Search results for: nutritional and health databases

Authors: Haga Elimam

Abstract:

This paper investigates the connotation, and some of the realistic implications, of the economic reform of health sector in under developed countries. The paper investigates the issues that economic reforms have to address, and the policy targets they are considered to accomplish. The work argues that the development of economic reform is not connected only with understanding the priorities and refining them, furthermore with reformation and restructuring the organizations through which health policies are employed. Considering various organizational values, that are likely to be regular to all economic reform programs, a regulatory approach to institutional reform is unsuitable. The paper further investigates the selection of economic reform that may as well influence via technical suggestions and analysis, but the verdict to continue, and the consequent success of execution, eventually depends on the progressive political sustainability. The paper concludes by giving examples of institutional reforms from various underdeveloped countries and includes recommendation of the responsibility and control of donor organizations.

Keywords: Economic Reform, Health Sector, underdeveloped Countries.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1664

Authors: M. Eisakhani, A. Pauzi, O. Karim, A. Malakahmad, S.R. Mohamed Kutty, M. H. Isa

Abstract:

Cameron Highlands is a mountainous area subjected to torrential tropical showers. It extracts 5.8 million liters of water per day for drinking supply from its rivers at several intake points. The water quality of rivers in Cameron Highlands, however, has deteriorated significantly due to land clearing for agriculture, excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers as well as construction activities in rapidly developing urban areas. On the other hand, these pollution sources known as non-point pollution sources are diverse and hard to identify and therefore they are difficult to estimate. Hence, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide an extensive approach to evaluate landuse and other mapping characteristics to explain the spatial distribution of non-point sources of contamination in Cameron Highlands. The method to assess pollution sources has been developed by using Cameron Highlands Master Plan (2006-2010) for integrating GIS, databases, as well as pollution loads in the area of study. The results show highest annual runoff is created by forest, 3.56 × 108 m3/yr followed by urban development, 1.46 × 108 m3/yr. Furthermore, urban development causes highest BOD load (1.31 × 106 kgBOD/yr) while agricultural activities and forest contribute the highest annual loads for phosphorus (6.91 × 104 kgP/yr) and nitrogen (2.50 × 105 kgN/yr), respectively. Therefore, best management practices (BMPs) are suggested to be applied to reduce pollution level in the area.

Keywords: Cameron Highlands, Land use, Non-point Sources of Pollution

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2851

Authors: Yah-Ling Hung

Abstract:

eHealth is undoubtedly emerging as a promising vehicle to provide information for individual self-care management. However, the accessing ability, reading strategies and navigating behavior between higher literacy users and lower literacy users are significantly different. Yet, ways to tailor audiences’ health literacy and develop appropriate eHealth to feed their need become a big challenge. The purpose of this study is to compare the educational effectiveness of eHealth to deliver health knowledge between higher literacy users and lower literacy users, thus establishing useful design strategies of eHealth for users with different level of health literacy. The study was implemented in four stages, the first of which developed a website as the testing media to introduce health care knowledge relating to children’s allergy. Secondly, a reliability and validity test was conducted to make sure that all of the questions in the questionnaire were good indicators. Thirdly, a pre-post knowledge test was conducted with 66 participants, 33 users with higher literacy and 33 users with lower literacy respectively. Finally, a usability evaluation survey was undertaken to explore the criteria used by users with different levels of health literacy to evaluate eHealth. The results demonstrated that the eHealth Intervention in both groups had a positive outcome. There was no significant difference between the effectiveness of eHealth intervention between users with higher literacy and users with lower literacy. However, the average mean of lower literacy group was marginally higher than the average mean of higher literacy group. The findings also showed that the criteria used to evaluate eHealth could be analyzed in terms of the quality of information, appearance, appeal and interaction, but the users with lower literacy have different evaluation criteria from those with higher literacy. This is an interdisciplinary research which proposes the sequential key steps that incorporate the planning, developing and accessing issues that need to be considered when designing eHealth for patients with varying degrees of health literacy.

Keywords: eHealth, health intervention, health literacy, usability evaluation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 852

Authors: Marjan Mahdavi-Roshan, Arsalan Salari, Mahboobeh Gholipour, Moona Naghshbandi

Abstract:

Background and objectives: Before any nutritional intervention, it is necessary to have the prospect of eating habits of people with cardiovascular risk factors. In this study, we assessed the adherence of healthy diet based on Mediterranean dietary pattern and related factors in adults in the north of Iran. Methods: This study was conducted on 550 men and women with cardiovascular risk factors that referred to Heshmat hospital in Rasht, northern Iran. Information was collected by interview and reading medical history and measuring anthropometric indexes. The Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener was used for assessing dietary adherence, this screener was modified according to religious beliefs and culture of Iran. Results: The mean age of participants was 58±0.38 years. The mean of body mass index was 27±0.01 kg/m², and the mean of waist circumference was 98±0.2 cm. The mean of dietary adherence was 5.76±0.07. 45% of participants had low adherence, and just 4% had suitable adherence. The mean of dietary adherence in men was significantly higher than women (p=0. 07). Participants in rural area and high educational participants insignificantly had an unsuitable dietary Adherence. There was no significant association between some cardiovascular disease risk factors and dietary adherence. Conclusion: Education to different group about dietary intake correction and using a Mediterranean dietary pattern that is similar to dietary intake in the north of Iran, for controlling cardiovascular disease is necessary.

