Search results for: facial palsy
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 328

Search results for: facial palsy

88 Crossbite Unilateral Correction Using Transpalatal Arch with Extension Arm Modification

Authors: Hanifa Maryani Ahmad, Muslim Yusuf

Abstract:

Background: Unilateral crossbite can be defined as an abnormal transverse relationship between the upper and lower teeth where the mandibular buccal cusp occluding to the maxillary buccal cusp and which involves only one side of the arch. This report describes the treatment of an adolescent female with Class III malocclussion unilateral crossbite resulting from a mildly constricted maxillary arch. The patient had a Class III skeletal relationship, Class III molar relationships, unilateral crossbite on the left side, and deviated midlines. Objectives: The treatment objectives were to correct the abnormal transverse relationship, achieve proper dental inclination, and correct the unilateral crossbites to improve the facial profile. Case management: The treatment protocol was using transpalatal arch with extension arm modification to expand the maxillary arch. Following the levelling and aligning stage of treatment, using a vertical loop while mandibular arch was expanded after getting an end to end relationship on the anterior side. Results: Corrections of the unilateral crossbite were achieved in 4 months. The treatment is still on process because the canines relationship were not corrected. Conclusions: This report highlights a treatment using transpalatal arch with extension arm modification that can be used to expand the transverse width of an arch to correct the discrepancy. Even though the treatment processes were still ongoing, the correction of the unilateral crossbite have been achieved in 4 months by only using the transpalatal arch.

Keywords: crossbite unilateral, late growing, non-extraction, transpalatal arch

Procedia PDF Downloads 193
87 Electrical Properties of Cement-Based Piezoelectric Nanoparticles

Authors: Moustafa Shawkey, Ahmed G. El-Deen, H. M. Mahmoud, M. M. Rashad

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Piezoelectric based cement nanocomposite is a promising technology for generating an electric charge upon mechanical stress of concrete structure. Moreover, piezoelectric nanomaterials play a vital role for providing accurate system of structural health monitoring (SHM) of the concrete structure. In light of increasing awareness of environmental protection and energy crises, generating renewable and green energy form cement based on piezoelectric nanomaterials attracts the attention of the researchers. Herein, we introduce a facial synthesis for bismuth ferrite nanoparticles (BiFeO3 NPs) as piezoelectric nanomaterial via sol gel strategy. The fabricated piezoelectric nanoparticles are uniformly distributed to cement-based nanomaterials with different ratios. The morphological shape was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) as well as the crystal structure has been confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The ferroelectric and magnetic behaviours of BiFeO3 NPs have been investigated. Then, dielectric constant for the prepared cement samples nanocomposites (εr) is calculated. Intercalating BiFeO3 NPs into cement materials achieved remarkable results as piezoelectric cement materials, distinct enhancement in ferroelectric and magnetic properties. Overall, this present study introduces an effective approach to improve the electrical properties based cement applications.

Keywords: piezoelectric nanomaterials, cement technology, bismuth ferrite nanoparticles, dielectric

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86 Improvement of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Properties by Controlling the Water Flow in the Interfacial Transition Zone

Authors: M. Eckert, M. Oliveira, A. Bettencourt Ribeiro

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The intensive use of natural aggregate, near the towns, associated to the increase of the global population, leads to its depletion and increases the transport distances. The uncontrolled deposition of construction and demolition waste in landfills and city outskirts, causes pollution and take up space for noblest purposes. The main problem of recycled aggregate lies in its high water absorption, what is due to the porosity of the materials which constitute this type of aggregate. When the aggregates are dry, water flows from the inside to the engaging cement paste matrix, and when they are saturated an inverse process occurs. This water flow breaks the aggregate-cement paste bonds and the greater water concentration, in the inter-facial transition zone, degrades the concrete properties in its fresh and hardened state. Based on the water absorption over time, it was optimized an staged mixing method, to regulate the said flow and manufacture recycled aggregate concrete with levels of work-ability, strength and shrinkage equivalent to those of conventional concrete.The physical, mechanical and geometrical properties of the aggregates where related to the properties of concrete in its fresh and hardened state. Three types of commercial recycled aggregates and two types of natural aggregates where evaluated. Six compositions with different percentages of recycled coarse aggregate where tested.

Keywords: recycled aggregate, water absorption, interfacial transition zone, compressive-strength, shrinkage

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85 A Comparative Study on the Dimensional Error of 3D CAD Model and SLS RP Model for Reconstruction of Cranial Defect

Authors: L. Siva Rama Krishna, Sriram Venkatesh, M. Sastish Kumar, M. Uma Maheswara Chary

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Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyse the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.

Keywords: rapid prototyping, selective laser sintering, cranial defect, dimensional error

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84 The Application of Sensory Integration Techniques in Science Teaching Students with Autism

Authors: Joanna Estkowska

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The Sensory Integration Method is aimed primarily at children with learning disabilities. It can also be used as a complementary method in treatment of children with cerebral palsy, autistic, mentally handicapped, blind and deaf. Autism is holistic development disorder that manifests itself in the specific functioning of a child. The most characteristic are: disorders in communication, difficulties in social relations, rigid patterns of behavior and impairment in sensory processing. In addition to these disorders may occur abnormal intellectual development, attention deficit disorders, perceptual disorders and others. This study was focused on the application sensory integration techniques in science education of autistic students. The lack of proper sensory integration causes problems with complicated processes such as motor coordination, movement planning, visual or auditory perception, speech, writing, reading or counting. Good functioning and cooperation of proprioceptive, tactile and vestibular sense affect the child’s mastery of skills that require coordination of both sides of the body and synchronization of the cerebral hemispheres. These include, for example, all sports activities, precise manual skills such writing, as well as, reading and counting skills. All this takes place in stages. Achieving skills from the first stage determines the development of fitness from the next level. Any deficit in the scope of the first three stages can affect the development of new skills. This ultimately reflects on the achievements at school and in further professional and personal life. After careful analysis symptoms from the emotional and social spheres appear to be secondary to deficits of sensory integration. During our research, the students gained knowledge and skills in the classroom of experience by learning biology, chemistry and physics with application sensory integration techniques. Sensory integration therapy aims to teach the child an adequate response to stimuli coming to him from both the outside world and the body. Thanks to properly selected exercises, a child can improve perception and interpretation skills, motor skills, coordination of movements, attention and concentration or self-awareness, as well as social and emotional functioning.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, science education, sensory integration, special educational needs

