Search results for: selective partial update

Authors: Inbal Zuriely, Yonit Weiss, Hilla Zaharoni, Hadas Lewkowicz, Tatiana Vander, Tarif Bader

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early active movement, along with adjusting optimal nutrition, prevents aggravation of muscle degeneracy and functional decline. Eating is a basic activity of daily life, which reflects the patient's independence. When eating and feeding are experienced successfully, they lead to a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. However, when they are experienced as a difficulty, they might evoke feelings of helplessness and frustration. This stresses the essential process of gradual weaning off the enteral feeding tube. the work describes the collaboration of a dietitian, determining the nutritional needs of patients undergoing enteral tube weaning as part of the rehabilitation process, with the suited treatment of an occupational therapist. Occupational therapy intervention regarding eating capabilities focuses on improving the required motor and cognitive components, along with environmental adjustments and aids, imparting eating strategies and training to patients and their families. The project was conducted in the long-term, ventilated patients’ department at the Herzfeld Rehabilitation Geriatric Medical Center on patients undergoing enteral tube weaning with the staff’s assistance. Establishing continuous collaboration between the dietician and the occupational therapist, starting from the beginning of the feeding-tube weaning process: 1.The dietician updates the occupational therapist about the start of the process and the approved diet. 2.The occupational therapist performs cognitive, motor, and functional assessments and treatments regarding the patient’s eating capabilities and recommends the required adjustments for independent eating according to the FIM (Functional Independence Measure) scale. 3.The occupational therapist closely follows up on the patient’s degree of independence in eating and provides a repeated update to the dietician. 4.The dietician accordingly guides the ward staff on whether and how to feed the patient or allow independent eating. The project aimed to promote patients toward independent feeding, which leads to a sense of empowerment, enjoyment of the eating experience, and progress of functional ability, along with performing active movements that will motivate mobilization. From the beginning of 2022, 26 patients participated in the project. 79% of all patients who started the weaning process from tube feeding achieved different levels of independence in feeding (independence levels ranged from supervision (FIM-5) to complete independence (FIM-7). The integration of occupational therapy and dietary treatment is based on a patient-centered approach while considering the patient’s personal needs, preferences, and goals. This interdisciplinary partnership is essential for meeting the complex needs of prolonged mechanically ventilated patients and promotes independent functioning and quality of life.

Keywords: dietary, mechanical ventilation, occupational therapy, tube feeding weaning

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Authors: Neslihan Taskale Karatug, Mustafa Akcelik

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Some literature data show that misL protein play a role on host immune response formed against Salmonella Typhimurium. The aim of the present study is to learn the role of the protein in S. Typhimurium pathogenicity. To describe certain functions of the protein, primarily recombinant misL protein was produced and purified. PCR was performed using a primer set targeted to passenger domain of the misL gene on S. Typhimurium LT2 genome. Amplicon and pet28a vector were enzymatically cleaved with EcoRI and NheI. The digested DNA materials were purified with High Pure PCR Product Purification Kit. The ligation reaction was achieved with the pure products. After preparation of competent Escherichia coli Dh5α, ligation mix was transformed into the cell by electroporation. To confirm the existence of insert gene, recombinant plasmid DNA of Dh5α was isolated with high pure plasmid DNA kit. Proved the correctness of recombinant plasmid was electroporated to BL21. The cell was induced by IPTG. After induction, the presence of recombinant protein was checked by SDS-PAGE. The recombinant misL protein was purified using HisPur Ni-NTA spin colon. The pure protein was shown by SDS-PAGE and western blot immünoassay. The concentration of the protein was measured BCA Protein Assay kit. In the wake of ligation with digested products (2 kb misL and 5.4 kb pet28a) visualised on gel size of the band was about 7.4 kb and was named as pNT01. The pNT01 recombinant plasmid was transformed into Dh5α and colonies were chosen in selective medium. Plasmid DNA isolation from them was carried out. PCR was achieved on the pNT01 to check misL and 2 kb band was observed on the agarose gel. After electroporation of the plasmid and induction of the cell, 68 kDa misL protein was seen. Subsequent to the purification of the protein, only a band was observed on SDS-PAGE. Association of the pure protein with anti-his antibody was verified by the western blot assay. The concentration of the pure misL protein was determined as 345 μg/mL. Production of polyclonal antibody will be achieved by using the obtained pure recombinant misL protein as next step. The role of the protein will come out on the immune system together some assays.

Keywords: cloning, Escherichia coli, recombinant protein purification, Salmonella Typhimurium

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Authors: Edward Y. W. Chu

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This paper exemplifies how the political and educational considerations have shaped the heavy-handed MOI policy in Hong Kong after its handover to China in 1997. Its result, a significant degeneration of English standard among the non-elite students, will be reported based on a detailed analysis of the public exam statistics available and other empirical studies. The remedial action taken by the Education Bureau out of the economic and educational considerations will be reported with reference to the official documents. The political, economic and educational considerations exemplified in different stages of Mother-tongue MOI policy in Hong Kong are found to be influential in the MOI policy in other Asian countries as well. For example, out of rapid internationalization and marketization, there has been increasing adoption of English as the MOI in post-secondary institutions in China, Japan & South Korea. On the other hand, while colonial languages were firmly made as the MOI in former colonies such as Vietnam and India, they were greatly retrieved upon independence for political and educational reasons. Malaysia also followed the same pattern upon independence but re-introduced partial English MOI policy in late 90s hoping to capitalize favourable globalization benefits. The short-lived policy was abandoned in 2009 because of the perceived political threat of national identity as well as the lack of educational effectiveness. Based on the great majority of Asian countries studied, this paper argues that MOI policy in Asia is much more than an educational issue, and that there is a clear pattern of how decisions of MOI matters are made. Studying the history and development of MOI in Hong Kong and other Asian countries provides a unique angle to view of how Asian countries prepare for the political, economic and educational challenges nowadays.

Keywords: economics, Hong Kong, medium of instruction, politics

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Authors: Dar-Bin Shieh, Gwo-Bin Lee, Chen-Ming Chang, Chen Sheng Yeh, Chih-Chia Huang, Tsung-Ju Li

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Mitochondrial defects have a significant impact in many human diseases and aging associated phenotypes. The pathogenic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are diverse and usually present as heteroplasmic. mtDNA 4977bps deletion is one of the common mtDNA defects, and the ratio of mutated versus normal copy is significantly associated with clinical symptoms thus their quantitative detection has become an important unmet needs for advanced disease diagnosis and therapeutic guidelines. This study revealed a Micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) enabled automatic microfluidic chip that only required minimal sample. The system integrated multiple laboratory operation steps into a Lab-on-a-Chip for high-sensitive and prompt measurement. The entire process including magnetic nanoparticle based mtDNA extraction in chip, mutation selective photonic DNA cleavage, and nanoparticle accelerated photonic quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). All subsystems were packed inside a miniature three-dimensional micro structured system and operated in an automatic manner. Integration of magnetic beads with microfluidic transportation could promptly extract and enrich the specific mtDNA. The near infrared responsive magnetic nanoparticles enabled micro-PCR to be operated by pulse-width-modulation controlled laser pulsing to amplify the desired mtDNA while quantified by fluorescence intensity captured by a complementary metal oxide system array detector. The proportions of pathogenic mtDNA in total DNA were thus obtained. Micro capillary electrophoresis module was used to analyze the amplicone products. In conclusion, this study demonstrated a new magnetophotonic based qPCR MEMS system that successfully detects and quantify specific disease related DNA mutations thus provides a promising future for rapid diagnosis of mitochondria diseases.

