Search results for: Marina George

Authors: Jameela Ali, Hamid A. Jalab, Loay E. George, Abdul Rahim Ahmad, Azizah Suliman, Karim Al-Jashamy

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Red blood cells (RBC) are the most common types of blood cells and are the most intensively studied in cell biology. The lack of RBCs is a condition in which the amount of hemoglobin level is lower than normal and is referred to as “anemia”. Abnormalities in RBCs will affect the exchange of oxygen. This paper presents a comparative study for various techniques for classifyig the red blood cells as normal, or abnormal (anemic) using WEKA. WEKA is an open source consists of different machine learning algorithms for data mining applications. The algorithm tested are Radial Basis Function neural network, Support vector machine, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. Two sets of combined features were utilized for classification of blood cells images. The first set, exclusively consist of geometrical features, was used to identify whether the tested blood cell has a spherical shape or non-spherical cells. While the second set, consist mainly of textural features was used to recognize the types of the spherical cells. We have provided an evaluation based on applying these classification methods to our RBCs image dataset which were obtained from Serdang Hospital-Malaysia, and measuring the accuracy of test results. The best achieved classification rates are 97%, 98%, and 79% for Support vector machines, Radial Basis Function neural network, and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm respectively

Keywords: red blood cells, classification, radial basis function neural networks, suport vector machine, k-nearest neighbors algorithm

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Authors: Marina G. Galitskaya, Svetlana G. Makarova, Andrey P. Fisenko.

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Children on medication-induced immunosuppression are at high risk of developing severe course infectious diseases. Therefore, preventive vaccination is especially important for these children. However, due to the immunosuppressive effects of treatment for the underlying disease, the effectiveness of vaccination may decrease below the protective level. In a multidisciplinary children's medical center, post-vaccination immunity was studied in 79 children aged 4-17 years. The children were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (38 children) with kidney pathology (Nephrotic Syndrome) and Group 2 (41 children) with inflammatory bowel diseases (Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease). Both groups of children were vaccinated according to the national vaccination calendar and received immunosuppressive therapy (prednisolone, methotrexate, cyclosporine, and other drugs) for at least 1 year. Using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method, specific IgG antibodies to vaccine-preventable infections were determined: measles, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, and hepatitis B. The study showed the percentage of children with positive IgG values for vaccine-preventable infections. The highest percentage of children had protective antibody levels to measles (84.2% in children with nephrotic syndrome and 92.6% in those with inflammatory bowel disease) and rubella (71% and 80.4%, respectively). The lowest percentage of children with protective antibodies was for hepatitis B (5.2% and 29.2% respectively). Antibodies to mumps, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus were found not in all children (from 39,4% to 82,9%). The remaining percentage of children did not have detectable IgG antibodies to vaccine-preventable infections. Not all children, despite the previous vaccination, preserved antibodies to vaccine-controlled infections and remained unprotected by specific IgG antibodies. The issue of a booster vaccine dose should be considered in children without contraindications to vaccination. Children receiving long-term immunosuppressive therapy require an individual vaccination approach, including a specific definition of the performed vaccination.

Keywords: immunosuppressive therapy, inflammatory bowel diseases, nephrotic syndrome, post-vaccination immunity, specific antibodies, vaccine-preventable infections.

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Authors: Hannah K. M. Tang, Muhammad Ateeq, Mark J. Lake, Badr Abdullah, Frederic A. Bezombes

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Based on a theoretical assessment of current literature, virtual reality (VR) could help to treat sporting injuries in a number of ways. However, it is important to obtain rehabilitation specialists’ perspectives in order to design, develop and validate suitable content for a VR application focused on treatment. Subsequently, a one-day observation and interview study focused on the use of VR for the treatment of lower limb musculoskeletal conditions in athletes was conducted at St George’s Park England National Football Centre with rehabilitation specialists. The current paper established the methods suitable for obtaining practitioner’s viewpoints through observation and interview in this context. Particular detail was provided regarding the method of qualitatively processing interview results using the qualitative data analysis software tool NVivo, in order to produce a narrative of overarching themes. The observations and overarching themes identified could be used as a framework and success criteria of a VR application developed in future research. In conclusion, this work explained the methods deemed suitable for obtaining practitioner’s viewpoints through observation and interview. This was required in order to highlight characteristics and features of a VR application designed to treat lower limb musculoskeletal injury of athletes and could be built upon to direct future work.

Keywords: athletes, lower-limb musculoskeletal injury, rehabilitation, return-to-sport, virtual reality

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Authors: Lefteris Tsipis, Demosthenes Vouyioukas, George Loumos, Antonis Kargas, Dimitris Varoutas

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The employment of technology and digitization is crucial for cultural organizations to establish and sustain digital repositories for their cultural heritage artefacts. This utilization is also essential in facilitating the presentation of cultural works and exhibits to a broader audience. Consequently, in this work, we propose a digital repository that functions as Software as a Service (SaaS), primarily promoting the safe storage, display, and sharing of cultural materials, enhancing accessibility, and fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural heritage. Moreover, the proposed digital repository service is designed as a multitenant architecture, which enables organizations to expand their reach, enhance accessibility, foster collaboration, and ensure the preservation of their content. Specifically, this project aims to assist each cultural institution in organizing its digital cultural assets into collections and feeding other digital platforms, including educational, museum, pedagogical, and games, through appropriate interfaces. Moreover, the creation of this digital repository offers a cutting-edge and effective open-access laboratory solution. It allows organizations to have a significant influence on their audiences by fostering cultural understanding and appreciation. Additionally, it facilitates the connection between different digital repositories and national/European aggregators, promoting collaboration and information sharing. By embracing this solution, cultural institutions can benefit from shared resources and features, such as system updates, backup and recovery services, and data analytics tools, that are provided by the platform.