Procedia PDF Downloads 157
83 Predicting Response to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis Using Machine Learning and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Authors: Eva Tolmeijer, Emmanuelle Peters, Veena Kumari, Liam Mason

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Cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is effective in many but not all patients, making it important to better understand the factors that determine treatment outcomes. To date, no studies have examined whether neuroimaging can make clinically useful predictions about who will respond to CBTp. To this end, we used machine learning methods that make predictions about symptom improvement at the individual patient level. Prior to receiving CBTp, 22 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia completed a social-affective processing task during functional MRI. Multivariate pattern analysis assessed whether treatment response could be predicted by brain activation responses to facial affect that was either socially threatening or prosocial. The resulting models did significantly predict symptom improvement, with distinct multivariate signatures predicting psychotic (r=0.54, p=0.01) and affective (r=0.32, p=0.05) symptoms. Psychotic symptom improvement was accurately predicted from relatively focal threat-related activation across hippocampal, occipital, and temporal regions; affective symptom improvement was predicted by a more dispersed profile of responses to prosocial affect. These findings enrich our understanding of the neurobiological underpinning of treatment response. This study provides a foundation that will hopefully lead to greater precision and tailoring of the interventions offered to patients.

Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy, machine learning, psychosis, schizophrenia

Procedia PDF Downloads 256
82 Reduction of the Number of Traffic Accidents by Function of Driver's Anger Detection

Authors: Masahiro Miyaji

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When a driver happens to be involved in some traffic congestion or after traffic incidents, the driver may fall in a state of anger. State of anger may encounter decisive risk resulting in severer traffic accidents. Preventive safety function using driver’s psychosomatic state with regard to anger may be one of solutions which would avoid that kind of risks. Identifying driver’s anger state is important to create countermeasures to prevent the risk of traffic accidents. As a first step, this research figured out root cause of traffic incidents by means of using Internet survey. From statistical analysis of the survey, dominant psychosomatic states immediately before traffic incidents were haste, distraction, drowsiness and anger. Then, we replicated anger state of a driver while driving, and then, replicated it by means of using driving simulator on bench test basis. Six types of facial expressions including anger were introduced as alternative characteristics. Kohonen neural network was adopted to classify anger state. Then, we created a methodology to detect anger state of a driver in high accuracy. We presented a driving support safety function. The function adapts driver’s anger state in cooperation with an autonomous driving unit to reduce the number of traffic accidents. Consequently, e evaluated reduction rate of driver’s anger in the traffic accident. To validate the estimation results, we referred the reduction rate of Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV) as well as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

Keywords: Kohonen neural network, driver’s anger state, reduction of traffic accidents, driver’s state adaptive driving support safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 332
81 Language on Skin Whitening Products in Pakistan Promotes Unfair Beauty Standards: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Authors: Azeem Alphonce

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In Pakistan, there is a variety of skin tones and colors across all provinces. However, a fair complexion is one of the standards of beauty among females in Pakistan, which creates insecurities in dark-complexioned females. This research is a critical discourse analysis of the language used on beauty products for females in Pakistan. The purpose was to analyze the language used on female beauty products using Van Dijk's three-stage socio-cognitive model to understand what message is received from the few words written and repeated across the packaging of various facial products, why such language is used and what are its wider socio-cognitive effects? The criterion for the selection of beauty products was skin whitening terminologies and the language used on these products. The results showed that over 57 per cent of products utilized skin-whitening terms. The adjectives written on the package indicate that fairer skin is the ultimate beauty goal of females. The analysis explored how the language reinforces unfair beauty standards and perpetuates colorism. It was concluded that female beauty products utilize discriminatory discourse by marginalizing individuals of darker skin tones. Fairer skin is promoted, whereas darker skin is referred to as a problem, flaw or imperfection. Socially shared mental models seem to have caused beauty companies to exploit and promote perceptions of colorism in society. Therefore, such discourse should be prevented, and beauty companies should utilize their discourse to promote acceptance of various skin tones.

Keywords: language, skin whitening products, beauty standards, social mental models

Procedia PDF Downloads 44
80 The Effect of Heart Rate and Valence of Emotions on Perceived Intensity of Emotion

Authors: Madeleine Nicole G. Bernardo, Katrina T. Feliciano, Marcelo Nonato A. Nacionales III, Diane Frances M. Peralta, Denise Nicole V. Profeta

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This study aims to find out if heart rate variability and valence of emotion have an effect on perceived intensity of emotion. Psychology undergraduates (N = 60) from the University of the Philippines Diliman were shown 10 photographs from the Japanese Female Facial Expression (JAFFE) Database, along with a corresponding questionnaire with a Likert scale on perceived intensity of emotion. In this 3 x 2 mixed subjects factorial design, each group was either made to do a simple exercise prior to answering the questionnaire in order to increase the heart rate, listen to a heart rate of 120 bpm, or colour a drawing to keep the heart rate stable. After doing the activity, the participants then answered the questionnaire, providing a rating of the faces according to the participants’ perceived emotional intensity on the photographs. The photographs presented were either of positive or negative emotional valence. The results of the experiment showed that neither an induced fast heart rate or perceived fast heart rate had any significant effect on the participants’ perceived intensity of emotion. There was also no interaction effect of heart rate variability and valence of emotion. The insignificance of results was explained by the Philippines’ high context culture, accompanied by the prevalence of both intensely valenced positive and negative emotions in Philippine society. Insignificance in the effects were also attributed to the Cannon-Bard theory, Schachter-Singer theory and various methodological limitations.