Keywords: Dietary adherence, Mediterranean dietary pattern, cardiovascular disease, north of Iran.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 941

Authors: Violina R. Angelova, Vanja I. Akova, Stefan V. Krustev, Krasimir I. Ivanov

Abstract:

A field study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of safflower plant for phytoremediation of contaminated soils. The experiment was performed on an agricultural fields contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Field experiments with randomized complete block design with five treatments (control, compost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa, and vermicompost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa) were carried out. The quality of safflower seeds and oil (heavy metals and fatty acid composition) were determined. Tested organic amendments significantly influenced the chemical composition of safflower seeds and oil. The compost and vermicompost treatments significantly reduced heavy metals concentration in safflower seeds and oils, but the effect differed among them. Addition of vermicompost and compost leads to an increase in the content of palmitic acid and linoleic acid, and a decrease in the stearic and oleic acids compared with the control. A significant increase in the quantity of saturated acids was observed in the variants with 20 t/daa of compost and 20 t/daa of vermicompost (9.1 and 8.9% relative to the control). Safflower is a plant which is tolerant to heavy metals and can be successfully used in the phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. The processing of seeds to oil and using the obtained oil for nutritional purposes will greatly reduce the cost of phytoremediation.

Keywords: Heavy metals, organic amendments, phytoremediation, safflower.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2768

Authors: W. Rowan, Y. O’Connor, L. Lynch, C. Heavin

Abstract:

Situation Awareness can offer the potential for conscious dynamic reflection. In an era of online health data sharing, it is becoming increasingly important that users of health social networks (HSNs) have the information necessary to make informed decisions as part of the registration process and in the provision of eConsent. This research aims to leverage an adapted Situation Awareness (SA) model to explore users’ decision making processes in the provision of eConsent. A HSN platform was used to investigate these behaviours. A mixed methods approach was taken. This involved the observation of registration behaviours followed by a questionnaire and focus group/s. Early results suggest that users are apt to automatically accept eConsent, and only later consider the long-term implications of sharing their personal health information. Further steps are required to continue developing knowledge and understanding of this important eConsent process. The next step in this research will be to develop a set of guidelines for the improved presentation of eConsent on the HSN platform.

Keywords: eConsent, health social network, mixed methods, situation awareness.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 829

Authors: Sh. Khoshemehry, M. E. Bahram, M. J. Pourvaghar

Abstract:

Sport has found a special place as an effective phenomenon in all societies of the contemporary world. The relationship between physical activity and exercise with different sciences has provided new fields for human study. The range of issues related to exercise and physical education is such that it requires specialized sciences and special studies. In this article, the psychological and social sections of exercise have been investigated for children and adults. It can be used for anyone in different age groups. Exercise and regular physical movements have a great impact on the mental and social health of the individual in addition to body health. It affects the individual's adaptability in society and his/her personality. Exercise affects the treatment of diseases such as depression, anxiety, stress, body image, and memory. Exercise is a safe haven for young people to achieve the optimum human development in its shelter. The effects of sensorimotor skills on mental actions and mental development are such a way that many psychologists and sports science experts believe these activities should be included in training programs in the first place. Familiarity of students and scholars with different programs and methods of sensorimotor activities not only causes their mental actions; but also increases mental health and vitality, enhances self-confidence and, therefore, mental health.

Keywords: Anxiety, mental health, physical activity, serotonin.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1756

Authors: L. R. Ferreira, R. Biscaro, C. C. Danziger, C. M. Galhardi, L. C. Biscaro, R. C. Biscaro, I. S. Vasconcelos, L. C. R. Ferreira, R. Reis, L. H. Oliveira

Abstract:

Introduction: There is a worldwide trend for the employer to be aware of investing in health promotion that goes beyond occupational hygiene approaches with the implementation of a comprehensive program with integration between occupational health and safety, and social/psychosocial responsibility in the workplace. Work accommodation is a necessity in most companies as it allows the worker to return to its function respecting its physical limitations. This study had the objective to verify if the integration of health and safety in the companies, with the inclusion of the concept of TWH promoted by an occupational health service has impacted in the management of absenteeism of workers in work accommodation. Method: A retrospective and paired cohort study was used, in which the impact of the implementation of the Program for the Health/Safety Integration and Total Worker Health Concept (PHSITWHC) was evaluated using the indices of absenteeism, health attestations, days and hours of sick leave of workers that underwent job accommodation/rehabilitation. This was a cohort study and the data were collected from January to September of 2017, prior to the initiation of the integration program, and compared with the data obtained from January to September of 2018, after the implementation of the program. For the statistical analysis, the student's t-test was used, with statistically significant differences being made at p < 0.05. Results: The results showed a 35% reduction in the number of absenteeism rate in 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. There was also a significant reduction in the total numbers of days of attestations/absences (mean of 2,8) as well as days of attestations, absence and sick leaves (mean of 5,2) in 2018 data after the implementation of PHSITWHC compared to 2017 data, means of 4,3 and 25,1, respectively, prior to the program. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the inclusion of the PHSITWHC was associated with a reduction in the rate of absenteeism of workers that underwent job accommodation. It was observed that, once health and safety were approached and integrated with the inclusion of the TWH concept, it was possible to reduce absenteeism, and improve worker’s quality of life and wellness, and work accommodation management.

Keywords: Absenteeism, health/safety integration, work accommodation management, total worker health.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 836

Authors: R.V Pawar, P.P.Kajave, S.N.Mali

Abstract:

The speech signal conveys information about the identity of the speaker. The area of speaker identification is concerned with extracting the identity of the person speaking the utterance. As speech interaction with computers becomes more pervasive in activities such as the telephone, financial transactions and information retrieval from speech databases, the utility of automatically identifying a speaker is based solely on vocal characteristic. This paper emphasizes on text dependent speaker identification, which deals with detecting a particular speaker from a known population. The system prompts the user to provide speech utterance. System identifies the user by comparing the codebook of speech utterance with those of the stored in the database and lists, which contain the most likely speakers, could have given that speech utterance. The speech signal is recorded for N speakers further the features are extracted. Feature extraction is done by means of LPC coefficients, calculating AMDF, and DFT. The neural network is trained by applying these features as input parameters. The features are stored in templates for further comparison. The features for the speaker who has to be identified are extracted and compared with the stored templates using Back Propogation Algorithm. Here, the trained network corresponds to the output; the input is the extracted features of the speaker to be identified. The network does the weight adjustment and the best match is found to identify the speaker. The number of epochs required to get the target decides the network performance.

Keywords: Average Mean Distance function, Backpropogation, Linear Predictive Coding, MultilayeredPerceptron,

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1871

Authors: Domenico Chizzoniti, Monica Moscatelli, Letizia Cattani, Piero Favino, Luca Preis

Abstract:

A settlement strategy is to anticipate and respond the needs of existing and future communities through the provision of primary health care facilities in marginalized areas. Access to a health care network is important to improving healthcare coverage, often lacking, in developing countries. The study explores that a good sanitary system strategy of rural contexts brings advantages to an existing settlement: improving transport, communication, water and social facilities. The objective of this paper is to define a possible methodology to implement primary health care facilities in disadvantaged areas of emerging countries. In this research, we analyze the case study of Lauro de Freitas, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, part of the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, with an area of 57,662 km² and 194.641 inhabitants. The health localization system in Lauro de Freitas is an integrated process that involves not only geographical aspects, but also a set of factors: population density, epidemiological data, allocation of services, road networks, and more. Data were collected also using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to the local population. Synthesized data suggest that moving away from the coast where there is the greatest concentration of population and services, a network of primary health care facilities is able to improve the living conditions of small-dispersed communities. Based on the health service needs of populations, we have developed a methodological approach that is particularly useful in rural and remote contexts in emerging countries.

Keywords: Primary health care, developing countries, policy health planning, settlement strategy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 947

Authors: Hariton N. Costin, Iulian Ciocoiu, Tudor Barbu, Cristian Rotariu

Abstract:

In this paper three different approaches for person verification and identification, i.e. by means of fingerprints, face and voice recognition, are studied. Face recognition uses parts-based representation methods and a manifold learning approach. The assessment criterion is recognition accuracy. The techniques under investigation are: a) Local Non-negative Matrix Factorization (LNMF); b) Independent Components Analysis (ICA); c) NMF with sparse constraints (NMFsc); d) Locality Preserving Projections (Laplacianfaces). Fingerprint detection was approached by classical minutiae (small graphical patterns) matching through image segmentation by using a structural approach and a neural network as decision block. As to voice / speaker recognition, melodic cepstral and delta delta mel cepstral analysis were used as main methods, in order to construct a supervised speaker-dependent voice recognition system. The final decision (e.g. “accept-reject" for a verification task) is taken by using a majority voting technique applied to the three biometrics. The preliminary results, obtained for medium databases of fingerprints, faces and voice recordings, indicate the feasibility of our study and an overall recognition precision (about 92%) permitting the utilization of our system for a future complex biometric card.