Keywords: cultural technologies, gaming technologies, web sharing, digital repository

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Authors: Klytaimnistra Katsara, George Kenanakis, Eleftherios Alissandrakis, Vassilis M. Papadakis

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In recent decades, microplastics (MPs) attracted the interest of the research community as the level of environmental plastic pollution has increased over the years. Through air inhalation and food consumption, MPs enter the human body, creating a series of possible health issues. The majority of MPs enter through the digestive tract; they migrate from the plastic packaging of the foodstuffs. Several plastics, such as Polyethylene (PE), are commonly used as food packaging material due to their preservation and storage capabilities. In this work, the surfaces of three different cured meat products with varied fat compositions were studied (bacon, mortadella, and salami) to determine the migration of MPs from plastic packaging. Micro-Raman spectroscopic measurements were performed in an experimental set lasting 28 days, where the meat samples were stored in vacuum-sealed low-density polyethylene (LDPE) pouches under refrigeration conditions at 4°C. Specific measurement days (0, 3, 9, 12, 15, and 28 days of storage) were chosen to obtain comparative results. Raman micro-spectroscopy was used to monitor the MPs migration, where the Raman spectral profile of LDPE first appeared on day 9 in Bacon, day 15 in Salami, and finally, on day 28 in Mortadella. All the meat samples on day 28 were tainted because a layer of bacterial outgrowth had developed on their surface. In conclusion, MP migration from food packaging to the surface of the cured meat samples was proven. To minimize the consumption of MPs in cured meat products that are stored in plastic packaging, a short period of storage time under refrigeration conditions is advised.

Keywords: cured meat, food packaging, low-density polyethylene, microplastic migration, micro-Raman spectroscopy

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Authors: George Mahalu

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The Chua diode has been configured over time in various ways, using electronic structures like operational amplifiers (AOs) or devices with gas or semiconductors. When discussing the use of semiconductor devices, tunnel diodes (Esaki diodes) are most often considered, and more recently, transistorized configurations such as lambda diodes. The paperwork proposed here uses in the modeling a lambda diode type configuration consisting of two junction field effect transistors (JFET). The original scheme is created in the MULTISIM electronic simulation environment and is analyzed in order to identify the conditions for the appearance of evolutionary unpredictability specific to nonlinear dynamic systems with chaos-induced behavior. The chaotic deterministic oscillator is one autonomous type, a fact that places it in the class of Chua’s type oscillators, the only significant and most important difference being the presence of a nonlinear device like the one mentioned structure above. The chaotic behavior is identified both by means of strange attractor-type trajectories and visible during the simulation and by highlighting the hypersensitivity of the system to small variations of one of the input parameters. The results obtained through simulation and the conclusions drawn are useful in the further research of ways to implement such constructive electronic solutions in theoretical and practical applications related to modern small signal amplification structures, to systems for encoding and decoding messages through various modern ways of communication, as well as new structures that can be imagined both in modern neural networks and in those for the physical implementation of some requirements imposed by current research with the aim of obtaining practically usable solutions in quantum computing and quantum computers.

Keywords: chua, diode, memristor, chaos

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Authors: George Abu-Aqil, Leah Tsror, Elad Shufan, Shaul Mordechai, Mahmoud Huleihel, Ahmad Salman

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Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp which negatively affect a wide range of crops are the main causes of the aggressive diseases of agricultural crops. These aggressive diseases are responsible for a huge economic loss in agriculture including a severe decrease in the quality of the stored vegetables and fruits. Therefore, it is important to detect these pathogenic bacteria at their early stages of infection to control their spread and consequently reduce the economic losses. In addition, early detection is vital for producing non-infected propagative material for future generations. The currently used molecular techniques for the identification of these bacteria at the strain level are expensive and laborious. Other techniques require a long time of ~48 h for detection. Thus, there is a clear need for rapid, non-expensive, accurate and reliable techniques for early detection of these bacteria. In this study, infrared spectroscopy, which is a well-known technique with all its features, was used for rapid detection of Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp. at the strain level. The bacteria were isolated from potato plants and tubers with soft rot symptoms and measured by infrared spectroscopy. The obtained spectra were analyzed using different machine learning algorithms. The performances of our approach for taxonomic classification among the bacterial samples were evaluated in terms of success rates. The success rates for the correct classification of the genus, species and strain levels were ~100%, 95.2% and 92.6% respectively.

Keywords: soft rot enterobacteriaceae (SRE), pectobacterium, dickeya, plant infections, potato, solanum tuberosum, infrared spectroscopy, machine learning

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Authors: Kiran Nair, Jincy George, Suhaib Anagreh

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Artificial intelligence (AI) in a marketing context is a form of a deterministic tool designed to optimize and enhance marketing tasks, research tools, and techniques. It is on the verge of transforming marketing roles and revolutionize the entire industry. This paper aims to explore the current dissemination of the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the marketing mix, reviewing the scope and application of AI in various aspects of sales and distribution management. The paper also aims at identifying the areas of the strong impact of AI in factors of sales and distribution management such as distribution channel, purchase automation, customer service, merchandising automation, and shopping experiences. This is a qualitative research paper that aims to examine the impact of AI on sales and distribution management of 30 multinational brands in six different industries, namely: airline; automobile; banking and insurance; education; information technology; retail and telecom. Primary data is collected by means of interviews and questionnaires from a sample of 100 marketing managers that have been selected using convenient sampling method. The data is then analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The study reveals that AI applications are extensively used in sales and distribution management, with a strong impact on various factors such as identifying new distribution channels, automation in merchandising, customer service, and purchase automation as well as sales processes. International brands have already integrated AI extensively in their day-to-day operations for better efficiency and improved market share while others are investing heavily in new AI applications for gaining competitive advantage.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, sales and distribution, marketing mix, distribution channel, customer service

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Authors: Manal Suleiman, George Abu-Aqil, Uraib Sharaha, Klaris Riesenberg, Itshak Lapidot, Ahmad Salman, Mahmoud Huleihel

