Search results for: rapid access clinic

Authors: Yassine Meraihi, Dalila Acheli, Rabah Meraihi

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MANET for Mobile Ad hoc NETwork is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that communicates with each other without using any existing infrastructure, access point or centralized administration, due to the higher mobility and limited radio transmission range, routing is an important issue in ad hoc network, so in order to ensure reliable and efficient route between to communicating nodes quickly, an appropriate routing protocol is needed. In this paper, we present the performance analysis of two mobile ad hoc network routing protocols namely DSR and OLSR using NS2.34, the performance is determined on the basis of packet delivery ratio, throughput, average jitter and end to end delay with varying pause time.

Keywords: DSR, OLSR, quality of service, routing protocols, MANET

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Authors: Abeer M. Orabi

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Midwives are being seen as a key factor in returning birth care to a normal physiologic process that is woman-centered. On the other hand, more needs to be done to increase access for every woman to professional midwifery care. Because of the nature of the midwifery specialty, the magnitude of the effect that can result from a lack of knowledge if midwives make a mistake in their care has the potential to affect a large number of the birthing population. So, the development, running, and management of midwifery educational programs should follow international standards and come after a thorough community needs assessment. At the same time, the number of accredited midwifery educational programs needs to be increased so that larger numbers of midwives will be educated and qualified, as well as access to skilled midwifery care will be increased. Indeed, the selection of promising midwives is important for the successful completion of an educational program, achievement of the program goals, and retention of graduates in the field. Further, the number of schooled midwives in midwifery education programs, their background, and their experience constitute some concerns in the higher education industry. Basically, preceptors and clinical sites are major contributors to the midwifery education process, as educational programs rely on them to provide clinical practice opportunities. In this regard, the selection of clinical training sites should be based on certain criteria to ensure their readiness for the intended training experiences. After that, communication, collaboration, and liaison between teaching faculty and field staff should be maintained. However, the shortage of clinical preceptors and the massive reduction in the number of practicing midwives, in addition to unmanageable workloads, act as significant barriers to midwifery education. Moreover, the medicalized approach inherent in the hospital setting makes it difficult to practice the midwifery model of care, such as watchful waiting, non-interference in normal processes, and judicious use of interventions. Furthermore, creating a motivating study environment is crucial for avoiding unnecessary withdrawal and retention in any educational program. It is well understood that research is an essential component of any profession for achieving its optimal goal and providing a foundation and evidence for its practices, and midwifery is no exception. Midwives have been playing an important role in generating their own research. However, the selection of novel, researchable, and sustainable topics considering community health needs is also a challenge. In conclusion, ongoing education and research are the lifeblood of the midwifery profession to offer a highly competent and qualified workforce. However, many challenges are being faced, and barriers are hindering their improvement.

Keywords: barriers, challenges, midwifery education, educational programs

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Authors: Jae-Joon Song, Sang-Yoon Lee, Bong-Chul Joo

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The girder-type precast modular bridge has been developed as a simply supported bridge. The girder-type precast modular bridge could be applied to the multi-span bridges through the continuity method. The continuity of the girder-type precast modular bridge is achieved by using the link slab which is easy to construction and appropriate to the rapid construction. In this study, the link slab with transition zone was used for the continuity of the precast modular bridges, and the construction detail of link slab was modified. In addition, the modified iterative design method of link slab was proposed in this study. To verify the proposed design method, the fatigue test using the mock-up specimen was conducted with cycle loading condition up to two million cycles.

Keywords: precast, modular bridge, link slab

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Authors: Eunae Lee, Oh-Kuen Kwon, Ki-Sub Kim, Jeong Won Kang

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We investigated the dynamic properties of graphene-nanoribbon (GNR) memory encapsulating graphene-nanoflake (GNF) shuttle in the potential to be applicable as a non-volatile random access memory via molecular dynamics simulations. This work explicitly demonstrates that the GNR encapsulating the GNF shuttle can be applied to nonvolatile memory. The potential well was originated by the increase of the attractive vdW energy between the GNRs when the GNF approached the edges of the GNRs. So the bistable positions were located near the edges of the GNRs. Such a nanoelectromechanical non-volatile memory based on graphene is also applicable to the development of switches, sensors, and quantum computing.

Keywords: graphene nanoribbon, graphene nanoflake, shuttle memory, molecular dynamics

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Authors: To Quyen Le, Oswald Devisch, Tu Anh Trinh, Els Hannes

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Urban centres worldwide are affected differently by flooding. In Vietnam this impact is increasingly negative caused by a process of rapid urbanisation. Traditional spatial planning and flood mitigation planning are not able to deal with this growing threat. This article therefore proposes to focus on increasing the participation of local communities in flood control and management. It explores, on the basis of a design studio exercise, how lay knowledge on flooding can be integrated within planning processes. The article presents a theoretical basis for the structured criterion for site selection for a flood resilient urban park from the perspective of science, then discloses the tacit and explicit knowledge of the flood-prone area and finally integrates this knowledge into the design strategies for flood resilient urban park design.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, AHP, design resilience, flood resilient urban park, knowledge integration

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Authors: Deepak Jugran

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The last century has witnessed rapid scientific growth, and social policies mainly targeted to increase the “life expectancy” of the people. As a result of these developments, the aging as well as ailing population, is increasing by every day. Despite an increase in “life expectancy”, we have not recorded compression in morbidity numbers as the age of onset of the majority of health issues has not increased substantially. In recent years, the prevalence of chronic diseases along with the improved treatment has also resulted in the increase of people living with chronic diseases. The last decade has also focused on social policies to increase the life expectancy in the population; however, in recent decades, social policies and biomedical research are gradually shifting on the potential of increasing healthy life or healthspan. In this article, we review the existing framework of lifespan and healthspan and wish to ignite a discussion among social scientists and public health experts to propose a wholistic framework to balance the trade-offs on social policies for “lifespan” and “healthspan”.

