Search results for: integral transformation

Authors: James P. Takona

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In a world that is experiencing sharp digital transformations guided by digital technologies, the potential of technology to drive transformation and evolution in the higher is apparent. Higher education is facing a paradigm shift that exposes susceptibilities and threats to fully online programs in the face of post-Covid-19 trends of commodification. This historical moment is likely to be remembered as a critical turning point from analog to digital degree-focused learning modalities, where the default became the pivot point of competition between higher education institutions. Fall 2020 marks a significant inflection point in higher education as students, educators, and government leaders scrutinize higher education's price and value propositions through the new lens of traditional lecture halls versus multiple digitized delivery modes. Online education has since tiled the way for a pedagogical shift in how teachers teach and students learn. The incremental growth of online education in the west can now be attributed to the increasing patronage among students, faculty, and institution administrators. More often than not, college instructors assume paraclete roles in this learning mode, while students become active collaborators and no longer passive learners. This paper offers valuable discernments into the threats, challenges, and opportunities of a massive digital revolution in servicing degree programs. To view digital instruction and learning demands for instructional practices that revolve around collaborative work, engaging students in learning activities, and an engagement that promotes active efforts to solicit strong connections between course activities and expected learning pace for all students. Appropriate digital technologies demand instructors and students need prior solid skills. Need for the use of digital technology to support instruction and learning, intelligent tutoring offers great promise, and failures at implementing digital learning may not improve outcomes for specific student populations. Digital learning benefits students differently depending on their circumstances and background and those of the institution and/or program. Students have alternative options, access to the convenience of learning anytime and anywhere, and the possibility of acquiring and developing new skills leading to lifelong learning.

Keywords: digi̇tized learning, digital education, collaborative work, high education, online education, digitize delivery

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Authors: Norimichi Nagano, Yoshio Hirano, Tsutomu Yasukawa

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Mesenchymal stem cells are thought to confer neuroprotection, facilitate tissue regeneration and exert their effects on retinal degenerative diseases, however, adverse events such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy and preretinal membrane disease associated with cell suspension transplantation have also been reported. We have recently developed human (allogeneic) adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell (adMSC) sheets through our proprietary sheet transformation technique, which could potentially mitigate these adverse events. To clarify the properties of our adMSC sheets named PAL-222, we performed in vitro studies such as viability testing, cytokine secretions by ELISA, immunohistochemical study, and migration assay. The viability of the cells exceeded 70%. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor (PEDF), which are quite important cytokines for the retinal area, were observed. PAL-222 expressed type I collagen, a strength marker, type IV collagen, a marker of the basement membrane, and elastin, an elasticity marker. Finally, the migration assay was performed and showed negative, which means that PAL-222 is stably kept in the topical area and does not come to pieces. Next, to evaluate the efficacy in vivo, we transplanted PAL-222 into the subretinal space of the eye of Royal College of Surgeons rats with congenital retinal degeneration and assessed it for three weeks after transplantation. We confirmed that PAL-222 suppressed the decrease in the thickness of the outer nuclear layer, which means that the photoreceptor protective effect treated with PAL-222 was significantly higher than that in the sham group. (p < 0.01). This finding demonstrates that PAL-222 showed their retinoprotective effect in a model of congenital retinal degeneration. As the study suggested the efficacy of PAL-222 in both in vitro and in vivo studies, we are presently engaged in clinical trials of PAL-222 for myopic chorioretinal atrophy, which is one of the retinal degenerative diseases, for the purpose of regenerative medicine.

Keywords: cell sheet, clinical trial, mesenchymal stem cell, myopic chorioretinal atrophy

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Authors: Wim Hollander, Petrus Louis Nolte

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University sport in South Africa is not isolated from the complexity of globalization and professionalization of sport, as it forms an integral part of the sports development environment in South Africa. In order to align their sports programs with global and professional requirements, several universities opted to develop elite sports programs; recruit specialized personnel such as coaches, administrators, and athletes; provide expert coaching; scientific and medical services; sports testing; fitness, technical and tactical expertise; sport psychological and rehabilitation support; academic guidance and career assistance; and student-athlete accommodation. In addition, universities provide administrative support and high-quality physical resources (training facilities) for the benefit of the overall South African sport system. Although it is not compulsory for universities to develop elite sports programs to prepare their teams for competitions, elite competitions such as the annual Varsity Sport, University Sport South Africa (USSA) and local club competitions and leagues within international university competitions where universities not only compete but also deliver players for representative national netball teams. The aim of this study is, therefore, to describe the perceptions of players of the university elite netball programs they were participating in. This study adopted a descriptive design with a quantitative approach, utilizing a self-structured questionnaire as a research technique. As this research formed part of a national research project for NSA with a population of 172 national and provincial netball players, a sample of 92 university netball players from the population was selected. Content validity of the self-structured questionnaire was secured through a test-retest process, with construct validity through a member of the Statistical Consultation Services (STATCON) of the University of Johannesburg that provided feedback on the structural format of the questionnaire. Reliability was measured utilizing Cronbach Alpha on p < 0.005 level of significance. A reliability score of 0.87 was measured. The research was approved by the Board of Netball South Africa and ethical conduct implemented according to the processes and procedures approved by the Ethics Committees of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the University of Johannesburg with clearance number REC-01-30-2019. From the results, it is evident that university elite netball programs are professional, especially with regards to the employment of knowledgeable and competent coaches and technical officials such as team managers and sport sciences staff. These professionals have access to elite training facilities, support staff, and relatively large groups of elite players, all elements of an elite program that could enhance the national federation’s (Netball South Africa) system. Universities could serve the dual purpose of serving as university netball clubs, as well as providing elite training services and facilities as performance hubs for national players.

Keywords: elite sport programmes, university netball, player experiences, varsity sport netball

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Authors: Dejen Alemu, Murray E. Jennex, Temtim Assefa

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This paper is investigated to understand the design, the use, and the consequence of Knowledge Management System (KMS) for knowledge systems sharing and integration. A KMS for knowledge systems sharing and integration is designed to meet the challenges raised by knowledge management researchers and practitioners: the technical, the human, and social factors. Agricultural KMS involves various members coming from different Communities of Practice (CoPs) who possess their own knowledge of multiple practices which need to be combined in the system development. However, the current development of the technology ignored the indigenous knowledge of the local communities, which is the key success factor for agriculture. This research employed the multi-methodological approach to KMS research in action research perspective which consists of four strategies: theory building, experimentation, observation, and system development. Using the KMS development practice of Ethiopian agricultural transformation agency as a case study, this research employed an interpretive analysis using primary qualitative data acquired through in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The Orlikowski's structuration model of technology has been used to understand the design, the use, and the consequence of the KMS. As a result, the research identified three basic components for the architecture of the shared KMS, namely, the people, the resources, and the implementation subsystems. The KMS were developed using web 2.0 tools to promote knowledge sharing and integration among diverse groups of users in a distributed environment. The use of a shared KMS allows users to access diverse knowledge from a number of users in different groups of participants, enhances the exchange of different forms of knowledge and experience, and creates high interaction and collaboration among participants. The consequences of a shared KMS on the social system includes, the elimination of hierarchical structure, enhance participation, collaboration, and negotiation among users from different CoPs having common interest, knowledge and skill development, integration of diverse knowledge resources, and the requirement of policy and guideline. The research contributes methodologically for the application of system development action research for understanding a conceptual framework for KMS development and use. The research have also theoretical contribution in extending structuration model of technology for the incorporation of variety of knowledge and practical implications to provide management understanding in developing strategies for the potential of web 2.0 tools for sharing and integration of indigenous knowledge.

