Search results for: work accommodation management
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 21408

Search results for: work accommodation management

3948 Multiple Etiologies and Incidences of Co-Infections in Childhood Diarrhea in a Hospital Based Screening Study in Odisha, India

Authors: Arpit K. Shrivastava, Nirmal K. Mohakud, Subrat Kumar, Priyadarshi S. Sahu

Abstract:

Acute diarrhea is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among children less than five years of age. Multiple etiologies have been implicated for infectious gastroenteritis causing acute diarrhea. In our study fecal samples (n=165) were collected from children (<5 years) presenting with symptoms of acute diarrhea. Samples were screened for viral, bacterial, and parasitic etiologies such as Rotavirus, Adenovirus, Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli (EPEC, EHEC, STEC, O157, O111), Shigella spp., Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholera, Cryptosporidium spp., and Giardia spp. The overall results from our study showed that 57% of children below 5 years of age with acute diarrhea were positive for at least one infectious etiology. Diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli was detected to be the major etiological agent (29.09%) followed by Rotavirus (24.24%), Shigella (21.21%), Adenovirus (5.45%), Cryptosporidium (2.42%), and Giardia (0.60%). Among the different DEC strains, EPEC was detected significantly higher in <2 years children in comparison to >2 years age group (p =0.001). Concurrent infections with two or more pathogens were observed in 47 of 160 (28.48%) cases with a predominant incidence particularly in <2-year-old children (66.66%) compared to children of 2 to 5 years age group. Co-infection of Rotavirus with Shigella was the most frequent combination, which was detected in 17.94% cases, followed by Rotavirus with EPEC (15.38%) and Shigella with STEC (12.82%). Detection of multiple infectious etiologies and diagnosis of the right causative agent(s) can immensely help in better management of acute childhood diarrhea. In future more studies focusing on the detection of cases with concurrent infections must be carried out, as we believe that the etiological agents might be complementing each other’s strategies of pathogenesis resulting in severe diarrhea.

Keywords: children, co-infection, infectious diarrhea, Odisha

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3947 Material Vitalism’s Potential Role in Informing EU Construction and Demolition Waste Policy

Authors: Cameron Jones

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Emissions, produced by landfill waste from demolished obsolete buildings, have a damaging effect on both the Earth’s climate and human health. The philosophical theory of material vitalism - the potential for materials to react and emit harmful pollutants - therefore defines this construction and demolition waste (CDW) as having vitality. The European Union’s ‘Circular Economic Action Plan’ (CEAP) aims to mitigate the effects of CDW by prioritising the circularity of building materials. This dissertation examines how the philosophical theory of material vitalism can make an environmentally responsible contribution to CDW policy. The CEAP and Silvertown Quays development are used as case studies for the application of vitalism to policy revision. The study concludes that vitalism has a positive role to play in informing CDW policy, although its contribution is stronger in some areas. This is established by first appraising the aspects that relate to the obsolescence of buildings outlined in the EU’s existing CDW policies. Next, these policy directives are compared with the CE principles employed in the Silvertown Quays development. Subsequently, a keyword analysis model is used to categorise the language used in the CEAP, demonstrating how socio-political approaches to the CE and strategies to address resource scarcity could be strengthened to represent the EU’s policy aspirations more effectively. Recommendations are then made on how material vitalism could be utilised to strengthen legislation, arguing that a notable contribution can be made in most policy areas. Finally, theoretical testing of the impact of these revisions to policy on the case study development identified some practicalities for consideration in improving waste management outcomes.

Keywords: vitalism, construction waste, obsolescence, political ecology, exceptionalism

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3946 Disagreement among the United Nations Human Rights Bodies over the Legality of Deprivation of Liberty on the Grounds of Mental Disability

Authors: Ravan Samadov

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Mentally disabled people are the most discriminated against among other disabled people and face much stronger negative attitudes across many cultures. The most complex and severe form of exclusion of these people is deprivation of liberty on the grounds of their disability. This problem was for many years overlooked to a great extent by the core human rights instruments. However, the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted in 2006, is considered a potential tool to successfully fill the gap. It is especially vital for the developing countries with the vast majority of disabled people of the world and the CRPD is presumed to be able to trigger drastic positive changes. Article 14 of the mentioned human rights treaty has brought into the international forum a new notion, as prohibits deprivation of liberty on the grounds of disability. It is to be understood as an absolute prohibition of deprivation of liberty on the grounds of disability, including mental disability, which manifests in the form of non-consensual psychiatric hospitalisation. The interpretation by the CRPD Committee indicates that this prohibition well embraces all types of non-consensual psychiatric hospitalisation – whether it is based on illness, impairment or disability. This prohibition also extends to such justifications as ‘dangerousness’, ‘need for treatment’ and ‘diminished capacity’. Moreover, providing due substantive and/or procedural safeguards does not render any legitimacy to application of deprivation of liberty on the grounds of mental disability. Logically, this new prohibition form was to be duly considered by different UN human rights bodies, and was subsequently to bring changes to their practices. However, the analyses of post-CRPD work of those bodies allows for asserting the contrary, as they have continued displaying the position which recognises deprivation of liberty on the grounds of disability to be legitimate. While such a position could be justified in the pre-CRPD time as stemming from the silence of human rights documents about it, the continuation of this course after the CRPD entered into force may call the integrity and coherence of the UN human rights treaty system into question. The non-coherent approaches of different UN bodies to this novelty give grounds for misinterpretation thereof, and hinder its due implementation by the States Parties. The paper will discuss the nature of the mentioned new prohibition and the controversial approaches to that notion by different UN human rights bodies.

Keywords: CRPD, deprivation of liberty, mental disability, non-consensual psychiatric hospitalisation, UN bodies

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3945 Public Debt Shocks and Public Goods Provisioning in Nigeria: Implication for National Development

Authors: Amenawo I. Offiong, Hodo B. Riman

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Public debt profile of Nigeria has continuously been on the increase over the years. The drop in international crude oil prices has further worsened revenue position of the country, thus, necessitating further acquisition of public debt to bridge the gap in revenue deficit. Yet, when we look back at the increasing public sector spending, there are concerns that the government spending do not amount to increase in public goods provided for the country. Using data from 1980 to 2014 the study therefore seeks to investigate the factors responsible for the poor provision of public goods in the face of increasing public debt profile. Using the unrestricted VAR model Governance and Tax revenue were introduced into the model as structural variables. The result suggested that governance and tax revenue were structural determinants of the effectiveness of public goods provisioning in Nigeria. The study therefore identified weak governance as the major reason for the non-provision of public goods in Nigeria. While tax revenue exerted positive influence on the provisions of public goods, weak/poor governance was observed to crowd the benefits from increase tax revenue. The study therefore recommends reappraisal of the governance system in Nigeria. Elected officers in governance should be more transparent and accountable to the electorates they represent. Furthermore, the study advocates for an annual auditing of all government MDAs accounts by external auditors to ensure (a) accountability of public debts utilization, (b) transparent in implementation of program support funds, (c) integrity of agencies responsible for program management, and (d) measuring program effectiveness with amount of funds expended.