Keywords: lifespan, healthspan, chronic diseases, social policies

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Authors: G. Agrawal, R. Agrawal, A. Pich

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The pH and temperature responsive biodegradable poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCL) based microgels functionalized with itaconic acid (IA) units are prepared via precipitation polymerization for drug delivery applications. Volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of the obtained microgels is influenced by both IA content and pH of the surrounding medium. The developed microgels can be degraded under acidic conditions due to the presence of hydrazone based crosslinking points inside the microgel network. The microgel particles are able to effectively encapsulate doxorubicin (DOX) drug and exhibit low drug leakage under physiological conditions. At low pH, rapid DOX release is observed due to the changes in electrostatic interactions along with the degradation of particles. The results of the cytotoxicity assay further display that the DOX-loaded microgel exhibit effective antitumor activity against HeLa cells demonstrating their great potential as drug delivery carriers for cancer therapy.

Keywords: degradable, drug delivery, hydrazone linkages, microgels, responsive

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Authors: Oluwaseun Adeleke, Samuel O. Ikani, Fidelis Edet, Anthony Nwala, Mopelola Raji, Simeon Christian Chukwu

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Background: The DISC project collaborated with partners to implement demand creation and service delivery interventions, including the MoT (Moment of Truth) innovation, in over 500 health facilities across 15 states. This has increased the voluntary conversion rate to self-injection among women who opt for injectable contraception. While some facilities recorded an increasing trend in key performance indicators, few others persistently performed sub-optimally due to provider and system-related barriers. Methodology: Twenty-two facilities performing sub-optimally were selected purposively from three Nigerian states. Low productivity was appraised using low reporting rates and poor SI conversion rates as indicators. Interviews were conducted with health providers across these health facilities using a rapid diagnosis tool. The project also conducted a data quality assessment that evaluated the veracity of data elements reported across the three major sources of family planning data in the facility. Findings: The inability and sometimes refusal of providers to support clients to self-inject effectively was associated with the misunderstanding of its value to their work experience. It was also observed that providers still held a strong influence over clients’ method choices. Furthermore, providers held biases and misconceptions about DMPA-SC that restricted the access of obese clients and new acceptors to services – a clear departure from the recommendations of the national guidelines. Additionally, quality of care standards was compromised because job aids were not used to inform service delivery. Facilities performing sub-optimally often under-reported DMPA-SC utilization data, and there were multiple uncoordinated responsibilities for recording and reporting. Additionally, data validation meetings were not regularly convened, and these meetings were ineffective in authenticating data received from health facilities. Other reasons for sub-optimal performance included poor documentation and tracking of stock inventory resulting in commodity stockouts, low client flow because of poor positioning of health facilities, and ineffective messaging. Some facilities lacked adequate human and material resources to provide services effectively and received very few supportive supervision visits. Supportive supervision visits and Data Quality Audits have been useful to address the aforementioned performance barriers. The project has deployed digital DMPA-SC self-injection checklists that have been aligned with nationally approved templates. During visits, each provider and community mobilizer is accorded special attention by the supervisor until he/she can perform procedures in line with best practice (protocol). Conclusion: This narrative provides a summary of a range of factors that identify health facilities performing sub-optimally in their provision of DMPA-SC services. Findings from this assessment will be useful during project design to inform effective strategies. As the project enters its final stages of implementation, it is transitioning high-impact activities to state institutions in the quest to sustain the quality of service beyond the tenure of the project. The project has flagged activities, as well as created protocols and tools aimed at placing state-level stakeholders at the forefront of improving productivity in health facilities.

Keywords: family planning, contraception, DMPA-SC, self-care, self-injection, barriers, opportunities, performance

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Authors: Gulsen Tozsin, Fatma Bakir, Cemil Acar, Ercument Koc

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Kurtbogazi Dam has gained special meaning for Ankara, Turkey for the last decade due to the rapid depletion of nearby resources of drinking water. In this study, the results of the analyses of Kurtbogazi Dam outlet water and the rivers flowing into the Kurtbogazi Dam were discussed for the period of last five years between 2008 and 2012. The quality of these surface water resources were evaluated in terms of pH, temperature, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), nitrate, phosphate and chlorine. They were classified according to the Council Directive (75/440/EEC). Moreover, the properties of these surface waters were assessed to determine the quality of water for drinking and irrigation purposes using Piper, US Salinity Laboratory and Wilcox diagrams. The results revealed that the quality of all the investigated water sources are generally at satisfactory level as surface water except for Pazar Stream in terms of ortho-phosphate and BOD5 concentration for 2008.

