Search results for: the modified priority needs index (PNIModified)

Authors: Denis A. Sokolov, Andrey V. Mazurkevich

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In the modern world, there is an increasing demand for highly precise measurements in various fields, such as aircraft, shipbuilding, and rocket engineering. This has resulted in the development of appropriate measuring instruments that are capable of measuring the coordinates of objects within a range of up to 100 meters, with an accuracy of up to one micron. The calibration process for such optoelectronic measuring devices (trackers and total stations) involves comparing the measurement results from these devices to a reference measurement based on a linear or spatial basis. The reference used in such measurements could be a reference base or a reference range finder with the capability to measure angle increments (EDM). The base would serve as a set of reference points for this purpose. The concept of the EDM for replicating the unit of measurement has been implemented on a mobile platform, which allows for angular changes in the direction of laser radiation in two planes. To determine the distance to an object, a high-precision interferometer with its own design is employed. The laser radiation travels to the corner reflectors, which form a spatial reference with precisely known positions. When the femtosecond pulses from the reference arm and the measuring arm coincide, an interference signal is created, repeating at the frequency of the laser pulses. The distance between reference points determined by interference signals is calculated in accordance with recommendations from the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for the indirect measurement of time of light passage according to the definition of a meter. This distance is D/2 = c/2nF, approximately 2.5 meters, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, n is the refractive index of a medium, and F is the frequency of femtosecond pulse repetition. The achieved uncertainty of type A measurement of the distance to reflectors 64 m (N•D/2, where N is an integer) away and spaced apart relative to each other at a distance of 1 m does not exceed 5 microns. The angular uncertainty is calculated theoretically since standard high-precision ring encoders will be used and are not a focus of research in this study. The Type B uncertainty components are not taken into account either, as the components that contribute most do not depend on the selected coordinate measuring method. This technology is being explored in the context of laboratory applications under controlled environmental conditions, where it is possible to achieve an advantage in terms of accuracy. In general, the EDM tests showed high accuracy, and theoretical calculations and experimental studies on an EDM prototype have shown that the uncertainty type A of distance measurements to reflectors can be less than 1 micrometer. The results of this research will be utilized to develop a highly accurate mobile absolute range finder designed for the calibration of high-precision laser trackers and laser rangefinders, as well as other equipment, using a 64 meter laboratory comparator as a reference.

Keywords: femtosecond laser, pulse correlation, interferometer, laser absolute range finder, coordinate measurement

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Authors: Rajesh Ranjan, Marimuthu Palaniswami, A. A. Hashmi

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With the changing lifestyle and environment around us, the prevalence of the critical and incurable disease has proliferated. One such condition is the neurological disorder which is rampant among the old age population and is increasing at an unstoppable rate. Most of the neurological disorder patients suffer from some movement disorder affecting the movement of their body parts. Tremor is the most common movement disorder which is prevalent in such patients that infect the upper or lower limbs or both extremities. The tremor symptoms are commonly visible in Parkinson’s disease patient, and it can also be a pure tremor (essential tremor). The patients suffering from tremor face enormous trouble in performing the daily activity, and they always need a caretaker for assistance. In the clinics, the assessment of tremor is done through a manual clinical rating task such as Unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale which is time taking and cumbersome. Neurologists have also affirmed a challenge in differentiating a Parkinsonian tremor with the pure tremor which is essential in providing an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, there is a need to develop a monitoring and assistive tool for the tremor patient that keep on checking their health condition by coordinating them with the clinicians and caretakers for early diagnosis and assistance in performing the daily activity. In our research, we focus on developing a system for automatic classification of tremor which can accurately differentiate the pure tremor from the Parkinsonian tremor using a wearable accelerometer-based device, so that adequate diagnosis can be provided to the correct patient. In this research, a study was conducted in the neuro-clinic to assess the upper wrist movement of the patient suffering from Pure (Essential) tremor and Parkinsonian tremor using a wearable accelerometer-based device. Four tasks were designed in accordance with Unified Parkinson’s disease motor rating scale which is used to assess the rest, postural, intentional and action tremor in such patient. Various features such as time-frequency domain, wavelet-based and fast-Fourier transform based cross-correlation were extracted from the tri-axial signal which was used as input feature vector space for the different supervised and unsupervised learning tools for quantification of severity of tremor. A minimum covariance maximum correlation energy comparison index was also developed which was used as the input feature for various classification tools for distinguishing the PT and ET tremor types. An automatic system for efficient classification of tremor was developed using feature extraction methods, and superior performance was achieved using K-nearest neighbors and Support Vector Machine classifiers respectively.

Keywords: machine learning approach for neurological disorder assessment, automatic classification of tremor types, feature extraction method for tremor classification, neurological movement disorder, parkinsonian tremor, essential tremor

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Authors: Sophie-Bo Heinkel, Andrea Rechenburg, Thomas Kistemann

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The current status of wellbeing and life satisfaction of subsistence farmers in a wetland in Uganda and the contributing role of place attachment has been assessed. The aim of this study is to shed light on environmental factors supporting wellbeing in a wetland setting. Furthermore, it has been assessed, how the emotional bonding to the wetland as ‘place’ influences the peoples’ wellbeing and life satisfaction. The results shed light on the human-environment-relationship. A survey was carried out in three communities in urban and rural areas in a wetland basin in Uganda. A sample (n=235) provided information about the attachment to the wetland, the participants’ relation to the place of their residence and their emotional wellbeing. The Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) was assessed as well as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (RSE). Furthermore, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was applied as well as the Place Attachment Inventory (PAI), which consists of the two intertwined dimensions of place identity and place dependence. Beside this, binary indicators as ‘feeling save’ and ‘feeling comfortable’ and ‘enjoying to live at the place of residence’ have been assessed. A bivariate correlation analysis revealed a high interconnectivity between all metric scales. Especially, the subscale ‘place identity’ showed significances with all other scales. A cluster analysis revealed three groups, which differed in the perception of place-related indicators and their attachment to the wetland as well as the status of wellbeing. First, a cluster whose majority is dissatisfied with their lives, but mainly had a good status of emotional well-being. This group does not feel attached to the wetland and lives in a town. Comparably less persons of this group feel safe and comfortable at their place of residence. In the second cluster, persons feel highly attached to the wetland and identify with it. This group was characterized by the high number of persons preferring their current place of residence and do not consider moving. All persons feel well and satisfied with their lives. The third group of persons is mainly living in rural areas and feels highly attached to the wetland. They are satisfied with their lives, but only a small minority is in a good emotional state of wellbeing. The emotional attachment to a place influences life satisfaction and, indirectly, the emotional wellbeing. In the present study it could be shown that subsistence farmers are attached to the wetland, as it is the source of their livelihood. While those living in areas with a good infrastructure are less dependent on the wetland and, therefore, less attached to. This feeling also was mirrored in the perception of a place as being safe and comfortable. The identification with a place is crucial for the feeling of being at “home”. Subsistence farmers feel attached to the ecosystem, but they also might be exposed to environmental and social stressors influencing their short-term emotional wellbeing. The provision of place identity is an ecosystem service provided by wetlands, which supports the status of wellbeing in human beings.

Keywords: mental health, positive environments, quality of life, wellbeing

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Authors: Yang Yang, Luciana Magalhães Rebelo Alencar, Martha Sahylí Ortega Pijeira, Beatriz da Silva Batista, Alefe Roger Silva França, Erick Rafael Dias Rates, Ruana Cardoso Lima, Sara Gemini-Piperni, Ralph Santos-Oliveira

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Radium-²²³ dichloride ([²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂) is an alpha particle-emitting radiopharmaceutical currently approved for the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, symptomatic bone metastases, and no known visceral metastatic disease. [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ is bone-seeking calcium mimetic that bonds into the newly formed bone stroma, especially osteoblastic or sclerotic metastases, killing the tumor cells by inducing DNA breaks in a potent and localized manner. Nonetheless, the successful therapy of osteosarcoma as primary bone tumors is still a challenge. Nanomicelles are colloidal nanosystems widely used in drug development to improve blood circulation time, bioavailability, and specificity of therapeutic agents, among other applications. In addition, the enhanced permeability and retention effect of the nanosystems, and the renal excretion of the nanomicelles reported in most cases so far, are very attractive to achieve selective and increased accumulation in tumor site as well as to increase the safety of [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ in the clinical routine. In the present work, [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles were produced, characterized, in vitro evaluated, and compared with pure [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl2 solution using SAOS2 osteosarcoma cells. The [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles were prepared using the amphiphilic copolymer Pluronic F127. The dynamic light scattering analysis of freshly produced [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles demonstrated a mean size of 129.4 nm with a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.303. After one week stored in the refrigerator, the mean size of the [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles increased to 169.4 with a PDI of 0.381. Atomic force microscopy analysis of [223Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles exhibited spherical structures whose heights reach 1 µm, suggesting the filling of 127-Pluronic nanomicelles with [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂. The viability assay with [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles displayed a dose-dependent response as it was observed using pure [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl2. However, at the same dose, [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂ nanomicelles were 20% higher efficient in killing SAOS2 cells when compared with pure [²²³Rₐ]RₐCl₂. These findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the nanosystem validating the application of nanotechnology in targeted alpha therapy with [²²³Ra]RₐCl₂. In addition, the [²²³Rₐ]RaCl₂nanomicelles may be decorated and incorporated with a great variety of agents and compounds (e.g., monoclonal antibodies, aptamers, peptides) to overcome the limited use of [²²³Ra]RₐCl₂.

