Search results for: MR image of brain

Authors: Emily C. Shepard, Caroline Sweeney, Jessica Grimm, Sophie Jacobs, Lauren Thompson, Lisa L. Weyandt

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Adolescence is a critical phase of development in which individuals are prone to more risky behavior while also facing potentially life-changing decisions. The balance of increased behavioral risk and responsibility indicates the importance of executive functioning ability. In recent years, executive function training has emerged as a technique to enhance this cognitive ability. The aim of the present systematic review was to discuss the reported efficacy of executive functioning training techniques among adolescents. After reviewing 3110 articles, a total of 24 articles were identified which examined the role of executive functioning training techniques among adolescents (age 10-19). Articles retrieved demonstrated points of comparison across psychiatric and medical diagnosis, location of training, and stage of adolescence. Typically developing samples, as well as those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), conduct disorder, and physical health concerns were found, allowing for the comparison of the efficacy of techniques considering physical and psychological heterogeneity. Among typically developing adolescents, executive functioning training yielded nonsignificant or low effect size improvements in executive functioning, and in some cases executive functioning ability was decreased following the training. In special populations, including those with ADHD, (ASD), conduct disorder, and physical health concerns significant differences and larger effect sizes in executive functioning were seen following treatment, particularly among individuals with ADHD. Future research is needed to identify the long-term efficacy of these treatments, as well as their generalizability to real-world conditions.

Keywords: adolescence, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, executive function, executive function training, traumatic brain injury

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Vaiddehi Bansal, Laura Hinson, Mayumi Rezwan, Erin Leasure, Mithila Iyer, Connor Roth, Poulomi Pal, Kareem Kysia

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As digital usage becomes increasingly ubiquitous worldwide, technology-facilitated gender-based violence (GBV) has garnered increasing attention in the recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This form of violence is defined as “action by one or more people that harms others based on their sexual or gender identity or by enforcing harmful gender norms. This action is carried out using the internet and/or mobile technology that harms others based on their sexual or gender identity or by enforcing harmful gender norms”.Common forms of technology-facilitated GBV include cyberstalking, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, image-based abuse, doxing, hacking, gendertrolling, hate speech, and impersonation. Most literature on this pervasive yet complex issue has emerged from high-income countries, and few studies comprehensively summarize its prevalence, manifestations, and implications. This rigorous scoping review examines the evidence base of this phenomenon in low and middle-income countries across Asia, summarizing trends and gaps to inform actionable recommendations. The research team developed search terms to conduct a comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and grey literature. Query results were eligible for inclusion if they were published in English between 2006-2021 and with an explicit emphasis on technology-facilitated violence, gender, and the countries of interest in the Asia region. Title, abstracts, and full-texts were independently screened by two reviewers based on inclusion criteria, and data was extracted through deductive coding. Of 2,042 articles screened, 97 met inclusion criteria. The review revealed a gap in the evidence-base in Central Asia and the Pacific Islands. Findings across South and Southeast Asia indicate that technology-facilitated GBV comprises various forms of abuse, violence, and harassment that are largely shaped by country-specific societal norms and technological landscapes. The literature confirms that women, girls, and sexual minorities, especially those with intersecting marginalized identities, are often more vulnerable to experiencing online violence. Cultural norms and patriarchal structures tend to stigmatize survivors, limiting their ability to seek social and legal support. Survivors are also less likely to report their experience due to barriers such as lack of awareness of reporting mechanisms, the perception that digital platforms will not address their complaints, and cumbersome reporting systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated perpetration and strained support mechanisms. Prevalence varies by the form of violence but is difficult to estimate accurately due to underreporting and disjointed, outdated, or non-existent legal definitions. Addressing technology-facilitated GBV in Asia requires collective action from multiple actors, including government authorities, technology companies, digital and feminist movements, NGOs, and researchers.

Keywords: gender-based violence, technology, online sexual harassment, image-based abuse

Procedia PDF Downloads 137

Authors: M. Al Nur, M. S. Kaiser

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Corrosion behaviour of hypereutectic Al-19Si automotive alloy in different pH=1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 environments was carried out using conventional gravimetric measurements and was complemented by resistivity, optical micrograph, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray analyzer (EDX) investigations. Gravimetric analysis confirmed that the highest corrosion rate is shown at pH 13 followed by pH 1. Minimum corrosion occurs in the pH range of 3.0 to 11 due to establishment of passive layer on the surface. The highest corrosion rate at pH 13 is due to the presence of sodium hydroxide in the solution which dissolves the surface oxide film at a steady rate. At pH 1, it can be attributed that the presence of aggressive chloride ions serves to pick up the damage of the passive films at localized regions. With varying exposure periods by both, the environment complies with the normal corrosion rate profile that is an initial steep rise followed by a nearly constant value of corrosion rate. Resistivity increases in case of pH 1 solution for the higher pit formation and decreases at pH 13 due to formation of thin film. The SEM image of corroded samples immersed in pH 1 solution clearly shows pores on the surface and in pH 13 solution, and the corrosion layer seems more compact and homogenous and not porous.

