Search results for: Victor H. Lara

Authors: Sabli, Eddy Rismunandar, Akhirudin, Nana Halim, Zulfikar, Nining Dwirosanti, Wila Ningsih, Pipih Siti Sofiah, Danik Dania Asadayanti, Dewi Eka Arini Algozi, Gita Mahardika Pamuji, Ajun, Mangasa Aritonang, Nanang Rukmana, Arief Rachman Wonodhipo, Victor Imanuel Nahumury, Lili Husada, Wawan Saepul Irwan, Al Mukhlas Fikri

Abstract:

Covid-19 pandemic has widely impacted the lives. An adaptive strategy must be quickly formulated to maintain the quality of education, especially by vocational school which technical skill competencies are highly needed. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of e-training on the attitude and skill competencies of vocational high school teachers in Indonesia. A total of 720 Indonesian vocational high school teachers with various programs, including hospitality, administration, online business and marketing, culinary arts, fashion, cashier, tourism, haircut, and accounting participated e-training for a month. The training used electronic learning management system to provide materials (modules, presentation slides, and tutorial videos), tasks, and evaluations. Tutorial class was carried out by video conference meeting. Attitude and skill competencies were evaluated before and after the training. Meanwhile, the teachers also gave satisfactory feedback on the quality of the organizer and tutors. Data analysis used paired sample t-test and Anova with Tukey’s post hoc test. The results showed that e-training significantly increased the score of attitude and skill competencies of the teachers (p <0,05). Moreover, the remarkable increase was found among hospitality (57,5%), cashier (50,1%), and online business and marketing (48,7%) teachers. However, the effect among fashion, tourism and haircut teachers was less obvious. In addition, the satisfactory score on the quality of the organizer and tutors were 88,9 (very good), and 93,5 (excellence), respectively. The study concludes that a well-organized e-training could increase the attitude and skill competencies of Indonesian vocational high school teachers during Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords: E-training, skill, teacher, vocational high school

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Mehari Teshome, Lara Agostini, Anna Nosella

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The current knowledge-based economy extends intellectual property rights (IPRs) legal research themes into a more strategic and organizational perspectives. From the diverse types of IPRs, patents are the strongest and well-known form of legal protection that influences commercial success and market value. Indeed, from our pilot survey, we understood that firms are less likely to manage their patents and actively used it as a tool for achieving competitive advantage rather they invest resource and efforts for patent application. To this regard, the literature also confirms that insights into how firms manage their patents from a holistic, strategic perspective, and how the portfolio value of patents can be optimized are scarce. Though patent management is an important business tool and there exist few scales to measure some dimensions of patent management, at the best of our knowledge, no systematic attempt has been made to develop a valid and comprehensive measure of it. Considering this theoretical and practical point of view, the aim of this article is twofold: to develop a framework for patent management encompassing all relevant dimensions with their respective constructs and measurement items, and to validate the measurement using survey data from practitioners. Methodology: We used six-step methodological approach (i.e., specify the domain of construct, item generation, scale purification, internal consistency assessment, scale validation, and replication). Accordingly, we carried out a systematic review of 182 articles on patent management, from ISI Web of Science. For each article, we mapped relevant constructs, their definition, and associated features, as well as items used to measure these constructs, when provided. This theoretical analysis was complemented by interviews with experts in patent management to get feedbacks that are more practical on how patent management is carried out in firms. Afterwards, we carried out a questionnaire survey to purify our scales and statistical validation. Findings: The analysis allowed us to design a framework for patent management, identifying its core dimensions (i.e., generation, portfolio-management, exploitation and enforcement, intelligence) and support dimensions (i.e., strategy and organization). Moreover, we identified the relevant activities for each dimension, as well as the most suitable items to measure them. For example, the core dimension generation includes constructs as: state-of-the-art analysis, freedom-to-operate analysis, patent watching, securing freedom-to-operate, patent potential and patent-geographical-scope. Originality and the Study Contribution: This study represents a first step towards the development of sound scales to measure patent management with an overarching approach, thus laying the basis for developing a recognized landmark within the research area of patent management. Practical Implications: The new scale can be used to assess the level of sophistication of the patent management of a company and compare it with other firms in the industry to evaluate their ability to manage the different activities involved in patent management. In addition, the framework resulting from this analysis can be used as a guide that supports managers to improve patent management in firms.

Keywords: patent, management, scale, development, intellectual property rights (IPRs)

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Authors: Elizabeth Loza-Valerdi, Victor Pardiñas-Rios, Arnulfo Pluma-Pluma, Andres Breton-Toral, Julio Cercado-Jaramillo

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The purification processes for mixtures of isomeric monosaccharides using industrial chromatographic methods poses a serious technical challenge. Mixtures of 2 or 3 monosaccharides are difficult to separate by strictly physical or chemical techniques. Differential fermentation by microbial cultures is an increasingly interesting way of selective enrichment in a particular kind of monosaccharides when a mixture of them is present in the solution, and only one has economical value. Osmotolerant yeast cultures provide an interesting source of biocatalysts for the selective catabolism of monosaccharides in media containing high concentrations of total soluble sugars. A collection of 398 yeast strains has been obtained using endemic and unique sources of fruit juices, industrial syrups, honey, and other high sugar content substrates, either natural or man made, products and by-products from Mexico. The osmotolerance of the strains was assessed by plate assay both in glucose (20-40-60%w/w). Strains were classified according to their osmotolerance in low, medium or highly tolerant to high glucose concentrations. The purified cultures were tested by their ability to growth in a solid plate media or liquid media of Yeas Nitrogen Base (YNB), added with specific monosaccharides as sole carbon source (glucose, galactose, lactose and fructose). Selected strains were subsequently tested in fermentation experiments with mixtures of two monosaccharides (galactose/glucose and glucose/fructose). Their ability to grow and selectively catabolize one monosaccharide was evaluated. Growth, fermentation activity and products of metabolism were determined by plate counts, CO2 production, turbidity and chromatographic analysis by HPLC. Selective catabolism of one monosaccharide in liquid media containing two monosaccharides was confirmed for 8 strains. Ion Exchange chromatographic processes were used in production of high fructose or galactose syrup. Laboratory scale processes for the production of fructose or galactose enriched syrups is now feasible, with important applications in food (like high fructose syrup as edulcorant) and fermentation technology (for GOS production).

Keywords: osmotolerant yeasts, selective metabolism, fructose syrup, GOS

Procedia PDF Downloads 426

Authors: Victor Bloch, Eerikki Kaila, Reetta Palva

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Field robots are an important tool for enhancing efficiency and decreasing the climatic impact of food production. There exists a number of commercial field robots; however, since this technology is still new, the robot advantages and limitations, as well as methods for optimal using of robots, are still unclear. In this study, the performance of a commercial field robot for seeding and weeding was assessed. A research 2-ha sugar beet field with 0.5m row width was used for testing, which included robotic sowing of sugar beet and weeding five times during the first two months of the growing. About three and five percent of the field were used as untreated and chemically weeded control areas, respectively. The plant detection was based on the exact plant location without image processing. The robot was equipped with six seeding and weeding tools, including passive between-rows harrow hoes and active hoes cutting inside rows between the plants, and it moved with a maximal speed of 0.9 km/h. The robot's performance was assessed by image processing. The field images were collected by an action camera with a height of 2 m and a resolution 27M pixels installed on the robot and by a drone with a 16M pixel camera flying at 4 m height. To detect plants and weeds, the YOLO model was trained with transfer learning from two available datasets. A preliminary analysis of the entire field showed that in the areas treated by the robot, the weed average density varied across the field from 6.8 to 9.1 weeds/m² (compared with 0.8 in the chemically treated area and 24.3 in the untreated area), the weed average density inside rows was 2.0-2.9 weeds / m (compared with 0 on the chemically treated area), and the emergence rate was 90-95%. The information about the robot's performance has high importance for the application of robotics for field tasks. With the help of the developed method, the performance can be assessed several times during the growth according to the robotic weeding frequency. When it’s used by farmers, they can know the field condition and efficiency of the robotic treatment all over the field. Farmers and researchers could develop optimal strategies for using the robot, such as seeding and weeding timing, robot settings, and plant and field parameters and geometry. The robot producers can have quantitative information from an actual working environment and improve the robots accordingly.

