Search results for: logistic costs

Authors: João Coutinho-Rodrigues, Nuno Sousa, Luís Alçada-Almeida

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Transportation infrastructure systems are fundamental in modern society and economy. However, they need modernizing, maintaining, and reinforcing interventions which require large investments. In many countries, accumulated intervention delays arise from aging and intense use, being magnified by financial constraints of the past. The decision problem of managing the renewal of large backlogs is common to several types of important transportation infrastructures (e.g., railways, roads). This problem requires considering financial aspects as well as operational constraints under a multidimensional framework. The present research introduces a linear programming multiobjective model for managing railway infrastructure asset renewal. The model aims at minimizing three objectives: (i) yearly investment peak, by evenly spreading investment throughout multiple years; (ii) total cost, which includes extra maintenance costs incurred from renewal backlogs; (iii) priority delays related to work start postponements on the higher priority railway sections. Operational constraints ensure that passenger and freight services are not excessively delayed from having railway line sections under intervention. Achieving a balanced annual investment plan, without compromising the total financial effort or excessively postponing the execution of the priority works, was the motivation for pursuing the research which is now presented. The methodology, inspired by a real case study and tested with real data, reflects aspects of the practice of an infrastructure management company and is generalizable to different types of infrastructure (e.g., railways, highways). It was conceived for treating renewal interventions in infrastructure assets, which is a railway network may be rails, ballasts, sleepers, etc.; while a section is under intervention, trains must run at reduced speed, causing delays in services. The model cannot, therefore, allow for an accumulation of works on the same line, which may cause excessively large delays. Similarly, the lines do not all have the same socio-economic importance or service intensity, making it is necessary to prioritize the sections to be renewed. The model takes these issues into account, and its output is an optimized works schedule for the renewal project translatable in Gantt charts The infrastructure management company provided all the data for the first test case study and validated the parameterization. This case consists of several sections to be renewed, over 5 years and belonging to 17 lines. A large instance was also generated, reflecting a problem of a size similar to the USA railway network (considered the largest one in the world), so it is not expected that considerably larger problems appear in real life; an average of 25 years backlog and ten years of project horizon was considered. Despite the very large increase in the number of decision variables (200 times as large), the computational time cost did not increase very significantly. It is thus expectable that just about any real-life problem can be treated in a modern computer, regardless of size. The trade-off analysis shows that if the decision maker allows some increase in max yearly investment (i.e., degradation of objective ii), solutions improve considerably in the remaining two objectives.

Keywords: transport infrastructure, asset renewal, railway maintenance, multiobjective modeling

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Authors: Lam Hong Lan, Gabor Sarlos

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It is hard to search for best practices in promotion for local fashion brands in Vietnam as the industry is still very young. Local fashion start-ups have grown quickly in the last five years, thanks in part to the internet and social media. However, local designer/owners can face a huge challenge when competing with international brands in the Vietnamese market – and few local case studies are available for guidance. In response, this paper studied how local small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) promote to their target customers in order to compete with international brands. Knowledge of both successful and unsuccessful approaches generated by this study is intended to both contribute to the academic literature on local fashion in Vietnam as well as to help local designers to learn from and improve their brand-building strategy. The primary study featured qualitative data collection via semi-structured depth interviews. Transcription and data analysis were conducted manually in order to identify success factors that local brands should consider as part of their promotion strategy. Purposive sampling of SMEs identified five designers in Ho Chi Minh City (the biggest city in Vietnam) and three designers in Hanoi (the second biggest) as interviewees. Participant attributes included: born in the 1980s or 1990s; familiar with internet and social media; designer/owner of a successful local fashion brand in the key middle market and/or mass market segments (which are crucial to the growth of local brands). A secondary study was conducted using social listening software to gather further qualitative data on what were considered to be successful or unsuccessful approaches to local fashion brand promotion on social media. Both the primary and secondary studies indicated that local designers had maximized their promotion budget by using owned media and earned media instead of paid media. Findings from the qualitative interviews indicate that internet and social media have been used as effective promotion platforms by local fashion start-ups. Facebook and Instagram were the most popular social networks used by the SMEs interviewed, and these social platforms were believed to offer a more affordable promotional strategy than traditional media such as TV and/or print advertising. Online stores were considered an important factor in helping the SMEs to reach customers beyond the physical store. Furthermore, a successful online store allowed some SMEs to reduce their business rental costs by maintaining their physical store in a cheaper, less central city area as opposed to a more traditional city center store location. In addition, the small comparative size of the SMEs allowed them to be more attentive to their customers, leading to higher customer satisfaction and rate of return. In conclusion, this study found that these kinds of cost savings helped the SMEs interviewed to focus their scarce resources on producing unique, high-quality collections in order to differentiate themselves from international brands. Facebook and Instagram were the main platforms used for promotion and brand-building. The main challenge to this promotion strategy identified by the SMEs interviewed was to continue to find innovative ways to maximize the impact of a limited marketing budget.

Keywords: Vietnam, SMEs, fashion brands, promotion, marketing, social listening

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Authors: Lamia Bouzgarrou, Irtyah Merchaoui, Amira Omrane, Salma Kammoun, Amine Daafa, Neila Chaari

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Backgrounds: Currently, low back pain (LBP) is one of the most prevalent public health problems, which caused severe morbidity among a large portion of the adult population. It is also associated with heavy direct and indirect costs, in particular, related to absenteeism and early retirement. Health care workers are one of most occupational groups concerned by LBP, especially because of biomechanical and psycho-organizational risk factors. Our current study aims to investigate risk factors associated with chronic low back pain among Tunisian caregivers in university-hospitals. Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 14 months, with a representative sample of caregivers, matched according to age, sex and work department, in two university-hospitals in Tunisia. Data collection included items related to socio-professional characteristics, the evaluation of the working capacity index (WAI), the occupational stress (Karazek job strain questionnaire); the quality of life (SF12), the musculoskeletal disorders Nordic questionnaire, and the examination of the spine flexibility (distance finger-ground, sit-stand maneuver and equilibrium test). Results: Totally, 293 caregivers were included with a mean age equal to 42.64 ± 11.65 years. A body mass index (BMI) exceeding 30, was noted in 20.82% of cases. Moreover, no regular physical activity was practiced in 51.9% of cases. In contrast, domestic activity equal or exceeding 20 hours per week, was reported by 38.22%. Job strain was noted in 19.79 % of cases and the work capacity was 'low' to 'average' among 27.64% of subjects. During the 12 months previous to the investigation, 65% of caregivers complained of LBP, with pain rated as 'severe' or 'extremely severe' in 54.4% of cases and with a frequency of discomfort exceeding one episode per week in 58.52% of cases. During physical examination, the mean distance finger-ground was 7.10 ± 7.5cm. Caregivers assigned to 'high workload' services had the highest prevalence of LBP (77.4%) compared to other categories of hospital services, with no statistically significant relationship (P = 0.125). LBP prevalence was statistically correlated with female gender (p = 0.01) and impaired work capacity (p < 10⁻³). Moreover, the increase of the distance finger-ground was statistically associated with LBP (p = 0.05), advanced age (p < 10⁻³), professional seniority (p < 10⁻³) and the BMI ≥ 25 (p = 0.001). Furthermore, others physical tests of spine flexibility were underperformed among LBP suffering workers with a statistically significant difference (sit-stand maneuver (p = 0.03); equilibrium test (p = 0.01)). According to the multivariate analysis, only the domestic activity exceeding 20H/week, the degraded quality of physical life, and the presence of neck pain were significantly corelated to LBP. The final model explains 36.7% of the variability of this complaint. Conclusion: Our results highlighted the elevate prevalence of LBP among caregivers in Tunisian public hospital and identified both professional and individual predisposing factors. The preliminary analysis supports the necessity of a multidimensional approach to prevent this critical occupational and public health problem. The preventive strategy should be based both on the improvement of working conditions, and also on lifestyle modifications, and reinforcement of healthy behaviors in these active populations.

Keywords: health care workers, low back pain, prevention, risk factor

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Authors: Jun Byung Joon, Seo Seok Hyun, Lee Seo Young

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As carbon dioxide emissions increase due to rapid industrialization and reckless development, abnormal climates such as floods and droughts are occurring. In order to respond to such climate change, the use of existing fossil fuels is reduced, and the proportion of eco-friendly renewable energy is gradually increasing. Korea is an energy resource-poor country that depends on imports for 93% of its total energy. As the global energy supply chain instability experienced due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis increases, countries around the world are resetting energy policies to minimize energy dependence and strengthen security. Seawater thermal energy is a renewable energy that replaces the existing air heat energy. It uses the characteristic of having a higher specific heat than air to cool and heat main spaces of buildings to increase heat transfer efficiency and minimize power consumption to generate electricity using fossil fuels, and Carbon dioxide emissions can be minimized. In addition, the effect on the marine environment is very small by using only the temperature characteristics of seawater in a limited way. K-water carried out a demonstration project of supplying cooling and heating energy to spaces such as the central control room and presentation room in the management building by acquiring the heat source of seawater circulated through the power plant's waterway by using the characteristics of the tidal power plant. Compared to the East Sea and the South Sea, the main system was designed in consideration of the large tidal difference, small temperature difference, and low-temperature characteristics, and its performance was verified through operation during the demonstration period. In addition, facility improvements were made for major deficiencies to strengthen monitoring functions, provide user convenience, and improve facility soundness. To spread these achievements, the basic concept was to expand the seawater heating and cooling system with a scale of 200 USRT at the Tidal Culture Center. With the operational experience of the demonstration system, it will be possible to establish an optimal seawater heat cooling and heating system suitable for the characteristics of the west coast ocean. Through this, it is possible to reduce operating costs by KRW 33,31 million per year compared to air heat, and through industry-university-research joint research, it is possible to localize major equipment and materials and develop key element technologies to revitalize the seawater heat business and to advance into overseas markets. The government's efforts are needed to expand the seawater heating and cooling system. Seawater thermal energy utilizes only the thermal energy of infinite seawater. Seawater thermal energy has less impact on the environment than river water thermal energy, except for environmental pollution factors such as bottom dredging, excavation, and sand or stone extraction. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the sense of speed in project promotion by innovatively simplifying unnecessary licensing/permission procedures. In addition, support should be provided to secure business feasibility by dramatically exempting the usage fee of public waters to actively encourage development in the private sector.

