomic awareness session, mega kitchen, participatory ergonomics, work related musculoskeletal disorders

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Tong He, Long Chen, Irag Mantegh, Wen-Fang Xie

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This paper proposes an image-based obstacle avoidance and tracking target identification strategy in GPS-degraded or GPS-denied environment for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The traditional force algorithm for obstacle avoidance could produce local minima area, in which UAV cannot get away obstacle effectively. In order to eliminate it, an artificial potential approach based on harmonic potential is proposed to guide the UAV to avoid the obstacle by using the vision system. And image-based visual servoing scheme (IBVS) has been adopted to implement the proposed obstacle avoidance approach. In IBVS, the pixel accuracy is a key factor to realize the obstacle avoidance. In this paper, the deep reinforcement learning framework has been applied by reducing pixel errors through constant interaction between the environment and the agent. In addition, the combination of OpenTLD and Tensorflow based on neural network is used to identify the type of tracking target. Numerical simulation in Matlab and ROS GAZEBO show the satisfactory result in target identification and obstacle avoidance.

Keywords: image-based visual servoing, obstacle avoidance, tracking target identification, deep reinforcement learning, artificial potential approach, neural network

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Julieta Alos

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Following the explicitation hypothesis, it has been proposed that explicitation is a translation universal, i.e., one of those features that characterize translated texts, and cannot be traced back to interference from a particular language. The explicitation hypothesis has been enthusiastically endorsed by some scholars, and firmly rejected by others. Focusing on the translation of promotional material from English into Arabic, specifically in the luxury goods market, the aims of this study are twofold: First, to contribute to the debate regarding the notion of explicitation in order to advance our understanding of what has become a contentious concept. Second, to add to the growing body of literature on non-professional translation by shedding light on this particular aspect of it. To this end, our study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to explore a corpus of brochures pertaining to the luxury industry, translated into Arabic at the local marketing agencies promoting the brands in question, by bilingual employees who have no translation training. Our data reveals a preference to avoid creative language choices in favor of more direct advertising messages, suggestive of a general tendency towards explicitation in non-professional translation, beyond what is dictated by the grammatical and stylistic constraints of Arabic. We argue, further, that this translation approach is at odds with the principles of luxury advertising, which emphasize implicitness and ambiguity, and view language as an extension of the creative process involved in the production of the luxury item.

Keywords: English-Arabic translation, explicitation, non-professional translation, promotional texts

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Authors: M. Orefice, V. Di Vito

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This paper provides a description of a Collision Avoidance algorithm that has been developed starting from the mathematical modeling of the flight of insects, in terms of spirals and conchospirals geometric paths. It is able to calculate a proper avoidance manoeuver aimed to prevent the infringement of a predefined distance threshold between ownship and the considered intruder, while minimizing the ownship trajectory deviation from the original path and in compliance with the aircraft performance limitations and dynamic constraints. The algorithm is designed in order to be suitable for real-time applications, so that it can be considered for the implementation in the most recent airborne automatic collision avoidance systems using the traffic data received through an ADS-B IN device. The presented approach is able to take into account the rules-of-the-air, due to the possibility to select, through specifically designed decision making logic based on the consideration of the encounter geometry, the direction of the calculated collision avoidance manoeuver that allows complying with the rules-of-the-air, as for instance the fundamental right of way rule. In the paper, the proposed collision avoidance algorithm is presented and its preliminary design and software implementation is described. The applicability of this method has been proved through preliminary simulation tests performed in a 2D environment considering single intruder encounter geometries, as reported and discussed in the paper.

Keywords: ADS-B Based Application, Collision Avoidance, RPAS, Spiral Geometry.

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Authors: Habibollah Mashhady, Moslem Fatollahi

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This study tries to contrast the use of metadiscoursal markers in English and Persian Newspaper Editorials as persuasive text types. These markers are linguistic elements in the text which do not add to the propositional content of it, rather they serve to realize the Halliday’s (1985) textual and interpersonal functions of language. At first, some of the most common markers from five subcategories of Text Connectives, Illocution Markers, Hedges, Emphatics, and Attitude Markers were identified in both English and Persian newspapers. Then, the frequency of occurrence of these markers in both English and Persian corpus consisting of 44 randomly selected editorials (18,000 words in each) from several English and Persian newspapers was recorded. After that, using a two-way chi square analysis, the overall x2 obs was found to be highly significant. So, the null hypothesis of no difference was confidently rejected. Finally, in order to determine the contribution of each subcategory to the overall x 2 value, one-way chi square analyses were applied to the individual subcategories. The results indicated that only two of the five subcategories of markers were statistically significant. This difference is then attributed to the differing spirits prevailing in the linguistic communities involved. Regarding the minor research question it was found that, in contrast to English writers, Persian writers are more writer-oriented in their writings.