Keywords: mitochondrial DNA, micro-electro-mechanical-system, magnetophotonics, PCR

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Authors: Ghulam Mustafa Kamal, Xiaohua Wang, Bin Yuan, Abdullah Ijaz Hussain, Jie Wang, Shahzad Ali Shahid Chatha, Xu Zhang, Maili Liu

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Organic food products are becoming increasingly popular in recent years, as consumers have turned more health conscious and environmentally aware. A lot of consumers have understood that the organic foods are healthier than conventionally produced food stuffs. Price difference between conventional and organic foods is very high. So, it is very common to cheat the consumers by mislabeling and adulteration. Our study describes the 1H NMR based approach to characterize and differentiate soy sauce prepared from organically and conventionally grown raw materials (wheat and soybean). Commercial soy sauce samples fermented from organic and conventional raw materials were purchased from local markets. Principal component analysis showed clear separation among organic and conventional soy sauce samples. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis showed a significant (p < 0.01) separation among two types of soy sauce yielding leucine, isoleucine, ethanol, glutamate, lactate, acetate, β-glucose, sucrose, choline, valine, phenylalanine and tyrosine as important metabolites contributing towards this separation. Abundance ratio of 13C to 12C was also evaluated by 1H NMR spectroscopy which showed an increased ratio of 13C isotope in organic soy sauce samples indicating the organically grown wheat and soybean used for the preparation of organic soy sauce. Results of the study can be helpful to the end users to select the soy sauce of their choice. This information could also pave the way to further trace and authenticate the raw materials used in production of soy sauce.

Keywords: 1H NMR, multivariate analysis, organic, conventional, 13C isotopic ratio, soy sauce

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Authors: Demet Ozgur-Unluakin, Busenur Turkali, Ayse Karacaorenli

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Maintenance strategies can be classified into two types, which are reactive and proactive, with respect to the time of the failure and maintenance. If the maintenance activity is done after a breakdown, it is called reactive maintenance. On the other hand, proactive maintenance, which is further divided as preventive and predictive, focuses on maintaining components before a failure occurs to prevent expensive halts. Recently, the number of interacting components in a system has increased rapidly and therefore, the structure of the systems have become more complex. This situation has made it difficult to provide the right maintenance decisions. Herewith, determining effective decisions has played a significant role. In multi-component systems, many methodologies and strategies can be applied when a component or a system has already broken down or when it is desired to identify and avoid proactively defects that could lead to future failure. This study focuses on the comparison of various maintenance strategies on a multi-component dynamic system. Components in the system are hidden, although there exists partial observability to the decision maker and they deteriorate in time. Several predefined policies under corrective, preventive and predictive maintenance strategies are considered to minimize the total maintenance cost in a planning horizon. The policies are simulated via Dynamic Bayesian Networks on a multi-component system with different policy parameters and cost scenarios, and their performances are evaluated. Results show that when the difference between the corrective and proactive maintenance cost is low, none of the proactive maintenance policies is significantly better than the corrective maintenance. However, when the difference is increased, at least one policy parameter for each proactive maintenance strategy gives significantly lower cost than the corrective maintenance.

Keywords: decision making, dynamic Bayesian networks, maintenance, multi-component systems, reliability

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Authors: P. G. Romeo

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A Lie group is a highly sophisticated structure which is a smooth manifold whose underlying set of elements is equipped with the structure of a group such that the group multiplication and inverse-assigning functions are smooth. This structure was introduced by the Norwegian mathematician So- phus Lie who founded the theory of continuous groups. The Lie groups are well developed and have wide applications in areas including Mathematical Physics. There are several advances and generalizations for Lie groups and Lie groupoids is one such which is termed as a "many-object generalization" of Lie groups. A groupoid is a category whose morphisms are all invertible, obviously, every group is a groupoid but not conversely. Definition 1. A Lie groupoid G ⇒ M is a groupoid G on a base M together with smooth structures on G and M such that the maps α, β: G → M are surjective submertions, the object inclusion map x '→ 1x, M → G is smooth, and the partial multiplication G ∗ G → G is smooth. A bundle is a triple (E, p, B) where E, B are topological spaces p: E → B is a map. Space B is called the base space and space E is called total space and map p is the projection of the bundle. For each b ∈ B, the space p−1(b) is called the fibre of the bundle over b ∈ B. Intuitively a bundle is regarded as a union of fibres p−1(b) for b ∈ B parametrized by B and ’glued together’ by the topology of the space E. A cross-section of a bundle (E, p, B) is a map s: B → E such that ps = 1B. Example 1. Given any space B, a product bundle over B with fibre F is (B × F, p, B) where p is the projection on the first factor. Definition 2. A principal bundle P (M, G, π) consists of a manifold P, a Lie group G, and a free right action of G on P denoted (u, g) '→ ug, such that the orbits of the action coincide with the fibres of the surjective submersion π : P → M, and such that M is covered by the domains of local sections σ: U → P, U ⊆ M, of π. Definition 3. A Lie group bundle, or LGB, is a smooth fibre bundle (K, q, M ) in which each fibre (Km = q−1(m), and the fibre type G, has a Lie group structure, and for which there is an atlas {ψi: Ui × G → KUi } such that each {ψi,m : G → Km}, is an isomorphism of Lie groups. A morphism of LGB from (K, q, M ) to (K′, q′, M′) is a morphism (F, f ) of fibre bundles such that each Fm: Km → K′ is a morphism of Lie groups. In this paper, we will be discussing the Lie groupoid bundles. Here it is seen that to a Lie groupoid Ω on base B there is associated a collection of principal bundles Ωx(B, Ωx), all of which are mutually isomorphic and conversely, associated to any principal bundle P (B, G, p) there is a groupoid called the Ehresmann groupoid which is easily seen to be Lie. Further, some interesting properties of the category of Lie groupoids and bundles will be explored.