Keywords: seawater thermal energy, marine energy, tidal power plant, energy consumption

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Authors: F. Pedro, S. Dias, A. Tadeu, J. António, Ó. López, A. Coelho

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Railway transportation is considered the most economical and sustainable way to travel. However, future mobility brings important challenges to railway operators. The main target is to develop solutions that stimulate sustainable mobility. The research and innovation goals for this domain are efficient solutions, ensuring an increased level of safety and reliability, improved resource efficiency, high availability of the means (train), and satisfied passengers with the travel comfort level. These requirements are in line with the European Strategic Agenda for the 2020 rail sector, promoted by the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC). All these aspects involve redesigning current equipment and, in particular, the interior of the carriages. Recent studies have shown that two of the most important requirements for passengers are reasonable ticket prices and comfortable interiors. Passengers tend to use their travel time to rest or to work, so train interiors and their systems need to incorporate features that meet these requirements. Among the various systems that integrate train interiors, the flooring system is one of the systems with the greatest impact on passenger safety and comfort. It is also one of the systems that takes more time to install on the train, and which contributes seriously to the weight (mass) of all interior systems. Additionally, it presents a strong impact on manufacturing costs. The design of railway floor, in the development phase, is usually made relying on a design software that allows to draw and calculate several solutions in a short period of time. After obtaining the best solution, considering the goals previously defined, experimental data is always necessary and required. This experimental phase has such great significance, that its outcome can provoke the revision of the designed solution. This paper presents the methodology and some of the results of an experimental characterisation of composite panels for railway application. The mechanical tests were made for unaged specimens and for specimens that suffered some type of aging, i.e. heat, cold and humidity cycles or freezing/thawing cycles. These conditionings aim to simulate not only the time effect, but also the impact of severe environmental conditions. Both full solutions and separated components/materials were tested. For the full solution, (panel) these were: four-point bending tests, tensile shear strength, tensile strength perpendicular to the plane, determination of the spreading of water, and impact tests. For individual characterisation of the components, more specifically for the covering, the following tests were made: determination of the tensile stress-strain properties, determination of flexibility, determination of tear strength, peel test, tensile shear strength test, adhesion resistance test and dimensional stability. The main conclusions were that experimental characterisation brings a huge contribution to understand the behaviour of the materials both individually and assembled. This knowledge contributes to the increase the quality and improvements of premium solutions. This research work was framed within the POCI-01-0247-FEDER-003474 (coMMUTe) Project funded by Portugal 2020 through the COMPETE 2020.

Keywords: durability, experimental characterization, mechanical tests, railway flooring system

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Authors: Shreyas Kumar, Mili Shangari

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Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in the cyber insurance sector represents a significant advancement, offering the potential to revolutionize risk assessment, fraud detection, and claims processing. However, this integration introduces a range of regulatory and economic challenges that must be addressed to ensure responsible and effective deployment of AI technologies. This paper examines the multifaceted regulatory landscape governing AI in cyber insurance and explores the economic implications of compliance, innovation, and market dynamics. AI's capabilities in processing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns make it an invaluable tool for insurers in managing cyber risks. Yet, the application of AI in this domain is subject to stringent regulatory scrutiny aimed at safeguarding data privacy, ensuring algorithmic transparency, and preventing biases. Regulatory bodies, such as the European Union with its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), mandate strict compliance requirements that can significantly impact the deployment of AI systems. These regulations necessitate robust data protection measures, ethical AI practices, and clear accountability frameworks, all of which entail substantial compliance costs for insurers. The economic implications of these regulatory requirements are profound. Insurers must invest heavily in upgrading their IT infrastructure, implementing robust data governance frameworks, and training personnel to handle AI systems ethically and effectively. These investments, while essential for regulatory compliance, can strain financial resources, particularly for smaller insurers, potentially leading to market consolidation. Furthermore, the cost of regulatory compliance can translate into higher premiums for policyholders, affecting the overall affordability and accessibility of cyber insurance. Despite these challenges, the potential economic benefits of AI integration in cyber insurance are significant. AI-enhanced risk assessment models can provide more accurate pricing, reduce the incidence of fraudulent claims, and expedite claims processing, leading to overall cost savings and increased efficiency. These efficiencies can improve the competitiveness of insurers and drive innovation in product offerings. However, balancing these benefits with regulatory compliance is crucial to avoid legal penalties and reputational damage. The paper also explores the potential risks associated with AI integration, such as algorithmic biases that could lead to unfair discrimination in policy underwriting and claims adjudication. Regulatory frameworks need to evolve to address these issues, promoting fairness and transparency in AI applications. Policymakers play a critical role in creating a balanced regulatory environment that fosters innovation while protecting consumer rights and ensuring market stability. In conclusion, the integration of AI in cyber insurance presents both regulatory and economic challenges that require a coordinated approach involving regulators, insurers, and other stakeholders. By navigating these challenges effectively, the industry can harness the transformative potential of AI, driving advancements in risk management and enhancing the resilience of the cyber insurance market. This paper provides insights and recommendations for policymakers and industry leaders to achieve a balanced and sustainable integration of AI technologies in cyber insurance.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), cyber insurance, regulatory compliance, economic impact, risk assessment, fraud detection, cyber liability insurance, risk management, ransomware

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Authors: Neusa Fernanda Torres, Buyisile Chibi, Lyn E. Middleton, Vernon P. Solomon, Tivani P. Mashamba-Thompson

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Background: Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) is a global concern, with a higher incidence in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite intense world-wide efforts to control and promote the rational use of antibiotics, continuing practices of SMA systematically exposes individuals and communities to the risk of antibiotic resistance and other undesirable antibiotic side effects. Moreover, it increases the health systems costs of acquiring more powerful antibiotics to treat the resistant infection. This review thus maps evidence on the factors influencing self-medication with antibiotics in these settings. Methods: The search strategy for this review involved electronic databases including PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Science Direct, EBSCOhost (PubMed, CINAHL with Full Text, Health Source - Consumer Edition, MEDLINE), Google Scholar, BioMed Central and World Health Organization library, using the search terms:’ Self-Medication’, ‘antibiotics’, ‘factors’ and ‘reasons’. Our search included studies published from 2007 to 2017. Thematic analysis was performed to identify the patterns of evidence on SMA in LMICs. The mixed method quality appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2011 was employed to assess the quality of the included primary studies. Results: Fifteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies included population from the rural (46,4%), urban (33,6%) and combined (20%) settings, of the following LMICs: Guatemala (2 studies), India (2), Indonesia (2), Kenya (1), Laos (1), Nepal (1), Nigeria (2), Pakistan (2), Sri Lanka (1), and Yemen (1). The total sample size of all 15 included studies was 7676 participants. The findings of the review show a high prevalence of SMA ranging from 8,1% to 93%. Accessibility, affordability, conditions of health facilities (long waiting, quality of services and workers) as long well as poor health-seeking behavior and lack of information are factors that influence SMA in LMICs. Antibiotics such as amoxicillin, metronidazole, amoxicillin/clavulanic, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, penicillin, and tetracycline, were the most frequently used for SMA. The major sources of antibiotics included pharmacies, drug stores, leftover drugs, family/friends and old prescription. Sore throat, common cold, cough with mucus, headache, toothache, flu-like symptoms, pain relief, fever, running nose, toothache, upper respiratory tract infections, urinary symptoms, urinary tract infection were the common disease symptoms managed with SMA. Conclusion: Although the information on factors influencing SMA in LMICs is unevenly distributed, the available information revealed the existence of research evidence on antibiotic self-medication in some countries of LMICs. SMA practices are influenced by social-cultural determinants of health and frequently associated with poor dispensing and prescribing practices, deficient health-seeking behavior and consequently with inappropriate drug use. Therefore, there is still a need to conduct further studies (qualitative, quantitative and randomized control trial) on factors and reasons for SMA to correctly address the public health problem in LMICs.

Keywords: antibiotics, factors, reasons, self-medication, low and middle-income countries (LMICs)

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Authors: Utkarsh A. Mishra, Ankit Bansal

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At high temperature, radiative heat transfer is the dominant mode of heat transfer. It is governed by various phenomena such as photon emission, absorption, and scattering. The solution of the governing integrodifferential equation of radiative transfer is a complex process, more when the effect of participating medium and wavelength properties are taken into consideration. Although a generic formulation of such radiative transport problem can be modeled for a wide variety of problems with non-gray, non-diffusive surfaces, there is always a trade-off between simplicity and accuracy of the problem. Recently, solutions of complicated mathematical problems with statistical methods based on randomization of naturally occurring phenomena have gained significant importance. Photon bundles with discrete energy can be replicated with random numbers describing the emission, absorption, and scattering processes. Photon Monte Carlo (PMC) is a simple, yet powerful technique, to solve radiative transfer problems in complicated geometries with arbitrary participating medium. The method, on the one hand, increases the accuracy of estimation, and on the other hand, increases the computational cost. The participating media -generally a gas, such as CO₂, CO, and H₂O- present complex emission and absorption spectra. To model the emission/absorption accurately with random numbers requires a weighted sampling as different sections of the spectrum carries different importance. Importance sampling (IS) was implemented to sample random photon of arbitrary wavelength, and the sampled data provided unbiased training of MC estimators for better results. A better replacement to uniform random numbers is using deterministic, quasi-random sequences. Halton, Sobol, and Faure Low-Discrepancy Sequences are used in this study. They possess better space-filling performance than the uniform random number generator and gives rise to a low variance, stable Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) estimators with faster convergence. An optimal supervised learning scheme was further considered to reduce the computation costs of the PMC simulation. A one-dimensional plane-parallel slab problem with participating media was formulated. The history of some randomly sampled photon bundles is recorded to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN), back-propagation model. The flux was calculated using the standard quasi PMC and was considered to be the training target. Results obtained with the proposed model for the one-dimensional problem are compared with the exact analytical and PMC model with the Line by Line (LBL) spectral model. The approximate variance obtained was around 3.14%. Results were analyzed with respect to time and the total flux in both cases. A significant reduction in variance as well a faster rate of convergence was observed in the case of the QMC method over the standard PMC method. However, the results obtained with the ANN method resulted in greater variance (around 25-28%) as compared to the other cases. There is a great scope of machine learning models to help in further reduction of computation cost once trained successfully. Multiple ways of selecting the input data as well as various architectures will be tried such that the concerned environment can be fully addressed to the ANN model. Better results can be achieved in this unexplored domain.