Keywords: metadiscoursal markers, textual meta-function, interpersonal meta-function, persuasive texts, English and Persian newspaper editorials

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Authors: Godiva Kwan, Winton Au, Fanny Cheung

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Authenticity, being true to oneself and acting in congruence with one’s values and beliefs, is a basic human strength, and is instrumental to understanding well-being. While dispositional authenticity was found to be associated with positive affect and subjective well-being, others have demonstrated that individuals assumed different levels of authenticity when they took up different social roles, suggesting that state authenticity can be an alternative mechanism. This study examined the relation between workplace authenticity and job satisfaction. We hypothesize that state authenticity at work will be predicted by psychological safety climate (organizational climate where employees feel safe to speak up without being embarrassed or rejected). Employees are expected to experience higher subjective well-being and job satisfaction as a result of being authentic at work. Survey results provided support to the hypotheses. Psychological safety climate enhanced employees’ authenticity state at work, which in turn improved well-being and job satisfaction. In conclusion, we found that employees become more authentic at work in an organizational climate where they feel safe to express themselves, leading to a higher job satisfaction and well-being. The current study contributes to the understanding of underlying mechanisms behind experiencing authenticity at work among employees in Hong Kong. Our findings are expected to provide insights and to raise organizations’ awareness of creating an open and trustful culture in order to enhance job satisfaction of employees through encouraging them to “be themselves”.

Keywords: authenticity, job satisfaction, psychological safety climate, organizational climate

Procedia PDF Downloads 421

Authors: Dalhat Binta Dan - Ali

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The reality of the new world economic order and the ever increasing importance of biotechnology in the global economy have necessitated the ratification of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the recent promulgation of Biosafety Act in Nigeria 2015. The legal regimes are anchored on the need to create an enabling environment for the flourishing of bio-trade and also to ensure the safety of the environment and human health. This paper critically examines the legal framework on biosafety by taking a cursory look at its philosophical foundation, key issues and milestones. The paper argues that the extant laws, though a giant leap in the establishment of a legal framework on biosafety, it posits that the legal framework raises debate and controversy on the difficulties of risk assessment on biodiversity and human health, other challenges includes lack of sound institutional capacity and the regimes direction of a hybrid approach between environmental conservation and trade issues. The paper recommend the need for the country to do more in the area of stimulating awareness and establishment of a sound institutional capacity to enable the law ensure adequate level of protection in the field of safe transfer, handling, and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Nigeria.

Keywords: Cartagena protocol, biosafety, issues, challenges, biotrade, genetically modified organism (GMOs), environment

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Authors: Adegboyega Adeolapo Ola, Gerelene Jagganath

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One of the greatest challenges of human right in the world, especially African states is the use of child soldiers in armed conflict, constituting a major source of destruction of lives and properties. Mostly, they are in developing countries with the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, the abduction and employment of children as soldiers is a form of exploitative labour that is tantamount to slavery. Since the end of cold war, Child soldier has increased in Africa countries like Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda. This study examines the main cause of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and its challenges to human right. It further assesses the role of international regional bodies and various governments in curbing child soldiers with a view to proffer suggestions on how to address some of the resultant threat of human right. The study posits that the control of small arms and light weapons is essential in curtailing the spread of child soldier and abuse of human right. This hopefully should result in the sustainability of human/child right in African continent. It is a recommendation of this study that, in order to sustain human right in the region, all Africa leaders, government and regional bodies; such as African Union, Economic Community of West African States, South African Development Community among others, should cooperate and work together to address the issue of illicit small arms, which could eventually lead to child soldier.

