Search results for: high surface quality

Authors: Betül Ersoy, Deniz Özalp Kizilay, Gül Gümüşer, Fatma Taneli

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Introduction: Peak bone mass is reached in late adolescence in females. Age at menarche influences estrogen exposure, which plays a vital role in bone metabolism. The relationship between age at menarche and bone mineral density (BMD) is still controversial. In this study, we investigated the relationship between age at menarche, BMD, socioeconomic status (SES) and body composition in female university student. Participant and methods: A total of 138 healthy girls at late adolescence period (mean age 20.13±0.93 years, range 18-22) were included in this university school-based cross-sectional study in the urban area western region of Turkey. Participants have been randomly selected to reflect the university students studying in all faculties. We asked relevant questions about socioeconomic status and age at menarche to female university students. Students were grouped into three SES as lower, middle and higher according to the educational and occupational levels of their parents using Hollingshead index. Height and weight were measured. Body Mass Index (BMI) (kg/m2 ) was calculated. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was performed using the Lunar DPX series, and BMD and body composition were evaluated. Results: The mean age of menarche of female university student included in the study was 13.09.±1.3 years. There was no significant difference between the three socioeconomic groups in terms of height, body weight, age at menarche, BMD [BMD (gr/cm2 ) (L2-L4) and BMD (gr/cm2 ) (total body)], and body composition (lean tissue, fat tissue, total fat, and body fat) (p>0.05). While no correlation was found between the age at menarche and any parameter (p>0.05), a positive significant correlation was found between lean tissue and BMD L2-L4 (r=0.286, p=0.01). When the relationships were evaluated separately according to socioeconomic status, there was a significant correlation between BMDL2-L4 (r: 0.431, p=0.005) and lean tissue in females with low SES, while this relationship disappeared in females with middle and high SES. Conclusion: Age at menarche did not change according to socioeconomic status, nor did BMD and body composition in female at late adolescents. No relationship was found between age at menarche and BMD and body composition determined by DEXA in female university student who were close to reaching peak bone mass. The results suggested that especially BMDL2-L4 might increase as lean tissue increases.

Keywords: bone, osteoposis, menarche, dexa

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Authors: Sreelekha Prakash, Yulong Gu

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Background: About 61% of adults surveyed across 25 states reported they had experienced at least one type of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) before 18 years of age. Relationships between ACEs and a variety of substance-related behaviors and behavioral health have been reported in previous studies. ACEs can have lasting, negative effects on health, well-being, as well as life opportunities such as education and job potential. Objectives: For the current research, the aim was to assess the factors affecting substance use behavior in young adults. The further onset of drug use and its association was analyzed with ACEs and mental health. Method: The young adults from a county in the north-eastern United States were invited to participate in an online questionnaire survey with prior consent through an IRB approved study. The Survey included questions related to social determinants of health, 10 item ACE questionnaire, and substance use related to Alcohol, Marijuana, Opioids, Stimulants, and other drugs. PHQ-9 questionnaire was used to assess cognitive health. Results: Data was analyzed for the 244 completed surveys {68% (165) were females, and 78% (190) were Whites}. The average age of the participants was 26.7 years, and approximately 80% were lifelong residents of the county or year-round residents. Of the respondents, 50% (122) were high school graduates with some college education, and 56% (136) had a full-time jobs. Past 30-day usage for alcohol was 76% (72), and marijuana was 28.4% (27). The data showed that the higher the ACE scores, the younger they start using any substance (p < 0.0001). The data for PHQ-9 and ACE scores showed that the higher the ACE score, the higher the PHQ-9 score, with a significant p-value (p 0.0001). The current data also showed a significant association with other drugs; marijuana use showed significance for 30 days of use (p 0.0001), stimulant use (0.0008), prescription drug misuse (0.01), and opioids (0.01). Conclusion: These findings further support the association between ACEs and initiation of drug use and its correlation with mental health symptoms. Promoting a safe and supportive environment for children and youth in their earlier ages can prevent the youth and young adults from the effects of drug use and create healthy living habits for young adults.

Keywords: subtance use, young adults, adverse childhood experience, PHQ-9

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Authors: Yi-Hsiang Pan, Chen-Hui Huang, Ching-Hsiang Chen, Wei-Ting Hsu

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The purposes of the study were to explore the students' learning effect of physical education curriculum between merging Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) with sport education model and TPSR with traditional teaching model, which these learning effects included sport self-efficacy, sport enthusiastic, group cohesion, responsibility and game performance. The participants include 3 high school physical education teachers and 6 physical education classes, 133 participants with experience group 75 students and control group 58 students, and each teacher taught an experimental group and a control group for 16 weeks. The research methods used questionnaire investigation, interview, focus group meeting. The research instruments included personal and social responsibility questionnaire, sport enthusiastic scale, group cohesion scale, sport self-efficacy scale and game performance assessment instrument. Multivariate Analysis of covariance and Repeated measure ANOVA were used to test difference of students' learning effects between merging TPSR with sport education model and TPSR with traditional teaching model. The findings of research were: 1) The sport education model with TPSR could improve students' learning effects, including sport self-efficacy, game performance, sport enthusiastic, group cohesion and responsibility. 2) The traditional teaching model with TPSR could improve students' learning effect, including sport self-efficacy, responsibility and game performance. 3) the sport education model with TPSR could improve more learning effects than traditional teaching model with TPSR, including sport self-efficacy, sport enthusiastic,responsibility and game performance. 4) Based on qualitative data about learning experience of teachers and students, sport education model with TPSR significant improve learning motivation, group interaction and game sense. The conclusions indicated sport education model with TPSR could improve more learning effects in physical education curriculum. On other hand, the curricular projects of hybrid TPSR-Sport Education model and TPSR-Traditional Teaching model are both good curricular projects of moral character education, which may be applied in school physical education.

Keywords: character education, sport season, game performance, sport competence

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Authors: Mohamed Ahmed Madkour, Haitham Magdy Hamad

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This research aims to study of the surgery science and imaging in ancient Egypt, and how to diagnose the surgical cases, whether due to injuries or disease that requires surgical intervention, Medical diagnosis and how to treat it. The ancient Egyptian physician tried to change over from magic and theological thinking to become a stand-alone experimental science, they were able to distinguish between diseases and they divide them into internal and external diseases even this division exists to date in modern medicine. There is no evidence to recognize the amount of human knowledge in the prehistoric knowledge of medicine and surgery except skeleton. It is not far from the human being in those times familiar with some means of treatment, Surgery in the Stone age was rudimentary, Flint stone was used after trimming in a certain way as a lancet to slit and open the skin. Wooden tree branches were used to make splints to treat bone fractures. Surgery developed further when copper was discovered, it led to the advancement of Egyptian civilization, then modern and advanced tools appeared in the operating theater like a knife or a scalpel. The climate and environmental conditions have preserved medical papyri and human remains that have confirmed their knowledge of surgical methods including sedation. The ancient Egyptians reached a great importance in surgery, evidenced by the scenes that depict the pathological image and the surgical process, but the image alone is not sufficient to prove the pathology, its presence in ancient Egypt and its treatment method. As there are a number of medical papyri, especially Edwin Smith and Ebris, which prove the ancient Egyptian surgeon's knowledge of the pathological condition that It requires a surgical intervention, otherwise its diagnosis and the method of treatment will not be described with such accuracy through these texts. Some surgeries are described in the department of surgery at Ebris papyrus. The level of surgery in ancient Egypt was high, and they performed surgery such as hernias and Aneurysm, however we have not received a lengthy explanation of the various surgeries and the surgeon has usually only said “treated surgically”. It is evident in the Ebris papyrus that they used sharp surgical tools and cautery in operations where bleeding is expected, such as hernias, arterial sacs and tumors.