Keywords: Kurtbogazi dam, water quality assessment, Ankara water, water supply

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Authors: Chukwuka Justus Iwegbu

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Background: A major concern facing the world is providing senior citizens, individuals with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups with high-quality care. This issue is more serious in Nigeria's North Eastern area, where the burden of disease and disability is heavy, and access to care is constrained. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the roles, challenges and support needs of caregivers, care home management, funding and administration in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria. The study will also provide a comprehensive understanding of the current situation and identify opportunities for improving the quality of care and support for caregivers and care recipients in these communities. Methods: A mixed-methods design, including both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, will be used, and it will be guided by the stress process model of caregiving. The qualitative stage approach will comprise a survey, In-depth interviews, observations, and focus group discussion and the quantitative analysis will be used in order to comprehend the variations between caregiver's roles and care home management. A review of relevant documents, such as care home policies and funding reports, would be used to gather quantitative data on the administrative and financial aspects of care. The data collected will be analyzed using both descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. A sample size of around 200-300 participants, including caregivers, care recipients, care home managers and administrators, policymakers and health care providers, would be recruited. Findings: The study revealed that caregivers in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria face significant challenges, including lack of training and support, limited access to funding and resources, and high levels of burnout. Care home management and administration were also found to be inadequate, with a lack of clear policies and procedures and limited oversight and accountability. Conclusion: There is a need for increased investment in training and support for caregivers, as well as a need for improved care home management and administration in challenged communities in North Eastern Nigeria. It also highlights the importance of involving community members in decision-making and planning processes related to care homes and services. The study would contribute to the existing body of knowledge by providing a detailed understanding of the challenges faced by caregivers, care home managers and administrators.

Keywords: caregivers, care home management, funding, administration, challenge communities, North Eastern Nigeria

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Authors: Omar S. Sharaf

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The mitochondrial 12s rRNA (mt-12s rDNA) gene for pig-specific was developed to detect material from pork species in different products collected from Jordanian market. The amplification PCR products of 359 bp and 531 bp were successfully amplified from the cyt b gene of pig the amplification product using mt-12S rDNA gene were successfully produced a single band with a molecular size of 456 bp. In the present work, the PCR amplification of mtDNA of cytochrome b has been shown as a suitable tool for rapid detection of pig DNA. 100 samples from different dairy, gelatin and chocolate based products and 50 samples from baby food formula were collected and tested to a presence of any pig derivatives. It was found that 10% of chocolate based products, 12% of gelatin and 56% from dairy products and 5.2% from baby food formula showed single band from mt-12S rDNA gene.

Keywords: halal food, baby infant formula, chocolate based products, PCR, Jordan

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Authors: M. Yosofi, S. Ezeddini, A. Ollivier, V. Lavaste, C. Mayousse

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Additive manufacturing processes have changed significantly in a wide range of industries and their application progressed from rapid prototyping to production of end-use products. However, their environmental impact is still a rather open question. In order to support the growth of this technology in the industrial sector, environmental aspects should be considered and predictive models may help monitor and reduce the environmental footprint of the processes. This work presents predictive models based on a previously developed methodology for the environmental impact evaluation combined with a technical and economical assessment. Here we applied the methodology to the Fused Deposition Modeling process. First, we present the predictive models relative to different types of machines. Then, we present a decision-making tool designed to identify the optimum manufacturing strategy regarding technical, economic, and environmental criteria.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, decision-makings, environmental impact, predictive models

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Authors: Ramana Reddy, Vijay Kothari

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Aircraft provide a fast, reliable mode of transport with no comparable alternative for long distance travel. Throughout the years, technology improvements have been made to aircraft and engines to make them more fuel efficient. Air traffic continues to grow around the world and needs more aircrafts to accommodate such rapid growth. This has direct consequences on two of the most important environmental factors i.e. emissions and noise. Aviation contributes about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Aviation emits a number of pollutants that alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere, changing its radiative balance and hence influencing the climate. In order to reduce or if possible eliminate potential harm to the environment and also make air travel efficient and economical, an environmentally beneficial concept called “Green Aviation System” is required. This is a structured frame work with elements like innovative technologies/tools in engineering design, manufacturing, airport and fleet operations.

Keywords: air traffic, environment, emissions, noise, green aviation system

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Authors: Gabriel Montague, Max Vilgalys, Catherine H. Crawford, Jorge Ortiz, Dava Newman

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There has never been so much publicly accessible atmospheric and environmental data. The possibilities of these data are exciting, but the sheer volume of available datasets represents a new challenge for researchers. The task of identifying and working with a new dataset has become more difficult with the amount and variety of available data. Datasets are often documented in ways that differ substantially from the common English used to describe the same topics. This presents a barrier not only for new scientists, but for researchers looking to find comparisons across multiple datasets or specialists from other disciplines hoping to collaborate. This paper proposes a method for addressing this obstacle: creating a knowledge graph to bridge the gap between everyday English language and the technical language surrounding these datasets. Knowledge graph generation is already a well-established field, although there are some unique challenges posed by working with Earth data. One is the sheer size of the databases – it would be infeasible to replicate or analyze all the data stored by an organization like The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the European Space Agency. Instead, this approach identifies topics from metadata available for datasets in NASA’s Earthdata database, which can then be used to directly request and access the raw data from NASA. By starting with a single metadata standard, this paper establishes an approach that can be generalized to different databases, but leaves the challenge of metadata harmonization for future work. Topics generated from the metadata are then linked to topics from a collection of English queries through a variety of standard and custom natural language processing (NLP) methods. The results from this method are then compared to a baseline of elastic search applied to the metadata. This comparison shows the benefits of the proposed knowledge graph system over existing methods, particularly in interpreting natural language queries and interpreting topics in metadata. For the research community, this work introduces an application of NLP to the ecological and environmental sciences, expanding the possibilities of how machine learning can be applied in this discipline. But perhaps more importantly, it establishes the foundation for a platform that can enable common English to access knowledge that previously required considerable effort and experience. By making this public data accessible to the full public, this work has the potential to transform environmental understanding, engagement, and action.