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Klebsiella pneumoniae is one of the most aggressive multidrug-resistant bacteria associated with human infections resulting in high mortality and morbidity. Thus, for an effective treatment, it is important to diagnose both the species of infecting bacteria and their susceptibility to antibiotics. Current used methods for diagnosing the bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics are time-consuming (about 24h following the first culture). Thus, there is a clear need for rapid methods to determine the bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics. Infrared spectroscopy is a well-known method that is known as sensitive and simple which is able to detect minor biomolecular changes in biological samples associated with developing abnormalities. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the potential of infrared spectroscopy in tandem with Random Forest and XGBoost machine learning algorithms to diagnose the susceptibility of Klebsiella pneumoniae to antibiotics within approximately 20 minutes following the first culture. In this study, 1190 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were obtained from different patients with urinary tract infections. The isolates were measured by the infrared spectrometer, and the spectra were analyzed by machine learning algorithms Random Forest and XGBoost to determine their susceptibility regarding nine specific antibiotics. Our results confirm that it was possible to classify the isolates into sensitive and resistant to specific antibiotics with a success rate range of 80%-85% for the different tested antibiotics. These results prove the promising potential of infrared spectroscopy as a powerful diagnostic method for determining the Klebsiella pneumoniae susceptibility to antibiotics.

Keywords: urinary tract infection (UTI), Klebsiella pneumoniae, bacterial susceptibility, infrared spectroscopy, machine learning

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Authors: Joseph George, Anne Kotteswara Roa

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Skin disease is one of the most common and popular kinds of health issues faced by people nowadays. Skin cancer (SC) is one among them, and its detection relies on the skin biopsy outputs and the expertise of the doctors, but it consumes more time and some inaccurate results. At the early stage, skin cancer detection is a challenging task, and it easily spreads to the whole body and leads to an increase in the mortality rate. Skin cancer is curable when it is detected at an early stage. In order to classify correct and accurate skin cancer, the critical task is skin cancer identification and classification, and it is more based on the cancer disease features such as shape, size, color, symmetry and etc. More similar characteristics are present in many skin diseases; hence it makes it a challenging issue to select important features from a skin cancer dataset images. Hence, the skin cancer diagnostic accuracy is improved by requiring an automated skin cancer detection and classification framework; thereby, the human expert’s scarcity is handled. Recently, the deep learning techniques like Convolutional neural network (CNN), Deep belief neural network (DBN), Artificial neural network (ANN), Recurrent neural network (RNN), and Long and short term memory (LSTM) have been widely used for the identification and classification of skin cancers. This survey reviews different DL techniques for skin cancer identification and classification. The performance metrics such as precision, recall, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F-measures are used to evaluate the effectiveness of SC identification using DL techniques. By using these DL techniques, the classification accuracy increases along with the mitigation of computational complexities and time consumption.

Keywords: skin cancer, deep learning, performance measures, accuracy, datasets

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Authors: Samuel Munaf, Kevin Swingler, Franz Brülisauer, Anthony O’Hare, George Gunn, Aaron Reeves

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Web scraping and text mining are popular computer science methods deployed by public health researchers to augment traditional epidemiological surveillance. However, within veterinary disease surveillance, such techniques are still in the early stages of development and have not yet been fully utilised. This study presents an exploration into the utility of incorporating internet-based data to better understand the smallholder farming communities within Scotland by using online text extraction and the subsequent mining of this data. Web scraping of the livestock fora was conducted in conjunction with text mining of the data in search of common themes, words, and topics found within the text. Results from bi-grams and topic modelling uncover four main topics of interest within the data pertaining to aspects of livestock husbandry: feeding, breeding, slaughter, and disposal. These topics were found amongst both the poultry and pig sub-forums. Topic modeling appears to be a useful method of unsupervised classification regarding this form of data, as it has produced clusters that relate to biosecurity and animal welfare. Internet data can be a very effective tool in aiding traditional veterinary surveillance methods, but the requirement for human validation of said data is crucial. This opens avenues of research via the incorporation of other dynamic social media data, namely Twitter and Facebook/Meta, in addition to time series analysis to highlight temporal patterns.

Keywords: veterinary epidemiology, disease surveillance, infodemiology, infoveillance, smallholding, social media, web scraping, sentiment analysis, geolocation, text mining, NLP

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Authors: Christiana Ene Ogwuche, Joseph Amupitan, George Ndukwe, Rachael Ayo

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Maesobotrya barteri (Baill), belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae, is a medicinal plant growing widely in tropical Africa. The Aerial plant parts of Maesobotrya barteri (Baill) were collected fresh from Orokam, Ogbadibo local Government of Benue State, Nigeria in July 2013. Taxonomical identification was done by Mallam Musa Abdullahi at the Herbarium unit of Biological Sciences Department, ABU, Zaria, Nigeria. Pulverized aerial parts of Maesobotrya barteri (960g) was exhaustively extracted successively using petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol and concentrated in the rotary evaporator at 40°C. The Petroleum ether extract had the second highest activity against test microbes from preliminary crude microbial screenings. The Petroleum ether extract was subjected to phytochemical studies, antimicrobial analysis and column chromatography (CC). The column chromatography yielded fraction PE, which was further purified using preparative thin layer chromatography to give PE1. The structure of the isolated compound was established using 1-D NMR and 2-D NMR spectroscopic analysis and by direct comparison with data reported in literature was confirmed to be a mixture, an isomer of Betulinic acid and Oleanolic acid, both with the molecular weight (C₃₀H₄₈O₃). The bioactivity of this compound was carried out using some clinical pathogens and the activity compared with standard drugs, and this was found to be comparable with the standard drug.