Keywords: ancient Egypt, archaeology, Egyptian history, ancient asurgical imaging, Egyptian civilization, civilization

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Authors: Sonia Arradaza-Pajaron

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This study examined the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) and self-efficacy (SE) of academic heads in the implementation of a customized English language curriculum (CELC) among technological state universities and colleges in Leyte provinces and Biliran, Philippines. Results manifested that academic leaders practiced transformational leadership and are self-efficacious enough but with only moderate level in the effectiveness of CELC implementation. It was found out; further, that of the four identified transformational leadership components, except idealized influence, three of which demonstrated a significant relationship with CELC component variables, although in varying degree. Moreover, self-efficacy sources, especially vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion manifested moderate to high significant relationships with effective CELC curriculum implementation. Further, verbal persuasion and physiological/emotional condition manifested significant relationship with CELC-resource and CELC-contextual/community influence, respectively. Regression analysis showed that TL-individualized consideration component explained wider extent when correlated with CELC contextual/community components, while self-efficacy source-verbal persuasion demonstrated a wider extent with the three CELC components, namely; resource, process and physiological/emotional condition. Results further revealed that TL-individualized consideration manifested lesser influence with CELC implementation, while SE-verbal persuasion demonstrated stronger influence or effect on CELC-process, CELC-physiological/emotional, while lesser influence with CELC-resource. This implies that academic leaders, in order to carry out effective curriculum implementation, should provide more emphasis on school culture, its beliefs, practices and academic atmosphere but most of all empower human resources who are considered the backbone of the work place and can be directly affected by any curriculum shifts and challenges. To realize this, more values-skilled training programs must be designed for academic heads are needed to equip them with the necessary leadership skills, beliefs in their capacity to lead and their own enhance emotional well-being in leading subordinates and facilitating curriculum implementation.

Keywords: Customized English Language curriculum, CELC, self-efficacy, transformational leadership, values-skilled training

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Authors: S. K. M. Nzaba, H. H. Nyoni, B. Ntsendwana, B. B. Mamba, A. T. Kuvarega

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Azo dye effluents, released into water bodies are not only toxic to the ecosystem but also pose a serious impact on human health due to the carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of the compounds present in the dye discharge. Conventional water treatment methods such as adsorption, flocculation/coagulation and biological processes are not effective in completely removing most of the dyes and their natural degradation by-products. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have proven to be effective technologies for complete mineralization of these recalcitrant pollutants. Therefore, there is a need for new technology that can solve the problem. Thus, this study examined the photocatalytic degradation of an azo dye brilliant black (BB) using non-metal/metal codoped TiO₂. N, Pt co-doped TiO₂ photocatalysts were prepared by a modified sol-gel method using amine-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer generation 0 (PAMAM G0), amine-terminated polyamidoamine dendrimer generation 1 ( PAMAM G1) and hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (HPEI) as templates and source of nitrogen. Structural, morphological, and textural properties were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier- transform infrared (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy (RS), photoluminescence (PL) and ultra-violet /visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The synthesized photocatalysts exhibited lower band gap energies as compared to the Degussa P-25 revealing a red shift in band gap towards the visible light absorption region. Photocatalytic activity of N, Pt co-doped TiO₂ was measured by the reaction of photocatalytic degradation of brilliant black (BB) dye. The N, metal codoped TiO₂ containing 0.5 wt. % of the metal consisted mainly of the anatase phase as confirmed by XRD results of all three samples, with a particle size range of 13–30 nm. The particles were largely spherical and shifted the absorption edge well into the visible region. Band gap reduction was more pronounced for the N, Pt HPEI (Pt 0.5 wt. %) codoped TiO₂ compared to PAMAM G0 and PAMAM G1. Consequently, codoping led to an enhancement in the photocatalytic activity of the materials for the degradation of brilliant black (BB).

Keywords: codoped TiO₂, dendrimer, photodegradation, wastewater

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Authors: Fatima Mohammed Musa, J. B. Ameh, S. A. Ado, O. S. Olonitola

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The study was undertaken to evaluate the phytochemical constituents of extracts of Terminalia avicennioides leaf and the antidiarrhoeal effect of n-butanol fraction of the leaf extract in Swiss albino rats infected with Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli. Ethanol crude extract of Terminalia avicennioides leaf was dissolved in 1.5 liters of sterile distilled water. The extract solution was partitioned with 250 ml each of chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol solvents (1:1v/v) to obtain soluble fractions from the extract. The leaf extract and its fractions were screened for the presence of phytocompounds using standard analytical methods. The antidirrhoeal activity of n-butanol fraction was evaluated in Swiss albino rats using standard methods. The results of phytochemical screening of extract of Terminalia avicennioides leaf and its fractions, revealed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, triterpens, glycosides and phenols. The results of in vivo activity showed that 60 % of each group of rats infected with 2.0 x 108 cfu/ml viable cells of S. Typhimurium and 2.0 x109 cfu/ml viable cells of E. coli manifested the symptoms of diarrhoea, 72 hours after the rats were challenged with bacteria. Other symptoms observed among the infected animals included, loss of appetite, loss of weight, general body weakness and 40 % mortality in S. Typhimurium infected non treated group of rats. Similarly, 60 %, and 20 % mortality was observed among E. coli infected none treated and E. coli infected antibiotic (metronidazole) treated groups of rats respectively. However, there was a reduction in the number of infected rats defecating watery stools over time among all the infected rats that were treated with n-butanol fraction of the leaf extract and mortality was also not observed in the group, indicating high efficacy of n-butanol fraction of T. avicennioides leaf. The results also indicated that n-butanol can be used as alternative source of antidiarrhoeal agent in the treatment of diarrhoea caused by Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli. In the light of this, there is a need for further research on the mechanism of action of the candidate fraction of T. avicennioides leaf which could be responsible for the observed in vivo antibacterial activity.

Keywords: antidirrhoeal effect, phytochemical constituents, swiss albino rats, terminalia avicennioides

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Authors: Hanamariam Mekonnen