Keywords: earth metadata, knowledge graphs, natural language processing, question-answer systems

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Authors: Rabia Bashir, Sajjad Akbar

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There is an inevitable demand of web mining due to rapid increase of huge information on the Internet, but the striking variety of web structures has made required content retrieval a difficult task. To counter this issue, Web Content Mining (WCM) emerges as a potential candidate which extracts and integrates suitable resources of data to users. In past few years, research has been done on several extraction techniques for WCM i.e. agent-based, template-based, assumption-based, statistic-based, wrapper-based and machine learning. However, it is still unclear that either these approaches are efficiently tackling the significant challenges of WCM or not. To answer this question, this paper identifies these challenges such as language independency, structure flexibility, performance, automation, dynamicity, redundancy handling, intelligence, relevant content retrieval, and privacy. Further, mapping of these challenges is done with existing extraction mechanisms which helps to adopt the most suitable WCM approach, given some conditions and characteristics at hand.

Keywords: content mining challenges, web content mining, web content extraction approaches, web information retrieval

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Authors: Zhala Ahmad, Zainab Lazim, Haider Hamzah

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Bacterial resistance is a pressing global health issue, with multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR), and pandrug-resistant (PDR) strains to pose a serious threat. In this context, researchers are investigating effective, safe, and affordable metabolites to combat these pathogens. This study focuses on gum essential oil (GEO) extracted from Pistacia atlantica and its activity and the mechanism of action against XDR Gram-negative Acinetobacter baumannii. GEO was extracted by hydrodistillation and analyzed using GC-MS. Eleven A. baumannii isolates were collected from the ward environment of Burn and Plastic Surgery Hospital in Al Sulaymaniyah City, Iraq. They were identified using the VITEK 2 system, 16S rRNA gene, and confirmed with the blaₒₓₐ₋₅₁ gene; A. baumannii ATCC 19606 was used as a reference strain. The isolates were identified as resistant to twelve different antibiotics spanning six distinct antibiotic classes while showing susceptibility to tetracycline and trimethoprim. Over 40 chemical constituents were detected in the gum's essential oils, with α-pinene being the most abundant. GEO was found to inhibit the growth of A. baumannii isolates; the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of GEO was 2.5 µl/ml. GEO induced protein leakage, phosphate, and potassium ion efflux, distorted cell morphology, and cell death in the tested bacteria. GEO exhibited bacterial clearance and anti-adhesion activity using Band-Aids. This study's findings suggest that GEO could be used as a potential alternative treatment for infectious diseases caused by XRD pathogens, shedding further light on the importance of GEO in biomedical applications. Future studies must focus on generating clinically feasible sources of GEO for testing in small animal models before proceeding to human trials, ensuring safe and effective translation from the laboratory to the clinic.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, Acinetobacter baumannii, essential oils, Pistacia atlantica, alpha-pinene

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Authors: Zuk Nechemia Turbovich

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This paper introduces DoD, a contextual spiral model that describes the lifecycle of products intended for manufacturing using Personal 3D Printers (P3DP). The study is based on a review of the desktop P3DPs market that shows that the combination of digital connectivity, coupled with the potential ownership of P3DP by home users, is radically changing the form of the product lifecycle, comparatively to familiar lifecycle paradigms. The paper presents the change in the design process, considering the characterization of product types in the P3DP market and the possibility of having a direct dialogue between end-user and product designers. The model, as an updated paradigm, provides a strategic perspective on product design and tools for success, understanding that design is subject to rapid and continuous improvement and that products are subject to repair, update, and customization. The paper will include a review of real cases.

Keywords: lifecycle, mass-customization, personal 3d-printing, user involvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Mohammed Alkahtani, Ali Ahmad, Saber Darmoul, Shatha Samman, Ayoub Al-zabidi, Khaled Ba Matraf

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Education systems are complex and involve interactions between humans (teachers and students); media based technologies, lectures, classrooms, etc. to provide educational services. The education system performance is characterized by how well students learn, which is measured using student grades on exams and quizzes, achievements on standardized tests, among others. Advances in portable communications technologies, such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, created a different type of classroom, where students seem to engage in more than just the intended learning activities. The performance of more than one task in parallel or in rapid transition is commonly known as multitasking. Several operations in educational systems are performed simultaneously, resulting in a multitasking education environment. This paper surveys existing research on multitasking in educational settings, summarizes literature findings, provides a synthesis of the impact of multitasking on performance, and identifies directions of future research.

