Search results for: survival and hazard functions

Authors: Souhila Belabbas

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

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Authors: Souhila Belabbas

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Kabyles’ multilingual practices in the UK, within the Kabyle/Amazigh Cultural Organisation in London, on online platforms and at home. The Kabyles have roots in northern Algeria and associate their language, Kabyle, with a pre-Arabized history of northern Africa. Drawing on ethnographic research with this community, this study brings together their post-migration language preservation activisms as well as their dynamic multilingual practices and situational language choice into a dialogue. This shows the enduring significance of the heritage language for social, cultural and historical identity. It also demonstrates that the current survival of the “mother tongue” hinges on multilingual and multi-sited language activisms, which bear the hallmarks of both new creativities and diminishing fluencies in multilingual spaces. These multilingual repertoires also included a range of ideological stances, expressed as cultural, moral, and political attitudes to the “mother tongue” and to other, potentially more dominant, languages in their lives, involving both inclusive and exclusive instances. The Kabyles in the UK practice everyday forms of multilingualism in the dynamic terms whilst making strong identity claims to an endangered heritage language. Crucially, their language contact experiences were not a post-migration novelty but part of their pre-migration lifeworlds. The participants involved in this study shared a commitment to Kabyle identity activism. They expressed this differently, varyingly foregrounding cultural, social or political issues. These differences were related to their North-African cultural background, live, gender, religious and/or political affiliation, as well as to their different migratory trajectories. Among these ethno-conscious individuals, the use of Kabyle was often particularly vibrant in informal domains of casual conversations and mixed in with French, English and often Arabic. During community events and festivals, though, many made special efforts to converse in Kabyle as if to make a point about their commitment to a shared identity.

Keywords: ethnography, language ideology, language choice, heritage language, migration trajectories, multilingual repertoires

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Authors: Chandan Deep Singh, Jaimal Singh Khamba, Harleen Kaur

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Eminence, charge, deliverance, modernism, and awareness underlie most manufacturing strategic plan today. Firms have traditionally pursued the above tasks through the implementation of advanced technologies and manufacturing practices, such as Reverse Engineering, Value Engineering, worker empowerment, etc. Recent developments in industry suggest the materialization of another route to manufacturing brilliance, that is, there is an increasing focus by industry regulators and professional bodies on the need to stimulate innovation in a broad range of manufacturing competencies. By ‘competencies’ we mean the methods, equipment and expertise that can be developed as a leading capability in one market sector or application and have real potential to be applied successfully across other sectors or applications as well. Further, competencies are the ability to apply or use a set of related knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform 'critical work functions' or tasks in a defined work setting. Competencies often serve as the basis for skill standards that specify the level of knowledge, skills, and abilities required for success in the workplace as well as potential measurement criteria for assessing competency attainment. The present research is so designed to come up to the level of the expectations of the industrialists, policy makers, designers of the competencies, specially, the manufacturing competencies upon which the whole strategic success of the industry depends.

Keywords: manufacturing competency, strategic success, manufacturing excellence, competitive strategy

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Authors: Clara Theresia, Hardianto Iridiastadi

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Drowsiness is one of the main factors that contribute to the occurrence of accidents, particularly in the transportation sector. While the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive functions have been reported, the exact relationships remain a critical issue. This study aimed at quantifying the effects of extreme sleep deprivation on vigilance, fatigue, and performance during simulated train driving. A total of 12 participants were asked to drive a train simulator continuously for 4 hours, either in a sleep deprived condition (2-hr of sleep) or normal (8-hr of sleep) condition. Dependent variables obtained during the task included Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) parameters, degree of fatigue (assessed via Visual Analogue Scale/VAS) and sleepiness (reported using Karolinska Sleepiness Scale/KSS), and driving performance (the number of speed limit violations). Findings from this study demonstrated substantial decrements in vigilance in the sleep-deprived condition. This condition also resulted in 75% increase in speed violation and a two-fold increase in the degree of fatigue and sleepiness. Extreme sleep deprivation was clearly associated with substantially poorer response. The exact effects, however, were dependent upon the types of responses.

Keywords: cognitive function, psychomotor vigilance task, sleep deprivation, train simulator

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Authors: Pi-Lan Yang

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It is controversial which type of gloss condition (i.e., gloss language or gloss position) is more effective in second or foreign language (L2) vocabulary learning. The present study compared the performance on learning ten English words in the conditions of L2 English reading with no glosses and with glosses of Chinese equivalents/translations and L2 English definitions at the side of a page and at an attached sheet for low-intermediate Chinese-speaking learners of English, who were technology university students in Taiwan. It is found first that the performances on the immediate posttest and the delayed posttest were overall better in the gloss condition than those in the no-gloss condition. Next, it is found that the glosses of Chinese translations were more effective and sustainable than those of L2 English definitions. Finally, the effects of L2 English glosses at the side of a page were observed to be less sustainable than those at an attached sheet. In addition, an opinion questionnaire used also showed a preference for the glosses of Chinese translations in L2 English reading. These results would be discussed in terms of automated lexical access, sentence processing mechanisms, and the trade-off nature of storage and processing functions in working memory system, proposed by the capacity theory of language comprehension.