Keywords: nanomicelles, osteosarcoma, radium dichloride, targeted alpha therapy

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Authors: M. Verde, G. Falzarano

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The paper examines the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR), capability approach and poverty reduction; in particular, the local employment development (LED) by way of CSR initiatives. The joint action of LED/CSR results in a win-win situation, not only for the enterprises but also for all the stakeholders involved; in this regard, subsidiarity and coordination between national and regional/local authorities are central to a socially-oriented market economy. In the first section, the CSR is analysed on the basis of its social function in the fight against poverty, as a 'capabilities deprivation'. In the central part, the attention is focused on the relationship between CSR and LED; ergo, on the role of the enterprises in fostering capabilities development (the employment). Besides, all the potential solutions are presented, stressing the possible combinations, in the last part. The benchmark is the enterprise as an economic and a social institution: the business should not be combined with profit merely, paying more attention to its sustainable impact and social contribution. In which way could it be possible? The answer is the CSR. The impact of CSR on poverty reduction is still little explored. The companies help to reduce poverty through economic contribution, human rights and social inclusion; hence, the business becomes an 'agent of development' in order to fight against 'inequality'. The starting point is the pyramid of social responsibility, where ethic and philanthropic responsibilities involve programmes and actions aimed at personal development of the individuals, improving human standard of living in all forms, including poverty, when people do not have a choice between different 'life options', ranging from level of education to employment. At this point, CSR comes into play and works on two dimensions: poverty reduction and poverty prevention, by means of a series of initiatives: first of all, job creation and precarious work reduction. Empowerment of the local actors, financial support and combination of top down and bottom up initiatives are some of CSR areas of activity. Several positive effects occur on individual levels of educations, access to capital, individual health status, empowerment of youth and woman, access to social networks and it was observed that these effects depend on the type of CSR strategy. Indeed, CSR programmes should take into account fundamental criteria, such as the transparency, the information about benefits, a coordination unit among institutions and more clear guidelines. In this way, the advantages to the corporate reputation and to the community translate into a better job matching on the labour market, inter alia. It is important to underline that the success depends on the specific measures of the areas in question, by adapting them to the local needs, in light of general principles and index; therefore, the concrete commitment of the all stakeholders involved is decisive in order to achieve the goals. The enterprise would represent a concrete contribution for the pursuit of sustainable development and for the dissemination of a social and well being awareness.

Keywords: capability approach, local employment development, poverty, social inclusion

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Authors: Anna Bjällmark, Victoria Persson, Bodil Karlsson, May Bazzi

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Introduction: Interventional radiology (IR) is a continuously growing discipline that allows minimally invasive treatments of various medical conditions. The IR environment is, in several ways, comparable to the complex and accident-prone operation room (OR) environment. This implies that the IR environment may also be associated with various types of risks related to the work process and communication in the team. Patient safety is a central aspect of healthcare and involves the prevention and reduction of adverse events related to patient care. To maintain patient safety, it is crucial to build a safety culture where the staff are encouraged to report events and incidents that may have affected patient safety. It is also important to continuously evaluate the staff´s attitudes to patient safety. Despite the increasing number of IR procedures, research on the staff´s view regarding patients is lacking. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to describe and compare the IR team members' attitudes to patient safety. The secondary aim was to evaluate whether the WHO safety checklist was routinely used for IR procedures. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed to 25 interventional units in Sweden. The target population was the staff working in the IR team, i.e., physicians, radiographers, nurses, and assistant nurses. A modified version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used. Responses from 19 of 25 IR units (44 radiographers, 18 physicians, 5 assistant nurses, and 1 nurse) were received. The respondents rated their level of agreement for 27 items related to safety culture on a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Disagree strongly” to “Agree strongly.” Data were analyzed statistically using SPSS. The percentage of positive responses (PPR) was calculated by taking the percentage of respondents who got a scale score of 75 or higher. The respondents rated which corresponded to response options “Agree slightly” or “Agree strongly”. Thus, average scores ≥ 75% were classified as “positive” and average scores < 75% were classified as “non-positive”. Findings: The results indicated that the IR team had the highest factor scores and the highest percentages of positive responses in relation to job satisfaction (90/94%), followed by teamwork climate (85/92%). In contrast, stress recognition received the lowest ratings (54/25%). Attitudes related to these factors were relatively consistent between different professions, with only a few significant differences noted (Factor score: p=0.039 for job satisfaction, p=0.050 for working conditions. Percentage of positive responses: p=0.027 for perception of management). Radiographers tended to report slightly lower values compared to other professions for these factors (p<0.05). The respondents reported that the WHO safety checklist was not routinely used at their IR unit but acknowledged its importance for patient safety. Conclusion: This study reported high scores concerning job satisfaction and teamwork climate but lower scores concerning perception of management and stress recognition indicating that the latter are areas of improvement. Attitudes remained relatively consistent among the professions, but the radiographers reported slightly lower values in terms of job satisfaction and perception of the management. The WHO safety checklist was considered important for patient safety.

Keywords: interventional radiology, patient safety, safety attitudes questionnaire, WHO safety checklist

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Authors: Alexandru-Ion Marinescu

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There exist a plethora of methods in the scientific literature which tackle the well-established task of credit score evaluation. In its most abstract form, a credit scoring algorithm takes as input several credit applicant properties, such as age, marital status, employment status, loan duration, etc. and must output a binary response variable (i.e. “GOOD” or “BAD”) stating whether the client is susceptible to payment return delays. Data imbalance is a common occurrence among financial institution databases, with the majority being classified as “GOOD” clients (clients that respect the loan return calendar) alongside a small percentage of “BAD” clients. But it is the “BAD” clients we are interested in since accurately predicting their behavior is crucial in preventing unwanted loss for loan providers. We add to this whole context the constraint that the algorithm must yield an actual, tractable mathematical formula, which is friendlier towards financial analysts. To this end, we have turned to genetic algorithms and genetic programming, aiming to evolve actual mathematical expressions using specially tailored mutation and crossover operators. As far as data representation is concerned, we employ a very flexible mechanism – LINQ expression trees, readily available in the C# programming language, enabling us to construct executable pieces of code at runtime. As the title implies, they model trees, with intermediate nodes being operators (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or mathematical functions (sin, cos, abs, round, etc.) and leaf nodes storing either constants or variables. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the client properties and the formula variables. The mutation and crossover operators work on a flattened version of the tree, obtained via a pre-order traversal. A consequence of our chosen technique is that we can identify and discard client properties which do not take part in the final score evaluation, effectively acting as a dimensionality reduction scheme. We compare ourselves with state of the art approaches, such as support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and extreme learning machines, to name a few. The data sets we benchmark against amount to a total of 8, of which we mention the well-known Australian credit and German credit data sets, and the performance indicators are the following: percentage correctly classified, area under curve, partial Gini index, H-measure, Brier score and Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic, respectively. Finally, we obtain encouraging results, which, although placing us in the lower half of the hierarchy, drive us to further refine the algorithm.

Keywords: expression trees, financial credit scoring, genetic algorithm, genetic programming, symbolic evolution

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Authors: Rituparna Pal, Faiz Ahmed

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Neighbourhood energy efficiency is a newly emerged term to address the quality of urban strata of built environment in terms of various covariates of sustainability. The concept of sustainability paradigm in developed nations has encouraged the policymakers for developing urban scale cities to envision plans under the aegis of urban scale sustainability. The concept of neighbourhood energy efficiency is realized a lot lately just when the cities, towns and other areas comprising this massive global urban strata have started facing a strong blow from climate change, energy crisis, cost hike and an alarming shortfall in the justice which the urban areas required. So this step of urban sustainability can be easily referred more as a ‘Retrofit Action’ which is to cover up the already affected urban structure. So even if we start energy efficiency for existing cities and urban areas the initial layer remains, for which a complete model of urban sustainability still lacks definition. Urban sustainability is a broadly spoken off word with end number of parameters and policies through which the loop can be met. Out of which neighbourhood energy efficiency can be an integral part where the concept and index of neighbourhood scale indicators, block level indicators and building physics parameters can be understood, analyzed and concluded to help emerge guidelines for urban scale sustainability. The future of neighbourhood energy efficiency not only lies in energy efficiency but also important parameters like quality of life, access to green, access to daylight, outdoor comfort, natural ventilation etc. So apart from designing less energy-hungry buildings, it is required to create a built environment which will create less stress on buildings to consume more energy. A lot of literary analysis has been done in the Western countries prominently in Spain, Paris and also Hong Kong, leaving a distinct gap in the Indian scenario in exploring the sustainability at the urban strata. The site for the study has been selected in the upcoming capital city of Amaravati which can be replicated with similar neighbourhood typologies in the area. The paper suggests a methodical intent to quantify energy and sustainability indices in detail taking by involving several macro, meso and micro level covariates and parameters. Several iterations have been made both at macro and micro level and have been subjected to simulation, computation and mathematical models and finally to comparative analysis. Parameters at all levels are analyzed to suggest the best case scenarios which in turn is extrapolated to the macro level finally coming out with a proposal model for energy efficient neighbourhood and worked out guidelines with significance and correlations derived.