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Ethiopian farmers traditionally produce charcoal under several kilns on cultivated land: particularly in Kasiry micro-watershed Fagita Lekoma district of Northwestern Ethiopia. However, the effects of such soil heating and remnants of charcoal leftover on soils have not been adequately documented. Hence, this study tried to quantify the effects of such kiln sites on selected soil properties and wheat crop performance. Soils from four kiln sites were thus purposively sampled at depths of 0-20 cm, 20-40 cm and 40-60 cm and were compared with the respective soil layers of none-kiln sites from similar adjacent fields. While soil moisture content was sampled at kiln and none-kiln site in wet and dry seasons from each depth. In addition, a pot experiment was conducted using two sources of biochar (Acacia decurrens and Eucalyptus Camaldulensis) with four rates (0, 10, 20, and 40 t/ha) and compared with crops grown from soils of 1kiln sites without biochar application laid out in a CRD with three replications. The data were analyzed using SAS software Version 9.4.The result revealed notable variations of kiln site soils and along soil depth. The appreciable increased (p<0.05) soil pH (5.5 to 5.74), organic carbon (3.89 to 4.27%), TN (0.30 to 0.32%), CEC (32.59 to 35.23 cmolckg-1), Ca (6.44 to 7.9 cmolckg-1), Mg (4.48 to 5.46 cmolckg-1), and significantly (p<0.01) Av. P (30.25 to 46.4 ppm) and K (2.11 to 2.82 cmolckg-1) were recorded from the none-kiln to kiln soils, respectively. On the other hand, ex. acidity and aluminum, available Fe and Mn were reduced from 2.20 to 1.54, 1.95 to 1.31 cmolckg-1 and 57.46 to 41.40 and 5.65 to 3.86 ppm, respectively, from the control to the kiln. Soil texture was significantly affected by soil heating and along soil depth. The sand content was (p<0.05) varied between the value of 23% to 29% from none-kiln to kiln site, and clay content was (p<0.01) increased from 0-20 cm (32%) soil depth to 40-60 cm (43%) deeper soil. Significantly (p<0.05) higher Soil moisture content was recorded at none-kiln site (45.85%) compared to kiln (40.44%) in wet season, whereas in dry season, lower moisture content was revealed at kiln site (26%) compared to none-kiln (30.7%). As wet to dry season, soil moisture was decreased from 43% to 28% respectively. Bulk density (P<0.01) varied between 0.88 to 0.94 gcm-3 from control to kiln in dry season. Similarly, the value of soil pH (6.10), Av. P (58.12), exchangeable bases (Ca (9.83), Mg (6.19) and K (3.67)) were (p<0.01) higher at the 0-20 cm soil depth as compared to the deeper soils, the result of soil moisture (30 to 42%) and CEC (31 to 36 cmolckg-1) increased down the soil profile. After wheat harvest, soil pH, Av. P, CEC, and exchangeable bases (Mg, K and Na) were significantly higher in the kiln soil, while soil moisture and OC increased by the applied biochar of 20 and 40 ton/ha. High yield 2.28 gpot-1 (p<0.01) was recorded in kiln soil, growth parameters of wheat were significantly increased with increasing biochar rates.

Keywords: biochar, kasiry micro-watershed, kiln site, none-kiln site, soil properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Kirstin Griffin

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During a period of increased anxiety and stress, communication became the essential tool to help the public stay informed and feel prepared during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, certain groups of patients were not feeling as reassured. The news and media blasted the message that patients with diabetes were “high-risk" in regards to contracting the Covid-19 infection. Routine clinics were being cancelled, GP practices were closing their doors, and patients with type 1 diabetes were understandably scared. The influx of calls to diabetes specialists nurses from concerned patients highlighted the need for better and more specialised information. An Application specifically for patients with type 1 diabetes was created to deliver this information, and it proved to be the essential communication tool that was desperately needed. The Application for patients with type 1 diabetes aimed to deliver specialist information to patients in regards to their diagnosis, management, and ongoing follow-up commitments. The Application gives practical advice on multiple areas of diabetes management, including sick-day rules and diabetic emergencies, as well as up-to-date information on technology, including setting up Libre devices and downloading glucose meters to facilitate attending virtual clinics. Delivery of this information in an easy-to-understand and comprehensive way is intended to improve patient engagement with diabetes services and ultimately empower patients in the control of their own disease. The application also offers a messaging service to allow the diabetes team to send out alerts to patient groups on specific issues, such as changes to clinics, or respond to recent news updates regarding Covid-19. The App was launched in NHS Fife in June 2020 and has amassed 800 active users so far. There is growing engagement with the App since its launch, with over 1000 user interactions in the last month alone. Feedback shows that 100% of users like the App and have found it useful in the management of their diabetes. The App has proven to be an essential tool in communication with one of the most vulnerable groups during the Covid-19 pandemic, and its ongoing development will continue to increase patient engagement and improve glycaemic control for patients with type 1 diabetes. The future of chronic disease management should involve digital solutions such as apps to further empower patients in their healthcare.

Keywords: diabetes, endocrinology, digital healthcare, medical apps

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Authors: Amin Karimi, Lele Zhang, Mark Fackrell

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Rural-to-urban population migrations are a global phenomenon, with projections indicating that by 2050, 68% of the world's population will inhabit densely populated urban centers. Concurrently, the popularity of e-commerce shopping has surged, evidenced by a 51% increase in total e-commerce sales from 2017 to 2021. Consequently, distribution and logistics systems, integral to effective supply chain management, confront escalating hurdles in efficiently delivering and distributing products within bustling urban environments. Additionally, events like environmental challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic have indicated that decision-makers are facing numerous sources of uncertainty. Therefore, to design an efficient and reliable logistics system, uncertainty must be considered. In this study, it examine fleet sizing and routing while considering uncertainty in demand rate. Fleet sizing is typically a strategic-level decision, while routing is an operational-level one. In this study, a carrier must make two types of decisions: strategic-level decisions regarding the number and types of drones to be purchased, and operational-level decisions regarding planning routes based on available fleet and realized demand. If the available fleets are insufficient to serve some customers, the carrier must outsource that delivery at a relatively high cost, calculated per order. With this hierarchy of decisions, it can model the problem using two-stage stochastic programming. The first-stage decisions involve planning the number and type of drones to be purchased, while the second-stage decisions involve planning routes. To solve this model, it employ logic-based benders decomposition, which decomposes the problem into a master problem and a set of sub-problems. The master problem becomes a mixed integer programming model to find the best fleet sizing decisions, and the sub-problems become capacitated vehicle routing problems considering battery status. Additionally, it assume a heterogeneous fleet based on load and battery capacity, and it consider that battery health deteriorates over time as it plan for multiple periods.

Keywords: drone-delivery, stochastic demand, VRP, fleet sizing

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Authors: Rima T. Alfaraj, Murtadha J. Al Tammar, Khaqan Khan, Khalid M. Alruwaili

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OBJECTIVE/SCOPE (25-75): Caliper logging data provides critical information about wellbore shape and deformations, such as stress-induced borehole breakouts or washouts. Multiarm mechanical caliper logs are often run using wireline, which can be time-consuming, costly, and/or challenging to run in certain formations. To minimize rig time and improve operational safety, it is valuable to develop analytical solutions that can estimate caliper logs using available Logging-While-Drilling (LWD) data without the need to run wireline caliper logs. As a first step, the objective of this paper is to perform statistical analysis using an extensive datasetto identify important physical parameters that should be considered in developing such analytical solutions. METHODS, PROCEDURES, PROCESS (75-100): Caliper logs and LWD data of eleven wells, with a total of more than 80,000 data points, were obtained and imported into a data analytics software for analysis. Several parameters were selected to test the relationship of the parameters with the measured maximum and minimum caliper logs. These parameters includegamma ray, porosity, shear, and compressional sonic velocities, bulk densities, and azimuthal density. The data of the eleven wells were first visualized and cleaned.Using the analytics software, several analyses were then preformed, including the computation of Pearson’s correlation coefficients to show the statistical relationship between the selected parameters and the caliper logs. RESULTS, OBSERVATIONS, CONCLUSIONS (100-200): The results of this statistical analysis showed that some parameters show good correlation to the caliper log data. For instance, the bulk density and azimuthal directional densities showedPearson’s correlation coefficients in the range of 0.39 and 0.57, which wererelatively high when comparedto the correlation coefficients of caliper data with other parameters. Other parameters such as porosity exhibited extremely low correlation coefficients to the caliper data. Various crossplots and visualizations of the data were also demonstrated to gain further insights from the field data. NOVEL/ADDITIVE INFORMATION (25-75): This study offers a unique and novel look into the relative importance and correlation between different LWD measurements and wireline caliper logs via an extensive dataset. The results pave the way for a more informed development of new analytical solutions for estimating the size and shape of the wellbore in real-time while drilling using LWD data.