Keywords: glosses of Chinese equivalents/translations, glosses of L2 English definitions, L2 vocabulary learning, L2 English reading

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Authors: Belkacem Soundes, Guezouli Larbi

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This paper presents a robust and accurate method for text detection and localization over lecture videos. Frame regions are classified into text or background based on visual feature analysis. However, lecture video shows significant degradation mainly related to acquisition conditions, camera motion and environmental changes resulting in low quality videos. Hence, affecting feature extraction and description efficiency. Moreover, traditional text detection methods cannot be directly applied to lecture videos. Therefore, robust feature extraction methods dedicated to this specific video genre are required for robust and accurate text detection and extraction. Method consists of a three-step process: Slide region detection and segmentation; Feature extraction and non-text filtering. For robust and effective features extraction moment functions are used. Two distinct types of moments are used: orthogonal and non-orthogonal. For orthogonal Zernike Moments, both Pseudo Zernike moments are used, whereas for non-orthogonal ones Hu moments are used. Expressivity and description efficiency are given and discussed. Proposed approach shows that in general, orthogonal moments show high accuracy in comparison to the non-orthogonal one. Pseudo Zernike moments are more effective than Zernike with better computation time.

Keywords: text detection, text localization, lecture videos, pseudo zernike moments

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Authors: Jay N. Vyas, Sachin Daxini

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Numerical simulation techniques are widely used now in product development and testing instead of expensive, time-consuming and sometimes dangerous laboratory experiments. Numerous numerical methods are available for performing simulation of physical problems of different engineering fields. Grid based methods, like Finite Element Method, are extensively used in performing various kinds of static, dynamic, structural and non-structural analysis during product development phase. Drawbacks of grid based methods in terms of discontinuous secondary field variable, dealing fracture mechanics and large deformation problems led to development of a relatively a new class of numerical simulation techniques in last few years, which are popular as Meshless methods or Meshfree Methods. Meshless Methods are expected to be more adaptive and flexible than Finite Element Method because domain descretization in Meshless Method requires only nodes. Present paper introduces Meshless Methods and differentiates it with Finite Element Method in terms of following aspects: Shape functions used, role of weight function, techniques to impose essential boundary conditions, integration techniques for discrete system equations, convergence rate, accuracy of solution and computational effort. Capabilities, benefits and limitations of Meshless Methods are discussed and concluded at the end of paper.

Keywords: numerical simulation, Grid-based methods, Finite Element Method, Meshless Methods

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Authors: Griaznova Svetlana, Umedov Mekhroz

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The current healthcare facilities trend is the creation of multidisciplinary large-scale centers to provide the maximum possible services in one place, minimizing the number of possible instances in the path of patient treatment. The multifunctional medical centers are mainly designed in urban infrastructure for good accessibility. However, many functions and connections define the building shape, often make it inharmonious, that greatly destroys the city's appearance. The purpose of the research is to scientifically substantiate the factors influencing the shaping, the formation of architectural solutions principles, the formation of recommendations and principles for the multifunctional medical centers' design. The result of the research is the elaboration of architectural and planning solutions principles and the determination of factors affecting the multifunctional healthcare facilities shaping. Research method: Study and generalization of international experience in scientific research, literature, standards, teaching aids, and design materials on the topic of research. An integrated approach to the study of existing international experience of multidisciplinary medical centers. Elaboration of graphical analysis and diagrams based on the system analysis of the processed information. Identification of methods and principles of functional zoning of nuclear medicine centers.

Keywords: health care, multifunctionality, form, medical center, hospital, PET, CT scan

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Authors: Pallab Datta, Jyotirmoy Chatterjee, Santanu Dhara

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Over the past few years, phosphorous containing polymers have received widespread attention for applications such as high performance optical fibers, flame retardant materials, drug delivery and tissue engineering. Being pentavalent, phosphorous can exist in different chemical environments in these polymers which increase their versatility. In human biochemistry, phosphorous based compounds exert their functions both in soluble and insoluble form occurring as inorganic or as organophosphorous compounds. Specifically in case of biomacromolecules, phosphates are critical for functions of DNA, ATP, phosphoproteins, phospholipids, phosphoglycans and several coenzymes. Inspired by the role of phosphorous in functional biomacromolecules, design and synthesis of biomimetic materials are thus carried out by several authors to study macromolecular function or as substitutes in clinical tissue regeneration conditions. In addition, many regulatory signals of the body are controlled by phoshphorylation of key proteins present either in form of growth factors or matrix-bound scaffold proteins. This inspires works on synthesis of phospho-peptidomimetic amino acids for understanding key signaling pathways and this is extended to obtain molecules with potentially useful biological properties. Apart from above applications, phosphate groups bound to polymer backbones have also been demonstrated to improve function of osteoblast cells and augment performance of bone grafts. Despite the advantages of phosphate grafting, however, there is limited understanding on effect of degree of phosphorylation on macromolecular physicochemical and/or biological properties. Such investigations are necessary to effectively translate knowledge of macromolecular biochemistry into relevant clinical products since they directly influence processability of these polymers into suitable scaffold structures and control subsequent biological response. Amongst various techniques for fabrication of biomimetic scaffolds, nanofibrous scaffolds fabricated by electrospinning technique offer some special advantages in resembling the attributes of natural extracellular matrix. Understanding changes in physico-chemical properties of polymers as function of phosphorylation is therefore going to be crucial in development of nanofiber scaffolds based on phosphorylated polymers. The aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of phosphorous grafting on the electrospinning behavior of polymers with aim to obtain biomaterials for bone regeneration applications. For this purpose, phosphorylated derivatives of two polymers of widely different electrospinning behaviors were selected as starting materials. Poly(vinyl alcohol) is a conveniently electrospinnable polymer at different conditions and concentrations. On the other hand, electrospinning of chitosan backbone based polymers have been viewed as a critical challenge. The phosphorylated derivatives of these polymers were synthesized, characterized and electrospinning behavior of various solutions containing these derivatives was compared with electrospinning of pure poly (vinyl alcohol). In PVA, phosphorylation adversely impacted electrospinnability while in NMPC, higher phosphate content widened concentration range for nanofiber formation. Culture of MG-63 cells on electrospun nanofibers, revealed that degree of phosphate modification of a polymer significantly improves cell adhesion or osteoblast function of cultured cells. It is concluded that improvement of cell response parameters of nanofiber scaffolds can be attained as a function of controlled degree of phosphate grafting in polymeric biomaterials with implications for bone tissue engineering applications.