Keywords: energy quantification, macro scale parameters, meso scale parameters, micro scale parameters

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Authors: I. Martinez-Conesa, E. Garcia-Meca, M. Barradas-Quiroz

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The objective of this study is to assess the impact on earnings management of latest two Hofstede cultural dimensions: long-term orientation and indulgence. Long-term orientation represents the alignment of a society towards the future and indulgence expresses the extent to which a society exhibits willingness, or restrain, to realise their impulses. Additionally, this paper tests if there are relevant differences by testing the moderating role of the legal tradition, Continental versus Anglo-Saxon. Our sample comprises 15 countries: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Sweden, and Thailand, with a total of 12,936 observations from 2003 to 2013. Our results show that managers in countries with high levels of long-term orientation reduce their levels of discretionary accruals. The findings do not confirm the effect of indulgence on earnings management. In addition, our results confirm previous literature regarding the effect of individualism, noting that firms in countries with high levels of collectivism might be more inclined to use earnings discretion to protect the welfare of the collective group of firm stakeholders. Uncertainty avoidance results in downwards earnings management as well as high disclosure, suggesting that less manipulation takes place when transparency is higher. Indulgence is the cultural dimension that confronts wellbeing versus survival; dimension is formulated including happiness, the perception of live control and the importance of leisure. Indulgence shows a weak negative correlation with power distance indicating a slight tendency for more hierarchical societies to be less indulgent. Anglo-Saxon countries are a positive effect of individualism and a negative effect of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and disclosure. With respect to continental countries, we can see a significant and positive effect of individualism and a significant and negative effect of masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence. Therefore, we observe the negative effect on earnings management provoked by higher disclosure and uncertainty avoidance only happens in Anglo-Saxon countries. Meanwhile, the improvement in reporting quality motivated by higher long-term orientation and higher indulgence is dominant in Continental countries. Our results confirm that there is a moderating effect of the legal system in the association between culture and earnings management. This effect is especially relevant in the dimensions related to uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation, indulgence, and disclosure. The negative effect of long-term orientation on earnings management only happens in those countries set in continental legal systems because of the Anglo-Saxon legal systems is supported by the decisions of the courts and the traditions, so it already has long-term orientation. That does not occur in continental systems, depending mainly of contend of the law. Sensitivity analysis used with Jones modified CP model, Jones Standard model and Jones Standard CP model confirm the robustness of these results. This paper collaborates towards a better understanding on how earnings management, culture and legal systems relate to each other, and contribute to previous literature by examining the influence of the two latest Hofstede’s dimensions not previously studied in papers.

Keywords: Hofstede, long-term-orientation, earnings management, indulgence

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Authors: Angelis P. Barlampas

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Introduction: The term phantom lung mass describes the ovoid collection of fluid within the interlobular fissure, which initially creates the impression of a mass. The problem of correct differential diagnosis is great, especially in plain radiography. A case is presented with three nodular pulmonary foci, the shape, location, and density of which, as well as the presence of chronic loculated pleural effusions, suggest the presence of multiple phantom tumors of the lung. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to draw the attention of non-experienced and non-specialized physicians to the existence of benign findings that mimic pathological conditions and vice versa. The careful study of a radiological examination and the comparison with previous exams or further control protect against quick wrong conclusions. Methods: A hospitalized patient underwent a non-contrast CT scan of the chest as part of the general control of her situation. Results: Computed tomography revealed pleural effusions, some of them loculated, increased cardiothoracic index, as well as the presence of three nodular foci, one in the left lung and two in the right with a maximum density of up to 18 Hounsfield units and a mean diameter of approximately five centimeters. Two of them are located in the characteristical anatomical position of the major interlobular fissure. The third one is located in the area of the right lower lobe’s posterior basal part, and it presents the same characteristics as the previous ones and is likely to be a loculated fluid collection, within an auxiliary interlobular fissure or a cyst, in the context of the patient's more general pleural entrapments and loculations. The differential diagnosis of nodular foci based on their imaging characteristics includes the following: a) rare metastatic foci with low density (liposarcoma, mucous tumors of the digestive or genital system, necrotic metastatic foci, metastatic renal cancer, etc.), b) necrotic multiple primary lung tumor locations (squamous epithelial cancer, etc. ), c) hamartomas of the lung, d) fibrotic tumors of the interlobular fissures, e) lipoid pneumonia, f) fluid concentrations within the interlobular fissures, g) lipoma of the lung, h) myelolipomas of the lung. Conclusions: The collection of fluid within the interlobular fissure of the lung can give the false impression of a lung mass, particularly on plain chest radiography. In the case of computed tomography, the ability to measure the density of a lesion, combined with the provided high anatomical details of the location and characteristics of the lesion, can lead relatively easily to the correct diagnosis. In cases of doubt or image artifacts, comparison with previous or subsequent examinations can resolve any disagreements, while in rare cases, intravenous contrast may be necessary.

Keywords: phantom mass, chest CT, pleural effusion, cancer

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Authors: Swapnil Kumar Singh

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Gamma-ray bursts (GRB's), short and intense pulses of low-energy γ rays, have fascinated astronomers and astrophysicists since their unexpected discovery in the late sixties. GRB'sare accompanied by long-lasting afterglows, and they are associated with core-collapse supernovae. The detection of delayed emission in X-ray, optical, and radio wavelength, or "afterglow," following a γ-ray burst can be described as the emission of a relativistic shell decelerating upon collision with the interstellar medium. While it is fair to say that there is strong diversity amongst the afterglow population, probably reflecting diversity in the energy, luminosity, shock efficiency, baryon loading, progenitor properties, circumstellar medium, and more, the afterglows of GRBs do appear more similar than the bursts themselves, and it is possible to identify common features within afterglows that lead to some canonical expectations. After an initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived "afterglow" is usually emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave, and radio). It is a slowly fading emission at longer wavelengths created by collisions between the burst ejecta and interstellar gas. In X-ray wavelengths, the GRB afterglow fades quickly at first, then transitions to a less-steep drop-off (it does other stuff after that, but we'll ignore that for now). During these early phases, the X-ray afterglow has a spectrum that looks like a power law: flux F∝ E^β, where E is energy and beta is some number called the spectral index. This kind of spectrum is characteristic of synchrotron emission, which is produced when charged particles spiral around magnetic field lines at close to the speed of light. In addition to the outgoing forward shock that ploughs into the interstellar medium, there is also a so-called reverse shock, which propagates backward through the ejecta. In many ways," reverse" shock can be misleading; this shock is still moving outward from the restframe of the star at relativistic velocity but is ploughing backward through the ejecta in their frame and is slowing the expansion. This reverse shock can be dynamically important, as it can carry comparable energy to the forward shock. The early phases of the GRB afterglow still provide a good description even if the GRB is highly collimated since the individual emitting regions of the outflow are not in causal contact at large angles and so behave as though they are expanding isotropically. The majority of afterglows, at times typically observed, fall in the slow cooling regime, and the cooling break lies between the optical and the X-ray. Numerous observations support this broad picture for afterglows in the spectral energy distribution of the afterglow of the very bright GRB. The bluer light (optical and X-ray) appears to follow a typical synchrotron forward shock expectation (note that the apparent features in the X-ray and optical spectrum are due to the presence of dust within the host galaxy). We need more research in GRB and Particle Physics in order to unfold the mysteries of afterglow.