Keywords: groupoid, lie group, lie groupoid, bundle

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Authors: Bijit Kalita, R. Jayaganthan

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Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel manufacturing method which provides more freedom in design, manufacturing near-net-shaped parts as per demand, lower cost of production, and expedition in delivery time to market. Among various metals, AM techniques, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is the most prominent one that provides higher accuracy and powder proficiency in comparison to other methods. Particularly, 17-4 PH alloy is martensitic precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel characterized by resistance to corrosion up to 300°C and tailorable strengthening by copper precipitates. Additively manufactured 17-4 PH stainless steel exhibited a dendritic/cellular solidification microstructure in the as-built condition. It is widely used as a structural material in marine environments, power plants, aerospace, and chemical industries. The excellent weldability of 17-4 PH stainless steel and its ability to be heat treated to improve mechanical properties make it a good material choice for L-PBF. In this study, the microstructures of martensitic stainless steels in the as-built state, as well as the effects of process parameters, building atmosphere, and heat treatments on the microstructures, are reviewed. Mechanical properties of fabricated parts are studied through micro-hardness and tensile tests. Tensile tests are carried out under different strain rates at room temperature. In addition, the effect of process parameters and heat treatment conditions on mechanical properties is critically reviewed. These studies revealed the performance of L-PBF fabricated 17–4 PH stainless-steel parts under cyclic loading, and the results indicated that fatigue properties were more sensitive to the defects generated by L-PBF (e.g., porosity, microcracks), leading to the low fracture strains and stresses under cyclic loading. Rapid melting, solidification, and re-melting of powders during the process and different combinations of processing parameters result in a complex thermal history and heterogeneous microstructure and are necessary to better control the microstructures and properties of L-PBF PH stainless steels through high-efficiency and low-cost heat treatments.

Keywords: 17–4 PH stainless steel, laser powder bed fusion, selective laser melting, microstructure, additive manufacturing

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Authors: Imran Altaf Wasil, Dinesh Ganvir

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Due to a scarcity of virgin aggregates, the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) as a substitute for natural aggregates has gained popularity. Despite the fact that RAP is recycled in asphalt pavement, there is still excess RAP, and its use in concrete pavements has expanded in recent years. According to a survey, 98 percent of India's pavements are flexible. As a result, the maintenance and reconstruction of such pavements generate RAP, which can be reused in concrete pavements as well as surface course, base course, and sub-base of flexible pavements. Various studies on the properties of reclaimed asphalt pavement and its optimal requirements for usage in concrete has been conducted throughout the years. In this study a total of four different mixes were prepared by partially replacing natural aggregates by RAP in different proportions. It was found that with the increase in the replacement level of Natural aggregates by RAP the mechanical and durability properties got reduced. In order to increase the mechanical strength of mixes 40% Glass Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) was used and it was found that with replacement of cement by 40% of GGBS, there was an enhancement in the mechanical and durability properties of RAP inclusive PQC mixes. The reason behind the improvement in the properties is due to the processing technique used in order to remove the contaminant layers present in the coarse RAP aggregates. The replacement level of Natural aggregate with RAP was done in proportions of 20%, 40% and 60% along with the partial replacement of cement by 40% GGBS. It was found that all the mixes surpassed the design target value of 40 MPa in compression and 4.5 MPa in flexure making it much more economical and feasible.

Keywords: reclaimed asphalt pavement, pavement quality concrete, glass granulated blast furnace slag, mechanical and durability properties

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Authors: Anurak Khrueakham, Tassanee Chanphuthin

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Indigo is a well-known natural blue dye that is used hither to even though synthetic ones are commercially available. The removal of indigo from effluents is difficult due to its resistance towards biodegradation which causes an aquatic environment effect. Fenton process is a reaction between hydrogen peroxide H2O2 and Fe2+ to generate •OH (highly reactive oxidant (E◦= 2.8 V)). Additionally, •OH is non-selective oxidant which is capable of destroying wide range of organic pollutants in water and wastewater. The aims of this research were to investigate the effect of H2O2, Fe2+ and pH on indigo wastewater oxidation by Fenton process. A liter reactor was operated in all experiments. The batch reactor was prepared by filling 1 liter of indigo wastewater. The pH was adjusted to the desired value; then, FeSO4 at predetermined amount was added. Finally, H2O2 was immediately added to start the Fenton’s reaction. The Fenton oxidation of indigo wastewater was operated for 60 minutes. Residual H2O2 was analyzed using titanium oxalate method. The Fe2+ concentration was determined by phenanthroline method. COD was determined using closed-reflux titrimetric method to indicate the removal efficiency. The results showed that at pH 2 increasing the initial ferrous concentration from 0.1 mM to 1 mM enhanced the indigo removal from 36% to 59%. Fenton reaction was rapidly due to the high generation rate of •OH. The degradation of indigo increased with increasing pH up to pH 3. This can be explained that the scavenging effect of the •OH by H+ in the condition of low pH is severe to form an oxonium ion, resulting in decrease the production of •OH and lower the decolorization efficiency of indigo. Increasing the initial H2O2 concentration from 5 mM to 20 mM could enhance the decolorization. The COD removal was increased from 35% to 65% with increasing H2O2 concentration from 5 mM to 20 mM. The generations of •OH were promoted by the increase of initial H2O2 concentration. However, the higher concentration of H2O2 resulted in the reduction of COD removal efficiency. The initial ferrous concentrations were studied in the range of 0.05-15.0 mM. The results found that the COD removals increased with increasing ferrous concentrations. The COD removals were increased from 32% to 65% when increase the ferrous concentration from 0.5 mM to 10.0 mM. However, the COD removal did not significantly change at higher 10.0 mM. This is because •OH yielding was lower level of oxidation, therefore, the COD removals were not improved. According to the studies, the Fenton’s reagents were important factors for COD removal by Fenton process. The optimum condition for COD removal of indigo dye wastewater was 10.0 mM of ferrous, 20 mM of H2O2 and at pH 3.

