Supporting Women In Engineering and Technology Through A Collaborative Practice And Support Network Using Targeted Interventions

Despite ongoing efforts to recruit and retain women in third level engineering programmes in Ireland, there is still a lack of diversity in these programmes with typically fewer than 20% of students being female. This paper will describe the evolution of a female focused university wide network called WITU (Women in Technology United), which aims to retain female students in engineering and technology programmes, and to increase the number of gender minorities coming onto these programmes. It is also a response to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly, SDG 4 (quality education), and SDG 5 (gender equality), and addresses actions highlighted in a recent Athena Swan review in our University. The network was formed in 2020 and extended to become University wide during lockdown, which in itself presented specific challenges. This paper describes the activities of the WITU network which runs events and celebrations for female students on our engineering and technology programmes such as ‘Meet & Greet’ events for incoming year one students, scholarship workshops, coding camps and International Women’s Day celebrations. The events are run collaboratively with students, academics and employer networks, with participation from recent female graduate role models, who are contributing to the wider engineering community. This paper describes these events and their impact on participants. Outcomes and feedback from participants show the critical role of these types of targeted interventions in supporting women and gender minorities and address some of the most pressing global challenges relating to the abovementioned SDGs

Sign Language Recognition

This chapter covers the key aspects of sign-language recognition (SLR), starting with a brief introduction to the motivations and requirements, followed by a précis of sign linguistics and their impact on the field. The types of data available and the relative merits are explored allowing examination of the features which can be extracted. Classifying the manual aspects of sign (similar to gestures) is then discussed from a tracking and non-tracking viewpoint before summarising some of the approaches to the non-manual aspects of sign languages. Methods for combining the sign classification results into full SLR are given showing the progression towards speech recognition techniques and the further adaptations required for the sign specific case. Finally the current frontiers are discussed and the recent research presented. This covers the task of continuous sign recognition, the work towards true signer independence, how to effectively combine the different modalities of sign, making use of the current linguistic research and adapting to larger more noisy data set

Effect of single bout aerobic and resistance exercise on the pain perception and cardiovascular responses in women with multiple sclerosis

Background: Based on new evidence, exercise with type and intensity consideration may impact on pain relief and good cardiovascular responses in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: To investigate the effect of resistance (RE) and aerobic exercise (AE) on the threshold, pain perception and cardiovascular responses in women with MS. Methods: In this semi-experimental study, Ten female patients with MS selected from MS society of Rasht who had necessary criteria and average systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 112.90 and diastolic blood pressure of 74.50 (mmHg) participated as a purposeful and available sample in 2014. Resistance exercise included 2 sets of 10 repetitions for 5 exercises as circuit and aerobic exercise consisted of cycle ergometry with intensity of 50-60% HRmax. Pain threshold, perception and blood pressure were measured with Algometer, pain scale and sphygmomanometer ALPK2 respectively. The ANOVA repeated measures and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. Findings: SBP had a normal process, but it was non-significant after exercises. Heart rate increased (P<0.05) immediately after both exercises compared with pre-exercise significantly and at minutes of 10-60 after the exercise was significantly reduced comparing to immediately post aerobic exercise (P<0.05).Pain perception was not significant after both exercises, Pain threshold than preexercise level was decreased in both exercises, but significant relationship with Heart rate was observed only in aerobic exercise (P=0.041). Conclusion: Based on the findings, resistance exercise and aerobic exercise with moderate intensity probably can lead to decrease pain threshold, blood pressure and heart rate to 15 minutes after the exercise in female patients with MS. Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Resistance Exercise, Aerobic Exercise, Hypoalgesia (Pain Reduction), Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomen

Relationship between 2D:4D digit ratio with waist to hip ratio, muscle mass and strength in postmenopausal women