Keywords: Al-Si alloy, corrosion, pH, resistivity, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Ghazal Mortazavi, S. M. J. Mortazavi

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Electricians, power line engineers and power station workers, welders, aluminum reduction workers, MRI operators and railway workers are occupationally exposed to different levels of electromagnetic fields. Mercury is among the most toxic metals. Dental amalgam fillings cause significant exposure to elemental mercury vapour in the general population. Today, substantial evidence indicates that mercury even at low doses may lead to toxicity. Increased release of mercury from dental amalgam fillings after exposure to MRI or microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones has been previously shown by our team. Moreover, our recent studies on the effects of stronger magnetic fields entirely confirmed our previous findings. From the other point of view, we have also shown that papers which reported no increased release of mercury after MRI, may have some methodological flaws. Over the past several years, our lab has focused on the health effects of exposure of laboratory animals and humans to different sources of electromagnetic fields such as mobile phones and their base stations, mobile phone jammers, laptop computers, radars, dentistry cavitrons, and MRI. As a strong association between exposure to electromagnetic fields and mercury level has been found in our studies, our findings lead us to this conclusion that occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields in workers with dental amalgam fillings can lead to elevated levels of mercury. Studies which reported that exposure to mercury can be a risk factor of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) due to the accumulation of amyloid beta protein (Aβ) in the brain and those reported that long-term occupational exposure to high levels of electromagnetic fields can increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia in male workers support our concept and confirm the significant role of the occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields in increasing the mercury level in workers with amalgam fillings.

Keywords: occupational exposure, electromagnetic fields, workers, mercury release, dental amalgam, restorative dentistry

Procedia PDF Downloads 434

Authors: Yuan Zheng

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3D model-based vehicle matching provides a new way for vehicle recognition, localization and tracking. Its key is to construct an evaluation function, also called fitness function, to measure the degree of vehicle matching. The existing fitness functions often poorly perform when the clutter and occlusion exist in traffic scenarios. In this paper, we present a practical and efficient fitness function. Unlike the existing evaluation functions, the proposed fitness function is to study the vehicle matching problem from both local and global perspectives, which exploits the pixel gradient information as well as the silhouette information. In view of the discrepancy between 3D vehicle model and real vehicle, a weighting strategy is introduced to differently treat the fitting of the model’s wireframes. Additionally, a normalization operation for the model’s projection is performed to improve the accuracy of the matching. Experimental results on real traffic videos reveal that the proposed fitness function is efficient and robust to the cluttered background and partial occlusion.

Keywords: 3D-2D matching, fitness function, 3D vehicle model, local image gradient, silhouette information

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Devante K. Barrett

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The objective of this research aims to evaluate the association between one's subjective tiredness as it relates to the stroop effect and identification of subjective tiredness among adolescence. Individuals with a high subjective tired score are more likely to have a lower reaction time in incongruent trials. It is understood that sleep is an overlooked phenomenon in psychological research and with the utilization of adequate testing, ways to address sleep in this manner may no longer be an issue of concern in the future. Sleep researchers often obtain significant results by way of stroop testing. The caveat is that the integrity of stroop testing can be negatively affected by various external factors. The propensity for interference to occur is caused by the automatic process of reading. This is deemed one of the most detrimental issues in understanding the dimensions of sleep. Interference subsequently decreases response time in identification of the ink color. Considering the fact that the Stroop task is helpful in evaluating cognitive function in clinical populations, results should be interpreted cautiously due to the multitude of variables that may affect performance. When planning studies and analyzing data related to the Stroop effect, researchers must take individual differences and environmental factors into consideration. Having a thorough understanding of the Stroop effect can aid in the development of initiatives targeted at enhancing attention span and cognitive control across a range of demographics. Age-related changes in sleep patterns and selective attention from childhood to adolescence are key points of consideration in various areas of research in which is primarily focused on age-dependent performance in vigilant attention among young populations. Thus, findings related to stroop testing may be deemed eligible to provide meaningful implications regarding vigilant attention among such population. With respects to future research this can be assessed by way of neuroimaging of brain-regions associated with selective attention and circadian cycles.

Keywords: sleep, selective attention, vigilant attention stroop effect, cognitive function, sleep hygiene

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Authors: Adila Shafqat

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Climate change and urbanization has changed the face of many cities in developing countries. Urbanization is linked with land use and land cover change, that is further intensify by the effects of changing climates. Green infrastructures provide numerous ecosystem services which effect the physical set up of the cities in the long run. Land surface temperatures is considered as defining parameter in the studies of the thermal impact on the land cover. Current study is conducted in the semi-arid urban areas of the Bahawalpur region. Accordingly, Land Surface Temperatures and land cover maps are derived from Landsat image through remote sensing techniques. The cooling impact of green infrastructure is determined by calculating land surface temperature of buffered zones around green infrastructures. A regression model is applied for results. It is seen that land surface temperature around green infrastructures in 1 to 3 degrees lower than the built up surroundings. The result indicates that the urban green infrastructures should be planned according to the local needs and characteristics of landuse so that they can effectively tackle land surface temperatures of urban areas.