Keywords: impulse response function, public debt shocks, governance, public goods, tax revenue, vector auto-regression

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3944 Status of Participative Governance Practices in Higher Education: Implications for Stakeholders' Transformative Role-Assumption

Authors: Endalew Fufa Kufi

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The research investigated the role of stakeholders such as students, teachers and administrators in the practices of good governance in higher education by looking into the special contributions of top-officials, teachers and students in ensuring workable ties and productive interchanges in Adama Science and Technology University. Attention was given to participation, fairness and exemplariness as key indicators of good governance. The target university was chosen for its familiarity for the researcher to get dependable data, access to respondent and management of the processing of data. Descriptive survey design was used for the purpose of describing concerned roles the stakeholders in the university governance in order to reflect on the nature of participation of the practices. Centres of the research were administration where supportive groups such as central administrators and underlying service-givers had parts and academia where teachers and students were target. Generally, 60 teachers, 40 students and 15 administrative officers were referents. Data were collected in the form of self-report through open-ended questionnaires. The findings indicated that, while vertical interchanges in terms of academic and administrative routines were had normal flow on top-down basis, planned practices of stakeholders in decision-making and reasonably communicating roles and changes in decisions with top-officials were not efficiently practiced. Moreover, the practices of good modelling were not witnessed to have existed to the fullest extent. Rather, existence of a very wide gap between the academic and administrative staffs was witnessed as was reflected the case between teachers and students. The implication was such that for shortage in participative atmosphere and weaning of fairness in governance, routine practices have been there as the vicious circles of governance.

Keywords: governance, participative, stakeholders, transformative, role-assumption

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3943 Renewable Energy Integration in Cities of Developing Countries: The Case Study of Tema City, Ghana

Authors: Marriette Sakah, Christoph Kuhn, Samuel Gyamfi

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Global electricity demand of households in 2005 is estimated to double by 2025 and nearly double again in 2030. The residential sector promises considerable demand growth through infrastructural and equipment investments, the majority of which is projected to occur in developing countries. This lays bare the urgency for enhanced efficiency in all energy systems combined with exploitation of local potential for renewable energy systems. This study explores options for reducing energy consumption, particularly in residential buildings and providing robust, decentralized and renewable energy supply for African cities. The potential of energy efficiency measures and the potential of harnessing local resources for renewable energy supply are quantitatively assessed. The scale of research specifically addresses the city level, which is regulated by local authorities. Local authorities can actively promote the transition to a renewable-based energy supply system by promoting energy efficiency and the use of alternative renewable fuels in existing buildings, and particularly in planning and development of new settlement areas through the use of incentives, regulations, and demonstration projects. They can also support a more sustainable development by shaping local land use and development patterns in such ways that reduce per capita energy consumption and are benign to the environment. The subject of the current case study, Tema, is Ghana´s main industrial hub, a port city and home to 77,000 families. Residential buildings in Tema consumed 112 GWh of electricity in 2013 or 1.45 MWh per household. If average household electricity demand were to decline at an annual rate of just 2 %, by 2035 Tema would consume only 134 GWh of electricity despite an expected increase in the number of households by 84 %. The work is based on a ground survey of the city’s residential sector. The results show that efficient technologies and decentralized renewable energy systems have great potential for meeting the rapidly growing energy demand of cities in developing countries.

Keywords: energy efficiency, energy saving potential, renewable energy integration, residential buildings, urban Africa

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3942 Contribution of Artificial Intelligence in the Studies of Natural Compounds Against SARS-COV-2

Authors: Salah Belaidi

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We have carried out extensive and in-depth research to search for bioactive compounds based on Algerian plants. A selection of 50 ligands from Algerian medicinal plants. Several compounds used in herbal medicine have been drawn using Marvin Sketch software. We determined the three-dimensional structures of the ligands with the MMFF94 force field in order to prepare these ligands for molecular docking. The 3D protein structure of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease was taken from the Protein Data Bank. We used AutoDockVina software to apply molecular docking. The hydrogen atoms were added during the molecular docking process, and all the twist bonds of the ligands were added using the (ligand) module in the AutoDock software. The COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) is a key enzyme that plays a vital role in viral transcription and mediating replication, so it is a very attractive drug target for SARS-CoV-2. In this work, an evaluation was carried out on the biologically active compounds present in these selected medicinal plants as effective inhibitors of the protease enzyme of COVID-19, with an in-depth computational calculation of the molecular docking using the Autodock Vina software. The top 7 ligands: Phloroglucinol, Afzelin, Myricetin-3-O- rutinosidTricin 7-neohesperidoside, Silybin, Silychristinthat and Kaempferol are selected among the 50 molecules studied which are Algerian medicinal plants, whose selection is based on the best binding energy which is relatively low compared to the reference molecule with binding affinities of -9.3, -9.3, -9, -8.9, -8 .5, 8.3 and -8.3 kcal mol-1 respectively. Then, we analyzed the ADME properties of the best7 ligands using the web server SwissADME. Two ligands (Silybin, Silychristin) were found to be potential candidates for the discovery and design of novel drug inhibitors of the protease enzyme of SARS-CoV-2. The stability of the two ligands in complexing with the Mpro protease was validated by molecular dynamics simulation; they revealed a stable trajectory in both techniques, RMSD and RMSF, by showing molecular properties with coherent interactions in molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, we conclude that the Silybin ligand forms a more stable complex with the Mpro protease compared to the Silychristin ligand.

Keywords: COVID-19, medicinal plants, molecular docking, ADME properties, molecular dynamics

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3941 Developments in corporate governance and economic growth in Sub Saharan Africa

Authors: Martha Matashu

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This study examined corporate governance and economic growth trends in Sub Saharan African (SSA) countries. The need for corporate governance arise from the fact that the day to day running of the business is done by management who in accordance with the neoclassical theory and agency theory have inborn tendencies to use the resources of the company to their advantage. This prevails against a background where the endogenous economic growth theory hold the assumption that economic growth is an outcome of the overall performance of all companies within an economy. This suggest that corporate governance at firm level determine economic growth through its impact on the overall performance. Nevertheless, insight into literature suggest that efforts to promote corporate governance in countries across SSA since the 1980s to date have not yet yielded desired outcomes. The board responsibilities, shareholder rights, disclosure and transparency, protection of minority shareholder, and liability of directors were thus used as proxies of corporate governance because these are believed to be mechanisms that are believed to enhance company performance their effect on enhancing accountability and transparency. Using panel data techniques, corporate governance and economic growth data for 29 SSA countries from the period of 2008 to 2019 was analysed. The findings revealed declining economic growth trend despite an increase in corporate governance aspects such as director liability, shareholders’ rights, and protection of minority shareholder in SSA countries. These findings are in contradiction to the popularly held theoretical principles of economic growth and corporate governance. The study reached the conclusion thata nonlinearrelationship exists between corporate governance and economic growth within the selectedSSA countries during the period under investigation. This study thus recommends that measures should be taken to create conditions for corporate governance that would bolster significant positive contributions to economic growth in the region.