Keywords: communities of practice, indigenous knowledge, participation, structuration model of technology, Web 2.0 tools

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Authors: Theoktisti Makridou, Konstantinos Tsaprailis, George Arvanitakis, Charalampos Kontoes

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In the literature, the data-driven approaches for mosquito abundance prediction relaying on supervised machine learning models that get trained with historical in-situ measurements. The counterpart of this approach is once the model gets trained on pointlevel (specific x,y coordinates) measurements, the predictions of the model refer again to point-level. These point-level predictions reduce the applicability of those solutions once a lot of early warning and mitigation actions applications need predictions for an area level, such as a municipality, village, etc... In this study, we apply a data-driven predictive model, which relies on public-open satellite Earth Observation and geospatial data and gets trained with historical point-level in-Situ measurements of mosquito abundance. Then we propose a methodology to extract information from a point-level predictive model to a broader area-level prediction. Our methodology relies on the randomly spatial sampling of the area of interest (similar to the Poisson hardcore process), obtaining the EO and geomorphological information for each sample, doing the point-wise prediction for each sample, and aggregating the predictions to represent the average mosquito abundance of the area. We quantify the performance of the transformation from the pointlevel to the area-level predictions, and we analyze it in order to understand which parameters have a positive or negative impact on it. The goal of this study is to propose a methodology that predicts the mosquito abundance of a given area by relying on point-level prediction and to provide qualitative insights regarding the expected performance of the area-level prediction. We applied our methodology to historical data (of Culex pipiens) of two areas of interest (Veneto region of Italy and Central Macedonia of Greece). In both cases, the results were consistent. The mean mosquito abundance of a given area can be estimated with similar accuracy to the point-level predictor, sometimes even better. The density of the samples that we use to represent one area has a positive effect on the performance in contrast to the actual number of sampling points which is not informative at all regarding the performance without the size of the area. Additionally, we saw that the distance between the sampling points and the real in-situ measurements that were used for training did not strongly affect the performance.

Keywords: mosquito abundance, supervised machine learning, culex pipiens, spatial sampling, west nile virus, earth observation data

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Authors: Sergey A. Lurie, Yury O. Solyaev, Dmitry B. Volkov-Bogorodsky, Alexander V. Volkov

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The media with voids is considered and the method of the analytical estimation of the effective mechanical properties in the theory of elastic materials with voids is proposed. The variational model of the porous media is discussed, which is based on the model of the media with fields of conserved dislocations. It is shown that this model is fully consistent with the known model of the linear elastic materials with voids. In the present work, the generalized model of the porous media is proposed in which the specific surface properties are associated with the field of defects-pores in the volume of the deformed body. Unlike typical surface elasticity model, the strain energy density of the considered model includes the special part of the surface energy with the quadratic form of the free distortion tensor. In the result, the non-classical boundary conditions take modified form of the balance equations of volume and surface stresses. The analytical approach is proposed in the present work which allows to receive the simple enough engineering estimations for effective characteristics of the media with free dilatation. In particular, the effective flexural modulus and Poisson's ratio are determined for the problem of a beam pure bending. Here, the known voids elasticity solution was expanded on the generalized model with the surface effects. Received results allow us to compare the deformed state of the porous beam with the equivalent classic beam to introduce effective bending rigidity. Obtained analytical expressions for the effective properties depend on the thickness of the beam as a parameter. It is shown that the flexural modulus of the porous beam is decreased with an increasing of its thickness and the effective Poisson's ratio of the porous beams can take negative values for the certain values of the model parameters. On the other hand, the effective shear modulus is constant under variation of all values of the non-classical model parameters. Solutions received for a beam pure bending and the hydrostatic loading of the porous media are compared. It is shown that an analytical estimation for the bulk modulus of the porous material under hydrostatic compression gives an asymptotic value for the effective bulk modulus of the porous beam in the case of beam thickness increasing. Additionally, it is shown that the scale effects appear due to the surface properties of the porous media. Obtained results allow us to offer the procedure of an experimental identification of the non-classical parameters in the theory of the linear elastic materials with voids based on the bending tests for samples with different thickness. Finally, the problem of implementation of the Saint-Venant hypothesis for the transverse stresses in the porous beam are discussed. These stresses are different from zero in the solution of the voids elasticity theory, but satisfy the integral equilibrium equations. In this work, the exact value of the introduced surface parameter was found, which provides the vanishing of the transverse stresses on the free surfaces of a beam.

Keywords: effective properties, scale effects, surface defects, voids elasticity

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Authors: Bahman Ghorashi

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The immense awareness of the global climate change has compelled traditional fossil fuel companies to develop strategies to reduce their carbon footprint and simultaneously consider the production of various sources of clean energy in order to mitigate the environmental impact of their operations. Similarly, supply chain issues, the scarcity of certain raw materials, energy costs as well as market needs, and changing consumer expectations have forced the traditional chemical industry to reexamine their time-honored modes of operation. This study examines how such transformative change might occur through the applications of agile principles as well as industry 4.0 technologies. Clearly, such a transformation is complex, costly, and requires a total commitment on the part of the top leadership and the entire management structure. Factors that need to be considered include organizational speed of change, a restructuring that would lend itself toward collaboration and the selling of solutions to customers’ problems, rather than just products, integrating ‘along’ as well as ‘across’ value chains, mastering change and uncertainty as well as a recognition of the importance of concept-to-cash time, i.e., the velocity of introducing new products to market, and the leveraging of people and information. At the same time, parallel to implementing such major shifts in the ethos, and the fabric of the organization, the change leaders should remain mindful of the companies’ DNA while incorporating the necessary DNA defying shifts. Furthermore, such strategic maneuvers should inevitably incorporate the managing of the upstream and downstream operations, harnessing future opportunities, preparing and training the workforce, implementing faster decision making and quick adaptation to change, managing accelerated response times, as well as forming autonomous and cross-functional teams. Moreover, the leaders should establish the balance between high-value solutions versus high-margin products, fully implement digitization of operations and, when appropriate, incorporate the latest relevant technologies, such as: AI, IIoT, ML, and immersive technologies. This study presents a summary of the agile principles and the relevant technologies and draws lessons from some of the best practices that are already implemented within the chemical industry in order to establish a roadmap to agility. Finally, the critical role of educational institutions in preparing the future workforce for Industry 4.0 is addressed.

Keywords: agile principles, immersive technologies, industry 4.0, workforce preparation

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Authors: X. Li, Y. Liu, H. Wong, B. Pardoen, A. Fabbri, F. McGregor, E. Liu

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The target of this paper is to investigate how saturated poroelastic soils subject to freezing temperatures behave and how different boundary conditions can intervene and affect the thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) responses, based on a particular but classical configuration of a finite homogeneous soil layer studied by Terzaghi. The essential relations on the constitutive behavior of a freezing soil are firstly recalled: ice crystal - liquid water thermodynamic equilibrium, hydromechanical constitutive equations, momentum balance, water mass balance, and the thermal diffusion equation, in general, non-linear case where material parameters are state-dependent. The system of equations is firstly linearized, assuming all material parameters to be constants, particularly the permeability of liquid water, which should depend on the ice content. Two analytical solutions solved by the classic Laplace transform are then developed, accounting for two different sets of boundary conditions. Afterward, the general non-linear equations with state-dependent parameters are solved using a commercial code COMSOL based on finite elements method to obtain numerical results. The validity of this numerical modeling is partially verified using the analytical solution in the limiting case of state-independent parameters. Comparison between the results given by the linearized analytical solutions and the non-linear numerical model reveals that the above-mentioned linear computation will always underestimate the liquid pore pressure and displacement, whatever the hydraulic boundary conditions are. In the nonlinear model, the faster growth of ice crystals, accompanying the subsequent reduction of permeability of freezing soil layer, makes a longer duration for the depressurization of water liquid and slower settlement in the case where the ground surface is swiftly covered by a thin layer of ice, as well as a bigger global liquid pressure and swelling in the case of the impermeable ground surface. Nonetheless, the analytical solutions based on linearized equations give a correct order-of-magnitude estimate, especially at moderate temperature variations, and remain a useful tool for preliminary design checks.