Keywords: bone regeneration, chitosan, electrospinning, phosphorylation

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Authors: Chun Chen Yea, Wen Huei Chou

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Many chemical changes in the atmosphere and the ocean are invisible to the naked eye, but they have profound impacts. These changes not only confirm the phenomenon of global carbon pollution, but also forewarn that more changes are coming. The carbon dioxide gases emitted from the burning of fossil fuels dissolve into the ocean and chemically react with seawater to form carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the originally alkaline seawater. This gradual acidification is occurring at an unprecedented rate and will affect the effective formation of carapace of some marine organisms such as corals and crustaceans, which are almost entirely composed of calcium carbonate. The carapace of these organisms will become more dissoluble. Acidified seawater not only threatens the survival of marine life, but also negatively impacts the global ecosystem via the food chain. Faced with the threat of ocean acidification, all humans are duty-bound. The industrial sector outputs the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in Taiwan, and the petrochemical industry is the major contributor. Ever since the construction of Formosa Plastics Group's No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Plant in Yunlin County, there have been many environmental concerns such as air pollution and carbon dioxide emission. The marine life along the coast of Yunlin is directly affected by ocean acidification arising from the carbon emissions. Societal change demands our willingness to act, which is what social advocacy promotes. This study uses digital storytelling for social advocacy and ocean acidification as the subject of a visual narrative in visualization to demonstrate the subsequent promotion of social advocacy. Storytelling can transform dull knowledge into an engaging narrative of the crisis faced by marine life. Digital dissemination is an effective social-work practice. The visualization promoting awareness on ocean acidification disseminated via social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Social media enables users to compose their own messages and share information across different platforms, which helps disseminate the core message of social advocacy.

Keywords: digital storytelling, visualization, ocean acidification, social advocacy

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Authors: Galal H. Senussi, Muamar Benisa, Sanja Vasin

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In our business field today, one of the most important issues for any enterprises is cost minimization and profit maximization. Second issue is how to develop a strong and capable model that is able to give us desired forecasting of these two issues. Many researches deal with these issues using different methods. In this study, we developed a model for multi-criteria production program optimization, integrated with Artificial Neural Network. The prediction of the production cost and profit per unit of a product, dealing with two obverse functions at same time can be extremely difficult, especially if there is a great amount of conflict information about production parameters. Feed-Forward Neural Networks are suitable for generalization, which means that the network will generate a proper output as a result to input it has never seen. Therefore, with small set of examples the network will adjust its weight coefficients so the input will generate a proper output. This essential characteristic is of the most important abilities enabling this network to be used in variety of problems spreading from engineering to finance etc. From our results as we will see later, Feed-Forward Neural Networks has a strong ability and capability to map inputs into desired outputs.

Keywords: project profitability, multi-objective optimization, genetic algorithm, Pareto set, neural networks

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Authors: Kwame Amoah

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has the prospect of transforming project management, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy. By automating specific tasks with defined guidelines, AI can assist project managers in making better decisions and allocating resources efficiently, with possible risk mitigation. This study explores how AI is already impacting project management and likely future AI's impact on the field. The AI's reaction has been a divided opinion; while others picture it as a destroyer of jobs, some welcome it as an innovation advocate. Both sides agree that AI will be disruptive and revolutionize PM's functions. If current research is to go by, AI or some form will replace one-third of all learning graduate PM jobs by as early as 2030. A recent survey indicates AI spending will reach $97.9 billion by the end of 2023. Considering such a profound impact, the project management profession will also see a paradigm shift driven by AI. The study examines what the project management profession will look like in the next 5-10 years after this technological disruption. The research methods incorporate existing literature, develop trend analysis, and conduct structured interviews with project management stakeholders from North America to gauge the trend. PM professionals can harness the power of AI, ensuring a smooth transition and positive outcomes. AI adoption will maximize benefits, minimize adverse consequences, and uphold ethical standards, leading to improved project performance.