Keywords: corporate governance, economic growth, sub saharan Africa, agency theory, endogenous theory

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3940 The Effectiveness of Prefabricated Vertical Drains for Accelerating Consolidation of Tunis Soft Soil

Authors: Marwa Ben Khalifa, Zeineb Ben Salem, Wissem Frikha

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The purpose of the present work is to study the consolidation behavior of highly compressible Tunis soft soil “TSS” by means of prefabricated vertical drains (PVD’s) associated to preloading based on laboratory and field investigations. In the first hand, the field performance of PVD’s on the layer of Tunis soft soil was analysed based on the case study of the construction of embankments of “Radès la Goulette” bridge project. PVD’s Geosynthetics drains types were installed with triangular grid pattern until 10 m depth associated with step-by-step surcharge. The monitoring of the soil settlement during preloading stage for Radès La Goulette Bridge project was provided by an instrumentation composed by various type of tassometer installed in the soil. The distribution of water pressure was monitored through piezocone penetration. In the second hand, a laboratory reduced tests are performed on TSS subjected also to preloading and improved with PVD's Mebradrain 88 (Mb88) type. A specific test apparatus was designed and manufactured to study the consolidation. Two series of consolidation tests were performed on TSS specimens. The first series included consolidation tests for soil improved by one central drain. In thesecond series, a triangular mesh of three geodrains was used. The evolution of degree of consolidation and measured settlements versus time derived from laboratory tests and field data were presented and discussed. The obtained results have shown that PVD’s have considerably accelerated the consolidation of Tunis soft soil by shortening the drainage path. The model with mesh of three drains gives results more comparative to field one. A longer consolidation time is observed for the cell improved by a single central drain. A comparison with theoretical analysis, basically that of Barron (1948) and Carillo (1942), was presented. It’s found that these theories overestimate the degree of consolidation in the presence of PVD.

Keywords: tunis soft soil, prefabricated vertical drains, acceleration of consolidation, dissipation of excess pore water pressures, radès bridge project, barron and carillo’s theories

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3939 Development and Characterization of Expandable TPEs Compounds for Footwear Applications

Authors: Ana Elisa Ribeiro Costa, Sónia Daniela Ferreira Miranda, João Pedro De Carvalho Pereira, João Carlos Simões Bernardo

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Elastomeric thermoplastics (TPEs) have been widely used in the footwear industry over the years. Recently this industry has been requesting materials that can combine lightweight and high abrasion resistance. Although there are blowing agents on the market to improve the lightweight, when these are incorporated into molten polymers during the extrusion or injection molding, it is necessary to have some specific processing conditions (e.g. effect of temperature and hydrodynamic stresses) to obtain good properties and acceptable surface appearance on the final products. Therefore, it is a great advantage for the compounder industry to acquire compounds that already include the blowing agents. In this way, they can be handled and processed under the same conditions as a conventional raw material. In this work, the expandable TPEs compounds, namely a TPU and a SEBS, with the incorporation of blowing agents, have been developed through a co-rotating modular twin-screw parallel extruder. Different blowing agents such as thermo-expandable microspheres and an azodicarbonamide were selected and different screw configurations and temperature profiles were evaluated since these parameters have a particular influence on the expansion inhibition of the blowing agents. Furthermore, percentages of incorporation were varied in order to investigate their influence on the final product properties. After the extrusion of these compounds, expansion was tested by the injection process. The mechanical and physical properties were characterized by different analytical methods like tensile, flexural and abrasive tests, determination of hardness and density measurement. Also, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was performed. It was observed that it is possible to incorporate the blowing agents on the TPEs without their expansion on the extrusion process. Only with reprocessing (injection molding) did the expansion of the agents occur. These results are corroborated by SEM micrographs, which show a good distribution of blowing agents in the polymeric matrices. The other experimental results showed a good mechanical performance and its density decrease (30% for SEBS and 35% for TPU). This study suggested that it is possible to develop optimized compounds for footwear applications (e.g., sole shoes), which only will be able to expand during the injection process.

Keywords: blowing agents, expandable thermoplastic elastomeric compounds, low density, footwear applications

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3938 A Comprehensive Framework for Fraud Prevention and Customer Feedback Classification in E-Commerce

Authors: Samhita Mummadi, Sree Divya Nagalli, Harshini Vemuri, Saketh Charan Nakka, Sumesh K. J.

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One of the most significant challenges faced by people in today’s digital era is an alarming increase in fraudulent activities on online platforms. The fascination with online shopping to avoid long queues in shopping malls, the availability of a variety of products, and home delivery of goods have paved the way for a rapid increase in vast online shopping platforms. This has had a major impact on increasing fraudulent activities as well. This loop of online shopping and transactions has paved the way for fraudulent users to commit fraud. For instance, consider a store that orders thousands of products all at once, but what’s fishy about this is the massive number of items purchased and their transactions turning out to be fraud, leading to a huge loss for the seller. Considering scenarios like these underscores the urgent need to introduce machine learning approaches to combat fraud in online shopping. By leveraging robust algorithms, namely KNN, Decision Trees, and Random Forest, which are highly effective in generating accurate results, this research endeavors to discern patterns indicative of fraudulent behavior within transactional data. Introducing a comprehensive solution to this problem in order to empower e-commerce administrators in timely fraud detection and prevention is the primary motive and the main focus. In addition to that, sentiment analysis is harnessed in the model so that the e-commerce admin can tailor to the customer’s and consumer’s concerns, feedback, and comments, allowing the admin to improve the user’s experience. The ultimate objective of this study is to ramp up online shopping platforms against fraud and ensure a safer shopping experience. This paper underscores a model accuracy of 84%. All the findings and observations that were noted during our work lay the groundwork for future advancements in the development of more resilient and adaptive fraud detection systems, which will become crucial as technologies continue to evolve.