Keywords: climate change, surface temperatures, green spaces, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Mohammadjavad Mehrabanpour, Maryam Ranjbar Bushehri, Dorsa Mehrabanpour

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Respiratory diseases are the most important problems in the country’s poultry industry, particularly when it comes to broiler flocks. Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) is a species that causes poor performance in growth rate, egg production, and mortality. This pathogen causes a respiratory infection including pulmonary alveolar inflammation, and pneumonia of birds throughout the world. Newcastle disease (ND) is a highly contagious disease in poultry, and also, it causes considerable losses to the poultry industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the simultaneous occurrence of ORT and ND and NDV isolation by inoculation in embryonated eggs and confirmed by RT-PCR in broiler chicken flocks in Fars province. In this study, 318 blood and 85 tissue samples (brain, trachea, liver, and cecal tonsils) were collected from 15 broiler chicken farms. Survey serum antibody titers against ORT by using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit performed. Evaluation of antibody titer against ND virus is performed by hemagglutination inhibition test. Virus isolation with chick embryo eggs 9-11 and RT-PCR method were carried out. A total of 318 serum samples, 135 samples (42.5%) were positive for antibodies to ORT and titer of HI antibodies against NDV in 122 serum samples (38/4%) were 7-10 (log2) and 61 serum samples (19/2%) had occurrence antibody titer against Newcastle virus and ORT. Results of the present study indicated that 20 tissue samples were positive in embryonated egg and in rapid hemagglutination (HA) test. HI test with specific ND positive serum confirmed that 6 of 20 samples. PCR confirmed that all six samples were positive and PCR products of samples indicated 535-base pair fragments in electrophrosis. Due to the great economic importance of these two diseases in the poultry industry, it is necessary to design and implement a comprehensive plan for prevention and control of these diseases.

Keywords: ELISA, Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale, newcastle disease, seroprevalence

Procedia PDF Downloads 312

Authors: Abe D. Desta

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This study suggests a deep learning-based method for identifying and following moving objects in surveillance video. The proposed method uses a fast regional convolution neural network (F-RCNN) trained on a substantial dataset of vehicle images to first detect vehicles. A Kalman filter and a data association technique based on a Hungarian algorithm are then used to monitor the observed vehicles throughout time. However, in general, F-RCNN algorithms have been shown to be effective in achieving high detection accuracy and robustness in this research study. For example, in one study The study has shown that the vehicle detection and tracking, the system was able to achieve an accuracy of 97.4%. In this study, the F-RCNN algorithm was compared to other popular object detection algorithms and was found to outperform them in terms of both detection accuracy and speed. The presented system, which has application potential in actual surveillance systems, shows the usefulness of deep learning approaches in vehicle detection and tracking.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, computer vision, deep learning, fast-regional convolutional neural networks, feature extraction, vehicle tracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Mukesh Singh Boori, Vít Voženílek

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Olomouc is a unique and complex landmark with widespread forestation and land use. This research work was conducted to assess important and complex land use change trajectories in Olomouc region. Multi-temporal satellite data from 1991, 2001 and 2013 were used to extract land use/cover types by object oriented classification method. To achieve the objectives, three different aspects were used: (1) Calculate the quantity of each transition; (2) Allocate location based landscape pattern (3) Compare land use/cover evaluation procedure. Land cover change trajectories shows that 16.69% agriculture, 54.33% forest and 21.98% other areas (settlement, pasture and water-body) were stable in all three decade. Approximately 30% of the study area maintained as a same land cove type from 1991 to 2013. Here broad scale of political and socio-economic factors was also affect the rate and direction of landscape changes. Distance from the settlements was the most important predictor of land cover change trajectories. This showed that most of landscape trajectories were caused by socio-economic activities and mainly led to virtuous change on the ecological environment.

Keywords: remote sensing, land use/cover, change trajectories, image classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 404

Authors: Shweta Pinjarkar, Shrutika Yawale, Mayuri Patil, Reshma Adagale

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Face recognition is the technique which can be applied to the wide variety of problems like image and film processing, human computer interaction, criminal identification etc. This has motivated researchers to develop computational models to identify the faces, which are easy and simple to implement. In this, demonstrates the face recognition system in android device using eigenface. The system can be used as the base for the development of the recognition of human identity. Test images and training images are taken directly with the camera in android device.The test results showed that the system produces high accuracy. The goal is to implement model for particular face and distinguish it with large number of stored faces. face recognition system detects the faces in picture taken by web camera or digital camera and these images then checked with training images dataset based on descriptive features. Further this algorithm can be extended to recognize the facial expressions of a person.recognition could be carried out under widely varying conditions like frontal view,scaled frontal view subjects with spectacles. The algorithm models the real time varying lightning conditions. The implemented system is able to perform real-time face detection, face recognition and can give feedback giving a window with the subject's info from database and sending an e-mail notification to interested institutions using android application. Face recognition is the technique which can be applied to the wide variety of problems like image and film processing, human computer interaction, criminal identification etc. This has motivated researchers to develop computational models to identify the faces, which are easy and simple to implement. In this , demonstrates the face recognition system in android device using eigenface. The system can be used as the base for the development of the recognition of human identity. Test images and training images are taken directly with the camera in android device.The test results showed that the system produces high accuracy. The goal is to implement model for particular face and distinguish it with large number of stored faces. face recognition system detects the faces in picture taken by web camera or digital camera and these images then checked with training images dataset based on descriptive features. Further this algorithm can be extended to recognize the facial expressions of a person.recognition could be carried out under widely varying conditions like frontal view,scaled frontal view subjects with spectacles. The algorithm models the real time varying lightning conditions. The implemented system is able to perform real-time face detection, face recognition and can give feedback giving a window with the subject's info from database and sending an e-mail notification to interested institutions using android application.