Keywords: Maesobotrya barteri, medicinal plant, bioactivity, petroleum spirit extract, butellinic acid, oleanilic acid

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Authors: Kimiyo Shimomai, Mihoko Harada

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This study is a literature review of the psychological reactions that occur in end-of-life cancer patients who are nearing death. It searched electronic databases and selected literature related to psychological studies of end-of-life patients. There was no limit on the search period, and the search was conducted until the second week of December 2021. The keywords were specified as “death and dying”, “terminal illness”, “end-of-life”, “palliative care”, “psycho-oncology” and “research”. These literatures referred to Holly (2017): Comprehensive Systematic Review for Advanced Practice Nursing, P268 Figure 10.3 to ensure quality. These literatures were selected with a dissertation score of 4 or 5. The review was conducted in two stages with reference to the procedure of George (2002). First, these references were searched for keywords in the database, and then relevant references were selected from the psychology and nursing studies of end-of-life patients. The number of literatures analyzed was 76 for overseas and 17 for domestic. As for the independent variables, "physical variable" was the most common in 36 literatures (66.7%), followed by "psychological variable" in 35 literatures (64.8%), "spiritual variable" in 21 literatures (38%), and "social variable" in 17 literatures. (31.5%), "Variables related to medical care / treatment" were 16 literatures (29.6%). To summarize the relationship between these independent variables and the dependent variable, when the dependent variable is "psychological variable", the independent variables are "psychological variable", "social variable", and "physical variable". Among the independent variables, the physical variables were the most common. The psychological responses that occur in end-stage cancer patients who are nearing death are mutually influenced by psychological, social, and physical variables. Therefore, it supported the "total pain" advocated by Cicely Saunders.

Keywords: cancer patient, end-of-life, literature review, psychological process

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Authors: Vadim V. Zefirov, Victor E. Sizov, Marina A. Pigaleva, Igor V. Elmanovich, Mikhail S. Kondratenko, Marat O. Gallyamov

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This work presents a novel method for treating porous hydrophobic polyolefin membranes using supercritical carbon dioxide that allows usage of the modified membrane in redox flow batteries with an aqueous electrolyte. Polyolefin membranes are well known and widely used, however, they cannot be used as separators in redox flow batteries with an aqueous electrolyte since they have insufficient wettability, and therefore do not provide sufficient proton conductivity. The main aim of the presented work was the development of hydrophilic composites based on cheap membranes and precursors. Supercritical fluid was used as a medium for the deposition of the hydrophilic phase on the hydrophobic surface of the membrane. Due to the absence of negative capillary effects in a supercritical medium, a homogeneous composite is obtained as a result of synthesis. The in-situ synthesized silicon oxide nanoparticles and the chitosan polymer layer act as the hydrophilic phase and not only increase the affinity of the membrane towards the electrolyte, but also reduce the pore size of the polymer matrix, which positively affects the ion selectivity of the membrane. The composite material obtained as a result of synthesis has enhanced hydrophilic properties and is capable of providing proton conductivity in redox flow batteries. The morphology of the obtained composites was characterized by electron microscopy. To analyze the phase composition, infrared spectroscopy was used. The hydrophilic properties were studied by water contact angle measurements. In addition, the proton conductivity and ion selectivity of the obtained samples were studied, and tests in real redox flow batteries were performed. As a result, modified membrane was characterised in detail and moreover it was shown that modified cheap polyolefin membranes have pronounced proton conductivity and high ion selectivity, so their performance in a real redox flow battery approaches expensive commercial analogues, reaching 70% of energy efficiency.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, chitosan, polymer membrane, redox flow batteries, silica nanoparticles, supercritical fluid

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Authors: Dalila Lino, Maria Joao Hortas, Carla Rocha, Clarisse Nunes, Natalia Vieira, Marina Fuertes, Kátia Sa

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The value of play is recognized worldwide and is considered a fundamental right of all children, as defined in Article 31 of the United Nations Children’s Rights. It is consensual among the scientific community that play, and toys are of vital importance for children’s learning and development. Play promotes the acquisition of language, enhances creativity and improves social, affective, emotional, cognitive and motor development of young children. Young children ages 0 to 6 who have had many opportunities to get involved in play show greater competence to adapt to new and unexpected situations and more easily overcome the pain and suffering caused by traumatic situations. The PlayTrain Project aims to understand the places/spaces of play in the education of children from 0 to 6 years and promoting the training of preschool teachers to become capable of developing practices that enhance children’s agency, experimentation in the physical and social world and the development of imagination and creativity. This project follows the Design-Based-Research (DBR) and has two dimensions: research and intervention. The participants are 120 students from the Master in Pre-school Education of the Higher School of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon enrolled in the academic year 2018/2019. The development of workshops focused on the role of play and toys for young children’s learning promotes the participants reflection and the development of skills and knowledge to construct developmentally appropriated practices in early childhood education. Data was collected through an online questionnaire and focal groups. Results show that the PlayTrain Project contribute to the development of a body of knowledge about the role of play for early childhood education. It was possible to identify the needs of preschool teacher education and to enhance the discussion among the scientific and academic community about the importance of deepening the role of play and toys in the study plans of the masters in pre-school education.