Keywords: chemical potential, cryosuction, Laplace transform, multiphysics coupling, phase transformation, thermodynamic equilibrium

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Authors: Hannah M. Russell

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‘The Attach Project’ (TAP), is an educational intervention aimed at improving educational and socio-emotional outcomes for children who are looked after. TAP is underpinned by Attachment Theory and is adapted from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), which is a treatment for children and young people impacted by complex trauma and disorders of attachment. TAP has been implemented in primary schools in Northern Ireland throughout the 2018/19 academic year. During this time, a design and implementation study has been conducted to assess the promise of effectiveness for the future dissemination and ‘scaling-up’ of the programme for a larger, randomised control trial. TAP has been designed specifically for implementation in a school setting and is comprised of a whole school element and a more individualised Key Adult-Key Child pairing. This design and implementation study utilises a mixed-methods research design consisting of quantitative, qualitative, and observational measures with stakeholder input and involvement being considered an integral component. The use of quantitative measures, such as self-report questionnaires prior to and eight months following the implementation of TAP, enabled the analysis of the strengths and direction of relations between the various components of the programme, as well as the influence of implementation factors. The use of qualitative measures, incorporating semi-structured interviews and focus groups, enabled the assessment of implementation factors, identification of implementation barriers, and potential methods of addressing these issues. Observational measures facilitated the continual development and improvement of ‘TAP training’ for school staff. Preliminary findings have provided evidence of promise for the effectiveness of TAP and indicate the potential benefits of introducing this type of attachment-based intervention across other educational settings. This type of intervention could benefit not only children who are looked after but all children who may be impacted by complex trauma or disorders of attachment. Furthermore, findings from this study demonstrate that it is possible for children to form a secondary attachment relationship with a significant adult in school. However, various implementation factors which should be addressed were identified throughout the study, such as the necessity of protected time being introduced to facilitate the development of a positive Key Adult- Key Child relationship. Furthermore, additional ‘re-cap’ training is required in future dissemination of the programme, to maximise ‘attachment friendly practice’ in the whole staff team. Qualitative findings have also indicated that there is a general opinion across school staff that this type of Key Adult- Key Child pairing could be more effective if it was introduced as soon as children begin primary school. This research has provided ample evidence for the need to introduce relationally based interventions in schools, to help to ensure that children who are looked after, or who are impacted by complex trauma or disorders of attachment, can thrive in the school environment. In addition, this research has facilitated the identification of important implementation factors and barriers to implementation, which can be addressed prior to the ‘scaling-up’ of TAP for a robust, randomised controlled trial.

Keywords: attachment, complex trauma, educational interventions, implementation

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Authors: Attila Kiss, Erzsébet Némedi, Zoltán Naár

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As natural prebiotic (non-digestible) carbohydrates stimulate the growth of colon microflora and contribute to maintain the health of the host, analytical studies aiming at revealing the chemical behavior of these beneficial food components came to the forefront of interest. Food processing (especially baking) may lead to a significant conversion of the parent compounds, hence it is of utmost importance to characterize the transformation patterns and the plausible decomposition products formed by thermal degradation. The relevance of this work is confirmed by the wide-spread use of these carbohydrates (fructo-oligosaccharides, cyclodextrins, raffinose and resistant starch) in the food industry. More and more functional foodstuffs are being developed based on prebiotics as bioactive components. 12 different types of oligosaccharides have been investigated in order to reveal their thermal degradation characteristics. Different carbohydrate derivatives (D-fructose and D-glucose oligomers and polymers) have been exposed to elevated temperatures (150 °C 170 °C, 190 °C, 210 °C, and 220 °C) for 10 min. An advanced HPLC method was developed and used to identify the decomposition products of carbohydrates formed as a consequence of thermal treatment. Gradient elution was applied with binary solvent elution (acetonitrile, water) through amine based carbohydrate column. Evaporative light scattering (ELS) proved to be suitable for the reliable detection of the UV/VIS inactive carbohydrate degradation products. These experimental conditions and applied advanced techniques made it possible to survey all the formed intermediers. Change in oligomer distribution was established in cases of all studied prebiotics throughout the thermal treatments. The obtained results indicate increased extent of chain degradation of the carbohydrate moiety at elevated temperatures. Prevalence of oligomers with shorter chain length and even the formation of monomer sugars (D-glucose and D-fructose) might be observed at higher temperatures. Unique oligomer distributions, which have not been described previously are revealed in the case of each studied, specific carbohydrate, which might result in various prebiotic activities. Resistant starches exhibited high stability when being thermal treated. The degradation process has been modeled by a plausible reaction mechanism, in which proton catalyzed degradation and chain cleavage take place.

Keywords: prebiotics, thermal degradation, fructo-oligosaccharide, HPLC, ELS detection

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Authors: Mohamed Raouf Benmakrelouf, Joseph Rynkiewicz

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Targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) is well-established method for causal effect estimation with desirable statistical properties. TMLE is a doubly robust maximum likelihood based approach that includes a secondary targeting step that optimizes the target statistical parameter. A causal interpretation of the statistical parameter requires assumptions of the Rubin causal framework. The causal effect of binary variable, E, on outcomes, Y, is defined in terms of comparisons between two potential outcomes as E[YE=1 − YE=0]. Our aim in this paper is to present an adaptation of TMLE methodology to estimate the causal effect of a non-binary categorical variable, providing a large application. We propose coding on the initial data in order to operate a binarization of the interest variable. For each category, we get a transformation of the non-binary interest variable into a binary variable, taking value 1 to indicate the presence of category (or group of categories) for an individual, 0 otherwise. Such a dummy variable makes it possible to have a pair of potential outcomes and oppose a category (or a group of categories) to another category (or a group of categories). Let E be a non-binary interest variable. We propose a complete disjunctive coding of our variable E. We transform the initial variable to obtain a set of binary vectors (dummy variables), E = (Ee : e ∈ {1, ..., |E|}), where each vector (variable), Ee, takes the value of 0 when its category is not present, and the value of 1 when its category is present, which allows to compute a pairwise-TMLE comparing difference in the outcome between one category and all remaining categories. In order to illustrate the application of our strategy, first, we present the implementation of TMLE to estimate the causal effect of non-binary variable on outcome using simulated data. Secondly, we apply our TMLE adaptation to survey data from the French Political Barometer (CEVIPOF), to estimate the causal effect of education level (A five-level variable) on a potential vote in favor of the French extreme right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. Counterfactual reasoning requires us to consider some causal questions (additional causal assumptions). Leading to different coding of E, as a set of binary vectors, E = (Ee : e ∈ {2, ..., |E|}), where each vector (variable), Ee, takes the value of 0 when the first category (reference category) is present, and the value of 1 when its category is present, which allows to apply a pairwise-TMLE comparing difference in the outcome between the first level (fixed) and each remaining level. We confirmed that the increase in the level of education decreases the voting rate for the extreme right party.

Keywords: statistical inference, causal inference, super learning, targeted maximum likelihood estimation

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Authors: Antonio Piga

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This study explores the correlation between Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as tools for analysing the evolution of rhetoric in the communicative strategies adopted in a company’s Reports on social and environmental responsibility. In more specific terms, transitivity and ergativity- concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) - through the lenses of CDA, are employed as a theoretical means for the analysis of a longitudinal study in the communicative strategies employed by Saras SpA pre- and during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Saras is an Italian joint-stock company operating in oil refining and power generation. The qualitative and quantitative linguistic analysis carried out through the use of Sketch Engine software aims to identify and explain how rhetoric - and ideology - is constructed and presented through language use in Saras SpA Sustainability Reports. Specific focus is given to communication strategies to local and global communities and stakeholders in the years immediately before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The rationale behind the study lies in the fact that 2020 and 2021 have been among the most difficult years since the end of World War II. Lives were abruptly turned upside down by the pandemic, which had grave negative effects on people’s health and on the economy. The result has been a threefold crisis involving health, the economy and social tension, with the refining sector being one of the hardest hit, since the oil refining industry was one of the most affected industries due to the general reduction in mobility and oil consumption brought about by the virus-fighting measures. Emphasis is placed on the construction of rhetorical strategies pre- and during the pandemic crisis using the representational process of transitivity and ergativity (SFL), thus revealing the close relationship between the use language in terms of Social Actors and semantic roles of syntactic transformation on the one hand, and ideological assumptions on the other. The results show that linguistic decisions regarding transitivity and ergativity choices play a crucial role in how effective writing achieves its rhetorical objectives in terms of spreading and maintaining dominant and implicit ideologies and underlying persuasive actions, and that some ideological motivation is perpetuated – if not actually overtly or subtly strengthened - in social-environmental Reports issued in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

Keywords: systemic functional linguistics, sustainability, critical discourse analysis, transitivity, ergativity