Keywords: agricultural robot, field robot, plant detection, robot performance

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Authors: Andreas Stollwitzer, Lara Bettinelli, Josef Fink

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The expansion of the high-speed rail network over the past decades has resulted in new challenges for engineers, including traffic-induced resonance vibrations of railway bridges. Excessive resonance-induced speed-dependent accelerations of railway bridges during high-speed traffic can lead to negative consequences such as fatigue symptoms, distortion of the track, destabilisation of the ballast bed, and potentially even derailment. A realistic prognosis of bridge vibrations during high-speed traffic must not only rely on the right choice of an adequate calculation model for both bridge and train but first and foremost on the use of dynamic model parameters which reflect reality appropriately. However, comparisons between measured and calculated bridge vibrations are often characterised by considerable discrepancies, whereas dynamic calculations overestimate the actual responses and therefore lead to uneconomical results. This gap between measurement and calculation constitutes a complex research issue and can be traced to several causes. One major cause is found in the dynamic properties of the ballasted track, more specifically in the persisting, substantial uncertainties regarding the consideration of the ballasted track (mechanical model and input parameters) in dynamic calculations. Furthermore, the discrepancy is particularly pronounced concerning the damping values of the bridge, as conservative values have to be used in the calculations due to normative specifications and lack of knowledge. By using a large-scale test facility, the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of ballasted track has been a major research topic at the Institute of Structural Engineering/Steel Construction at TU Wien in recent years. This highly specialised test facility is designed for isolated research of the ballasted track's dynamic stiffness and damping properties – independent of the bearing structure. Several mechanical models for the ballasted track consisting of one or more continuous spring-damper elements were developed based on the knowledge gained. These mechanical models can subsequently be integrated into bridge models for dynamic calculations. Furthermore, based on measurements at the test facility, model-dependent stiffness and damping parameters were determined for these mechanical models. As a result, realistic mechanical models of the railway bridge with different levels of detail and sufficiently precise characteristic values are available for bridge engineers. Besides that, this contribution also presents another practical application of such a bridge model: Based on the bridge model, determination equations for the damping factor (as Lehr's damping factor) can be derived. This approach constitutes a first-time method that makes the damping factor of a railway bridge calculable. A comparison of this mathematical approach with measured dynamic parameters of existing railway bridges illustrates, on the one hand, the apparent deviation between normatively prescribed and in-situ measured damping factors. On the other hand, it is also shown that a new approach, which makes it possible to calculate the damping factor, provides results that are close to reality and thus raises potentials for minimising the discrepancy between measurement and calculation.

Keywords: ballasted track, bridge dynamics, damping, model design, railway bridges

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Victor Counted

Abstract:

Staying true to self is complicated. In most cases, we might not fully come to terms with this realities. Just like any journey, a self-discovery experience with the ‘self’, is like a rollercoaster ride. The researcher attempts to engage the reader in an empirical study on authenticity tendencies of African Christian Millennials. Hence, attempting the all-important question: What does it actually mean to be true to self for the African youth? A comprehensive, yet an unfinished business that applies the authenticity theory in its exploratory navigations to uncover the “lived world” of the participants who were part of this study. Using a mixed methods approach, the researcher will exhaustively give account to the authenticity tendencies and experiences of the respondents in the study by providing the reader with a unique narrative for understanding what it means to be true to oneself in Africa. At the quantitative study, the participants recorded higher scores on the Authenticity Scale (AS) authentic living, while showing a significant correlation within the subscales. Hypotheses were tested at the quantitative phase, which statistically supported gender and church affiliation as possible predictors for the authenticity orientations of the participants, while being a Christian native and race/ethnicity were not impact factors statistically. The results helped the researcher to develop the objectives behind the qualitative study, where only fifteen AS-authentic living participants were interviewed to understand why they scored high on authentic living, in order to understand what it means to be authentic. The hallmark of the qualitative case study exploration was the common coping mechanism of splitting adopted by the respondents to deal with their self-crisis as they tried to remain authentic to self, whilst self-regulating and self-investing the self to discover ‘self’. Specifically, the researcher observed the concurrent utilization of some kind of the religious-self by the respondents to regulate their self crisis, as they relate with self fragmenting through different splitting stages in hope for some kind of redemption. It was an explanation that led to the conclusion that being authentic is the new pieces. Authenticity is in fragments. This proposition led the researcher to introduce a hermeneutical support-system that will enable future researchers engage more critically and responsibly with their “living human documents” in order to inspire timely solutions that resolve the concerns of authenticity and wellbeing among Millennials in Africa.

Keywords: authenticity, self, identity, self-fragmentation, weak self integration, postmodern self, splitting

Procedia PDF Downloads 492

Authors: Lara Bettinelli, Bernhard Glatz, Josef Fink

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Planning engineers and researchers use various calculation models with different levels of complexity, calculation efficiency and accuracy in dynamic calculations of railway bridges under high-speed traffic. When choosing a vehicle model to depict the dynamic loading on the bridge structure caused by passing high-speed trains, different goals are pursued: On the one hand, the selected vehicle models should allow the calculation of a bridge’s vibrations as realistic as possible. On the other hand, the computational efficiency and manageability of the models should be preferably high to enable a wide range of applications. The commonly adopted and straightforward vehicle model is the moving load model (MLM), which simplifies the train to a sequence of static axle loads moving at a constant speed over the structure. However, the MLM can significantly overestimate the structure vibrations, especially when resonance events occur. More complex vehicle models, which depict the train as a system of oscillating and coupled masses, can reproduce the interaction dynamics between the vehicle and the bridge superstructure to some extent and enable the calculation of more realistic bridge accelerations. At the same time, such multi-body models require significantly greater processing capacities and precise knowledge of various vehicle properties. The European standards allow for applying the so-called additional damping method when simple load models, such as the MLM, are used in dynamic calculations. An additional damping factor depending on the bridge span, which should take into account the vibration-reducing benefits of the vehicle-bridge interaction, is assigned to the supporting structure in the calculations. However, numerous studies show that when the current standard specifications are applied, the calculation results for the bridge accelerations are in many cases still too high compared to the measured bridge accelerations, while in other cases, they are not on the safe side. A proposal to calculate the additional damping based on extensive dynamic calculations for a parametric field of simply supported bridges with a ballasted track was developed to address this issue. In this contribution, several different approaches to determine the additional damping of the supporting structure considering the vehicle-bridge interaction when using the MLM are compared with one another. Besides the standard specifications, this includes the approach mentioned above and two additional recently published alternative formulations derived from analytical approaches. For a bridge catalogue of 65 existing bridges in Austria in steel, concrete or composite construction, calculations are carried out with the MLM for two different high-speed trains and the different approaches for additional damping. The results are compared with the calculation results obtained by applying a more sophisticated multi-body model of the trains used. The evaluation and comparison of the results allow assessing the benefits of different calculation concepts for the additional damping regarding their accuracy and possible applications. The evaluation shows that by applying one of the recently published redesigned additional damping methods, the calculation results can reflect the influence of the vehicle-bridge interaction on the design-relevant structural accelerations considerably more reliable than by using normative specifications.

Keywords: Additional Damping Method, Bridge Dynamics, High-Speed Railway Traffic, Vehicle-Bridge-Interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Tan Xin Zhong Timothy, Chang Chen Jie Victor, Yew Kwan Tong, Lim Geok Peng Sandy

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Background: Leaders in crisis response teams such as Trauma Teams in hospitals are essential to the effective coordination and direction of the team. The response to emergency trauma situations must be accurate, rapid, and well executed. To this end, the team leader’s social, technical and leadership skills are essential factors that implicate the success of an emergency trauma intervention. While each emergency trauma case varies in severity and complexity, and the experience and expertise of team leaders may vary, it would be productive to identify certain coordinative and directive functions that improve the capacity for leading a team. Methods: This qualitative study of Trauma Team physicians in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) involved 50 in-depth interviews with doctors and nurses involved in Trauma Team activations, observations of Trauma Teams managing emergency patients, and reviews of audio/video recordings of 65 trauma activations. The interviews were conducted with doctors of various ranks across the relevant departments, 12 from the Emergency Department (ED), 11 from General Surgery (GS) and 8 from Orthopaedics, while the 6 nurses were from ED. In accordance with the grounded theory approach, the content of the interviews was coded and analysed in order to derive broad leadership themes that corresponded with certain behavioural traits exhibited by trauma team leaders, supplemented with the observational and audio/video data. Results: The leadership behaviours of the team leaders could be typified into three broad categories: team orientation, engagement and activeness. Team orientation corresponds with the source and form of cognitive responsibility, decision-making and informational contributions, divisible into individualistic and consultative sub-categories. Engagement refers to the type of activity that leaders prefer to engage in, and which implicates their attentional focus, divisible into participatory and supervisory sub-categories. Activeness is a function of the leader’s attitudes towards the behavioural regulation of the team, which manifests in inactivity or activity to augment or merely align with protocol. These factors are not exhaustive and are contextually sensitive, but collectively implicate a significant portion of the leadership activity observed in trauma teams.