Keywords: Biometry, image processing, pattern recognition, speech analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1920

Authors: Parmjit S. Panesar, Rupinder Kaur, Ram S. Singh

Abstract:

Enzymes are the biocatalysts which catalyze the biochemical processes and thus have a wide variety of applications in the industrial sector. β-Galactosidase (E.C. 3.2.1.23) also known as lactase, is one of the prime enzymes, which has significant potential in the dairy and food processing industries. It has the capability to catalyze both the hydrolytic reaction for the production of lactose hydrolyzed milk and transgalactosylation reaction for the synthesis of prebiotics such as lactulose and galactooligosaccharides. These prebiotics have various nutritional and technological benefits. Although, the enzyme is naturally present in almonds, peaches, apricots and other variety of fruits and animals, the extraction of enzyme from these sources increases the cost of enzyme. Therefore, focus has been shifted towards the production of low cost enzyme from the microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and fungi. As compared to yeast and bacteria, fungal β-galactosidase is generally preferred as being extracellular and thermostable in nature. Keeping the above in view, the present study was carried out for the isolation of the β-galactosidase producing fungal strain from the food as well as the agricultural wastes. A total of more than 100 fungal cultures were examined for their potential in enzyme production. All the fungal strains were screened using X-gal and IPTG as inducers in the modified Czapek Dox Agar medium. Among the various isolated fungal strains, the strain exhibiting the highest enzyme activity was chosen for further phenotypic and genotypic characterization. The strain was identified as Rhizomucor pusillus on the basis of 5.8s RNA gene sequencing data.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, enzyme, fungus, isolation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2561

Authors: M. Karbakhsh, M. Shamseddini Motlagh, M. Khansari

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate prevalence of post-exposure preventive measures (PEP) after needlestick injuries and its relationship with locus of control beliefs in a sample of medical students. In this cross-sectional study, 300 medical students with history of having experienced needle stick injuries (NSI) for at least once filled in a questionnaire to determine if they perceived themselves to be responsible and effective in preventing blood born infections after NSI. About 38% of students did not seek any professional consult or PEP after NSI due to lack of enough time or access, anxiety about tests results, belief in uselessness of followup and not being able to change destiny. These 114 students were not different from others regarding their scores on NSI specific scale of locus of health control. Thus, the potentiality of NSI locus of control beliefs in predicting PEP was not seen in this study.

Keywords: health care workers, locus of health control, needle stick injuries, post-exposure prevention.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1573

Authors: M. A Anjum, M. Y. Javed, A. Basit

Abstract:

In this paper a new approach to face recognition is presented that achieves double dimension reduction making the system computationally efficient with better recognition results. In pattern recognition techniques, discriminative information of image increases with increase in resolution to a certain extent, consequently face recognition results improve with increase in face image resolution and levels off when arriving at a certain resolution level. In the proposed model of face recognition, first image decimation algorithm is applied on face image for dimension reduction to a certain resolution level which provides best recognition results. Due to better computational speed and feature extraction potential of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) it is applied on face image. A subset of coefficients of DCT from low to mid frequencies that represent the face adequately and provides best recognition results is retained. A trade of between decimation factor, number of DCT coefficients retained and recognition rate with minimum computation is obtained. Preprocessing of the image is carried out to increase its robustness against variations in poses and illumination level. This new model has been tested on different databases which include ORL database, Yale database and a color database. The proposed technique has performed much better compared to other techniques. The significance of the model is two fold: (1) dimension reduction up to an effective and suitable face image resolution (2) appropriate DCT coefficients are retained to achieve best recognition results with varying image poses, intensity and illumination level.

Keywords: Biometrics, DCT, Face Recognition, Feature extraction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1469

Authors: Hyo-Nam Song

Abstract:

The changes in quality properties and nutritional components in two fermented mugworts (Artemisia capillaries Thumberg, Artemisiaeasiaticae Nakai) were characterized followed by the rapid pattern analysis of volatile flavor compounds by Electric Nose based on SAW(Surface Acoustic Wave) sensor in GC system. There were remarkable decreases in the pH and small changes in the total soluble solids after fermentation. The L (lightness) and b (yellowness) values in Hunter's color system were shown to be decreased, whilst the a (redness) value was increased by fermentation. The HPLC analysis demonstrated that total amino acids were increased in quantity and the essential amino acids were contained higher in A. asiaticaeNakai than in A. capillaries Thumberg. While the total polyphenol contents were not affected by fermentation, the total sugar contents were dramatically decreased. Scopoletinwere highly abundant in A. capillarisThumberg, however, it was not detected in A. asiaticaeNakai. Volatile flavor compounds by Electric Nose showed that the intensity of several peaks were increased much and seven additional flavor peaks were newly produced after fermentation. The flavor differences of two mugworts were clearly distinguished from the image patterns of VaporPrintTM which indicate that the fermentation enables the two mugworts to have subtle flavor differences.

