Search results for: assessment of risk and need

Authors: Rachana Tank, Donald. M. Lyall, Kristin Flegal, Joey Ward, Jonathan Cavanagh

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Alzheimer’s research UK estimates by 2050, 2 million individuals will be living with Late Onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). However, individuals experience considerable cognitive deficits and brain pathology over decades before reaching clinically diagnosable LOAD and studies have utilised gene candidate studies such as genome wide association studies (GWAS) and polygenic risk (PGR) scores to identify high risk individuals and potential pathways. This investigation aims to determine whether high genetic risk of LOAD is associated with worse brain MRI and cognitive performance in healthy older adults within the UK Biobank cohort. Previous studies investigating associations of PGR for LOAD and measures of MRI or cognitive functioning have focused on specific aspects of hippocampal structure, in relatively small sample sizes and with poor ‘controlling’ for confounders such as smoking. Both the sample size of this study and the discovery GWAS sample are bigger than previous studies to our knowledge. Genetic interaction between loci showing largest effects in GWAS have not been extensively studied and it is known that APOE e4 poses the largest genetic risk of LOAD with potential gene-gene and gene-environment interactions of e4, for this reason we  also analyse genetic interactions of PGR with the APOE e4 genotype. High genetic loading based on a polygenic risk score of 21 SNPs for LOAD is associated with worse brain MRI and cognitive outcomes in healthy individuals within the UK Biobank cohort. Summary statistics from Kunkle et al., GWAS meta-analyses (case: n=30,344, control: n=52,427) will be used to create polygenic risk scores based on 21 SNPs and analyses will be carried out in N=37,000 participants in the UK Biobank. This will be the largest study to date investigating PGR of LOAD in relation to MRI. MRI outcome measures include WM tracts, structural volumes. Cognitive function measures include reaction time, pairs matching, trail making, digit symbol substitution and prospective memory. Interaction of the APOE e4 alleles and PGR will be analysed by including APOE status as an interaction term coded as either 0, 1 or 2 e4 alleles. Models will be adjusted partially for adjusted for age, BMI, sex, genotyping chip, smoking, depression and social deprivation. Preliminary results suggest PGR score for LOAD is associated with decreased hippocampal volumes including hippocampal body (standardised beta = -0.04, P = 0.022) and tail (standardised beta = -0.037, P = 0.030), but not with hippocampal head. There were also associations of genetic risk with decreased cognitive performance including fluid intelligence (standardised beta = -0.08, P<0.01) and reaction time (standardised beta = 2.04, P<0.01). No genetic interactions were found between APOE e4 dose and PGR score for MRI or cognitive measures. The generalisability of these results is limited by selection bias within the UK Biobank as participants are less likely to be obese, smoke, be socioeconomically deprived and have fewer self-reported health conditions when compared to the general population. Lack of a unified approach or standardised method for calculating genetic risk scores may also be a limitation of these analyses. Further discussion and results are pending.

Keywords: Alzheimer's dementia, cognition, polygenic risk, MRI

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Authors: Aliyatul Widyan, Denie Heriyadi, An An Nurmeidiansyah

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Garut Sheep is a commodity of sheep originally from West Java Indonesia, specifically it has combination rumpung ears less than 4 cm or ngadaun hiris (4-8cm) with ngabuntut bagong, or ngabuntut beurit. West Java culture diversity one of those is the Garut Ram’s Art and Fighting Contest. Garut Ram’s Art and Fighting Contest is an activity of competitive fighting between sheep which comes from Garut. The method used is a survey method in which watching and directly interviewing the farmers who competed in the event. This activity had some aspects of animal welfare in the context of the assessment of the fighting sheep, which are health 10%, performance and body conformation called adeg-adeg 25%, courage 10%, technical field 30% called with teknik pamidangan, technical crash 25%, the health assessment is the assessment conducted during registration by showing a letter issued by related agency declaring that the sheep is eligible to compete in the event, and then when the fighting time the health also will be assessed. Adeg-adeg assessed an aspect of conformity assessment of body posture Garut ram from the physical performance is assessed on the body posture, horn, and the face. Technical of pamidangan assessed by the harmony of music and the movement of sheep to carry out the attack. Courage is assessed based on a mental condition and stamina when the fighting time, in addition to the assessments the activity has some other the component of culture and arts, such as, the audience called bobotoh, the clothes worn called pangsi, tarumpah or sandals, belts, and totopong, hats called laken, instructor of the match, and nayaga or group of people who play traditional Sundanese music to accompany this activity. Art aspect of animal welfare of this activity included the percentage of stroke technique is only around 25%, it makes the beauty of this art is not only measured by the Technical crash but also health, courage, and technique in the field has the highest mark in the assessment with 75 %, the event is certainly very different from sports such as boxing, taekwondo, karate or other martial sports which 100% only based on stroke or crash technique. Local culture value of Garut Ram’s Art and Fighting Contest results in the art of the local animal welfare.

Keywords: Garut sheep, Indonesia, the art of Garut Ram’s Art and Fighting Contest , animal welfare

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Authors: Kalpana Rajouriya, Ajay Taneja

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The objective of the present study is to investigate the regional and lobar deposition of size-segregated PM in respiratory tract of human body. PM in different fractions is monitored using the Grimm portable environmental dust monitor during winter season in Firozabad; a Glass city of India. PM10 concentration (200.817g/m³) was 4.46 and 2.0 times higher than the limits prescribed by WHO (45g/m⁻³) and NAAQS (100g/m⁻³) government agencies. PM2.5 concentration (83.538 g/m3) was 5.56 and 1.39 times higher from WHO (15g/m-3) and NAAQS (60g/m⁻³) limits. Results inferred that PM10 and PM2.5 was highest deposited in head region (0.3477-0.5622 & 0.366-0.4704) followed by pulmonary region, especially in the 9-21year old persons. The variation in deposition percentage in our study is mainly due to the airway geometry, PM size, and its deposition mechanisms. The coarse fraction, due to its large size, cannot follow the airway path and mostly gets deposited by inertial impaction in the head region and its bifurcations. The present study results inferred that Coarse and fine PM deposition was highly visualized in 9 (8.45610⁻⁴ g, 2.91110⁻⁴g) year and 3 (1.49610⁻⁴ g, 8.59310⁻⁵g) month age category. So, the 9year children and 3month infants category have high level of health risk.