Keywords: trauma team activations, critical event management, leadership, teamwork

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Andrés Lara Guillén, José M. Soriano Disla, Gemma Castejón Martínez, David Fernández-Gutiérrez

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The worldwide population is exponentially increasing, which causes a rising demand for food, energy and non-renewable resources. These demands must be attended to from a circular economy point of view. Under this approach, the obtention of strategic products from biowaste is crucial for the society to keep the current lifestyle reducing the environmental and social issues linked to the lineal economy. This is the main objective of the VALUEWASTE project. VALUEWASTE is about valorizing urban biowaste into proteins for food and feed and biofertilizers, closing the loop of this waste stream. In order to achieve this objective, the project validates three value chains, which begin with the anaerobic digestion of the biowaste. From the anaerobic digestion, three by-products are obtained: i) methane that is used by microorganisms, which will be transformed into microbial proteins; ii) digestate that is used by black soldier fly, producing insect proteins; and iii) a nutrient-rich effluent, which will be transformed into biofertilizers. VALUEWASTE is an innovative solution, which combines different technologies to valorize entirely the biowaste. However, it is also required to demonstrate that the solution is greener than other traditional technologies (baseline systems). On one hand, the proteins from microorganisms and insects will be compared with other reference protein production systems (gluten, whey and soybean). On the other hand, the biofertilizers will be compared to the production of mineral fertilizers (ammonium sulphate and synthetic struvite). Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide that biowaste valorization can reduce the environmental impacts linked to both traditional proteins manufacturing processes and mineral fertilizers, not only at a pilot-scale but also at an industrial one. In the present study, both baseline system and VALUEWASTE solution are evaluated through the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA). The E-LCA is based on the standards ISO 14040 and 14044. The Environmental Footprint methodology was the one used in this study to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results for the baseline cases show that the food proteins coming from whey have the highest environmental impact on ecosystems compared to the other proteins sources: 7.5 and 15.9 folds higher than soybean and gluten, respectively. Comparing feed soybean and gluten, soybean has an environmental impact on human health 195.1 folds higher. In the case of biofertilizers, synthetic struvite has higher impacts than ammonium sulfate: 15.3 (ecosystems) and 11.8 (human health) fold, respectively. The results shown in the present study will be used as a reference to demonstrate the better environmental performance of the bio-based products obtained through the VALUEWASTE solution. Other originalities that the E-LCA performed in the VALUEWASTE project provides are the diverse direct implications on investment and policies. On one hand, better environmental performance will serve to remove the barriers linked to these kinds of technologies, boosting the investment that is backed by the E-LCA. On the other hand, it will be a germ to design new policies fostering these types of solutions to achieve two of the key targets of the European Community: being self-sustainable and carbon neutral.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion, biofertilizers, circular economy, nutrients recovery

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Authors: Mohamad Ammar Ayass, Natalya Griko, Victor Pashkov, Wanying Cao, Kevin Zhu, Jin Zhang, Lina Abi Mosleh

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Respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Early evidence pointed at the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) expressed on the epithelial cells of the lung as the main entry point of SARS-CoV-2 into the cells. The viral entry is mediated by the binding of the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the spike protein that is expressed on the surface of the virus to the ACE-2 receptor. As the number of SARS-CoV-2 variants continues to increase, mutations arising in the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 may lead to the ineffectiveness of RBD targeted neutralizing antibodies. To address this limitation, the objective of this study is to develop a combination of aptamers that target different regions of the RBD, preventing the binding of the spike protein to ACE-2 receptor and subsequent viral entry and replication. A safe and innovative biomedical tool was developed to inhibit viral infection and reduce the harms of COVID-19. In the present study, DNA aptamers were developed against a recombinant trimer S protein using the Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment (SELEX). Negative selection was introduced at round number 7 to select for aptamers that bind specifically to the RBD domain. A series of 9 aptamers (ADI2010, ADI2011, ADI201L, ADI203L, ADI205L, ADIR68, ADIR74, ADIR80, ADIR83) were selected and characterized with high binding affinity and specificity to the RBD of the spike protein. Aptamers (ADI25, ADI2009, ADI203L) were able to bind and pull down endogenous spike protein expressed on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 virus in COVID-19 positive patient samples and determined by liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry analysis (LC-MS/MS). LC-MS/MS data confirmed that aptamers can bind to the RBD of the spike protein. Furthermore, results indicated that the combination of the 9 best aptamers inhibited the binding of the purified trimer spike protein to the ACE-2 receptor found on the surface of Vero E6 cells. In the same experiment, the combined aptamers displayed a better neutralizing effect than antibodies. The data suggests that the selected aptamers could be used in therapy to neutralize the effect of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by inhibiting the interaction between the RBD and ACE-2 receptor, preventing viral entry into target cells and therefore blocking viral replication.

Keywords: aptamer, ACE-2 receptor, binding inhibitor, COVID-19, spike protein, SARS-CoV-2, treatment

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Authors: Thabiso M. Sebolai, Victor Mlambo, Solomon Tefera, Othusitse R. Madibela

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In some tree species, sustained herbivory can induce changes in biosynthetic pathways resulting in overproduction of anti-nutritional secondary plant compounds. This inductive mechanism, which has not been demonstrated in semi-arid rangelands of South Africa, may result in browse leaves of lower nutritive value. In this study we investigate the interactive effect of browsing pressure and tree species on chemical composition, buffer nitrogen solubility index (NSI), in vitro ruminal dry matter degradability (IVDMD) and in vitro ruminal N degradability (IVND) of leaves. Leaves from Maytenus capitata, Olea africana, Coddia rudis, Carissa macrocarpa, Rhus refracta, Ziziphus mucronata, Boscia oliedes, Grewia robusta, Phyllanthus vessucosus and Ehretia rigida trees growing in a communal grazing area were harvested at two heights: browsable ( < 1.5 m) and non-browsable ( > 1.5 m), representing high and low browsing pressure, respectively. The type of animals utilizing the communal rangeland includes cattle at 1 livestock unit (450kg)/12 to 15 hectors and goats at 1 livestock unit/4 ha. Harvested leaves were dried, milled and analysed for proximate components, soluble phenolics, condensed tannins, minerals and in vitro ruminal fermentation. A significant plant species and harvesting height interaction effect (P < 0.05) was observed for total nitrogen (N) and soluble phenolics concentration. Tree species and harvesting height affected (P < 0.05) condensed tannin (CTs) content where samples harvested from the non-browsable height had higher (0.61 AU550 nm/200 mg) levels than those harvested at browsable height (0.55 AU550 nm/200 mg) while their interaction had no effects. Macro and micro-minerals were only influenced (P < 0.05) by browse species but not harvesting height. Species and harvesting height interacted (P < 0.05) to influence IVDMD and IVND of leaves at 12, 24 and 36 hours of incubation. The different browse leaves contained moderate to high protein, moderate level of phenolics and minerals, suggesting that they have the potential to provide supplementary nutrients for ruminants during the dry seasons.

Keywords: browse plants, chemical composition, harvesting heights, phenolics

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Authors: Victor V. Ribeiro, Thais C. Lopes, Rafael A. A. Monteiro

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The Albatroz, Baleia Jubarte, Coral Vivo, Golfinho Rotador and Tamar projects make up the Young Sea Network (YSN), part of the BIOMAR Network, which aims to integrate the environmental youths of the Brazilian coast. For this, three editions of the Young Sea Meeting (YSM) were performed. Seeking to stimulate belonging, self-knowledge, participation, autonomy and youth protagonism, the Albatroz Project hosted the III YSM, in Bertioga (SP), in April 2019 and aimed to collectively plan the meeting. Five pillars of Environmental Education were used: identity, community, dialogue, power to act and happiness, the OCA Method and the Young Educates Young; Young Chooses Young; and One Generation Learns from the Other principals. In December 2018, still in the II YSM, the participatory planning of the III YSM began. Two "representatives" of each group were voluntarily elected to facilitate joint decisions, propose, receive and communicate demands from their groups and coordinators. The Young Albatroz Collective (YAC) facilitated the organization process as a whole. The purpose of the meeting was collectively constructed, answering the following question: "What is the YSM for?". Only two of the five pairs of representatives responded. There was difficulty gathering the young people in each group, because it was the end of the year, with people traveling. Thus, due to the short planning time, the YAC built a pre-programming to be validated by the other groups, defining as the objective of the meeting the strengthening of youth protagonism within the YSN. In the planning process, the YAC held 20 meetings, with 60 hours of face-to-face work, in three months, and two technical visits to the headquarters of the III YSM. The participatory dynamics of consultation, when it occurred, required up to two weeks, evidencing the limits of participation. The project coordinations stated that they were not being included in the process by their young people. There is a need to work more to be able to aloud the participation, developing skills and understanding about its principles. This training must take place in an articulated way between the network, implying the important role of the five projects in jointly developing and implementing educator processes with this objective in a national dimension, but without forgetting the specificities of each young group. Finally, it is worth highlighting the great potential of the III YSM by stimulating the exercise of leading environmental youth in more than 50 young people from Brazilian coast, linked to the YSN, stimulating the learning and mobilization of young people in favor of coastal and marine conservation.