Keywords: Mugwort, Fermentation, Electric Nose, SAW sensor, Flavor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1707

Authors: Bokyung Sung, Jungsoo Kim, Jinman Kwun, Junhyung Park, Jihye Ryeo, Ilju Ko

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a practical digital music matching system that is robust to variation in sound qualities. The proposed system is subdivided into two parts: client and server. The client part consists of the input, preprocessing and feature extraction modules. The preprocessing module, including the music onset module, revises the value gap occurring on the time axis between identical songs of different formats. The proposed method uses delta-grouped Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) to extract music features that are robust to changes in sound quality. According to the number of sound quality formats (SQFs) used, a music server is constructed with a feature database (FD) that contains different sub feature databases (SFDs). When the proposed system receives a music file, the selection module selects an appropriate SFD from a feature database; the selected SFD is subsequently used by the matching module. In this study, we used 3,000 queries for matching experiments in three cases with different FDs. In each case, we used 1,000 queries constructed by mixing 8 SQFs and 125 songs. The success rate of music matching improved from 88.6% when using single a single SFD to 93.2% when using quadruple SFDs. By this experiment, we proved that the proposed method is robust to various sound qualities.

Keywords: Digital Music, Music Matching, Variation in Sound Qualities, Robust Matching method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1346

Authors: Nina Kaufmans

Abstract:

Traditional treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that rely primarily on oral narratives are partially insufficient to prevent PTSD symptoms from recurrence. As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, war conflicts, and economic crises, a rising proportion of users of mental health services express somatically based distress in addition to their existing mental health symptoms. Furthermore, the rapid increase in demand for mental health services has resulted in substantial burnout among mental health professionals, which may further impact the quality of services provided and the sustainability of professional life-work balance. This article examines the implications of current developments and challenges in mental health services demand and subsequent responses, as well as the effects of those responses on mental health professionals. The article examines the neurobiological mechanisms underlying traumatic experiences, then discusses the premises for "bottom-up," or somatically oriented, psychotherapy approaches, and concludes with suggestions for clinical skills and interventions to be used by practitioners who work with clients diagnosed with PTSD. In addition, we examine how somatically based psychotherapy interventions performed in sessions might reduce clinician burnout and improve their well-being. We examine how incorporating somatically based therapies into counseling will boost the efficacy of mental health recovery and maintain remission while providing mental health practitioners with chances for self-care.

Keywords: Somatic psychotherapy interventions, trauma counseling, preventing and treating burnout, adults with PTSD, bottom-up skills, the effectiveness of trauma treatment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Deepak Goswami, Padma Lochan Hazarika, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma

Abstract:

The customary practice of identifying industrial sickness is a set traditional techniques which rely upon a range of manual monitoring and compilation of financial records. It makes the process tedious, time consuming and often are susceptible to manipulation. Therefore, certain readily available tools are required which can deal with such uncertain situations arising out of industrial sickness. It is more significant for a country like India where the fruits of development are rarely equally distributed. In this paper, we propose an approach based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to deal with industrial sickness with specific focus on a few such units taken from a less developed north-east (NE) Indian state like Assam. The proposed system provides decision regarding industrial sickness using eight different parameters which are directly related to the stages of sickness of such units. The mechanism primarily uses certain signals and symptoms of industrial health to decide upon the state of a unit. Specifically, we formulate an ANN based block with data obtained from a few selected units of Assam so that required decisions related to industrial health could be taken. The system thus formulated could become an important part of planning and development. It can also contribute towards computerization of decision support systems related to industrial health and help in better management.

Keywords: Industrial, Health, Classification, ANN, MLP, MSE.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1677

Authors: Tarek M. Mahmoud

Abstract:

Skin color can provide a useful and robust cue for human-related image analysis, such as face detection, pornographic image filtering, hand detection and tracking, people retrieval in databases and Internet, etc. The major problem of such kinds of skin color detection algorithms is that it is time consuming and hence cannot be applied to a real time system. To overcome this problem, we introduce a new fast technique for skin detection which can be applied in a real time system. In this technique, instead of testing each image pixel to label it as skin or non-skin (as in classic techniques), we skip a set of pixels. The reason of the skipping process is the high probability that neighbors of the skin color pixels are also skin pixels, especially in adult images and vise versa. The proposed method can rapidly detect skin and non-skin color pixels, which in turn dramatically reduce the CPU time required for the protection process. Since many fast detection techniques are based on image resizing, we apply our proposed pixel skipping technique with image resizing to obtain better results. The performance evaluation of the proposed skipping and hybrid techniques in terms of the measured CPU time is presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve better result than the relevant classic method.