Keywords: behavior analysis, feature selection, Fraudulent pattern recognition, imbalanced classification, transactional anomalies

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3937 Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest in Kuala Lumpur: A Mixed Method Study on Incidence, Adherence to Protocol, and Issues

Authors: Mohd Said Nurumal, Sarah Sheikh Abdul Karim

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Information regarding out of hospital cardiac arrest incidence include outcome in Malaysia is limited and fragmented. This study aims to identify incidence and adherence to protocol of out of hospital cardiac arrest and also to explore the issues faced by the pre-hospital personnel in regards managing cardiac arrest victim in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A mixed method approach combining the qualitative and quantitative study design was used. The 285 pre-hospital care data sheet of out of hospital cardiac arrest during the year of 2011 were examined by using checklists for identify the incidence and adherence to protocol. Nine semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions were performed. For the incidence based on the overall out of hospital cardiac arrest cases that occurred in 2011 (n=285), the survival rates were 16.8%. For adherence to protocol, only 89 (41.8%) of the cases adhered to the given protocol and 124 did not adhere to such protocol. The qualitative information provided insight about the issues related to out of hospital cardiac arrest in every aspect. All the relevant qualitative data were merged into few categories relating issues that could affect the management of out of hospital cardiac arrest performed by pre-hospital care team. One of the essential elements in the out of hospital cardiac arrest handling by pre-hospital care is to ensure increase of survival rates and excellent outcomes by adhering to given protocols based on international standard benchmarks. Measures are needed to strengthen the quick activation of the pre-hospital care service, prompt bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, early defibrillation and timely advanced cardiac life support and also to tackle all the issues highlighted in qualitative results.

Keywords: pre-hospital care, out of hospital cardiac arrest, incidence, protocol, mixed method research

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3936 Building Information Modelling Based Value for Money Assessment in Public-Private Partnership

Authors: Guoqian Ren, Haijiang Li, Jisong Zhang

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Over the past 40 years, urban development has undergone large-scale, high-speed expansion, beyond what was previously considered normal and in a manner not proportionally related to population growth or physical considerations. With more scientific and refined decision-making in the urban construction process, new urbanization approaches, aligned with public-private partnerships (PPPs) which evolved in the early 1990s, have become acceptable and, in some situations, even better solutions to outstanding urban municipal construction projects, especially in developing countries. However, as the main driving force to deal with urban public services, PPPs are still problematic regarding value for money (VFM) process in most large-scale construction projects. This paper therefore reviews recent PPP articles in popular project management journals and relevant toolkits, published in the last 10 years, to identify the indicators that influence VFM within PPPs across regions. With increasing concerns about profitability and environmental and social impacts, the current PPP structure requires a more integrated platform to manage multi-performance project life cycles. Building information modelling (BIM), a popular approach to the procurement process in AEC sectors, provides the potential to ensure VFM while also working in tandem with the semantic approach to holistically measure life cycle costs (LCC) and achieve better sustainability. This paper suggests that BIM applied to the entire PPP life cycle could support holistic decision-making regarding VFM processes and thus meet service targets.

Keywords: public-private partnership, value for money, building information modelling, semantic approach

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3935 Organic Matter Removal in Urban and Agroindustry Wastewater by Chemical Precipitation Process

Authors: Karina Santos Silvério, Fátima Carvalho, Maria Adelaide Almeida

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The impacts caused by anthropogenic actions on the water environment have been one of the main challenges of modern society. Population growth, added to water scarcity and climate change, points to a need to increase the resilience of production systems to increase efficiency regarding the management of wastewater generated in the different processes. Based on this context, the study developed under the NETA project (New Strategies in Wastewater Treatment) aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the Chemical Precipitation Process (CPP), using the hydrated lime (Ca(OH )₂) as a reagent in wastewater from the agroindustry sector, namely swine wastewater, slaughterhouse and urban wastewater, in order to make the productive means 100% circular, causing a direct positive impact on the environment. The purpose of CPP is to innovate in the field of effluent treatment technologies, as it allows rapid application and is economically profitable. In summary, the study was divided into four main stages: 1) Application of the reagent in a single step, raising the pH to 12.5 2) Obtaining sludge and treated effluent. 3) Natural neutralization of the effluent through Carbonation using atmospheric CO₂. 4) Characterization and evaluation of the feasibility of the chemical precipitation technique in the treatment of different wastewaters through the technique of determining the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and other supporting physical-chemical parameters. The results showed an approximate average removal efficiency above 80% for all effluents, highlighting the swine effluent with 90% removal, followed by urban effluent with 88% and slaughterhouse with 81% on average. Significant improvement was also obtained with regard to color and odor removal after Carbonation to pH 8.00.

Keywords: agroindustry wastewater, urban wastewater, natural carbonatation, chemical precipitation technique

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3934 Anticancer Study of Copper and Zinc Complexes with Doxorubicin

Authors: Grzegorz Swiderski, Agata Jablonska-Trypuc, Natalia Popow, Renata Swislocka, Wlodzimierz Lewandowski

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Doxorubicin belongs to the group of anthracycline antitumor antibiotics. Because of the wide spectrum of actions, it is one of the most widely used anthracycline antibiotics, including the treatment of breast, ovary, bladder, lung cancers as well as neuroblastoma, lymphoma, leukemia and myeloid leukemia. Antitumor activity of doxorubicin is based on the same mechanisms as for most anthracyclines. Like the metal ions affect the nucleic acids on many biological processes, so the environment of the metal chelates of antibiotics can have a significant effect on the pharmacological properties of drugs. Complexation of anthracyclines with metal ions may contribute to the production of less toxic compounds. In the framework of this study, the composition of complexes obtained in aqueous solutions of doxorubicin with metal ions (Cu2+ and Zn2+). Complexation was analyzed by spectrophotometric titration in aqueous solution at pH 7.0. The pH was adjusted with 0.02M Tris-HCl buffer. The composition of the complexes found was Cu: doxorubicin (1: 2) and a Zn: doxorubicin (1: 1). The effect of Dox, Dox-Cu and Dox-Zn was examined in MCF-7 breast cancer cell line, which were obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). The compounds were added to the cultured cells for a final concentration in the range of 0,01µM to 0,5µM. The number of MCF-7 cells with division into living and dead, was determined by direct counts of cells with the use of trypan blue dye using LUNA Logos Biosystems cell counter. ApoTox-Glo Triplex Assay (Promega, Madison, Wisconsin, USA) was used according to the manufacturer’s instructions to measure the MCF-7 cells’ viability, cytotoxicity and apoptosis. We observed a decrease in cells proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. An increase in cytotoxicity and decrease in viability in the ApoTox Triplex assay was also showed for all tested compounds. Apoptosis, showed as caspase 3/7 activation, was observed only in Dox treatment. In Dox-Zn and Dox-Cu caspase 3/7 activation was not observed. This work was financially supported by National Science Centre, Poland, under the research project number 2014/13/B/NZ7/02 352.