Keywords: particulate matter, MPPD model, regional deposition, lobar deposition, health risk

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Authors: Heba Salem

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This paper aims to share the researcher’s experience of using e-Portfolios as an assessment tool to follow up on students’ learning experiences and performance throughout the semester. It also aims at highlighting the importance of students’ self-reflection in the process of language learning. The paper begins by introducing the advanced media course, with its focus on listening and speaking skills, and introduces the students’ profiles. Then it explains the students’ role in the e-portfolio process as they are given the option to choose a listening text they studied throughout the semester and to choose a recorded oral production of their collection of artifacts throughout the semester. Students showcase and reflect on their progress in both listening comprehension and speaking. According to the research, re-listening to work given to them and to their production is a means of reflecting on both their progress and achievement. And choosing the work students want to showcase is a means to promote independent learning as well as self-expression. Students are encouraged to go back to the class learning outcomes in the process of choosing the work. In their reflections, students express how they met the specific learning outcome. While giving their presentations, students expressed how useful the experience of returning and going over what they covered to select one and going over their production as well. They also expressed how beneficial it was to listen to themselves and literally see their progress in both listening comprehension and speaking. Students also reported that they grasped more details from the texts than they did when first having it as an assignment, which coincided with one of the class learning outcomes. They also expressed the fact that they had more confidence speaking as well as they were able to use a variety of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions that students have accumulated. For illustration, this paper includes practical samples of students’ tasks and instructions as well as samples of their reflections. The results of students’ reflections coincide with what the research confirms about the effectiveness of the e-portfolios as a means of assessment. The employment of e-Portfolios has two-folded benefits; students are able to measure the achievement of the targeted learning outcomes, and teachers receive constructive feedback on their teaching methods.

Keywords: e-portfolios, assessment, self assessment, listening and speaking progress, foreign language, reflection, learning out comes, sharing experience

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Authors: A. M. Ferrari, L. Volpi, M. Pini, C. Siligardi, F. E. Garcia Muina, D. Settembre Blundo

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A long tradition in the ceramic manufacturing since the 18th century, primarily due to the availability of raw materials and an efficient transport system, let to the birth and development of the Italian ceramic tiles district that nowadays represents a reference point for this sector even at global level. This economic growth has been coupled to attention towards environmental sustainability issues throughout various initiatives undertaken over the years at the level of the production sector, such as certification activities and sustainability policies. In this way, starting from an evaluation of the sustainability in all its aspects, the present work aims to develop a benchmarking helping both producers and consumers. In the present study, throughout the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework, the sustainability has been assessed in all its dimensions: environmental with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), economic with the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and social with the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). The annual district production of stoneware tiles during the 2016 reference year has been taken as reference flow for all the three assessments, and the system boundaries cover the entire life cycle of the tiles, except for the LCC for which only the production costs have been considered at the moment. In addition, a preliminary method for the evaluation of local and indoor emissions has been introduced in order to assess the impact due to atmospheric emissions on both people living in the area surrounding the factories and workers. The Life Cycle Assessment results, obtained from IMPACT 2002+ modified assessment method, highlight that the manufacturing process is responsible for the main impact, especially because of atmospheric emissions at a local scale, followed by the distribution to end users, the installation and the ordinary maintenance of the tiles. With regard to the economic evaluation, both the internal and external costs have been considered. For the LCC, primary data from the analysis of the financial statements of Italian ceramic companies show that the higher cost items refer to expenses for goods and services and costs of human resources. The analysis of externalities with the EPS 2015dx method attributes the main damages to the distribution and installation of the tiles. The social dimension has been investigated with a preliminary approach by using the Social Hotspots Database, and the results indicate that the most affected damage categories are health and safety and labor rights and decent work. This study shows the potential of the LCSA framework applied to an industrial sector; in particular, it can be a useful tool for building a comprehensive benchmark for the sustainability of the ceramic industry, and it can help companies to actively integrate sustainability principles into their business models.

Keywords: benchmarking, Italian ceramic industry, life cycle sustainability assessment, porcelain stoneware tiles

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Authors: Shaneil Taylor

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Gender-based violence is a reflection of the inequalities that are associated within a society between the men and women that affects the health, dignity, security and autonomy of its victims. There are various determinants that contribute to the health risk of young women who have experienced sexual violence, in countries that have a high prevalence rate for HIV. For instance, in South Africa, where the highest prevalence rate for HIV is among young women, their susceptibility to the virus has been increased by sexual violence and cultural inequalities. Therefore, this study is a review of literature that explores how gender-based violence increases the possibility for HIV/AIDS among young women in South Africa.

Keywords: gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS transmission, risky sexual behavior, young women

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Authors: Amiel Satvedi, Richard Pyne

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Injuries in professional sports occur on a regular basis. Some may be minor, while others can cause huge impact on a player's career and earning potential. In soccer, there is a high risk of players picking up injuries during game time. This research work seeks to help soccer players reduce the risk of getting injured by predicting the likelihood of injury while playing in the near future and then providing recommendations for intervention. The injury prediction tool will use a soccer player's number of minutes played on the field, number of appearances, distance covered and performance data for the current and previous seasons as variables to conduct statistical analysis and provide injury predictive results using a machine learning linear regression model.