Keywords: face detection, face recognition, eigen faces, algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: Bireswar Paul, Amitava Datta

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Indoor air environment is a big concern in the last few decades in the developing countries, with increased focus on monitoring the air quality. In this work, an experimental study has been conducted to establish the existence of carbon nanoparticles below the size range of 10 nm in the non-sooting zone of a LPG/air partially premixed flame. Mainly, four optical techniques, UV absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and TEM have been used to characterize and measure the size of carbon nanoparticles in the sampled materials collected from the inner surface of the flame front. The existence of the carbon nanoparticles in the sampled material has been confirmed with the typical nature of the absorption and fluorescence spectra already reported in the literature. The band gap energy shows that the particles are made up of three to six aromatic rings. The size measurement by DLS technique also shows that the particles below the size range of 10 nm. The results of DLS are also corroborated by the TEM image of the same material. 

Keywords: indoor air, carbon nanoparticle, lpg, partially premixed flame, optical techniques

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Mark Andrew

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Geopolitical tensions are at a thirty-year high, and the pace of technological innovation is driving asymmetry in force capabilities between nation states and between non-state actors. Technology futures are a vital component of defence capability growth, and investments in technology futures need to be informed by accurate and reliable forecasts of the options for ‘systems of systems’ innovation, development, and deployment. This paper describes a method for forecasting technology futures developed through an analysis of four key systems’ development stages, namely: technology domain categorisation, scanning results examining novel systems’ signals and signs, potential system-of systems’ implications in warfare theatres, and political ramifications in terms of funding and development priorities. The method has been applied to several technology domains, including physical systems (e.g., nano weapons, loitering munitions, inflight charging, and hypersonic missiles), biological systems (e.g., molecular virus weaponry, genetic engineering, brain-computer interfaces, and trans-human augmentation), and information systems (e.g., sensor technologies supporting situation awareness, cyber-driven social attacks, and goal-specification challenges to proliferation and alliance testing). Although the current application of the method has been team-centred using paper-based rapid prototyping and iteration, the application of autonomous language models (such as GPT-3) is anticipated as a next-stage operating platform. The importance of forecasting accuracy and reliability is considered a vital element in guiding technology development to afford stronger contingencies as ideological changes are forecast to expand threats to ecology and earth systems, possibly eclipsing the traditional vulnerabilities of nation states. The early results from the method will be subjected to ground truthing using longitudinal investigation.

Keywords: forecasting, technology futures, uncertainty, complexity

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Michael Lekan-Kehinde, Abimbola Asojo, Bonnie Sanborn

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Good acoustic performance has been identified as one of the critical Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) factors for student learning and development by the National Research Council. Childhood presents the opportunity for children to develop lifelong skills that will support them throughout their adult lives. Acoustic performance of a space has been identified as a factor that can impact language acquisition, concentration, information retention, and general comfort within the environment. Increasingly, students learn by communication between both teachers and fellow students, making speaking and listening crucial. Neurodiversity - while initially coined to describe individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - widely describes anyone with a different brain process. As the understanding from cognitive and neurosciences increases, the number of people identified as neurodiversity is nearly 30% of the population. This research looks at guidelines and standard for spaces with good acoustical quality and relates it with the experiences of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), their parents, teachers, and educators through a mixed methods approach, including selected case studies interviews, and mixed surveys. The information obtained from these sources is used to determine if selected materials, especially properties relating to sound absorption and reverberation reduction, are equally useful in small, medium sized, and large learning spaces and methodologically approaching. The results describe the potential impact of acoustics on Neurodiverse students, considering factors that determine the complexity of sound in relation to the auditory processing capabilities of ASD students. In conclusion, this research extends the knowledge of how materials selection influences the better development of acoustical environments for autism students.

