Search results for: active ageing

Authors: Mohammed Gamil Montasser, Angelo Battaglia

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Entrepreneurship is mostly related to the beginning of organization. In growing business organizations, entrepreneurship expands its conceptualization. It reveals itself through new business creation in the active organization, through renewal, change, innovation, creation and development of current organization, through breaking and changing of established rules inside or outside the organization and becomes more flexible, adaptive and competitive, also improving effectiveness of organization activity. Therefore, the topic of entrepreneurship, relates the creation of firms to personal / individual characteristics of the entrepreneurs and their social context. This paper is an empirical study, which aims to address these two gaps in the literature. For this endeavor, we use the latest available data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project. This data set is widely regarded as a unique source of information about entrepreneurial activity, as well as the aspirations and attitudes of individuals across a wide number of countries and territories worldwide. This paper tries to contribute to fill this gap, by exploring the key drivers of innovative entrepreneurship in the tourism sector. Our findings are consistent with the existing literature in terms of the individual characteristics of entrepreneurs, but quite surprisingly we find an inverted U-shape relation between human development and innovative entrepreneurship in tourism sector. It has been revealed that tourism entrepreneurs are less likely to have innovative products, compared with entrepreneurs in medium developed countries.

Keywords: GEM, human development, innovative entrepreneurship, occupational choice, tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 258

Authors: Edward Pol

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All companies are confronted with the need to innovate in order to meet market demands. In so doing they are challenged with the dilemma of whether to aim to be first into the market with a new innovative product or to deliberately wait and learn from a pioneers’ mistakes; potentially avoiding higher risks. It is therefore important to critically understand from a first-mover advantage and disadvantage perspective the decision-making implications of defence industry transformation onset by an innovative paradigm shift. This paper will argue that the type of industry characteristics matter, especially when considering what role the clients play in the innovation process and what is their level of influence. Through investigation of qualitative case study research, this inquiry will focus on first mover advantages and first mover disadvantages with a view to establish practical and value-added academic findings by focusing on specific industries where the clients play an active role in cooperation with the supplier innovation. The resulting findings will help managers to mitigate risk in innovative technology introduction. A selection from several defense industry innovations is specifically chosen because of the client-supplier relationship typically differing from traditional first-mover research. In this instance, case studies will be used referencing vertical-takeoff-and-landing defence equipment innovations.

Keywords: innovation, pioneer, first-mover advantage, first-mover disadvantage, risk

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Sopio Totibadze

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Although the legal framework of Georgia reflects the main principles of gender equality and is in line with the international situation (UNDP, 2018), Georgia remains a male-dominated society. This means that men prevail in many areas of social, economic, and political life, which frequently gives women a subordinate status in society and the family (UN women). According to the latest study, “violence against women and girls in Georgia is also recognized as a public problem, and it is necessary to focus on it” (UN women). Moreover, the Public Defender's report on the protection of human rights in Georgia (2019) reveals that “in the last five years, 151 women were killed in Georgia due to gender and family violence”. Sadly, these statistics have increased significantly since that time. The issue was acutely reflected in the document published by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, “Gender Hate Crime” (March 10, 2021). “Unfortunately, the rates of femicide ..... are still high in the country, and distrust of law enforcement agencies often makes such cases invisible, which requires special attention from the state.” More precisely, the cited document considers that there are frequent cases of crimes based on gender-based oppression in Georgia, which pose a threat not only to women but also to people of any gender whose desires and aspirations do not correspond to the gender norms and roles prevailing in society. According to the study, this type of crime has a “significant and lasting impact on the victim(s) and also undermines the safety and cohesion of society and gender equality”. It is well-known that language is often used as a tool for gender oppression (Rusieshvili-Cartledge and Dolidze, 2021; Totibadze, 2021). Therefore, feminist and gender studies in linguistics ultimately serve to represent the problem, reflect on it, and propose ways to solve it. Together with technical advancement in communication, a new form of discrimination has arisen- hate language against women in electronic media discourse. Due to the nature of social media and the internet, messages containing hate language can spread in seconds and reach millions of people. However, only a few know about the detrimental effects they may have on the addressee and society. This paper aims to analyse the hateful comments directed at women on various media platforms to determine (1) the linguistic strategies used while attacking women and (2) the reasons why women may fall victim to this type of hate language. The data have been collected over six months, and overall, 500 comments will be examined for the paper. Qualitative and quantitative analysis was chosen for the methodology of the study. The comments posted on various media platforms, including social media posts, articles, or pictures, have been selected manually due to several reasons, the most important being the problem of identifying hate speech as it can disguise itself in different ways- humour, memes, etc. The comments on the articles, posts, pictures, and videos selected for sociolinguistic analysis depict a woman, a taboo topic, or a scandalous event centred on a woman that triggered a lot of hatred and hate language towards the person to whom the post/article was dedicated. The study has revealed that a woman can become a victim of hatred directed at them if they do something considered to be a deviation from a societal norm, namely, get a divorce, be sexually active, be vocal about feministic values, and talk about taboos. Interestingly, people who utilize hate language are not only men trying to “normalize” the prejudiced patriarchal values but also women who are equally active in bringing down a "strong" woman. The paper also aims to raise awareness about the hate language directed at women, as being knowledgeable about the issue at hand is the first step to tackling it.

