Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship最新文献

{"title":"Facile and Novel LiAlO2 Film Electrodes for Energy Efficient Li recovery from Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Brine","authors":"U. Hafsa, Sifani Zavahir, Tasneem Elmakki, Zubair Ahmad, D. Han","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0069","url":null,"abstract":"Concentration of Li in seawater is too low at 0.17 ppm despite its high content altogether with a reported 230 billion tons. Hence, seawater is not a practical source to recover Li from; Li is largely extracted by solar drying of salt-lake brines (100-200 ppm of Li). Salt-lake brines are confined to a certain region and not available for most parts of the world. However, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) brine is rather a widely available resource due to large adoption of the technique for water desalination. Hence, this study focuses on extraction of Li from concentrated SWRO brine. Li content in the feed can be increased up to 0.85 ppm, which is seemingly a favorable input stream. Electrically switched ion exchange (ESIX) on the other hand is energy efficient and economical in isolating Li, compared to other contemporary techniques such as capacitive deionization and electrodialysis. These approaches are meant to significantly shorten the time consumed in conventional solar drying process. Density functional theory studies have shown novel LiAlO2 type working electrode can be a better electrode to capture Li in ESIX system over widely known LMO and LiFePO4 working electrodes. Thus, this study intends to evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively the suitability of ESIX approach working in two electrodes configuration with LiAlO2 working electrode and activated carbon counter electrode to recover Li from concentrated SWRO brine. The operating system affirmed the recovery of Li with a specific energy consumption of 100Wh/mol and 97% purity, along with recyclability of the working electrode over minimum of 5 cycles without any apparent activity loss.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77144307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stego-eHealth: An eHealth System for Secured Transfer of Medical Images using Image Steganography","authors":"Nandhini Subramanian, ,. J. Kunhoth, S. Al-Maadeed, A. Bouridane","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0155","url":null,"abstract":"COVID pandemic has necessitated the need for virtual and online health care systems to avoid contacts. The transfer of sensitive medical information including the chest and lung X-ray happens through untrusted channels making it prone to many possible attacks. This paper aims to secure the medical data of the patients using image steganography when transferring through untrusted channels. A deep learning method with three parts is proposed – preprocessing module, embedding network and the extraction network. Features from the cover image and the secret image are extracted by the preprocessing module. The merged features from the preprocessing module are used to output the stego image by the embedding network. The stego image is given as the input to the extraction network to extract the ingrained secret image. Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) are the evaluation metrics used. Higher PSNR value proves the higher security; robustness of the method and the image results show the higher imperceptibility. The hiding capacity of the proposed method is 100% since the cover image and the secret image are of the same size.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"251 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76616030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring QU health students’ behavioral determinants, perspectives, and experiences toward student leadership: A quantitative study","authors":"D. AL-Khater, Menatallah Rayan, Myriam Eljaam, Mohammed Issam Diab, D. Stewart, A. El-Awaisi","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0122","url":null,"abstract":"Objective: Leadership is an essential part of student’s learning experience in the college. The main aim of this study is to determine and explore QU health student’s perspectives and experiences toward leadership. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during the academic year 2021. A web-based questionnaire was circulated to 1352 QU health students. Participants were asked to complete a 5-point Likert scale developed using theoretical domains framework (TDF) to identify their perception and behavioral determinants about leadership. They were also asked to rank the importance of personal, interpersonal capabilities, and markers of success of leadership. Participants were asked to answer open- ended questions to determine the training and support needed for leadership. Results: In total, 179 complete responses were collected. About (43.6%) of students strongly agreed that it is crucial for healthcare students to be involved in leadership. Most students agreed that they are capable of carrying leadership responsibilities. Around 71.4% of leaders in QU health perceived that teaching quality improvement as very important to extremely important marker of leader’s success. Students identified that negotiation and communication are important skills for leadership. Conclusion: Our study suggests that QU health students perceive leadership as positive and important experience of college life and show high interest for training programs and workshops for student leaders.