Search results for: ethnic relations in Swedish social work education

Authors: Vichayada Laohapiboolkul

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Introduction: As the legal use of cannabis is being widely accepted throughout the world, medical cannabis has been explored in order to become an alternative cure for patients. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) are natural cannabinoids found in the Cannabis plant which is proved to have positive treatment for various diseases and symptoms such as chronic pain, neuropathic pain, spasticity resulting from multiple sclerosis, reduce cancer-associated pain, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), dementia, cannabis and opioid dependence, psychoses/schizophrenia, general social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Tourette's disorder. Regardless of all the medical benefits, THC, if not metabolized, can lead to mild up to severe adverse drug reactions (ADR). The enzyme CYP2C19 was found to be one of the metabolizers of THC. However, the suballele CYP2C19*2 manifests as a poor metabolizer which could lead to higher levels of THC than usual, possibly leading to various ADRs. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of CYP2C19, specifically CYP2C19*2, genes in Thai patients treated with medical cannabis along with adverse drug reactions. Materials and Methods: Clinical data and EDTA whole blood for DNA extraction and genotyping were collected from patients for this study. CYP2C19*2 (681G>A, rs4244285) genotyping was conducted using the Real-time PCR (ABI, Foster City, CA, USA). Results: There were 42 medical cannabis-induced ADRs cases and 18 medical cannabis tolerance controls who were included in this study. A total of 60 patients were observed where 38 (63.3%) patients were female and 22 (36.7%) were male, with a range of age approximately 19 - 87 years. The most apparent ADRs for medical cannabis treatment were dry mouth/dry throat (76.7%), followed by tachycardia (70%), nausea (30%) and a few arrhythmias (10%). In the total of 27 cases, we found a frequency of 18 CYP2C19*1/*1 alleles (normal metabolizers, 66.7%), 8 CYP2C19*1/*2 alleles (intermediate metabolizers, 29.6%) and 1 CYP2C19*2/*2 alleles (poor metabolizers, 3.7%). Meanwhile, 63.6% of CYP2C19*1/*1, 36.3% and 0% of CYP2C19*1/*2 and *2/*2 in the tolerance controls group, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first study to confirm the distribution of CYP2C19*2 allele and the prevalence of poor metabolizer genes in Thai patients who received medical cannabis for treatment. Thus, CYP2C19 allele might serve as a pharmacogenetics marker for screening before initiating treatment.

Keywords: medical cannabis, adverse drug reactions, CYP2C19, tetrahydrocannabinol, poor metabolizer

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Authors: Weikang Gong, Chunhua Li

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Dynamics plays an essential role in function exertion of proteins. Elastic network model (ENM), a harmonic potential-based and cost-effective computational method, is a valuable and efficient tool for characterizing the intrinsic dynamical properties encoded in biomacromolecule structures and has been widely used to detect the large-amplitude collective motions of proteins. Gaussian network model (GNM) and anisotropic network model (ANM) are the two often-used ENM models. In recent years, many ENM variants have been proposed. Here, we propose a small but effective modification (denoted as modified mENM) to the multiscale ENM (mENM) where fitting weights of Kirchhoff/Hessian matrixes with the least square method (LSM) is modified since it neglects the details of pairwise interactions. Then we perform its comparisons with the original mENM, traditional ENM, and parameter-free ENM (pfENM) on reproducing dynamical properties for the six representative proteins whose molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories are available in http://mmb.pcb.ub.es/MoDEL/. In the results, for B-factor prediction, mENM achieves the best performance among the four ENM models. Additionally, it is noted that with the weights of the multiscale Kirchhoff/Hessian matrixes modified, interestingly, the modified mGNM/mANM still has a much better performance than the corresponding traditional ENM and pfENM models. As to dynamical cross-correlation map (DCCM) calculation, taking the data obtained from MD trajectories as the standard, mENM performs the worst while the results produced by the modified mENM and pfENM models are close to those from MD trajectories with the latter a little better than the former. Generally, ANMs perform better than the corresponding GNMs except for the mENM. Thus, pfANM and the modified mANM, especially the former, have an excellent performance in dynamical cross-correlation calculation. Compared with GNMs (except for mGNM), the corresponding ANMs can capture quite a number of positive correlations for the residue pairs nearly largest distances apart, which is maybe due to the anisotropy consideration in ANMs. Furtherly, encouragingly the modified mANM displays the best performance in capturing the functional motional modes, followed by pfANM and traditional ANM models, while mANM fails in all the cases. This suggests that the consideration of long-range interactions is critical for ANM models to produce protein functional motions. Based on the analyses, the modified mENM is a promising method in capturing multiple dynamical characteristics encoded in protein structures. This work is helpful for strengthening the understanding of the elastic network model and provides a valuable guide for researchers to utilize the model to explore protein dynamics.

Keywords: elastic network model, ENM, multiscale ENM, molecular dynamics, parameter-free ENM, protein structure

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Authors: U. Pruthviraj, Praveen Kumar R. A. K. Athul, K. V. Gangadharan, S. Rao Shrikantha

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An open source based autonomous unmanned marine surface vehicle (UMSV) is developed for some of the marine applications such as pollution control, environmental monitoring and thermal imaging. A double rotomoulded hull boat is deployed which is rugged, tough, quick to deploy and moves faster. It is suitable for environmental monitoring, and it is designed for easy maintenance. A 2HP electric outboard marine motor is used which is powered by a lithium-ion battery and can also be charged from a solar charger. All connections are completely waterproof to IP67 ratings. In full throttle speed, the marine motor is capable of up to 7 kmph. The motor is integrated with an open source based controller using cortex M4F for adjusting the direction of the motor. This UMSV can be operated by three modes: semi-autonomous, manual and fully automated. One of the channels of a 2.4GHz radio link 8 channel transmitter is used for toggling between different modes of the USMV. In this electric outboard marine motor an on board GPS system has been fitted to find the range and GPS positioning. The entire system can be assembled in the field in less than 10 minutes. A Flir Lepton thermal camera core, is integrated with a 64-bit quad-core Linux based open source processor, facilitating real-time capturing of thermal images and the results are stored in a micro SD card which is a data storage device for the system. The thermal camera is interfaced to an open source processor through SPI protocol. These thermal images are used for finding oil spills and to look for people who are drowning at low visibility during the night time. A Real Time clock (RTC) module is attached with the battery to provide the date and time of thermal images captured. For the live video feed, a 900MHz long range video transmitter and receiver is setup by which from a higher power output a longer range of 40miles has been achieved. A Multi-parameter probe is used to measure the following parameters: conductivity, salinity, resistivity, density, dissolved oxygen content, ORP (Oxidation-Reduction Potential), pH level, temperature, water level and pressure (absolute).The maximum pressure it can withstand 160 psi, up to 100m. This work represents a field demonstration of an open source based autonomous navigation system for a marine surface vehicle.

Keywords: open source, autonomous navigation, environmental monitoring, UMSV, outboard motor, multi-parameter probe

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Authors: Reyhan Özdoğan, Mithat Çelebi, Özgür Ceylan, Mehmet Arif Kaya

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Super absorbent polymers (SAPs) are defined as materials that can absorb huge amount of water or aqueous solution in comparison to their own mass and retain in their lightly cross-linked structure. SAPs were produced from water soluble monomers via polymerization subsequently controlled crosslinking. SAPs are generally used for water absorbing applications such as baby diapers, patient or elder pads and other hygienic product industries. Crosslinking density (CD) of SAP structure is an essential factor for water absortion capacity (WAC). Low internal CD leads to high WAC values and vice versa. However, SAPs have low CD and high swelling capacities and tend to disintegrate when pressure is applied upon them, so SAPs under load cannot absorb liquids effectively. In order to prevent this undesired situation and to obtain suitable SAP structures having high swelling capacity and ability to work under load, surface crosslinking can be the answer. In industry, these superabsorbent gels are mostly produced via solution polymerization and then they need to be dried, grinded, sized, post polymerized and finally surface croslinked (involves spraying of a crosslinking solution onto dried and grinded SAP particles, and then curing by heat). It can easily be seen that these steps are time consuming and should be handled carefully for the desired final product. If we could synthesize desired final SAPs using less processes it will help reducing time and production costs which are very important for any industries. In this study, synthesis of SAPs were achieved successfully by inverse suspension (Pickering type) polymerization and subsequently in-situ surface cross-linking via using proper surfactants in high boiling point solvents. Our one-pot synthesis of surface cross-linked SAPs invovles only one-step for preparation, thus it can be said that this technique exhibits more preferable characteristic for the industry in comparison to conventional methods due to its one-step easy process. Effects of different surface crosslinking agents onto properties of poly(acrylic acid-co-sodium acrylate) based SAPs are investigated. Surface crosslink degrees are evaluated by swelling under load (SUL) test. It was determined water absorption capacities of obtained SAPs decrease with the increasing surface crosslink density while their mechanic properties are improved.