Keywords: Marine Conservation, Environmental Education, Youth, Participation, Planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Delphine Ribes Lemay, Valentine Bernasconi, André Andrade, Lara DéFayes, Mathieu Salzmann, FréDéRic Kaplan, Nicolas Henchoz

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Digitization and preservation of large heritage induce high maintenance costs to keep up with the technical standards and ensure sustainable access. Creating impactful usage is instrumental to justify the resources for long-term preservation. The Museum für Gestaltung of Zurich holds one of the biggest poster collections of the world from which 52’000 were digitised. In the process of building a digital installation to valorize the collection, one objective was to develop an algorithm capable of predicting the next poster to show according to the ones already displayed. The work presented here describes the steps to build an algorithm able to automatically create sequences of posters reflecting associations performed by curator and professional designers. The exposed challenge finds similarities with the domain of song playlist algorithms. Recently, artificial intelligence techniques and more specifically, deep-learning algorithms have been used to facilitate their generations. Promising results were found thanks to Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) trained on manually generated playlist and paired with clusters of extracted features from songs. We used the same principles to create the proposed algorithm but applied to a challenging medium, posters. First, a convolutional autoencoder was trained to extract features of the posters. The 52’000 digital posters were used as a training set. Poster features were then clustered. Next, an RNN learned to predict the next cluster according to the previous ones. RNN training set was composed of poster sequences extracted from a collection of books from the Gestaltung Museum of Zurich dedicated to displaying posters. Finally, within the predicted cluster, the poster with the best proximity compared to the previous poster is selected. The mean square distance between features of posters was used to compute the proximity. To validate the predictive model, we compared sequences of 15 posters produced by our model to randomly and manually generated sequences. Manual sequences were created by a professional graphic designer. We asked 21 participants working as professional graphic designers to sort the sequences from the one with the strongest graphic line to the one with the weakest and to motivate their answer with a short description. The sequences produced by the designer were ranked first 60%, second 25% and third 15% of the time. The sequences produced by our predictive model were ranked first 25%, second 45% and third 30% of the time. The sequences produced randomly were ranked first 15%, second 29%, and third 55% of the time. Compared to designer sequences, and as reported by participants, model and random sequences lacked thematic continuity. According to the results, the proposed model is able to generate better poster sequencing compared to random sampling. Eventually, our algorithm is sometimes able to outperform a professional designer. As a next step, the proposed algorithm should include a possibility to create sequences according to a selected theme. To conclude, this work shows the potentiality of artificial intelligence techniques to learn from existing content and provide a tool to curate large sets of data, with a permanent renewal of the presented content.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Humanities, serendipity, design research

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Authors: Julie A. Carberry, Victor Maddalena

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Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs) have existed in various forms for centuries. In the past 30 years, there has been a dramatic increase in popularity. AAIs are now part of the lives of persons of all ages in many types of institutions. Anecdotal evidence of the benefits of AAIs have led to widespread adoption, yet there remains a lack of solid research base for support. The research question was, what are the lived experiences of AAI volunteer handlers are? An interpretive phenomenological methodology was used for this qualitative study. Data were collected from 1 - 2 hour-long semi-structured interviews and 1 observational field visit. All interviews were conducted, transcribed, and coded for themes by the principal investigator. Participants must have been an active St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program volunteer for a least one year. In total, 14 volunteer handlers, along with some of their dogs, were included. The St. John Ambulance is a not for profit organization that provides training and community services to Canadians. The Therapy Dog Program is 1 of the 4 nationally recognized core community service programs. The program incorporates dogs in the otherwise traditional therapeutic intervention of friendly visitation with clients. The lack of formal objectives and goals, and a trained therapist defines the program as an Animal-Assisted Activity (AAA), which is a type of AAI. Since the animals incorporated are dogs, the program is specifically a Canine-Assisted Activity (CAA), which is a type of Canine-Assisted Intervention (CAI). Six themes emerged from the analysis of the data: (a) a win-win-win situation for all parties involved – volunteer handlers, clients, and the dogs, (b) being on the other end of the leash: functions of the role of volunteer handler, (c) the importance of socialization: from spreading smiles to creating meaningful connections, (d) the role of the dog: initiating interaction and providing comfort, (e) an opportunity to feel good and destress, and (f) altruism versus personal rewards. Other insights were found regarding the program, clients, and staff. Possible implications from this research include increased organizational recruitment and retention of volunteer handlers and as well as increased support for CAAs and other CAIs that incorporate teams of volunteer handlers and their dogs. This support could, in turn, add overall support for the acceptance and broad implementation of AAIs as an alternative and or complementary non-pharmaceutical therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: animal-assisted activity, animal-assisted intervention, canine-assisted activity, canine-assisted intervention, perspective, qualitative, volunteer handler

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Victor Lopez-Richard, Rafael Schio Wengenroth Silva, Fabian Hartmann

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Memcomputing is a computational paradigm that combines information processing and storage on the same physical platform. Key elements for this topic are devices with an inherent memory, such as memristors, memcapacitors, and meminductors. Despite the widespread emergence of memory effects in various solid systems, a clear understanding of the basic microscopic mechanisms that trigger them is still a puzzling task. We report basic ingredients of the theory of solid-state transport, intrinsic to a wide range of mechanisms, as sufficient conditions for a memristive response that points to the natural emergence of memory. This emergence should be discernible under an adequate set of driving inputs, as highlighted by our theoretical prediction and general common trends can be thus listed that become a rule and not the exception, with contrasting signatures according to symmetry constraints, either built-in or induced by external factors at the microscopic level. Explicit analytical figures of merit for the memory modulation of the conductance are presented, unveiling very concise and accessible correlations between general intrinsic microscopic parameters such as relaxation times, activation energies, and efficiencies (encountered throughout various fields in Physics) with external drives: voltage pulses, temperature, illumination, etc. These building blocks of memory can be extended to a vast universe of materials and devices, with combinations of parallel and independent transport channels, providing an efficient and unified physical explanation for a wide class of resistive memory devices that have emerged in recent years. Its simplicity and practicality have also allowed a direct correlation with reported experimental observations with the potential of pointing out the optimal driving configurations. The main methodological tools used to combine three quantum transport approaches, Drude-like model, Landauer-Buttiker formalism, and field-effect transistor emulators, with the microscopic characterization of nonequilibrium dynamics. Both qualitative and quantitative agreements with available experimental responses are provided for validating the main hypothesis. This analysis also shades light on the basic universality of complex natural impedances of systems out of equilibrium and might help pave the way for new trends in the area of memory formation as well as in its technological applications.

Keywords: memories, memdevices, memristors, nonequilibrium states

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Authors: Victor Au, Khin Maung Than, Zaw Win Aung, Linawati Jumat

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Background & Objectives: Cardiac arrests can occur anywhere or anytime, and most of the cases will be brought to the emergency department except the cases that happened in at in-patient setting. Raja IsteriPangiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital is the only tertiary government hospital which located in Brunei Muara district and received all referral from other Brunei districts. Data of cardiac arrests in Brunei Darussalam scattered between Emergency Medical Ambulance Services (EMAS), Emergency Department (ED), general inpatient wards, and Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In this audit, we only focused on cardiac arrest cases which had happened or presented to the emergency department RIPAS Hospital. Theobjectives of this audit were to look at demographic of cardiac arrest cases and the survival to discharge rate of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (IHCA) and Out-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). Methodology: This audit retrospective study was conducted on all cardiac arrest cases that underwent Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) in ED RIPAS Hospital, Brunei Muara, in the year 2019-2020. All cardiac arrest cases that happened or were brought in to emergency department were included. All the relevant data were retrieved from ED visit registry book and electronic medical record “Bru-HIMS” with keyword diagnosis of “cardiac arrest”. Data were analyzed and tabulated using Excel software. Result: 313 cardiac arrests were recorded in the emergency department in year 2019-2020. 92% cases were categorized as OHCA, and the remaining 8% as IHCA. Majority of the cases were male with age between 50-60 years old. In OHCA subgroup, only 12.4% received bystander CPR, and 0.4% received Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) before emergency medical personnel arrived. Initial shockable rhythm in IHCA group accounted for 12% compare to 4.9% in OHCA group. Outcome of ED resuscitation, 32% of IHCA group achieved return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) with a survival to discharge rate was 16%. For OHCA group, 12.35% achieved ROSC, but unfortunately, none of them survive till discharge. Conclusion: Standardized registry for cardiac arrest in the emergency department is required to provide valid baseline data to measure the quality and outcome of cardiac arrest. Zero survival rate for out hospital cardiac arrest is very concerning, and it might represent the significant breach in cardiac arrest chains of survival. Systematic prospective data collection is needed to identify contributing factors and to improve resuscitation outcome.