Keywords: children's learning, early childhood education, play, teacher education, toys

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Authors: Andrej Pilipović, Branislav Kovačević, Marina Milović, Lazar Kesić, Saša Pekeč, Leopold Poljaković-Pajnik, Saša Orlović

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The effect of landfills on the environment reflects in the dispersion of the contaminants on surrounding soils by the groundwater plume. Such negative effect can be mitigated with the establishment of vegetative buffers surrounding landfills. The “TreeRemEnergy” project funded by the Science Fund of Republic of Serbia – Green program focuses on development of phytobuffers for landfill phytoremediation with the use of Short Rotation Woody Crops (SRWC) plantations that can be further used for the biomass for energy. One of the goals of the project is to select most appropriate poplar (Populus sp.) and willow (Salix sp.) clones through phytorecurrent selection that involves testing of various breeding traits. Physiological parameters serve as a significant contribution to the breeding process aimed to early detection of potential candidates. This study involved testing of the effect of the landfill soils on the photosynthetic processes of the selected poplar and willow candidates. For this purpose, measurements of the gas exchange, chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence were measured on the tested plants. Obtained results showed that there were differences in the influence of the controlled sources of variation on examined physiological parameters. The effect of clone was significant in all parameters, while the effect of the substrate was not statistically significant in any of measured parameters. However, the effect of interaction Clone×Substrate was significant in intercellular CO2 concentration(ci), stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration rate (E), suggesting that water regime of the tested clones showed different response to the tested soils. Some clones showed more “generalist” behavior (380, 107/65/9, and PE19/66), while “specialist” behavior was recorded in clones PE4/68, S1-8, and 79/64/2. On the other hand, there was no significant effect of the tested substrate on the pigments content measured with SPAD meter. Results of this study allowed us to narrow the group of clones for further trails in field conditions.

Keywords: clones, net photosynthesis, WUE, transpiration, stomatal conductance, SPAD

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Authors: Takeshi Takemoto, Naoya Suzuki, Naohisa Takagaki, Satoru Komori, Masako Terui, George Truscott

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Drag coefficient is an important parameter in order to correctly estimate the air-sea momentum flux. However, The parameterization of the drag coefficient hasn’t been established due to the variation in the field data. Instead, a number of drag coefficient model formulae have been proposed, even though almost all these models haven’t discussed the extreme wind speed range. With regards to such models, it is unclear how the drag coefficient changes in the extreme wind speed range as the wind speed increased. In this study, we investigated the effect of the drag coefficient models concerning the air-sea momentum flux in the extreme wind range on a global scale, comparing two different drag coefficient models. Interestingly, one model didn’t discuss the extreme wind speed range while the other model considered it. We found that the difference of the models in the annual global air-sea momentum flux was small because the occurrence frequency of strong wind was approximately 1% with a wind speed of 20m/s or more. However, we also discovered that the difference of the models was shown in the middle latitude where the annual mean air-sea momentum flux was large and the occurrence frequency of strong wind was high. In addition, the estimated data showed that the difference of the models in the drag coefficient was large in the extreme wind speed range and that the largest difference became 23% with a wind speed of 35m/s or more. These results clearly show that the difference of the two models concerning the drag coefficient has a significant impact on the estimation of a regional air-sea momentum flux in an extreme wind speed range such as that seen in a tropical cyclone environment. Furthermore, we estimated each air-sea momentum flux using several kinds of drag coefficient models. We will also provide data from an observation tower and result from CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) concerning the influence of wind flow at and around the place.

Keywords: air-sea interaction, drag coefficient, air-sea momentum flux, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)

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Authors: Akumeyam Elvis Akum, Njanjo Thecla Anyongo Mukete, Fonkeng George Epah

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Globally, the goal of higher education is to enhance graduate employability skills. Paradoxically, Cameroon’s graduate employability rate is far below the graduation rate. This worrisome situation caused the researcher to hypothesize that the teaching and learning experiences account for this increasing disparity. The study sought to investigate the effect on graduate employability of the teaching of organizational, problem-solving, innovation, and risk management skills on graduate employability. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a quantitative approach. Data was collected by quantitative techniques from a random sample of 385 graduates using closed-ended structured questionnaire. Generally, findings revealed that entrepreneurship education does not sufficiently enhance graduate employability in the University of Buea. Specifically, the teaching of organizational skills does not significantly enhance their employability, as an average of 55% of graduates indicated that the course did not sufficiently help them develop skills for planning, management of limited resources, collaboration, and the setting of priorities. Also, 60% of the respondents indicated that the teaching of problem-solving skills does not significantly enhance graduate employability at the University of Buea. Contrarily, 57% of the respondents agreed that through their experiences in entrepreneurship education, their innovation skills were improved. The study recommended that a practical approach to teaching should be adopted, with attention to societal needs. A framework to ensure the teaching of entrepreneurship to students at the undergraduate level is recommended, such that those who do not continue with university studies after their Bachelor’s degree would have acquired the needed skills for employability.

Keywords: employability, entrepreneurship education, graduate, innovative skills, organizational skills, problem-solving skills, risk management skills

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Authors: James Ponniah

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Christianity is the largest religious tradition of the world. What makes Christianity a world religion is its characteristics of universality and particularity. Its universality and particularity are closely interrelated. Its university is realized and embodied in its particularities and its particularity is recognized and legitimized through its universality. This paper focuses on the dimension of the particularity of Christianity in that it looks at the particularized ideas and discourses of Christian thinking in India in the 20th century and pays attention to the differing shifts and new shades of meaning in Indian Christian notion of God. Drawing upon the writings of select Indian theologians such as Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, Sundar Sing, A.J Appasamy, Raymond Panikkar, Amalorpavadass and George Soares Prabhhu, this paper delves into how the contexts—be it personal, political, historical or ecclesial—bear upon the way Indian theologians have conceived and constructed the notion of God in their work. Focusing upon how they responded to the signs of their time through their theological narratives, the paper argues that the religion of Christianity can sustain its universality only when it translates its key notions such as God into indigenous categories and local idioms and thus makes itself relevant to the people among whom it is spread. Monotheistic God of Christianity has to accommodate plurality of expressions if Christian idea God has to capture and convey everyone’s experience of God. The case of Indian Christianity then reveals that a monolithic world religion will be experienced and recognised as truly universal only when it sheds its homogeneity and assumes a heterogeneous portrait through the acquisition of local idioms. Allowing culturally diverse idioms to influence theological categories is not inconsequential to—‘accommodating differences and accepting diversities,’ an issue we encounter within and beyond religious domains in our contemporary times.