Keywords: acoustics, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), children, education, learning, learning spaces, materials, neurodiversity, sound

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Ahmedou Moulaye Idriss, Yahya Tfeil

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Medical imaging technology has become an indispensable tool in many branches of the biomedical, health area, and research and is vitally important for the training of professionals in these fields. It is not only about the tools, technologies, and knowledge provided but also about the community that this training project proposes. In order to be able to raise the level of anatomy teaching in the medical school of Nouakchott in Mauritania, it is necessary and even urgent to facilitate access to modern technology for African countries. The role of technology as a key driver of justifiable development has long been recognized. Anatomy is an essential discipline for the training of medical students; it is a key element for the training of medical specialists. The quality and results of the work of a young surgeon depend on his better knowledge of anatomical structures. The teaching of anatomy is difficult as the discipline is being neglected by medical students in many academic institutions. However, anatomy remains a vital part of any medical education program. When anatomy is presented in various planes medical students approve of difficulties in understanding. They do not increase their ability to visualize and mentally manipulate 3D structures. They are sometimes not able to correctly identify neighbouring or associated structures. This is the case when they have to make the identification of structures related to the caudate lobe when the liver is moved to different positions. In recent decades, some modern educational tools using digital sources tend to replace old methods. One of the main reasons for this change is the lack of cadavers in laboratories with poorly qualified staff. The emergence of increasingly sophisticated mathematical models, image processing, and visualization tools in biomedical imaging research have enabled sophisticated three-dimensional (3D) representations of anatomical structures. In this paper, we report our current experience in the Faculty of Medicine in Nouakchott Mauritania. One of our main aims is to create a local learning community in the fields of anatomy. The main technological platform used in this project is called 3D Slicer. 3D Slicer platform is an open-source application available for free for viewing, analysis, and interaction with biomedical imaging data. Using the 3D Slicer platform, we created from real medical images anatomical atlases of parts of the human body, including head, thorax, abdomen, liver, and pelvis, upper and lower limbs. Data were collected from several local hospitals and also from the website. We used MRI and CT-Scan imaging data from children and adults. Many different anatomy atlases exist, both in print and digital forms. Anatomy Atlas displays three-dimensional anatomical models, image cross-sections of labelled structures and source radiological imaging, and a text-based hierarchy of structures. Open and free online anatomical atlases developed by our anatomy laboratory team will be available to our students. This will allow pedagogical autonomy and remedy the shortcomings by responding more fully to the objectives of sustainable local development of quality education and good health at the national level. To make this work a reality, our team produced several atlases available in our faculty in the form of research projects.

Keywords: anatomy, education, medical imaging, three dimensional

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Malinda Sabrina, F. Andree Yohanes, Khoerul Anwar

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There are many sources that cause noise in a car, one of them is noise from radiator cooling fan. This part is used to control engine temperature by ensuring adequate airflow through radiator. Radiator cooling fan noise is a very important matter especially for vehicle manufacturers. This can affect brand image of the car and their customer satisfaction. Therefore, some experiments to measure noise level of the fan are required. Sound pressure level measurements for two axial fans with different diameter have been investigated in a hemi-anechoic chamber based on standard JIS-B8346, focusing on aerodynamic noise. Both fans have the same profile and shape with diameter respectively 43 cm and 49 cm. The measurement was performed in hemi-anechoic chamber in order to obtain a background noise at measuring point as low as possible. Noise characterizations of these radiator cooling fans were measured in five different rotating speed and the results were compared. The measurement result shows that the sound pressure level increases with increasing rotational speed of the fan. In comparison with a smaller diameter, it is shown that fan with larger diameter produces higher noise level at the same rotational speed.

Keywords: aerodynamics noise, hemi-anechoic chamber, radiator cooling fan, sound pressure level

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Authors: A. Bahar Ganiyeva, M. Sabuhi Tanriverdiyev

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The article analyzes state support and policy mechanisms aimed at driving tourism as one of the vibrant and rapidly developing economies. State programs and long-range strategic roadmaps and previous programs execution, results and their impact on the particular countries economy have been raised during the research. This theme provides a useful framework for discussions with a wider range of stakeholders as the implications arising are of importance both for academics and practitioners engaged in hospitality and tourism development and research. The impact that tourism has on sustainable regional development in emerging markets is highly substantial. For Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, and Russia, with their rich natural resources and cultural heritage, tourism can be an important basis for economic expansion, and a way to form an acceptable image of the countries as safe, open, hospitable, and complex.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, hospitality, destination, strategic roadmap, tourism, economy, growth, state support, mechanism, policy formation, state program

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Khaja Moiduddin, Sherif Mohammed Elseufy, Hisham Alkhalefah

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Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing, medical imaging, and implant design may alter how craniomaxillofacial surgeons construct individualized treatments using patient data. By utilizing medical image data, medical professionals can obtain detailed information about a patient's injuries, enabling them to conduct a thorough preoperative assessment while ensuring the implant's accuracy. However, selecting the right implant material requires careful consideration of various mechanical properties. This study aims to compare the two commonly used implant material for cranial reconstruction which includes titanium (Ti6Al4V) and Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Biomechanical analysis was performed to study the implant behavior, by keeping the implant design and fixation constant in both cases. A finite element model was created and analyzed under loading conditions. The finite element analysis proves that although Ti6Al4V is stronger than PEEK but, its mechanical strength is adequate to bear the loads of the adjacent bone tissue.

