Introduction: Obesity in children and adolescents is a serious public health issue. It is on a rise due to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy dietary habits. As these individuals are at higher risk of like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, it is crucial to educate them at this stage of life. Education and interventions at this stage can prevent long-term complications. This study aims to understand the effect of obesity on the health and quality of life in late adolescents through a survey. Materials and Methods: This study involves 17-20-year-old adolescents, selected using a multistage sampling method. Divided into four age groups, students aged 17, 18, 19, and 20 were selected and invited into the study. Results and discussion: A total of 262 students participated in the survey, the majority being from RAKCOMS (69.4%), 19 years of age (42.7%), females (73. 2%), and Asians (52%). Adolescents who were obese had significantly worse self-reported health (OR: 3.29; 95% CI: 1.46-7.43) including walking, running, lifting, participating in sports, and doing household chores, although most of the restriction was reported in lifting a weight. Obese individuals are also significantly likely to have psychological effects (OR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.04- 1.63), like sadness (23%) followed by anger (20.6%). Among the academic parameters, obese individuals were more likely to forget things and have difficulty concentrating on studies, but it is not statistically significant (p=.07). Conclusion: Adolescents with obesity had worse self-reported health, including physical limitations, psychological effects, and social limitations. There is a need for preventive strategies and interventions in obese individuals to prevent long-term complications.

This study aimed to understand the relationship among teachers' conceptions of teaching learning, their motivation to teach and, curriculum fidelity. The correlational design, consisting of structural equation modelling with mediation analysis, was applied. A total of 424 in-service teachers participating in this study completed three scales, viz. the Conceptions of Teaching and Learning, the Motivation to Teach, and the Curriculum Fidelity. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to create a well-fitting measurement model, as well as to ascertain the convergent and discriminant validities and composite reliability. The results indicated that constructivist conception positively related to adaptation, whereas traditional conception was positively correlated to adherence. Constructivist and traditional conceptions both have a positive and significant relationship with both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While intrinsic motivation had positive significant relations with adaptation, it had negative significant relations with adherence. Besides that, while extrinsic motivation had positive significant relations with adherence, it had negative significant relations with adaptation. The results of mediation analysis showed that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation both partially mediated the relations between constructivist conception and adaptation, and traditional conception and adherence. Based on the results, the study offers theoretical and practical implications, along with further research directions.

Klotho is a protein named after the Greek goddess of fate. It has a significant role in ameliorating the diseasome of aging. Klotho influences various pathways of inflammation such as the Transforming Growth Factor, Nuclear Factor Kappa B, Wnt/β-catenin pathways, which is seen to have a beneficial effect on periodontal tissues. Modulation of the effect of klotho may be utilized to control the inflammatory pathways and inflammatory cytokines which may help reduce the deleterious effects of inflammation and aging on the periodontium. Pharmacological agents such as the statins, renin-angoitensin system inhibitors, anti-diabetic agents, rapamycin, vitamin D, and extracts from traditional medicines such as resveratrol, curcumin can upregulate the levels of klotho, thereby having a protective impact on the inflammatory process. Klotho is a protein with an anti-aging effect which can affect inflammatory pathways and reduce the deleterious effects of aging on tissues. Utilization of this protein for management of periodontal disease including periodontal tissue regeneration can facilitate the establishment of optimal oral health. This review is focused on the role of Klotho in inflammation and periodontal disease and the utilization of the knowledge in development of therapeutic strategies for the management of periodontal disease.

Aqueous and ethanol extracts of dried leaves of Vernonia amygdalina Delile (bitter leaf) and Ocimum canum Linn (curry leaf) were screened for their phytochemical compositions. The in vitro antioxidant properties were determined by assessing the free radical (DPPH) scavenging activities. Some rats were pre-treated with the extracts and later intoxicated with 2g/kgbw single dose of acetaminophen. The hepatoprotective effect of the extracts were determined by measuring the liver function parameters, liver antioxidant enzyme activities and viewing the histological micrograph of the hepatocytes of the Wister rats. The leaf extracts of the plant were found to be rich in bioactive compounds and showed concentration-dependent variation in in vitro free radical (DPPH) scavenging property. A 400mg/kgbw daily pre-treatment (for seven days) with the leaf extracts offered protection to the hepatic cells of the rats. This was evidenced in the significant (p<0.05) reduction of the activities of Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) by 43% in aqueous leaf extract of Ocimum canum to 92% in Vernonia amygdalina, significant increase in serum albumin concentration by 167%) (aqueous leaf extract of Ocimum canum) to 267% in aqueous leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina). Silymarin showed the highest increase of CAT activity, while aqueous leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina led to the highest increase in GPx activity and ethanol leaf extract of Ocimum canum gave the highest (350%) increase in SOD activity, compared to the negative control. Also the lobular architecture of the hepatocytes was well-preserved. Based on the experimental results obtained here, Vernonia amygdalina and Ocimum canum have an important role in medicine as they contain substances that scavenge free radicals, stimulate activities of antioxidant enzymes and preserve the liver architecture in occasion of acetaminophen-induced liver toxicity.