Keywords: GRB, synchrotron, X-ray, isotropic energy

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Authors: Ananya Hazare, Ranjit Kamble

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Introduction: Patients with Cleft lip and palate (CL/P) can present with a maxillary retrution after cleft repair. Anterior Maxillary distraction osteogenesis (AMD) is a technique that provides simultaneous skeletal advancement and expansion of the soft tissues related to an anterior segment of the maxilla. This case presented is a case of AMD. The advantage of this technique is that the occlusion in the posterior segment can be maintained, and only the segment in cross bite is advanced for correction of the midfacial deficiency. The other alternative treatment is anterior movement by a Lefort 1 osteotomy. When a Lefort 1 osteotomy is compared with the Distraction osteogenesis or AMD, the disadvantages of the Le Fort 1 include a higher risk of morbidity, requirement of fixation, relapse tendency and unexpected changes in the nasal form. These complications were eliminated by AMD technique. This was followed by placement of the implant in the bone formed after AMD. Hence complete surgical, orthodontic and prosthodontics rehabilitation of the patient was done by an interdisciplinary approach. Methods: Patient presented with repaired UCL/P of the right side with midfacial retrusion. Intro-oral examination revealed a good occlusion in the posterior arch and anterior Crossbite from canine to canine. Patient's both maxillary lateral incisors were missing. The lower arch was well aligned with all teeth present. The study models when scored according to GOSLON yardstick received a score of 4. After pre-surgical orthodontic phase was completed an intraoral distractor was fabricated by modification of HYRAX expansion screw. After surgery, low subapical osteotomy cuts were placed and the distractor was fixed. The latency period of 5 days was observed after which the distraction was started. Distraction was done at a rate of 1 mm/day with a rhythm of 0.5mm in morning and 0.5mm in the evening. The total distraction of 12 mm was done. After a consolidation period, the distractor was removed, and retention by a removable partial denture was given. Radiographic examination confirmed mature bone formation in the distracted segment. Implants were placed and allowed to osseointegrate for approximately 4 months and were then loaded with abutments. Results: Total distraction done was 12mm and after relapse it was 8mm. After consolidation phase the radiographic examination revealed a B2 quality of bone according to the Misch's classification and sufficient height from the maxillary sinus. These findings were indicative for placement of implants in the distracted bone formed in premolar region. Implants were placed and after radiographic evidence of osseointegration was seen they were loaded with abutments. Thus resulting in a complete rehabilitation of a cleft patient by an interdisciplinary approach. Conclusion: Anterior maxillary distraction can be used as an alternative method instead of complete distraction osteogenesis or Lefort 1 advancement of maxilla in cases where the advancement needed is minimum. Use of HYRAX expansion screw modified as intra-oral distractor can be used in such cases, which significantly reduces the cost of treatment, as expensive distractors are not used. This technique is very useful and efficient in countries like India where the patient cannot afford expensive treatment options.

Keywords: cleft lip and palate, distraction osteogenesis, anterior maxillary distraction, orthodontics and dentofacial orthopaedics, hyrax expansion screw modification

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Authors: Seonaid Hume, Gordon Dobie, Graeme West

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Detecting and localizing radioactive sources is a necessity for safe and secure decommissioning of nuclear facilities. An important aspect for the management of the sort-and-segregation process is establishing the spatial distributions and quantities of the waste radionuclides, their type, corresponding activity, and ultimately classification for disposal. The data received from surveys directly informs decommissioning plans, on-site incident management strategies, the approach needed for a new cell, as well as protecting the workforce and the public. Manual classification of nuclear waste from a nuclear cell is time-consuming, expensive, and requires significant expertise to make the classification judgment call. Also, in-cell decommissioning is still in its relative infancy, and few techniques are well-developed. As with any repetitive and routine tasks, there is the opportunity to improve the task of classifying nuclear waste using autonomous systems. Hence, this paper proposes a new framework for the automatic classification of nuclear waste. This framework consists of five main stages; 3D spatial mapping and object detection, object classification, radiological mapping, source localisation based on gathered evidence and finally, waste classification. The first stage of the framework, 3D visual mapping, involves object detection from point cloud data. A review of related applications in other industries is provided, and recommendations for approaches for waste classification are made. Object detection focusses initially on cylindrical objects since pipework is significant in nuclear cells and indeed any industrial site. The approach can be extended to other commonly occurring primitives such as spheres and cubes. This is in preparation of stage two, characterizing the point cloud data and estimating the dimensions, material, degradation, and mass of the objects detected in order to feature match them to an inventory of possible items found in that nuclear cell. Many items in nuclear cells are one-offs, have limited or poor drawings available, or have been modified since installation, and have complex interiors, which often and inadvertently pose difficulties when accessing certain zones and identifying waste remotely. Hence, this may require expert input to feature match objects. The third stage, radiological mapping, is similar in order to facilitate the characterization of the nuclear cell in terms of radiation fields, including the type of radiation, activity, and location within the nuclear cell. The fourth stage of the framework takes the visual map for stage 1, the object characterization from stage 2, and radiation map from stage 3 and fuses them together, providing a more detailed scene of the nuclear cell by identifying the location of radioactive materials in three dimensions. The last stage involves combining the evidence from the fused data sets to reveal the classification of the waste in Bq/kg, thus enabling better decision making and monitoring for in-cell decommissioning. The presentation of the framework is supported by representative case study data drawn from an application in decommissioning from a UK nuclear facility. This framework utilises recent advancements of the detection and mapping capabilities of complex radiation fields in three dimensions to make the process of classifying nuclear waste faster, more reliable, cost-effective and safer.

Keywords: nuclear decommissioning, radiation detection, object detection, waste classification

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Authors: Mohammad R. Bhuyan, Mohammad J. Khattak

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Deterioration of flexible pavements due to crack reflection from its soil-cement base layer is a major concern around the globe. The service life of flexible pavement diminishes significantly because of the reflective cracks. Highway agencies are struggling for decades to prevent or mitigate these cracks in order to increase pavement service lives. The root cause of reflective cracks is the shrinkage crack which occurs in the soil-cement bases during the cement hydration process. The primary factor that causes the shrinkage is the cement content of the soil-cement mixture. With the increase of cement content, the soil-cement base gains strength and durability, which is necessary to withstand the traffic loads. But at the same time, higher cement content creates more shrinkage resulting in more reflective cracks in pavements. Historically, various states of USA have used the soil-cement bases for constructing flexile pavements. State of Louisiana (USA) had been using 8 to 10 percent of cement content to manufacture the soil-cement bases. Such traditional soil-cement bases yield 2.0 MPa (300 psi) 7-day compressive strength and are termed as cement stabilized design (CSD). As these CSD bases generate significant reflective cracks, another design of soil-cement base has been utilized by adding 4 to 6 percent of cement content called cement treated design (CTD), which yields 1.0 MPa (150 psi) 7-day compressive strength. The reduction of cement content in the CTD base is expected to minimize shrinkage cracks thus increasing pavement service lives. Hence, this research study evaluates the long-term field performance of CTD bases with respect to CSD bases used in flexible pavements. Pavement Management System of the state of Louisiana was utilized to select flexible pavement projects with CSD and CTD bases that had good historical record and time-series distress performance data. It should be noted that the state collects roughness and distress data for 1/10th mile section every 2-year period. In total, 120 CSD and CTD projects were analyzed in this research, where more than 145 miles (CTD) and 175 miles (CSD) of roadways data were accepted for performance evaluation and benefit-cost analyses. Here, the service life extension and area based on distress performance were considered as benefits. It was found that CTD bases increased 1 to 5 years of pavement service lives based on transverse cracking as compared to CSD bases. On the other hand, the service lives based on longitudinal and alligator cracking, rutting and roughness index remain the same. Hence, CTD bases provide some service life extension (2.6 years, on average) to the controlling distress; transverse cracking, but it was inexpensive due to its lesser cement content. Consequently, CTD bases become 20% more cost-effective than the traditional CSD bases, when both bases were compared by net benefit-cost ratio obtained from all distress types.

Keywords: cement treated base, cement stabilized base, reflective cracking , service life, flexible pavement

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Authors: Rachael Andrews, Viktoria McMillan, Shuaib Nasser, Christopher M. Roberts

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Background and objective: The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) found that asthma management and care was inadequate in 26% of cases reviewed. Major shortfalls identified were adherence to national guidelines and standards and, particularly, the organisation of care, including supervision and monitoring in primary care, with 70% of cases reviewed having at least one avoidable factor in this area. 5.4 million people in the UK are diagnosed with and actively treated for asthma, and approximately 60,000 are admitted to hospital with acute exacerbations each year. The majority of people with asthma receive management and treatment solely in primary care. This has therefore created concern that many people within the UK are receiving sub-optimal asthma care resulting in unnecessary morbidity and risk of adverse outcome. NRAD concluded that a national asthma audit programme should be established to measure and improve processes, organisation, and outcomes of asthma care. Objective: To develop a primary care dataset enabling extraction of information from GP practices in Wales and providing robust data by which results and lessons could be drawn and drive service development and improvement. Methods: A multidisciplinary group of experts, including general practitioners, primary care organisation representatives, and asthma patients was formed and used as a source of governance and guidance. A review of asthma literature, guidance, and standards took place and was used to identify areas of asthma care which, if improved, would lead to better patient outcomes. Modified Delphi methodology was used to gain consensus from the expert group on which of the areas identified were to be prioritised, and an asthma patient and carer focus group held to seek views and feedback on areas of asthma care that were important to them. Areas of asthma care identified by both groups were mapped to asthma guidelines and standards to inform and develop primary and secondary care datasets covering both adult and pediatric care. Dataset development consisted of expert review and a targeted consultation process in order to seek broad stakeholder views and feedback. Results: Areas of asthma care identified as requiring prioritisation by the National Asthma Audit were: (i) Prescribing, (ii) Asthma diagnosis (iii) Asthma Reviews (iv) Personalised Asthma Action Plans (PAAPs) (v) Primary care follow-up after discharge from hospital (vi) Methodologies and primary care queries were developed to cover each of the areas of poor and variable asthma care identified and the queries designed to extract information directly from electronic patients’ records. Conclusion: This paper describes the methodological approach followed to develop primary care datasets for a National Asthma Audit. It sets out the principles behind the establishment of a National Asthma Audit programme in response to a national asthma mortality review and describes the development activities undertaken. Key process elements included: (i) mapping identified areas of poor and variable asthma care to national guidelines and standards, (ii) early engagement of experts, including clinicians and patients in the process, and (iii) targeted consultation of the queries to provide further insight into measures that were collectable, reproducible and relevant.