Keywords: injury predictor, soccer injury prevention, machine learning in soccer, big data in soccer

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Authors: R. Tariq, R. Lee

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Background: Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale Urgent Community Care Team (UCCT)1 is a great example of using a multidisciplinary team to cope with demand. The service reduces unnecessary admissions to hospitals and ensures that patients can leave the hospital quicker by making care more readily available within the community and patient’s homes. The team comprises nurses, community practitioners, and allied health professions, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and GPs. The main challenge for a team with a range of experiences and skill sets is to maintain consistency of care, which technology can help address. Allied healthcare professionals (HCPs) are often used in expanded roles with duties mainly involving patient consultations and decision making to ease pressure on doctors. The Clinical Reasoning Platform (CRP) Dem Dx is used to support new as well as experienced professionals in the decision making process. By guiding HCPs through diagnosing patients from an expansive directory of differential diagnoses, patients can receive quality care in the community. Actions on the platform are determined using NICE guidelines along with local guidance influencing the assessment and management of a patient. Objective: To compare the clinical assessment, decisions, and actions taken by the UCCT multidisciplinary team in the community and Dem Dx, using retrospective clinical cases. Methodology: Dem Dx was used to analyse 192 anonymised cases provided by the HMR UCCT. The team’s performance was compared with Dem Dx regarding the quality of the documentation of the clinical assessment and the next steps on the patient’s journey, including the initial management, actions, and any onward referrals made. The cases were audited by two medical doctors. Results: The study found that the actions outlined by the Dem Dx platform were appropriate in almost 87% of cases. When in a direct comparison between DemDX and the actions taken by the clinical team, it was found that the platform was suitable 83% (p<0.001) of the time and could lead to a potential improvement of 66% in the assessment and management of cases. Dem Dx also served to highlight the importance of comprehensive and high quality clinical documentation. The quality of documentation of cases by UCCT can be improved to provide a detailed account of the assessment and management process. By providing step-by-step guidance and documentation at every stage, Dem Dx may ensure that legal accountability has been fulfilled. Conclusion: With the ever expanding workforce in the NHS, technology has become a key component in driving healthcare outcomes. To improve healthcare provision and clinical reasoning, a decision support platform can be integrated into HCPs’ clinical practice. Potential assistance with clinical assessments, the most appropriate next step and actions in a patient’s care, and improvements in the documentation was highlighted by this retrospective study. A further study has been planned to ascertain the effectiveness of improving outcomes using the clinical reasoning platform within the clinical setting by clinicians.

Keywords: allied health professional, assessment, clinical reasoning, clinical records, clinical decision-making, ocumentation

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Authors: Ilham Ihoume, Rachid Tadili, Nora Arbaoui

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The use of solar energy in agricultural applications has gained significant at‎tention ‎‎in recent years as a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to ‎‎conventional energy sources. In particular, solar drying of crops has ‎been identified ‎‎as an effective method to preserve agricultural produce while ‎minimizing energy ‎‎consumption and reducing carbon emissions. In this context, the present study ‎‎aims to evaluate the thermo-economic and ecological ‎performance of a solar-electric hybrid greenhouse dryer designed for grape ‎drying. The proposed system ‎‎integrates solar collectors, an electric heater, ‎and a greenhouse structure to create a ‎‎controlled and energy-efficient environment for grape drying. The thermo-economic assessment involves the ‎analysis of the thermal performance, energy ‎‎consumption, and cost-effectiveness of the solar-electric hybrid greenhouse dryer. ‎‎On the other ‎hand, the ecological assessment focuses on the environmental impact ‎‎of the ‎system in terms of carbon emissions and sustainability. The findings of this ‎‎‎study are expected to contribute to the development of sustainable agricultural ‎‎practices and the promotion of renewable energy technologies in the ‎context of ‎‎food production. Moreover, the results may serve as a basis for the ‎design and ‎‎optimization of similar solar drying systems for other crops and ‎regions.‎

Keywords: solar energy, sustainability, agriculture, energy ‎‎analysis‎

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Authors: Majid Galoie, Khodadad Safavi, Abdolreza Karami Nejad, Reza Roshan

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In this study, a comprehensive scouring model has been developed in order to evaluate the accuracy of various empirical relationships which were suggested for prediction of scour hole depth in plunge pools by Martins, Mason, Chian and Veronese. For this reason, scour hole depths caused by free falling jets from a flip bucket to a plunge pool were investigated. In this study various discharges, angles, scouring times, etc. have been considered. The final results demonstrated that the all mentioned empirical formulas, except Mason formula, were reasonably agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords: scour hole depth, plunge pool, physical model, reliability assessment

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Authors: Claudia Seabra, Elisabeth Kastenholz, José Luís Abrantes, Manuel Reis

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In a world of increasing mobility and global risks, terrorism has, in a perverse way, capitalized on contemporaneous society’s growing interest in travel to explore a world whose national boundaries and distances have decreased. Terrorists have identified the modern tourist flows originated from the economically more developed countries as new appealing targets so as to: i) call attention to the causes they defend and ii) destroy a country’s foundations of tourism, with the final aim of disrupting the economic and consequently social fabric of the affected countries. The present study analyses sensitivity towards risk and travel behaviors in international travel amongst a sample of 600 international tourists from 49 countries travelling by air. Specifically, the sample was segmented according to the Global Peace Index. This index defines country profiles regarding the levels of peace. The indicators used are established over three broad themes: i) ongoing domestic and international conflict; ii) societal safety and security; and iii) militarisation. Tourists were segmented, according to their country of origin, in different levels of peacefulness. Several facets of travel behavior were evaluated, namely motivations, attitude towards trip planning, quality perception and perceived value of the trip. Also factors related with risk perception were evaluated, specifically terrorism risk perception during the trip, unsafety sensation as well as importance attributed to safety in travel. Results contribute to our understanding of the role of previous exposure to the lack of peace and safety at home in the international tourists behaviors, which is further discussed in terms of tourism management and marketing implications which should particularly interest tourism services and destinations more affected by terrorism, war, political turmoil, crime and other safety risks.