Keywords: indigo dye, fenton oxidation, wastewater treatment, advanced oxidation processes

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Authors: German Hernandez-Alonso, Antonio Lazcano, Arturo Becerra

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Until today, viruses remain controversial and poorly understood; about their origin, this problem represents an enigma and one of the great challenges for the contemporary biology. Three main theories have tried to explain the origin of viruses: regressive evolution, escaped host gene, and pre-cellular origin. Under the perspective of the escaped host gene theory, it can be assumed a cellular origin of viral components, like protein RNA-binding domains. These universal distributed RNA-binding domains are related to the RNA metabolism processes, including transcription, processing, and modification of transcripts, translation, RNA degradation and its regulation. In the case of viruses, these domains are present in important viral proteins like helicases, nucleases, polymerases, capsid proteins or regulation factors. Therefore, they are implicated in the replicative cycle and parasitic processes of viruses. That is why it is possible to think that those domains present low levels of divergence due to selective pressures. For these reasons, the main goal for this project is to create a catalogue of the RNA-binding domains found in all the available viral proteomes, using bioinformatics tools in order to analyze its evolutionary process, and thus shed light on the general virus evolution. ProDom database was used to obtain larger than six thousand RNA-binding domain families that belong to the three cellular domains of life and some viral groups. From the sequences of these families, protein profiles were created using HMMER 3.1 tools in order to find distant homologous within greater than four thousand viral proteomes available in GenBank. Once accomplished the analysis, almost three thousand hits were obtained in the viral proteomes. The homologous sequences were found in proteomes of the principal Baltimore viral groups, showing interesting distribution patterns that can contribute to understand the evolution of viruses and their host-virus interactions. Presence of cellular RNA-binding domains within virus proteomes seem to be explained by closed interactions between viruses and their hosts. Recruitment of these domains is advantageous for the viral fitness, allowing viruses to be adapted to the host cellular environment.

Keywords: bioinformatics tools, distant homology, RNA-binding domains, viral evolution

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Authors: Faraidoon Rahmanzai, Mizuki Takigawa, Yu Bomura, Shigeyuki Date

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To obtain the high quality and essential workability of mortar, different types of superplasticizers are used. The superplasticizers are the chemical admixture used in the mix to improve the fluidity of mortar. Many factors influenced the superplasticizer to disperse the cement particle in the mortar. Nature and amount of replaced cement by slag, mixing procedure, delayed addition time, and heat stimulation technique of superplasticizer cause the varied effect on the fluidity of the cementitious material. In this experiment, the superplasticizers were heated for 1 hour under 60 °C in a thermostatic chamber. Furthermore, the effect of delayed addition time of heat stimulated superplasticizers (SP) was also analyzed. This method was applied to two types of polycarboxylic acid based ether SP (precast type superplasticizer (SP2) and ready-mix type superplasticizer (SP1)) in combination with a partial replacement of normal Portland cement with blast furnace slag (BFS) with 30% w/c ratio. On the other hands, the fluidity, air content, fresh density, and compressive strength for 7 and 28 days were studied. The results indicate that the addition time and heat stimulation technique improved the flow and air content, decreased the density, and slightly decreased the compressive strength of mortar. Moreover, the slag improved the flow of mortar by increasing the amount of slag, and the effect of external temperature of SP on the flow of mortar was decreased. In comparison, the flow of mortar was improved on 5-minute delay for both kinds of SP, but SP1 has improved the flow in all conditions. Most importantly, the transition points in both types of SP appear to be the same, at about 5±1 min.  In addition, the optimum addition time of SP to mortar should be in this period.

Keywords: combined effect, delay addition, heat stimulation, flow of mortar

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Authors: Wenjun Zhang, Thao Thi Le, Dongyup Shin, Jong Min Kim

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Electrochemical hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) synthesis holds significant promise for decentralized environmental remediation through the electro-Fenton process. However, challenges persist, such as the absence of robust electrocatalysts for the selective two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e⁻ ORR) and the high cost and sluggish kinetics of conventional electro-Fenton systems in treating highly concentrated wastewater. This study introduces an efficient water treatment system for removing substantial quantities of organic pollutants using an advanced electro-Fenton system coupled with a high-valent NiO catalyst. By employing a precipitation method involving crystal facet and cation vacancy engineering, a trivalent Ni (Ni³⁺)-rich NiO catalyst with a (111)-domain-exposed crystal facet, named {111}-NivO, was synthesized. This catalyst exhibited a remarkable 96% selectivity and a high mass activity of 59 A g⁻¹ for H₂O₂ production, outperforming all previously reported Ni-based catalysts. Furthermore, an advanced electro-Fenton system, integrated with a flow cell for electrochemical H₂O₂ production, was utilized to achieve 100% removal of 50 ppm bisphenol A (BPA) in 200 mL of wastewater under heavy-duty conditions, reaching a superior rapid degradation rate (4 min, k = 1.125 min⁻¹), approximately 102 times faster than the conventional electro-Fenton system. The hyper-efficiency is attributed to the continuous and appropriate supply of H₂O₂, the provision of O₂, and the timely recycling of the electrolyte under high current density operation. This catalyst also demonstrated a 93% removal of total organic carbon after 2 hours of operation and can be applied for efficient removal of highly concentrated phenol pollutants from aqueous systems, which opens new avenues for wastewater treatment.

Keywords: hydrogen peroxide production, nickel oxides, crystal facet and cation vacancy engineering, wastewater treatment, flow cell, electro-Fenton

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Authors: Sifatullah Bahij, Safiullah Omary, Francoise Feugeas, Amanullah Faqiri

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Plastic packages have been broadly used for a long time. Such widespread usage of plastic has resulted in an increased amount of plastic wastes and many environmental impacts. Plastic wastes are one of the most significant types of waste materials because of their non-degradation and low biodegradability. It is why many researchers tried to find a safe and environmentally friendly solution for plastic wastes. In this goal, in the civil engineering industry, many types of plastic wastes have been incorporated, as a partial substitution of aggregates or as additive materials (fibers) in concrete mixtures because of their lengthier lifetime and lower weight. This work aims to study the mechanical properties (compressive, split tensile and flexural strengths) of concrete with a water-cement ratio (w/c) of 0.45 and with the incorporation of non-woven PET plastic sheets. Five configurations -without PET (reference), 1-layer sheet, 2-side, 3-side, and full sample wrapping- were applied. The 7, 14 and 28-days samples’ compressive strengths, flexural strength and split tensile strength were measured. The outcomes of the study show that the compressive strength was improved for the wrapped samples, particularly for the cylindrical specimens. Also, split tensile and flexural behaviors of the wrapped samples improved significantly compared to the reference ones. Moreover, reference samples were damaged into many parts after mechanical testing, while wrapped specimens were taken by the applied configurations and were not divided into many small fragments. Therefore, non-woven fabrics appeared to improve some properties of the concrete.

Keywords: solid waste plastic, non-woven polyethylene terephthalate sheets, mechanical behaviors, crack pattern

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Authors: Pui-Lai To, Chechen Liao, Ming-Chi Sung

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Work and family life are the most important areas for men and women today. Every professional is required to meet and fulfill the responsibilities of work and family roles. Although the development and popularity of communication technology bring a lot of benefits, including effective and efficient communication, may also generate conflicts between work and family life. Since mobile devices and the applications of mobile devices, such as instant messages, are ubiquitous, the boundaries of work and family roles are increasingly blurred. Professionals may be in the risk of work over-loading and work-family conflict. This study examines the impact of work stress on professionals’ life and health in the context of instant messaging application of smart phone. This study uses a web-based questionnaire to collect samples. The questionnaires are sent via virtual community sites, instant messaging applications, and e-mail. The study develops and empirically validates a work-family conflict model by integrating the pressure theory and technostress factors. The causal relationship between variables in the research model is tested. In terms of data analysis, Partial Least Square (PLS) in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used for sample analysis and research model testing. The results of this study are as follows. First, both the variables of work-related stress and technological violations positively affect the work-family conflict. Second, both the variables of work-loading and technology-overloading have no effect on work-family conflict. Third, work-family conflict has negative effect on job satisfaction, family satisfaction, physical health, and mental health.