Keywords: inverse suspension polymerization, polyacrylic acid, super absorbent polymers (SAPs), surface crosslinking, sodium polyacrylate

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Authors: Shu-Yen Wang, Shyh-Huei Hwang

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Designated as an important architectural complex of settlement by the Ministry of Culture, Hua-Zhai Settlement located in Wang-An Township, Peng-Hu County, of Taiwan has been progressively restored year by year and is now at the revitalization and reutilization stage. Over the last 5 years, YunTech has participated in the restoration project while being in compliance with the Bureau of Cultural Heritage’s spirit of 'Living Heritage Conservation'. In this study, reflections have been made to evaluate the contemporariness of traditional settlement development from the aspects of revitalization and reutilization. On the one hand, the connection between settlers’ experiences and emotions have been clarified through the living nodes, collective memory, and social-cultural connotation. On the other hand, activity design has promoted the reconstruction of living nodes and facilitated the reconnection of collective memory, enabling us to explore the contemporariness of living nodes after the reconstruction. With the adoption of literature review, participant observation, and interview analysis methods, this study concludes the following results: 1) The node reconstruction brings back the memories and makes emotional connections: the spatial collective memory is composed of different components. During the reconstruction of node space, villagers participated not only in the narration of the history but also in the restoration of the space. This process enables villagers to bring back their memories and make emotional connections thereto. 2) Villagers’ understanding towards revitalization has been facilitated through node reconstruction: as a medium of this project, activity design has facilitated node reconstruction by offering villagers a natural environment to build up emotional connections to the settlement. This also enables us to better understand the meaning of settlement activation for the local community. 3) New connections are established in life between villagers and the university through the construction of living nodes: through the local implementation of node reconstruction, new connections have been established in life between villagers who participated in the project and the university. In the meantime, the university’s entrance to the community has also been revalued.

Keywords: collective memory, local sense of belonging, reconstruction of living nodes, the important architectural complex of Wang-An Hua-Zhai settlement

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Authors: Zoltan Sebestyen, Eszter Barta-Rajnai, Emma Jakab, Zsuzsanna Czegeny

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Extraction of the energy content of lignocellulosic biomass is one of the possible pathways to reduce the greenhouse gas emission derived from the burning of the fossil fuels. The application of the bioenergy can mitigate the energy dependency of a country from the foreign natural gas and the petroleum. The diversity of the plant materials makes difficult the utilization of the raw biomass in power plants. This problem can be overcome by the application of thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of the raw materials under inert atmosphere at high temperatures, which produces pyrolysis gas, biooil and charcoal. The energy content of these products can be exploited by further utilization. The differences in the chemical and physical properties of the raw biomass materials can be reduced by the use of torrefaction. Torrefaction is a promising mild thermal pretreatment method performed at temperatures between 200 and 300 °C in an inert atmosphere. The goal of the pretreatment from a chemical point of view is the removal of water and the acidic groups of hemicelluloses or the whole hemicellulose fraction with minor degradation of cellulose and lignin in the biomass. Thus, the stability of biomass against biodegradation increases, while its energy density increases. The volume of the raw materials decreases so the expenses of the transportation and the storage are reduced as well. Biooil is the major product during pyrolysis and an important by-product during torrefaction of biomass. The composition of biooil mostly depends on the quality of the raw materials and the applied temperature. In this work, thermoanalytical techniques have been used to study the qualitative and quantitative composition of the pyrolysis and torrefaction oils of a woody (black locust) and two herbaceous samples (rape straw and wheat straw). The biooil contains C5 and C6 anhydrosugar molecules, as well as aromatic compounds originating from hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, respectively. In this study, special emphasis was placed on the formation of the lignin monomeric products. The structure of the lignin fraction is different in the wood and in the herbaceous plants. According to the thermoanalytical studies the decomposition of lignin starts above 200 °C and ends at about 500 °C. The lignin monomers are present among the components of the torrefaction oil even at relatively low temperatures. We established that the concentration and the composition of the lignin products vary significantly with the applied temperature indicating that different decomposition mechanisms dominate at low and high temperatures. The evolutions of decomposition products as well as the thermal stability of the samples were measured by thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TG/MS). The differences in the structure of the lignin products of woody and herbaceous samples were characterized by the method of pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). As a statistical method, principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to find correlation between the composition of lignin products of the biooil and the applied temperatures.

Keywords: pyrolysis, torrefaction, biooil, lignin

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Authors: Yu-Wen Lin, Li-Ni Liu

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Introduction: Fatigue is the most common symptoms experienced by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Patients receiving anticancer therapies develop a higher proportion of fatigue compared with patients who do not receive anticancer therapies. Fatigue has significant impacts on quality of life, daily activities, mood status, and social behaviors. A warm-water footbath (WWF) at 41℃ promotes circulation and removes metabolites resulting in improving sleep and relieving fatigue. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of WWF for relieving fatigue with cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: This is a single-center, prospective, quasi-experimental design study in the oncology ward in Taiwan. Participants in this study were assigned to WWF group as experimental group and standard care group as a control group by purposive sampling. In the WWF group, the participants were asked to soak their feet in 42-43℃ water 15 minutes for consecutive 6 days at one day before chemotherapy. Each participant was evaluated for fatigue level by the Taiwanese version of the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI-T). BFI-T was completed for consecutive 8 days of the study. The primary outcome was compared the BFI-T score of WWF group to the standard care group. Results: There were 60 participants enrolled in this study. Thirty participants were assigned to WWF group and 30 participants were assigned to standard care group. Both groups have comparable characteristic. The BFI-T scores of both groups were increased associated with the days of chemotherapy. The highest BFI-T scores of both groups were on the day 4 of chemotherapy. The BFI-T scores of both groups were decreased since day 5 and significantly decreased in WWF group on day 5 compared to standard care group (4.17 vs. 5.7, P ＜ .05). At the end of the study the fatigue at its worse were significantly decreased in WWF group (2.33 vs. 4.37, P ＜ .001). There was no adverse event reported in this study. Conclusion: WWF is an easy, safe, non-invasive, and relatively inexpensive nursing intervention for improving fatigue of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. In summary, this study shows the WWF is a simple complementary care method, and it is effective for improving and relieving fatigue in a short time. Through improving fatigue is a way to enhance the quality of life which is important for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Larger prospective randomized controlled trial and long-term effectiveness and outcomes of WWF should be performed to confirm this study.

Keywords: chemotherapy, warm-water footbath, fatigue, Taiwanese version of the brief fatigue inventory

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Authors: Grigoria Athanasaki, Veerarajan Vimala, A. M. Kannan, Louis Cindrella

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Energy usage has been increased throughout the years, leading to severe environmental impacts. Since the majority of the energy is currently produced from fossil fuels, there is a global need for clean energy solutions. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) offer a very promising solution for transportation applications because of their solid configuration and low temperature operations, which allows them to start quickly. One of the main components of PEMFCs is the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL), which manages water and gas transport and shows direct influence on the fuel cell performance. In this work, a novel dual-layer GDL with gradient porosity was prepared, using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as pore former, to improve the gas diffusion and water management in the system. The microporous layer (MPL) of the fabricated GDL consists of carbon powder PUREBLACK, sodium dodecyl sulfate as a surfactant, 34% wt. PTFE and the gradient porosity was created by applying one layer using 30% wt. PEG on the carbon substrate, followed by a second layer without using any pore former. The total carbon loading of the microporous layer is ~ 3 mg.cm-2. For the assembly of the catalyst layer, Nafion membrane (Ion Power, Nafion Membrane NR211) and Pt/C electrocatalyst (46.1% wt.) were used. The catalyst ink was deposited on the membrane via microspraying technique. The Pt loading is ~ 0.4 mg.cm-2, and the active area is 5 cm2. The sample was ex-situ characterized via wetting angle measurement, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Pore Size Distribution (PSD) to evaluate its characteristics. Furthermore, for the performance evaluation in-situ characterization via Fuel Cell Testing using H2/O2 and H2/air as reactants, under 50, 60, 80, and 100% relative humidity (RH), took place. The results were compared to a single layer GDL, fabricated with the same carbon powder and loading as the dual layer GDL, and a commercially available GDL with MPL (AvCarb2120). The findings reveal high hydrophobic properties of the microporous layer of the GDL for both PUREBLACK based samples, while the commercial GDL demonstrates hydrophilic behavior. The dual layer GDL shows high and stable fuel cell performance under all the RH conditions, whereas the single layer manifests a drop in performance at high RH in both oxygen and air, caused by catalyst flooding. The commercial GDL shows very low and unstable performance, possibly because of its hydrophilic character and thinner microporous layer. In conclusion, the dual layer GDL with PEG appears to have improved gas diffusion and water management in the fuel cell system. Due to its increasing porosity from the catalyst layer to the carbon substrate, it allows easier access of the reactant gases from the flow channels to the catalyst layer, and more efficient water removal from the catalyst layer, leading to higher performance and stability.