Keywords: LWD measurements, caliper log, correlations, analysis

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Authors: Çağla Aras, Kübra Bi̇nay, Aysberg Şamil önlü, Mine Baydan Aran, Dicle Aras

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The purpose of the present research was to investigate the acute effects of 30-min hatha yoga and 30-min resistance-based aerobic exercise (RBAE) on computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) and functional head impulse test (fHIT) scores in adult female yoga practitioners. To reach this aim, ten participants executed CDP and fHIT three times in total: at rest, after yoga, and after RBAE. The yoga practice lasted a total of 30 minutes, including 25 min of asanas and 5 minutes of savasana. RBAE lasted a total of 30 minutes with an intensity of 70-75% of the heart rate reserve method. When the results were examined, no change was observed in any parameters of the fHIT scores due to resting or exercise implementation. On the contrary, some changes were observed in CDP test results depending on the type of exercise. The post-RBAE somatosensory and visual systems values were higher than resting (p<0.05). The composite balance score derived after RBAE was found to be improved when compared to post-yoga and resting values (p<0.01). Lastly, the post-RBAE vestibular system score was found to be statistically significantly higher than the post-Yoga values. In addition, it was observed that body composition parameters, especially decreasing BW, LBM, PBF, MBF and TBW, were associated with improved postural stability values. According to the results, it can be stated that neither hatha yoga nor resistance-based aerobic exercise has an acute effect on functional vestibulo-ocular reflex. In addition, although there was no change in balance level after yoga, it was observed that RBAE performed at 70-75% of the heart rate reserve and for 30 minutes had positive acute effects on postural stability and balance.

Keywords: hatha yoga, resistance training, aerobic training, high intensity training, computerized dynamic posturography, functional head impulse test

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Authors: Muhammad Asim, Mehvish Amjad

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Background: Less than half of women in South Asia (SA) use any modern contraceptive method which leads to a huge burden of unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal deaths, and socioeconomic loss. Women empowerment plays a pivotal role in improving various health seeking behaviours, including contraceptive use. The objective of this study to explore the association between women's empowerment and modern contraceptive, among rich and poor segment of population in SA. Methods: We used the most recent, large-scale, demographic health survey data of five South Asian countries, namely Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. The outcome variable was the current use of modern contraceptive methods. The main exposure variable was a combination (interaction) of socio-economic status (SES) and women’s level of empowerment (low, medium, and high), where SES was bifurcated into poor and rich; and women empowerment was divided into three categories: decision making, attitude to violence and social independence. Moreover, overall women empowerment indicator was also created by using three dimensions of women empowerment. We applied both descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression techniques for data analyses. Results: Most of the women possessed ‘medium’ level of empowerment across South Asian Countries. The lowest attitude to violence empowerment was found in Afghanistan, and the lowest social independence empowerment was observed in Bangladesh across SA. However, Pakistani women have the lowest decision-making empowerment in the region. The lowest modern contraceptive use (22.1%) was found in Afghanistan and the highest (53.2%) in Bangladesh. The multivariate results depict that the overall measure of women empowerment does not affect modern contraceptive use among poor and rich women in most of South Asian countries. However, the decision-making empowerment plays a significant role among both poor and rich women to use modern contraceptive methods across South Asian countries. Conclusions: The effect of women’s empowerment on modern contraceptive use is not consistent across countries, and among poor and rich segment of population. Of the three dimensions of women’s empowerment, the autonomy of decision making in household affairs emerged as a stronger determinant of mCPR as compared with social independence and attitude towards violence against women.

Keywords: women empowerment, modern contraceptive use, South Asia, socio economic status

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Authors: Keping Zuo, Foad Kabinejadian, Gideon Praveen Kumar Vijayakumar, Fangsen Cui, Pei Ho, Hwa Liang Leo

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Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is the standard procedure for patients with severe carotid stenosis at high risk for carotid endarterectomy (CAE). A major drawback of CAS is the higher incidence of procedure-related stroke compared with traditional open surgical treatment for carotid stenosis - CEA, even with the use of the embolic protection devices (EPD). As the currently available bare metal stents cannot address this problem, our research group developed a novel preferential covered-stent for carotid artery aims to prevent friable fragments of atherosclerotic plaques from flowing into the cerebral circulation, and yet maintaining the flow of the external carotid artery. The preliminary animal studies have demonstrated the potential of this novel covered-stent design for the treatment of carotid atherosclerotic stenosis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of membrane coating on the stent flexibility in order to improve the clinical performance of our novel covered stents. A total of 21 stents were evaluated in this study: 15 self expanding bare nitinol stents and 6 PTFE-covered stents. 10 of the bare stents were coated with 11%, 16% and 22% Polyurethane(PU), 4%, 6.25% and 11% EE, as well as 22% PU plus 5 μm Parylene. Different laser cutting designs were performed on 4 of the PTFE covert stents. All the stents, with or without the covered membrane, were subjected to a three-point flexural test. The stents were placed on two supports that are 30 mm apart, and the actuator is applying a force in the exact middle of the two supports with a loading pin with radius 2.5 mm. The loading pin displacement change, the force and the variation in stent shape were recorded for analysis. The flexibility of the stents was evaluated by the lumen area preservation at three displacement bending levels: 5mm, 7mm, and 10mm. All the lumen areas in all stents decreased with the increase of the displacement from 0 to 10 mm. The bare stents were able to maintain 0.864 ± 0.015, 0.740 ± 0.025 and 0.597 ± 0.031of original lumen area at 5 mm, 7 mm and 10mm displacement respectively. For covered stents, the stents with EE coating membrane showed the best lumen area preservation (0.839 ± 0.005, 0.7334 ± 0.043 and 0.559 ± 0.014), whereas, the stents with PU and Parylene coating were only 0.662, 0.439 and 0.305. Bending stiffness was also calculated and compared. These results provided optimal material information and it was crucial for enhancing clinical performance of our novel covered stents.

Keywords: carotid artery, covered stent, nonlinear, hyperelastic, stress, strain

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Authors: Rafal Sochaczewski, Marcin Szlachetka, Miroslaw Wendeker

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Increasing requirements to reduce exhaust emissions and fuel consumption while increasing the power factor is increasingly becoming applicable to internal combustion engines intended for aircraft applications. As a result, intensive research work is underway to develop a diesel-powered unit for aircraft propulsion. Due to a number of advantages, such as lack of the head (lower heat loss) and timing system, opposite movement of pistons conducive to balancing the engine, the two-stroke compression-ignition engine with the opposite pistons has been developed and upgraded. Of course, such construction also has drawbacks. The main one is the necessity of using a gear connecting two crankshafts or a complicated crank system with one shaft. The peculiarity of the arrangement of pistons with sleeves, as well as the fulfillment of rigorous requirements, makes it necessary to apply the most modern technologies and constructional solutions. In the case of the fuel supply system, it was decided to use common rail system elements. The paper presents an analysis of the possibility of using a common rail pump to supply an aircraft compression-ignition engine. It is an engine with a two-stroke cycle, three cylinders, opposing pistons, and 100 kW power. Each combustion chamber is powered by two injectors controlled by electromagnetic valves. In order to assess the possibility of using a common rail pump, four high-pressure pumps were tested on a bench. They are piston pumps differing in the number and geometry of the pumping sections. The analysis included the torque on the pump drive shaft and the power needed to drive the pump depending on the rotational speed, pumping pressure and fuel dispenser settings. The research allowed to optimize the engine power supply system depending on the fuel demand and the way the pump is mounted on the engine. Acknowledgment: This work has been realized in the cooperation with The Construction Office of WSK ‘PZL-KALISZ’ S.A.’ and is part of Grant Agreement No. POIR.01.02.00-00-0002/15 financed by the Polish Nation-al Centre for Research and Development.