Keywords: mental health, physical health, technostress, work-family conflict, work-related stress

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Authors: M. Y. Abubakar, Ipinjolu J. K., Yuzine B. Esa, Magawata I., Hassan W. A., Turaki A. A.

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Catfish (Heterobranchus spp.) is a major freshwater fish that are widely distributed in Nigeria waters and are gaining rapid aquaculture expansion. However, indiscriminate artificial crossbreeding of the species with others poses a threat to their biodiversity. There is a paucity of information about the genetic variability, hence this insight on the genetic variability is badly needed, not only for the species conservation but for aquaculture expansion. In this study, we tested the level of Genetic diversity, population differentiation and phylogenetic relationship analysis on 35 individuals of two populations of Heterobranchus bidorsalis and 29 individuals of three populations of Heterobranchus longifilis using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) gene sequence. Nucleotide sequences of 650 bp fragment of the COI gene of the two species were compared. In the whole 4 and 5 haplotypes were distinguished in the populations of H. bidorsalis & H. longifilis with accession numbers (MG334168 - MG334171 & MG334172 to MG334176) respectively. Haplotypes diversity indices revealed a range of 0.59 ± 0.08 to 0.57 ± 0.09 in H. bidorsalis and 0.000 to 0.001051 ± 0.000945 in H. longifilis population, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed no significant variation among H. bidorsalis population of the Niger & Benue Rivers, detected significant genetic variation was between the Rivers of Niger, Kaduna and Benue population of H. longifilis. Two main clades were recovered, showing a clear separation between H. bidorsalis and H. longifilis in the phylogenetic tree. The mtDNA COI genes studied revealed high gene flow between populations with no distinct genetic differentiation between the populations as measured by the fixation index (FST) statistic. However, a proportion of population-specific haplotypes was observed in the two species studied, suggesting a substantial degree of genetic distinctiveness for each of the population investigated. These findings present the description of the species character and accessions of the fish’s genetic resources, through gene sequence submitted in Genetic database. The data will help to protect their valuable wild resource and contribute to their recovery and selective breeding in Nigeria.

Keywords: AMOVA, genetic diversity, Heterobranchus spp., mtDNA COI, phylogenetic tree

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Authors: Pan Lee Ching, Chua Bee Seok

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The experience of negative work-life interaction often confronted with work related stress includes workload. The appraisal of challenge and hindrance jobs depend on the type of workload to stimulate stress response. Nevertheless, the effects of challenge and hindrance jobs on distress and negative work-life interaction are scarcely explored. Thus, research objective was to examine the relationship among challenge appraisal job (qualitative workload), hindrance appraisal job (quantitative workload), and negative work-life interaction with the mediating role of distress. A survey with random sampling method was performed on current serving public secondary school teachers in Sabah. Collected data showed 447 respondents completed three questionnaires, namely Challenge-hindrance Appraisal Scale, Stress Professional Positive and Negative Questionnaire, and Survey Work-home Interaction-Nijmegan. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse mediation effect. Results showed distress fully mediates the relationship between challenge appraisal job (qualitative workload) and negative work-life interaction. The indirect effect was significant and negative. While distress partially mediates the relationship between hindrance appraisal job (quantitative workload) and negative work-life interaction. The indirect effect was significant and positive. The study implied that challenge appraisal job could be a positive resource for teacher to facilitate work and life, whereas hindrance appraisal job could disengage the facilitation. Hence, strengthen challenge appraisal job and control hindrance appraisal job could curb distress at work and underpin life interaction among the teachers.

Keywords: challenge-hindrance job, distress, work-life, workload

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Authors: Mulugeta K. Tefera, Xiaolong Yang, Jian Liu

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Detection and tracking of moving objects are very important in many application contexts such as detection and recognition of people, visual surveillance and automatic generation of video effect and so on. However, the task of detecting a real shape of an object in motion becomes tricky due to various challenges like dynamic scene changes, presence of shadow, and illumination variations due to light switch. For such systems, once the moving object is detected, tracking is also a crucial step for those applications that used in military defense, video surveillance, human computer interaction, and medical diagnostics as well as in commercial fields such as video games. In this paper, an object presents in dynamic background is detected using adaptive mixture of Gaussian based analysis of the video sequences. Then the detected moving object is tracked using the region based moving object tracking and inter-frame differential mechanisms to address the partial overlapping and occlusion problems. Firstly, the detection algorithm effectively detects and extracts the moving object target by enhancing and post processing morphological operations. Secondly, the extracted object uses region based moving object tracking and inter-frame difference to improve the tracking speed of real-time moving objects in different video frames. Finally, the plotting method was applied to detect the moving objects effectively and describes the object’s motion being tracked. The experiment has been performed on image sequences acquired both indoor and outdoor environments and one stationary and web camera has been used.

Keywords: background modeling, Gaussian mixture model, inter-frame difference, object detection and tracking, video surveillance

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Authors: Leonardo C. Pacheco-Londoño, Nataly J Galan-Freyle, Lisandro Pacheco-Lugo, Antonio Acosta-Hoyos, Elkin Navarro, Gustavo Aroca-Martinez, Karin Rondón-Payares, Alberto C. Espinosa-Garavito, Samuel P. Hernández-Rivera

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At the Life Science Research Center at Simon Bolivar University, a primary focus is the diagnosis of various diseases, and the use of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) in diverse biomedical applications is continually expanding. In the present study, Au-NPs were employed as substrates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) aimed at diagnosing kidney diseases arising from Lupus Nephritis (LN), preeclampsia (PC), and Hypertension (H). Discrimination models were developed for distinguishing patients with and without kidney diseases based on the SERS signals from urine samples by partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). A comparative study of the Raman signals across the three conditions was conducted, leading to the identification of potential metabolite signals. Model performance was assessed through cross-validation and external validation, determining parameters like sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, a secondary analysis was performed using machine learning (ML) models, wherein different ML algorithms were evaluated for their efficiency. Models’ validation was carried out using cross-validation and external validation, and other parameters were determined, such as sensitivity and specificity; the models showed average values of 0.9 for both parameters. Additionally, it is not possible to highlight this collaborative effort involved two university research centers and two healthcare institutions, ensuring ethical treatment and informed consent of patient samples.