Keywords: heart rate variability, perceived intensity of emotion, Philippines , valence of emotion

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79 Effectiveness of the Lacey Assessment of Preterm Infants to Predict Neuromotor Outcomes of Premature Babies at 12 Months Corrected Age

Authors: Thanooja Naushad, Meena Natarajan, Tushar Vasant Kulkarni

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Background: The Lacey Assessment of Preterm Infants (LAPI) is used in clinical practice to identify premature babies at risk of neuromotor impairments, especially cerebral palsy. This study attempted to find the validity of the Lacey assessment of preterm infants to predict neuromotor outcomes of premature babies at 12 months corrected age and to compare its predictive ability with the brain ultrasound. Methods: This prospective cohort study included 89 preterm infants (45 females and 44 males) born below 35 weeks gestation who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of a government hospital in Dubai. Initial assessment was done using the Lacey assessment after the babies reached 33 weeks postmenstrual age. Follow up assessment on neuromotor outcomes was done at 12 months (± 1 week) corrected age using two standardized outcome measures, i.e., infant neurological international battery and Alberta infant motor scale. Brain ultrasound data were collected retrospectively. Data were statistically analyzed, and the diagnostic accuracy of the Lacey assessment of preterm infants (LAPI) was calculated -when used alone and in combination with the brain ultrasound. Results: On comparison with brain ultrasound, the Lacey assessment showed superior specificity (96% vs. 77%), higher positive predictive value (57% vs. 22%), and higher positive likelihood ratio (18 vs. 3) to predict neuromotor outcomes at one year of age. The sensitivity of Lacey assessment was lower than brain ultrasound (66% vs. 83%), whereas specificity was similar (97% vs. 98%). A combination of Lacey assessment and brain ultrasound results showed higher sensitivity (80%), positive (66%), and negative (98%) predictive values, positive likelihood ratio (24), and test accuracy (95%) than Lacey assessment alone in predicting neurological outcomes. The negative predictive value of the Lacey assessment was similar to that of its combination with brain ultrasound (96%). Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that the Lacey assessment of preterm infants can be used as a supplementary assessment tool for premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Due to its high specificity, Lacey assessment can be used to identify those babies at low risk of abnormal neuromotor outcomes at a later age. When used along with the findings of the brain ultrasound, Lacey assessment has better sensitivity to identify preterm babies at particular risk. These findings have applications in identifying premature babies who may benefit from early intervention services.

Keywords: brain ultrasound, lacey assessment of preterm infants, neuromotor outcomes, preterm

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78 Speech Detection Model Based on Deep Neural Networks Classifier for Speech Emotions Recognition

Authors: A. Shoiynbek, K. Kozhakhmet, P. Menezes, D. Kuanyshbay, D. Bayazitov

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Speech emotion recognition has received increasing research interest all through current years. There was used emotional speech that was collected under controlled conditions in most research work. Actors imitating and artificially producing emotions in front of a microphone noted those records. There are four issues related to that approach, namely, (1) emotions are not natural, and it means that machines are learning to recognize fake emotions. (2) Emotions are very limited by quantity and poor in their variety of speaking. (3) There is language dependency on SER. (4) Consequently, each time when researchers want to start work with SER, they need to find a good emotional database on their language. In this paper, we propose the approach to create an automatic tool for speech emotion extraction based on facial emotion recognition and describe the sequence of actions of the proposed approach. One of the first objectives of the sequence of actions is a speech detection issue. The paper gives a detailed description of the speech detection model based on a fully connected deep neural network for Kazakh and Russian languages. Despite the high results in speech detection for Kazakh and Russian, the described process is suitable for any language. To illustrate the working capacity of the developed model, we have performed an analysis of speech detection and extraction from real tasks.

Keywords: deep neural networks, speech detection, speech emotion recognition, Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients, collecting speech emotion corpus, collecting speech emotion dataset, Kazakh speech dataset

Procedia PDF Downloads 74
77 Functional Performance Needs of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Authors: Noor Taleb Ismael, Areej Abd Al Kareem Al Titi, Ala'a Fayez Jaber

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Objectives: To investigate self-perceived functional performance among adults with IDD who are Jordanian residential care and rehabilitation centers residents. Also, to investigate their functional abilities (i.e., motor, and cognitive). In addition, to determine the motor and cognitive predictors of their functional performance. Methods: The study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive design; the sample included 180 individuals with IDD (90 males and 90 females) aged 18 to 75 years. The inclusion criteria encompassed: 1) Adults with a confirmed IDD by their physician’s professional and 2) residents in Jordanian Residential Care and Rehabilitation Centers affiliated with the Jordanian Ministry of Social Development. The exclusion criteria were: 1) bedridden or totally dependent on their care providers; 2) who had an accident or acquired neurological conditions. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews to complete the outcome measures that include the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), and the sociodemographic questionnaire. Data analyses consisted of descriptive statistics, analysis of frequencies, correlation, and regression analyses. Result: Individuals with IDD showed low functional performance in all daily life areas, including self-care, productivity, and leisure; there was severe cognitive impairment and poor independence and functional performance. (COPM Performance M= 1.433, SD±.57021, COPM Satisfaction M= 1.31, SD±.54, FIM M= 3.673, SD± 1.7918). Two predictive models were validated for the COPM performance and FIM total scores. First, significant predictors of high self-perceived functional performance on COPM were high scores on FIM Motor sub scores, FIM cognitive sub scores, young age, and having a high school educational level (R2=0.603, p=0.012). Second, significant predictors of high functional capacity on FIM were a high score on the COPM performance subscale, a high MMSE score, and having a cerebral palsy (CP) diagnosis (R2=0.671, p<0.001). Conclusions: Evaluating functional performance and associated factors is important in rehabilitation to provide better services and improve health and QoL for individuals with IDD. This study suggested conducting future studies targeting integrated individuals with IDD who live with their families in the communities.

