Search results for: genetic transformation

Authors: Jeet Chakraborty, Sanjay Dutta

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Antibiotic resistance by bacteria has proved to be a severe threat to mankind in recent times, and this fortifies an urgency to design and develop potent antibacterial small molecules/compounds with nonconventional mechanisms than the conventional ones. DNA carries the genetic signature of any organism, and bacteria maintain their genomic DNA inside the cell in a well-regulated compact form with the help of various nucleoid associated proteins like HU, HNS, etc. These proteins control various fundamental processes like gene expression, replication, etc., inside the cell. Alteration of the native DNA structure of bacteria can lead to severe consequences in cellular processes inside the bacterial cell that ultimately result in the death of the organism. The change in the global DNA structure by small molecules initiates a plethora of cellular responses that have not been very well investigated. Echinomycin and Triostin-A are biologically active Quinoxaline small molecules that typically consist of a quinoxaline chromophore attached with an octadepsipeptide ring. They bind to double-stranded DNA in a sequence-specific way and have high activity against a wide variety of bacteria, mainly against Gram-positive ones. To date, few synthetic quinoxaline scaffolds were synthesized, displaying antibacterial potential against a broad scale of pathogenic bacteria. QNOs (Quinoxaline N-oxides) are known to target DNA and instigate reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in bacteria, thereby exhibiting antibacterial properties. The divergent role of Quinoxaline small molecules in medicinal research qualifies them for the evaluation of their antimicrobial properties as a potential candidate. The previous study from our lab has given new insights on a 6-nitroquinoxaline derivative 1d as an intercalator of DNA, which induces conformational changes in DNA upon binding.7 The binding event observed was dependent on the presence of a crucial benzyl substituent on the quinoxaline moiety. This was associated with a large induced CD (ICD) appearing in a sigmoidal pattern upon the interaction of 1d with dsDNA. The induction of DNA superstructures by 1d at high Drug:DNA ratios was observed that ultimately led to DNA condensation. Eviction of invitro-assembled nucleosome upon treatment with a high dose of 1d was also observed. In this work, monoquinoxaline derivatives of 1d were synthesized by various modifications of the 1d scaffold. The set of synthesized 6-nitroquinoxaline derivatives along with 1d were all subjected to antibacterial evaluation across five different bacteria species. Among the compound set, 3a displayed potent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. 3a was further subjected to various biophysical studies to check whether the DNA structural alteration potential was still intact. The biological response of S. aureus cells upon treatment with 3a was studied using various cell biology processes, which led to the conclusion that 3d can initiate DNA damage in the S. aureus cells. Finally, the potential of 3a in disrupting preformed S.aureus and S.epidermidis biofilms was also studied.

Keywords: DNA structural change, antibacterial, intercalator, DNA superstructures, biofilms

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Authors: Abida Mariam, Anwaar Ahmed, Asif Ahmad, Muhammad Sheeraz Ahmad, Muhammad Akram Khan, Muhammad Mazahir

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The plant olive (Olea europaea L.) is known for its commercial significance due to nutritional and health benefits. Pakistan is ranked 4th among countries who import olive oil whereas, 70% of edible oil is imported to fulfil the needs of the country. There exists great potential for Olea europaea cultivation in Pakistan. The popularity and cultivation of olive fruit has increased in recent past due to its high socio-economic and health significance. There exist almost negligible data on the chemical composition of extra virgin olive oil extracted from cultivars grown in Pothwar, an area with arid climate conducive for growth of olive trees. Keeping in view these factors a study has been conducted to characterize the olive oil extracted from olive cultivars collected from Pothwar regions of Pakistan for their nutritional potential and value addition. Ten olive cultivars (Gemlik, Coratina, Sevillano, Manzanilla, Leccino, Koroneiki, Frantoio, Arbiquina, Earlik and Ottobratica) were collected from Barani Agriculture Research Institute, Chakwal. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) was extracted by cold pressing and centrifuging of olive fruits. The highest amount of oil was yielded in Coratina (23.9%) followed by Frantoio (23.7%), Koroneiki (22.8%), Sevillano (22%), Ottobratica (22%), Leccino (20.5%), Arbiquina (19.2%), Manzanilla (17.2%), Earlik (14.4%) and Gemllik (13.1%). The extracted virgin olive oil was studied for various physico- chemical properties and fatty acid profile. The Physical and chemical properties i.e., characteristic odor and taste, light yellow color with no foreign matter, insoluble impurities (≤0.08), fee fatty acid (0.1 to 0.8), acidity (0.5 to 1.6 mg/g acid), peroxide value (1.5 to 5.2 meqO2/kg), Iodine value (82 to 90), saponification value (186 to 192 mg/g) and unsaponifiable matter (4 to 8g/kg), ultraviolet spectrophotometric analysis (k232 and k270), showed values in the acceptable range, established by PSQCA and IOOC set for extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil was analyzed by Near Infra-Red spectrophotometry (NIR) for fatty acids sin olive oils which were found as: palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and alpha-linolenic. Major fatty acid was Oleic acid in the highest percentage ranging from (55 to 66.1%), followed by linoleic (10.4 to 20.4%), palmitic (13.8 to 19.5%), stearic (3.9 to 4.4%), palmitoleic (0.3 to 1.7%) and alpha-linolenic (0.9 to 1.7%). The results were significant with differences in parameters analyzed for all ten cultivars which confirm that genetic factors are important contributors in the physico-chemical characteristics of oil. The olive oil showed superior physical and chemical properties and recommended as one of the healthiest forms of edible oil. This study will help consumers to be more aware of and make better choices of healthy oils available locally thus contributing towards their better health.

Keywords: characterization, extra virgin olive oil, oil yield, fatty acids

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Authors: Elisavet Kechagia

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Due to the interplay of different genetic and environmental risk factors and its heterogeneous nature, the concept of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has shaped controversy and conflicts, which have been, in turn, reflected in the controversial arguments about its treatment. Taking into account recent well evidence-based researches suggesting that ADHD is a condition, in which biopsychosocial factors are all weaved together, the current paper explores the multiple risk-factors that are likely to influence ADHD, with a particular focus on adolescents with ADHD who might experience comorbid social, emotional and behavioural disorders (SEBD). In the first section of this paper, the primary objective was to investigate the conflicting ideas regarding the definition, diagnosis and treatment of ADHD at an international level as well as to critically examine and identify the limitations of the two most prevailing sets of diagnostic criteria that inform current diagnosis, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) diagnostic scheme, DSM-V, and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) classification of diseases, ICD-10. Taking into consideration the findings of current longitudinal studies on ADHD association with high rates of comorbid conditions and social dysfunction, in the second section the author moves towards an investigation of the transitional points −physical, psychological and social ones− that students with ADHD might experience during early adolescence, as informed by neuroscience and developmental contextualism theory. The third section is an exploration of the different perspectives of ADHD as reflected in individuals’ with ADHD self-reports and the KENT project’s findings on school staff’s attitudes and practices. In the last section, given the high rates of SEBDs in adolescents with ADHD, it is examined how cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), coupled with other interventions, could be effective in ameliorating anti-social behaviours and/or other emotional and behavioral difficulties of students with ADHD. The findings of a range of randomised control studies indicate that CBT might have positive outcomes in adolescents with multiple behavioural problems, hence it is suggested to be considered both in schools and other community settings. Finally, taking into account the heterogeneous nature of ADHD, the different biopsychosocial and environmental risk factors that take place during adolescence and the discourse and practices concerning ADHD and SEBD, it is suggested how it might be possible to make sense of and meaningful improvements to the education of adolescents with ADHD within a multi-modal and multi-disciplinary whole-school approach that addresses the multiple problems that not only students with ADHD but also their peers might experience. Further research that would be based on more large-scale controls and would investigate the effectiveness of various interventions, as well as the profiles of those students who have benefited from particular approaches and those who have not, will generate further evidence concerning the psychoeducation of adolescents with ADHD allowing for generalised conclusions to be drawn.

Keywords: adolescence, attention deficit hyperctivity disorder, cognitive behavioural theory, comorbid social emotional behavioural disorders, treatment

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Authors: Supriya Ambawat, Subaran Singh, C. Tara Satyavathi, B. S. Rajpurohit, Ummed Singh, Balraj Singh

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Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is an important staple food of the arid and semiarid tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is rightly termed as nutricereal as it has high nutrition value and a good source of carbohydrate, protein, fat, ash, dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, etc. Pearl millet has low prolamine fraction and is gluten free which is useful for people having a gluten allergy. It has several health benefits like reduction in blood pressure, thyroid, diabe¬tes, cardiovascular and celiac diseases but its direct consumption as food has significantly declined due to several reasons. Keeping this in view, it is important to reorient the ef¬forts to generate demand through value-addition and quality improvement and create awareness on the nutritional merits of pearl millet. In India, through Indian Council of Agricultural Research-All India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl millet, multilocational coordinated trials for developed hybrids were conducted at various centers. The gene banks of pearl millet contain varieties with high levels of iron and zinc which were used to produce new pearl millet varieties with elevated iron levels bred with the high‐yielding varieties. Thus, using breeding approaches and biochemical analysis, a total of 167 hybrids and 61 varieties were identified and released for cultivation in different agro-ecological zones of the country which also includes some biofortified hybrids rich in Fe and Zn. Further, using several biotechnological interventions such as molecular markers, next-generation sequencing (NGS), association mapping, nested association mapping (NAM), MAGIC populations, genome editing, genotyping by sequencing (GBS), genome wide association studies (GWAS) advancement in millet improvement has become possible by identifying and tagging of genes underlying a trait in the genome. Using DArT markers very high density linkage maps were constructed for pearl millet. Improved HHB67 has been released using marker assisted selection (MAS) strategies, and genomic tools were used to identify Fe-Zn Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL). The draft genome sequence of millet has also opened various ways to explore pearl millet. Further, genomic positions of significantly associated simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers with iron and zinc content in the consensus map is being identified and research is in progress towards mapping QTLs for flour rancidity. The sequence information is being used to explore genes and enzymatic pathways responsible for rancidity of flour. Thus, development and application of several biotechnological approaches along with biofortification can accelerate the genetic gain targets for pearl millet improvement and help improve its quality.