Keywords: SERS, Raman, PLS-DA, kidney diseases

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Authors: Yuvarani Naidu, Yasmeen Siddiqui, Mohd Yusof Rafii , Abu Seman Idris

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Sustainability of oil palm production in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, is jeopardized by Ganoderma boninense, the fungus which causes basal stem rot (BSR) in oil palm. The root contact with unattended infected debris left in the plantations during replanting is known to be the primary source of inoculum. Abiding by the law, potentially effective technique of managing Ganoderma infected oil palm debris is deemed necessary because of the zero-burning policy in Malaysian oil palm plantations. White-rot hymenomycetes antagonistic to Ganoderma sp were selected to test their efficacy as log treatments in degrading Ganoderma infected oil palm logs and to minimize the survival of Ganoderma inoculum. Decay rate in terms of mass loss was significantly higher after the application of solid-state cultivation (SSC) of Trametes lactinea FBW (64% ±1.2), followed by Pycnoporus sanguineus FBR (55% ±1.7) in infected log block tissues, after 10 months of treatments. The degradation pattern was clearly distinguished between the treated and non-treated log blocks with the developed SSC formulations. The control infected log blocks showed the highest, whereas infected log blocks treated with either P. sanguineus FBR or T. lactinea FBW SSC formulations exhibited statistically lowest number of Ganoderma spp. recovery on Ganoderma Selective Medium (GSM), after 8 months of treatment. Out of that, the lowest recovery of Ganoderma spp. was reported in infected log blocks inoculated with the strain T. lactinea FBW (21% ± 0.9) followed by P. sanguineus FBR (33% ± 2.2), after 8 months, Further, no recovery of Ganoderma was noticeable, 10 months after treatment applications in log blocks treated with both of the formulations. This is the first nursery-base study to substantiate the initial colonization of white-rot hymenomycetes on oil palm log blocks previously infected with BSR pathogen, G. boninense. The present study has indicated that log blocks treatment with white-rot hymenomycetes significantly affected the mass loss of diseased and healthy log block tissues. This study provides a basis of biotechnological approaches inefficient degradation of oil palm-generated crop debris, under natural conditions with an ultimate aim of reducing the Ganoderma inoculum under heavy BSR infection pressure in eco-friendly manner.

Keywords: basal stem rot disease, ganoderma boninense, oil palm, white-rot fungi

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Authors: E. T. El Shenawy, O. N. A. Esmail, Adel A. Elbaset, Hesham F. A. Hamed

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Generation of the electrical energy based on photovoltaic (PV) technology has been increased over the world due to either the continuous reduction in the traditional energy sources in addition to the pollution problems related to their usage, or the clean nature and safe usage of the PV technology. Also, PV systems can generate clean electricity in the site of use without any transmission, which can be considered cost effective than other generation systems. The performance of the PV system is highly affected by the amount of solar radiation incident on it. Completely or partially shaded PV systems can affect its output. The PV system can be shaded by trees, buildings, dust, incorrect system configuration, or other obstacles. The present paper studies the effect of the partial shading on the performance of a thin film PV module under climatic conditions of Cairo, Egypt. This effect was measured and evaluated according to practical measurement of the characteristic curves such as current-voltage and power-voltage for two identical PV modules (with and without shading) placed at the same time on one mechanical structure for comparison. The measurements have been carried out for the following shading patterns; half cell (bottom, middle, and top of the PV module); complete cell; and two adjacent cells. The results showed that partially shading the PV module changes the shapes of the I-V and P-V curves and produces more than one maximum power point, that can disturb the traditional maximum power point trackers. Also, the output power from the module decreased according to the incomplete solar radiation reaching the PV module due to shadow patterns. The power loss due shading was 7%, 22%, and 41% for shading of half-cell, one cell, and two adjacent cells of the PV module, respectively.

Keywords: I-V measurements, PV module characteristics, PV module power loss, PV module shading

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Authors: Lemar Blake, Chris Oura, Ayanna C. N. Phillips Savage

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Improved DNA sequencing technology has greatly enhanced bacterial identification, especially for organisms that are difficult to culture. Mycobacteriosis with consistent hyphema, bilateral exophthalmia, open mouth gape and ocular lesions, were observed in various fish populations at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Aquaculture/Aquatic Animal Health Unit. Objective: To identify the species of Mycobacterium that is affecting aquarium fish at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Aquaculture/Aquatic Animal Health Unit. Method: A total of 13 fish samples were collected and analyzed via: Ziehl-Neelsen, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR. These tests were carried out simultaneously for confirmation. The following combination of conventional primers: 16s rRNA (564 bp), rpoB (396 bp), sod (408 bp) were used. Concatenation of the gene fragments was carried out to phylogenetically classify the organism. Results: Acid fast non-branching bacilli were detected in all samples from homogenized internal organs. All 13 acid fast samples were positive for Mycobacterium via real-time PCR. Partial gene sequences using all three primer sets were obtained from two samples and demonstrated a novel strain. A strain 99% related to Mycobacterium marinum was also confirmed in one sample, using 16srRNA and rpoB genes. The two novel strains were clustered with the rapid growers and strains that are known to affect humans. Conclusions: Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated two novel Mycobacterium strains with the potential of being zoonotic and one strain 99% related to Mycobacterium marinum.

Keywords: polymerase chain reaction, phylogenetic, DNA sequencing, zoonotic

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Authors: Ecem Deniz Kırkpantur, Ozge Ecmel Onur, Tuba Cimilli Ozturk, Ebru Unal Akoglu

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Moyamoya disease is a unique chronic progressive cerebrovascular disease characterized by bilateral stenosis or occlusion of the arteries around the circle of Willis with prominent arterial collateral circulation. The occurrence of Moyamoya disease is related to immune, genetic and other factors. There is no curative treatment for Moyamoya disease. Secondary prevention for patients with symptomatic Moyamoya disease is largely centered on surgical revascularization techniques. We present here a 62-year old male presented with headache and vision loss for 2 days. He was previously diagnosed with hypertension and glaucoma. On physical examination, left eye movements were restricted medially, both eyes were hyperemic and their movements were painful. Other neurological and physical examination were normal. His vital signs and laboratory results were within normal limits. Computed tomography (CT) showed dilated vascular structures around both lateral ventricles and atherosclerotic changes inside the walls of internal carotid artery (ICA). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography (MRA) revealed dilated venous vascular structures around lateral ventricles and hyper-intense gliosis in periventricular white matter. Ischemic gliosis around the lateral ventricles were present in the Digital Subtracted Angiography (DSA). After the neurology, ophthalmology and neurosurgery consultation, the patient was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease, pulse steroid therapy was started for vision loss, and super-selective DSA was planned for further investigation. Moyamoya disease is a rare condition, but it can be an important cause of stroke in both children and adults. It generally affects anterior circulation, but posterior cerebral circulation may also be affected, as well. In the differential diagnosis of acute vision loss, occipital stroke related to Moyamoya disease should be considered. Direct and indirect surgical revascularization surgeries may be used to effectively revascularize affected brain areas, and have been shown to reduce risk of stroke.

