Search results for: human retinal endothelial cells (hrecs)

Authors: Hasan Basri Jumin, Henni Rosneti, Agusnimar

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Crude palm oil liquid sludge sewage was treated to maize with 400 cc/plant could be increased mean relative growth rates, net assimilation rate, leaf area and dry weight of seed. There are indicated that 400 cc / plant treated to maize significantly increase the average of mean relative growth rates into 0.32 g.day-1. Net assimilation rates increase from 13.5 mg.m-2.day-1 into 34.5 mg.m-2.day-1, leaf area at 50 days after planting increase from 1419 cm-2 into 2458 cm-2 and dry weight of seed from 38 g per plant into 43 g per plant. Crude palm oil liquid sludge waste chemical analysis indicated that, there are no exceed threshold content of dangerous metals and biology effects. Cadmium content as heavy metal is lower than threshold of human healthy tolerance. Therefore, it has no syndrome effect to human health. Biological oxygen demands and chemical oxygen demands as indicators for micro-organism activities, there are under the threshold of human healthy tolerance.

Keywords: crude-palm-oil, fertilizer, liquid-sludge, maize, pollutant, waste

Procedia PDF Downloads 558

Authors: Erin Brands-Saliba

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In this evaluation study, we explore the efficacy and implementation of the five guiding principles of Bekaadendang “Being Peaceful,” a suite of services facilitated by our Anti-Human Trafficking Team, and a pivotal component of the Holistic Prevention Services department at NCFST. The guiding principles—trauma-informed care, cultural safety, 4-quadrant medicine wheel approach, harm reduction, and after-care peer support—are the foundation of Bekaadendang's mission to support at-risk individuals and survivors of human trafficking. This evaluation is of paramount importance given the profound impact of human trafficking on these communities and aims to ensure that Bekaadendang's principles are not only understood by staff but experienced by community members in a purposeful and meaningful manner. The issues at the heart of this evaluation are deeply entrenched in the historical and contemporary challenges faced by Indigenous communities, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals. Well-documented reports like the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) have cast a glaring light on the disproportionately high rates of violence, exploitation, and trafficking experienced by these communities. The MMIWG report underlines the pressing need for holistic, culturally informed interventions like Bekaadendang. Furthermore, the research efforts of scholars, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, shed light on the persistent systemic issues that make Indigenous individuals more vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. Recognizing this broader context is crucial to truly grasp the importance of evaluating the guiding principles that underpin Bekaadendang's service model.

Keywords: human trafficking, indigenous healing, MMIWG, program evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Soniya Nityanand, Ekta Minocha, Manali Jain, Rohit Anthony Sinha, Chandra Prakash Chaturvedi

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Amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC) have been shown to contribute towards the amelioration of Acute Renal Failure (ARF), but the mechanisms underlying the renoprotective effect are largely unknown. Therefore, the main goal of the current study was to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of AFSC in a cisplatin-induced rat model of ARF and to investigate the underlying mechanisms responsible for its renoprotective effect. To study the therapeutic efficacy of AFSC, ARF was induced in Wistar rats by an intra-peritoneal injection of cisplatin, and five days after administration, the rats were randomized into two groups and injected with either AFSC or normal saline intravenously. On day 8 and 12 after cisplatin injection, i.e., day 3 and day7 post-therapy respectively, the blood biochemical parameters, histopathological changes, apoptosis and expression of pro-apoptotic, anti-apoptotic and autophagy-related proteins in renal tissues were studied in both groups of rats. Administration of AFSC in ARF rats resulted in improvement of renal function and attenuation of renal damage as reflected by significant decrease in blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine levels, tubular cell apoptosis as assessed by Bax/Bcl2 ratio, and expression of the pro-apoptotic proteins viz. PUMA, Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9 as compared to saline-treated group. Furthermore, in the AFSC-treated group as compared to saline-treated group, there was a significant increase in the activation of autophagy as evident by increased expression of LC3-II, ATG5, ATG7, Beclin1 and phospho-AMPK levels with a concomitant decrease in phospho-p70S6K and p62 expression levels. To further confirm whether the protective effects of AFSC on cisplatin-induced apoptosis were dependent on autophagy, chloroquine, an autophagy inhibitor was administered by the intra-peritoneal route. Chloroquine administration led to significant reduction in the anti-apoptotic effects of the AFSC therapy and further deterioration in the renal structure and function caused by cisplatin. Collectively, our results put forth that AFSC ameliorates cisplatin-induced ARF through induction of autophagy and inhibition of apoptosis. Furthermore, the protective effects of AFSC were blunted by chloroquine, highlighting that activation of autophagy is an important mechanism of action for the protective role of AFSC in cisplatin-induced renal injury.

Keywords: amniotic fluid stem cells, acute renal failure, autophagy, cisplatin

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Yi-Hui Lai, Chih-Hsiang Yang, Li-Chung Hsu