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Authors: Mustaffa Kamal Bashar Mohd Fauzi, Puteri Shireen Jahn Kassim, Nurul Syala Abdul Latip

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It is increasingly realized that sustainability includes both a response to the climatic and cultural context of a place. To assess the cultural context, a morphological analysis of urban patterns from heritage legacies is necessary. While the climatic form is derived from an analysis of meteorological data, cultural patterns and forms must be abstracted from a typological and morphological study. This current study aims to analyzes morphological and formal elements of water-based architectural and urban design of past Islamic vernacular complexes in the hot arid regions and how a vast utilization of water was shaped and sited to act as cooling devices for an entire complex. Apart from its pleasant coolness, water can be used in an aesthetically way such as emphasizing visual axes, vividly enhancing the visual of the surrounding environment and symbolically portraying the act of purity in the design. By comparing 2 case studies based on the analysis of interactions of water features into the form, planning and morphology of 2 Islamic heritage complexes, Fatehpur Sikri (India) and Lahore Fort (Pakistan) with a focus on Shish Mahal of Lahore Fort in terms of their mass, architecture and urban planning, it is agreeable that water plays an integral role in their climatic amelioration via different methods of water conveyance system. Both sites are known for their substantial historical values and prominent for their sustainable vernacular buildings for example; the courtyard of Shish Mahal in Lahore fort are designed to provide continuous coolness by constructing various miniatures water channels that run underneath the paved courtyard. One of the most remarkable features of this system that all water is made dregs-free before it was inducted into these underneath channels. In Fatehpur Sikri, the method of conveyance seems differed from Lahore Fort as the need to supply water to the ridge where Fatehpur Sikri situated is become the major challenges. Thus, the achievement of supplying water to the palatial complexes is solved by placing inhabitable water buildings within the two supply system for raising water. The process of raising the water can be either mechanical or laborious inside the enclosed well and water rising houses. The studies analyzes and abstract the water supply forms, patterns and flows in 3-dimensional shapes through the actions of evaporative cooling and wind-induced ventilation under arid climates. Through the abstraction analytical and descriptive relational morphology of the spatial configurations, the studies can suggest the idealized spatial system that can be used in urban design and complexes which later became a methodological and abstraction tool of sustainability to suit the modern contemporary world.

Keywords: heritage site, Islamic vernacular architecture, water features, morphology, urban design

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Authors: N. Pérez-Rodríguez, D. García-Bernet, A. Torrado-Agrasar, J. M. Cruz, A. B. Moldes, J. M. Domínguez

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World economy is based on non-renewable, fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas, which entails its rapid depletion and environmental problems. In EU countries, the objective is that at least 20% of the total energy supplies in 2020 should be derived from renewable resources. Biogas, a product of anaerobic degradation of organic substrates, represents an attractive green alternative for meeting partial energy needs. Nowadays, trend to circular economy model involves efficiently use of residues by its transformation from waste to a new resource. In this sense, characteristics of agricultural residues (that are available in plenty, renewable, as well as eco-friendly) propitiate their valorisation as substrates for biogas production. Corn cob is a by-product obtained from maize processing representing 18 % of total maize mass. Corn cob importance lies in the high production of this cereal (more than 1 x 109 tons in 2014). Due to its lignocellulosic nature, corn cob contains three main polymers: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Crystalline, highly ordered structures of cellulose and lignin hinders microbial attack and subsequent biogas production. For the optimal lignocellulose utilization and to enhance gas production in anaerobic digestion, materials are usually submitted to different pretreatment technologies. In the present work, enzymatic hydrolysis, ultrasounds and combination of both technologies were assayed as pretreatments of corn cob for biogas production. Enzymatic hydrolysis pretreatment was started by adding 0.044 U of Ultraflo® L feruloyl esterase per gram of dry corncob. Hydrolyses were carried out in 50 mM sodium-phosphate buffer pH 6.0 with a solid:liquid proportion of 1:10 (w/v), at 150 rpm, 40 ºC and darkness for 3 hours. Ultrasounds pretreatment was performed subjecting corn cob, in 50 mM sodium-phosphate buffer pH 6.0 with a solid: liquid proportion of 1:10 (w/v), at a power of 750W for 1 minute. In order to observe the effect of the combination of both pretreatments, some samples were initially sonicated and then they were enzymatically hydrolysed. In terms of methane production, anaerobic digestion of the corn cob pretreated by enzymatic hydrolysis was positive achieving 290 L CH4 kg MV-1 (compared with 267 L CH4 kg MV-1 obtained with untreated corn cob). Although the use of ultrasound as the only pretreatment resulted detrimentally (since gas production decreased to 244 L CH4 kg MV-1 after 44 days of anaerobic digestion), its combination with enzymatic hydrolysis was beneficial, reaching the highest value (300.9 L CH4 kg MV-1). Consequently, the combination of both pretreatments improved biogas production from corn cob.

Keywords: biogas, corn cob, enzymatic hydrolysis, ultrasound

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Authors: Jaci Marie Mastrandrea, Rosario Haro

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Background: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommends that healthcare institutions have established processes for integrating palliative care (PC) into cancer treatment and that all cancer patients be screened for PC needs upon initial diagnosis as well as throughout the entire continuum of care (National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2021). Early PC screening and intervention is directly associated with improved patient outcomes. The Sky Lakes Cancer Treatment Center (SLCTC) is an institution that has access to PC services yet does not have protocols in place for identifying patients with palliative needs or a standardized referral process. The aim of this quality improvement project was to improve early access to PC services by establishing a standardized screening and referral process for outpatient oncology patients. Method: The sample population included all adult patients with an oncology diagnosis who presented to the SLCTC for treatment during the project timeline. The “Palliative and Supportive Needs Assessment'' (PSNA) screening tool was developed from validated, evidence-based PC referral criteria. The tool was initially implemented using paper forms, and data was collected over a period of eight weeks. Patients were screened by nurses on the SLCTC oncology treatment team. Nurses responsible for screening patients received an educational inservice prior to implementation. Patients with a PSNA score of three or higher received an educational handout on the topic of PC and education about PC and symptom management. A score of five or higher indicates that PC referral is strongly recommended, and the patient’s EHR is flagged for the oncology provider to review orders for PC referral. The PSNA tool was approved by Sky Lakes administration for full integration into Epic-Beacon. The project lead collaborated with the Sky Lakes’ information systems team and representatives from Epic on the tool’s aesthetic and functionality within the Epic system. SLCTC nurses and physicians were educated on how to document the PSNA within Epic and where to view results. Results: Prior to the implementation of the PSNA screening tool, the SLCTC had zero referrals to PC in the past year, excluding referrals to hospice. Data was collected from the completed screening assessments of 100 patients under active treatment at the SLCTC. Seventy-three percent of patients met criteria for PC referral with a score greater than or equal to three. Of those patients who met referral criteria, 53.4% (39 patients) were referred for a palliative and supportive care consultation. Patients that were not referred to PC upon meeting criteria were flagged in EPIC for re-screening within one to three months. Patients with lung cancer, chronic hematologic malignancies, breast cancer, and gastrointestinal malignancy most frequently met the criteria for PC referral and scored highest overall on the scale of 0-12. Conclusion: The implementation of a standardized PC screening tool at the SLCTC significantly increased awareness of PC needs among cancer patients in the outpatient setting. Additionally, data derived from this quality improvement project supports the national recommendation for PC to be an integral component of cancer treatment across the entire continuum of care.