Keywords: project management, disruptive teacnologies, project management function, AL applications, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Pramoda Karunarathna, Hemamalie Gunatilaka

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This study is based on experiences of Sri Lankan lesbian and gay workers’ career in the corporate sector, which include both manufacturing and service sectors. The study has started with the intention of shedding light on a grey area to observe the negative effects on lesbian and gay workers and their experiences while they are employed in the Sri Lankan corporate sector. In order to understand the experiences of lesbian and gay workers while they are at work within the corporate sector, the study seeks to address four questions. First research question is about the challenges faced by lesbian and gay workers while they are at work, and the second research question looks at their career patterns. Third research question seeks to address the behavior at work, and the fourth research question looks at the influence of class, religion, and cultural aspects on the career of lesbian and gay workers. Methodologically, the research was based on semi-structured interviews with nine participants (five gay men and four lesbian women) having work experience in the corporate sector and residing in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. The research found that the participants have gone through the process of developing sexual identity; gay men possess more feminine characteristics, while lesbian women possess more masculine characteristics. Further, their identity gets revealed in different ways, such as through the curriculum vitae, at the interviews, through the attire and behavior, and with the use of social media. The study also found that lesbian and gay workers experience discrimination due to violation of hierarchical power difference by other employees and marginalization, verbal and nonverbal abuse by other men at work are common experiences. Another finding is that lesbian and gay workers adopt strategies for survival at work, and they prefer the NGO sector to the corporate sector. In contrast, even within the corporate sector, advertising is preferred by lesbian and gay workers. Some of the Sri Lankan corporate sector organizations, especially multinational organizations, have initiated diversity training, and it might lead to making these organisations lesbian and gay-friendly workplaces in the future. It is also found that nearly 44 percent of the participants do not have a religion, and it is due to the rejection of deviant behaviours by most of the religions. In conclusion, lesbian and gay workers experience discrimination at work in the Sri Lankan corporate sector with an exception to the companies relating to advertising and non-governmental organisations is the sector that these workers prefer the most.

Keywords: lesbian workers, gay workers, Sri Lankan corporate sector, discrimination

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Authors: Davaanyam Surenjav, Chinzolboo Dandarbaatar, Ganbold Batkhuyag

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Primate city induced rapid urbanization has been become one of the main challenges in sustainable development in Mongolia like other developing countries since transition to market economy in 1990. According due to statistical yearbook, population number of Ulaanbaatar city has increased from 0.5 million to 1.5 million for last 30 years and contains now almost half (47%) of total Mongolian population. Rural-Ulaanbaatar and local Cities-Ulaanbaatar city migration leads to social issues like uncontrolled urbanization, income inequality, poverty, overwork of public service, economic over cost for redevelopment and limitation of transport and environmental degradation including air, noise, water and soil pollution. Most thresholds of all of the sustainable urban development main and sub-indicators over exceeded from safety level to unsafety level in Ulaanbaatar. So, there is an urgent need to remove migration pull factors including some administrative and high education functions from Ulaanbaatar city to its satellite cities or secondary cities. Moreover, urban smart transport system and green and renewable energy technologies should be introduced to urban development master plan of Ulaanbaatar city.

Keywords: challenge for sustainable urban development, migration factors, primate city , urban safety thresholds

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Authors: Vinayak Malhotra, Samanyu Raina, Ajinkya Vajurkar

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Enhancing the rocket efficiency by controlling the external factors in solid rockets motors has been an active area of research for most of the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial system operations. Appreciable work has been done, but the complexity of the problem has prevented thorough understanding due to heterogenous heat and mass transfer. On record, severe issues have surfaced amounting to irreplaceable loss of mankind, instruments, facilities, and huge amount of money being invested every year. The coupled effect of an external heat source and external heat sink is an aspect yet to be articulated in combustion. Better understanding of this coupled phenomenon will induce higher safety standards, efficient missions, reduced hazard risks, with better designing, validation, and testing. The experiment will help in understanding the coupled effect of an external heat sink and heat source on the burning process, contributing in better combustion and fire safety, which are very important for efficient and safer rocket flights and space missions. Safety is the most prevalent issue in rockets, which assisted by poor combustion efficiency, emphasizes research efforts to evolve superior rockets. This signifies real, engineering, scientific, practical, systems and applications. One potential application is Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M). The study may help in: (i) Understanding the effect on efficiency of core engines due to the primary boosters if considered as source, (ii) Choosing suitable heat sink materials for space missions so as to vary the efficiency of the solid rocket depending on the mission, (iii) Giving an idea about how the preheating of the successive stage due to previous stage acting as a source may affect the mission. The present work governs the temperature (resultant) and thus the heat transfer which is expected to be non-linear because of heterogeneous heat and mass transfer. The study will deepen the understanding of controlled inter-energy conversions and the coupled effect of external source/sink(s) surrounding the burning fuel eventually leading to better combustion thus, better propulsion. The work is motivated by the need to have enhanced fire safety and better rocket efficiency. The specific objective of the work is to understand the coupled effect of external heat source and sink on propellant burning and to investigate the role of key controlling parameters. Results as of now indicate that there exists a singularity in the coupled effect. The dominance of the external heat sink and heat source decides the relative rocket flight in Solid Rocket Motors (S.R.M).