Keywords: radiative heat transfer, Monte Carlo Method, pseudo-random numbers, low discrepancy sequences, artificial neural networks

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Authors: O. Lopez, F. Pedro, A. Tadeu, J. Antonio, A. Coelho

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The future of the railway industry lies in the innovation of lighter, more efficient and more sustainable trains. Weight optimizations in railway vehicles allow reducing power consumption and CO₂ emissions, increasing the efficiency of the engines and the maximum speed reached. Additionally, they reduce wear of wheels and rails, increase the space available for passengers, etc. Among the various systems that integrate railway interiors, the flooring system is one which has greater impact both on passenger safety and comfort, as well as on the weight of the interior systems. Due to the high weight saving potential, relative high mechanical resistance, good acoustic and thermal performance, ease of modular design, cost-effectiveness and long life, the use of new sustainable composite materials and panels provide the latest innovations for competitive solutions in the development of flooring systems. However, one of the main drawbacks of the flooring systems is their relatively poor resistance to point loads. Point loads in railway interiors can be caused by passengers or by components fixed to the flooring system, such as seats and restraint systems, handrails, etc. In this way, they can originate higher fatigue solicitations under service loads or zones with high stress concentrations under exceptional loads (higher longitudinal, transverse and vertical accelerations), thus reducing its useful life. Therefore, to verify all the mechanical and functional requirements of the flooring systems, many physical prototypes would be created during the design phase, with all of the high costs associated with it. Nowadays, the use of virtual prototyping methods by computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) softwares allow validating a product before committing to making physical test prototypes. The scope of this work was to current computer tools and integrate the processes of innovation, development, and manufacturing to reduce the time from design to finished product and optimise the development of the product for higher levels of performance and reliability. In this case, the mechanical response of several sandwich panels with different cores, polystyrene foams, and composite corks, were assessed, to optimise the weight and the mechanical performance of a flooring solution for railways. Sandwich panels with aluminum face sheets were tested to characterise its mechanical performance and determine the polystyrene foam and cork properties when used as inner cores. Then, a railway flooring solution was fully modelled (including the elastomer pads to provide the required vibration isolation from the car body) and perform structural simulations using FEM analysis to comply all the technical product specifications for the supply of a flooring system. Zones with high stress concentrations are studied and tested. The influence of vibration modes on the comfort level and stability is discussed. The information obtained with the computer tools was then completed with several mechanical tests performed on some solutions, and on specific components. The results of the numerical simulations and experimental campaign carried out are presented in this paper. This research work was performed as part of the POCI-01-0247-FEDER-003474 (coMMUTe) Project funded by Portugal 2020 through COMPETE 2020.

Keywords: cork agglomerate core, mechanical performance, numerical simulation, railway flooring system

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Authors: William Michael Short

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Semantic Web’ technologies such as the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus, SNOMED-CT, and MeSH have been touted as transformational for the way users access online medical and health information, enabling both the automated analysis of natural-language data and the integration of heterogeneous healthrelated resources distributed across the Internet through the use of standardized terminologies that capture concepts and relationships between concepts that are expressed differently across datasets. However, the approaches that have so far characterized ‘semantic bioinformatics’ have not yet fulfilled the promise of the Semantic Web for medical and health information retrieval applications. This paper argues within the perspective of cognitive linguistics and cognitive anthropology that four features of human meaning-making must be taken into account before the potential of semantic technologies can be realized for this domain. First, many semantic technologies operate exclusively at the level of the word. However, texts convey meanings in ways beyond lexical semantics. For example, transitivity patterns (distributions of active or passive voice) and modality patterns (configurations of modal constituents like may, might, could, would, should) convey experiential and epistemic meanings that are not captured by single words. Language users also naturally associate stretches of text with discrete meanings, so that whole sentences can be ascribed senses similar to the senses of words (so-called ‘discourse topics’). Second, natural language processing systems tend to operate according to the principle of ‘one token, one tag’. For instance, occurrences of the word sound must be disambiguated for part of speech: in context, is sound a noun or a verb or an adjective? In syntactic analysis, deterministic annotation methods may be acceptable. But because natural language utterances are typically characterized by polyvalency and ambiguities of all kinds (including intentional ambiguities), such methods leave the meanings of texts highly impoverished. Third, ontologies tend to be disconnected from everyday language use and so struggle in cases where single concepts are captured through complex lexicalizations that involve profile shifts or other embodied representations. More problematically, concept graphs tend to capture ‘expert’ technical models rather than ‘folk’ models of knowledge and so may not match users’ common-sense intuitions about the organization of concepts in prototypical structures rather than Aristotelian categories. Fourth, and finally, most ontologies do not recognize the pervasively figurative character of human language. However, since the time of Galen the widespread use of metaphor in the linguistic usage of both medical professionals and lay persons has been recognized. In particular, metaphor is a well-documented linguistic tool for communicating experiences of pain. Because semantic medical knowledge-bases are designed to help capture variations within technical vocabularies – rather than the kinds of conventionalized figurative semantics that practitioners as well as patients actually utilize in clinical description and diagnosis – they fail to capture this dimension of linguistic usage. The failure of semantic technologies in these respects degrades the efficiency and efficacy not only of medical research, where information retrieval inefficiencies can lead to direct financial costs to organizations, but also of care provision, especially in contexts of patients’ self-management of complex medical conditions.

Keywords: ambiguity, bioinformatics, language, meaning, metaphor, ontology, semantic web, semantics

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Authors: Claudio Loconsole, Daniele Leonardis, Antonio Brunetti, Gianpaolo Francesco Trotta, Nicholas Caporusso, Vitoantonio Bevilacqua

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Unfortunately, many people still do not have access to communication, with specific regard to reading and writing. Among them, people who are blind or visually impaired, have several difficulties in getting access to the world, compared to the sighted. Indeed, despite technology advancement and cost reduction, nowadays assistive devices are still expensive such as Braille-based input/output systems which enable reading and writing texts (e.g., personal notes, documents). As a consequence, assistive technology affordability is fundamental in supporting the visually impaired in communication, learning, and social inclusion. This, in turn, has serious consequences in terms of equal access to opportunities, freedom of expression, and actual and independent participation to a society designed for the sighted. Moreover, the visually impaired experience difficulties in recognizing objects and interacting with devices in any activities of daily living. It is not a case that Braille indications are commonly reported only on medicine boxes and elevator keypads. Several software applications for the automatic translation of written text into speech (e.g., Text-To-Speech - TTS) enable reading pieces of documents. However, apart from simple tasks, in many circumstances TTS software is not suitable for understanding very complicated pieces of text requiring to dwell more on specific portions (e.g., mathematical formulas or Greek text). In addition, the experience of reading\writing text is completely different both in terms of engagement, and from an educational perspective. Statistics on the employment rate of blind people show that learning to read and write provides the visually impaired with up to 80% more opportunities of finding a job. Especially in higher educational levels, where the ability to digest very complex text is key, accessibility and availability of Braille plays a fundamental role in reducing drop-out rate of the visually impaired, thus affecting the effectiveness of the constitutional right to get access to education. In this context, the Braille Lab project aims at overcoming these social needs by including affordability in designing and developing assistive tools for visually impaired people. In detail, our awarded project focuses on a technology innovation of the operation principle of existing assistive tools for the visually impaired leaving the Human-Machine Interface unchanged. This can result in a significant reduction of the production costs and consequently of tool selling prices, thus representing an important opportunity for social entrepreneurship. The first two assistive tools designed within the Braille Lab project following the proposed approach aims to provide the possibility to personally print documents and handouts and to read texts written in Braille using refreshable Braille display, respectively. The former, named ‘Braille Cartridge’, represents an alternative solution for printing in Braille and consists in the realization of an electronic-controlled dispenser printing (cartridge) which can be integrated within traditional ink-jet printers, in order to leverage the efficiency and cost of the device mechanical structure which are already being used. The latter, named ‘Braille Cursor’, is an innovative Braille display featuring a substantial technology innovation by means of a unique cursor virtualizing Braille cells, thus limiting the number of active pins needed for Braille characters.

Keywords: Human rights, social challenges and technology innovations, visually impaired, affordability, assistive tools

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Authors: Tuji Jemal Ahmed, Hussen Beker Yusuf

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Food safety is a major concern worldwide, with microbial contamination being one of the leading causes of foodborne illnesses. In Ethiopia, drinking water and untreated groundwater are a primary source of microbial contamination, leading to significant health risks. East Hararghe, Oromia, is one of the regions in Ethiopia that has been affected by this problem. This paper provides an overview of the impact of untreated groundwater on human health in Haramaya Rural District, East Hararghe and highlights the urgent need for sustained efforts to address the water sanitation supply problem. The use of untreated groundwater for drinking and household purposes in Haramaya Rural District, East Hararghe is prevalent, leading to high rates of waterborne illnesses such as diarrhea, typhoid fever, and cholera. The impact of these illnesses on human health is significant, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality, especially among vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly. In addition to the direct health impacts, waterborne illnesses also have indirect impacts on human health, such as reduced productivity and increased healthcare costs. Groundwater sources are susceptible to microbial contamination due to the infiltration of surface water, human and animal waste, and agricultural runoff. In Haramaya Rural District, East Hararghe, poor water management practices, inadequate sanitation facilities, and limited access to clean water sources contribute to the prevalence of untreated groundwater as a primary source of drinking water. These underlying causes of microbial contamination highlight the need for improved water sanitation infrastructure, including better access to safe drinking water sources and the implementation of effective treatment methods. The paper emphasizes the need for regular water quality monitoring, especially for untreated groundwater sources, to ensure safe drinking water for the population. The implementation of effective preventive measures, such as the use of effective disinfectants, proper waste disposal methods, and regular water quality monitoring, is crucial to reducing the risk of contamination and improving public health outcomes in the region. Community education and awareness-raising campaigns can also play a critical role in promoting safe water practices and reducing the risk of contamination. These campaigns can include educating the population on the importance of boiling water before drinking, the use of water filters, and proper sanitation practices. In conclusion, the use of untreated groundwater as a primary source of drinking water in East Hararghe, Oromia, Ethiopia, has significant impacts on human health, leading to widespread waterborne illnesses and posing a significant threat to public health. Sustained efforts are urgently needed to address the root causes of contamination, such as poor sanitation and hygiene practices, improper waste management, and the water sanitation supply problem, including the implementation of effective preventive measures and community-based education programs, ultimately improving public health outcomes in the region. A comprehensive approach that involves community-based water management systems, point-of-use water treatment methods, and awareness-raising campaigns can contribute to reducing the incidence of microbial contamination in the region.