Keywords: diesel engine, fuel pump, opposing pistons, two-stroke

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Authors: Mohamed Korany, Azza Gazy, Essam Khamis, Marwa Adel, Miranda Fawzy

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Background: Two new, simple and specific methods; First, a Zero-crossing first-derivative technique and second, a chemometric-assisted spectrophotometric artificial neural network (ANN) were developed and validated in accordance with ICH guidelines. Both methods were used for the simultaneous estimation of the two closely related antioxidant nutraceuticals ; Coenzyme Q10 (Q) ; also known as Ubidecarenone or Ubiquinone-10, and Vitamin E (E); alpha-tocopherol acetate, in their pharmaceutical binary mixture. Results: For first method: By applying the first derivative, both Q and E were alternatively determined; each at the zero-crossing of the other. The D1 amplitudes of Q and E, at 285 nm and 235 nm respectively, were recorded and correlated to their concentrations. The calibration curve is linear over the concentration range of 10-60 and 5.6-70 μg mL-1 for Q and E, respectively. For second method: ANN (as a multivariate calibration method) was developed and applied for the simultaneous determination of both analytes. A training set (or a concentration set) of 90 different synthetic mixtures containing Q and E, in wide concentration ranges between 0-100 µg/mL and 0-556 µg/mL respectively, were prepared in ethanol. The absorption spectra of the training sets were recorded in the spectral region of 230–300 nm. A Gradient Descend Back Propagation ANN chemometric calibration was computed by relating the concentration sets (x-block) to their corresponding absorption data (y-block). Another set of 45 synthetic mixtures of the two drugs, in defined range, was used to validate the proposed network. Neither chemical separation, preparation stage nor mathematical graphical treatment were required. Conclusions: The proposed methods were successfully applied for the assay of Q and E in laboratory prepared mixtures and combined pharmaceutical tablet with excellent recoveries. The ANN method was superior over the derivative technique as the former determined both drugs in the non-linear experimental conditions. It also offers rapidity, high accuracy, effort and money saving. Moreover, no need for an analyst for its application. Although the ANN technique needed a large training set, it is the method of choice in the routine analysis of Q and E tablet. No interference was observed from common pharmaceutical additives. The results of the two methods were compared together

Keywords: coenzyme Q10, vitamin E, chemometry, quantitative analysis, first derivative spectrophotometry, artificial neural network

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Authors: Sharon Q. Yang, Robert J. Congleton

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Information security is a broad concept that covers any issues and concerns about the proper access and use of information on the Internet, including measures and procedures to protect intellectual property and private data from illegal access and online theft; the act of hacking; and any defensive technologies that contest such cybercrimes. As more research and commercial activities are conducted online, cybercrimes have increased significantly, putting sensitive information at risk. Information security has become critically important for organizations and private citizens alike. Hackers scan for network vulnerabilities on the Internet and steal data whenever they can. Cybercrimes disrupt our daily life, cause financial losses, and instigate fear in the public. Since the start of the pandemic, most data related cybercrimes targets have been either financial or health information from companies and organizations. Libraries also should have a high interest in understanding and adopting information security methods to protect their patron data and copyrighted materials. But according to information security professionals, higher education and cultural organizations, including their libraries, are the least prepared entities for cyberattacks. One recent example is that of Steven’s Institute of Technology in New Jersey in the US, which had its network hacked in 2020, with the hackers demanding a ransom. As a result, the network of the college was down for two months, causing serious financial loss. There are other cases where libraries, colleges, and universities have been targeted for data breaches. In order to build an effective defense, we need to understand the most common types of cybercrimes, including phishing, whaling, social engineering, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, malware and ransomware, and hacker profiles. Our research will focus on each hacking technique and related defense measures; and the social background and reasons/purpose of hacker and hacking. Our research shows that hacking techniques will continue to evolve as new applications, housing information, and data on the Internet continue to be developed. Some cybercrimes can be stopped with effective measures, while others present challenges. It is vital that people understand what they face and the consequences when not prepared.

Keywords: cybercrimes, hacking technologies, higher education, information security, libraries

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Authors: Abhinav Kumar Rajverma, Arun Kumar Misra, Abhijeet Chandra

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Family involvement in business is universal across countries, with varying characteristics. Firms of developed economies have diffused ownership structure; however, that of emerging markets have concentrated ownership structure, having resemblance with that of family firms. Optimization of dividend payout and leverage are very crucial for firm’s valuation. This paper studies dividend paying behavior of National Stock Exchange listed Indian firms from financial year 2007 to 2016. The final sample consists of 422 firms and of these more than 49% (207) are family firms. Results reveal that family firms pay lower dividend and are more leveraged compared to non-family firms. This unique data set helps to understand dividend behavior and capital structure of sample firms over a long-time period and across varying family ownership concentration. Using panel regression models, this paper examines factors affecting dividend payout and capital structure and establishes a link between the two using Two-stage Least Squares regression model. Profitability shows a positive impact on dividend and negative impact on leverage, confirming signaling and pecking order theory. Further, findings support bankruptcy theory as firm size has a positive relation with dividend and leverage and volatility shows a negative relation with both dividend and leverage. Findings are also consistent with agency theory, family ownership concentration has negative relation with both dividend payments and leverage. Further, the impact of family ownership control confirms the similar finding. The study further reveals that firms with high family ownership concentration (family control) do have an impact on determining the level of private benefits. Institutional ownership is not significant for dividend payments. However, it shows significant negative relation with leverage for both family and non-family firms. Dividend payout and leverage show mixed association with each other. This paper provides evidence of how varying level of family ownership concentration and ownership control influences the dividend policy and capital structure of firms in an emerging market like India and it can have significant contribution towards understanding and formulating corporate dividend policy decisions and capital structure for emerging economies, where majority of firms exhibit behavior of family firm.