Keywords: Biotechnological approaches, genomic tools, malnutrition, MAS, nutricereal, pearl millet, sequencing.

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Authors: Pei-Jyun Hsieh, Cheng-Hsuan Li, Bor-Chen Kuo

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For hyperspectral image classification, feature reduction is an important pre-processing for avoiding the Hughes phenomena due to the difficulty for collecting training samples. Hence, lots of researches developed feature selection methods such as F-score, HSIC (Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion), and etc., to improve hyperspectral image classification. However, most of them only consider the class separability in the original space, i.e., a linear class separability. In this study, we proposed a nonlinear class separability measure based on kernel trick for selecting an appropriate feature subset. The proposed nonlinear class separability was formed by a generalized RBF kernel with different bandwidths with respect to different features. Moreover, it considered the within-class separability and the between-class separability. A genetic algorithm was applied to tune these bandwidths such that the smallest with-class separability and the largest between-class separability simultaneously. This indicates the corresponding feature space is more suitable for classification. In addition, the corresponding nonlinear classification boundary can separate classes very well. These optimal bandwidths also show the importance of bands for hyperspectral image classification. The reciprocals of these bandwidths can be viewed as weights of bands. The smaller bandwidth, the larger weight of the band, and the more importance for classification. Hence, the descending order of the reciprocals of the bands gives an order for selecting the appropriate feature subsets. In the experiments, three hyperspectral image data sets, the Indian Pine Site data set, the PAVIA data set, and the Salinas A data set, were used to demonstrate the selected feature subsets by the proposed nonlinear feature selection method are more appropriate for hyperspectral image classification. Only ten percent of samples were randomly selected to form the training dataset. All non-background samples were used to form the testing dataset. The support vector machine was applied to classify these testing samples based on selected feature subsets. According to the experiments on the Indian Pine Site data set with 220 bands, the highest accuracies by applying the proposed method, F-score, and HSIC are 0.8795, 0.8795, and 0.87404, respectively. However, the proposed method selects 158 features. F-score and HSIC select 168 features and 217 features, respectively. Moreover, the classification accuracies increase dramatically only using first few features. The classification accuracies with respect to feature subsets of 10 features, 20 features, 50 features, and 110 features are 0.69587, 0.7348, 0.79217, and 0.84164, respectively. Furthermore, only using half selected features (110 features) of the proposed method, the corresponding classification accuracy (0.84168) is approximate to the highest classification accuracy, 0.8795. For other two hyperspectral image data sets, the PAVIA data set and Salinas A data set, we can obtain the similar results. These results illustrate our proposed method can efficiently find feature subsets to improve hyperspectral image classification. One can apply the proposed method to determine the suitable feature subset first according to specific purposes. Then researchers can only use the corresponding sensors to obtain the hyperspectral image and classify the samples. This can not only improve the classification performance but also reduce the cost for obtaining hyperspectral images.

Keywords: hyperspectral image classification, nonlinear feature selection, kernel trick, support vector machine

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Authors: Bruce Wrightsman

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Construction and design are inexorably linked. Traditional building methodologies, including those using wood, comprise a series of material layers differentiated and separated from each other. This results in the separation of two agencies of building envelope (skin) separate from the structure. However, from a material performance position reliant on additional materials, this is not an efficient strategy for the building. The merits of traditional platform framing are well known. However, its enormous effectiveness within wood-framed construction has seldom led to serious questioning and challenges in defining what it means to build. There are several downsides of using this method, which is less widely discussed. The first and perhaps biggest downside is waste. Second, its reliance on wood assemblies forming walls, floors and roofs conventionally nailed together through simple plate surfaces is structurally inefficient. It requires additional material through plates, blocking, nailers, etc., for stability that only adds to the material waste. In contrast, when we look back at the history of wood construction in airplane and boat manufacturing industries, we will see a significant transformation in the relationship of structure with skin. The history of boat construction transformed from indigenous wood practices of birch bark canoes to copper sheathing over wood to improve performance in the late 18th century and the evolution of merged assemblies that drives the industry today. In 1911, Swiss engineer Emile Ruchonnet designed the first wood monocoque structure for an airplane called the Cigare. The wing and tail assemblies consisted of thin, lightweight, and often fabric skin stretched tightly over a wood frame. This stressed skin has evolved into semi-monocoque construction, in which the skin merges with structural fins that take additional forces. It provides even greater strength with less material. The monocoque, which translates to ‘mono or single shell,’ is a structural system that supports loads and transfers them through an external enclosure system. They have largely existed outside the domain of architecture. However, this uniting of divergent systems has been demonstrated to be lighter, utilizing less material than traditional wood building practices. This paper will examine the role monocoque systems have played in the history of wood construction through lineage of boat and airplane building industries and its design potential for wood building systems in architecture through a case-study examination of a unique wood construction approach. The innovative approach uses a wood monocoque system comprised of interlocking small wood members to create thin shell assemblies for the walls, roof and floor, increasing structural efficiency and wasting less than 2% of the wood. The goal of the analysis is to expand the work of practice and the academy in order to foster deeper, more honest discourse regarding the limitations and impact of traditional wood framing.

Keywords: wood building systems, material histories, monocoque systems, construction waste

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Authors: Ece Kaya

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Urban waterfront re-development is a well-established phenomenon internationally since 1960s. In cities throughout the world, old industrial waterfront land is being redeveloped into luxury housing, offices, tourist attractions, cultural amenities and shopping centres. These developments are intended to attract high-income residents, tourists and investors to the city. As urban waterfronts are iconic places for the cities and catalyst for further development. They are often referred as flagship project. In Sydney, the re-development of industrial waterfront has been exposed since 1980s with Darling Harbour Project. Darling Harbour waterfront used to be the main arrival and landing place for commercial and industrial shipping until 1970s. Its urban development has continued since the establishment of the city. It was developed as a major industrial and goods-handling precinct in 1812. This use was continued by the mid-1970s. After becoming a redundant industrial waterfront, the area was ripe for re-development in 1984. Darling Harbour is now one of the world’s fascinating waterfront leisure and entertainment destinations and its transformation has been considered as a success story. It is a contradictory statement for this paper. Data collection was carried out using an extensive archival document analysis. The data was obtained from Australian Institute of Architects, City of Sydney Council Archive, Parramatta Heritage Office, Historic Houses Trust, National Trust, and University of Sydney libraries, State Archive, State Library and Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Archives. Public documents, primarily newspaper articles and design plans, were analysed to identify possible differences in motives and to determine the process of implementation of the waterfront redevelopments. It was also important to obtain historical photographs and descriptions to understand how the waterfront had been altered. Sites maps in different time periods have been identified to understand what kind of changes happened on the urban landscape and how the developments affected areas. Newspaper articles and editorials have been examined in order to discover what aspects of the projects reflected the history and heritage. The thematic analysis of the archival data helped determine Darling Harbour is a historically important place as it had represented a focal point for Sydney's industrial growth and the cradle of industrial development in European Australia. It has been found that the development area was designated in order to be transformed to a place for tourist, education, recreational, entertainment, cultural and commercial activities and as a result little evidence remained of its industrial past. This paper aims to discuss the industrial significance of Darling Harbour and to explain the changes on its industrial landscape. What is absent now is the layer of its history that creates the layers of meaning to the place so its historic industrial identity is effectively lost.