Keywords: arms control, child soldier, human right, small arms

Procedia PDF Downloads 200

Authors: Suganya Chandrababu, Dhundy Bastola

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Like in the gut, the subgingival microbiota plays a crucial role in oral hygiene, health, and cariogenic diseases. Human activities like diet, antibiotics, and periodontal treatments alter the bacterial communities, metabolism, and functions in the oral cavity, leading to a dysbiotic state and changes in the plaques of orthodontic patients. Fixed periodontal appliances hinder oral hygiene and cause changes in the dental plaques influencing the subgingival microbiota. However, the microbial species’ diversity and complexity pose a great challenge in understanding the taxa’s community distribution patterns and their role in oral health. In this research, we analyze the subgingival microbial samples from individuals with fixed dental appliances (metal/clear) using an in silico approach. We employ exploratory hypothesis-driven multivariate and regression analysis to shed light on the microbial community and its functional fluctuations due to dental appliances used and identify risks associated with complex disease phenotypes. Our findings confirm the changes in oral microbiota composition due to the presence and type of fixed orthodontal devices. We identified seven main periodontic pathogens, including Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, and Firmicutes, whose abundances were significantly altered due to the presence and type of fixed appliances used. In the case of metal braces, the abundances of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Candidatus saccharibacteria, and Spirochaetes significantly increased, while the abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria decreased. However, in individuals With clear braces, the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Candidatus saccharibacteria increased. The highest abundance value (P-value=0.004 < 0.05) was observed with Bacteroidetes in individuals with the metal appliance, which is associated with gingivitis, periodontitis, endodontic infections, and odontogenic abscesses. Overall, the bacterial abundances decrease with clear type and increase with metal type of braces. Regression analysis further validated the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results, supporting the hypothesis that the presence and type of the fixed oral appliances significantly alter the bacterial abundance and composition.

Keywords: oral microbiota, statistical analysis, fixed or-thodontal appliances, bacterial abundance, multivariate analysis, regression analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Ajibola O. Akinrinde, Andrew Swanson, Remy Tiako

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There exist significant losses on transmission lines due to distance, as power generating stations could be located far from some isolated settlements. Standalone wind farms could be a good choice of alternative power generation for such settlements that are far from the grid due to factors of long distance or socio-economic problems. However, uncompensated wind farms consume reactive power since wind turbines are induction generators. Therefore, capacitor banks are used to compensate reactive power, which in turn improves the voltage profile of the network. Although capacitor banks help improving voltage profile, they also undergo switching actions due to its compensating response to the variation of various types of load at the consumer’s end. These switching activities could cause transient overvoltage on the network, jeopardizing the end-life of other equipment on the system. In this paper, the overvoltage caused by these switching activities is investigated using the IEEE bus 14-network to represent a standalone wind farm, and the simulation is done using ATP/EMTP software. Scenarios involving the use of pre-insertion resistor and pre-insertion inductor, as well as controlled switching was also carried out in order to decide the best mitigation option to reduce the overvoltage.

Keywords: capacitor banks, IEEE bus 14-network, pre-insertion resistor, standalone wind farm

Procedia PDF Downloads 434

Authors: Pármenas Costa Macedo do Nascimento

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Periodontal disease is the most common disease in the oral cavity of felines. It starts with the accumulation of bacteria on the tooth surface supporting the tissues of the periodontal tissue, namely gums, alveolar bone, cementum, and periodontal ligament. The main clinical symptom observed by the owner is bad breath, which may lead to local and systemic consequences depending on the stage of periodontal disease, such as bleeding and bone loss. Therefore, the study is important to educate tutors to take better care of the felines oral health in order to try to prevent the disease. For this epidemiological study, the target population has been felines, located on the outskirts of Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, with a geographic area of 155.68 km², with no defined breed, from October 1st to 10th, 2021, whose samples has been randomly selected, with a detailed profile. The variables of interest for this study have been: absence or presence of periodontal disease, gender, age (delimited by age group), and condition (domiciled or homeless). Using a sample of 40 felines from 4 districts of the east side of Manaus chosen at random, an oral exam has been made to identify the studied disease. The animal's apparent age, condition, sex, and presence or absence of periodontal disease has been noted. It has been observed that 70% (28/40) of them had periodontal disease, mostly females, aged between 0 and 5 years and domiciled, totaling 30% (12/40).