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76682083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of Novel Chalcone Analogs as Potential Multi-Targeted Therapies for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer","authors":"O. Hussein, F. Alali, Ala‐Eddin Al Mustafa, Ashraf Khalil","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0114","url":null,"abstract":"Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequently diagnosed malignancy, as well as a leading cause of cancer-related mortality in men globally. Despite the initial response to hormonal targeted therapy, the majority of patients ultimately progress to a lethal form of the disease, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Therefore, the objective of this study was to discover and develop novel treatment modalities for CRPC. Chalcones are among the highly attractive scaffolds being investigated for their antitumor activities. A library of 26 chalcone analogs were designed, synthesized and evaluated as potential therapies for CRPC. The design was guided by in-silico ADMET prediction in which analogs with favorable drug-likeness properties were prioritized. The new compounds were synthesized, purified and characterized by extensive structural elucidation studies. The compounds in vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated against two androgen receptor (AR)-negative prostate cancer cell lines (PC3 and DU145). Among the tested compounds, pyridine containing analogs (13, 15 and 16) showed potent antiproliferative activities with IC50 values ranging between 4.32-6.47 µM against PC3 and DU145 cell lines. Detailed biological studies of the lead molecule 16 revealed that it can significantly induce apoptosis through upregulation of Bax and downregulation of Bcl-2. In addition, compound 16 potently inhibited colony formation and reduced cell migration of AR-negative PCa cell lines (PC3 and DU145). The molecular pathway analysis showed that the anticancer activity of compound 16 is associated with blocking of ERK1/2 and Akt activities. Furthermore, compound 16 inhibited angiogenesis in the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model as compared to control. Structure-activity relationship study revealed that the cytotoxicity could dramatically improve via changing the methoxylation pattern by more than 2-folds (IC50 << 2.5 μM). These results indicate that pyridine-based chalcones could serve as promising lead molecules for the treatment of CRPC; thus, further in vitro and in vivo studies are warranted.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75823203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigation of potential rupture locations for abdominal aortic aneurysms with patient-specific computational fluid dynamic analysis approach","authors":"Onur Mutlu, H. Yalcin","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0091","url":null,"abstract":"Background: About 18 million people die each year from cardiovascular disorders, accounting for 31% of all deaths worldwide. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a serious clinical condition manifested as dilation of the aorta beyond 50% of the normal vessel diameter. Current clinical practice is to surgically repair large AAAs with a diameter > 5.5 cm. However, the practice is questionable based on small AAA rupture and large AAA no rupture cases. Currently, there is no accepted technique to quantify the risk of rupture for individual AAAs. It is believed that rupture locations are where peak wall stresses act. Hemodynamic forces by the flowing blood such as shear stress are also thought to contribute to the formation of aneurysms leading to rupture. Aim: Our aim is to perform precise computational analysis for the assessment of rupture risk for AAA patients. Methods: In this IRCC funded project, we will develop a patient-specific computational modeling methodology to assess wall stresses acting on the diseased AAA, for reliable rupture risk assessment of the conditions. In the computational simulations, we will adapt the fluid-structure interaction approach to account for both tissue displacements and hemodynamic forces, for enhanced accuracy. We have recruited 20 AAA patients at HMC and collected CT scans and ultrasound images for these patients. Using these medical data, we are developing accurate 3D model geometries. Doppler ultrasound measurements are used as velocity boundary conditions in the simulations. Expected Results: Findings from this project will contribute significantly to understanding the biomechanics and mechanobiology of AAA rupture and will help to establish a computational modeling approach for rupture risk assessment of AAAs.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82494930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genetic Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in the Qatari Population","authors":"M. Smatti, Y. Al-Sarraj, O. Albagha, H. Yassine","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0092","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Infectious diseases (IDs) account for 8% of deaths annually in Qatar, and therefore, represent a significant challenge for public health. Interestingly, the spread and severity of viral infections vary considerably between individuals and populations. The most recent example is SARS-CoV-2, which ranges from mild/asymptomatic to a severe respiratory syndrome. It has been previously reported that polymorphisms in genes linked to immunity can influence individuals’ responses to infections as observed in tuberculosis, influenza, and HIV; however, studies exploring causal host genetic variants in IDs are still limited and dramatically skewed with regard to population inclusion. In fact, the genetic susceptibility to IDs in the Qatari population is largely unknown. Aim: To perform a comprehensive genetic screening to investigate the presence and frequency of variants previously associated with various infections in the Qatari population. Methods: Whole-genome sequencing was previously performed for 18,000 QBB participants using Illumina HiSeq X Ten1 sequencers. The initial data processing and quality assessment of the raw data has also been performed and variant calling files (VCF) were created. We were granted the access to the VCF files of 6,218 sequenced samples. The genetic variant data was then converted to PLINK file format using PLINK-1.9. Standardized quality-assurance and quality control (QA/QC) methods were followed to generate high quality and confidence on both SNPs and sample levels. The final file used for calculating allele frequency contained 6,047 subjects. Additionally, list of infections-related SNPs that were previously reported in the literature and deposited in GWAS catalog was extracted and used to calculate and compare the allelic frequency in the Qatari genomes compared to other populations. Results: The frequency of infections-related SNPs in the Qatari population was significantly lower for most infections. Most variants (78%) showed negative fold change in the Qatari genomes. Only 22% of all variants were more prevalent in Qatari population compared to others. The most significant differences were observed in genes related to TB and HIV (200-940 and 160-710 fold change, respectively). Conclusion: This study reports a lower susceptibility of the Qatari population to IDs in general. Nonetheless, this might also indicate the presence of unknown Qatari-unique variants and hence, highlights the need for further investigation in future GWAS.