Keywords: food safety, health risks, microbial contamination, untreated groundwater

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Authors: Eduardo Rodrigues, Gisela Mendes, José M. Torres, José E. Sousa

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In the sequence of the liberalisation of the electricity sector a progressive engagement of consumers has been considered and targeted by sector regulatory policies. With the objective of promoting market competition while protecting consumers interests, by transferring some of the upstream benefits to the end users while reaching a fair distribution of system costs, different market models to value consumers’ demand flexibility at the energy community level are envisioned. Local Energy and Flexibility Markets (LEFM) involve stakeholders interested in providing or procure local flexibility for community, services and markets’ value. Under the scope of DOMINOES, a European research project supported by Horizon 2020, the local market concept developed is expected to: • Enable consumers/prosumers empowerment, by allowing them to value their demand flexibility and Distributed Energy Resources (DER); • Value local liquid flexibility to support innovative distribution grid management, e.g., local balancing and congestion management, voltage control and grid restoration; • Ease the wholesale market uptake of DER, namely small-scale flexible loads aggregation as Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), facilitating Demand Response (DR) service provision; • Optimise the management and local sharing of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV) grids, trough energy transactions within an energy community; • Enhance the development of energy markets through innovative business models, compatible with ongoing policy developments, that promote the easy access of retailers and other service providers to the local markets, allowing them to take advantage of communities’ flexibility to optimise their portfolio and subsequently their participation in external markets. The general concept proposed foresees a flow of market actions, technical validations, subsequent deliveries of energy and/or flexibility and balance settlements. Since the market operation should be dynamic and capable of addressing different requests, either prioritising balancing and prosumer services or system’s operation, direct procurement of flexibility within the local market must also be considered. This paper aims to highlight the research on the definition of suitable DR models to be used by the Distribution System Operator (DSO), in case of technical needs, and by the retailer, mainly for portfolio optimisation and solve unbalances. The models to be proposed and implemented within relevant smart distribution grid and microgrid validation environments, are focused on day-ahead and intraday operation scenarios, for predictive management and near-real-time control respectively under the DSO’s perspective. At local level, the DSO will be able to procure flexibility in advance to tackle different grid constrains (e.g., demand peaks, forecasted voltage and current problems and maintenance works), or during the operating day-to-day, to answer unpredictable constraints (e.g., outages, frequency deviations and voltage problems). Due to the inherent risks of their active market participation retailers may resort to DR models to manage their portfolio, by optimising their market actions and solve unbalances. The interaction among the market actors involved in the DR activation and in flexibility exchange is explained by a set of sequence diagrams for the DR modes of use from the DSO and the energy provider perspectives. • DR for DSO’s predictive management – before the operating day; • DR for DSO’s real-time control – during the operating day; • DR for retailer’s day-ahead operation; • DR for retailer’s intraday operation.

Keywords: demand response, energy communities, flexible demand, local energy and flexibility markets

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Authors: Laura Norfolk, Georgina Zimbitas, Jan Sefcik, Sarah Staniland

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Magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) have been an area of increasing research interest due to their extensive applications in industry, such as in carbon capture, water purification, and crucially, the biomedical industry. The use of MNP in the biomedical industry is rising, with studies on their effect as Magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, drug delivery systems, and as hyperthermic cancer treatments becoming prevalent in the nanomaterial research community. Particles used for biomedical purposes must meet stringent criteria; the particles must have consistent shape and size between particles. Variation between particle morphology can drastically alter the effective surface area of the material, making it difficult to correctly dose particles that are not homogeneous. Particles of defined shape such as octahedral and cubic have been shown to outperform irregular shaped particles in some applications, leading to the need to synthesize particles of defined shape. In nature, highly homogeneous MNP are found within magnetotactic bacteria, a unique bacteria capable of producing magnetite nanoparticles internally under ambient conditions. Biomineralisation proteins control the properties of the MNPs, enhancing their homogeneity. One of these proteins, Mms6, has been successfully isolated and used in vitro as an additive in room-temperature co-precipitation reactions (RTCP) to produce particles of defined mono-dispersed size & morphology. When considering future industrial scale-up it is crucial to consider the costs and feasibility of an additive, as an additive that is not readily available or easily synthesized at a competitive price will not be sustainable. As such, additives selected for this research are inspired by the functional groups of biomineralisation proteins, but cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and compatible with scale-up. Diethylenetriamine (DETA), triethylenetetramine (TETA), tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), and pentaethylenehexamine (PEHA) have been successfully used in RTCP to modulate the properties of particles synthesized, leading to the formation of octahedral nanoparticles with no use of organic solvents, heating, or toxic precursors. By extending this principle to a fluidic system, ongoing research will reveal whether the amine additives can also exert morphological control in an environment which is suited toward higher particle yield. Two fluidic systems have been employed; a peristaltic turbulent flow mixing system suitable for the rapid production of MNP, and a macrofluidic system for the synthesis of tailored nanomaterials under a laminar flow regime. The presence of the amine additives in the turbulent flow system in initial results appears to offer similar morphological control as observed under RTCP conditions, with higher proportions of octahedral particles formed. This is a proof of concept which may pave the way to green synthesis of tailored MNP on an industrial scale. Mms6 and amine additives have been used in the macrofluidic system, with Mms6 allowing magnetite to be synthesized at unfavourable ferric ratios, but no longer influencing particle size. This suggests this synthetic technique while still benefiting from the addition of additives, may not allow additives to fully influence the particles formed due to the faster timescale of reaction. The amine additives have been tested at various concentrations, the results of which will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: bioinspired, green synthesis, fluidic, magnetite, morphological control, scale-up

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Authors: Sebastião Milton Pinheiro da Silva, Michele Barbosa da Rocha, Ana Lúcia Fernandes Campos, Miquéias Rildo de Souza Silva

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Water is an essential natural resource for life on Earth. Rivers, lakes, lagoons and dams are the main sources of water storage for human consumption. The costs of extracting and using these water sources are lower than those of exploiting groundwater on transition zones to semi-arid terrains. However, the volume of surface water has decreased over time, with the depletion of first-order drainage and the disappearance of springs, phenomena which are easily observed in the field. Climate change worsens water scarcity, compromising supply and hydric security for rural populations. To minimize the expected impacts, producing and storing water through watershed management planning requires detailed cartographic information on the relief and topography, and updated data on the stage and intensity of catchment basin environmental degradation problems. The cartography available of the Brazilian northeastern territory dates to the 70s, with topographic maps, printed, at a scale of 1:100,000 which does not meet the requirements to execute this project. Exceptionally, there are topographic maps at scales of 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 of some coastal regions in northeastern Brazil. Still, due to scale limitations and outdatedness, they are products of little utility for mapping low-order watersheds drainage and springs. Remote sensing data and geographic information systems can contribute to guiding the process of mapping and environmental recovery by integrating detailed relief and topographic data besides social and other environmental information in the Guajiru River Basin, located on the east coast of Rio Grande do Norte, on the Northeast region of Brazil. This study aimed to recognize and map catchment basin, springs and low-order drainage features along estimating morphometric parameters. Alos PALSAR and Copernicus DEM digital elevation models were evaluated and provided regional drainage features and the watersheds limits extracted with Terraview/Terrahidro 5.0 software. CBERS 4A satellite images with 2 m spatial resolution, processed with ESA SNAP Toolbox, allowed generating land use land cover map of Guajiru River. A Mappir Survey 3 multiespectral camera onboard of a DJI Phantom 4, a Mavic 2 Pro PPK Drone and an X91 GNSS receiver to collect the precised position of selected points were employed to detail mapping. Satellite images enabled a first knowledge approach of watershed areas on a more regional scale, yet very current, and drone images were essential in mapping details of catchment basins. The drone multispectral image mosaics, the digital elevation model, the contour lines and geomorphometric parameters were generated using OpenDroneMap/ODM and QGis softwares. The drone images generated facilitated the location, understanding and mapping of watersheds, recharge areas and first-order ephemeral watercourses on an adequate scale and will be used in the following project’s phases: watershed management planning, recovery and environmental protection of Rio's springs Guajiru. Environmental degradation is being analyzed from the perspective of the availability and quality of surface water supply.

Keywords: imaging, relief, UAV, water

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Authors: Annika J. Meyer, Tom Piechotta

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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have increasingly become vital tools in various applications, including surveillance, search and rescue, and environmental monitoring. One common approach to ensure redundant communication systems when flying beyond visual line of sight is for UAVs to employ multiple mobile data modems by different providers. Although widely adopted, this approach suffers from several drawbacks, such as high costs, added weight and potential increases in signal interference. In light of these challenges, this paper proposes a communication framework intermeshing mobile networks and LoRa (Long Range) technology—a low-power, long-range communication protocol. LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) is commonly used in Internet of Things applications, relying on stationary gateways and Internet connectivity. This paper, however, utilizes the underlying LoRa protocol, taking advantage of the protocol’s low power and long-range capabilities while ensuring efficiency and reliability. Conducted in collaboration with the Potsdam Fire Department, the implementation of mobile network technology in combination with the LoRa protocol in small UAVs (take-off weight < 0.4 kg), specifically designed for search and rescue and area monitoring missions, is explored. This research aims to test the viability of LoRa as an additional redundant communication system during UAV flights as well as its intermeshing with the primary, mobile network-based controller. The methodology focuses on direct UAV-to-UAV and UAV-to-ground communications, employing different spreading factors optimized for specific operational scenarios—short-range for UAV-to-UAV interactions and long-range for UAV-to-ground commands. This explored use case also dramatically reduces one of the major drawbacks of LoRa communication systems, as a line of sight between the modules is necessary for reliable data transfer. Something that UAVs are uniquely suited to provide, especially when deployed as a swarm. Additionally, swarm deployment may enable UAVs that have lost contact with their primary network to reestablish their connection through another, better-situated UAV. The experimental setup involves multiple phases of testing, starting with controlled environments to assess basic communication capabilities and gradually advancing to complex scenarios involving multiple UAVs. Such a staged approach allows for meticulous adjustment of parameters and optimization of the communication protocols to ensure reliability and effectiveness. Furthermore, due to the close partnership with the Fire Department, the real-world applicability of the communication system is assured. The expected outcomes of this paper include a detailed analysis of LoRa's performance as a communication tool for UAVs, focusing on aspects such as signal integrity, range, and reliability under different environmental conditions. Additionally, the paper seeks to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency of using a single type of communication technology that reduces UAV payload and power consumption. By shifting from traditional cellular network communications to a more robust and versatile cellular and LoRa-based system, this research has the potential to significantly enhance UAV capabilities, especially in critical applications where reliability is paramount. The success of this paper could pave the way for broader adoption of LoRa in UAV communications, setting a new standard for UAV operational communication frameworks.