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The inflammasome is a protein complex that modulates caspase-1 activity, resulting in proteolytic cleavage of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and IL-18, into their bioactive forms. It has been shown that the inflammasomes play a crucial role in the clearance of pathogenic infection and tissue repair. However, dysregulated inflammasome activation contributes to a wide range of human diseases such as cancers and auto-inflammatory diseases. Yet, regulation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation remains largely unknown. We discovered a novel DEAD box protein, whose biological function has not been reported, not only negatively regulates NLRP3 inflammasome activation by interfering NLRP3 inflammasome assembly and cellular localization but also mitigate pyroptosis upon pathogen evasion. The DEAD-box protein is the first DEAD-box protein gets involved in modulation of the inflammasome activation. In our study, we found that caspase-1 activation and mature IL-1β production were largely enhanced upon LPS challenge in the DEAD box-containing protein- deleted THP-1 macrophages and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs). In addition, this DEAD box-containing protein migrates from the nucleus to the cytoplasm upon LPS stimulation, which is required for its inhibitory role in NLRP3 inflammasome activation. The DEAD box-containing protein specifically interacted with the LRR motif of NLRP3 via its DEAD domain. Furthermore, due to the crucial role of the NLRP3 LRR domain in the recruitment of NLRP3 to mitochondria and binding to its adaptor ASC, we found that the interaction of NLRP3 and ASC was downregulated in the presence of the DEAD box-containing protein. In addition to the mechanical study, we also found that this DEAD box protein protects host cells from inflammasome-triggered cell death in response to broad-ranging pathogens such as Candida albicans, Streptococcus pneumoniae, etc., involved in nosocomial infections and severe fever shock. Collectively, our results suggest that this novel DEAD box molecule might be a key therapeutic strategy for various infectious diseases.

Keywords: inflammasome, inflammation, innate immunity, pyroptosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: E. T. El Shenawy, O. N. A. Esmail, Adel A. Elbaset, Hesham F. A. Hamed

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Generation of the electrical energy based on photovoltaic (PV) technology has been increased over the world due to either the continuous reduction in the traditional energy sources in addition to the pollution problems related to their usage, or the clean nature and safe usage of the PV technology. Also, PV systems can generate clean electricity in the site of use without any transmission, which can be considered cost effective than other generation systems. The performance of the PV system is highly affected by the amount of solar radiation incident on it. Completely or partially shaded PV systems can affect its output. The PV system can be shaded by trees, buildings, dust, incorrect system configuration, or other obstacles. The present paper studies the effect of the partial shading on the performance of a thin film PV module under climatic conditions of Cairo, Egypt. This effect was measured and evaluated according to practical measurement of the characteristic curves such as current-voltage and power-voltage for two identical PV modules (with and without shading) placed at the same time on one mechanical structure for comparison. The measurements have been carried out for the following shading patterns; half cell (bottom, middle, and top of the PV module); complete cell; and two adjacent cells. The results showed that partially shading the PV module changes the shapes of the I-V and P-V curves and produces more than one maximum power point, that can disturb the traditional maximum power point trackers. Also, the output power from the module decreased according to the incomplete solar radiation reaching the PV module due to shadow patterns. The power loss due shading was 7%, 22%, and 41% for shading of half-cell, one cell, and two adjacent cells of the PV module, respectively.

Keywords: I-V measurements, PV module characteristics, PV module power loss, PV module shading

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Reham Khalaf-Nazzal, Imad Dweikat, Paula Gimenez, Iker Oyenarte, Alfonso Martinez-Cruz, Domonik Muller

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Metal cation transport mediator (CNNM) gene family comprises 4 isoforms that are expressed in various human tissues. Structurally, CNNMs are complex proteins that contain an extracellular N-terminal domain preceding a DUF21 transmembrane domain, a ‘Bateman module’ and a C-terminal cNMP-binding domain. Mutations in CNNM2 cause familial dominant hypomagnesaemia. Growing evidence highlights the role of CNNM2 in neurodevelopment. Mutations in CNNM2 have been implicated in epilepsy, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, and others. In the present study, we aim to elucidate the function of CNNM2 in the developing brain. Thus, we present the genetic origin of symptoms in two family cohorts. In the first family, three siblings of a consanguineous Palestinian family in which parents are first cousins, and consanguinity ran over several generations, presented a varying degree of intellectual disability, cone-rod dystrophy, and autism spectrum disorder. Exome sequencing and segregation analysis revealed the presence of homozygous pathogenic mutation in the CNNM2 gene, the parents were heterozygous for that gene mutation. Magnesium blood levels were normal in the three children and their parents in several measurements. They had no symptoms of hypomagnesemia. The CNNM2 mutation in this family was found to locate in the CBS1 domain of the CNNM2 protein. The crystal structure of the mutated CNNM2 protein was not significantly different from the wild-type protein, and the binding of AMP or MgATP was not dramatically affected. This suggests that the CBS1 domain could be involved in pure neurodevelopmental functions independent of its magnesium-handling role, and this mutation could have affected a protein partner binding or other functions in this protein. In the second family, another autosomal dominant CNNM2 mutation was found to run in a large family with multiple individuals over three generations. All affected family members had hypomagnesemia and hypermagnesuria. Oral supplementation of magnesium did not increase the levels of magnesium in serum significantly. Some affected members of this family have defects in fine motor skills such as dyslexia and dyslalia. The detected mutation is located in the N-terminal part, which contains a signal peptide thought to be involved in the sorting and routing of the protein. In this project, we describe heterogenous clinical phenotypes related to CNNM2 mutations and protein functions. In the first family, and up to the authors’ knowledge, we report for the first time the involvement of CNNM2 in retinal photoreceptor development and function. In addition, we report the presence of a neurophenotype independent of magnesium status related to the CNNM2 protein mutation. Taking into account the different modes of inheritance and the different positions of the mutations within CNNM2 and its different structural and functional domains, it is likely that CNNM2 might be involved in a wide spectrum of neuropsychiatric comorbidities with considerable varying phenotypes.