Keywords: anticancer properties, anthracycline antibiotic, doxorubicine, metal complexes

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3933 Identification and Characterization of Groundwater Recharge Sites in Kuwait

Authors: Dalal Sadeqi

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Groundwater is an important component of Kuwait’s water resources. Although limited in quantity and often poor in quality, the significance of this natural source of water cannot be overemphasized. Recharge of groundwater in Kuwait occurs during periodical storm events, especially in open desert areas. Runoff water dissolves accumulated surficial meteoric salts and subsequently leaches them into the groundwater following a period of evaporative enrichment at or near the soil surface. Geochemical processes governing groundwater recharge vary in time and space. Stable isotope (18O and 2H) and geochemical signatures are commonly used to gain some insight into recharge processes and groundwater salinization mechanisms, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. This article addresses the mechanism used in identifying and characterizing the main water shed areas in Kuwait using stable isotopes in an attempt to determine favorable groundwater recharge sites in the country. Stable isotopes of both rainwater and groundwater were targeted in different hydrogeological settings. Additionally, data and information obtained from subsurface logs in the study area were collected and analyzed to develop a better understanding of the lateral and vertical extent of the groundwater aquifers. Geographic Information System (GIS) and RockWorks 3D modelling software were used to map out the hydrogeomorphology of the study area and the subsurface lithology of the investigated aquifers. The collected data and information, including major ion chemistry, isotopes, subsurface characteristics, and hydrogeomorphology, were integrated in a GIS platform to identify and map out suitable natural recharge areas as part of an integrated water resources management scheme that addresses the challenges of the sustainability of the groundwater reserves in the country.

Keywords: scarcity, integrated, recharge, isotope

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3932 Prandtl Number Influence Analysis on Droplet Migration in Natural Convection Flow Using the Level Set Method

Authors: Isadora Bugarin, Taygoara F. de Oliveira

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Multiphase flows have currently been placed as a key solution for technological advances in energy and thermal sciences. The comprehension of droplet motion and behavior on non-isothermal flows is, however, rather limited. The present work consists of an investigation of a 2D droplet migration on natural convection inside a square enclosure with differentially heated walls. The investigation in question concerns the effects on drop motion of imposing different combinations of Prandtl and Rayleigh numbers while defining the drop on distinct initial positions. The finite differences method was used to compute the Navier-Stokes and energy equations for a laminar flow, considering the Boussinesq approximation. Also, a high order level set method was applied to simulate the two-phase flow. A previous analysis developed by the authors had shown that for fixed values of Rayleigh and Prandtl, the variation of the droplet initial position at the beginning of the simulation delivered different patterns of motion, in which for Ra≥10⁴ the droplet presents two very specific behaviors: it can travel through a helical path towards the center or define cyclic circular paths resulting in closed paths when reaching the stationary regime. Now, when varying the Prandtl number for different Rayleigh regimes, it was observed that this particular parameter also affects the migration of the droplet, altering the motion patterns as its value is increased. On higher Prandtl values, the drop performs wider paths with larger amplitudes, traveling closer to the walls and taking longer time periods to finally reach the stationary regime. It is important to highlight that drastic drop behavior changes on the stationary regime were not yet observed, but the path traveled from the begging of the simulation until the stationary regime was significantly altered, resulting in distinct turning over frequencies. The flow’s unsteady Nusselt number is also registered for each case studied, enabling a discussion on the overall effects on heat transfer variations.

Keywords: droplet migration, level set method, multiphase flow, natural convection in enclosure, Prandtl number

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3931 Creativity, Formative Assessment and Students’ Writing of Subject-Specific Texts

Authors: Per Blomqvist

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This study is part of a larger research project on creativity and writing cultures in upper secondary schools in Sweden, with the purpose of exploring how formative assessment practices can be developed to better support students' writing of subject-specific texts. The purpose of the study is to shed light on how writing has changed over time in the subjects of Social Studies and Swedish, especially regarding changes in the formative assessment practice in relation to students opportunities to take part in creative writing processes that can develop their subject specific-writing. Theoretically, the study is based on concepts and models concerning creativity, writing instructions and formative assessment, especially regarding scaffolding in relation to the development of students' subject-specific writing. The empirical data consists of video recordings of teacher groups' conversations from five upper secondary schools in Sweden, compromising a total of twenty teachers. The conversations were conducted as so-called collective remembering interviews, a method to stimulate the participants' memory through social interaction, and focused on addressing issues on how writing assessment has changed over time. Topic analysis was used to analyze the conversations in order to identify common descriptions and expressions among the teachers in each group. The result highlights two different assessment practices that are described as giving students different opportunities to take part in creative writing processes to develop their writing of subject-specific texts. One of the assessment practices is characterized by teachers focusing on explaining to the students what the grading criteria mean and showing sample texts that correspond to a certain grade. The teachers describe that this assessment practice has led to a formalized, instrumental and product-oriented writing culture that has negative consequences for the student's development of their subject-specific writing, which often lacks independent reasoning, own conclusions and understanding of concepts. The other assessment practice is characterized by students examining text qualities and discussing a variety of sample texts to understand what different texts require. These teachers describe the assessment practice as an exploratory work that leads to more creative writing processes where the students gradually deepen their understanding of subject-specific texts and develop their writing.

Keywords: teaching for creativity, writing processes, formative assessment, subject-specific writing

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3930 Monitoring Prolong Use of Intravenous Antibiotics: Antimicrobial Stewardship

Authors: Komal Fizza

Abstract:

Irrational and non-judicious use of antibiotics pave the way for an upsurge in antibiotic resistance, diminished effectiveness of different therapeutic regimens and as well as impounding effect on disease management leading to further morbidities. In the backdrop of this the current research is aimed to assess whether antimicrobial prescribing is in accordance with the Infectious Disease Society of America Guidelines in hospitalized patients at Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan. Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad is a 500 bed hospital. With the help of MIS team a form wad developed that gave the information about medical records number, name of the patient, day of start of antibiotic, the day antibiotic is supposed to be stopped and as well as the diagnosis of the patient. A ward pharmacist was employed to generate this report on a daily basis. The therapeutic regiment was reviewed by the pharmacist by monitoring the clinical progress, laboratory report and diagnosis. On the basis of this information, pharmacist made suggestions and forwarded to the hospital doctors responsible for prescribing antibiotics. If desired, changes were made regularly. In the current research our main focus was to implement this action and therefore, started monitoring patients who were on antibiotic regimens for more than 10-15 days. We took this initiative since November, 2013. At the start of the program a maximum 19 patients/day were reported to be on antibiotic regimen for more than 10-15 days. After the implementation of the initiative, the number of patients was decreased to fifteen patients per day in December, further decreased to 7 in the month of January and 9 and 6 in February and March respectively. The average patient census was 350. The current pilot study highlighted the role of pharmacist in initiating antibiotic stewardship programs in hospital settings.