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81251743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of an Immersive Cultural Game using Mixed Reality","authors":"Yahia Boray, Hesham Zaky, Omar Osman, Noora Fetais","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0170","url":null,"abstract":"This game aims to preserve and spread cultural practices. It introduces new gaming mechanics, which allows user interaction with virtual game objects using hand gestures. The user’s objective is to hunt prey in their natural habitat, which means that the player will physically change his location to hunt a specific prey using his falcon to mimic how the falcon hunts for its prey in the real world. This interaction with the real world, along with incorporation of realistic graphics and mixed reality features, enhances the user’s experience and helps in preserving cultural practices. Previous work tried to achieve the same goal by different approaches that led to different user segments and different usability cases. One major limitation in that work was the accessibility due to the use of specialized hardware. The hardware is accessible to a small segment of users; however, given the new limitations forced by the COVID-19 situation reusing the hardware is prohibited ; and as a result, not many will have access to the developed solution. The current implementation was designed to work on both Android and IOS to have a social interaction between the largest possible numbers of players. Other features that could also contribute to the goal of the project include building a virtual museum and displaying real falcons using the capabilities mixed reality has to offer.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87852746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effective Smart Contracts for Supply Chain Contracts","authors":"Bajeela Aejas, Abdelaziz Bouras","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0160","url":null,"abstract":"Blockchain is in its way of revolutionizing different sectors with its decentralized peer-to-peer networking. Smart contracts are the piece of software that have written rules to be executed automatically to update the state of the block chain in a systematic way. One of the main use of Smart contract is in Supply Chain management. Supply Chain management deals with lot of legal contracts at a time. Contracts are agreements between two or more parties that define the duties and obligations for execution of any kind of activities. In this research, we are trying to automate the supply chain related contracts by identifying the important entities such as contract type, start date, end date etc., by using Natural Language Processing methods, then convert the contract to smart contract. This provides an efficient template for creation of smart contracts from natural language contracts and thereby offer best smart contract template for a given type of contract in Supply Chain.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86517988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the electrochemical performance of LiNi0. 5Mn1.5O4 coated with Yttria and distributed over graphene nanosheets as cathode in li-ion batteries","authors":"H. Tariq, Z. Qureshi, J. Abraham, Shakoor Abdul, S. AlQaradawi, R. Kahraman","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0021","url":null,"abstract":"LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 is a promising cathode material for lithium-ion batteries with a high-voltage spinel structure. A microwave-assisted chemical co-precipitation method was used to synthesize Y2O3 coated quasi-spheres of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4. The coating of Y2O3 and subsequent wrapping of quasi-spheres in graphene nanosheets does not alter the volume or promote the formation of unwanted phases. TGA analysis shows high thermal stability in the material. The material has an initial capacity of 133 mAh g−1 at C/10 with a retention of 98% after 100 cycles. In addition, cathode samples show a good capacity of 132 g−1 after 20 cycles at higher temperatures (55 °C). Oxide coatings protect the particles from ionic leaching but limit the electrical conductivity of the materials. However, graphene enhances the conductivity of the synthesized material and wraps active particles in a conductive channel. Due to the synergistic design of the material and the robust manufacturing technique, parasitic reactions are suppressed without affecting the electrical conductivity. To increase their cyclic performance, the suggested material synthesis approach may successfully be applied to various electrode materials.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87109925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards Developing a Hybrid Nonlinear Vibration Energy Harvester for Remote Sensing Applications: A Design and Optimization Study","authors":"M. Hafizh, A. Muthalif","doi":"10.29117/quarfe.2021.0055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29117/quarfe.2021.0055","url":null,"abstract":"A novel design of a hybrid piezoelectric-electromagnetic harvester for vortex-induced vibration applications inside a pipe-flow is proposed. The piezoelectric energy harvester is modeled with a macro-fiber composite with an electromagnetic oscillator. Analytical and numerical models were developed for the fluid-structure interaction. An optimization study was conducted using finite element modelling across different bluff body shapes and orientations where triangle and 2.5x ellipse were optimal choices for maximizing energy harvesting properties. An investigation into dual-mass energy harvesting was also performed for bandwidth enhancement. A secondary beam has improved the piezoelectric performance by 21% to 52%. Finally, an experimental study was conducted to verify the narrowband resonance models and validate the use of a magnetically coupled dual broadband harvester (58% enhancement). Optimization and design of the harvester has led to improvements in performance that can realize powering sensors and devices in wireless applications.","PeriodicalId":9295,"journal":{"name":"Building Resilience at Universities: Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90018364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}