Keywords: felines, oral cavity, oral exam, periodontal disease

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Alissa Lefebre

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It might seem intuitive to hope for a fast decision on the patent grant. After all, a granted patent provides you with a monopoly position, which allows you to obstruct others from using your technology. However, this does not take into account the strategic advantages one can obtain from keeping their patent applications pending. First, you have the financial advantage of postponing certain fees, although many applicants would probably agree that this is not the main benefit. As the scope of the patent protection is only decided upon at the grant, the pendency period introduces uncertainty amongst rivals. This uncertainty entails not knowing whether the patent will actually get granted and what the scope of protection will be. Consequently, rivals can only depend upon limited and uncertain information when deciding what technology is worth pursuing. One way to keep patent applications pending, is the use of divisional applications. These applicants can be filed out of a parent application as long as that parent application is still pending. This allows the applicant to pursue (part of) the content of the parent application in another application, as the divisional application cannot exceed the scope of the parent application. In a fast-moving and complex market such as the tele- and digital communications, it might allow applicants to obtain an actual monopoly position as competitors are discouraged to pursue a certain technology. Nevertheless, this practice also has downsides to it. First of all, it has an impact on the workload of the examiners at the patent office. As the number of patent filings have been increasing over the last decades, using strategies that increase this number even more, is not desirable from the patent examiners point of view. Secondly, a pending patent does not provide you with the protection of a granted patent, thus not only create uncertainty for the rivals, but also for the applicant. Consequently, the European patent office (EPO) has come up with a “raising the bar initiative” in which they have decided to tackle the strategic use of divisional applications. Over the past years, two rules have been implemented. The first rule in 2010 introduced a time limit, upon which divisional applications could only be filed within a 24-month limit after the first communication with the patent office. However, after carrying-out a user feedback survey, the EPO abolished the rule again in 2014 and replaced it by a fee mechanism. The fee mechanism is still in place today, which might be an indication of a better result compared to the first rule change. This study tests the impact of these rules on the strategic use of divisional applications in the tele- and digital communication industry and provides empirical evidence on their success. Upon using three different survival models, we find overall evidence that divisional applications prolong the pendency time and that only the second rule is able to tackle the strategic patenting and thus decrease the pendency time.

Keywords: divisional applications, regulatory changes, strategic patenting, EPO

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: A. Tarantino, F. Lops, G. Disciglio, E. Tarantino

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Apulia region (southern Italy) is excellent for heavy production of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.). Fruit quality is a combination of physical, chemical and nutritional characteristics. The present experiment was laid in the commercial orchard in Cerignola (Foggia district, Apulia region, 41°15’49’’N; 15°53’59’’E; 126 a.s.l.) during the 2014-2015 season. The experiment consisted of the use of three biostimulant treatments (Hendophyt®, Ergostim® and Radicon®) compared with untreated control on ‘Farbaly’ apricot cultivar, in order to evaluate the vegeto-productive and fruit qualitative attributes. Foliar spray of biostimulants was applied at different times during the growth season (at red ball, fruit setting and fruit development stages). Experimental data showed some specific differences among the biostimulant treatments, which fruit set, growth and productivity were affected. Moderate influences were found regarding the qualitative attributes of fruits. The soluble solid content was positively affected by Hendophyt® treatment. Antioxidant capacity was significantly higher in Hendophyt® and Radicon® treatments respect to the untreated control.

Keywords: Prunus Armeniaca L., biostimulants, fruit set, fruit quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 284

Authors: Wafa Baccouch, Adel Ghith, Xavier Legrand, Faten Fayala

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Textile waste recycling has become a necessity considering the augmentation of the amount of waste generated each year and the ecological problems that landfilling and burning can cause. Textile waste can be recycled into many different forms according to its composition and its final utilization. Using this waste as reinforcement to composite panels is a new recycling area that is being studied. Compared to virgin fabrics, recycled ones present the disadvantage of having lower structural characteristics, when they are eco-friendly and with low cost. The objective of this work is transforming textile waste into composite material with good characteristic and low price. In this study, we used sewing as a method to improve the characteristics of the recycled textile waste in order to use it as reinforcement to composite material. Textile non-woven waste was afforded by a local textile recycling industry. Performances tests were evaluated using tensile testing machine and based on the testing direction for both reinforcements and composite panels; machine and transverse direction. Tensile tests were conducted on sewed and non sewed fabrics, and then they were used as reinforcements to composite panels via epoxy resin infusion method. Rule of mixtures is used to predict composite characteristics and then compared to experimental ones.

Keywords: composite material, epoxy resin, non woven waste, recycling, sewing, textile

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Authors: Oktia Woro Kasmini Handayani, Bambang Budi Raharjo, Efa Nugroho, Bertakalswa Hermawati

