Search results for: space time cube

Authors: Afsheen Aman, Zainab Bibi, Shah Ali Ul Qader

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Introduction: Xylan is a heteropolysaccharide composed of xylose monomers linked together through 1,4 linkages within a complex xylan network. Owing to wide applications of xylan hydrolytic products (xylose, xylobiose and xylooligosaccharide) the researchers are focusing towards the development of various strategies for efficient xylan degradation. One of the most important strategies focused is the use of heat tolerant biocatalysts which acts as strong and specific cleaving agents. Therefore, the exploration of microbial pool from extremely diversified ecosystem is considerably vital. Microbial populations from extreme habitats are keenly explored for the isolation of thermophilic entities. These thermozymes usually demonstrate fast hydrolytic rate, can produce high yields of product and are less prone to microbial contamination. Another possibility of degrading xylan continuously is the use of immobilization technique. The current work is an effort to merge both the positive aspects of thermozyme and immobilization technique. Methodology: Geobacillus stearothermophilus was isolated from soil sample collected near the blast furnace site. This thermophile is capable of producing thermostable endo-β-1,4-xylanase which cleaves xylan effectively. In the current study, this thermozyme was immobilized within a synthetic and a non-synthetic matrice for continuous production of metabolites using entrapment technique. The kinetic parameters of the free and immobilized enzyme were studied. For this purpose calcium alginate and polyacrylamide beads were prepared. Results: For the synthesis of immobilized beads, sodium alginate (40.0 gL-1) and calcium chloride (0.4 M) was used amalgamated. The temperature (50°C) and pH (7.0) optima of immobilized enzyme remained same for xylan hydrolysis however, the enzyme-substrate catalytic reaction time raised from 5.0 to 30.0 minutes as compared to free counterpart. Diffusion limit of high molecular weight xylan (corncob) caused a decline in Vmax of immobilized enzyme from 4773 to 203.7 U min-1 whereas, Km value increased from 0.5074 to 0.5722 mg ml-1 with reference to free enzyme. Immobilized endo-β-1,4-xylanase showed its stability at high temperatures as compared to free enzyme. It retained 18% and 9% residual activity at 70°C and 80°C, respectively whereas; free enzyme completely lost its activity at both temperatures. The Immobilized thermozyme displayed sufficient recycling efficiency and can be reused up to five reaction cycles, indicating that this enzyme can be a plausible candidate in paper processing industry. Conclusion: This thermozyme showed better immobilization yield and operational stability with the purpose of hydrolyzing the high molecular weight xylan. However, the enzyme immobilization properties can be improved further by immobilizing it on different supports for industrial purpose.

Keywords: immobilization, reusability, thermozymes, xylanase

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: Fatin Mansour Daas

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Language education responds to and is reflective of emerging social and political trends. Language policies and practices are shaped by political, economic, social and cultural considerations. Following this, Israeli language education policy as implemented in Arab schools in Israel is influenced by the particular political and social situation of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. This national group remained in their homeland following the war in 1948 between Israel and its Arab neighbors and became Israeli citizens following the establishment of the State of Israel. This study examines language policy in Arab schools in Israel from 1948 until the present time in light of the unique experience of the Palestinian Arab homeland minority in Israel with a particular focus on questions of politics and identity. The establishment of the State of Israel triggered far-reaching political, social and educational transformations within Arab Palestinian society in Israel, including in the area of language and language studies. Since 1948, the linguistic repertoire of Palestinian Arabs in Israel has become more complex and diverse, while the place and status of different languages have changed. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, only Hebrew and Arabic were retained as the official languages, and Israeli policy reflected this in schools as well: with the advent of the Jewish state, Hebrew language education among Palestinians in Israel has increased. Similarly, in Arab Palestinian schools in Israel, English is taught as a third language, Hebrew as a second language, and Arabic as a first language – even though it has become less important to native Arabic speakers. This research focuses on language studies and language policy in the Arab school system in Israel from 1948 onwards. It will analyze the relative focus of language education between the different languages, the rationale of various language education policies, and the pedagogic approach used to teach each language and student achievements vis-à-vis language skills. This study seeks to understand the extent to which Arab schools in Israel are multi-lingual by examining successes, challenges and difficulties in acquiring the respective languages. This qualitative study will analyze five different components of language education policy: (1) curriculum, (2) learning materials; (3) assessment; (4) interviews and (5) archives. Firstly, it consists of an analysis examining language education curricula, learning materials and assessments used in Arab schools in Israel from 1948-2018 including a selection of language textbooks for the compulsory years of study and the final matriculation (Bagrut) examinations. The findings will also be based on archival material which traces the evolution of language education policy in Arabic schools in Israel from the years 1948-2018. This archival research, furthermore, will reveal power relations and general decision-making in the field of the Arabic education system in Israel. The research will also include interviews with Ministry of Education staff who provide instructional oversight in the instruction of the three languages in the Arabic education system in Israel. These interviews will shed light on the goals of language education as understood by those who are in charge of implementing policy.

Keywords: language education policy, languages, multilingualism, language education, educational policy, identity, Palestinian-Arabs, Arabs in Israel, educational school system

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Hasan Atakan Sengul, Nergis Canturk, Bahar Erbas

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Drinking water is indispensable for life. With increasing awareness of communities, the content of drinking water and tap water has been a matter of curiosity. The presence of Bisphenol-A is the top one when content curiosity is concerned. The most used chemical worldwide for production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins is Bisphenol-A. People are exposed to Bisphenol-A chemical, which disrupts the endocrine system, almost every day. Each year it is manufactured an average of 5.4 billion kilograms of Bisphenol-A. Linear formula of Bisphenol-A is (CH₃)₂C(C₆H₄OH)₂, its molecular weight is 228.29 and CAS number is 80-05-7. Bisphenol-A is known to be used in the manufacturing of plastics, along with various chemicals. Bisphenol-A, an industrial chemical, is used in the raw materials of packaging mate-rials in the monomers of polycarbonate and epoxy resins. The pass through the nutrients of Bisphenol-A substance happens by packaging. This substance contaminates with nutrition and penetrates into body by consuming. International researches show that BPA is transported through body fluids, leading to hormonal disorders in animals. Experimental studies on animals report that BPA exposure also affects the gender of the newborn and its time to reach adolescence. The extent to what similar endocrine disrupting effects are on humans is a debate topic in many researches. In our country, detailed studies on BPA have not been done. However, it is observed that 'BPA-free' phrases are beginning to appear on plastic packaging such as baby products and water carboys. Accordingly, this situation increases the interest of the society about the subject; yet it causes information pollution. In our country, all national and international studies on exposure to BPA have been examined and Ankara province has been designated as testing region. To assess the effects of plastic use in daily habits of people and the plastic amounts removed out of the body, the results of the survey conducted with volunteers who live in Ankara has been analyzed with Sciex appliance by means of LC-MS/MS in the laboratory and the amount of exposure and BPA removal have been detected by comparing the results elicited before. The results have been compared with similar studies done in international arena and the relation between them has been exhibited. Consequently, there has been found no linear correlation between the amount of BPA in drinking water and the amount of BPA in urine. This has also revealed that environmental exposure and the habits of daily plastic use have also direct effects a human body. When the amount of BPA in drinking water is considered; minimum 0.028 µg/L, maximum 1.136 µg/L, mean 0.29194 µg/L and SD(standard deviation)= 0.199 have been detected. When the amount of BPA in urine is considered; minimum 0.028 µg/L, maximum 0.48 µg/L, mean 0.19181 µg/L and SD= 0.099 have been detected. In conclusion, there has been found no linear correlation between the amount of BPA in drinking water and the amount of BPA in urine (r= -0.151). The p value of the comparison between drinking water’s and urine’s BPA amounts is 0.004 which shows that there is a significant change and the amounts of BPA in urine is dependent on the amounts in drinking waters (p < 0.05). This has revealed that environmental exposure and daily plastic habits have also direct effects on the human body.