Keywords: terrorism, tourism, safety, risk perception

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Authors: Jernice S. Y. Tan

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Introduction: Reliability within and between testers is vital to ensure the accuracy of any motor assessment instrument. However, reliability checks of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) age band 3 using multiple testers assigned to different MABC-2 tasks for the same group of participants are uncommon. Multiple testers were not stated as a choice in the MABC-2 manual. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the inter- and intra-tester reliability for using multiple testers to administer the test protocols of MABC-2 age band 3. Methods: Thirty volunteered adolescents (n = 30; 15 males, 15 females; age range: 13 – 16 years) performed the eight tasks in a randomised sequence at three different test stations for the MABC-2 task components (Manual Dexterity, Aiming and Catching, Balance). Ethics approval and parental consent were obtained. The participants were videotaped while performing the test protocols of MABC-2 age band 3. Five testers were involved in the data collection process. They were Sports Science graduating students doing their final year project and were supervised by experienced motor assessor. Inter- and intra-tester reliability checks using intra-class coefficient (ICC) were carried out using the videotaped data. Results: The inter-tester reliability between the five testers for the eight tasks ranged from rᵢcc = 0.705 to rᵢcc = 0.995. This suggests that the average agreement between them was considered good to excellent. With the exception of one tester who had rᵢcc = 0.687 for one of the eight tasks (i.e. zip-zap hopping), the intra-tester reliability within each tester ranged from rᵢcc = 0.728 to rᵢcc = 1.000, and this also suggested good to excellent consistency within testers. Discussion: The use of multiple testers with good intra-tester reliability for different test stations is feasible. This method allows several participants to be assessed concurrently at different test stations and saves overall data collection time. Therefore, it is recommended that the administering of MABC-2 with multiple testers should be extended to other age bands ensuring the feasibility of such method for other age bands.

Keywords: adolescents, MABC, motor assessment, motor skills, reliability

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Authors: M. A. Peribanez, G. Illan, I. De Blas, A. Muniesa, I. Ruiz-Zarzuela

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Intensive aquaculture is commonly associated with increased incidence of parasites. However, in Spain, the recent intensification of cyprinid production has not led to knowledge of the parasites that develop in the aquaculture facilities, the factors that affect their development and spread and the transmission between wild and cultivated fish species. The present study focuses on the knowledge of environmental factors, as well as host dependent factors, and their possible influence as risk factors in the incidence and intensity of parasitic infections. This work was conducted in the Duero River Basin, NW Spain. A total of 114 tenches (Tinca tinca) were caught in a fish farm and 667 specimens belonging to six species of cyprinid, not tench, in five rivers. An exhaustive search and microscopic identification of protozoa on skin and gills were carried out. Physical, chemical, and biological parameters of water samples from the capture points were determined. Only two ectoprotozoa were identified, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis and Tripartiella sp. In I. multifiliis, a high intensity of infection (more than 40 parasites on the body surface and more than 80 on gills) was determined in farmed tench (14%) and in Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus bocagei) (91%) and Duero nase (Pseudochondrostoma duriense) (71%) of middle stretches of rivers. The prevalence was similar between farmed tenches and cyprinids of middle courses. Tripartiella sp. was only found in barbels (prevalence in middle stretches, 0.7%) and in farmed tenches (63%), this species resulting in a high risk factor (odds ratio, OR= 1143) in the presence of the ciliate. There were no differences between the two species relative to the intensity of parasitization. Some of the physical, chemical and microbiological water quality parameters appear to be risk factors in the presence of I. multifiliis, with maximum OR of 8. Nevertheless, in Tripartiella sp., the risk is multiplied by 720 when the pH value exceeds 8.4, if we consider the total of the data, and it is increased more than 500 times if we only consider the values recorded in the fish farm (529 by nitrates > 3 mg/l; 530 by total coliforms > 100 CFU/100 ml). However, the high prevalence and risk of infection by I. multifiliis and Tripartiella sp. in fish farms should be related to environmental factors that dependent upon sampling point rather than in direct influence of the physical-chemical and biological parameters of the water. The high pH value recorded in the fish farm (9.62 ± 0.76) is the only parameter that we consider may have a substantial direct influence. Chronic exposure to alkaline pH levels can be a chronic stress generator, predisposing to parasitization by Tripartiella sp. In conclusion, often minor changes in ecosystem conditions, both natural and man-made, can modify the host-parasite relationship, resulting in an increase in the prevalence and intensity of parasitic infections in populations of cyprinids, sometimes causing disease outbreaks.

Keywords: cyprinids, fish, parasites, protozoa, risk factors

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Authors: Ayedun Hassan, Ayadi Odunayo Peter

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The ancient city of Abeokuta has been supplied with pipe borne water since 1911, yet, a continuous increase in population and unplanned city expansion makes water a very precious and scarce commodity. The government reserved areas (GRA’s) are well planned, and public water supply is available; however, the sub-urban areas consist of scattered structures with individuals trying to source water by digging wells and boreholes. The geology of the city consists of basement rock which makes digging wells and boreholes very difficult. The present study was conducted to assess the risk arising from the consumption of toxic elements in the groundwater of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Forty-five groundwater samples were collected from nine different areas of Abeokuta and analyzed for physicochemical parameters and toxic elements. The physicochemical parameters were determined using standard methods, while the toxic elements were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP/MS). Ninety-six percent (96%) of the water sample has pH < 6.5, and 11% has conductivity > 250 µSCm⁻¹ limits in drinking water as recommended by WHO. Seven percent (7%) of the samples have Pb concentration >10 µgL⁻¹ while 75% have Al concentration >200 µgL⁻¹ recommended by WHO. The order for risk of cancer from different area of Abeokuta are Cd²⁺ > As³⁺ > Pb²⁺ > Cr⁶⁺ for Funaab, Camp and Obantoko; As³⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Pb²⁺ > Cr⁶⁺ for Ita Osin, Isale Igbein, Ake and Itoku; Cd²⁺ >As > Cr⁶⁺ > Pb²⁺ for Totoro; Pb²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > As³⁺ > Cr⁶⁺ for Idiaba. The order of non-cancer hazard index (HI) calculated for groundwater of Abeokuta City are Cd²⁺ > As³⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Pb²⁺ > Ni²⁺ and were all greater than one, which implies susceptibility to other illnesses. The sources of these elements are the rock and inappropriate waste disposal method, which leached the elements into the groundwater. A combination of sources from food will accumulate these elements in the human body system. Treatment to remove Al and Pb is necessary, while the method of water distribution should be reviewed to ensure access to potable water by the residents.