Keywords: coupled effect, heat transfer, sink, solid rocket motors, source

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Authors: Zhiwen Pan, Jesus Pacheco, Salim Hariri, Yiqiang Chen, Bozhi Liu

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The Internet of Things (IoT) will lead to the development of advanced Smart Home services that are pervasive, cost-effective, and can be accessed by home occupants from anywhere and at any time. However, advanced smart home applications will introduce grand security challenges due to the increase in the attack surface. Current approaches do not handle cybersecurity from a holistic point of view; hence, a systematic cybersecurity mechanism needs to be adopted when designing smart home applications. In this paper, we present a generic intrusion detection methodology to detect and mitigate the anomaly behaviors happened in Smart Home Systems (SHS). By utilizing our Smart Home Context Data Structure, the heterogeneous information and services acquired from SHS are mapped in context attributes which can describe the context of smart home operation precisely and accurately. Runtime models for describing usage patterns of home assets are developed based on characterization functions. A threat-aware action management methodology, used to efficiently mitigate anomaly behaviors, is proposed at the end. Our preliminary experimental results show that our methodology can be used to detect and mitigate known and unknown threats, as well as to protect SHS premises and services.

Keywords: Internet of Things, network security, context awareness, intrusion detection

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Authors: Cleiton Pons Ferreira, Diana Francisca Adamatti

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Advancements in computers technology have allowed to obtain information for research in biology and neuroscience. In order to transform the data from these surveys, networks have long been used to represent important biological processes, changing the use of this tools from purely illustrative and didactic to more analytic, even including interaction analysis and hypothesis formulation. Many studies have involved this application, but not directly for interpretation of data obtained from brain functions, asking for new perspectives of development in neuroinformatics using existent models of tools already disseminated by the bioinformatics. This study includes an analysis of neurological data through electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, using the Cytoscape, an open source software tool for visualizing complex networks in biological databases. The data were obtained from a comparative case study developed in a research from the University of Rio Grande (FURG), using the EEG signals from a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) with 32 eletrodes prepared in the brain of a blind and a sighted individuals during the execution of an activity that stimulated the spatial ability. This study intends to present results that lead to better ways for use and adapt techniques that support the data treatment of brain signals for elevate the understanding and learning in neuroscience.

Keywords: neuroinformatics, bioinformatics, network tools, brain mapping

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Authors: Sarocha Vivatvakin, Thanaporn Ratchataswan, Thiratest Leesutipornchai, Komkrit Ruangritchankul, Somboon Keelawat, Virachai Kerekhanjanarong, Patnarin Mahattanasakul, Saknan Bongsebandhu-Phubhakdi

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In this globalization era, much attention has been drawn to various molecular biomarkers, which may have the potential to predict the progression of cancer. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is the classic member of the ErbB family of membrane-associated intrinsic tyrosine kinase receptors. EGFR expression was found in several organs throughout the body as its roles involve in the regulation of cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation in normal physiologic conditions. However, anomalous expression, whether over- or under-expression is believed to be the underlying mechanism of pathologic conditions, including carcinogenesis. Even though numerous discussions regarding the EGFR as a prognostic tool in head and neck cancer have been established, the consensus has not yet been met. The aims of the present study are to assess the correlation between the level of EGFR expression and demographic data as well as clinicopathological features and to evaluate the ability of EGFR as a reliable prognostic marker. Furthermore, another aim of this study is to investigate the probable pathophysiology that explains the finding results. This retrospective study included 30 squamous cell laryngeal carcinoma patients treated at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2004. EGFR expression level was observed to be significantly downregulated with the progression of the laryngeal cancer stage. (one way ANOVA, p = 0.001) A statistically significant lower EGFR expression in the late stage of the disease compared to the early stage was recorded. (unpaired t-test, p = 0.041) EGFR overexpression also showed the tendency to increase recurrence of cancer (unpaired t-test, p = 0.128). A significant downregulation of EGFR expression was documented in advanced stage laryngeal cancer. The results indicated that EGFR level correlates to prognosis in term of stage progression. Thus, EGFR expression might be used as a prevailing biomarker for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma prognostic prediction.

Keywords: downregulation, epidermal growth factor receptor, immunohistochemistry, laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

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Authors: Muhammad Awais Afzal, Lorena Tuchscherr De Hauschopp, Christian Hübner

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Introduction: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved lysosome-dependent degradation pathway, which can be induced by extrinsic and intrinsic stressors in living systems to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. In the context of inflammatory stress, autophagy contributes to the elimination of invading pathogens, the regulation of innate and adaptive immune mechanisms, and regulation of inflammasome activity as well as tissue damage repair. Lysosomes can be recycled from autolysosomes by the process of autophagic lysosome reformation (ALR), which depends on the presence of several proteins including Spatacsin. Thus ALR contributes to the replenishment of lysosomes that are available for fusion with autophagosomes in situations of increased autophagic turnover, e.g., during bacterial infections, inflammatory stress or sepsis. Objectives: We aimed to assess whether ALR plays a role for cell survival in an in-vitro bacterial infection model. Methods: Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were isolated from wild-type mice and Spatacsin (Spg11-/-) knockout mice. Wild-type MEFs and Spg11-/- MEFs were infected with Staphylococcus aureus (multiplication of infection (MOI) used was 10). After 8 and 16 hours of infection, cell viability was assessed on BD flow cytometer through propidium iodide intake. Bacterial intake by cells was also calculated by plating cell lysates on blood agar plates. Results: in-vitro infection of MEFs with Staphylococcus aureus showed a marked decrease of cell viability in ALR deficient Spatacsin knockout (Spg11-/-) MEFs after 16 hours of infection as compared to wild-type MEFs (n=3 independent experiments; p < 0.0001) although no difference was observed for bacterial intake by both genotypes. Conclusion: Suggesting that ALR is important for the defense of invading pathogens e.g. S. aureus, we observed a marked increase of cell death in an in-vitro infection model in cells with compromised ALR.