Keywords: functional performance, intellectual and developmental disabilty, cognitive abilities, motor abilities

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76 Thermography Evaluation on Facial Temperature Recovery after Elastic Gum

Authors: A. Dionísio, L. Roseiro, J. Fonseca, P. Nicolau

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Thermography is a non-radiating and contact-free technology which can be used to monitor skin temperature. The efficiency and safety of thermography technology make it a useful tool for detecting and locating thermal changes in skin surface, characterized by increases or decreases in temperature. This work intends to be a contribution for the use of thermography as a methodology for evaluation of skin temperature in the context of orofacial biomechanics. The study aims to identify the oscillations of skin temperature in the left and right hemiface regions of the masseter muscle, during and after thermal stimulus, and estimate the time required to restore the initial temperature after the application of the stimulus. Using a FLIR T430sc camera, a data acquisition protocol was followed with a group of eight volunteers, aged between 22 and 27 years. The tests were performed in a controlled environment with the volunteers in a comfortably static position. The thermal stimulus involves the use of an ice volume with controlled size and contact surface. The skin surface temperature was recorded in two distinct situations, namely without further stimulus and with the additions of a stimulus obtained by a chewing gum. The data obtained were treated using FLIR Research IR Max software. The time required to recover the initial temperature ranged from 20 to 52 minutes when no stimulus was added and varied between 8 and 26 minutes with the chewing gum stimulus. These results show that recovery is faster with the addition of the stimulus and may guide clinicians regarding the pre and post-operative times with ice therapy, in the presence or absence of mechanical stimulus that increases muscle functions (e.g. phonetics or mastication).

Keywords: thermography, orofacial biomechanics, skin temperature, ice therapy

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75 Evaluation of Residual Stresses in Human Face as a Function of Growth

Authors: M. A. Askari, M. A. Nazari, P. Perrier, Y. Payan

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Growth and remodeling of biological structures have gained lots of attention over the past decades. Determining the response of living tissues to mechanical loads is necessary for a wide range of developing fields such as prosthetics design or computerassisted surgical interventions. It is a well-known fact that biological structures are never stress-free, even when externally unloaded. The exact origin of these residual stresses is not clear, but theoretically, growth is one of the main sources. Extracting body organ’s shapes from medical imaging does not produce any information regarding the existing residual stresses in that organ. The simplest cause of such stresses is gravity since an organ grows under its influence from birth. Ignoring such residual stresses might cause erroneous results in numerical simulations. Accounting for residual stresses due to tissue growth can improve the accuracy of mechanical analysis results. This paper presents an original computational framework based on gradual growth to determine the residual stresses due to growth. To illustrate the method, we apply it to a finite element model of a healthy human face reconstructed from medical images. The distribution of residual stress in facial tissues is computed, which can overcome the effect of gravity and maintain tissues firmness. Our assumption is that tissue wrinkles caused by aging could be a consequence of decreasing residual stress and thus not counteracting gravity. Taking into account these stresses seems therefore extremely important in maxillofacial surgery. It would indeed help surgeons to estimate tissues changes after surgery.

Keywords: finite element method, growth, residual stress, soft tissue

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74 Automated Video Surveillance System for Detection of Suspicious Activities during Academic Offline Examination

Authors: G. Sandhya Devi, G. Suvarna Kumar, S. Chandini

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This research work aims to develop a system that will analyze and identify students who indulge in malpractices/suspicious activities during the course of an academic offline examination. Automated Video Surveillance provides an optimal solution which helps in monitoring the students and identifying the malpractice event immediately. This work is organized into three modules. The first module deals with performing an impersonation check using a PCA-based face recognition method which is done by cross checking his profile with the database. The presence or absence of the student is even determined in this module by implementing an image registration technique wherein a grid is formed by considering all the images registered using the frontal camera at the determined positions. Second, detecting such facial malpractices in which a student gets involved in conversation with another, trying to obtain unauthorized information etc., based on the threshold range evaluated by considering his/her mouth state whether open or closed. The third module deals with identification of unauthorized material or gadgets used in the examination hall by training the positive samples of the object through various stages. Here, a top view camera feed is analyzed to detect the suspicious activities. The system automatically alerts the administration when any suspicious activities are identified, thereby reducing the error rate caused due to manual monitoring. This work is an improvement over our previous work published in identifying suspicious activities done by examinees in an offline examination.

Keywords: impersonation, image registration, incrimination, object detection, threshold evaluation

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73 Early Depression Detection for Young Adults with a Psychiatric and AI Interdisciplinary Multimodal Framework

Authors: Raymond Xu, Ashley Hua, Andrew Wang, Yuru Lin

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During COVID-19, the depression rate has increased dramatically. Young adults are most vulnerable to the mental health effects of the pandemic. Lower-income families have a higher ratio to be diagnosed with depression than the general population, but less access to clinics. This research aims to achieve early depression detection at low cost, large scale, and high accuracy with an interdisciplinary approach by incorporating clinical practices defined by American Psychiatric Association (APA) as well as multimodal AI framework. The proposed approach detected the nine depression symptoms with Natural Language Processing sentiment analysis and a symptom-based Lexicon uniquely designed for young adults. The experiments were conducted on the multimedia survey results from adolescents and young adults and unbiased Twitter communications. The result was further aggregated with the facial emotional cues analyzed by the Convolutional Neural Network on the multimedia survey videos. Five experiments each conducted on 10k data entries reached consistent results with an average accuracy of 88.31%, higher than the existing natural language analysis models. This approach can reach 300+ million daily active Twitter users and is highly accessible by low-income populations to promote early depression detection to raise awareness in adolescents and young adults and reveal complementary cues to assist clinical depression diagnosis.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, COVID-19, depression detection, psychiatric disorder

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72 Computerized Analysis of Phonological Structure of 10,400 Brazilian Sign Language Signs