Keywords: Adult images filtering, image resizing, skin color detection, YcbCr color space.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3954

Authors: Keneilwe Maremi, Marlien Herselman, Adele Botha

Abstract:

The main purpose and focus of this paper are to determine the Interoperability Maturity Models to consider when using School Management Systems (SMS). The importance of this is to inform and help schools with knowing which Interoperability Maturity Model is best suited for their SMS. To address the purpose, this paper will apply a scoping review to ensure that all aspects are provided. The scoping review will include papers written from 2012-2019 and a comparison of the different types of Interoperability Maturity Models will be discussed in detail, which includes the background information, the levels of interoperability, and area for consideration in each Maturity Model. The literature was obtained from the following databases: IEEE Xplore and Scopus, the following search engines were used: Harzings, and Google Scholar. The topic of the paper was used as a search term for the literature and the term ‘Interoperability Maturity Models’ was used as a keyword. The data were analyzed in terms of the definition of Interoperability, Interoperability Maturity Models, and levels of interoperability. The results provide a table that shows the focus area of concern for each Maturity Model (based on the scoping review where only 24 papers were found to be best suited for the paper out of 740 publications initially identified in the field). This resulted in the most discussed Interoperability Maturity Model for consideration (Information Systems Interoperability Maturity Model (ISIMM) and Organizational Interoperability Maturity Model for C2 (OIM)).

Keywords: Interoperability, Interoperability Maturity Model, School Management System, scoping review.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 746

Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

Abstract:

The impact of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on cognition and functions of the brain is being investigated. Iron deficiency and deficiencies of B9 (folate) as well as B12 (cobalamin) vitamins are best-known nutritional anemias. They are associated with cognitive disorders and learning difficulties. The antidepressant effects of vitamin D are known and the deficiency state affects mental functions negatively. The aim of this study is to investigate possible correlations of MetS with serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), iron, folate, cobalamin and vitamin D in pediatric patients. 30 children, whose age- and sex-dependent body mass index (BMI) percentiles vary between 85 and 15, 60 morbid obese children with above 99^th percentiles constituted the study population. Anthropometric measurements were taken. BMI values were calculated. Age- and sex-dependent BMI percentile values were obtained using the appropriate tables prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity classification was performed according to WHO criteria. Those with MetS were evaluated according to MetS criteria. Serum BDNF was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum folate was analyzed by an immunoassay analyzer. Serum cobalamin concentrations were measured using electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Vitamin D status was determined by the measurement of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol [25-hydroxy vitamin D3, 25(OH)D] using high performance liquid chromatography. Statistical evaluations were performed using SPSS for Windows, version 16. The p values less than 0.05 were accepted as statistically significant. Although statistically insignificant, lower folate and cobalamin values were found in MO children compared to those observed for children with normal BMI. For iron and BDNF values, no alterations were detected among the groups. Significantly decreased vitamin D concentrations were noted in MO children with MetS in comparison with those in children with normal BMI (p ≤ 0.05). The positive correlation observed between iron and BDNF in normal-BMI group was not found in two MO groups. In THE MetS group, the partial correlation among iron, BDNF, folate, cobalamin, vitamin D controlling for waist circumference and BMI was r = -0.501; p ≤ 0.05. None was calculated in MO and normal BMI groups. In conclusion, vitamin D should also be considered during the assessment of pediatric MetS. Waist circumference and BMI should collectively be evaluated during the evaluation of MetS in children. Within this context, BDNF appears to be a key biochemical parameter during the examination of obesity degree in terms of mental functions, cognition and learning capacity. The association observed between iron and BDNF in children with normal BMI was not detected in MO groups possibly due to development of inflammation and other obesity-related pathologies. It was suggested that this finding may contribute to mental function impairments commonly observed among obese children.

Keywords: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, iron, Vitamin B9, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 712

Authors: Aleksandra Mišan, Bojana Šarić, Nataša Nedeljković, Mladenka Pestorić, Pavle Jovanov, Milica Pojić, Jelena Tomić, Bojana Filipčev, Miroslav Hadnađev, Anamarija Mandić

Abstract:

With the aim of improving nutritional profile and antioxidant capacity of gluten-free cookies, blueberry pomace, by-product of juice production, was processed into a new food ingredient by drying and grinding and used for a gluten-free cookie formulation. Since the quality of a baked product is highly influenced by the baking conditions, the objective of this work was to optimize the baking time and thickness of dough pieces, by applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in order to obtain the best technological quality of the cookies. The experiments were carried out according to a Central Composite Design (CCD) by selecting the dough thickness and baking time as independent variables, while hardness, color parameters (L*, a* and b* values), water activity, diameter and short/long ratio were response variables. According to the results of RSM analysis, the baking time of 13.74min and dough thickness of 4.08mm was found to be the optimal for the baking temperature of 170°C. As similar optimal parameters were obtained by previously conducted experiment based on sensory analysis, response surface methodology (RSM) can be considered as a suitable approach to optimize the baking process.