Keywords: autophagy, autophagic lysosome reformation, bacterial infections, Staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: Menelik Tilahun Alemu

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Customs administrations are now increasingly regarded as the key border agencies responsible for all transactions related to issues arising from the border crossings of goods and people. Raising revenue has traditionally been high on the agenda of governments, represented by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), because of the critical importance of import duties as a source of budget revenue for many developing countries. Most of these functions are undertaken in close cooperation with other national agencies. Due to the need to make structural reforms that consider the nature of business activities in the world and the needs of consumers, the institution was previously divided into the Ministry of Revenue and the Customs Commission. Accordingly, the Ministry of Revenue is primarily responsible for administering and collecting local taxes, while the Customs Commission is responsible for administering customs matters; It supports exports and collects revenue from it. The National Import and Export Trade Service System is working to make the world more transparent and standardized and adapt to the current situation by formulating various guidelines, rules and procedures to provide a clear, simple, predictable and accessible service to customers. As a result, the commission will be able to streamline the business process by enabling Paperless customer service to support the service delivery technology and eliminate the customer iteration without having to incur unnecessary costs and inconveniences.

Keywords: business, consumers, adapt, transparent

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Authors: Azhar Jabareen, Mahmoud Huleihel

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BRCA-1 is a multifunctional tumor suppressor, whose expression is activated by the estrogen (E2)-liganded ERα receptor. The activated ERα is a transcriptional factor which activates various genes either by direct binding to the DNA at E2-responsive elements (EREs) and indirectly associated with a range of alternative non-ERE elements. Interference with BRCA-1 expression and/or functions leads to high risk of breast or/and ovarian cancer. Our lab investigated the involvement of Human T-cell leukemia Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) in breast cancer, since HTLV-1 Tax was found to strongly inhibit BRCA-1 expression. In addition, long exposure of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), which is one of the stress-inducing agents activated the HTLV-1 promoter. So here the involvement of TPA in breast cancer had been examined by testing the effect of TPA on BRCA-1 and ERE expression. The results showed that TPA activated both BRCA-1 and ERE expression. In the 12 hours TPA activated the tow promoters more than others time, and after 24 hours the level of the tow promoters was decreased. Tax inhibited BRCA-1 expression but did not succeed to inhibit the effect of TPA. Then the activation of the two promoters was not through ERα pathway because TPA had no effect on ERα binding to the two promoters of the BRCA-1 and ERE. Also, the activation was not via nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway because when the inhibitory of NF-κB had been added to the TPA, it still activated the tow promoters. However, it seems that 53BP1 may be involved in TPA activation of these promoters because ectopic high expression of 53BP1 significantly reduced the TPA activity. In addition, in the presence of Bisindolylmaleimide-I (BI)- the inhibitor of Protein Kinase C (PKC)- there was no activation for the two promoters, so the PKC is agonized BRCA-1 and ERE activation.

Keywords: BRCA-1, ERE, HTLV-1, TPA

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Authors: Maciej Sobczak, Julita Pietrzak, Tomasz Płoszaj, Agnieszka Robaszkiewicz

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Brg1, a member of SWI/SNF complex, plays a role in chromatin remodeling, therefore, regulates expression of many genes. Brg1 is an ATPase of SWI/SNF complex, thus its activity requires ATP. Through its bromodomain recognizes acetylated histone residues and evicts them, thus promoting transcriptionally active state of chromatin. One of the enzymes that is responsible for acetylation of histone residues is Ep300. It was previously shown in the literature that cooperation of Brg1 and Ep300 occurs at the promoter regions that have binding sites for E2F-family transcription factors as well as CpG islands. According to literature, approximately 20% of human cancer possess mutation in Brg1 or any other crucial SWI/SNF subunit. That phenomenon makes Brg1-Ep300 a very promising target for anti-cancer therapy. Therefore in our study, we investigated if physical interaction between Brg1 and Ep300 exists and what impact those two proteins have on key for breast cancer cells processes such as DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Bioinformatical analysis pointed out, that genes involved in cell proliferation and DNA damage repair are overexpressed in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, promoter regions of these genes are highly acetylated, which suggests high transcriptional activity of those sites. Notably, many of those gene possess within their promoters an E2F, Brg1 motives, as well as CpG islands and acetylated histones. Our data show that Brg1 physically interacts with Ep300, and together they regulate expression of genes involved in DNA damage repair and cell proliferation. Upon inhibiting Brg1 or Ep300, expression of vital for cancer cell survival genes such as CDK2/4, BRCA1/2, PCNA, and XRCC1 is decreased in MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cells. Moreover, inhibition or silencing of either Brg1 or Ep300 leads to cell cycle arrest in G1. After inhibition of BRG1 or Ep300 on tested gene promoters, the repressor complex including Rb, HDAC1, and EZH2 is formed, which inhibits gene expression. These results highlight potentially significant target for targeted anticancer therapy to be introduced as a supportive therapy.