Keywords: magnesium transport, autosomal recessive, autism, neurodevelopment, CBS domain

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: S. Zolghadri, H. Yousefnia, A. R. Jalilian

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Bone metastases are observed in a wide range of cancers leading to intolerable pain. While early detection can help the physicians in the decision of the type of treatment, various radiopharmaceuticals using phosphonates like ⁶⁸Ga-EDTMP have been developed. In this work, due to the importance of absorbed dose, human absorbed dose of this new agent was calculated for the first time based on biodistribution data in Wild-type rats. ⁶⁸Ga was obtained from ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generator with radionuclidic purity and radiochemical purity of higher than 99%. The radiolabeled complex was prepared in the optimized conditions. Radiochemical purity of the radiolabeled complex was checked by instant thin layer chromatography (ITLC) method using Whatman No. 2 paper and saline. The results indicated the radiochemical purity of higher than 99%. The radiolabelled complex was injected into the Wild-type rats and its biodistribution was studied up to 120 min. As expected, major accumulation was observed in the bone. Absorbed dose of each human organ was calculated based on biodistribution in the rats using RADAR method. Bone surface and bone marrow with 0.112 and 0.053 mSv/MBq, respectively, received the highest absorbed dose. According to these results, the radiolabeled complex is a suitable and safe option for PET bone imaging.

Keywords: absorbed dose, EDTMP, ⁶⁸Ga, rats

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Pimpak Phumat, Sakornrat Khongkhunthian, Thomas Rades, Anette Müllertz, Siriporn Okonogi

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Self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS) containing 4-allylpyrocatechol (AP) extracted from Piper betle were developed to enhance water solubility of AP by using modeling and design (MODDE) program. The amount of AP in each SNEDDS formulation was determined by using high-performance liquid chromatography. The formulation consisted of 20% Miglyol®812N, 40 % Kolliphor®RH40, 30 % Maisine®35-1 and 10 % ethanol was found to be the best SNEDDS that provided the highest loading capacity of AP. (141.48±15.64 mg/g SNEDDS). The system also showed miscibility with water. The particle shape and size of the AP-SNEDDS after dispersing in water was investigated by using a transmission electron microscope and photon correlation spectrophotometer, respectively. The results showed that they were a spherical shape, having a particle size of 34.27 ± 1.14 nm with a narrow size distribution of 0.17 ± 0.04. The particles showed negative zeta potential with a value of -21.66 ± 2.09 mV. Antibacterial activity of AP-SNEDDS containing 1.5 mg/mL of AP was investigated against Streptococcus intermedius. The effect of this system on S. intermedius cells was observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results from SEM revealed that the bacterial cells were obviously destroyed. Killing kinetic study of AP-SNEDDS was carried out. It was found that the killing rate of AP-SNEDDS against S. intermedius was dose-dependent and the bacterial reduction was 79.86 ± 0.45 % within 30 min. In comparison with chlorhexidine (CHX), AP-SNEDDS showed similar antibacterial effects against S. intermedius. It is concluded that SNEDDS is a potential system for enhancing water solubility of AP. The antibacterial study reveals that AP-SNEDDS can be a promising system to treat bacterial infection caused by S. intermedius.

Keywords: SNEDDS, 4-allylpyrocathecol, solubility, antibacterial activity, Streptococcus intermedius

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: MyungGu Yeo, JongHan Ha, Gi-Hoon Yang, JaeYoon Lee, SeungHyun Ahn, Hyeongjin Lee, HoJun Jeon, YongBok Kim, Minseong Kim, GeunHyung Kim

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Tissue engineering is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary research area that may provide options for treating damaged tissues and organs. As a promising technique for regenerating various tissues, this technology requires biomedical scaffolds, which serve as an artificial extracellular matrix (ECM) to support neotissue growth. Electrospun micro/nanofibers have been used widely in tissue engineering because of their high surface-area-to-volume ratio and structural similarity to extracellular matrix. However, low mechanical sustainability, low 3D shape-ability, and low cell infiltration have been major limitations to their use. In this work, we propose new hybrid scaffolds interlayered with cell-laden electrospun micro/nano fibers and poly(caprolactone) microstructures. Also, we applied various concentrations of alginate and electric field strengths to determine optimal conditions for the cell-electrospinning process. The combination of cell-laden bioink (2 ⅹ 10^5 osteoblast-like MG63 cells/mL, 2 wt% alginate, 2 wt% poly(ethylene oxide), and 0.7 wt% lecithin) and a 0.16 kV/mm electric field showed the highest cell viability and fiber formation in this process. Using these conditions and PCL microstructures, we achieved mechanically stable hybrid scaffolds. In addition, the cells embedded in the fibrous structure were viable and proliferated. We suggest that the cell-embedded hybrid scaffolds fabricated using the cell-electrospinning process may be useful for various soft- and hard-tissue regeneration applications.

Keywords: bioink, cell-laden scaffold, micro/nanofibers, poly(caprolactone)

Procedia PDF Downloads 370

Authors: Darius Jakimavicius

Abstract:

Artificial intelligence is the subject of intense debate in the international arena, identified both as a technological breakthrough and as a component of the strategic stability effect. Both the kinetic and non-kinetic development of AI and its application in the national strategies of the great powers may trigger a change in the security situation. Artificial intelligence is generally faster, more capable and more efficient than humans, and there is a temptation to transfer decision-making and control responsibilities to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, which, once activated, can select and act on targets without further intervention by a human operator, blurs the boundary between human or robot (machine) warfare, or perhaps human and robot together. Artificial intelligence acts as a force multiplier that speeds up decision-making and reaction times on the battlefield. The role of humans is increasingly moving away from direct decision-making and away from command and control processes involving the use of force. It is worth noting that the autonomy and precision of AI systems make the process of strategic stability more complex. Deterrence theory is currently in a phase of development in which deterrence is undergoing further strain and crisis due to the complexity of the evolving models enabled by artificial intelligence. Based on the concept of strategic stability and deterrence theory, it is appropriate to develop further research on the development and impact of AI in order to assess AI from both a scientific and technical perspective: to capture a new niche in the scientific literature and academic terminology, to clarify the conditions for deterrence, and to identify the potential uses, impacts and possibly quantities of AI. The research problem is the impact of artificial intelligence developed by great powers on strategic stability. This thesis seeks to assess the impact of AI on strategic stability and deterrence principles, with human exclusion from the decision-making and control loop as a key axis. The interaction between AI and human actions and interests can determine fundamental changes in great powers' defense and deterrence, and the development and application of AI-based great powers strategies can lead to a change in strategic stability.