Keywords: oncology, palliative and supportive care, symptom management, outpatient oncology, palliative screening tool

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Authors: Runlian Miao, Wei Xie, Hong Zhang

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In China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei is regarded as a strategically important region because itenjoys highest development in economic development, opening up, innovative capacity and andpopulation. Integrated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is increasingly emphasized by the government recently years. In 2014, it has ascended to one of the national great development strategies by Chinese central government. In 2015, Coordinated Development Planning Compendium for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region was approved. Such decisions signify Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region would lead innovation-driven economic development in China. As an essential factor to achieve national innovation-driven development and significant part of regional industry chain, the optimization of science and technology resources allocation will exert great influence to regional economic transformation and upgrading and innovation-driven development. However, unbalanced distribution, poor sharing of resources and existence of information isolated islands have contributed to different interior innovation capability, vitality and efficiency, which impeded innovation and growth of the whole region. Under such a background, to integrate and vitalize regional science and technology resources and then establish high-end, fast-responding and precise innovation service system basing on regional resources, would be of great significance for integrated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and even handling of unbalanced and insufficient development problem in China. This research uses the method of literature review and field investigation and applies related theories prevailing home and abroad, centering service path of science and technology resources for innovation. Based on the status quo and problems of regional development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, theoretically, the author proposed to combine regional economics and new economic geography to explore solution to problem of low resource allocation efficiency. Further, the author puts forward to applying digital map into resource management and building a platform for information co-building and sharing. At last, the author presents the thought to establish a specific service mode of ‘science and technology plus digital map plus intelligence research plus platform service’ and suggestion on co-building and sharing mechanism of 3 (Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei ) plus 11 (important cities in Hebei Province).

Keywords: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, science and technology resources, innovation service, digital platform

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Authors: R. Clancy, M. Ahern, D. O’Sullivan, K. Bruton

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The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a digital transformation as part of the mega-trend Industry 4.0. As part of this phase of the industrial revolution, traditional manufacturing processes are being combined with digital technologies to achieve smarter and more efficient production. To successfully digitally transform a manufacturing facility, the processes must first be digitized. This is the conversion of information from an analogue format to a digital format. The objective of this study was to explore the research area of digitizing manufacturing data as part of the worldwide paradigm, Industry 4.0. The formal methodology of a systematic mapping study was utilized to capture a representative sample of the research area and assess its current state. Specific research questions were defined to assess the key benefits and limitations associated with the digitization of manufacturing data. Research papers were classified according to the type of research and type of contribution to the research area. Upon analyzing 54 papers identified in this area, it was noted that 23 of the papers originated in Germany. This is an unsurprising finding as Industry 4.0 is originally a German strategy with supporting strong policy instruments being utilized in Germany to support its implementation. It was also found that the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design, in collaboration with the University of Paderborn in Germany, was the most frequent contributing Institution of the research papers with three papers published. The literature suggested future research directions and highlighted one specific gap in the area. There exists an unresolved gap between the data science experts and the manufacturing process experts in the industry. The data analytics expertise is not useful unless the manufacturing process information is utilized. A legitimate understanding of the data is crucial to perform accurate analytics and gain true, valuable insights into the manufacturing process. There lies a gap between the manufacturing operations and the information technology/data analytics departments within enterprises, which was borne out by the results of many of the case studies reviewed as part of this work. To test the concept of this gap existing, the researcher initiated an industrial case study in which they embedded themselves between the subject matter expert of the manufacturing process and the data scientist. Of the papers resulting from the systematic mapping study, 12 of the papers contributed a framework, another 12 of the papers were based on a case study, and 11 of the papers focused on theory. However, there were only three papers that contributed a methodology. This provides further evidence for the need for an industry-focused methodology for digitizing and analyzing manufacturing data, which will be developed in future research.

Keywords: analytics, digitization, industry 4.0, manufacturing

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Authors: Muhammad Karim Ahmadzai

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Floods are natural phenomena and are an integral part of the water cycle. The majority of them are the result of climatic conditions, but are also affected by the geology and geomorphology of the area, topography and hydrology, the water permeability of the soil and the vegetation cover, as well as by all kinds of human activities and structures. However, from the moment that human lives are at risk and significant economic impact is recorded, this natural phenomenon becomes a natural disaster. Flood management is now a key issue at regional and local levels around the world, affecting human lives and activities. The majority of floods are unlikely to be fully predicted, but it is feasible to reduce their risks through appropriate management plans and constructions. The aim of this Case Study is to identify, and map areas of flood risk in the Khinch District of Panjshir Province, Afghanistan specifically in the area of Peshghore, causing numerous damages. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of remote sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in assessing the susceptibility of this region to flood events. Panjsher is facing Seasonal floods and human interventions on streams caused floods. The beds of which have been trampled to build houses and hotels or have been converted into roads, are causing flooding after every heavy rainfall. The streams crossing settlements and areas with high touristic development have been intensively modified by humans, as the pressure for real estate development land is growing. In particular, several areas in Khinch are facing a high risk of extensive flood occurrence. This study concentrates on the construction of a flood susceptibility map, of the study area, by combining vulnerability elements, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process/ AHP. The Analytic Hierarchy Process, normally called AHP, is a powerful yet simple method for making decisions. It is commonly used for project prioritization and selection. AHP lets you capture your strategic goals as a set of weighted criteria that you then use to score projects. This method is used to provide weights for each criterion which Contributes to the Flood Event. After processing of a digital elevation model (DEM), important secondary data were extracted, such as the slope map, the flow direction and the flow accumulation. Together with additional thematic information (Landuse and Landcover, topographic wetness index, precipitation, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Elevation, River Density, Distance from River, Distance to Road, Slope), these led to the final Flood Risk Map. Finally, according to this map, the Priority Protection Areas and Villages and the structural and nonstructural measures were demonstrated to Minimize the Impacts of Floods on residential and Agricultural areas.

Keywords: flood hazard, flood risk map, flood mitigation measures, AHP analysis

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Authors: Andrey Cherdantsev, Mikhail Cherdantsev, Sergey Isaenkov, Dmitriy Markovich

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In annular gas-liquid flow, liquid flows as a film along pipe walls sheared by high-velocity gas stream. Film surface is covered by large-scale disturbance waves which affect pressure drop and heat transfer in the system and are necessary for entrainment of liquid droplets from film surface into the core of gas stream. Disturbance waves are a highly complex and their properties are affected by numerous parameters. One of such aspects is flow development, i.e., change of flow properties with the distance from the inlet. In the present work, this question is studied using brightness-based laser-induced fluorescence (BBLIF) technique. This method enables one to perform simultaneous measurements of local film thickness in large number of points with high sampling frequency. In the present experiments first 50 cm of upward and downward annular flow in a vertical pipe of 11.7 mm i.d. is studied with temporal resolution of 10 kHz and spatial resolution of 0.5 mm. Thus, spatiotemporal evolution of film surface can be investigated, including scenarios of formation, acceleration and coalescence of disturbance waves. The behaviour of disturbance waves' velocity depending on phases flow rates and downstream distance was investigated. Besides measuring the waves properties, the goal of the work was to investigate the interrelation between disturbance waves properties and integral characteristics of the flow such as interfacial shear stress and flow rate of dispersed phase. In particular, it was shown that the initial acceleration of disturbance waves, defined by the value of shear stress, linearly decays with downstream distance. This lack of acceleration which may even lead to deceleration is related to liquid entrainment. Flow rate of disperse phase linearly grows with downstream distance. During entrainment events, liquid is extracted directly from disturbance waves, reducing their mass, area of interaction to the gas shear and, hence, velocity. Passing frequency of disturbance waves at each downstream position was measured automatically with a new algorithm of identification of characteristic lines of individual disturbance waves. Scenarios of coalescence of individual disturbance waves were identified. Transition from initial high-frequency Kelvin-Helmholtz waves appearing at the inlet to highly nonlinear disturbance waves with lower frequency was studied near the inlet using 3D realisation of BBLIF method in the same cylindrical channel and in a rectangular duct with cross-section of 5 mm by 50 mm. It was shown that the initial waves are generally two-dimensional but are promptly broken into localised three-dimensional wavelets. Coalescence of these wavelets leads to formation of quasi two-dimensional disturbance waves. Using cross-correlation analysis, loss and restoration of two-dimensionality of film surface with downstream distance were studied quantitatively. It was shown that all the processes occur closer to the inlet at higher gas velocities.