Keywords: brg1, ep300, breast cancer, epigenetics

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Authors: Itumeleng Phage

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Students’ comprehension of graphs may be affected by the characteristics of the discipline in which the graph is used, the type of the task as well as the background of the students who are the readers or interpreters of the graph. This research study investigated these aspects of the graph comprehension of 152 first-year undergraduate physics students by comparing their responses to corresponding tasks in the mathematics and physics disciplines. The discipline characteristics were analysed for four task-related constructs namely coordinates, representations, area and slope. Students’ responses to corresponding visual decoding and judgement tasks set in mathematics and kinematics contexts were statistically compared. The effects of the participants’ gender, year of school completion and study course were determined as reader characteristics. The results of the empirical study indicated that participants generally transferred their mathematics knowledge on coordinates and representation of straight line graphs to the physics contexts, but not in the cases of parabolic and hyperbolic functions or area under graphs. Insufficient understanding of the slope concept contributed to weak performances on this construct in both mathematics and physics contexts. Discipline characteristics seem to play a vital role in students’ understanding, while reader characteristics had insignificant to medium effects on their responses.

Keywords: kinematics graph, discipline characteristics, constructs, coordinates, representations, area and slope

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Authors: Apirak Sombat, Teerapol Saleewong, Poom Kumam, Parin Chaipunya, Wiyada Kumam, Anantachai Padcharoen, Yeol Je Cho, Thana Sutthibutpong

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This research is aimed to study a two-step iteration process defined over a finite family of σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings. The strong convergence is guaranteed under the framework of Banach spaces with some additional structural properties including strict and uniform convexity, reflexivity, and smoothness assumptions. With similar projection technique for nonself-mapping in Hilbert spaces, we hereby use the generalized projection to construct a point within the corresponding domain. Moreover, we have to introduce the use of duality mapping and its inverse to overcome the unavailability of duality representation that is exploit by Hilbert space theorists. We then apply our results for σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings to solve for ideal efficiency of vector optimization problems composed of finitely many objective functions. We also showed that the obtained solution from our process is the closest to the origin. Moreover, we also give an illustrative numerical example to support our results.

Keywords: asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mapping, strong convergence, fixed point, uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Alyaa M. Younes, Nermine Harraz, Mohammad H. Elwany

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Lithium ion batteries are currently used for many applications including satellites, electric vehicles and mobile electronics. Their ability to store relatively large amount of energy in a limited space make them most appropriate for critical applications. Evaluation of the life of these batteries and their reliability becomes crucial to the systems they support. Reliability of Li-Ion batteries has been mainly considered based on its lifetime. However, another important factor that can be considered critical in many applications such as in electric vehicles is the cycle duration. The present work presents the results of an experimental investigation on the degradation behavior of a Laptop Li-ion battery (type TKV2V) and the effect of applied load on the battery cycle time. The reliability was evaluated using an accelerated life test. Least squares linear regression with median rank estimation was used to estimate the Weibull distribution parameters needed for the reliability functions estimation. The probability density function, failure rate and reliability function under each of the applied loads were evaluated and compared. An inverse power model is introduced that can predict cycle time at any stress level given.

Keywords: accelerated life test, inverse power law, lithium-ion battery, reliability evaluation, Weibull distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Sarah Iaquinta, Christophe Blanquart, Elena Ishow, Sylvain Freour, Frederic Jacquemin, Shahram Khazaie

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Nanoparticles have recently emerged as a possible cancer treatment tool. Several formulations have been used to enhance the uptake of these nanoparticles by cancer cells and avoid their immediate clearance when administrated in vivo. Most of the previous studies focus on the investigation of the influence of the mechanical properties of the cell membrane and the particle. However, these studies do not account for the variation of adhesion and tension during the wrapping of the nanoparticle by the membrane. These couplings should be considered since the cell adapts to the interaction with the nanoparticle by, e.g., increasing the number of interactions (consequently leading to an increase of the cell membrane/nanoparticle adhesion) and by reorganizing its cytoskeleton, leading to the releasing of the tension of the cell membrane. The main contribution of this work is the proposal of a novel model for representing the cellular uptake of rigid circular nanoparticles based on an energetic model tailored to take into account the adaptation of the nanoparticle/cell membrane adhesion and of the membrane stress during wrapping. Several coupling models using sigmoidal functions are considered and compared. The study calculations revealed that the results considering constant parameters underestimated the final wrapping degree of the particle by up to 50%.

Keywords: adhesion, cellular adaptation, cellular uptake, mechanical properties, tension

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Jaehyug Lee, Tae-Ho Song

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Vacuum insulation panel (VIP) can achieve very low thermal conductivity by evacuating its inner space. Heat transfer in the core materials of highly-evacuated VIP occurs by conduction through the solid structure and radiation through the pore. The effect of various scattering modes in combined conduction-radiation in VIP is investigated through numerical analysis. The discrete ordinates interpolation method (DOIM) incorporated with the commercial code FLUENT® is employed. It is found that backward scattering is more effective in reducing the total heat transfer while isotropic scattering is almost identical with pure absorbing/emitting case of the same optical thickness. For a purely scattering medium, the results agree well with additive solution with diffusion approximation, while a modified term is added in the effect of optical thickness to backward scattering is employed. For other scattering phase functions, it is also confirmed that backwardly scattering phase function gives a lower effective thermal conductivity. Thus, the materials with backward scattering properties, with radiation shields are desirable to lower the thermal conductivity of VIPs.