Keywords: stewardship, antibiotics, resistance, clinical process

Procedia PDF Downloads 339
3929 To Assess Variables Related to Self-Efficacy for Increasing Physical Activity in Advanced-Stage Cancer Patients

Authors: S. Nikpour, S. Vahidi, H. Haghani

Abstract:

Introduction: Exercise has mental and physical health benefits for patients with advanced stage cancer who actively receive chemotherapy, yet little is known about patients’ levels of interest in becoming more active or their confidence in increasing their activity level. Methods and materials: A convenience sample of 200 patients with advanced-stage cancer who were receiving chemotherapy completed self-report measures assessing physical activity level, mood, and quality-of-life variables. Qualitative data on patient-perceived benefits of, and barriers to, physical activity also were collected, coded by independent raters, and organized by predominant themes. Results: Current physical activity level, physical activity outcome expectations, and positive mood were significantly associated with self-efficacy. Fatigue was the most frequently listed barrier to physical activity; improved physical strength and health were the most commonly listed benefits. Participants identified benefits related to both general health and cancer-symptom management that were related to exercise. 59.5% of participants reported that they were seriously planning to increase or maintain their physical activity level, and over 40% reported having interest in receiving an intervention to become more active. Conclusion: These results suggested that many advanced-stage cancer patients who receive chemotherapy are interested in maintaining or increasing their physical activity level and in receiving professional support for exercise. In addition, these individuals identified general health and cancer-specific benefits of, and barriers to, physical activity. Future research will investigate how these findings may be incorporated into physical activity interventions for advanced-stage oncology patients receiving medical treatment.

Keywords: physical activity, cancer, self-efficacy

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3928 Forecasting Nokoué Lake Water Levels Using Long Short-Term Memory Network

Authors: Namwinwelbere Dabire, Eugene C. Ezin, Adandedji M. Firmin

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The prediction of hydrological flows (rainfall-depth or rainfall-discharge) is becoming increasingly important in the management of hydrological risks such as floods. In this study, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, a state-of-the-art algorithm dedicated to time series, is applied to predict the daily water level of Nokoue Lake in Benin. This paper aims to provide an effective and reliable method enable of reproducing the future daily water level of Nokoue Lake, which is influenced by a combination of two phenomena: rainfall and river flow (runoff from the Ouémé River, the Sô River, the Porto-Novo lagoon, and the Atlantic Ocean). Performance analysis based on the forecasting horizon indicates that LSTM can predict the water level of Nokoué Lake up to a forecast horizon of t+10 days. Performance metrics such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), coefficient of correlation (R²), Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) agree on a forecast horizon of up to t+3 days. The values of these metrics remain stable for forecast horizons of t+1 days, t+2 days, and t+3 days. The values of R² and NSE are greater than 0.97 during the training and testing phases in the Nokoué Lake basin. Based on the evaluation indices used to assess the model's performance for the appropriate forecast horizon of water level in the Nokoué Lake basin, the forecast horizon of t+3 days is chosen for predicting future daily water levels.

Keywords: forecasting, long short-term memory cell, recurrent artificial neural network, Nokoué lake

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3927 Identifying Factors of Wellbeing in Russian Orphans

Authors: Alexandra Telitsyna, Galina Semya, Elvira Garifulina

Abstract:

Introduction: Starting from 2012 Russia conducts deinstitutionalization policy and now the main indicator of success is the number of children living in institutions. Active family placement process has resulted in residents of the institution now mainly consists of adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems, children with disabilities and groups of siblings. Purpose of science research: The purpose of science research is to identify factors for child’s wellbeing while temporary stay in an orphanage and the subjective assessment of children's level of well-being (psychological well-being). Methods: The data used for this project was collected by the questionnaire of 72 indicators, a tool for monitoring the behavior of children and caregivers, an additional questionnaire for children; well-being assessment questionnaire containing 10 scales for three age groups from preschool to older adolescents. In 2016-2018, the research was conducted in 1873 institution in 85 regions of Russia. In each region a team of academics, specialists from Non-profits, independent experts was created. Training was conducted for team members through a series of webinars prior to undertaking the assessment. The results: To ensure the well-being of the children, the following conditions are necessary: 1- Life of children in institution is organised according to the principles of family care (including the creation of conditions for attachment to be formed); 2- Contribution to find family-based placement for children (including reintegration into the primary family); 3- Work with parents of children, who are placed in an organization at the request of parents; 4- Children attend schools according to their needs; 5- Training of staff and volunteers; 6- Special environment and services for children with special needs and children with disabilities; 7- Cooperation with NGOs; 8 - Openness and accessibility of the organization. Conclusion: A study of the psychological well-being of children showed that the most emotionally stressful for children were questions about the presence and frequency of contact with relatives, and the level of well-being is higher in the presence of a trusted adult and respect for rights. The greatest contribution to the trouble is made by the time the child is in the orphanage, the lack of contact with parents and relatives, the uncertainty of the future.

Keywords: identifying factors, orphans, Russia, wellbeing

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3926 Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Turbulent Convective Heat Transfer in Rectangular Mini-Channels for Rocket Cooling Applications

Authors: O. Anwar Beg, Armghan Zubair, Sireetorn Kuharat, Meisam Babaie

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In this work, motivated by rocket channel cooling applications, we describe recent CFD simulations of turbulent convective heat transfer in mini-channels at different aspect ratios. ANSYS FLUENT software has been employed with a mean average error of 5.97% relative to Forrest’s MIT cooling channel study (2014) at a Reynolds number of 50,443 with a Prandtl number of 3.01. This suggests that the simulation model created for turbulent flow was suitable to set as a foundation for the study of different aspect ratios in the channel. Multiple aspect ratios were also considered to understand the influence of high aspect ratios to analyse the best performing cooling channel, which was determined to be the highest aspect ratio channels. Hence, the approximate 28:1 aspect ratio provided the best characteristics to ensure effective cooling. A mesh convergence study was performed to assess the optimum mesh density to collect accurate results. Hence, for this study an element size of 0.05mm was used to generate 579,120 for proper turbulent flow simulation. Deploying a greater bias factor would increase the mesh density to the furthest edges of the channel which would prove to be useful if the focus of the study was just on a single side of the wall. Since a bulk temperature is involved with the calculations, it is essential to ensure a suitable bias factor is used to ensure the reliability of the results. Hence, in this study we have opted to use a bias factor of 5 to allow greater mesh density at both edges of the channel. However, the limitations on mesh density and hardware have curtailed the sophistication achievable for the turbulence characteristics. Also only linear rectangular channels were considered, i.e. curvature was ignored. Furthermore, we only considered conventional water coolant. From this CFD study the variation of aspect ratio provided a deeper appreciation of the effect of small to high aspect ratios with regard to cooling channels. Hence, when considering an application for the channel, the geometry of the aspect ratio must play a crucial role in optimizing cooling performance.