Keywords: femicide, hate language, media discourse, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Muhammad Ali, Zeeshan Afzal, Giampaolo Ferraioli, Gilda Schirinzi, Muhammad Saleem Mughal, Vito Pascazio

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On 24 September 2019, an earthquake with 5.6 Mw and 10 km depth stroke in Mirpur. The Mirpur area was highly affected by this earthquake, with the death of 34 people. This study aims to estimate the surface deformation associated with this earthquake. The interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique is applied to study earthquake induced surface motion. InSAR data using 9 Sentinel-1A SAR images from 11 August 2019 to 22 October 2019 is used to investigate the pre, co-, and post-seismic deformation trends. Time series investigation reveals that there was not such deformation in pre-seismic time period. In the co-seismic time period, strong displacement was observed, and in post-seismic results, small displacement is seen due to aftershocks. Our results show the existence of a previously unpublished blind fault in Mirpur and help to locate the fault line. Previous this fault line was triggered during the 2005 earthquake, and now it’s activated on 24 September 2019. Study area is already facing many problems due to natural hazards where additional surface deformations, particularly because of an earthquake with an activated blind fault, have increased its vulnerability.

Keywords: surface deformation, InSAR, earthquake, sentinel-1, mirpur

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Authors: Ming-Yeh Lu, Shiao-Shing Chen, Saikat Sinha Ray, Hung-Te Hsu

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The submerged anaerobic osmotic membrane bioreactor (AnOMBR) integrated with periodic microfiltration (MF) extraction for simultaneous phosphorus and clean water recovery from wastewater was evaluated. A laboratory-scale AnOMBR used cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes with effective membrane area of 130 cm² was fully submerged into a 5 L bioreactor at 30-35 ℃. Active layer was orientated to feed stream for minimizing membrane fouling and scaling. Additionally, a peristaltic pump was used to circulate magnesium sulphate (MgSO₄) solution applied as draw solution (DS). Microfiltration membrane periodically extracted about 1 L solution when the TDS reaches to 5 g/L to recover phosphorus and simultaneously control the salt accumulation in the bioreactor. During experiment progress, the average water flux was around 1.6 LMH. The AnOMBR process showed greater than 95% removal of soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD), nearly 100% of total phosphorous whereas only partial of ammonia was removed. On the other hand, the average methane production of 0.22 L/g sCOD was obtained. Subsequently, the overall performance demonstrates that a novel submerged AnOMBR system is potential for simultaneous wastewater treatment and resource recovery from wastewater. Therefore, the new concept of this system can be used to replace for the conventional AnMBR in the future.

Keywords: anaerobic treatment, forward osmosis, phosphorus recovery, membrane bioreactor

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Authors: Rachna, Uma Shanker

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Aromatic phenols, being priority pollutants, are found in various industrial effluents and seeking the attention of environmentalists worldwide, owing to their life-threatening effects. In the present study, the coupling of zinc oxide with Prussian blue was achieved involving co-precipitation synthesis process using Azadirachta indica plant extract. The fabricated nanocatalyst was employed for the sunlight mediated photodegradation of various phenols (Phenol, 3-Aminophenol, and 2,4-Dinitrophenol). Doping of zinc oxide with Prussian blue caused an increase in the surface area to value 80.109 m²g⁻¹ and also enhanced the semiconducting tendency of the nanocomposite with band gap energy 1.101 eV. The experiment was performed at different parameters of phenols concentration, catalyst amount, pH, time, and exposure of sunlight. The obtained results showed a lower elimination of 2,4-DNP (93%) than 3-AP (97%) and phenol (95%) owing to their molecular weight and basicity differences. In comparison to the starting material (zinc oxide and Prussian blue), nanocomposite was more capable in degrading the phenols and lowered the t1/2 value of phenol (4.405 h), 3-AP (4.04 h) and 2,4-DNP (4.68 h) to a greater extent. Effect of different foreign anions was also studied to check nanocomposite’s liability under natural conditions. The extent of charge recombination being the most limiting factor in the photodegradation of pollutants was determined through the photoluminescence. Sunlight active ZnO@FeHCF nanocomposite was proven to exhibit good catalytic ability up to 10 cycles.

Keywords: nanocomposite, phenols, photodegradation, sunlight, water

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Authors: Reza Sadeghi, Maryam Nazarahari

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Considering the effectiveness of botanical pesticides in pest management, these compounds have garnered attention as a sustainable approach to reducing pest-induced damage in agriculture while preserving the environment. Botanical pesticides enable farmers to cultivate higher-quality crops by minimizing the use of chemical pesticides. In this study, plant extracts obtained using n-hexane as a solvent from two botanical sources, thyme and eucalyptus, were evaluated under laboratory conditions for their effectiveness in controlling the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera). The mortality rate of bollworm larvae was assessed across various concentrations of the hexane-based formulations. The results revealed that the hexane-based formulations of thyme and eucalyptus extracts significantly reduced the population of bollworm larvae after 24 hours of exposure. Thyme extract, in particular, demonstrated high effectiveness as a botanical pesticide, suggesting its potential as an efficient alternative to chemical pesticides in pest management. These findings underscore that botanical pesticides can mitigate the environmental consequences of chemical pesticides and provide innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture by leveraging the active compounds present in plant extracts.