Keywords: dividend, family firms, leverage, ownership structure

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Authors: Zeynep Tanriverdi̇

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Sustainable architecture is a design approach that provides healthy, comfortable, safe, clean space production as well as utilizes minimum resources for efficient and economical use of natural resources and energy. Traditional houses located in rural areas are sustainable structures built at the design and implementation stage in accordance with the climatic environmental data of the region and also effectively using natural energy resources. The fact that these structures are located in an earthquake geography like Türkiye brings their earthquake resistance to the agenda. Since the construction of these structures, which contain the architectural and technological cultural knowledge of the past, is shaped according to the characteristics of the regions where they are located, their resistance to earthquakes also differs. Analyses in rural areas after the earthquake show that there are light-damaged structures that can survive, severely damaged structures, and completely destroyed structures. In this regard, experts can implement repair, consolidation, and reconstruction applications, respectively. While simple repair interventions are carried out in accordance with the original data in traditional houses that have shown great resistance to earthquakes, reinforcement work blended with new technologies can be applied in damaged structures. In reconstruction work, a wide variety of applications can be seen with the possibilities of modern technologies. In rural areas experiencing earthquakes around the world, there are experimental new housing applications that are renewable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable with modern construction techniques in the light of scientific data. With these new residences, it is aimed to create earthquake-resistant, economical, healthy, and pain-relieving therapy spaces for people whose daily lives have been interrupted by disasters. In this study, the preservation of high earthquake-prone rural areas will be discussed through the knowledge transfer of traditional architecture and also permanent housing practices using new sustainable technologies to improve the area. In this way, it will be possible to keep losses to a minimum with sustainable, reliable applications prepared for the worst aspects of the disaster situation and to establish a link between the knowledge of the past and the new technologies of the future.

Keywords: sustainability, conservation, traditional construction systems and materials, new technologies, earthquake resistance

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Authors: Veronica S. Moertini, Vinsensius Kevin, Gede Karya

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Customer reviews have been collected by many kinds of e-commerce websites selling products, services, hotel rooms, tickets and so on. Each website collects its own customer reviews. The reviews can be crawled, collected from those websites and stored as big data. Text analysis techniques can be used to analyze that data to produce summarized information, such as customer opinions. Then, these opinions can be published by independent service provider websites and used to help customers in choosing the most suitable products or services. As the opinions are analyzed from big data of reviews originated from many websites, it is expected that the results are more trusted and accurate. Indonesian customers write reviews in Indonesian language, which comes with its own structures and uniqueness. We found that most of the reviews are expressed with “daily language”, which is informal, do not follow the correct grammar, have many abbreviations and slangs or non-formal words. Hadoop is an emerging platform aimed for storing and analyzing big data in distributed systems. A Hadoop cluster consists of master and slave nodes/computers operated in a network. Hadoop comes with distributed file system (HDFS) and MapReduce framework for supporting parallel computation. However, MapReduce has weakness (i.e. inefficient) for iterative computations, specifically, the cost of reading/writing data (I/O cost) is high. Given this fact, we conclude that MapReduce function is best adapted for “one-pass” computation. In this research, we develop an efficient technique for extracting or mining opinions from big data of Indonesian reviews, which is based on MapReduce with one-pass computation. In designing the algorithm, we avoid iterative computation and instead adopt a “look up table” technique. The stages of the proposed technique are: (1) Crawling the data reviews from websites; (2) cleaning and finding root words from the raw reviews; (3) computing the frequency of the meaningful opinion words; (4) analyzing customers sentiments towards defined objects. The experiments for evaluating the performance of the technique were conducted on a Hadoop cluster with 14 slave nodes. The results show that the proposed technique (stage 2 to 4) discovers useful opinions, is capable of processing big data efficiently and scalable.

Keywords: big data analysis, Hadoop MapReduce, analyzing text data, mining Indonesian reviews

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Authors: Ehsan Alishahi, Chuang Deng

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Materials with microstructural heterogeneity have recently attracted dramatic attention in the materials science community. Although most of the metals are identified as crystalline, the new class of amorphous alloys, sometimes are known as metallic glasses (MGs), exhibited remarkable properties, particularly high mechanical strength and elastic limit. The unique properties of MGs led to the wide range of studies in developing and characterizing of new alloys or composites which met the commercial desires. In spite of applicable properties of MGs, commercializing of metallic glasses was limited due to a major drawback, the lack of ductility and sudden brittle failure mode. Hence, crystalline-amorphous (C-A) composites were introduced almost in 2000s as a toughening strategy to improve the ductility of MGs. Despite the considerable progress reported in previous studies, there are still challenges in both synthesis and characterization of metallic C-A composites. In this study, accumulative roll bonding (ARB) was used to synthesize bulk crystalline-amorphous composites starting from crystalline Cu-Zr multilayers. Due to the severe plastic deformation state, new CuZr phases were formed during the rolling process which was reflected in SEM-EDS analysis. EDS elemental analysis showed the variation in the composition of CuZr phases such as 38-62, 50-50 to 68-32 at Cu-Zr % respectively. Moreover, TEM with electron diffraction analysis indicated the presence of both crystalline and amorphous structures for the new formed CuZr phases. In addition to the microstructural analysis, the mechanical properties of the synthesized composites were studied using the nanoindentation technique. Hysitron Nanoindentation instrument was used to conduct nanoindentation tests with cube corner tip. The maximum load of 5000 µN was applied in load control mode to measure the elastic modulus and hardness of different phases. The trend of results indicated three distinct regimes of hardness and elastic modulus including pure Cu, pure Zr, and new formed CuZr phases. More specifically, pure Cu regions showed the lowest values for both nanoindentation hardness and elastic modulus while the CuZr phases take the highest values. Consequently, pure Zr was placed in the intermediate range which is harder than pure Cu but softer than CuZr phases. In overall, it was found that CuZr phases with higher hardness were nucleated during ARB process as a result of mechanical alloying phenomenon.

Keywords: ARB, crystalline-amorphous composites, mechanical alloying, nanoindentation hardness

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Authors: Mohd Maniruzzaman, Md. Monjurul Alam, Md. Hafezur Rahaman, Anika Amir Mohona

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The consumption of water by various industries is increasing day by day, and the wastewaters from them are increasing as well. These wastewaters consist of various kinds of color, dissolved solids, toxic heavy metals, residual chlorine, and other non-degradable organic materials. If these wastewaters are exposed directly to the environment, it will be hazardous for the environment and personal health. So, it is very necessary to treat these wastewaters before exposing into the environment. In this research, we have demonstrated the successful processing and utilization of fully bio-based cellulose micro crystal (CMC) composite for the removal of heavy metals, dyes, and salinity from industrial wastewaters. Banana rachis micro-cellulose were prepared by acid hydrolysis (H₂SO₄) of banana (Musa acuminata L.) rachis fiber, and Bijoypur raw clay were treated by organic solvent tri-ethyl amine. Composites were prepared with varying different composition of banana rachis nano-cellulose and modified Bijoypur (north-east part in Bangladesh) clay. After the successful characterization of cellulose micro crystal (CMC) and modified clay, our targeted filter was fabricated with different composition of cellulose micro crystal and clay in the locally fabricated packing column with 7.5 cm as thickness of composites fraction. Waste-water was collected from local small textile industries containing basic yellow 2 as dye, lead (II) nitrate [Pb(NO₃)₂] and chromium (III) nitrate [Cr(NO₃)₃] as heavy metals and saline water was collected from Khulna to test the efficiency of banana rachis cellulose micro crystal-clay composite for removing the above impurities. The filtering efficiency of wastewater purification was characterized by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (X-RD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Finally, our all characterizations data are shown with very high expected results for in industrial application of our fabricated filter.