Keywords: headache, Moyamoya disease, stroke, visual loss

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Authors: Fayad Ghawbar

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The significance of the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system in the 5G wireless communication system is essential to enhance channel capacity and provide a high data rate resulting in a need for dual-polarization in vertical and horizontal. Furthermore, size reduction is critical in a MIMO system to deploy more antenna elements requiring a compact, low-profile design. A compact dual-band 4-MIMO antenna system has been presented in this paper with pattern and polarization diversity. The proposed single antenna structure has been designed using two antenna layers with a C shape in the front layer and a partial slot with a U-shaped cut in the ground to enhance isolation. The single antenna is printed on an FR4 dielectric substrate with an overall size of 18 mm×18 mm×1.6 mm. The 4-MIMO antenna elements were printed orthogonally on an FR4 substrate with a size dimension of 36 × 36 × 1.6 mm3 with zero edge-to-edge separation distance. The proposed compact 4-MIMO antenna elements resonate at 3.4-3.6 GHz and 4.8-5 GHz. The s-parameters measurement and simulation results agree, especially in the lower band with a slight frequency shift of the measurement results at the upper band due to fabrication imperfection. The proposed design shows isolation above -15 dB and -22 dB across the 4-MIMO elements. The MIMO diversity performance has been evaluated in terms of efficiency, ECC, DG, TARC, and CCL. The total and radiation efficiency were above 50 % across all parameters in both frequency bands. The ECC values were lower than 0.10, and the DG results were about 9.95 dB in all antenna elements. TARC results exhibited values lower than 0 dB with values lower than -25 dB in all MIMO elements at the dual-bands. Moreover, the channel capacity losses in the MIMO system were depicted using CCL with values lower than 0.4 Bits/s/Hz.

Keywords: compact antennas, MIMO antenna system, 5G communication, dual band, ECC, DG, TARC

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Authors: Dalicia Bouallouche, Jean-Baptiste Vioix, Stéphane Millot, Eric Busvelle

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When researchers or logistics software developers deal with vehicle routing optimization, they mainly focus on minimizing the total travelled distance or the total time spent in the tours by the trucks, and maximizing the number of visited customers. They assume that the upstream real data given to carry the optimization of a transporter tours is free from errors, like customers’ real constraints, customers’ addresses and their GPS-coordinates. However, in real transporter situations, upstream data is often of bad quality because of address geocoding errors and the irrelevance of received addresses from the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In fact, geocoders are not exempt from errors and could give impertinent GPS-coordinates. Also, even with a good geocoding, an inaccurate address can lead to a bad geocoding. For instance, when the geocoder has trouble with geocoding an address, it returns those of the center of the city. As well, an obvious geocoding issue is that the mappings used by the geocoders are not regularly updated. Thus, new buildings could not exist on maps until the next update. Even so, trying to optimize tours with impertinent customers GPS-coordinates, which are the most important and basic input data to take into account for solving a vehicle routing problem, is not really useful and will lead to a bad and incoherent solution tours because the locations of the customers used for the optimization are very different from their real positions. Our work is supported by a logistics software editor Tedies and a transport company Upsilon. We work with Upsilon's truck routes data to carry our experiments. In fact, these trucks are equipped with TOMTOM GPSs that continuously save their tours data (positions, speeds, tachograph-information, etc.). We, then, retrieve these data to extract the real truck routes to work with. The aim of this work is to use the experience of the driver and the feedback of the real truck tours to validate GPS-coordinates of well geocoded addresses, and bring a correction to the badly geocoded addresses. Thereby, when a vehicle makes its tour, for each visited customer, the vehicle might have trouble with finding this customer’s address at most once. In other words, the vehicle would be wrong at most once for each customer’s address. Our method significantly improves the quality of the geocoding. Hence, we achieve to automatically correct an average of 70% of GPS-coordinates of a tour addresses. The rest of the GPS-coordinates are corrected in a manual way by giving the user indications to help him to correct them. This study shows the importance of taking into account the feedback of the trucks to gradually correct address geocoding errors. Indeed, the accuracy of customer’s address and its GPS-coordinates play a major role in tours optimization. Unfortunately, address writing errors are very frequent. This feedback is naturally and usually taken into account by transporters (by asking drivers, calling customers…), to learn about their tours and bring corrections to the upcoming tours. Hence, we develop a method to do a big part of that automatically.

Keywords: driver experience feedback, geocoding correction, real truck tours

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Authors: Ramesh Kumar Behera, Md. Izhar Hassan

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Accident investigation and analysis are useful to identify deficiencies in plant, process, and management practices and formulate preventive strategies for injury elimination. In India and other parts of the world, industrial accidents are investigated to know the causes and also to fulfill legal compliances. However, findings of investigation are seldom used appropriately to strengthen Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in expected lines. The mineral rich state of Odisha in eastern coast of India; known as a hub for Iron and Steel industries, witnessed frequent accidents during 2005-2009. This article based on study of 982 fatal ‘factory-accidents’ occurred in Odisha during the period 2001-2016, discusses the ‘turnaround-story’ resulting in reduction of fatal accident from 122 in 2009 to 45 in 2016. This paper examines various factors causing incidents; accident pattern in steel and chemical sector; role of climate and harsh weather conditions on accident causation. Software such as R, SQL, MS-Excel and Tableau were used for analysis of data. It is found that maximum fatality is caused due to ‘fall from height’ (24%); steel industries are relatively more accident prone; harsh weather conditions of summer increase chances of accident by 20%. Further, the study suggests that enforcement of partial work-restriction around lunch time during peak summer, screening and training of employees reduce accidents due to fall from height. The study indicates that learning from accident investigation and analysis can be used as a method to reduce work related accidents in the journey towards ‘Vision Zero’.