Keywords: cotton bollworm, thyme, eucalyptus, extract formulation, , toxicity

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Authors: M. Muneer, Waseem Raza

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Nano-crystalline materials of pure and metal-doped semiconducting materials have been successfully synthesized using sol gel and hydrothermal methods. The prepared materials were characterized by standard analytical techniques, i.e., XRD, SEM, EDX, UV–vis Spectroscopy and FTIR. The (XRD) analysis showed that the obtained particles are present in partial crystalline nature and exhibit no other impurity phase. The EDX and (SEM) images depicted that metals have been successfully loaded on the surface of the semiconductor. FTIR showed an additional absorption band at 910 cm−1, characteristic of absorption band indicating the incorporation of dopant into the lattice in addition to a broad and strong absorption band in the region of 410–580 cm−1 due to metal–O stretching. The UV–vis absorption spectra of synthesized particles indicate that the doping of metals into the lattice shift the absorption band towards the visible region. Thermal analysis, measurement of the synthesized sample showed that the thermal stability of pure semiconducting material is decreased due to increase in dopant concentration. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized particles was studied by measuring the change in concentration of three different chromophoric dyes as a function of irradiation time. The photocatalytic activity of doped materials were found to increase with increase in dopant concentration.

Keywords: photocatalysis, metal doped semicondcutors, dye degradation, visible light active materials

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Authors: Uvais Qidwai, Mohamed Shakir

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This paper presents an initial study related to the use of robotic toys as teaching and therapeutic aid tools for teachers and care-givers as well as parents of children with various levels of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some of the most common features related to the behavior of a child with ASD are his/her social isolation, living in their own world, not being physically active, and not willing to learn new things. While the teachers, parents, and all other related care-givers do their best to improve the condition of these kids, it is usually quite an uphill task. However, one remarkable observation that has been reported by several teachers dealing with ASD children is the fact that the same children do get attracted to toys with lights and sounds. Hence, this project targets the development/modifications of such existing toys into appropriate behavior training tools which the care-givers can use as they would desire. Initially, the remote control is in hand of the trainer, but after some time, the child is entrusted with the control of the robotic toy to test for the level of interest. It has been found during the course of this study that children with quite low learning activity got extremely interested in the robot and even advanced to controlling the robot with the Electromyography (EMG). It has been observed that the children did show some hesitation in the beginning 5 minutes of the very first sessions of such interaction but were very comfortable afterwards which has been considered as a very strong indicator of the potential of this technique in teaching and rehabilitation of children with ASD or similar brain disorders.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), robotic toys, IR control, electromyography, LabVIEW based remote control

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Authors: Koon Weng Lau, Chee Dhang Chen, Abdul Aziz Azidah, Mohd Sofian-Azirun

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Recently, Sarawak state of Malaysia encounter an outbreak of dengue fever. Aedes albopictus has incriminated as one of the important vectors of dengue transmission. Without an effective vaccine, approaches to control or prevent dengue will be a focus on the vectors. The control of Aedes mosquitoes is still dependent on the use of chemical insecticides and insecticide resistance represents a threat to the effectiveness of vector control. This study was conducted to determine the resistance status of 11 active ingredients representing four major insecticide classes: DDT, dieldrin, malathion, fenitrothion, bendiocarb, propoxur, etofenprox, deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, cyfluthrin, and permethrin. Standard WHO test procedures were conducted to determine the insecticide susceptibility. Aedes albopictus collected from Kapit (resistance ratio, RR = 1.04–3.02), Kuching (RR = 1.17–4.61), and Sibu (RR = 1.06–3.59) exhibited low resistance toward all insecticides except dieldrin. This study reveled that dieldrin is still effective against Ae. albopictus, followed by fenitrothion, cyfluthrin, and deltamethrin. In conclusion, Ae. albopictus in Sarawak exhibited different resistance levels toward various insecticides and alternative solutions should be implemented to prevent further deterioration of the condition.

Keywords: Aedes albopictus, dengue, insecticide resistance, Malaysia

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Authors: I. R. Keke, C. S. Nwigwe, O. S. Nwanjo, A. S. Egeruoh

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An experiment was carried out at Urban Farm and Fisheries Nigeria Ltd, Owerri Imo State South East Nigeria between February and June 2014 to induce Brood stock of Heterobranchus longifilis (mean wt 1.3kg) in concrete tanks (1.0 x 2.0 x 1.5m) in dimension using a synthetic hormone (Ovaprim) and pituitary extract from Heterobranchus longifilis. Brood stock males were selected as pituitary donors and their weights matched those of females to be injected at 1ml/kg body weight of Fish. Ovaprim, was injected at 0.5ml/kg body weight of female fish. A latency period of 12 hours was allowed after injection of the Brood stock females before stripping the egg and incubation at 23 °C. While incubating the eggs, samples were drawn and the rate of fertilization was determined. Hatching occurred within 33 hours and hatchability rate (%) was determined by counting the active hatchings. The result showed that Ovaprim injected Brood stock eggs fertilized up to 80% while the pituitary from the Heterobranchus longifilis had low fertilization and hatching success 20%. Ovaprim is imported and costly, so more effort is required to enhance the procedures for homoplastic hypophysation.