Keywords: banana rachis, bio-based filter, cellulose micro crystal-clay composite, wastewaters, synthetic dyes, heavy metal, water salinity

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Authors: Tobias Schmithuesen, Johannes Henrich Schleifenbaum

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The additive manufacturing process laser powder bed fusion offers many advantages over conventional manufacturing processes. For example, almost any complex part can be produced, such as topologically optimized lightweight parts, which would be inconceivable with conventional manufacturing processes. A major challenge posed by the LPBF process, however, is, in most cases, the need to use and remove support structures on critically inclined part surfaces (α < 45 ° regarding substrate plate). These are mainly used for dimensionally accurate mapping of part contours and to reduce distortion by absorbing process-related internal stresses. Furthermore, they serve to transfer the process heat to the substrate plate and are, therefore, indispensable for the LPBF process. A major challenge for the economical use of the LPBF process in industrial process chains is currently still the high manual effort involved in removing support structures. According to the state of the art (SoA), the parts are usually treated by simple hand tools (e.g., pliers, chisels) or by machining (e.g., milling, turning). New automatable approaches are the removal of support structures by means of wet chemical ablation and thermal deburring. According to the state of the art, the support structures are essentially adapted to the LPBF process and not to potential post-processing steps. The aim of this study is the determination of support structure designs that are adapted to the mentioned post-processing approaches. In the first step, the essential boundary conditions for complete removal by means of the respective approaches are identified. Afterward, a representative demonstrator part with various macroscopic support structure designs will be LPBF-manufactured and tested with regard to a complete powder and support removability. Finally, based on the results, potentially suitable support structure designs for the respective approaches will be derived. The investigations are carried out on the example of the aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, laser powder bed fusion, laser beam melting, selective laser melting, post processing, tool-free, wet chemical ablation, thermal deburring, aluminum alloy, AlSi10Mg

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Authors: Vaibhav Rathi, Soumen Maity, Achu R. Sekhar, Abhijit Banerjee

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Construction sector in India is extremely resource and carbon intensive. It contributes to significantly to national greenhouse emissions. At the resource end the industry consumes significant portions of the output from mining. Resources such as sand and soil are most exploited and their rampant extraction is becoming constant source of impact on environment and society. Cement is another resource that is used in abundance in building and construction and has a direct impact on limestone resources. Though India is rich in cement grade limestone resource, efforts have to be made for sustainable consumption of this resource to ensure future availability. Use of these resources in high volumes in India is a result of rapid urbanization. More cities have grown to a population of million plus in the last decade and million plus cities are growing further. To cater to needs of growing urban population of construction activities are inevitable in the coming future thereby increasing material consumption. Increased construction will also lead to substantial increase in end of life waste generation from Construction and Demolition (C&D). Therefore proper management of C&D waste has the potential to reduce environmental pollution as well as contribute to the resource efficiency in the construction sector. The present study deals with estimation, characterisation and documenting current management practices of C&D waste in 10 Indian cities of different geographies and classes. Based on primary data the study draws conclusions on the potential of C&D waste to be used as an alternative to primary raw materials. The estimation results show that India generates 716 million tons of C&D waste annually, placing the country as second largest C&D waste generator in the world after China. The study also aimed at utilization of C&D waste in to building materials. The waste samples collected from various cities have been used to replace 100% stone aggregates in paver blocks without any decrease in strength. However, management practices of C&D waste in cities still remains poor instead of notification of rules and regulations notified for C&D waste management. Only a few cities have managed to install processing plant and set up management systems for C&D waste. Therefore there is immense opportunity for management and reuse of C&D waste in Indian cities.

Keywords: building materials, construction and demolition waste, cities, environmental pollution, resource efficiency

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Authors: Thomas Bryan, Veton Kepuska, Ivica Kostanic

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Speaker recognition is performed in high Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) environments using principals of Computational Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA). CASA methods often classify sounds from images in the time-frequency (T-F) plane using spectrograms or cochleargrams as the image. In this paper atomic decomposition implemented by matching pursuit performs a transform from time series speech signals to the T-F plane. The atomic decomposition creates a sparsely populated T-F vector in “weight space” where each populated T-F position contains an amplitude weight. The weight space vector along with the atomic dictionary represents a denoised, compressed version of the original signal. The arraignment or of the atomic indices in the T-F vector are used for classification. Unsupervised feature learning implemented by a sparse autoencoder learns a single dictionary of basis features from a collection of envelope samples from all speakers. The approach is demonstrated using pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. Pairs of speakers are selected randomly from a single district. Each speak has 10 sentences. Two are used for training and 8 for testing. Atomic index probabilities are created for each training sentence and also for each test sentence. Classification is performed by finding the lowest Euclidean distance between then probabilities from the training sentences and the test sentences. Training is done at a 30dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Testing is performed at SNR’s of 0 dB, 5 dB, 10 dB and 30dB. The algorithm has a baseline classification accuracy of ~93% averaged over 10 pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. The baseline accuracy is attributable to short sequences of training and test data as well as the overall simplicity of the classification algorithm. The accuracy is not affected by AWGN and produces ~93% accuracy at 0dB SNR.

Keywords: time-frequency plane, atomic decomposition, envelope sampling, Gabor atoms, matching pursuit, sparse dictionary learning, sparse autoencoder

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Authors: Pieter De Vries, Renate Klaassen, Maria Ioannides

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This paper is about an explorative research into the use of emerging technologies for teaching and learning in higher engineering education. The assumption is that these technologies and applications, which are not yet widely adopted, will help to improve education and as such actively work on the ability to better deal with the mismatch of skills bothering our industries. Technologies such as 3D printing, the Internet of Things, Virtual Reality, and others, are in a dynamic state of development which makes it difficult to grasp the value for education. Also, the instruments in current educational research seem not appropriate to assess the value of such technologies. This explorative research aims to foster an approach to better deal with this new complexity. The need to find out is urgent, because these technologies will be dominantly present in the near future in all aspects of life, including education. The methodology used in this research comprised an inventory of emerging technologies and tools that potentially give way to innovation and are used or about to be used in technical universities. The inventory was based on both a literature review and a review of reports and web resources like blogs and others and included a series of interviews with stakeholders in engineering education and at representative industries. In addition, a number of small experiments were executed with the aim to analyze the requirements for the use of in this case Virtual Reality and the Internet of Things to better understanding the opportunities and limitations in the day-today learning environment. The major findings indicate that it is rather difficult to decide about the value of these technologies for education due to the dynamic state of change and therefor unpredictability and the lack of a coherent policy at the institutions. Most decisions are being made by teachers on an individual basis, who in their micro-environment are not equipped to select, test and ultimately decide about the use of these technologies. Most experiences are being made in the industry knowing that the skills to handle these technologies are in high demand. The industry though is worried about the inclination and the capability of education to help bridge the skills gap related to the emergence of new technologies. Due to the complexity, the diversity, the speed of development and the decay, education is challenged to develop an approach that can make these technologies work in an integrated fashion. For education to fully profit from the opportunities, these technologies offer it is eminent to develop a pro-active strategy and a sustainable approach to frame the emerging technologies development.