Keywords: historical significance, industrial heritage, industrial waterfront, re-development

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Authors: John Toussaint

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Objective: Our society is suffering from an epidemic of body image dissatisfaction, and related disorders appear to be increasing globally for children. There is much to indicate that children's body image and eating attitudes are being affected negatively by socio-cultural factors such as parents, peers and media. Most studies and theories, however, have focused extensively on the daughter-mother relationship. Very few studies have investigated the role of attachment to the father as an important factor in the development of girls’ and women’s attitudes towards themselves and their bodies. Recently, data have shown that the father’s parenting style, as well as the quality of the relationship with him is crucial for the understanding of the development and persistence of body image disorders. This presentation is based on samples of participants with self-defined body image dissatisfaction, and the self-reported measures of their fathers’ parental behaviours, emotional warmth, support, or protection. Attachment theory does offer support in exploring these relationships and it is used in this presentation to assist in understanding the relationship between the father and his daughter in relation to body image and mental health. Clinical implications are also offered in respect to work with body image, eating disorders and relational therapy. Methods: As awareness of the increasing frequency of body image concerns in children grows, so too does the need for a simple, valid and reliable measure of body image. The Children's Body Image Scale (CBIS) designed in Australia, depicts seven male and females figures from which children are to choose their perceived body type and ideal body type. This was compared with a range of international body mass index (BMI) reference standards. These measures together with individual one-on-one interviews were completed by 158 children aged 7-12 years. Results: A high frequency of body image dissatisfaction was indicated in the children's responses. 55% of girls and 41% of boys said they would like to be thinner, and wished for an ideal BMI figure below the 10th percentile. This is an unhealthy and unattainable level of body fatness for the majority of children when considered in relation to the reported secular trend of their increasing average body size. Thin children were generally ranked as best and perceived as kind, happy, academically skilled, and socially successful. Fat children were perceived as unintelligent, lazy, greedy, unpopular, and unable to play physical games. Conclusions: Body image ideals and fat stereotypes are well entrenched among children. There is much to indicate that children's body image and eating attitudes are being affected negatively by sociocultural factors such as parents, peers and media. Teachers and health professionals could promote intervention programs for children involving knowledge and acceptance of genetic influences on body type; the dangerous effects of weight loss dieting; the importance of physical activity and eating healthy; and scepticism and critical analysis of mass media messages.

Keywords: body image, father attachment, mental health, eating disorders

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Authors: Stefan Fuchs

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Against the backdrop of the proliferation of shopping malls in Japan during the last two decades, this paper presents the results of an ethnography conducted at a recently built suburban shopping mall in Western Tokyo. Through the analysis of the lived experiences of local residents, mall customers and the mall management this paper evaluates the benefits and disadvantages of the Business Improvement District (BID) model, which was implemented as urban redevelopment strategy in the area surrounding the shopping mall. The results of this research project show that while the BID model has in some respects contributed to the economic prosperity and to the perceived convenience of the area, it has led to gentrification and the redevelopment shows some deficiencies with regard to the inclusion of the elderly population as well as to the democratization of the decision-making process within the area. In Japan, shopping malls have been steadily growing both in size and number since a series of deregulation policies was introduced in the year 2000 in an attempt to push the domestic economy and to rejuvenate urban landscapes. Shopping malls have thereby become defining spaces of the built environment and are arguably important places of social interaction. Notwithstanding the vital role they play as factors of urban transformation, they have been somewhat overlooked in the research on Japan; especially with respect to their meaning for people’s everyday lives. By examining the ways, people make use of space in a shopping mall the research project presented in this paper addresses this gap in the research. Moreover, the research site of this research project is one of the few BIDs of Japan and the results presented in this paper can give indication on the scope of the future applicability of this urban redevelopment model. The data presented in this research was collected during a nine-months ethnographic fieldwork in and around the shopping mall. This ethnography includes semi-structured interviews with ten key informants as well as direct and participant observations examining the lived experiences and perceptions of people living, shopping or working at the shopping mall. The analysis of the collected data focused on recurring themes aiming at ultimately capturing different perspectives on the same aspects. In this manner, the research project documents the social agency of different groups within one communal network. The analysis of the perceptions towards the urban redevelopment around the shopping mall has shown that mainly the mall customers and large businesses benefit from the BID redevelopment model. While local residents benefit to some extent from their neighbourhood becoming more convenient for shopping they perceive themselves as being disadvantaged by changing demographics due to rising living expenses, the general noise level and the prioritisation of a certain customer segment or age group at the shopping mall. Although the shopping mall examined in this research project is just an example, the findings suggest that in future urban redevelopment politics have to provide incentives for landowners and developing companies to think of other ways of transforming underdeveloped areas.

Keywords: business improvement district, ethnography, shopping mall, urban redevelopment

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Authors: Tapan Kumar Dhar

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How well are our city forms designed to adapt to climate change and its resulting uncertainty? What urban design tools can be used to measure and improve resilience to climate change, and how would they do so? In addressing these questions, this paper considers indeterminacy, a concept originated in the resilience literature, to measure the resilience of built environments. In the realm of urban design, ‘indeterminacy’ can be referred to as built-in design capabilities of an urban system to serve different purposes which are not necessarily predetermined. An urban system, particularly that with a higher degree of indeterminacy, can enable the system to be reorganized and changed to accommodate new or unknown functions while coping with uncertainty over time. Underlying principles of this concept have long been discussed in the urban design and planning literature, including open architecture, landscape urbanism, and flexible housing. This paper argues that the concept indeterminacy holds the potential to reduce the impacts of climate change incrementally and proactively. With regard to sustainable development, both planning and climate change literature highly recommend proactive adaptation as it involves less cost, efforts, and energy than last-minute emergency or reactive actions. Nevertheless, the concept still remains isolated from resilience and climate change adaptation discourses even though the discourses advocate the incremental transformation of a system to cope with climatic uncertainty. This paper considers indeterminacy, as an urban design tool, to measure and increase resilience (and adaptive capacity) of Long Bay’s coastal settlements in Negril, Jamaica. Negril is one of the popular tourism destinations in the Caribbean highly vulnerable to sea-level rise and its associated impacts. This paper employs empirical information obtained from direct observation and informal interviews with local people. While testing the tool, this paper deploys an urban morphology study, which includes land use patterns and the physical characteristics of urban form, including street networks, block patterns, and building footprints. The results reveal that most resorts in Long Bay are designed for pre-determined purposes and offer a little potential to use differently if needed. Additionally, Negril’s street networks are found to be rigid and have limited accessibility to different points of interest. This rigidity can expose the entire infrastructure further to extreme climatic events and also impedes recovery actions after a disaster. However, Long Bay still has room for future resilient developments in other relatively less vulnerable areas. In adapting to climate change, indeterminacy can be reached through design that achieves a balance between the degree of vulnerability and the degree of indeterminacy: the more vulnerable a place is, the more indeterminacy is useful. This paper concludes with a set of urban design typologies to increase the resilience of coastal settlements.

Keywords: climate change adaptation, resilience, sea-level rise, urban form

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Authors: Igor Guatelli

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The universe of aesthetic perception entails impasses about sensitive divergences that each text or visual object may be subjected to. If approached through intertextuality that is not based on the misleading notion of kinships or similarities a priori admissible, the possibility of anachronistic, heterogeneous - and non-diachronic - assemblies can enhance the emergence of interval movements, intermediate, and conflicting, conducive to a method of reading, interpreting, and assigning meaning that escapes the rigid antinomies of the mere being and non-being of things. In negative, they operate in a relationship built by the lack of an adjusted meaning set by their positive existences, with no remainders; the generated interval becomes the remnant of each of them; it is the opening that obscures the stable positions of each one. Without the negative of absence, of that which is always missing or must be missing in a text, concept, or image made positive by history, nothing is perceived beyond what has been already given. Pairings or binary oppositions cannot lead only to functional syntheses; on the contrary, methodological disturbances accumulated by the approximation of signs and entities can initiate a process of becoming as an opening to an unforeseen other, transformation until a moment when the difficulties of [re]conciliation become the mainstay of a future of that sign/entity, not envisioned a priori. A counter-history can emerge from these unprecedented, misadjusted approaches, beginnings of unassigned injunctions and disjunctions, in short, difficult alliances that open cracks in a supposedly cohesive history, chained in its apparent linearity with no remains, understood as a categorical historical imperative. Interstices are minority fields that, because of their opening, are capable of causing opacity in that which, apparently, presents itself with irreducible clarity. Resulting from an incomplete and maladjusted [at the least dual] marriage between the signs/entities that originate them, this interval may destabilize and cause disorder in these entities and their own meanings. The interstitials offer a hyphenated relationship: a simultaneous union and separation, a spacing between the entity’s identity and its otherness or, alterity. One and the other may no longer be seen without the crack or fissure that now separates them, uniting, by a space-time lapse. Ontological, semantic shifts are caused by this fissure, an absence between one and the other, one with and against the other. Based on an improbable approximation between some conceptual and semantic shifts within the design production of architect Rem Koolhaas and the textual production of the philosopher Jacques Derrida, this article questions the notion of unity, coherence, affinity, and complementarity in the process of construction of thought from these ontological, epistemological, and semiological fissures that rattle the signs/entities and their stable meanings. Fissures in a thought that is considered coherent, cohesive, formatted are the negativity that constitutes the interstices that allow us to move towards what still remains as non-identity, which allows us to begin another story.