Keywords: accident investigation and analysis, fatal accidents in India, fall from height, vision zero

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Authors: M. I. Nicolas, J. C. Cruz, Ysmael Verde, A.Yeladaqui-Tello

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The manufacture of Portland cement has revolutionized the construction industry since the nineteenth century; however, the high cost and large amount of energy required on its manufacturing encouraged, from the seventies, the search of alternative materials to replace it partially or completely. Among the materials studied to replace the cement are the ashes. In the city of Chetumal, south of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, there are no natural sources of pozzolanic ash. In the present study, the cementitious properties of artificial ash resulting from the combustion of waste pine wood were analyzed. The ash obtained was sieved through the screen and No.200 a fraction was analyzed using the technique of X-ray diffraction; with the aim of identifying the crystalline phases and particle sizes of pozzolanic material by the Debye-Scherrer equation. From the characterization of materials, mixtures for a concrete of f'c = 250 kg / cm2 were designed with the method ACI 211.1; for the pattern mixture and for partial replacements of Portland cement by 5%, 10% and 12% pine wood ash mixture. Simple resistance to axial compression of specimens prepared with each concrete mixture, at 3, 14 and 28 days of curing was evaluated. Pozzolanic activity was observed in the ash obtained, checking the presence of crystalline silica (SiO2 of 40.24 nm) and alumina (Al2O3 of 35.08 nm). At 28 days of curing, the specimens prepared with a 5% ash, reached a compression resistance 63% higher than design; for specimens with 10% ash, was 45%; and for specimens with 12% ash, only 36%. Compared to Pattern mixture, which after 28 days showed a f'c = 423.13 kg/cm2, the specimens reached only 97%, 86% and 82% of the compression resistance, for mixtures containing 5%, 10% ash and 12% respectively. The pozzolanic activity of pine wood ash influences the compression resistance, which indicates that it can replace up to 12% of Portland cement by ash without compromising its design strength, however, there is a decrease in strength compared to the pattern concrete.

Keywords: concrete, pine wood ash, pozzolanic activity, X-ray

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Authors: Augustar Omoze Ehighalua, Itotenaan Henry Ogiri

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As a mono-product economy, Nigeria relies largely on oil revenues for its foreign exchange earnings and the exploration activities of firms operating in the Niger Delta region have left in its wake tales of environmental degradation, poverty and misery. This, no doubt, have created corporate social responsibility issues in the region. The focus of this research is the critical evaluation of the ethical response to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice by firms operating in Nigeria Delta Swamplands. While CSR is becoming more popular in developed society with effective practice guidelines and reporting benchmark, there is a relatively low level of awareness and selective applicability of existing international guidelines to effectively support CSR practice in Nigeria. This study, haven identified the lack of CSR institutional framework attempts to develop an ethically-driven CSR transparency benchmark laced within a regulatory framework based on international best practices. The research adopts a qualitative methodology and makes use of primary data collected through semi-structured interviews conducted across the six core states of the Niger Delta Region. More importantly, the study adopts an inductive, interpretivist philosophical paradigm that reveal deep phenomenological insights into what local communities, civil society and government officials consider as good ethical benchmark for responsible CSR practice by organizations. The institutional theory provides for the main theoretical foundation, complemented by the stakeholder and legitimacy theories. The Nvivo software was used to analyze the data collected. This study shows that ethical responsibility is lacking in CSR practice by firms in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Furthermore, findings of the study indicate key issues of environmental, health and safety, human rights, and labour as fundamental in developing an effective CSR practice guideline for Nigeria. The study has implications for public policy formulation as well as managerial perspective.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, CSR, ethics, firms, Niger-Delta Swampland, Nigeria

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Authors: Chouahda Salima, Soltani Noureddine

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The present study is a part of biological control against mosquitoes. It aims to assess the impact of two xenobiotics (a selective insect growth regulator: halofenozide and heavy metals: cadmium, more toxic and widespread in the region) in mosquitofish: Gambusia affinis. Several approaches were examined: Acute toxicity of cadmium and halofenozide: The acute toxicity of cadmium and halofenozide was examined in juvenile and adult males and females of G. affinis at different concentrations, cadmium causes mortality of the species studied with a relation dose-response. In laboratory conditions, the impact of cadmium was determined on two biomarkers of environmental stress: glutathione and acetylcholinesterase. The results show that the juvenile followed by adult males are more susceptible than adult females, while the halofenozide does not have any effect on the mortality of juvenile and adult males and females of G.affinis. Chronic toxicity of cadmium and halofenozide: both xenobiotics were added to the water fish raising at different doses tested in juveniles and adults males and females during two months of experience. Growth and metric indices; results show that halofenozide added to the water juveniles of G. affinis has no effect on their growth (length and weight). On the other side, the cadmium at the dose 5 µg/L shows a higher toxicity against juvenile, where he appears to reduce significantly their linear growth and weight. In females, the both xenobiotics have significant effects on metric indices, but these effects are more important on the hepatosomatic index that the gonadosomatic index and the coefficient of condition. Biomarkers; acetylcholinesterase (AChE), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and glutathione (GSH) used in assessing of environmental stress were measured in juveniles and adults males and females. The response of these biomarkers reveals an inhibition of AChE specific activity, an induction of GST activity, and decrease of GSH rates in juveniles in the end of experiment and during chronic treatment adult males and females. The effect of these biomarkers is more pronounced in females compared to males and juveniles. These different biomarkers have a similar profile for the duration of exposure.

Keywords: gambusia affinis, insecticide, heavy metal, morphology, biomarkers, chronic toxicity, acute toxicity, pollution

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Authors: Gashaw Abebaw

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Concrete usage in Ethiopia is expanding at a faster rate than before. Cement is the most important and costly ingredient in this respect. The construction industry is currently challenged by cement scarcity and stock market inflation. Scholars' trays, on the other hand, will use natural pozzolan material to substitute cement. Apart from that, Metakaolin has pozzolanic characteristics. According to the industrial mineral occurrence map, Ethiopia kaolin may be found in abundance. Some of them include Debretabor, so it is good to utilize Metakaolin as cement replacement material. In this study, the capability of Ethiopian Metakaolin as a partial substitute for cement in C-25 concrete production with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% replacement of PPC by MA with 0.49 percent water to cement ratio is investigated. The study examines; the chemical properties of MA, Physical properties of cement paste, workability, compressive strength, water absorption, density and sulfate attack of concrete was investigated. The chemical composition of Metakaolin was examined and the summation of SiO₂, AlO₃, and FeO₃ is 86.25% and the ash was classified class N pozzolan. The normal consistency percent of water increases as the MA replacement amount increase and both initial and final setting time rang increase as the MA replacement amount increase. On the 28th day, the compressive strength of concrete with MA replacement of 5%, 10%, and 15% exceeds the goal mean strength (33.5Mpa) with compressive strength enhancements of 2.23 %, 4.05 %, and 2.23 %, respectively. Similarly, on the 56th day, 5 %, 10%, and 15% replacement enhance concrete strength by 2.06 %, 3.06 %, and 1.2 %, respectively. The MA mixed concrete has improved significantly in terms of water absorption and sulphate attack, with a 15% replacement level. MA content Metakaolin could possibly replace cement up to 15%, according to the studies. The study's findings will help to offset cement price increases while also boosting house affordability without significantly degrading.

Keywords: metakaolin, compressive strength, sulphate attack, water absorption, N pozzolan

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