Background: In previous studies the ratio between 2D:4D hand digits was proposed as an indicator of testosterone level and can be related to aging-induced sarcopenia. Based on the notion, the aim of present study was to investigate the relationship between (2D:4D digit ratio and waist to hip ratio (WHR), muscle mass and strength in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: One-hundred forty eight postmenopausal women (average age: 53.74&plusmn;4.38 years) were selected purposefully. Anthropometric characteristics of subjects, skeletal muscle mass index, handgrip strength and quadriceps strength were measured. Results: The results showed a significant negative correlation for 2D:4D digit ratio with handgrip strength and quadriceps muscle strength (r=-0.62, r=-0.51 and P&lt;0.001). In addition, a weak negative correlation between the (2D:4D digit ratio and calf-circumference and skeletal muscle mass index (r=-0.21, P=0.008; r=-0.32, P=0.001, respectively) was observed, but there was no significant correlation between WHR and digit ratio (r=-0.14, P=0.08). Moreover, regression analysis showed that the 2D:4D digit ratio is a more predictive power for handgrip strength and quadriceps muscle strength (R2=0.38, R2=0.26, P&lt;0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Among the postmenopausal women the 2D: 4D digit ratio has a stronger correlation with handgrip strength and quadriceps muscle strength than the other variables. This finding can be used to check the possibility of reduced muscle strength in postmenopausal women

A Distributed Resource-Management Approach in MANETs

Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is an infrastructure less network, in where all mobile nodes are free for any movement to any side

Development of PMMA-Mon-CNT bone cement with superior mechanical properties and favorable biological properties for use in bone-defect treatment

Treatment of bone defects requires materials or bone cement with superior mechanical properties and favorable biological properties, but this remains unachievable to date. To address this issue, the present study aimed to synthesize and characterize a novel poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement containing monticellite (Mon) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for bone defect treatment. Considerably better mechanical properties were noted in the PMMA-Mon-CNT vs. PMMA and PMMA-Mon bone cements due to the unique resistance of CNTs to crack formation and propagation. Favorable bioactivity was also found in the bone cements containing Mon and CNTs, whereas the PMMA bone cement presented poor bioactivity. Specifically, the incorporation of Mon and CNTs into the PMMA matrix promoted the attachment of MG63 cells compared to the PMMA cement. Thus, the PMMA-Mon-CNT bone cements developed are good potential candidates for filling bone defects in orthopedic surgeries

3D printed microneedles for transdermal drug delivery: A brief review of two decades

Microneedle (MN) technology shows excellent potential in controlled drug delivery, which has got rising attention from investigators and clinics. MNs can pierce through the stratum corneum layer of the skin into the epidermis, evading interaction with nerve fibers. MN patches have been fabricated using various types of materials and application processes. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) printing gives the prototyping and manufacturing methods the flexibility to produce the MN patches in a one-step manner with high levels of shape complexity and duplicability. This review aims to go through the last successes in 3D printed MN-based patches. In this regard, after the evaluation of various types of MNs and fabrication techniques, we will study different 3D printing approaches applied for MN patch fabrication. We further highlight the state of the art of the long-acting MNs and related progress with a specific look at what should come within the scope of upcoming researches

Mechanical property, antibacterial activity and cytocompatibility of a PMMA-based bone cement loaded with clindamycin for orthopaedic surgeries

Local delivery of antibiotics utilising bone cement is a well-known approach for controlling postoperative infections related to implant. 1, 5 and 10 wt.% of clindamycin (Cli) was embedded into polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)–based bone cement for inhibiting postsurgical infection. Clindamycin antibiotic drug was homogeneously embedded into the matrix of PMMA-based cement. The results revealed that the fabricated PMMA-based cement loaded with Cli presented a high compressive strength (~120 MPa). The PMMA-based cement loaded with low Cli presented better cytocompatibility compared with its counterpart loaded with high Cli owing to the better cell attachment on the surface of the cement with a lower release of Cli. The embedding of Cli into the cement improved its antibacterial performance, as implied by the considerably improved inhibition zone with amplifying Cli concentration. Taken together, PMMA-based cement loaded with 1–5 wt% Cli might be a promising antimicrobial bone cement to be employed in orthopaedic surgeries