Keywords: analyze of bisphenol-A, BPA, BPA in drinking water, BPA in urine

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Jayden R. Hunter, Alexander J. MacQuarrie, Samantha C. Sheridan, Richard High, Carolyn Waite

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Workplace exercise programs have been recommended to improve the musculoskeletal fitness of paramedics with the aim of reducing injury rates, and while they have shown efficacy in other occupations, they have not been delivered and evaluated in Australian paramedics to our best knowledge. This study investigated the effectiveness of a 6-month workplace exercise program (MedicFit; MF) to improve paramedic fitness with or without health coach (HC) support. A group of regional Australian paramedics (n=76; 43 male; mean ± SD 36.5 ± 9.1 years; BMI 28.0 ± 5.4 kg/m²) were randomised at the station level to either exercise with remote health coach support (MFHC; n=30), exercise without health coach support (MF; n=23), or no-exercise control (CON; n=23) groups. MFHC and MF participants received a 6-month, low-moderate intensity resistance and flexibility exercise program to be performed ƒ on station without direct supervision. Available exercise equipment included dumbbells, resistance bands, Swiss balls, medicine balls, kettlebells, BOSU balls, yoga mats, and foam rollers. MFHC and MF participants were also provided with a comprehensive exercise manual including sample exercise sessions aimed at improving musculoskeletal strength and flexibility which included exercise prescription (i.e. sets, reps, duration, load). Changes to upper-body (push-ups), lower-body (wall squat) and core (plank hold) strength and flexibility (back scratch and sit-reach tests) after the 6-month intervention were analysed using repeated measures ANOVA to compare changes between groups and over time. Upper-body (+20.6%; p < 0.01; partial eta squared = 0.34 [large effect]) and lower-body (+40.8%; p < 0.05; partial eta squared = 0.08 (moderate effect)) strength increased significantly with no interaction or group effects. Changes to core strength (+1.4%; p=0.17) and both upper-body (+19.5%; p=0.56) and lower-body (+3.3%; p=0.15) flexibility were non-significant with no interaction or group effects observed. While upper- and lower-body strength improved over the course of the intervention, providing a 6-month workplace exercise program with or without health coach support did not confer any greater strength or flexibility benefits than exercise testing alone (CON). Although exercise adherence was not measured, it is possible that participants require additional methods of support such as face-to-face exercise instruction and guidance and individually-tailored exercise programs to achieve adequate participation and improvements in musculoskeletal fitness. This presents challenges for more remote paramedic stations without regular face-to-face access to suitably qualified exercise professionals, and future research should investigate the effectiveness of other forms of exercise delivery and guidance for these paramedic officers such as remotely-facilitated digital exercise prescription and monitoring.

Keywords: workplace exercise, paramedic health, strength training, flexibility training

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Raj Kishore Swain, Kamdev Sethy, Sumanta Kumar Mishra

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Selenium is an essential trace element for the chicken with a variety of biological functions like growth, fertility, immune system, hormone metabolism, and antioxidant defense systems. Selenium deficiency in chicken causes exudative diathesis, pancreatic dystrophy and nutritional muscle dystrophy of the gizzard, heart and skeletal muscle. Additionally, insufficient immunity, lowering of production ability, decreased feathering of chickens and increased embryo mortality may occur due to selenium deficiency. Nano elemental selenium, which is bright red, highly stable, soluble and of nano meter size in the redox state of zero, has high bioavailability and low toxicity due to the greater surface area, high surface activity, high catalytic efficiency and strong adsorbing ability. To assess the effect of dietary nano-Se on performance and expression of gene in Vencobb broiler birds in comparison to its inorganic form (sodium selenite), four hundred fifty day-old Vencobb broiler chicks were randomly distributed into 9 dietary treatment groups with two replicates with 25 chicks per replicate. The dietary treatments were: T1 (Control group): Basal diet; T2: Basal diet with 0.3 ppm of inorganic Se; T3: Basal diet with 0.01875 ppm of nano-Se; T4: Basal diet with 0.0375 ppm of nano-Se; T5: Basal diet with 0.075 ppm of nano-Se, T6: Basal diet with 0.15 ppm of nano-Se, T7: Basal diet with 0.3 ppm of nano-Se, T8: Basal diet with 0.60 ppm of nano-Se, T9: Basal diet with 1.20 ppm of nano-Se. Nano selenium was synthesized by mixing sodium selenite with reduced glutathione and bovine serum albumin. The experiment was carried out in two phases: starter phase (0-3 wks), finisher phase (4-5 wk) in deep litter system. The body weight at the 5th week was best observed in T4. The best feed conversion ratio at the end of 5th week was observed in T4. Erythrocytic catalase, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in all the nano selenium treated groups at 5th week. The antibody titers (log2) against Ranikhet diseases vaccine immunization of 5th-week broiler birds were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the treatments T4 to T7. The selenium levels in liver, breast, kidney, brain, and gizzard were significantly (P < 0.05) increased with increasing dietary nano-Se indicating higher bioavailability of nano-Se compared to inorganic Se. The real time polymer chain reaction analysis showed an increase in the expression of antioxidative gene in T4 and T7 group. Therefore, it is concluded that supplementation of nano-selenium at 0.0375 ppm over and above the basal level can improve the body weight, antioxidant enzyme activity, Se bioavailability and expression of the antioxidative gene in broiler birds.

Keywords: chicken, growth, immunity, nano selenium

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: Tuba Denkceken, Ayse Nur Sarı, Volkan Ihsan Tore, Mahmut Denkceken

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The aim of the presented study was to develop a newly motorized spectroscopy system. Our system is composed of probe and motor parts. The probe part consists of bioimpedance and fiber optic components that include two platinum wires (each 25 micrometer in diameter) and two fiber cables (each 50 micrometers in diameter) respectively. Probe was examined on tissue phantom (polystyrene microspheres with different diameters). In the bioimpedance part of the probe current was transferred to the phantom and conductivity information was obtained. Adjacent two fiber cables were used in the fiber optic part of the system. Light was transferred to the phantom by fiber that was connected to the light source and backscattered light was collected with the other adjacent fiber for analysis. It is known that the nucleus expands and the nucleus-cytoplasm ratio increases during the cancer progression in the cell and this situation is one of the most important criteria for evaluating the tissue for pathologists. The sensitivity of the probe to particle (nucleus) size in phantom was tested during the study. Spectroscopic data obtained from our system on phantom was evaluated by multivariate statistical analysis. Thus the information about the particle size in the phantom was obtained. Bioimpedance and fiber optic experiments results which were obtained from polystyrene microspheres showed that the impedance value and the oscillation amplitude were increasing while the size of particle was enlarging. These results were compatible with the previous studies. In order to motorize the system within the motor part, three driver electronic circuits were designed primarily. In this part, supply capacitors were placed symmetrically near to the supply inputs which were used for balancing the oscillation. Female capacitors were connected to the control pin. Optic and mechanic switches were made. Drivers were structurally designed as they could command highly calibrated motors. It was considered important to keep the drivers’ dimension as small as we could (4.4x4.4x1.4 cm). Then three miniature step motors were connected to each other along with three drivers. Since spectroscopic techniques are quantitative methods, they yield more objective results than traditional ones. In the future part of this study, it is planning to get spectroscopic data that have optic and impedance information from the cell culture which is normal, low metastatic and high metastatic breast cancer. In case of getting high sensitivity in differentiated cells, it might be possible to scan large surface tissue areas in a short time with small steps. By means of motorize feature of the system, any region of the tissue will not be missed, in this manner we are going to be able to diagnose cancerous parts of the tissue meticulously. This work is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) through 3001 project (115E662).

Keywords: motorized spectroscopy, phantom, scanning system, tissue scanning

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Esther Van Andel, Stefanie C. Lange, Maarten M. J. Smulders, Han Zuilhof

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False outcomes of diagnostic tests are a major concern in medical health care. To improve the reliability of surface-based diagnostic tests, it is of crucial importance to diminish background signals that arise from the non-specific binding of biomolecules, a process called fouling. The aim is to create surfaces that repel all biomolecules except the molecule of interest. This can be achieved by incorporating antifouling protein repellent coatings in between the sensor surface and it’s recognition elements (e.g. antibodies, sugars, aptamers). Zwitterionic polymer brushes are considered excellent antifouling materials, however, to be able to bind the molecule of interest, the polymer brushes have to be functionalized and so far this was only achieved at the expense of either antifouling or binding capacity. To overcome this limitation, we combined both features into one single monomer: a zwitterionic sulfobetaine, ensuring antifouling capabilities, equipped with a clickable azide moiety which allows for further functionalization. By copolymerizing this monomer together with a standard sulfobetaine, the number of azides (and with that the number of recognition elements) can be tuned depending on the application. First, the clickable azido-monomer was synthesized and characterized, followed by copolymerizing this monomer to yield functionalizable antifouling brushes. The brushes were fully characterized using surface characterization techniques like XPS, contact angle measurements, G-ATR-FTIR and XRR. As a proof of principle, the brushes were subsequently functionalized with biotin via strain-promoted alkyne azide click reactions, which yielded a fully zwitterionic biotin-containing 3D-functionalized coating. The sensing capacity was evaluated by reflectometry using avidin and fibrinogen containing protein solutions. The surfaces showed excellent antifouling properties as illustrated by the complete absence of non-specific fibrinogen binding, while at the same time clear responses were seen for the specific binding of avidin. A great increase in signal-to-noise ratio was observed, even when the amount of functional groups was lowered to 1%, compared to traditional modification of sulfobetaine brushes that rely on a 2D-approach in which only the top-layer can be functionalized. This study was performed on stoichiometric silicon nitride surfaces for future microring resonator based assays, however, this methodology can be transferred to other biosensor platforms which are currently being investigated. The approach presented herein enables a highly efficient strategy for selective binding with retained antifouling properties for improved signal-to-noise ratios in binding assays. The number of recognition units can be adjusted to a specific need, e.g. depending on the size of the analyte to be bound, widening the scope of these functionalizable surface coatings.