Keywords: rocket channel cooling, ANSYS FLUENT CFD, turbulence, convection heat transfer

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3925 Urban Sprawl Analysis in the City of Thiruvananthapuram and a Framework Formulation to Combat it

Authors: Sandeep J. Kumar

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Urbanisation is considered as the primary driver of land use and land cover change that has direct link to population and economic growth. In India, as well as in other developing countries, cities are urbanizing at an alarming rate. This unprecedented and uncontrolled urbanisation can result in urban sprawl. Due to a number of factors, urban sprawl is recognised to be a result of poor planning, inadequate policies, and poor governance. Urban sprawl may be seen as posing a threat to the development of sustainable cities. Hence, it is very essential to manage this. Planning for predicted future growth is critical to avoid the negative effects of urban growth at the local and regional levels. Thiruvananthapuram being the capital city of Kerala is a city of economic success, challenges, and opportunities. Urbanization trends in the city have paved way for Urban Sprawl. This thesis aims to formulate a framework to combat the emerging urban sprawl in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. For that, the first step was to quantify trends of urban growth in Thiruvananthapuram city using Geographical Information System(GIS) and remote sensing techniques. The technique and results obtained in the study are extremely valuable in analysing the land use changes. Secondly, these change in the trends were analysed through some of the critical factors that helped the study to understand the underlying issues of the existing city structure that has resulted in urban sprawl. Anticipating development trends can modify the current order. This can be productively resolved using regional and municipal planning and management strategies. Hence efficient strategies to curb the sprawl in Thiruvananthapuram city have been formulated in this study that can be considered as recommendations for future planning.

Keywords: urbanisation, urban sprawl, geographical information system(GIS), thiruvananthapuram

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3924 A Parking Demand Forecasting Method for Making Parking Policy in the Center of Kabul City

Authors: Roien Qiam, Shoshi Mizokami

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Parking demand in the Central Business District (CBD) has enlarged with the increase of the number of private vehicles due to rapid economic growth, lack of an efficient public transport and traffic management system. This has resulted in low mobility, poor accessibility, serious congestion, high rates of traffic accident fatalities and injuries and air pollution, mainly because people have to drive slowly around to find a vacant spot. With parking pricing and enforcement policy, considerable advancement could be found, and on-street parking spaces could be managed efficiently and effectively. To evaluate parking demand and making parking policy, it is required to understand the current parking condition and driver’s behavior, understand how drivers choose their parking type and location as well as their behavior toward finding a vacant parking spot under parking charges and search times. This study illustrates the result from an observational, revealed and stated preference surveys and experiment. Attained data shows that there is a gap between supply and demand in parking and it has maximized. For the modeling of the parking decision, a choice model was constructed based on discrete choice modeling theory and multinomial logit model estimated by using SP survey data; the model represents the choice of an alternative among different alternatives which are priced on-street, off-street, and illegal parking. Individuals choose a parking type based on their preference concerning parking charges, searching times, access times and waiting times. The parking assignment model was obtained directly from behavioral model and is used in parking simulation. The study concludes with an evaluation of parking policy.

Keywords: CBD, parking demand forecast, parking policy, parking choice model

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3923 Automated Feature Extraction and Object-Based Detection from High-Resolution Aerial Photos Based on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Authors: Mohammed Al Sulaimani, Hamad Al Manhi

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With the development of Remote Sensing technology, the resolution of optical Remote Sensing images has greatly improved, and images have become largely available. Numerous detectors have been developed for detecting different types of objects. In the past few years, Remote Sensing has benefited a lot from deep learning, particularly Deep Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs). Deep learning holds great promise to fulfill the challenging needs of Remote Sensing and solving various problems within different fields and applications. The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems in acquiring Aerial Photos has become highly used and preferred by most organizations to support their activities because of their high resolution and accuracy, which make the identification and detection of very small features much easier than Satellite Images. And this has opened an extreme era of Deep Learning in different applications not only in feature extraction and prediction but also in analysis. This work addresses the capacity of Machine Learning and Deep Learning in detecting and extracting Oil Leaks from Flowlines (Onshore) using High-Resolution Aerial Photos which have been acquired by UAS fixed with RGB Sensor to support early detection of these leaks and prevent the company from the leak’s losses and the most important thing environmental damage. Here, there are two different approaches and different methods of DL have been demonstrated. The first approach focuses on detecting the Oil Leaks from the RAW Aerial Photos (not processed) using a Deep Learning called Single Shoot Detector (SSD). The model draws bounding boxes around the leaks, and the results were extremely good. The second approach focuses on detecting the Oil Leaks from the Ortho-mosaiced Images (Georeferenced Images) by developing three Deep Learning Models using (MaskRCNN, U-Net and PSP-Net Classifier). Then, post-processing is performed to combine the results of these three Deep Learning Models to achieve a better detection result and improved accuracy. Although there is a relatively small amount of datasets available for training purposes, the Trained DL Models have shown good results in extracting the extent of the Oil Leaks and obtaining excellent and accurate detection.

Keywords: GIS, remote sensing, oil leak detection, machine learning, aerial photos, unmanned aerial systems

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3922 The Contact between a Rigid Substrate and a Thick Elastic Layer

Authors: Nicola Menga, Giuseppe Carbone

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Although contact mechanics has been widely focused on the study of contacts between half-space, it has been recently pointed out that in presence of finite thickness elastic layers the results of the contact problem show significant difference in terms of the main contact quantities (e.g. contact area, penetration, mean pressure, etc.). Actually, there exist a wide range of industrial application demanding for this kind of studies, such as seals leakage prediction or pressure-sensitive coatings for electrical applications. In this work, we focus on the contact between a rigid profile and an elastic layer of thickness h confined under two different configurations: rigid constrain and applied uniform pressure. The elastic problem at hand has been formalized following Green’s function method and then numerically solved by means of a matrix inversion. We study different contact conditions, both considering and neglecting adhesive interactions at the interface. This leads to different solution techniques: Adhesive contacts equilibrium solution is found, in term of contact area for given penetration, making stationary the total free energy of the system; whereas, adhesiveless contacts are addressed defining an equilibrium criterion, again on the contact area, relying on the fracture mechanics stress intensity factor KI. In particular, we make the KI vanish at the edges of the contact area, as peculiar for adhesiveless elastic contacts. The results are obtained in terms of contact area, penetration, and mean pressure for both adhesive and adhesiveless contact conditions. As expected, in the case of a uniform applied pressure the slab turns out much more compliant than the rigidly constrained one. Indeed, we have observed that the peak value of the contact pressure, for both the adhesive and adhesiveless condition, is much higher for the rigidly constrained configuration than in the case of applied uniform pressure. Furthermore, we observed that, for little contact area, both systems behave the same and the pull-off occurs at approximately the same contact area and mean contact pressure. This is an expected result since in this condition the ratio between the layers thickness and the contact area is very high and both layer configurations recover the half-space behavior where the pull-off occurrence is mainly controlled by the adhesive interactions, which are kept constant among the cases.