Keywords: cranial reconstruction, titanium implants, PEEK, finite element model

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Authors: Kamal Amarouche, Houda Benbrahim, Ismail Kassou

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Nowadays, e-commerce shopping websites have experienced noticeable growth. These websites have gained consumers’ trust. After purchasing a product, many consumers share comments where opinions are usually embedded about the given product. Research on the automatic management of opinions that gives suggestions to potential consumers and portrays an image of the product to manufactures has been growing recently. After launching the product in the market, the reviews generated around it do not usually contain helpful information or generic opinions about this product (e.g. telephone: great phone...); in the sense that the product is still in the launching phase in the market. Within time, the product becomes old. Therefore, consumers perceive the advantages/ disadvantages about each specific product feature. Therefore, they will generate comments that contain their sentiments about these features. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method to extract different product features hidden in the opinions which influence its purchase, and that combines Time Weighting (TW) which depends on the time opinions were expressed with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). We conduct several experiments using two different datasets about cell phones and hotels. The results show the effectiveness of our automatic feature extraction, as well as its domain independent characteristic.

Keywords: opinion mining, product feature extraction, sentiment analysis, SentiWordNet

Procedia PDF Downloads 416

Authors: I. Gusti A. A. Rai Asmiwyati, Robert J. Corner, Ashraf M. Dewan

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Change on land use/cover (LULC) dominantly affects spatial structure and function. It can have such impacts by disrupting social culture practice and disturbing physical elements. Thus, it has become essential to understand of the dynamics in time and space of LULC as it can be used as a critical input for developing sustainable LULC. This study was an attempt to map and monitor the LULC change in Bali Indonesia from 2003 to 2013. Using object based classification to improve the accuracy, and change detection, multi temporal land use/cover data were extracted from a set of ASTER satellite image. The overall accuracies of the classification maps of 2003 and 2013 were 86.99% and 80.36%, respectively. Built up area and paddy field were the dominant type of land use/cover in both years. Patch increase dominantly in 2003 illustrated the rapid paddy field fragmentation and the huge occurring transformation. This approach is new for the case of diverse urban features of Bali that has been growing fast and increased the classification accuracy than the manual pixel based classification.

Keywords: land use/cover, urban, Bali, ASTER

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Authors: Qian Wang

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In recent years, a growing number of Chinese women choose to pursue Ph.D. education. Except for the male and female, women with PhD degrees are stigmatized as the ‘third gender’ in Chinese society. People, especially most men, believe that female PhD students challenge the traditional image and gender role of Chinese women. This gender stereotype causes a range of difficulties in finding partners in marriage market for Chinese female PhD students. In this study, the author conducted in-depth interviews with 15 participants who are currently doing their PhD studies in Chinese universities to explore their perceptions of being leftover women on the basis of their experience. All the participants are single. Based on the analysis of qualitative data, this study found that the ‘leftover women’ phenomenon among Chinese female PhD students is the result of the contradictions generated between Chinese patriarchal society and them. Although Chinese female PhD students is an attention-attracting group, the studies about them are very limited in China. This study could not only contribute to the understanding of the ‘third gender’ phenomenon and the ‘leftover women’ studies in China, but also, in practical level, could give some guidance for governments to resolve the social problems of female PhD students.

Keywords: Chinese female Ph.D. students, the ‘leftover women’, the Chinese patriarchal society, gender role, Chinese culture

Procedia PDF Downloads 226

Authors: Happy Zulu

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Neuropsychological examination is an important way of formally assessing brain function. While there is so much documentation about the influence that some factors, such as age and education, have on neuropsychological tests (NP), not so much has been done to assess the influence that residency (rural/urban) may have. The specific objectives of this study were to establish if there is a significant difference in mean test scores on NP tests between rural and urban participants and to assess which tests on the Zambia Neurobehavioural Test Battery (ZNTB) are more affected by the participants‘ residency (rural/urban) and to determine the extent to which education, gender, and age predict test performance on NP tests for rural and urban participants. The participants (324) were drawn from both urban and rural areas of Zambia (Rural = 152 and Urban = 172). However, only 234 participants (Rural = 152 and Urban 82) were used for all the analyses in this particular study. The 234 participants were used as the actual proportion of the rural vs urban population in Zambia was 65% : 35%, respectively (CSO, 2003). The rural-urban ratio for the participants that were captured during the data collection process was 152 : 172, respectively. Thus, all the rural participants (152) were included and 90 of the 172 urban participants were randomly excluded so that the rural/urban ratio reached the desired 65% : 35 % which was the required ideal statistic for appropriate representation of the actual population in Zambia. Data on NP tests were analyzed from 234 participants, rural (N=152) reflecting 65% and urban (N=82) reflecting 35%. T-tests indicated that urban participants had superior performances in all the seven NP test domains, and all the mean differences in all these domains were found to be statistically significant. Residency had a large or moderate effect in five domains, while its effect size was small only in two of the domains. A standard multiple regression revealed that education, age and residency as predictor variables made a significant contribution to variance in performance on various domains of the ZNTB. However, the gender of participants was not a major factor in determining one‘s performance on neuropsychological tests. This particular report is part of an ongoing, larger, cutting-edge study aimed at formulating the normative data for Zambia with regard to performance on neuropsychological tests. This is necessary for appropriate, effective, and efficient assessment or diagnosis of various neurocognitive and neurobehavioural deficits that a number of people may currently be suffering from. It has been shown in this study that it is vital to make careful analyses of the variables that may be associated with one‘s performance on neuropsychological tests.