Keywords: antifouling, signal-to-noise ratio, surface functionalization, zwitterionic polymer brushes

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Nurgul A. Abenova, Gaukhar S. Dilmagambetova, Lazzat M. Zhamaliyeva

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Professionalism is a core competency that all medical students must achieve throughout their studies. Clinical knowledge, good communication skills and an understanding of ethics form the basis of professionalism. Patients, medical societies and accrediting organizations expect future specialists to be professionals in their field, which in turn leads to the best clinical results. Currently, there are no studies devoted to the study of medical professionalism in the Republic of Kazakhstan. As a result, medical education in the Kazakhstani system has a limited perception of the concept of professionalism compared to many Western medical schools. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of medical professionalism among residents and teachers of family medicine at the West Kazakhstan Marat Ospanov Medical University. А qualitative research method was used based on the content analysis methodology. A focus group discussion was held with 60 residents and 12 family medicine teachers to gather participants' views and experiences in the field of medical professionalism. The received information was processed using the MAXQDA-2020 software package. Respondents were selected for the study based on their age, gender, and educational level. The results of the conducted survey confirmed the respondents’ acknowledgment of the basic attributes of professionalism, such as medical knowledge and skills (more than 40% of the answers), personal and moral qualities of the doctor (more than 25% of the answers), respect for the interests of the patient (15% of the answers), the relationship between the doctor and the patient and among professionals themselves (15% of responses). Another important discovery of the survey was that residents are five times more likely to define the relationship between a doctor and a patient in a model “respect for the interests of the patient” in comparison with teachers of family medicine, who primarily reported responsibility and collegiality to be the basis for the development of professionalism and traditionally view doctor-patient relationship to be formed on the basis of paternalism defined by a high degree of control over patients. This significant difference demonstrates a rift among specialists in the field of family medicine, which causes a lot of problems. For example, nowadays, professional family doctors regularly face burnout problem due to many reasons and factors that force them to abandon their jobs. In addition to that, elements of professionalism such as reflective skills, time management and feedback collection were presented to the least extent (less than 1%) by both groups, which differs from the perception of the Western medical school and is a significant issue that needs to be solved. The qualitative nature of our study provides a detailed understanding of medical professionalism in the context of the Central Asian healthcare system, revealing many aspects that are inferior to the Western medical school counterparts and provides a solution, which is to teach the attributes and skills required for medical professionalism at all stages of medical education of family doctors.

Keywords: family medicine, family doctors, medical professionalism, medical education

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Norbert Magyar, Jozsef Kovacs, Peter Tanos, Balazs Trasy, Tamas Garamhegyi, Istvan Gabor Hatvani

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Water is one of the most important common resources, and as a result of urbanization, agriculture, and industry it is becoming more and more exposed to potential pollutants. The prevention of the deterioration of water quality is a crucial role for environmental scientist. To achieve this aim, the operation of monitoring networks is necessary. In general, these networks have to meet many important requirements, such as representativeness and cost efficiency. However, existing monitoring networks often include sampling sites which are unnecessary. With the elimination of these sites the monitoring network can be optimized, and it can operate more economically. The aim of this study is to illustrate the applicability of the CCDA (Combined Cluster and Discriminant Analysis) to the field of water quality monitoring and optimize the monitoring networks of a river (the Danube), a wetland-lake system (Kis-Balaton & Lake Balaton), and two surface-subsurface water systems on the watershed of Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő and on the Szigetköz area over a period of approximately two decades. CCDA combines two multivariate data analysis methods: hierarchical cluster analysis and linear discriminant analysis. Its goal is to determine homogeneous groups of observations, in our case sampling sites, by comparing the goodness of preconceived classifications obtained from hierarchical cluster analysis with random classifications. The main idea behind CCDA is that if the ratio of correctly classified cases for a grouping is higher than at least 95% of the ratios for the random classifications, then at the level of significance (α=0.05) the given sampling sites don’t form a homogeneous group. Due to the fact that the sampling on the Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő was conducted at the same time at all sampling sites, it was possible to visualize the differences between the sampling sites belonging to the same or different groups on scatterplots. Based on the results, the monitoring network of the Danube yields redundant information over certain sections, so that of 12 sampling sites, 3 could be eliminated without loss of information. In the case of the wetland (Kis-Balaton) one pair of sampling sites out of 12, and in the case of Lake Balaton, 5 out of 10 could be discarded. For the groundwater system of the catchment area of Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő all 50 monitoring wells are necessary, there is no redundant information in the system. The number of the sampling sites on the Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő can decrease to approximately the half of the original number of the sites. Furthermore, neighbouring sampling sites were compared pairwise using CCDA and the results were plotted on diagrams or isoline maps showing the location of the greatest differences. These results can help researchers decide where to place new sampling sites. The application of CCDA proved to be a useful tool in the optimization of the monitoring networks regarding different types of water bodies. Based on the results obtained, the monitoring networks can be operated more economically.

Keywords: combined cluster and discriminant analysis, cost efficiency, monitoring network optimization, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: M. Nerantzaki, I. Koliakou, D. Bikiaris

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This study evaluates the hypothesis that the incorporation of fibrous hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHA) with high crystallinity and high aspect ratio, synthesized by hydrothermal method, into Poly(butylene succinate) (PBSu), improves the bioactivity of the aliphatic polyester and affects new bone growth inhibiting resorption and enhancing bone formation. Hydroxyapatite nanorods were synthesized using a simple hydrothermal procedure. First, the HPO42- -containing solution was added drop-wise into the Ca2+-containing solution, while the molar ratio of Ca/P was adjusted at 1.67. The HA precursor was then treated hydrothermally at 200°C for 72 h. The resulting powder was characterized using XRD, FT-IR, TEM, and EDXA. Afterwards, PBSu nanocomposites containing 2.5wt% (nHA) were prepared by in situ polymerization technique for the first time and were examined as potential scaffolds for bone engineering applications. For comparison purposes composites containing either 2.5wt% micro-Bioglass (mBG) or 2.5wt% mBG-nHA were prepared and studied, too. The composite scaffolds were characterized using SEM, FTIR, and XRD. Mechanical testing (Instron 3344) and Contact Angle measurements were also carried out. Enzymatic degradation was studied in an aqueous solution containing a mixture of R. Oryzae and P. Cepacia lipases at 37°C and pH=7.2. In vitro biomineralization test was performed by immersing all samples in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 21 days. Biocompatibility was assessed using rat Adipose Stem Cells (rASCs), genetically modified by nucleofection with DNA encoding SB100x transposase and pT2-Venus-neo transposon expression plasmids in order to attain fluorescence images. Cell proliferation and viability of cells on the scaffolds were evaluated using fluoresce microscopy and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. Finally, osteogenic differentiation was assessed by staining rASCs with alizarine red using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) method. TEM image of the fibrous HAp nanoparticles, synthesized in the present study clearly showed the fibrous morphology of the synthesized powder. The addition of nHA decreased significantly the contact angle of the samples, indicating that the materials become more hydrophilic and hence they absorb more water and subsequently degrade more rapidly. In vitro biomineralization test confirmed that all samples were bioactive as mineral deposits were detected by X-ray diffractometry after incubation in SBF. Metabolic activity of rASCs on all PBSu composites was high and increased from day 1 of culture to day 14. On day 28 metabolic activity of rASCs cultured on samples enriched with bioceramics was significantly decreased due to possible differentiation of rASCs to osteoblasts. Staining rASCs with alizarin red after 28 days in culture confirmed our initial hypothesis as the presence of calcium was detected, suggesting osteogenic differentiation of rACS on PBSu/nHAp/mBG 2.5% and PBSu/mBG 2.5% composite scaffolds.

Keywords: biomaterials, hydroxyapatite nanorods, poly(butylene succinate), scaffolds

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Authors: Yuki Matsumoto, Yuma Ishimoto

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with children has shown effective application to various problems such as anxiety and depression. Although there are barriers to access to mental health services including lack of professional services in communities and parental concerns about stigma, school has a significant role to address children’s health problems. Schools are regarded as a suitable arena for prevention and early intervention of mental health problems. In this line, CBT can be adaptable to school education and useful to enhance students’ social and emotional skills. However, Japanese school curriculum is rigorous so as to limit available time for implementation of CBT in schools. This paper describes Brief Cognitive Behavior Therapy (BCBT) with children in a Japanese school setting. The program has been developed in order to facilitate acceptability of CBT in schools and aimed to enhance students’ skills to manage anxiety and difficult behaviors. The present research used a single arm design in which 30 students aged 9-10 years old participated. The authors provided teachers a CBT training workshop (two hours) at two primary schools in Tokyo metropolitan area and recruited participants in the research. A homeroom teacher voluntarily delivered a 6-session BCBT program (15 minutes each) in classroom periods which is called as Kaerinokai, a meeting before leaving school. Students completed a questionnaire sheet at pre- and post-periods under the supervision of the teacher. The sheet included the Spence Child Anxiety Scale (SCAS), the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The teacher was asked for feedback after the completion. Significant positive changes were found in the total and five of six sub-scales of the SCAS and the total difficulty scale of the SDQ. However, no significant changes were seen in Physical Injury Fear sub-scale of the SCAS, in the DSRS or the Prosocial sub-scale of the SDQ. The effect sizes are mostly between small and medium. The teacher commented that the program was easy to use and found positive changes in classroom activities and personal relationships. This preliminary research showed the feasibility of the BCBT in a school setting. The results suggest that the BCBT offers effective treatment for reduction in anxiety and in difficult behaviors. There is a good prospect of the BCBT suggesting that BCBT may be easier to be delivered than CBT by Japanese teachers to promote child mental health. The study has limitations including no control group, small sample size, or a short teacher training. Future research should address these limitations.