Keywords: LoRa communication protocol, mobile network communication, UAV communication systems, search and rescue operations

Procedia PDF Downloads 34

Authors: D. Malouch, M. Berchel, C. Dreanno, S. Stachowski-Haberkorn, P-A. Jaffres

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Biofilm is a predominant lifestyle chosen by bacteria. Whether it is developed on an immerged surface or a mobile biofilm known as flocs, the bacteria within this form of life show properties different from its planktonic ones. Within the biofilm, the self-formed matrix of Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) offers hydration, resources capture, enhanced resistance to antimicrobial agents, and allows cell-communication. Biofouling is a complex natural phenomenon that involves biological, physical and chemical properties related to the environment, the submerged surface and the living organisms involved. Bio-colonization of artificial structures can cause various economic and environmental impacts. The increase in costs associated with the over-consumption of fuel from biocolonized vessels has been widely studied. Measurement drifts from submerged sensors, as well as obstructions in heat exchangers, and deterioration of offshore structures are major difficulties that industries are dealing with. Therefore, surfaces that inhibit biocolonization are required in different areas (water treatment, marine paints, etc.) and many efforts have been devoted to produce efficient and eco-compatible antifouling agents. The different steps of surface fouling are widely described in literature. Studying the biofilm and its stages provides a better understanding of how to elaborate more efficient antifouling strategies. Several approaches are currently applied, such as the use of biocide anti-fouling paint6 (mainly with copper derivatives) and super-hydrophobic coatings. While these two processes are proving to be the most effective, they are not entirely satisfactory, especially in a context of a changing legislation. Nowadays, the challenge is to prevent biofouling with non-biocide compounds, offering a cost effective solution, but with no toxic effects on marine organisms. Since the micro-fouling phase plays an important role in the regulation of the following steps of biofilm formation7, it is desired to reduce or delate biofouling of a given surface by inhibiting the micro fouling at its early stages. In our recent works, we reported that some amphiphilic compounds exhibited bacteriostatic or bactericidal properties at a concentration that did not affect eukaryotic cells. These remarkable properties invited us to assess this type of bio-inspired phospholipids9 to prevent the colonization of surfaces by marine bacteria. Of note, other studies reported that amphiphilic compounds interacted with bacteria leading to a reduction of their development. An amphiphilic compound is a molecule consisting of a hydrophobic domain and a polar head (ionic or non-ionic). These compounds appear to have interesting antifouling properties: some ionic compounds have shown antimicrobial activity, and zwitterions can reduce nonspecific adsorption of proteins. Herein, we investigate the potential of amphiphilic compounds as inhibitors of bacterial growth and marine biofilm formation. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of four synthetic phospholipids that features a cationic charge (BSV36, KLN47) or a zwitterionic polar-head group (SL386, MB2871) to prevent microfouling with marine bacteria. We also study the toxicity of these compounds in order to identify the most promising compound that must feature high anti-adhesive properties and a low cytotoxicity on two links representative of coastal marine food webs: phytoplankton and oyster larvae.

Keywords: amphiphilic phospholipids, bacterial biofilm, marine microfouling, non-toxic antifouling

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Authors: Manuel I. Capel, Antonio Tomeu, Alberto Salguero

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Tumor growth from a transformed cancer-cell up to a clinically apparent mass spans through a range of spatial and temporal magnitudes. Through computer simulations, Cellular Automata (CA) can accurately describe the complexity of the development of tumors. Tumor development prognosis can now be made -without making patients undergo through annoying medical examinations or painful invasive procedures- if we develop appropriate CA-based software tools. In silico testing mainly refers to Computational Biology research studies of application to clinical actions in Medicine. To establish sound computer-based models of cellular behavior, certainly reduces costs and saves precious time with respect to carrying out experiments in vitro at labs or in vivo with living cells and organisms. These aim to produce scientifically relevant results compared to traditional in vitro testing, which is slow, expensive, and does not generally have acceptable reproducibility under the same conditions. For speeding up computer simulations of cellular models, specific literature shows recent proposals based on the CA approach that include advanced techniques, such the clever use of supporting efficient data structures when modeling with deterministic stochastic cellular automata. Multiparadigm and multiscale simulation of tumor dynamics is just beginning to be developed by the concerned research community. The use of stochastic cellular automata (SCA), whose parallel programming implementations are open to yield a high computational performance, are of much interest to be explored up to their computational limits. There have been some approaches based on optimizations to advance in multiparadigm models of tumor growth, which mainly pursuit to improve performance of these models through efficient memory accesses guarantee, or considering the dynamic evolution of the memory space (grids, trees,…) that holds crucial data in simulations. In our opinion, the different optimizations mentioned above are not decisive enough to achieve the high performance computing power that cell-behavior simulation programs actually need. The possibility of using multicore and GPU parallelism as a promising multiplatform and framework to develop new programming techniques to speed-up the computation time of simulations is just starting to be explored in the few last years. This paper presents a model that incorporates parallel processing, identifying the synchronization necessary for speeding up tumor growth simulations implemented in Java and C++ programming environments. The speed up improvement that specific parallel syntactic constructs, such as executors (thread pools) in Java, are studied. The new tumor growth parallel model is proved using implementations with Java and C++ languages on two different platforms: chipset Intel core i-X and a HPC cluster of processors at our university. The parallelization of Polesczuk and Enderling model (normally used by researchers in mathematical oncology) proposed here is analyzed with respect to performance gain. We intend to apply the model and overall parallelization technique presented here to solid tumors of specific affiliation such as prostate, breast, or colon. Our final objective is to set up a multiparadigm model capable of modelling angiogenesis, or the growth inhibition induced by chemotaxis, as well as the effect of therapies based on the presence of cytotoxic/cytostatic drugs.

Keywords: cellular automaton, tumor growth model, simulation, multicore and manycore programming, parallel programming, high performance computing, speed up

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Benjamin Arazi

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Blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It revolutionizes the meaning of trust in the sense of offering total reliability without relying on any central entity that controls or supervises the system. The Wall Street Journal states: “Blockchain Marks the Next Step in the Internet’s Evolution”. Blockchain was listed as #1 in Linkedin – The Learning Blog “most in-demand hard skills needed in 2020”. As stated there: “Blockchain’s novel way to store, validate, authorize, and move data across the internet has evolved to securely store and send any digital asset”. GSMA, a leading Telco organization of mobile communications operators, declared that “Blockchain has the potential to be for value what the Internet has been for information”. Motivated by these seminal observations, this paper presents the foundations of a Blockchain-based “Internet of Assets” academic program that joins under one roof leading application areas that are characterized by the transfer of assets over communication lines. Two such areas, which are pillars of our economy, are Fintech – Financial Technology and mobile communications services. The next application in line is Healthcare. These challenges are met based on available extensive professional literature. Blockchain-based assets communication is based on extending the principle of Bitcoin, starting with the basic question: If digital money that travels across the universe can ‘prove its own validity’, can this principle be applied to digital content. A groundbreaking positive answer here led to the concept of “smart contract” and consequently to DLT - Distributed Ledger Technology, where the word ‘distributed’ relates to the non-existence of reliable central entities or trusted third parties. The terms Blockchain and DLT are frequently used interchangeably in various application areas. The World Bank Group compiled comprehensive reports, analyzing the contribution of DLT/Blockchain to Fintech. The European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are engaged in Project Stella, “Balancing confidentiality and auditability in a distributed ledger environment”. 130 DLT/Blockchain focused Fintech startups are now operating in Switzerland. Blockchain impact on mobile communications services is treated in detail by leading organizations. The TM Forum is a global industry association in the telecom industry, with over 850 member companies, mainly mobile operators, that generate US$2 trillion in revenue and serve five billion customers across 180 countries. From their perspective: “Blockchain is considered one of the digital economy’s most disruptive technologies”. Samples of Blockchain contributions to Fintech (taken from a World Bank document): Decentralization and disintermediation; Greater transparency and easier auditability; Automation & programmability; Immutability & verifiability; Gains in speed and efficiency; Cost reductions; Enhanced cyber security resilience. Samples of Blockchain contributions to the Telco industry. Establishing identity verification; Record of transactions for easy cost settlement; Automatic triggering of roaming contract which enables near-instantaneous charging and reduction in roaming fraud; Decentralized roaming agreements; Settling accounts per costs incurred in accordance with agreement tariffs. This clearly demonstrates an academic education structure where fundamental technologies are studied in classes together with these two application areas. Advanced courses, treating specific implementations then follow separately. All are under the roof of “Internet of Assets”.