Authors: Wanessa G. Oliveira, Fernando C. Capovilla

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Capovilla and Raphael’s Libras Dictionary documents a corpus of 4,200 Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) signs. Duduchi and Capovilla’s software SignTracking permits users to retrieve signs even when ignoring the gloss corresponding to it and to discover the meaning of all 4,200 signs sign simply by clicking on graphic menus of the sign characteristics (phonemes). Duduchi and Capovilla have discovered that the ease with which any given sign can be retrieved is an inverse function of the average popularity of its component phonemes. Thus, signs composed of rare (distinct) phonemes are easier to retrieve than are those composed of common phonemes. SignTracking offers a means of computing the average popularity of the phonemes that make up each one of 4,200 signs. It provides a precise measure of the degree of ease with which signs can be retrieved, and sign meanings can be discovered. Duduchi and Capovilla’s logarithmic model proved valid: The degree with which any given sign can be retrieved is an inverse function of the arithmetic mean of the logarithm of the popularity of each component phoneme. Capovilla, Raphael and Mauricio’s New Libras Dictionary documents a corpus of 10,400 Libras signs. The present analysis revealed Libras DNA structure by mapping the incidence of 501 sign phonemes resulting from the layered distribution of five parameters: 163 handshape phonemes (CherEmes-ManusIculi); 34 finger shape phonemes (DactilEmes-DigitumIculi); 55 hand placement phonemes (ArtrotoToposEmes-ArticulatiLocusIculi); 173 movement dimension phonemes (CinesEmes-MotusIculi) pertaining to direction, frequency, and type; and 76 Facial Expression phonemes (MascarEmes-PersonalIculi).

Keywords: Brazilian sign language, lexical retrieval, libras sign, sign phonology

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71 The Role of Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthosis on Temporo-Spatial Parameters of Gait and Balance in Patients with Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis: Six-Months Follow Up

Authors: Suat Erel, Gozde Gur

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Background: Recently a supramalleolar type of dynamic ankle foot orthosis (DAFO) has been increasingly used to support all of the dynamic arches of the foot and redistribute the pressure under the plantar surface of the foot to reduce the muscle tone. DAFO helps to maintain balance and postural control by providing stability and proprioceptive feedback in children with disease like Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophies, Down syndrome, and congenital hypotonia. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Dynamic ankle foot orthosis (DAFO) on temporo-spatial parameters of gait and balance in three children with hereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP). Material Method: 13, 14, and 8 years old three children with HSP were included in the study. To provide correction on weight bearing and to improve gait, DAFO was made. Lower extremity spasticity (including gastocnemius, hamstrings and hip adductor muscles) using modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) (0-5), The temporo-spatial gait parameters (walking speed, cadence, base of support, step length) and Timed Up & Go test (TUG) were evaluated. All of the assessments about gait were compared with (with DAFO and shoes) and without DAFO (with shoes only) situations. Also after six months follow up period, assessments were repeated by the same physical therapist. Results: MAS scores for lower extremity were between “2-3” for the first child, “0-2” for the second child and “1-2” for the third child. TUG scores (sec) decreased from 20.2 to 18 for case one, from 9.4 to 9 for case two and from 12,4 to 12 for case three in the condition with shoes only and also from 15,2 to 14 for case one, from 7,2 to 7,1 for case two and from 10 to 7,3 for case three in the condition with DAFO and shoes. Gait speed (m/sec) while wearing shoes only was similar but while wearing DAFO and shoes increased from 0,4 to 0,5 for case one, from 1,5 to 1,6 for case two and from 1,0 to 1,2 for case three. Base of support scores (cm) wearing shoes only decreased from 18,5 to 14 for case one, from 13 to 12 for case three and were similar as 11 for case two. While wearing DAFO and shoes, base of support decreased from 10 to 9 for case one, from 11,5 to 10 for case three and was similar as 8 for case two. Conclusion: The use of a DAFO in a patient with HSP normalized the temporo-spatial gait parameters and improved balance. Walking speed is a gold standard for evaluating gait quality. With the use of DAFO, walking speed increased in this three children with HSP. With DAFO, better TUG scores shows that functional ambulation improved. Reduction in base of support and more symmetrical step lengths with DAFO indicated better balance. These encouraging results warrant further study on wider series.

Keywords: dynamic ankle foot orthosis, gait, hereditary spastic paraparesis, balance in patient

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70 Symmetric Corticobasal Degeneration: Case Report

Authors: Sultan Çağırıcı, Arsida Bajrami, Beyza Aslan, Hacı Ali Erdoğan, Nejla Sözer Topçular, Dilek Bozkurt, Vildan Yayla

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Objective: Corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is phenotypically characterized by asymmetric rigidity, apraxia, alien-limb phenomenon, cortical sensory loss, dystonia and myoclonus. The underlying pathologies consists of corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supra nuclear palsy, Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and frontotemporal degeneration. CBD is a degenerative disease with clinical symptoms related to the prominent involvement of cerebral cortex and basal ganglia. CBD is a pathological diagnosis and antemortem clinical diagnosis may change many times. In this paper, we described the clinical features and discussed a cases diagnosed with symmetric CBS because of its rarity. Case: Seventy-five-year-old woman presented with a three years history of difficulty in speaking and reading. Involuntary hand jerks and slowness of movement also had began in the last six months. In the neurological examination the patient was alert but not fully oriented. The speech was non-fluent, word finding difficulties were present. Bilateral limited upgaze, bradimimia, bilateral positive cogwheel' rigidity but prominent in the right side, postural tremor and negative myoclonus during action on the left side were detected. Receptive language was normal but expressive language and repetition were impaired. Acalculia, alexia, agraphia and apraxia were also present. CSF findings were unremarkable except for elevated protein level (75 mg/dL). MRI revealed bilateral symmetric cortical atrophy prominent in the frontoparietal region. PET showed hypometabolism in the left caudate nucleus. Conclusion: The increase of data related to neurodegenerative disorders associated with dementia, movement disorders and other findings results in an expanded range of diagnosis and transitions between clinical diagnosis. When considered the age of onset, clinical symptoms, imaging findings and prognosis of this patient, clinical diagnosis was CBS and pathologic diagnosis as probable CBD. Imaging of CBD usually consist of typical asymmetry between hemispheres. Still few cases with clinical appearance of CBD may show symmetrical cortical cerebral atrophy. It is presented this case who was diagnosed with CBD although we found symmetrical cortical cerebral atrophy in MRI.