Keywords: brief cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, mental health services in schools, teacher training workshop

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Authors: Nisa Mohan

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Clinical coding is a feasible method for estimating the national prevalence of adverse drug event (ADE) admissions. However, under-coding of ADE admissions is a limitation of this method. Whilst the under-coding will impact the accurate estimation of the actual burden of ADEs, the feasibility of the coded data in estimating the adverse drug event admissions goes much further compared to the other methods. Therefore, it is necessary to know the reasons for the under-coding in order to improve the clinical coding of ADE admissions. The ability to identify the reasons for the under-coding of ADE admissions rests on understanding the decision-making process of coding ADE admissions. Hence, the current study aimed to explore the decision-making process of clinical coders when coding cases of ADE admissions. Clinical coders from different levels of coding job such as trainee, intermediate and advanced level coders were purposefully selected for the interviews. Thirteen clinical coders were recruited from two Auckland region District Health Board hospitals for the interview study. Semi-structured, one-on-one, face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions were conducted with the selected clinical coders. Interviews were about 20 to 30 minutes long and were audio-recorded with the approval of the participants. The interview data were analysed using a general inductive approach. The interviews with the clinical coders revealed that the coders have targets to meet, and they sometimes hesitate to adhere to the coding standards. Coders deviate from the standard coding processes to make a decision. Coders avoid contacting the doctors for clarifying small doubts such as ADEs and the name of the medications because of the delay in getting a reply from the doctors. They prefer to do some research themselves or take help from their seniors and colleagues for making a decision because they can avoid a long wait to get a reply from the doctors. Coders think of ADE as a small thing. Lack of time for searching for information to confirm an ADE admission, inadequate communication with clinicians, along with coders’ belief that an ADE is a small thing may contribute to the under-coding of the ADE admissions. These findings suggest that further work is needed on interventions to improve the clinical coding of ADE admissions. Providing education to coders about the importance of ADEs, educating clinicians about the importance of clear and confirmed medical records entries, availing pharmacists’ services to improve the detection and clear documentation of ADE admissions, and including a mandatory field in the discharge summary about external causes of diseases may be useful for improving the clinical coding of ADE admissions. The findings of the research will help the policymakers to make informed decisions about the improvements. This study urges the coding policymakers, auditors, and trainers to engage with the unconscious cognitive biases and short-cuts of the clinical coders. This country-specific research conducted in New Zealand may also benefit other countries by providing insight into the clinical coding of ADE admissions and will offer guidance about where to focus changes and improvement initiatives.

Keywords: adverse drug events, clinical coders, decision making, hospital admissions

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Authors: Maria Elisabete da Costa Ferreira

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Violent crimes, such as terrorism, organized crime and homicides, are increasing all around the World. This fact calls for the necessity to reflect upon the effectiveness of the deterrence offered by the criminal sanctions set today. The severity of the penalties depends on the social, cultural and even religious background of the State in question. In some States, such as Portugal, the common citizen finds the sentences too soft on the perpetrator and too long to be obtained. On the other hand, in 2023, several States still apply the death penalty, among which the USA, China, and most Middle Eastern countries. As for life in prison without the possibility of parole, the number of countries accepting this possibility in their criminal law is much higher, including England and Wales, the Netherlands, Moldova, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey, Russia, and Serbia. This research aims to demonstrate that both the death penalty and life in prison penalty violate the principles of human dignity and social rehabilitation of the perpetrator and propose alternative penalties that can effectively protect society from crime. The research utilizes three main methodologies: the historical method, the comparative method, and the critical method. The historical method is employed to investigate the evolution of criminal penalties over time. The comparative method is used to compare the practices of different states regarding the death penalty and life in prison penalty. Finally, the critical method is applied to analyze and evaluate the shortcomings of these penalties. From a theoretical point of view, there have been drawn several theories throughout the years to support the idea that perpetrators of crimes should be punished. Today, one of the most commonly accepted theories sustains that the penalty will only be legitimate when necessary to protect society from the perpetrator and to rehabilitate him into society. Foremost, the choice of the penalty and the form of its execution should be guided by the principle of human dignity. The death penalty and life in prison penalty fail to achieve the goal of rehabilitation and disregard the human dignity principle. The right to life is a fundamental right declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and stated in most Constitutions in the World. In conclusion, the research demonstrates that the death penalty and life in prison penalty are in violation of the principles of human dignity and social rehabilitation. These penalties fail to achieve their intended goals and disregard fundamental human rights. Although it may sound tempting to some States to rethink the current system of instated penalties to the admission of these penalties, it is imperative to take the inverse road because the protection of society must be achieved with respect to the perpetrator's fundamental rights, so, alternative penalties must be enforced. Society's belief in its citizen's ability to change must be reinforced, and, ultimately, the belief in Humankind. The findings of this research contribute to the discussion on the use of these penalties and aim to contribute to their decreasing usage in society.

Keywords: death penalty, life in prison penalty, human dignity, rehabilitation

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Authors: M. Lehtihet, S. Rosado, C. Pradère, J. Leng

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Poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS), is a polymer mixture well-known for its semiconducting properties and is widely used in the coating industry for its visible transparency and high electronic conductivity (up to 4600 S/cm) as a transparent non-metallic electrode and in organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). It also possesses strong absorption properties in the Near Infra-Red (NIR) range (λ ranging between 900 nm to 2.5 µm). In the present work, we take advantage of this absorption to explore its potential use as a transparent light-to-heat converter. PEDOT: PSS aqueous dispersions are deposited onto a glass substrate using a blade-coating technique in order to produce uniform coatings with controlled thicknesses ranging in ≈ 400 nm to 2 µm. Blade-coating technique allows us good control of the deposit thickness and uniformity by the tuning of several experimental conditions (blade velocity, evaporation rate, temperature, etc…). This liquid coating technique is a well-known, non-expensive technique to realize thin film coatings on various substrates. For coatings on glass substrates destined to solar insulation applications, the ideal coating would be made of a material able to transmit all the visible range while reflecting the NIR range perfectly, but materials possessing similar properties still have unsatisfactory opacity in the visible too (for example, titanium dioxide nanoparticles). NIR absorbing thin films is a more realistic alternative for such an application. Under solar illumination, PEDOT: PSS thin films heat up due to absorption of NIR light and thus act as planar heaters while maintaining good transparency in the visible range. Whereas they screen some NIR radiation, they also generate heat which is then conducted into the substrate that re-emits this energy by thermal emission in every direction. In order to quantify the heating power of these coatings, a sample (coating on glass) is placed in a black enclosure and illuminated with a solar simulator, a lamp emitting a calibrated radiation very similar to the solar spectrum. The temperature of the rear face of the substrate is measured in real-time using thermocouples and a black-painted Peltier sensor measures the total entering flux (sum of transmitted and re-emitted fluxes). The heating power density of the thin films is estimated from a model of the thin film/glass substrate describing the system, and we estimate the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) to quantify the light-to-heat conversion efficiency of such systems. Eventually, the effect of additives such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) or optical scatterers (particles) on the performances are also studied, as the first one can alter the IR absorption properties of PEDOT: PSS drastically and the second one can increase the apparent optical path of light within the thin film material.

Keywords: PEDOT: PSS, blade-coating, heat, thin-film, Solar spectrum

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Authors: Qi Peng

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The Chinese sport sector is currently undergoing a dramatic institutional change. A sport system that was heavily dominated by the government is starting to shift towards one that is driven by the market. During the past sixty years, the Chinese Football Association (CFA), although ostensibly a ‘non-governmental organization’, has been in fact operated under the close supervision and control of the government. The double-identity of CFA has taken most of the blame for the poor performance of the Chinese football team, especially the men’s team. In 2015, a policy initiated by the Chinese government introduced a potentially radical change to the institutional structure of CFA by delegating the power of government agency – the General Administration of Sport of China - to the organization (CFA) itself. Against such background, an overarching research question was brought up- will an organization remained institutionalized within the system change in response to the external (policy) jolt? To answer this question, three principal data collection methods were employed: document review, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Document review provides the mapping of the structural and cultural framework in which the CFA functions during the change process. The author have had the chance to interact closely with the organization as participant observer in the organization for a period of time, long enough to collect the data, but never too long to get biased view of the situation. This stage enables the author to gain an in-depth understanding of how CFA managed to restructure the governance and legitimacy. Conducting semi-structured interviews with staff within the CFA and from staff within selected stakeholders of CFA also provided a crucial step to gain an insight into the factors for change as well as the implications of the change. A wide range of interviewees that have been and to be interviewed include: CFA members (senior officials and staff); local football associations members; senior Chinese Super League football club managers; CFA Super League Co., LTD (senior officials and staff); CSL broadcasters; Chinese Olympic Committee members. The preliminary research data shows that the CFA is currently undergoing two levels of change: although the settings of CFA has been gradually restructured (organizational framework), the organizational values and beliefs remain almost the same as the CFA before the reform. This means that the plan of shifting from a governmental agency to an autonomous association is an going process, and that organizational core beliefs and values are more difficult to change than its structural framework. This is due to the inertia of the organizational history and the effect of institutionalization. The change of Chinese Football Association is looked at as a pioneering sport organization in China to undertake the “decoupling” road. It is believed that many other sport organizations, especially sport governing bodies will follow the step of CFA in the near future. Therefore, the experience of CFA change is worthy of studying.