Keywords: artificial inteligence, strategic stability, deterrence theory, decision making loop

Procedia PDF Downloads 32

Authors: Mingyuan Duan

Abstract:

Many scholars have paid attention to the relationship between mobility and stillness, but most of them focus on stillness from the perspective of serving mobility. This study believes that more attention should be paid to the importance of stillness, and we suggest reexamining the meaning of stillness in terms of the value of stillness to people. The Errand Boy Project was launched by a social innovation enterprise called Bottle Dream during the May Day holiday in 2022. It linked volunteers from all over the world online to help people who are trapped at home due to the epidemic realize their outdoor wishes: get closer to nature and relieve their anxious mood. Taking Errand Boy in Tibet as a case study, this paper analyzes the emotional expressions and comments of people with limited mobility in the face of nature in the webcast room and explains the importance of stillness to humans from a non-human perspective. This study points out that the significance of stillness to human beings during the pandemic is composed of three aspects: the sense of solidity established by a steady mobile phone network connection, the stable possibility of wish fulfillment predicted by the periodic regularity of plant growth, and the transcendent spiritual power from the stable sacred mountain.

Keywords: stillness, non-human, pandemic, mobility

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: Zihuan (Dylan) Wang

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the formation of human food aversion from a biological perspective. It points out that this biased behavior is formed through the accumulation of long-term survival and life experiences. By introducing the "Food Chain Energy Pyramid" model and the analogous deduction of the "Human Food Aversion Pyramid," with energy conversion efficiency as the primary reason, it analyzes the underlying reasons for the formation of food preferences. Food industry professionals can gain inspiration from this article to combine the theory presented with their expertise in order to leverage product quality and promote environmentally conscious practices.

Keywords: food aversion, food preference, energy conversion efficiency, food and culture, nutrition, research and development

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Babak Forouraghi

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A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations of previous approaches, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with attention mechanism. In a previous work on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: transformers, generative ai, gene expression design, classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: Ciolomic Ioana Andreea, Farcas Teodora, Tiron-Tudor Adriana

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Investments in research and innovation are widely acknowledged as being crucial drivers for economic growth, for job-creation and to secure social and economic welfare. The aim of this article is to disseminate the results of a Leonardo da Vinci Innovation Transfer project, AdapTykes Adaptation of trainings based up on the Finnish Workplace Development Programme. This project aims to analyses the adaptability of the Finnish model to the economic and political environment of the two emergent countries Romania and Hungary, in order to develop workplace innovation. The focus of this paper is to present the adaptability of the Finnish model to the Romanian context.

Keywords: innovation, human resources, education, tools

Procedia PDF Downloads 515

Authors: Seyfollah Fazlollahi, Ahmad Bayan Memar

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Background: A review of manpower planning includes a training analysis based on job descriptions and job specifications which looks carefully at training from the points of view of the company, its various departments and personnel. This may show weaknesses in some departments and as a result, training is needed for the staff. Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of training on employee’s efficiency in different aspects of work. Methodology: This is a descriptive-survey study. Statistical population was 85 official employees of University of Qom, Iran. 70 of these individuals were selected on a statistical random sampling method using Morgan&Gorki table. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire including 22 questions. Result: Findings in this study according to data analysis indicate that majority of respondents had positive attitude towards training programs, in the job or off the job. They believed that training programs promoted and enhanced their behavior positively which leads to high efficiency in their job. In fact, data support the main hypothesis that training has positive effects on job performance and efficiency. Conclusion: It is concluded from this study and other related researches that training (on the job and off the job) has positive and effective role in human development and labor as employee’s efficiency. Employees get acquainted with different tasks of a job. Group co-operation, creativity and innovation will be enforced. Training leads to job skills, increasing knowledge and information about a job. It also increases technical and conceptual human skills, which are important in an organization. We can also mention workers' increasing positive motivation toward their job, enforcement of coordinating moral, their good human relations and good contact with clients.

Keywords: training, work efficiency, employee, human relation, job satisfaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Maryam Heidari, James H. Jones Jr.

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Millions of online posts about different topics and products are shared on popular social media platforms. One use of this content is to provide crowd-sourced information about a specific topic, event or product. However, this use raises an important question: what percentage of information available through these services is trustworthy? In particular, might some of this information be generated by a machine, i.e., a bot, instead of a human? Bots can be, and often are, purposely designed to generate enough volume to skew an apparent trend or position on a topic, yet the consumer of such content cannot easily distinguish a bot post from a human post. In this paper, we introduce a model for social media bot detection which uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (Google Bert) for sentiment classification of tweets to identify topic-independent features. Our use of a Natural Language Processing approach to derive topic-independent features for our new bot detection model distinguishes this work from previous bot detection models. We achieve 94\% accuracy classifying the contents of data as generated by a bot or a human, where the most accurate prior work achieved accuracy of 92\%.