Keywords: gas diffusion layer, microporous layer, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, relative humidity

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Authors: Epaminondas G. Kyriakidis, Theodosis D. Dimitrakos, Constantinos C. Karamatsoukis

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The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a well-known problem in Operations Research and has been widely studied during the last fifty-five years. The context of the VRP is that of delivering or collecting products to or from customers who are scattered in a geographical area and have placed orders for these products. A vehicle or a fleet of vehicles start their routes from a depot and visit the customers in order to satisfy their demands. Special attention has been given to the capacitated VRP in which the vehicles have limited carrying capacity for the goods that are delivered or collected. In the present work, we present a specific capacitated stochastic vehicle routing problem which has many realistic applications. We develop and analyze a mathematical model for a specific vehicle routing problem in which a vehicle starts its route from a depot and visits N customers according to a particular sequence in order to collect from them two similar but not identical products. We name these products, product 1 and product 2. Each customer possesses items either of product 1 or product 2 with known probabilities. The number of the items of product 1 or product 2 that each customer possesses is a discrete random variable with known distribution. The actual quantity and the actual type of product that each customer possesses are revealed only when the vehicle arrives at the customer’s site. It is assumed that the vehicle has two compartments. We name these compartments, compartment 1 and compartment 2. It is assumed that compartment 1 is suitable for loading product 1 and compartment 2 is suitable for loading product 2. However, it is permitted to load items of product 1 into compartment 2 and items of product 2 into compartment 1. These actions cause costs that are due to extra labor. The vehicle is allowed during its route to return to the depot to unload the items of both products. The travel costs between consecutive customers and the travel costs between the customers and the depot are known. The objective is to find the optimal routing strategy, i.e. the routing strategy that minimizes the total expected cost among all possible strategies for servicing all customers. It is possible to develop a suitable dynamic programming algorithm for the determination of the optimal routing strategy. It is also possible to prove that the optimal routing strategy has a specific threshold-type strategy. Specifically, it is shown that for each customer the optimal actions are characterized by some critical integers. This structural result enables us to design a special-purpose dynamic programming algorithm that operates only over these strategies having this structural property. Extensive numerical results provide strong evidence that the special-purpose dynamic programming algorithm is considerably more efficient than the initial dynamic programming algorithm. Furthermore, if we consider the same problem without the assumption that the customers are ordered, numerical experiments indicate that the optimal routing strategy can be computed if N is smaller or equal to eight.

Keywords: dynamic programming, similar products, stochastic demands, stochastic preferences, vehicle routing problem

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Authors: Sahar Navabakhsh, Rokia Raslan, Yair Schwartz

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Decision-making on regeneration of housing estates, whether to refurbish or re-build, has been mostly triggered by economic factors. To enable sustainable growth, it is vital that environmental and social impacts of different scenarios are also taken into account. The methodology used to include all the three sustainable development pillars is called Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which comprises of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the assessment of environmental impacts of buildings. Current practice of LCA is regularly conducted post design stage and by sustainability experts. Not only is undertaking an LCA at this stage less effective, but issues such as the limited scope for the definition and assessment of environmental impacts, the implication of changes in the system boundary and the alteration of each of the variable metrics, employment of different Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods and use of various inventory data for Life Cycle Inventory Analysis can result in considerably contrasting results. Given the niche nature and scarce specialist domain of LCA of buildings, the majority of the stakeholders do not contribute to the generation or interpretation of the impact assessment, and the results can be generated and interpreted subjectively due to the mentioned uncertainties. For an effective and democratic assessment of environmental impacts, different stakeholders, and in particular the community and design team should collaborate in the process of data collection, assessment and analysis. This paper examines and evaluates a participatory approach to LCSA through the analysis of a case study of a housing estate in South West London. The study has been conducted throughout tier-based collaborative methods to collect and share data through surveys and co-design workshops with the community members and the design team as the main stakeholders. The assessment of lifecycle impacts is conducted throughout the process and has influenced the decision-making on the design of the Community Plan. The evaluation concludes better assessment transparency and outcome, alongside other socio-economic benefits of identifying and engaging the most contributive stakeholders in the process of conducting LCSA.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, participatory LCA, life cycle sustainability assessment, participatory processes, decision-making, housing estate regeneration

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Authors: M. Mortas, H. Asar, P. Dursun Cebi

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The visionary works of architectural representation in the 21st century's present situation, are practiced through the methodologies which try to expose the intellectual and theoretical essences of futurologist positions that are revealed with this era's interactions. Expansions of conceptual and contextual inputs related to one architectural design representation, depend on its deepness of critical attitudes, its interactions with the concepts such as experience, meaning, affection, psychology, perception and aura, as well as its communication with spatial, cultural and environmental factors. The purpose of this research study is to be able to offer methodological application areas for the design dimensions of experiential practices into architectural design studios, by focusing on the architectural representative narrations of 'transformation,' 'metamorphosis,' 'morphogenesis,' 'in-betweenness', 'superposition' and 'intertwine’ in which they affect and are affected by the today’s spatiotemporal hybridizations of architecture. The narrative representations and the visual theory paradigms of the designers are chosen under the main title of 'transformation' for the investigation of these visionary and critical representations' dismantlings and decodings. Case studies of this research area are chosen from Neil Spiller, Bryan Cantley, Perry Kulper and Dan Slavinsky’s transformative, morphogenetic representations. The theoretical dismantlings and decodings which are obtained from these artists’ contemporary architectural representations are tried to utilize and practice in the structural design studios as alternative methodologies when to approach architectural design processes, for enriching, differentiating, diversifying and 'transforming' the applications of so far used design process precedents. The research aims to indicate architectural students about how they can reproduce, rethink and reimagine their own representative lexicons and so languages of their architectural imaginations, regarding the newly perceived tectonics of prosthetic, biotechnology, synchronicity, nanotechnology or machinery into various experiential design workshops. The methodology of this work can be thought as revealing the technical and theoretical tools, lexicons and meanings of contemporary-visionary architectural representations of our decade, with the essential contents and components of hermeneutics, etymology, existentialism, post-humanism, phenomenology and avant-gardism disciplines to re-give meanings the architectural visual theorists’ transformative representations of our decade. The value of this study may be to emerge the superposed and overlapped atmospheres of futurologist architectural representations for the students who need to rethink on the transcultural, deterritorialized and post-humanist critical theories to create and use the representative visual lexicons of themselves for their architectural soft machines and beings by criticizing the now, to be imaginative for the future of architecture.

Keywords: architectural design studio, visionary lexicon, narrative architecture, transformative representation

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Authors: Jiangbo Li, Wenqian Huang

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Early detection of fungal infection in citrus fruit is one of the major problems in the postharvest commercialization process. The automatic and nondestructive detection of infected fruits is still a challenge for the citrus industry. At present, the visual inspection of rotten citrus fruits is commonly performed by workers through the ultraviolet induction fluorescence technology or manual sorting in citrus packinghouses to remove fruit subject with fungal infection. However, the former entails a number of problems because exposing people to this kind of lighting is potentially hazardous to human health, and the latter is very inefficient. Orange is used as a research object. This study would focus on this problem and proposed an effective method based on Vis-NIR hyperspectral imaging in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm with a spectroscopic resolution of 2.8 nm. In this work, three normalization approaches are applied prior to analysis to reduce the effect of sample curvature on spectral profiles, and it is found that mean normalization was the most effective pretreatment for decreasing spectral variability due to curvature. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to a dataset composing of average spectra from decayed and normal tissue to reduce the dimensionality of data and observe the ability of Vis-NIR hyper-spectra to discriminate data from two classes. In this case, it was observed that normal and decayed spectra were separable along the resultant first principal component (PC1) axis. Subsequently, five wavelengths (band) centered at 577, 702, 751, 808, and 923 nm were selected as the characteristic wavelengths by analyzing the loadings of PC1. A multispectral combination image was generated based on five selected characteristic wavelength images. Based on the obtained multispectral combination image, the intensity slicing pseudocolor image processing method is used to generate a 2-D visual classification image that would enhance the contrast between normal and decayed tissue. Finally, an image segmentation algorithm for detection of decayed fruit was developed based on the pseudocolor image coupled with a simple thresholding method. For the investigated 238 independent set samples including infected fruits infected by Penicillium digitatum and normal fruits, the total success rate is 100% and 97.5%, respectively, and, the proposed algorithm also used to identify the orange infected by penicillium italicum with a 100% identification accuracy, indicating that the proposed multispectral algorithm here is an effective method and it is potential to be applied in citrus industry.