Keywords: combined conduction and radiation, discrete ordinates interpolation method, scattering phase function, vacuum insulation panel

Procedia PDF Downloads 354

Authors: M. Moslehpour, S. Khorsandi

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Due to shortage in IPv4 addresses, transition to IPv6 has gained significant momentum in recent years. Like Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) in IPv4, Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) provides some functions like address resolution in IPv6. Besides functionality of NDP, it is vulnerable to some attacks. To mitigate these attacks, Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) was introduced, but it was not efficient due to its limitation. Therefore, SEND protocol is proposed to automatic protection of auto-configuration process. It is secure neighbor discovery and address resolution process. To defend against threats on NDP’s integrity and identity, Cryptographically Generated Address (CGA) and asymmetric cryptography are used by SEND. Besides advantages of SEND, its disadvantages like the computation process of CGA algorithm and sequentially of CGA generation algorithm are considerable. In this paper, we parallel this process between network resources in order to improve it. In addition, we compare the CGA generation time in self-computing and distributed-computing process. We focus on the impact of the malicious nodes on the CGA generation time in the network. According to the result, although malicious nodes participate in the generation process, CGA generation time is less than when it is computed in a one-way. By Trust Management System, detecting and insulating malicious nodes is easier.

Keywords: NDP, IPsec, SEND, CGA, modifier, malicious node, self-computing, distributed-computing

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Xiang Zheng, Zhaoping Zhong

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In this study, Aspen Plus was used to simulate the whole process of biomass conversion to liquid fuel in different ways, and the main results of material and energy flow were obtained. The process optimization and evaluation were carried out on the four routes of cellulosic biomass pyrolysis gasification low-carbon olefin synthesis olefin oligomerization, biomass water pyrolysis and polymerization to jet fuel, biomass fermentation to ethanol, and biomass pyrolysis to liquid fuel. The environmental impacts of three biomass species (poplar wood, corn stover, and rice husk) were compared by the gasification synthesis pathway. The global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential of the three biomasses were the same as those of rice husk > poplar wood > corn stover. In terms of human health hazard potential and solid waste potential, the results were poplar > rice husk > corn stover. In the popular pathway, 100 kg of poplar biomass was input to obtain 11.9 kg of aviation coal fraction and 6.3 kg of gasoline fraction. The energy conversion rate of the system was 31.6% when the output product energy included only the aviation coal product. In the basic process of hydrothermal depolymerization process, 14.41 kg aviation kerosene was produced per 100 kg biomass. The energy conversion rate of the basic process was 33.09%, which can be increased to 38.47% after the optimal utilization of lignin gasification and steam reforming for hydrogen production. The total exergy efficiency of the system increased from 30.48% to 34.43% after optimization, and the exergy loss mainly came from the concentration of precursor dilute solution. Global warming potential in environmental impact is mostly affected by the production process. Poplar wood was used as raw material in the process of ethanol production from cellulosic biomass. The simulation results showed that 827.4 kg of pretreatment mixture, 450.6 kg of fermentation broth, and 24.8 kg of ethanol were produced per 100 kg of biomass. The power output of boiler combustion reached 94.1 MJ, the unit power consumption in the process was 174.9 MJ, and the energy conversion rate was 33.5%. The environmental impact was mainly concentrated in the production process and agricultural processes. On the basis of the original biomass pyrolysis to liquid fuel, the enzymatic hydrolysis lignin residue produced by cellulose fermentation to produce ethanol was used as the pyrolysis raw material, and the fermentation and pyrolysis processes were coupled. In the coupled process, 24.8 kg ethanol and 4.78 kg upgraded liquid fuel were produced per 100 kg biomass with an energy conversion rate of 35.13%.

Keywords: biomass conversion, biofuel, process optimization, life cycle assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Achitphol Chookaew, Paramee Thongsukhsai, Patamarerk Engsontia, Narongwit Nakwan, Pritsana Raugrut

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Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies and primary cause of death due to cancer worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the main subtype in which majority of patients present with advanced-stage disease. Herein, we analyzed differentially expressed genes to find potential biomarkers for lung cancer diagnosis as well as prognostic markers. We used transcriptome data from our 2 NSCLC patients and public data (GSE81089) composing of 8 NSCLC and 10 normal lung tissues. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between NSCLC and normal tissue and between early-stage and late-stage NSCLC were analyzed by the DESeq2. Pairwise correlation was used to find the DEGs with false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted p-value £ 0.05 and |log2 fold change| ³ 4 for NSCLC versus normal and FDR adjusted p-value £ 0.05 with |log2 fold change| ³ 2 for early versus late-stage NSCLC. Bioinformatic tools were used for functional and pathway analysis. Moreover, the top ten genes in each comparison group were verified the expression and survival analysis via GEPIA. We found 150 up-regulated and 45 down-regulated genes in NSCLC compared to normal tissues. Many immnunoglobulin-related genes e.g., IGHV4-4, IGHV5-10-1, IGHV4-31, IGHV4-61, and IGHV1-69D were significantly up-regulated. 22 genes were up-regulated, and five genes were down-regulated in late-stage compared to early-stage NSCLC. The top five DEGs genes were KRT6B, SPRR1A, KRT13, KRT6A and KRT5. Keratin 6B (KRT6B) was the most significantly increased gene in the late-stage NSCLC. From GEPIA analysis, we concluded that IGHV4-31 and IGKV1-9 might be used as diagnostic biomarkers, while KRT6B and KRT6A might be used as prognostic biomarkers. However, further clinical validation is needed.

Keywords: differentially expressed genes, early and late-stages, gene ontology, non-small cell lung cancer transcriptomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 94