Keywords: bot detection, natural language processing, neural network, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Hao-Hsi Tseng, Hsin-Yun Lee, Yu-Cheng Kuo

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In order to understand whether there is a better than the learning function of learning methods and improve the CAD Courses for enterprise’s design human resource development, this research is applied in learning practical learning computer graphics software. In this study, Revit building information model for learning content, design of two different modes of learning curriculum to learning, learning functions, respectively, and project learning. Via a post-test, questionnaires and student interviews, etc., to study the effectiveness of a comparative analysis of two different modes of learning. Students participate in a period of three weeks after a total of nine-hour course, and finally written and hands-on test. In addition, fill in the questionnaire response by the student learning, a total of fifteen questionnaire title, problem type into the base operating software, application software and software-based concept features three directions. In addition to the questionnaire, and participants were invited to two different learning methods to conduct interviews to learn more about learning students the idea of two different modes. The study found that the ad hoc short-term courses in learning, better learning outcomes. On the other hand, functional style for the whole course students are more satisfied, and the ad hoc style student is difficult to accept the ad hoc style of learning.

Keywords: development, education, human resource, learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Lucas L. L. Fortes, Sandro T. M. Gonçalves

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In this work, it is analyzed the wideband performance with the mesh discretization impoverishment of the Conformal Finite Difference Time-Domain (C-FDTD) approaches developed by Raj Mittra, Supriyo Dey and Wenhua Yu for the Finite Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. These approaches are a simple and efficient way to optimize the scattering simulation of curved surfaces for Dielectric and Perfect Electric Conducting (PEC) structures in the FDTD method, since curved surfaces require dense meshes to reduce the error introduced due to the surface staircasing. Defined, on this work, as D-FDTD-Diel and D-FDTD-PEC, these approaches are well-known in the literature, but the improvement upon their application is not quantified broadly regarding wide frequency bands and poorly discretized meshes. Both approaches bring improvement of the accuracy of the simulation without requiring dense meshes, also making it possible to explore poorly discretized meshes which bring a reduction in simulation time and the computational expense while retaining a desired accuracy. However, their applications present limitations regarding the mesh impoverishment and the frequency range desired. Therefore, the goal of this work is to explore the approaches regarding both the wideband and mesh impoverishment performance to bring a wider insight over these aspects in FDTD applications. The D-FDTD-Diel approach consists in modifying the electric field update in the cells intersected by the dielectric surface, taking into account the amount of dielectric material within the mesh cells edges. By taking into account the intersections, the D-FDTD-Diel provides accuracy improvement at the cost of computational preprocessing, which is a fair trade-off, since the update modification is quite simple. Likewise, the D-FDTD-PEC approach consists in modifying the magnetic field update, taking into account the PEC curved surface intersections within the mesh cells and, considering a PEC structure in vacuum, the air portion that fills the intersected cells when updating the magnetic fields values. Also likewise to D-FDTD-Diel, the D-FDTD-PEC provides a better accuracy at the cost of computational preprocessing, although with a drawback of having to meet stability criterion requirements. The algorithms are formulated and applied to a PEC and a dielectric spherical scattering surface with meshes presenting different levels of discretization, with Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as the dielectric, being a very common material in coaxial cables and connectors for radiofrequency (RF) and wideband application. The accuracy of the algorithms is quantified, showing the approaches wideband performance drop along with the mesh impoverishment. The benefits in computational efficiency, simulation time and accuracy are also shown and discussed, according to the frequency range desired, showing that poorly discretized mesh FDTD simulations can be exploited more efficiently, retaining the desired accuracy. The results obtained provided a broader insight over the limitations in the application of the C-FDTD approaches in poorly discretized and wide frequency band simulations for Dielectric and PEC curved surfaces, which are not clearly defined or detailed in the literature and are, therefore, a novelty. These approaches are also expected to be applied in the modeling of curved RF components for wideband and high-speed communication devices in future works.

Keywords: accuracy, computational efficiency, finite difference time-domain, mesh impoverishment

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Neda Amidi Fazli, Farid Amidi Fazli

Abstract:

Enriched fruits by minerals provide minerals which are needed to human body the minerals are used by body cells for daily activities. This paper indicates the result of mass transfer in fruit slices in 55% sucrose syrup in presence of calcium and phosphorus ions. Osmosis agent 55% (w/w) was prepared by solving sucrose in deionized water and adding calcium or phosphorus in 1 and 2% concentration. Dry matter, solid gain, water loss as well as weight reduction were calculated. Results showed that by increasing of calcium concentration in osmosis solution solid gain, water loss and weight reduction were increased in short experiment time in kiwi fruit but the parameters decreased in long experiment time by concentration increasing and rise of calcium concentration caused decrease of osmosis parameters in banana. In the case of phosphorus, increasing of ion concentration had adverse effect on all treatments, this may be due to different osmosis force that is created by two types of ions. The mentioned parameters decreased in all treatments by increasing of ion concentration. Highest mass transfer in kiwi fruit occurs when 1% calcium solution applied for 60 minutes, values obtained for solid gain, water loss and weight reduction were 42.60, 51.97, and 9.37 respectively. In the case of banana, when 2% phosphorus concentration was applied as osmosis agent for 60 minutes highest values for solid gain, water loss and weight reduction obtained as 21, 25.84, and 4.84 respectively.