Keywords: cardiac arrest, OHCA, IHCA, resuscitation, emergency department

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Authors: Mei Li, Victor Meddalena

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Background: Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) has rapidly aging population and is characterized by its vast geography with high proportion of dispersed rural communities when compared to other provinces in Canada. Structural, demographic and geographic factors have created big gaps for rural residents across NL with respect to accessing various health and social services. While the barriers are well documented for patients’ access to cancer care in rural and remote areas, challenges faced by family caregivers are not fully recognized. Caregiving burden coupled with challenges associated with relocation and frequent travels create situations where caregivers are vulnerable physically, emotionally, financially and socially. This study examines the experiences of family caregivers living in rural NL through a social justice lens. It is expected to identify the gaps existing in social policy and support for rural family caregivers. It will make a novel contribution to the literature in this regard. Methods: Design: This qualitative study adopted the hermeneutic phenomenology to best describe and interpret rural-based family caregivers’ living experiences and explore the meaning, impact, and the influence of both individual experience and contextual factors shaping these experiences. Data Collection: In-depth interviews with key informants were conducted with 12 participants from various rural communities in NL. A case study was also used to explore an individual’s experience in complex social units consisting of multiple variables of in-depth understanding of the reality. Data Analysis: Thematic analysis guided by the Voice-Centred Relational (VCR) method was employed to explore the relationships and contexts of participants. Emerging Themes: Six major emerging themes were identified, namely, overwhelming caregiving burden on rural family caregivers, long existing financial hardship, separation from family and community, low level of social support and self-reliance coping strategies, and social vulnerability and isolation. Conclusion: Understanding the lived experiences of rural-based family caregivers is critical to inform the policy makers the gap of health and social service in NL. The findings of this study also have implications for family caregivers who are vulnerable in other similar contexts. This study adds innovative insights for policy making and service provision in this regard.

Keywords: family caregivers, policy, relocation, rural

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Authors: Miguel A. Figueroa, José A. Lara-Ramos, Miguel A. Mueses

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Pharmaceutical residues are a section of emerging contaminants of anthropogenic origin that are present in a myriad of waters with which human beings interact daily and are starting to affect the ecosystem directly. Conventional waste-water treatment systems are not capable of degrading these pharmaceutical effluents because their designs cannot handle the intermediate products and biological effects occurring during its treatment. That is why it is necessary to hybridize conventional waste-water systems with non-conventional processes. In the specific case of an ozonation process, its efficiency highly depends on a perfect dispersion of ozone, long times of interaction of the gas-liquid phases and the size of the ozone bubbles formed through-out the reaction system. In order to increase the efficiency of these parameters, the use of a modified flotation cell has been proposed recently as a reactive system, which is used at an industrial level to facilitate the suspension of particles and spreading gas bubbles through the reactor volume at a high rate. The objective of the present work is the development of a mathematical model that can closely predict the kinetic rates of reactions taking place in the flotation cell at an experimental scale by means of identifying proper reaction mechanisms that take into account the modified chemical and hydrodynamic factors in the FeO-catalyzed Ozonation of Diclofenac aqueous solutions in a flotation cell. The methodology is comprised of three steps: an experimental phase where a modified flotation cell reactor is used to analyze the effects of ozone concentration and loading catalyst over the degradation of Diclofenac aqueous solutions. The performance is evaluated through an index of utilized ozone, which relates the amount of ozone supplied to the system per milligram of degraded pollutant. Next, a theoretical phase where the reaction mechanisms taking place during the experiments must be identified and proposed that details the multiple direct and indirect reactions the system goes through. Finally, a kinetic model is obtained that can mathematically represent the reaction mechanisms with adjustable parameters that can be fitted to the experimental results and give the model a proper physical meaning. The expected results are a robust reaction rate law that can simulate the improved results of Diclofenac mineralization on water using the modified flotation cell reactor. By means of this methodology, the following results were obtained: A robust reaction pathways mechanism showcasing the intermediates, free-radicals and products of the reaction, Optimal values of reaction rate constants that simulated Hatta numbers lower than 3 for the system modeled, degradation percentages of 100%, TOC (Total organic carbon) removal percentage of 69.9 only requiring an optimal value of FeO catalyst of 0.3 g/L. These results showed that a flotation cell could be used as a reactor in ozonation, catalytic ozonation and photocatalytic ozonation processes, since it produces high reaction rate constants and reduces mass transfer limitations (Ha > 3) by producing microbubbles and maintaining a good catalyst distribution.

Keywords: advanced oxidation technologies, iron oxide, emergent contaminants, AOTS intensification

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Authors: Victor N. Anisimov, Lyubov A. Boyko, Yazgul R. Almukhametova, Natalia V. Galkina, Alexander V. Latanov

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Modern commercials presented on billboards, TV and on the Internet contain a lot of information about the product or service in text form. However, this information cannot always be perceived and understood by consumers. Typical sociological focus group studies often cannot reveal important features of the interpretation and understanding information that has been read in text messages. In addition, there is no reliable method to determine the degree of understanding of the information contained in a text. Only the fact of viewing a text does not mean that consumer has perceived and understood the meaning of this text. At the same time, the tools based on marketing analysis allow only to indirectly estimate the process of reading and understanding a text. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a valid method of recording objective indicators in real time for assessing the fact of reading and the degree of text comprehension. Psychophysiological parameters recorded during text reading can form the basis for this objective method. We studied the relationship between multimodal psychophysiological parameters and the process of text comprehension during reading using the method of correlation analysis. We used eye-tracking technology to record eye movements parameters to estimate visual attention, electroencephalography (EEG) to assess cognitive load and polygraphic indicators (skin-galvanic reaction, SGR) that reflect the emotional state of the respondent during text reading. We revealed reliable interrelations between perceiving the information and the dynamics of psychophysiological parameters during reading the text in commercials. Eye movement parameters reflected the difficulties arising in respondents during perceiving ambiguous parts of text. EEG dynamics in rate of alpha band were related with cumulative effect of cognitive load. SGR dynamics were related with emotional state of the respondent and with the meaning of text and type of commercial. EEG and polygraph parameters together also reflected the mental difficulties of respondents in understanding text and showed significant differences in cases of low and high text comprehension. We also revealed differences in psychophysiological parameters for different type of commercials (static vs. video, financial vs. cinema vs. pharmaceutics vs. mobile communication, etc.). Conclusions: Our methodology allows to perform multimodal evaluation of text perusal and the quality of text reading in commercials. In general, our results indicate the possibility of designing an integral model to estimate the comprehension of reading the commercial text in percent scale based on all noticed markers.

Keywords: reading, commercials, eye movements, EEG, polygraphic indicators

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Authors: Robnier Reyes, Andrew J. P. Marques, Joel Ramjist, Chris R. Pasarikovski, Victor X. D. Yang

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Over the past three decades, surgical robotic systems have demonstrated their ability to improve surgical outcomes. The LBR Med is a collaborative robotic arm that is meant to work with a surgeon to streamline surgical workflow. It has 7 degrees of freedom and thus can be easily oriented. Position and torque sensors at each joint allow it to maintain a position accuracy of 150 µm with real-time force and torque feedback, making it ideal for complex surgical procedures. Spinal fusion procedures involve the placement of as many as 20 pedicle screws, requiring a great deal of accuracy due to proximity to the spinal canal and surrounding vessels. Any deviation from intended path can lead to major surgical complications. Assistive surgical robotic systems are meant to serve as collaborative devices easing the workload of the surgeon, thereby improving pedicle screw placement by mitigating fatigue related inaccuracies. Moreover, robotic spinal systems have shown marked improvements over conventional freehanded techniques in both screw placement accuracy and fusion quality and have greatly reduced the need for screw revision, intraoperatively and post-operatively. However, current assistive spinal fusion robots, such as the ROSA Spine, are limited in functionality to positioning surgical instruments. While they offer a small degree of improvement in pedicle screw placement accuracy, they do not alleviate surgeon fatigue, nor do they provide real-time force and torque feedback during screw insertion. We propose a semi-autonomous surgical robot workflow for spinal fusion where the surgeon guides the robot to its initial position and orientation, and the robot drives the pedicle screw accurately into the vertebra. Here, we demonstrate feasibility by inserting pedicle screws into ex-vivo bovine rib bone. The robot monitors position, force and torque with respect to predefined values selected by the surgeon to ensure the highest possible spinal fusion quality. The workflow alleviates the strain on the surgeon by having the robot perform the screw placement while the ability to monitor the process in real-time keeps the surgeon in the system loop. The approach we have taken in terms of level autonomy for the robot reflects its ability to safely collaborate with the surgeon in the operating room without external navigation systems.