Keywords: annular flow, disturbance waves, entrainment, flow development

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Authors: Shomaila Sadaf, Margarethe Olbertz-Siitonen

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This study looks at identity and othering in discourses around sensitive issues in social media. More specifically, the study explores the multimodal resources and narratives through which the other is formed, and identities are ascribed in online spaces. As an integral part of social life, media spaces have become an important site for negotiating and ascribing identities. In line with recent research, identity is seen hereas constructions of belonging which go hand in hand with processes of in- and out-group formations that in some cases may lead to othering. Previous findings underline that identities are neither fixed nor limited but rather contextual, intersectional, and interactively achieved. The goal of this study is to explore and develop an understanding of how people co-construct the ‘other’ and ascribe certain identities in social media using multiple modes. In the beginning of the year 2018, the British government decided to include relationships, sexual orientation, and sex education into the curriculum of state funded primary schools. However, the addition of information related to LGBTQ+in the curriculum has been met with resistance, particularly from religious parents.For example, the British Muslim community has voiced their concerns and protested against the actions taken by the British government. YouTube has been used by news companies to air video stories covering the protest and narratives of the protestors along with the position ofschool officials. The analysis centers on a YouTube video dealing with the protest ofa local group of parents against the addition of information about LGBTQ+ in the curriculum in the UK. The video was posted in 2019. By the time of this study, the videos had approximately 169,000 views andaround 6000 comments. In deference to multimodal nature of YouTube videos, this study utilizes multimodal discourse analysis as a method of choice. The study is still ongoing and therefore has not yet yielded any final results. However, the initial analysis indicates a hierarchy of ascribing identities in the data. Drawing on multimodal resources, the media works with social categorizations throughout the documentary, presenting and classifying involved conflicting parties in the light of their own visible and audible identifications. The protesters can be seen to construct a strong group identity as Muslim parents (e.g., clothing and reference to shared values). While the video appears to be designed as a documentary that puts forward facts, the media does not seem to succeed in taking a neutral position consistently throughout the video. At times, the use of images, soundsand language contributes to the formation of “us” vs. “them”, where the audience is implicitly encouraged to pick a side. Only towards the end of the documentary this problematic opposition is addressed and critically reflected through an expert interview that is – interestingly – visually located outside the previously presented ‘battlefield’. This study contributes to the growing understanding of the discursive construction of the ‘other’ in social media. Videos available online are a rich source for examining how the different social actors ascribe multiple identities and form the other.

Keywords: identity, multimodal discourse analysis, othering, youtube

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Authors: Jung-En Kuan, Whei-Fen Wu

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In this study, a symbiotic bacteria from yellow mealworm's (Tenebrio molitor) mid-gut was isolated with characteristics of growth on minimal-tributyrin medium. After a PCR-amplification of its 16s rDNA, the resultant nucleotide sequences were then analyzed by schemes of the phylogeny trees. Accordingly, it was designated as Pseudomonas nitroreducens D-01. Next, by searching the lipolytic enzymes in its protein data bank, one of those potential lipolytic α/β hydrolases was identified, again using PCR-amplification and nucleotide-sequencing methods. To construct an expression of this lipolytic gene in plasmids, the target-gene primers were then designed, carrying the C-terminal his-tag sequences. Using the vector pET21a, a recombinant lipolytic hydrolase D gene with his-tag nucleotides was successfully cloned into it, of which the lipolytic D gene is under a control of the T7 promoter. After transformation of the resultant plasmids into Eescherichia coli BL21 (DE3), an IPTG inducer was used for the induction of the recombinant proteins. The protein products were then purified by metal-ion affinity column, and the purified proteins were found capable of forming a clear zone on tributyrin agar plate. Shortly, its enzyme activities were determined by degradation of p-nitrophenyl ester(s), and the substantial yellow end-product, p-nitrophenol, was measured at O.D.405 nm. Specifically, this lipolytic enzyme efficiently targets p-nitrophenyl butyrate. As well, it shows the most reactive activities at 40°C, pH 8 in potassium phosphate buffer. In thermal stability assays, the activities of this enzyme dramatically drop when the temperature is above 50°C. In metal ion assays, MgCl₂ and NH₄Cl induce the enzyme activities while MnSO₄, NiSO₄, CaCl₂, ZnSO₄, CoCl₂, CuSO₄, FeSO₄, and FeCl₃ reduce its activities. Besides, NaCl has no effects on its enzyme activities. Most organic solvents decrease the activities of this enzyme, such as hexane, methanol, ethanol, acetone, isopropanol, chloroform, and ethyl acetate. However, its enzyme activities increase when DMSO exists. All the surfactants like Triton X-100, Tween 80, Tween 20, and Brij35 decrease its lipolytic activities. Using Lineweaver-Burk double reciprocal methods, the function of the enzyme kinetics were determined such as Km = 0.488 (mM), Vmax = 0.0644 (mM/min), and kcat = 3.01x10³ (s⁻¹), as well the total efficiency of kcat/Km is 6.17 x10³ (mM⁻¹/s⁻¹). Afterwards, based on the phylogenetic analyses, this lipolytic protein is classified to type IV lipase by its homologous conserved region in this lipase family.

Keywords: enzyme, esterase, lipotic hydrolase, type IV

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Authors: Luisa Müting, Wisnu Harto Adiwijoyo

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Agroforestry systems transform the agricultural landscapes in the Sahel region of Africa, providing food and farming products consumed for subsistence or sold for income. In the incrementally dry climate of the Sahel region, the spreading of agroforestry practices is integral for policymaker efforts to counteract land degradation and provide soil restoration in the region. Several measures on agroforestry practices have been implemented in the region by governmental and non-governmental institutions in recent years. However, despite the efforts, past research shows that awareness of how policies and interventions are being consumed and perceived by the public remains low. Therefore, interpreting public policy dilemmas by analyzing the public perception regarding agroforestry concepts and practices is necessary. Public perceptions and discourses can be an essential driver or constraint for the adoption of agroforestry practices in the region. Thus, understanding the public discourse behavior of crucial stakeholders could assist policymakers in developing inclusive and contextual policies that are relevant to the context of agroforestry adoption in Sahel region. To answer how information about agroforestry spreads and is perceived by the public. As internet usage increased drastically over the past decade, reaching a share of 33 percent of the population being connected to the internet, this research is based on online conversation data. Social media data from Facebook are gathered daily between April 2021 and April 2022 in Djibouti, Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria based on their share of active internet users compared to other countries in the Sahel region. A systematic methodology was applied to the extracted social media using discourse network analysis (DNA). This study then clustered the data by the types of agroforestry practices, sentiments, and country. Additionally, this research extracted the text data from online news media during the same period to pinpoint events related to the topic of agroforestry. The preliminary result indicates that tree management, crops, and livestock integration, diversifying species and genetic resources, and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system; are the most notable keywords in agroforestry-related conversations within the four countries in the Sahel region. Additionally, approximately 84 percent of the discussions were still dominated by big actors, such as NGO or government actors. Furthermore, as a subject of communication within agroforestry discourse, the Great Green Wall initiative generates almost 60 percent positive sentiment within the captured social media data, effectively having a more significant outreach than general agroforestry topics. This study provides an understanding for scholars and policymakers with a springboard for further research or policy design on agroforestry in the four countries of the Sahel region with systematically uncaptured novel data from the internet.

Keywords: sahel, djibouti, senegal, mali, nigeria, social networks analysis, public discourse analysis, sentiment analysis, content analysis, social media, online news, agroforestry, land restoration

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Authors: Banu Baybars Hawks

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To date, academic attention in social sciences remains inadequate with regard to research and analysis of public opinion in Turkey. Most of the existing research has assessed the public opinion during political election periods. Therefore, it is of great interest to find out what the public thinks about current issues in Turkey, and how to interpret the results to be able to reveal whether they may have any reflections on social, political, and cultural structure of the country. Accordingly, the current study seeks to fill the gap in the social sciences literature in English regarding Turkey’s social and political stand which may be perceived to be very different by other nations. Without timely feedback from public surveys, various programs for improving different services and institutions functioning in the country might not achieve their expected goal, nor can decisions about which programs to implement be made rationally. Additionally, the information gathered may not only yield important insights into public’s opinion regarding current agenda in Turkey, but also into the correlates shaping public policies. Agenda-setting studies including agenda-building, agenda melding, reversed agenda-setting and information diffusion studies will be used to explain the roles of factors and actors in the formation of public opinion in Turkey. Knowing the importance of public agenda in the agenda setting and building process, this paper aims to reveal the social and political tendencies of the Turkish public. For that purpose, a survey will be carried out in December of 2014 to determine the social and political trends in Turkey for that same year. The subjects for the study, which utilize a questionairre in one-on-one interviews, will include 1,000 individuals aged 18 years and older from 26 cities representing general population. A stratified random sampling frame will be used. The topics covered by the survey include: The most important current problem in Turkey; the Economy; Terror; Approaches to the Kurdish Issue; Evaluations of the Government and Opposition Parties; Evaluations of Institutional Efficiency; Foreign Policy; the Judicial System/Constitution; Democracy and the Media; and, Social Relations/Life in Turkey. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Turkey has been undergoing a rapid transformation. The reflections of the changes can be seen in all areas from economics to politics. It is my hope that findings of this study may shed light on the important aspects of institutions, variables setting the agenda, and formation process of public opinion in Turkey.