Keywords: calcium, concentration, osmotic dehydration, phosphorus

Procedia PDF Downloads 268

Authors: Z. Karahaliloğlu, E. Yalçın, M. Demirbilek, E.B. Denkbaş

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Critical-sized bone defects caused by trauma, bone diseases, prosthetic implant revision or tumor excision cannot be repaired by physiological regenerative processes. Current orthopedic applications for critical-sized bone defects are to use autologous bone grafts, bone allografts, or synthetic graft materials. However, these strategies are unable to solve completely the problem, and motivate the development of novel effective biological scaffolds for tissue engineering applications and regenerative medicine applications. In particular, scaffolds combined with a variety of bio-agents as fundamental tools emerge to provide the regeneration of damaged bone tissues due to their ability to promote cell growth and function. In this study, a magnetic silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel scaffold was prepared by electrogelation process of the concentrated Bombxy mori silk fibroin (8 %wt) aqueous solution. For enhancement of osteoblast-like cells (SaOS-2) growth and adhesion, basal fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were conjugated physically to the HSA-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4) and magnetic SF e-gel scaffolds were prepared by incorporation of Fe3O4, HSA (human serum albumin)=Fe3O4 and HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF nanoparticles. HSA=Fe3O4, HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded and bare SF e-gels scaffolds were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM.) For cell studies, human osteoblast-like cell line (SaOS-2) was used and an MTT assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity of magnetic silk fibroin e-gel scaffolds and cell density on these surfaces. For the evaluation osteogenic activation, ALP (alkaline phosphatase), the amount of mineralized calcium, total protein and collagen were studied. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and bFGF was conjugated to HSA=Fe3O4 nanoparticles with %97.5 of binding yield which has a particle size of 71.52±2.3 nm. Electron microscopy images of the prepared HSA and bFGF incorporated SF e-gel scaffolds showed a 3D porous morphology. In terms of water uptake results, bFGF conjugated HSA=Fe3O4 nanoparticles has the best water absorbability behavior among all groups. In the in-vitro cell culture studies realized using SaOS-2 cell line, the coating of Fe3O4 nanoparticles surface with a protein enhance the cell viability and HSA coating and bFGF conjugation, the both have an inductive effect in the cell proliferation. One of the markers of bone formation and osteoblast differentiation, according to the ALP activity and total protein results, HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded SF e-gels had significantly enhanced ALP activity. Osteoblast cultured HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded SF e-gels deposited more calcium compared with SF e-gel. The proposed magnetic scaffolds seem to be promising for bone tissue regeneration and used in future work for various applications.

Keywords: basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), e-gel, iron oxide nanoparticles, silk fibroin

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Authors: Mutaz Dwairy

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Solid tumors have high interstitial fluid pressure (IFP), high mechanical stress, and low oxygen levels. Solid stresses may induce apoptosis, stimulate the invasiveness and metastasis of cancer cells, and lower their proliferation rate, while oxygen concentration may affect the response of cancer cells to treatment. Although tumors grow in a nonhomogeneous environment, many existing theoretical models assume homogeneous growth and tissue has uniform mechanical properties. For example, the brain consists of three primary materials: white matter, gray matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Therefore, tissue inhomogeneity should be considered in the analysis. This study established a physical model based on convection-diffusion equations and continuum mechanics principles. The model considers the geometrical inhomogeneity of the brain by including the three different matters in the analysis: white matter, gray matter, and CSF. The model also considers fluid-solid interaction and explicitly describes the effect of mechanical factors, e.g., solid stresses and IFP, chemical factors, e.g., oxygen concentration, and biological factors, e.g., cancer cell concentration, on growing tumors. In this article, we applied the model on a brain tumor positioned within the white matter, considering the brain inhomogeneity to estimate solid stresses, IFP, the cancer cell concentration, oxygen concentration, and the deformation of the tissues within the neoplasm and the surrounding. Tumor size was estimated at different time points. This model might be clinically crucial for cancer detection and treatment planning by measuring mechanical stresses, IFP, and oxygen levels in the tissue.

Keywords: biomechanical model, interstitial fluid pressure, solid stress, tumor microenvironment

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Authors: Hong-Min Kim, Da-Som Han, Myong-Hoon Lee

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CLCs (Cholesteric liquid crystals) draw tremendous interest due to their potential in various applications such as cholesteric color filters in LCD devices. CLC possesses helical molecular orientation which is induced by a chiral dopant molecules mixed with nematic liquid crystals. The efficiency of a chiral dopant is quantified by the HTP (helical twisting power). In this work, we designed and synthesized a series of new chiral dopants having a Schiff’s base imine structure with different alkyl chain lengths (butyl, hexyl and octyl) from chiral naphthyl amine by two-step reaction. The structures of new chiral dopants were confirmed by 1H-NMR and IR spectroscopy. The properties were investigated by DSC (differential scanning calorimetry calorimetry), POM (polarized optical microscopy) and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. These solid state chiral dopants showed excellent solubility in nematic LC (MLC-6845-000) higher than 17wt%. We prepared the CLC(Cholesteric Liquid Crystal) cell by mixing nematic LC (MLC-6845-000) with different concentrations of chiral dopants and injecting into the sandwich cell of 5μm cell gap with antiparallel alignment. The cholesteric liquid crystal phase was confirmed from POM, in which all the samples showed planar phase, a typical phase of the cholesteric liquid crystals. The HTP (helical twisting power) is one of the most important properties of CLC. We measured the HTP values from the UV-Vis transmittance spectra of CLC cells with varies chiral dopant concentration. The HTP values with different alkyl chains are as follows: butyl chiral dopant=29.8μm-1; hexyl chiral dopant= 31.8μm-1; octyl chiral dopant=27.7μm-1. We obtained the red, green and blue reflection color from CLC cells, which can be used as color filters in LCDs applications.