Keywords: Abeokuta, groundwater, Nigeria, risk

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Authors: Huma Naqeeb

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Epidemiological studies have shown the robust link between breast cancer and dietary pattern. There has been no previous study conducted in Pakistan, which specifically focuses on dietary patterns among breast cancer women. This study aims to examine the association of breast cancer with dietary patterns among Pakistani women. This case-control research was carried in multiple tertiary care facilities. Newly diagnosed primary breast cancer patients were recruited as cases (n = 408); age matched controls (n = 408) were randomly selected from the general population. Data on required parameters were systematically collected using subjective and objective tools. Factor and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) techniques were used to extract women’s dietary patterns. Four dietary patterns were identified based on eigenvalue >1; (i) veg-ovo-fish, (ii) meat-fat-sweet, (iii) mix (milk and its products, and gourds vegetables) and (iv) lentils - spices. Results of the multiple regressions were displayed as adjusted odds ratio (Adj. OR) and their respective confidence intervals (95% CI). After adjusted for potential confounders, veg-ovo-fish dietary pattern was found to be robustly associated with a lower risk of breast cancer among women (Adj. OR: 0.68, 95%CI: (0.46-0.99, p<0.01). The study findings concluded that attachment to the diets majorly composed of fresh vegetables, and high quality protein sources may contribute in lowering the risk of breast cancer among women.

Keywords: breast cancer, dietary pattern, women, principal component analysis

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Authors: Juhi Sah

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Habitat is characterized by the inter-dependency of environmental elements. Anthropocentric development approach is increasing our vulnerability towards natural hazards. Hence, manmade interventions should have a higher level of sensitivity towards the natural settings. Sensitivity towards the environment can be assessed by the behavior of the stakeholders involved. This led to the establishment of a hypothesis: there exists a legitimate relationship between the behavioral sciences, land use evolution and environment conservation, in the planning process. An attempt has been made to establish this relationship by reviewing the existing set of knowledge and case examples pertaining to the three disciplines under inquiry. Understanding the scarce & deteriorating nature of fresh-water reserves of earth and experimenting the above concept, a case study of a growing urban center's river flood plain is selected, in a developing economy, India. Cases of urban flooding in Chennai, Delhi and other mega cities of India, imposes a high risk on the unauthorized settlement, on the floodplains of the rivers. The issue addressed here is the encroachment of floodplains, through psychological enlightenment and modification through knowledge building. The reaction of an individual or society can be compared to a cognitive process. This study documents all the stakeholders' behavior and perception for their immediate natural environment (water body), and produce various land uses suitable along a river in an urban settlement as per different stakeholder's perceptions. To assess and induce morally responsible behavior in a community (small scale or large scale), tools of psychological inquiry is used for qualitative analysis. The analysis will deal with varied data sets from two sectors namely: River and its geology, Land use planning and regulation. Identification of a distinctive pattern in the built up growth, river ecology degradation, and human behavior, by handling large quantum of data from the diverse sector and comments on the availability of relevant data and its implications, has been done. Along the whole river stretch, condition and usage of its bank vary, hence stakeholder specific survey questionnaires have been prepared to accurately map the responses and habits of the rational inhabitants. A conceptual framework has been designed to move forward with the empirical analysis. The classical principle of virtues says "virtue of a human depends on its character" but another concept defines that the behavior or response is a derivative of situations and to bring about a behavioral change one needs to introduce a disruption in the situation/environment. Owing to the present trends, blindly following the results of data analytics and using it to construct policy, is not proving to be in favor of planned development and natural resource conservation. Thus behavioral assessment of the rational inhabitants of the planet is also required, as their activities and interests have a large impact on the earth's pre-set systems and its sustenance.

Keywords: behavioral assessment, flood plain encroachment, land use planning, river sustenance

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Authors: Zeinab Yazdanfar, Dilan Robert, Daniel Lester, S. Setunge

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Scour has been identified as the most common threat to bridge stability worldwide. Traditionally, scour around bridge piers is calculated using the empirical approaches that have considerable limitations and are difficult to generalize. The multi-physic nature of scouring which involves turbulent flow, soil mechanics and solid-fluid interactions cannot be captured by simple empirical equations developed based on limited laboratory data. These limitations can be overcome by direct numerical modeling of coupled hydro-mechanical scour process that provides a robust prediction of bridge scour and valuable insights into the scour process. Several numerical models have been proposed in the literature for bridge scour estimation including Eulerian flow models and coupled Euler-Lagrange models incorporating an empirical sediment transport description. However, the contact forces between particles and the flow-particle interaction haven’t been taken into consideration. Incorporating collisional and frictional forces between soil particles as well as the effect of flow-driven forces on particles will facilitate accurate modeling of the complex nature of scour. In this study, a coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Element Model (CFD-DEM) has been developed to simulate the scour process that directly models the hydro-mechanical interactions between the sediment particles and the flowing water. This approach obviates the need for an empirical description as the fundamental fluid-particle, and particle-particle interactions are fully resolved. The sediment bed is simulated as a dense pack of particles and the frictional and collisional forces between particles are calculated, whilst the turbulent fluid flow is modeled using a Reynolds Averaged Navier Stocks (RANS) approach. The CFD-DEM model is validated against experimental data in order to assess the reliability of the CFD-DEM model. The modeling results reveal the criticality of particle impact on the assessment of scour depth which, to the authors’ best knowledge, hasn’t been considered in previous studies. The results of this study open new perspectives to the scour depth and time assessment which is the key to manage the failure risk of bridge infrastructures.