Keywords: emerging technologies, internet of things, pro-active strategy, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: Nathaniel Evans, Jessica Boersma, Kenneth Kass

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With technology and STEM fields growing every day, there is a significant projected shortfall in qualified cybersecurity workers. As such, it is essential to develop a cybersecurity curriculum that builds skills and cultivates interest in cybersecurity early on. With new jobs being created every day and an already significant gap in the job market, it is vital that educators are pro-active in introducing a cybersecurity curriculum where students are able to learn new skills and engage in an age-appropriate cyber curriculum. Within this growing world of cybersecurity, students should engage in age-appropriate technology and cybersecurity curriculum, starting with elementary school (k-5), extending through high school, and ultimately into college. Such practice will provide students with the confidence, skills, and, ultimately, the opportunity to work in the burgeoning information security field. This paper examines educational methods, pedagogical practices, current cybersecurity curricula, and other educational resources and conducts analysis for false assumptions and developmental appropriateness. It also examines and identifies common mistakes with current cyber curriculum and lessons and discuss strategies for improvement. Throughout the lessons that were reviewed, many common mistakes continued to pop up. These mistakes included age appropriateness, technology resources that were available, and consistency of student’s skill levels. Many of these lessons were written for the wrong grade levels. The ones written for the elementary level all had activities that assumed that every student in the class could read at grade level and also had background knowledge of the cyber activity at hand, which is not always the case. Another major mistake was that these lessons assumed that all schools had any kind of technology resource available to them. Some schools are 1:1, and others are only allotted three computers in their classroom where the students have to share. While coming up with a cyber-curriculum, it has to be kept in mind that not all schools are the same, not every classroom is the same. There are many students who are not reading at their grade level or have not had exposure to the digital world. We need to start slow and ease children into the cyber world. Once they have a better understanding, it will be easier to move forward with these lessons and get the students engaged. With a better understanding of common mistakes that are being made, a more robust curriculum and lessons can be created that no only spark a student’s interest in this much-needed career field but encourage learning while keeping our students safe from cyber-attacks.

Keywords: assumptions, cybersecurity, k-12, teacher

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Authors: Bright Chukwunwike Uzuegbunam, Wojciech Paslawski, Hans Agren, Christer Halldin, Wolfgang Weber, Markus Luster, Thomas Arzberger, Behrooz Hooshyar Yousefi

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There is a need to develop a PET tracer that will enable to diagnosis and track the progression of Alpha-synucleinopathies (Parkinson’s disease [PD], dementia with Lewy bodies [DLB], multiple system atrophy [MSA]) in living subjects over time. Alpha-synuclein aggregates (a-syn), which are present in all the stages of disease progression, for instance, in PD, are a suitable target for in vivo PET imaging. For this reason, we have developed some promising a-syn tracers based on a disarylbisthiazole (DABTA) scaffold. The precursors are synthesized via a modified Hantzsch thiazole synthesis. The precursors were then radiolabeled via one- or two-step radiofluorination methods. The ligands were initially screened using a combination of molecular dynamics and quantum/molecular mechanics approaches in order to calculate the binding affinity to a-syn (in silico binding experiments). Experimental in vitro binding assays were also performed. The ligands were further screened in other experiments such as log D, in vitro plasma protein binding & plasma stability, biodistribution & brain metabolite analyses in healthy mice. Radiochemical yields were up to 30% - 72% in some cases. Molecular docking revealed possible binding sites in a-syn and also the free energy of binding to those sites (-28.9 - -66.9 kcal/mol), which correlated to the high binding affinity of the DABTAs to a-syn (Ki as low as 0.5 nM) and selectivity (> 100-fold) over Aβ and tau, which usually co-exist with a-synin some pathologies. The log D values range from 2.88 - 2.34, which correlated with free-protein fraction of 0.28% - 0.5%. Biodistribution experiments revealed that the tracers are taken up (5.6 %ID/g - 7.3 %ID/g) in the brain at 5 min (post-injection) p.i., and cleared out (values as low as 0.39 %ID/g were obtained at 120 min p.i. Analyses of the mice brain 20 min p.i. Revealed almost no radiometabolites in the brain in most cases. It can be concluded that in silico study presents a new venue for the rational development of radioligands with suitable features. The results obtained so far are promising and encourage us to further validate the DABTAs in autoradiography, immunohistochemistry, and in vivo imaging in non-human primates and humans.

Keywords: alpha-synuclein aggregates, alpha-synucleinopathies, PET imaging, tracer development

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Authors: Arfan Fadli, Marini Kristina Situmeang, Mukhammad Fatkhullah, Siti Hazar Sitorus

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Merantau is one of the traditions that has been done by the Minangkabau tribe since the 15th century where it is based on socio-economic factors. In fact, that is not only limited to economic factors alone but more how to develop themselves through the experience to get the skills or education. The lack of jobs opportunity in the hometown causes the community, especially for young men to seek livelihoods in other areas. Unemployment impacts on the economy of the community that led to change in the pattern of employment from farmers to traders or new businesses in areas outside of their homeland. This is also worsened because many young people are not interested in becoming a farmer and working on the land in their village. In this context, merantau is considered to be an alternative to fulfilling livelihoods, and therefore this study examines how the merantau tradition constructed by the Minangkabau community, West Sumatera Province. The research method is done by literature review by collecting information related to the social construction of merantau tradition from various scientific publications. The results show how merantau becomes a solution of economic problems for Minangkabau society. Merantau which has now become an institutionalized tradition for the Minangkabau community where the culture of merantau occurred like a chain that can raise the people from the condition of poverty. When there are people who have successfully in merantau, they tend to bring other relatives who have not found a job to be able to trade with them. In the place of merantau, they will be disciplined to learn how to trade. Eventually, they will have new skills to trade and even make their own business. The tradition of bringing relatives to the rantau to be empowered is a unique side of merantau because it is influenced by the Matrilinear kinship system. The matrilineal kinship system in Minangkabau is the largest in the world where helping relatives are considered to be of the highest value. This system also places men as high positions where men should be encouraged to go abroad for financial success and to help their relatives in their hometown. The success of this tradition (to uplift and resolve the poverty and manpower issues) is demonstrated by the tradition of Minangkabau communities that have been successful in the area of Rantau that send money to their relatives in their homes (remittance). Merantau tradition can also be an alternative in reducing unemployment especially for young people where it is demonstrated by the culture of helping relatives to get work outside of their homeland.

Keywords: matrilineal kinship system, merantau, minangkabau community, reducing unemployment

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Authors: Werner Roux Uys

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The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) holds a high position of trust in South African society and a lack of trust by taxpayers in the Commissioner’s actions or conduct could compromise SARS’ management of public finances. Tax morality – which is implicit in the social contract between taxpayers and the state – includes distinct phenomena that can cause a breakdown if there is a perceived lack of action on the part of the Commissioner to ensure public finances are kept safe. To promote tax morality, the Commissioner must support the judiciary in the exercise of its discretion to punish fraudulent tax activities and corrupt tax practices. For several years the political meddling in the Commissioner’s actions and conduct have caused perceived abuse of power at SARS, and taxpayers believed their hard-earned income paid over to SARS would be fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse previous decisions held by the South African judiciary regarding the Commissioner’s actions and conduct in tax matters, as well as consider important political statements and newspaper bulletins for the purpose of this research. The study applies a qualitative research approach and exploratory case study technique. Keywords were selected and inserted in the LexisNexis electronic database to systematically identify applicable case law where the ratio decidendi of the court referred to the actions and/or conduct of the Commissioner. Specific real-life statements, including political statements and newspaper bulletins, were selected to support the topic at hand. The purpose of the study is to educate the public about the perceptions that have transformed taxpayers’ behaviour towards the Commissioner for SARS since South Africa’s fledgling constitutional democracy was inaugurated in 1994. The study adds to the literature by identifying key characteristics or distinct phenomena regarding the actions and conduct of the Commissioner affecting taxpayers’ behaviour, including discretionary decision-making. From the findings, it emerged that SARS must abide by its (own) laws and that there is a need to educate not only South African taxpayers about tax morality, but also the public in general.

Keywords: commissioner, SARS, action and conduct, judiciary, discretionry, decsion-making

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