Keywords: clearing, interstice, negative, remnant, spectrum

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Authors: Pinar Erturk, Sevde Altuntas, Fatih Buyukserin

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In order to obtain an effective integration between an implant and a bone, implant surfaces should have similar properties to bone tissue surfaces. Especially mimicry of the chemical, mechanical and topographic properties of the implant to the bone is crucial for fast and effective osseointegration. Titanium-based biomaterials are more preferred in clinical use, and there are studies of coating these implants with oxide layers that have chemical/nanotopographic properties stimulating cell interactions for enhanced osseointegration. There are low success rates of current implantations, especially in craniofacial implant applications, which are large and vital zones, and the oxide layer coating increases bone-implant integration providing long-lasting implants without requiring revision surgery. Our aim in this study is to examine bone-cell behavior on titanium implants with an aluminum oxide layer (AAO) on effective osseointegration potential in the deformation of large zones with difficult spontaneous healing. In our study, aluminum layer coated titanium surfaces were anodized in sulfuric, phosphoric, and oxalic acid, which are the most common used AAO anodization electrolytes. After morphologic, chemical, and mechanical tests on AAO coated Ti substrates, viability, adhesion, and mineralization of adult bone cells on these substrates were analyzed. Besides with atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a sensitive and conformal technique, these surfaces were coated with pure alumina (5 nm); thus, cell studies were performed on ALD-coated nanoporous oxide layers with suppressed ionic content too. Lastly, in order to investigate the effect of the topography on the cell behavior, flat non-porous alumina layers on silicon wafers formed by ALD were compared with the porous ones. Cell viability ratio was similar between anodized surfaces, but pure alumina coated titanium and anodized surfaces showed a higher viability ratio compared to bare titanium and bare anodized ones. Alumina coated titanium surfaces, which anodized in phosphoric acid, showed significantly different mineralization ratios after 21 days over other bare titanium and titanium surfaces which anodized in other electrolytes. Bare titanium was the second surface that had the highest mineralization ratio. Otherwise, titanium, which is anodized in oxalic acid electrolyte, demonstrated the lowest mineralization. No significant difference was shown between bare titanium and anodized surfaces except AAO titanium surface anodized in phosphoric acid. Currently, osteogenic activities of these cells on the genetic level are investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis results of RUNX-2, VEGF, OPG, and osteopontin genes. Also, as a result of the activities of the genes mentioned before, Western Blot will be used for protein detection. Acknowledgment: The project is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

Keywords: alumina, craniofacial implant, MG-63 cell line, osseointegration, oxalic acid, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, titanium

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Authors: Mohammad Rahman, Guy Burton, Megan Mathias

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Strategic management as an organizational practice was adopted by the public sector in the New Public Management (NPM) era that began in most parts of the world in the 1980s. Strategy as a new public management concept was subscribed by governments in both developed and developing world, as they were persuaded that clearly defined vision, mission and goals, as well as programs and projects - aligned with the goals - could potentially help achieve government vision at the national level and organizational goals at the service-delivery level. The advocates for strategic management in the public sector saw an inherent link between strategy and performance, claiming that the implementation of organizational strategy has an effect on the overall performance of an organization. Arguably, many government entities that have failed in enhancing team and individual performance had poorly-designed strategy or weak strategy implementation. Another key argument about low-level performance is linked with lack of strategic sense-making and orientation by middle managers in particular. Scholars maintain that employees at all levels need to understand strategic management plan in order to facilitate its implementation. Therefore, involving employees (particularly the middle managers) from the beginning potentially helps an organization avoid the drop in performance, and on the contrary would increase their commitment. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is well known for adopting public sector reform strategies and tools since the 1990s. This observation is contextually pertinent in the case of the Government of Dubai, which has provided a Strategy Execution Guide to all of its entities to achieve high level strategic success in service delivery. The Dubai public sector also adopts road maps for e-Government, Smart Dubai, Expo 2020, investment, environment, education, health and other sectors. Evidently, some of these strategies are bringing tangible (e.g. Smart Dubai transformation) results in a transformational manner. However, the amount of academic research and literature on the strategy process vis-à-vis staff performance in the Government of Dubai is limited. In this backdrop, this study examines how individual performance of public sector employees in Dubai is linked with their sense-making, engagement and orientation with strategy development and implementation processes. Based on a theoretical framework, this study will undertake a sample-based questionnaire survey amongst middle managers in Dubai public sector to (a) measure the level of engagement of middle managers in strategy development and implementation processes as perceived by them; (b) observe the organizational landscape in which role expectations are placed on middle managers; and (c) examine the impact of employee engagement in strategy development process and the conditions for role expectations on individual performance. The paper is expected to provide new insights on the interface between strategic sense-making and performance in order to contribute a better understanding of the current culture/practices of staff engagement in strategic management in the public sector of Dubai.

Keywords: employee performance, government of Dubai, middle managers, strategic sense-making

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: Sundaram Chandrasekaran, Seung Hyun Hur

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Exploring strategies for oxygen vacancy engineering under mild conditions and understanding the relationship between dislocations and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell performance are challenging issues for designing high performance PEC devices. Therefore, it is very important to understand that how the oxygen vacancies (VO) or other defect states affect the performance of the photocatalyst in photoelectric transfer. So far, it has been found that defects in nano or micro crystals can have two possible significances on the PEC performance. Firstly, an electron-hole pair produced at the interface of photoelectrode and electrolyte can recombine at the defect centers under illumination of light, thereby reducing the PEC performances. On the other hand, the defects could lead to a higher light absorption in the longer wavelength region and may act as energy centers for the water splitting reaction that can improve the PEC performances. Even if the dislocation growth of ZnO has been verified by the full density functional theory (DFT) calculations and local density approximation calculations (LDA), it requires further studies to correlate the structures of ZnO and PEC performances. Exploring the hybrid structures composed of graphene oxide (GO) and ZnO nanostructures offer not only the vision of how the complex structure form from a simple starting materials but also the tools to improve PEC performances by understanding the underlying mechanisms of mutual interactions. As there are few studies for the ZnO growth with other materials and the growth mechanism in those cases has not been clearly explored yet, it is very important to understand the fundamental growth process of nanomaterials with the specific materials, so that rational and controllable syntheses of efficient ZnO-based hybrid materials can be designed to prepare nanostructures that can exhibit significant PEC performances. Herein, we fabricated various ZnO nanostructures such as hollow sphere, bucky bowl, nanorod and triangle, investigated their pH dependent growth mechanism, and correlated the PEC performances with them. Especially, the origin of well-controlled dislocation-driven growth and its transformation mechanism of ZnO nanorods to triangles on the GO surface were discussed in detail. Surprisingly, the addition of GO during the synthesis process not only tunes the morphology of ZnO nanocrystals and also creates more oxygen vacancies (oxygen defects) in the lattice of ZnO, which obviously suggest that the oxygen vacancies be created by the redox reaction between GO and ZnO in which the surface oxygen is extracted from the surface of ZnO by the functional groups of GO. On the basis of our experimental and theoretical analysis, the detailed mechanism for the formation of specific structural shapes and oxygen vacancies via dislocation, and its impact in PEC performances are explored. In water splitting performance, the maximum photocurrent density of GO-ZnO triangles was 1.517mA/cm-2 (under UV light ~ 360 nm) vs. RHE with high incident photon to current conversion Efficiency (IPCE) of 10.41%, which is the highest among all samples fabricated in this study and also one of the highest IPCE reported so far obtained from GO-ZnO triangular shaped photocatalyst.

Keywords: dislocation driven growth, zinc oxide, graphene oxide, water splitting

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: R. P. Hewawasam, M. H. A. D. de Silva, M. A. G. Iresha

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In recent years childhood obesity has increased to pan-epidemic proportions along with a concomitant increase in obesity-associated morbidity. Birth weight is an important determinant of later adult health, with neonates at both ends of the birth weight spectrum at risk of future health complications. Consequently, infants who are born large for gestational age (LGA) are more likely to be obese in childhood and adolescence and are at risk of cardiovascular and metabolic complications later in life. Adipose tissue plays a role in linking events in fetal growth to the subsequent development of adult diseases. In addition to its role as a storage depot for fat, adipose tissue produces and secrets a number of hormones of importance in modulating metabolism and energy homeostasis. Cord blood leptin level has been positively correlated with fetal adiposity at birth. It is established that Asians have lower skeletal muscle mass, low bone mineral content and excess body fat for a given body mass index indicating a genetic predisposition in the occurrence of obesity. To our knowledge, studies have never been conducted in Sri Lanka to determine the relationship between adipocytokine profile in cord blood and anthropometric parameters in newborns. Thus, the objective of this study is to establish the above relationship for the Sri Lankan population to implement awareness programs to minimize childhood obesity in the future. Umbilical cord blood was collected from 90 newborns (Male 40, Female 50; gestational age 35-42 weeks) after double clamping the umbilical cord before separation of the placenta and the concentration of leptin was measured by ELISA technique. Anthropometric parameters of the newborn such as birth weight, length, ponderal index, occipital frontal, chest, hip and calf circumferences were measured. Pearson’s correlation was used to assess the relationship between leptin and anthropometric parameters while the Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess the differences in cord blood leptin levels between small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age (AGA) and LGA infants. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between the cord blood leptin concentrations of LGA infants (12.67 ng/mL ± 2.34) and AGA infants (7.10 ng/mL ± 0.90). However, a significant difference was not observed between leptin levels of SGA infants (8.86 ng/mL ± 0.70) and AGA infants. In both male and female neonates, umbilical leptin levels showed significant positive correlations (P < 0.05) with birth weight of the newborn, pre-pregnancy maternal weight and pre pregnancy BMI between the infants of large and appropriate for gestational ages. Increased concentrations of leptin levels in the cord blood of large for gestational age infants suggest that they may be involved in regulating fetal growth. Leptin concentration of Sri Lankan population was not significantly deviated from published data of Asian populations. Fetal leptin may be an important predictor of neonatal adiposity; however, interventional studies are required to assess its impact on the possible risk of childhood obesity.