Keywords: public opinion, media, agenda setting, information diffusion, government, freedom, Turkey

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Authors: Tavee Cheausuwantavee

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: COVID-19 pandemic significantly has impacted everyone’s life. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Thailand have been also effected by COVID-19 situation in many aspects of their lives, while there have been no more appropriate services of the government and providers. Research projects had been only focused on health precaution and protection. Rapid need assessments on populations and vulnerable groups were limited and conducted via social media and an online survey. However, little is known about the real problems and needs of Thai PWDs during the COVID-19 pandemic for an effective plan and integral services for those PWDs. Therefore, this study aims to explore the diverse problems and needs of Thai PWDs in the COVID -19 pandemic. Results from the study can be used by the government and other stakeholders for further effective services. Methods: This study was used a mixed-method design that consisted of both quantitative and qualitative measures. In terms of the quantitative approach, there were 744 PWDs and caregivers of all types of PWDs selected by proportional multistage stratified random sampling according to their disability classification and geographic location. Questionnaires with 59 items regarding participant characteristics, problems, and needs in health, education, employment, and other social inclusion, were distributed to all participants and some caregivers completed questionnaires when PWDs were not able to due to limited communication and/or literacy skills. Completed questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statistics. For qualitative design, 62 key informants who were PWDs or caregivers were selected by purposive sampling. Ten focus groups, each consisting of 5-6 participants and 7 in-depth interviews from all the groups identified above, were conducted by researchers across five regions. Focus group and in-depth interview guidelines with 6 items regarding problems and needs in health, education, employment, other social inclusion, and their coping during COVID -19 pandemic. Data were analyzed using a modification of thematic content analysis. Results: Both quantitative and qualitative studies showed that PWDs and their caregivers had significant problems and needs all aspects of their life, including income and employment opportunity, daily living and social inclusion, health, and education, respectively. These problems and needs were related to each other, forming a vicious cycle. Participants also learned from negative pandemic to more positive life aspects, including their health protection, financial plan, family cohesion, and virtual technology literacy and innovation. Conclusion and implications: There have been challenges facing all life aspects of PWDs in Thailand during the COVID -19 pandemic, particularly incomes and daily living. All challenges have been the vicious cycle and complicated. There have been also a positive lesson learned of participants from the pandemic. Recommendations for government and stakeholders in the COVID-19 pandemic for PWDs are the following. First, the health protection strategy and policy of PWDs should be promoted together with other quality of life development including income generation, education and social inclusion. Second, virtual technology and alternative innovation should be enhanced for proactive service providers. Third, accessible information during the pandemic for all PWDs must be concerned. Forth, lesson learned from the pandemic should be shared and disseminated for crisis preparation and a positive mindset in the disruptive world.

Keywords: challenge, COVID-19, disability, Thailand

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Authors: Elif Tugce Aksun Tumerkan, Chris Lowe, Hannah Krupa

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Fluorescent proteins are self-sufficient in forming chromophores with a visible wavelength from 3 amino acids sequence within their own polypeptide structure. This chromophore – a molecule that absorbs a photon of light and exhibits an energy transition equal to the energy of the absorbed photon. Fluorescent proteins (FPs) consisted of a chain of 238 amino acid residues and composed of 11 beta strands shaped in a cylinder surrounding an alpha helix structure. A better understanding of the system of the chromospheres and the increasing advance in protein engineering in recent years, the properties of FPs offers the potential for new applications. They have used sensors and probes in molecular biology and cell-based research that giving a chance to observe these FPs tagged cell localization, structural variation and movement. For clarifying functional uses of fluorescent proteins, electrophoretic properties of these proteins are one of the most important parameters. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis is used for determining electrophoretic properties commonly. While there are many techniques are used for determining the functionality of protein-based research, SDS-PAGE analysis can only provide a molecular level assessment of the proteolytic fragments. Before SDS-PAGE analysis, fluorescent proteins need to successfully purified. Due to directly purification of the target, FPs is difficult from the animal, gene expression is commonly used which must be done by transformation with the plasmid. Furthermore, used gel within electrophoresis and staining agents properties have a key role. In this review, the different factors that have the impact on the electrophoretic properties of fluorescent proteins explored. Fluorescent protein separation and purification are the essential steps before electrophoresis that should be done very carefully. For protein purification, gene expression process and following steps have a significant function. For successful gene expression, the properties of selected bacteria for expression, used plasmid are essential. Each bacteria has own characteristics which are very sensitive to gene expression, also used procedure is the important factor for fluorescent protein expression. Another important factors are gel formula and used staining agents. Gel formula has an effect on the specific proteins mobilization and staining with correct agents is a key step for visualization of electrophoretic bands of protein. Visuality of proteins can be changed depending on staining reagents. Apparently, this review has emphasized that gene expression and purification have a stronger effect than electrophoresis protocol and staining agents.

Keywords: cell biology, gene expression, staining agents, SDS-page

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Authors: Agustin Maciel-Padilla

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This paper explores the most significant change to Japan’s security strategy since the end of World War II, in particular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government publication, in late 2022, of 3 policy documents (the National Security Strategy [NSS], the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program) that basically propose to expand the country’s military capabilities and to increase military spending over a 5-year period. These policies represent a remarkable transformation of Japan’s defense-oriented policy followed since 1946. These proposals have been under analysis and debate since they were announced, as it was also Japan’s historic ambition to strengthening its deterrence capabilities in the context of a more complex regional security environment. Even though this new defense posture has attracted significant international attention, it is far from representing a done deal because of the fact that there is still a long way to go to implement this vision because of a wide variety of political and economic issues. Japan is currently experiencing the most dangerous security environment since the end of World War II, and this situation led Japan to intensify its dialogue with the United States to reflect a re-evaluation of deterrence in the face of a rapidly worsening security environment, a changing balance of power in East Asia, and the arrival of a new era of “great power competition”. Japan’s new documents, for instance, identify China and North Korea’s as posing, respectively, a strategic challenge and an imminent threat. Japan has also noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has contributed to erode the foundation of the international order. It is considered that Russia’s aggression was possible because Ukraine’s defense capability was not enough for effective deterrence. Moreover, Japan’s call for “counterstrike capabilities” results from a recognition that China and North Korea’s ballistic and cruise missiles could overwhelm Japan’s air and missile defense systems, and therefore there is an urgent need to strengthen deterrence and resilience. In this context, this paper will focus on the impact of these changes on the US-Japan alliance. Adapting this alliance to Tokyo’s new ambitions and capabilities could be critical in terms of updating their traditional protection/access to bases arrangement, interoperability and joint command and control issues, as well as regarding the security–economy nexus. While China is Japan’s largest trading partner, and trade between the two has been growing, US-Japan economic relationship has been slower, notwithstanding the fact that US-Japan security cooperation has strengthened significantly in recent years.