Keywords: Chinese Football Association, Organizational Change, Organizational Culture, Structural Framework

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Authors: J. Waita, S. Wamuhu, J. Makoyo, M. Rachel, T. Ngangari, W. Christine, M. Zipporah

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Contraceptive use is one of the key global strategies to alleviate maternal mortality. Global efforts through advocating for contraceptive uptake and service provision has led improved contraceptive prevalence. In Kenya maternal mortality rate has remained a challenged despites efforts by government and non-governmental organizations. Objective: To describe the uptake of contraceptives among women in Tunza Clinics, Kenya. Design and Methods: Ps Kenya through health care marketing fund is implementing a family planning program among its 350 Tunza fractional franchise facilities. Through private partnership, private owned facilities in low socio-economic areas are recruited and trained on contraceptive technology update. The providers are supported through facilitative supervision through a mobile based application Health Network Quality Improvement System (HNQIS) and interpersonal communication through 150 community based volunteers. The data analyzed in this paper was collected between January to July 2017 to show the uptake of modern Contraceptives among women in the Tunza franchise, method mix, age and distribution among the age bracket. Further analysis compares two different service delivery strategies; outreach and walk ins. Supportive supervision HNQIS scores was analyzed. Results: During the time period, a total of 132121 family planning clients were attended in 350 facilities. The average age of clients was 29.6 years. The average number of clients attended in the facilities per month was 18874. 73.7 %( n=132121) of the clients attended in the Tunza facilities were aged above 25 years while 22.1% 20-24 years and 4.2% 15-19 years. On contraceptive method mix, intra uterine device insertions clients contributed to 7.5%, implant insertions 15.3%, pills 11.2%, injections 62.7% while condoms and emergency pills had 2.7% and 0.6% respectively. Analysis of service delivery strategy indicated more than 79% of the clients were walk ins while 21% were attended to during outreaches. Uptake of long term contraceptive methods during outreaches was 73% of the clients while short term modern methods were 27%. Health Network Quality Improvement system assessment scores indicated 51% of the facilities scored over 90%, 25% scoring 80-89% while 21% scored below 80%. Conclusion: Preference for short term methods by women is possibly associated to cost as they are cheaper and easy to administer. When the cost of intra uterine device Implants is meant affordable during outreaches, the uptake is observed to increase. Making intra uterine device and implants affordable to women is a key strategy in increasing contraceptive prevalence hence averting maternal mortality.

Keywords: contraceptives, contraceptive uptake, low socio economic, supportive supervision

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Authors: Maria Jose Granero Paris, Ana Isabel Jimenez Zarco, Agustin Pablo Alvarez Herranz

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In the industrial sector collaboration with suppliers is key to the development of innovations in the field of processes. Access to resources and expertise that are not available in the business, obtaining a cost advantage, or the reduction of the time needed to carry out innovation are some of the benefits associated with the process. However, the success of this collaborative process is compromised, when from the beginning not clearly rules have been established that govern the relationship. Abundant studies developed in the field of innovation emphasize the strategic importance of the concept of “Governance”. Despite this, there have been few papers that have analyzed how the governance process of the relationship must be designed and managed to ensure the success of the collaboration process. The lack of literature in this area responds to the wide diversity of contexts where collaborative processes to innovate take place. Thus, in sectors such as the car industry there is a strong collaborative tradition between manufacturers and suppliers being part of the value chain. In this case, it is common to establish mechanisms and procedures that fix formal and clear objectives to regulate the relationship, and establishes the rights and obligations of each of the parties involved. By contrast, in other sectors, collaborative relationships to innovate are not a common way of working, particularly when their aim is the development of process improvements. It is in this case, it is when the lack of mechanisms to establish and regulate the behavior of those involved, can give rise to conflicts, and the failure of the cooperative relationship. Because of this the present paper analyzes the similarities and differences in the processes of governance in collaboration with suppliers in the European aerospace industry With these ideas in mind, we present research is twofold: Understand the importance of governance as a key element of the success of the collaboration in the development of product and process innovations, Establish the mechanisms and procedures to ensure the proper management of the processes of collaboration. Following the methodology of the case study, we analyze the way in which manufacturers and suppliers cooperate in the development of new products and processes in two industries with different levels of technological intensity and collaborative tradition: the automotive and aerospace. The identification of those elements playing a key role to establish a successful governance and relationship management and the compression of the mechanisms of regulation and control in place at the automotive sector can be use to propose solutions to some of the conflicts that currently arise in aerospace industry. The paper concludes by analyzing the strategic implications for the aerospace industry entails the adoption of some of the practices traditionally used in other industrial sectors. Finally, it is important to highlight that in this paper are presented the first results of a research project currently in progress describing a model of governance that explains the way to manage outsourced services to suppliers in the European aerospace industry, through the analysis of companies in the sector located in Germany, France and Spain.

Keywords: supplier collaboration, supplier relationship governance, innovation management, product innovation, process innovation

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Authors: Andreas Kohlhepp, Gerrit Schatte, Wieland Christoph, Spliethoff Hartmut

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In recent years the research of heat transfer phenomena of water and other working fluids near the critical point experiences a growing interest for power engineering applications. To match the highly volatile characteristics of renewable energies, conventional power plants need to shift towards flexible operation. This requires speeding up the load change dynamics of steam generators and their heating surfaces near the critical point. In dynamic load transients, both a high heat flux with an unfavorable ratio to the mass flux and a high difference in fluid and wall temperatures, may cause problems. It may lead to deteriorated heat transfer (at supercritical pressures), dry-out or departure from nucleate boiling (at subcritical pressures), all cases leading to an extensive rise of temperatures. For relevant technical applications, the heat transfer coefficients need to be predicted correctly in case of transient scenarios to prevent damage to the heated surfaces (membrane walls, tube bundles or fuel rods). In transient processes, the state of the art method of calculating the heat transfer coefficients is using a multitude of different steady-state correlations for the momentarily existing local parameters for each time step. This approach does not necessarily reflect the different cases that may lead to a significant variation of the heat transfer coefficients and shows gaps in the individual ranges of validity. An algorithm was implemented to calculate the transient behavior of steam generators during load changes. It is used to assess existing correlations for transient heat transfer calculations. It is also desirable to validate the calculation using experimental data. By the use of a new full-scale supercritical thermo-hydraulic test rig, experimental data is obtained to describe the transient phenomena under dynamic boundary conditions as mentioned above and to serve for validation of transient steam generator calculations. Aiming to improve correlations for the prediction of the onset of deteriorated heat transfer in both, stationary and transient cases the test rig was specially designed for this task. It is a closed loop design with a directly electrically heated evaporation tube, the total heating power of the evaporator tube and the preheater is 1MW. To allow a big range of parameters, including supercritical pressures, the maximum pressure rating is 380 bar. The measurements contain the most important extrinsic thermo-hydraulic parameters. Moreover, a high geometric resolution allows to accurately predict the local heat transfer coefficients and fluid enthalpies.

Keywords: departure from nucleate boiling, deteriorated heat transfer, dryout, supercritical working fluid, transient operation of steam generators

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Authors: Anastasia Schnitzer, Oliver Rehren

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Mental health has become an increasingly important topic in society in recent years, not least due to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic. Along with this, the public has become more and more aware that a lack of enlightenment and proper coping mechanisms may result in a notable risk to develop mental disorders. Yet, there are still many biases against those affected, which are further connected to issues of stigmatization and societal exclusion. One of the main strategies to combat these forms of prejudice and stigma is to induce intergroup contact. More specifically, the Intergroup Contact Theory states engaging in certain types of contact with members of marginalized groups may be an effective way to improve attitudes towards these groups. However, due to the persistent prejudice and stigmatization, affected individuals often do not dare to speak openly about their mental disorders, so that intergroup contact often goes unnoticed. As a result, many people only experience conscious contact with individuals with a mental disorder through media. As an analogy to the Intergroup Contact Theory, the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis proposes that repeatedly being exposed to positive media representations of outgroup members can lead to a reduction of negative prejudices and attitudes towards this outgroup. While there is a growing body of research on the merit of this mechanism, measurements often only consist of 'positive' or 'negative' parasocial contact conditions (or examine the valence or quality of the previous contact with the outgroup); meanwhile, more specific conditions are often neglected. The current study aims to tackle this shortcoming. By scrutinizing the potential of contemporary series as a narrative framework of high quality, we strive to elucidate more detailed aspects of beneficial parasocial contact -for the sake of reducing prejudice and stigma towards individuals with mental disorders. Thus, a two-factorial between-subject online panel study with three measurement points was conducted (N = 95). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, having to watch episodes of either a series with a narrative framework of high (Quality-TV) or low quality (Continental-TV), with one-week interval in-between the episodes. Suitable series were determined with the help of a pretest. Prejudice and stigma towards people with mental disorders were measured at the beginning of the study, before and after each episode, and in a final follow-up one week after the last two episodes. Additionally, parasocial interaction (PSI), quality of contact (QoC), and transportation were measured several times. Based on these data, multivariate multilevel analyses were performed in R using the lavaan package. Latent growth models showed moderate to high increases in QoC and PSI as well as small to moderate decreases in stigma and prejudice over time. Multilevel path analysis with individual and group levels further revealed that a qualitative narrative framework leads to a higher quality of contact experience, which then leads to lower prejudice and stigma, with effects ranging from moderate to high.