Keywords: blockchain, education, financial technology, mobile telecommunications services

Procedia PDF Downloads 174

Authors: Claire Williams

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Randomised controlled Trials (RCTs) of efficacy are still perceived as the gold standard for the generation of evidence, and whilst advances in data collection methods are well developed, this progress has not been matched for the reporting of adverse events (AEs). Assessment and reporting of AEs in clinical trials are fraught with human error and inefficiency and are extremely time and resource intensive. Recent research conducted into the quality of reporting of AEs during clinical trials concluded it is substandard and reporting is inconsistent. Investigators commonly send reports to sponsors who are incorrectly categorised and lacking in critical information, which can complicate the detection of valid safety signals. In our presentation, we will describe an electronic data capture system, which has been designed to support clinical trial processes by reducing the resource burden on investigators, improving overall trial efficiencies, and making trials safer for patients. This proprietary technology was developed using expertise proven in the delivery of the world’s first prospective, phase 3b real-world trial, ‘The Salford Lung Study, ’ which enabled robust safety monitoring and reporting processes to be accomplished by the remote monitoring of patients’ EHRs. This technology enables safety alerts that are pre-defined by the protocol to be detected from the data extracted directly from the patients EHR. Based on study-specific criteria, which are created from the standard definition of a serious adverse event (SAE) and the safety profile of the medicinal product, the system alerts the investigator or study team to the safety alert. Each safety alert will require a clinical review by the investigator or delegate; examples of the types of alerts include hospital admission, death, hepatotoxicity, neutropenia, and acute renal failure. This is achieved in near real-time; safety alerts can be reviewed along with any additional information available to determine whether they meet the protocol-defined criteria for reporting or withdrawal. This active surveillance technology helps reduce the resource burden of the more traditional methods of AE detection for the investigators and study teams and can help eliminate reporting bias. Integration of multiple healthcare data sources enables much more complete and accurate safety data to be collected as part of a trial and can also provide an opportunity to evaluate a drug’s safety profile long-term, in post-trial follow-up. By utilising this robust and proven method for safety monitoring and reporting, a much higher risk of patient cohorts can be enrolled into trials, thus promoting inclusivity and diversity. Broadening eligibility criteria and adopting more inclusive recruitment practices in the later stages of drug development will increase the ability to understand the medicinal products risk-benefit profile across the patient population that is likely to use the product in clinical practice. Furthermore, this ground-breaking approach to AE detection not only provides sponsors with better-quality safety data for their products, but it reduces the resource burden on the investigator and study teams. With the data taken directly from the source, trial costs are reduced, with minimal data validation required and near real-time reporting enables safety concerns and signals to be detected more quickly than in a traditional RCT.

Keywords: more comprehensive and accurate safety data, near real-time safety alerts, reduced resource burden, safer trials

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Authors: Glauco M. M. M. Lustosa, João Paulo C. Costa, Sonia M. Zanetti, Mario Cilense, Leinig Antônio Perazolli, Maria Aparecida Zaghete

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The contamination of the environment has been one of the biggest problems of our time, mostly due to developments of many industries. SnO2 is an n-type semiconductor with band gap about 3.5 eV and has its electrical conductivity dependent of type and amount of modifiers agents added into matrix ceramic during synthesis process, allowing applications as sensing of gaseous pollutants on ambient. The chemical synthesis by polymeric precursor method consists in a complexation reaction between tin ion and citric acid at 90 °C/2 hours and subsequently addition of ethyleneglycol for polymerization at 130 °C/2 hours. It also prepared polymeric resin of zinc, cobalt and niobium ions. Stoichiometric amounts of the solutions were mixed to obtain the systems (Zn, Nb)-SnO2 and (Co, Nb) SnO2 . The metal immobilization reduces its segregation during the calcination resulting in a crystalline oxide with high chemical homogeneity. The resin was pre-calcined at 300 °C/1 hour, milled in Atritor Mill at 500 rpm/1 hour, and then calcined at 600 °C/2 hours. X-Ray Diffraction (XDR) indicated formation of SnO2 -rutile phase (JCPDS card nº 41-1445). The characterization by Scanning Electron Microscope of High Resolution showed spherical ceramic powder nanostructured with 10-20 nm of diameter. 20 mg of SnO2 -based powder was kept in 20 ml of isopropyl alcohol and then taken to an electrophoretic deposition (EPD) system. The EPD method allows control the thickness films through the voltage or current applied in the electrophoretic cell and by the time used for deposition of ceramics particles. This procedure obtains films in a short time with low costs, bringing prospects for a new generation of smaller size devices with easy integration technology. In this research, films were obtained in an alumina substrate with interdigital electrodes after applying 2 kV during 5 and 10 minutes in cells containing alcoholic suspension of (Zn, Nb)-SnO2 and (Co, Nb) SnO2 of powders, forming a sensing layer. The substrate has designed integrated micro hotplates that provide an instantaneous and precise temperature control capability when a voltage is applied. The films were sintered at 900 and 1000 °C in a microwave oven of 770 W, adapted by the research group itself with a temperature controller. This sintering is a fast process with homogeneous heating rate which promotes controlled growth of grain size and also the diffusion of modifiers agents, inducing the creation of intrinsic defects which will change the electrical characteristics of SnO2 -based powders. This study has successfully demonstrated a microfabricated system with an integrated micro-hotplate for detection of CO and NO2 gas at different concentrations and temperature, with self-heating SnO2 - based nanoparticles films, being suitable for both industrial process monitoring and detection of low concentrations in buildings/residences in order to safeguard human health. The results indicate the possibility for development of gas sensors devices with low power consumption for integration in portable electronic equipment with fast analysis. Acknowledgments The authors thanks to the LMA-IQ for providing the FEG-SEM images, and the financial support of this project by the Brazilian research funding agencies CNPq, FAPESP 2014/11314-9 and CEPID/CDMF- FAPESP 2013/07296-2.

Keywords: chemical synthesis, electrophoretic deposition, self-heating, gas sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 269

Authors: Abdulkarim Nasir, Alhassan T. Yahaya, Hauwa T. Abdulkarim, Abdussalam El-Suleiman, Yakubu K. Abubakar

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The need for sustainable and reliable electricity supply in rural communities of Nigeria remains a pressing issue, given the country's vast energy deficit and the significant number of inhabitants lacking access to electricity. This research focuses on the development of a portable hybrid renewable energy system designed to provide a sustainable and efficient electricity supply to these underserved regions. The proposed system integrates multiple renewable energy sources, specifically solar and wind, to harness the abundant natural resources available in Nigeria. The design and development process involves the selection and optimization of components such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, energy storage units (batteries), and power management systems. These components are chosen based on their suitability for rural environments, cost-effectiveness, and ease of maintenance. The hybrid system is designed to be portable, allowing for easy transportation and deployment in remote locations with limited infrastructure. Key to the system's effectiveness is its hybrid nature, which ensures continuous power supply by compensating for the intermittent nature of individual renewable sources. Solar energy is harnessed during the day, while wind energy is captured whenever wind conditions are favourable, thus ensuring a more stable and reliable energy output. Energy storage units are critical in this setup, storing excess energy generated during peak production times and supplying power during periods of low renewable generation. These studies include assessing the solar irradiance, wind speed patterns, and energy consumption needs of rural communities. The simulation results inform the optimization of the system's design to maximize energy efficiency and reliability. This paper presents the development and evaluation of a 4 kW standalone hybrid system combining wind and solar power. The portable device measures approximately 8 feet 5 inches in width, 8 inches 4 inches in depth, and around 38 feet in height. It includes four solar panels with a capacity of 120 watts each, a 1.5 kW wind turbine, a solar charge controller, remote power storage, batteries, and battery control mechanisms. Designed to operate independently of the grid, this hybrid device offers versatility for use in highways and various other applications. It also presents a summary and characterization of the device, along with photovoltaic data collected in Nigeria during the month of April. The construction plan for the hybrid energy tower is outlined, which involves combining a vertical-axis wind turbine with solar panels to harness both wind and solar energy. Positioned between the roadway divider and automobiles, the tower takes advantage of the air velocity generated by passing vehicles. The solar panels are strategically mounted to deflect air toward the turbine while generating energy. Generators and gear systems attached to the turbine shaft enable power generation, offering a portable solution to energy challenges in Nigerian communities. The study also addresses the economic feasibility of the system, considering the initial investment costs, maintenance, and potential savings from reduced fossil fuel use. A comparative analysis with traditional energy supply methods highlights the long-term benefits and sustainability of the hybrid system.

Keywords: renewable energy, solar panel, wind turbine, hybrid system, generator

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Authors: Jia H. Wong, Jingli Zhang, Habsah Mohamad, Iswatun H. Abdullah Ripain, Muhammad Bilal, Amelia J. Lloyd, Abdul A. Mohamed Yusoff, Jafri M. Abdullah

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Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases affecting more than 50 million of people worldwide. Epilepsy is a state of recurrent, spontaneous seizures with multiple syndromes and symptoms of different causes of brain dysfunction, prognosis, and treatments; characterized by transient, occasional and stereotyped interruptions of behavior whereby the excitatory-inhibitory activities within the central nervous system (CNS) are thrown out of balance due to various kinds of interferences. The goal of antiepileptic treatment is to enable patients to be free from seizures or to achieve control of seizures through surgical treatment and/or pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapy through AED plays an important role especially in countries with epilepsy treatment gap due to costs and availability of health facilities, skills and resources, yet there are about one-third of the people with epilepsy have drug-resistant seizures. Hence, this poses considerable challenges to the healthcare system and the effort in providing cost-effective treatment as well as the search for alternatives to treatment and management of epilepsy. Enhancement of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated inhibitory neurotransmission is one of the key mechanisms of actions of antiepileptic drugs. GABA type > a receptors (GABAAR) are ligand-gated ion channels that mediate rapid inhibitory neurotransmission upon the binding of GABA with a heteropentameric structure forming a central pore that is permeable to the influx of chloride ions in its activated state. The major isoform of GABAA receptors consists of two α1, two β2, and one γ2 subunit. It is the most abundantly expressed combinations in the brain and the most commonly researched through Xenopus laevis oocytes. With the advancing studies on ethnomedicine and traditional treatments using medicinal plants, increasing evidence reveal that spice and herb plants with medicinal properties play an important role in the treatment of ailments within communities across different cultures. Capsaicin is the primary natural capsaicinoid in hot peppers of plant genus Capsicum, consist of an aromatic ring, an amide linkage and a hydrophobic side chain. The study showed that capsaicins conferred neuroprotection in status epilepticus mouse models through anti-ictogenic, hypothermic, antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic actions in a dose-dependent manner. In this study, five capsaicin derivatives were tested for their ability to increase the GABA-induced chloride current on α1β2γ2S of GABAAR expressed on Xenopus laevis oocytes using the method of two-microelectrode voltage clamp. Two of the capsaicin derivatives, IS5 (N-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-3-methylbutyramide) and IS10 (N-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-decanamide) at a concentration of 30µM were able to significantly increase the GABA-induced chloride current with p=0.002 and p=0.026 respectively. This study were able to show the enhancement effect of two capsaicin derivatives with moderate length of hydrocarbon chain on this receptor subtype, revealing the promising inhibitory activity of capsaicin derivatives through enhancement of GABA-induced chloride current and further investigations should be carried out to verify its antiepileptic effects in animal models.