Keywords: concept of God, heterogeneity, Indian Christianity, indigenous categories

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Authors: Mandlenkosi George Robert Mahlobo, Tumelo Seadira, Major Melusi Mabuza, Peter Apata Olubambi

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Cathodic protection (CP) has been widely considered a suitable technique for mitigating corrosion of buried metal structures. Plenty of efforts have been made in developing techniques, in particular non-destructive techniques, for monitoring and quantifying the effectiveness of CP to ensure the sustainability and performance of buried steel structures. The aim of this study was to investigate the evolution of the electrochemical processes at the steel/soil interface during the application of CP on steel in simulated soil. Carbon steel was subjected to electrochemical tests with NS4 solution used as simulated soil conditions for 4 days before applying CP for a further 11 days. A previously modified non-destructive voltammetry technique was applied before and after the application of CP to measure the corrosion rate. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), in combination with mathematical modeling through equivalent electric circuits, was applied to determine the electrochemical behavior at the steel/soil interface. The measured corrosion rate was found to have decreased from 410 µm/yr to 8 µm/yr between days 5 and 14 because of the applied CP. Equivalent electrical circuits were successfully constructed and used to adequately model the EIS results. The modeling of the obtained EIS results revealed the formation of corrosion products via a mixed activation-diffusion mechanism during the first 4 days, while the activation mechanism prevailed in the presence of CP, resulting in a protective film. The x-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of corrosion products and the predominant protective film corresponding to the calcareous deposit.

Keywords: carbon steel, cathodic protection, NS4 solution, voltammetry, EIS

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: George Mahalu

Abstract:

The Chua diode has been configured over time in various ways, using electronic structures like as operational amplifiers (OAs) or devices with gas or semiconductors. When discussing the use of semiconductor devices, tunnel diodes (Esaki diodes) are most often considered, and more recently, transistorized configurations such as lambda diodes. The paper-work proposed here uses in the modeling a lambda diode type configuration consisting of two Junction Field Effect Transistors (JFET). The original scheme is created in the MULTISIM electronic simulation environment and is analyzed in order to identify the conditions for the appearance of evolutionary unpredictability specific to nonlinear dynamic systems with chaos-induced behavior. The chaotic deterministic oscillator is one autonomous type, a fact that places it in the class of Chua’s type oscillators, the only significant and most important difference being the presence of a nonlinear device like the one mentioned structure above. The chaotic behavior is identified both by means of strange attractor-type trajectories and visible during the simulation and by highlighting the hypersensitivity of the system to small variations of one of the input parameters. The results obtained through simulation and the conclusions drawn are useful in the further research of ways to implement such constructive electronic solutions in theoretical and practical applications related to modern small signal amplification structures, to systems for encoding and decoding messages through various modern ways of communication, as well as new structures that can be imagined both in modern neural networks and in those for the physical implementation of some requirements imposed by current research with the aim of obtaining practically usable solutions in quantum computing and quantum computers.

Keywords: chaos, lambda diode, strange attractor, nonlinear system

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Authors: Einav Srulovici, Michal Grinstein-Weiss, George Knafl, Linda Beeber, Shawn Kneipp, Barbara Mark

Abstract:

Background: The asset-building theoretical framework (ABTF) is acknowledged as the most complete framework thus far for depicting the relationships between asset accumulation (the stock of a household’s saved resources available for future investment) and health outcomes. Although the ABTF takes into consideration the reciprocal relationship between asset accumulation and health, no ABTF based study has yet examined this relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the ABTF and psychological distress, focusing on the reciprocal relationship between assets accumulation and psychological distress. Methods: The study employed longitudinal data from 6,295 families from the 2001 and 2007 Panel Study of Income Dynamics data sets. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the reciprocal relationship between asset accumulation and psychological distress. Results: In general, the data displayed a good fit to the model. The longitudinal SEM found that asset accumulation significantly increased with a decreased in psychological distress over time, while psychological distress significantly increased with an increase in asset accumulation over time, confirming the existence of the hypothesized reciprocal relationship. Conclusions: Individuals who are less psychological distressed might have more energy to engage in activities, such as furthering their education or obtaining better jobs that are in turn associated with greater asset accumulation, while those who have greater assets may invest those assets in riskier investments, resulting in increased psychological distress. The confirmation of this reciprocal relationship highlights the importance of conducting longitudinal studies and testing the reciprocal relationship between asset accumulation and other health outcomes.

Keywords: asset-building theoretical framework, psychological distress, structural equation modeling, reciprocal relationship

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Authors: Marina Arino Martin, John McEvoy, Eakalak Khan

Abstract:

Endoxifen is an active metabolite responsible for the effectiveness of tamoxifen, a chemotherapeutic drug widely used for endocrine responsive breast cancer and chemo-preventive long-term treatment. Tamoxifen and endoxifen are not completely metabolized in human body and are actively excreted. As a result, they are released to the water environment via wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The presence of tamoxifen in the environment produces negative effects on aquatic lives due to its antiestrogenic activity. Because endoxifen is 30-100 times more potent than tamoxifen itself and also presents antiestrogenic activity, its presence in the water environment could result in even more toxic effects on aquatic lives compared to tamoxifen. Data on actual concentrations of endoxifen in the environment is limited due to recent discovery of endoxifen pharmaceutical activity. However, endoxifen has been detected in hospital and municipal wastewater effluents. The detection of endoxifen in wastewater effluents questions the treatment efficiency of WWTPs. Studies reporting information about endoxifen removal in WWTPs are also scarce. There was a study that used chlorination to eliminate endoxifen in wastewater. However, an inefficient degradation of endoxifen by chlorination and the production of hazardous disinfection by-products were observed. Therefore, there is a need to remove endoxifen from wastewater prior to chlorination in order to reduce the potential release of endoxifen into the environment and its possible effects. The aim of this research is to isolate and identify bacteria strain(s) capable of degrading endoxifen into less hazardous compound(s). For this purpose, bacteria strains from WWTPs were exposed to endoxifen as a sole carbon and nitrogen source for 40 days. Bacteria presenting positive growth were isolated and tested for endoxifen biodegradation. Endoxifen concentration and by-product formation were monitored. The Monod kinetic model was used to determine endoxifen biodegradation rate. Preliminary results of the study suggest that isolated bacteria from WWTPs are able to growth in presence of endoxifen as a sole carbon and nitrogen source. Ongoing work includes identification of these bacteria strains and by-product(s) of endoxifen biodegradation.