Keywords: prejudice, quality of contact, parasocial contact, narrative framework

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Authors: Dalal Albudaiwi, Mike Allen, Talal Alhaji, Shahnaz Khadimehzadah

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As a pandemic, COVID-19 has impacted the whole world since November 2019. In other words, every organization, industry, and institution has been negatively affected by the Coronavirus. The uncertainty of how long the pandemic will last caused chaos at all levels. As with any other institution, public libraries were affected and transmitted into online services and resources. As internationally, have been witnessed that some public libraries were well-prepared for such disasters as the pandemic, and therefore, collections, users, services, technologies, staff, and budgets were all influenced. Public libraries’ policies did not mention any plan regarding such a pandemic. Instead, there are several rules in the guidelines about disasters in general, such as natural disasters. In this pandemic situation, libraries have been involved in different uneasy circumstances. However, it has always been apparent to public libraries the role they play in serving their communities in excellent and critical times. It dwells into the traditional role public libraries play in providing information services and sources to satisfy their information-based community needs. Remarkably increasing people’s awareness of the importance of informational enrichment and enhancing society’s skills in dealing with information and information sources. Under critical circumstances, libraries play a different role. It goes beyond the traditional part of information providers to the untraditional role of being a social institution that serves the community with whatever capabilities they have. This study takes two significant directions. The first focuses on investigating how libraries have responded to COVID-19 and how they manage disasters within their organization. The second direction focuses on how libraries help their communities to act during disasters and how to recover from the consequences. The current study examines how libraries prepare for disasters and the role of public libraries during disasters. We will also propose “measures” to be a model that libraries can use to evaluate the effectiveness of their response to disasters. We intend to focus on how libraries responded to this new disaster. Therefore, this study aims to develop a comprehensive policy that includes responding to a crisis such as Covid-19. An analytical lens inside the libraries as an organization and outside the organization walls will be documented based on analyzing disaster-related literature published in the LIS publication. The study employs content analysis (CA) methodology. CA is widely used in the library and information science. The critical contribution of this work is to propose solutions it provides to libraries and planers to prepare crisis management plans/ policies, specifically to face a new global disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the study will help library directors to evaluate their strategies and to improve them properly. The significance of this study lies in guiding libraries’ directors to enhance the goals of the libraries to guarantee crucial issues such as: saving time, avoiding loss, saving budget, acting quickly during a crisis, maintaining libraries’ role during pandemics, finding out the best response to disasters, and creating plan/policy as a sample for all libraries.

Keywords: Covid-19, policy, preparedness, public libraries

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Authors: Moira Cordiner

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As a result of an Australian university approving a policy to improve the quality of assessment practices, as an academic developer (AD) with expertise in criterion-referenced assessment commenced in 2008. The four-year appointment was to support 40 'champions' in their Schools. This presentation is based on the experiences of a group of Chemistry academics who worked with the AD to develop and implement an honours dissertation rubric. Honours is a research year following a three-year undergraduate year. If the standard of the student's work is high enough (mainly the dissertation) then the student can commence a PhD. What became clear during the process was that much more was at stake than just the successful development and trial of the rubric, including academics' reputations, university rankings and research outputs. Working with the champion-Head of School(HOS) and the honours coordinator, the AD helped them adapt an honours rubric that she had helped create and trial successfully for another Science discipline. A year of many meetings and complex power plays between the two academics finally resulted in a version that was critiqued by the Chemistry teaching and learning committee. Accompanying the rubric was an explanation of grading rules plus a list of supervisor expectations to explain to students how the rubric was used for grading. Further refinements were made until all staff were satisfied. It was trialled successfully in 2011, then small changes made. It was adapted and implemented for Medicine honours with her help in 2012. Despite coming to consensus about statements of quality in the rubric, a few academics found it challenging matching these to the dissertations and allocating a grade. They had had no time to undertake training to do this, or make overt their implicit criteria and standards, which some admitted they were using - 'I know what a first class is'. Other factors affecting grading included: the small School where all supervisors knew each other and the students, meant that friendships and collegiality were at stake if low grades were given; no external examiners were appointed-all were internal with the potential for bias; supervisors’ reputations were at stake if their students did not receive a good grade; the School's reputation was also at risk if insufficient honours students qualified for PhD entry; and research output was jeopardised without enough honours students to work on supervisors’ projects. A further complication during the study was a restructure of the university and retrenchments, with pressure to increase research output as world rankings assumed greater importance to senior management. In conclusion, much more was at stake than developing a usable rubric. The HOS had to be seen to champion the 'new' assessment practice while balancing institutional demands for increased research output and ensuring as many honours dissertations as possible met high standards, so that eventually the percentage of PhD completions and research output rose. It is therefore in the institution's best interest for this cycle to be maintained as it affects rankings and reputations. In this context, are rubrics redundant?

Keywords: explicit and implicit standards, judging quality, university rankings, research reputations

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Authors: Md Maruf Hossain Koli

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The issue of child labor is enormous and cannot be ignored in Bangladesh. The problem of child exploitation is a socio-economic reality of Bangladesh. This paper will indicate the causes, consequences, and possibilities of using microfinance as remedies of hazardous child labor in Bangladesh. Poverty is one of the main reasons for children to become child laborers. It is an indication of economic vulnerability, inadequate law, and enforcement system and cultural and social inequities along with the inaccessible and low-quality educational system. An attempt will be made in this paper to explore and analyze child labor scenario in Bangladesh and will explain holistic intervention of BRAC, the largest nongovernmental organization in the world to address child labor through promoting incubation support to youth-led enterprises. A combination of research methods were used to write this paper. These include non-reactive observation in the form of literature review, desk studies as well as reactive observation like site visits and, semi-structured interviews. Hazardous Child labor is a multi-dimensional and complex issue. This paper was guided by the answer following research questions to better understand the current context of hazardous child labor in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka city. The author attempted to figure out why child labor should be considered as a development issue? Further, it also encountered why child labor in Bangladesh is not being reduced at an expected pace? And finally what could be a sustainable solution to eradicate this situation. One of the most challenging characteristics of child labor is that it interrupts a child’s education and cognitive development hence limiting the building of human capital and fostering intergenerational reproduction of poverty and social exclusion. Children who are working full-time and do not attend school, cannot develop the necessary skills. This leads them and their future generation to remain in poor socio-economic condition as they do not get a better paying job. The vicious cycle of poverty will be reproduced and will slow down sustainable development. The outcome of the research suggests that most of the parents send their children to work to help them to increase family income. In addition, most of the youth engaged in hazardous work want to get training, mentoring and easy access to finance to start their own business. The intervention of BRAC that includes classroom and on the job training, tailored mentoring, health support, access to microfinance and insurance help them to establish startup. This intervention is working in developing business and management capacity through public-private partnerships and technical consulting. Supporting entrepreneurs, improving working conditions with micro, small and medium enterprises and strengthening value chains focusing on youth and children engaged with hazardous child labor.