Keywords: multitasking, education, education environment, impact

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Authors: Seada Hussen, Frie Ayalew

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Integrating different energy resources, like solar PV and hydro, is used to ensure reliable power to rural communities like Hara village in Ethiopia. Hybrid power system offers power supply for rural villages by providing an alternative supply for the intermittent nature of renewable energy resources. The intermittent nature of renewable energy resources is a challenge to electrifying rural communities in a sustainable manner with solar resources. Major rural villages in Ethiopia are suffering from a lack of electrification, that cause our people to suffer deforestation, travel for long distance to fetch water, and lack good services like clinic and school sufficiently. The main objective of this project is to provide a balanced, stable, reliable supply for Hara village, Ethiopia using solar power with a pumped hydro energy storage system. The design of this project starts by collecting data from villages and taking solar irradiance data from NASA. In addition to this, geographical arrangement and location are also taken into consideration. After collecting this, all data analysis and cost estimation or optimal sizing of the system and comparison of solar with pumped hydro and solar with battery storage system is done using Homer Software. And since solar power only works in the daytime and pumped hydro works at night time and also at night and morning, both load will share to cover the load demand; this need controller designed to control multiple switch and scheduling in this project fuzzy logic controller is used to control this scenario. The result of the simulation shows that solar with pumped hydro energy storage system achieves good results than with a battery storage system since the comparison is done considering storage reliability, cost, storage capacity, life span, and efficiency.

Keywords: pumped hydro storage, solar energy, solar PV, battery energy storage, fuzzy logic controller

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Authors: Perpetua Modjadji, Sphiwe Madiba

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Background: The growth patterns of children are good nutritional indicators of their nutritional status, health, and socioeconomic level. However, the maternal factors and the belief system of the society affect the growth of children promoting undernutrition. This study determined the influence of maternal factors on growth patterns of schoolchildren in a rural site. Methods: A convergent mixed method study was conducted among 508 schoolchildren and their mothers in Dikgale Health and Demographic Surveillance System Site, South Africa. Multistage sampling was used to select schools (purposive) and learners (random), who were paired with their mothers. Anthropometry was measured and socio-demographic, obstetrical, household information, maternal influence on children’s nutrition, and growth were assessed using an interviewer administered questionnaire (quantitative). The influence of the cultural beliefs and practices of mothers on the nutrition and growth of their children was explored using focus group discussions (qualitative). Narratives of mothers were used to best understand growth patterns of schoolchildren (mixed method). Data were analyzed using STATA 14 (quantitative) and Nvivo 11 (qualitative). Quantitative and qualitative data were merged for integrated mixed method analysis using a joint display analysis. Results: Mean age of children was 10 ± 2 years, ranging from 6 to 15 years. Substantial percentages of thinness (25%), underweight (24%), and stunting (22%) were observed among the children. Mothers had a mean age of 37 ± 7 years, and 75% were overweight or obese. A depressed socio-economic status indicated by a higher rate of unemployment with no income (82.3%), and dependency on social grants (86.8%) was observed. Determinants of poor growth patterns were child’s age and gender, maternal age, height and BMI, access to water supply, and refrigerator use. The narratives of mothers suggested that the children in most of their households were exposed to poverty and the inadequate intake of quality food. Conclusion: Poor growth patterns were observed among schoolchildren while their mothers were overweight or obese. Child’s gender, school grade, maternal body mass index, and access to water were the main determinants. Congruence was observed between most qualitative themes and quantitative constructs. A need for a multi sectoral approach considering an evidence based and feasible nutrition programs for schoolchildren, especially those in rural settings and educating mothers, cannot be over-emphasized.

Keywords: growth patterns, maternal factors, rural context, schoolchildren, South Africa

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Authors: Gamal Shiha, Waleed Samir, Zahid Azam, Premashis Kar, Saeed Hamid, Shiv Sarin

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A simple, rapid and non-invasive electromagnetic sensor (C-FAST device) was- patented; for diagnosis of HCV RNA. Aim: To test the validity of the device compared to standard HCV PCR. Subjects and Methods: The first phase was done as pilot in Egypt on 79 participants; the second phase was done in five centers: one center from Egypt, two centers from Pakistan and two centers from India (800, 92 and 113 subjects respectively). The third phase was done nationally as multicenter study on (1600) participants for ensuring its representativeness. Results: When compared to PCR technique, C-FAST device revealed sensitivity 95% to 100%, specificity 95.5% to 100%, PPV 89.5% to 100%, NPV 95% to 100% and positive likelihood ratios 21.8% to 38.5%. Conclusion: It is practical evidence that HCV nucleotides emit electromagnetic signals that can be used for its identification. As compared to PCR, C-FAST is an accurate, valid and non-invasive device.

Keywords: C-FAST- a valid and reliable device, distant cellular interaction, electromagnetic signal detection, non-invasive diagnosis of HCV

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Authors: Zahraa Albasry, Hadeel D. Najim, Anmar Al-Taie