Keywords: heterobranchus longifilis, ovaprim, hypophysation, latency period, pituitary

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Authors: Silvia Riva, Ezekiel Chinyio

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Introduction: Workers in different sectors are prone to stress at varying levels. They also respond to stress in different ways. An inspiration was to study stress development amongst workers in a work dangerous setting (Construction Industry) as well as how they cope with specific stress incidences. Objective: The overarching objective of the study was to study and correlate between stress and coping strategies. The research was conducted in an organizational industrial setting, and its findings on the coping actions of construction workers are reported in this article. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with 80 participants aged 18-62. These were working for three different construction organizations in the West Midland region of the UK. Their coping actions were assessed using the COPE Inventory (Carver, 2013) instrument while the level of stress was assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, 1994). Results: Out of 80 workers (20 female, 25%, mean age 40.66), positive reinterpretation (M=4.15, SD=2.60) and active coping (M=4.18, SD=2.55) were the two most adaptive strategies reported by the workers while the most frequent maladaptive behavior was mental disengagement (M=3.62, SD=2.25). Among the maladaptive tactics, alcohol and drug abuse was a significant moderator in stress reactions (t=6.12, p=.000). Conclusion: Some maladaptive strategies are adopted by construction workers to cope with stress. So, it could be argued that programs of stress prevention and control in the construction industry have a basis to develop solutions that can improve and strengthen effective interventions when workers are stressed or getting stressed.

Keywords: coping, organization, strategies, stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: Francisco J. Ortega, Claudia Roman, Moisés García-Morales, Francisco J. Navarro

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Asphaltic bitumen has been largely used in both industrial and civil engineering, mostly in pavement construction and roofing membrane manufacture. However, bitumen as such is greatly susceptible to temperature variations, and dramatically changes its in-service behavior from a viscoelastic liquid, at medium-high temperatures, to a brittle solid at low temperatures. Bitumen modification prevents these problems and imparts improved performance. Isocyanates like polymeric MDI (mixture of 4,4′-diphenylmethane di-isocyanate, 2,4’ and 2,2’ isomers, and higher homologues) have shown to remarkably enhance bitumen properties at the highest in-service temperatures expected. This comes from the reaction between the –NCO pendant groups of the oligomer and the most polar groups of asphaltenes and resins in bitumen. In addition, oxygen diffusion and/or UV radiation may provoke bitumen hardening and ageing. With the purpose of minimizing these effects, nano-layered-silicates (nanoclays) are increasingly being added to bitumen formulations. Montmorillonites, a type of naturally occurring mineral, may produce a nanometer scale dispersion which improves bitumen thermal, mechanical and barrier properties. In order to increase their lipophilicity, these nanoclays are normally treated so that organic cations substitute the inorganic cations located in their intergallery spacing. In the present work, the combined effect of polymeric MDI and the commercial montmorillonite Cloisite® 20A was evaluated. A selected bitumen with penetration within the range 160/220 was modified with 10 wt.% Cloisite® 20A and 2 wt.% polymeric MDI, and the resulting ternary composites were characterized by linear rheology, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The rheological tests evidenced a notable solid-like behavior at the highest temperatures studied when bitumen was just loaded with 10 wt.% Cloisite® 20A and high-shear blended for 20 minutes. However, if polymeric MDI was involved, the sequence of addition exerted a decisive control on the linear rheology of the final ternary composites. Hence, in bitumen/Cloisite® 20A/polymeric MDI formulations, the previous solid-like behavior disappeared. By contrast, an inversion in the order of addition (bitumen/polymeric MDI/ Cloisite® 20A) enhanced further the solid-like behavior imparted by the nanoclay. In order to gain a better understanding of the factors that govern the linear rheology of these ternary composites, a morphological and microstructural characterization based on XRD and AFM was conducted. XRD demonstrated the existence of clay stacks intercalated by bitumen molecules to some degree. However, the XRD technique cannot provide detailed information on the extent of nanoclay delamination, unless the entire fraction has effectively been fully delaminated (situation in which no peak is observed). Furthermore, XRD was unable to provide precise knowledge neither about the spatial distribution of the intercalated/exfoliated platelets nor about the presence of other structures at larger length scales. In contrast, AFM proved its power at providing conclusive information on the morphology of the composites at the nanometer scale and at revealing the structural modification that yielded the rheological properties observed. It was concluded that high-shear blending brought about a nanoclay-reinforced network. As for the bitumen/Cloisite® 20A/polymeric MDI formulations, the solid-like behavior was destroyed as a result of the agglomeration of the nanoclay platelets promoted by chemical reactions.

Keywords: Atomic Force Microscopy, bitumen, composite, isocyanate, montmorillonite.

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Authors: A. A. Embaby, A. Abu Halawa, M. Ramadan

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In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there are several areas where expansive soil exists in the form of variable-thicknesses layers in the developed regions. Severe distress to infrastructures can be caused by the development of heave and swelling pressure in this kind of expansive shale. Among the various techniques for expansive soil mitigation, the removal and replacement technique is very popular for lightly loaded structures and shallow foundations. This paper presents the result of an experimental study conducted for evaluating the effect of type and thickness of the cushion soils on mitigation of swelling characteristics of expanded shale. Seven undisturbed shale samples collected from Al Qadsiyah district, which is located in the Tabuk town north Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are treated with two types of cushion coarse-grained sediments (CCS); sand and gravel. Each type is represented with three thicknesses, 22%, 33% and 44% in relation to the depth of the active zone. The test results indicated that the replacement of expansive shale by CCS reduces the swelling potential and pressure. It is found that the reduction in swelling depends on the type and thickness of CCS. The treatment by removing the original expansive shale and replacing it by cushion sand with 44% thickness reduced the swelling potential and pressure of about 53.29% and 62.78 %, respectively.