Keywords: bridge scour, discrete element method, CFD-DEM model, multi-phase model

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Authors: Zhizhong Yuan, Lili Wang, Chenya Zheng, Wuqi Yang

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How to encourage and support peer-to-peer (P2P) network lending, and effectively monitor the risk of P2P network lending, has become the focus of the Chinese government departments, industrialists, experts and scholars in recent years. The reason is that this convenient online micro-credit service brings a series of credit risks and other issues. Avoiding the risks brought by the P2P network lending model, it can better play a benign role and help China's small and medium-sized private enterprises with vigorous development to solve the capital needs; otherwise, it will bring confusion to the normal financial order. As a form of financial services, P2P network lending has injected new blood into China's non-government finance in the past ten years, and has found a way out for idle funds and made up for the shortage of traditional financial services in China. However, it lacks feasible measures in credit evaluation and government supervision. This paper collects a large amount of data about P2P network lending of China. The data collection comes from the official media of the Chinese government, the public achievements of existing researchers and the analysis and collation of correlation data by the authors. The research content of this paper includes literature review; the current situation of China's P2P network lending development; the risk analysis of P2P network lending in China; the risk prevention strategy of P2P network lending in China. The focus of this paper is to try to find a specific program to strengthen supervision and avoid risks from the perspective of government regulators, operators of P2P network lending platform, investors and users of funds. These main measures include: China needs to develop self-discipline organization of P2P network lending industry and formulate self-discipline norms as soon as possible; establish a regular information disclosure system of P2P network lending platform; establish censorship of credit rating of borrowers; rectify the P2P network lending platform in compliance through the implementation of bank deposition. The results and solutions will benefit all the P2P network lending platforms, creditors, debtors, bankers, independent auditors and government agencies of China and other countries.

Keywords: peer-to-peer(P2P), regulation, risk prevention, supervision

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Amal Hentati, Mbarka Selmi, Tarek Kormi, Julien Baroth, Barthelemy Harthong

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The impact of uncertainties on the performance assessment of shallow foundations is often significant. The need of the geotechnical engineers to a more objective and rigorous description of soil variations permitting to quantify these uncertainties and to incorporate them into calculation methods led to the development of reliability approaches. In this context, a mechanical-reliability coupling was developed in this paper, using a program coded in Matlab and the finite element software Abaqus, for the bearing capacity assessment of shallow foundations. The reliability analysis, based on the finite element method, assumed both soil cohesion and friction angle as uncertain parameters characterized by normal or lognormal probability distributions. The inherent spatial variability of both soil properties was, then, taken into account using 1D stationary random fields. The application of the proposed methodology to a shallow foundation subjected to a centered vertical loading permitted to highlight the proposed process interest. Findings proved the insufficiency of the conventional approach to predict the foundation failure and a high sensitivity of the ultimate loads to the soil properties uncertainties, mainly those related to the friction angle, was noted. Moreover, an asymmetry of both displacement and velocity fields was obtained.

Keywords: mechanical-reliability coupling, finite element method, shallow foundation, random fields, spatial variability

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Authors: Andra Costache, Rădiţa Alexe

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The analysis of the spatial disparities of social marginalization is a requirement in the present-day socio-economic and political context of Romania, an East-European state, member of the European Union since 2007, at present faced with the imperatives of the growth of its territorial cohesion. The main objective of this article is to develop a methodology for the assessment of social marginalization, in order to understand the intensity of the marginalization phenomenon at different spatial scales. The article proposes a social marginalization index (SMI), calculated through the integration of ten indicators relevant for the two components of social marginalization: the material component and the symbolical component. The results highlighted a strong connection between the total degree of social marginalization and the dependence on social benefits, unemployment rate, non-inclusion in the compulsory education, criminality rate, and the type of pension insurance.

Keywords: Romania, social marginalization index, territorial disparities, EU

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: B.-Y.-S. Lau, Y.-C.-T. Jonathan, M.-S. Alias

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Heritage trees are natural large, individual trees with exceptionally value due to association with age or event or distinguished people. In Malaysia, there is an abundance of tropical heritage trees throughout the country. It is essential to set up a repository of heritage trees to prevent valuable trees from being cut down. In this cross domain study, a web-based online expert system namely the Heritage Tree Expert Assessment and Classification (HTEAC) is developed and deployed for public to nominate potential heritage trees. Based on the nomination, tree care experts or arborists would evaluate and verify the nominated trees as heritage trees. The expert system automatically rates the approved heritage trees according to pre-defined grades via Delphi technique. Features and usability test of the expert system are presented. Preliminary result is promising for the system to be used as a full scale public system.

Keywords: arboriculture, Delphi, expert system, heritage tree, urban forestry

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Authors: Garima Joshi, Ashima N. Wadhawan

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Neuropsychology in India is a fairly new field, having started only four decades back. Neuropsychology has come a long way since the establishment of the first department, from using western batteries for assessing patients to the development of highly reliable indigenous tools for assessing neuropsychological functioning. Clinical neuropsychology has risen as a discipline in the field of assessing and rehabilitating patients with various neurological conditions such as Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia and other disorders with cognitive decline. The current review attempts to assimilate the history of the discipline in India, along with the current developments and future direction of the field and highlights the pursuit and undertakings of the scientists to provide culturally appropriate services, in terms of assessment and rehabilitation, to the Indian population.