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Background: Hypertension is considered as one of the most important causes of cardiovascular complications and one of the leading causes of worldwide mortality. Identifying the potential risk factors associated with this medical health problem plays an important role in minimizing its incidence and related complications. The objective of this study is to explore the prevalence of receptor sensitivity regarding assess and understand the perception of specific predictive confounding factors on the prevalence of hypertension (HT) among a sample of Iraqi population in Baghdad, Iraq. Materials and Methods: A randomized cross sectional study was carried out on 100 adult subjects during their visit to the outpatient clinic at a certain sector of Baghdad Province, Iraq. Demographic, clinical and health records alongside specific screening and laboratory tests of the participants were collected and analyzed to detect the potential of confounding factors on the prevalence of HT. Results: 63% of the study participants suffered from HT, most of them were female patients (P < 0.005). Patients aged between 41-50 years old significantly suffered from HT than other age groups (63.5%, P < 0.001). 88.9% of the participants were obese (P < 0.001) and 47.6% had diabetes with HT. Positive family history and sedentary lifestyle were significantly higher among all hypertensive groups (P < 0.05). High salt and fatty food intake was significantly found among patients suffered from isolated systolic hypertension (ISHT) (P < 0.05). A significant positive correlation between packed cell volume (PCV) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.353, P = 0.048) found among normotensive participants. Among hypertensive patients, a positive significant correlation found between triglycerides (TG) and both SBP (r = 0.484, P = 0.031) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = 0.463, P = 0.040), while low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) showed a positive significant correlation with DBP (r = 0.443, P = 0.021). Conclusion: The prevalence of HT among Iraqi populations is of major concern. Further consideration is required to detect the impact of potential risk factors and to minimize blood pressure (BP) elevation and reduce the risk of other cardiovascular complications later in life.

Keywords: Correlation, Hypertension, Iraq, Risk factors

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Authors: Chaima Babi, Said Gadri

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The rapid increase in fake news continues to grow at a very fast rate; this requires implementing efficient techniques that allow testing the re-liability of online content. For that, the current research strives to illuminate the fake news problem using deep learning DL and machine learning ML ap-proaches. We have developed the traditional LSTM (Long short-term memory), and the bidirectional BiLSTM model. A such process is to perform a training task on almost of samples of the dataset, validate the model on a subset called the test set to provide an unbiased evaluation of the final model fit on the training dataset, then compute the accuracy of detecting classifica-tion and comparing the results. For the programming stage, we used Tensor-Flow and Keras libraries on Python to support Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) that are being used for developing deep learning applications.

Keywords: machine learning, deep learning, natural language, fake news, Bi-LSTM, LSTM, multiclass classification

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Authors: Ahmed Assem Abd El Rahim

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BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is enormously common health problem& most of subjects experience it at some point of their life. Kinesio-taping is one of therapy methods introduced for studied cases with nonspecific low back pain. OBJECTIVES: to look at how Kinesio-taping affects studied cases with non-specific low back pain in terms of discomfort, range of motion, & back muscular strength. SUBJECTS: 40 mechanical LBP patients aged 20-40 years had been assigned haphazardly into two groups, They had been selected from outpatient clinic, KasrAl-AiniHospital, Cairo university. Methods: GroupA: 20 patients received the I-shape KT longitudinally & conventional physiotherapy program. Group B:20 studied cases received application of the KT Horizontally & conventional physiotherapy program. pain had been measured by visual analog scale, Range of motion had been measured by Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ), & strength had been measured by an isokinetic dynamometer before & after therapy. Therapy sessions had been three times weekly for four weeks. RESULTS: Groups (A & B) discovered decrease in pain& disability and rise in their flexion, extension ROM & peak torque of trunk extensor after end of 4 weeks of program. mean values of pain scale after therapy had been 3.7 and 5.04 in groups A & B. mean values of Disability scale after treatment had been 7.87.and 9.35 in groups A & B. mean values of ROM of flexion had been 28.06, and 24.53 in groups A & B. mean values of ROM of extension had been 13.43 & 10.73 in groups A & B. mean values of Peak torque of lumbar extensors were 65.43 and 63.22 in groups A & B. Though, participants who received the I-shape KT longitudinally as well as conventional physiotherapy program (group A), discovered more reduction in pain& disability and more improvement in ROM of flexion, extension, and Peak torque of lumbar extensors value (P<0.001) after therapy program CONCLUSION: Therapeutic longitudinal Kinesio-taping application with conventional physiotherapy will be more valuable than Therapeutic horizontal Kinesio-taping application with conventional physiotherapy when treating nonspecific low back pain studied cases.

Keywords: Kinesio taping, function, low back pain, muscle power

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Authors: Mujahid Muhammad, Paul Kearney, Adel Aneiba

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The ability for vehicles to communicate with other vehicles (V2V), the physical (V2I) and network (V2N) infrastructures, pedestrians (V2P), etc. – collectively known as V2X (Vehicle to Everything) – will enable a broad and growing set of applications and services within the intelligent transport domain for improving road safety, alleviate traffic congestion and support autonomous driving. The telecommunication research and industry communities and standardization bodies (notably 3GPP) has finally approved in Release 14, cellular communications connectivity to support V2X communication (known as LTE – V2X). LTE – V2X system will combine simultaneous connectivity across existing LTE network infrastructures via LTE-Uu interface and direct device-to-device (D2D) communications. In order for V2X services to function effectively, a robust security mechanism is needed to ensure legal and safe interaction among authenticated V2X entities in the LTE-based V2X architecture. The characteristics of vehicular networks, and the nature of most V2X applications, which involve human safety makes it significant to protect V2X messages from attacks that can result in catastrophically wrong decisions/actions include ones affecting road safety. Attack vectors include impersonation attacks, modification, masquerading, replay, MiM attacks, and Sybil attacks. In this paper, we focus our attention on LTE-based V2X security and access control mechanisms. The current LTE-A security framework provides its own access authentication scheme, the AKA protocol for mutual authentication and other essential cryptographic operations between UEs and the network. V2N systems can leverage this protocol to achieve mutual authentication between vehicles and the mobile core network. However, this protocol experiences technical challenges, such as high signaling overhead, lack of synchronization, handover delay and potential control plane signaling overloads, as well as privacy preservation issues, which cannot satisfy the adequate security requirements for majority of LTE-based V2X services. This paper examines these challenges and points to possible ways by which they can be addressed. One possible solution, is the implementation of the distributed peer-to-peer LTE security mechanism based on the Bitcoin/Namecoin framework, to allow for security operations with minimal overhead cost, which is desirable for V2X services. The proposed architecture can ensure fast, secure and robust V2X services under LTE network while meeting V2X security requirements.