Keywords: symmetric cortical atrophy, corticobasal degeneration, corticobasal syndrome

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69 The Analysis of Deceptive and Truthful Speech: A Computational Linguistic Based Method

Authors: Seham El Kareh, Miramar Etman

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Recently, detecting liars and extracting features which distinguish them from truth-tellers have been the focus of a wide range of disciplines. To the author’s best knowledge, most of the work has been done on facial expressions and body gestures but only few works have been done on the language used by both liars and truth-tellers. This paper sheds light on four axes. The first axis copes with building an audio corpus for deceptive and truthful speech for Egyptian Arabic speakers. The second axis focuses on examining the human perception of lies and proving our need for computational linguistic-based methods to extract features which characterize truthful and deceptive speech. The third axis is concerned with building a linguistic analysis program that could extract from the corpus the inter- and intra-linguistic cues for deceptive and truthful speech. The program built here is based on selected categories from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Our results demonstrated that Egyptian Arabic speakers on one hand preferred to use first-person pronouns and present tense compared to the past tense when lying and their lies lacked of second-person pronouns, and on the other hand, when telling the truth, they preferred to use the verbs related to motion and the nouns related to time. The results also showed that there is a need for bigger data to prove the significance of words related to emotions and numbers.

Keywords: Egyptian Arabic corpus, computational analysis, deceptive features, forensic linguistics, human perception, truthful features

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68 Artificial Intelligence-Generated Previews of Hyaluronic Acid-Based Treatments

Authors: Ciro Cursio, Giulia Cursio, Pio Luigi Cursio, Luigi Cursio

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Communication between practitioner and patient is of the utmost importance in aesthetic medicine: as of today, images of previous treatments are the most common tool used by doctors to describe and anticipate future results for their patients. However, using photos of other people often reduces the engagement of the prospective patient and is further limited by the number and quality of pictures available to the practitioner. Pre-existing work solves this issue in two ways: 3D scanning of the area with manual editing of the 3D model by the doctor or automatic prediction of the treatment by warping the image with hand-written parameters. The first approach requires the manual intervention of the doctor, while the second approach always generates results that aren’t always realistic. Thus, in one case, there is significant manual work required by the doctor, and in the other case, the prediction looks artificial. We propose an AI-based algorithm that autonomously generates a realistic prediction of treatment results. For the purpose of this study, we focus on hyaluronic acid treatments in the facial area. Our approach takes into account the individual characteristics of each face, and furthermore, the prediction system allows the patient to decide which area of the face she wants to modify. We show that the predictions generated by our system are realistic: first, the quality of the generated images is on par with real images; second, the prediction matches the actual results obtained after the treatment is completed. In conclusion, the proposed approach provides a valid tool for doctors to show patients what they will look like before deciding on the treatment.

Keywords: prediction, hyaluronic acid, treatment, artificial intelligence

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67 Improving Vocabulary and Listening Comprehension via Watching French Films without Subtitles: Positive Results

Authors: Yelena Mazour-Matusevich, Jean-Robert Ancheta

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This study is based on more than fifteen years of experience of teaching a foreign language, in my case French, to the English-speaking students. It represents a qualitative research on foreign language learners’ reaction and their gains in terms of vocabulary and listening comprehension through repeatedly viewing foreign feature films with the original sountrack but without English subtitles. The initial idea emerged upon realization that the first challenge faced by my students when they find themselves in a francophone environment has been their lack of listening comprehension. Their inability to understand colloquial speech affects not only their academic performance, but their psychological health as well. To remedy this problem, I have designed and applied for many years my own teaching method based on one particular French film, exceptionally suited, for the reasons described in detail in the paper, for the intermediate-advanced level foreign language learners. This project, conducted together with my undergraduate assistant and mentoree J-R Ancheta, aims at showing how the paralinguistic features, such as characters’ facial expressions, settings, music, historical background, images provided before the actual viewing, etc., offer crucial support and enhance students’ listening comprehension. The study, based on students’ interviews, also offers special pedagogical techniques, such as ‘anticipatory’ vocabulary lists and exercises, drills, quizzes and composition topics that have proven to boost students’ performance. For this study, only the listening proficiency and vocabulary gains of the interviewed participants were assessed.

Keywords: comprehension, film, listening, subtitles, vocabulary

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66 Retrospective Analysis of Facial Skin Cancer Patients Treated in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Kiel

Authors: Abdullah Saeidi, Aydin Gülses, Christan Flörke

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Skin cancer of the face region is the most common type of malignancy and surgical excision is the preferred approach. However, the clinical long term results reported in the literature are still controversial. Objectives: To describe; 1. Demographical characteristics 2. Affected site, distribution and TNM classification regarding tumor type 3. Surgical aspects • Surgical removal: excision principles, safety margins, the need for secondary resection, primary reconstruction/ defect closure, anesthesia protocol, duration of hospital stay (if any) • Secondary intervention for defect closure/reconstruction: Flap technique, anesthesia protocol, duration of hospital stay (if any), postoperative wound management etc. 4. Tumor recurrences 5. Clinical outcomes 6. Studying the possible therapy approach throw Biostatistical relation and correlation between multiple Histological, diagnostics and clinical Faktors. following surgical ablation of the skin cancer of the head and neck region. Methods: Selection and statistical analysis of medical records of patients who had admitted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel during the period of 2015-2019 will be retrospectively evaluated. Data will be collected via ORBIS Information-Management-System (ORBIS AG, Saarbrücken, Germany).

Keywords: non melanoma skin cancer, face skin cancer, skin reconstruction, non melanoma skin cancer recurrence, non melanoma skin cancer metastases

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65 The Importance of Visual Communication in Artificial Intelligence

Authors: Manjitsingh Rajput

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Visual communication plays an important role in artificial intelligence (AI) because it enables machines to understand and interpret visual information, similar to how humans do. This abstract explores the importance of visual communication in AI and emphasizes the importance of various applications such as computer vision, object emphasis recognition, image classification and autonomous systems. In going deeper, with deep learning techniques and neural networks that modify visual understanding, In addition to AI programming, the abstract discusses challenges facing visual interfaces for AI, such as data scarcity, domain optimization, and interpretability. Visual communication and other approaches, such as natural language processing and speech recognition, have also been explored. Overall, this abstract highlights the critical role that visual communication plays in advancing AI capabilities and enabling machines to perceive and understand the world around them. The abstract also explores the integration of visual communication with other modalities like natural language processing and speech recognition, emphasizing the critical role of visual communication in AI capabilities. This methodology explores the importance of visual communication in AI development and implementation, highlighting its potential to enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of AI systems. It provides a comprehensive approach to integrating visual elements into AI systems, making them more user-friendly and efficient. In conclusion, Visual communication is crucial in AI systems for object recognition, facial analysis, and augmented reality, but challenges like data quality, interpretability, and ethics must be addressed. Visual communication enhances user experience, decision-making, accessibility, and collaboration. Developers can integrate visual elements for efficient and accessible AI systems.