Keywords: citrus fruit, early rotten, fungal infection, hyperspectral imaging

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Authors: Wedad Albalawi

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The mathematical inequalities have been the core of mathematical study and used in almost all branches of mathematics as well in various areas of science and engineering. The inequalities by Hardy, Littlewood and Polya were the first significant composition of several science. This work presents fundamental ideas, results and techniques, and it has had much influence on research in various branches of analysis. Since 1934, various inequalities have been produced and studied in the literature. Furthermore, some inequalities have been formulated by some operators; in 1989, weighted Hardy inequalities have been obtained for integration operators. Then, they obtained weighted estimates for Steklov operators that were used in the solution of the Cauchy problem for the wave equation. They were improved upon in 2011 to include the boundedness of integral operators from the weighted Sobolev space to the weighted Lebesgue space. Some inequalities have been demonstrated and improved using the Hardy–Steklov operator. Recently, a lot of integral inequalities have been improved by differential operators. Hardy inequality has been one of the tools that is used to consider integrity solutions of differential equations. Then, dynamic inequalities of Hardy and Coposon have been extended and improved by various integral operators. These inequalities would be interesting to apply in different fields of mathematics (functional spaces, partial differential equations, mathematical modeling). Some inequalities have been appeared involving Copson and Hardy inequalities on time scales to obtain new special version of them. A time scale is an arbitrary nonempty closed subset of the real numbers. Then, the dynamic inequalities on time scales have received a lot of attention in the literature and has become a major field in pure and applied mathematics. There are many applications of dynamic equations on time scales to quantum mechanics, electrical engineering, neural networks, heat transfer, combinatorics, and population dynamics. This study focuses on Hardy and Coposon inequalities, using Steklov operator on time scale in double integrals to obtain special cases of time-scale inequalities of Hardy and Copson on high dimensions. The advantage of this study is that it uses the one-dimensional classical Hardy inequality to obtain higher dimensional on time scale versions that will be applied in the solution of the Cauchy problem for the wave equation. In addition, the obtained inequalities have various applications involving discontinuous domains such as bug populations, phytoremediation of metals, wound healing, maximization problems. The proof can be done by introducing restriction on the operator in several cases. The concepts in time scale version such as time scales calculus will be used that allows to unify and extend many problems from the theories of differential and of difference equations. In addition, using chain rule, and some properties of multiple integrals on time scales, some theorems of Fubini and the inequality of H¨older.

Keywords: time scales, inequality of hardy, inequality of coposon, steklov operator

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Authors: T. Ferreira, A. Kulkarni, C. Bretscher, K. Richter, M. Ehrlich, A. Marchini

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H-1 protoparvovirus (H-1PV) is a virus with inherent oncolytic and oncosuppressive activities while remaining non-pathogenic in humans. H-1PV was the first oncolytic parvovirus to undergo clinical testing. Results from trials in patients with glioblastoma or pancreatic carcinoma showed an excellent safety profile and first signs of efficacy. H-1PV infection is vastly dependent on cellular factors, from cell attachment and entry to viral replication and egress. Hence, we believe that the characterisation of the parvovirus life cycle would ultimately help further improve H-1PV clinical outcome. In the present study, we explored the entry pathway of H-1PV in cervical HeLa and glioma NCH125 cancer cell lines. Electron and confocal microscopy showed viral particles associated with clathrin-coated pits and vesicles, providing the first evidence that H-1PV cell entry occurs through clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Accordingly, we observed that by blocking clathrin-mediated endocytosis with hypertonic sucrose, chlorpromazine, or pitstop 2, H-1PV transduction was markedly decreased. Accordingly, siRNA-mediated knockdown of AP2M1, which retains a crucial role in clathrin-mediated endocytosis, verified the reliance of H-1PV on this route to enter HeLa and NCH125 cancer cells. By contrast, we found no evidence of viral entry through caveolae-mediated endocytosis. Indeed, pre-treatment of cells with nystatin or methyl-β-cyclodextrin, both inhibitors of caveolae-mediated endocytosis, did not affect viral transduction levels. Unexpectedly, siRNA-mediated knockdown of caveolin-1, the main driver of caveolae-mediated endocytosis, increased H-1PV transduction, suggesting caveolin-1 is a negative modulator of H-1PV infection. We also show that H-1PV entry is dependent on dynamin, a protein responsible for mediating the scission of vesicle neck and promoting further internalisation. Furthermore, since dynamin inhibition almost completely abolished H-1PV infection, makes it unlikely that H-1PV uses macropinocytosis as an alternative pathway to enter cells. After viral internalisation, H-1PV passes through early to late endosomes as observed by confocal microscopy. Inside these endocytic compartments, the acidic environment proved to be crucial for a productive infection. Inhibition of acidification of pH dramatically reduced H-1PV transduction. Besides, a fraction of H-1PV particles was observed inside LAMP1-positive lysosomes, most likely following a non-infectious route. To the author's best knowledge, this is the first study to characterise the cell entry pathways of H-1PV. Along these lines, this work will further contribute to understand H-1PV oncolytic properties as well as to improve its clinical potential in cancer virotherapy.

Keywords: clathrin-mediated endocytosis, H-1 parvovirus, oncolytic virus, virus entry

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Authors: Nabil Al-Zaqri

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Semiconductor photocatalysts with surface defects display incredible light absorption bandwidth, and these defects function as highly active sites for oxidation processes by interacting with the surface band structure. Accordingly, engineering the photocatalyst with surface oxygen vacancies will enhance the semiconductor nanostructure's photocatalytic efficiency. Herein, a CeO2₋ₓ nanostructure is designed under the influence of low-frequency ultrasonic waves to create surface oxygen vacancies. This approach enhances the photocatalytic efficiency compared to many heterostructures while keeping the intrinsiccrystal structure intact. Ultrasonic waves induce the acoustic cavitation effect leading to the dissemination of active elements on the surface, which results in vacancy formation in conjunction with larger surface area and smaller particle size. The structural analysis of CeO₂₋ₓ revealed higher crystallinity, as well as morphological optimization, and the presence of oxygen vacancies is verified through Raman, X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy, temperature-programmed reduction, photoluminescence, and electron spinresonance analyses. Oxygen vacancies accelerate the redox cycle between Ce₄+ and Ce₃+ by prolongingphotogenerated charge recombination. The ultrasound-treated pristine CeO₂ sample achieved excellenthydrogen production showing a quantum efficiency of 1.125% and efficient organic degradation. Ourpromising findings demonstrated that ultrasonic treatment causes the formation of surface oxygenvacancies and improves photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and pollution degradation. Conclusion: Defect engineering of the ceria nanoparticles with oxygen vacancies was achieved for the first time using low-frequency ultrasound treatment. The U-CeO₂₋ₓsample showed high crystallinity, and morphological changes were observed. Due to the acoustic cavitation effect, a larger surface area and small particle size were observed. The ultrasound treatment causes particle aggregation and surface defects leading to oxygen vacancy formation. The XPS, Raman spectroscopy, PL spectroscopy, and ESR results confirm the presence of oxygen vacancies. The ultrasound-treated sample was also examined for pollutant degradation, where 1O₂was found to be the major active species. Hence, the ultrasound treatment influences efficient photocatalysts for superior hydrogen evolution and an excellent photocatalytic degradation of contaminants. The prepared nanostructure showed excellent stability and recyclability. This work could pave the way for a unique post-synthesis strategy intended for efficient photocatalytic nanostructures.