Keywords: biodegradation, bacterial degraders, endoxifen, wastewater

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Authors: Iman A. Saad, Loay E. George

Abstract:

Iris pattern is an important biological feature of human body; it becomes very hot topic in both research and practical applications. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for iris recognition and a simple, efficient and fast method is introduced to extract a set of discriminatory features using first order gradient operator applied on grayscale images. The gradient based features are robust, up to certain extents, against the variations may occur in contrast or brightness of iris image samples; the variations are mostly occur due lightening differences and camera changes. At first, the iris region is located, after that it is remapped to a rectangular area of size 360x60 pixels. Also, a new method is proposed for detecting eyelash and eyelid points; it depends on making image statistical analysis, to mark the eyelash and eyelid as a noise points. In order to cover the features localization (variation), the rectangular iris image is partitioned into N overlapped sub-images (blocks); then from each block a set of different average directional gradient densities values is calculated to be used as texture features vector. The applied gradient operators are taken along the horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions. The low order norms of gradient components were used to establish the feature vector. Euclidean distance based classifier was used as a matching metric for determining the degree of similarity between the features vector extracted from the tested iris image and template features vectors stored in the database. Experimental tests were performed using 2639 iris images from CASIA V4-Interival database, the attained recognition accuracy has reached up to 99.92%.

Keywords: iris recognition, contrast stretching, gradient features, texture features, Euclidean metric

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Authors: Paridhi Agarwal, Kusum M. George

Abstract:

A cynic is someone upset about the future prematurely. In today’s highly competitive workplace, cynicism has become a prominent concern. It is a controversial issue that brings about psychological disengagement and antagonism towards the management. In organizational sciences, scientific investigation of this negative work behavior is lacking, and so there is no universal definition so far. But most commonly, Organizational Cynicism (OC) has been characterized as an unfavorable attitude towards the organization, encompassing a belief that the organization has low integrity, negative affect, and depreciative behavioral tendencies. Given its prevalence, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on OC. This research examines the predictability of OC from two factors- Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) among millennials in India as well as identify contradictions in today’s scenario. Standardized Organizational Cynicism Scale comprising of three components, Perceived Organizational Support Questionnaire and Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Test are used on a convenient sample of 104 corporate sector employees in the age range 22-35 years. Correlation test elucidated the relationships, and regression analysis revealed the level of influence of the above variables on OC. Surprisingly, Emotional-Social Awareness had stronger relationships with all dimensions of OC in males as compared to females. It was also seen that EI and POS, together with predicted OC, but separately, only POS accounted for variability in OC, and this impact was much stronger for males, implying that there are other important factors that make females cynical at work. Thus, the over-emphasis on EI training for the millennial generation has also been challenged in this study. It can be said that there are avertible preconditions to the negative attitude- OC. This research has important managerial implications in areas of recruitment, training, and organizational environment.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, millennials, organizational cynicism, perceived organizational support.

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Authors: George Vernon Byrd, Bhim Bahadur Ghaley, Eri Hayashi

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In urban farming, research and innovation are taking place at an unprecedented pace, and soilless growing technologies are emerging at different rates motivated by different objectives in various parts of the world. Local food production is ultimately a main objective everywhere, but adoption rates and expressions vary with socio-economic drivers. Herein, the status of hydroponics and aquaponics is summarized for four countries with diverse socio-economic settings: Europe (Denmark), Asia (Japan and Nepal) and North America (US). In Denmark, with a strong environmental ethic, soilless growing is increasing in urban agriculture because it is considered environmentally friendly. In Japan, soil-based farming is being replaced with commercial plant factories using advanced technology such as complete environmental control and computer monitoring. In Nepal, where rapid loss of agriculture land is occurring near cities, dozens of hydroponics and aquaponics systems have been built in the past decade, particularly in “non-traditional” sites such as roof tops to supplement family food. In the US, where there is also strong interest in locally grown fresh food, backyard and commercial systems have proliferated. Nevertheless, soilless growing is still in the research and development and early adopter stages, and the broad contribution of hydroponics and aquaponics to food security is yet to be fully determined. Nevertheless, current adoption of these technologies in diverse environments in different socio-economic settings highlights the potential contribution to food security with social and environmental benefits which contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: aquaponics, hydroponics, soilless agriculture, urban agriculture

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Authors: George-Anokwuru Chioma Chidinma Bernadette

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This paper investigated the effect of trade liberalization on domestic private investment in Nigeria from 1981 to 2020. To achieve this objective, secondary data on domestic private investment, trade openness, exchange rate and interest rate were sourced from the statistical bulletin of Nigeria’s apex bank. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique was used as the main analytical tool. The ARDL Bounds test revealed the existence of long run association among the variables. The results revealed that trade openness and exchange rate have positive and insignificant relationship with domestic private investment both in the long and short runs. At the same time, interest rate has negative relationship with domestic private investment both in the long and short runs. Therefore, it was concluded that there is no significant relationship between trade openness, exchange rate, interest rate and domestic private investment in Nigeria during the period of study. Based on the findings, the study recommended that government should formulate trade policies that will encourage the growth of domestic private investment in Nigeria. To achieve this, government should ensure consistency in trade policies and at the same time strengthen the existing policies to build investors’ confidence. Also, government should make available an investment-friendly environment, as well as monitor real sector operators to ensure that foreign exchange allocations are not diverted. Government should increase capital investment in education, housing, transportation, agriculture, health, power, road construction, national defense, among others that will help the various sectors of the economy to function very well thereby making the business environment friendly thereby enhancing the growth and development of the country.