Keywords: asthma, primary care, general practice, dataset development

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Authors: Kumalbeo Paul Kamani

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Marketing plays a very important role in the success of any firm since it represents the means through which a firm can reach its customers and also promotes its products and services. In fact, marketing aids the firm in identifying customers who the business can competitively serve, and tailoring product offerings, prices, distribution, promotional efforts, and services towards those customers. Unfortunately, in many firms, marketing has been reduced to merely advertisement. For effective marketing, firms must go beyond this often-limited function of advertisement. In the fashion industry in particular, marketing faces challenges due to its peculiar characteristics. Previous research for instance affirms the idiosyncrasy and peculiarities that differentiate the fashion industry from other industrial areas. It has been documented that the fashion industry is characterized seasonal intensity, short product life cycles, the difficulty of competitive differentiation, and long time for companies to reach financial stability. These factors are noted to pose obstacles to the fashion entrepreneur’s endeavours and can be the reasons that explain their low survival rates. In recent times, the fashion industry has been described as a market that is accessible market, has low entry barriers, both in terms of needed capital and skills which have all accounted for the burgeoning nature of startups. Yet as already stated, marketing is particularly challenging in the industry. In particular, areas such as marketing, branding, growth, project planning, financial and relationship management might represent challenges for the fashion entrepreneur but that have not been properly addressed by previous research. It is therefore important to assess marketing strategies of fashion firms and the factors influencing their success. This study generally sought to examine marketing strategies of fashion dealers in Ghana and their critical success factors. The study employed the quantitative survey research approach. A total of 120 fashion dealers were sampled. Questionnaires were used as instrument of data collection. Data collected was analysed using quantitative techniques including descriptive statistics and Relative Importance Index. The study revealed that the marketing strategies used by fashion apparels are text messages using mobile phones, referrals, social media marketing, and direct marketing. Results again show that the factors influencing fashion marketing effectiveness are strategic management, marketing mix (product, price, promotion etc), branding and business development. Policy implications are finally outlined. The study recommends among others that there is a need for the top management executive to craft and adopt marketing strategies that enable that are compatible with the fashion trends and the needs of the customers. This will improve customer satisfaction and hence boost market penetration. The study further recommends that the fashion industry in Ghana should seek to ensure that fashion apparels accommodate the diversity and the cultural setting of different customers to meet their unique needs.

Keywords: marketing, fashion, industry, success factors

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Authors: Ming Zhou, Taeho Park

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Early stage technologies have been particularly challenging to manage due to high degrees of their numerous uncertainties. Most research results directly out of a research lab tend to be at their early, if not the infant stage. A long while uncertain commercialization process awaits these lab results. The majority of such lab technologies go nowhere and never get commercialized due to various reasons. Any efforts or financial resources put into managing these technologies turn fruitless. High stake naturally calls for better results, which make a patenting decision harder to make. A good and well protected patent goes a long way for commercialization of the technology. Our preliminary research showed that there was not a simple yet productive procedure for such valuation. Most of the studies now have been theoretical and overly comprehensive where practical suggestions were non-existent. Hence, we attempted to develop a simple and highly implementable procedure for efficient and scalable valuation. We thoroughly reviewed existing research, interviewed practitioners in the Silicon Valley area, and surveyed university technology offices. Instead of presenting another theoretical and exhaustive research, we aimed at developing a practical guidance that a government agency and/or university office could easily deploy and get things moving to later steps of managing early stage technologies. We provided a procedure to thriftily value and make the patenting decision. A patenting index was developed using survey data and expert opinions. We identified the most important factors to be used in the patenting decision using survey ratings. The rating then assisted us in generating good relative weights for the later scoring and weighted averaging step. More importantly, we validated our procedure by testing it with our practitioner contacts. Their inputs produced a general yet highly practical cut schedule. Such schedule of realistic practices has yet to be witnessed our current research. Although a technology office may choose to deviate from our cuts, what we offered here at least provided a simple and meaningful starting point. This procedure was welcomed by practitioners in our expert panel and university officers in our interview group. This research contributed to our current understanding and practices of managing early stage technologies by instating a heuristically simple yet theoretical solid method for the patenting decision. Our findings generated top decision factors, decision processes and decision thresholds of key parameters. This research offered a more practical perspective which further completed our extant knowledge. Our results could be impacted by our sample size and even biased a bit by our focus on the Silicon Valley area. Future research, blessed with bigger data size and more insights, may want to further train and validate our parameter values in order to obtain more consistent results and analyze our decision factors for different industries.

Keywords: technology management, early stage technology, patent, decision

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Authors: V. Moser-Siegmeth, M. C. Gambal, M. Jelovcak, B. Prytek, I. Swietalsky, D. Würzl, C. Fida, V. Mühlegger

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Adaptability is the capacity to adjust without great difficulty to changing circumstances. Within our project, we aimed to detect whether older people living within a long-term care hospital lose the ability to adapt. Theoretical concepts are contradictory in their statements. There is also lack of evidence in the literature how the adaptability of older people changes over the time. Following research questions were generated: Are older residents of a long-term care facility able to adapt to changes within their daily routine? How long does it take for older people to adapt? The study was designed as a convergent parallel mixed method intervention study, carried out within a four-month period and took place within seven wards of a long-term care hospital. As a planned intervention, a change of meal-times was established. The inhabitants were surveyed with qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires and diaries before, during and after the intervention. In addition, a survey of the nursing staff was carried out in order to detect changes of the people they care for and how long it took them to adapt. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS, qualitative data with a summarizing content analysis. The average age of the involved residents was 82 years, the average length of stay 45 months. The adaptation to new situations does not cause problems for older residents. 47% of the residents state that their everyday life has not changed by changing the meal times. 24% indicate ‘neither nor’ and only 18% respond that their daily life has changed considerably due to the changeover. The diaries of the residents, which were conducted over the entire period of investigation showed no changes with regard to increased or reduced activity. With regard to sleep quality, assessed with the Pittsburgh sleep quality index, there is little change in sleep behaviour compared to the two survey periods (pre-phase to follow-up phase) in the cross-table. The subjective sleep quality of the residents is not affected. The nursing staff points out that, with good information in advance, changes are not a problem. The ability to adapt to changes does not deteriorate with age or by moving into a long-term care facility. It only takes a few days to get used to new situations. This can be confirmed by the nursing staff. Although there are different determinants like the health status that might make an adjustment to new situations more difficult. In connection with the limitations, the small sample size of the quantitative data collection must be emphasized. Furthermore, the extent to which the quantitative and qualitative sample represents the total population, since only residents without cognitive impairments of selected units participated. The majority of the residents has cognitive impairments. It is important to discuss whether and how well the diary method is suitable for older people to examine their daily structure.

Keywords: adaptability, intervention study, mixed methods, nursing home residents

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Authors: Rajwanlop Kumpoopong, Sukit Yindeesuk, Pornchai Silarom

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Modeling cracks in concrete is complicated by its strain-softening behavior which requires the use of sophisticated energy criteria of fracture mechanics to assure stable and convergent solutions in the finite-element (FE) analysis particularly for relatively large structures. However, for small-scale structures such as beams and slabs, a simpler approach relies on retaining some shear stiffness in the cracking plane has been adopted in literature to model the strain-softening behavior of concrete under monotonically increased loading. According to the shear retaining approach, each element is assumed to be an isotropic material prior to cracking of concrete. Once an element is cracked, the isotropic element is replaced with an orthotropic element in which the new orthotropic stiffness matrix is formulated with respect to the crack orientation. The shear transfer factor of 0.5 is used in parallel to the crack plane. The shear retaining approach is adopted in this research to model cracks in RC bridge deck with some modifications to take into account the effect of repetitive moving truck wheel loads as they cause fatigue cracking of concrete. First modification is the introduction of fatigue tests of concrete and reinforcing steel and the Palmgren-Miner linear criterion of cumulative damage in the conventional FE analysis. For a certain loading, the number of cycles to failure of each concrete or RC element can be calculated from the fatigue or S-N curves of concrete and reinforcing steel. The elements with the minimum number of cycles to failure are the failed elements. For the elements that do not fail, the damage is accumulated according to Palmgren-Miner linear criterion of cumulative damage. The stiffness of the failed element is modified and the procedure is repeated until the deck slab fails. The total number of load cycles to failure of the deck slab can then be obtained from which the S-N curve of the deck slab can be simulated. Second modification is the modification in shear transfer factor. Moving loading causes continuous rubbing of crack interfaces which greatly reduces shear transfer mechanism. It is therefore conservatively assumed in this study that the analysis is conducted with shear transfer factor of zero for the case of moving loading. A customized FE program has been developed using the MATLAB software to accomodate such modifications. The developed procedure has been validated with the fatigue test of the 1/6.6-scale AASHTO bridge deck under the applications of both fixed-point repetitive loading and moving loading presented in the literature. Results are in good agreement both experimental vs. simulated S-N curves and observed vs. simulated crack patterns. Significant contribution of the developed procedure is a series of S-N relations which can now be simulated at any desired levels of cracking in addition to the experimentally derived S-N relation at the failure of the deck slab. This permits the systematic investigation of crack propagation or deterioration of RC bridge deck which is appeared to be useful information for highway agencies to prolong the life of their bridge decks.