Keywords: cushion coarse-grained sediments (CCS), expansive soil, Saudi Arabia, swelling pressure, Tabuk Shale

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Authors: Adewale O. Ogunde, Emmanuel O. Ajibade

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The task of selecting a few elective courses from a variety of available elective courses has been a difficult one for many students over the years. In many higher institutions, guidance and counselors or level advisers are usually employed to assist the students in picking the right choice of courses. In reality, these counselors and advisers are most times overloaded with too many students to attend to, and sometimes they do not have enough time for the students. Most times, the academic strength of the student based on past results are not considered in the new choice of electives. Recommender systems implement advanced data analysis techniques to help users find the items of their interest by producing a predicted likeliness score or a list of top recommended items for a given active user. Therefore, in this work, a collaborative filtering-based recommender system that will dynamically recommend elective courses to undergraduate students based on their past grades in related courses was developed. This approach employed the use of the k-nearest neighbor algorithm to discover hidden relationships between the related courses passed by students in the past and the currently available elective courses. Real students’ results dataset was used to build and test the recommendation model. The developed system will not only improve the academic performance of students, but it will also help reduce the workload on the level advisers and school counselors.

Keywords: collaborative filtering, elective courses, k-nearest neighbor algorithm, recommender systems

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Authors: Temesgen Geremew

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The excessive emission of heavy metal ions from industrial processes poses a serious threat to both the environment and human health. This study presents a distinct approach utilizing (PTh-MnS/CoS NPs) for the highly selective and sensitive detection of Hg²⁺ ions in water. Such detection is crucial for safeguarding human health, protecting the environment, and accurately assessing toxicity. The fabrication method employs a simple and efficient chemical precipitation technique, harmoniously combining polythiophene, MnS, and CoS NPs to create highly active substrates for SERS. The MnS@Hg²⁺ exhibits a distinct Raman shift at 1666 cm⁻¹, enabling specific identification and demonstrating the highest responsiveness among the studied semiconductor substrates with a detection limit of only 1 nM. This investigation demonstrates reliable and practical SERS detection for Hg²⁺ ions. Relative standard deviation (RSD) ranged from 0.49% to 9.8%, and recovery rates varied from 96% to 102%, indicating selective adsorption of Hg²⁺ ions on the synthesized substrate. Furthermore, this research led to the development of a remarkable set of substrates, including (MnS, CoS, MnS/CoS, and PTh-MnS/CoS) nanoparticles were created right there on SiO₂/Si substrate, all exhibiting sensitive, robust, and selective SERS for Hg²⁺ ion detection. These platforms effectively monitor Hg²⁺ concentrations in real environmental samples.

Keywords: surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy (SERS), sensor, mercury ions, nanoparticles, and polythiophene.

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Authors: Daniel Motlhanka, Neo Kerebotswe

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The strong and long history of use of medicinal plants in Botswana to address existing and emerging health threats provides undebatable evidence for their potential as innovative therapeutic tools. The prevalence of emerging health threats, such as COVID-19 and hard-to-treat non-communicable diseases, warrants the scientific community to revisit and exploit ethnopharmacology for its potential as a source of therapeutic tools. Many studies conducted on bioactivity-guided bioassays of ethnobotanical resources have proved a number of health beneficial properties of these plants, such as free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and, most importantly, the capability of medicinal plants to alleviate oxidative stress. In this work, a number of medicinal plants used in Botswana traditional medicine were investigated for both their free radical scavenging capability and total phenolic contents using the Free Radical Scavenging Power (FRSP) and Folin Ciocalteau (FC) method. At 100 micrograms/ml all the studied plants expressed above 90% Scavenging power and expressed total phenolic contents between 5000- 8890 mg/L.GAE. These plants are promising tools for engineering active therapeutic tools against life-threatening diseases of oxidative stress origin.

Keywords: oxidative stress, non-communicable diseases, total phenolics, ethnobotanicals

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Authors: Eric Ohene, Albert P. C. Chan, Shu-Chien HSU

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The rising building energy consumption and related carbon emissions make it necessary to construct net-zero carbon buildings (NZCBs). The objective of net-zero buildings has raised the benchmark for building performance and will alter how buildings are designed and constructed. However, there have been growing concerns about uncertainty in net-zero building design and cost implications in decision-making. Lessons from practice have shown that a robust net-zero building design is complex, expensive, and time-consuming. Moreover, climate conditions have an enormous implication for choosing the best-optimal passive and active solutions to ensure building energy performance while ensuring the indoor comfort performance of occupants. It is observed that 20% of the design decisions made in the initial design phase influence 80% of all design decisions. To design and construct NZCBs, it is crucial to ensure adequate decision-making during the early design phases. Therefore, this study aims to explore practical strategies to design NZCBs and to offer a design framework that could help decision-making during the design stage of net-zero buildings. A parametric simulation approach was employed, and experts (i.e., architects, building designers) perspectives on the decision framework were solicited. The study could be helpful to building designers and architects to guide their decision-making during the design stage of NZCBs.