Keywords: authentication, long term evolution, security, vehicle-to-everything

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Authors: Aliseydi Bozkurt

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Objectives: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign disease, and prostate cancer (PC) is malign disease of the prostate gland. Transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUS-bx) is one of the most important diagnostic tools in PC diagnosis. Identifying men at increased risk for having a biopsy detectable prostate cancer should consider prostate specific antigen density (PSAD), f/t PSA Ratio, an estimate of prostate volume. Method: We retrospectively studied 269 patients who had a prostate specific antigen (PSA) score of 4 or who had suspected rectal examination at any PSA level and received TRUS-bx between January 2015 and June 2018 in our clinic. TRUS-bx was received by 12 experienced urologists with 12 quadrants. Prostate volume was calculated prior to biopsy together with TRUS. Patients were classified as malignant and benign at the end of pathology. Age, PSA value, prostate volume in transrectal ultrasonography, corpuscle biopsy, biopsy pathology result, the number of cancer core and Gleason score were evaluated in the study. The success rates of PV, PSAD, and f/tPSA were compared in all patients and those with PSA 2.5-10 ng/mL and 10.1-30 ng/mL tp foresee prostate cancer. Result: In the present study, in patients with PSA 2.5-10 ng/ml, PV cut-off value was 43,5 mL (n=42 < 43,5 mL and n=102 > 43,5 mL) while in those with PSA 10.1-30 ng/mL prostate volüme (PV) cut-off value was found 61,5 mL (n=31 < 61,5 mL and n=36 > 61,5 mL). Total PSA values in the group with PSA 2.5-10 ng/ml were found lower (6.0 ± 1.3 vs 6.7 ± 1.7) than that with PV < 43,5 mL, this value was nearly significant (p=0,043). In the group with PSA value 10.1-30 ng/mL, no significant difference was found (p=0,117) in terms of total PSA values between the group with PV < 61,5 mL and that with PV > 61,5 mL. In the group with PSA 2.5-10 ng/ml, in patients with PV < 43,5 mL, f/t PSA value was found significantly lower compared to the group with PV > 43,5 mL (0.21 ± 0.09 vs 0.26 ± 0.09 p < 0.001 ). Similarly, in the group with PSA value of 10.1-30 ng/mL, f/t PSA value was found significantly lower in patients with PV < 61,5 mL (0.16 ± 0.08 vs 0.23 ± 0.10 p=0,003). In the group with PSA 2.5-10 ng/ml, PSAD value in patients with PV < 43,5 mL was found significantly higher compared to those with PV > 43,5 mL (0.17 ± 0.06 vs 0.10 ± 0.03 p < 0.001). Similarly, in the group with PSA value 10.1-30 ng/mL PSAD value was found significantly higher in patients with PV < 61,5 mL (0.47 ± 0.23 vs 0.17 ± 0.08 p < 0.001 ). The biopsy results suggest that in the group with PSA 2.5-10 ng/ml, in 29 of the patients with PV < 43,5 mL (69%) cancer was detected while in 13 patients (31%) no cancer was detected. While in 19 patients with PV > 43,5 mL (18,6%) cancer was found, in 83 patients (81,4%) no cancer was detected (p < 0.001). In the group with PSA value 10.1-30 ng/mL, in 21 patients with PV < 61,5 mL (67.7%) cancer was observed while only in10 patients (32.3%) no cancer was seen. In 5 patients with PV > 61,5 mL (13.9%) cancer was found while in 31 patients (86.1%) no cancer was observed (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Identifying men at increased risk for having a biopsy detectable prostate cancer should consider PSA, f/t PSA Ratio, an estimate of prostate volume. Prostate volume in PC was found lower.

Keywords: prostate cancer, prostate volume, prostate specific antigen, free/total PSA ratio

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Kollie B. Dogba, Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Chepchumba Chumo