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Obesity prevalence and severe malnutrition in Indonesia has increased from 2007 to 2013. The utilization of local resources in nutritional program planning can be used to program efficiency and to reach the goal. The aim of this research is to plan a nutrition program based on local resources for urban fringe areas in a developing country. This research used a qualitative approach, with a focus on local resources including social capital, social system, cultural system. The study was conducted in Mijen, Central Java, as one of the urban fringe areas in Indonesia. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques are used to determine participants. A total of 16 participants took part in the study. Observation, interviews, focus group discussion, SWOT analysis, brainstorming and Miles and Huberman models were used to analyze the data. We have identified several local resources, such as the contributions from nutrition cadres, social organizations, social financial resources, as well as the cultural system and social system. The outstanding contribution of nutrition cadres is the participation and creativity to improve nutritional status. In addition, social organizations, like the role of the integrated health center for children (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu), can be engaged in the nutrition program planning. This center is supported by House of Nutrition to assist in nutrition program planning, and provide social support to families, neighbors and communities as social capitals. The study also reported that cultural systems that show appreciation for well-nourished children are a better way to improve the problem of balanced nutrition. Social systems such as teamwork and mutual cooperation can also be a potential resource to support nutritional programs and overcome associated problems. The impact of development in urban areas such as the introduction of more green areas which improve the perceived status of local people, as well as new health services facilitated by people and companies, can also be resources to support nutrition programs. Local resources in urban fringe areas can be used in the planning of nutrition programs. The expansion of partnership with all stakeholders, empowering the community through optimizing the roles of nutrition care centers for children as our recommendation with regard to nutrition program planning.

Keywords: developing country, local resources, nutrition program, urban fringe

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Authors: Hatice Kahyaoglu Sut, Serap Unsar, Seda Kurt

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The aim of this study is to investigate sexual quality of life in women with gynecological cancer. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 37 women with gynecological cancer and 39 control women (in menopausal term) at the Gynecooncology and Menopause Clinics of Trakya University Medical Faculty between January and July 2015. Women who had sexual active and willing to participate in the study filled an information form inquiring socio-demographic characteristics and Sexual Quality of Life Questionnaire-Female (SQLQ-F). Data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney-U test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The average age of the women was 52.7 ± 7.6 (51.2 ± 8.7 in women with gynecological cancer, 54.3 ± 6.0 in controls). The SQOL-F scores in women with gynecologic cancer (60.8 ± 22.4) was lower than controls (63.5 ± 20.7), however, there was no statistically significant difference (p = 0.759). Women with gynecological cancer who had vaginal dryness and pain during sexual intercourse (45.7 ± 21.3) were lower SQOL-F total score than control group (66.0 ± 21.7) (p = 0.014). The SQOL-F scores in women who took chemotherapy treatment (55.7 ± 17.8) were lower than in women who had not chemotherapy treatment (86.8 ± 16.6) (p = 0.005). In conclusion, taking chemotherapy treatment and occurring vaginal dryness and pain complaints during sexual intercourse in women with gynecological cancer reduces sexual quality of life. Therefore, sexual quality of life in women with gynecological cancer should be evaluated, and they should be supported in order to improve their sexual quality of life.

Keywords: gynecological cancer, quality of life, sexuality, women

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Lorna Goulden, Kai M. Hermsen, Jari Isohanni, Mirko Ross, Jef Vanbockryck

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This article introduces disposable identities, with reference use cases and explores possible technical approaches. The proposed approach, when fully developed as an open-source toolkit, enables developers of mobile or web apps to employ a self-sovereign identity and data privacy framework, in order to rebuild trust in digital services by providing greater transparency, decentralized control, and GDPR compliance. With a user interface for the management of self-sovereign identity, digital authorizations, and associated data-driven transactions, the advantage of Disposable Identities is that they may also contain verifiable data such as the owner’s photograph, official or even biometric identifiers for more proactive prevention of identity abuse. These Disposable Identities designed for decentralized privacy management can also be time, purpose and context-bound through a secure digital contract; with verification functionalities based on tamper-proof technology.

Keywords: dentity, trust, self-sovereign, disposable identity, privacy toolkit, decentralised identity, verifiable credential, cybersecurity, data driven business, PETs, GDPRdentity, trust, self-sovereign, disposable identity, privacy toolkit, decentralised identity, verifiable credential, cybersecurity, data driven business, PETs, GDPRI

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Authors: Han Longxiang

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In the process of treating industrial oily wastewater with complex components, the traditional treatment methods (flotation, coagulation, microwave heating, etc.) often produce high operating costs, secondary pollution, and other problems. In order to solve these problems, the materials with high flux and stability applied to surfactant-stabilized emulsions separation have gained huge attention in the treatment of oily wastewater. Nevertheless, four stable oil-in-water emulsions can be formed due to different surfactants (surfactant-free, anionic surfactant, cationic surfactant, and non-ionic surfactant), and the previous advanced materials can only separate one or several of them, cannot effectively separate in one step. Herein, a facile synthesis method of graphene-based multilevel filter materials (GMFM) which can efficiently separate the oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with different surfactants only through its gravity. The prepared materials with high stability of 20 cycles show a high flux of ~ 5000 L m-2 h-1 with a high separation efficiency of > 99.9 %. GMFM can effectively separate the emulsion stabilized by mixed surfactants and oily wastewater from factories. The results indicate that the GMFM have a wide range of applications in oil-in-water emulsions separation in industry and environmental science.