Keywords: appropriate for gestational age, childhood obesity, leptin, anthropometry

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Nowrozy Jahan, Sharifah Syed Hassan, Daniel Reidpath

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In recent decades, Malaysia has become a dengue hyper-endemic country with the co-circulation of the four-dengue virus (DENV) serotypes. The number of symptomatic dengue cases is maintaining an increasing trend since 1995 and sharply increased in 2014. The four DENV serotypes have been co-circulating since 2000, and this pattern of cyclical dominance of sub-types contributed to the development of frequent major dengue epidemics in Malaysia. Since 2012, different Malaysian state was dominated by different serotypes. The study aims to estimate the burden of asymptomatic dengue in a healthy adult population which may act as a potential source of further symptomatic dengue infection. It also aims to identify the predominant DENV serotypes which are circulating at the community level. A longitudinal prospective community-based study was conducted in the Segamat district of Johor State, southern part of Malaysia where the number of reported dengue cases has steadily increased over the last three years (2013-2015). More specifically, the study was conducted in and around of Kampung Abdullah of Sungai Segamat sub-district which was identified as a hot spot area over the period of 2013-2015. This community-based study has been conducted by Southeast Asia Community Observatory (SEACO), an ISO-certified research platform in collaboration of the Ministry of Health Malaysia and Monash University Malaysia. It was conducted from May 2015 to May 2016. In this study, 277 apparently looking healthy respondents joined who were followed up as a cohort for four times during the one-year study period. Blood was collected to detect the serological marker of dengue at each round of follow-up. Among 277, 184 respondents (66%) joined all four rounds. Half of the study respondents were at the age-group of 45-64 years, slightly more than half of the respondents (59%) were female, and the most (69%) of them were Malay; only 35% lived in urban areas. During the baseline, the study found a very high prevalence of exposure to dengue virus; 89% of the study respondents had serological evidence of previous asymptomatic dengue infection; the majority of them did not know about it as they did not develop any symptom of dengue fever; only 13% knew as they developed symptoms. At the end of the one-year study period, 19% of respondents developed recent secondary dengue infection which was also identified by the serological marker as they did not develop any symptom (asymptomatic cases). The asymptomatic dengue incidence was higher during the rainy season compared to the dry season. All four dengue serotypes were identified in the serum of the infected respondents; among them, DENV-2 was the most prominent. Further genetic analysis is going on to identify the association of HLA-B*46 and HLA-DRB1*08 with dengue resistance. This study provides evidence for the policymakers to be aware of asymptomatic dengue infection, to develop a useful tool for raising awareness about asymptomatic dengue infection among the general population, to monitor the community participation to strengthen the individual and community level dengue prevention and control measures when neither there is vaccine nor particular treatment for dengue.

Keywords: asymptomatic, dengue, health adults, prospective study

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Authors: Jie Lin, Yiwen Pan, Li Zhang, Zhangyong Xia

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Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the accumulation of lipids, immune cells, and extracellular matrix in the arterial walls. This pathological process can lead to the formation of plaques that can obstruct blood flow and trigger various cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke. The underlying molecular mechanisms still remain unclear, although many studies revealed the dysfunction of endothelial cells, recruitment and activation of monocytes and macrophages, and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in atherosclerosis. This study aimed to identify hub genes involved in the progression of atherosclerosis and to analyze their biological function in silico, thereby enhancing our understanding of the disease’s molecular mechanisms. Through the analysis of microarray data, we examined the gene expression in media and neo-intima from plaques, as well as distant macroscopically intact tissue, across a cohort of 32 hypertensive patients. Initially, 112 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Subsequent immune infiltration analysis indicated a predominant presence of 27 immune cell types in the atherosclerosis group, particularly noting an increase in monocytes and macrophages. In the Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), 10 modules with a minimum of 30 genes were defined as key modules, with blue, dark, Oliver green and sky-blue modules being the most significant. These modules corresponded respectively to monocyte, activated B cell, and activated CD4 T cell gene patterns, revealing a strong morphological-genetic correlation. From these three gene patterns (modules morphology), a total of 2509 key genes (Gene Significance >0.2, module membership>0.8) were extracted. Six hub genes (CD36, DPP4, HMOX1, PLA2G7, PLN2, and ACADL) were then identified by intersecting 2509 key genes, 102 DEGs with lipid-related genes from the Genecard database. The bio-functional analysis of six hub genes was estimated by a robust classifier with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.873 in the ROC plot, indicating excellent efficacy in differentiating between the disease and control group. Moreover, PCA visualization demonstrated clear separation between the groups based on these six hub genes, suggesting their potential utility as classification features in predictive models. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis highlighted DPP4 as the most interconnected gene. Within the constructed key gene-drug network, 462 drugs were predicted, with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) being identified as a potential therapeutic agent for modulating DPP4 expression. In summary, our study identified critical hub genes implicated in the progression of atherosclerosis through comprehensive bioinformatic analyses. These findings not only advance our understanding of the disease but also pave the way for applying similar analytical frameworks and predictive models to other diseases, thereby broadening the potential for clinical applications and therapeutic discoveries.

Keywords: atherosclerosis, hub genes, drug prediction, bioinformatics

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Authors: Moh'd Anwer Al-Shboul

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Jordan Customs (JC) has been established to achieve objectives that must be consistent with the guidance of the wise leadership and its aspirations toward tomorrow. Therefore, it has developed several needed tools to provide a distinguished service to simplify work procedures and used modern technologies. A supply chain (SC) consists of all parties that are involved directly or indirectly in order to fulfill a customer request, which includes manufacturers, suppliers, shippers, retailers and even customer brokers. Within each firm, the SC includes all functions involved in receiving a filling a customers’ requests; one of the main functions include customer service. JC and global SCs are evolving into dynamic environment, which requires flexibility, effective communication, and team management. Thus, human resources (HRs) insight in these areas are critical for the effective development of global process network. The importance of HRs has increased significantly due to the role of employees depends on their knowledge, competencies, abilities, skills, and motivations. Strategic planning in JC began at the end of the 1990’s including operational strategy for Human Resource Management and Development (HRM&D). However, a huge transformation in human resources happened at the end of 2006; new employees’ regulation for customs were prepared, approved and applied at the end of 2007. Therefore, many employees lost their positions, while others were selected based on professorial recruitment and selection process (enter new blood). One of several policies that were applied by human resources in JC department is job rotation. From the researcher’s point of view, it was not based on scientific basis to achieve its goals and objectives, which at the end leads to having a significant negative impact on the Organizational Performance (OP) and weak job rotation approach. The purpose of this study is to call attention to re-review the applying process and procedure of job rotation that HRM directorate is currently applied at JC. Furthermore, it presents an overview of managing the HRs in the SC network that affects their success. The research methodology employed in this study was described as qualitative by conducting few interviews with managers, internal employee, external clients and reviewing the related literature to collect some qualitative data from secondary sources. Thus, conducting frequently and unstructured job rotation policy (i.e. monthly) will have a significant negative impact on JC performance as a whole. The results of this study show that the main impacts will affect on three main elements in JC: (1) internal employees' performance; (2) external clients, who are dealing with customs services; and finally, JC performance as a whole. In order to implement a successful and perfect job rotation technique at JC in a scientific way and to achieve its goals and objectives; JCs should be taken into consideration the proposed solutions and recommendations that will be presented in this study.

Keywords: efficiency, supply chain, human resources, job rotation, organizational performance, Jordan customs

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Panagiotis Roupas, Yota Passia

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This paper aims at establishing an index of design mechanisms - immanent in spatial objects - based on the affective capacity of their material formations. While spatial objects (design objects, buildings, urban configurations, etc.) are regarded as systems composed of interacting parts, within the premises of assemblage theory, their ability to affect and to be affected has not yet been mapped or sufficiently explored. This ability lies in excess, a latent potentiality they contain, not transcendental but immanent in their pre-subjective aesthetic power. As spatial structures are theorized as assemblages - composed of heterogeneous elements that enter into relations with one another - and since all assemblages are parts of larger assemblages, their components' ability to engage is contingent. We thus seek to unfold the mechanisms inherent in spatial objects that allow to the constituent parts of design assemblages to perpetually enter into new assemblages. To map architectural assemblage's affective ability, spatial objects are analyzed in two axes. The first axis focuses on the relations that the assemblage's material and expressive components develop in order to enter the assemblages. Material components refer to those material elements that an assemblage requires in order to exist, while expressive components includes non-linguistic (sense impressions) as well as linguistic (beliefs). The second axis records the processes known as a-signifying signs or a-signs, which are the triggering mechanisms able to territorialize or deterritorialize, stabilize or destabilize the assemblage and thus allow it to assemble anew. As a-signs cannot be isolated from matter, we point to their resulting effects, which without entering the linguistic level they are expressed in terms of intensity fields: modulations, movements, speeds, rhythms, spasms, etc. They belong to a molecular level where they operate in the pre-subjective world of perceptions, effects, drives, and emotions. A-signs have been introduced as intensities that transform the object beyond meaning, beyond fixed or known cognitive procedures. To that end, from an archive of more than 100 spatial objects by contemporary architects and designers, we have created an effective mechanisms index is created, where each a-sign is now connected with the list of effects it triggers and which thoroughly defines it. And vice versa, the same effect can be triggered by different a-signs, allowing the design object to lie in a perpetual state of becoming. To define spatial objects, A-signs are categorized in terms of their aesthetic power to affect and to be affected on the basis of the general categories of form, structure and surface. Thus, different part's degree of contingency are evaluated and measured and finally, we introduce as material information that is immanent in the spatial object while at the same time they confer no meaning; they only convey some information without semantic content. Through this index, we are able to analyze and direct the final form of the spatial object while at the same time establishing the mechanism to measure its continuous transformation.