Keywords: contact mechanics, adhesion, friction, thick layer

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3921 Performance Study of Neodymium Extraction by Carbon Nanotubes Assisted Emulsion Liquid Membrane Using Response Surface Methodology

Authors: Payman Davoodi-Nasab, Ahmad Rahbar-Kelishami, Jaber Safdari, Hossein Abolghasemi

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The high purity rare earth elements (REEs) have been vastly used in the field of chemical engineering, metallurgy, nuclear energy, optical, magnetic, luminescence and laser materials, superconductors, ceramics, alloys, catalysts, and etc. Neodymium is one of the most abundant rare earths. By development of a neodymium–iron–boron (Nd–Fe–B) permanent magnet, the importance of neodymium has dramatically increased. Solvent extraction processes have many operational limitations such as large inventory of extractants, loss of solvent due to the organic solubility in aqueous solutions, volatilization of diluents, etc. One of the promising methods of liquid membrane processes is emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) which offers an alternative method to the solvent extraction processes. In this work, a study on Nd extraction through multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) assisted ELM using response surface methodology (RSM) has been performed. The ELM composed of diisooctylphosphinic acid (CYANEX 272) as carrier, MWCNTs as nanoparticles, Span-85 (sorbitan triooleate) as surfactant, kerosene as organic diluent and nitric acid as internal phase. The effects of important operating variables namely, surfactant concentration, MWCNTs concentration, and treatment ratio were investigated. Results were optimized using a central composite design (CCD) and a regression model for extraction percentage was developed. The 3D response surfaces of Nd(III) extraction efficiency were achieved and significance of three important variables and their interactions on the Nd extraction efficiency were found out. Results indicated that introducing the MWCNTs to the ELM process led to increasing the Nd extraction due to higher stability of membrane and mass transfer enhancement. MWCNTs concentration of 407 ppm, Span-85 concentration of 2.1 (%v/v) and treatment ratio of 10 were achieved as the optimum conditions. At the optimum condition, the extraction of Nd(III) reached the maximum of 99.03%.

Keywords: emulsion liquid membrane, extraction of neodymium, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, response surface method

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3920 Ischemic Stroke Detection in Computed Tomography Examinations

Authors: Allan F. F. Alves, Fernando A. Bacchim Neto, Guilherme Giacomini, Marcela de Oliveira, Ana L. M. Pavan, Maria E. D. Rosa, Diana R. Pina

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Stroke is a worldwide concern, only in Brazil it accounts for 10% of all registered deaths. There are 2 stroke types, ischemic (87%) and hemorrhagic (13%). Early diagnosis is essential to avoid irreversible cerebral damage. Non-enhanced computed tomography (NECT) is one of the main diagnostic techniques used due to its wide availability and rapid diagnosis. Detection depends on the size and severity of lesions and the time spent between the first symptoms and examination. The Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) is a subjective method that increases the detection rate. The aim of this work was to implement an image segmentation system to enhance ischemic stroke and to quantify the area of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke lesions in CT scans. We evaluated 10 patients with NECT examinations diagnosed with ischemic stroke. Analyzes were performed in two axial slices, one at the level of the thalamus and basal ganglion and one adjacent to the top edge of the ganglionic structures with window width between 80 and 100 Hounsfield Units. We used different image processing techniques such as morphological filters, discrete wavelet transform and Fuzzy C-means clustering. Subjective analyzes were performed by a neuroradiologist according to the ASPECTS scale to quantify ischemic areas in the middle cerebral artery region. These subjective analysis results were compared with objective analyzes performed by the computational algorithm. Preliminary results indicate that the morphological filters actually improve the ischemic areas for subjective evaluations. The comparison in area of the ischemic region contoured by the neuroradiologist and the defined area by computational algorithm showed no deviations greater than 12% in any of the 10 examination tests. Although there is a tendency that the areas contoured by the neuroradiologist are smaller than those obtained by the algorithm. These results show the importance of a computer aided diagnosis software to assist neuroradiology decisions, especially in critical situations as the choice of treatment for ischemic stroke.

Keywords: ischemic stroke, image processing, CT scans, Fuzzy C-means

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3919 Cost-Effectiveness of Forest Restoration in Nepal: A Case from Leasehold Forestry Initiatives

Authors: Sony Baral, Bijendra Basnyat, Kalyan Gauli

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Forests are depleted throughout the world in the 1990s, and since then, various efforts have been undertaken for the restoration of the forest. A government of Nepal promoted various community based forest management in which leasehold forestry was the one introduce in 1990s, aiming to restore degraded forests land. However, few attempts have been made to systematically evaluate its cost effectiveness. Hence the study assesses the cost effectiveness of leasehold forestry intervention in the mid-hill district of Nepal following the cost and benefit analysis approach. The study followed quasi-experimental design and collected costs and benefits information from 320 leasehold forestry groups (with intervention) and 154 comparison groups (without intervention) through household survey, forest inventory and then validated with the stakeholders’ consultative workshop. The study found that both the benefits and costs from intervention outweighed without situation. The members of leasehold forestry groups were generating multiple benefits from the forests, such as firewood, grasses, fodder, and fruits, whereas those from comparison groups were mostly getting a single benefit. Likewise, extent of soil carbon is high in leasehold forests. Average expense per unit area is high in intervention sites due to high government investment for capacity building. Nevertheless, positive net present value and internal rate of return was observed for both situations. However, net present value from intervention, i.e., leasehold forestry, is almost double compared to comparison sites, revealing that community are getting higher benefits from restoration. The study concludes that leasehold forestry is a highly cost-effective intervention that contributes towards forest restoration that brings multiple benefits to rural poor.

Keywords: cost effectiveness, economic efficiency, intervention, restoration, leasehold forestry, nepal

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