Keywords: Baking process, blueberry pomace, gluten-free cookies, Response Surface Methodology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2521

Authors: Mumtaz Begum Mustafa, Siti Salwah Salim, Feizal Dani Rahman

Abstract:

Recently, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems were used to assist children in language acquisition as it has the ability to detect human speech signal. Despite the benefits offered by the ASR system, there is a lack of ASR systems for Malay-speaking children. One of the contributing factors for this is the lack of continuous speech database for the target users. Though cross-lingual adaptation is a common solution for developing ASR systems for under-resourced language, it is not viable for children as there are very limited speech databases as a source model. In this research, we propose a two-stage adaptation for the development of ASR system for Malay-speaking children using a very limited database. The two stage adaptation comprises the cross-lingual adaptation (first stage) and cross-age adaptation. For the first stage, a well-known speech database that is phonetically rich and balanced, is adapted to the medium-sized Malay adults using supervised MLLR. The second stage adaptation uses the speech acoustic model generated from the first adaptation, and the target database is a small-sized database of the target users. We have measured the performance of the proposed technique using word error rate, and then compare them with the conventional benchmark adaptation. The two stage adaptation proposed in this research has better recognition accuracy as compared to the benchmark adaptation in recognizing children’s speech.

Keywords: Automatic speech recognition system, children speech, adaptation, Malay.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1730

Authors: June Tay, Ivy Chia

Abstract:

There are numerous changes, both mental and physical, taking place when people age. We need to understand the different aspects required for healthy living, including meeting nutritional needs, regular physical activities to keep agility, sufficient rest and sleep to have physical and mental well-being, social engagement to avoid the risk of social isolation and depression, and access to healthcare to detect and manage chronic conditions. Promoting physical activities for an ageing population is necessary as many may have enjoyed sedentary lifestyles for some time. In our study, we evaluate the considerations when designing a computer vision video game for the elderly. We need to design some low-impact activities, such as stretching and gentle movements, because some elderly individuals may have joint pains or mobility issues. The exercise game should consist of simple movements that are easy to follow and remember. It should be fun and enjoyable so that they can be motivated to do some exercise. Social engagement can keep the elderly motivated and competitive, and they are more willing to engage in game exercises. Elderly citizens can compare their game scores and try to improve them. We propose a computer vision-based video game for the elderly that will capture and track the movement of the elderly hand pushing a ball on the screen into a circle. It can be easily set up using a PC laptop with a webcam. Our video game adhered to the design framework we employed, and it encompassed ease of use, a simple graphical interface, easy-to-play game exercise, and fun gameplay.

Keywords: Computer vision, video games, gerontology technology, caregiving.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 158

Authors: A. A. Betah

Abstract:

This research was performed to evaluate the attitudes of rural women towards education, health and work outside the home. The study was based on a random sample of 147 rural women, Kafr-Rahmaniyah village was chosen for the study because its life expectancy at birth for females, education and percentage of females in the labor force, were the highest in the district. The study data were collected from rural female respondents, using a face-to-face questionnaire. In addition, the study estimated several factors like age, main occupation, family size, monthly household income, geographic cosmopolites, and degree of social participation for rural women respondents. Using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), data were analyzed by non-parametric statistical methods. The main finding in this study was a significant relationship between each of the previous variables and each of rural women’s attitudes toward education, health, and work outside home. The study concluded with some recommendations. The most important element is ensuring attention to rural women’s needs, requirements and rights via raising their health awareness, education and their contributions in their society.

Keywords: Attitudes, education, health, rural women, work outside the home.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1026

Authors: Saeeda Batool, Ather Maqsood Ahmed

Abstract:

This study investigates the impact of public healthcare facilities and socio-economic circumstances on the status of child health in Pakistan. The complete analysis is carried out in correspondence with fourth and sixth millennium development goals. Further, the health variables chosen are also inherited from targeted indicators of the mentioned goals (MDGs). Trends in the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) for both health inequalities and coverage are analyzed using the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PLSM) data set for 2001-02 to 2012-13 at the national and provincial level. To reveal the relative importance of each circumstance in achieving the targeted values for child health, Shorrocks decomposition is applied on HOI. The annual point average growth rate of HOI is used to simulate the time period for the achievement of target set by MDGs and universal access also. The results indicate an improvement in HOI for a reduction in child mortality rates from 52.1% in 2001-02 to 67.3% in 2012-13, which confirms the availability of healthcare opportunities to a larger segment of society. Similarly, immunization against measles and other diseases such as Diphtheria, Polio, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), and Hepatitis has also registered an improvement from 51.6% to 69.9% during the period of study at the national level. On a positive note, no gender disparity has been found for child health indicators and that health outcome is mostly affected by the parental and geographical features and availability of health infrastructure. However, the study finds that this achievement has been uneven across provinces. Pakistan is not only lagging behind in achieving its health goals, disappointingly with the current rate of health care provision, but it will take many additional years to achieve its targets.