Keywords: surface defect, CeO₂₋ₓ, photocatalytic, water treatment, H₂ production

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Authors: Nihal Atif Salim

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To improve the quality of life in cities, a variety of interventions are used. Noise is a substantial and important sort of pollution that has a negative impact on the urban environment and human health. According to the complaint survey, it ranks second among environmental contamination complaints (conducted by EEAA in 2019). The most significant source of noise in the city is traffic noise. In order to improve the sound urban environment, many physical techniques are applied. In the local area, noise barriers are considered as one of the most appropriate physical techniques along existing traffic routes. Alexandria is Egypt's second-largest city after Cairo. It is located along the Mediterranean Sea, and El- Gish Road is one of the city's main arteries. It impacts the waterfront promenade that extends along with the city by a high level of traffic noise. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the design considerations for the most appropriate noise barrier type along with the promenade, with the goal of improving the Quality of Life (QOL) and the sonic urban environment specifically. The proposed methodology focuses on how noise affects human perception and the environment. Then it delves into the various physical noise control approaches. After that, the paper discusses sustainable design decisions making. Finally, look into the importance of incorporating sustainability into design decisions making. Three stages will be followed in the case study. The first stage involves doing a site inspection and using specific sound measurement equipment (a noise level meter) to measure the noise level along the promenade at many sites, and the findings will be shown on a noise map. The second step is to inquire about the site's user experience. The third step is to investigate the various types of noise barriers and their effects on QOL along existing routes in order to select the most appropriate type. The goal of this research is to evaluate the suitable design of noise barriers that fulfill environmental and social perceptions while maintaining a balanced approach to the noise issue in order to improve QOL along existing roadways in the local area.

Keywords: noise pollution, sonic urban environment, traffic noise, noise barrier, acoustic sustainability, noise reduction techniques

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Authors: Akshita Swaminathan, Vinayak Malhotra

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Smoldering is one of the most persistent types of combustion which can take place for very long periods (hours, days, months) if there is an abundance of fuel. It causes quite a notable number of accidents and is one of the prime suspects for fire and safety hazards. It can be ignited with weaker ignition and is more difficult to suppress than flaming combustion. Upward spread smoldering is the case in which the air flow is parallel to the direction of the smoldering front. This type of smoldering is quite uncontrollable, and hence, there is a need to study this phenomenon. As compared to flaming combustion, a smoldering phenomenon often goes unrecognised and hence is a cause for various fire accidents. A simplified experimental setup was raised to study the upward spread smoldering, its effects due to varying forced flow and its effects when it takes place in the presence of external heat sources and alternative energy sources such as acoustic energy. Linear configurations were studied depending on varying forced flow effects on upward spread smoldering. Effect of varying forced flow on upward spread smoldering was observed and studied: (i) in the presence of external heat source (ii) in the presence of external alternative energy sources (acoustic energy). The role of ash removal was observed and studied. Results indicate that upward spread forced smoldering was affected by various key controlling parameters such as the speed of the forced flow, surface orientation, interspace distance (distance between forced flow and the pilot fuel). When an external heat source was placed on either side of the pilot fuel, it was observed that the smoldering phenomenon was affected. The surface orientation and interspace distance between the external heat sources and the pilot fuel were found to play a huge role in altering the regression rate. Lastly, by impinging an alternative energy source in the form of acoustic energy on the smoldering front, it was observed that varying frequencies affected the smoldering phenomenon in different ways. The surface orientation also played an important role. This project highlights the importance of fire and safety hazard and means of better combustion for all kinds of scientific research and practical applications. The knowledge acquired from this work can be applied to various engineering systems ranging from aircrafts, spacecrafts and even to buildings fires, wildfires and help us in better understanding and hence avoiding such widespread fires. Various fire disasters have been recorded in aircrafts due to small electric short circuits which led to smoldering fires. These eventually caused the engine to catch fire that cost damage to life and property. Studying this phenomenon can help us to control, if not prevent, such disasters.

Keywords: alternative energy sources, flaming combustion, ignition, regression rate, smoldering

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Authors: Sandra Rafael, Bruno Vicente, Vera Rodrigues, Carlos Borrego, Myriam Lopes

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Air pollution is an environmental and social issue at different spatial scales, especially in a climate change context, with an expected decrease of air quality. Air pollution is a combination of high emissions and unfavourable weather conditions, where wind speed and wind direction play a key role. The urban design (location and structure of buildings and trees) can both promote the air pollutants dispersion as well as promote their retention within the urban area. Today, most of the urban areas are applying measures to adapt to future extreme climatic events. Most of these measures are grounded on nature-based solutions, namely green roofs and green areas. In this sense, studies are required to evaluate how the implementation of these actions will influence the wind flow within the urban area and, consequently, how this will influence air pollutants' dispersion. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of a set of urban morphologies in the wind conditions and in the dispersion of air pollutants, in a built-up area in Portugal. For that, two pollutants were analysed (NOx and PM10) and four scenarios were developed: i) a baseline scenario, which characterizes the current status of the study area, ii) an urban green scenario, which implies the implementation of a green area inside the domain, iii) a green roof scenario, which consists in the implementation of green roofs in a specific area of the domain; iv) a 'grey' scenario, which consists in a scenario with absence of vegetation. For that, two models were used, namely the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) and the CFD model VADIS (pollutant dispersion in the atmosphere under variable wind conditions). The WRF model was used to initialize the CFD model, while the last was used to perform the set of numerical simulations, on an hourly basis. The implementation of the green urban area promoted a reduction of air pollutants' concentrations, 16% on average, related to the increase in the wind flow, which promotes air pollutants dispersion; while the application of green roofs showed an increase of concentrations (reaching 60% during specific time periods). Overall the results showed that a strategic placement of vegetation in cities has the potential to make an important contribution to increase air pollutants dispersion and so promote the improvement of air quality and sustainability of urban environments.

Keywords: air pollutants dispersion, wind conditions, urban morphologies, road traffic emissions

Procedia PDF Downloads 326

Authors: Debabrata Adhikari, Mikhail Matveev, Louise Brown, Andy Long, Jan Kočí

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A good understanding of mesoscale permeability of complex architectures in fibrous porous preforms is of particular interest in order to achieve efficient and cost-effective resin impregnation of liquid composite molding (LCM). Fabrics used in structural reinforcements are typically woven or stitched. However, 3D fabric reinforcement is of particular interest because of the versatility in the weaving pattern with the binder yarn and in-plain yarn arrangements to manufacture thick composite parts, overcome the limitation in delamination, improve toughness etc. To predict the permeability based on the available pore spaces between the inter yarn spaces, unit cell-based computational fluid dynamics models have been using the Stokes Darcy model. Typically, the preform consists of an arrangement of yarns with spacing in the order of mm, wherein each yarn consists of thousands of filaments with spacing in the order of μm. The fluid flow during infusion exchanges the mass between the intra and inter yarn channels, meaning there is no dead-end of flow between the mesopore in the inter yarn space and the micropore in the yarn. Several studies have employed the Brinkman equation to take into account the flow through dual-scale porosity reinforcement to estimate their permeability. Furthermore, to reduce the computational effort of dual scale flow, scale separation criteria based on the ratio between yarn permeability to the yarn spacing was also proposed to quantify the dual scale and negligible micro-scale flow regime for the prediction of mesoscale permeability. In the present work, the key parameter to identify the influence of intra yarn permeability on the mesoscale permeability has been investigated with the systematic study of weft and warp yarn spacing on the plane weave as well as the position of binder yarn and number of in-plane yarn layers on 3D weave fabric. The permeability tensor has been estimated using an OpenFOAM-based model for the various weave pattern with idealized geometry of yarn implemented using open-source software TexGen. Additionally, scale separation criterion has been established based on the various configuration of yarn permeability for the 3D fabric with both the isotropic and anisotropic yarn from Gebart’s model. It was observed that the variation of mesoscale permeability Kxx within 30% when the isotropic porous yarn is considered for a 3D fabric with binder yarn. Furthermore, the permeability model developed in this study will be used for multi-objective optimizations of the preform mesoscale geometry in terms of yarn spacing, binder pattern, and a number of layers with an aim to obtain improved permeability and reduced void content during the LCM process.