Keywords: bridge deck, cracking, deterioration, fatigue, finite-element, moving truck, reinforced concrete

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Authors: Inna Kornienko, Svetlana Guryeva, Anatoly Shekhter, Elena Petersen

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Transplantation is an effective treatment option for patients suffering from different end-stage diseases. However, it is plagued by a constant shortage of donor organs and the subsequent need of a lifelong immunosuppressive therapy for the patient. Currently some researchers look towards using of pig organs to replace human organs for transplantation since the matrix derived from porcine organs is a convenient substitute for the human matrix. As an initial step to create a new ex vivo tissue engineered model, optimized protocols have been created to obtain organ-specific acellular matrices and evaluated their potential as tissue engineered scaffolds for culture of normal cells and tumor cell lines. These protocols include decellularization by perfusion in a bioreactor system and immersion-agitation on an orbital shaker with use of various detergents (SDS, Triton X-100) and freezing. Complete decellularization – in terms of residual DNA amount – is an important predictor of probability of immune rejection of materials of natural origin. However, the signs of cellular material may still remain within the matrix even after harsh decellularization protocols. In this regard, the matrices obtained from tissues of low-immunogenic pigs with α3Galactosyl-tranferase gene knock out (GalT-KO) may be a promising alternative to native animal sources. The research included a study of induced effect of frozen and fresh fragments of GalT-KO skin on healing of full-thickness plane wounds in 80 rats. Commercially available wound dressings (Ksenoderm, Hyamatrix and Alloderm) as well as allogenic skin were used as a positive control and untreated wounds were analyzed as a negative control. The results were evaluated on the 4th day after grafting, which corresponds to the time of start of normal wound epithelization. It has been shown that a non-specific immune response in models treated with GalT-Ko pig skin was milder than in all the control groups. Research has been performed to measure technical skin characteristics: stiffness and elasticity properties, corneometry, tevametry, and cutometry. These metrics enabled the evaluation of hydratation level, corneous layer husking level, as well as skin elasticity and micro- and macro-landscape. These preliminary data may contribute to development of personalized transplantable organs from GalT-Ko pigs with significantly limited potential of immune rejection. By applying growth factors to a decellularized skin sample it is possible to achieve various regenerative effects based on the particular situation. In this particular research BMP2 and Heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor have been used. Ideally, a bioengineered organ must be biocompatible, non-immunogenic and support cell growth. Porcine organs are attractive for xenotransplantation if severe immunologic concerns can be bypassed. The results indicate that genetically modified pig tissues with knock-outed α3Galactosyl-tranferase gene may be used for production of low-immunogenic matrix suitable for transplantation.

Keywords: decellularization, low-immunogenic, matrix, scaffolds, transplants

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Authors: Bengan Simbarashe Manwere

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The entire African continent, comprising 55 countries, holds a 2% share of the global carbon market. The World Bank attributes the continent’s insignificant share and participation in the carbon market to the limited access to electricity. Approximately 800 million people spread across 47 African countries generate as much power as Spain, with a population of 45million. Only South Africa and North Africa have carbon-reduction investment opportunities on the continent and dominate the 2% market share of the global carbon market. On the back of the 2015 Paris Agreement, South Africa signed into law the Carbon Tax Act 15 of 2019 and the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 13 of 2019 (Gazette No. 4280) on 1 June 2019. By these laws, South Africa was ushered into the league of active global carbon market players. By increasing the cost of production by the rate of R120/tCO2e, the tax intentionally compels the internalization of pollution as a cost of production and, relatedly, stimulate investment in clean technologies. The first phase covered the 1 June 2019 – 31 December 2022 period during which the tax was meant to escalate at CPI + 2% for Scope 1 emitters. However, in the second phase, which stretches from 2023 to 2030, the tax will escalate at the inflation rate only as measured by the consumer price index (CPI). The Carbon Tax Act provides for carbon allowances as mitigation strategies to limit agents’ carbon tax liability by up to 95% for fugitive and process emissions. Although the June 2019 Carbon Tax Act explicitly makes provision for a carbon trading scheme (CTS), the carbon trading regulations thereof were only finalised in December 2020. This points to a delay in the establishment of a carbon trading scheme (CTS). Relatedly, emitters in South Africa are not able to benefit from the 95% reduction in effective carbon tax rate from R120/tCO2e to R6/tCO2e as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has not yet finalized the establishment of the market for trading carbon credits. Whereas most carbon trading schemes have been designed and constructed from the beginning as new tailor-made systems in countries the likes of France, Australia, Romania which treat carbon as a financial product, South Africa intends, on the contrary, to leverage existing trading infrastructure of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and the Clearing and Settlement platforms of Strate, among others, in the interest of the Paris Agreement timelines. Therefore the carbon trading scheme will not be constructed from scratch. At the same time, carbon will be treated as a commodity in order to align with the existing institutional and infrastructural capacity. This explains why the Carbon Tax Act is silent about the involvement of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).For South Africa, there is need to establish they equilibrium stability of the CTS. This is important as South Africa is an innovator in carbon trading and the successful trading of carbon credits on the JSE will lead to imitation by early adopters first, followed by the middle majority thereafter.

Keywords: carbon trading scheme (CTS), Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE), carbon tax act 15 of 2019, South Africa

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Authors: Kseniya Gladun

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Tactile stimulation of a dorsal side of the wrist can have a strong impact on our attitude toward physical objects such as pleasant and unpleasant impact. This study explored different aspects of tactile perception to investigate atypical touch sensitivity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study included 40 children with ASD and 40 healthy children aged 5 to 9 years. We recorded rsEEG (sampling rate of 250 Hz) during 20 min using EEG amplifier “Encephalan” (Medicom MTD, Taganrog, Russian Federation) with 19 AgCl electrodes placed according to the International 10–20 System. The electrodes placed on the left, and right mastoids served as joint references under unipolar montage. The registration of EEG v19 assignments was carried out: frontal (Fp1-Fp2; F3-F4), temporal anterior (T3-T4), temporal posterior (T5-T6), parietal (P3-P4), occipital (O1-O2). Subjects were passively touched by 4 types of tactile stimuli on the left wrist. Our stimuli were presented with a velocity of about 3–5 cm per sec. The stimuli materials and procedure were chosen for being the most "pleasant," "rough," "prickly" and "recognizable". Type of tactile stimulation: Soft cosmetic brush - "pleasant" , Rough shoe brush - "rough", Wartenberg pin wheel roller - "prickly", and the cognitive tactile stimulation included letters by finger (most of the patient’s name ) "recognizable". To designate the moments of the stimuli onset-offset, we marked the moment when the moment of the touch began and ended; the stimulation was manual, and synchronization was not precise enough for event-related measures. EEG epochs were cleaned from eye movements by ICA-based algorithm in EEGLAB plugin for MatLab 7.11.0 (Mathwork Inc.). Muscle artifacts were cut out by manual data inspection. The response to tactile stimuli was significantly different in the group of children with ASD and healthy children, which was also depended on type of tactile stimuli and the severity of ASD. Amplitude of Alpha rhythm increased in parietal region to response for only pleasant stimulus, for another type of stimulus ("rough," "thorny", "recognizable") distinction of amplitude was not observed. Correlation dimension D2 was higher in healthy children compared to children with ASD (main effect ANOVA). In ASD group D2 was lower for pleasant and unpleasant compared to the background in the right parietal area. Hilbert transform changes in the frequency of the theta rhythm found only for a rough tactile stimulation compared with healthy participants only in the right parietal area. Children with autism spectrum disorders and healthy children were responded to tactile stimulation differently with specific frequency distribution alpha and theta band in the right parietal area. Thus, our data supports the hypothesis that rsEEG may serve as a sensitive index of altered neural activity caused by ASD. Children with autism have difficulty in distinguishing the emotional stimuli ("pleasant," "rough," "prickly" and "recognizable").