Keywords: trade openness, domestic private investment, ARDL, exchange rate

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Authors: Marina Shurupova, Victor Anisimov, Alexander Latanov

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Background: The cerebellar lesions inevitably provoke oculomotor impairments in patients of different age. Symptoms of subtentorial tumors, particularly medulloblastomas, include static and dynamic coordination disorders (ataxia, asynergia, imbalance), hypo-muscle tonus, disruption of the cranial nerves, and within the oculomotor system - nystagmus (fine or gross). Subtentorial tumors can also affect the areas of cerebellum that control the oculomotor system. The noninvasive eye-tracking technology allows obtaining multiple oculomotor characteristics such as the number of fixations and their duration, amplitude, latency and velocity of saccades, trajectory and scan path of gaze during the process of the visual field navigation. Eye tracking could be very useful in clinical studies serving as convenient and effective tool for diagnostics. The aim: We studied the dynamics of oculomotor system functioning in patients undergoing remission from cerebellar tumors removal surgeries and following neurocognitive rehabilitation. Methods: 38 children (23 boys, 15 girls, 9-17 years old) that have recovered from the cerebellar tumor-removal surgeries, radiation therapy and chemotherapy and were undergoing course of neurocognitive rehabilitation participated in the study. Two tests were carried out to evaluate oculomotor performance - gaze stability test and counting test. The monocular eye movements were recorded with eye tracker ArringtonResearch (60 Hz). Two experimental sessions with both tests were conducted before and after rehabilitation courses. Results: Within the final session of both tests we observed remarkable improvement in oculomotor performance: 1) in the gaze stability test the spread of gaze positions significantly declined compared to the first session, and 2) the visual path in counting test significantly shortened both compared to the first session. Thus, neurocognitive rehabilitation improved the functioning of the oculomotor system in patients following the cerebellar tumor removal surgeries and subsequent therapy. Conclusions: The experimental data support the effectiveness of the utilization of the eye tracking technique as diagnostic tool in the field of neurooncology.

Keywords: eye tracking, rehabilitation, cerebellar tumors, oculomotor system

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Authors: Raquel Galante, Marina Braga, Daniela Ghisleni, Terezinha J. A. Pinto, Rogério Colaço, Ana Paula Serro

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The sensitive nature of soft biomaterials, such as hydrogels, renders their sterilization a particularly challenging task for the biomedical industry. Widely used contact lenses are now studied as promising platforms for topical corneal drug delivery. However, to the best of the authors knowledge, the influence of sterilization methods on these systems has yet to be evaluated. The main goal of this study was to understand how different pairs drug-hydrogel would interact under an ozone-based sterilization method in comparison with two conventional processes (steam heat and gamma irradiation). For that, Si-Hy containing hydroxylethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and [tris(trimethylsiloxy)silyl]propyl methacrylate (TRIS) was produced and soaked in different drug solutions, commonly used for the treatment of ocular diseases (levofloxacin, chlorhexidine, diclofenac and timolol maleate). The drug release profiles and main material properties were evaluated before and after the sterilization. Namely, swelling capacity was determined by water uptake studies, transparency was accessed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, surface topography/morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical properties by performing tensile tests. The drug released was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effectiveness of the sterilization procedures was assured by performing sterility tests. Ozone gas method led to a significant reduction of drug released and to the formation of degradation products specially for diclofenac and levofloxacin. Gamma irradiation led to darkening of the loaded Si-Hys and to the complete degradation of levofloxacin. Steam heat led to smoother surfaces and to a decrease of the amount of drug released, however, with no formation of degradation products. This difference in the total drug released could be the related to drug/polymer interactions promoted by the sterilization conditions in presence of the drug. Our findings offer important insights that, in turn, could be a useful contribution to the safe development of actual products.

Keywords: drug delivery, silicone hydrogels, sterilization, gamma irradiation, steam heat, ozone gas

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Authors: Ramasamy Tamizhselvi, Leema George, Madhav Bhatia

Abstract:

We have earlier shown that mouse pancreatic acinar cells produce hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and play a role in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. This study is to determine the effect of H2S on TLR4 mediated innate immune signaling in acute pancreatitis via substance P (SP). Male Swiss mice were treated with hourly intraperitoneal injection of caerulein (50μg/kg) for 10 hour. DL-propargylglycine (PAG) (100 mg/kg i.p.), an inhibitor of H2S formation was administered 1h after the induction of acute pancreatitis. Pancreatic acinar cells from male Swiss mice were incubated with or without caerulein (10–7 M for 60 min) and CP-96345 (NK1R inhibitor). To better understand the effect of H2S in inflammation, acinar cells were stimulated with caerulein after addition of H2S donor, NaHS. In addition, caerulein treated pancreatic acinar cells were pretreated with PAG (30 µM), for 1h. H2S inhibitor, PAG, eliminated TLR4, IRAK4, TRAF6 and NF-kB levels in an in vitro and in vivo model of caerulein-induced acute pancreatitis. PPTA gene deletion reduced TLR4, MyD88, IRAK4, TRAF6, adhesion molecules and NF-kB in caerulein treated pancreatic acinar cells whereas administration of NaHS resulted in further rise in TLR4 and NF-kB levels in caerulein treated pancreatic acinar cells. In addition, acini isolated from mice and treated with PPTA gene receptor NK1R antagonist CP96345 did not exhibit further increase in TLR4, IRAK4, TRAF6, adhesion molecules and NF-kB levels after NaHS pretreatment. The present findings show for the first time that in acute pancreatitis, H2S up-regulates TLR4 pathway and NF-kB via substance P.

Keywords: preprotachykinin-A gene, H2S, TLR4, acute pancreatitis

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