Keywords: ex vivo bovine bone, pedicle screw, surgical robot, surgical workflow

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Authors: Simone Dell'Agnello

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There are laser retroreflectors on the Moon and no laser retroreflectors on Mars. Here we describe the design, construction, qualification and imminent deployment of next-generation, optimized laser retroreflectors on the Moon and on Mars (where they will be the first ones). These instruments are positioned by time-of-flight measurements of short laser pulses, the so-called 'laser ranging' technique. Data analysis is carried out with PEP, the Planetary Ephemeris Program of CfA (Center for Astrophysics). Since 1969 Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) to Apollo/Lunokhod laser retro-reflector (CCR) arrays supplied accurate tests of General Relativity (GR) and new gravitational physics: possible changes of the gravitational constant Gdot/G, weak and strong equivalence principle, gravitational self-energy (Parametrized Post Newtonian parameter beta), geodetic precession, inverse-square force-law; it can also constraint gravitomagnetism. Some of these measurements also allowed for testing extensions of GR, including spacetime torsion, non-minimally coupled gravity. LLR has also provides significant information on the composition of the deep interior of the Moon. In fact, LLR first provided evidence of the existence of a fluid component of the deep lunar interior. In 1969 CCR arrays contributed a negligible fraction of the LLR error budget. Since laser station range accuracy improved by more than a factor 100, now, because of lunar librations, current array dominate the error due to their multi-CCR geometry. We developed a next-generation, single, large CCR, MoonLIGHT (Moon Laser Instrumentation for General relativity high-accuracy test) unaffected by librations that supports an improvement of the space segment of the LLR accuracy up to a factor 100. INFN also developed INRRI (INstrument for landing-Roving laser Retro-reflector Investigations), a microreflector to be laser-ranged by orbiters. Their performance is characterized at the SCF_Lab (Satellite/lunar laser ranging Characterization Facilities Lab, INFN-LNF, Frascati, Italy) for their deployment on the lunar surface or the cislunar space. They will be used to accurately position landers, rovers, hoppers, orbiters of Google Lunar X Prize and space agency missions, thanks to LLR observations from station of the International Laser Ranging Service in the USA, in France and in Italy. INRRI was launched in 2016 with the ESA mission ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) EDM (Entry, descent and landing Demonstration Module), deployed on the Schiaparelli lander and is proposed for the ExoMars 2020 Rover. Based on an agreement between NASA and ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana), another microreflector, LaRRI (Laser Retro-Reflector for InSight), was delivered to JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and integrated on NASA’s InSight Mars Lander in August 2017 (launch scheduled in May 2018). Another microreflector, LaRA (Laser Retro-reflector Array) will be delivered to JPL for deployment on the NASA Mars 2020 Rover. The first lunar landing opportunities will be from early 2018 (with TeamIndus) to late 2018 with commercial missions, followed by opportunities with space agency missions, including the proposed deployment of MoonLIGHT and INRRI on NASA’s Resource Prospectors and its evolutions. In conclusion, we will extend significantly the CCR Lunar Geophysical Network and populate the Mars Geophysical Network. These networks will enable very significantly improved tests of GR.

Keywords: general relativity, laser retroreflectors, lunar laser ranging, Mars geodesy

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Authors: Randall Gray Underwood

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Within the past few decades, zombie cinema has evolved from a niche outgrowth of the horror genre into one of the most widely-discussed and thoroughly-analyzed subgenres of film. Rising to international popularity during the 1970s and 1980s following the release of George Romero’s landmark classic, Night of the Living Dead (1968), and its much-imitated sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978), the zombie genre returned to global screens in full force at the turn of the century following earth-shattering events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, America’s subsequent war in the Middle East, environmental pandemics, and the emergence of a divided and disconnected global populace in the age of social media. Indeed, the presence of the zombie in all manner of art and entertainment—movies, literature, television, video games, comic books, and more—has become nothing short of pervasive, engendering a plethora of scholarly writings, books, opinion pieces, and video essays from all manner of academics, cultural commentators, critics, and casual fans, with each espousing their own theories regarding the zombie’s allegorical and symbolic value within global fiction. Consequently, the walking dead of recent years have been variously positioned as fictive manifestations of human fears of societal collapse, environmental contagion, sexually-transmitted disease, primal regression, dwindling population rates, global terrorism, and the foreign “Other”. Less commonly analyzed within film scholarship, however, is the connection between the zombie’s folkloric roots and native African/Haitian spiritual practice; specifically, how this connection impacts the zombie’s presentation in African films by native storytellers versus in similar narratives told from a western perspective. This work will examine the unlikely connections and contrasts inherent the portrayal of the traditional African/Haitian zombie (or zombi, in Haitian French) in the Nollywood film Witchdoctor of the Livingdead (1985, Charles Abi Enonchong) versus its depiction in the early Hollywood films White Zombie (1932, Victor Halperin) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943, Jacques Tourneur), through analysis of each cinemas’ use of the zombie as a visual metaphor for subjugation/slavery, as well as differences in their representation of the the spiritual folklore from which the figure of the zombie originates. Select films from the post-Night of the Living Dead zombie cinema landscape will also warrant brief discussion in relation to Witchdoctor of the Livingdead.

Keywords: Nollywood, Zombie cinema, Horror cinema, Classical Hollywood

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Authors: Fernando Cabo Aseguinolaza, Víctor Bouzas Blanco, Alberto Martí Ezpeleta

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Santiago de Compostela became a stable object of literary representation during the period between 1840 and 1915, approximately. This study offers a partial cartographical look at this process, suggesting that a cultural space like Compostela’s becoming an object of literary representation paralleled the first stages of its becoming a tourist destination. We use maps as a method of analysis to show the interaction between a corpus of novels and the emerging tradition of tourist guides on Compostela during the selected period. Often, the novels constitute ways to present a city to the outside, marking it for the gaze of others, as guidebooks do. That leads us to examine the ways of constructing and rendering communicable the local in other contexts. For that matter, we should also acknowledge the fact that a good number of the narratives in the corpus evoke the representation of the city through the figure of one who comes from elsewhere: a traveler, a student or a professor. The guidebooks coincide in this with the emerging fiction, of which the mimesis of a city is a key characteristic. The local cannot define itself except through a process of symbolic negotiation, in which recognition and self-recognition play important roles. Cartography shows some of the forms that these processes of symbolic representation take through the treatment of space. The research uses GIS to find significant models of representation. We used the program ArcGIS for the mapping, defining the databases starting from an adapted version of the methodology applied by Barbara Piatti and Lorenz Hurni’s team at the University of Zurich. First, we designed maps that emphasize the peripheral position of Compostela from a historical and institutional perspective using elements found in the texts of our corpus (novels and tourist guides). Second, other maps delve into the parallels between recurring techniques in the fictional texts and characteristic devices of the guidebooks (sketching itineraries and the selection of zones and indexicalization), like a foreigner’s visit guided by someone who knows the city or the description of one’s first entrance into the city’s premises. Last, we offer a cartography that demonstrates the connection between the best known of the novels in our corpus (Alejandro Pérez Lugín’s 1915 novel La casa de la Troya) and the first attempt to create package tourist tours with Galicia as a destination, in a joint venture of Galician and British business owners, in the years immediately preceding the Great War. Literary cartography becomes a crucial instrument for digging deeply into the methods of cultural production of places. Through maps, the interaction between discursive forms seemingly so far removed from each other as novels and tourist guides becomes obvious and suggests the need to go deeper into a complex process through which a city like Compostela becomes visible on the contemporary cultural horizon.