Keywords: autism, tactile stimulation, Hilbert transform, pediatric electroencephalography

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Authors: Mamta Jat

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Background: The increased longevity has resulted in the increase in the percentage of the global population aged 60 years or over. With this “demographic transition” towards ageing, “epidemiologic transition” is also taking place characterised by growing share of non-communicable diseases in the overall disease burden. So, many of the older adults are ageing with chronic disease and high levels of frailty which often results in lower levels of quality of life. Although frailty may be increasingly common in older adults, prevention or, at least, delay the onset of late-life adverse health outcomes and disability is necessary to maintain the health and functional status of the ageing population. This is an effort using SAGE data to assess levels of frailty and its socio-demographic correlates and its relation with quality of life in LMICs of India, China, Ghana, Mexico, Russia and South Africa in a comparative perspective. Methods: The data comes from multi-country Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE), consists of nationally representative samples of older adults in six low and middle-income countries (LMICs): China, Ghana, India, Mexico, the Russian Federation and South Africa. For our study purpose, we will consider only 50+ year’s respondents. The logistic regression model has been used to assess the correlates of frailty. Multinomial logistic regression has been used to study the effect of frailty on QOL (quality of life), controlling for the effect of socio-economic and demographic correlates. Results: Among all the countries India is having highest mean frailty in males (0.22) and females (0.26) and China with the lowest mean frailty in males (0.12) and females (0.14). The odds of being frail are more likely with the increase in age across all the countries. In India, China and Russia the chances of frailty are more among rural older adults; whereas, in Ghana, South Africa and Mexico rural residence is protecting against frailty. Among all countries china has high percentage (71.46) of frail people in low QOL; whereas Mexico has lowest percentage (36.13) of frail people in low QOL.s The risk of having low and middle QOL is significantly (p<0.001) higher among frail elderly as compared to non–frail elderly across all countries with controlling socio-demographic correlates. Conclusion: Women and older age groups are having higher frailty levels than men and younger aged adults in LMICs. The mean frailty scores demonstrated a strong inverse relationship with education and income gradients, while lower levels of education and wealth are showing higher levels of frailty. These patterns are consistent across all LMICs. These data support a significant role of frailty with all other influences controlled, in having low QOL as measured by WHOQOL index. Future research needs to be built on this evolving concept of frailty in an effort to improve quality of life for frail elderly population, in LMICs setting.

Keywords: Keywords: Ageing, elderly, frailty, quality of life

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Authors: Dana Zelicha

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A 6-week mindfulness programme was launched to improve the well being and performance of 20 managers (including the supervisor) of an international corporation in London. A unique assessment methodology was customised to the organisation’s needs, measuring four parameters: prioritising skills, listening skills, mindfulness levels and happiness levels. All parameters showed significant improvements (p < 0.01) post intervention, with a remarkable increase in listening skills and mindfulness levels. Although corporate mindfulness programmes have proven to be effective, the challenge remains the low engagement levels at home and the implementation of these tools beyond the scope of the intervention. This study has offered an innovative approach to enforce home engagement levels, which yielded promising results. The programme launched with a 2-day introduction intervention, which was followed by a 6-week training course (1 day a week; 2 hours each). Participants learned all basic principles of mindfulness such as mindfulness meditations, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) practices to incorporate into their professional and personal lives. The programme contained experiential mindfulness meditations and innovative mindfulness tools (OWBA-MT) created by OWBA - The Well Being Agency. Exercises included Mindful Meetings, Unitasking and Mindful Feedback. All sessions concluded with guided discussions and group reflections. One fundamental element of this programme was engagement level outside of the workshop. In the office, participants connected with a mindfulness buddy - a team member in the group with whom they could find support throughout the programme. At home, participants completed online daily mindfulness forms that varied according to weekly themes. These customised forms gave participants the opportunity to reflect on whether they made time for daily mindfulness practice, and to facilitate a sense of continuity and responsibility. At the end of the programme, the most engaged team member was crowned the ‘mindful maven’ and received a special gift. The four parameters were measured using online self-reported questionnaires, including the Listening Skills Inventory (LSI), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Time Management Behaviour Scale (TMBS) and a modified version of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ). Pre-intervention questionnaires were collected at the start of the programme, and post-intervention data was collected 4-weeks following completion. Quantitative analysis using paired T-tests of means showed significant improvements, with a 23% increase in listening skills, a 22% improvement in mindfulness levels, a 12% increase in prioritising skills, and an 11% improvement in happiness levels. Participant testimonials exhibited high levels of satisfaction and the overall results indicate that the mindfulness programme substantially impacted the team. These results suggest that 6-week mindfulness programmes can improve employees’ capacities to listen and work well with others, to effectively manage time and to experience enhanced satisfaction both at work and in life. Limitations noteworthy to consider include the afterglow effect and lack of generalisability, as this study was conducted on a small and fairly homogenous sample.

Keywords: corporate mindfulness, listening skills, organisational well being, prioritising skills, mindful leadership

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Authors: Amao Funmilayo Lanrewaju

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The study examined the socio-economic characteristics of the residents in selected urban fringes of Ibadan; identified and examined the housing and neighbourhood characteristics and evaluated housing quality in the study area. It analysed the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of the residents, housing and neighbourhood characteristics as well as housing quality in the study area. This was with a view to providing information that would enhance the housing quality in urban fringes of Ibadan. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. A survey of eleven purposively selected communities from Oluyole and Egbeda local government areas in the urban fringes was conducted through a questionnaire administration and expert rating by five independent assessors (Qualified Architects) using penalty scoring within similar time-frames. The study employed a random sampling method to select a sample size of 480 houses representing 5% of the sampling frame of 9600 houses. Respondent in the first house was selected randomly and subsequently every 20th house in the streets involved was systematically selected for questionnaire administration, usually a household-head per building. The structured questionnaire elicited information on socio-economic characteristics of the residents, housing and neighbourhood characteristics, factors affecting housing quality and housing quality in the study area. Secondary data obtained for the study included the land-use plan of Ibadan from previous publications, housing demographics, population figures from relevant institutions and other published materials. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency distribution, Cross tabulation, Correlation Analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Relative Importance Index (RII). The result of the survey revealed that respondents from the Yoruba ethnic group constituted the majority, comprising 439 (91.5%) of the 480 respondents from the two local government areas selected. It also revealed that the type of tenure status of majority of the respondents in the two local government areas was self-ownership (234, 48.8%), while 44.0% of the respondents acquired their houses through personal savings. Cross tabulation indicated that majority (67.1%, 322 out of 480) of the respondents were low-income earners. The study showed that both housing and neighbourhood services were not adequately provided across neighbourhoods in the study area. Correlation analysis indicated a significant relationship between respondents’ socio–economic status and their general housing quality (r=0.46; p-value of 0.01< 0.05). The ANOVA indicated that the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the residents, housing and neighbourhood characteristics in the study area was significant (F=18.289, p=0.00; the coefficient of determination R2= 0.192). The findings from the study however revealed that there was no significant difference in the results obtained from users based evaluation and expert rating. The study concluded that housing quality in the urban fringes of Ibadan is generally poor and the socio-economic status of the residents significantly influenced the housing quality.

Keywords: housing quality, urban fringes, economic status, poverty

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Authors: Babak Forouraghi

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A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations of previous approaches, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with attention mechanism. In a previous work on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: transformers, generative ai, gene expression design, classification

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Authors: Halima Sadia Qureshi, Urooj Sadiq, Noshi Eram Zaman

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The goal of this study was to see how cognitive behavior hypnotherapy affected nonsuicidal self-injury. DSM 5 invites the researchers to explore the newly added condition under the chapter of conditions under further study named Nonsuicidal self-injury disorder. To date, no empirical sound intervention has been proven effective for NSSI as given in DSM 5. Nonsuicidal self-injury is defined by DSM 5 as harming one's self physically, without suicidal intention. Around 7.6% of teenagers are expected to fulfill the NSSI disorder criteria. 3 Adolescents, particularly university students, account for around 87 percent of self-harm studies. Furthermore, one of the risks associated with NSSI is an increased chance of suicide attempts, and in most cases, the cycle repeats again. 6 The emotional and psychological components of the illness might lead to suicide, either intentionally or unintentionally. 7 According to a research done at a Pakistani military hospital, over 80% of participants had no intention of committing suicide. Furthermore, it has been determined that improvements in NSSI prevention and intervention are necessary as a stand-alone strategy. The quasi-experimental study took place in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from May 2019 to April 2020 and included students aged 18 to 25 years old from several institutions and colleges in the twin cities. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition, the individuals were assessed for >2 episodes without suicidal intent using the intentional self-harm questionnaire. The Clinician Administered Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Disorder Index (CANDI) was used to assess the individual for NSSI condition. Symptom checklist-90 (SCL-90) was used to screen the participants for differential diagnosis. Mclean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD) was used to rule out the BPD cases. The selected participants, n=106 from the screening sample of 600, were selected. They were further screened to meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the total of n=71 were split into two groups: intervention and control. The intervention group received cognitive behavior hypnotherapy for the next three months, whereas the control group received no treatment. After the period of three months, both the groups went through the post assessment, and after the three months’ period, follow-up assessment was conducted. The groups were evaluated, and SPSS 25 was used to analyse the data. The results showed that each of the two groups had 30 (50 percent) of the 60 participants. There were 41 males (68 percent) and 19 girls (32 percent) in all. The bulk of the participants were between the ages of 21 and 23. (48 percent). Self-harm events were reported by 48 (80 percent) of the pupils, and suicide ideation was found in 6 (ten percent). In terms of pre- and post-intervention values (d=4.90), post-intervention and follow-up assessment values (d=0.32), and pre-intervention and follow-up values (d=5.42), the study's effect size was good. The comparison of treatment and no-treatment groups revealed that treatment was more successful than no-treatment, F (1, 58) = 53.16, p.001. The results reveal that the treatment manual of CBH is effective for Nonsuicidal self-injury disorder.