Keywords: net-zero, net-zero carbon building, energy efficiency, parametric simulation, hot climate

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Authors: Mekhaldi Abdelkader, Bouzned Ahcen, Djibaoui Rachid, Hamoum Hakim

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This study presents an attempt to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of methanolic extract and essential oils prepared from the leaves of sage (Salvia officinalis L.). The content of polyphenols in the methanolic extract of the leaves from Salvia officinalis extract was determined by spectrophoto- metrically, calculated as gallic acid and catechin equivalent. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by free radical scavenging activity using 2,2-diphenylpicryl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The plant essential oil and methanol extract were also subjected to screenings for the evaluation of their antioxidant activities using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) test. While the plant essential oil showed only weak antioxidant activities, its methanol extract was considerably active in DPPH (IC50= 37.29µg/ml) test. Appreciable total phenolic content (31.25mg/g) was also detected for the plant methanol extract as gallic acid equivalent in the Folin–Ciocalteu test. The plant was also screened for its antimicrobial activity and good to moderate inhibitions were recorded for its essential oil and methanol extract against most of the tested microorganisms. The present investigation revealed that this plant has rich source of antioxidant properties. It is for this reason that sage has found increasing application in food formulations.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity, flavonoid, polyphenol, salvia officinalis

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Authors: Salem Abdalla

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Objective: Dipyrone is a widely used, well tolerated analgesic drug which, however, is compromised by agranulocytosis as an adverse effect. Subsequent to no enzymatic hydrolysis, the primary metabolic step is N-demethylation of 4-methylaminoantipyrine (4-MAA) to 4-aminoantipyrine (4-AA). The aim of the present study was to identify the cytochrome P-450 enzyme (CYP) mediating this reaction. Methods: We identified the relevant CYP using virus expressed isolated rat liver microsomes with chemical inhibition studies. The substrate of 4-methylaminantipyrine was employed at six different concentrations (25, 50, 100, 400, 800, and 1200 µmol/l) with varying concentrations of selective inhibitors of CYP1A2 (furafylline, fluvoxamine), CYP3A4 (ketoconazole), CYP2A6 (coumarin), CYP2D6 (quinidine), CYP2C19 (omeprazole, fluvoxamine, tranylcypromine), CYP2C9 (sulfaphenazole), and CYP1A1 (alpha-naphthoflavone). 4-MAA and 4-AA were analyzed by HPLC, and enzyme kinetic parameters (Km and Vmax) were determined by regression (Sigma plot 9.0). Results: The N-demethylation of 4-MAA by microsomes prepared from baculovirus-expressing human CYP was pronounced with CYP2C19. Intrinsic clearances of the most active enzymes were 0.092, 0.027, and 0.026 for the CYP enzymes 2C19, 2D6, and 1A2, respectively. Metabolism by rat liver microsomes was strongly inhibited by omeprazole (IC50 of 0.05). Conclusion: The enzyme CYP2C19 apparently has an important role in N-demethylation of 4-methylaminoantipyrine which should be further analyzed in clinical studies and which may also be interesting concerning the agranulocytosis.

Keywords: dipyrone, 4-methylaminoantipyrine (4-MAA), 4- aminoantipyrine (4-AA), metabolism, human CYP2C19

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Authors: Hamed Alizadeh Dashagholi, Hossein Yousefi-Banaem, Mina Naeimi

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Current study established for EEG signal analysis in patients with language disorder. Language disorder can be defined as meaningful delay in the use or understanding of spoken or written language. The disorder can include the content or meaning of language, its form, or its use. Here we applied Z-score, power spectrum, and coherence methods to discriminate the language disorder data from healthy ones. Power spectrum of each channel in alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and theta frequency bands was measured. In addition, intra hemispheric Z-score obtained by scoring algorithm. Obtained results showed high Z-score and power spectrum in posterior regions. Therefore, we can conclude that peoples with language disorder have high brain activity in frontal region of brain in comparison with healthy peoples. Results showed that high coherence correlates with irregularities in the ERP and is often found during complex task, whereas low coherence is often found in pathological conditions. The results of the Z-score analysis of the brain dynamics showed higher Z-score peak frequency in delta, theta and beta sub bands of Language Disorder patients. In this analysis there were activity signs in both hemispheres and the left-dominant hemisphere was more active than the right.

Keywords: EEG, electroencephalography, coherence methods, language disorder, power spectrum, z-score

Procedia PDF Downloads 425

Authors: Imeobong Joseph Inyang, Aniekan-Augusta Okon Eyo, Abel William Essien

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Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the known human carcinogens. The presence of HBsAg in liver tissues indicates active viral replication. More than 85% of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) cases occur in countries with increased rates of chronic HBV infection. An evaluation study to determine the relationship between positivity for HBsAg and development of HCC and its distribution between age and gender of subjects was done. Shikata Orcein and Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining techniques were performed on liver sections. A total of 50 liver tissue specimens comprising 38 biopsy and 12 post-mortem specimens were processed. Thirty-five of the 50 specimens were positive for HBsAg with Orcein stain whereas only 16 were positive with H&E stain, and these were also positive with Orcein stain, giving an HBsAg prevalence of 70.0% (35/50). The prevalence of HCC in the study was 56.0% (28/50), of which 21 (75.0%) cases were positive for HBsAg, 18 (64.3%) were males while 10 (35.7%) were females distributed within the age range of 20-70 years. The highest number of HBsAg positive HCC cases, 7/21 (33.3%) occurred in the age group 40-49 years. There was no relationship in the pattern of distribution of HCC between age and gender using the Pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.0474; P < 0.05). HBV infection predisposed to HCC. Orcein technique was more specific and is therefore recommended for screening of liver tissues where facilities for immunohistochemistry are inaccessible.