Keywords: visual communication AI, computer vision, visual aid in communication, essence of visual communication.

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64 Primary and Secondary Psychopathic Traits: Assessing Differences in Interpersonal Relationships through Friendship, Emotional Contagion, and Social Rewards

Authors: Silene Ten Seldam, Kiara Margarita Lu, Melina Nicole Kyranides

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Psychopathic traits are marked by a lack of empathy and an inability to maintain meaningful relationships. Yet little research has investigated differences in interpersonal relationships between primary and secondary psychopathic traits. Emotional contagion, the tendency to automatically mimic others’ facial expressions and movements, is a type of empathy contributing to relationship quality. Additionally, the motivating and pleasurable aspects of social interaction, social reward is integral to understanding relationships. Therefore, the current research investigated interpersonal relationships through relationship status, the quality of friendships, the susceptibility to positive (happiness, love) and negative (sadness, fear, anger) emotional contagion, and social reward. Recruited online, 389 participants between 18 and 76 years old (M = 33.61; of which 241 were female) completed self-report questionnaires assessing primary and secondary psychopathic traits, friendship, emotional contagion, and social rewards. Hierarchical multiple regression showed relationship status as a protective factor and that individuals with secondary psychopathic traits are less likely to be in a relationship. This study is the first to investigate emotional contagion with primary and secondary psychopathic traits. Emotional contagion for sadness predicted secondary psychopathic traits. Negative social potency (enjoying being cruel and antagonistic to others) predicted both primary and secondary traits. However, admiration and prosocial interactions only predicted primary psychopathic traits. Findings infer differences in maintaining relationships, regulating emotions, empathising with others through emotional contagion, and motivation to socially engage, perhaps due to each dimensions’distinct origins and manifestations.

Keywords: primary psychopathic traits, secondary psychopathic traits, interpersonal relationships, friendship, emotional contagion, social reward

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63 A Study of Body Weight and Type Traits Recorded on Hairy Goat in Punjab, Pakistan

Authors: A. Qayyum, G. Bilal, H. M. Waheed

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The objectives of the study were to determine phenotypic variations in Hairy goats for quantitative and qualitative traits and to analyze the relationship between different body measurements and body weight in Hairy goats. Data were collected from the Barani Livestock Production Research Institute (BLPRI) at Kherimurat, Attock and potential farmers who were raising hairy goats in the Potohar region. Twelve (12) phenotypic parameters were measured on 99 adult Hairy goat (18 male and 81 female). Four qualitative and 8 quantitative traits were investigated. Qualitative traits were visually observed and expressed as percentages. Descriptive analysis was done on quantitative variables. All hairy goats had predominately black body coat color (72%), whereas white (11%) and brown (11%) body coat color were also observed. Both the pigmented (45.5%) and non-pigmented (54.5%) type of body skin were observed in the goat breed. Horns were present in the majority (91%) of animals. Most of the animals (83%) had straight facial head profiles. Analysis was performed in SAS On-Demand for Academics using PROC mixed model procedure. Overall means ± SD of body weight (BW), body length (BL), height at wither (HAW), ear length (EL), head length (HL), heart girth (HG), tail length (TL) and MC (muzzle circumference) were 41.44 ± 12.21 kg, 66.40 ± 7.87 cm, 75.17 ± 7.83 cm, 22.99 ± 6.75 cm, 15.07 ± 3.44 cm, 76.54 ± 8.80 cm, 18.28 ± 4.18 cm, and 26.24 ± 5.192 cm, respectively. Sex had a significant effect on BL and HG (P < 0.05), whereas BW, HAW, EL, HL, TL, and MC were not significantly affected (P > 0.05). The herd had a significant effect on BW, BL, HAW, HL, HG, and TL (P < 0.05) except EL and MC (P > 0.05). Hairy goats appear to have the potential for selection as mutton breeds in the Potohar region of Punjab. The findings of the present study would help in the characterization and conservation of hairy goats using genetic and genomic tools in the future.

Keywords: body weight, Hairy goat, type traits Punjab, Pakistan

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62 Computation of Residual Stresses in Human Face Due to Growth

Authors: M. A. Askari, M. A. Nazari, P. Perrier, Y. Payan

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Growth and remodeling of biological structures have gained lots of attention over the past decades. Determining the response of the living tissues to the mechanical loads is necessary for a wide range of developing fields such as, designing of prosthetics and optimized surgery operations. It is a well-known fact that biological structures are never stress-free, even when externally unloaded. The exact origin of these residual stresses is not clear, but theoretically growth and remodeling is one of the main sources. Extracting body organs from medical imaging, does not produce any information regarding the existing residual stresses in that organ. The simplest cause of such stresses is the gravity since an organ grows under its influence from its birth. Ignoring such residual stresses might cause erroneous results in numerical simulations. Accounting for residual stresses due to tissue growth can improve the accuracy of mechanical analysis results. In this paper, we have implemented a computational framework based on fixed-point iteration to determine the residual stresses due to growth. Using nonlinear continuum mechanics and the concept of fictitious configuration we find the unknown stress-free reference configuration which is necessary for mechanical analysis. To illustrate the method, we apply it to a finite element model of healthy human face whose geometry has been extracted from medical images. We have computed the distribution of residual stress in facial tissues, which can overcome the effect of gravity and cause that tissues remain firm. Tissue wrinkles caused by aging could be a consequence of decreasing residual stress and not counteracting the gravity. Considering these stresses has important application in maxillofacial surgery. It helps the surgeons to predict the changes after surgical operations and their consequences.