Keywords: emulsion, filtration, graphene, one-step

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Authors: Huseyin Sinan Gunesli

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Process Safety Management is a disciplined framework for managing the integrity of systems and processes that handle hazardous substances. It relies on good design principles, well-implemented automation systems, and operating and maintenance practices. Alarm Management Systems play a critically important role in the safe and efficient operation of modern industrial plants. In that respect, Alarm Management is one of the critical factors feeding the safe operations of the plants in the manner of applying effective process safety principles. Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which extends from the Caspian Sea to Italy. TANAP transports Natural Gas from the Shah Deniz gas field of Azerbaijan, and possibly from other neighboring countries, to Turkey and through Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) Pipeline to Europe. TANAP plays a crucial role in maintaining Energy Security for the region and Europe. In that respect, the application of Process Safety principles is vital to deliver safe, reliable and efficient Natural Gas delivery to Shippers both in the region and Europe. Effective Alarm Management is one of those Process Safety principles which feeds safe operations of the TANAP pipeline. Alarm Philosophy was designed and implemented in TANAP Pipeline according to the relevant standards. However, it is essential to manage the alarms received in the control room effectively to maintain safe operations. In that respect, TANAP has commenced Alarm Management & Rationalization program as of February 2022 after transferring to Plateau Regime, reaching the design parameters. While Alarm Rationalization started, there were more than circa 2300 alarms received per hour from one of the compressor stations. After applying alarm management principles such as reviewing and removal of bad actors, standing, stale, chattering, fleeting alarms, comprehensive review and revision of alarm set points through a change management principle, conducting alarm audits/design verification and etc., it has been achieved to reduce down to circa 40 alarms per hour. After the successful implementation of alarm management principles as specified above, the number of alarms has been reduced to industry standards. That significantly improved operator vigilance to focus on mainly important and critical alarms to avoid any excursion beyond safe operating limits leading to any potential process safety events. Following the ‟What Gets Measured, Gets Managed” principle, TANAP has identified key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to manage Process Safety principles effectively, where Alarm Management has formed one of the key parameters of those KPIs. However, review and analysis of the alarms were performed manually. Without utilizing Alarm Management Software, achieving full compliance with international standards is almost infeasible. In that respect, TANAP has started using one of the industry-wide known Alarm Management Applications to maintain full review and analysis of alarms and define actions as required. That actually significantly empowered TANAP’s process safety principles in terms of Alarm Management.

Keywords: process safety principles, energy security, natural gas pipeline operations, alarm rationalization, alarm management, alarm management application

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Saqlain, Abid Mahmood, S. M. Saqlan Naqvi, Rizwan Aziz Qazi, Ghazala Kaukab Raja

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Background: Metabolic Syndrome is a clustering of multiple risk factors including central obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. These risk phenotypes of metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalent world-wide, Therefore we aimed to identify the frequency of risk phenotypes among metabolic syndrome subjects in local adult Pakistani population. Methods: Screening of subjects visiting out-patient department of medicine, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad was performed to assess the occurrence of risk phenotypes among MetS subjects in Pakistani population. The Metabolic Syndrome was defined based on International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria. Anthropometric and biochemical assay results were recorded. Data was analyzed using SPSS software (16.0). Results: Our results showed that dyslipidemia (31.50%) and hyperglycemia (30.50%) was most population specific risk phenotypes of MetS. The results showed the order of association of metabolic risk phenotypes to MetS as follows hyperglycemia>dyslipidemia>obesity >hypertension. Conclusion: The hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia were found be the major risk phenotypes among the MetS subjects and have greater chances of deceloping MetS among Pakistani Population.

Keywords: dyslipidemia, hypertention, metabolic syndrome, obesity

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Authors: S. Nqayi

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Understanding the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of nanomaterials is essential for developing next-generation electronic and spintronic devices, contributing to the progress of nanoscience and nanotechnology applications. Multiferroic materials, with intimately coupled ferroic-order parameters, are widely considered to breed fascinating physical properties and provide unique opportunities for the development of next-generation devices, like multistate non-volatile memory. In this study, we are set to investigate the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the frustrated Feᴵᴵ/Smⱽᴵ sublattice in relation to the widely studied perovskites for spintronics applications. The atomic composition, microstructure, crystallography, magnetization, thermal, and dielectric properties of a pyrochlore Sm₂Fe₂O₇ system synthesized using sol-gel methods are currently being investigated. Precursor powders were dissolved in citric acid monohydrate to obtain a solution. The obtained solution was stirred and heated using a magnetic stirrer to obtain the gel phase. Then, the gel was dried at 200°C to remove water and organic compounds and form an orange powder. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirms that the structure crystallized as a pyrochlore structure with a tetragonal F4mm (107) symmetry. The presence of Fe³⁺/Fe⁴⁺ mixed states is also revealed by XPS analysis.