Keywords: Hepatitis B. surface antigen, hepatocellular carcinoma, orcein, pathology

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Nurwati Djaman, Suradi Tahmir, Nurdin Arsyad

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The major objective of this study was to implement and evaluate the use of the implementation of social responsibility with the approach of Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education (PMRI) in teaching and learning mathematics on students’ engagement and learning. The research problems investigated in this research: 1) What were the effects of the implementation of social responsibility with PMRI approach to learning mathematics? 2) What were the effects of the approach to students’ engagement? An action research and grounded theory methodology were adopted for the study. This study used mixed methods to collect, describe, and interpret the data. The data were collected through focus group discussion, classroom observations, questionnaire, interview, and students’ work. The participants in this study consisted of 45 students. The study revealed that the approach has given students the opportunity to develop their understanding of concepts and procedures, problem-solving ability, and communication ability. Also, students’ involvement in the approach improved their engagement in learning mathematics in the three domains of cognitive engagement, effective engagement, and behavioral engagement. In particular, the data collection from the focus group, classroom observations, and interviews suggest that, during this study, the students became more active participants in the mathematics lessons.

Keywords: Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education, PMRI, learning mathematics, social responsibility, students' engagement

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: M. Cuevas-González, O. Monserrat, A. Barra, C. Reyes-Carmona, R.M. Mateos, J. P. Galve, R. Sarro, M. Cantalejo, E. Peña, M. Martínez-Corbella, J. A. Luque, J. M. Azañón, A. Millares, M. Béjar, J. A. Navarro, L. Solari

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Geohazard prone areas require continuous monitoring to detect risks, understand the phenomena occurring in those regions and prevent disasters. Satellite interferometry (InSAR) has come to be a trustworthy technique for ground movement detection and monitoring in the last few years. InSAR based techniques allow to process large areas providing high number of displacement measurements at low cost. However, the results provided by such techniques are usually not easy to interpret by non-experienced users hampering its use for decision makers. This work presents a set of tools developed in the framework of different projects (Momit, Safety, U-Geohaz, Riskcoast) and an example of their use in the Granada Coastal area (Spain) is shown. The ADA (Active Displacement Areas) tool have been developed with the aim of easing the management, use and interpretation of InSAR based results. It provides a semi-automatic extraction of the most significant ADAs through the application ADAFinder tool. This tool aims to support the exploitation of the European Ground Motion Service (EU-GMS), which will provide consistent, regular and reliable information regarding natural and anthropogenic ground motion phenomena all over Europe.

Keywords: ground displacements, InSAR, natural hazards, satellite imagery

Procedia PDF Downloads 220

Authors: Muhammad Mustaqeem, Musa Kaleem Baloch, Irfan Ullah, Ammarah Luqman, Afshan Ahmad

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Flurbiprofen is one of the most potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. It is widely used for relief of pain in patients suffering from rheumatic diseases, migraine, sore throat and primary dysmenorrhea. However, its aqueous solubility is very low and hinders the skin permeation. Thus, it is imperative to develop such a drug delivery systems which can improve its aqueous solubility and hence improve the skin permeation and therapeutic compliance. Microemulsions have been also proven to increase the cutaneous absorption of lipophilic drugs as compared to conventional vehicles. Micro-emulsion is thermodynamically stable emulsion that has the capacity to ‘hide/solubilize’ water-insoluble molecules within a continuous oil phase. Therefore, flurbiprofen was converted to Easters through chemical reactions with alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. The product was further treated with hydrazine to get hydrazide. The solubility of the parent drug Flurbiprofen and the products were solubilized in microemulsions formed using various surfactants like ionic, non-ionic and zwitterions. It has been concluded that the product was more soluble than the parent compound. The biological activities of these were also investigated. The outcome was very promising and the product was more active than the parent compound. It, therefore, concluded that in this way, we can not only enhance the solubility of the drug and increase its bioactivity, but also reduce the risk of stomach cancer.

Keywords: Flurbiprofen, microemulsion, surfactants, hyrazides

Procedia PDF Downloads 228

Authors: Fui Ping Lim, Wen Choong Chua, Toan Thang Phan

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Aim: This study investigates the roles of Cord Lining Stem Cells (CLSCs) as potential therapeutic agents for diabetic wounds. Method: 20 genetically diabetic db/db mice were randomly assigned to two arms; (i) control group received placebo treatment (sham media or cells delivery material), and (ii) active comparator received CLSCs. Two full-thickness wounds, each sized 10mm X 10mm were created, one on each side of the midline on the back of the mice. Digital pictures were taken on day 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24, 28. Wound areas were analyzed with ImageJ TM software and calculated as percentage of the original wound. Time to closure was defined as the day the wound bed was completely epithelized and filled with new tissues. Results: The CLSCs-treated wounds, showed a significant increase in the percentage of wound closure and achieved 100% closure of the wound sooner than the control group by an average of 3.7 days. The mice treated with CLSCs have a shorter wound closure time (mean closure day: 19.8 days) as compared to the control group (mean closure day: 23.5 days). Conclusion: Our preliminary findings inferred that CLSCs treated wound achieved higher percentage of wound closure within a shorter duration of time.