Keywords: permeability, 3D fabric, dual-scale flow, liquid composite molding

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Authors: Mark Jackson

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Description: This paper is based on an theoretical analysis of the efficacy of the dominant model of policing in western jurisdictions. Those results are then compared with a similar analysis of a traditional reactive model. It is found that neither model provides for optimal delivery of services. Instead optimal service can be achieved by a synchronous hybrid model, termed the Convectory Policing approach. Methodology and Findings: For over three decades problem oriented policing (PO) has been the dominant model for western police agencies. Initially based on the work of Goldstein during the 1970s the problem oriented framework has spawned endless variants and approaches, most of which embrace a problem solving rather than a reactive approach to policing. This has included the Area Policing Concept (APC) applied in many smaller jurisdictions in the USA, the Scaled Response Policing Model (SRPM) currently under trial in Western Australia and the Proactive Pre-Response Approach (PPRA) which has also seen some success. All of these, in some way or another, are largely based on a model that eschews a traditional reactive model of policing. Convectory Policing (CP) is an alternative model which challenges the underpinning assumptions which have seen proliferation of the PO approach in the last three decades and commences by questioning the economics on which PO is based. It is argued that in essence, the PO relies on an unstated, and often unrecognised assumption that resources will be available to meet demand for policing services, while at the same time maintaining the capacity to deploy staff to develop solutions to the problems which were ultimately manifested in those same calls for service. The CP model relies on the observations from a numerous western jurisdictions to challenge the validity of that underpinning assumption, particularly in fiscally tight environment. In deploying staff to pursue and develop solutions to underpinning problems, there is clearly an opportunity cost. Those same staff cannot be allocated to alternative duties while engaged in a problem solution role. At the same time, resources in use responding to calls for service are unavailable, while committed to that role, to pursue solutions to the problems giving rise to those same calls for service. The two approaches, reactive and PO are therefore dichotomous. One cannot be optimised while the other is being pursued. Convectory Policing is a pragmatic response to the schism between the competing traditional and contemporary models. If it is not possible to serve either model with any real rigour, it becomes necessary to taper an approach to deliver specific outcomes against which success or otherwise might be measured. CP proposes that a structured roster-driven approach to calls for service, combined with the application of what is termed a resource-effect response capacity has the potential to resolve the inherent conflict between traditional and models of policing and the expectations of the community in terms of community policing based problem solving models.

Keywords: policing, reactive, proactive, models, efficacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 466

Authors: Othman E. Othman, Amira M. Nowier, Medhat El-Denary

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Camels play an important socio-economic role within the pastoral and agricultural system in the dry and semidry zones of Asia and Africa. Camels are economically important animals in Egypt where they are dual purpose animals (meat and milk). The analysis of chemical composition of camel milk showed that the total protein contents ranged from 2.4% to 5.3% and it is divided into casein and whey proteins. The casein fraction constitutes 52% to 89% of total camel milk protein and it divided into 4 fractions namely αs1, αs2, β and κ-caseins which are encoded by four tightly genes. In spite of the important role of casein genes and the effects of their genetic polymorphisms on quantitative traits and technological properties of milk, the studies for the detection of genetic polymorphism of camel milk genes are still limited. Due to this fact, this work focused - using PCR-RFP and sequencing analysis - on the identification of genetic polymorphisms and SNPs of two casein genes in Maghrabi camel breed which is a dual purpose camel breed in Egypt. The amplified fragments at 488-bp of the camel κ-CN gene were digested with AluI endonuclease. The results showed the appearance of three different genotypes in the tested animals; CC with three digested fragments at 203-, 127- and 120-bp, TT with three digested fragments at 203-, 158- and 127-bp and CT with four digested fragments at 203-, 158-, 127- and 120-bp. The frequencies of three detected genotypes were 11.0% for CC, 48.0% for TT and 41.0% for CT genotypes. The sequencing analysis of the two different alleles declared the presence of a single nucleotide polymorphism (C→T) at position 121 in the amplified fragments which is responsible for the destruction of a restriction site (AG/CT) in allele T and resulted in the presence of two different alleles C and T in tested animals. The nucleotide sequences of κ-CN alleles C and T were submitted to GenBank with the accession numbers; KU055605 and KU055606, respectively. The primers used in this study amplified 942-bp fragments spanning from exon 4 to exon 6 of camel αS1-Casein gene. The amplified fragments were digested with two different restriction enzymes; SmlI and AluI. The results of SmlI digestion did not show any restriction site whereas the digestion with AluI endonuclease revealed the presence of two restriction sites AG^CT at positions 68^69 and 631^632 yielding the presence of three digested fragments with sizes 68-, 563- and 293-bp.The nucleotide sequences of this fragment from camel αS1-Casein gene were submitted to GenBank with the accession number KU145820. In conclusion, the genetic characterization of quantitative traits genes which are associated with the production traits like milk yield and composition is considered an important step towards the genetic improvement of livestock species through the selection of superior animals depending on the favorable alleles and genotypes; marker assisted selection (MAS).

Keywords: genetic polymorphism, SNP polymorphism, Maghrabi camels, κ-Casein gene, αS1-Casein gene

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Authors: Naoko Ono, Junko Kato

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According to the Ministry of Justice, 9,044,000 foreigners visited Japan in 2010. The number of foreign residents in Japan was over 2,134,000 at the end of 2010. Further, medical tourism has emerged as a new area of business. Against this background, language barriers put the health of foreigners in Japan at risk, because they have difficulty in accessing health care and communicating with medical professionals. Medical interpreting training is urgently needed in response to language problems resulting from the rapid increase in the number of foreign workers in Japan over recent decades. Especially, there is a growing need in medical settings in Japan to speak international languages for communication, with Tokyo selected as the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Due to the limited number of practical activities on medical interpreting, it is difficult for learners to acquire the interpreting skills. In order to eliminate the shortcoming, a web-based English-Japanese medical interpreting training system was developed. We conducted a literature review to identify learning contents, core competencies for medical interpreters by using Pubmed, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. Selected papers were investigated to find core competencies in medical interpreting. Eleven papers were selected through literature review indicating core competencies for medical interpreters. Core competencies in medical interpreting abstracted from the literature review, showed consistency in previous research whilst the content of the programs varied in domestic and international training programs for medical interpreters. Results of the systematic review indicated five core competencies: (a) maintaining accuracy and completeness; (b) medical terminology and understanding the human body; (c) behaving ethically and making ethical decisions; (d) nonverbal communication skills; and (e) cross-cultural communication skills. We developed an e-leaning program for training medical interpreters. A Web-based Medical Interpreter Training Program which cover these competencies was developed. The program included the following : online word list (Quizlet), allowing student to study online and on their smartphones; self-study tool (Quizlet) for help with dictation and spelling; word quiz (Quizlet); test-generating system (Quizlet); Interactive body game (BBC);Online resource for understanding code of ethics in medical interpreting; Webinar about non-verbal communication; and Webinar about incompetent vs. competent cultural care. The design of a virtual environment allows the execution of complementary experimental exercises for learners of medical interpreting and introduction to theoretical background of medical interpreting. Since this system adopts a self-learning style, it might improve the time and lack of teaching material restrictions of the classroom method. In addition, as a teaching aid, virtual medical interpreting is a powerful resource for the understanding how actual medical interpreting can be carried out. The developed e-learning system allows remote access, enabling students to perform experiments at their own place, without being physically in the actual laboratory. The web-based virtual environment empowers students by granting them access to laboratories during their free time. A practical example will be presented in order to show capabilities of the system. The developed web-based training program for medical interpreters could bridge the gap between medical professionals and patients with limited English proficiency.

Keywords: e-learning, language education, moodle, medical interpreting

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Pramod Somvanshi, Manu Tomar, K. V. Venkatesh

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Insulin and glucagon are responsible for homeostasis of key plasma metabolites like glucose, amino acids and fatty acids in the blood plasma. These hormones act antagonistically to each other during the secretion and signaling stages. In the present work, we analyze the effect of macronutrients on the response from integrated insulin and glucagon signaling pathways. The insulin and glucagon pathways are connected by DAG (a calcium signaling component which is part of the glucagon signaling module) which activates PKC and inhibits IRS (insulin signaling component) constituting a crosstalk. AKT (insulin signaling component) inhibits cAMP (glucagon signaling component) through PDE3 forming the other crosstalk between the two signaling pathways. Physiological level of anabolism and catabolism is captured through a metric quantified by the activity levels of AKT and PKA in their phosphorylated states, which represent the insulin and glucagon signaling endpoints, respectively. Under resting and starving conditions, the phosphorylation metric represents homeostasis indicating a balance between the anabolic and catabolic activities in the tissues. The steady state analysis of the integrated network demonstrates the presence of a bistable response in the phosphorylation metric with respect to input plasma glucose levels. This indicates that two steady state conditions (one in the homeostatic zone and other in the anabolic zone) are possible for a given glucose concentration depending on the ON or OFF path. When glucose levels rise above normal, during post-meal conditions, the bistability is observed in the anabolic space denoting the dominance of the glycogenesis in liver. For glucose concentrations lower than the physiological levels, while exercising, metabolic response lies in the catabolic space denoting the prevalence of glycogenolysis in liver. The non-linear positive feedback of AKT on IRS in insulin signaling module of the network is the main cause of the bistable response. The span of bistability in the phosphorylation metric increases as plasma fatty acid and amino acid levels rise and eventually the response turns monostable and catabolic representing diabetic conditions. In the case of high fat or protein diet, fatty acids and amino acids have an inhibitory effect on the insulin signaling pathway by increasing the serine phosphorylation of IRS protein via the activation of PKC and S6K, respectively. Similar analysis was also performed with respect to input amino acid and fatty acid levels. This emergent property of bistability in the integrated network helps us understand why it becomes extremely difficult to treat obesity and diabetes when blood glucose level rises beyond a certain value.