ABSTRACT\n\nIndonesia Food Sustainability and Vulnerability Assessment (FSVA) 2015 by the World Food Programme (WFP) classified the Province of Nusa Tenggara Timur as Priority 1, a highly vulnerable region whose food availability should be improved. The aim of this program was to develop partial and spatial map of current condition, problems, threats, potentials, and strategic policies to develop food security in this area. The program was focused on Kupang district, Province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, through: 1) literature study; 2) identification and mapping of natural resources; 3) Focus Group Discussion; 4) field trip and data collection; 5) data analysis; 6) development of program; 7) workshop. Kupang district has three sub-districts of the most vulnerable to food insecurity or Priority 1, namely Semau, South Semau, and Takari. The determining factors of vulnerability to food-insecurity are: (1) high poverty rate, (2) high prevalence of underweight among children, and (3) low access to clean water. The characteristics of the hilly areas in Kupang are arid-karst-dry-land with very low land productivity. The limiting factors are low rainfall, low water availability,

Bridges are commonly used lifelines; they play an important role in the economic activity of a city or a region and their role can be crucial in a case of a seismic event since they allow the arrival of the first aid. Reinforced concrete (RC) bridges are worldwide used type view their durability, flexibility and economical cost. In fact, their behavior under seismic loading was the aim of various studies. In the present study the effect of two structural parameters i.e. the height and the type of piers of reinforced concrete bridges on seismic response is investigated. For that reason, different multi-span continuous girder bridges models with various geometrical parameters are considered. Then, non-linear dynamic analyses are performed based on two types of piers which are: multiple columns bent and wall piers with varying heights. In this approach, a serie of 40 ground motions records varying from weak to strong events selected from Building Research Institute (BRI) strong motion database are used including uncertainty in the soil and seismic characteristics. Modelling results put most emphasis on the modal periods and responses of the top pier displacements, they show the influence of the considered parameters on the behavior of such structures and their impact on the strength of reinforced concrete bridges.

In this study, we developed visual software that enables the personnel authentication, authorization, location tracking system through the internet and/or local networks for an imaginary company and is abbreviated as “PAALTS”, which is the short form of personnel authentication, authorization, and location tracking system. By the help of this study, an administrator has access to create a department for the company, assign personnel to the desired department and can authorize the desired personnel to have access to the desired location or gate for a period of time or permanently. Besides managing all the mentioned above, he/she can also track the desired personnel anytime he/she wishes if the corresponding personnel opens the gate by using his/her fingerprint. The developed solution with its all components, which are software and hardware as a whole, has been experimented on a real system for the fingerprint based personnel authentication, authorization and location tracking system.

Methane production and the treatment performance of a two-stage upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors for peanut processing wastewater was determined in this study. The two UASB reactors I and II were operated at gradually increasing organic loading rates (OLR, 3.02 to 66.73 g COD/L-day) for a period of 190 days. The combined COD removal for the whole system during stable operation was 79.50 - 86.97%. Despite the inherent fluctuations in the influent wastewater concentration, the methane production of the treatment system was relatively high. The specific methane production rate was 0.48 – 5.36 g COD/L-day and 0.0036 – 0.0055 g COD/L-day for UASB-II. The effluent BOD levels were within standards for high-strength wastewater when OLR was low, i.e., 1.16 g COD/L-day . The BOD removal achieved at the highest OLR applied was 84.76±3.98% for influent BOD level of 9,140±212 mg/L. At this period 86.63±9.13% of influent COD was removed in the UASB-I. The wastewater treated using the two-stage UASB reactor system, even at high OLR, will require minimal post-treatment. The system greatly reduced the electricity requirement for aerobic post-treatment. Moreover, it produced significant amount of methane, which is considered as a clean fuel.

This paper presents an optimal controller design using three different algorithms for trajectory tracking of Two Wheeled Balancing Mobile Robot (TWBMR). All the proposed algorithms have been investigated through simulations under the influence of different inputs tracking and exogenous disturbance. This attempts to validate the significance of these algorithms in balance regulation and tracking trajectory. These algorithms are represented by PID-PID based parallel dual feed-back, serial dual feed-back and hybrid optimal control using Feed-forward PID and Feed-back LQR. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate that, the hybrid controller can achieve a better robust performance in comparing to the other two design algorithms. The graphical user interface (GUI) software has been used to show the simulation results in more convenient way.

The control wheeled mobile robot is a good way to test control theories. Nowadays, Two Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Mobile Robots (TWIPMR) are used in different applications. Stabilizing and tracking trajectory will prevent system from falling down when it moves forward and backward directions. In addition, the steering angle regulation when it turns left or right is also considered. These problems are the main series problems that have to be taken into account during control design and analysis. To avoid these problems, a decoupling optimal controller based linear quadratic regulator design method is presented to generate the required an optimal control signals. The simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control design method for an accurate tracking of the desired trajectory. Furthermore, the 3D representation of the simulation and a visualization model to observe behavior of the robot in different scenarios are included.