Keywords: neuropsychology, neurobehavioural, residency, Zambia

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Authors: Mallikarjuna Rao Gundavarapu, Ch. Mallikarjuna Rao, K. Anuradha Bai

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Real Time Video Tracking is a challenging task for computing professionals. The performance of video tracking techniques is greatly affected by background detection and elimination process. Local regions of the image frame contain vital information of background and foreground. However, pixel-level processing of local regions consumes a good amount of computational time and memory space by traditional approaches. In our approach we have explored the concurrent computational ability of General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU) to address this problem. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) with adaptive weighted kernels is used for detecting the background. The weights of the kernel are influenced by local regions and are updated by inter-frame variations of these corresponding regions. The proposed system has been tested with GPU devices such as GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 280 and Quadro K2000. The results are encouraging with maximum speed up 10X compared to sequential approach.

Keywords: connected components, embrace threads, local weighted kernel, structuring elements

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Authors: Nurhak Altın, Ayhan Kucukmanisa, Oguzhan Urhan

Abstract:

It is important that highways are in good condition for traffic safety. Road crashes (road cracks, erosion of lane markings, etc.) can cause accidents by affecting driving. Image processing based methods for detecting road cracks are available in the literature. In this paper, a deep learning based road crack detection approach is proposed. YOLO (You Look Only Once) is adopted as core component of the road crack detection approach presented. The YOLO network structure, which is developed for object detection, is trained with road crack images as a new class that is not previously used in YOLO. The performance of the proposed method is compared using different training methods: using randomly generated weights and training their own pre-trained weights (transfer learning). A similar training approach is applied to the simplified version of the YOLO network model (tiny yolo) and the results of the performance are examined. The developed system is able to process 8 fps on NVIDIA Jetson TX1 development kit.

Keywords: deep learning, embedded platform, real-time processing, road crack detection

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Authors: E. Olmos-Raya, A. Cascales Martínez, N. Minto de Sousa, M. Alcañiz Raya

Abstract:

The late detection and subjectivity of the assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) imposed a difficulty for the children’s clinical and familiar environment. The results showed in this paper, are part of a research project about the assessment and training of social skills in children with ASD, whose overall goal is the use of virtual environments together with physiological measures in order to find a new model of objective ASD assessment based on implicit brain processes measures. In particular, this work tries to contribute by studying the differences and changes in the Skin Conductance Response (SCR) and Eye Tracking (ET) between a typical development group (TD group) and an ASD group (ASD group) after several combined stimuli using a low cost Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE). Subjects were exposed to a virtual environment that showed natural scenes that stimulated visual, auditory and olfactory perceptual system. By exposing them to the IVE, subjects showed natural behaviors while measuring SCR and ET. This study compared measures of subjects diagnosed with ASD (N = 18) with a control group of subjects with typical development (N=10) when exposed to three different conditions: only visual (V), visual and auditory (VA) and visual, auditory and olfactory (VAO) stimulation. Correlations between SCR and ET measures were also correlated with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) test. SCR measures showed significant differences among the experimental condition between groups. The ASD group presented higher level of SCR while we did not find significant differences between groups regarding DF. We found high significant correlations among all the experimental conditions in SCR measures and the subscale of ADOS test of imagination and symbolic thinking. Regarding the correlation between ET measures and ADOS test, the results showed significant relationship between VA condition and communication scores.

Keywords: autism, electrodermal activity, eye tracking, immersive virtual environment, virtual reality

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Authors: Khayra Zerrouki, Noureddine Djebli, Esra Eroglu, Afife Mat, Ozhan Gul

Abstract:

Neurodegenerative diseases of the human brain comprise a variety of disorders that affect an increasing percentage of the population. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex, multifactorial, heterogeneous mental illness, which is characterized by an age-dependent loss of memory and an impairment of multiple cognitive functions, but this 10 last years it concerns the population most and most young. Hypericum perforatum has traditionally been used as an external anti-inflammatory and healing remedy for the treatment of swellings, wounds and burns, diseases of the alimentary tract and psychological disorders. It is currently of great interest due to new and important therapeutic applications. In this study, the chemical composition of methanolic extract of Hypericum perforatum (HPM) was analysed by using high performance liquid chromatography – diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). The in vitro antioxidant activity of HPM was evaluated by using several antioxidant tests. HSM exhibits inhibitory capacity against posphatidylcholine liposome peroxidation, induced with iron and ascorbic acid, scavenge DPPH and superoxide radicals and act as reductants. The cytotoxic activity of HSM was also determined by using MTT cell viability assay on HeLa and NRK-52E cell lines. The in vivo activity studies in Swiss mice were determined by using behavioral, memory tests and histological study. According to tests results HPM that may be relevant to the treatment of cognitive disorders. The results of chemical analysis showed a hight level of hyperforin and quercitin that had an important antioxidant activity proved in vitro with the DPPH, anti LPO and SOD; this antioxidant activity was confirmed in vivo after the non-toxic results by means of improvement in behavioral and memory than the reducing shrunken in pyramidal cells of mice brains.