Keywords: nanostructures, multiferroic materials, pyrochlores, spintronics

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Authors: Minsung Kim, Jinkoo Kim

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In order to reduce or eliminate seismic damage in structures, many researchers have investigated various energy dissipation devices. In this study, the seismic capacity and cost of a slit-viscoelastic seismic retrofit system composed of a steel slit plate and viscoelastic dampers connected in parallel are evaluated. The combination of the two different damping mechanisms is expected to produce enhanced seismic performance of the building. The analysis model of the system is first derived using various link elements in the nonlinear dynamic analysis software Perform 3D, and fragility curves of the structure retrofitted with the dampers are obtained using incremental dynamic analyses. The analysis results show that the displacement of the structure equipped with the hybrid dampers is smaller than that of the structure with slit dampers due to the enhanced self-centering capability of the system. It is also observed that the initial cost of hybrid system required for the seismic retrofit is smaller than that of the structure with viscoelastic dampers. Acknowledgement: This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE) and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology(KIAT) through the International Cooperative R&D program(N043100016_Development of low-cost high-performance seismic energy dissipation devices using viscoelastic material).

Keywords: damped cable systems, seismic retrofit, viscous dampers, self-centering

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Authors: Mohamed Eusuff Amin

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In Sufi culture, humour in form of story, expressed as prose or poetry, is used to deliver moral lessons. However, this humour is not limited to telling stories as an educational program. In this paper, an idea is introduced to argue that humour is a virtue from the Sufis’ perspective. This understanding of humour is different than as what has been understood generally in the Western intellectual tradition. For the Western philosophers in general, humour is the indication of the soul’s position in relates to others that signify the relations between different individuals. But for the Sufis, it is more so as a tool for an individual to surpass his/her anger and encourage toleration with others; ultimately it is a form of ‘mercy’. In order to explain this idea, the paper will be worked into three parts as steps to construct the epistemic structure of this claim. The first part, the ethic philosophy of the Sufis will be discussed, and this will be done mostly based on the ideas on ethics that is related to the conception of existence. In the second part, few short Turkish Sufi stories will be looked at to find how the humour is applied in relation to the objective of the stories. After that, how humour can be a principle in ethic will be discussed by making some comparisons with what already taught as philosophy of humour in the West under the groups of incongruity, superiority, and relief theories. Therefore, in the end, we shall argue that to find humour in every situation is a recommended virtue for, providing that it surpassing anger of oneself and encourage toleration for others as an act of mercy.

Keywords: epistemology, ethic, sufism, virtue

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Authors: Rim Khemiri, Mariam Dammak

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The aim of this study is to trace the historical evolution of Tunisian higher accounting education and to understand and highlight the circumstances of its birth and its development. A documentary study (archival documents, official documents, public speeches, etc.), as well as semi-directive interviews with key actors, were carried out as part of this research work. These interviews aim to fill a lack of information on this subject and to confirm events addressed by other sources, but for which it lacks the elements necessary for a good understanding. After having put forward the specificities of the Tunisian context, we will, first of all, proceed to a review of the literature related to our theme in various contexts of the world. Then, we will present the evolution of the accounting curriculum by highlighting the circumstances of its birth and those of the successive reforms led by the Tunisian government. The study of higher accounting education in Tunisia and its evolution has several interests. The first lies in understanding the circumstances of its birth and its evolution in relation to the historical, socio-economic, and political context of the country. The second is to propose a reading grid that allows an understanding of the reforms that led to the university accountancy accounting course as we know it today. And, the third, aims to complete the literature on the processes of evolution of higher education accounting, by treating a different context, in order to provide additional knowledge necessary to compare experiences in this area around the world.