Keywords: clinical neuropsychology, cognitive assessment, cognitive rehabilitation, neuropsychological test batteries in India

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Authors: Berna Eren Tokgoz, Mahdi Safa, Seokyon Hwang

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Power distribution systems are essential and crucial infrastructures for the development and maintenance of a sustainable society. These systems are extremely vulnerable to various types of natural and man-made disasters. The assessment of resilience focuses on preparedness and mitigation actions under pre-disaster conditions. It also concentrates on response and recovery actions under post-disaster situations. The aim of this study is to present a methodology to assess the resilience of electric power distribution poles against wind-related events. The proposed methodology can improve the accuracy and rapidity of the evaluation of the conditions and the assessment of the resilience of poles. The methodology provides a metric for the evaluation of the resilience of poles under pre-disaster and post-disaster conditions. The metric was developed using mathematical expressions for physical forces that involve various variables, such as physical dimensions of the pole, the inclination of the pole, and wind speed. A three-dimensional imaging technology (photogrammetry) was used to determine the inclination of poles. Based on expert opinion, the proposed metric was used to define zones to visualize resilience. Visual representation of resilience is helpful for decision makers to prioritize their resources before and after experiencing a wind-related disaster. Multiple electric poles in the City of Beaumont, TX were used in a case study to evaluate the proposed methodology.  

Keywords: photogrammetry, power distribution systems, resilience metric, system resilience, wind-related disasters

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Mahboobeh Hemmati, Tahar Messadi, Hongmei Gu

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Today, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a leading method in mitigating the environmental impacts emerging from the building sector. In this paper, LCA is used to quantify the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions during the construction phase of the largest mass timber residential structure in the United States, Adohi Hall. This building is a 200,000 square foot 708-bed complex located on the campus of the University of Arkansas. The energy used for buildings’ operation is the most dominant source of emissions in the building industry. Lately, however, the efforts were successful at increasing the efficiency of building operation in terms of emissions. As a result, the attention is now shifted to the embodied carbon, which is more noticeable in the building life cycle. Unfortunately, most of the studies have, however, focused on the manufacturing stage, and only a few have addressed to date the construction process. Specifically, less data is available about environmental impacts associated with the construction of mass timber. This study presents, therefore, an assessment of the environmental impact of the construction processes based on the real and newly built mass timber building mentioned above. The system boundary of this study covers modules A4 and A5 based on building LCA standard EN 15978. Module A4 includes material and equipment transportation. Module A5 covers the construction and installation process. This research evolves through 2 stages: first, to quantify materials and equipment deployed in the building, and second, to determine the embodied carbon associated with running equipment for construction materials, both transported to, and installed on, the site where the edifice is built. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the building is the primary metric considered in this research. The outcomes of this study bring to the front a better understanding of hotspots in terms of emission during the construction process. Moreover, the comparative analysis of the mass timber construction process with that of a theoretically similar steel building will enable an effective assessment of the environmental efficiency of mass timber.

Keywords: construction process, GWP, LCA, mass timber

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: E. Olmos-Raya, A. Cascales Martínez, N. Minto de Sousa, M. Alcañiz Raya

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The late detection and subjectivity of the assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) imposed a difficulty for the children’s clinical and familiar environment. The results showed in this paper, are part of a research project about the assessment and training of social skills in children with ASD, whose overall goal is the use of virtual environments together with physiological measures in order to find a new model of objective ASD assessment based on implicit brain processes measures. In particular, this work tries to contribute by studying the differences and changes in the Skin Conductance Response (SCR) and Eye Tracking (ET) between a typical development group (TD group) and an ASD group (ASD group) after several combined stimuli using a low cost Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE). Subjects were exposed to a virtual environment that showed natural scenes that stimulated visual, auditory and olfactory perceptual system. By exposing them to the IVE, subjects showed natural behaviors while measuring SCR and ET. This study compared measures of subjects diagnosed with ASD (N = 18) with a control group of subjects with typical development (N=10) when exposed to three different conditions: only visual (V), visual and auditory (VA) and visual, auditory and olfactory (VAO) stimulation. Correlations between SCR and ET measures were also correlated with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) test. SCR measures showed significant differences among the experimental condition between groups. The ASD group presented higher level of SCR while we did not find significant differences between groups regarding DF. We found high significant correlations among all the experimental conditions in SCR measures and the subscale of ADOS test of imagination and symbolic thinking. Regarding the correlation between ET measures and ADOS test, the results showed significant relationship between VA condition and communication scores.

Keywords: autism, electrodermal activity, eye tracking, immersive virtual environment, virtual reality

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Authors: A. Caicedo Padilla, J. Zambrano Nájera

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Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca and the second city of Colombia, is located in the Cauca River Valley between the Western and Central Cordillera that is South West of the country. The topography of the city is mainly flat, but it is possibly to find mountains in the west. The city has increased urbanization during XX century, especially since 1958 when started a rapid growth due to migration of people from other parts of the region. Much of that population has settled in eastern of Cali, an area originally intended for cane cultivation and a zone of flood from Cauca River and its tributaries. Due to the unplanned migration, settling was inadequate and produced changes in natural dynamics of the basins, which has resulted in increases in runoff volumes, peak flows and flow velocities, that in turn increases flood risk. Sewerage networks capacity were not enough for this higher runoff volume, because in first term they were not adequately designed and built, causing its failure. This in turn generates increasingly recurrent floods generating considerable effects on the economy and development of normal activities in Cali. Thus, it becomes very important to know hydrological behavior of Urban Watersheds. This research aims to determine the impact of urbanization on hydrology of watersheds with very low slopes. The project aims to identify changes in natural drainage patterns caused by the changes made on landscape. From the identification of such modifications it will be defined the most critical areas due to recurring flood events in the city of Cali. Critical areas are defined as areas where the sewerage system does not work properly as surface runoff increases considerable with storm events, and floods are recurrent. The assessment will be done from the analysis of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) theme layers from CVC Environmental Institution of Regional Control in Valle del Cauca, hydrological data and disaster database developed by OSSO Corporation. Rainfall data from a network and historical stream flow data will be used for analysis of historical behavior and change of precipitation and hydrological response according to homogeneous zones characterized by EMCALI S.A. public utility enterprise of Cali in 1999.