Keywords: compostela, literary geography, literary cartography, tourism

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Authors: Oto J. Okwu, Ornan Henry, Victor A. Otene

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The agricultural sector contributes a great deal to the sustenance of Nigeria’s food security and economy, with an attendant impact on rural development. In spite of the relatively high number of farmers in the country, self-sufficiency in food production is still a challenge. Farmers are faced with myriad problems which hinder their production efficiency, one of which is their access to agricultural inputs required for optimum production. To meet the challenges faced by farmers, the government at the federal level has come up with many agricultural policies, one of which is the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) is one of the critical components of ATA, which is aimed at ensuring the effective distribution of agricultural inputs delivered directly to farmers, and at a regulated cost. After about 8 years of launching this policy, it will be necessary to carry out an assessment of GESS and determine the impact it has made on rural farmers with respect to their access to farm inputs. This study was carried out to assess the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Crop farmers who registered under the GESS in Adamawa State, Nigeria, formed the population for the study. Primary data for the study were obtained through a survey, and the use of a structured questionnaire. A sample size of 167 respondents was selected using multi-stage, purposive, and random sampling techniques. The validity and reliability of the research instrument (questionnaire) were obtained through pilot testing and test-retest method, respectively. The objectives of the study were to determine the difference in the level of access to agricultural inputs before and after GESS, determine the difference in cost of agricultural inputs before and after GESS, and to determine the challenges faced by rural farmers in accessing agricultural inputs through GESS. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the collected data. Specifically, Mann-Whitney, student t-test, and factor analysis were used to test the stated hypotheses. Research findings revealed there was a significant difference in the level of access to farm inputs after the introduction of GESS (Z=14.216). Also, there was a significant difference in the cost of agro-inputs after the introduction of GESS (Pr |T| > |t|= 0.0000). The challenges faced by respondents in accessing agro-inputs through GESS were administrative and technical in nature. Based on the findings of the research, it was recommended that efforts be made by the government to sustain the GESS, as it has significantly improved the level of farmers’ access to agricultural inputs and has reduced the cost of agro-inputs, while administrative challenges faced by the respondents in accessing inputs be addressed by the government, and extension agents assist the farmers to overcome the technical challenges they face in accessing inputs.

Keywords: agricultural policy, agro-inputs, assessment, growth enhancement support scheme, rural farmers

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Authors: Joao Victor Borges Dos Santos, Thomas Richard, Yevhen Kovalyshen

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Down-the-hole (DTH) percussive drilling is an excavation method that is widely used in the mining industry due to its high efficiency in fragmenting hard rock formations. A DTH hammer system consists of a fluid driven (air or water) piston and a drill bit; the reciprocating movement of the piston transmits its kinetic energy to the drill bit by means of stress waves that propagate through the drill bit towards the rock formation. In the literature of percussive drilling, the existence of an optimum drilling state (Sweet Spot) is reported in some laboratory and field experimental studies. An optimum rate of penetration is achieved for a specific range of axial thrust (or weight-on-bit) beyond which the rate of penetration decreases. Several authors advance different explanations as possible root causes to the occurrence of the Sweet Spot, but a universal explanation or consensus does not exist yet. The experimental investigation in this work was initiated with drilling experiments conducted at a mining site. A full-scale drilling rig (equipped with a DTH hammer system) was instrumented with high precision sensors sampled at a very high sampling rate (kHz). Data was collected while two boreholes were being excavated, an in depth analysis of the recorded data confirmed that an optimum performance can be achieved for specific ranges of input thrust (weight-on-bit). The high sampling rate allowed to identify the bit penetration at each single impact (of the piston on the drill bit) as well as the impact frequency. These measurements provide a direct method to identify when the hammer does not fire, and drilling occurs without percussion, and the bit propagate the borehole by shearing the rock. The second stage of the experimental investigation was conducted in a laboratory environment with a custom-built equipment dubbed Woody. Woody allows the drilling of shallow holes few centimetres deep by successive discrete impacts from a piston. After each individual impact, the bit angular position is incremented by a fixed amount, the piston is moved back to its initial position at the top of the barrel, and the air pressure and thrust are set back to their pre-set values. The goal is to explore whether the observed optimum drilling state stems from the interaction between the drill bit and the rock (during impact) or governed by the overall system dynamics (between impacts). The experiments were conducted on samples of Calca Red, with a drill bit of 74 millimetres (outside diameter) and with weight-on-bit ranging from 0.3 kN to 3.7 kN. Results show that under the same piston impact energy and constant angular displacement of 15 degrees between impact, the average drill bit rate of penetration is independent of the weight-on-bit, which suggests that the sweet spot is not caused by intrinsic properties of the bit-rock interface.

Keywords: optimum drilling state, experimental investigation, field experiments, laboratory experiments, down-the-hole percussive drilling

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Authors: Liudmila Shabalinskaya, Victor Golovanov, Liudmila Milinis, Sergey Loponos, Alexander Maslov, D. O. Frolov

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The work is devoted to the rapid laboratory diagnosis of the condition of aircraft friction units, based on the application of the nondestructive testing method by analyzing the parameters of wear particles, or tribodiagnostics. The most important task of tribodiagnostics is to develop recommendations for the selection of more advanced designs, materials and lubricants based on data on wear processes for increasing the life and ensuring the safety of the operation of machines and mechanisms. The object of tribodiagnostics in this work are the tooth gears of the central drive and the gearboxes of the gas turbine engine of the civil aviation PS-90A type, in which rolling friction and sliding friction with slip occur. The main criterion for evaluating the technical state of lubricated friction units of a gas turbine engine is the intensity and rate of wear of the friction surfaces of the friction unit parts. When the engine is running, oil samples are taken and the state of the friction surfaces is evaluated according to the parameters of the wear particles contained in the oil sample, which carry important and detailed information about the wear processes in the engine transmission units. The parameters carrying this information include the concentration of wear particles and metals in the oil, the dispersion composition, the shape, the size ratio and the number of particles, the state of their surfaces, the presence in the oil of various mechanical impurities of non-metallic origin. Such a morphological analysis of wear particles has been introduced into the order of monitoring the status and diagnostics of various aircraft engines, including a gas turbine engine, since the type of wear characteristic of the central drive and the drive box is surface fatigue wear and the beginning of its development, accompanied by the formation of microcracks, leads to the formation of spherical, up to 10 μm in size, and in the aftermath of flocculent particles measuring 20-200 μm in size. Tribodiagnostics using the morphological analysis of wear particles includes the following techniques: ferrography, filtering, and computer analysis of the classification and counting of wear particles. Based on the analysis of several series of oil samples taken from the drive box of the engine during their operating time, a study was carried out of the processes of wear kinetics. Based on the results of the study and comparing the series of criteria for tribodiagnostics, wear state ratings and statistics of the results of morphological analysis, norms for the normal operating regime were developed. The study allowed to develop levels of wear state for friction surfaces of gearing and a 10-point rating system for estimating the likelihood of the occurrence of an increased wear mode and, accordingly, prevention of engine failures in flight.

Keywords: aviation, box of drives, morphological analysis, tribodiagnostics, tribology, ferrography, filtering, wear particle

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Authors: Jesús Horacio, Alfredo Ollero, Víctor Bouzas-Blanco, Augusto Pérez-Alberti

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Rivers have traditionally been classified, assessed and managed in terms of hydrological, chemical and / or biological criteria. Geomorphological classifications had in the past a secondary role, although proposals like River Styles Framework, Catchment Baseline Survey or Stroud Rural Sustainable Drainage Project did incorporate geomorphology for management decision-making. In recent years many studies have been attracted to the geomorphological component. The geomorphological processes and their associated forms determine the structure of a river system. Understanding these processes and forms is a critical component of the sustainable rehabilitation of aquatic ecosystems. The fluvial auto-classification approach suggests that a river is a self-built natural system, with processes and forms designed to effectively preserve their ecological function (hydrologic, sedimentological and biological regime). Fluvial systems are formed by a wide range of elements with multiple non-linear interactions on different spatial and temporal scales. Besides, the fluvial auto-classification concept is built using data from the river itself, so that each classification developed is peculiar to the river studied. The variables used in the classification are specific stream power and mean grain size. A discriminant analysis showed that these variables are the best characterized processes and forms. The statistical technique applied allows to get an individual discriminant equation for each geomorphological type. The geomorphological classification was developed using sites with high naturalness. Each site is a control point of high ecological and geomorphological quality. The changes in the conditions of the control points will be quickly recognizable, and easy to apply a right management measures to recover the geomorphological type. The study focused on Galicia (NW Spain) and the mapping was made analyzing 122 control points (sites) distributed over eight river basins. In sum, this study provides a method for fluvial geomorphological classification that works as an open and flexible tool underlying the fluvial auto-classification concept. The hydrographic mapping is the visual expression of the results, such that each river has a particular map according to its geomorphological characteristics. Each geomorphological type is represented by a particular type of hydraulic geometry (channel width, width-depth ratio, hydraulic radius, etc.). An alteration of this geometry is indicative of a geomorphological disturbance (whether natural or anthropogenic). Hydrographic mapping is also dynamic because its meaning changes if there is a modification in the specific stream power and/or the mean grain size, that is, in the value of their equations. The researcher has to check annually some of the control points. This procedure allows to monitor the geomorphology quality of the rivers and to see if there are any alterations. The maps are useful to researchers and managers, especially for conservation work and river restoration.