Keywords: accounting history, higher accounting education, socio-economic and political context, Tunisian context

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Authors: Nastas Andrei

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Ensuring accessible and functional justice is one of the priority objectives of judicial reform, and protecting the family against any acts that may harm its existence is one of the first priorities that have determined the need to defend the social order. In this context, the correlative approach of the victim and the aggressor becomes relevant as a subject of the crime of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a threat of physical, moral, or material harm, externalized now or in the past, or its provocation, which is characterized by a constant tendency to escalate and a high probability of repetitiveness in the relationship between the social partners, regardless of their legal status or domicile.Studying the legal support to identify the particularities of the victim and the subject of the crime of domestic violence facilitates the identification of the determinants of this crime, therefore, the development of means to prevent domestic violence. The scientific research has been effectuated on the base of the proper and authentic empirical data obtained from the analysis of the judicial practice in the matter of domestic violence, as well as being based on the most recent scientific issues in the field of the Substantive Criminal Law and other branches of science (criminology, psychology, sociology, pedagogy). As a result of the study performed, there have been formulated conclusions and interpretations able to be used in the science of the Substantive Criminal law, as well as in the practice of application of the legal norm in the matter of domestic violence.

Keywords: family violence, victim, crime, violence

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Authors: Alireza Taghdiri, Sara Ghanbarzade Ghomi

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With the gravity load reduction in the structural and non-structural components, the lightweight construction will be achieved as well as the improvement of efficiency and functional specifications. The advantages of lightweight construction can be examined in two levels. The first is the mass reduction of load bearing structure which results in increasing internal useful space and the other one is the mass reduction of building which decreases the effects of seismic load as a result. In order to achieve this goal, the essential building materials specifications and also optimum load bearing geometry of structural systems and elements have to be considered, so lightweight materials selection particularly with lightweight aggregate for building components will be the first step of lightweight construction. In the next step, in addition to selecting the prominent samples of Iran's traditional architecture, the process of these works improvement is analyzed through the viewpoints of structural efficiency and lightweighting and also the practical methods of lightweight construction have been extracted. The optimum design of load bearing geometry of structural system has to be considered not only in the structural system elements, but also in their composition and the selection of dimensions, proportions, forms and optimum orientations, can lead to get a maximum materials efficiency for loads and stresses bearing.

Keywords: gravity load, light-weighting structural system, load bearing geometry, seismic behavior

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Authors: Faride Crespo Razeg, Beatriz Eugenia Rivera Pedroza

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While Colombian’s society has changed, the way that Colombian’s civil society participates has changed too. Thus, the social movements as a form of participation should be research to understand as the society structure as the groups’ interactions. In fact, in the last decades, the social movements in Colombia have been transformed in three categories: actors, spaces, and demands. For this reason, it is important to know from what perspectives have been researched this topic, allowing to recognize an epistemological and ontological reflections of it. The goal of this research has been characterizing the social movements of Cali – Colombia between 2002 and 2016. Cali is the southwest largest Colombian city; for this reason, it could be considered as a representative data for the social dynamic of the region. Qualitative methods as documental analysis have been used, in order to know the way that the research on social movements has been done. Thus taking into account this methodological technique, it has been found the goals that are present in most of the studies, which represents what are the main concerns around this topic. Besides, the methodology more used, to understand the way that the data was collected, its problems and its advantages. Finally, the ontological and epistemological reflections are important to understand which have been the theory and conceptual approach of the studies and how its have been contextualized to Cali, taking into account its own history.

Keywords: social movements, civil society, forms of participation, collective actions

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Authors: Kerrin Burnell

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In a world of increasingly technology-dependent students, the English language classroom should ideally keep up with developments to keep students engaged as much as possible. Unfortunately, as is the case in Oman, funding is not always adequate to ensure students have the most up to date technology, and most institutions are still reliant on paper-based textbooks. In order to try and bridge the gap between the technology available (smartphones) and textbooks, augmented reality (AR) technology can be utilized to enhance classroom, homework, and extracurricular activities. AR involves overlaying media (videos, images etc) over the top of physical objects (posters, book pages etc) and then sharing the media. This case study involved introducing students to a freely available entry level AR app called Aurasma. Students were asked to augment their English textbooks, word walls, research project posters, and extracurricular posters. Through surveys, interviews and an analysis of time spent accessing the different media, a determination of the appropriateness of the technology for the classroom was determined. Results indicate that the use of AR has positive effects on many aspects of the English classroom. Increased student engagement, total time spent on task, interaction, and motivation were evident, along with a decrease in technology-related anxiety. As it is proving very difficult to get tablets or even laptops in classrooms in Oman, these preliminary results indicate that many positive outcomes will come from introducing students to this innovative technology.

Keywords: augmented reality, classroom technology, classroom innovation, engagement

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