Keywords: cholesteric liquid crystal, color filter, display, HTP

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Authors: Nicole Cervenka

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On the question of norms in international politics, scholars are divided over whether norms are a tool for power politics or a genuine reflection of an emergent international society. The line is drawn between rationalism and idealism, but this dialectical relationship needs to be broken down if we hope to come to a comprehensive understanding of how norms play out in international society. The concept of an elusive international society is a simplification of a more pluralistic, cosmopolitan, and diverse collection of international societies. The English School effectively overcomes realist-idealist dichotomies and provides a pluralistic, comprehensive explanation and description of international societies through its application to two distinct areas: human rights as well as security and war. We argue that international norms have always been present in human rights, war, and international security, forming international societies that can be complimentary or oppositional, beneficial or problematic. Power politics are present, but they can only be regarded as partially explanatory of the role of norms in international politics, which must also include history, international law, the media, NGOs, and others to fully represent the normative influences in international societies. A side-by-side comparison of international norms of war/security and human rights show how much international societies converge. World War II was a turning point in terms of international law, these forces of international society have deeper historical roots. Norms of human rights and war/security are often norms of restraint, guiding appropriate treatment of individuals. This can at times give primacy to the individual over the sovereign state. However, state power politics and hegemony are still intact. It cannot be said that there is an emergent international society—international societies are part of broader historical backdrops. Furthermore, states and, more generally, power politics, are important components in international societies, but international norms are far from mere tools of power politics. They define a more diverse, complicated, and ever-present conception of international societies.

Keywords: English school, international societies, norms, pluralism

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Authors: Aycan Gurluyer

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21st-century theatre has been shaped by lots of world-changing forces devastating human psychology and existence. Accepted as the greatest living English playwright, it is post-war British dramatist Edward Bond who uses a late-21st-century apocalyptic landscape as a weapon to question the human existence in his play 'Have I None?'. In this play, he tries to underline the degenerating and destructive effects of the society and environment on a couple whose lives are changed by an unexpected and annoying stranger. As victim of the society and the cultural corruption, the three vulnerable Bondian characters struggle for their expectations to find a place in this fictional world by sacrificing their own lives. Set in the 2077’s world, the play depicts that rigidly formed rules of the system/authority eliminates the existence of humans. According to Bond, the fascist practices of the governments/systems make people paralyzed in any way, so they choose to deny all realities by becoming biological beings or they gather to commit to suicide as troops. Our main aim is to underscore the questioning of the human existence by drawing the socio-political framework of the era, the capitalist system’s dehumanized individuals and their defence to survive, and what reality is in the 21st century, by focusing on Bond’s hallucinatory and tragic vision of the future in 'Have I None?'.

Keywords: Edward Bond, apocalyptic, existence, Have I None?

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Authors: Doctor Akanle Florence Foluso

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Access to health care and people’s ability to having a responsible, satisfying and safe sexual life is clearly a defined human right of people with hearing impairment and others with disabilities this paper looks at disability and sexuality: a human right approach to sexual and reproductive health of the hearing impaired adolescents in developing countries. This paper investigates the extent to which the hearing impaired has a satisfying, safe sexual life and whether their human right in regards to information education is violated. The study population consists of all hearing impaired adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years who are currently enrolled in the primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. A sample of 389 hearing impaired adolescents was selected, an adapted version of the illustrative questionnaire for interview – survey by Johncleland was used to collect the data. A correlation of 0.80 was obtained at p<0.05 level of significance. Teachers in the schools of the deaf who used sign language were used in the administration of the questionnaire. The data generated were analyzed using Frequency Counts, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviation to give a Summary on responses on access to information, education, voluntary testing and counselling and other reproductive services. This is to investigate if the sexual and reproductive right violated or protected. Findings show that a gap exists in the level of knowledge of SRH services, voluntary counselling because more than half the respondents are not aware of these services in their community. Access to information, education and health services are rights denied the hearing impaired. So their SRH rights are violated.

Keywords: sexual right diability, family planning, pregnancy, diability

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Authors: Sachin K. Samuchiwal, Barbara Balestrieri, Amanda Paskavitz, Hannah Raff, Joshua A. Boyce

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IL-33, a recently discovered member of the IL-1 cytokine family, binds to the TLR/IL1R super family receptor ST2 and induces type 2 immune responses. IL-33 is constitutively expressed in structural cells at barrier sites such as skin, lung, and intestine, and also inducibly expressed by hematopoietic cells including macrophages. Stimulation of macrophages by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can induce de novo IL-33 expression, and also causes the production of prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) via cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and microsomal PGE2 synthase-1 (mPGES-1). Because PGE2 can regulate macrophage functions through both autocrine and paracrine mechanisms, the potential interplay of endogenous PGE2 on IL-33 production was explored. Bone-marrow derived murine macrophages (bmMF) that lack either mPGES-1 or EP2 receptor expression were stimulated with LPS in the absence or presence of exogenous PGE2 along with pharmacological agonists and antagonists. The study results demonstrate that endogenous PGE2 markedly enhances LPS-induced IL-33 production by bmMFs via EP2 receptors. Moreover, exogenous PGE2 can amplify LPS-induced IL-33 expression dominantly by EP2 and partly by EP4 receptors by a pathway involving cAMP and exchange protein activated by cAMP (EPAC), but not protein kinase A (PKA). Though both IL-33 production and PGE2 generation in response to LPS require activation of both p38 MAPK and NF-κB, PGE2 did not influence this activation. In conclusion, it is demonstrated that endogenous PGE2 signaling through EP2 and EP4 receptors is a prerequisite for LPS-induced IL-33 production in bmMFs and the underlying cAMP mediated pathway involves EPAC. Since IL-33 is a critical pro-inflammatory cytokine in various pathological disorders, this PGE2-EP2/EP4-cAMP mediated pathway can be exploited to intervene in IL-33 driven pathologies.