Keywords: Socio-economic circumstances, unmet MDGs, public healthcare services, child and infant mortality.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1098

Authors: Sharareh Mohseni, Reihaneh Ahmadzadeh Ghavidel

Abstract:

Tomato powder has good potential as substitute of tomato paste and other tomato products. In order to protect physicochemical properties and nutritional quality of tomato during dehydration process, investigation was carried out using different drying methods and pretreatments. Solar drier and continuous conveyor (tunnel) drier were used for dehydration where as calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium metabisulphite (KMS), calcium chloride and potassium metabisulphite (CaCl2 +KMS), and sodium chloride (NaCl) selected for treatment.. lycopene content, dehydration ratio, rehydration ratio and non-enzymatic browning in addition to moisture, sugar and titrable acidity were studied. Results show that pre-treatment with CaCl2 and NaCl increased water removal and moisture mobility in tomato slices during drying of tomatoes. Where CaCl2 used along with KMS the NEB was recorded the least compared to other treatments and the best results were obtained while using the two chemicals in combination form. Storage studies in LDPE polymeric and metalized polyesters films showed less changes in the products packed in metallized polyester pouches and even after 6 months lycopene content did not decrease more than 20% as compared to the control sample and provide extension of shelf life in acceptable condition for 6 months. In most of the quality characteristics tunnel drier samples presented better values in comparison to solar drier.

Keywords: Dehydration, Tomato powder, Lycopene, Browning

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2291

Authors: Kenneth M. Oba

Abstract:

This study investigated factors affecting the price of cement in Nigeria, and developed a mathematical model that can predict future cement prices. Cement is key in the Nigerian construction industry. The changes in price caused by certain factors could affect economic and infrastructural development; hence there is need for proper proactive planning. Secondary data were collected from published information on cement between 2014 and 2019. In addition, questionnaires were sent to some domestic cement retailers in Port Harcourt in Nigeria, to obtain the actual prices of cement between the same periods. The study revealed that the most critical factors affecting the price of cement in Nigeria are inflation rate, population growth rate, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate. With the use of data from United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and Central Bank of Nigeria databases, amongst others, a Multiple Linear Regression model was formulated. The model was used to predict the price of cement for 2020-2025. The model was then tested with 95% confidence level, using a two-tailed t-test and an F-test, resulting in an R² of 0.8428 and R² (adj.) of 0.6069. The results of the tests and the correlation factors confirm the model to be fit and adequate. This study will equip researchers and stakeholders in the construction industry with information for planning, monitoring, and management of present and future construction projects that involve the use of cement.

Keywords: Cement price, multiple linear regression model, Nigerian Construction Industry, price prediction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 757

Authors: Excellence Favor, Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa

Abstract:

Access to information holds the key to the empowerment of everybody despite where they are living. This research has been carried out in respect of the people living in developing countries, considering their plight and complex geographical, demographic, social-economic conditions surrounding the areas they live, which hinder access to information and of professionals providing services such as medical workers, which has led to high death rates and development stagnation. Research on Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations (UCIC) system in the health sector of developing countries aims at creating a possible solution of bridging the digital canyon among the communities. The system is meant to deliver services in a seamless manner to assist health workers situated anywhere to be accessed easily and access information which will enhance service delivery. The proposed UCIC provides the most immersive telepresence experience for one-to-one or many-to-many meetings. Extending to locations anywhere in the world, the transformative platform delivers Ultra-low operating costs through the use of general purpose networks and using special lenses and track systems. The essence of this study is to create a security model for the deployment of the UCIC system in the health sector of developing countries. The model approach used for building the UCIC system security carefully considers the specific requirements for the health sector environment organization such as data centre, national, regional and district hospitals, and health centers IV, III, II and I and then builds the single best possible secure network to meet their needs. The security model demonstrates on how the components of the UCIC system will be protected physically and logically in the health sector environment. The UCIC system once adopted and implemented correctly will bring enhancement to the speed and quality of services offered by health workers. The capacities of UCIC will help health workers shorten decision cycles, accelerate service delivery and save lives by speeding access to information and by making it possible for all health workers and patients to collaborate ubiquitously.

Keywords: Developing Countries, Health Sector Environment, Security, Unified Communications and Integrated Collaborations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1499

Authors: X. Gu, K. L. Blackmore

Abstract:

The impact factor was introduced to measure the quality of journals. Various impact measures exist from multiple bibliographic databases. In this research, we aim to provide a broader understanding of the relationship between scholarly impact and other characteristics of academic journals. Data used for this research were collected from Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (Ulrichs), Cabell’s (Cabells), and SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) from 1999 to 2015. A master journal dataset was consolidated via Journal Title and ISSN. We adopted a two-step analysis process to study the quantitative relationships between scholarly impact and other journal characteristics. Firstly, we conducted a correlation analysis over the data attributes, with results indicating that there are no correlations between any of the identified journal characteristics. Secondly, we examined the quantitative relationship between scholarly impact and other characteristics using quartile analysis. The results show interesting patterns, including some expected and others less anticipated. Results show that higher quartile journals publish more in both frequency and quantity, and charge more for subscription cost. Top quartile journals also have the lowest acceptance rates. Non-English journals are more likely to be categorized in lower quartiles, which are more likely to stop publishing than higher quartiles. Future work is suggested, which includes analysis of the relationship between scholars and their publications, based on the quartile ranking of journals in which they publish.

Keywords: Academic journal, acceptance rate, impact factor, journal characteristics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 940