Keywords: bistability, diabetes, feedback and crosstalk, obesity

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Authors: Basma Yassa

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Evidence on cash transfers’ effectiveness in mitigating macro and idiosyncratic shocks’ impacts has been mixed and is mostly concentrated in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia with very limited evidence from the MENA region. Yet conditional cash transfers schemes have been continually used, especially in Egypt, as the main social protection tool in response to the recent socioeconomic crises and macro shocks. We use 2 panel datasets and 1 cross-sectional dataset to estimate the effectiveness of cash transfers as a shock-mitigative mechanism in the Egyptian context. In this paper, the results from the different models (Panel Fixed Effects model and the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) model) confirm that micro and macro shocks lead to significant decline in several household-level welfare outcomes and that Takaful cash transfers have a significant positive impact in mitigating the negative shock impacts, especially on households’ debt incidence, debt levels, and asset ownership, but not necessarily on food, and non-food expenditure levels. The results indicate large positive significant effects on decreasing household incidence of debt by up to 12.4 percent and lowered the debt size by approximately 18 percent among Takaful beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries’. Similar evidence is found on asset ownership levels, as the RDD model shows significant positive effects on total asset ownership and productive asset ownership, but the model failed to detect positive impacts on per capita food and non-food expenditures. Further extensions are still in progress to compare the models’ results with the DID model results when using a nationally representative ELMPS panel data (2018/2024) rounds. Finally, our initial analysis suggests that conditional cash transfers are effective in buffering the negative shock impacts on certain welfare indicators even after successive macro-economic shocks in 2022 and 2023 in the Egyptian Context.

Keywords: cash transfers, fixed effects, household welfare, household debt, micro shocks, regression discontinuity design

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Authors: T. Thein, S. Kalyar Myo

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Human uses visual information for understanding the speech contents in noisy conditions or in situations where the audio signal is not available. The primary advantage of visual information is that it is not affected by the acoustic noise and cross talk among speakers. Using visual information from the lip movements can improve the accuracy and robustness of automatic speech recognition. However, a major challenge with most automatic lip reading system is to find a robust and efficient method for extracting the linguistically relevant speech information from a lip image sequence. This is a difficult task due to variation caused by different speakers, illumination, camera setting and the inherent low luminance and chrominance contrast between lip and non-lip region. Several researchers have been developing methods to overcome these problems; the one is lip reading. Moreover, it is well known that visual information about speech through lip reading is very useful for human speech recognition system. Lip reading is the technique of a comprehensive understanding of underlying speech by processing on the movement of lips. Therefore, lip reading system is one of the different supportive technologies for hearing impaired or elderly people, and it is an active research area. The need for lip reading system is ever increasing for every language. This research aims to develop a visual teaching method system for the hearing impaired persons in Myanmar, how to pronounce words precisely by identifying the features of lip movement. The proposed research will work a lip reading system for Myanmar Consonants, one syllable consonants (င (Nga)၊ ည (Nya)၊ မ (Ma)၊ လ (La)၊ ၀ (Wa)၊ သ (Tha)၊ ဟ (Ha)၊ အ (Ah) ) and two syllable consonants ( က(Ka Gyi)၊ ခ (Kha Gway)၊ ဂ (Ga Nge)၊ ဃ (Ga Gyi)၊ စ (Sa Lone)၊ ဆ (Sa Lain)၊ ဇ (Za Gwe) ၊ ဒ (Da Dway)၊ ဏ (Na Gyi)၊ န (Na Nge)၊ ပ (Pa Saug)၊ ဘ (Ba Gone)၊ ရ (Ya Gaug)၊ ဠ (La Gyi) ). In the proposed system, there are three subsystems, the first one is the lip localization system, which localizes the lips in the digital inputs. The next one is the feature extraction system, which extracts features of lip movement suitable for visual speech recognition. And the final one is the classification system. In the proposed research, Two Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (2D-DCT) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) with Active Contour Model (ACM) will be used for lip movement features extraction. Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is used for finding class parameter and class number in training set and testing set. Then, experiments will be carried out for the recognition accuracy of Myanmar consonants using the only visual information on lip movements which are useful for visual speech of Myanmar languages. The result will show the effectiveness of the lip movement recognition for Myanmar Consonants. This system will help the hearing impaired persons to use as the language learning application. This system can also be useful for normal hearing persons in noisy environments or conditions where they can find out what was said by other people without hearing voice.

Keywords: feature extraction, lip reading, lip localization, Active Contour Model (ACM), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Two Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform (2D-DCT)

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Authors: Sophio Kobauri, Temur Kantaria, Nina Kulikova, David Tugushi, Ramaz Katsarava

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The elaboration of effective drug delivery vehicles is still topical nowadays since targeted drug delivery is one of the most important challenges of the modern nanomedicine. The last decade has witnessed enormous research focused on synthetic cationic polymers (CPs) due to their flexible properties, in particular as non-viral gene delivery systems, facile synthesis, robustness, not oncogenic and proven gene delivery efficiency. However, the toxicity is still an obstacle to the application in pharmacotherapy. For overcoming the problem, creation of new cationic compounds including the polymeric nano-size particles – nano-containers (NCs) loading with different pharmaceuticals and biologicals is still relevant. In this regard, a variety of NCs-based drug delivery systems have been developed. We have found that amino acid-based biodegradable polymers called as pseudo-proteins (PPs), which can be cleared from the body after the fulfillment of their function are highly suitable for designing pharmaceutical NCs. Among them, one of the most promising are NCs made of biodegradable Cationic PPs (CPPs). For preparing new cationic NCs (CNCs), we used CPPs composed of positively charged amino acid L-arginine (R). The CNCs were fabricated by two approaches using: (1) R-based homo-CPPs; (2) Blends of R-based CPPs with regular (neutral) PPs. According to the first approach NCs we prepared from CPPs 8R3 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,3-propanediol) and 8R6 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from these CPPs were 72-101 nm in size with zeta potential within +30 ÷ +35 mV at a concentration 6 mg/mL. According to the second approach, CPPs 8R6 was blended in organic phase with neutral PPs 8L6 (composed of leucine, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from the blends were 130-140 nm in size with zeta potential within +20 ÷ +28 mV depending on 8R6/8L6 ratio. The stability studies of fabricated NCs showed that no substantial change of the particle size and distribution and no big particles’ formation is observed after three months storage. In vitro biocompatibility study of the obtained NPs with four different stable cell lines: A549 (human), U-937 (human), RAW264.7 (murine), Hepa 1-6 (murine) showed both type cathionic NCs are biocompatible. The obtained data allow concluding that the obtained CNCs are promising for the application as biodegradable drug delivery vehicles. This work was supported by the joint grant from the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine and Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia #6298 'New biodegradable cationic polymers composed of arginine and spermine-versatile biomaterials for various biomedical applications'.

Keywords: biodegradable polymers, cationic pseudo-proteins, nano-containers, drug delivery vehicles

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Authors: Hanan Bin Nakhi, Asaad M. Albadrawi, Maged Al Shahat, ‎Entesar Mandani

Abstract:

Background:‎ Kawasaki disease (KD) is one of the most common vasculitis of childhood. ‎It is considered the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children. The ‎peak age of occurrence is 6 to 24 months, with 80% of affected children being ‎less than 5 years old. There are only a few reports of KD in infants younger ‎than 6 months. Infants had a higher incidence of atypical KD and of coronary ‎artery complications. This case report from Kuwait will reinforce considering ‎atypical KD in case of sepsis like condition with negative cultures and ‎unresponding to systemic antibiotics. Early diagnosis allows early treatment ‎with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) and so decreases the incidence of ‎cardiac aneurysm.‎ Case Report:‎ A 2 month old female infant, product of full term normal delivery to ‎consanguineous parents, presented with fever and poor feeding. She was ‎admitted and treated as urinary tract infection as her urine routine revealed ‎pyurea. The baby continued to have persistent fever and hypoactivity inspite ‎of using intravenous antibiotics. Latter, she developed non purulent ‎conjunctivitis, skin mottling, oedema of the face / lower limb and was treated ‎in intensive care unit as a case of septic shock. In spite of her partial general ‎improvement, she continued to look unwell, hypoactive and had persistent ‎fever. Septic work up, metabolic, and immunologic screen were negative. KD ‎was suspected when the baby developed polymorphic erythematous rash and ‎noticed to have peeling of skin at perianal area and periangular area of the ‎fingers of the hand and feet. IVIG was given in dose of 2 gm/kg/day in single ‎dose and aspirin 100 mg/kg/day in four divided doses. The girl showed marked ‎clinical improvement. The fever subsided dramatically and the level acute ‎phase reactant markedly decreased but the platelets count increased to ‎‎1600000/mm3. Echo cardiography showed mild dilatation of mid right ‎coronary artery. Aspirin was continued in a dose of 5 mg/kg/d till repeating ‎cardiac echo. ‎Conclusion:‎ A high index of suspicion of KD must be maintained in young infants with ‎prolonged unexplained fever. Accepted criteria should be less restrictive to ‎allow early diagnosis of a typical KD in infants less than 6 months of age. ‎Timely appropriate treatment with IVIG is essential to avoid severe coronary ‎sequels.‎