Keywords: bone marrow macrophages, EPAC, IL-33, PGE2

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Authors: Tien-Hui Chiang

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Human capital discourse encourages many countries to expand the capacity of HEIs. Along with this expansion, the higher education system is redefined as a free market and in turn it is privatized and commercialized. However, the state’s role in education is to balance social justice and capital accumulation. This role is further regulated by a specific form of neoliberalism constituted by social contexts. These correlations call for exploring the influence of human capital discourse on interwoven issues, such as the state’s role in education, higher education policy, and employability. Method: According to the perspective of neoliberal governmentality, answers to the above four research questions are likely to be embedded within discourses in documents related to higher education policies. Consequently, this study adopts a qualitative approach by analyzing official documents, including government reports, official statistics, circulars and official statements. Documents were collected and subjected to content analysis, with a particular focus on the period from 2005 to 2021. The technique of content analysis was applied to decode keywords and core concepts of these documents. Findings: Neoliberalism is exerted through human capital discourse in China particularly in the changes in higher education policies moving from quantitative expansion to quality control via employment or employability. Such changes highlight that the principle of “n”eoliberalism is more suitable for illustrating the practice of free market logic in different social contexts. The modifications of neoliberalism adopted by the Chinese government reflect that the state’s mission is to secure social security or the common good, so that public managerialism - in the form of programs for employment, internship and entrepreneurship - is adopted in the name of the public interest and the collective mission. Public managerialism now is not only targeted towards social institutions but the population more generally, incarnated here by college graduates. Its practice is not only to renovate organizational cultures but to activate people’s commitment to national development.

Keywords: employability, higher education expansion, neoliberalism, human capital discourse

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Authors: Marlene Weber, Joseph Giacomin, Alessio Malizia, Lee Skrypchuk, Voula Gkatzidou

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Technological and sociological developments in the automotive sector are shifting the focus of design towards developing a better understanding of driver needs, desires and emotions. Human centred design methods are being more frequently applied to automotive research, including the use of systems to detect human emotions in real-time. One method for a non-contact measurement of emotion with low intrusiveness is Facial-Expression Analysis (FEA). This paper describes a research study investigating emotional responses of 22 participants in a naturalistic driving environment by applying a multi-method approach. The research explored the possibility to investigate emotional responses and their frequencies during naturalistic driving through real-time FEA. Observational analysis was conducted to assign causes to the collected emotional responses. In total, 730 emotional responses were measured in the collective study time of 440 minutes. Causes were assigned to 92% of the measured emotional responses. This research establishes and validates a methodology for the study of emotions and their causes in the driving environment through which systems and factors causing positive and negative emotional effects can be identified.

Keywords: affective computing, case study, emotion recognition, human computer interaction

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Authors: Anne Camille P. Balabag, Via B. Cabarda, Ruffa Mae Lomboy, Aira Joyce Nesus

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Nowadays, Filipinos seem to dominate the outsourcing industry, one factor that affects quality service is organization mismanagement. Traditionally, Filipino promotions are based on tenure rather than competence. Seniority refers to a superior rank that an employee holds in an industrial setting based on a position withheld in a company. Yet, seniority also holds the paradigm for Filipino family structures. With this, the researchers believe that Filipinos have a deeper take on seniority, which became the motivation for this study. The researchers wanted to contextualize the Filipino concept of seniority, the perception, and reactions of Filipino employees to its existence, and uncover their relevant experiences within the industrial setting. Following a phenomenological research design, data collected from ten (10) participants with various demographic backgrounds, chosen through purposive sampling, and interviewed utilizing a semi-structured interview and analyzed using thematic analysis revealed seven primary themes: (1) Reality of Tenureship and Competence, (2) Disparity in Age Influence, (3) Special Power of Seniority, (4) Seniority is Necessity, (5) The Filipino Organizational Values, (6) Art of Seniority in Human Resource, and (7) Confessions of the Inner Child. The findings suggest that seniority exists based on a ranking system created through human resource management and mirrored from traditional Filipino values. Also, the researchers identified three Filipino industrial values: respect, pakikipagkapwa-tao (treating others as a fellow human being), and utang na loob (debt of gratitude). Lastly, birth order was found to have direct and indirect effects on their conduct in an industrial context.

Keywords: organizational psychology, human resource management, filipino psychology, industrial values

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Authors: Yazhi Huang, Jing Yang, Dingge Ying, Yan Zhang, Vorasuk Shotelersuk, Nattiya Hirankarn, Pak Chung Sham, Yu Lung Lau, Wanling Yang

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Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing from next generation sequencing (NGS) data has the potential for applications in clinical laboratories and population genetic studies. Here we introduce a novel technique for HLA typing from NGS data based on read-mapping using a comprehensive reference panel containing all known HLA alleles and de novo assembly of the gene-specific short reads. An accurate HLA typing at high-digit resolution was achieved when it was tested on publicly available NGS data, outperforming other newly-developed tools such as HLAminer and PHLAT.

Keywords: human leukocyte antigens, next generation sequencing, whole exome sequencing, HLA typing

Procedia PDF Downloads 653