Keywords: fluvial auto-classification concept, mapping, geomorphology, river

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Authors: Zélia Maria Da Costa Ludwig, Maria José Valenzuela Bell, Geraldo Henriques Da Silva, Thales Alves Faraco, Victor Rocha Da Silva, Daniel Rotmeister Teixeira, Vírgilio De Carvalho Dos Anjos, Valdemir Ludwig

Abstract:

Advances in telecommunications grow with the development of optical amplifiers based on rare earth ions. The focus has been concentrated in silicate glasses although their amplified spontaneous emission is limited to a few tens of nanometers (~ 40nm). Recently, phosphate glasses have received great attention due to their potential application in optical data transmission, detection, sensors and laser detector, waveguide and optical fibers, besides its excellent physical properties such as high thermal expansion coefficients and low melting temperature. Compared with the silica glasses, phosphate glasses provide different optical properties such as, large transmission window of infrared, and good density. Research on the improvement of physical and chemical durability of phosphate glass by addition of heavy metals oxides in P2O5 has been performed. The addition of Na2O further improves the solubility of rare earths, while increasing the Al2O3 links in the P2O5 tetrahedral results in increased durability and aqueous transition temperature and a decrease of the coefficient of thermal expansion. This work describes the structural and spectroscopic characterization of a phosphate glass matrix doped with different Er (Erbium) concentrations. The phosphate glasses containing Er3+ ions have been prepared by melt technique. A study of the optical absorption, luminescence and lifetime was conducted in order to characterize the infrared emission of Er3+ ions at 1540 nm, due to the radiative transition 4I13/2 → 4I15/2. Our results indicate that the present glass is a quite good matrix for Er3+ ions, and the quantum efficiency of the 1540 nm emission was high. A quenching mechanism for the mentioned luminescence was not observed up to 2,0 mol% of Er concentration. The Judd-Ofelt parameters, radiative lifetime and quantum efficiency have been determined in order to evaluate the potential of Er3+ ions in new phosphate glass. The parameters follow the trend as Ω2 > Ω4 > Ω6. It is well known that the parameter Ω2 is an indication of the dominant covalent nature and/or structural changes in the vicinity of the ion (short range effects), while Ω4 and Ω6 intensity parameters are long range parameters that can be related to the bulk properties such as viscosity and rigidity of the glass. From the PL measurements, no red or green upconversion was measured when pumping the samples with laser excitation at 980 nm. As future prospects: Synthesize this glass system with silver in order to determine the influence of silver nanoparticles on the Er3+ ions.

Keywords: phosphate glass, erbium, luminescence, glass system

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Authors: Precious Barnes, Abraham Mensah, Leonard Derkyi-Kwarteng, Benjamin Amoani, George Adjei, Ernest Adankwah, Faustina Pappoe, Kwabena Dankwah, Daniel Amoako-Sakyi, Samuel Victor Nuvor, Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, Ewura Seidu Yahaya, Patrick Kafui Akakpo, Roland Osei Saahene

Abstract:

Context: Breast cancer is a prevalent and aggressive type of cancer among African women, with high mortality rates in Ghana. Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) is a transcription factor that has been associated with tumor progression in breast cancer. However, there is a lack of published data on NF-kB in breast cancer patients in Ghana or other African countries. Research Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic significance of NF-kB (p65) expression and its association with various clinicopathological features in breast cancer patients at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital in Ghana. Methodology: A total of 90 formalin-fixed breast cancer tissues and 15 normal breast tissues were used in this study. The expression level of NF-kB (p65) was examined using immunohistochemical techniques. Correlation analysis between NF-kB (p65) expression and clinicopathological features was performed using SPSS version 25. Findings: The study found that NF-kB (p65) was expressed in 86.7% of breast cancer tissues. There was a significant relationship between NF-kB (p65) expression and tumor grade, proliferation index (Ki67), and molecular subtype. High-level expression of NF-kB (p65) was more common in tumor grade 3 compared to grade 1, and Ki67 > 20 had higher expression of NF-kB (p65) compared to Ki67 ≤ 20. Triple-negative breast cancer patients had the highest overexpression of NF-kB (p65) compared to other molecular subtypes. There was no significant association between NF-kB (p65) expression and other clinicopathological parameters. Theoretical Importance: This study provides important insights into the expression of NF-kB (p65) in breast cancer patients in Ghana, particularly in relation to tumor grade and proliferation index. The findings suggest that NF-kB (p65) could serve as a potential biological marker for cancer stage, progression, prognosis and as a therapeutic target. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Formalin-fixed breast cancer tissues and normal breast tissues were collected and analyzed using immunohistochemical techniques. Correlation analysis between NF-kB (p65) expression and clinicopathological features was performed using SPSS version 25. Question Addressed: This study addressed the question of the prognostic significance of NF-kB (p65) expression and its association with clinicopathological features in breast cancer patients in Ghana. Conclusion: This study, the first of its kind in Ghana, demonstrates that NF-kB (p65) is highly expressed among breast cancer patients at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, especially in triple-negative breast cancer patients. The expression of NF-kB (p65) is associated with tumor grade and proliferation index. NF-kB (p65) could potentially serve as a biological marker for cancer stage, progression, prognosis, and as a therapeutic target.

Keywords: breast cancer, Ki67, NF-kB (p65), tumor grade

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Authors: Blanca A. Pichardo, Victor H. Lopez, Melchor Salazar, Rafael Garcia, Alberto Ruiz

Abstract:

Clad pipes in comparison to plain carbon steel pipes offer the oil and gas industry high corrosion resistance, reduction in economic losses due to pipeline failures and maintenance, lower labor risk, prevent pollution and environmental damage due to hydrocarbons spills caused by deteriorated pipelines. In this context, it is paramount to establish reliable welding procedures to join bimetallic plates or pipes. Thus, the aim of this work is to study the microstructure and mechanical behavior of clad plates welded by the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. A clad of 316L stainless steel was deposited onto API 5L X-60 plates by overlay welding with the GMAW process. Welding parameters were, 22.5 V, 271 A, heat input 1,25 kJ/mm, shielding gas 98% Ar + 2% O₂, reverse polarity, torch displacement speed 3.6 mm/s, feed rate 120 mm/s, electrode diameter 1.2 mm and application of an electromagnetic field of 3.5 mT. The overlay welds were subjected to macro-structural and microstructural characterization. After manufacturing the clad plates, a single V groove joint was machined with a 60° bevel and 1 mm root face. GMA welding of the bimetallic plates was performed in four passes with ER316L-Si filler for the root pass and an ER70s-6 electrode for the subsequent welding passes. For joining the clad plates, an electromagnetic field was applied with 2 purposes; to improve the microstructural characteristics and to assist the stability of the electric arc during welding in order to avoid magnetic arc blow. The welds were macro and microstructurally characterized and the mechanical properties were also evaluated. Vickers microhardness (100 g load for 10 s) measurements were made across the welded joints at three levels. The first profile, at the 316L stainless steel cladding, was quite even with a value of approximately 230 HV. The second microhardness profile showed high values in the weld metal, ~400 HV, this was due to the formation of a martensitic microstructure by dilution of the first welding pass with the second. The third profile crossed the third and fourth welding passes and an average value of 240 HV was measured. In the tensile tests, yield strength was between 400 to 450 MPa with a tensile strength of ~512 MPa. In the Charpy impact tests, the results were 86 and 96 J for specimens with the notch in the face and in the root of the weld bead, respectively. The results of the mechanical properties were in the range of the API 5L X-60 base material. The overlap welding process used for cladding is not suitable for large components, however, it guarantees a metallurgical bond, unlike the most commonly used processes such as thermal expansion. For welding bimetallic plates, control of the temperature gradients is key to avoid distortions. Besides, the dissimilar nature of the bimetallic plates gives rise to the formation of a martensitic microstructure during welding.

Keywords: clad pipe, dissimilar welding, gas metal arc welding, magnetic fields

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