Keywords: NSSI, nonsuicidal self injury disorder, self-harm, self-injury, Cognitive behaviour hypnotherapy, CBH

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Authors: Anas Hallak, Latifa Seblini, Juergen Wilde

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In mechatronics or sensor technology, plastic housings are used to protect sensitive components from harmful environmental influences, such as moisture, media, or reactive substances. Connections, preferably in the form of metallic lead-frame structures, through the housing wall are required for their electrical supply or control. In this system, an insufficient connection between the plastic component, e.g., Polyamide66, and the metal surface, e.g., copper, due to the incompatibility is dominating. As a result, leakage paths can occur along with the plastic-metal interface. Since adhesive bonding has been established as one of the most important joining processes and its use has expanded significantly, driven by the development of improved high-performance adhesives and bonding techniques, this technology has been involved in metal-plastic hybrid structures. In this study, an epoxy bonding agent from DELO (DUALBOND LT2266) has been used to improve the mechanical and chemical binding between the metal and the polymer. It is an adhesion promoter with two reaction stages. In these, the first stage provides fixation to the lead frame directly after the coating step, which can be done by UV-Exposure for a few seconds. In the second stage, the material will be thermally hardened during injection molding. To analyze the two reaction stages of the primer, dynamic DSC experiments were carried out and correlated with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy measurements. Furthermore, the number of crosslinking bonds formed in the system in each reaction stage has also been estimated by a rheological characterization. Those investigations have been performed with different times of UV exposure: 12, 96 s and in an industrial preferred temperature range from -20 to 175°C. The shear viscosity values of primer have been measured as a function of temperature and exposure times. For further interpretation, the storage modulus values have been calculated, and the so-called Booij–Palmen plot has been sketched. The next approach in this study is the self-healing mechanisms in the hydride system in which the primer should flow into micro-damage such as interface, cracks, inhibit them from growing, and close them. The ability of the primer to flow in and penetrate defined capillaries made in Ultramid was investigated. Holes with a diameter of 0.3 mm were produced in injection-molded A3EG7 plates with 4 mm thickness. A copper substrate coated with the DUALBOND was placed on the A3EG7 plate and pressed with a certain force. Metallographic analyses were carried out to verify the filling grade, which showed an almost 95% filling ratio of the capillaries. Finally, to estimate the self-healing mechanism in metal-plastic hybrid systems, characterizations have been done on a simple geometry with a metal inlay developed by the Institute of Polymer Technology in Friedrich-Alexander-University. The specimens have been modified with tungsten wire which was to be pulled out after the injection molding to create a micro-hole in the specimen at the interface between the primer and the polymer. The capability of the primer to heal those micro-cracks upon heating, pressing, and thermal aging has been characterized through metallographic analyses.

Keywords: hybrid structures, self-healing, thermoplastic housing, adhesive

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Authors: Christine Böckmann, Julia Rosemann

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We present an inversion algorithm that is used in the European Aerosol Lidar Network for the inversion of data collected with multi-wavelength Raman lidar. These instruments measure backscatter coefficients at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, and extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm. The algorithm is based on manually controlled inversion of optical data which allows for detailed sensitivity studies and thus provides us with comparably high quality of the derived data products. The algorithm allows us to derive particle effective radius, volume, surface-area concentration with comparably high confidence. The retrieval of the real and imaginary parts of the complex refractive index still is a challenge in view of the accuracy required for these parameters in climate change studies in which light-absorption needs to be known with high accuracy. Single-scattering albedo (SSA) can be computed from the retrieve microphysical parameters and allows us to categorize aerosols into high and low absorbing aerosols. From mathematical point of view the algorithm is based on the concept of using truncated singular value decomposition as regularization method. This method was adapted to work for the retrieval of the particle size distribution function (PSD) and is called hybrid regularization technique since it is using a triple of regularization parameters. The inversion of an ill-posed problem, such as the retrieval of the PSD, is always a challenging task because very small measurement errors will be amplified most often hugely during the solution process unless an appropriate regularization method is used. Even using a regularization method is difficult since appropriate regularization parameters have to be determined. Therefore, in a next stage of our work we decided to use two regularization techniques in parallel for comparison purpose. The second method is an iterative regularization method based on Pade iteration. Here, the number of iteration steps serves as the regularization parameter. We successfully developed a semi-automated software for spherical particles which is able to run even on a parallel processor machine. From a mathematical point of view, it is also very important (as selection criteria for an appropriate regularization method) to investigate the degree of ill-posedness of the problem which we found is a moderate ill-posedness. We computed the optical data from mono-modal logarithmic PSD and investigated particles of spherical shape in our simulations. We considered particle radii as large as 6 nm which does not only cover the size range of particles in the fine-mode fraction of naturally occurring PSD but also covers a part of the coarse-mode fraction of PSD. We considered errors of 15% in the simulation studies. For the SSA, 100% of all cases achieve relative errors below 12%. In more detail, 87% of all cases for 355 nm and 88% of all cases for 532 nm are well below 6%. With respect to the absolute error for non- and weak-absorbing particles with real parts 1.5 and 1.6 in all modes the accuracy limit +/- 0.03 is achieved. In sum, 70% of all cases stay below +/-0.03 which is sufficient for climate change studies.

Keywords: aerosol particles, inverse problem, microphysical particle properties, regularization

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Authors: Atilola O. Abidemi-Iromini, Oluayo A. Bello-Olusoji, Immanuel A. Adebayo

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Ecological studies were carried out in Asejire Reservoir (AR) and Lagos Lagoon (LL), Southwest Nigeria from January 2012 to December 2013 to determine the health status of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (CN) and Oreochromis niloticus (ON). The fish species samples were collected every month, these were separated into sexes, and growth pattern {length, (cm); weight (g), Isometric index, condition factor} were measured. Heavy metals (lead (Pb), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and chromium (Cr) in ppm concentrations were also determined while bacteria occurrence(s), (load and prevalence) on fish skins, gills and intestine in the two ecological zones were determined. The fish ratio collected is in range with normal aquatic (1: 1+) male: female ratio. Growth assessment determined revealed no significant difference in length and weight in O. niloticus between locations, but a significant difference in weight occurred in C. nigrodigitatus between locations, with a higher weight (196.06 ±0.16 g) from Lagos Lagoon. Highest condition factor (5.25) was recorded in Asejire Reservoir O. niloticus, (ARON); and lowest condition factor (1.64) was observed in Asejire Reservoir C. nigrodigitatus (ARCN); as this indicated a negative allometric value which is normal in Bagridae species because it increases more in Length to weight gain than for the Cichlidae growth status. Normal growth rate (K > 1) occurred between sexes, with the male species having higher K - factors than female species within locations, between locations, between species, and within species, except for female C. nigrodigitatus having higher condition factor (K = 1.75) than male C. nigrodigitatus (K = 1.54) in Asejire Reservoir. The highest isometric value (3.05) was recorded in Asejire Reservoir O. niloticus and lowest in Lagos Lagoon C. nigrodigitatus. Male O. niloticus from Asejire Reservoir had highest isometric value, and O. niloticus species had higher condition factor which ranged between isometric (b ≤ 3) and positive allometric (b > 3), hence, denoted robustness of fish to grow more in weight than in length; while C. nigrodigitatus fish has negative allometric (b < 3) indicating fish add more length than in weight on growth. The status of condition factors and isometric values obtained is species-specific, and environmental influence, food availability or reproduction factor may as well be contributing factors. The concentrations of heavy metals in fish flesh revealed that Zn (6.52 ±0.82) had the highest, while Cr (0.01±0.00) was ranked lowest; for O. niloticus in Asejire Reservoir. In Lagos Lagoon, heavy metals concentration level revealed that O. niloticus flesh had highest in Zn (4.71±0.25) and lowest in Pb (0.01±0.00). Lagos Lagoon C. nigrodigitatus heavy metal concentration level revealed Zn (9.56±0.96) had highest, while Cr (0.06±0.01) had lowest; and Asejire Reservoir C. nigrodigitatus heavy metal level revealed that Zn (8.26 ±0.74) had highest, and Cr (0.08±0.00) had lowest. In all, Zinc (Zn) was top-ranked in level among species.

Keywords: Oreochromis niloticus, growth status, Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, environments, heavy metals

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