Keywords: affective mechanisms index, architectural assemblages, a-signifying signs, cartography, virtual

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Sadia Munir, Diana White, Aya Albahri, Pratiwi Hastania, Eltahir Mohamed, Mahmood Khan, Fathima Mohamed, Ayat Kadhi, Haila Saleem

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Preeclampsia is a major complication of pregnancy. Prediction and management of preeclampsia is a challenge for obstetricians. To our knowledge, no major progress has been achieved in the prevention and early detection of preeclampsia. There is very little known about the clear treatment path of this disorder. Preeclampsia puts both mother and baby at risk of several short term- and long term-health problems later in life. There is huge health service cost burden in the health care system associated with preeclampsia and its complications. Preeclampsia is divided into two different types. Early onset preeclampsia develops before 34 weeks of gestation, and late onset develops at or after 34 weeks of gestation. Different genetic and environmental factors, prognosis, heritability, biochemical and clinical features are associated with early and late onset preeclampsia. Prevalence of preeclampsia greatly varies all over the world and is dependent on ethnicity of the population and geographic region. To authors best knowledge, no published data on preeclampsia exist in Qatar. In this study, we are reporting the incidence of preeclampsia in Qatar. The purpose of this study is to compare the incidence and risk factors of both early onset and late onset preeclampsia in Qatar. This retrospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted using data from the hospital record of Women’s Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), from May 2014-May 2016. Data collection tool, which was approved by HMC, was a researcher made extraction sheet that included information such as blood pressure during admission, socio demographic characteristics, delivery mode, and new born details. A total of 1929 patients’ files were identified by the hospital information management when they apply codes of preeclampsia. Out of 1929 files, 878 had significant gestational hypertension without proteinuria, 365 had preeclampsia, 364 had severe preeclampsia, and 188 had preexisting hypertension with superimposed proteinuria. In this study, 78% of the data was obtained by hospital electronic system (Cerner) and the remaining 22% was from patient’s paper records. We have gone through detail data extraction from 560 files. Initial data analysis has revealed that 15.02% of pregnancies were complicated with preeclampsia from May 2014-May 2016. We have analyzed difference in the two different disease entities in the ethnicity, maternal age, severity of hypertension, mode of delivery and infant birth weight. We have identified promising differences in the risk factors of early onset and late onset preeclampsia. The data from clinical findings of preeclampsia will contribute to increased knowledge about two different disease entities, their etiology, and similarities/differences. The findings of this study can also be used in predicting health challenges, improving health care system, setting up guidelines, and providing the best care for women suffering from preeclampsia.

Keywords: preeclampsia, incidence, risk factors, maternal

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Akanksha Bhatnagar, Sandhya Kortegare, Felice Elefant

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Context: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive cognitive decline and memory loss. The cause of AD is not fully understood, but it is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. One of the hallmarks of AD is the loss of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region that is important for memory and learning. This loss of neurons is thought to be caused by a decrease in histone acetylation, which is a process that regulates gene expression. Research Aim: The research aim of the study was to develop mall molecule compounds that can enhance the activity of Tip60, a histone acetyltransferase that is important for memory and learning. Methodology/Analysis: The researchers used in silico structural modeling and a pharmacophore-based virtual screening approach to design and synthesize small molecule compounds strongly predicted to target and enhance Tip60’s HAT activity. The compounds were then tested in vitro and in vivo to assess their ability to enhance Tip60 activity and rescue cognitive deficits in AD models. Findings: The researchers found that several of the compounds were able to enhance Tip60 activity and rescue cognitive deficits in AD models. The compounds were also developed to cross the blood-brain barrier, which is an important factor for the development of potential AD therapeutics. Theoretical Importance: The findings of this study suggest that Tip60 HAT activators have the potential to be developed as therapeutic agents for AD. The compounds are specific to Tip60, which suggests that they may have fewer side effects than other HDAC inhibitors. Additionally, the compounds are able to cross the blood-brain barrier, which is a major hurdle for the development of AD therapeutics. Data Collection: The study collected data from a variety of sources, including in vitro assays and animal models. The in vitro assays assessed the ability of compounds to enhance Tip60 activity using histone acetyltransferase (HAT) enzyme assays and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Animal models were used to assess the ability of the compounds to rescue cognitive deficits in AD models using a variety of behavioral tests, including locomotor ability, sensory learning, and recognition tasks. The human clinical trials will be used to assess the safety and efficacy of the compounds in humans. Questions: The question addressed by this study was whether Tip60 HAT activators could be developed as therapeutic agents for AD. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that Tip60 HAT activators have the potential to be developed as therapeutic agents for AD. The compounds are specific to Tip60, which suggests that they may have fewer side effects than other HDAC inhibitors. Additionally, the compounds are able to cross the blood-brain barrier, which is a major hurdle for the development of AD therapeutics. Further research is needed to confirm the safety and efficacy of these compounds in humans.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, cognition, neuroepigenetics, drug discovery

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Reham Khalaf-Nazzal, Imad Dweikat, Paula Gimenez, Iker Oyenarte, Alfonso Martinez-Cruz, Domonik Muller

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Metal cation transport mediator (CNNM) gene family comprises 4 isoforms that are expressed in various human tissues. Structurally, CNNMs are complex proteins that contain an extracellular N-terminal domain preceding a DUF21 transmembrane domain, a ‘Bateman module’ and a C-terminal cNMP-binding domain. Mutations in CNNM2 cause familial dominant hypomagnesaemia. Growing evidence highlights the role of CNNM2 in neurodevelopment. Mutations in CNNM2 have been implicated in epilepsy, intellectual disability, schizophrenia, and others. In the present study, we aim to elucidate the function of CNNM2 in the developing brain. Thus, we present the genetic origin of symptoms in two family cohorts. In the first family, three siblings of a consanguineous Palestinian family in which parents are first cousins, and consanguinity ran over several generations, presented a varying degree of intellectual disability, cone-rod dystrophy, and autism spectrum disorder. Exome sequencing and segregation analysis revealed the presence of homozygous pathogenic mutation in the CNNM2 gene, the parents were heterozygous for that gene mutation. Magnesium blood levels were normal in the three children and their parents in several measurements. They had no symptoms of hypomagnesemia. The CNNM2 mutation in this family was found to locate in the CBS1 domain of the CNNM2 protein. The crystal structure of the mutated CNNM2 protein was not significantly different from the wild-type protein, and the binding of AMP or MgATP was not dramatically affected. This suggests that the CBS1 domain could be involved in pure neurodevelopmental functions independent of its magnesium-handling role, and this mutation could have affected a protein partner binding or other functions in this protein. In the second family, another autosomal dominant CNNM2 mutation was found to run in a large family with multiple individuals over three generations. All affected family members had hypomagnesemia and hypermagnesuria. Oral supplementation of magnesium did not increase the levels of magnesium in serum significantly. Some affected members of this family have defects in fine motor skills such as dyslexia and dyslalia. The detected mutation is located in the N-terminal part, which contains a signal peptide thought to be involved in the sorting and routing of the protein. In this project, we describe heterogenous clinical phenotypes related to CNNM2 mutations and protein functions. In the first family, and up to the authors’ knowledge, we report for the first time the involvement of CNNM2 in retinal photoreceptor development and function. In addition, we report the presence of a neurophenotype independent of magnesium status related to the CNNM2 protein mutation. Taking into account the different modes of inheritance and the different positions of the mutations within CNNM2 and its different structural and functional domains, it is likely that CNNM2 might be involved in a wide spectrum of neuropsychiatric comorbidities with considerable varying phenotypes.

Keywords: magnesium transport, autosomal recessive, autism, neurodevelopment, CBS domain

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Hsin-Hung Lin, Janet Chang, Te-Yi Chang, You-Sheng Huang

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The natural and men-made disasters have become huge challenges for tourism destinations as well as emphasizing the fragility of the industry. Hot springs, among all destinations, are prone to disasters due to their dependence on natural resources and locations. After the COVID-19 outbreak, hot spring destinations have experienced not only the loss of businesses but also the psychological trauma. However, evidence has also shown that the impacts may not necessarily reduce the resilience for people but may be converted into posttraumatic growth. In Taiwan, a large proportion of hot springs are located in rural or indigenous areas. As a result, hot spring resources are associated with community cohesion for local residents. Yet prior research on hot spring destinations has mainly focused on visitors, whereas residents have been overlooked. More specifically, the relationship between hot springs resources and resident resilience in the face of the COVID-19 impacts remains unclear. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to explore the COVID-19 impacts on residents’ hot spring experiences as well as individual and community resilience from the perspective of posttraumatic growth. A total of 315 residents of 13 hot spring destinations that are most popular in Taiwan were recruited. Online questionnaires were distributed over travel forums and social networks after the COVID-19. This paper subsequently used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for data analysis as the technique offers significant advantages in addressing nonnormal data and small sample sizes. A preliminary test was conducted, and the results showed acceptable internal consistency and no serious common method variance. The path analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 impacts strengthened residents’ perceptions of hot spring resources and experiences, implying that the pandemic had propelled the residents to visit hot springs for the healing benefits. In addition, the COVID-19 impacts significantly enhanced residents’ individual and community resilience, which indicates that the residents at hot springs are more resilient thanks to their awareness of external risks. Thirdly, residents’ individual resilience was positively associated with hot spring experiences, while community resilience was not affected by hot spring experiences. Such findings may suggest that hot spring experiences are more related to individual-level experiences and, consequently, have insignificant influence on community resilience. Finally, individual resilience was proved to be the most relevant factor that help foster community resilience. To conclude, the authorities may consider exploiting the hot spring resources so as to increase individual resilience for local residents. Such implications can be used as a reference for other post-disaster tourist destinations as well. As for future research, longitudinal studies with qualitative methods are suggested to better understand how the hot spring experiences have changed individuals and communities over the long term. It should be noted that the main subjects of this paper were focused on the hot spring communities in Taiwan. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for all types of tourism destinations. That is, more diverse tourism destinations may be investigated to provide a broader perspective of post-disaster recovery.