Keywords: child labour, enterprise development, microfinance, youth entrepreneurship

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Authors: Tso Sheng-Yang, Wang Tien-Ni

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Introduction and Purpose: Previous researchers have documented children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) prefer to escaping internal privates and external privates when they face tough conditions they can’t control or they don’t like.Especially, when children with ASD need to learn challenging tasks, such us Chinese language, their inappropriate behaviors will occur apparently. Recently, researchers apply positive behavior support strategies for children with ASD to enhance their self-efficacy and therefore to reduce their adverse behaviors. Thus, the purpose of this research was to design a series of lecture based on art therapy and to evaluate its effectiveness on the child’s self-efficacy. Method: This research was the single-case design study that recruited a high school boy with ASD. Whole research can be separated into three conditions. First, baseline condition, before the class started and ended, the researcher collected participant’s competencies of self-efficacy every session. In intervention condition, the research used dramatic conventions to teach the child in Chinese language twice a week.When the data was stable across three documents, the period entered to the maintenance condition. In maintenance condition, the researcher only collected the score of self-efficacynot to do other interventions five times a month to represent the effectiveness of maintenance.The time and frequency of data collection among three conditions are identical. Concerning art therapy, the common approach, e.g., music, drama, or painting is to use art medium as independent variable. Due to visual cues of art medium, the ASD can be easily to gain joint attention with teachers. Besides, the ASD have difficulties in understanding abstract objectives Thus, using the drama convention is helpful for the ASD to construct the environment and understand the context of Classical Chinese. By real operation, it can improve the ASD to understand the context and construct prior knowledge. Result: Bassd on the 10-points Likert scale and research, we product following results. (a) In baseline condition, the average score of self-efficacyis 1.12 points, rangedfrom 1 to 2 points, and the level change is 0 point. (b)In intervention condition, the average score of self-efficacy is 7.66 points rangedfrom 7 to 9 points, and the level change is 1 point. (c)In maintenance condition, the average score of self-efficacy is 6.66 points rangedfrom 6 to 7 points, and the level change is 1 point. Concerning immediacy of change, between baseline and intervention conditions, the difference is 5 points. No overlaps were found between these two conditions. Conclusion: According to the result, we find that it is effective that using dramatic conventions a s teaching strategies to teach children with ASD. The result presents the score of self-efficacyimmediately enhances when the dramatic conventions commences. Thus, we suggest the teacher can use this approach and adjust, based on the student’s trait, to teach the ASD on difficult task.

Keywords: dramatic conventions, autism spectrum disorder, slef-efficacy, teaching strategy

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Authors: Marsha D. Loda

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College enrollment is declining and generation Z, today’s college students, are struggling. Before the pandemic, researchers characterized this generational cohort as unique. Gen Z has been called the most achievement-oriented generation, as they enjoy greater economic status, are more racially and ethnically diverse, and better educated than any other generation. However, they are also the most likely generation to suffer from depression and anxiety. Gen Z has grown up largely with usually well-intentioned but overprotective parents who inadvertently kept them from learning life skills, likely impacting their ability to cope with and to effectively manage challenges. The unprecedented challenges resulting from the pandemic up ended their world and left them emotionally reeling. One of the ramifications of this for higher education is how to reengage current Gen Z students in the classroom. This research presents qualitative findings from 24 single-spaced pages of verbatim comments from college students. Research questions concerned what helps them learn and what they abhor, as well as how to engage them with the university outside of the classroom to aid in retention. Students leave little doubt about what they want to experience in the classroom. In order of mention, students want discussion, to engage with questions, to hear how a topic relates to real life and the real world, to feel connections with the professor and fellow students, and to have an opportunity to give their opinions. They prefer a classroom that involves conversation, with interesting topics and active learning. “professor talks instead of lecturing” “professor builds a connection with the classroom” “I am engaged because it feels like a respectful conversation” Similarly, students are direct about what they dislike in a classroom. In order of frequency, students dislike teachers unenthusiastically reading word or word from notes or presentations, repeating the text without adding examples, or addressing how to apply the information. “All lecture. I can read the book myself” “Not taught how to apply the skill or lesson” “Lectures the entire time. Lesson goes in one ear and out the other.” Pertaining to engagement outside the classroom, Gen Z challenges higher education to step outside the box. They don’t want to just hear from professionals in their field, they want to meet and interact with them. Perhaps because of their dependence on technology and pandemic isolation, they seem to reach out for assistance in forming social bonds. “I believe fun and social events are the best way to connect with students and get them involved. Cookouts, raffles, socials, or networking events would all most likely appeal to many students”. “Events… even if they aren’t directly related to learning. Maybe like movie nights… doing meet ups at restaurants”. Qualitative research suggests strategy. This research is rife with strategic implications to improve learning, increase engagement and reduce drop-out rates among Generation Z higher education students. It also compliments existing research on student engagement. With college enrollment declining by some 1.3 million students over the last two years, this research is both timely and important.

Keywords: college enrollment, generation Z, higher education, pandemic, student engagement

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Authors: P. Asiabi, M. Shahhoseini, R. Favaedi, F. Hassani, N. Nassiri, B. Movaghar, L. Karimian, P. Eftekhariyazdi

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Introduction: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a common gynecologic disorder. Many factors including environment, metabolism, hormones and genetics are involved in etiopathogenesis of PCOS. Of genes that have altered expression in human reproductive system disorders are HOX family genes which act as transcription factors in regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, adhesion and migration. Since recent evidences consider epigenetic factors as causative mechanisms of PCOS, evaluation of association between known epigenetic marks of acetylation/methylation of histone 3 (H3K9ac/me) with regulatory regions of these genes can represent better insight about PCOS. In the current study, cumulus cells (CCs) which have critical roles during folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation, ovulation and fertilization were aimed to monitor epigenetic alterations of HOX genes. Material and methods: CCs were collected from 20 PCOS patients and 20 fertile women (18-36 year) with male infertility problems referred to the Royan Institute to have ICSI under GnRH antagonist protocol. Informed consents were obtained from the participants. Thirty six hours after hCG injection, ovaries were punctured and cumulus oocyte complexes were dissected. Soluble chromatin were extracted from CCs and Chromatin Immune precipitation (ChIP) coupled with Real Time PCR was performed to quantify the epigenetic marks of histone H3K9 acetylation/methylation (H3K9ac/me) on regulatory regions of 15 members of HOX genes from A-D subfamily. Results: Obtained data showed significant increase of H3K9ac epigenetic mark on regulatory regions of HOXA1, HOXB2, HOXC4, HOXD1, HOXD3 and HOXD4 (P < 0.01) and HOXC5 (P < 0.05) and also significant decrease of H3K9ac into regulatory regions of HOXA2, HOXA4, HOXA5, HOXB1 and HOXB5 (P < 0.01) and HOXB3 (P<0.05) in PCOS patients vs. control group. On the other side, there was a significant decrease in incorporation of H3K9me level on regulatory region of HOXA2, HOXA3, HOXA4, HOXA5, HOXB3 and HOXC4 (P≤0.01) and HOXB5 (P < 0.05) in PCOS patients vs. control group. This epigenetic mark (H3K9me2) has significant increase on regulatory region of HOXB1, HOXB2, HOXC5, HOXD1, HOXD3 and HOXD4 (P ≤ 0.01) and HOXB4 (P < 0.05) in patients vs. control group. There were no significant changes in acetylation/methylation levels of H3K9 on regulatory regions of the other studied genes. Conclusion: Current study suggests that epigenetic alterations of HOX genes can be correlated with PCOS and consequently female infertility. This finding might offer additional definitions of PCOS, and eventually provides insight for novel treatments with epidrugs for this disease.

Keywords: epigenetic, HOX genes, PCOS, female infertility

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Authors: Andres Mejia-Ortiz, Catalina Lozada, German R. Santos, Rafael Angulo-Jaramillo, Bernardo Caicedo

Abstract:

The interaction between atmospheric variables and soil properties is a determining factor when evaluating the flow of water through the soil. This interaction situation directly determines the behavior of the soil and greatly influences the changes that occur in it. The atmospheric variations such as changes in the relative humidity, air temperature, wind velocity and precipitation, are the external variables that reflect a greater incidence in the changes that are generated in the subsoil, as a consequence of the water flow in descending and ascending conditions. These environmental variations have a major importance in the study of the soil because the conditions of humidity and temperature in the soil surface depend on them. In addition, these variations control the thickness of the unsaturated zone and the position of the water table with respect to the surface. However, understanding the relationship between the atmosphere and the soil is a somewhat complex aspect. This is mainly due to the difficulty involved in estimating the changes that occur in the soil from climate changes; since this is a coupled process where act processes of mass transfer and heat. In this research, an experimental field was implemented to study in-situ the interaction between the atmosphere and the soft soils of the city of Bogota, Colombia. The soil under study consists of a 60 cm layer composed of two silts of similar characteristics at the surface and a deep soft clay deposit located under the silky material. It should be noted that the vegetal layer and organic matter were removed to avoid the evapotranspiration phenomenon. Instrumentation was carried on in situ through a field disposal of many measuring devices such as soil moisture sensors, thermocouples, relative humidity sensors, wind velocity sensor, among others; which allow registering the variations of both the atmospheric variables and the properties of the soil. With the information collected through field monitoring, the water balances were made using the Hydrus-1D software to determine the flow conditions that developed in the soil during the study. Also, the moisture profile for different periods and time intervals was determined by the balance supplied by Hydrus 1D; this profile was validated by experimental measurements. As a boundary condition, the actual evaporation rate was included using the semi-empirical equations proposed by different authors. In this study, it was obtained for the rainy periods a descending flow that was governed by the infiltration capacity of the soil. On the other hand, during dry periods. An increase in the actual evaporation of the soil induces an upward flow of water, increasing suction due to the decrease in moisture content. Also, cracks were developed accelerating the evaporation process. This work concerns to the study of soil-atmosphere interaction through the experimental field and it is a very useful tool since it allows considering all the factors and parameters of the soil in its natural state and real values of the different environmental conditions.