Keywords: cord lining stem cell, diabetic wound, stem cell, wound

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Susana Olmos, Catherine Spencer

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Every year our School in DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) hosts approximately 80 Erasmus students from partner universities across Europe. Our own students are required to spend a compulsory 3rd year abroad on study and/or work placements. This is an extremely rewarding experience for all of the students, however, it can also be a challenging one. With this in mind, we started a project which aimed to make this transition as easy and productive as possible. The project, which is called MEET: Maximise the Erasmus Experience Together, focuses on the students’ own active engagement in learning and preparation – outside of the classroom –and their own self-directed pursuit of opportunities to develop their confidence and preparedness, which would work as an important foundation for the transformative learning that study abroad implies. We focussed on creating more structured opportunities where Erasmus students from our partner universities (currently studying at DIT) and our second-year students could interact and learn from each other, and in so doing improve both their language and intercultural skills. Our experience so far has been quite positive and we have seen how students taking part in this project have developed as autonomous learners as well as enhanced both their linguistic and intercultural knowledge. As the linguistic element of our project was one of our main priorities, we asked the students to keep a reflective diary on the activities that were organised by the group in the TL. Also, we use questionnaires as well as personal interviews to assess their development. However, there are challenges and proposals we would make to bring this project forward for the near future.

Keywords: erasmus, intercultural competence, linguistic competence, extra curriculum activities

Procedia PDF Downloads 378

Authors: Hameda Suwaed

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Group work, time management and accepting others' opinions are practices rooted in the socio-political culture of democratic nations. In Libya, a country transitioning towards democracy, what is the impact of encouraging college students to use such practices in the English language classroom? How to encourage teachers to use such practices in educational system characterized by using traditional methods of teaching? Using action research and classroom research gathered data; this study investigates how teachers can use education to change their students' understanding of their roles in their society by enhancing their belonging to it. This study adjusts a model of change that includes giving students clear directions, sufficient motivation and supportive environment. These steps were applied by encouraging students to participate actively in the classroom by using group work and variety of activities. The findings of the study showed that following the suggested model can broaden students' perception of their belonging to their environment starting with their classroom and ending with their country. In conclusion, although this was a small scale study, the students' participation in the classroom shows that they gained self confidence in using practices such as group work, how to present their ideas and accepting different opinions. What was remarkable is that most students were aware that is what we need in Libya nowadays.

Keywords: educational change, students' motivation, group work, foreign language teaching

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: M. Simon, O. Peillon, R. Seijas, P. Alvarez, A. Pérez-Bellmunt

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Introduction: Myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) are defined as hyperirritable areas within taut bands of skeletal muscle and classified as either active or latent. Although they could be present in any muscle, the triceps surae is one of the most affected of the lower limb. The aim of this study was described which treatments are more used and their principal results. Study design: We performed a systematic literature search using strategies for the concepts of “Trigger Points and Gastrocnemius and Soleus not Trapezius” in Medline. Articles were screened by authors and included if they contained a rehabilitation intervention of MTrPs in healthy subjects or patients. Results: The treatments used were mostly invasive interventions and only a small part of the studies used non-invasive treatments. The methodology (time o type of intervention, characteristics of treatment, etc.) used in these treatments were frequently undefined. Overall, examination variables varied significantly among the included studies, but they were improving their parameters when the MTrPs were treated. Conclusions: There are a high variety of physical therapy treatments to improve the symptomatology of MTrPs when affect triceps surae muscle. Even so, not a single study analyzing the skeletal muscle contractile parameters (as maximal displacement or delay time) change with MTrPS therapy has been found. The treatments have to better specificity the methodology used in the futures investigation.

Keywords: fascia, myofascial trigger points, physical therapy, triceps surae

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Nader Chavoshi Boroujeni, Naser Chavoshi Boroujeni

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Considering the importance of managerial competencies on organizational performance as well as the role of social capital and entrepreneurship as mediator parameters affecting organizational performance, this study attempts to examine the impact carefully. In this regard, Isfahan Science and Technology Town (ISTT) as an effective and knowledge generator company that has a great effect on improving organizational performances of many other companies such as Knowledge-Based Companies (KBCs) activing in the ISTT's site was selected as statistical population. According to coordination with the Department of Development and Technology of ISTT, all employees of ISTT and active KBCs were selected as sample. Then, to analyze the variables a standard and self-made questionnaire containing 98 questions was designed and distributed. Of the 350 questionnaires distributed, 319 questionnaires were collected that 313 cases were confirmed and analyzed. To confirm the reliability of questionnaire, the Leader professor and two other professors approved it. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to validate the questionnaire that all coefficient was between 0/7 and 0/95. So, the validity was confirmed. After descriptive study population, the normality of distribution was investigated with Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, the results obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed by Amos software that all hypotheses were confirmed.

Keywords: managerial competencies, personnel organizational performance, entrepreneurship, social capital

Procedia PDF Downloads 269