Keywords: us-japan alliance, japan security, great power competition, interoperability

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Authors: George Zhou, Yunchan Chen, Candace Chien

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Kidney replacement therapy is the current standard of care for end-stage renal diseases. In-center or home hemodialysis remains an integral component of the therapeutic regimen. Arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) make up the vascular circuit through which blood is filtered and returned. Naturally, AVF patency determines whether adequate clearance and filtration can be achieved and directly influences clinical outcomes. Our aim was to build a deep learning model for automated AVF stenosis screening based on the sound of blood flow through the AVF. A total of 311 patients with AVF were enrolled in this study. Blood flow sounds were collected using a digital stethoscope. For each patient, blood flow sounds were collected at 6 different locations along the patient’s AVF. The 6 locations are artery, anastomosis, distal vein, middle vein, proximal vein, and venous arch. A total of 1866 sounds were collected. The blood flow sounds are labeled as “patent” (normal) or “stenotic” (abnormal). The labels are validated from concurrent ultrasound. Our dataset included 1527 “patent” and 339 “stenotic” sounds. We show that blood flow sounds vary significantly along the AVF. For example, the blood flow sound is loudest at the anastomosis site and softest at the cephalic arch. Contextualizing the sound with location metadata significantly improves classification performance. How to encode and incorporate categorical metadata is an active area of research1. Herein, we study ordinal (i.e., integer) encoding schemes. The numerical representation is concatenated to the flattened feature vector. We train a vision transformer (ViT) on spectrogram image representations of the sound and demonstrate that using scalar multiples of our integer encodings improves classification performance. Models are evaluated using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. The baseline performance of our ViT without any location metadata achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.68 ± 0.05 and 0.28 ± 0.09, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 1; Proximal: 2; Middle: 3; Distal 4: Anastomosis: 5, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.69 ± 0.06 and 0.30 ± 0.10, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 10; Proximal: 20; Middle: 30; Distal 40: Anastomosis: 50, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.74 ± 0.06 and 0.38 ± 0.10, respectively. Using the following encodings of Artery:0; Arch: 100; Proximal: 200; Middle: 300; Distal 400: Anastomosis: 500, the ViT achieves an AuROC and AuPRC of 0.78 ± 0.06 and 0.43 ± 0.11. respectively. Interestingly, we see that using increasing scalar multiples of our integer encoding scheme (i.e., encoding “venous arch” as 1,10,100) results in progressively improved performance. In theory, the integer values do not matter since we are optimizing the same loss function; the model can learn to increase or decrease the weights associated with location encodings and converge on the same solution. However, in the setting of limited data and computation resources, increasing the importance at initialization either leads to faster convergence or helps the model escape a local minimum.

Keywords: arteriovenous fistula, blood flow sounds, metadata encoding, deep learning

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Authors: Yu-Shun Elisa Pong

Abstract:

Music aesthetics related to phenomenology is rarely discussed and still in the ascendant while multi-dimensional discourses of philosophy were emerged to be an important trend in the 20th century. In the present study, a basic theory of phenomenology from Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) is revealed and discussed followed by the introduction of intentionality concepts, eidetic reduction, horizon, world, and inter-subjectivity issues. Further, phenomenology of music and general art was brought to attention by the introduction of Roman Ingarden’s The Work of Music and the Problems of its Identity (1933) and Mikel Dufrenne’s The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience (1953). Finally, Debussy’s music will be analyzed and discussed from the perspective of phenomenology. Phenomenology is not so much a methodology or analytics rather than a common belief. That is, as much as possible to describe in detail the different human experience, relative to the object of purpose. Such idea has been practiced in various guises for centuries, only till the early 20th century Phenomenology was better refined through the works of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others. Debussy was born in an age when the Western society began to accept the multi-cultural baptism. With his unusual sensitivity to the oriental culture, Debussy has presented considerable inspiration, absorption, and echo in his music works. In fact, his relationship with nature is far from echoing the idea of Chinese ancient literati and nature. Although he is not the first composer to associate music with human and nature, the unique quality and impact of his works enable him to become a significant figure in music aesthetics. Debussy’s music tried to develop a quality analogous of nature, and more importantly, based on vivid life experience and artistic transformation to achieve the realm of pure art. Such idea that life experience comes before artwork, either clear or vague, simple or complex, was later presented abstractly in his late works is still an interesting subject worth further discussion. Debussy’s music has existed for more than or close to a century. It has received musicology researcher’s attention as much as other important works in the history of Western music. Among the pluralistic discussion about Debussy’s art and ideas, phenomenological aesthetics has enlightened new ideas and view angles to relook his great works and even gave some previous arguments legitimacy. Overall, this article provides a new insight of Debussy’s music from phenomenological exploration and it is believed phenomenology would be an important pathway in the research of the music aesthetics.

Keywords: Debussy's music, music esthetics, oriental culture, phenomenology

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Authors: Maria Korman, Carmit Gal, Ella Gabitov, Avi Karni

Abstract:

The main question addressed in this study was whether the time-of-day wherein training is afforded is a significant factor for motor skill ('how-to', procedural knowledge) acquisition and consolidation into long term memory in the healthy elderly population. Twenty-nine older adults (60-75 years) practiced an explicitly instructed 5-element key-press sequence by repeatedly generating the sequence ‘as fast and accurately as possible’. Contribution of three parameters to acquisition, 24h post-training consolidation, and 1-week retention gains in motor sequence speed was assessed: (a) time of training (morning vs. evening group) (b) sleep quality (actigraphy) and (c) chronotype. All study participants were moderately morning type, according to the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire score. All participants had sleep patterns typical of age, with average sleep efficiency of ~ 82%, and approximately 6 hours of sleep. Speed of motor sequence performance in both groups improved to a similar extent during training session. Nevertheless, evening group expressed small but significant overnight consolidation phase gains, while morning group showed only maintenance of performance level attained at the end of training. By 1-week retention test, both groups showed similar performance levels with no significant gains or losses with respect to 24h test. Changes in the tapping patterns at 24h and 1-week post-training were assessed based on normalized Pearson correlation coefficients using the Fisher’s z-transformation in reference to the tapping pattern attained at the end of the training. Significant differences between the groups were found: the evening group showed larger changes in tapping patterns across the consolidation and retention windows. Our results show that morning-oriented older adults effectively acquired, consolidated, and maintained a new sequence of finger movements, following both morning and evening practice sessions. However, time-of-training affected the time-course of skill evolution in terms of performance speed, as well as the re-organization of tapping patterns during the consolidation period. These results are in line with the notion that motor training preceding a sleep interval may be beneficial for the long-term memory in the elderly. Evening training should be considered an appropriate time window for motor skill learning in older adults, even in individuals with morning chronotype.

Keywords: time-of-day, elderly, motor learning, memory consolidation, chronotype

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Authors: Gaelle Candel, David Naccache

Abstract:

t-SNE is an embedding method that the data science community has widely used. It helps two main tasks: to display results by coloring items according to the item class or feature value; and for forensic, giving a first overview of the dataset distribution. Two interesting characteristics of t-SNE are the structure preservation property and the answer to the crowding problem, where all neighbors in high dimensional space cannot be represented correctly in low dimensional space. t-SNE preserves the local neighborhood, and similar items are nicely spaced by adjusting to the local density. These two characteristics produce a meaningful representation, where the cluster area is proportional to its size in number, and relationships between clusters are materialized by closeness on the embedding. This algorithm is non-parametric. The transformation from a high to low dimensional space is described but not learned. Two initializations of the algorithm would lead to two different embeddings. In a forensic approach, analysts would like to compare two or more datasets using their embedding. A naive approach would be to embed all datasets together. However, this process is costly as the complexity of t-SNE is quadratic and would be infeasible for too many datasets. Another approach would be to learn a parametric model over an embedding built with a subset of data. While this approach is highly scalable, points could be mapped at the same exact position, making them indistinguishable. This type of model would be unable to adapt to new outliers nor concept drift. This paper presents a methodology to reuse an embedding to create a new one, where cluster positions are preserved. The optimization process minimizes two costs, one relative to the embedding shape and the second relative to the support embedding’ match. The embedding with the support process can be repeated more than once, with the newly obtained embedding. The successive embedding can be used to study the impact of one variable over the dataset distribution or monitor changes over time. This method has the same complexity as t-SNE per embedding, and memory requirements are only doubled. For a dataset of n elements sorted and split into k subsets, the total embedding complexity would be reduced from O(n²) to O(n²=k), and the memory requirement from n² to 2(n=k)², which enables computation on recent laptops. The method showed promising results on a real-world dataset, allowing to observe the birth, evolution, and death of clusters. The proposed approach facilitates identifying significant trends and changes, which empowers the monitoring high dimensional datasets’ dynamics.

Keywords: concept drift, data visualization, dimension reduction, embedding, monitoring, reusability, t-SNE, unsupervised learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 119