Keywords: community resilience, hot spring destinations, individual resilience, posttraumatic growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Hsin-Hung Lin, Janet Chang, Te-Yi Chang, You-Sheng Huang

Abstract:

The natural and men-made disasters have become huge challenges for tourism destinations as well as emphasizing the fragility of the industry. Hot springs, among all destinations, are prone to disasters due to their dependence on natural resources and locations. After the COVID-19 outbreak, hot spring destinations have experienced not only the loss of businesses but also the psychological trauma. However, evidence has also shown that the impacts may not necessarily reduce the resilience for people but may be converted into posttraumatic growth. In Taiwan, a large proportion of hot springs are located in rural or indigenous areas. As a result, hot spring resources are associated with community cohesion for local residents. Yet prior research on hot spring destinations has mainly focused on visitors, whereas residents have been overlooked. More specifically, the relationship between hot springs resources and resident resilience in the face of the COVID-19 impacts remains unclear. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to explore the COVID-19 impacts on residents’ hot spring experiences as well as individual and community resilience from the perspective of posttraumatic growth. A total of 315 residents of 13 hot spring destinations that are most popular in Taiwan were recruited. Online questionnaires were distributed over travel forums and social networks after the COVID-19. This paper subsequently used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling for data analysis as the technique offers significant advantages in addressing nonnormal data and small sample sizes. A preliminary test was conducted, and the results showed acceptable internal consistency and no serious common method variance. The path analysis demonstrated that the COVID-19 impacts strengthened residents’ perceptions of hot spring resources and experiences, implying that the pandemic had propelled the residents to visit hot springs for the healing benefits. In addition, the COVID-19 impacts significantly enhanced residents’ individual and community resilience, which indicates that the residents at hot springs are more resilient thanks to their awareness of external risks. Thirdly, residents’ individual resilience was positively associated with hot spring experiences, while community resilience was not affected by hot spring experiences. Such findings may suggest that hot spring experiences are more related to individual-level experiences and, consequently, have insignificant influence on community resilience. Finally, individual resilience was proved to be the most relevant factor that help foster community resilience. To conclude, the authorities may consider exploiting the hot spring resources so as to increase individual resilience for local residents. Such implications can be used as a reference for other post-disaster tourist destinations as well.As for future research, longitudinal studies with qualitative methods are suggested to better understand how the hot spring experiences have changed individuals and communities over the long term. It should be noted that the main subjects of this paper were focused on the hot spring communities in Taiwan. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for all types of tourism destinations. That is, more diverse tourism destinations may be investigated to provide a broader perspective of post-disaster recovery.

Keywords: community resilience, hot spring destinations, individual resilience, posttraumatic growth (PTG)

Procedia PDF Downloads 59

Authors: Chang Liu, Hanwen Zhang, Vikash Sharma, Don Eliseo Lucerno-Prisno III, Emmanuel Yujuico, Maulik Chokshi, Prashanthi Krishnakumar, Bach Xuan Tran, Giang Thu Vu, Kamilla Anna Pinter, Shenglan Tang

Abstract:

Background and Aims: Globally, many health systems focus on hospital-based healthcare models targeting acute care and disease treatment, which are not effective in addressing the challenges of ageing populations, chronic conditions, multi-morbidities, and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. Recently, integrated care programs on chronic diseases have been developed, piloted, and implemented to meet such challenges. However, integrated care programs in the Asia-Pacific region vary in the levels of integration from linkage to coordination to full integration. This study aims to identify and analyze existing cases of integrated care in the Asia-Pacific region and identify the facilitators and barriers in order to improve existing cases and inform future cases. Methods: The study is a comparative study, with a combination approach of desk-based research and key informant interviews. The selected countries included in this study represent a good mix of lower-middle income countries (the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Fiji), upper-middle income country (China), and high-income country (Singapore) in the Asia-Pacific region. Existing integrated care programs were identified through the scoping review approach. Trigger, history, general design, beneficiaries, and objectors were summarized with barriers and facilitators of integrated care based on key informant interviews. Representative case(s) in each country were selected and comprehensively analyzed through deep-dive case studies. Results: A total of 87 existing integrated care programs on chronic diseases were found in all countries, with 44 in China, 21 in Singapore, 12 in India, 5 in Vietnam, 4 in the Philippines, and 1 in Fiji. 9 representative cases of integrated care were selected for in-depth description and analysis, with 2 in China, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and 1 in Singapore, India, and Fiji. Population aging and the rising chronic disease burden have been identified as key drivers for almost all the six countries. Among the six countries, Singapore has the longest history of integrated care, followed by Fiji, the Philippines, and China, while India and Vietnam have a shorter history of integrated care. Incentives, technologies, education, and performance evaluation would be crucial for developing strategies for implementing future programs and improve already existing programs. Conclusion: Integrated care is important for addressing challenges surrounding the delivery of long-term care. To date, there is an increasing trend of integrated care programs on chronic diseases in the Asia-Pacific region, and all six countries in our study set integrated care as a direction for their health systems transformation.

Keywords: integrated healthcare, integrated care delivery, chronic diseases, Asia-Pacific region

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Authors: Hamed Movahedi, Nicolas Bovet, Henning Friis Poulsen

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Following the advent of the Industrial Revolution, there has been a significant increase in the extraction and utilization of hydrocarbon and fossil fuel resources. However, a new era has emerged, characterized by a shift towards sustainable practices, namely the reduction of carbon emissions and the promotion of renewable energy generation. Given the substantial number of mature oil and gas wells that have been developed inside the petroleum reservoir domain, it is imperative to establish an environmental strategy and adopt appropriate measures to effectively seal and decommission these wells. In general, the cement plug serves as a material for plugging purposes. Nevertheless, there exist some scenarios in which the durability of such a plug is compromised, leading to the potential escape of hydrocarbons via fissures and fractures within cement plugs. Furthermore, cement is often not considered a practical solution for temporary plugging, particularly in the case of well sites that have the potential for future gas storage or CO2 injection. The Danish oil and gas industry has promising potential as a prospective candidate for future carbon dioxide (CO2) injection, hence contributing to the implementation of carbon capture strategies within Europe. The primary reservoir component consists of chalk, a rock characterized by limited permeability. This work focuses on the development and characterization of a novel hydrogel variant. The hydrogel is designed to be injected via a low-permeability reservoir and afterward undergoes a transformation into a high-viscosity gel. The primary objective of this research is to explore the potential of this hydrogel as a new solution for effectively plugging well flow. Initially, the synthesis of polyacrylamide was carried out using radical polymerization inside the confines of the reaction flask. Subsequently, with the application of the Hoffman rearrangement, the polymer chain undergoes partial amination, facilitating its subsequent reaction with the crosslinker and enabling the formation of a hydrogel in the subsequent stage. The organic crosslinker, glutaraldehyde, was employed in the experiment to facilitate the formation of a gel. This gel formation occurred when the polymeric solution was subjected to heat within a specified range of reservoir temperatures. Additionally, a rheological survey and gel time measurements were conducted on several polymeric solutions to determine the optimal concentration. The findings indicate that the gel duration is contingent upon the starting concentration and exhibits a range of 4 to 20 hours, hence allowing for manipulation to accommodate diverse injection strategies. Moreover, the findings indicate that the gel may be generated in environments characterized by acidity and high salinity. This property ensures the suitability of this substance for application in challenging reservoir conditions. The rheological investigation indicates that the polymeric solution exhibits the characteristics of a Herschel-Bulkley fluid with somewhat elevated yield stress prior to solidification.