Keywords: drainage systems, land cover changes, urban hydrology, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Abhishikta Ghosh Roy

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Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women globally, including India. Human breast cancer results from the genetic and environmental interaction. The present study attempts to understand the molecular heterogeneity of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, as well as to understand the association of various lifestyle and reproductive variables for the Breast Cancer risk. The study was conducted amongst 110 patients and 128 controls with total DNA sequencing of flanking and coding regions of BRCA1 BRCA2 genes that revealed ten Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) (6 novels). The controls selected for the study were age, sex and ethnic group matched. After written and informed consent biological samples were collected from the subjects. After detailed molecular analysis, significant (p < 0.005) molecular heterogeneity is revealed in terms of SNPs in BRCA1 (4 Exonic & 1 Intronic) and BRCA2 (2exonic and 3 Intronic) genes. The augmentation study investigated significant (p < 0.05) association with positive family history, early age at menarche, irregular menstrual periods, menopause, prolong contraceptive use, nulliparity, history of abortions, consumption of alcohol and smoking for breast cancer risk. To the best of authors knowledge, this study is the first of its kind, envisaged that the identification of the SNPs and modification of the lifestyle factors might aid to minimize the risk among the Bengalee Hindu females.

Keywords: breast cancer, BRCA, lifestyle, India

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Sihao Lin

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Objectives: Infrared thermography (IRT) has been little documented in the objective measurement of ergonomic exposure. We aimed to examine the association between different ergonomic exposures and low back skin temperature measured by IRT. Methods: A total of 114 subjects among sedentary students, sports students and cleaning workers were selected as different ergonomic exposure levels. Low back skin temperature was measured by infrared thermography before and post ergonomic exposure. Ergonomic exposure was assessed by Quick Exposure Check (QEC) and quantitative scores were calculated on the low back. Multiple regressions were constructed to examine the possible associations between ergonomic risk exposures and the skin temperature over the low back. Results: Compared to the two student groups, clean workers had significantly higher ergonomic exposure scores on the low back. The low back temperature variations were different among the three groups. The temperature decreased significantly among students with ergonomic exposure (P < 0.01), while it increased among cleaning workers. With adjustment of confounding, the post-exposure temperature and the temperature changes after exposure showed a significantly negative association with ergonomic exposure scores. For maximum temperature, one increasing ergonomic score decreased -0.23◦C (95% CI -0.37, -0.10) of temperature after ergonomic exposure over the low back. Conclusion: There was a significant association between ergonomic exposures and infrared thermal temperature over low back. IRT could be used as an objective assessment of ergonomic exposure on the low back.

Keywords: ergonomic exposure, infrared thermography, musculoskeletal disorders, skin temperature, low back

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Authors: Abdolghader Pourali, Mohammad V. Malakooti, Muhammad Hussein Yektaie

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A mobile payment system in mobile e-commerce generally have high security so that the user can trust it for doing business deals, sales, paying financial transactions, etc. in the mobile payment system. Since an architecture or payment model in e-commerce only shows the way of interaction and collaboration among users and mortgagers and does not present any evaluation of effectiveness and confidence about financial transactions to stakeholders. In this paper, we try to present a detailed assessment of the reliability of a mobile payment model in the mobile e-commerce using formal models and colored Petri nets. Finally, we demonstrate that the reliability of this system has high value (case study: a secure payment model in mobile commerce.

Keywords: reliability, colored Petri net, assessment, payment models, m-commerce

Procedia PDF Downloads 525

Authors: J. Vinay , Kusumbati Besra, Niharika Pattnaik, Shivaram Prasad Singh, Manjusha Dixit

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Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is rare but highly malignant cancer; its prevalence is more in certain geographical regions and ethnic groups, which include the Northern and Eastern states of India. Previous studies in India have reported genetic predisposition as one of the risk factors in GBC pathogenesis. Although the matrix metalloproteinase-14 (MMP14) is a well-known modulator of the tumor microenvironment and tumorigenesis and TCGA data also suggests its upregulation yet, its role in the genetic predisposition for GBC is completely unknown. We elucidated the role of MMP14 promoter variants as genetic risk factors and their implications in expression modulation. We screened MMP14 promoter variants association with GBC using Sanger’s sequencing in approximately 300 GBC and 300 control subjects and 26 GBC tissue samples of Indian ethnicity. The immunohistochemistry was used to check the MMP14 protein expression in GBC tissue samples. The role of promoter variants on expression levels was elucidated using a luciferase reporter assay. The variants rs1004030 (p-value = 0.0001) and rs1003349 (p-value = 0.0008) were significantly associated with gallbladder cancer. The luciferase assay in two different cell lines, HEK-293 (p = 0.0006) and TGBC1TKB (p = 0.0036) showed a significant increase in relative luciferase activity in the presence of risk alleles for both the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Similarly, genotype-phenotype correlation in patients samples confirmed that the presence of risk alleles at rs1004030 and rs1003349 increased MMP14 expression. Overall, this study unravels the genetic association of MMP14 promoter variants with gallbladder cancer, which may contribute to pathogenesis by increasing its expression.

Keywords: gallbladder cancer, matrix metalloproteinase-14, single nucleotide polymorphism, case control study, genetic association study

Procedia PDF Downloads 165