Keywords: field monitoring, soil-atmosphere, soft soils, soil-water balance

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Authors: Ojas Chaudhari, Ali Nejad Ghafar, Giedrius Zirgulis, Marjan Mousavi, Tommy Ellison, Sandra Pousette, Patrick Fontana

Abstract:

In Swedish tunnel construction, a critical issue that has been repeatedly acknowledged is corrosion and, consequently, failure of the rock bolts in rock support systems. The defective installation of rock bolts results in the formation of cavities in the cement mortar that is regularly used to fill the area under the dome plates. These voids allow for water-ingress to the rock bolt assembly, which results in corrosion of rock bolt components and eventually failure. In addition, the current installation technique consists of several manual steps with intense labor works that are usually done in uncomfortable and exhausting conditions, e.g., under the roof of the tunnels. Such intense tasks also lead to a considerable waste of materials and execution errors. Moreover, adequate quality control of the execution is hardly possible with the current technique. To overcome these issues, a non-shrinking/expansive cement-based mortar filled in the paper packaging has been developed in this study which properly fills the area under the dome plates without or with the least remaining cavities, ultimately that diminishes the potential of corrosion. This article summarizes the development process and the experimental evaluation of this technique for the installation of rock bolts. In the development process, the cementitious mortar was first developed using specific cement and shrinkage reducing/expansive additives. The mechanical and flow properties of the mortar were then evaluated using compressive strength, density, and slump flow measurement methods. In addition, isothermal calorimetry and shrinkage/expansion measurements were used to elucidate the hydration and durability attributes of the mortar. After obtaining the desired properties in both fresh and hardened conditions, the developed dry mortar was filled in specific permeable paper packaging and then submerged in water bath for specific intervals before the installation. The tests were enhanced progressively by optimizing different parameters such as shape and size of the packaging, characteristics of the paper used, immersion time in water and even some minor characteristics of the mortar. Finally, the developed prototype was tested in a lab-scale rock bolt assembly with various angles to analyze the efficiency of the method in real life scenario. The results showed that the new technique improves the performance of the rock bolts by reducing the material wastage, improving environmental performance, facilitating and accelerating the labor works, and finally enhancing the durability of the whole system. Accordingly, this approach provides an efficient alternative for the traditional way of tunnel bolt installation with considerable advantages for the Swedish tunneling industry.

Keywords: corrosion, durability, mortar, rock bolt

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: Luis M. Ribeiro, Jorge Raposo, Ricardo Oliveira, David Caballero, Domingos X. Viegas

Abstract:

Under the scope of European project WUIWATCH a set of experimental tests on house vulnerability was performed in order to assess the resistance of selected house components during the passage of a forest fire. Among the individual elements most affected by the passage of a wildfire the windows are the ones with greater exposure. In this sense, a set of exploratory experimental tests was designed to assess some particular aspects related to the vulnerability of windows and blinds. At the same time, the importance of leaving them closed (as well as the doors inside a house) during a wild fire was explored in order to give some scientific background to guidelines for homeowners. Three sets of tests were performed: 1. Windows and blinds resistance to heat. Three types of protective blinds were tested (aluminium, PVC and wood) on 2 types of windows (single and double pane). The objective was to assess the structures resistance. 2. The influence of air flow on the transport of burning embers inside a house. A room was built to scale, and placed inside a wind tunnel, with one window and one door on opposite sides. The objective was to assess the importance of leaving an inside door opened on the probability of burning embers entering the room. 3. The influence of the dimension of openings on a window or door related to the probability of ignition inside a house. The objective was to assess the influence of different window openings in relation to the amount of burning particles that can enter a house. The main results were: 1. The purely radiative heat source provides 1.5 KW/m2 of heat impact in the structure, while the real fire generates 10 Kw/m2. When protected by the blind, the single pane window reaches 30ºC on both sides, and the double pane window has a differential of 10º from the side facing the heat (30ºC) and the opposite side (40ºC). Unprotected window constantly increases temperature until the end of the test. Window blinds reach considerably higher temperatures. PVC loses its consistency above 150ºC and melts. 2. Leaving the inside door closed results in a positive pressure differential of +1Pa from the outside to the inside, inhibiting the air flow. Opening the door in half or full reverts the pressure differential to -6 and -8 times respectively, favouring the air flow from the outside to the inside. The number of particles entering the house follows the same tendency. 3. As the bottom opening in a window increases from 0,5 cm to 4 cm the number of particles that enter the house per second also increases greatly. From 5 cm until 80cm there is no substantial increase in the number of entering particles. This set of exploratory tests proved to be an added value in supporting guidelines for home owners, regarding self-protection in WUI areas.

Keywords: forest fire, wildland urban interface, house vulnerability, house protective elements

Procedia PDF Downloads 283

Authors: Amarachukwu B. Isiaka, Vivian N. Anakwenze, Chinyere C. Ezemba, Chiamaka R. Ilodinso, Chikodili G. Anaukwu, Chukwuebuka M. Ezeokoli, Ugonna H. Uzoka

Abstract:

Infectious diseases continue to pose significant threats to global public health, necessitating advanced and timely detection methods for effective outbreak management. This study explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the early detection and management of infectious disease outbreaks. Leveraging vast datasets from diverse sources, including electronic health records, social media, and environmental monitoring, AI-driven algorithms are employed to analyze patterns and anomalies indicative of potential outbreaks. Machine learning models, trained on historical data and continuously updated with real-time information, contribute to the identification of emerging threats. The implementation of AI extends beyond detection, encompassing predictive analytics for disease spread and severity assessment. Furthermore, the paper discusses the role of AI in predictive modeling, enabling public health officials to anticipate the spread of infectious diseases and allocate resources proactively. Machine learning algorithms can analyze historical data, climatic conditions, and human mobility patterns to predict potential hotspots and optimize intervention strategies. The study evaluates the current landscape of AI applications in infectious disease surveillance and proposes a comprehensive framework for their integration into existing public health infrastructures. The implementation of an AI-driven early detection system requires collaboration between public health agencies, healthcare providers, and technology experts. Ethical considerations, privacy protection, and data security are paramount in developing a framework that balances the benefits of AI with the protection of individual rights. The synergistic collaboration between AI technologies and traditional epidemiological methods is emphasized, highlighting the potential to enhance a nation's ability to detect, respond to, and manage infectious disease outbreaks in a proactive and data-driven manner. The findings of this research underscore the transformative impact of harnessing AI for early detection and management, offering a promising avenue for strengthening the resilience of public health systems in the face of evolving infectious disease challenges. This paper advocates for the integration of artificial intelligence into the existing public health infrastructure for early detection and management of infectious disease outbreaks. The proposed AI-driven system has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach infectious disease surveillance, providing a more proactive and effective response to safeguard public health.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, early detection, disease surveillance, infectious diseases, outbreak management

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Chaitanya H. Acharya, Pavan Kumar P., Gopalakrishna Narayana

Abstract:

In the realm of aerodynamics, numerous vehicles incorporate moving components to enhance their performance. For instance, airliners deploy hydraulically operated flaps and ailerons during take-off and landing, while Formula 1 racing cars utilize hydraulic tubes and actuators for various components, including the Drag Reduction System (DRS). The DRS, consisting of a rear wing and adjustable flaps, plays a crucial role in overtaking manoeuvres. The DRS has two positions: the default position with the flaps down, providing high downforce, and the lifted position, which reduces drag, allowing for increased speed and aiding in overtaking. Swift deployment of the DRS during races is essential for overtaking competitors. The fluid flow over the rear wing flap becomes intricate during deployment, involving flow reversal and operational changes, leading to unsteady flow physics that significantly influence aerodynamic characteristics. Understanding the drag and downforce during DRS deployment is crucial for determining race outcomes. While experiments can yield accurate aerodynamic data, they can be expensive and challenging to conduct across varying speeds. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) emerges as a cost-effective solution to predict drag and downforce across a range of speeds, especially with the rapid deployment of the DRS. This study employs the finite volume-based solver Ansys Fluent, incorporating dynamic mesh motions and a turbulent model to capture the complex flow phenomena associated with the moving rear wing flap. A dedicated section for the rare wing-flap is considered in the present simulations, and the aerodynamics of these sections closely resemble S1223 aerofoils. Before delving into the simulations of the rare wing-flap aerofoil, numerical results undergo validation using experimental data from an NLR flap aerofoil case, encompassing different flap angles at two distinct angles of attack was carried out. The increase in flap angle as increase in lift and drag is observed for a given angle of attack. The simulation methodology for the rare-wing-flap aerofoil case involves specific time durations before lifting the flap. During this period, drag and downforce values are determined as 330 N and 1800N, respectively. Following the flap lift, a noteworthy reduction in drag to 55 % and a decrease in downforce to 17 % are observed. This understanding is critical for making instantaneous decisions regarding the deployment of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) at specific speeds, thereby influencing the overall performance of the Formula 1 racing car. Hence, this work emphasizes the utilization of dynamic mesh motion methodology to predict the aerodynamic characteristics during the deployment of the DRS in a Formula 1 racing car.

Keywords: DRS, CFD, drag, downforce, dynamics mesh motion

Procedia PDF Downloads 94