Keywords: AlCl3, alzheimer, mice, neuroprotective, neurotoxicity, phytotherapy

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Authors: Dzul Fahmi Md. Nordin, Rosmini Omar

Abstract:

This conceptual paper aims to explore the concept of National Talent Retention for a nation by extending the works on Talent Retention in organizations to the scope of nations. The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship of National Talent Retention as the dependent variable with the three explored value propositions namely Firm Value Proposition, Higher Education and Training Value Proposition and National Attractiveness Value Proposition as the independent variables. Life Satisfaction is introduced in this study as a moderating variable to explore possibilities of Life Satisfaction as a mediator for the relationship between National Value Proposition and National Talent Retention. Theories such as Migration, Value Propositions, Life Satisfaction, Human Resource Management and Resource Based View are referred to in order to understand and explore the concept of National Talent Retention. Malaysia is chosen as the background of this study since Malaysia represents a developing nation with progressive economic, education and national policy which presents an interesting background for this exploratory paper. Surprisingly, Malaysia is still facing the phenomenon of Brain Drain which if not handled properly will hinder its Vision 2020 to progress a fully developed nation by year 2020. Mixed methodology analysis is proposed in this paper to include both qualitative face-to-face interview as well as quantitative survey questionnaire to study on the value proposition factors explored. Target respondents are strictly confined to Malaysia’s local high skilled talents either residing in Malaysia or migrated abroad since this paper is mainly interested to study on the concept of National Talent Retention and how successful Malaysia is projecting its value propositions from the perception of high skilled talent Malaysians. It is hoped that this paper could contribute towards understanding National Talent Retention concept where, the model could be replicated to identify influential factors specific to other nations.

Keywords: national talent retention, national value proposition, life satisfaction, high skilled talents

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Authors: Mst. Tuhin Akter, Sharun Akter Khushbu, S. M. Shaqib

Abstract:

A real-time system architecture is highly effective for monitoring and detecting various damaged products or fruits that may deteriorate over time or become infected with diseases. Deep learning models have proven to be effective in building such architectures. However, building a deep learning model from scratch is a time-consuming and costly process. A more efficient solution is to utilize deep neural network (DNN) based transfer learning models in the real-time monitoring architecture. This study focuses on using a novel strawberry dataset to develop effective transfer learning models for the proposed real-time monitoring system architecture, specifically for evaluating and detecting strawberry freshness. Several state-of-the-art transfer learning models were employed, and the best performing model was found to be Xception, demonstrating higher performance across evaluation metrics such as accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score.

Keywords: strawberry freshness evaluation, deep neural network, transfer learning, image augmentation

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Authors: Muna Al-Tarshi

Abstract:

The distribution and accumulation dynamics of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) and microplastic particles in mangrove habitats in the region are poorly understood. The abundance, sorting, and diversity aspects of AMD and microplastics were investigated in three types of mangroves creeks ( Natural mangrove, afforested mangrove, and non-planted). Abundance, concentration, and particles form of microplastics have been illustrated in three substrate in mangrove habitats e.g. sediment, water, and aquatic organisms. Density separation method by using highly saturated solution was implemented to extract the plastic particles from the sediment samples. The average size of particles in each transect was done using image software, and the polymer type was determined via FTIR. There was variability in abundance of microplastics and marine debris between the habitats and within the substrates in the habitats.Biomonitoring program was developed to detect the pollution of microplastics in mangrove habitats in Sultanate of Oman. Sediment dwelling species were the best choice. Testing whether the zooplankton (Artemia) eating the microplastics via FlowCam technique have been studied. The zooplanktons (Artemia) were eating the microplastics as mistaken food.

Keywords: microplastics, marine debris, flowcam, FTIR, polymer, artemia

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Authors: Ayed Mouris Gad Elsayed Khalil

Abstract:

This research focuses on historical techniques associated with the Lajevardin and Haft-Rangi production methods in tile production, with particular attention to identifying techniques for applying gold leaf to the surface of these historical glazed tiles. In this context, the history of the production of glazed, gilded and glazed Lajevardin ceramics from the Khwarizmanshahid and Mongol periods (11th to 13th centuries) was first evaluated in order to better understand the context and history of the methods of historical enameling. After a historical overview of glazed ceramic production techniques and the adoption of these techniques by civilizations, we focused on the niche production methods of glazes and Lajevardin glazes, two categories of decoration commonly found on tiles. A general method for classifying the different types of gold tiles was then introduced, applicable to tiles from to the Safavid period (16th-17th centuries). These categories include gold glazed Lajevardina tiles, haft rangi gold tiles, gold glazed monolithic tiles and gold mosaic tiles.

Keywords: ethnicity, multi-cultural, jewelry, craft techniquemycenaean, ceramic, provenance, pigmentAmorium, glass bracelets, image, Byzantine empire

Procedia PDF Downloads 57