Keywords: polyacrylamide, hofmann rearrangement, rheology, gel time

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Authors: Chien-Ho Lin, Ho-Ching Yang, Barbara Knowlton, Shin-Leh Huang, Ming-Chang Chiang

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Practicing motor tasks arranged in an interleaved order (interleaved practice, or IP) generally leads to better learning than practicing tasks in a repetitive order (repetitive practice, or RP), an example of how desirable difficulty during practice benefits learning. Greater difficulty during practice, e.g. IP, is associated with greater brain activity measured by higher blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the sensorimotor areas of the brain. In this study resting-state fMRI was applied to investigate whether increase in resting-state brain connectivity immediately after practice predicts the benefit of desirable difficulty to motor learning. 26 healthy adults (11M/15F, age = 23.3±1.3 years) practiced two sets of three sequences arranged in a repetitive or an interleaved order over 2 days, followed by a retention test on Day 5 to evaluate learning. On each practice day, fMRI data were acquired in a resting state after practice. The resting-state fMRI data was decomposed using a group-level spatial independent component analysis (ICA), yielding 9 independent components (IC) matched to the precuneus network, primary visual networks (two ICs, denoted by I and II respectively), sensorimotor networks (two ICs, denoted by I and II respectively), the right and the left frontoparietal networks, occipito-temporal network, and the frontal network. A weighted resting-state functional connectivity (wRSFC) was then defined to incorporate information from within- and between-network brain connectivity. The within-network functional connectivity between a voxel and an IC was gauged by a z-score derived from the Fisher transformation of the IC map. The between-network connectivity was derived from the cross-correlation of time courses across all possible pairs of ICs, leading to a symmetric nc x nc matrix of cross-correlation coefficients, denoted by C = (pᵢⱼ). Here pᵢⱼ is the extremum of cross-correlation between ICs i and j; nc = 9 is the number of ICs. This component-wise cross-correlation matrix C was then projected to the voxel space, with the weights for each voxel set to the z-score that represents the above within-network functional connectivity. The wRSFC map incorporates the global characteristics of brain networks measured by the between-network connectivity, and the spatial information contained in the IC maps measured by the within-network connectivity. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that greater IP-minus-RP difference in wRSFC was positively correlated with the RP-minus-IP difference in the response time on Day 5, particularly in brain regions crucial for motor learning, such as the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the right premotor and supplementary motor cortices. This indicates that enhanced resting brain connectivity during the early phase of memory consolidation is associated with enhanced learning following interleaved practice, and as such wRSFC could be applied as a biomarker that measures the beneficial effects of desirable difficulty on motor sequence learning.

Keywords: desirable difficulty, functional magnetic resonance imaging, independent component analysis, resting-state networks

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Authors: Mercedes Bertotto, Marcelo Bello, Hector Goicoechea, Veronica Fusca

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The National Service of Agri-Food Health and Quality (SENASA), controls honey to detect contamination by synthetic or natural chemical substances and establishes and controls the traceability of the product. The utility of near-infrared spectroscopy for the detection of adulteration of honey with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was investigated. First of all, a mixture of different authentic artisanal Argentinian honey was prepared to cover as much heterogeneity as possible. Then, mixtures were prepared by adding different concentrations of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to samples of the honey pool. 237 samples were used, 108 of them were authentic honey and 129 samples corresponded to honey adulterated with HFCS between 1 and 10%. They were stored unrefrigerated from time of production until scanning and were not filtered after receipt in the laboratory. Immediately prior to spectral collection, honey was incubated at 40°C overnight to dissolve any crystalline material, manually stirred to achieve homogeneity and adjusted to a standard solids content (70° Brix) with distilled water. Adulterant solutions were also adjusted to 70° Brix. Samples were measured by NIR spectroscopy in the range of 650 to 7000 cm⁻¹. The technique of specular reflectance was used, with a lens aperture range of 150 mm. Pretreatment of the spectra was performed by Standard Normal Variate (SNV). The ant colony optimization genetic algorithm sample selection (ACOGASS) graphical interface was used, using MATLAB version 5.3, to select the variables with the greatest discriminating power. The data set was divided into a validation set and a calibration set, using the Kennard-Stone (KS) algorithm. A combined method of Potential Functions (PF) was chosen together with Partial Least Square Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Different estimators of the predictive capacity of the model were compared, which were obtained using a decreasing number of groups, which implies more demanding validation conditions. The optimal number of latent variables was selected as the number associated with the minimum error and the smallest number of unassigned samples. Once the optimal number of latent variables was defined, we proceeded to apply the model to the training samples. With the calibrated model for the training samples, we proceeded to study the validation samples. The calibrated model that combines the potential function methods and PLSDA can be considered reliable and stable since its performance in future samples is expected to be comparable to that achieved for the training samples. By use of Potential Functions (PF) and Partial Least Square Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) classification, authentic honey and honey adulterated with HFCS could be identified with a correct classification rate of 97.9%. The results showed that NIR in combination with the PT and PLS-DS methods can be a simple, fast and low-cost technique for the detection of HFCS in honey with high sensitivity and power of discrimination.

Keywords: adulteration, multivariate analysis, potential functions, regression

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Authors: Indira K., Valsamma Joseph, I. S. Bright

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Introduction :Biofuels could replace fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint on the planet by technological advancements needed for sustainable and economic fuel production. Micro algae have proven to be a promising source to meet the current energy demand because of high lipid content and production of high biomass rapidly. Marine diatoms, which are key contributors in the biofuel sector and also play a significant role in primary productivity and ecology with high biodiversity and genetic and chemical diversity, are less well understood than other microalgae for producing hydrocarbons. Method :The marine diatom samples selected for hydrocarbon analysis were a total of eleven, out of which 9 samples were from the culture collection of NCAAH, and the remaining two of them were isolated by serial dilution method to get a pure culture from a mixed culture of microalgae obtained from the various cruise stations (350&357) FORV Sagar Sampada along the west coast of India. These diatoms were mass cultured in F/2 media, and the biomass harvested. The crude extract was obtained from the biomass by homogenising with n-hexane, and the hydrocarbons was further obtained by passing the crude extract through 500mg Bonna Agela SPE column and the quantitative analysis was done by GCHRMS analysis using HP-5 column and Helium gas was used as a carrier gas(1ml/min). The injector port temperature was 2400C, the detector temperature was 2500C, and the oven was initially kept at 600C for 1 minute and increased to 2200C at the rate of 60C per minute, and the analysis of a mixture of long chain hydrocarbons was done .Results:In the qualitative analysis done, the most potent hydrocarbon was found to be Psammodictyon Panduriforme (NCAAH-9) with a hydrocarbon mass of 37.27mg/g of the biomass and 2.1% of the total biomass 0f 1.395g and the other potent producer is Biddulphia(NCAAH 6) with hydrocarbon mass of 25.4mg/g of biomass and percentage of hydrocarbon is 1.03%. In the quantitative analysis by GCHRMS, the long chain hydrocarbons found in most of the marine diatoms were undecane, hexadecane, octadecane 3ethyl 5,2 ethyl butyl, Eicosane7hexyl, hexacosane, heptacosane, heneicosane, octadecane 3 methyl, triacontane. The exact mass of the long chain hydrocarbons in all the marine diatom samples was found to be Nonadecane 12C191H40, Tritriacontane,13-decyl-13-heptyl 12C501H102, Octadecane,3ethyl-5-(2-ethylbutyl 12C261H54, tetratetracontane 12C441H89, Eicosane, 7-hexyl 12C261H54. Conclusion:All the marine diatoms screened produced long chain hydrocarbons which can be used as diesel fuel with good cetane value example, hexadecane, undecane. All the long chain hydrocarbons can further undergo catalytic cracking to produce short chain alkanes which can give good octane values and can be used as gasoline. Optimisation of hydrocarbon production with the most potent marine diatom yielded long chain hydrocarbons of good fuel quality.

Keywords: biofuel, hydrocarbons, marine diatoms, screening

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Authors: Madison Hall

Abstract:

The Assisted Colonization of Polar Bears to Antarctica requires a careful analysis of treaties to understand existing legal barriers to Ursus maritimus transport and movement. An absence of land-based migration routes prevent polar bears from accessing southern polar regions on their own. This lack of access is compounded by current treaties which limit human intervention and assistance to ford these physical and legal barriers. In a time of massive planetary extinctions, Assisted Colonization posits that certain endangered species may be prime candidates for relocation to hospitable environments to which they have never previously had access. By analyzing existing treaties, this paper will examine how polar bears are limited in movement by humankind’s legal barriers. International treaties may be considered codified reflections of anthropocentric values of the best knowledge and understanding of an identified problem at a set point in time, as understood through the human lens. Even as human social values and scientific insights evolve, so too must treaties evolve which specify legal frameworks and structures impacting keystone species and related biomes. Due to costs and other myriad difficulties, only a very select number of species will be given this opportunity. While some species move into new regions and are then deemed invasive, Assisted Colonization considers that some assistance may be mandated due to the nature of humankind’s role in climate change. This moral question and ethical imperative against the backdrop of escalating climate impacts, drives the question forward; what is the potential for successfully relocating a select handful of charismatic and ecologically important life forms? Is it possible to reimagine a different, but balanced Antarctic ecosystem? Listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, a result of the ongoing loss of critical habitat by melting sea ice, polar bears have limited options for long term survival in the wild. Our current regime for safeguarding animals facing extinction frequently utilizes zoos and their breeding programs, to keep alive the genetic diversity of the species until some future time when reintroduction, somewhere, may be attempted. By exploring the potential for polar bears to be relocated to Antarctica, we must analyze the complex ethical, legal, political, financial, and biological realms, which are the backdrop to framing all questions in this arena. Can we do it? Should we do it? By utilizing an environmental ethics perspective, we propose that the Ecological Commons of the Arctic and Antarctic should not be viewed solely through the lens of human resource management needs. From this perspective, polar bears do not need our permission, they need our assistance. Antarctica therefore represents a second, if imperfect chance, to buy time for polar bears, in a world where polar regimes, not yet fully understood, are themselves quickly changing as a result of climate change.

Keywords: polar bear, climate change, environmental ethics, Arctic, Antarctica, assisted colonization, treaty

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