Keywords: α1β2γ2 GABAA receptors, α1β2γ2S, antiepileptic, capsaicin derivatives, two-microelectrode voltage clamp, Xenopus laevis oocytes

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Nursuhaili Najwa Masrol, Nur Hafizah Mohammed, Nur Nadhirah Rusyda Rosnan, Vijaya Subramaniam, Sim Choon Cheak

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Replanting in oil palm cultivation is vital to enable the introduction of planting materials and provides an opportunity to improve the road, drainage, terrace design, and planting density. Oil palm replanting is fundamentally necessary every 25 years. The adoption of the digital replanting blueprint is imperative as it can assist the Malaysia Oil Palm industry in addressing challenges such as labour shortages and limited expertise related to replanting tasks. Effective replanting planning should commence at least 6 months prior to the actual replanting process. Therefore, this study will help to plan and design the replanting blueprint with high-precision translation on the ground. With the advancement of geospatial technology, it is now feasible to engage in thoroughly researched planning, which can help maximize the potential yield. A blueprint designed before replanting is to enhance management’s ability to optimize the planting program, address manpower issues, or even increase productivity. In terrace planting blueprints, geographic tools have been utilized to design the roads, drainages, terraces, and planting points based on the ARM standards. These designs are mapped with location information and undergo statistical analysis. The geospatial approach is essential in precision agriculture and ensuring an accurate translation of design to the ground by implementing high-accuracy technologies. In this study, geospatial and remote sensing technologies played a vital role. LiDAR data was employed to determine the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), enabling the precise selection of terraces, while ortho imagery was used for validation purposes. Throughout the designing process, Geographical Information System (GIS) tools were extensively utilized. To assess the design’s reliability on the ground compared with the current conventional method, high-precision GPS instruments like EOS Arrow Gold and HIPER VR GNSS were used, with both offering accuracy levels between 0.3 cm and 0.5cm. Nearest Distance Analysis was generated to compare the design with actual planting on the ground. The analysis revealed that it could not be applied to the roads due to discrepancies between actual roads and the blueprint design, which resulted in minimal variance. In contrast, the terraces closely adhered to the GPS markings, with the most variance distance being less than 0.5 meters compared to actual terraces constructed. Considering the required slope degrees for terrace planting, which must be greater than 6 degrees, the study found that approximately 65% of the terracing was constructed at a 12-degree slope, while over 50% of the terracing was constructed at slopes exceeding the minimum degrees. Utilizing blueprint replanting promising strategies for optimizing land utilization in agriculture. This approach harnesses technology and meticulous planning to yield advantages, including increased efficiency, enhanced sustainability, and cost reduction. From this study, practical implementation of this technique can lead to tangible and significant improvements in agricultural sectors. In boosting further efficiencies, future initiatives will require more sophisticated techniques and the incorporation of precision GPS devices for upcoming blueprint replanting projects besides strategic progression aims to guarantee the precision of both blueprint design stages and its subsequent implementation on the field. Looking ahead, automating digital blueprints are necessary to reduce time, workforce, and costs in commercial production.

Keywords: replanting, geospatial, precision agriculture, blueprint

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Authors: Jessica Ho

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AI has helped government, businesses and industries transform the way they do things. AI is used in automating tasks to improve decision-making and efficiency. AI is embedded in sensors and used in automation to help save time and eliminate human errors in repetitive tasks. Today, we saw the growth in AI using the collection of vast amounts of data to forecast with greater accuracy, inform decision-making, adapt to changing market conditions and offer more personalised service based on consumer habits and preferences. Government around the world share the opportunity to leverage these disruptive technologies to improve productivity while reducing costs. In addition, these intelligent solutions can also help streamline government processes to deliver more seamless and intuitive user experiences for employees and citizens. This is a critical challenge for NSW Government as we are unable to determine the risk that is brought by the unprecedented pace of adoption of AI solutions in government. Government agencies must ensure that their use of AI complies with relevant laws and regulatory requirements, including those related to data privacy and security. Furthermore, there will always be ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI, such as the potential for bias, intellectual property rights and its impact on job security. Within NSW’s public sector, agencies are already testing AI for crowd control, infrastructure management, fraud compliance, public safety, transport, and police surveillance. Citizens are also attracted to the ease of use and accessibility of AI solutions without requiring specialised technical skills. This increased accessibility also comes with balancing a higher risk and exposure to the health and safety of citizens. On the other side, public agencies struggle with keeping up with this pace while minimising risks, but the low entry cost and open-source nature of generative AI led to a rapid increase in the development of AI powered apps organically – “There is an AI for That” in Government. Other challenges include the fact that there appeared to be no legislative provisions that expressly authorise the NSW Government to use an AI to make decision. On the global stage, there were too many actors in the regulatory space, and a sovereign response is needed to minimise multiplicity and regulatory burden. Therefore, traditional corporate risk and governance framework and regulation and legislation frameworks will need to be evaluated for AI unique challenges due to their rapidly evolving nature, ethical considerations, and heightened regulatory scrutiny impacting the safety of consumers and increased risks for Government. Creating an effective, efficient NSW Government’s governance regime, adapted to the range of different approaches to the applications of AI, is not a mere matter of overcoming technical challenges. Technologies have a wide range of social effects on our surroundings and behaviours. There is compelling evidence to show that Australia's sustained social and economic advancement depends on AI's ability to spur economic growth, boost productivity, and address a wide range of societal and political issues. AI may also inflict significant damage. If such harm is not addressed, the public's confidence in this kind of innovation will be weakened. This paper suggests several AI regulatory approaches for consideration that is forward-looking and agile while simultaneously fostering innovation and human rights. The anticipated outcome is to ensure that NSW Government matches the rising levels of innovation in AI technologies with the appropriate and balanced innovation in AI governance.

Keywords: artificial inteligence, machine learning, rules, governance, government

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Authors: Alberto Alfano, Sergio D’ambrosio, Darshankumar Parecha, Donatella Cimini, Chiara Schiraldi.

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The main objective of this study regards the setup of an efficient small-scale platform for the conversion of local renewable waste materials, such as whey, into added-value products, thereby reducing environmental impact and costs deriving from the disposal of processing waste products. The buffalo milk whey derived from the cheese-making process, called second cheese whey, is the main by-product of the dairy industry. Whey is the main and most polluting by-product obtained from cheese manufacturing consisting of lactose, lactic acid, proteins, and salts, making whey an added-value product. In Italy, and in particular, in the Campania region, soft cheese production needs a large volume of liquid waste, especially during late spring and summer. This project is part of a circular economy perspective focused on the conversion of potentially polluting and difficult to purify waste into a resource to be exploited, and it embodies the concept of the three “R”: reduce, recycle, and reuse. Special focus was paid to the production of health-promoting biomolecules and biopolymers, which may be exploited in different segments of the food and pharmaceutical industries. These biomolecules may be recovered through appropriate processes and reused in an attempt to obtain added value products. So, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration processes were performed to fractionate bioactive components starting from buffalo milk whey. In this direction, the present study focused on the implementation of a downstream process that converts waste generated from food and food processing industries into added value products with potential applications. Owing to innovative downstream and biotechnological processes, rather than a waste product may be considered a resource to obtain high added value products, such as food supplements (probiotics), cosmeceuticals, biopolymers, and recyclable purified water. Besides targeting gastrointestinal disorders, probiotics such as Lactobacilli have been reported to improve immunomodulation and protection of the host against infections caused by viral and bacterial pathogens. Interestingly, also inactivated microbial (probiotic) cells and their metabolic products, indicated as parabiotic and postbiotics, respectively, have a crucial role and act as mediators in the modulation of the host’s immune function. To boost the production of biomass (both viable and/or heat inactivated cells) and/or the synthesis of growth-related postbiotics, such as EPS, efficient and sustainable fermentation processes are necessary. Based on a “zero-waste” approach, wastes generated from local industries can be recovered and recycled to develop sustainable biotechnological processes to obtain probiotics as well as post and parabiotic, to be tested as bioactive compounds against gastrointestinal disorders. The results have shown it was possible to recover an ultrafiltration retentate with suitable characteristics to be used in skin dehydration, to perform films (i.e., packaging for food industries), or as a wound repair agent and a nanofiltration retentate to recover lactic acid and carbon sources (e.g., lactose, glucose..) used for microbial cultivation. On the side, the last goal is to obtain purified water that can be reused throughout the process. In fact, water reclamation and reuse provide a unique and viable opportunity to augment traditional water supplies, a key issue nowadays.

Keywords: biotech process, downstream process, probiotic growth, from waste to product, buffalo whey

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Authors: Kumar Satyam Das, Murali Raghunathan

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This note discusses the feasibility of field development of a challenging shallow offshore field in South East Asia and how its learnings can be applied to marginal field development across the world especially developing marginal fields in this low oil price world. The field was found to be economically challenging even during high oil prices and the project was put on hold. Shell started development study with the aim to significantly reduce cost through competitively scoping and revive stranded projects. The proposed strategy to achieve this involved Improve Per platform recovery and Reduction in CAPEX. Methodology: Based on various Benchmarking Tool such as Woodmac for similar projects in the region and economic affordability, a challenging target of 50% reduction in unit development cost (UDC) was set for the project. Technical scope was defined to the minimum as to be a wellhead platform with minimum functionality to ensure production. The evaluation of key project decisions like Well location and number, well design, Artificial lift methods and wellhead platform type under different development concept was carried out through integrated multi-discipline approach. Key elements influencing per platform recovery were Wellhead Platform (WHP) location, Well count, well reach and well productivity. Major Findings: Reservoir being shallow posed challenges in well design (dog-leg severity, casing size and the achievable step-out), choice of artificial lift and sand-control method. Integrated approach amongst relevant disciplines with challenging mind-set enabled to achieve optimized set of development decisions. This led to significant improvement in per platform recovery. It was concluded that platform recovery largely depended on the reach of the well. Choice of slim well design enabled designing of high inclination and better productivity wells. However, there is trade-off between high inclination Gas Lift (GL) wells and low inclination wells in terms of long term value, operational complexity, well reach, recovery and uptime. Well design element like casing size, well completion, artificial lift and sand control were added successively over the minimum technical scope design leading to a value and risk staircase. Logical combinations of options (slim well, GL) were competitively screened to achieve 25% reduction in well cost. Facility cost reduction was achieved through sourcing standardized Low Cost Facilities platform in combination with portfolio execution to maximizing execution efficiency; this approach is expected to reduce facilities cost by ~23% with respect to the development costs. Further cost reductions were achieved by maximizing use of existing facilities nearby; changing reliance on existing water injection wells and utilizing existing water injector (W.I.) platform for new injectors. Conclusion: The study provides a spectrum of technically feasible options. It also made clear that different drivers lead to different development concepts and the cost value trade off staircase made this very visible. Scoping of the project through competitive way has proven to be valuable for decision makers by creating a transparent view of value and associated risks/uncertainty/trade-offs for difficult choices: elements of the projects can be competitive, whilst other parts will struggle, even though contributing to significant volumes. Reduction in UDC through proper scoping of present projects and its benchmarking paves as a learning for the development of marginal fields across the world, especially in this low oil price scenario. This way of developing a field has on average a reduction of 40% of cost for the Shell projects.