Keywords: growth, soft tissue, residual stress, finite element method

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61 Growth Performance, Body Linear Measurements and Body Condition Score of Savanna Brown Goats Fed Enzyme Treated Sawdust Diets as Replacement for Maize Offal and Managed Semi-intensively

Authors: Alabi Olushola John, Ogbiko Anthonia, Tsado Daniel Nma, Mbajiorgu Ejike Felix, Adama Theophilus Zubairu

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A total of thirty (30) goats weighting between 5.8 and 7.3 kg were used to determine the growth performance, body linear measurements and body condition score of Semi intensively manged Savanna Brown goats fed enzyme treated sawdust diets (ETSD). They divided into five dietary treatments (T) groups with three replications using a completely randomized design. Treatment one (1) comprises of animals fed diet on 0 % enzyme treated sawdust while Treatment 2 (T2), Treatment 3 (T3), Treatment 4 (T4) and Treatment 5 (T5) comprises of animals fed diets containing 10, 20, 30 and 40 % enzyme treated sawdust diets, respectively. The study lasted 16 weeks. Data on growth performance parameters, body linear measurement (height at wither, body length, chest girth, hind leg length, foreleg length, facial length) and body condition score were collected and analyzed using one way analysis of variance. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the all growth performance parameters and linear body measurements. However, significant difference was observed in body length and daily body length gains with highest value observed in animals fed the control diets (7.38 and 0.08 cm respectively) and animals on 30 % ETSD (7.25 and 0.07 cm respectively) and lowest values (4.75 and 0.05 cm respectively) were observed in animals fed 10 % ETSD among the treatment groups. It was, therefore, concluded that enzyme treated sawdust can be used in the diets of Savanna Brown goats up to 40 % replacement for maize offal since this treatment improved the body length and daily body length gains.

Keywords: performance, sawdust, enzyme treated, semi-intensively, replacement

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60 Assistive Kitchenware Design for Hemiparetics

Authors: Daniel F. Madrinan-Chiquito

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Hemiparesis affects about eight out of ten stroke survivors, causing weakness or the inability to move one side of the body. One-sided weakness can affect arms, hands, legs, or facial muscles. People with one-sided weakness may have trouble performing everyday activities such as eating, cooking, dressing, and using the bathroom. Rehabilitation treatments, exercises at home, and assistive devices can help with mobility and recovery. Historically, such treatments and devices were developed within the fields of medicine and biomedical engineering. However, innovators outside of the traditional medical device community, such as Industrial Designers, have recently brought their knowledge and expertise to assistive technologies. Primary and secondary research was done in three parts. The primary research collected data by talking with several occupational therapists currently attending to stroke patients, and surveys were given to patients with hemiparesis and hemiplegia. The secondary research collected data through observation and testing of products currently marketed for single-handed people. Modern kitchenware available in the market for people with an acquired brain injury has deficiencies in both aesthetic and functional values. Object design for people with hemiparesis or hemiplegia has not been meaningfully explored. Most cookware is designed for use with two hands and possesses little room for adaptation to the needs of one-handed individuals. This project focuses on the design and development of two kitchenware devices. These devices assist hemiparetics with different cooking-related tasks such as holding, grasping, cutting, slicing, chopping, grating, and other essential activities. These intentionally designed objects will improve the quality of life of hemiparetics by enabling greater independence and providing an enhanced ability for precision tasks in a cooking environment.

Keywords: assistive technologies, hemiparetics, industrial design, kitchenware

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59 The Positive Impact of Wheelchair Service Provision on the Health and Overall Satisfaction of Wheelchair Users with the Devices

Authors: Archil Undilashvili, Ketevan Stvilia, Dustin Gilbreath, Giorgi Dzneladze, Gordon Charchward

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Introduction: In recent years, diverse types of wheelchairs, both local production and imported, have been made available on the Georgian market for wheelchair users. Some types of wheelchairs are sold together with a service package, while the others, including the State Program, Supported locally-produced ones, don’t provide adjustment and maintenance service packages to users. Within the USAID Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia, a study was conducted to assess the impact of the wheelchair service provision in line with the WHO guidelines on the health and overall satisfaction of wheelchair users in Georgia. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in May 2021. A structured questionnaire was used for telephone interviews that, along with socio-demographic characteristics, included questions for assessment of accessibility, availability, timeliness, cost and quality of wheelchair services received. Out of 1060 individuals listed in the census of wheelchair users, 752 were available for interview, with an actual response rate of 73.4%. 552 wheelchair users (31%) or their caregivers (69%) agreed to participate in the survey. In addition to using descriptive statistics, the study used multivariate matching of wheelchair users who received wheelchair services and who did not (control group). In addition, to evaluate satisfaction with service provision, respondents were asked to assess services. Findings: The majority (67%) of wheelchair users included in the survey were male. The average age of participants was 43. The three most frequently named reasons for using a wheelchair were cerebral palsy (29%), followed by stroke (18%), and amputation (12%). Users have had their current chair for four years on average. Overall, 60% of respondents reported that they were assessed before providing a wheelchair, but only half of them reported that their preferences and needs were considered. Only 13% of respondents had services in line with WHO guidelines and only 22% of wheelchair users had training when they received their current chair. 16% of participants said they had follow-up services, and 41% received adjustment services after receiving the chair. A slight majority (56%) of participants were satisfied with the quality of service provision and the service provision overall. Similarly, 55% were satisfied with the accessibility of service provision. A slightly larger majority (61%) were satisfied with the timeliness of service provision. The matching analysis suggests that users that received services in line with WHO guidelines were more satisfied with their chairs (the difference 17 point/0-100 scale) and they were four percentage points less likely to have health problems attributed to the chair. The regression analysis provides a similar finding of a 21 point increase in satisfaction attributable to services. Conclusion: The provision of wheelchair services in line with WHO guidelines and with follow-up services is likely to have a positive impact on the daily lives of wheelchair users in Georgia. Wheelchair services should be institutionalized as a standard component of wheelchair provision in Georgia.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, wheelchair users, persons with disabilities, wheelchair production

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