Keywords: Kawasaki disease, atypical Kawasaki disease, infantile Kawasaki disease, hypo activity‎ ‎

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Authors: Xinqi Guo, Karen R. Dobkins

Abstract:

Background and Objectives: Humans are probably the only animals whose minds are constantly filled with thoughts, feelings and emotions. Previous studies have investigated human minds from different dimensions, including its proportion of time for not being present, its representative format, its personal relevance, its temporal locus, and affect valence. The current study aims at characterizing human mind by employing Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), a self-report research procedure for studying daily experience. This study emphasis on answering the following questions: 1) How does the contents of the inner experience vary across demographics, 2) Are certain types of inner experiences correlated with level of mindfulness and mental well-being (e.g., are people who spend more time being present happier, and are more mindful people more at-present?), 3) Will being prompted to report one’s inner experience increase mindfulness and mental well-being? Methods: Participants were recruited from the subject pool of UC San Diego or from the social media. They began by filling out two questionnaires: 1) Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form, and 2) Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale, and demographic information. Then they participated in the ESM part by responding to the prompts which contained questions about their real-time inner experience: if they were 'at-present', 'mind-wandering', or 'zoned-out'. The temporal locus, the clarity, and the affect valence, and the personal importance of the thought they had the moment before the prompt were also assessed. A mobile app 'RealLife Exp' randomly delivered these prompts 3 times/day for 6 days during wake-time. After the 6 days, participants completed questionnaire (1) and (2) again. Their changes of score were compared to a control group who did not participate in the ESM procedure (yet completed (1) and (2) one week apart). Results: Results are currently preliminary as we continue to collect data. So far, there is a trend that participants are present, mind-wandering and zoned-out, about 53%, 23% and 24% during wake-time, respectively. The thoughts of participants are ranked to be clearer and more neutral if they are present vs. mind-wandering. Mind-wandering thoughts are 66% about the past, consisting 80% of inner speech. Discussion and Conclusion: This study investigated the subjective account of human mind by a tool with high ecological validity. And it broadens the understanding of the relationship between contents of mind and well-being.

Keywords: experience sampling method, meta-memory, mindfulness, mind-wandering

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Authors: Dan Geneau, Mary Claire Geneau, Seth Lenetsky, Ming -Chang Tsai, Marc Klimstra

Abstract:

Introduction— Horizontal force-velocity profiling (HFVP) involves modeling an athletes linear sprint kinematics to estimate valuable maximum force and velocity metrics. This approach to performance modeling has been used in field-based team sports and has recently been introduced to ice-hockey as a forward skating performance assessment. While preliminary data has been collected on ice, distance constraints of the on-ice test restrict the ability of the athletes to reach their maximal velocity which result in limits of the model to effectively estimate athlete performance. This is especially true of more elite athletes. This report explores whether athletes on-ice are able to reach a velocity plateau similar to what has been seen in overground trials. Fourteen male Major Junior ice-hockey players (BW= 83.87 +/- 7.30 kg, height = 188 ± 3.4cm cm, age = 18 ± 1.2 years n = 14) were recruited. For on-ice sprints, participants completed a standardized warm-up consisting of skating and dynamic stretching and a progression of three skating efforts from 50% to 95%. Following the warm-up, participants completed three on ice 45m sprints, with three minutes of rest in between each trial. For overground sprints, participants completed a similar dynamic warm-up to that of on-ice trials. Following the warm-up participants completed three 40m overground sprint trials. For each trial (on-ice and overground), radar was used to collect instantaneous velocity (Stalker ATS II, Texas, USA) aimed at the participant’s waist. Sprint velocities were modelled using custom Python (version 3.2) script using a mono-exponential function, similar to previous work. To determine if on-ice tirals were achieving a maximum velocity (plateau), minimum acceleration values of the modeled data at the end of the sprint were compared (using paired t-test) between on-ice and overground trials. Significant differences (P<0.001) between overground and on-ice minimum accelerations were observed. It was found that on-ice trials consistently reported higher final acceleration values, indicating a maximum maintained velocity (plateau) had not been reached. Based on these preliminary findings, it is suggested that reliable HFVP metrics cannot yet be collected from all ice-hockey populations using current methods. Elite male populations were not able to achieve a velocity plateau similar to what has been seen in overground trials, indicating the absence of a maximum velocity measure. With current velocity and acceleration modeling techniques, including a dependency of a velocity plateau, these results indicate the potential for error in on-ice HFVP measures. Therefore, these findings suggest that a greater on-ice sprint distance may be required or the need for other velocity modeling techniques, where maximal velocity is not required for a complete profile.   

Keywords: ice-hockey, sprint, skating, power

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Authors: Cátia Gonçalves, Teresa Nunes, Inês Pina, Ana Vicente, C. Alves, Felix Charvet, Daniel Neves, A. Matos

Abstract:

The production of charcoal relies on rudimentary technologies using traditional brick kilns. Charcoal is produced under pyrolysis conditions: breaking down the chemical structure of biomass under high temperature in the absence of air. The amount of the pyrolysis products (charcoal, pyroligneous extract, and flue gas) depends on various parameters, including temperature, time, pressure, kiln design, and wood characteristics like the moisture content. This activity is recognized for its inefficiency and high pollution levels, but it is poorly characterized. This activity is widely distributed and is a vital economic activity in certain regions of Portugal, playing a relevant role in the management of woody residues. The location of the units establishes the biomass used for charcoal production. The Portalegre district, in the Alto Alentejo region (Portugal), is a good example, essentially with rural characteristics, with a predominant farming, agricultural, and forestry profile, and with a significant charcoal production activity. In this district, a recent inventory identifies almost 50 charcoal production units, equivalent to more than 450 kilns, of which 80% appear to be in operation. A field campaign was designed with the objective of determining the composition of the emissions released during a charcoal production cycle. A total of 30 samples of particulate matter and 20 gas samples in Tedlar bags were collected. Particulate and gas samplings were performed in parallel, 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, alternating the inlet heads (PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅), in the particulate sampler. The gas and particulate samples were collected in the plume as close as the emission chimney point. The biomass (dry basis) used in the carbonization process was a mixture of cork oak (77 wt.%), holm oak (7 wt.%), stumps (11 wt.%), and charred wood (5 wt.%) from previous carbonization processes. A cylindrical batch kiln (80 m³) with 4.5 m diameter and 5 m of height was used in this study. The composition of the gases was determined by gas chromatography, while the particulate samples (PM₁₀, PM₂.₅) were subjected to different analytical techniques (thermo-optical transmission technique, ion chromatography, HPAE-PAD, and GC-MS after solvent extraction) after prior gravimetric determination, to study their organic and inorganic constituents. The charcoal production cycle presents widely varying operating conditions, which will be reflected in the composition of gases and particles produced and emitted throughout the process. The concentration of PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ in the plume was calculated, ranging between 0.003 and 0.293 g m⁻³, and 0.004 and 0.292 g m⁻³, respectively. Total carbon, inorganic ions, and sugars account, in average, for PM10 and PM₂.₅, 65 % and 56 %, 2.8 % and 2.3 %, 1.27 %, and 1.21 %, respectively. The organic fraction studied until now includes more than 30 aliphatic compounds and 20 PAHs. The emission factors of particulate matter to produce charcoal in the traditional kiln were 33 g/kg (wooddb) and 27 g/kg (wooddb) for PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅, respectively. With the data obtained in this study, it is possible to fill the lack of information about the environmental impact of the traditional charcoal production in Portugal. Acknowledgment: Authors thanks to FCT – Portuguese Science Foundation, I.P. and to Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal for financial support within the scope of the project CHARCLEAN (PCIF/GVB/0179/2017) and CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020).

Keywords: brick kilns, charcoal, emission factors, PAHs, total carbon

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