Keywords: benchmarking, full field development, CAPEX, feasibility

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Authors: Adela Diepoltova, Klara Konecna, Ondrej Jandourek, Petr Nachtigal

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A loss of control over antibiotic-resistant pathogens has become a global issue due to severe and often untreatable infections. This state is reflected in complicated treatment, health costs, and higher mortality. All these factors emphasize the urgent need for the discovery and development of new anti-infectives. One of the most common pathogens mentioned in the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance are bacteria of the genus Staphylococcus. These bacterial agents have developed several mechanisms against the effect of antibiotics. One of them is biofilm formation. In staphylococci, biofilms are associated with infections such as endocarditis, osteomyelitis, catheter-related bloodstream infections, etc. To author's best knowledge, no validated and standardized methodology evaluating candidate compound activity against staphylococcal biofilms exists. However, a variety of protocols for in vitro drug activity testing has been suggested, yet there are often fundamental differences. Based on our experience, a key methodological step that leads to credible results is to form a robust biofilm with appropriate attributes such as firm adherence to the substrate, a complex arrangement in layers, and the presence of extracellular polysaccharide matrix. At first, for the purpose of drug antibiofilm activity evaluation, the focus was put on various conditions (supplementation of cultivation media by human plasma/fetal bovine serum, shaking mode, the density of initial inoculum) that should lead to reproducible and robust in vitro staphylococcal biofilm formation in microtiter plate model. Three model staphylococcal reference strains were included in the study: Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 43300), and Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 35983). The total biofilm biomass was quantified using the Christensen method with crystal violet, and results obtained from at least three independent experiments were statistically processed. Attention was also paid to the viability of the biofilm-forming staphylococcal cells and the presence of extracellular polysaccharide matrix. The conditions that led to robust biofilm biomass formation with attributes for biofilms mentioned above were then applied by introducing an alternative method analogous to the commercially available test system, the Calgary Biofilm Device. In this test system, biofilms are formed on pegs that are incorporated into the lid of the microtiter plate. This system provides several advantages (in situ detection and quantification of biofilm microbial cells that have retained their viability after drug exposure). Based on our preliminary studies, it was found that the attention to the peg surface and substrate on which the bacterial biofilms are formed should also be paid to. Therefore, further steps leading to the optimization were introduced. The surface of pegs was coated by human plasma, fetal bovine serum, and L-polylysine. Subsequently, the willingness of bacteria to adhere and form biofilm was monitored. In conclusion, suitable conditions were revealed, leading to the formation of reproducible, robust staphylococcal biofilms in vitro for the microtiter model and the system analogous to the Calgary biofilm device, as well. The robustness and typical slime texture could be detected visually. Likewise, an analysis by confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed a complex three-dimensional arrangement of biofilm forming organisms surrounded by an extracellular polysaccharide matrix.

Keywords: anti-biofilm drug activity screening, in vitro biofilm formation, microtiter plate model, the Calgary biofilm device, staphylococcal infections, substrate modification, surface coating

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Authors: Kalaumari Mayoral-Peña, Ana I. Montejano-Montelongo, Josué Reyes-Muñoz, Gonzalo A. Ortiz-Mancilla, Mayrin Rodríguez-Cruz, Víctor Hernández-Villalobos, Jesús A. Guzmán-López, Santiago García-Jacobo, Iván Licona-Vázquez, Grisel Fierros-Romero, Rosario Flores-Vallejo

Abstract:

The group B-lactamic antibiotics include some of the most frequently used small drug molecules against bacterial infections. Nevertheless, an alarming decrease in their efficacy has been reported due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Infections caused by bacteria expressing extended Spectrum B-lactamases (ESBLs) are difficult to treat and account for higher morbidity and mortality rates, delayed recovery, and high economic burden. According to the Global Report on Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance, it is estimated that mortality due to resistant bacteria will ascend to 10 million cases per year worldwide. These facts highlight the importance of developing low-cost and readily accessible detection methods of drug-resistant ESBLs bacteria to prevent their spread and promote accurate and fast diagnosis. Bacterial detection is commonly done using molecular diagnostic techniques, where PCR stands out for its high performance. However, this technique requires specialized equipment not available everywhere, is time-consuming, and has a high cost. Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) is an alternative technique that works at a constant temperature, significantly decreasing the equipment cost. It yields double-stranded DNA of several lengths with repetitions of the target DNA sequence as a product. Although positive and negative results from LAMP can be discriminated by colorimetry, fluorescence, and turbidity, there is still a large room for improvement in the point-of-care implementation. DNA origami is a technique that allows the formation of 3D nanometric structures by folding a large single-stranded DNA (scaffold) into a determined shape with the help of short DNA sequences (staples), which hybridize with the scaffold. This research aimed to generate DNA origami structures using LAMP products as scaffolds to improve the sensitivity to detect ESBLs in point-of-care diagnosis. For this study, the coding sequence of the CTM-X-15 ESBL of E. coli was used to generate the LAMP products. The set of LAMP primers were designed using PrimerExplorerV5. As a result, a target sequence of 200 nucleotides from CTM-X-15 ESBL was obtained. Afterward, eight different DNA origami structures were designed using the target sequence in the SDCadnano and analyzed with CanDo to evaluate the stability of the 3D structures. The designs were constructed minimizing the total number of staples to reduce costs and complexity for point-of-care applications. After analyzing the DNA origami designs, two structures were selected. The first one was a zig-zag flat structure, while the second one was a wall-like shape. Given the sequence repetitions in the scaffold sequence, both were able to be assembled with only 6 different staples each one, ranging between 18 to 80 nucleotides. Simulations of both structures were performed using scaffolds of different sizes yielding stable structures in all the cases. The generation of the LAMP products were tested by colorimetry and electrophoresis. The formation of the DNA structures was analyzed using electrophoresis and colorimetry. The modeling of novel detection methods through bioinformatics tools allows reliable control and prediction of results. To our knowledge, this is the first study that uses LAMP products and DNA-origami in combination to delect ESBL-producing bacterial strains, which represent a promising methodology for diagnosis in the point-of-care.

Keywords: beta-lactamases, antibiotic resistance, DNA origami, isothermal amplification, LAMP technique, molecular diagnosis

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Authors: Zbigniew Czyz, Ksenia Siadkowska, Krzysztof Skiba, Karol Scislowski

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Today’s progress in the rotorcraft is mostly associated with an optimization of aircraft performance achieved by active and passive modifications of main rotor assemblies and a tail propeller. The key task is to improve their performance, improve the hover quality factor for rotors but not change in specific fuel consumption. One of the tasks to improve the helicopter is an active optimization of the main rotor providing for flight stages, i.e., an ascend, flight, a descend. An active interference with the airflow around the rotor blade section can significantly change characteristics of the aerodynamic airfoil. The efficiency of actuator systems modifying aerodynamic coefficients in the current solutions is relatively high and significantly affects the increase in strength. The solution to actively change aerodynamic characteristics assumes a periodic change of geometric features of blades depending on flight stages. Changing geometric parameters of blade warping enables an optimization of main rotor performance depending on helicopter flight stages. Structurally, an adaptation of shape memory alloys does not significantly affect rotor blade fatigue strength, which contributes to reduce costs associated with an adaptation of the system to the existing blades, and gains from a better performance can easily amortize such a modification and improve profitability of such a structure. In order to obtain quantitative and qualitative data to solve this research problem, a number of numerical analyses have been necessary. The main problem is a selection of design parameters of the main rotor and a preliminary optimization of its performance to improve the hover quality factor for rotors. This design concept assumes a three-bladed main rotor with a chord of 0.07 m and radius R = 1 m. The value of rotor speed is a calculated parameter of an optimization function. To specify the initial distribution of geometric warping, a special software has been created that uses a numerical method of a blade element which respects dynamic design features such as fluctuations of a blade in its joints. A number of performance analyses as a function of rotor speed, forward speed, and altitude have been performed. The calculations were carried out for the full model assembly. This approach makes it possible to observe the behavior of components and their mutual interaction resulting from the forces. The key element of each rotor is the shaft, hub and pins holding the joints and blade yokes. These components are exposed to the highest loads. As a result of the analysis, the safety factor was determined at the level of k > 1.5, which gives grounds to obtain certification for the strength of the structure. The construction of the joint rotor has numerous moving elements in its structure. Despite the high safety factor, the places with the highest stresses, where the signs of wear and tear may appear, have been indicated. The numerical analysis carried out showed that the most loaded element is the pin connecting the modular bearing of the blade yoke with the element of the horizontal oscillation joint. The stresses in this element result in a safety factor of k=1.7. The other analysed rotor components have a safety factor of more than 2 and in the case of the shaft, this factor is more than 3. However, it must be remembered that the structure is as strong as the weakest cell is. Designed rotor for unmanned aerial vehicles adapted to work with blades with intelligent materials in its structure meets the requirements for certification testing. Acknowledgement: This work has been financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development under the LIDER program, Grant Agreement No. LIDER/45/0177/L-9/17/NCBR/2018.

Keywords: main rotor, rotorcraft aerodynamics, shape memory alloy, materials, unmanned helicopter

Procedia PDF Downloads 152