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In Liberia, many of the agricultural households cultivate cassava for either sustenance purposes, or to generate farm income. Many of the concentrated cassava farmers reside in Nimba, a north-eastern County that borders two other economies: the Republics of Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea. With a high demand for cassava output and products in emerging Asian markets coupled with an objective of the Liberia agriculture policies to increase the competitiveness of valued agriculture crops; there is a need to examine the level of resource-use efficiency for many agriculture crops. However, there is a scarcity of information on the efficiency of many agriculture crops, including cassava. Hence the study applying an output-oriented method seeks to assess the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba County, Liberia. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to generate a sample for the study. From 216 cassava farmers, data related to on-farm attributes, socio-economic and institutional factors were collected. The stochastic frontier models, using the Translog functional forms, of production and revenue, were used to determine the level of revenue efficiency and its determinants. The result showed that most of the cassava farmers are male (60%). Many of the farmers are either married, engaged or living together with a spouse (83%), with a mean household size of nine persons. Farmland is prevalently obtained by inheritance (95%), average farm size is 1.34 hectares, and most cassava farmers did not access agriculture credits (76%) and extension services (91%). The mean cassava output per hectare is 1,506.02 kg, which estimates average revenue of L$23,551.16 (Liberian dollars). Empirical results showed that the revenue efficiency of cassava farmers varies from 0.1% to 73.5%; with the mean revenue efficiency of 12.9%. This indicates that on average, there is a vast potential of 87.1% to increase the economic efficiency of cassava farmers in Nimba by improving technical and allocative efficiencies. For the significant determinants of revenue efficiency, age and group membership had negative effects on revenue efficiency of cassava production; while farming experience, access to extension, formal education, and average wage rate have positive effects. The study recommends the setting-up and incentivizing of farmer field schools for cassava farmers to primarily share their farming experiences with others and to learn robust cultivation techniques of sustainable agriculture. Also, farm managers and farmers should consider a fix wage rate in labor contracts for all stages of cassava farming.

Keywords: economic efficiency, frontier production and revenue functions, Nimba County, Liberia, output-oriented approach, revenue efficiency, sustainable agriculture

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Martina Marinelli, Samanta Vellante, Francesco Pilotti, Daniele Di Valerio, Gaetanino Paolone

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Any development in web marketing technology requires changes in information engineering to identify instruments and techniques suitable for the production of software applications for informative marketing. Moreover, for large web solutions, designing an interface that enables human interactions is a complex process that must bridge between informative marketing requirements and the developed solution. A user-friendly interface in web marketing applications is crucial for a successful business. The paper introduces mkInfo - a software platform that implements informative marketing. Informative marketing is a new interpretation of marketing which places the information at the center of every marketing action. The creative team includes software engineering researchers who have recently authored an article on automatic code generation. The authors have created the mkInfo software platform to generate informative marketing web applications. For each web application, it is possible to automatically implement an opt in page, a landing page, a sales page, and a thank you page: one only needs to insert the content. mkInfo implements an autoresponder to send mail according to a predetermined schedule. The mkInfo platform also includes e-commerce for a product or service. The stakeholder can access any opt-in page and get basic information about a product or service. If he wants to know more, he will need to provide an e-mail address to access a landing page that will generate an e-mail sequence. It will provide him with complete information about the product or the service. From this point on, the stakeholder becomes a user and is now able to purchase the product or related services through the mkInfo platform. This paper suggests a possible definition for Informative Marketing, illustrates its basic principles, and finally details the mkInfo platform that implements it. This paper also offers some Informative Marketing models, which are implemented in the mkInfo platform. Informative marketing can be applied to products or services. It is necessary to realize a web application for each product or service. The mkInfo platform enables the product or the service producer to send information concerning a specific product or service to all stakeholders. In conclusion, the technical contributions of this paper are: a different interpretation of marketing based on information; a modular architecture for web applications, particularly for one with standard features such as information storage, exchange, and delivery; multiple models to implement informative marketing; a software platform enabling the implementation of such models in a web application. Future research aims to enable stakeholders to provide information about a product or a service so that the information gathered about a product or a service includes both the producer’s and the stakeholders' point of view. The purpose is to create an all-inclusive management system of the knowledge regarding a specific product or service: a system that includes everything about the product or service and is able to address even unexpected questions.

Keywords: informative marketing, opt in page, software platform, web application

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Mouhammd Alkasassbeh, Alaa Lasasmeh

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We live in an era of rapid development as a result of significant scientific growth. Like other technologies, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are playing one of the main roles. Based on WSNs, ZigBee adds many features to devices, such as minimum cost and power consumption, and increasing the range and connect ability of sensor nodes. ZigBee technology has come to be used in various fields, including science, engineering, and networks, and even in medicinal aspects of intelligence building. In this work, we generated two main datasets, the first being based on tree topology and the second on star topology. The datasets were evaluated by three machine learning (ML) algorithms: J48, meta.j48 and multilayer perceptron (MLP). Each topology was classified into normal and abnormal (attack) network traffic. The dataset used in our work contained simulated data from network simulation 2 (NS2). In each database, the Bayesian network meta.j48 classifier achieved the highest accuracy level among other classifiers, of 99.7% and 99.2% respectively.

Keywords: IDS, Machine learning, WSN, ZigBee technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 538

Authors: Yuchen Niu, Liang Zhao, Fangfang Xie, Weiyu Liu

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In the past decades, rapid urbanization in China has significantly promoted economic growth and caused a large number of environmental problems. In consideration of land resources shortage, high-density cities will become a common phenomenon in the future. How to improve the living environment under high density is a new challenge. Shenzhen is a typical high-density city, but also the forefront of China's development and reform area. This study selects 9 urban parks with different natural attributes in Shenzhen and explores the relationship of natural, economic, and social conditions within the service scope. Based on correlation analysis and system analysis, the results indicate that improvement of park design and management methods contribute to obtaining higher ecological value and promote economic and social development.

Keywords: correlation analysis, high-density city, park improvement, urban green spaces

Procedia PDF Downloads 121